by Susan Kellam

About the author: Susan Kellam is a staff writer for the CQ Researcher ,a weekly report on public policy issues.

The tragedy of Marc and Zitta Friedlander began in the 1960s at Columbia University, where they met and fell in love while getting their doctorates in physics. They married and had two sons, but after 17 years, in 1986, they separated. The boys, ages 6 and 8, stayed with their mother, while the Maryland couple embarked on an increasingly bitter fight over final custody.

Not long after the breakup, Marc picked up his sons at school—without permission—and spirited them off to Atlanta, Ga. He brought them back two months later, and his regular visits with the boys resumed. But tensions were building.

One summer day in 1988, with the custody battle now...