February 18, 2025 • 58 mins
Ever tried squeezing a wriggling, fur-covered bundle of energy into a pair of tiny dog boots? We sure have, and it’s only the beginning of our frosty adventure from the snowy landscapes of Minnesota and Alaska to the sunlit shores of the Cayman Islands. We kick things off by sharing the comical chaos of winter pet care, setting the stage for a laughter-filled episode. Inspired by our listeners, with a nod to Richard Marsh from Cornwall, we lighten things up with hilarious listener-submitted stories and share a sneak peek of our new segment, "Medical Mishaps," promising giggles in the midst of our typically intense discussions.
Brace yourself for the wild and wacky world of John Brinkley, a name synonymous with the outrageous medical quackery of the early 20th century. What do electric medicine scams, syphilis museum exhibits, and colored water injections have in common? They're all part of Brinkley's bag of tricks, concocted alongside his partner in crime, James Crawford. As we trace the tangled web of Brinkley's personal life and his bold escapades, you'll be both amused and astounded by his audacity. This bizarre chapter in medical history is a testament to the quirky characters who thrived in an era eager for easy cures.
Our tale crescendos with Brinkley's infamous goat gland surgery, a procedure as peculiar as it sounds. Imagine choosing your own goat for a so-called rejuvenating surgery! With charismatic marketing, Brinkley lured patients nationwide, intertwining music and medicine in a way never seen before. Just as his media empire, fueled by hillbilly tunes and border blaster stations, reached its zenith, the expose by Morris Fishbein brought it crashing down. Through Brinkley's rise and fall, we explore a transformative moment in American history, reminding us of the enduring power of storytelling and the dangerous allure of pseudoscience.
Don't miss a (heart) beat! Check out our Instagram @doctoringthetruthpodcast and email us your Medical Mishaps at doctoringthetruth@gmail.com. Join us on Facebook at Doctoring the Truth, and TikTok @doctoring the truth. Don't forget to download, rate, and review so we can keep bringing you more exciting content each week!
Stay safe, and stay suspicious...trust, after all, is a delicate thing!
Don't forget to check out these fantastic discounts from our sponsors:
Visit www.shimmerwood.com for an exclusive 30% off with our discount code STAYSUSPICIOUS
20% Off Strong Coffee Company https://strongcoffeecompany.com/discount/STAYSUSPICIOUS
www.handful.com for 30% off with our code STAYSUSPICIOUS
www.standshoes.com for 15% off any product with our code STAYSUSPICIOUS
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello Amanda, how are you?
Hello, I am just thawing outhere.
It's been, as you know, warmerin Alaska, like Alaska's, like
the beach vacation one wishesfor when you're in Minnesota
(00:24):
this time of year.
Am I right?
We'd be the ones in shorts Like, oh my gosh, it's not 23 below.
Oh, wow, linda, yeah, oh, shame, I feel bad for the puppies
(00:54):
because their feet get so coldand mine refuse to wear.
I mean, it is the funniestthing in the world when you try
to put boots on your dogs.
Have you tried that?
Yeah, there's no pooping.
That's going to be happeningwhen they're worried about their
feet being encased in littlepuppy boots.
So what?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
are you going to?
Speaker 1 (01:12):
do.
I do want to ask you one thing,though why do we live here?
Yeah?
yeah and he says, um, yep,that's right, that's the way to
(01:40):
do it escape.
Yeah, right, do it Escape.
Yeah, right, yeah, you go tothe Caymans and it's like,
unexpectedly, 80 degrees inMinnesota.
I mean, it's happened.
I, yeah, that's true, that'strue, you need, you need to go
(02:02):
to Africa.
Yeah, if you're a wuss, well, Ijust, we're just so thrilled to
bring you episode 4.
I think we both have a coupleof shout outs.
I'll start.
I wanted to shout out to afriend of the podcast named
(02:25):
Richard Marsh, in Cornwall,england.
He suggested that we lighten upthe end of the episodes,
because I don't know if youlistened to episode three, but
that was particularly heartwrenching.
I mean, they're all bad news,right, but he said, you know, if
you could lighten it up withsome fun listener stories, we
could have a segment that'scalled Medical Mishaps, and so
(02:47):
that's what we're going to.
We're going to try.
So we want you to send yourdear listeners, send in your
stories for our amusement to ourGmail account,
doctoringthetruth at gmailcom,and we'll read your stories for
everyone's enjoyment.
Think of it as a palatecleanser, because the content we
cover can be so disturbing anddepressing.
So who doesn't need a littlelight comic relief.
(03:10):
So starting next week we'll bereading your mishaps and
hopefully laughing with you andnot at you.
So thank you, Richard.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Hello, hello, hello, I'm good, how are you?
Hmm, yeah, yeah, you know,actually an Alaskan cruise might
(03:45):
be kind of nice right now.
Getting sunburned, what?
Yeah, it's so cold, and my dogtoday still wanted to take her
sweet time.
One time we went out and I waslike, listen, linda, it's so
(04:05):
cold, let's go Tell your friends, tell your yes.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Tell all your friends Paul.
Well, this week's episode'snumber four I know they walk so
funny and it's entitled.
I'm particularly proud of thistitle, guys.
Yeah, yeah, it's cold, it'sjust great balls of liar.
It's an outrageous account ofquackery.
(04:33):
And so we begin.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
You know, yeah, there's usually a couple weeks
every winter that I ask myselfthat I can't shout this book
enough.
And then I ask my husband whyare we not doing Cayman Islands
right now?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
This man, is such an artiste when it comes to
wordsmithing.
I highly recommend it.
His name is Pop.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
He says we got to book it, let's book it.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
That's very different from Pop Pope.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Brock, how would we ever land on the cold week,
though?
You know this would be the weekCharlat, the week Charlton.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Sandwiched, we'd go on the nice week.
The man who pursued him and theage of flim flam Remaining
sources will be cited in ourshow notes.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
And it can be really chilly in the.
Caymans.
This time of year the windcoming off the ocean is kind of
chilly.
I mean, 70 is definitely nicerthan what we have here, but it
feels chilly.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
A group of well-dressed dignitaries about
to view a salacious sampling ofthe underworld.
Picture them as they approach amajestic fortress of a hospital
, resplendent with ornatefurnishings, chandeliers and, of
course, a prominent portrait ofthe great surgeon himself.
A gracious hostess and headnurse.
(05:48):
The wife of the prestigioussurgeon ushers in the visitors.
They file into theastonishingly sizable surgical
suite, lining the wall and watchas the patient is wheeled in on
a gurney.
The wife preps the patient'sprivates and the surgeon
solemnly enters arms upheld.
(06:08):
In the interest of not sullyinghis gloves, he parks himself on
a stool and gives his wife anod.
She leaves while all,especially the prone patient,
wait with bated breath, shereturns and brings in the GOAT.
Yeah, folks, you heard it, youheard it a goat.
And we're not talking about theacronym greatest of all time.
(06:31):
What I just described to you isa scene as if made for thank
you richard for sharing that Ithink that is such a great idea.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I can't wait to hear the stories that people will
hopefully send in and I do thinkthat would be a great way to
end, because you're right,Richard that was.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
That last one was rough, oh no, so if we had a
funny story to end on, thatwould be perfect and my shout
out goes to my cousin.
Paul, we had cousin Paul.
We had a little familybreakfast last weekend and he
(07:08):
said he was listening to ourpodcast and I don't know why
that seemed so unexpected to me,but I was like, oh, no, I know
right.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So thank you for listening and supporting our
podcast, paul.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I didn't know you were a true crime fan.
I love it.
Completely ineffective at best.
