he fate of Joan Crawford's adopted children has become common knowledge since the publication and movie adaptation of Christina Crawford's Mommie Dearest. In it, she tells the horrific stories of the abuse she and her adopted brother Christopher suffered while the twins Cynthia and Cathy allegedly experienced none.
There is a darker side to the tale that prequels all of that. Through news sources and gossip columns, media reports of the way Joan Crawford obtained her children were once public knowledge.
The Chicago Tribune May 24, 1940 announces:
Joan Crawford became a foster mother today.
The screen star adopted a blue eyed, flaxen-haired two-month-old girl and named her Christina.
Miss Crawford’s business representatives said she obtained the baby from an eastern institution and had just completed legal details.
She recently obtained a divorce from Franchot Tone, stage and screen actor, now appearing on Broadway.
(Other biographical sources say that Joan adopted the child in Las Vegas and that Christina had lived with her for the past 11 months.) This month, the two travel to Miami, Florida, for reasons unknown.
June 3 1941 Marcus Gary Kullberg born. Joan adopts him 10 days later, renaming him "Christopher Crawford."
June 11. Joan celebrates Christina's second birthday with 15 child-guests, a merry-go-round, and a scary clown.
June 13. Joan picks up her new son at baby broker Alice Hough's house.
November. After threats from the mother, Joan and broker Alice Hough return baby Kullberg to his mother's house. (After a year of abuse, he is given up for adoption a second time by his mother in November 1942.)
Rebecca Kullberg was the birthmother of baby Marcus. Judging from here behavior, she never got over giving him away. The following was a newspaper clipping that appeared after her arrest in 1941.
Kullberg, Rebecca. (9/28/1914 - ) Natural mother of Joan's first adopted son, who was the result of the married Kullberg's affair with a local liquor-store owner.
After Joan adopted baby Marcus through a broker 10 days after his birth in June 1941 (re-naming him "Christopher"), Rebecca Kullberg saw press articles about Joan's new adoption that gave the baby's birthdate and decided she wanted him back. After Kullberg sent threatening letters to both Joan and MGM, Joan personally returned the child after Thanksgiving, 1941. Kullberg kept the child for the next year, during which time he was abused, then gave him up for adoption a second time in late 1942. In December 1944, Kullberg read articles about a second "Christopher" now adopted by Joan. Incorrectly thinking it was her son, she forced her way into Joan's home on December 20 demanding to see him. She was arrested and sent for psychiatric care.
(Baby Marcus was eventually adopted by kind parents and renamed "Gary Deatherage." In the late 1980s, he began a search for his roots, which resulted in his 1991 book The Other Side of My Life. He recounts in the book his rather bizarre adult conversations with his mother, who was then living in a gloomy hotel near Sacramento after years of wandering the country and telling people that her son had become Elvis Presley.)
Here is the text of the LA Times article of January 17, 1945, detailing Kullberg's "visit" to Joan's home. (
Woman Held After Row at Joan Crawford Home
A confused woman, apparently believing that Joan Crawford, film star, had adopted one of her children yesterday was arrested by The Federal Bureau of Investigation for sending threatening letters to Mrs. Alice Haugh, welfare worker, who, she thought, had a hand in the adoption.
The woman taken into custody is Mrs. Rebecca Kullberg, 30-year-old housewife of 2017½ Berkley Ave.
A wild scene was created In Miss Crawford's home, investigators reported, when Mrs. Kullberg went there on Dec. 20, forced her way into the actress' house and ran through it demanding to see "my son Christopher whom you adopted two years ago."
Arrested at that time by West Los Angeles police, Mrs. Kullberg was questioned by both police and psychiatrists and later released. At that time, she denied that she intended to carry out threats she may have made in letters to Mrs. Haugh concerning the "adoption."
When she was taken into custody yesterday by the FBI, which had reopened investigation of the case, Mrs. Kullberg informed agents that “an angel of the Lord” had told her that her son was in Miss Crawford’s home.
Investigators reported that Mrs. Haugh said that the actress had not adopted any of Mrs. Kullberg’s children.
