WEBVTT - Stolen Lives 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:05.760 You're listening to American shadows, a production of I heart 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:20.239 radio and grim and mild from Aaron Bankey. In the 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:25.040 eighteen fifties, America was struggling. Carpenters couldn't keep up with 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:29.600 the daily influx of immigrants, housing shortage loomed, epidemics like 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:33.040 smallpox and cholera and the lack of jobs further sent 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:37.200 the country into a depression. Children whose parents died from 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:41.920 one of the many diseases running rampant found themselves orphaned. Sometimes, 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:46.200 families who didn't want or couldn't afford their children abandoned them. 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:48.599 Of the five dred thousand New York City residents at 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:52.320 the time, it's estimated that thirty thousand were houseless children. 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:57.240 Kids sold rags, matches or newspapers to survive. Some worked 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:01.240 in factories, others who joined street gangs were frequently arrested 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.080 and put into the same jails as adults. Some of 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:08.040 these children were just five years old. There were orphanages, 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:12.120 but not enough, and they rarely provided the education or 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:17.240 care children needed. One Charles Loring, brace, a Protestant minister, 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:21.479 thought orphanages amounted to little more than warehouses and wanted 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:24.959 more for the kids. In eighteen fifty three he founded 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:29.720 the children's aid society. He provided basic schooling and religious education, 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:34.119 along with teaching kids a trade. Unfortunately, the children's aid 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:38.240 society didn't have room for all the houseless children. Determined 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:41.280 to save more kids, brace came up with another solution. 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:45.120 In eighteen fifty three, he began sending orphans to farms 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:48.760 in New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. He hoped the children 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:50.960 would find homes of families where they had a better 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.520 chance of survival and the more promising future. The solution 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:58.040 cost more than the children's aid society could afford. Undaunted, 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:01.480 he began a fundraising campaign with the wealthiest city residents. 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:05.720 The fundraiser was a success and the trains carrying orphans 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:08.480 branched out to other cities in the Midwest. When the 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:11.720 orphan train pulled into southwestern Michigan in eighteen fifty four, 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.760 thirty seven of the forty five children on board found 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:18.600 new homes. The last eight found homes in Iowa. Between 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:21.680 Eighteen fifty five and eighteen seventy five, an average of 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:25.640 pre thousand children a year rode the trains. Once they 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:28.680 arrived at their destinations, a chaperone led them to gathering 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:32.400 places where couples selected children from the group. In a way, 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:36.640 the process resembled of livestock auction. The new parents signed 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:41.000 documents promising to care for and feed the children. In exchange, 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:43.320 the kids understood that they had to help work on 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:47.480 the farms. While some children found loving homes, others were 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.799 taken to become manual laborers. When he was just eight 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:54.799 years old, Elliott boarded a train heading to Arkansas. All 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:56.840 he had were the clothes he wore in a small 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:00.200 cardboard box that held everything he owned. He had been 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.760 removed from his abusive and Alcoholic Father and as he 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.520 sat on the train, watching the scenery go past his window, 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.800 it felt like he had his entire future ahead of him. 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:12.680 Elliott refused to go with the first man who selected him, 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:16.280 but eventually found a home with a great family of 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.440 fellow orphans like Andrew Burke and John Brady, even went 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:23.120 on to become governors. These three were among the lucky ones. 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:28.239 The society didn't vet potential parents and siblings were often separated. 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:31.320 No provisions were made for the adopted children if their 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:35.280 new parents died, often rendering them houseless again. The orphan 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.880 trains ran for seventy five years. The children's aid society 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:42.200 was far from perfect, but it rescued thousands of kids 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:44.320 from life on the streets and paved the way for 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.000 the foster care system. Charles Brace had the children's best 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:53.360 interests to heart, but others did not. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. 0:03:53.440 --> 0:04:07.000 Welcome to American shadows. It started with flu like symptoms. 