There are many reasons whyquackery flourished in this era,
not the least of which was alack of medical regulation
Before the 1906 Pure Food andDrug Act no laws required
quackery to be used in safe oreffective ways.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
This allowed for the mass production and sale of fake
cures.
I know drum roll you guys thisis hilarious.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
This allowed for the mass production and sale of fake
cures, often containing harmfulingredients like alcohol, opium
or mercury.
Patent medicines and miraclecures were widely advertised and
promised to cure everythingfrom tuberculosis to quote
female troubles, end quote.
These were sold in newspapers,traveling medicine shows, mail
order catalogs and more so.
Here's some examples DrKilmer's swamp root was a
(08:16):
supposed cure for kidney andliver problems, and it was made
up almost entirely of alcohol.
Made up almost entirely ofalcohol, if you didn't right.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
If you didn't have them before, you're going to
have them after Dr.
Colmer's Swamp Root.
Here we go, sultry.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
This next one.
I love pink pills for palepeople.
This claimed to treat anemiaand nervous disorders, but had
no proven effects.
And then there was LydiaPinkham's vegetable compound,
which sounds tame, but it wasmarketed as a health tonic for
women, and it was just a mix ofherbs and alcohol.
Right Then there were thedevices that promised healing
(09:02):
through electricity andmagnetism.
Playing on the public'sfascination with new technology,
electropoise was a device thatsupposedly restored vitality by
passing electrical currentsthrough the body, like you stick
your finger in the socket andyou get immediate rejuvenation
or death.
(09:23):
I mean one or the other, justtake your pick, choose adventure
.
I love that.
Thank you for that.
Um, there were magnetic beltsand corsets that were meant to
be worn to increase circulationand energy, with no real medical
benefit.
And that's funny because I, nottoo long ago, I remember
(09:44):
watching advertisements aboutbelts that vibrated, that was
supposed to just melt away bodyfat.
So I don't know how far we'vecome since then.
We're still doing it.
Yeah, yeah, um, but alongsidethis there were more dangerous
(10:11):
radioactive cures.
Before the dangers of radiationwere understood, radium was
marked as a health booster.
Can you imagine?
Oh, I, I imagine like anadvertisement in that time would
read something like you'll beglowing in no time.
Because, because, because, yeah, I know so radium water was
(10:36):
offered as a bottled drink andsold as an energy booster, which
obviously led to cases ofradium poisoning.
Radium, oh, it gets worse.
Radium suppositories and creamswere marketed for virility and
beauty and claimed to cure manyother ailments.
Some alternative medicalmovements gained popularity
(11:01):
despite any scientific proofwhatsoever.
So this included theuncomfortable proposition of
colonic cleansing, which I feellike that kind of stuck around
for a while.
Right, I mean, you remember,like I can remember reading
about, like caffeine, coloncleansing and like all these
(11:23):
other things, like you go to aspa and you can get I mean,
that's not my idea of a sparetreat or relaxing whatever but
um, somehow that gainedpopularity.
Okay, but decades before this,at the 1893 world's fair in
chicago, a man dressed as acowboy.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
oh okay, dozens of rattlesnakes, a little
counterproductive there.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
He called what came out of them snake oil, and thus
birthed the public's acceptanceof the cure-all.
Quacks often traveled from townto town, putting on elaborate
shows to sell their miraclecures.
Sure, these were often lacedwith alcohol or opium, which
made people feel better, buttemporarily, and had no
long-term health benefits, whilealso lightening their wallets
(12:09):
considerably.
So the early 1900s thatfollowed, produced a culture of
derision towards the highlyeducated.
so much so that in America, itseemed that the public embraced
quackery and incompetence.
The common man was exalted tothe point where all but three
state governments repealedlicensing requirements for
(12:29):
doctors.
This shocked me.
I did not know this, did you?
They actually had licensingrequirements in place and then
repealed them.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Choose your adventure , stick your finger in.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
You have to have a license to practice medicine.
Uh, lemuel shattuck, aneducator tasked by the state of
massachusetts to conduct amedical survey of the state,
reported back.
Anyone, male or female, learnedor ignorant, an honest man or a
knave can assume the name ofthe physician in practice upon
anyone to cure or to kill, aseither may happen, without
(13:06):
accountability.
Hey, it's a free country.
End quote.
I don't think the results ofthis deregulation.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I see videos online right now of people standing on
some square situation in theircloset and it shakes.
We've moved from a belt to aplatform.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Thank you.
Our chart note today is aboutthe birth of endocrinology,
because this relates to ourstory the development of
endocrinology.
The roots of endocrinology dateback to ancient times, when
physicians speculated about theinfluence of bodily fluids on
health and behavior, times whenphysicians speculated about the
(13:46):
influence of bodily fluids onhealth and behavior.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
However, the science oh for sure that's such a sad
story in the late 19th and early20th centuries, the so-called
gland craze.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Did you know there was?
I didn't know there was a glandcraze.
There was apparently a glandcraze we missed out of the early
1900s, and that was fueled bydiscoveries in endocrine science
, particularly the role ofglands in regulating bodily
functions.
Pioneers such asCharles-Edouard Brown-Siqual, a
19th century physician whoexperimented with gland extracts
(14:17):
, famously injecting himselfwith animal testicle extracts to
restore vitality, significantlyadvanced the field of
endocrinology.
Although his methods wereunproven, they inspired a wave
of research into the endocrinesystem and the potential of
hormone therapy.
In the early 20th century,researchers such as Ernest
(14:39):
Starling and William Baylissidentified secretin, the first
known hormone, which led to adeeper understanding of the
chemical messengers in the body.
The work of Joseph Monmeringand Oskar Minkowski identifying
the role of the pancreas indiabetes further solidified the
(14:59):
importance of glands in humanhealth.
By the 1920s, endocrinologyemerged as a legitimate science
and a discipline, though itremained poorly understood by
the general public.
During this period, the ideathat glandular extracts could
rejuvenate the body becamepopular, especially among quack
(15:20):
doctors, who exploited thepublic's fascination with
longevity and virility.
Quack doctors, who exploitedthe public's fascination with
longevity and virility this wasthe environment in which
Brinkley thrived, using thelanguage of endocrinology to
lend credibility to hisfraudulent procedures.
Despite the lack of scientificevidence to support such claims,
his goat gland transplantprocedures played into the
growing belief that replacing orstimulating gland function
(15:43):
would restore youth and health.
So let's introduce Dr JRBrinkley.
No, john R Brinkley was born onJuly 8th 1885 in Beta, north
Carolina and had a humbleupbringing.
His early life was marked byhardship following the death of
his mother when he was five.
(16:04):
Raised by an aunt, brinkley hadlimited formal education but
displayed an early interest inmedicine.
Determined to become a doctor,he attended the Eclectic Medical
College of Kansas City, knownfor its unconventional medical
teachings.
He briefly attended medicalschool but never graduated.
Instead, he purchased a diplomafrom a diploma mill, the Kansas
(16:27):
City Eclectic MedicalUniversity, which allowed him to
practice medicine despitelacking real qualifications.
Charmed note your face isturning red.
You're already getting mad.
We just started.
Um, right, uh.
(16:49):
Before dropping out of medicalschool, he married a woman named
sally, and the two of them tookto the road traveling and
acting out little plays thatultimately resulted in the sales
of whatever snake oil john wasproffering.
His wife got tired of hisantics and the fact that he
drank himself out of school andshe left with their children.
But then, yeah, go, sally.
(17:11):
No, it's right, sally, you'reright.
They never properly divorced,though.
She comes up later.
But Brinkley returned toChicago in 1913.
