We are watching Joan. We know everything little piece of crap you put on the internet about us.

mmmm, sounds pretty straighforward – except we are dealing with a person who is two-faced. Joan M. Wheeler wants to copyright HER life, but she writes a book that has things about MY life. And she LIED about my life and NEVER got written or oral permission to write about me in the first place.

So let it be known, that Joan is in violation of MY privacy. And always had every intent to be in violation of my privacy. Here is an excerpt from an old book proposal that she sent out more than 15 years ago when she was trying to get a publishing house to publish her book (before she had to resort to self-publishing it via a vanity press because no reputable publisher wanted to touch it).

“The author questioned several lawyers on the possible legal problems with an autobiography. All are in agreement that the truth stands alone. The author has compiled sufficient documentation as proof to back up her statements.

The author will maintain her identity throughout the book. Family members’ names will remain unchanged since they were published in various obituaries and newspaper articles. The author will use only the first names wherever possible, and a fictitious name for a relative or friend if that person’s name is not part of a public record.”

Oh yes, we’ve heard that crap from Joan in the past that she spoke to lawyers. Uh-huh, and just what did she tell them? I guarantee it wasn’t the truth.  – But that’s not what I want to talk about.

I want to talk about how 15 years ago, she fully intended to violate MY privacy by publishing MY real name. Doesn’t matter if MY name was in my mother’s obituary, because if Joan had protected my mother’s privacy, my privacy would have been protected as well. But we see how this works AGAINST Joan – Joan says on her cyberbullying page that we sisters identified ourselves on our blog BEFORE her book came out. (I covered the actual timeline that this blog was created and when the book was published in my post of December 8, 2011 “Joan Wheeler FINALLY announces the demise of her book Forbidden Family, but still shows evidence of her silly delusions”). Well, now, to take Joan’s logic in her book proposal, since our names were part of the public records from the 1950′s does it really matter what she says on her cyberbullying page? No, it negates what she says. And it shows how she is just grasping at straws to show how SHE is in the right, even though it is a 180 degree turnabout. She has actually argued for BOTH sides of my privacy issue.

And to publish my name, she needed written permission to use my name, which she never got, therefore, in the published final version of the book, my name WAS changed. HOWEVER, Joan left enough clues to identify me. These clues were discussed in that post I referenced above.

But to take things further, Joan deliberately LIED about me in the final version of her book. Like falsely reporting that I have an arrest record, falsely reporting that I was placed on probation, falsely reporting that I was a computer hacker on my job and tampered with Joan’s hospital financial records. Falsely accused me harassing her. Falsely accused me of calling child abuse on her, falsely accusing me of accusing her of having an affair with my fiance. Falsely reporting actual court proceedings in her book. All these falsehoods in a book that was supposed to be the TRUTH. All these falsehoods that were PROVEN to the publisher and the end result? – Joan’s precious book was KILLED!

Now what did she say in that book proposal about the TRUTH? -
“the truth stands alone.” Well, if that’s the case, and she reports in a book proposal that several lawyers were in agreement with that premise and basically gave her the go-ahead to publish my name, why was the final product changed? Gee, I thought “THE TRUTH STANDS ALONE.”

Yep, she ended up changing my first name because SHE DELIBERATELY INTENDED to write all those falsehoods against me. She tried to pull a fast one and guess what? The TRUTH came back to slap Joan in the face!

Oh, I love the TRUTH. I don’t fear the truth. yeah, I’m quite aware of that time old saying “the truth hurts.” But the truth doesn’t hurt me. Because I have always abided by the truth. Only a liar fears the truth. Only a liar like Joan. Because for her, the truth really does hurt. — yeah, that slap hurt like hell – and she deserved it. She deserves every little thing that she gets.

And by the way Joan, MY life is copyrighted too. You don’t get a second chance to smear my good name. Your book is dead, and it will remain dead. Scrap more money together and self-publish that lying crap again, and the results will be the same: another death. Because you tried to defraud Trafford Publications, your credibilty is shot. And I will sue the pants off ANY publishing house or entity that puts out your lying crap book. And that’s a promise baby. That’s the TRUTH – AND THE TRUTH STANDS ALONE!

 1. gertmcqueen – January 26, 2012

Gert here:

Well said, Ruth!
Joan’s argument that because, in our mother’s obit, her children’s names were published, means that it was OKAY for Joan to identify us, is so full of holes, an ocean runs through it.

Joan’s birth name is also published in that obit, but, that named person, NO LONGER EXISTS. Joan can claim both those names as they are hers, but, she had no right to EXPLOIT, for fame and profit, the rest of OUR FAMILY. Joan USED better judgement when it came to the ADOPTED FAMILY.

No, Joan can’t worm her way around the FACT AND TRUTH that she provided plenty of documentation for anyone to FIND OUT the real names of those she exploits and lies about in that hate-filled book and on her websites plural.

Joan had NO RIGHT to publish documents with our parents names on it, where they lived, etc. Living or dead makes no different. Joan crossed over the line of respectability and familiar honor when she published our family’s names and faces. Those acts are acts of dishonor and in the old days someone who had done an act of dishonor would have been buried FACE DOWN IN THE GRAVE!

In several places Joan states that she spoke to lawyers, in the plural, but not ONCE does she ever name a lawyer. If she did indeed have a lawyer, that lawyer’s name ought to be presented, so that people can contact the lawyer to verify Joan’s claims. It is well known that Joan not only contacts lawyers, at the public’s expense, but she also hounds them to the point of where they refuse to take her calls, which causes her to hound them again and again.

We have already proven that Joan has used a well-known adoption reformer’s name and position to further her lying case against the birth siblings. Does the name Joe Soell mean anything to the adoption reform movement? Go ask him directly, like I did, if Joan Wheeler told the truth, as written in that book, or did she fabricate it?

Joan Wheeler has an identity problem. She must use both her names, she must tell her story, and to do so she must tell about the birth family and the adoptive family. She should NEVER have written a book…her life isn’t all that interesting or important. But by writing a book about her life, she has written a book about many other people that were NEVER asked for permission for their lives to be written about, let alone twisted and lied about by the diseased mind of Joan Wheeler.

Joan Wheeler needs to hide in shame for the personal disgrace of betraying her birth family!

Ruth – January 26, 2012

very well said Gert. And to save anybody any trouble to ask Joe Soll what he said – I will quote him. In Joan’s published version of her book – she says she received a 40 page letter written by her birthsisters “throwing her out of the family.” She says in the book she sent Mr. Soll a photocopy of this letter. She says in the book that she phoned him and they discussed this letter.

Gert emailed Mr. Soll in May 2010. Within a half hour of receiving Gert’s email, Mr. Soll wrote back and said that what Joan wrote in her book about his was “patently false.” — patently FALSE!
But Joan keeps insisting that what she wrote in the book was TRUTH. But here comes an adoption expert, and reports a FALSEHOOD!

And another little item I found in that book proposal: she originally intended to pubish 20 photographs in the book – and in her own words some of those photographs were of BIRTH FAMILY MEMBERS! And where were the legal signatures from those birth family members giving her permission to publish those pictures? Well, she eventually didn’t publish those photos, – wise move Joan.