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:11.360 Kate beyond the kept working, though it wasn't easy. Running 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.160 a restaurant was difficult enough, but being sick in a 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:18.680 sweltering Tennessee summer made it that much worse. The sickness 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:24.159 progressed from August one until August of Eight. Kate died, 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:28.800 becoming the first victim of yellow fever in Memphis. Previously, 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.560 the disease had only struck New Orleans and no one 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:35.799 understood how yellow fever spread, so they quarantined anyone afflicted. 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:39.560 Of course, people continued to fall ill. It had first 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.640 arrived in New Orleans on an incoming ship, the Charles 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:46.360 B Wood. The captain and engineer's families all fell ill. 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:51.000 They survived. Unfortunately, a four year old girl living nearby 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:55.120 did not. The yellow fever reached epidemic proportions in New Orleans. 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:58.520 On August tenth of that year, the city reported four 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.680 thirty one cases and a hundred and eighteen deaths. Doctors 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.919 couldn't find a cure. The go to treatments of blood 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:09.320 letting and carbolic acid didn't work. A fifth of the 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:12.919 city's residents fled. But when the news reached Memphis, the 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:15.320 mayor shut down the train lines and put the city 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:19.560 under quarantine, but lawsuits brought on by local business owners 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.200 forced officials to reopen the trade routes. It's possible that 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.080 the trains brought the mosquitoes to Memphis, or at the 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:29.040 least that they brought people already infected with yellow fever 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.640 of the mosquitoes that bit them spread the disease to others. 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.880 The city's swampy environs, with high summer heat and humidity, 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.480 made for the perfect mosquito breeding ground. But when Kate 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:43.960 Beyonda died, newspapers were quick to report cases and deaths. 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.479 The city officials tried to calm the public despite the 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:51.360 growing death toll. Within a single day in August, Memphis 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:55.320 recorded seventy three deaths. In September, the average death toll 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:58.520 rose to two hundred a day. The funeral bells rang 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:03.200 almost constantly. Residents fled Memphis by the thousands. When the 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:07.279 first frost came, yellow fever cases dropped as the mosquitoes died. 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:10.520 By the end of the year, MEMPHIS had recorded seventeen 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:13.919 thousand cases and five thousand deaths, leaving the city in 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:19.040 financial ruin. Throughout the southeast, eighty thousand people had become infected. 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:24.000 Of those, twenty thousand didn't survive. Still believing the disease 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.760 spread from human contact or possibly a lack of sanitary conditions, 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.760 the city embarked on a massive clean up. A people 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:34.320 became more interested in public health practices and Memphis began 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:37.760 a slow process of recovery. Those most affected by the 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.920 epidemic were the children, many of whom lost one or 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:44.080 both parents to yellow fever. A men and women who 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:47.400 lost a spouse had difficulty making ends meet, and it 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.120 wasn't uncommon for single parents to send their children to 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:54.840 a relative or an orphanage children without known relatives who 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.800 lost both parents had no one to care for them. 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.400 As difficulties rose, more were a band end, forced to 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.839 find a way to support themselves. Older children searched for jobs. 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.680 Farm hands and factory workers tooking kids as cheap labor 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.640 in exchange for food and a place to sleep. A 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:14.120 child labor in the United States peaked in the early 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:18.280 twentieth century, and back then, factory owners often preferred children. 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:22.239 They had no rights or protections regarding violence or safety 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.880 in the workplace. Kids were also considered more manageable than 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:30.040 their adult counterparts and far less likely to strike adoption 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.160 in the eighteen hundreds worked differently than it does today. 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:36.800 There actually was no official method of conducting an adoption, 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.800 no paperwork, no court cases and no way of tracking 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:45.320 the adopted kids. Society Stigma on on Web Mother's complicated 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.480 the problem. Women were pressured to place children borne out 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:51.280 of wedlock with orphanages or give them up for adoption 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:55.280 in order to save their and their child's reputations. Adoptive 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.800 parents chose infants over older kids, preferring to raise a 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.160 child who had no memory of warp ties to a 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:05.000 previous family. Children from low income families or those who 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:08.720 weren't white were far less likely to find homes. When 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.320 the adoption of Children Act went into effect in eighteen, 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.800 fifty one courts became more active in a child's well being. 