Kathy Pinna
Man falsely identified
. . . as baby kidnapped 56 years ago goes on mission to find the real victim – and pulls it off
By Chris Elliot November 22, 2020
MANTON, MI – Five decades ago, a baby was abducted from a hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Now, a man in Manton, Michigan has been identified as that baby. The whole situation is surreal, like some type of movie plot, but it actually happened. In order to provide the best information, here is a little background.
On April 26, 1964 at the now defunct Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Dora and Chester Fronczak arrived at the hospital to give birth to their son, named Paul Joseph Fronczak. While in the hospital, someone dressed as a nurse entered the room and told the couple that she needed to take the baby to the nursery for testing. The parents, not knowing any better and trusting someone dressed as a nurse, allowed the woman to take the one-day old infant from their room. That was the last time they saw their infant son. When police were alerted to the abduction, they launched what, at the time, was referred to as the largest manhunt to find the infant. Police, 200 strong, went door-to-door looking for answers around the city, even showing people sketches of the unknown woman. Sadly, they were unable to discover any information which would lead them to where the woman had gone.
The Associated Press noted that police, at the time, said “blood type and ear shape were about the only leads they had because the boy had no blemishes or birthmarks. Some 10,000 babies were examined and tested by 1966 to see if they could be the boy.” Sadly, despite all of this effort, there was still no sign of the mysterious woman or the baby boy. But, in 1968, when police located a toddler that had been abandoned in a stroller at a New Jersey shopping center, they thought for certain this was the Fronczak’s son.
The FBI got involved in that case and thought that this child may well be the missing infant. They reached out to the Fronczak’s, who were still grieving, and brought the toddler to them to see. Dora, upon seeing the young boy, was quoted in papers at the time as saying, “That’s my baby.”
The Fronczak’s raised the toddler as Paul, their missing infant, believing that he was their baby. However, the boy sensed as he grew up that he was not in the right family. As an adult, he convinced the two people that raised him as their own to take a DNA test to determine if they were really related or not. When the results came back proving they were not related, he reached out to an investigative journalist, George Knapp, at News 8’s sister station in Las Vegas, KLAS-TV.
This man told Knapp that the DNA results said:
“There’s no remote possibility that you are the Fronczak baby…I was like, ‘wow.’”
Armed with the results of the DNA test, he decided that he would set out on a journey to find the real Paul Fronczak and to find out who he, himself, truly was. Knapp credits national publicity that eventually lead to the real Paul Fronczak, a man living in Michigan by the name of Kevin Baty.
Baty’s grown children, for some unknown reason, suspected that their father was really Paul and were able to get a DNA test conducted. The DNA tests proved their suspicions and verified that the man living as Baty for 56 years was truly Paul.
The man raised as Paul reached out to Baty several times but neither he or his family would speak to him. He said that he wrote a book, called “The Foundling,” and sent Baty a copy. The man told Knapp: “I’ve reached out to the real Paul and his children, and I sent the real Paul my book, and I heard from my tipster that [Baty] read the book. He liked it, he let his friends read it, but as far as communicating with me, nothing.”
The man raised as Paul did say that Baty reached out and talked to his birth mother on several occasions. He said: “[Baty] actually talked to my mom. They actually talked quite a few times, and unfortunately, he passed away.” Baty died on his real birthday, April 25, 2020, a year after learning that the name he knew all of his life was a lie. Baty died from cancer.
There still is no indication as to who kidnapped Baty on that April day five decades ago, and the chances of learning that information seem slim at best. The woman who raised Baty, Lorraine Fountain, died in 2004.
Ben Bradley, of News 8 sister station WGN, reported that a stepbrother of Baty claimed that Lorraine had been dating a doctor in Chicago around that time frame. For some unknown reason, she quickly left the city and moved to Arkansas for a year, before returning with Baty.
According to Target 8, the FBI has reopened the investigation, however, they are not providing any information which is normal on any ongoing investigation.
The man who grew up as Paul was able to determine his birth name through DNA genealogy testing. He is Jack Rosenthal. He concluded that he was likely abandoned by his birth parents all those years ago. He said:
“We were able to find out who was actually my biological family. All the dark, really tragic things that happened when I was in that situation before I was abandoned.” Paul learned that he had a twin sister and other siblings, he also learned that he was probably better off having been abandoned. He said: “Everything I’ve heard from other members of my family, pretty much made it clear to me that me and my twin sister Jill were abused, neglected and ultimately I was abandoned. And if she wasn’t murdered by them, then she’s still out there.”