OH – the subject of a lawyer – I will name one – Mr. R. Campo – who was hired by us to do the legal work for buying real estate. We were in his office strictly to do legal work for real estate – and then Joan brought a huge pile of papers and asked him to look over it for a “civil lawsuit” regarding her adoption. He said he would take a look “when he had the time.” Because he was given a retainer fee for the real estate work, and NOT the adoption issue, he didn’t take the time. (He wasn’t going to work for free). Joan got upset, hounded the man to the point that he got angry with her, and then got angry with me, when I had nothing to do with Joan’s adoption issue. This was back in 1990. It is now 22 years later and Joan is STILL looking around for a lawyer to handle her civil case. Because she has hounded the hell out of every lawyer in Buffalo – and then turned to the internet and wrote falsehoods when trying to find legal answers.
Does Joan not know the definition of the word TRUTH? Apparently not!

The End of World – December 21, 2012 – because the Mayan calendar ended? mmmmmm.

January 12, 2012 by gertmcqueen

post on our family site

  The title of the thread is “Is it weird?”
opening post:

When I started my search I was dying to find out information.  I found out that my nparents married and had three boys.  I was so excited when I found out I not only had siblings but they were full siblings.  Weird thing was I have ALWAYS wanted a brother and now I find out I have 3! 

Okay, the thing I am hoping is not too weird is I like cyber stalk them because I haven’t reached out to my bfamily yet.  Is it weird I check out their Facebook and I have saved pictures I could find?  I even put them all together with mine to see if there are similarities (which I believe I see many).  I found a picture of my bdad and it is so weird I think he looks like my agrandpa.  The one I long to find, however, is my bmom.  I have one clipping that the state put in my file of their marraige announcement and their picture is there but it is so terrible and is hard to see.  It is a strange longing and what I can see of her in the face I think we look crazy alike! 

Anyway, now that I have babbled on about my thoughts and weirdness I will settle down.  Haha! 
Reply #1

LOL Renae, Those are completely normal things for adoptees to do!
Reply #2

Yep, completely normal!  Who WOULDN’T want to see the face of their own mother?  Or see and know something about their own families?  I think it is more abnormal to NOT want to do those things.

I mean, why is Ancestry.com so huge? Because people want to know where they came from. 
 
Reply #3
Completely normal.  I was happy too when I found out my first parents were married.  I always wanted brothers but ended up with sisters instead…

Congrats of finding them! Have fun cyber stalking!
 
Reply #4

Completely normal!  I cyber stalked my siblings for months until b-mom finally told them!
 
Reply #5
It is not weird.
 
Reply #6

Totally normal.  I checked out all my relatives via Facebook before making contact (they seemed relatively normal lol).  When I told them, they laughed and said they would have done the same lol.

I did family history via Births/Deaths and Marriages and, to cut a long story short, found a family history site for a convict and his brother (convict is grandfather’s descendant, his brother is grandmother’s descendant) – wrote away for the FH books which listed all the 7000 or so descendants and in a couple of the books discovered pictures of my nmum, most of my uncles, grandparents and grandmother’s siblings and parents and grandfathers father – that was pretty exciting because I really wasn’t expecting to find any photos at all – well worth the $10 I spent on all 3 books lol.  
 
Reply #7

Perhaps a lot more weird is that I often google my nmum’s widower’s name in the hope that there will be something online about him (eg is he still alive (he was alive a year ago though very ill)) as I sort of want to contact him one day (but am too scared to lol).  I did find an interesting legal document (he is suing a company for health reasons) which does give all his work history – probably of no relevance to me but sort of interesting. 

So now to my observations:
In her book, and on her websites, Joan Wheeler bitches and moans that pictures of her were exchanged between a birth aunt and an adopted aunt. She equates that with “spying.” She’s even accused her birth sisters of stalking her for her entire life. Considering we were children (me being 3 years old) – that’s kind of hard to do! Joan also related in her book that when she was an adult (?) in her first apartment, she had a picture of our mother and she was staring at it, trying to relate to it. (just like the person who started this thread on the forum).

To clarify: my mother’s sister, Catherine, grew up with a woman named Helen. Helen’s brother in law Edward Wheeler and his wife couldn’t have kids of their own and wanted to adopt. When my mother died, and it became clear that my father couldn’t take care of an infant, Aunt Catherine asked my father what he was going to do. She SUGGESTED adoption. My father consulted his priest. After much soul-searching, he agreed to the adoption. He was not coerced. So the adoption took place. YES through the years, Aunt Catherine knew about Joan. She never told us, until Gert was an adult. Joan CONDEMNS Aunt Catherine in her book as “spying” on her. BULLSHIT! Aunt Catherine and Helen GREW UP TOGETHER – they were friends BEFORE my parents and Joan’s aparents even met and married! And of course Aunt Catherine would “keep an eye” on Joan (keeping silent because of the legalities), because JOAN WAS THE DAUGHTER OF HER DEAD SISTER!

Dammit Joan – why is all your whining all about YOU and YOUR pain? Did you never think that Aunt Catherine would be in pain? Do you think that Aunt Catherine LOVED you your entire life, and be hurting, knowing that you were her neice and she couldn’t hug and kiss you? Or that when your birth siblings wanted to find you it was because WE LOVED YOU?

So if it is normal for ADOPTEES to “stalk” their birth families, why is it NOT normal for BIRTH FAMILIES to “stalk” the adopted ones? As usual, these adoptees have a double standard. Joan routinely CONDEMNS her birth sisters for doing the same dam thing she did – look at a picture of a family member and wonder about them. Yes, Joan CONDEMNS Aunt Catherine for having a picture of her when she had her First Holy Communion. Aunt Catherine was a second mother to me. I know that she spent hours looking at that picture of Joan and cried, knowing this was the daughter of her dead sister. But Joan did the same thing when she received a picture of her dead mother.

Yep – that Joan Wheeler is full of contradictions and double standards. SHE can look at pictures of her birth family, but her birth family is condemned for looking at pictures of her.

1. gertmcqueen – January 12, 2012

Joan Wheeler is a BASTARD!

Joan Wheeler’s statements about my father, are false! reposted from February 14, 2011

Joan Wheeler is lying again about Dad’s care and when he died!

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,600 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

“Foofie’s right. Telling a poor mother that she would be better off giving away her child so she could go on to lead a better life (go to college, get a career, etc) and, therefore, her child would also be better off away from her and poverty, well, this is just buying into what society has been dishing out for decades. That’s the Adoption Machine’s motto — that adoptive parents will provide a better life for the adoptee. Well, adoptive parents certainly do die young sometimes, leaving the adoptee without one or both adoptive parents. An orphan, again. To be adopted again? Maybe. And, adoptive parents certainly do face hard economic times, too. Telling a poor mother to give up her child because she is poor is a cruelty to her and her child. Family preservation means just what Foofie said — extending kindness, support, social services, food stamps, Medicaid, education and job training, child care while she does these things to get income, and community support from churches and other social organizations such as the locall YMCA that often have 50% scholarships to low income families so their children can attend camp and year-long Y activities. Socially isolating the mother is not good. She doesn’t live in a vaccuum. She has a family and so the family members can help too. And the unmarried father can be drawn in as well. …. Being cast off because your mother was poor really sends a negative message to the adoptee. That’s one of the reasons why most of us hate being adopted.”

