Theory #2: Family Abduction by George Waters with George Brody, Part 2

[InterestedNHelping]

The Kurtz Network, 1960 to today

1960 or 1962: Easter House founded

According to the Lynn McTaggart, who interviewed Seymour Kurtz for her 1980 book The Baby Brokers: The Marketing of White Babies in America, Kurtz received his license to set up Easter House as a non-profit organization in 1962. However, state records show the date as 1960. McTaggart reported that Kurtz appointed the former head of the Illinois Department of Welfare (predecessor to the Department of Children and Family Services), Millicent Smith, as executive director. For thirteen years, he turned over all responsibility to Smith.
Kurtz began paying more attention to the agency in 1973, when Smith informed him that the agency might be forced to close, due to a shortage of babies. Kurtz said he promptly flew to Italy and Greece, looking for new sources of babies, but soon discovered that Europe had an even greater shortage of adoptable White babies than did America.
Source: McTaggart, Lynne. The Baby Brokers: The Marketing of White Babies in America. New York: The Dial Press, 1980.
1973 - 1974: Kurtz finds a way to "circumvent the laws and regulations of the entire world"

"Seymour Kurtz has come up with the perfect setup... Kurtz has found a way to circumvent the laws and regulations of the entire world," said Lynn McTaggart.</I>.

He did this by setting up a series of corporations, each to handle a single, specific function in the adoption process.

• He founded Casa del Sur in Mexico City to make the actual placement of babies; it opened in 1973. To obtain babies for adoption, Kurtz started an advertising campaign in Mexican newspapers and radio stations, with anti-abortion messages ("don't kill your child").
• Also in 1973, he founded a nonprofit corporation called Tzyril Foundation, located in the same office as Easter House. The purpose of Tzyril was to "underwrite" Casa del Sur or any other adoption agency and to act as an advertising agency, referral service, and intermediary between inquiring couples and the Mexican agency. Couples paid service fees to Tzyril Foundation, rather than Casa del Sur.
• Soon after incorporating Tzyril, Kurtz established Stichting Susu in The Hague, Holland, and planned for it to "communicate" the availability of Mexican babies to European clients. Because of the distance he had to travel to get it running, "the Dutch government's lack of enthusiasm," and the fact that it was "unnecessarily duplicitous," Kurtz decided to let Stitching Susu "expire" by 1977.
• Next, in 1974, Kurtz established Suku Corporation, a for-profit Delaware corporation, to handle the legal and immigration work involved in Mexican adoptions.
• Finally, Easter House, by "agreement" with Stichting Susu and Tzyril Foundation, would handle the home studies of applicants who wanted to adopt Mexican children, as well as the adoption of Illinois infants.

"The brilliance of Kurtz's convoluted setup", said McTaggart, was that he had established a means by which his own organizations could collect all the money in an agency adoption normally disbursed to separate entities (home-study fees and legal fees, for instance). In addition, he had an American foundation charging a service fee that was considerably higher than the actual costs of a Mexican adoption.
"The other bit of masterminding in this framework was splitting up the work between foundations, which are not subject to state control, and agencies, which are," said McTaggart. "In order to be attacked... you must have all your eggs in one basket, you must be subject to the political jurisdiction and tyranny of any established government," said Kurtz. "So what I've done is to get myself into several jurisdictions, I'm licensed and I'm not licensed. Where I'm not licensed, I don't fall under regulation. It's important to get out of one political jurisdiction." "By planting himself in various jurisdictions, dividing cash flow and function between licensed and unlicensed organizations, and having his adoption finalized in Mexico, Kurtz set up a modus operandi that was not subject to the complete scrutiny of regulation of any court of social-services department anywhere in the world," said McTaggert. "

The dates are scary, but they make sense of what was going on at the time...