By Chris Elliot November 22, 2020
MANTON, MI – Five decades ago, a baby was abducted from a hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Now, a man in Manton, Michigan has been identified as that baby. The whole situation is surreal, like some type of movie plot, but it actually happened. In order to provide the best information, here is a little background.
On April 26, 1964 at the now defunct Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Dora and Chester Fronczak arrived at the hospital to give birth to their son, named Paul Joseph Fronczak. While in the hospital, someone dressed as a nurse entered the room and told the couple that she needed to take the baby to the nursery for testing. The parents, not knowing any better and trusting someone dressed as a nurse, allowed the woman to take the one-day old infant from their room. That was the last time they saw their infant son. When police were alerted to the abduction, they launched what, at the time, was referred to as the largest manhunt to find the infant. Police, 200 strong, went door-to-door looking for answers around the city, even showing people sketches of the unknown woman. Sadly, they were unable to discover any information which would lead them to where the woman had gone.
The Associated Press noted that police, at the time, said “blood type and ear shape were about the only leads they had because the boy had no blemishes or birthmarks. Some 10,000 babies were examined and tested by 1966 to see if they could be the boy.” Sadly, despite all of this effort, there was still no sign of the mysterious woman or the baby boy. But, in 1968, when police located a toddler that had been abandoned in a stroller at a New Jersey shopping center, they thought for certain this was the Fronczak’s son.
The FBI got involved in that case and thought that this child may well be the missing infant. They reached out to the Fronczak’s, who were still grieving, and brought the toddler to them to see. Dora, upon seeing the young boy, was quoted in papers at the time as saying, “That’s my baby.”
The Fronczak’s raised the toddler as Paul, their missing infant, believing that he was their baby. However, the boy sensed as he grew up that he was not in the right family. As an adult, he convinced the two people that raised him as their own to take a DNA test to determine if they were really related or not. When the results came back proving they were not related, he reached out to an investigative journalist, George Knapp, at News 8’s sister station in Las Vegas, KLAS-TV.
This man told Knapp that the DNA results said:
“There’s no remote possibility that you are the Fronczak baby…I was like, ‘wow.’”
Armed with the results of the DNA test, he decided that he would set out on a journey to find the real Paul Fronczak and to find out who he, himself, truly was. Knapp credits national publicity that eventually lead to the real Paul Fronczak, a man living in Michigan by the name of Kevin Baty.
Baty’s grown children, for some unknown reason, suspected that their father was really Paul and were able to get a DNA test conducted. The DNA tests proved their suspicions and verified that the man living as Baty for 56 years was truly Paul.
The man raised as Paul reached out to Baty several times but neither he or his family would speak to him. He said that he wrote a book, called “The Foundling,” and sent Baty a copy. The man told Knapp: “I’ve reached out to the real Paul and his children, and I sent the real Paul my book, and I heard from my tipster that [Baty] read the book. He liked it, he let his friends read it, but as far as communicating with me, nothing.”
The man raised as Paul did say that Baty reached out and talked to his birth mother on several occasions. He said: “[Baty] actually talked to my mom. They actually talked quite a few times, and unfortunately, he passed away.” Baty died on his real birthday, April 25, 2020, a year after learning that the name he knew all of his life was a lie. Baty died from cancer.
There still is no indication as to who kidnapped Baty on that April day five decades ago, and the chances of learning that information seem slim at best. The woman who raised Baty, Lorraine Fountain, died in 2004.
Ben Bradley, of News 8 sister station WGN, reported that a stepbrother of Baty claimed that Lorraine had been dating a doctor in Chicago around that time frame. For some unknown reason, she quickly left the city and moved to Arkansas for a year, before returning with Baty.
According to Target 8, the FBI has reopened the investigation, however, they are not providing any information which is normal on any ongoing investigation.
The man who grew up as Paul was able to determine his birth name through DNA genealogy testing. He is Jack Rosenthal. He concluded that he was likely abandoned by his birth parents all those years ago. He said:
“We were able to find out who was actually my biological family. All the dark, really tragic things that happened when I was in that situation before I was abandoned.” Paul learned that he had a twin sister and other siblings, he also learned that he was probably better off having been abandoned. He said: “Everything I’ve heard from other members of my family, pretty much made it clear to me that me and my twin sister Jill were abused, neglected and ultimately I was abandoned. And if she wasn’t murdered by them, then she’s still out there.”
Lori Russell 