Pay attention to the words that I bolded:  She doesn’t live in a vaccuum.  – These are direct thoughts and words of Gert McQueen. I myself have never used that phrase, but Gert has used it several times. Most recently on December 27 in her post “Gert McQueen’s review of Rene Hoksbergen’s review of Forbidden Family by Joan Wheeler” - 4th paragraph down, Gert says “No one lives in a vacuum. At least Gert spelled the word vacuum correctly! Joan, the oh-so-professional “author” didn’t get it right.

We have said several times on this blog that Joan is a Master Manipulator – She is also a Foolish Follower. We have caught many other instances where she has taken phrases from our blogs and used them elsewhere. And she had the nerve to complain once to the AAAC forum “I don’t read their blogs, are they writing to the air?” I blogged once before about that – around springtime 2010 – that we know that Joan reads our blog because she gives herself away. But not only does she “follow” our blog – she “follows” other people! We have seen where someone posts something on the forum, and in just a few days, here comes Joan writing about something and she swipes phrases from the original post. And after reading her book, and harassing letters for years, and dealing with her in person for many years, we know how Joan thinks and speaks. So when we see something on her blog – we can tell when it’s HER own original words or somebody else’s suggestions.

Joan is full of hyperbole, exagerations, and contradictions. She is transparent to us, we who have learned the hard way how she operates, speaks, writes and thinks. She doesn’t fool us. She may have in the past, been able to pull the wool over our eyes, but we learned our lessons – we learned how Joan the Snake works. We recognize her forked tongue.  

Comments»

1. gertmcqueen – December 30, 2011

Gert here:
great post Ruth!! excellent in fact!!

Joan is so good at trying to look ‘learned’ when in fact she just can’t pull it off. Joan has no real knowledge of how the real world works, because she has been spoiled by the very adopted parents she hates and condemns over and over again.

Joan keeps talking about some kind of ‘family perservation’ so that no child should be adopted out. Guess what?? That is a pie in the sky nicey nicey way of thinking…but it doesn’t work for all people all the time!! Get real!!

Joan says, in the above post, She has a family and so the family members can help too

Really now, the family can help….let me tell you that it is the RARE family that can and does help!!

In our own family there was NO ONE who COULD HELP…that is why Joan was adopted out, and the other four children were in foster homes and orphan homes. In my own personal life…I have two children…NO ONE helped me raised them, not even their own father!!

There was no one in my immediate family or extended family or the in-law family to help me CARE FOR MY CHILDREN but ME!!! I raised my children alone for 12 years while I managed to WORK and go to school and EARN A DEGREE and keep a job for 37 years!!

I really find it appalling that someone, Joan, who has TWO college degrees, but no significant job under her belt, who had everything given to her by the adopted parents, who still cries the blues because she was adopted!

No wonder she has such a miserable life….she never had developed inner strength. I would like to know who in Joan’ family is going to take care of her when she gets old and has to have someone TAKE CARE OF HER? Who Joan, in your family, is going to take care of you.

 

2. Ruth – December 30, 2011

uh, Gert, did you forget that even now, Joan has forced her 25 year old daughter to work two jobs to support them in a house they can not afford. My father urged Joan several years ago to sell the house and move to an affordable apartment.

In a private facebook message, Joan’s ex-husband told me that he finds it “disgusting” that his daughter works 2 jobs. My niece also lamented in a myspace message to me in Nov. 2009 “Don’t I have a right to a life of my own?”, Instead of building her own life, is now “raising” Joan.

Joan’s ex-husband also told me “Joan has fixed it so that (eventually) she will lose the house.” He told me that he and his current wife offered to buy the house (and rent it out to Joan), but she refused. This delusional dingbat, who couldn’t afford to fix her own car in 2009 thinks she can hold down a mortgage, do necessary house repairs, when she is on Social Security Disability. – So why doesn’t the “extended” family help out? Why the f should they?

In my original blog post I forgot to add these pictures – so here we go. These were taken in Gert’s house in July 2011. The pictures and the captions all speak for themselves.

pile of books on Gert’s bed:

Gert ripping up a book:

Gert putting a page in the shredder:

it is satisfying to destroy this lying piece of shit book!

Carefully read what she has to say:
“This photograph of my natural family was taken in Autumn of 1955. My mother is pregnant with me. This is the only family “portrait” I have. My deceased natural mother’s sister (my aunt) sent the photograph to my adoptive aunt who then gave the  photograph to my adoptive parents in 1956. My adoptive mother gave me the photograph when I was 18 years old and newly reunited with my natural family.”

Okay, first – we have no way of knowing exactly what month this picture was taken – it could have been early summer 1955. Because I, (in my father’s arms), am awful small for a three year old. This picture could have even been taken in 1954 when I was 2 years old. – Whatever – the other point is – even if Mom was pregnant – (she looks fat – NOT pregnant) – Joan was NOT a legal entity when the photograph was taken.

Joan admits right here that she was not given a paper copy of the photo until she was 18 years old in 1974. Since I and other members of the extended Herr family – my mother’s siblings and their children also had copies of this same photo – it shows us that this photo was widely distributed AFTER my mother’s death. This photo could have been taken by any number of persons – my paternal grandmother, who only lived a few blocks from us, a member of the Herr family, heck, it could even have been taken by our landlord Mr. Johnson. (not Williams, Joan – JOHNSON).

In the terms and conditions set forth by Trafford Publications for their authors, it is stipulated that the author must own the sole copyright to the work and ALL IT’S CONTENT.

So how does Joan Wheeler think she owns the sole copyright of a photograph that she is NOT in, was NOT the photographer, did not even see it, or own a COPY of until 18 years AFTER the photo was taken?

And Joan, my dear, if I find out that you took MY baby picture and took out a copyright/patent on MY baby picture – YOU ARE GUILTY OF FRAUD!

That’s right readers, (pay attention Lori Corangelo) – JOAN WHEELER DEFRAUDED TRAFFORD PUBLICATIONS WHEN SHE SIGNED THE CONTRACT WITH THEM. AND I WILL GO AFTER JOAN VIA MY ATTORNEY IF I FIND OUT THAT SHE OBTAINED A FRAUDULENT COPYRIGHT ON MY PHOTOGRAPH. – and you will end up in jail – or the psych ward – I don’t care which – just as long as you get put away so you can stop your lying on the internet and stop your lying mouth!

Now my sister Gert had moved from Buffalo in 1982 and did not know a lot of what was happening in Buffalo. In an email yesterday, I mentioned something about Gail and Gert emailed me back and said she didn’t know all about the Gail thing. So I elaborated. Then I thought – I was going to get into this on the blog in the future, but since I typed it all out now, I may as well just go ahead and blog it now. So here is what I wrote to Gert this morning, via email. I have only changed a couple of names. Read on and see what a “nice” person Joan Wheeler is.