 

[NJshrink]

These are just other of my many hypotheses. After downloading census records, military, birth and death records on numerous sites, I believe George Brody's background is Hungarian/Austrian. I also did research on variants of this name as well as Margaret Kukoda's and believe his background was Jewish. On Jewishgen.org one finds many spellings for these last names including Brodie, Braudie, etc. A common nickname, as I stated in a much earlier post for Esther is "Eifee." Margaret's mother was named Esther. One can search this site for free without having to post one's own geneology as Jewish. Also along with my many pages of download is one George Brody living with his brother Albert A. Brody in the 1930 NY census. This brother was a lawyer. This intrigued me as I have thought about the abortion/baby selling angle. I also remember a note with a possible reference to money to a NY bank and a reference that seemed like an AZ or AL female and some name change. Margaret Kukoda was investigated for performing illegal abortions in CA. When they became legal, I wondered if baby selling then became a lucrative option. Again, this is all just conjecture.

 

[Gina_M]

I've been studying the scanned copy of the "Plan" from the BFH. Just a few observations that may or may not have already been discussed (didn't see it in the older posts I read through) -

#3 reads "3 months later negotiate increase to 5. ????? ACE"

The undecipherable part at first glance looked like "slils", but could be "still" followed by the c with a line above it (medical slang for "with"). IOW, the policy is "still with ACE" as beneficiary, because then #4 is "change B".

Why would the Georges bother obtaining policies with Anna as beneficiary, if they had already outlined a plan to switch the beneficiary to Brody? Why not just make Brody the beneficiary in the first place? Maybe to cover up the fact that they were involved in Anna's disappearance, to "make them look innocent". Reading back through old posts, they made sure they had airtight alibis on the day Anna went missing, but then left town for more than a week afterwards. Maybe they originally took out the policy in Anna's name to give the appearance that they expected Anna to still be around. Then several months after Anna disappeared, they went ahead and changed it to Brody.

ETA, and a bit OT: I've been honing my detective skills lately by watching old episodes of Columbo on DVD...LOL. Watched an episode recently which reminded me of the 2 Georges - the guy went to great lengths to make sure he had an airtight alibi, made sure he was seen in public at the time the crime was supposed to have taken place, etc. Going out of his way to have an alibi made him look even more suspicious!

 

[Gina_M]

Was working on something else when I came across this:

90% of parental abductions are international. If the other parent was raised in, has family in, has religious affiliation with or has dual citizenship to another country, they may attempt to abduct your child and take them abroad.

http://www.mcsc.ca/parent_resources/parental_abduction.asp

Kinda fits with what has been talked about on here recently...

 

[Gina_M]

http://www.myspace.com/adoptionsingreece​

"SEASYP The official investigators of adopted childrens' files in Greece."

 

[GraceBlue]

http://www.myspace.com/adoptionsingreece​

"SEASYP The official investigators of adopted childrens' files in Greece."

I checked out the site. It seems like a lot of people say their doctor told them their baby/babies died but they felt the baby/babies were still alive. So many of them... I havent found anything about older children. Hmm

Thanks for sharing that site Gina

 

[Annasmom]

I checked out the site. It seems like a lot of people say their doctor told them their baby/babies died but they felt the baby/babies were still alive. So many of them... I havent found anything about older children. Hmm

Thanks for sharing that site Gina

I checked it out, too, Gina. I think I posted earlier that someone found out about hundreds of illegal Greek adoptions in the 1970s, and that there are organizations devoted to trying to reunite those children with their birth families. Certainly it's a long shot, but considering that GW's last passport application listed Greece as a possible destination (and that he had some history with Greece, was a physician, could speak Greek, etc.), it seems worth investigating. Also worth noting is the fact that an acquaintance in Greece actually saw GW at an Athens maternity hospital in about 1964...when he was supposed to be doing a medical elective many miles away from there.

 

[GraceBlue]

I checked it out, too, Gina. I think I posted earlier that someone found out about hundreds of illegal Greek adoptions in the 1970s, and that there are organizations devoted to trying to reunite those children with their birth families. Certainly it's a long shot, but considering that GW's last passport application listed Greece as a possible destination (and that he had some history with Greece, was a physician, could speak Greek, etc.), it seems worth investigating. Also worth noting is the fact that an acquaintance in Greece actually saw GW at an Athens maternity hospital in about 1964...when he was supposed to be doing a medical elective many miles away from there.

Oh ok. Wow, thats crazy about the # of illegal adoptions. It's also interesting about GW being seen at a maternity hospital miles away from where he was supposed to be. What kind of doctor was he? Sounds like he could have connections to some of these doctors who participicated in illegal adoptions.
Is it unusual for someone in Greece to want to adopt a 5 year old instead of a newborn?

