Ann Arbor, Michigan
September 18, 1975

Mr. Dickens
Department of Human Resources
Protective Services
14th and E Streets, N.W.
Washington, District of Columbia. 20057

Dear Sir:

re: The widow and children of Farris Mansour, deceased, of 1618 44th Street, N.W. 20007

Dear Sir:

I am the brother of Farris Mansour. What I write is part a matter of record, part firsthand knowledge, part information relayed to me, and part opinion.

This family is in need of immediate attention and guidance.

Farris Mansour died in the Veterans’ Hospital in Washington July 24, 1974 leaving his widow, Annie Laurie and eight children. Four; Riley, Stephen, Melanie and Peter are adults; and four; Maryam, Michele, Paul and Matthew, are minors.

Stephen is in the U.S. Coast Guard in Hawaii. Peter recently left home without notice or leaving an address. Riley and Melanie and the four minors are at home. The adults are unemployed. The minors are not in school.

The eldest, Riley goes into “blind rages” and it is thought he “needs psychiatric care.”

The house is bare of furniture except for desks.

The house bears a mortgage at 6%. The present value of the house is about three times the balance owed. Payments were only about $207.00 a month. Farris Mansour’s Social Security, Veterans and other benefits were sufficient to make the payments and keep the family.

Annie Laurie has refused all the above benefits. She is not making the mortgage payments. She is not selling the house for its real value although even this would be tragic as she would spend the gains within a year; leaving her on the street. Even refinancing would be tragic, as the new interest would go up to about 10% and she would fritter the gain and have large payments due.

She has been selling the silver, china and furnishings. The house is sparse of furniture and food. She refuses assistance or counsel from friendly neighbors and relatives. She will not tell the name of the mortgagee (a building loan bank in Washington) to relatives who wish to save the house for her and the children. Foreclosure is impending, or possibly completed.

This conduct is more than incompetent or unwise. It is irrational; even bizarre or insane. She needs help. She possibly desires help but is waiting for it to be forced on her. She plays games, and seems to be indulging in a drama of “survival” (her own words). She cannot survive unless she is protected from herself. While she is an adult and possessed of more than average intellect, she is a child emotionally, and she is ruled by her emotions rather than her intellect. Let whomever visits her be prepared for a convincing performance of all is well.

The situation is serious enough for one person in the neighborhood to find and inform Annie Laurie’s sister, and for another to find and inform her husband’s sister.

Mr. Sieder, Annie Laurie’s sister’s husband, has expressed to me a wish to save the house and to keep and school the four youngest children.

No one wants to take away her children forcibly nor to confine her, but the children should be under competent guardianship and a committee should be appointed to protect her from her economic insanity. Will you do this if you can?

Why do we, the relatives, not take care of the situation? She won’t let us. Possibly she will cooperate with an outside agency, and if she will not cooperate with you, you have the power to protect the children. And it is possibly within your bailiwick to protect her. Will you do this if you can?

I asked someone to call or go to the Recorder of Deeds, 515 D. St. NW, phone 347-0671 to secure the name of the mortgagee on the Mansour house, but the information sent me was incomplete. It gave only the book and page number recording the deed to Farris Mansour and wife. Would you call the Recorder of Deeds office and complete the necessary information as to the name of the mortgagee so we can save her the house.

I believe the children are suffering more from the home’s atmosphere than for lack of material things, but would you see to it that they are in school and fed and receiving their father’s due benefits—letting them know it is not charity but their due?

Thank you for your attention.

Yours truly,
Victor Mansour