The Gail thing started in 1993 when Joan’s daughter got sick with the hypothroidism -and Joan wanted information if anyone else in the family had similar medical problems. no problems there, just a mother wanting to give info to the doctors. Since she had burnt her bridges with Gert and Ruth, and was in the process of burning them with Kathy, she turned to the extended family. Nobody paid attention to her and just said they didn’t know anything. Dad was his usual helpful self – meaning – no help at all. Gail got a few phone calls from Joan and ignored her. Then Joan sent a packet of medical information about her daughter to Gail. Gail saw the return address and marked “Return to Sender.” Joan then called her at 10pm, when Gail and K. were in bed and left a screaming message on the machine – “don’t you know this is IMPORTANT MEDICAL INFORMATION THAT COULD SAVE YOUR SON?” K. wanted to pick up the phone and bitch Joan out but Gail said to just ignore her.

 Sometime in 1997 or 1998, Joan had a busted windshield and went to get it fixed. By chance – the repairman was R.M.III. (h they were both thrilled that they were cousins. And Joan went to his house for dinner. When Gail found out – she told him to stay away from her because of the shit she had done to me. R. gave Joan the cold shoulder and hung up on her once. She called his job and tried to make trouble for him (sound familiar?) In the meantime, I got a letter from Joan accusing Gail, R, me and Francine of plotting against her. Fran came by for lunch and I read her the letter and Fran said, “but – but – I never met your cousin R.”

 Joan started writing letters to Gail, which she kept refusing. Gail made a complaint to the Town of Eden police. They sent Joan a letter telling her NOT to contact Gail. She sent Gail another letter. (by this time it was 1999). Gail was about to return to sender and drop it in the mailbox when she noticed something funny about the return address. It had the wrong zipcode on it – and Joan’s street address wasn’t quite right. The zipcode was actually GAIL’S ZIPCODE! and Joan’s street name was not spelled right. This would make the post office not be able to find Joan’s house and bring it RIGHT BACK TO GAIL. Gail said “enough.” and took it right to the police. They called Joan up and asked did you not get our letter telling you not to contact Mrs. B.?” She said yes. They asked her, ”and did you just send her this letter?” She said yes. The police said ok, and hung up. he opened the letter and started reading it and was laughing, and Gail said what was it? And he started reading it – it was the same bullshit about Gail refusing to learn medical information to save her son, and plotting with Ruth to get her. While this was going on – the phone at the police station rang and it was Joan wanting to know if they, the Town of Eden police had called her. They said yes – and you will be hearing from the courts as well. It was the TOWN OF EDEN POLICE, NOT GAIL, who instituted the harassment charges on Joan – coincidentally the exact same month that I hauled her into court over the shit letter telling me John got the next-door neighbor pregnant. And because she used her friend Bo’s address (Carol in the book), without her permission – Bo. took her to court as well. So in one month, Joan had to answer harassment charges in Tonawanda, Buffalo, and Eden.

 From 1997 to 1999, Gail got several phone calls and several letters from Joan – and she refused to read them, and DID NOT CALL ME – to keep me out of it. It wasn’t until AFTER she got her one-year order of protection against Joan (the same as me and Bo.) – did she call me and tell me what she did. She wanted to prove to the family that it was not RUTH, but Joan who was doing the shit. And she called Dad to tell him that too.

 And it really pisses me off that Joan had the fucking nerve to show up at Gail’s wake. I was talking to R. III, when Joan and her boyfriend D.s (the one she met online) walked in. R. and I both gave her a dirty look and we both needed to go outside and get a smoke. While we were out there – we noticed everybody else was out there – either standing near us and smoking, or off to the side having fresh air. – My John went back inside to take a look – and came out – and said the whole place had emptied out! Even Dad came outside, talking with a couple of the Herr relatives.

 So Joan walks in – and everybody walks out. Even J. left. AND J. asked me when J. died if Joan would be coming. When I told her no, she said “thank god.” Nobody wants that b around.

Comments

1. Ruth – December 22, 2011

to clarify – at the end that was J. asking if Joan was going to show up at her husband J.’s funeral.

I miss him very much too. He was a wonderful man. And contrary to how Joan portrays the extended family “hating” my father (because of him not wanting experimental cancer treatments for my mother and not saving her life) – this cousin AND her husband, ALWAYS respected my father. And he of them. She always called my Dad, Uncle Leonard (because he was her uncle- and used to babysit us kids) and her husband always called Dad by his first name.

So contrary to how Joan portrays the Herr family as all hating my father – no – they didn’t.

2. gertmcqueen – December 22, 2011

Gert here:
You know…as I’m reading this and I know the characters, it dawns on me that NO ONE CAN MAKE THIS SHIT UP!
No, this is NOT any kind of story to ‘get Joan’! This ACTUALLY happened, by Joan, she has always caused severe trouble within the family, not just to us siblings, as this account of Ruth’s details, but everyone in the family.

do people wonder WHY we siblings have refuted the book Joan wrote, and why we are setting the record straight, and exposes Joan Wheeler for every toxic thing she did to us and our family.

Beware of Joan Wheeler!

3. Ruth – December 22, 2011

you are absolutely correct Gert – I did not make ANYthing up here at all!
And the sisters of R.III, having known what Joan did to their brother and their Aunt Gail, HATE Joan. NOT from any badmouthing that Ruth could have told them – but from THE FACTS OF JOAN’S OWN STUPID BEHAVIOR!

Joan says in her book that I, Ruth, turned Gail against her. No, Joan, YOU turned Gail against you. Do you honestly think that someone, in bed, trying to get to sleep because they have to get up early to go to work, likes getting a message on their answering machine from a screaming lunatic? (oh, that’s right Joan – you never HAD to get up early because you never held down a decent job in your life).

Moving right along – and to clarify another point – there was nothing wrong with Gail’s son. He was in perfect health. Still is. So what was that shit all about? “important medical information that could save your son’s life!” What a f’ing moron! Ok, so Joan’s daughter had some medical issues that may or may not be shared with biological relatives. You just don’t go around SCREAMING such things on somebody’s answering machine! By the time Gail got around to telling me this, several years had passed and Gail and I had were laughing our asses off about it.

Yes, Joan really knows how to impress people. Too bad it’s NOT the impression that she wants people to know about her – there is NO picture that I could paint about Joan that would tell another person how she is – it would not compare to the reality of her behavior! Me telling Gail what a nutball Joan is simply is not the same as Gail having heard first hand Joan’s screaming mouth – yelling stupid ridiculous garbage! And Joan even chronicles in her book how she screamed at people! and physically and mentally abused her own adopted mother and her own son!

Same thing about this blog. I am telling the truth here – and if some morons out there want to continue to associate with Joan – well, I can’t stop them. They will have to find out first hand what a nut she is. Her latest boyfriend broke up with her – after only a few months. Her whole book chronicles one broken relationship after another broken relationship – not just her ex-husband or boyfriends, but – family members from both her adopted and birth families and friends. Even former foster parents of her birth sisters, step-aunt and uncle of her birth sisters. I can add to the list. A former teen pop star and his wife. Two former landlords, a lawyer, a former neighhbor (who lived in the apartment next to her), my ex-husband, my friend, my present husband.

Everybody who has dealings with Joan and eventually gets to know her, and/or suffers from her shitty behavior all do the same thing – run the hell away from her!

