The Secret Adoption

It was a secret adoption. Arranged by an infamous attorney for a celebrated composer. And hidden by TV's biggest star. Until now...

In The Bastard of Beverly Hills, author Rafael Moscatel shares that heartbreaking true story of being abandoned by a renowned family of musicians, a decades-long odyssey to tear down the web of lies that kept him from uncovering their lurid past, and his inspiring journey back home—to a place he could finally feel comfortable in his own skin.

This poignant and whimsical memoir begins in 1977, after a notorious lawyer buries the secret of Rafael’s origin, placing him with an eccentric, well-connected family from Beverly Hills. Worried he might find out and run away, his adopted mother convinces her friends, including television’s biggest star, Michael Landon, to help conceal the truth. But when Rafael begins to catch on to her lie, he’s discouraged from asking more questions. He bravely embarks on an impossible quest to discover what happened, only to find himself at the center of an old Hollywood scandal that was never meant to see the light of day.