Is it true that NY Governor Lehman?

Question

Was an adoptive father of 3 children 'acquired' from the infamous blackmarket baby stealer Georgia Tann?

It was Governor Lehman who in 1935 signed a bill making NY a sealed record state. A law which remains in force to this day

Could this Law have been a direct result of Tann's corruption of the adoption industry and at her bidding?

Has anyone read the book The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption

by Barbara Bisantz Raymond ?

Or seen the Movie about Georgia Tann 'Stolen Babies' starring Mary Tyler Moore?

Answer 1

Seal those records!  We wouldn't want anyone to know Ms. Tann kidnapped these kids and used the black market to do her "adoptions."  Totally pathetic.  And we wonder why there's secrecy in adoption.  A remnant of illegal activities.

ETA:

It's interesting that California and NY started sealing their records neck in neck with each other.  California had quite a few wealthy, famous Tann clients, too.

ETA:

Oh, my goodness.  A historical fact gets a thumbs down?  What exactly do some people expect?

ETA:

You've got a point, Happymom.  

I don't care if someone doesn't like my VIEWPOINT.  We all have different opinions.  But thumbing down an actual fact doesn't make any LOGICAL sense to me.  That's what I found so bizarre and amusing.

Answer 2

Unbelievable!  I guess, it just shows the people who make changes usually ARE involved in the situations they make changes for.... It's just too bad so many have been made to cover up unacceptable and illigal behaviors....

*** LaurieDB -- ;) I have not figured out what the tumbs up/down is here to accomplish! I think some people just want to push down other peoples answers? Or want to push down a viewpoint they don't support.... I have just started accepting it as a compliment!

Answer 3

Yes, it is true! I pulled out my copy of "The Baby Thief"......

"... But criticizing her was almost impossible when, as she threatened, it would result in her reclaiming their adoptive child. Or in letting 'his mother know where he is' - since any adoptive parents who read newspaper accounts of local habeas corpus suits had to have been aware that their children they'd adopted through Georgia might have been stolen.

Georgia lured people into impossible situations, victimizing, occasionally, even those who profited from her. Among this otherwise-privileged group were physicians, attorneys, judges and university professors. Such early, strategic placements provided her with names for what Candy Debs, who'd been adopted by a California legislator, described to me as 'a hit list, a sales tool!'. The list would eventually include Joan Crawford, June Allyson and d**k Powell, Pearl Buck, Lana Turner, and New York governor Herbert Lehman"

Very, very interesting.

The law that prevents New York adoptees from accessing their birth certificates was signed by a client of the infamous baby seller.

Great

ETA: Please visit http://www.unsealedinitiative.org - the New York lobbying on this antiquated law is next week!

Also please visit http://adopteerights.net/nulliusfilius/ for action in all other states