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:20.120 Charities and private homes provided some care. Eventually these came 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.880 under government control, though they retained certain freedoms in terms 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:26.480 of a child's treatment or placement in a new home. 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.920 The Sisters of St Mary opened a school in eighteen 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:33.440 seventy four. When the yellow fever epidemic hit in eighteen 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.080 seventy eight, they stayed while most clergymen fled. The city 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:41.240 authorities asked them to take over the Canfield asylum for orphans. 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:45.000 Eager to help, the sisters took in fifty children in 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:57.640 four days. Edward crump knew all too well the ravages 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:01.160 of yellow fever. The disease took his father during the 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:04.200 outbreak in eighteen seventy eight, leaving his mother to support 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:07.600 him and his two siblings. While she managed to keep 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.600 the family together, they struggled to keep afloat. The children 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.400 pitched in, however they could. None of them wanted to 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.760 be separated from each other or their mother. At Fourteen 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:21.120 crump dropped out of school to find work. At seventeen 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.920 he left Mississippi and relocated to Memphis. He couldn't have 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:27.440 arrived at a worse time. The city was in a 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.480 deep procession and crump had very little to his name. 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.319 His earlier life in struggles influenced him to work hard 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:38.240 and better himself, and he eventually found employment as a clerk. 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:41.200 In his free time, he joined social clubs to seek 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:45.679 out contacts that might further his political aspirations. In nineteen 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.520 O two, he went his sweetheart, Bessie, a daughter of 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:52.200 a prominent socialite. With his father in Law's help, crump 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.880 purchased a saddle and harness company. The company was successful, 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:58.839 but after eight years he sold the business and dove 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:03.000 head first into his true calling, politics. His hard work 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:06.319 and dedication paid off. A crump became the city mayor 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.079 in nineteen ten. He worked to clean up the city's 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.960 sanitation issues. In addition, he became a staunch supporter of 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.560 the fire service, helping to create a state of the 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:20.000 art fire department. Sometime in the early nineteen twenties, crump 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:24.400 met one Georgia Tan. He quickly became an avid supporter 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:27.760 of her work in child services. For All the good 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:30.440 had done for the city, his connection with Georgia would 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:34.160 remain a dark spot on his reputation. It might have 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:36.920 looked like Georgia had the children's best interests at heart, 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:41.920 but she had different motivations. Unlike crump, Georgia grew up 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:45.520 living a charmed life. She was born Beulah George Tan 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:50.720 in Philadelphia, Mississippi. In her father, George, was a respected 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.680 judge and her mother, Beulah, had been a well educated 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:57.960 school teacher. George ruled absolute over the household and demanded 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:01.680 that his wishes take priority over anything else. If Judge 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:05.000 Tan decided something needed doing, there was no discussion. The 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.640 task must be done quickly and to his liking. So 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.160 when he decided that his daughter would become a pianist, 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:15.080 Georgia threw herself into practice, even though she despised playing. 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:18.640 She wanted to become a lawyer, but her father scoffed. 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.920 He didn't think law was a suitable occupation for women. 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.000 He had made up his mind and in nine thirteen 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:27.720 he sent her to Martha Washington College to major in 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.719 music and despite her father's wishes, Georgia took the bar 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:35.280 exam and passed. Though a few women had successfully practiced 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:38.440 law in the United States, Georgia decided on a different 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:41.720 career path, one her father found more acceptable for women 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:45.920 of the day social work. There was a conflict, though. 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:50.120 Georgia firmly believed that wealthy people were far superior to 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:54.240 the poor, and she thought lower class individuals shouldn't have children, 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:58.439 mainly because they lacked the money to adequately provide for them. 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.439 Her first job as a social worker was in ninety 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:05.440 two at the Mississippi Children's Home Society. Georgia took her 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:08.800 bias too far and her superiors fired her for removing 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:13.520 children from poor households without cause. Georgia moved to Memphis 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.800 to take advantage of her father's business connections. There she 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:21.120 took an executive secretary position at the Tennessee Children's home society. 