BLACK MARKET BABIES

I was recently asked to do an investigation for the family of a famous celebrity from long ago.  They prefer to keep the name private.  He was very well known and an important part of American music history.  He and his wife adopted a daughter.  She passed away recently, but her family put her DNA on Ancestry.com a few years ago.  They asked if I could determine who her birth parents were.

Like most of the cases I work on, I was able to find the birth parents without too much difficulty.  The circumstances of her adoption made this a very interesting story however.  Her family was able to get her original birth records and they discovered her adoption was handled by a woman named Elizabeth B. Hamilton (often known as "Bee" Hamilton) and Judge Harry Woodward.  Hamilton and Woodward were involved in a "Black Market Baby" scandal in the 1940s and 50s.  This happened in Augusta, Georgia.  It's a subject I knew nothing about, so I investigated further.  I'll summarize the story, then include some newspaper articles I found.

I was shocked to find out that selling babies was not uncommon in this country in the 1940s and 50s.  It's amazing that something so awful seems to be a forgotten part of US history.  It was happening nationwide and I don't think a lot of people know this even happened.  I only did research on the Augusta, Georgia scandal, but there were many others as well.  No one knows exactly how many babies were sold, but it's been said that as many as 1000 may have come out of Augusta alone.  Here's how it all went down...

Elizabeth Hamilton was a Juvenile Court probation officer and Harry Woodward was the Juvenile Court judge.  There was at least one doctor involved as well, Dr. John Saggus.  I could probably write a separate article just about that guy.  In 1922, Saggus was accused of murdering his wife and neighbor.  He was also involved in an arson/insurance scam.  Later, he somehow got involved with this crime.  He died in 1952 before the baby scandal was exposed.

They were basically "creating" adoptions to generate more babies to sell.  What I mean by that is, they would do things like, tell the mothers their babies died right after birth.  The babies actually lived and were sold.  In some cases, they would declare the mothers "unfit" and take their children away.  One case involved a woman being arrested for drunkenness.  She was told her children would be placed with relatives.  She later discovered the children were nowhere to be found.  They were likely sold.

Nationwide baby selling really came under investigation in late 1955 when an undercover investigator from Wichita, Kansas posed as an unwed mother to get the inside story.  Babies were being sold for as much as $5000 in some states.  In the case of Hamilton and Woodward, it was discovered they charged various adoption related fees they were not supposed be be charging.  The Judge was also acting as an attorney for the adopting couples which allowed him to receive more fees.  Remember, many of these babies were never supposed to be adopted in the first place.  The mothers were often told they died.  Young girls were being paid $5 to pose as unwed mothers and taken to the judge to sign papers allowing the babies to be adopted.

What really drew attention to the Augusta adoptions was the fact that the babies were not supposed to leave the state of Georgia.  Instead, they were being shipped all over the country and many were sold to celebrities in California (because they had the most money I'm sure).  One article mentioned a con man in the Hollywood, CA area was acting as an intermediary for Woodward in placing babies on the West Coast.  It's quite possible the people "buying" the babies had no idea there was any wrong doing.  Since a real judge was involved, everything may have seemed legit.

Elizabeth Hamilton conveniently retired at the same time this story began making headlines.  I've included several newspaper articles below, and there are many more out there.  In one article, they talk about Hamilton retiring and they make her sound like a hero and wonderful person.  One week later, another article is printed accusing her and the judge of selling babies.  Surprisingly, no one was ever prosecuted in this case.  I guess when there's a judge involved in a crime, it's easier to just sweep the whole thing under the rug.

Unfortunately, the family I was helping was not interested in contacting the family of the birth mother.  It would be interesting to find out if she was one of the people who was told her child died.  There are videos online of other people who were Hamilton/Woodward victims.  I saw one about two sisters who finally met after they submitted DNA.  One sister was adopted and searching for her birth family.  The other sister found out years ago her mother had a child in Augusta who supposedly died.  Thanks to DNA, they were able to discover the truth.  As more and more people submit DNA, I think we'll see more discoveries involving what happened in Georgia, and other locations, many years ago.

Hamilton retires just one week before court hearing.

Babies were adopted by Hollywood celebrities.

Undercover reporter exposes nationwide baby sales.

Hamilton and Woodward under investigation

UPDATE - Shortly after writing this story, I was looking at an old adoption board and found a few people who also mentioned they were related to Hamilton/Woodward babies.  One person was nice enough to reply and mentioned his mother was born in Georgia and adopted by a wealthy family in Beverly Hills, CA.  He has paperwork, signed by Hamilton and Woodward, that mentions a sum of $10,000 being exchanged.  Apparently, the baby market was even more profitable than anyone knew.

ANOTHER UPDATE - I received another reply, from a woman who said she was one of the Bee Hamilton babies.  Her paperwork also was signed by the same Elizabeth Hamilton.  She was looking for her birth mother.  I was able to find her, but she gave me some surprising new information.  She was born in 1962.  As we know from the info above, Hamilton retired in 1955, or did she?  It appears she only retired to avoid being involved in the court hearing.  She continued her baby business into the 1960s.  This woman was adopted in Augusta, Georgia.  Perhaps they stopped shipping babies out west at that point to avoid more problems.

REFERENCES
• The Columbus Enquirer, Columbus, GA, November 15th 1955.  • The Macon News, Macon, GA, November 15th, 1955

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