The Baby Thief

by Barbara Bisantz Raymond

  136: “Some social workers . . . their baby’s gender”: Solinger, p. 161.

  136: “By the time adoption . . . babies for adoption”: Solinger, p. 149.

  136: “endorsed by . . . Catholic Charities”: Solinger, p. 26.

  136–137: “Clark Vincent to predict . . . ‘family and society’”: Solinger, p. 186.

  137: “in a 1955 article . . . babies for adoption”: Buck, 1955.

  137: “By the 1950s . . . children for adoption”: Solinger, p. 164.

  137: “Some suggested setting . . . they were joking”: Perlman, 1964.

  137: “Leontine Young . . . ‘a means to an end’”: Solinger, p. 28.

  139: “‘Two weeks went . . . and kill myself ’”: Solinger, p. 108.

  139: “But she exploited . . . ‘Miss Georgia Tann’”: Interview with Barbara Sabin, 1992.

  139: “She and her workers . . . of their pregnancies”: Neill, October 1978, p. 51.

  139: “She often told . . . keep their babies”: Daily News, Los Angeles, April 2, 1951.

  141–142: “‘Giving up my baby . . . in thirty seven years, we touched’”: Livingston, 1977; interview with Gordon S. Livingston, 1993.

  142–143: “Memphian Solon Freeman . . . ‘a circle,’ Ruby said”: Interview with Solon Freeman, 1993; interview with Ruby Burdette, 1993.

  11. Georgia’s Children

  147–151: Information about Mollie was gleaned from interviews with her son, Billy Hale; her brother, Harrison Moore; her sister, Frances Sylvie; and her sisterinlaw, Stella Moore; as well as from Billy Hale’s unpublished manuscript and unpublished journals, and from Mollie’s scrapbook.

  151: “She also denied . . . October of 1945”: “Statement Answering Criticism Against Tennessee Children’s Home Society,” written by Georgia Tann, November 6, 1946, p. 4.

  151: “A reporter for . . . the reporter believed”: Letter from Mary E. Murray to author, May 18, 1993.

  151: “‘There were a lot’ . . . said in 1950”: The Commercial Appeal, September 18, 1950, “40 to 50 Babies Died at Children’s Home, Medical Leader Says.”

  152: “The common practice . . . over five pounds”: The Commercial Appeal, September 18, 1950, “40 to 50 Babies Died at Children’s Home, Medical Leader Says.”

  152: “Georgia, however, sometimes . . . after birth”: Press-Scimitar, October 19, 1950, “Tells of Keeping Unmarried Mothers for Miss Tann.”

  152: “Babies arrived at . . . and dehydrated”: Interview with Lorene Cole, 1992.

  152: “A hospital in . . . local adoptive parents”: Interview with Lorene Cole, 1993.

  152: “Physicians in these . . . of Public Welfare”: Nashville Tennessean, September 22, 1950, “State Prober Charges Baby Records Moved”; interview with Edna Hughes, 1993.

  152–153: “By 1932, only . . . soared even higher”: Oppenheimer, p. 1.

  153: “She found it . . . ‘Mortality in Memphis’”: Oppenheimer, p. 20.

  153: “Dr. Oppenheimer also . . . Memphis General Hospital”: Oppenheimer, p. 41.

  153: “‘On July 2’ . . . Dr. Oppenheimer wrote”: Oppenheimer, p. 67.

  153: “In ‘Infant Mortality’ . . . unregulated boarding homes”: Oppenheimer, pp. 66, 72, 76.

  153: “She strongly urged . . . by the state”: Oppenheimer, pp. 67, 68, 72, 74, 75.

  154: “her attorney Abe . . . in Crump’s Machine”: Miller, W. 1964, pp. 142, 244, 247, 248, 254, 255.

