Lindsey Graham (4:48)
Brought you the trial that captivated the nation. And one question still lingers. Did Karen Reed kill John o' Keefe? This isn't just a retrial. It's a second chance at the truth. Listen to episodes of Karen the Retrial exclusively and ad free on Wondery plus from Wondery. I'm Lindsey Graham and this is American Scandal. By the late 1930s, Georgia Tann's career was flourishing. She had practically taken over the Tennessee Children's Home Society in Memphis and had become one of the foremost advocates of adoption anywhere in America. But Tann didn't just hand out children to anyone. She was fixated on the idea that a poor child, however happy or loved, was always better off with a wealthy family. But as her profile rose and more people sought her help. Tam began to realize that she could benefit from her work as well. For those adopting through the Tennessee Children's Home Society, there were various fees to pay, administrative costs, pre adoption home visits and travel expenses. These were all legitimate. But Tann realized she was leaving money on the table. If she inflated the charges and had parents make their checks out directly to her, she could make a profit on every child she placed. Adoptions had already made Tan a powerful woman. Now they were going to make her a wealthy one too. This is episode three, sitting on a gold mine. In the summer of 1933, 24 year old waitress Mary Lee Calhoun pays a visit to the Tennessee Children's Home Society office in downtown Memphis. Calhoun is about to spend several weeks in the hospital and she needs to make arrangements for the care of her four children. A three year old daughter and sons aged seven, six and five. Calhoun has heard about Georgia Tann and hopes that her TCHs will be able to help. When she arrives at the offices, Calhoun is met by one of Tann's officials who has all the paperwork ready for her to sign. With a kind face and sympathetic tone, Mrs. Calhoun, I understand this must be a difficult day for you. Well, it's just terrible timing. My husband Danny's sick as well, but I'll be back on my feet before long. The doctor says a few weeks, a month at most. That's good to hear. And rest assured, your little ones will be safe, well fed, clothed and loved, just like all the children under our care. I so appreciate it. We got no one else to watch them while I'm laid up, but as soon as I'm home, I'll be back for him. Of course. Naturally. Now if we could just go through the paperwork together. This first document officially places your children under the guardianship of the Tennessee Children's Home Society. You'll see here it's standard language, nothing to worry about. But Calhoun frowns as she studies the document. Well, this says that I relinquished them here. Doesn't that mean I'm giving them up? That's just legal wording. What it really means is that while you're recovering, will have full authority to act in your children's best interests in terms of medical needs, housing, that sort of thing. I don't like how it sounds. I understand completely, but you know lawyers. It just simply ensures we can look after the children properly without any delays or red tape. I mean, if anything were to happen to them, if they had a little fall or gotten sick, I'd hate to think that we couldn't give them the care they needed because we didn't have the right piece of paper. Well, I just. I don't want them thinking we've abandoned them. Oh, of course not. And I'll make sure they know their mom is coming back for them. The official holds out a pen. Calhoun hesitates for a moment and then signs. The TCH official leans over the desk and then flips the document to another page. Good. Now if you'll just initial here and here. They'll be together, won't they? I'm sorry? The children. You won't split them up now? We always try to keep siblings together whenever possible. You try to. Every effort will be made, Ms. Calhoun. We take the welfare of children very seriously. I assure you they'll be in excellent hands. And when you return, they'll be just as happy and healthy as you left them. Mary Lee Calhoun does not realize that she's just signed away custody of her children and handed them over to the tchs. Within days, Georgia Tann starts looking for buyers for her four children. She doesn't find anyone to take the girl before Calhoun returns from the hospital to claim her, but Tann gets good money for the three boys. The two younger brothers are sold together to one family, but the oldest, seven year old Eugene, is taken away from the others and driven out of Memphis by Tan herself. It takes several hours to get Eugene to his new home, which is a farm deep in rural Arkansas. After a quick handshake with the owner, Tann pockets a wad of dollar bills before climbing back into her car and leaving young Eugene behind. Eugene's new parents don't see him as a member of the family, however. To them he's just unpaid labor. He's given an unheated room to sleep in, along with a meager wardrobe of overalls, a few shirts, and one pair of shoes. He's made to rise before dawn every day to feed the livestock. Then he helps the farmer plow, plant, weed, and harvest cotton until sundown. All that would be bad enough, but Eugene's new father is also an abusive man. He doles out vicious beatings for the smallest of infractions, and one time he even shatters Eugene's spine after hitting him with a post hole digger. Georgia Tann is not aware of any of this, but even if a child's new home is far worse than the one they're rescued from, Tann doesn't care. Once she has money in hand, the child's well being is no longer her concern. She's already moved on to the next adoption. By now, Tann's official salary of perhaps a few hundred dollars a month is dwarfed by what she's making illegally from adoptions. It's a scheme she continues to get away with, thanks to the support of the powerful network she's built in Memphis. People who should be protecting children and their parents, but are in fact just Tan's willing collaboration. It's 1935 in Memphis, Tennessee. 