 Joan Wheeler’s book Forbidden Family is NO longer available! It is DEAD!

 The publisher pulled it from their on-line market once they saw that the book contained libelous materials and was just a hate-manifesto. They dropped it like a hot potato and distanced themselves far away from Joan Wheeler. 

The book was never considered to be a best seller nor a mover and when asked about how many copies were printed and available the publisher used the terms ‘nothing to get excited about’.  (Ruth’s note: yep, Trafford told me on the phone “It was hardly a best-seller.”)

 This book was published November 2009. When we, the birth sisters, found out we obtained 4 copies; 3 for us sisters and 1 for my daughter. It took me a year of reading the book to get the full extent of the hate the book contained. In December 2010, a year from publication, I had contacted the publisher requesting a complete review of the contents. It took several months for the publisher to go over all the evidence, that Ruth and I submitted to them, for their task of reviewing it.

 Once we KNEW that the book was pulled from publication, May 2011, I kept track of copies available on Amazon.com. Before May of 2011 the number was never higher than 15. In May of 2011 available copies were 13. So Ruth and I decided that perhaps we ought to ‘buy’ up all available copies, using Amazon as our base of information. Ruth purchased one copy, but then I told her that she shouldn’t spend any more of her income on that vile book. I have more disposal income than my sisters or daughter and can afford to buy up the books.

 You wonder why we wanted to buy the books? To show that there was very little interest in her cause and life.  Joan wrote what is called a ‘vanity story book’ geared to a small sub-set of the American popular culture. By our purchasing of many copies and then stopping and NO OTHER major sales have occurred, before or after we purchased, proves that the book is not of interest to a large segment of the popular culture or to the sub-set of anti-adoption culture that Joan believes would be interested in her life.

 We also wanted to keep other people from reading the garbage, that Joan wrote, about OUR LIVES. The book is a lying, vile, hateful attack on both adoptive and birth families. We wanted to destroy them! Yep buy the books and then destroy them and destroy them we did! There might be a couple of copies available out there, but why would anyone want to spent between $36 to $50, plus sales tax and shipping, for a book that will never help them and is being reviewed on our blogs for free! (Ruth’s note: Joan once made a complaint to an online lawyer service (which turned out to be a bullshit service) and whined that our blogs was taking business away from her. Nonsense. She did sell a FEW copies, before Gert started buying up those books. She hasn’t sold any since then. In February 2010, Joan made an appeal to members of the Adult Adoptees Advocating for Change forum to check out my blog and complain to Worpress and “shut those fuckheads (her sisters) down!” We got 180 hits in one day, with several obscene messages – all from the so-called “adults” who say they are advocating for adoption change. As if obscene messages are going to get them taken seriously. Out of 180 hits on my blog that day, let’s say several hits were of one or two persons coming to my blog two or more times. So a modest true number of persons could be around 100. Out of those 100, let’s say about half just didn’t have any money. What about the other 50? Did ANYone of those adoptees who came running over to my blog to start trouble even bother to BUY Joan’s book? NO! We would have known it – because we had ALWAYS been monitoring Amazon’s stats! And if Joan’s adoptee “friends” HAD been buying the book – Trafford would not have told me “It was hardly a best-seller.” No one is really interested in Joan’s life – whether we had a blog or not, whether Gert bought a bunch of copies or not. And Joan now has to come to terms with the fact that her best customers are the people she hates the most – her birth sisters Gert and Ruth. – Not even those adoptee “friends” of hers that came to her defense by attacking my blog – they didn’t buy her book, because they just are not interested in Joan’s whining – they just came to attack someone who put down an adoptee! – And since then, her support had dwindled. She whined to them in May 2010, and about 100 hits showed up on my blog. She whined to them in September 2010, and about 50 hits registered. Whenever she whines now, I get maybe about 10-15 hits. But I ask again, how many of them BOUGHT her book? NONE!  (HeatherUK doesn’t count – she bought it before Joan sicced the forum on me – and Heather is stupid anyway. She didn’t even catch the contradictions from page to page or see that Joan was chronicling her own alcoholism and abuse to her own children).

back to Gert:

 So from May to August, I personally purchased 30 copies of that vile book. I have purchase orders and pictures of empty covers to prove that I did purchase and destroy 30 copies of the book.  (Ruth’s note –  The books ordered in June, July and August 2011 were delivered with a print date on the last page of dates in June, July, and August at the printing plant in Lexington Kentucky. This means that by May of 2011, the original print run of the book had been exhausted. Joan’s initial investment with this vanity press Trafford, was only $800.00. From the original print run, we had bought 4, HeatherUK bought one, Pastor Ruth Willerth of Joan’s writer’s group bought one, I bought an additional one in May 2011, Joan shipped one to Holland, and another to Ohio or Idaho.  Amazon’s sales figures reflected an additional sale prior to May 2011. Gert had already shredded the copies she bought in May. She didn’t notice a date stamped on the last page. So the original print run could hardly have been more than 20 or 25.  – And we had been watching Amazon every week since the beginning of 2010 – with no sales being generated. – yep- Joan’s life was surely so interesting even to the adoptees it was flying off the presses!  – NOT!)

back to Gert:

 For the months of June, July and August my purchases averaged 10 copies a month. That means that Joan RECEIVED an income from those book sales and has to report that income to several government agencies, she will have to file INCOME tax returns to the Federal and New York State. The income she earned in those 3 months will effect her eligibility on the Food Stamp Program and her Social Security Disability income. Joan is a fool to have thought that she could earn a living income from the sale of this lying book! She would have to sell far more than 10 per month to get off and stay off SSI.  (Ruth’s note – and I want my share of this income as she published MY picture on the back of the book WITHOUT my permission – I am entitled to royalties for the use of my picture).

 So was it worth my $1000? Of course it was! Oh sure it gave her a few extra dollars for the summer, but, more importantly she NOW knows where that money and sales came from….me…and she also can now see the picture evidence of that book being destroyed!

 NO lawyer needed to get justice! Truth wins all the time.  

 Continuing on…. in an email exchange, October 19, 2011, with a manager at Trafford Publications I questioned why the availability of the book was still listed on Amazon and received the following explanation.

  “When I do a search on the internal print shop at Amazon I get the following message:

 The current status of this title is “Retired” and is not available for sale through our sales channels

 They show 31 (which almost matches the number your family purchased) books sold and the last one being August 15.

 Our printer in TN still shows: 

5/19/11 Title On Hold

  I apologize that this stills continues, although the print channels show as not available. We will again reach out to our retail partners about updating their records. “

 Now in a phone conversation, with the same manager, later that day, it was explained more clearly to me, that when Amazon shows, for example: available 5 new, 2 used, that is the virtual inventory NOT actual inventory; it is a general sales ‘come on’. Over time that shall be gone. When I spoke with the manager I had said that I purchased 30, which is correct. Ruth purchased 1 and that brings the total to 31, which clearly matches what this manager sees in his internal accounting.

