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May 23, 2006: An Open Letter from Joanne Siegel

Newsarama.com have been publishing articles on the life of Michael Siegel, Jerry Siegel's son from his first marriage. A few days ago they published another article about Michael's death in January this year.

Joanne Siegel, Jerry's second wife, and the woman who Joe Shuster used as the original model for Lois Lane, wrote to the Superman Homepage, concerned that fans would think the accusations posted in the Newsarama articles are facts, when they were nothing but false accusations with no basis in truth.

The Superman Homepage can exclusively present Superman fans with the truth of the matter, with an open letter written by Joanne Siegel herself.

Click "read more" to read Joanne Siegel's letter.

To Whom It May Concern By Joanne Siegel

This past year I have been extremely busy with litigation and pressing personal matters that prevented me from responding until now to the misrepresentations and twisted facts about my deceased husband Jerry Siegel and about me in both editions of Gerard Jones' book and the surprising, unfounded, unprovoked attacks on the internet based on comments made by Michael Siegel. My attorney's advice was to not dignify the attacks with a response, so I did not reply at the time. But I cannot help wondering how people claiming to be Superman fans - who supposedly admire the truth and justice that Superman stands for - have been so eager to accept the terrible things said about Jerry and me without one shred of proof.

As in Michael Siegel's case, it is not unusual for a child of a first marriage to resent the second wife of a divorced parent and to be angry at his parent for going on with his new life even though the child and his mother can and should move ahead with their lives. This resentment was overblown in Michael because his mother Bella did not begin a new life for herself and Michael but tried to hang onto the old. Her hostile refusal to accept the end of her relationship with Jerry after their divorce added to the problem.

I will not go into the details of how she harassed us continually after Jerry and I were married, for that will be in my book, but her behavior was unnatural. This, and her jealousy that Jerry had married someone else, rubbed off on Michael. She was especially jealous of my close ties with Jerry since I had been the model who posed for Joe Shuster when he sketched the Lois Lane character. This was in the mid 1930's, before Superman was published and before she married Jerry. She and Michael seemed to believe that denying the truth would make it go away.

As for Michael's disparagement of his father, apparently after Michael read what Jones had written, he angrily wrote to Jones that he had not been quoted accurately when Jones wrote Jerry did not pay child support. His half sister Laura (my daughter) has copies of Michael's letters in which he wrote that he never said Jerry did not pay one cent in child support. He also wrote he did not say his father bought jewelry for prostitutes - that Jones exaggerated what he said - and that he did not hate his father (which was a surprise to me as many of his statements were harsh.)

The truth is that Jerry paid child support until he was so broke he couldn't pay our rent. Then he cashed in his small life insurance policy and from that he sent $200 to Bella as child support that Michael acknowledged and of which I have proof. As for prostitutes, that wild story had to have come from Bella and is completely untrue. Michael never had proof of any kind to back up his accusations.

After a hostile and expensive divorce, Jerry was without a home or car and had very little money left. He was not working on Superman any longer and his new comic book, Funnyman, became a flop just months later. This left him flat broke. Anyone who knows the history of Jerry's career problems knows this, as Michael did when he verbally attacked his father and me. Michael's attitudes towards his father grew out of Bella's rage over the end of her marriage. She had agreed to the divorce so Jerry was confused and angry with her unreasonable behavior afterward - especially since he had given her everything she wanted - an attractive, completely paid up, furnished home in a nice neighborhood, a car, jewelry, furs, other possessions and most of his savings, leaving him in a bad financial situation. Michael grew up in the house completely paid for by his father. He and his mother never had to pay rent - ever - and were comfortable while Jerry suffered in poverty, a blackballed writer, unable to get work in the comics industry he pioneered.

As for Michael's accusation that his father never visited him after the divorce, that was also false. Jerry did make visits but whenever he asked for private time with Michael, Bella refused unless he also spent special time with her. Years later, when Michael was an adult, a chance meeting with one of Jerry's nieces turned ugly with Bella refusing to let Michael look at or speak to her because she was related to Jerry. Therefore, knowing that Bella's hostility toward him had never died and that Michael, who lived with Bella his entire life, undoubtedly shared his mother's continuing hostility, Jerry did not contact Michael, believing that he was an adult and if he wanted a relationship with his father, he would initiate it. But Michael never did contact his father.

I believe that by going public with the myths his mother told him, what Michael thought he would get was public attention. But Michael, just as we, learned that writers twist facts and misquote what people say and that just because something is in print, it does not mean it is true. He acknowledged this when he wrote to Gerard Jones and other writers that they did not truthfully report what he had told them.

Michael and my daughter Laura wrote to each other for nearly ten years about both personal and business matters. Although she told him the truth about Jerry and me and even sent him proof that what he had been told by his mother was false, Michael still refused to acknowledge the truth and that there are two sides to every story. (For example, Michael wrote to Laura that his mother told him that Jerry didn't take one photo of Michael with him after the divorce but Laura sent him a large batch of photographs Jerry had of himself with Michael.) Neither he nor Bella could produce one shred of evidence to prove their accusations. Even so, when Bella died in November 2002, Laura and I sent Michael our condolences. He was friendlier to Laura for a while, then went back to ignoring what Laura had revealed to him, and finally, to our surprise, went public with his mother's unsupported claims. Michael passed away on January 17th from complications following heart surgery. Michael's attorney did not notify one member of the Siegel family, not even Laura, that he had died. His obituary was printed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on January 19th. Laura learned of his passing from a relative who just happened to read the paper and contacted her on January 20th, a few hours after Michael's funeral had taken place. Michael was 61 years old, never married, had no children, lived with his mother until she died, and was buried next to his mother. Laura had written to Michael, asking him to explain why he had launched a public smear campaign against Jerry and me although she had explained the truth to him in her letters. He never answered her questions.

I hope this throws more light on the speculations in this matter. Laura and I were closer to Michael and the situation than the people who have been writing about him and we are the only people who have first hand knowledge of our side of the story. As far as we are concerned, it was and should remain a private family matter on which the book is now closed.

Joanne Siegel

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