And this sounds like abeginning of a bad joke, but he
met a one-armed man in a bar.
That's not nice, I shouldn't belaughing.
(17:33):
But he met a one-armed man in abar.
He became his willingaccomplice.
That man's name was JamesCrawford, and the two set about
advertising virility and takingtheir snake oil solutions on the
road.
On the road again.
Brinkley's old boss and mentor,dr Burke, ran a syphilis museum
(17:55):
in Knoxville, tennessee.
I just have to take a pausehere.
There were such things assyphilis museums.
Did you know that, syphilismuseums?
Did you know that?
Yeah, so they would take these,uh, really shocking displays of
, like, what happens to peoplewith varying degrees of syphilis
, the different stages ofsyphilis, like they did it to
(18:17):
mannequins obviously, and thenwould would take it to various
places and then end up likeshowing them well, but if you
have this miracle cure, youwouldn't have to look like this
mangled mannequin.
It was just horrible.
But I mean, what else?
There was, no, there was nointernet, no, nothing.
You know, it was entertainment,right?
Um, okay, so the syphilismuseum that, uh, dr bur Burke
(18:43):
ran was a place where customerswould come and they'd be awed
and disgusted as they viewed themannequins in the various
stages of the disease, ending ina lecture about the miracle
cures that, had the unwittingvictims been aware those
mannequins could avoid theatrocities on display in the
museum.
(19:07):
Play in the museum, brinkley andCrawford sought counsel with
Burke and learned the ropes tothe extent that Brinkley would
often use Burke's name once hewent back on the road again to
gain purchase with creditors.
So that allowed them access todrugs, furniture, clothing and
to continue promoting the fadfor healing with electricity.
So electricity wasn't that old,so that was like.
That was like the, the mystery,you know, newfangled thing that
(19:28):
was lighting up, literallylighting up society.
So to rope that into cures wassomething that people would
easily believe, because theynever believed that electricity
could have been a thing to beginwith.
So these two espouse theability to reinvigorate the most
deflated male ego.
Ego, or was it okay?
(19:50):
Uh, ego and ran advertisementsin local newspapers like are you
?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I just wish you guys could see my face sometimes
guess what they could fix that.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
So, yep, that gentleman, who in question, who
would read that ad, would thenpitch up at the fly-by-night
office of burke and crawford tobe interviewed and determined
that if they had the obligatory25 which is 857 in today's money
, by the way right then theissue could be resolved
expediently.
And then dr blakely wouldinject water subsidized by food
(20:26):
coloring into the buttocks ofthe hopeful, claiming that it
was electric medicine so thisguy's just injecting red food
dye into somebody's butt andit's like guess what life's
going to be better now.
Give me that 857.
I mean right.
(20:51):
Mm-hmm well, we certainly don'tget that for a hearing test.
Oh my goodness, yeah, but ifyou think that that single shot
is going to fix your maritalproblems and make you, you know,
younger, but why do they thinkthat?
(21:13):
I don't know, they were justcharmed.
I mean, obviously these guyshad some charisma and some
showboating that was going on.
No, I didn't.
More believable than not, Iguess.
So they would do this unbridledfor many months, until the
summer, and then they would likehitch a ride and hastily bid
(21:35):
their farewells.
So you know.
So basically, they do it untilthey things started to catch up
to them.
Maybe the red butted men of thewintertime returned in the
summer and were like you knowwhat this ain't working, I guess
.
(21:55):
All I got was a little redtattoo on my rear end.
Anyway, so they escaped toMemphis where Brinkley met
Minerva Talitha Jones, oh,minnie.
Oh, that's such a greatgranny's name.
It wasn't Her last name, wasn'tJones, was it?
Okay, that's name?
(22:17):
It wasn't her last name, wasn'tJones, was it?
Okay, that's joking.
Okay, minnie, she went byMinnie.
She was 21 and she was thedaughter of a prominent local
physician.
She liked dancing and she metBrinkley at a dance on a
riverboat in the summer of 1913.
I can just picture it All theboat, yeah, so all the white
dresses and the boating hats.
And anyway, right, they marriedat the old Peabody hotel, or
(22:43):
should I say Peabody hotel inMemphis.
Uh, four days after meeting.
Okay, well, you know, not thelongest right, Not the longest
engagement.
Um, I want to spoil theirmarriage day or their wedding
day.
So he neglected to tell anyonethat he was actually still
married, but he did let theinformation out on their
(23:06):
honeymoon.
Whoops, minnie was theforgiving type, but course not
so much.
He was enraged, understandablyso.
Then the greenville sheriffappeared.
Usually this wouldn't have beenan interstate affair, but given
(23:29):
that brinkley and crawford hadburned many hot and irritated
bridges behind them, the sheriffwas ready to exact revenge for
the humiliation caused by theduo.
So Brinkley was arrested andtaken to Greenville, where he
was charged with forgery andpracticing medicine without a
license.
Soon afterwards, brinkley did abrief stint in the military,
but he was kicked out for beingin the sick bay too often and
(23:50):
being an unreliable soldier.
One fateful day, when he and hisnew bride were down on their
last dollars, he discovered anadvertisement in a local
newspaper for a generalpractitioner to take over a
practice in Milford Kansas.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I'm sitting here thinking $857 in today's money.
I can't imagine paying thatmuch for something In October
1917.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
On the edge of town, Brinkley stopped to read about
the fact that.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Welcome to Milford.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Not even half 200.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
And this is just for a single shot in the booty.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Minnie reportedly broke down in tears.
I cannot blame the sister, Iguess, I guess, but they were in
it now.
So they rolled up their sleevesand they vowed to make the best
of things.
They rented two rooms and theyopened an office in front, one
for the clinic and one to sleepin.
It was a struggle, and Minniehad to do things like rent out
(24:44):
her services as a midwife, andit was still a financial
struggle.
But one day a 46-year-oldfarmer named Bill Stitsworth
appeared at the clinic.
Pope, the author of Charlatan,the book where most of this
comes from, described Bill as abig featured, unshaven man in a
crumpled hat.
(25:05):
His visit didn't seem like itwould result in the- my shot
hasn't kicked in.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Has your shot kicked in?
Speaker 1 (25:12):
There's something wrong with me.
Stitsworth said when he wastaking a seat yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Though look at me you wouldn't judge it.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
I do.
Uh, there's something wrongwith me when it's said when he's
taking a seat.
Though, look at me, youwouldn't judge it.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
I do look husky, don't I?
Oh, minerva, that was mygreat-great-granny's name.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
What a farmer from Kansas sounds like.
But you know, bear with me so.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Brinkley nodded, stroking his goatee as the
author knew no, no, no, I'm allin.
No, no, no, she is marked safefrom this story.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
I'm a flat tire Bless .
So finally, with some coaxing,he was ready to spill the tea
about his erectile dysfunction.
Both men gazed uncomfortablyout the clinic window watching
livestock graze in the field.
Too bad, I don't have billygoat nuts.
(26:00):
The farmer remarked.
Farmer watching the goatshappily humping with reckless
abandonment.
What a scene.
Brinkley closed his eyes andconsidered shaking his head when
you know, you know you know,sensing a shift in possibilities
, begged and pleaded, accordingto brinkley.
Of course, some sources say thatbrinkley offered stittsworth
money for stitsworth's guineapiggery.
Regardless of which version ofthe story is true, though, it
(26:20):
still happened.
So, since it was an experimentthat neither man nor ethnicity
for Stitsworth slipped into theclinic several days later, in
the middle of the night,brinkley took out testicles and
patched them into Stitsworth'sfamily jewels, and 15 minutes
(26:42):
later the patient was pronouncedcured and sent home.