  154: “Some of the . . . collaborated with Georgia”: Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, State ex rel. Gribble v. Tennessee Children’s Home Society et al., No. 41796-R45 (Prob. Ct., Shelby Co., TN, April 9, 1940); Press-Scimitar, April 29, 1940, “Claims Society Misled Her And Took Children”; interviews with Doris Ann Schaefer, David Gribble, Charles Gribble, and Cleveland Pannell.

  154–155: “In preparation for . . . ‘for babies and small children’”: Wallis, pp. 17-18. See also Miller, R., pp. 7-8.

  155: “Abe Waldauer wrote . . . Welfare William Shoaf”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to William A. Shoaf, November 29, 1944.

  155: “in 1945, the legislature . . . in Tennessee”: Public Acts of Tennessee 1945, ch. 112; Wallis, p. 18.

  155: “A subsection . . . agency from compliance”: Public Acts of Tennessee, ch. 112, sec. 14a; Wallis, p. 18.

  156: “A particularly severe . . . ‘want to see it’”: The Commercial Appeal, September 18, 1950, “40 to 50 Babies Died at Children’s Home, Medical Leader Says”; Nashville Tennessean, September 18, 1950, “Doctor Charges Baby Deathtrap.”

  156–157: “Doctors Croswell and Carter . . . ‘what it actually is’”: Bates, pp. 1-6.

  157: “Unless his charges”: Bates did not mention some of Georgia’s more serious crimes, such as her stealing and selling of children. He may have felt that, in Memphis’ political climate, where many of the city’s most prominent citizens had adopted through her, he had gone as far as he could. As it was, Bates paid for his criticism of Georgia by being forced to resign his long-held judgeship.

  157: “Judge Bates’s letter . . . approving her adoptions”: Bates, p. 1.

  158: “As the Commissioner . . . to do so”: Public Acts of Tennessee 1937, ch. 48, subsection n., amended by Chapter 95, Public Acts of 1939; Nashville Tennessean, September 29, 1950, “Advisor Argues Charter Voided at Baby Home.”

  158: “Georgia’s six-page rebuttal . . . ‘an infamous attack’”: “Statement Answering Criticisms Against Tennessee Children’s Home Society,” written by Georgia Tann, undated, c. December 1946, p. 2.

  158: “Abe Waldauer and other . . . ‘beginning to end’”: To the Board of Directors of Tennessee Children’s Home Society, Supplemental Report, written by John Brown, December 28, 1946, pp. 1, 3; letter from John Brown to Board of Directors, December 10, 1946.

  158: “The Public Welfare . . . Shoaf, did nothing”: Nashville Tennessean, September 18, 1950.

  158: “‘Mr. Waldauer told’”: The Commercial Appeal, September 18, 1950, “40 to 50 Babies Died at Children’s Home, Medical Leader Says.”

  159: “the author of an . . . ‘into garbage cans’”: Saturday Evening Post 202, “The Baby Market,” February 1, 1930, p. 25.

  159: “The author contended . . . ‘wants him at all’”: Saturday Evening Post 202, “The Baby Market,” February 1, 1930, p. 85.

  160: “When the Christmas . . . League of America”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to Dr. C. C. Carstens, December 28, 1937; Letter from Charles Cornelius to W. B. Herbert, February 9, 1938.

  160: “which his successor . . . in their new homes”: The Commercial Appeal, September 18, 1950, “40 to 50 Babies Died at Children’s Home, Medical Leader Says.”

  160: “In typical fashion . . . ‘not in agreement’”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to William Shoaf, August 26, 1944.

  160: “One of the more . . . reform adoptive legislation”: Interview with Robert Taylor, 1992.

  160: “Georgia sometimes sent . . . wanted to keep”: Interview with Earline Phillips, 1992.

  161: “‘It is not’ . . . clients in 1944”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to Mrs. Leo Freeman, February 24, 1944.

  161: “‘This is one business’ . . . that same year”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to Horace L. Levy, May 26, 1944.

  161: “In 1947 Abe . . . ‘back, without question’”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to Hyman L. Miller, October 8, 1947.

