Adopted Woman Finds Out About Her Birth Parents’ Criminal Family History

Donna Freed, a White Plains, New York, native who was adopted at a young age, tells her story on today’s TODAY show when she finally made the decision to look for her biological parents. What she discovered definitely shocked her.

An adoption agency in Manhattan provided Freed with a five-page summary of information about her biological mother in 2010.

According to the information, the lady who had given her up as a newborn was described only in the most general terms – a 27-year-old, Caucasian, Jewish, single female who lived on the Eastern Seaboard and worked at an advertising business. And also, she was a really good swimmer. That piece of information really bothered her, but she would, later on, find out why that was very important.

Donna tells TODAY that she grew up in a normal, loving family who adopted her, with her parents and two siblings. She says that the first time she felt different was when she found out she had been adopted. She said, “The five of us, that was like my world. So, that did create a certain rift for me.”

Adoption wasn’t really a family “secret” when she asked about it in her teens. However, after the death of Donna’s adoptive mother, she felt compelled to look into the possibility of learning more about her biological parents. But as soon as she discovered her real last name and was able to track down her biological parents, she came across some bizarre news stories about criminal activity, con men, and even a false drowning.

She sent a friend to the New York Public Library, where the city’s birth records are kept, with the few data she had gotten from the report. A Google search for “Miriam ‘Mira’ Lindenmaier” began after the acquaintance responded with the name as a possible maternal match.

Donna was taken aback by the headlines that saw her in the tabloids…

“Double Indemnity Love.”

“Friends Cite Double Life of Double Indemnity Girl.”

“Homecoming of the Drowned Blond.”

Even though the woman who looked like her mother was in jail on charges of conspiracy to commit grand larceny because she faked her own death by drowning, she was definitely fashionable in horn-rimmed glasses in each of the stories.

According to her, she discovered that her birth father, Alvin, had been married with children. At the time, he was having an affair with her mother when they discovered they were pregnant. Alvin was 34 and Mira was 26. They had been happy to find out about the unexpected pregnancy and even decided to run away to Spain to be together and raise their child there. However, they didn’t have the means to make such a huge international move.

So they faked her mother’s death claiming that she drowned to get themselves a big amount of money. The Metropolitan Life and Equitable insurance included a double-indemnity clause in the event of an accidental death and were worth $10,000 and $8,000, respectively. Alvin was named as a beneficiary of Mira’s will, allowing them to receive $36,000.

But things didn’t exactly go as planned…

Mira was given a suspended sentence and released to the custody of her parents. Alvin got three years, while their accomplice got a suspended sentence. Police said a third man picked up Mira in a motorboat following the false drowning. Alvin’s wife said she didn’t plan to leave her husband

Mira reluctantly gave up her daughter for adoption through the Louise Wise Services agency on March 28, 1967, after she was born. Adoption records from Wise were transferred to Spence-Chapin in Manhattan in 2004, where Freed learned about her biological mother in 2010.

Freed was adopted by the Westchester family with three children. Her adopted father was a Brooklyn-born civil engineer. Her adoptive mother was from Boston and a psychologist.

Donna Freed grew up near the motel where her birth mother was detained.