Dec. 10, 2023

203: The Hicks Babies

203: The Hicks Babies

More than 200 babies, known as the “Hicks Babies,” were sold by Dr. Thomas Hicks from the back of the Hicks Community Clinic in McCaysville, Georgia during the 1950s and 1960s. Until his actions came to light, he was a respected and beloved doctor in...

Apple Podcasts podcast player badge
Spotify podcast player badge
Castro podcast player badge
RSS Feed podcast player badge
Apple Podcasts podcast player iconSpotify podcast player iconCastro podcast player iconRSS Feed podcast player icon

More than 200 babies, known as the “Hicks Babies,” were sold by Dr. Thomas Hicks from the back of the Hicks Community Clinic in McCaysville, Georgia during the 1950s and 1960s. Until his actions came to light, he was a respected and beloved doctor in McCaysville, known for helping everyone…often taking things like a sack of potatoes in return for payment. Some town residents defend his actions to this day, but the “Hicks Babies,” as they became known, are still struggling to find their birth mothers and come to terms with their origins and the damage Hicks did by keeping his practice shrouded in mystery.

Hosted and produced by Erica Kelley
Researched and written by Gemma Harris
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison of Gamma Radio
Edited & Mixed by Brandon Schexnayder & Erica Kelley

Sources:southernfriedtruecrime.com/thomas-hicks

This episode is brought to you by:

  • Take a break and lose yourself solving a mystery set in the roaring 20’s with June’s Journey. Download today on iOS or Android.


This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/2975465/advertisement
WEBVTT

1
00:00:01.280 --> 00:00:05.599
Southern fried true crime covers cases that
are not suitable for young listeners, and

2
00:00:05.639 --> 00:00:12.919
there may also be some explicit language
used. Listener discretion as advised. On

3
00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:17.160
March fifth, nineteen seventy two,
the residents of Mccaysville, Georgia, were

4
00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:22.960
in mourning their beloved former town doctor
had lost his battle with leukemia and passed

5
00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:28.600
away at age eighty three, leaving
behind a wife's son and daughter. Doc

6
00:00:28.679 --> 00:00:33.159
Hicks had a reputation as being the
kind of doctor everyone needs. He do

7
00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:38.359
anything for anyone. In the poor, remote copper mining town straddling the Georgia

8
00:00:38.359 --> 00:00:42.880
Tennessee border in the Blue Ridge Mountains, people didn't always have money for medical

9
00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:48.200
services, and if they did,
it often wasn't enough. But doctor Hicks

10
00:00:48.200 --> 00:00:53.560
provided a level of care and various
services without judgment or demanding payment from those

11
00:00:53.880 --> 00:00:59.359
who truly couldn't afford life saving treatment. It wasn't unusual for him to be

12
00:00:59.399 --> 00:01:03.120
paid in a sack of potatoes.
He was part of the fabric of mccayswell

13
00:01:03.480 --> 00:01:07.599
and was said by many to be
not only one of the best physicians,

14
00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:11.519
but one of the best men they
knew. However, others took a different

15
00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:18.120
view. The same man who had
donated an organ to the local church and

16
00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:22.159
gave medicine away for free, had
once stolen a watch from the arm of

17
00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:26.439
a dying patient. So not everyone
was a fan of doctor Hicks, But

18
00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:32.319
twenty five years after his death,
a much greater scandal would emerge. It

19
00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:38.239
rocked not just the small town,
but the entire country. The hippocratic oath

20
00:01:38.359 --> 00:01:42.799
all physicians must uphold throughout their career
as above all else, do no harm.

21
00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:48.239
The people of Mcayswell were about to
discover that someone they had trusted with

22
00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:53.280
their lives and who they felt been
nothing but professional, was accused of something

23
00:01:53.319 --> 00:01:57.760
so harmful and so contrary to the
nature of the man they knew, it

24
00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:04.719
was hard to believe. Welcome to
episode two oh three, The Hicks Babies.