  162: “In a letter . . . ‘parents,’ is destroyed’”: Press-Scimitar, “Adoptions Are Final, and Finality Must Be Upheld, Miss Tann Says,” December 30, 1938.

  162: “misrepresenting her children in the first place”: Interviews with Roy Dickinson, Barbara Davidson, Billy Hale, Linda Myers, Vallie Miller, Mary Margolis, Betty Jo Mitchell, Denny Glad, and Sen. John Hicks.

  162: “considerably more than . . . clients were Jewish”: E-mail from Denny Glad to member of the American Adoption Congress, February 23, 2004.

  162: “so Georgia falsely . . . children as Jewish”: Press-Scimitar, “Other Figure in Tann Case
, Taylor Thinks: Report Suggests Confederates,” June 27, 1951.

  164: “Another child, adopted . . . happened to him”: Letter from Rabbi Leo Stillpass to Abe Waldauer, September 26, 1947.

  168: “Among the mail . . . in the 1940s”: Letter to author, April 1, 1991.

  168–169: “The twins had . . . with Georgia Tann”: Interviews with twins, 1991, 1992; The Pantagraph, “Adoption Scandal Tangles Twins’ Lives,” June 23, 1991.

  170: “Locking residents in . . . frequently used punishment”: Interviews with Elizabeth Huber, Lynn Heinz, and Billy Hale.

  171: “judging from his . . . ‘orphanage got molested’”: Interview with Roger Cleghorne, 1993.

  171: “publication in 1961 . . . ‘Battered Child Syndrome’”: “The Battered Child Syndrome,” C. Henry Kempe, Frederic N. Silverman, Brandt F. Steele, William Droegemueller, and Henry K. Silver, Journal of the American Medical Association, July 7, 1962,

  181: 17-24.

  176: “he was writing an article . . . Missing Children’s Bulletin”: Missing Children’s Bulletin, Winter 1993, “Kidnapped, Abused and Molested, Then Sold to Adoptive Parents: A Portland, Oregon Man Tells His Shocking Story.”

  178: “Good Housekeeping published . . . been fatal abuse”: “The Little Girl Who Refused To Die,” Good Housekeeping, August 1991, pp. 90-91, 132-134.

  178: “forty to fifty . . . of 1945”: The Commercial Appeal, September 18, 1950, “40 to 50 Babies Died at Children’s Home, Medical Leader Says.”

  178: “four more babies and . . . of Public Welfare”: Bates, p. 4.

  178: “the infant who . . . adoptive home”: Bates, p. 4.

  178: “premature twins, who . . . boarding home”: , Deposition of May Hindman, taken in the Shelby County Courthouse, Memphis, Tennessee, October 23, 1950; accusation regarding the twins made by Robert Taylor, p. 7.

  178: “and the babies . . . the broiling sun”: Interview with Boo Cravens, 1992.

  179: “‘bad habit of . . . holding them down’”: Besides Joe Pannell, three other people described this bathing technique—Lynn Heinz, Randall Gookin, and Barbara Davidson.

  180: “or dangled down laundry chutes”: Interview with Randall Gookin.

  182: “‘But the records . . . a brick wall’”: The Commercial Appeal, January 1, 1980, “Brother, Two Sisters Reunited After 32 Years of Separation.”

  189: “homes in Memphis’s best . . . in Biloxi, Mississippi”: Nashville Tennessean, October 25, 1950, “Dead Past Rises Swiftly To Confront Georgia Tann.”

  190: “she and Ann . . . horses every morning”: Interview with George Winfield, 1992.

  190: “Instead of using . . . horses, and two dogs”: Press-Scimitar, October 16, 1941, “Country Place That Pays, Run By a Lady.”

  190: “She even found . . . mother of quintuplets”: Press-Scimitar, July 13, 1937, “Proxy Mother Proud of Quintuplets.”

  190: “‘She became high’ . . . taxi driver in 1950”: Nashville Tennessean, October 24, 1950, “Adoption Home Head’s Power Fostered Domineering Attitude.”

