{
  "id": 9330541,
  "title": "This Social Worker Was Supposed to Help Orphans Find Homes. Instead, She Abducted Children Who Already Had Families and Sold Them for Profit",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/23/this-social-worker-was-supposed-to-help-orphans-find-homes-instead",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-09-23T11:45:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Smithsonian",
    "slug": "smithsonian",
    "url": "https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/this-social-worker-was-supposed-to-help-orphans-find-homes-instead-she-abducted-children-who-already-had-families-and-sold-them-for-profit-180989543/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In 1949, a young mother and her three children arrived at a courthouse in Tiptonville, Tennessee, seeking a new life. The mother, unable to read or write, had lost her husband and faced food scarcity. A mysterious black car arrived, and Georgia Tann, known as the \"Mother of Modern Adoption,\" offered to take the children. Tann, the head of the Tennessee Children's Home Society, was actually running a black-market operation, selling more than 5,000 children since 1924. The Dycus siblings were separated and placed in different facilities. Sallie Brandon, now 80, only reunited with her family decades later. Tann falsified birth records and amassed nearly $14 million illegally, using the money to maintain her lavish lifestyle. Despite popularizing adoption, Tann's actions made it nearly impossible for victims to find their birth families. Tann began her illegal activities in 1922, luring a 2-year-old boy into her car after his mother, a widowed pregnant woman, slept inside. Her father, a judge, declared the boy abandoned and his mother unfit. Tann later moved to Memphis, where she operated TCHS, which was not licensed to place children for adoption. With the support of powerful politicians, including \"Boss Crump,\" Tann continued her illicit activities, causing significant harm to countless children and their families.",
  "summary": "Between 1924 and 1950, Georgia Tann placed more than 5,000 children—many of them seized from their parents without permission—with wealthy families across the U.S",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}