Several days later, the goatwas out of the bag and word
spread that the farmer wore apermagrin and his wife was
forever satisfied.
So soon others came for themiracle surgery that ensured
virility.
I'm telling you this story isthe reason why I started this
(27:03):
podcast, because I just can'tbelieve stuff like this actually
happened.
All right.
So, despite lacking scientificbacking, several patients
flocked to his clinic in Milford.
Brinkley leveraged hispersuasive skills and glowing
testimonials to attractwidespread attention.
Though medically dubious, theoperation brought him immense
(27:26):
wealth and celebrity status, andat the peak of his career
Brinkley was earning millions,proving that marketing could
sometimes trump medicine.
At first, brinkley used goatssourced from a clinic but demand
skyrocketed and people werecoming from all over the country
eager to undergo his bizarreoperation.
Brinkley needed more goats, andhe needed them fast, this is
(27:54):
Right.
So he started buying goats inbulk from livestock auctions,
bringing in truckloads to keepup with demand.
He was careful about the breedhe preferred Toggenberg's and
Sainin's Swiss breeds known fortheir vitality and their humpy
energy.
He marketed these goats asparticularly potent, claiming
(28:17):
they would impart extra vigor tohis patients.
I just can't, I just can't.
Oh man, my dad's gonna listento this.
Okay, hi, john, uh.
Brinkley understood the powerof storytelling.
By associating certain goatbreeds with specific traits, he
made his treatment feelpersonalized and scientific,
(28:39):
even though it was completepseudoscience.
Then came Brinkley's mostaudacious marketing move he
started letting patients picktheir own goats.
I mean you know they're going toget up and personal in a guy's
biz, you know you want to makesure you connect right.
(29:00):
So, at the peak of his practice, patients were allowed to walk
through his pens and choose thegoat that they believed would
give them the most vitality,vitality I just can you picture
these poor men walking throughman man and just looking at
(29:22):
these goats and being like, um,dude, I think I want your.
I mean, no, it's just horrible.
So, anyway, but brinkley playedit up.
Well, I mean, he had somebodyhe had to drop out because he
was too busy drinking andwhatnot.
So, yeah, no, he didn'tgraduate.
He didn't graduate.
Uh, he didn't have a license.
Um, well, first of all, thepatients were not anesthetized,
(29:52):
it was just a local anestheticand then he would just chippity,
chopchop and shuppity-shove.
Sometimes it would be the wholegoat testicle and sometimes
there would just be like slicesof it that would, supposedly he
decided would migrate to wherethey needed to go.
It wasn't, yeah, no, and hiswife would sew them up.
So she had no trainingwhatsoever.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
My jaw is on the floor.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
And we'll we'll learn later some of this, some of
what happened here as a resultof this so-called surgery.
But he did and I don't think Italk about it later, but he did
after he started getting realpopular with this, you know, new
business venture, he went backto school particularly this, to
(30:37):
study surgery.
But, um, his and I think he wasauditing this medical school
and he got kicked out of thatbecause he just didn't attend
enough and the professor wasquoted as saying, like um, dude,
you need to get your lifetogether and like, maybe worry
about your education more thanyour alcohol.
So it seems like he had someconflicts of interest there that
(31:01):
kept him.
But, um, okay, so yeah,absolutely no, no training or
right or scientific evidence I'mthinking like byog.
He kept telling people you know,if you feel a certain spark,
that could be the right goat.
You know that could be the goatfor you.
Uh, and that was geniusmarketing.
By letting patients choosetheir own goats, he made them
(31:24):
feel like they were part of thehealing process, like they were
selecting the source of theirown rejuvenation.
so this gave the operation asense of agency and control,
which is a powerfulpsychological effect.
So it's almost like insinuatingif you, if it doesn't go well,
well that's on you.
You didn't pick the right goat,you know, hi John.
(31:45):
So of course the choice waspure theatrics.
I mean, the procedure was thesame, no matter what goat they
picked, and it was just asdangerous.
Patients suffered severecomplications, infections and
sometimes death, but sometimesdeath.
But of course, frankly, keptthese stories quiet, driving
them out with glowingtestimonials and relentless
advertising, because alsoremember, this one looks like a
(32:08):
good one.
Guys aren't gonna go.
Well, you know I can't, I can'tperform.
And you gave me this miraclesurgery and I still can't
perform because it makes themfeel Wow, it's almost like the
emperor's new clothes, you know,it's like look at these
beautiful garments.
If you can't see them, thatmeans you're stupid, you know.
Meanwhile he's strutting aroundin the nude.
(32:29):
Okay, so let's see.
Eventually, brinkley's demandfor goats became so great that
he set up contracts withregional goat farmers ensuring a
constant supply, and heemployed remind me also.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
This brinkley character traveled to midwest.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
No medical buying goats at auctions and bringing
them back to milford kansas ohyeah, okay spectacle.
I almost said it became a test.
Oh yeah, sure, sure, sure sureit's like my mind is in the
wrong.
It became a spectacle.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Trucks I'm thinking that actually would take some
local skill or knowledge cominglong before you saw it so you
could smell it too?
Speaker 1 (33:09):
uh well, of course not.
Brinkley didn't just sell aprocedure, he sold a fantasy.
By letting men pick their owngoats, he made them believe they
were choosing their destiny andrenewal.
It was smoke and mirrors, butit was so effective.
Brinkley understood humanpsychology better than most
doctors of his time.
He knew people wanted tobelieve in miracles and he made
his goat gland procedure feelmagical.
It wasn't just surgery, it wasan experience.
(33:31):
But, dear listeners, the magicdid not last.
In 1930, morris Fishbein and theAmerican Medical Association
(33:51):
launched a campaign to exposeBrinkley as a fraud.
They published testimonies fromvictims who suffered horrific
complications and challenged thelegitimacy of his medical
license.
Eventually, brinkley's empirecollapsed, but the image of
hopeful men walking through goatpens searching for a cure that
never existed stayed in thepublic memory, a testament to
(34:13):
the power of belief and thedangers of medical quackery.
Brinkley performed thousands ofsurgeries, often charging
exorbitant fees for whatamounted to little more than
placebo procedures.
His techniques were highlyunorthodox.
Rather than employing sterilesurgical environments, he
sometimes conducted operationsin rooms that failed to meet
basic medical standards.
(34:34):
The procedure involved makingan incision in the scrotum and
inserting a small slice of goattesticle tissue which is
something I thought I'd neversay and Brinkley claimed would
seamlessly integrate with thehuman body.
However, the reality was farfrom his promises.
Many patients developedgangrene, severe infections and
long-term complications.
(34:55):
Yet due to Brinkley'spersuasive charm and the placebo
effect, many still reportedinitial improvements,
reinfection and discredibility.
Brinkley also experimented onwomen, claiming that goat ovary
transplants could enhancefertility and restore youth.
These procedures, too, werebased on little more than
speculation and marketingtactics, and yet they drew in a
(35:17):
steady stream of hopefulpatients.
As his wealth and reputationgrew, so did his ability to
deflect criticism.
At least for a time, I wasfeeling run down and low on
energy, but after seeing DrBrinkley I felt like a new man
More pep, more vigor, thanks tohis goat gland treatment.
These testimonials werepowerful.
(35:37):
In an era before rigorousmedical regulations, word of
mouth and personal stories weregold.
Brinkley knew that hearinganother man's success story
would convince thousands to tryhis cure.
But not every testimonial was aglowing endorsement.
Behind the marketing werecountless untold stories of pain
, regret and loss oh, thankgoodness failures.