25
00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:10.159
Thomas Juggarthy Hicks was born on October
eighteenth, eighteen eighty eight, in

26
00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:15.919
Bloomington, Tennessee, to parents David
and Mary, one of six children.

27
00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:22.080
He graduated from Emmery University Medical School
in nineteen seventeen and that summer married twenty

28
00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:27.039
four year old Sullivan County woman Chas
Copeland. The couple settled in Copper Hill,

29
00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:30.080
Tennessee, and had three children.
Their son also became a doctor,

30
00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:37.080
but died suddenly in nineteen sixty seven
at age forty four. While Chass became

31
00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:40.080
a Sunday school teacher. Her husband
took a job with the Tennessee Copper Company

32
00:02:42.199 --> 00:02:46.800
treating minors he diagnosed with fatal lung
conditions, but in nineteen thirty two,

33
00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:52.759
when the doctor was discovered submitting an
excessive amount of claims compared to the size

34
00:02:52.759 --> 00:02:58.080
of the company's workforce, he was
fired. Doctor Hicks ran into trouble again

35
00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:02.039
in nineteen forty three, having time
in jail for illegally selling narcotics, and

36
00:03:02.199 --> 00:03:08.159
was subsequently struck off in Tennessee.
Despite this setback, just ten months later,

37
00:03:08.280 --> 00:03:13.080
following his release, the doctor opened
a clinic several blocks away from his

38
00:03:13.199 --> 00:03:16.400
home. It was just across the
border in the tiny North Georgian town of

39
00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:23.280
Mccaysvielle and Fannin County, home to
just over two thousand people. The unassuming

40
00:03:23.319 --> 00:03:29.319
blond brick one story building had distinctive
green and white striped awnings. Mccaysville is

41
00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:34.439
the twin city of Copperhill, Tennessee. Both Appalachian towns are situated along one

42
00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:38.599
river, whose name varies depending on
where you are in relation to the state

43
00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:43.319
line. In Tennessee, it's the
Ocoee River, while in Georgia it's the

44
00:03:43.319 --> 00:03:49.080
Tacoa River. The state line itself
runs right through downtown mccaysville through the grocery

45
00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:53.719
store parking lot. Doctor Hicks was
well respected and warmly embraced by the community.

46
00:03:54.319 --> 00:03:59.479
He was personable, charming, and
made house calls regardless of the hour.

47
00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:02.879
Patients felt at ease in his presence
and trusted him without a question.

48
00:04:03.800 --> 00:04:09.039
He became a charter member of the
Adams Bible Class of the town's first Baptist

49
00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:14.639
church, president of the Kowanas Club, and a member of Copper Hill Lodge.

50
00:04:15.039 --> 00:04:17.519
But doctor Hicks was working at a
time when reproductive rights for women in

51
00:04:17.560 --> 00:04:23.879
Georgia were non existent. In the
nineteen forties and fifties, conservative Southern America,

52
00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:29.279
birth control wasn't readily available, and
unmarried mothers were much aligned. Anyone

53
00:04:29.319 --> 00:04:33.879
finding themselves unexpectantly pregnant and not wanting
to be was thrust into a terrifying world

54
00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:39.560
of fear and uncertainty. It was
the same for married women who couldn't afford

55
00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:44.360
another mouth to feed. Many women
died as a result of a lack of

56
00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:48.759
access to safe and affordable abortions,
either through trying to perform one themselves,

57
00:04:49.160 --> 00:04:54.759
having one at the hands of an
unqualified back yard operator, or by suicide.

58
00:04:55.759 --> 00:05:00.560
According to the Akron Beacon Journal,
doctor Hicks advertised what he called pregnancy

59
00:05:00.600 --> 00:05:05.839
care services on phone booths, overpasses
and at bus stations for one hundred dollars

60
00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:11.800
about twelve hundred dollars in today's money. He performed safe abortions when many other

61
00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:16.120
physicians wouldn't. Of course, adoption
was an option, but this process had

62
00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:20.360
recently been the subject of much scandal
at a national level, when the crimes

63
00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:27.000
of Tennessee women Georgia Tann were exposed
just before her death in nineteen fifty.

