The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption (2008) tells the story of a woman now famous for child trafficking.


Georgia Tann (1891-1951) ran an adoption agency in Memphis, Tennessee. From 1924, she is estimated to have stolen more than 5000 children from mostly poor single mothers and sold them to wealthy people, 80% of whom were in New York and California.


In September 1950, then Texas Governor Gordon Browning commenced an investigation into Tann’s agency, which was closed that year. Tann died 3 days before the state brought charges against her agency.