The "Brangelina" brood hit Manhattan last week and
was assaulted by the paparazzi, tourists, and the ignorant, who
think nothing about invading the privacy of a celebrity family.
Naturally, anonymous Web posters spewed their hateful envy on
various entertainment forums and inevitably one nastily inquired
why Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt didn't adopt American orphans.
But, according to a terrific book, "The Baby Thief: The
Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted
Adoption," by Barbara Bisantz Raymond, adopting in America
hasn't always been the safest option.
Recently, New York was rocked by the arrest of Judith Leekin, who
allegedly collected nearly $3 million in an adoption scam that
began in the 1970s with two foster boys in Queens. She
subsequently adopted several disabled New York children and was
under investigation for alleged cruelty when she fled to Florida.
The teenage children in her care were found in what police in
Port St. Lucie, Fla., reportedly called a house of horrors.
Before reading about the case, I had no idea that the city made
supplemental payments after children are adopted, but there is a
lot about this case that appears to confound even the
authorities. After Ms. Leekin's arrest, the city's Administration
for Children's Services scrambled to explain how she had been
allowed to take the children in while using different names. The
ACS said the adoptions had taken place before the policy of
taking fingerprints from adoptive parents to verify their
identity was introduced in 1999. The authorities in Florida have
asked a New York Family Court judge to unseal the adoption
records in the hopes they may shed some light on the alleged
scam. Four adoption agencies are believed to be involved, but
until the documents that have been requested - birth certificates
and caseworker reports - are obtained, they can't identify the
agency or agencies that did the placements.
The scandal is eerily familiar to what has been uncovered about
"baby thief" Georgia Tann. I met the author of the new
book that tells the thief's story, Ms. Raymond, a Queens resident
who is herself an adoptive mother, and was shocked to learn the
implications of Tann's crimes, even though they occurred decades
ago. Ms. Raymond told me Tann was involved in more than 1,000
adoptions in New York.
Tann was a highly respected director of an orphanage in Memphis,
Tenn., who used her position to oversee more than 30 years of
baby-stealing, baby-selling, and abuse. While she is credited
with popularizing the worthy undertaking of adoption, she
corrupted the mission by arranging adoptions for profit to the
rich, the famous, and the unfit to parent. Joan "No Wire
Hangers!" Crawford was one of her clients, and we all have
heard from her two adopted children just how unfit a mother she
was.
Tann operated between the 1920s and 1950s under the auspices of a
Memphis mayor, Edward Hull Crump, and employed a wide network
that included judges, attorneys, and social workers whom she
would bribe with "free babies." These children came to
her after being seen by "spotters" who either targeted
babies ripe for abduction or located desperate single women
seeking a better future for their child.
Many of the birth certificates she provided as part of the
adoption process were altered, and she was the chief force behind
the legislation that sealed these records. Tann and her cohorts
convinced the powers that be that her stolen and kidnapped
children, as well as all other legally or illegally adopted
children, should be forevermore barred from accessing the simple
facts of their birth that most people take for granted.
Ms. Raymond told me her daughter has met her biological mother
and that, although it may be painful for adoptive parents, they
should support their search. I asked her if opening the adoption
records would discourage adoptions. "On the contrary,"
she said, "Alaska and Kansas are the only two states that
have always allowed adoptees access to their birth certificates
and adoptions there have increased."
Tennessee passed a law in 1996 that allows access to birth
records. Since then, five other states have passed similar laws.
According to Ms. Raymond, open records bills are pending in seven
more states, including New York.
I recommend her book to our Legislature because while the
Brangelina children know the answer to "Who am I?"
every other adopted child here deserves to have that answer as
well.