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.240 In the nineteen twenties. References were used instead of background 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.280 checks and no one at the society looked into her past. 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.920 There Georgia settled into domestic life with partner Ann Atwood, 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:34.840 who had moved with her. They had two children, an 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:37.720 infant son and had had out of wedlock, and George's 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:41.199 adopted daughter. But we don't know whether their relationship was 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:45.160 romantic because same sex relationships were so frowned upon. But 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:50.680 domestic partnerships between women weren't entirely uncommon, polite society reframed 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:56.199 such pairings as Boston marriages. For two years, Georgia relentlessly 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.440 used her connections to further her career until she had 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:04.199 complete control over the society. Finally, at the Top, Georgia 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:08.280 focused on her true goal, gaining money and power by 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:23.319 trafficking children. Georgian new intimidation worked. When she entered poor neighborhoods, 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.320 she wore crisp, heavily starched long sleeved shirts and a 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.640 full length skirt. Her position at the school and her 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:34.480 father's connections insured she received little opposition from authorities. She 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:38.480 also made her own connections, namely former Mayor Edward crump. 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.040 Though he no longer held office, he still had plenty 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:46.040 of influence and power in Memphis. When complaints about George's 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.840 practices rolled in, crump helped to change Tennessee's adoption laws 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:54.080 in her favor. One Abe Waaldour, who had served under crump, 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.360 became George's attorney and the attorney for the Tennessee Children's 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:01.360 home society. While other homes were required to get licenses, 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:06.000 Georgia and Waldour refused. With their connections, the laws simply 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:09.000 didn't apply to them. A license would have cost money 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:12.280 and cut into their profits. Each adoption would have cost 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.800 an additional seven dollars. Georgia charged up to five thousand 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.040 dollars per adoption. With so much money to be made, 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:22.960 those connected to the society's adoptions had motivation to hide 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:26.320 the scheme. Georgia had plenty of high powered people in 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:29.960 her pocket, from politicians and police chiefs to the underworld. 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:33.440 She became so successful that Waldour often referred to the 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:38.680 orphans as the merchandise. Acquiring new children was easy. All 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.800 Georgia had to do was visit low income housing districts. 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.240 She often sweet talked poor families out of their kids 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:47.400 or told the family that she had to remove the 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.360 child due to a complaint, even if no such complaint 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:53.280 had been filed. Scouts helped to keep an eye out 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:56.720 for attractive and healthy kids, preferably those who were white 0:14:56.840 --> 0:15:00.800 with blonde hair and blue eyes. Scouts Times stole these 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:04.160 children from their yards or daycare or kidnap them from 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:08.120 churches or homes, and Georgia drove through poor neighborhoods looking 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.040 for the most attractive kids and offered them a ride 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:14.280 in her fancy car. Then should whisk them away to 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.280 the society where they had never see their parents again. 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.480 Unwed mothers made easy targets and Georgia's scouts kept an 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.560 eye out for them too, especially at hospitals and prisons. 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.240 Without support from the fathers or the state, the women 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:31.480 often accepted her offer of help. She would offer to 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:34.160 pay for medical treatment for sick kids and take them 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:37.080 to the hospital for care. When women tried to collect 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:40.800 their children, Georgia presented them with an enormous bill. When 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.480 the mother couldn't pay, the child was taken away and 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:47.560 placed in George's care. In another tactic, Georgia would offer 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.400 an unwed mother a temporary place to keep her kids 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:53.480 while she found a home or a job. Once the 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:56.320 mother finally established herself and tried to collect her children, 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.280 she was told they had been adopted. The mother had 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.960 no report. Part of the laws crump helped form were 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:07.520 sealed adoptions. Hospital maternity wards also became a favorite place 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:11.240 to find kids. While new mothers were still sedated, Georgia 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:15.240 asked them to sign routine paperwork. The paperwork turned out 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:19.040 to be adoption papers. The society nearly served as a 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:24.280 temporary holding station. Conditions were deplorable. Infants were drugged to 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.400 keep them from crying. Neglect and abuse were common and 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:31.320 the children were kept entirely indoors. They received little to 