64
00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:31.519
Back in twenty twenty, I released
episode ninety five on Georgia Town, entitled

65
00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:38.839
Pedophile, Kidnapper and Inventor of Modern
Adoption. From the nineteen twenties, Tan

66
00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:44.560
trafficked over five thousand children, selling
them to wealthy families. Other children,

67
00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:49.439
including nineteen unidentified victims, died of
extreme abuse and neglect at the Memphis branch

68
00:05:49.480 --> 00:05:56.439
of the Tennessee Children's Home Society.
Southerners were horrified that something like this could

69
00:05:56.480 --> 00:06:00.120
happen in their own backyard. Surely, they thought, with Tan's death and

70
00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:06.120
the sordid nature of her actions exposed
societies most vulnerable would never again be exploded

71
00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:12.759
on such a scale. But they
were wrong. Over in Georgia, word

72
00:06:12.839 --> 00:06:16.680
was now getting around that doctor Hicks
could arrange a discreet way for his pregnant

73
00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:20.959
patients to adopt their babies out to
loving families. He had lined up himself

74
00:06:21.240 --> 00:06:28.600
with privacy guaranteed and minimal fuss.
He was already performing abortions, so this

75
00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:32.560
seemed to many women a legitimate way
to solve the embarrassing or financially stressful problem

76
00:06:32.879 --> 00:06:39.040
of an unplanned pregnancy, and it
was an option for those women who didn't

77
00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:45.199
want a baby but were personally opposed
to abortion. Doctor Hicks arranged temporary housing

78
00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:48.600
for some of the expectant mothers for
several months. He also covered their medical

79
00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:53.879
costs and care during their stay at
either his farm, the New York Hotel

80
00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:58.240
on Copper Hill, Tennessee, or
in his apartments in the Telephone Company building.

81
00:06:59.800 --> 00:07:02.360
Time came for women to deliver.
Doctor Hicks got on the phone to

82
00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:06.199
prospective parents, but none of them
were vetted the way they are today.

83
00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:12.199
After giving the new parents only twenty
four hours to get to Mccaysviell, doctor

84
00:07:12.279 --> 00:07:15.120
Hicks sold the newborns for anywhere from
eight hundred dollars to up to ten thousand

85
00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:21.040
dollars ten thousand to one hundred and
twenty thousand today. The usual amount was

86
00:07:21.079 --> 00:07:25.439
said to be around one thousand,
which is about twelve thousand, six hundred

87
00:07:25.480 --> 00:07:30.560
today, according to the Atlanta Journal
Constitution. Some babies even went for as

88
00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:34.319
low as one hundred dollars twelve hundred
today. It's not known how much,

89
00:07:34.439 --> 00:07:40.399
if anything, was paid directly to
the birth mothers. Parents couldn't choose the

90
00:07:40.439 --> 00:07:43.560
gender, but if you could pay, you could get yourself a baby.

91
00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:48.360
Doctor Hicks arranged a falsified birth certificate
which would be forwarded several weeks later,

92
00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:54.279
naming the adoptive parents as the birth
parents, with the birth occurring in Mccaysviell.

93
00:07:54.639 --> 00:07:59.720
No questions asked. Doctor Hicks knew
he had to minimize any paper trail,

94
00:08:00.199 --> 00:08:03.959
so he didn't keep any records of
the birth mothers or families linking them

95
00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:07.959
to their adoptive families out of state, no medical records, and no accurate

96
00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:13.720
county court records of the births would
ensure the entire operations was kept under wraps.