(Ruth’s note,–Here is a bit of an explanation about Amazon.  The books listed presently on Amazon are nothing more than a “bait and switch” come-on. Amazon is a mostly automated site and when a product is unavailable, a customer will get a list of “related” products. As a regular Amazon customer, I routinely get emails with different titles of DVDs, books and MP3 downloads, based on my prior ordering history. Even on my Amazon homepage I get advertisements of different products that are “related” somehow to items that I previously ordered. And if I look for something that is not available, I get “suggestions” of other products.)

Ruth’s additional note – the title of this post “Big Book Burning Burial” is only partially correct. Our plans were to take the shredded papers left of the book and BURN them in my new barbecue grill. I bought the grill, which needed assembling, in July. On July 23, I sustained an injury at work – my right thumb and wrist were severely sprained and was in a cast for the first week and I had to wear a splint afterwards. So I couldn’t assemble the grill, let alone burn the the dam pages. When Gert came to Buffalo for a visit in August, she did the actual ripping the covers of the books. We fanned the covers out on my living room floor to show all the copies of the book that were purchased by us. Everything is still in a box, and next summer, I will put my grill together and have a nice bon-fire. The burial? Oh, well – I will flush the ashes down my toilet – and they will then travel through the sewer lines – where her book belongs. Meanwhile, here are some pictures of us having fun with this digusting lie-filled book that not only trashed us, but our mother. You trash my mother – you get trashed in turn. Joan trashed a LOT of people in that filthy book. Filth belongs in the sewer. And that’s just where it’s going!

Photo Gallery – When Gert bought her first shipment of books, it was delivered to a friend’s house near where she lives – he had a chopping machine that chops books up – in one swoop – sort of like a guillotine – CHOP! When Gert placed her second order, she had them shipped to my house. Her third shipment was delivered to her house and again she and her friend had a happy time ripping up books! Gert brought all the covers with her when she came to my house in August for a visit. Since my right hand was out of commissiion, Gert ripped the covers off the books that I had. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

First up – Covers of Forbidden Family on Ruth’s living room floor.

Next are covers and several copies of the hideous book.

the short little thing front center is a guillotined book – oh so appropriate for this book!

Next are two pictures of Gert having fun ripping up a book and placing them in an appropriate box.

Now we have Gert placing a cover in an even more appropriate receptacle – the litter box of Pippin, Ruth’s cat.

and now – for the best picture of this collection: a cover of Joan Wheeler’s shitty book Forbidden Family alongside some shit in the litter box. Shit belongs with shit!

Comments:

1. chayelet – December 16, 2011

Oh joy! My copy is yet to be destroyed- haven’t done so yet as I’ve too much else to do- but it will be shredded in the coming months, rest assured.

 

2. gertmcqueen – December 16, 2011

Oh yes, yes, JOY, JOY, JOY

As I am NOT finished writing about that book, I still have a copy, which has been falling apart at the seams, literally and I did complaint to Trafford about that.

I still have some covers that need to be destroyed and will have to use scissors because the shedder doesn’t like the paper and they are too TOXIC to burn!!

There’s you’re christmas gift Joan Wheeler!

3. Ruth – December 16, 2011

ARE WE NASTY? Some people may think so – but I’m not any more nastier than Joan.

Let’s see – 16- 18 years ago Joan made my life a living hell. She baited me to phone her (and like an idiot, I did) and filed annoyance calls complaint on me, hauled me into court even after the police heard my side of the story and recommended that she NOT take me to court. She did anyway. THEN she actively tried to break me and my fiance up. She tried to get me fired from my job. She tried to get me into jail – when I had done nothing wrong.

If I had lost my job or gone to jail, I would not have been able to make my mortgage payments and I would have lost my house – Joan wanted me jobless, homeless, penniless.

Then she writes me letters telling me my infertile husband got the next door neighbor pregnant, tries to get a hitman to kill me.

Then she writes this f’ing book where she trashes me left and right.

Yeah, so tell me I’m nasty. And I’ll say “oh yes.”

PAYBACK IS A BITCH, NOW AIN’T IT JOAN. YOU ARE NOW REAPING THE REWARDS OF WHAT YOU DID TO ME. I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY. – I TOLD YOU ONCE BEFORE IN A LETTER – ALL THE “ANXIETY ATTACKS” THAT WAKE YOU UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IS REALLY YOUR GUILTY CONSCIENCE. – NOW GO INSIDE YOURSELF – MEDITATE, DO SOME SELF HYPNOSIS AND LOOK DEEP AT THE BLACKNESS OF YOUR OWN SOUL AND CONSCIENCE – BECAUSE YOUR HEART IS BLACK, YOUR SOUL IS BLACK AND YOUR SHIT HAS COME HOME TO ROOST!

4. Ruth – December 17, 2011

oh Joan – sorry to hear that your springtime love didn’t last – there IS a reason that ex’es STAY ex’es.

be sure to blubber on sneaky Laura’s shoulder when you guys have coffee. You are both sneaky liars who act like little girls and deserve each other. ha ha ha

Readers who are wondering what that’s all about – go to this post “A Lesson in Life: Duplicitous People are All Around You – Trust Your Instincts. and – Joan Wheeler jumps at the chance to try to stick it to me the beginning of June 2010.” and read how an ex cow-worker of mine couldn’t stand for me to boot her off my facebook page and then exhibited behavior more fitting to a 10 year old child than a grown woman. ha ha ha  and Joan just couldn’t WAIT to glom onto her – a match made in heaven – two wackos having a friendship begin because all they both wanted to do was gossip about Ruth. Oh they are both sooo mature! -  – that cow-worker is NOT a typo!

comment #5 is a trackback link, not a typed messaged comment.

6. gertmcqueen – December 20, 2011

Gert here:

In the excitment of getting this post up and running we did not include ALL photos, including ones showing me burning the book! In July I had a bon-fire and burnt 6 copies of that vile book. It is NOT an easy thing to burn a book, whole. It is best to rip out the pages and put those in the flames…but I did it!

 http://www.trafford.com/uploadedFiles/Trafford/Common/Trafford%20Terms%20and%20Conditions_ebook%20pricechange_11182011.pdf

 2. YOUR LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY
2.1. You represent that you are the sole copyright owner of the Work and all of its content.

 2.2. You represent that the Work does not infringe upon any statutory or common law right of copyright, libel or privacy of any third party.

  2.4. You further represent that the Work does not contain illegal, unlawful or objectionable material including, but not limited to, pornography, obscenity or hate speech. You acknowledge that the Work is not plagiarized and does not include falsely attributed statements of third parties.

 3.(Trafford’s Legal Responsibility
3.2. We reserve the right to refuse to provide and/or to discontinue ALL Services upon our discovery of any violation by you of these Terms and Conditions, any other actions, omissions or misconduct by you with respect to Work, and/or your performance under these Terms and Conditions. In the event a complaint is made by a third party regarding the Work, we reserve the right to suspend the Services in accordance with Section 7.1 until such time as the complaint is satisfactorily resolved, as determined by us in our sole discretion.

Now Lori go and read these two posts and read them word for word so you can UNDERSTAND what Joan Wheeler did -

Joan Wheeler FINALLY announces the demise of her book Forbidden Family, but still shows evidence of her silly delusions

My complaint to Trafford Publications concerning the slander and libel contained in the book Forbidden Family by Joan Wheeler

 Tell us again Lori of how Joan made a “mistake” – you are full of shit, and so is Joan.