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.000 no medical treatment or schooling. Over five hundred kids died 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:38.720 in her care. Georgia paid for advertisements in newspapers from 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:41.920 New York to Los Angeles. Children were auctioned to the 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:45.440 highest bidder. She took great care to ensure most children 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:49.360 were adopted out of state. Actress Joan Crawford adopted twins 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:53.280 Kathy and Cynthia. Film stars June Allison and her husband 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:56.960 Dick Powell adopted a son. New York Governor Herbert Lehman, 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:59.800 who also signed a law sealing adoption records in his 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.560 eight adopted a kid from the home. Between nineteen four 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:08.639 and nineteen fifty, Georgia arranged over five thousand adoptions. Older 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.720 Children's birth certificates were altered to make them more adoptable 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:15.200 and to prevent birth parents from finding them. The end 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:19.679 finally came when crump's Nemesis, Gordon Browning became governor in 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:23.440 nineteen fifty. Browning learned about the trafficking from an investigator 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.240 on September twelfth of that year, Browning stood before the 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:31.000 press and disclosed the horrors behind the Tennessee children's home 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:35.240 society and the charges against Georgia ton. Three days later, 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:40.240 Georgia died from undiagnosed cancer. Those working alongside her quietly 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:55.159 resigned and no one else was ever charged. One evening 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.960 in nine Alma's sipple sat down after a long day 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.800 to enjoy a few TV shows. After flipping through the channels, 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:07.159 she decided to watch NBC's Popular Program unsolved mysteries. The 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.280 show had a large following and people enjoyed helping solve 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.879 cold cases. At the end of each show, host Robert 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:16.520 Stack asked for the audience's help and gave them a 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.560 hotline to call with any information that might bring killers 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:23.680 and other criminals to justice or help locate missing persons. 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:27.200 It was late and Alma was sleepy, but when a 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:30.879 woman's face splashed across the screen, she jolted upright and 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:34.479 let out a scream. The woman's smug features had been 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:36.879 etched in her memory and the woman in the photo 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:42.840 had stolen her daughter decades before. Back in Alma lived 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:45.119 in a one room apartment with her toddler son and 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:49.000 infant daughter. She was just another young mother struggling to 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.560 make ends meet. A woman claiming to be from the 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:55.360 Tennessee Children's home society visited her, insisting a neighbor had 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:59.520 filed a complaint of child abuse. Stunned, Alma allowed the 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.200 woman in to show that the children were perfectly fine, 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:06.199 though Irma had fallen slightly ill. The woman took special 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:09.399 interest in Little Irma, a beautiful child with reddish blonde 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:13.680 curls and cute dimples. Alma recalled how calm and confident 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:17.160 the woman was, how she seemed concerned over Irma's health. 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:19.920 She offered to take Irma to the doctor, which required 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:23.399 Alma to sign papers granting permission to the society. Without 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:26.760 money to pay for a doctor, Alma agreed, and then 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:30.679 the woman swept up her baby daughter and left. Alma 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.560 arrived at Memphis general a few days later and watched 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.080 Irma Sleeping peacefully, and when she tried to take her 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:39.080 daughter home, the hospital told her that Irma belonged to 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:42.119 the society. She called the home over and over for 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:46.960 days until Georgia finally answered. Alma Sat in stunned silence 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:50.200 when Georgia coldly told her that little Irma had died 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:54.320 from complications of pneumonia. Alma couldn't believe it. Her daughter 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:57.560 had been fine just days before. Georgia told her that 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:00.280 the city had buried Irma in an unmarked grave and 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.199 hung up for years. Alma searched for a grave that 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.720 might be her daughters. Now, sitting in her chair, she 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:10.960 paid close attention to Robert Stack. He asked potential victims 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:14.480 to come forward and contact Tennessee's right to now agency. 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:19.800 Alma called immediately. Months later, Danny Glad, the volunteer agency's president, 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:23.560 contacted her. Not only was Irma still alive, but had 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:26.399 also found her adoption papers, though the address for the 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:30.879 adopted parents was blank. Alma's heart fell. It looked like 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:34.719 a dead end. Then an independent searcher found her. Irma, 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:39.320 now Sandra Kimbrel, was in Cincinnati working as a registered nurse. 