97
00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:18.519
The doctor's mo also prevented any birth
mothers from changing their minds about giving

98
00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:22.759
up their babies. With no documents
filed through a court to prove the adoption

99
00:08:22.839 --> 00:08:28.199
had occurred, they had no rights. Despite how traumatizing this must have been

100
00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:33.720
for many of doctor Hicks's patients.
Some women gave birth multiple times at the

101
00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:43.919
clinic. I'm going to pause now
for a short commercial break. While many

102
00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:48.679
of the women knew they were giving
up their babies for adoption once they had

103
00:08:48.679 --> 00:08:52.759
delivered, it wasn't always this way. In a situation where it's hard to

104
00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:58.679
see that altruism was the sole motivator
and not money, doctor Hicks began taking

105
00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:03.879
infants from mothers who didn't want to
give up their babies at all. After

106
00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:07.200
these newborns were delivered, they were
whisked away and the dazed mother was told

107
00:09:07.240 --> 00:09:13.039
her child was stillborn. Meanwhile,
a couple who assumed the baby wasn't wanted

108
00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:18.159
was waiting out back of the clinic
to take their new baby home. Expectant

109
00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:24.519
mothers who very much wanted their children
and trusted Doctor Hicks were lied to Doctor

110
00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:28.919
Hicks didn't flaunt what was happening behind
closed doors. Locals put two and two

111
00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:33.519
together, but didn't ask questions about
what seemed to be an open secret.

112
00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:39.120
Women arrived from out of town in
cabs and even by plane. Pregnant teens

113
00:09:39.159 --> 00:09:43.519
and young women from wealthy Southern families
arrived in mccayswell at all hours of the

114
00:09:43.559 --> 00:09:48.559
day and night to see the doctor. It wasn't unusual to see limousines parked

115
00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:52.919
in the clinic's back alley. But
in December nineteen sixty four, operations at

116
00:09:52.919 --> 00:09:58.159
the Hicks clinics started to wind down. This wasn't due to the illegal adoptions,

117
00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:01.960
which were really more transactions being conducted
literally out of the back door.

118
00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:07.240
Doctor Hicks was instead arrested for performing
an abortion on a young woman from Cobb

119
00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:11.960
County. In return for the charges
being dropped, the doctor agreed to surrender

120
00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:18.320
his Georgia medical license. According to
the AJAC, some believed the arrest was

121
00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:22.519
orchestrated by other doctors who were jealous
of how well off doctor Hicks was.

122
00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:26.799
By this time, the years passed, and by the early nineteen nineties,

123
00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:33.039
a woman in Akron, Ohio named
Jane Blasio was on a mission. Since

124
00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:35.919
the age of six, Jane had
known she was adopted. As a teen,

125
00:10:37.320 --> 00:10:39.519
she didn't ask too many questions,
but she knew that one day she

126
00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:45.240
had to find out more about where
she came from and hopefully her birth family.

127
00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:50.200
As a teenager, Jane had found
an imbordered baby pillow in her attic.

128
00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:54.440
It had her name and her birth
date as January fifteenth, nineteen sixty

129
00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:58.120
five, but Jane had always been
told her birthday was December sixth, nineteen

130
00:10:58.159 --> 00:11:03.879
sixty four. Her birth date was
backdated to December nineteen sixty four to avoid

131
00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:09.519
any repercussions for doctor Hicks, who
had continued to practice even though he had

132
00:11:09.559 --> 00:11:13.840
surrendered his medical license in nineteen eighty
eight. Following the death of her mother,

133
00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:18.639
Jane's father told her the story of
how she came to join the family.

134
00:11:20.039 --> 00:11:24.159
After losing a child at birth and
being turned down by local adoption agencies,

135
00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:28.000
her parents bought Jane's older sister,
Michelle, from the Hicks clinic in

136
00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:31.480
nineteen sixty one. Michelle was sold
for eight hundred dollars plus the cost of

137
00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:35.960
a new outfit for her birth mother. Jane followed a few years later,

138
00:11:37.639 --> 00:11:41.799
she was sold for one thousand,
but with her original birth certificate falsified,

139
00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:46.720
there was no way for Jane or
any other Hicks Babies, as they came

140
00:11:46.759 --> 00:11:52.080
to be known, to trace birth
families the usual way. Legitimate adoption agencies