  190: “the reform-minded . . . ‘that bunch’”: Letter from Georgia Tann to Abe Waldauer, February 26, 1938.

  191: “When another couple . . . back their adopted child”: Nashville Tennessean, September 20, 1950, “Double-Cross Found in Baby Adoptions”; Nashville Banner, September 20, 1950, “Miss Martin Heads Home from Memphis”; interview with Nettie Creson, 1993.

  191: “In 1949 a pediatrician . . . ‘of the background’”: Press-Scimitar, February 15, 1949, “Citizens Argue Merits of 2 Adoption Bills.”

  191–192: “In March of 1947 . . . ‘symbol of sacrifice’”: Letter from Mrs. W. A. Hachmeister to Senator Davis Wooten, March 19, 1949; letter from Randolph Johnson to Mrs. W. A. Hachmeister, March 16, 1949.

  192: “whom she played off against each other”: Nashville Tennessean, October 27, 1950, “Charity Forgotten in Miss Tann’s Will.”

  192: “during June’s honeymoon . . . she’d left at home”: Nashville Tennessean, October 27, 1950, “Charity Forgotten in Miss Tann’s Will”; interview with Robert Taylor, 1992.

  192: “‘almost to the breaking point’”: Letter from Ann Atwood Hollinsworth to Abe Wal dauer, August 3, 1934.

  192: “Georgia herself told . . . by buying Tannwood”: Press-Scimitar, October 16, 1941, “Country Place That Pays, Run By a Lady.”

  193: “heart attacks suffered in 1941”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to Mrs. Maurice Emmich, April 15, 1941.

  193: “and 1943”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to Nathaniel Stewart, September 15, 1943.

  193: “In 1945 doctors . . . with cancer”: Interview with May Hindman, 1992; interview with Denny Glad, 1991.

  193: “She refused surgery”: Interview with May Hindman, 1992.

  193: “relied upon narcotics for pain”: Nashville Tennessean, October 27, 1950, “Charity Forgotten in Miss Tann’s Will.”

  193: “Abe Waldauer dealt . . . cancellation of the proposed adoption”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to Jerome M. Steiner, July 23, 1947.

  193: “and a bill . . . reached the legislature”: The Commercial Appeal, February 14, 1945, “Veteran Poll Tax Appeal, Children’s Adoption Bill Feel Axe.”

  193: “Georgia worked furiously . . . opposing the bill”: Nashville Tennessean, October 24, 1950, “Adoption Home Head’s Power Fostered Domineering Attitude”; Kefauver Hearings, p. 193.

  193–194: “and using her . . . the bill defeated”: The Commercial Appeal, February 14, 1945, “Veteran’s Poll Tax Appeal, Child Adoption Bill Feel Axe.”

  194: “In 1947 Tennessee . . . buried in committee”: The Commercial Appeal, March 9, 1947, “Adoption Bill Tabled”; The Commercial Appeal, July 20, 1947, “Adoption Bill ‘Lost.’”

  194: “the Junior League”: January 23, 1947, letter from Mrs. Eric Babenbeer to Harry Scruggs.

  194: “Adoptive father Jesse . . . ‘I did,’ he said”: Nashville Tennessean, October 25, 1950, “Dead Past Rises Swiftly To Confront Georgia Tann.”

  194–195: “During heated legislative fighting . . . burst into tears”: Interview with the former Children’s Bureau social worker whom Georgia threatened, 1992.

  195: “The reform bill . . . it became law”: Nashville Tennessean, September 28, 1950, “‘Lost Paragraph’ in 1949 State Adoption Act Could Have Blocked Alleged Racket—Inserted Words Pulled Teeth from Measure.” In that politically charged period there was no mention of who had tampered with the Act; the perpetrator, the article read, remained “a mystery.” Robert Taylor and Vallie Miller told me in 1992 that Abe Waldauer doctored the Act.

