As she watched her baby coughing in her cot in a corner of her tiny apartment, Alma Sipple felt increasingly desperate. A single mother in Tennessee, she could not afford medical care for ten-month-old Irma. Suddenly, a knock on the door heralded a turn in her fate: there stood a woman with close-cropped grey hair, round wireless glasses and a stern air. She exuded authority as she explained she was the director of a local orphanage and had come to help. Alma rushed to show the lady her sickly child. Examining the baby, the woman offered to pass her off as her own at the local hospital in order to obtain free treatment. She warned Alma not to accompany her, explaining: If the nurses know youre the mother, theyll charge you. Lifting the child from the cot, the woman turned on her heel and disappeared. Two days later, Alma was told her baby had died. In fact, Irma had been flown to an adoptive home in Ohio. Alma would not see her daughter again for 45 years. For far from being her saviour, the woman who had taken Irma was a baby thief. For 30 years, Georgia Tann made millions selling children. A network of scouts, corrupt judges and politicians helped her steal babies. She also targeted youngsters on their way home from school, promising them ice cream to tempt them away from their homes. Legal papers would be signed saying they were abandoned - most would never see their families again. Now, her story has been revealed in a new book. After painstakingly contacting her surviving victims and a forensic search through the archives, Barbara Bisantz Raymond calculates that Tann sold more than 5,000 children - and killed scores through neglect. During the time she ran her business, the infant mortality rate in Memphis was the highest in the country. Tann molested some of the girls in her care and placed children with paedophiles. She charged fees to couples desperate to be parents Some victims were sold as underage farm hands or domestic skivvies. Others were starved, beaten and raped. The lucky ones were sold to wealthy parents, with Hollywood stars, including Lana Turner and Joan Crawford - who adopted twins Cathy and Cynthia - lining up for babies. Some of the children were featured in magazine articles. A number were placed with families in Britain. So, who was Georgia Tann and how did she come to ruin so many lives? Born in Hickory, Mississippi, in 1891, her father, George, was a high court judge and her mother, Beulah, a Southern belle. Inside their lavish house, all was not well. continued......dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1131282/The-Hollywood-Baby-Snatcher-The-sinister-story-woman-stole-children-sold-stars.html
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 11:12:18 +0000
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