141
00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:56.639
turned down Jane's parents because her mother
had been previously divorced. Then they heard

142
00:11:56.679 --> 00:12:01.600
about the Hicks Clinic from a relative
who had purchased a baby. To get

143
00:12:01.639 --> 00:12:07.279
help with her birth records, Jane
sought the assistance of Fannin County Probate Judge

144
00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:13.720
Linda Davis. Together they uncovered around
fifty birth records between nineteen fifty five and

145
00:12:13.799 --> 00:12:18.360
nineteen sixty four, where the registered
birth of place was mccayswell, but the

146
00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:24.519
parent's usual address was Akron, a
twelve hour drive away. This made no

147
00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:30.080
sense and suggested that something illegal had
definitely occurred. In nineteen sixty alone,

148
00:12:30.519 --> 00:12:35.240
six of the fifty babies born in
Fannin County, just over ten percent were

149
00:12:35.240 --> 00:12:39.960
sold through the clinic to out of
state families. Judge Davis eventually uncovered records

150
00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:43.840
of at least two hundred infants born
at the clinic and handed out the rear

151
00:12:43.879 --> 00:12:48.519
of the premises into the waiting arms
of their new families that averages out to

152
00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:54.080
just over one baby a month.
They often wore little more than a diaper,

153
00:12:54.519 --> 00:12:58.480
came with no supplies, and were
still covered in Vernex, the waxy

154
00:12:58.519 --> 00:13:03.960
white substance found coding the skin of
newborn babies. Georgia Superior Court records confirmed

155
00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:09.720
that none of the babies had been
adopted through the appropriate legal channels. But

156
00:13:09.799 --> 00:13:13.080
how did so many babies end up
in Ohio and how did their adoptive families

157
00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:18.240
find out about doctor Hicks. Forty
nine of the two hundred babies were sold

158
00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:22.360
to couples from Summit County, Ohio, through a woman only known as Ruth.

159
00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:28.240
Ruth had grown up in Mcaysville and
her family knew doctor Hicks. She

160
00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:33.919
later moved to Ohio, where she
worked for west Akron Goodrich and bought four

161
00:13:33.960 --> 00:13:37.759
babies of her own through the clinic. As words spread around Akron that people

162
00:13:37.799 --> 00:13:41.799
wanting a baby could get one from
Georgia for the right price, Ruth became

163
00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:48.120
the facilitator. Prospective parents contacted the
clinic, putting their names on a waiting

164
00:13:48.159 --> 00:13:52.039
list and waiting by the phone for
doctor Hicks's call. Forty seven of the

165
00:13:52.039 --> 00:13:56.039
Summit County babies went to homes where
the father worked for the Akron Tire company.

166
00:13:56.679 --> 00:14:01.440
The remaining two newborns were sold to
a doctor in the Ohio city of

167
00:14:01.639 --> 00:14:07.759
Cayuga Falls. As words spread to
prospective parents, couples from eleven states,

168
00:14:07.080 --> 00:14:13.200
including Arkansas, New Jersey, Oregon, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and

169
00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:18.320
Pennsylvania contacted doctor Hicks to arrange the
purchase of a newborn. According to The

170
00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:24.120
New York Times, Judge Davis believes
most of the adoptive families were not rich,

171
00:14:24.200 --> 00:14:28.799
but working class. Ruth later refused
to discuss her involvement in what happened.

172
00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:33.519
If she was alive today, she'd
be one hundred and four, so

173
00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:39.159
she's likely passed away given how often
the adoptions were happening in such a small

174
00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:43.879
town. Some later wondered whether doctor
Hicks himself had fathered some of the children,

175
00:14:45.559 --> 00:14:48.519
but there's no evidence to suggest this
occurred. And don't forget it was

176
00:14:48.600 --> 00:14:54.200
common for doctor Hicks's obstetric's patients to
come from out of state and interstate.