(36:11):
The truth is that many mensuffered severe infections,
chronic pain and worse.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
But these stories never made it to the airwaves.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
One of the most haunting testimonies came from
the family of a man named HarryChandler.
Chandler sought out Brinkleyhoping to regain his lost
vitality, but the surgery led toa severe infection.
His condition deteriorated andhe died just weeks later.
His family was devastated andfurious.
They spoke out warning othersabout the dangers of Brinkley's
procedures.
Family members were quoted assaying they promised him a
(36:44):
second chance at life.
Instead, they took him from us.
I wish he'd never heard of thatman.
But stories like Chandler's wereburied under Brinkley's
avalanche of positivetestimonials.
He was careful about whichvoices he amplified and which he
silenced.
He also used testimonials tobuild his image as a beloved
public figure.
He presented himself as acaring doctor who genuinely
(37:06):
wanted to help people.
He even played testimonialsfrom women who praised him for
curing their husband's quoteweakness and saving their
marriages.
My husband was tired anddistant, but after seeing Dr
Brinkley he's back to his oldself.
Our marriage is stronger thanever.
Thank you, doctor.
These stories weren't justtestimonials, they were
(37:26):
narratives.
They created a fantasy of hopeand transformation, convincing
men and their families to spendthousands of dollars on a
dangerous, unproven procedure.
But for every glowingendorsement there were hidden
tragedies.
In 1932, after Brinkley losthis medical license, more
patients came forward revealinghorrific complications gangrene,
(37:48):
impotence and excruciating pain, and some reported losing their
livelihoods due to lingeringhealth issues reported losing
their livelihoods due tolingering health issues.
Morris Fishbein, editor of theJournal of AMA, as we mentioned,
he exposed those stories,revealing the dark side of
Brinkley's empire.
In his scathing articles,fishbein pulled testimonials
from victims and their families,breaking Brinkley's carefully
(38:09):
constructed illusion.
Fishbein knew that the only wayto fight Brinkley's
testimonials was withtestimonials of his once made
him rich, now contributed to hisdownfall.
Testimonials can be powerfulboth for building and destroying
reputations.
In Brinkley's case, they werehis greatest weapon and his
ultimate undoing.
His story reminds us of thepower of words and the
(38:31):
importance of questioning whatwe hear, even when it's spoken
from the heart.
Some of his former patientslater testified against him in
court, detailing horrific sideeffects from his so-called
rejuvenation operations.
In many cases, the insertedgoat tissue rotted inside the
body, leading to deadlyinfections.
Yet Brinkley's skill in publicrelations kept the negative
(38:52):
press at bay for many, manyyears.
In fact, brinkley's medicalempire was built on more than
just surgical procedures.
He was a master of masscommunication, recognizing the
power of radio.
In the 1920s he launched KFKBKansas First, kansas Best, one
of the earliest commercial radiostations, and through his
(39:14):
broadcasts he promoted hiscontroversial procedures,
advertised patent medicines andeven dispensed medical advice
over the airways.
His folksy charm and ability toconnect with the everyday
American made him a householdname.
He pioneered an early form ofinfomercial radio, blending
entertainment with promotion andattracting thousands of new
(39:34):
patients.
His radio station also featuredcountry music, farm reports and
religious programming, creatinga community that trusted him
implicitly.
You're tuned to KFKB Kansas'finest, bringing you music,
medicine and a whole lot ofmiracles.
And reading about this, I meanthis was really revolutionary,
because it kind of reminds me ofthe age of the Internet,
(39:57):
because there weren't anyregulations about what could be
on the air or what kind ofcontent would be out there.
There was no filter, there wasnothing.
So, um, he literally had somuch money, he just built this
(40:21):
massive radio tower, plucked upa station and started talking.
Almost sometimes it was 15hours of content a day.
Can you imagine, um, right, soso he would fill the airwaves
with music, entertainment,health advice, but then he ran a
(40:41):
segment called medical questionbox and listeners would write
in with their symptoms and hewould prescribe treatments for
them, including, obviously, hisown branded medicines over the
air.
Yeah, so we all know I we allknow that this is fraught with
issues but also just to say, hecreated his own supposed
(41:06):
medicines that he patented, andhe wouldn't call them what they
were, he would number them.
He'd be like number 40, so thatnobody could like just
replicate it.
And number 40 would probably belike arsenic and a little, a
little, yeah, a little, yeah, alittle dash of alcohol, a little
session of you know paprika orsomething.
And so, um, he would say, well,you need to rush to your
(41:28):
nearest pharmacy and getBrinkley's miracle cure number
50.
And um, so, I know, um.
But in spite of all of this,what made kfkb stand out was the
music.
He hired musicians to performlive on his station.
They weren't polishedorchestras, they weren't.
They were folk musiciansplaying fiddles, banjos and
(41:51):
guitars.
It was the music of ruralamerica, which people back then
called hillbilly music.
And to his surprise, the musicwas a hit.
Farmers, ranchers and small townfolks across the Midwest tuned
in daily, brinkley realized hetapped into something big, a
deep cultural vein thatmainstream radio had ignored.
He began broadcasting more liveperformances featuring local
(42:14):
talent like Fiddler Fiddlin',john Carson and bands playing
traditional ballads, gospeltunes and dance numbers.
These shows were among thefirst to bring rural folk music
to national audience, which laidthe groundwork for what we know
as today's country music.
Brinkley didn't just popularizehillbilly music, he legitimized
(42:34):
it by putting it on the radio.
He turned a regional, oftenstigmatized style of music into
a national phenomena.
But his ambitions didn't stopthere, because when Fishbein and
the AMA figured out a way toshut him down because of his
medical suggestion box, theyshut down his license to
(42:56):
broadcast.
So then he figured out oh well,guess what?
I can go to Texas, right on theborder, and actually get a
staggering 1 million watts tobroadcast my radio station, not
just in the Midwest but in theentire United States.
So this guy loses his licenseand his broadcasting license in
(43:17):
Kansas, moves to Del Rio, texas,and builds a new station called
XERA, and they called it theborder blaster, yeah, and so he
circumvented all the regulationsand continued his and actually
broadened his lucrative medicalempire.
Xera's powerful signal reachedas far north as Canada and as
(43:41):
south as South America.
It was the most powerful radiostation in the world and
Brinkley used it to promote hisdubious cures and, of course,
hillbilly music.
Broadcasting from Villa Acuna,mexico, it's Zira, the voice of
the continent, bringing you thebest in music, news and health.
Zira introduced countlesslisteners to artists like the
(44:04):
Carter family and Jimmy Rogers,who would go on to become
country music legends.
The station became a culturalforce, spreading the sound of
rural America across thecontinent.
Ironically, while Brinkley'smedical empire was built on guys
the airwaves, he brought ruralmusic to urban audiences and
help shape American popularculture.
In 1930, brinkley bid forpolitical power, running for
(44:27):
governor of Kansas as a write-incandidate, because, I mean, you
know, celebrities, running foroffice isn't a new thing, right,
yep, yep.
His campaign was fueled by hisradio influence and promises of
economic prosperity and healthcare reform.
Despite his medicalcontroversies, he nearly won,
(44:50):
demonstrating his profoundinfluence over the public.
It was widely believed that hewould have won if it had not
been for a last minutelegislation that dictated that
the writing candidates nameneeded to be J, period, r,
period, brinkley, and nothingshort of that.
So if somebody wrote JohnBrinkley or J Brinkley, that
wouldn't have been counted, soyeah.
So if somebody wrote JohnBrinkley or Jay Brinkley, that
wouldn't have been counted, soyeah.
(45:10):
So I mean, but for a writingcandidate to be that close, he
probably should have won, right?
So after that his empire beganto collapse.
