Jerry Summers
In a previous article we discussed the Tennessee Adoption Scandal that originated in Memphis and involved a high-price adoptions criminal enterprise led by Georgia Tann.
On a much smaller scale, a similar adoption scandal that also included illegal abortions occurred in the small towns of Copperhill, Tennessee and McCaysville, Georgia area between 1950 and the early 1960s.
Thomas Hicks was born on October 18, 1888 and received his medical degree from the Emory University, Atlanta, in 1917.
As a county doctor serving the two mining communities on the Tennessee-Georgia state lines, Dr. Hicks had a Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde existence.
His Dr. Jekyll persona as the congenial and friendly county doctor also included the performing of illegal abortions when young couples made a “mistake” and did not want to have a child or get married.
This practice was tolerated by the community and he normally was allegedly paid about $100 to perform the illegal practice.
Dr. Hicks was “considered a cornerstone in the Copperhill-McCaysville community where he served as the town doctor”.
In treating some unwed mothers or women wanting to terminate their pregnancy, Hicks would pay special attention and would help them to stay at a hotel down the street from his clinic. He would also convince them to carry the baby to full term on the pretense that he would find good adoptive parents and provide the child with a good home.
However, he had another objective in urging the babies to be born and would often tell the natural mother that the child was still born and was deceased at birth. Dr. Hicks would then sell the babies for $800 to $1,000 each and would provide a forged birth certificate with the adoptive parents on the documents. No reference was made of the real mother.
He soon developed a clandestine reputation of a physician who could provide a baby for adoption. It was reported that at least 49 of the babes were sold to couples in the Akron, Ohio area.
During the 1950s-early 1960s, he allegedly sold more than 200 newborn children through his Hicks Community Hospital in Cooperhil-McCaysville.
In spite of the illegal practices of selling babies and performing abortions in the two states, he was never charged criminally with either of these offenses. However, he was found guilty of illegally selling narcotic pain killers and income tax invasion and severed time in federal prison.
In 1964 he surrendered his medical license for performing an illegal abortion.
He died - apparently of leukemia - at the age of 83 on March 5, 1972. The secret of the baby-for-sale scandal lay pretty much unknown until around 1997. Since then and with the successful development of DNA evidence, many adopted babies now in their 50s-70s have been able to reconnect with their natural parents.
Known as the “Hicks Babies,” several have been able to find out the truth about their past. It has come too late for others as their real parents have died.
The television program “Nightline” spoke with several people who have found out they were Hicks Babies and assisted them to provide DNA samples with the genealogy website Ancestry.com. It has the capacity to compare over 700,000 DNA matches “using the latest advanced technology.” Some matches were successful, others were not.
Thus, the legacy of Dr. Thomas Hicks remains an unanswered mystery of many residents in the dual border towns of Copperhill-McCaysville. Numerous Google sites display heart wrenching stories about this unfortunate period in both small towns' histories.
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Jerry Summers
(If you have additional information about one of Mr. Summers' articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future Chattanooga area historical piece, please contact Mr. Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com
Dr. Thomas Hicks