177
00:14:54.759 --> 00:15:01.440
Jane Blasio made multiple trips to mcaswell
and search for answers. She suspected it

178
00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:07.480
would be difficult to get information and
was met with complete stonewalling. People didn't

179
00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:11.120
want to talk, much less entertained
the thought of their beloved former doctor's reputation

180
00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:16.720
being besmirched when he wasn't even alive
to defend himself. It became clear that

181
00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:22.840
doctor Hicks was a man of contradictions
who wore different masks depending on who Jane

182
00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:28.039
talked to. Some claimed the doctor
couldn't have possibly made a profit, even

183
00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:35.080
he was covering medical and accommodation costs
for his patients and their babies. I'm

184
00:15:35.080 --> 00:15:41.200
going to pause now to hear a
word from today's sponsor. There's nothing like

185
00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:46.000
a good family mystery, especially one
with as many twists and turns as June's

186
00:15:46.039 --> 00:15:50.159
Journey. June's Journey is the number
one hidden object game in the world,

187
00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:54.159
with a captivating detective story taking you
back to the glamour of the nineteen twenties.

188
00:15:54.440 --> 00:15:58.720
With a diverse cast of characters,
Each new scene takes you further through

189
00:15:58.759 --> 00:16:03.080
a thing thrilling murder mystery story that
sets the main protagonist, June Parker,

190
00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:07.320
on a quest to solve the murder
of her sister and uncover her family's many

191
00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:12.679
secrets. Engage your sense of observation
to find hidden clues, search for hidden

192
00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:17.960
objects from the parlors of New York
to the sidewalks of Paris. Escape to

193
00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:21.840
a bygone age of mystery, danger
and romance, and build your very own

194
00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:26.559
island estate with expansive gardens and beautiful
buildings. I am now in chapter ten,

195
00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:30.360
where we boarded a train to Italy
on the trail of a killer.

196
00:16:30.759 --> 00:16:33.480
I can't wait to see where this
leads me. Can you crack the case?

197
00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:42.480
Download June's Journey for free today on
iOS and Android. In nineteen ninety

198
00:16:42.519 --> 00:16:48.080
seven, twenty five years after doctor
Hicks's death, the ugly truth was about

199
00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:52.840
to get extremely uncomfortable for those who
had held him in such high esteem.

200
00:16:52.200 --> 00:16:57.480
News of Jane's investigative work went public
in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Akron Beacon

201
00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:02.720
Journal, and the New York Times. Times. Calls started flooding into Judge

202
00:17:02.759 --> 00:17:07.279
Davis from those who thought they could
be one of the Hicks babies. Many

203
00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:11.839
of the stunned townsfolk felt that doctor
Hicks's actions had not only saved lives,

204
00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:17.599
but helped prospective parents who did give
their adoptive babies good homes realize a dream

205
00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:21.960
they thought would never come true.
Obviously, doctor Hicks was dead by this

206
00:17:22.119 --> 00:17:26.119
time, but so were many who
could have provided answers about what went on,

207
00:17:26.519 --> 00:17:30.920
including former nurses, his secretary,
lawyer, and much of his family.

208
00:17:33.240 --> 00:17:37.640
His surviving granddaughter, Sally Sumpyrac,
claims to not know anything specific about

209
00:17:37.640 --> 00:17:41.720
what occurred and rejects the assertion that
it was a black market adoption operation,

210
00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:47.319
but she's supportive of Jane Blazio's quest
to help others find their birth families.

211
00:17:48.319 --> 00:17:51.680
With no records left behind at the
clinic, there was little to go on,

212
00:17:52.319 --> 00:17:56.240
but this didn't stop the genetic testing
phase of Jane's work from kicking off.

213
00:17:56.359 --> 00:18:02.279
Jane became a professional investigator and expert
and black market adoption. With the

214
00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:07.079
help of Judge Davis, she established
mccaswell's Lost and found a confidential registry and

215
00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:12.400
support group for those connected to the
former Hicks clinic. She continues to dedicate

216
00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:18.079
much of her life to facilitating the
connection of other Hicks babies with their birth

217
00:18:18.119 --> 00:18:25.000
families where possible. In twenty seventeen, Jane identified her own birth father.