You want open records Lori? That equates to the TRUTH, does it not Lori? We are open and TRUTHFUL here on our blogs. Can you handle the TRUTH Lori?

“Forbidden Family has been taken off the market by Trafford Publishing as of May 2011.
It was a short run, but well worth it.
I believe in my book and future success.
The book is not dead, only sleeping while another opportunity is sought.”

First off, she doesn’t say WHY Trafford  took her book off the market. Why not Joan? Got something to hide? Like the very TRUE reason it was taken off the market – for slander and libel and using a photograph that you didn’t have the copyright of.

If someone is going to make a statement like this bullshit – and she says she believes in her book, she would tell her blog readers WHY the book is not on the market. But like the master manipulator Joan is, she will tell only PART of the story. She won’t tell the TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH. Just little bits and pieces of sound bites.

She can say her book is only sleeping, and it’s not dead,but she’s only fooling herself and her blog readers. As to using the phrase her book is not dead - we see evidence that  Joan is reading our blog, because it was here that we say the book is dead. And we see more evidence of her delusions. It only took her seven months to admit that the book has pulled from publication. The book IS dead. She claims that the short run of her book was “well worth it?” Worth having the entire world know what Joan’s true lying nature is and exposed? Joan may  ”believe” in her book – that is because Joan “believes” her delusions. She DID write in her book that in 1993 she was granted a one year order of protection against me. I have submitted on this blog the actual court document that says it was for six months. Joan says in her book that I was arrested, and placed on probation in 1993. I have submitted actual court documents on this blog that show that is a falsehood, slander and libel.

Joan continues to insist that she changed names in her book to protect identities. No, she changed only SOME names and kept her own name Joan Wheeler in the book. She put on the back of the book, a family photograph that clearly shows my father’s face. AND she names him by his correct name of SIPPEL. My father worked in City Hall and was well known. In his second wife’s funeral guest book, and his mother’s funeral guest book are the signatures of two prominent local politicians. My father’s colleagues and many other people knew that he had given up one daughter for adoption. This was no secret in the 1950′s and 1960′s. Further, Joan wrote an article called “The Secret is Out,” that was published in England and Holland in the early 1990′s. In this article, she gave out the correct names of ME and one of my sisters. In her book Forbidden Family, she  referenced  this article and where it was published, and named the publication. It is available, so any person with any reasonable amount of intelligence could read her book, find her original article and find MY real name, which is sullied in Joan’s book as a criminal, a computer hacker with my employer, and other disgusting detrimental claims to my good name and character.

Joan says that we sisters identified ourselves first on our blog – no we did not. I started my blog late November 2009. Her book had already come out in the beginning of November 2009. The book Forbidden Family was already offered for sale by Trafford Publishing BEFORE I started my blog. And in September 2008, on a now-defunct Blogger blog, Joan identified her birth sisters. A full year before the book was published and my blog was started. 

I started this blog as the direct result of two internet sites that Joan publicized her “new” book – the first one was actually an interview/article by ABC.com titles “Adoptees face Sting of Discrimination.” In that article, Joan was interviewed and she put forth many falsehoods, both in the body of the interview/article and in 5 or 6 additional comments. I submitted comments refuting her statements, but they were not accepted.  On another website, called “The Daily Bastardette”, was a piece promoting Joan’s book. In that article, there was a falsehood, put forth by Joan, and published by the website’s owner Marley Greiner. I submitted a comment, refuting what Joan told Ms. Greiner. Ms. Greiner did not publish my comment.  I was frustrated, because Joan was able, via these two sources, and her own new wordpress website called Forbidden Family to get out her lies and misrepresentations of my family, but I could not get out the truth. So I began this blog. I had known that Joan had a blog on google’s blogspot for some time, but never paid much attention to it. I did see the warning that she put out in September 2008 to the Wheeler clan, the Herr clan and The Three Sippel Sisters to “leave her alone,” although nobody was bothering her. I made screen shots of that warning, but did nothing else. I ignored the little child.

Apparently, sometime in the summer of 2009, when her book was going to press, she built her wordpress blog and titled it Forbidden Family and began to promote her new book. She transferred all her files from the blogger blog to the new wordpress blog.  In October 2009, on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of  Atonement, Joan wrote a blog post about Yom Kippur, but got some things wrong. As it turns out, my sister Kathy, converted to Judaism several years ago. She wrote a comment on Joan’s blog, a very nice comment, but it corrected Joan in the points she got wrong. Joan graciously accepted the comment for publication, and even left a nice note, something along the lines “I knew someday we would re-connect.” The two comments stayed on her blog for a few days, when all of a sudden, with no action taken from either me, or Kathy, Joan turned 180 degrees (this is very typical of her) and accused Kathy and me of spying on her, and getting her blogger blog shut down.  ???? What? — and then she dragged Gert into it.

Gert had not been on the internet AT ALL! She had a computer at home, for personal work, did not have internet access, didn’t go to public computers for such. Kathy was brand new to the internet.  With a brandnew computer, wasn’t internet savvy enough NOT to leave her private email containing her name, on the comment she put on Joan’s blog. Joan then emailed her and bitched her out! For nothing! Kathy was upset, and rightfully so. She complained to WordPress, she said that 1. she only corrected some points about the Jewish religion that Joan had gotten wrong, and 2. why was the webhost (Joan) emailing her and threatening her. WordPress went in and took down the post about Yom Kippur, and all comments as well. Joan became enraged! She left a nasty post saying she was not going to be censored. She went out and BOUGHT a website from StartLogic and began building a new Forbidden Family website, and transferred all her files from her wordpress blog over there. And then closed down her blogger blog and wordpress blog – but then said that it was The Three Sippel Sisters who closed her down. Which is a big fat lie. She closed those blogs down HERSELF.

That happened in September, October and the beginning of November 2009. I was not involved AT ALL with the Yom Kippur postings, nor was Gert. But I was sympathetic with Kathy. And I began this blog, the third week of November. I originally titled it, “Refuting Joan Wheeler’s statements about her Forbidden Family.” I ordered the book from Amazon.com the first week of December 2010, and received it a few days later. I opened the book and just glanced at it and saw many lies. I was disgusted. Since this blog had already been started, I went in and changed the title to Refuting the Book Forbidden Family. Her book came out BEFORE I started this blog.  So Joan had done the damage BEFORE my blog was in existence.

Joan also keeps insisting that she had the right to publish MY family photograph on the back of her book. NO, she does not, did not have that right. Joan says on her website that she spoke to a literary attorney. If she did, she misled them, just as she misled Trafford Publishing. Joan signed a contract with Trafford Publishing in 2009, but in 2011, when they saw the actual court documents, and what I outlined in the above paragraph, THEIR attorneys agreed that Joan VIOLATED their rules of conduct of authors. 