  196: “she was confined . . . attended by a nurse”: Press-Scimitar, September 15, 1950, “Miss Tann Dies During Inquiry.”

  196: “She sent her . . . most elegant hotels”: Interview with Vicci Finn, 1993; The Commercial Appeal, October 7, 1979, “Estate Doesn’t Hint Good Life for Georgia Tann.”

  196: “Her last purchases . . . a hospital bed”: Kay Surgical, bill submitted September 30, 1950, Claim Against Estate of Georgia Tann, submitted in Matter of Estate of Tann, No. 62685, Prob. Ct., Shelby Co.

  196: “including almost daily . . . to make the trip”: Carney, Fred A., Affidavit to Claim Against Estate of Georgia Tann, sworn to September 26, 1950, submitted in Matter of Estate of Tann, No. 62685, Prob. Ct., Shelby Co.; C. F. Heackock (spelling of name may be wrong because the signature is difficult to decipher), Affidavit to Claim Against Georgia Tann, submitted in Matter of Estate of Tann, No. 62685, Prob. Ct., Shelby Co.

  196: “She died at . . . four-poster bed”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 22, 1950, “Dealer of Babies in Black Market.”

  196: “at 4:20 A.M. . . . a few friends”: Press-Scimitar, September 15, 1950, “Miss Tann Dies During Inquiry.”

  196: “‘Sissy . . . didn’t do that’”: Interview with Mrs. William Tann Yates, 1993.

  196: “Services were held . . . on September 17”: Press-Scimitar, September 15, 1950, “Miss Tann Dies During Inquiry.”

&n
bsp; 197: “And adoptive parents . . . were terrified”: Press-Scimitar, September 1950, “New Angle Develops in Probe”; interview with Linda Myers, 1992.

  197: “Actor Dick Powell . . . ‘cannon,’ he said”: Nashville Tennessean, September 14,

  1950, “State Launches Recovery Action for Baby Profits”; Nashville Tennessean, September 18, 1950, “Powell Says He’ll Fight Return of Adopted Baby.”

  197: “only $80,000 worth . . . and property remained”: Press-Scimitar, January 22, 1954, “Georgia Tann Estate To Be Settled Today.”

  197: “By the time . . . two-thirds of that”: State ex rel. Heisekll v. Tennessee Children’s Home Society, No. 53339 R.D. Cch. Ct. (Shelby Co., TN), Consent Decree (n.d.); The Commercial Appeal, October 7, 1979, “Estate Doesn’t Hint Good Life for Georgia Tann.”

  197: “She left no . . . had consumed her”: Nashville Tennessean, October 27, 1950, “Charity Forgotten in Miss Tann’s Will.”

  12. Georgia’s Lies

  202: “A Georgia Tann adoptee living in . . . illegal transactions”: Interview with Linda Myers, December 4, 1993.

  203: “Few single mothers . . . access to their birth parents’ names”: Sachdev 1989, p. 56.

  203: “But it wasn’t until”: Scotland, Finland, Israel, Wales: Sorosky et al., p. 42. Holland, Germany, Belgium, the Scandinavian countries: Rene Hoksbergen, e-mail, November 7, 2006. New Zealand, Australia, Canadian provinces, China, Japan, Korea: “Statistics on U.S. Adoptions,” L. Anne Babb, as published in “The Decree,” the publication of the American Adoption Congress, 1996. Sweden: Brodzinsky, p. 89, fn. 2.

  205: “‘a constant gnawing’’’: Sorosky et al., p. 131.

  205: “‘No one has . . . my birthright’”: Sorosky et al., p. 132.

  205: “Typical was the reasoning of . . . ‘a well established adoptive relationship’”: Prentice, pp. 62-63.

  205–206: “In a 1937 letter . . . ‘very tempting morsel of gossip’”: Letter from Georgia Tann to Abe Waldauer, December 16, 1937.

  206: “Georgia’s attorney was as . . . ‘to accept children for adoption’”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to Georgia Tann, April 25, 1940.