His medical license was againrevoked and lawsuits from
disgruntled patients started topile up.
The Federal Radio Commissionhad shut down KB, as we know,
but the AMA, led by MorrisFishbein, intensified his
(45:33):
campaign against him.
Brinkley's fortunes dwindled andhe was eventually found guilty
of mail fraud in 1941.
So the mail fraud was tied tohow he used to bounce his signal
to Kansas and then actuallybroadcast from Kansas.
So he was doing some.
I know he was super cleveranyway.
(45:56):
Yeah, I know.
Yeah, don't mess with the USPS,right?
Folks, who is this?
Morris Fishbein?
As the Journal of the AmericanMedical Association editor,
fishbein saw Brinkley for whathe was.
He knew he was a fraud and hewanted.
(46:18):
They called him the.
What do they call him?
The quack buster.
He didn't want, he wanted toprotect the vulnerable.
Um, and brinkley was just oneof those untouchables with money
power in his own media empire.
So basically, fishbine made ithis lifelong mission to to get
(46:40):
him to nab him.
Um fishbine was born in stlouis, missouri, in 1889, when
the medical field was teemingwith snake oil salesmen and
dubious cures, as we talkedabout those patent medicines
that we talked about, that werefilled with alcohol and I'm like
from this whole story so far,you were found guilty of mail
fraud.
Well, so-called doctors offeredtreatments that were more
(47:00):
dangerous than the diseasesthemselves.
So in 1924, fishbein became theeditor of the journal of the
american medical association, orjama, and so that position gave
him an influential platform.
So he didn't waste any timeusing it.
He launched a full-scaleassault on all quacks, frauds
and charlatans, exposing them inthe pages of jama with biting
(47:22):
wit and relentless scrutiny, andaddressing the advertisements
of the time, such as this onefeeling tired, lost that spark,
visit Brinkley's clinic forrejuvenation treatment.
Like no other, youth is just agoat gland away.
It sounds absurd now, but backthen people were desperate and
(47:43):
Brinkley was charismatic.
He used his radio station toadvertise his quack cures.
He became that media mogul anda millionaire.
But he wasn't just sellingfalse hope.
His procedures were dangerousand, as we talked about, led to
infections, complications anddeaths.
But people believed him inspite of all this.
So Fishbine knew he was upagainst powerful forces,
advertisers, manufacturers andeven some in the medical
(48:05):
community who profited from thefake remedies.
But he never backed down andhis efforts weren't in vain.
By exposing dangerous quacksand promoting evidence-based
medicine, fishbein helped pavethe way for stricter regulations
on medical advertising and drugapproval, protecting countless
people from harmful treatments.
But he knew he needed astrategy.
(48:25):
So he began meticulouslycollecting evidence, those
testimonies from victims,medical records and even
interviews with doctors who hadtreated Brinkley's failed
surgeries.
He built a case, piece by piece, determined to expose the truth
.
For months Fishbein followedBrinkley's movements, attending
his public lectures, gatheringhis pamphlets and ads.
He studied Brinkley'sbroadcasts, taking notes on his
(48:48):
outrageous medical claims.
Fishbein was patient andstrategic.
He stalked Brinkley like apredator circling its prey, and
then he wrote article afterarticle naming names and shaming
fraudsters.
He took on giants like HarryHoxie, who sold herbal cancer
cures without a shred ofscientific evidence.
He was fearless.
(49:09):
He wasn't just debunking falseclaims, he was fighting for the
integrity of medicine itself.
He understood that public trustwas the foundation of medical
science.
Fishbein's crusade wasdangerous, though.
He faced lawsuits, threats andintense backlash.
Hoxie sued him for libel notonce but twice, and although
Fishbein lost one of the cases,he refused to be silenced.
(49:30):
Instead he doubled down,continuing his fight against
medical fraud until hisretirement in 1950.
In 1930, fishbein published ascathing expose in the Journal
of American Medical Association,calling Brinkley a charlatan
and labeling his goat glandprocedure as the quackery of the
most vicious sort.
It was a public declaration ofwar.
(49:52):
Furious Brinkley sued Fishbeinfor libel.
It was a bold move, but thatwas also his fatal mistake,
because the trial became a mediacircus.
Brinkley strutted into thecourtroom confident and defiant,
but Fishbein came prepared,armed with his mountain of
evidence.
He systematically dismantledBrinkley.
Strutted into the courtroomconfident and defiant, but
Fishbein came prepared, armedwith his mountain of evidence.
He systematically dismantledBrinkley's defense, exposing his
(50:13):
lack of medical credentials andthe bogus nature of his
treatments.
Under cross examination,brinkley admitted he never
graduated from any accreditedmedical school and Fishbein
revealed that Brinkley'spatients often suffered severe
complications and sometimes diedfrom his procedures.
The judge ruled in Fishbein'sfavor, declaring that Brinkley
was a charlatan in the ordinary,well-understood meaning of the
(50:36):
word, which I thought was aninteresting way to say that the
verdict destroyed Brinkley'sreputation.
He lost his medical license,wealth and eventually his radio
station.
Fishbein didn't just defeatBrinkley, he sent a message to
every would-be quack in AmericaHis legacy is a testament to the
power of science, truth andpersistence.
But the victory came at a cost.
(50:58):
Brinkley never forgave Fishbeinand he blamed him for his
financial ruin.
Fishbein spent his final yearsfighting lawsuits, facing
bankruptcy and battling illness.
He died penniless.
But his victory over brinkleywas more than personal.
It was a turning point inmedical history.
It set a legal precedent thatquackery would not be tolerated,
(51:22):
and it paved the way forstricter medical advertising and
licensing regulations.
It was a battle of fact versusfraud, and fact won.
That doesn't often happen thesedays.
He showed that truth andscience must always come before
profit and deception.
And today, as we navigate anage of misinformation and
(51:45):
miracle cures which are stillsold online, fishbein's story is
more relevant than ever.
So, in conclusion, john RBrinkley's life was a paradox.
He was both a visionary and acon artist, a pioneer in radio
and a fraud in medicine.
His rise and fall underscorethe power of persuasion and the
dangers of medicalmisinformation.
His legacy is a cautionary taleabout the intersection of media
(52:06):
, medicine and regulatoryoversight.
His story continues to be asignificant chapter in the
history of medical fraud, areminder that even the most
charismatic figures must be heldaccountable for their actions.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
Wowzers, that was such a wild story.
That was such a wild story andI wasn't expecting it to like
take that turn from medicalprocedures and whatnot to oh,
now we have a whole ass radiostation and oh, we're in trouble
in Kansas, so screw it.
(52:42):
So head on down over to Mexico.
Don't know why I whipped outthat accent, Sorry.
And now we're reaching whippedout that accent, Sorry.
And now we're reaching up toCanada and South America, and
yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
I mean, it seemed like he was unbeatable at every
point.
It was like downtrodden andthen it got worse.
So if he hadn't been shut downin Kansas, he wouldn't have been
able to broadcast to basicallythe entire continent, like all
the americas they were like wegot him, and then they're like
now he's worse, he's reachingmore people.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
Yeah, well, you did a really good job.
Thank you for sharing that.
I've never heard of this quackbefore well, we'll put um.
Speaker 1 (53:24):
there's also a really um like indie documentary made
about this where it's likeanimated partially and partially
.
Uh, I think the author makes umthe author of the book that I
keep referencing documentary towatch, but also the book is just
so well-written so there's somuch more detail.
(53:51):
I was telling Amanda I couldhave talked all week about this,
so I tried really hard not tomake this a two-patter.
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Two-patter.
She thought it was going to bea two-patter.
Good job you did well.