15 year old Martha Brewer sits in the back of a car, squeezed in alongside her four siblings. The youngest, five year old Annie, darts her eyes back and forth in fear. Martha gives her a squeeze and tells her everything's going to be alright. But despite what she tells her sister, Martha is having a harder time convincing herself that they'll all be okay. Their mother is dying of cancer and has asked relatives to take in Martha and the others. But it has all happened so quickly that no one is ready for the children just yet. So yesterday their mother called the welfare department and asked if they could care for her children until permanent arrangements can be made. This morning, Martha and her siblings were brought to the Juvenile Court in Memphis, where Judge Camille Kelly announced she'd be sending them to the St. Peter's Home for Children. Judge Kelly smiled at them all so sweetly in court. She had an enormous corsage pinned to her dress and spoke to them like a grandmother might. But Martha didn't get a good feeling from her and she can't shake the dread in the pit of her stomach. Still, when the car comes to a stop in front of a large red brick building, Martha puts on a brave face and ushers her siblings out. She holds little Annie's hand as they all spill onto the wide lawn and stare up at the imposing orphanage behind them. A a court worker climbs out of the car. In a few seconds, Martha feels Annie's hand slip out of hers. For a moment she thinks her sister has just run off to get a closer look at the building. But then she hears a scream. Martha and the rest of her siblings turn to see Annie being pulled away toward another car. The children rush forward to help their sister, but are blocked by a driver and one of the nuns from the orphanage. The children can only watch helplessly as Annie is bundled into the backseat and then driven away. Where she's going, they have no idea. And as they look around at each other, stunned and silent on the grass, each of them wonders if they'll ever see their youngest sister again. In the days that follow, Martha continually asks the staff at the orphanage where Annie has been taken. Eventually, one of the nuns relents and tells her what's happened. Annie will not be coming back. She's been transferred to the custody of the Tennessee Children's Home Society and has already been flown out of state to be adopted by a new family. At only 15 years old, Martha is powerless to save her sister. But even if she were an adult, it's unlikely Martha would be able to do anything. By now, Georgia Tann and the Tennessee Children's Home Society are too powerful and too well protected. Because it's not just Tann's army of influential friends and contacts that she can call on. She also employs the services of one of Memphis top leaders employers. Abe Waldauer is the city's assistant attorney and a major player in the political machine of local fixer Edward Boss Crump. As Tann's personal lawyer, it's Waldauer who protects her from any parents of stolen children who try to mount a legal challenge. One such parent is Polish shoemaker Henry Wagerman. In the mid-1930s, he files suit against Georgia Tann and the Tennessee Children's Home Society. Wagerman claims that after filing for bankruptcy in 1929, he took his young daughter to the TCHS for temporary care. But when he came back to retrieve her, she was gone, adopted out to a new family against his will. At the time, there was nothing he could do. But now he has the money to challenge the TCHs in court, and he is demanding that his child be returned to him. But Tann and her lawyer called the allegations absurd. They say Wagerman signed legal papers surrendering his daughter for adoption and that the young girl in question is now living happily with a wealthy family overseas. But Wagerman insists he was duped. He didn't know English well at the time, and no one properly explained the meaning of the documents he signed. But despite his pleading, after a one day hearing, the court sides with Tann. And when Wagerman appeals to a higher court in Jackson, the judge there dismisses his claim, too. Wagnerman never sees his daughter again. But it's not the last time a grieving parent is left disappointed by the legal system. With a Waldauer at her side, it seems that Georgia Tann is untouchable. But as her operation continues to grow, not all the threats Tann faces will be legal ones. Before they are sold to new parents, the children Tan acquires are kept in a network of private boarding homes and orphanages in Memphis. But as the TCHS takes on more children, the conditions in these facilities get worse. And worse, they are crowded, unhygienic and understaffed. And the children who live in them are often left malnourished after being fed little more than bread, water and cold oatmeal for months on end. And with such widespread neglect, it is no surprise that the child mortality rate in Memphis begins to climb. And eventually, people outside Tennessee start to take notice. It's February 1935. At the U.S. children's Bureau in Washington, D.C. 42 year old pediatrician Ella Oppenheimer reads through paperwork at her desk. The bureau works to improve the lives of children and families across America. And for the past 15 years, Dr. Oppenheimer has been researching maternity care and child health. It's the middle of the Great Depression and there are plenty of children in need all across the country. But when one of Oppenheimer's colleagues pays a visit today, he has some disturbing new findings out of Memphis that he thinks she should see. Oppenheimer waves him into the room and he passes her a report across the desk. It concerns the mortality rate of infants in Memphis. As Oppenheimer scans through the figures and charts, her eyebrows arch in concern. According to this report, for every thousand live births in Memphis last year over 100 babies died. That's twice the national average and the second highest rate in the country. Oppenheimer's colleague tells her that the numbers have folks down in Tennessee worried and that the Mayor of Memphis himself has sent a request to the Children's Bureau asking for help. They need to understand what's behind their high mortality rate so they can figure out how to address it. Dr. Oppenheimer knows there could be many reasons behind the report's shocking numbers. City sanitation, a contaminated water supply, local social or economic factors. But it worries her that it seems local officials don't have a grasp on the problem. So Dr. Oppenheimer sets her paperwork aside and makes an instant decision. She knows she won't be able to do much from her office here in Washington, so instead she's going to Memphis, Tennessee to get to the bottom of things. At the turn of the 20th century, rapid industrialization, urbanization and political corruption were ravaging America. But soon, President Theodore Roosevelt and a diverse group of reformers known as progressives would fight back. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery's podcast, American Historytellers. We take you to the events, times and people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles, and our dreams. In our latest series, we explore the Progressive Era, which came to be defined by Teddy Roosevelt and others who believed in a strong, active government that worked on behalf of all Americans rather than the privileged few. As the United states entered the 20th century, these progressives hoped to steer the nation into BO to launch an era of reform to restore power to the people. Follow American historytellers on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery. Join Wondery in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial today.