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:44.280 When Alma contacted her, Sandra was somewhat surprised. While she 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:47.040 knew she was adopted, she had no idea she had 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:50.560 been stolen as a baby. The two talked for hours 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:54.320 and began to plan their reunion. Alma and her daughter 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:59.080 were fortunate. We may never honestly know how many families 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:04.960 Georgia Tan destroyed. There's more to this story. Stick around 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:07.359 after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:18.520 It's normal for parents to worry about how their kids 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:21.399 will turn out as adults. Even more normal to wonder 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.879 if children are shaped more by nature or nurture. The 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:27.639 debate has gone on for decades how much of a 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:31.400 child's personality is formed by treatment and environment, and how 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:35.040 much is influenced by genetics. In the nineties it seemed 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:38.959 that parents and researchers just might get some answers. Robert 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:41.760 Schaffran spent his first year at a college in upstate 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:44.840 New York. He wondered why people often acted as though 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:47.960 they knew him. He quickly learned that he resembled another 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:51.920 student named Eddie Galland Eddie supposedly could have passed for 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:54.919 his twin. Although Eddie no longer went to the same school, 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:57.880 Robert was intrigued. He trapped down an address and went 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:00.880 to visit his doppelganger. Eddie ants heard and the two 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:03.600 stared at each other. It was as though the men 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:06.879 were looking into a mirror. They shared the same build 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:10.360 and facial features. They had identical complexions in the same 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:13.600 dark hair a quick comparison of birthdays revealed that they 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:16.680 were both born on July twelfth of nineteen sixty one. 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:19.199 Eddie and Robert knew that they had been adopted but 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:22.159 had no idea that they were twins. The stranger than 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:26.080 fiction story spread across the country. People were fascinated and 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:29.600 wanted to know how two identical twins had randomly come 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:32.679 into contact with each other. They'd grown up just hours apart. 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:36.400 The story seemed unbelievable, but was about to get weirder. 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:41.679 Miles away at another college student, David Kellman, couldn't believe 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:43.920 the photo in the paper. He stared at the two 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:47.919 men who looked exactly like him. After reading the story, 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:51.359 he immediately tracked down Eddie Gallant's home phone number, and 0:22:51.480 --> 0:22:55.280 Mrs Gallan answered and heard what sounded like her son's voice. 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:58.159 She was astounded to learn that her son, who she 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:02.080 had no idea had one brother, now had two. In 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:05.040 nineteen sixty one, a teenage girl had given birth the 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:08.360 three boys at Hillside Hospital in New York. She gave 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:10.679 them up for adoption and the triplets were taken to 0:23:10.720 --> 0:23:14.879 the Louise Wise Services Adoption Agency. The boys were separated 0:23:14.880 --> 0:23:17.040 while living at the agency. For the next six months, 0:23:17.840 --> 0:23:21.040 three couples living less than a hundred miles apart each 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:24.240 applied to adopt a child. The agency told the parents 0:23:24.320 --> 0:23:26.480 that the infant they were interested in was part of 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:30.159 a study on childhood development. They were also led to 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:33.720 believe that promising to comply with future visits would increase 0:23:33.720 --> 0:23:37.200 the chances that they'd be selected to adopt. For Ten years, 0:23:37.359 --> 0:23:40.800 Doctor Peter Newbauer and his assistants visited the families several 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:44.520 times a year after the study ended. Researchers have suggested 0:23:44.560 --> 0:23:47.200 that new Bauer and his team still monitored the children 0:23:47.280 --> 0:23:50.840 from a distance and during the initial visits, Newbauer and 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:54.560 his staff performed cognitive tests. The boys were asked to 0:23:54.760 --> 0:23:58.280 draw and solve puzzles and answer questions while assistants filmed 0:23:58.280 --> 0:24:01.840 the visit. The parents were also Shton it turned out 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:04.520 that each of the boys often banged their heads against 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:08.040 the bars and their crips. The families learned the adoption agency, 0:24:08.200 --> 0:24:10.959 which had since shuttered its doors, had been part of 0:24:10.960 --> 0:24:14.440 the study. They assisted new Bauer in placing the triplets 0:24:14.440 --> 0:24:18.199 into three families, each with a different economic status. The 0:24:18.280 --> 0:24:21.720 three brothers exchanged stories of their childhood. In Teen Years, 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:26.440 David and Eddie had spent time in psychiatric hospitals. Robert 0:24:26.520 --> 0:24:29.240 was on probation stemming from his connection to a murder 0:24:29.240 --> 0:24:33.160 in robbery in night. The boys weren't the only children 0:24:33.160 --> 0:24:36.280 in Dr New Bauer's study on nature versus nurture. He 0:24:36.400 --> 0:24:39.600 ran similar experiments on sets of twins, and none of 0:24:39.640 --> 0:24:42.720 whom randomly came into contact with their siblings. All the 0:24:42.760 --> 0:24:46.960 twins had been separated in the name of research. Academics 0:24:47.080 --> 0:24:51.040 and the affected families have so many questions, but no 0:24:51.080 --> 0:24:54.080 one will see doctor new Bauer's research results anytime soon. 0:24:55.000 --> 0:24:57.200 Yale has all of his papers locked in a vault 0:24:57.320 --> 0:25:00.840 until twenty six six, long after everyone involved in the 0:25:00.880 --> 0:25:04.639