People ex rel. Gill v. Lapidus

An unwed mother by this application seeks the custody of her four-and-a-half-month-old child which she voluntarily relinquished to the respondents at its birth.

A strange and bizarre story is here unfolded. Elements of criminality may not be lacking.

The petitioner, some twenty-eight years of age, left her home in Brooklyn and went to a summer resort hotel at Harris, New York, in the early part of July, 1952. There she secured employment as a chambermaid.

At the time, she was about eight months pregnant. Her physical condition was known at the hotel, but only a few knew she was unmarried. She…