MedCrimes: a Medical True Crime Podcast · Kate Macy and Devon Rebecca

Georgia Tann, “The Baby Theif”; part 2

·36 min·2 clips

Alma Simple was told her baby Irma died of pneumonia after Georgia Tann took her from the apartment.

1. MedCrimes: a Medical True Crime Podcast covers Georgia Tann and the Tennessee Children's Home Society in Memphis. 2. Devin and Kate host the episode, and Devin says Georgia Tann was an American social worker turned "baby thief." 3. The episode asks how Georgia Tann moved thousands of children through adoptions, money, and court power. 4. The hosts say Georgia Tann allegedly kept 80 to 90 percent of adoption fees in a secret bank account under a false corporate name. 5. Robert Taylor is named as the prosecutor who told the Los Angeles Times that about 1,200 children were adopted out between 1944 and 1950. 6. The episode says the Tennessee Children's Home Society received private family money even when state funds were present. 7. Joan Crawford, Betty Davis, Marlon Brando, and Herbert Lehman are named as public figures who adopted through the agency. 8. The hosts say Lehman signed a 1935 New York law sealing birth certificates while also adopting through the agency. 9. Georgia Tann destroyed children's records, used minimal background checks, and presented cleaned-up children to prospective parents. 10. The Child Welfare League of America dropped the Tennessee Children's Society from its list of qualifying institutions in 1941. 11. Alma Simple's case shows a six-week timeline from her move to Memphis to Georgia Tann taking baby Irma. 12. Georgia Tann told Alma Simple that Irma had died of pneumonia and that she herself had handled the burial. 13. The episode says the children's home had an all-female staff in white uniforms, many of them untrained and some substance abusers. 14. The hosts say children were sedated, denied care, and sometimes allowed to die of malnutrition. 15. The episode estimates about 500 child deaths, with only 19 buried in a marked lot in Elmwood Cemetery. 16. A 2015 monument at Elmwood Cemetery is quoted as honoring the 19 children and the hundreds who died under the Tennessee Children's Home Society. 17. The tone is angry, grieving, and outraged, with the hosts interrupting themselves to react to the details. 18. The format mixes recap, case history, personal testimony, and later-life aftermath, including the Unsolved Mysteries reunion. 19. People interested in adoption history, Memphis history, and medical true crime would likely follow this episode. 20. Listeners wanting light or purely procedural coverage may skip it.

As heard by us

A chilling account of how Camille Kelly's authority helped Georgia Tann separate children from vulnerable families.

Georgia Tann's operation comes into sharper focus through the official cover that made it look lawful: Shelby County Family Court Judge Camille Kelly, who used her bench to approve Tann's tactics, move cases quickly, and cut divorced mothers off from custody before adoptions…

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Why you'd press play

You want to hear how a family court judge could make Georgia Tann's operation look legitimate.

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