THE GREAT ATLANTA BABY TANGLE
On May 22, 1919, in the gloomy, overcrowded maternity ward at Atlanta's Grady Hospital, Sallie Pittman and Dossie Garner each had a baby daughter. There was no reason to notice the arrival of two new "Grady babies," born to simple women, wives of working men, living just south of downtown. That changed, however, when Mrs. Garner got the fixed notion that her baby had been switched in the Grady nursery. These two women soon became the principals in a bitterly fought drama the whole nation would know as "the Great Atlanta Baby Tangle."
This was long before "science," and folks turned to astrologers, mentalists, and quacks, without success. Then, tragedy compounded mystery when one of the infants died during the Spanish flu pandemic. As in the Bible, one mother now claimed, "My daughter liveth, thy daughter is dead." Would a Fulton County judge take up Solomon's sword?
This is a quick, little book, 70 pages, but the remarkable tale of The Great Atlanta Baby Tangle is told here for the first time. Together with its amazing sequel in 1936, it can truly be argued that "No case in the South has ever attracted such attention."
About Tom Hughes (Atlanta, Georgia Author)
For four decades, Tom Hughes was a morning radio newsman in Atlanta, primarily at WGST Newsradio. In 2010, he was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame. He resides in Virginia Highland.
In retirement, he has written a series of books about sensational events in Atlanta's past. His newest is THE BEAST OF THE CANDLER BUILDING, a collection of six previously untold stories, including an alleged plot to blackmail Mayor and cola millionaire Asa Candler; how the reaction to the hiring of a black clerk in the Post Office made Atlanta appear "ridiculous," and the story of the city's richest heiress, 16 year old Silvey Speer, who ran off with her daddy's chauffeur. The book is exclusively available at Amazon.com.
His previous books are RICHGEORGIAN STRANGELY SHOT (Macfarland, 2012), HANGING THE PEACHTREE BANDIT (History Press, 2014), and THE GREAT ATLANTA BABY TANGLE, a forgotten story of a baby mixup at Atlanta's iconic public hospital. (Amazon, 2019)
