Book · 2009 · Biography & Autobiography
The Baby Thief
The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption
- mentions
- 14
- people
- 2
- podcasts
- 2
- episodes
- 3
- critical mentions
- 0
The Baby Thief, which is a chilling read but an excellent piece of journalism, goes into detail about one of Georgia's very first baby abductions.
What they say about it
- Quotes from the book“According to the book”7
- Praises the journalism“an excellent piece of journalism”3
The best things said about it
You will probably keep running into Barbara Raymond's book so you might as well just read that and get it over with.
According to the book, The Baby Thief, quote, Georgia frequently falsified the birth dates of many children she placed for adoption.
According to The Baby Thief, quote, by the late 1930s, single mothers were not only being prevented from bonding with their babies, but often even from seeing them.
According to The Baby Thief, quote, she developed both her business and the institution of adoption by doing something unprecedented, making homeless children acceptable, even irresistible to childless couples.
According to The Baby Thief, quote, she didn't openly affix price tags to children, but instead charged fees for transporting them to their new homes.
Barbara Raymond, the author of The Baby Thief, did a lot of that work and like has done very good journalism to try and put it together.
Where and when it comes up
Mentions per year
12
2
How it comes up
Why people recommend it
The Baby Thief by Barbara Bisantz Raymond is a work of investigative journalism that uncovers the horrifying crimes of Georgia Tann, who operated a corrupt adoption agency in Tennessee and stole thousands of babies. On Behind the Bastards, Robert Evans strongly recommended the book, praising it as a chilling yet exceptional piece of journalism that details Tann's early abductions and exploitative operations. Evans extensively cited the text across multiple episodes to explain how Tann falsified birth records, reduced children's recorded ages, valued infants based on eye color and gender, and subjected single mothers to extreme cruelty such as blindfolding them during labor. He also noted her medical neglect of the children in her care. Josh Clark also recommended the book on Stuff You Should Know as essential reading for anyone exploring Tann's crimes, while discussing the work's optioning for adaptation by Octavia Spencer.
Every mention
Robert Evans Now, uh that book, The Baby Thief, which is a chilling read but an excellent piece of journalism, goes into… 12
Discussed
“According to the book, The Baby Thief, quote, Georgia frequently falsified the birth dates of many children she placed for adoption. In every case which of which I learned, she reduced the children's age.”
Discussed
“Yeah, according to the baby thief, quote, "By the late 1930s, single mothers were not only being prevented from bonding with their babies, but often even from seeing them. Mothers were sometimes blindfolded during labor.”
Discussed
“According to the baby thief, quote, she refused to even acknowledge illness in her children and forbade her boarding mothers from summoning medical help. Faced with desperately sick children, however, some boarding mothers panicked and sent them to the hospital.”
Discussed
“As the baby thief records, quote, "Blue eyes were a decided advantage, as was female gender. Baby girls are more feminine, alluring. They are grand little self- advisers, and they know instinctively how to strut their stuff.”
Discussed
“And it was also one of the things that's that that uh and the baby thief makes a good point of pointing this out is that in this period of time at orphanages and stuff, an awful lot and perhaps most of the employees and like you're talking about the 30s, 40s, 50s molested the kids.”
Discussed
“There's a lot of people who have tracked down their own history. Uh Barbara Raymond, the author of The Baby Thief, did a lot of that work and like has done very good journalism to try and put it together.”
Discussed
“And Barbara Raymond, the author of a book called The Baby Thief, visited Hickory, which is the town where Georgia grew up, and talked to some of the older folks who'd known her family at the time.”
Recommended
“Now, uh that book, The Baby Thief, which is a chilling read but an excellent piece of journalism, goes into detail about one of Georgia's very first baby abductions.”
Discussed
“So, according to the baby thief, quote, she developed both her business and the institution of adoption by doing something unprecedented, making homeless children acceptable, even irresistible to childless couples.”
Discussed
“According to The Baby Thief, quote, "Would the child be dressed in lace or simply a diaper or as was Master Paul advertised on December 14th of that first year?" Nothing at all.”
Discussed
“And this is probably where she should we should talk about just how Georgia Tan monetized adoption. So, according to the baby thief, quote, she didn't openly affix price tags to children, but instead charged fees for transporting them to their new homes.”
Recommended
“The baby thief is a fine piece of journalism on a super bummer of a topic. Uh, hooray. Um, we have a shirts. Uh, you can buy shirts.”
Josh Clark um but you will probably keep running into Barbara Raymond's book so you might as well just read that and g… 2
Discussed
“option that book that we were talking about who who was the author again uh Barbara bance Raymond and the book she wrote was baby Thief colon un the untold story of Georgia Tan comma The Babys seller who corrupted adoption”
Recommended
“um but you will probably keep running into Barbara Raymond's book so you might as well just read that and get it over with”