Hedda Nussbaum
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Hedda Nussbaum (b. circa 1942) is an American domestic-abuse survivor and the author of a memoir, Surviving Intimate Terrorism, published in 2005.
Nussbaum entered the public eye as a central player in the media frenzy that resulted from the 1987 beating death of a six-year-old girl, Lisa, whose adoption had never been completed by Nussbaum and her partner, Joel Steinberg. Along with a toddler they named Mitchell, also "adopted" through a different doctor than the one who had arranged their acquisition of Lisa one day after her birth, they lived in a squalid apartment in New York's Greenwich Village. The uninjured toddler was subsequently returned to his birth mother Nicole Smigel (a teenager at the time of his birth) and her extended family.
At Steinberg's trial Nussbaum testified after all charges against her had been dropped because the New York DA believed that she had been incapable of committing the crime. Steinberg was convicted on charges of manslaughter and served 15 years at the Southport Correctional Facility in Pine City, N.Y. He was released in 2004.
Nussbaum, who had suffered extensive and permanent injuries at Steinberg's hands, became a figure of pity and revulsion as the history of her dysfunctional relationship with Steinberg and her role in the passive long-term neglect of Lisa became public. Before spiralling downward in her abusive relationship she had been a respected and well-liked editor of children's books at Random House, the author of at least two children's books. When the story of Lisa's death broke she had endured years of violence, and her shockingly battered appearance, including a flattened nose, did much to raise the case's profile.
Colleagues and friends of Nussbaum were aware of the violent nature of the couple's home life, but Nussbaum rejected attempts at friendly intervention and help, attributing her bruises and the resulting bandages to household accidents. Eventually the steady abuse prevented regular appearances in the office, and in 1982, after a long unexplained absence, she was put on consulting editor's status.
In the years that followed Lisa's death, Nussbaum worked to rebuild her life and had numerous reconstructive plastic surgeries. She also co-faciltated a support group for battered women for about eight years and later worked as a paralegal for an organization that helps battered women. In 1995 she began giving talks about abuse at colleges and shelters; but when Steinberg was released from prison in 2004, she receded from public attention until the publication of her book a year and a half later.
Several books were written about the case and its legal aftermath.
