It started in the 1920s, for over 20 years, Georgia Tann ran a Black Market for adopting children that involved coercing & paying unwed mothers & even
- even kidnapping children from preschools, churches and playgrounds.
Tann's coconspirators were authority figures — people not to be contradicted — so children often went with them willingly. Sometimes, Tann would approach families and offer medical or other help. Tann would tell parents she could get their children into a clinic at no cost, but if they came along as well they'd be charged a large bill.
"She had a stooge down in the welfare department when someone would apply for assistance, this person would get their name, and get in touch with Camille Kelley," Robert Taylor, an investigator, said in a 1992 interview with "60 Minutes."
In 1950, Taylor, a local lawyer, was asked by newly elected Gov. Gordon Browning to do an in-depth investigation into Children's Home Society and Tann. "Camille Kelley would send a deputy out to pick them up and award custody to Georgia Tann," he added.
Tennessee law required children to be adopted in state for a fee of $7, about $75 in today's money. But Tann moved her "merchandise" at $1,000 per head — $10,000 today. When the state finally investigated, the report on the Children's Home Society, the Browning report, found that Tann conducted "private" adoptions and pocketed up to 90% of the fee. She would gouge prospective parents on everything from travel costs, to home visits, and attorney's fees.
Tann employed "Christmas specials" offering reduced adoption fees for prospective parents. Benjamin Hooks Library Archives
In the 1940s, Tann developed a new publicity stunt.
"They would raffle 20 or 30 babies off every year in the 'Christmas Baby Give Away' in the newspaper," Wingate said. "How did anyone ever think that was all right?"
For $25 — about $350 today — purchasers could buy as many raffle tickets as they liked.
Tann pocketed thousands of dollars that ticket holders assumed went to the Home Society, and had to give away just a fraction of her "merchandise" in the process.
Read more here: https://www.insider.com/georgia-tann-tennessee-children-home-society-survivors-speak-out-2019-12
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A mother of newly born twins has been arrested in Kariega in the Eastern Cape after she allegedly tried to sell the five-day-old baby girls.
She and two other suspects will appear in court on Monday on charges relating to human trafficking.
The arrests were made during a joint operation after police received information that the woman planned to sell the twins.
Hawks Spokesperson, Yolisa Mgolodela, says they found the babies with the prospective buyer at a house in Kariega.
“The twins were admitted in hospital for medical attention as they were dehydrated and severely malnourished. They will be taken to a place of safety upon discharge. It is alleged that the prospective buyer was expected to pay R50 per day to the mother of the twins in order to satisfy her drug addiction. It is further reported that the alleged buyer was going to apply for a children’s grant and give a portion to the mother of the twins on a monthly basis."
@TheArbitrator a friend saw how a newborn was throw into the trashbin in town after the mom received /submitted her childsupport grant ....life is rough