Yeah, you still yeah, youcovered the whole story and you
did it in one.
Look at you, go girl.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
Look at me, we're learning.
So, amanda, what can ourlisteners expect to hear next
week?
Speaker 2 (54:16):
Yeah, so next week you'll be hearing about a little
slime ball who earned himselfthe nickname Dr Death.
But no, no, no, not not the drdeath you're thinking of.
Oh no, no, there's another onein town oh no, I know it's not
(54:37):
as light and funny as this one,but it's I so far.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
It's not as heavy as my last one, so yeah okay, you
know if it's all relative, wegot to tell the stories, whether
they're heavy or not.
We'll try and bring some palatecleansers to our listeners.
Speaker 2 (54:51):
Oh, please, please, please, you guys email in those
stories.
What did Richard call them?
Speaker 1 (54:58):
Medical mishaps.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
Medical mishaps.
I'm really looking forward tothat.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
Me too.
I can't wait to hear what youguys have to say.
Speaker 2 (55:09):
Yeah, looking forward to that.
Me too.
I can't wait to hear what youguys have to say.
Okay, so in the meantime, don'tmiss a heartbeat.
Subscribe or follow Doctoringthe Truth wherever you enjoy
your podcast, for stories thatshock, intrigue and educate.
Trust, after all, is a delicatething.
You can text us directly on ourwebsite at doctoringthetruth,
at buzzsproutcom.
(55:29):
Please email us your own storyideas and comments or medical
mishaps at doctoring the truthat gmail.
Be sure to follow us oninstagram and facebook we're on
facebook now, um, at doctoringthe truth, and remember to
download rate review so we cancontinue to bring you quality
(55:49):
content.
Until then, stay safe and staysuspicious.
Goodbye.
Hello Amanda, how are you?
Hello, I am just thawing outhere.
It's been, as you know, warmerin Alaska, like Alaska's, like
the beach vacation one wishesfor when you're in Minnesota
(00:24):
this time of year.
Am I right?
We'd be the ones in shorts Like, oh my gosh, it's not 23 below.
Oh, wow, linda, yeah, oh, shame, I feel bad for the puppies
(00:54):
because their feet get so coldand mine refuse to wear.
I mean, it is the funniestthing in the world when you try
to put boots on your dogs.
Have you tried that?
Yeah, there's no pooping.
That's going to be happeningwhen they're worried about their
feet being encased in littlepuppy boots.
So what?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
are you going to?
Speaker 1 (01:12):
do.
I do want to ask you one thing,though why do we live here?
Yeah?
yeah and he says, um, yep,that's right, that's the way to
(01:40):
do it escape.
Yeah, right, do it Escape.
Yeah, right, yeah, you go tothe Caymans and it's like,
unexpectedly, 80 degrees inMinnesota.
I mean, it's happened.
I, yeah, that's true, that'strue, you need, you need to go
(02:02):
to Africa.
Yeah, if you're a wuss, well, Ijust, we're just so thrilled to
bring you episode 4.
I think we both have a coupleof shout outs.
I'll start.
I wanted to shout out to afriend of the podcast named
(02:25):
Richard Marsh, in Cornwall,england.
He suggested that we lighten upthe end of the episodes,
because I don't know if youlistened to episode three, but
that was particularly heartwrenching.
I mean, they're all bad news,right, but he said, you know, if
you could lighten it up withsome fun listener stories, we
could have a segment that'scalled Medical Mishaps, and so
(02:47):
that's what we're going to.
We're going to try.
So we want you to send yourdear listeners, send in your
stories for our amusement to ourGmail account,
doctoringthetruth at gmailcom,and we'll read your stories for
everyone's enjoyment.
Think of it as a palatecleanser, because the content we
cover can be so disturbing anddepressing.
So who doesn't need a littlelight comic relief.
(03:10):
So starting next week we'll bereading your mishaps and
hopefully laughing with you andnot at you.
So thank you, Richard.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Hello, hello, hello, I'm good, how are you?
Hmm, yeah, yeah, you know,actually an Alaskan cruise might
(03:45):
be kind of nice right now.
Getting sunburned, what?
Yeah, it's so cold, and my dogtoday still wanted to take her
sweet time.
One time we went out and I waslike, listen, linda, it's so
(04:05):
cold, let's go Tell your friends, tell your yes.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Tell all your friends Paul.
Well, this week's episode'snumber four I know they walk so
funny and it's entitled.
I'm particularly proud of thistitle, guys.
Yeah, yeah, it's cold, it'sjust great balls of liar.
It's an outrageous account ofquackery.
(04:33):
And so we begin.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
You know, yeah, there's usually a couple weeks
every winter that I ask myselfthat I can't shout this book
enough.
And then I ask my husband whyare we not doing Cayman Islands
right now?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
This man, is such an artiste when it comes to
wordsmithing.
I highly recommend it.
His name is Pop.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
He says we got to book it, let's book it.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
That's very different from Pop Pope.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Brock, how would we ever land on the cold week,
though?
You know this would be the weekCharlat, the week Charlton.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Sandwiched, we'd go on the nice week.
The man who pursued him and theage of flim flam Remaining
sources will be cited in ourshow notes.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
And it can be really chilly in the.
Caymans.
This time of year the windcoming off the ocean is kind of
chilly.
I mean, 70 is definitely nicerthan what we have here, but it
feels chilly.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
A group of well-dressed dignitaries about
to view a salacious sampling ofthe underworld.
Picture them as they approach amajestic fortress of a hospital
, resplendent with ornatefurnishings, chandeliers and, of
course, a prominent portrait ofthe great surgeon himself.
A gracious hostess and headnurse.
(05:48):
The wife of the prestigioussurgeon ushers in the visitors.
They file into theastonishingly sizable surgical
suite, lining the wall and watchas the patient is wheeled in on
a gurney.
The wife preps the patient'sprivates and the surgeon
solemnly enters arms upheld.
(06:08):
In the interest of not sullyinghis gloves, he parks himself on
a stool and gives his wife anod.
She leaves while all,especially the prone patient,
wait with bated breath, shereturns and brings in the GOAT.
Yeah, folks, you heard it, youheard it a goat.
And we're not talking about theacronym greatest of all time.
(06:31):
What I just described to you isa scene as if made for thank
you richard for sharing that Ithink that is such a great idea.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I can't wait to hear the stories that people will
hopefully send in and I do thinkthat would be a great way to
end, because you're right,Richard that was.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
That last one was rough, oh no, so if we had a
funny story to end on, thatwould be perfect and my shout
out goes to my cousin.
Paul, we had cousin Paul.
We had a little familybreakfast last weekend and he
(07:08):
said he was listening to ourpodcast and I don't know why
that seemed so unexpected to me,but I was like, oh, no, I know
right.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So thank you for listening and supporting our
podcast, paul.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I didn't know you were a true crime fan.
I love it.
Completely ineffective at best.
There are many reasons whyquackery flourished in this era,
not the least of which was alack of medical regulation
Before the 1906 Pure Food andDrug Act no laws required
quackery to be used in safe oreffective ways.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
This allowed for the mass production and sale of fake
cures.
I know drum roll you guys thisis hilarious.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
This allowed for the mass production and sale of fake
cures, often containing harmfulingredients like alcohol, opium
or mercury.
Patent medicines and miraclecures were widely advertised and
promised to cure everythingfrom tuberculosis to quote
female troubles, end quote.
These were sold in newspapers,traveling medicine shows, mail
order catalogs and more so.
Here's some examples DrKilmer's swamp root was a
(08:16):
supposed cure for kidney andliver problems, and it was made
up almost entirely of alcohol.