 

[InterestedNHelping]

I cant seem to find it anywhere, what was GW's middle name? ugh, I keep looking cant find the post...thanks

 

[Annasmom]

I cant seem to find it anywhere, what was GW's middle name? ugh, I keep looking cant find the post...thanks

Henry.

 

[InterestedNHelping]

LOL, thanks Annasmom, all the little details are buried in mounds of posts!

 

[SherlockJr]

I sent a detailed email today and recieved a phone call from one of Margaret's relatives. He is being very helpful and gracious in his efforts to assist us. He personally did not know Margaret, but his mother is Margaret's sister. He is going to ask his mother some new questions based on our conversation today and will be getting back with the answers. We have already received some interesting information, but there are all sorts of new questions being raised. I want to wait until we fill in some of the gaps before I report what we find.

Doogie, have you heard back from Margaret's relatives? I would like to find out if Margaret was ever called "Molly" in her younger years. Is "Molly" a nickname for "Margaret". I grew up with a girl named Margaret and we called her "Peggy".

 

[Dr. Doogie]

No, I have not heard back from them. I will email them today or tomorrow and see if they have any new info.

 

[MagicRose99]

Doogie, have you heard back from Margaret's relatives? I would like to find out if Margaret was ever called "Molly" in her younger years. Is "Molly" a nickname for "Margaret". I grew up with a girl named Margaret and we called her "Peggy".

According to Wikipedia it is:
"Molly is a female nickname, once a pet-name for Mary or Margaret, and now more commonly a name in its own right."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly

 

[Dr. Doogie]

SherlockJr has uncovered a possible link between a person mentioned by George Waters in the Box From Hell and a name that had come up previously in our investigation. It is very sketchy now, but we are looking into expanding this find into something more substantial. If we are sucessful, then this will identify possible conspirators with the two Georges and point us in a new direction for following the trail of Anna.

 

[GraceBlue]

I've known several Margarets who were called Peggy. Not a Molly though.

Doogie- Wow. How exciting. I hope new clues pop up!

 

[iNTERESTEDWOMAN]

SherlockJr has uncovered a possible link between a person mentioned by George Waters in the Box From Hell and a name that had come up previously in our investigation. It is very sketchy now, but we are looking into expanding this find into something more substantial. If we are sucessful, then this will identify possible conspirators with the two Georges and point us in a new direction for following the trail of Anna.

So will you at least tell us if this name has been mentioned on the forum...or only in your "private" investigation? Bark, Bark...throw me a bone.

 

[Annasmom]

So will you at least tell us if this name has been mentioned on the forum...or only in your "private" investigation? Bark, Bark...throw me a bone.

We are not trying to keep anything from you, but we might be liable to a lawsuit if we published this name before we have any definite connection. I saw your post about Anna's pages on the Rose Cole thread and want to assure you that when things slow down, it's because Doogie, SherlockJr. and others including me have run into a wall ourselves (as had happened up until this recent development.) The person involved obtained a copy of the original police report on Anna. We do not know why, or what she did with it, and we are trying to find out quietly without prematurely raising suspicions or making ourselves vulnerable to legal action. I hope this reassures you somewhat. We can only throw a bone when we have one to throw. Mostly I would like everyone to know that we are still alive and still working on the case. I have written to LE to ask that they request passport information on Anna. Gina recently found that although they would NOT release information to me, her mother, because of "privacy issues", there is a provision if the request comes from law enforcement on official letterhead. Doogie is working on preparing the manuscript for publication. AnnasUnc is working on the web page and plotting strategy for media coverage, which is his area of expertise. Sherlock, whom I met in person for the first time last week, continues to follow up on various ideas we have mentioned previously on the forum.

 

[smile22]

The person involved obtained a copy of the original police report on Anna. We do not know why, or what she did with it, and we are trying to find out quietly without prematurely raising suspicions or making ourselves vulnerable to legal action.

why would she want a copy of the original report?

 

[Annasmom]

why would she want a copy of the original report?

That's one of the things we're trying to find out. By the way, it was Cubby who dug up the information on the passport business. Sorry, Cubby.