Woman stole children from the poor to sell to the rich

Photo: Special Collections Dept / The Uni

Abduction of children, their sale for adoption by childless families, the delivery of children to child slavery, child abuse.

It’s hard to believe, but it was all done by a woman named Georgia Tann in the United States in the twentieth century. New York Post.

Moreover, the criminal managed to escape punishment, although more than 5 of thousands of small children became its victims.

In this business, Georgia Tann earned a lot, the price of one child reached 100 thousands of dollars, and the scheme for stealing and selling children flourished for more than 30 years.

In 1891, a girl who was named Georgia was born in a rich family of judge of Hickory, Mississippi. They loved the baby, the parents tried to give her the best, but the child grew up wayward and uncontrollable. The girl was completely devoid of grace, had male habits and, having matured, became a lesbian.

After graduating from school, Georgia left her hometown and began working in an orphanage. She was a simple clerk who prepared the documents necessary for the adoption of children. Having previously lived in her parents' house in great prosperity, and now finding herself in practical poverty, Georgia concluded that rich people are good, and those who cannot provide for themselves are the lowest class.

Moreover, Tann realized that the adoption process has a lot of legislative gaps that make it possible to make money on it.

To begin with, she tried to take a fairly large amount of money from her adoptive parents for help in paperwork - and they paid her.

Over time, Tann this was not enough. She decided that it’s not worth waiting for someone to take an orphan from the orphanage, you need to speed up the process by stealing children from families.

First, her mistress helped Georgia with this scheme, and then, when the “business” began to flourish, even some government officials began to provide assistance.

In 1924, Tann left the orphanage, moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where, with the assistance of the mayor, she opened an orphanage, calculating that it would be easier to turn off illegal transactions in her own shelter. At the same time, the mayor of the city knew about the "business" of Tann, covered it and received his share of the profits.

How the circuit worked

For a start, Tann agents were looking for a suitable child. The woman was sure that black children are not interesting to anyone, and only white kids are in demand, so they were the original goal.

Having found a suitable child, the agents stole it. They could take him away from home or from school, or they could deceive him from an unsuspecting mother. For example, an agent found a family in a difficult situation, Tann came to her mother and said that she would take the baby to her orphanage while her mother was coping with her problems. The woman agreed, signed the papers, Tann took the child and immediately sold him to the foster family found in advance, while the adoptive parents believed that the adoption was legal.

The mother, from whom the child was taken, eventually, having solved her problems, came to the shelter for her baby and found out that her child was supposedly dead. Many did not believe in the death of the child and went to court, therefore, in agreement with Tann there were also corrupt judges who covered her in case of need.

There were other scenarios. In one of them, along with white-skinned children, black children were also needed if they were strong and resilient. They were sold into child slavery. In this case, the gang stole not the toddlers, but older children who looked strong enough and able to work. They were sold in other US states or in Europe, especially in the UK.

Psychiatric clinics are another channel for receiving children. Tann was making contact with the unscrupulous doctors working in them. These physicians forced young psychiatric patients to contact other patients, guards, or men from outside who did not care who they were dealing with. From these connections, children were born, who were also sold to Georgia Tann.

There were also cases when parents from completely prosperous families took their children to kindergarten, and when they came to pick them up, they found out that some people had come from social services and took the kids. Parents rushed to these social services and the courts, but to no avail, because Tann had an agreement with them, backed up with a lot of money.

Maternity hospitals were another channel for receiving children. Bribed doctors, taking a healthy baby, passed it to Tann, and mothers said that her child was dead. Tann made new documents for the baby, according to which the parents refused him immediately after birth.

Among the adoptive parents of children in the orphanage of Tann were famous people. American silent film actress Joan Crawford adopted the two twins through the criminal.

And the actor couple Dick Powell and June Ellison adopted a girl named Pamela through Tann's orphanage. The adoptive parents did not know about the criminal scheme used by the owner of the shelter.

He adopted the boy in 1935 and the governor of the state of New York, and he was so grateful to Georgia Tann that he signed a law that simplifies the adoption procedure. Tann was so confident in her lack of jurisdiction that she became a public person. At a time when her “business” embraced all US states, Georgia was a famous person in the USA. She wrote articles, read lectures, was considered the founder of a charitable foundation, she was set up as an example, she was proud of her, promoting her activities.

At the highest state level, Tann was considered a man with a “capital letter”. The wife of US President Eleanor Roosevelt discussed with her the development of state policy regarding children, and later President Truman even invited the criminal to her inauguration.

In the end, the authorities noticed that Tann’s shelter has a very high infant mortality rate. However, for some time they did not dare to start an investigation against such a well-known personality, and when they decided to do this, the revealed facts shocked everyone.

All the above-mentioned Tann schemes have been disclosed. Investigators proved that the children, all those years considered dead at the orphanage, were in fact adopted. But it was possible to find them and acquaint them with their biological parents in very few cases.

In the orphanage of Tann, living children were discovered, whom no one wanted to adopt. And since they are not claimed, the hostess did not want to spend money on their maintenance and feeding. The little ones were extremely exhausted, and some were raped. As the expertise proved, in some cases Georgia Tann took part in it.

The public was shocked by the facts, everyone demanded strict punishment for Tann and her assistants, but in the midst of the investigation, Georgia died of uterine cancer, so all members of her grouping went unpunished.

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