But if you're looking for an orphan tale that will truly chill your blood, look no further than the one about a woman who for twenty years stole and swindled babies from the hands of poor single mothers, posed them as orphans and sold them to rich parents through her fake agency. No, it's not a movie -- don't rush to your Netflix que -- it's real life. The life of one very bad woman named Georgia Tann.
You all remember that scene in "Mommie Dearest" (don't try to hide it, you love that shit) when Joan Crawford and her arched eyebrows learn she's denied adoption by an established agency. The infamous Crawford fury ensues, but a few months later, magically, she gets her hands on a perfect little blond baby girl. Well, guess what? That child came courtesy of none other than Miss Tann and her Tennessee Children's Home Society.
That child, whom the world would later get to know as Christina, had been stolen by Tann from a mother who would never be found or identified. Tann did this over and over, from the late '20s until her death in 1950, the cases climbing into the thousands. She adopted her stolen babies out to parents whose backgrounds went unchecked, thus resulting in the children sometimes being placed with pedophiles and abusers (such as Crawford).
How in the world did this madness happen, and how could it happen for that long? Well, picture this scenario: A young, cash-strapped single mother with a sick baby, one day gets a knock on her door from a kindly-looking woman who identifies herself as a social worker and director of a nearby orphanage. Concerned about the health of the child, the social worker gives a quick examination, and decides the baby is seriously ill.
"But don't worry, I can help you," she says to the mother. "Give her to me and I'll take her back to the orphanage, pass her off as one of the wards and, that way, I can get her free care." The mother is excited. "But you can't come," the social worker says, "otherwise, the nurses will charge you if they find out you're the mother." So the mother hands over her child, thinking she just got hooked up with free health care.
Two days later, she gets a phone call from the social worker: the baby had died. The mother doesn't believe her and makes frantic visits to the orphanage, the police, none of whom help. Meanwhile, the baby -- who is alive and well -- is being flown to her new adoptive home in Ohio.
That "social worker" was Georgia Tann, and this is just one example of how she obtained her babies. How she was able to sell them to new families (sometimes for up to $5,000 for out-of-state adoptions) is another layer in this strange tale, one involving corrupt judges, politicians and the police -- all of whom had given Tann their protection. Add to the mix her trustworthy demeanor (some of her biggest advocates were her own clients), her amazing powers of persuasion and intimidation tactics, endless bribing, and it's not hard to understand how this woman and her macabre baby thieving operation, chillingly, became the foundation for modern American adoption.
Indeed, before Tann burst onto the adoption scene, in the late '20s, there were literally only about five adoptions being arranged a year by agencies like the Boston Children’s Aid Society. But only four years into her baby stealing career, Tann managed to pull off a whopping 206 adoptions. Here's another chilling fact: The whole policy of closed adoptions can be traced back to Tann, who covered up her kidnapping crimes by issuing adoptees with false certificates portraying their adoptive parents as their birth parents. All fifty states ultimately falsified adoptees’ birth certificates -- legislators believed it would spare adoptees the stigma of illegitimacy.
Tann died in 1950, and shortly thereafter the world learned of her crimes. Still, it was too late to deny her impact on the adoption system. So next time you settle in for two hours of evil orphan terror via the silver screen, just remember, the real horror story has already taken place -- and it stars Georgia Tann.