218
00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:30.160
His name is Herbert Kruse, and
he had died in twenty ten. However,

219
00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:33.680
her birth mother's identity remains elusive.
It was believed her mother could have

220
00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:37.319
been Kitty Goss, who died in
nineteen eighty seven at age thirty eight.

221
00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:42.880
Kitty was the oldest of nine children
and lived in poverty. In the mid

222
00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:48.200
nineteen sixties, she gave up two
babies for adoption. DNA testing involving her

223
00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:55.839
son Jamie revealed an inconclusive link to
Jane. Jane's advocacy work as not about

224
00:18:55.880 --> 00:19:02.000
seeking financial restitution, disrupting anyone's life, or said out to violate anyone's privacy.

225
00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:06.200
It's simply giving people back the right
to connect the dots about their medical

226
00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:11.559
history, a right taken away by
someone who many believe benefited financially from the

227
00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:18.640
circumstances. In twenty nineteen, a
six part documentary about the Hicks babies and

228
00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:23.319
Jane's search for answers, entitled Taken
at Birth, aired on TLC. Two

229
00:19:23.400 --> 00:19:29.799
years later, Jane released her memoir
of the same name. Many people in

230
00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:33.799
mccaysville and the adoptive parents are still
alive and staunch in their support of doctor

231
00:19:33.880 --> 00:19:41.359
Hicks. In twenty fourteen, then
Mayor Thomas Sebolt told the AJC quote,

232
00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:45.240
everyone accepted that it happened in this
town and they just rather let it go

233
00:19:45.319 --> 00:19:51.440
on. They maintain he provided a
much needed service during a time when reproductive

234
00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:56.880
rights and healthcare were largely underground.
They argued that the babies born and sold

235
00:19:56.920 --> 00:20:00.680
through the clinic went on to grow
up in loving homes with family who wanted

236
00:20:00.680 --> 00:20:04.960
nothing but the best for their children. And this last part is undoubtedly true.

237
00:20:06.599 --> 00:20:08.680
Many of the women who gave birth
at the clinic, truly wanting to

238
00:20:08.680 --> 00:20:11.960
give their child a chance at a
better life, felt they made the right

239
00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:18.200
decision at that moment in time.
But there's no getting away from the fact

240
00:20:18.519 --> 00:20:23.400
that doctor Hicks also coerced, confused, and scared vulnerable young women who were

241
00:20:23.400 --> 00:20:30.759
on the fence about adoption into surrendering
their babies. These women may very well

242
00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:33.599
have wanted to make it work,
despite the stigma of being a single mother

243
00:20:34.119 --> 00:20:41.000
or the financial challenges of expanding an
existing family. We can't forget that doctor

244
00:20:41.079 --> 00:20:45.000
Hicks also lied and stole from other
mothers, mothers who were told that their

245
00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:52.880
babies, who were very much alive
were still born. This completely contradicts the

246
00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:57.759
narrative by some locals that the doctor
didn't perform any services that weren't requested by

247
00:20:57.759 --> 00:21:03.880
a patient. Doctor Hicks went to
great links to prevent people from ever being

248
00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:08.680
able to trace their birth families for
something as straightforward as medical history was he

249
00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:14.920
motivated by profit or charity while hoping
to break even in the fees he charged.

250
00:21:15.640 --> 00:21:19.720
We'll probably never know. The pain
and trauma doctor Hicks cause to generations

251
00:21:19.720 --> 00:21:26.279
of families are undeniable, and many
argue this is not negated by the overall

252
00:21:26.400 --> 00:21:30.519
level of care he provided to the
broader community. It's doubtful he was the

253
00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:36.880
only physician in the South risking being
stripped of their medical license for providing access

254
00:21:36.920 --> 00:21:41.480
to safe abortions, but it's unlikely
these other doctors went to the links he

255
00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:48.680
did in deceiving and exploiting patients.
Jane Blasio continues to advocate for open adoption

256
00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:55.359
and increased safeguards for all parties involved. To date, about fifteen of the

257
00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:59.960
Hicks babies have found their birth parents
thanks to DNA testing and Jane's help.

