One of the Hicks babies, for example, discovers they are actually the biological daughter of the individual who was the mayor of the town at the time. When most people consider a life of thievery and crime, the last thing they'd think of stealing is a baby. Talk to News 12 anchors, reporters and meteorologists. After you went public with your story in 1997, you were contacted by a woman who thought you might be the daughter of her good friend, Kitty Self, because of your striking resemblance to both Self and her son. They remain friends, but Melinda said its a lot to come back from. Life After Lockup Did Sara End Up With Her Ex? Tiffany Rubin and Kobe Lee: Where Are They Now? The story broke in 1997, revealing that Hicks was alleged to have spearheaded a black market baby ring out of his clinic. Melinda and her whole family, including her sister and niece, picked Clarence up that day. [But] I dont think it initially started that way.. When the Hicks Babies began making national news a friend made the connection. Hicks cared for the mundane health issues of local farmers and townspeople in the front of the clinic . Decades-old secret adoptions solved by modern DNA for Akron area - WKYC These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Florida deacon among hundreds of babies 'Taken at Birth,' sold on black Special Collections Department/University of Memphis Georgia Tann. }); The black market adoptions were discovered in 1997 and a community of Hicks babies has been in contact since that time. Woman Meets Her Mother 51 Years after Being Taken and Sold to Another He would sell the babies to parents who wanted to adopt but couldn't afford to do so legally. The catalyst came when Melinda visited Clarence in prison one day. I said, Im going to get a Coke. Which led Judy and Melinda to Maury in April 1998. Are there more Hicks Babies out there? orientation: "portrait", Dr. Hicks had a few different approaches for obtaining babies that he could turn around and sell on the black market. In 1965, Blasios adoptive parents drove from Ohio, paid $1,000 cash and a received their new baby through the car window, swaddled in a blanket and still caked with dried blood. In 1922, Tann adopted a daughter, June. 4 LSU into SEC semis, beating Georgia 83-66, Atlantas Carter Center preps for future without founder, Photography club captures hope during pandemic, March food and drink events to check out in metro Atlanta. For Blasio, that moment came in 2017 when she got a hit through ancestry.com and found her father who had died in 2010. Once the babies were born, Hicks contacted prospective adoptive parents and told them he had a baby. She joined the group a few years ago after searching for siblings on-line. His adoptive father, a physician who died 20 years ago, had moved his medical . 423-785-1200 | news@wdef.com3300 Broad Street, Chattanooga TN 37408. Judy was murdered three days later, on June 7. PEOPLE can exclusively announce that the three-night special Taken At Birth will air Oct. 9 through Oct. 11. They are among the Hicks Babies. Earl Mann plead guilty to the murder of Judy Johnson and the rape, assault and attempted murder of Melindas niece, Brooke. "We just want to know things like medical history, you know, where did we come from? TLCs Taken at Birth Is Based on the Devastating True Story of the Hicks Babies Adoption Scandal. How Georgia Tann Stole And Sold 5,000 Babies In The Black Market Paul Raymann is the son of loving adoptive parents. Once the women gave birth, Dr. Hicks would allegedly tell the unsuspecting moms that he had found adoptive parents for the children. In the small town, the. The Hicks Babies. No legal department is willing to help assist me in my county. , Does Wittenberg have a strong Pre-Health professions program? And, he meets his sister. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. At the same time, hundreds of childless couples desperate to adopt were rejected as unsuitable. Hicks died at age 83 in 1972. Clarence had been in prison for six years by this stage. Ohio woman with local ties at center of another big news story She became Falcone's sister, was diagnosed with mental developmental delays and has the cognition of a 5-year-old at 56, Falcone said. He gave the adoptive parents a fake birth certificate and left no records of the birth mothers. In other reported cases, he lied to the birth mothers, telling them their babies had died post-delivery. It took Melinda seven and a half years to clear her husbands name. From 1951 to 1965 Dr. Thomas Jugarthy Hicks began to quietly offer babies for adoption from his Hicks Community Clinic in McCaysville, GA. Apparently, Dr. Hicks had prepared her falsified birth certificate. Her mum dead. Three days after Judys murder, she started her own list of suspects. Hicks, who died in 1972, illegally sold nearly 200 newborns into black market adoptions between 1950 and 1965. "We're in our 50s and 60s now and this is it," said Dawson. As DNA technology and the ease of testing grew, the numbers grewin the hundreds. TLC's 'Taken at Birth' Investigates Black Market Adoption Ring - PEOPLE.com Kamiyah Mobley and Other Kids Who Grew Up Not Knowing Theyd Been Abducted. So Hicks ventured across state lines and opened Hicks Clinic in McCaysville, just two blocks away from his house in Tennessee. Baby Melinda cost $US1000, a price Thomas Jugarthy Hicks told her would cover the cost of the biological mothers keep. The primary evidence against Clarence Elkins was beginning to crumble. If there were any, what happened to the records? category_id: null, We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Beulah George "Georgia" Tann (July 18, 1891 - September 15, 1950), was an American child trafficker who operated the Tennessee Children's Home Society, an adoption agency in Memphis, Tennessee.Tann used the unlicensed home as a front for her black market baby adoption scheme from the 1920s. The neighbour, along with partner, Earl Gene Mann, were charged with child rape of their own children. Clarence said there was always something about Earl that bothered him. My mother was told they were stillborn and manipulated into donating their bodies to science for their cause of death SIDS. In 1960, there were 50 babies born in all of Fannin County. He had done prison time for selling drugs in Tennessee and lost his. discovery: { He charged what he could get from the hopeful couplesanywhere from $200 to $10,000, dependent upon the financial status of the couple. MCCAYSVILLE, GA (WDEF-TV) The "Hicks Babies" will be back in McCaysville tomorrow. