Hedda Nussbaum (AP)

Long anticipated and feared by both the prosecution team and the defense, Hedda Nussbaum took the stand on the afternoon of December 1, 1988.  Walking silently past the man she said abused and tortured her for years, she took her seat before a tense courtroom. Television audiences were particularly intrigued since in 1988, live trials on TV were not as common as they are today. Hedda’s facial injuries were plainly visible and gave her a strange, almost artificial appearance. 

The 46-year-old spoke slowly and deliberately.  She was, on occasion, detached, evasive, forgetful and emotional. She seemed confused, often mixing dates and times. She had difficulty recalling certain details about Lisa’s last days. But the overall tale Hedda told was a nightmare from start to finish. She said that Steinberg forced her to sleep in the bathtub or on the floor and she had to ask him for permission to eat and drink. Over the next few days, the jury recoiled at the mind-boggling story of the compulsive, masochistic relationship between Joel Steinberg and Hedda Nussbaum.

“I was extremely attached to him,” she explained. “I thought he was the most wonderful person I had ever met, and I, well, basically, I worshipped him literally. I thought he had supernatural powers of ESP and healing, and a lot of godlike powers.”  But the abuse began, she said, almost immediately after they met. In early 1978, Steinberg struck Nussbaum in the eye and she required hospital treatment. That same year, she received ten black eyes from Steinberg. In 1981, he beat her so badly, Nussbaum had to go to Beekman Hospital on her own, and received surgery for a ruptured spleen. Doctors said that had she not come for treatment, she would have died. Over the next few years, she was beaten with a broomstick handle, a metal exercise bar, had her teeth knocked out several times, suffered a broken nose, had her hair pulled out, and her ribs broken.  Prosecutors cited 31 specific instances of alleged abuse by Steinberg. The judge allowed five of those incidents to be admitted.

Despite years of beatings and mistreatment, Hedda never succeeded in breaking away from Joel. “He seemed to be extremely intelligent and bright, and I loved to listen to him talk,” she said, “…what attracted me to him, his eyes, he had bright, shining eyes, alive eyes that I found very attractive.” Although the beatings continued throughout their time together, Nussbaum couldn’t leave Steinberg. “I felt it was the worst thing in the world that could happen to me,” she testified, “that I couldn’t survive without him, and I felt like I would kill myself if I was without him.”

Nussbaum also told the court she had been using cocaine for about seven years. “That varied quite a bit,” she said, “sometimes once in a couple of months, sometimes a few days in a row. Once every few weeks or something like that. It varied a lot.”  She testified that she freebased cocaine with Joel on many occasions and with friends as well.

On the second day of her testimony, Nussbaum told the jury about bizarre cults, child pornography and hypnotic powers. Nussbaum said that she had been hypnotized and began “having sex with everyone in the world, practically.”  She said that at some point, she told doctors that she believed Lisa was sexually abused. “I believe that I said that I had caused Lisa to be involved in some sort of sexual activity also,” she told the court. According to Nussbaum, these incidents happened in front of many people: “I believed I had many incidents of such things and that Lisa was involved to some extent also.”   When the prosecutor asked how old Lisa was at that time, her response was the only sound in the room.

“About two and a half,” she said.