258
00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:06.359
Along with the other Hicks babies,
seven birth mothers have also come forward,

259
00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:11.920
but time is running out for those
who are still desperate for answers. The

260
00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:17.279
DNA testing occurred in twenty fourteen and
Tennessee and thirty people turned up from all

261
00:22:17.319 --> 00:22:22.119
across the country. Ancestry dot Com
agreed to analyze their DNA for free.

262
00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:27.200
Previous testing was conducted in nineteen ninety
seven, but potential matches were limited due

263
00:22:27.200 --> 00:22:33.799
to technology at the time. Jane
originally said in nineteen ninety seven of Hick's

264
00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:40.160
actions, the villain is the circumstance. Today, on her website it appears

265
00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:45.160
she takes a stronger position by saying
Doc Hicks was no saint, and we

266
00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:48.680
recognize his dysfunction, the pain he
caused many and have learned to bear it.

267
00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:56.160
Will probably never know how many babies
were sold by doctor Hicks. The

268
00:22:56.200 --> 00:23:03.240
complexities and complications of his legacy continued
to affect hundreds of people today, not

269
00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:07.920
just the Hicks babies themselves, but
their adoptive families and those supporting them in

270
00:23:07.960 --> 00:23:12.720
their journey toward restoration. Indeed,
many may still not know they were ever

271
00:23:12.759 --> 00:23:18.319
adopted through the clinic, if at
all. And then, of course,

272
00:23:18.359 --> 00:23:22.920
there are those who discovered the circumstances
of their adoption but have since passed away

273
00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:30.279
without ever knowing the real story behind
taking their first breath in Mccaysville. If

274
00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:33.279
you or someone you know may be
connected to the Hicks Clinic and is looking

275
00:23:33.319 --> 00:23:37.440
for assistance and support in their search. You can reach out to Jane Blazio

276
00:23:38.039 --> 00:23:47.160
at Janeblazio dot com. Southern frid
True Crime is hosted and produced by me

277
00:23:47.480 --> 00:23:52.480
Erica Kelly. Today's episode was researched
and written by Jima Harris. Southern Fred's

278
00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:56.599
original music is by Rob Harrison of
Gamma Radio and the original graphic art is

279
00:23:56.599 --> 00:24:00.440
by Coley Horner. Today's episode was
edited and made by Brandon schock Snyder of

280
00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:06.119
Southern Gothic and Erica Kelly. If
you have any case suggestions, please go

281
00:24:06.160 --> 00:24:08.839
to my website and click on the
listener's suggestion tab. This is the best

282
00:24:08.839 --> 00:24:11.799
way for me to get those little
known cases, y'all always send me.

283
00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:18.680
Please remember that I do not accept
suggestions on social media private messages, but

284
00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:22.839
please come join our Facebook group,
Southern Fred True Crime Fans Discussion Group,

285
00:24:22.079 --> 00:24:27.400
where we swap recipes, worship Dolly
Parton, and share memes. We do,

286
00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:32.000
of course discuss true crime, not
just Southern Fried, but all kinds,

287
00:24:32.359 --> 00:24:36.240
but it is still very much a
Southern lifestyle group. Our group is

288
00:24:36.279 --> 00:24:37.839
a safe and fun corner of Facebook, and by God we mean it when

289
00:24:37.880 --> 00:24:41.119
we say no shit ass is allowed. It's not just a motto, it's

290
00:24:41.160 --> 00:24:45.000
how we run the group. If
you enjoy today's show, don't forget to

291
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:48.960
subscribe and please tell a friend or
rate and review. I'm also on all

292
00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:55.400
large platforms like iTunes, iHeart,
Stitcher and now Amazon and Audible. Until

293
00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:57.759
next time, thanks so much for
listening. Y'all, take care,