How a woman stole 5,000 babies for profit and caused the death many others

How a woman stole 5,000 babies for profit and caused the death many others.

Beulah George "Georgia" Tann (July 18, 1891 – September 15, 1950) was an American child trafficker who operated the Tennessee Children's Home Society, an adoption agency in Memphis, Tennessee. Tann used the unlicensed home as a front for her black market baby adoption scheme from the 1920s until a state investigation into numerous instances of adoption fraud being perpetrated by her closed the institution in 1950.

For more than 20 years, Tann ran the Tennessee Children's Home Society, where she and an elaborate network of coconspirators kidnapped and abused children to sell them off to wealthy adoptive parents at a steep profit.

Her favorite scheme was to drive through impoverished neighborhoods, picking out the prettiest children, then offer them rides in her shiny black luxury car. Once the children were in, they usually never saw their families again.

Tann took advantage of the lack of regulation around adoption to perpetuate her scheme, relying on the desperation of would-be parents to keep them quiet. According to reports done after the home was closed, many children died while under Tann's care. Those who managed to survive TCHS are still grappling with Tann's unchecked cruelty and greed.