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". I was writing him fictitious letters as a pen pal. Hicks would then secretly sell the newborn for $800 to $1,000 each and included a forged birth certificate with the adoptive parents' names on it. Last Known Residence. The instructions were simple: Once they received a call, they were to get to Georgia within 12-hours. Being a private investigator, she admits that shes spent decades trying to uncover the truth. MCCAYSVILLE, GA (WDEF-TV) - The "Hicks Babies" will be back in McCaysville tomorrow. But decades later, many of the Hicks Babies are still looking for their birth parents. He died in 1972 at age 83, having never been held accountable for these black market babies. She was actually from another clinic located in Chattanooga. Taken at Birth airs Oct. 9 through Oct. 11 from 9-11 p.m. Georgia Tann - Wikipedia Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. He was in denial, says Stapleton. Email youngma@news.com.au, To join the conversation, please What makes the story even more tragic is the first baby was actually a set of twins. Clarence had a solid alibi (he was never alone that night), there was no physical evidence and she just couldnt believe, after almost two decades of marriage, that he could be responsible for such a devastating act. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. And in most cases,it seems, it made little difference as to happiness or quality of life for the child. Melinda says Earl went AWOL on June 4 and disappeared. Are there any unresolved feelings or unanswered questions youre still working to unravel? Who are the Hicks babies? Now adults, they are linked to illegal - ajc In 1997, Jane Blasio first shared the story of her illegal adoption with a newspaper in Akron, Ohio. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. How did you originally get into professional investigation? They had Clarence in handcuffs in the back of a patrol car. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. McCAYSVILLE, Ga. -- Forty years ago, if you had the right connections, you could buy a baby from a doctor in this little town nestled in the hills near the southern end of the Appalachian Trail. In 1997, the shocking news story broke, revealing that . It was a nightmare, you cant even, unless you experience it, you cant even imagine.. The number of those who have reunited with a biological parent is even smaller - approximately 15. The second best result is Eric Ray Hicks age 40s in Greeley, CO in the Westmoor Acres neighborhood. It turns out, Diane was a Hicks Babyone of many who were adopted by parents in Ohio,Illinois and other northern states. At the very end of the three-part series, they discover one of the Hicks babies was not from the Hicks clinic. They were adopted through the Georgia clinic that created a national furor back in. 1 season available (3 episodes) In 1997 a shocking story surfaced. A DNA test led Raymann to his biological father, Paul Jack. element: "#evvnt-calendar-widget", 15 Tennessee Murders That Will Keep You Up At Night - OnlyInYourState It has been a very long journey and its not over.. What have you been able to learn about your ancestry through DNA testing? From the beginning of the journey, I had days of anger, days of understanding and days of absolute confusion when it came to Doc Hicks. She has resumed the search for her biological mother through ancestry.com, who are using genealogists and DNA to track down her family tree. His wife and son both passed away, and his daughter lives in North Carolina,. Uncle Clarence Clarence Elkins was Melindas husband and Judys son-in-law. When Blasios adoptive mother died in 1988, her father shared all he knew of the family secret and Blasio embarked on a journey to learn as much as she could about Doc Hicks. Hicks, a family physician who performed illegal abortions in the 50s and 60s in McCaysville, Ga., also delivered babies and sold them to couples in off-the-books adoptions. Melinda wasnt sure how she was going to get the specimens tested, or how long it would take, so her freezer became a laboratory of DNA samples. evvnt_require("evvnt/discovery_plugin").init({ The neighbour who had made Brooke wait 45 minutes on the front porch before letting her in: Tonia Brasiel. Hicks' granddaughter defended the doctor to CBS News. Hicks surrendered his medical license in 1964 for performing an illegal abortion. But this strange coincidence turned out to be a life-changing opportunity for Clarence. Police descended upon Melindas home where she would learn her mother had just been brutally murdered and her husband was the prime suspect. "This is our last shot. So, unfortunately, it looks like a lot of the people in the town likely turned a blind eye to what Dr. Hicks was doing because they benefited from his services. I know abortion was illegal at the time, and then I think he was running into people who couldnt afford adoptions, he says. All Rights Reserved. Seeking family links 'Hicks babies' hope DNA will uncover histories 2014-06-22 - By Joan McClane Staff Writer . This story has been shared 169,608 times. New secrets, bittersweet reunions, and surprising DNA revelations. Paul Payne, who is a Hicks Baby, said this story is not new, and it digs up a lot of questions.