The photograph in question is of my parents, me, and my 3 siblings. It was taken in 1955. Joan was not born until January 1956. She was not in the photograph. This photograph was widely distributed among relatives in the 1950′s and 1960′s. I don’t care where or when Joan was given a PAPER COPY of this photograph. Joan says that in the photograph, our mother was pregnant with her. We have no proof of that. She looks fat. But that’s not the point. Joan was NOT A LEGAL ENTITY UNTIL SHE WAS BORN ON JANUARY 7, 1956. IN THE WINTERTIME! The photo was taken in the summer or early fall 1955. Joan did not legally exist when the photograph was taken, therefore, she does NOT OWN THE SOLE COPYRIGHTS TO THAT PHOTOGRAPH.

One of the articles in the contract that Joan signed with Trafford Publishing was that “the author is the SOLE COPYRIGHT OWNER OF THE WORK AND ALL ITS CONTENTS.” In order to publish that photograph, Joan needed the permission of those pictured in the photograph. She claims on her website that “no permissions were needed to use this photo.” – WRONG! Because this photo was being put on a work that was to be used for MONETARY INCOME, Joan did indeed NEED TO GET PERMISSION FROM ALL LIVING PERSONS IN THE PHOTOGRAPH. She “claims” she had our father’s permission. I want to see his signature, and it had better have been notarized, because if it wasn’t -it doesn’t prove a thing – because Joan has been known to forge things.   

I am in that photo, as well as my sisters, and Joan DID NOT GET OUR PERMISSION IN WRITING OR ORALLY to publish OUR likeness on a vehicle for her to make money. Joan in the past has tried to skip around the issue by saying the faces were blurry and obscured by text. WRONG! The faces are not that blurry, and text does obscure faces of my mother, my brother, and my two sisters. BUT MY FATHER’S FACE AND MY FACE ARE CLEARLY VISIBLE. Since my likeness has been placed on a body of work that garnered income for Joan Wheeler, WITHOUT MY PERMISSION – I hereby demand my share of all monetary sums from all sales of the book Forbidden Family in the years 2009, 2010, 2011. 

Many people in  the Buffalo area know my father, they know his last name, they know my mother’s maiden name, which is given out in the book. That photograph is well known by many people. We have a large family, and everybody knows who Joan Wheeler is. Joan had her picture published in The Buffalo News,with her full name given out – and she spoke about adoption. The following week, my father was interviewed by The Buffalo News and spoke about her adoption. In the interview HIS FULL REAL NAME, ALONG WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH was published.

 Because of her many years of writing articles for The Buffalo News and other places, Joan’s name and circumstances of her adoption have been well publicized. On the internet, BEFORE the book was published, Joan herself was using a name that DID NOT LEGALLY BELONG TO HER! She wrote many opinion pieces throughout the internet on adoption, using the signature “Joan Wheeler, born Doris Sippel.” – Therefore, she gave out MY legal maiden name BEFORE the book was published.

In 1980, both Joan and I appeared on a locally produced human interest news story about adotion reunion. We were interviewed by reporter Rich Kellman and the half-hour show was televised on WGRZ-TV of Buffalo, New York. In this interview, we both gave our names, she as Joan Wheeler, and me as Ruth Sippel. Our faces were not concealed.  Neither Joan, nor I, were paid any moneys for this televised appearance.

Many people know me, and know that I have an adopted-out younger sister that I was reunited with, and they know her name as Joan Wheeler.  Many people  have known that for the last 30 years Joan wheeler has been writing this book. Therefore, when that book came out, and Joan started publicizing it on the internet, and it was available for sale, someone sees it, sees the author “Joan Wheeler,” sees the photograph, and knows that photograph – they can know EXACTLY who Joan is writing about. Whether she changed ALL the names or only SOME of the names.

Also, Trafford Publishing puts out a guideline for authors. One of the guidelines says, “even if you change names, if someone can recognize themselves in your book, you can be sued for slander and libel.” 

In a recent correspondence with Gert McQueen, Americans for Open Records Lori Corangelo says in defense of Joan: “first time wrtiers make mistakes.” oh – well! First time drunk drivers who kill people make mistakes too. riiight.

Excuse me Lori, these are NOT “mistakes” that Joan did. She was given a specific contract with Trafford. She signed that contract KNOWING FULL WELL SHE WAS MISLEADING THEM. And when their attorneys learned the TRUTH of the matter – they pulled that filthy book from publication. It IS DEAD.

It has been listed as available on amazon.com. But – it is a “print on demand” situation. Once the original print run was exhausted, any new orders via amazon would be printed and sent to the buyer. BUT just two months ago, in a conversation with Trafford PUblishers, it was revealed that Trafford has pulled the book from even that status. They know that book is LEGAL TROUBLE for them and want nothing more to do with it. Amazon is a mostly automated site. It is going to list 3 copies as a come-on – a “bait and switch.” There is more to this story and will be posted next week. We have just been busy. We have several blog posts waiting to get up.

People need to learn once and for all that Joan Wheeler is a con-artist. She is a consumate liar. She could sweet talk and charm even Adolf Hitler! She will only tell a literary attorney and/or agent what they need to know to approve her work. She did it to Trafford. And as soon as they found out that she conned them – they pulled the plug on her. Lori, are you stupid or what?

Joan – remember – you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. And your days of fooling people are over! You can keep on insisting your book is the “truth” and keep on ignoring actual Buffalo City Court Documents and YOUR OWN HANDWRITTEN LETTERS TO ME AND OTHERS that prove otherwise.

For Joan to LIE about past police and court documents, even her own handwritten letters shows just how mentally disturbed and brain dead Joan Wheeler really is. I am begging someone reading this blog, to please, please, get Joan to a place where she clearly needs to be – The Buffalo Psychiatric Center.

LORI CORANGELO AND OTHERS: I think you’d better read this: from the pdf. file of Trafford’s Publishing’s “Terms and Conditions.” These are the Terms and Conditions that Joan Wheeler agreed to when she signed (under false pretenses) her contract with Trafford and the ones that she VIOLATED – she had hate speech in her book, obscene language, had me saying things that I didn’t, labeled me as a computer hacker with a criminal record and used MY photograph. 

http://www.trafford.com/uploadedFiles/Trafford/Common/Trafford%20Terms%20and%20Conditions_ebook%20pricechange_11182011.pdf

 
2. YOUR LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY
2.1. You represent that you are the sole copyright owner of the Work and all of its content.

2.2. You represent that the Work does not infringe upon any statutory or common law right of copyright, libel or privacy of any third party.

2.4. You further represent that the Work does not contain illegal, unlawful or objectionable material including, but not limited to, pornography, obscenity or hate speech. You acknowledge that the Work is not plagiarized and does not include falsely attributed statements of third parties.

3.(Trafford’s Legal Responsibility
3.2. We reserve the right to refuse to provide and/or to discontinue ALL Services upon our discovery of any violation by you of these Terms and Conditions, any other actions, omissions or misconduct by you with respect to Work, and/or your performance under these Terms and Conditions. In the event a complaint is made by a third party regarding the Work, we reserve the right to suspend the Services in accordance with Section 7.1 until such time as the complaint is satisfactorily resolved, as determined by us in our sole discretion.

Tell us again Lori of how Joan made a “mistake” – you are full of shit, and so is Joan.

Comment by Gert McQueen: 

This is very very interesting, indeed!!
As Ruth says:
“There is more to this story and will be posted next week. We have just been busy. We have several blog posts waiting to get up.”