Made up almost entirely ofalcohol, if you didn't right.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
If you didn't have them before, you're going to
have them after Dr.
Colmer's Swamp Root.
Here we go, sultry.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
This next one.
I love pink pills for palepeople.
This claimed to treat anemiaand nervous disorders, but had
no proven effects.
And then there was LydiaPinkham's vegetable compound,
which sounds tame, but it wasmarketed as a health tonic for
women, and it was just a mix ofherbs and alcohol.
Right Then there were thedevices that promised healing
(09:02):
through electricity andmagnetism.
Playing on the public'sfascination with new technology,
electropoise was a device thatsupposedly restored vitality by
passing electrical currentsthrough the body, like you stick
your finger in the socket andyou get immediate rejuvenation
or death.
(09:23):
I mean one or the other, justtake your pick, choose adventure
.
I love that.
Thank you for that.
Um, there were magnetic beltsand corsets that were meant to
be worn to increase circulationand energy, with no real medical
benefit.
And that's funny because I, nottoo long ago, I remember
(09:44):
watching advertisements aboutbelts that vibrated, that was
supposed to just melt away bodyfat.
So I don't know how far we'vecome since then.
We're still doing it.
Yeah, yeah, um, but alongsidethis there were more dangerous
(10:11):
radioactive cures.
Before the dangers of radiationwere understood, radium was
marked as a health booster.
Can you imagine?
Oh, I, I imagine like anadvertisement in that time would
read something like you'll beglowing in no time.
Because, because, because, yeah, I know so radium water was
(10:36):
offered as a bottled drink andsold as an energy booster, which
obviously led to cases ofradium poisoning.
Radium, oh, it gets worse.
Radium suppositories and creamswere marketed for virility and
beauty and claimed to cure manyother ailments.
Some alternative medicalmovements gained popularity
(11:01):
despite any scientific proofwhatsoever.
So this included theuncomfortable proposition of
colonic cleansing, which I feellike that kind of stuck around
for a while.
Right, I mean, you remember,like I can remember reading
about, like caffeine, coloncleansing and like all these
(11:23):
other things, like you go to aspa and you can get I mean,
that's not my idea of a sparetreat or relaxing whatever but
um, somehow that gainedpopularity.
Okay, but decades before this,at the 1893 world's fair in
chicago, a man dressed as acowboy.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
oh okay, dozens of rattlesnakes, a little
counterproductive there.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
He called what came out of them snake oil, and thus
birthed the public's acceptanceof the cure-all.
Quacks often traveled from townto town, putting on elaborate
shows to sell their miraclecures.
Sure, these were often lacedwith alcohol or opium, which
made people feel better, buttemporarily, and had no
long-term health benefits, whilealso lightening their wallets
(12:09):
considerably.
So the early 1900s thatfollowed, produced a culture of
derision towards the highlyeducated.
so much so that in America, itseemed that the public embraced
quackery and incompetence.
The common man was exalted tothe point where all but three
state governments repealedlicensing requirements for
(12:29):
doctors.
This shocked me.
I did not know this, did you?
They actually had licensingrequirements in place and then
repealed them.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Choose your adventure , stick your finger in.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
You have to have a license to practice medicine.
Uh, lemuel shattuck, aneducator tasked by the state of
massachusetts to conduct amedical survey of the state,
reported back.
Anyone, male or female, learnedor ignorant, an honest man or a
knave can assume the name ofthe physician in practice upon
anyone to cure or to kill, aseither may happen, without
(13:06):
accountability.
Hey, it's a free country.
End quote.
I don't think the results ofthis deregulation.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I see videos online right now of people standing on
some square situation in theircloset and it shakes.
We've moved from a belt to aplatform.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Thank you.
Our chart note today is aboutthe birth of endocrinology,
because this relates to ourstory the development of
endocrinology.
The roots of endocrinology dateback to ancient times, when
physicians speculated about theinfluence of bodily fluids on
health and behavior, times whenphysicians speculated about the
(13:46):
influence of bodily fluids onhealth and behavior.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
However, the science oh for sure that's such a sad
story in the late 19th and early20th centuries, the so-called
gland craze.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Did you know there was?
I didn't know there was a glandcraze.
There was apparently a glandcraze we missed out of the early
1900s, and that was fueled bydiscoveries in endocrine science
, particularly the role ofglands in regulating bodily
functions.
Pioneers such asCharles-Edouard Brown-Siqual, a
19th century physician whoexperimented with gland extracts
(14:17):
, famously injecting himselfwith animal testicle extracts to
restore vitality, significantlyadvanced the field of
endocrinology.
Although his methods wereunproven, they inspired a wave
of research into the endocrinesystem and the potential of
hormone therapy.
In the early 20th century,researchers such as Ernest
(14:39):
Starling and William Baylissidentified secretin, the first
known hormone, which led to adeeper understanding of the
chemical messengers in the body.
The work of Joseph Monmeringand Oskar Minkowski identifying
the role of the pancreas indiabetes further solidified the
(14:59):
importance of glands in humanhealth.
By the 1920s, endocrinologyemerged as a legitimate science
and a discipline, though itremained poorly understood by
the general public.
During this period, the ideathat glandular extracts could
rejuvenate the body becamepopular, especially among quack
(15:20):
doctors, who exploited thepublic's fascination with
longevity and virility.
Quack doctors, who exploitedthe public's fascination with
longevity and virility this wasthe environment in which
Brinkley thrived, using thelanguage of endocrinology to
lend credibility to hisfraudulent procedures.
Despite the lack of scientificevidence to support such claims,
his goat gland transplantprocedures played into the
growing belief that replacing orstimulating gland function
(15:43):
would restore youth and health.
So let's introduce Dr JRBrinkley.
No, john R Brinkley was born onJuly 8th 1885 in Beta, north
Carolina and had a humbleupbringing.
His early life was marked byhardship following the death of
his mother when he was five.
(16:04):
Raised by an aunt, brinkley hadlimited formal education but
displayed an early interest inmedicine.
Determined to become a doctor,he attended the Eclectic Medical
College of Kansas City, knownfor its unconventional medical
teachings.
He briefly attended medicalschool but never graduated.
Instead, he purchased a diplomafrom a diploma mill, the Kansas
(16:27):
City Eclectic MedicalUniversity, which allowed him to
practice medicine despitelacking real qualifications.
Charmed note your face isturning red.
You're already getting mad.
We just started.
Um, right, uh.
(16:49):
Before dropping out of medicalschool, he married a woman named
sally, and the two of them tookto the road traveling and
acting out little plays thatultimately resulted in the sales
of whatever snake oil john wasproffering.
His wife got tired of hisantics and the fact that he
drank himself out of school andshe left with their children.
But then, yeah, go, sally.
(17:11):
No, it's right, sally, you'reright.
They never properly divorced,though.
She comes up later.
But Brinkley returned toChicago in 1913.
And this sounds like abeginning of a bad joke, but he
met a one-armed man in a bar.
That's not nice, I shouldn't belaughing.
(17:33):
But he met a one-armed man in abar.
He became his willingaccomplice.
That man's name was JamesCrawford, and the two set about
advertising virility and takingtheir snake oil solutions on the
road.
On the road again.
Brinkley's old boss and mentor,dr Burke, ran a syphilis museum
(17:55):
in Knoxville, tennessee.
I just have to take a pausehere.
There were such things assyphilis museums.
Did you know that, syphilismuseums?
Did you know that?
Yeah, so they would take these,uh, really shocking displays of
, like, what happens to peoplewith varying degrees of syphilis
, the different stages ofsyphilis, like they did it to
(18:17):
mannequins obviously, and thenwould would take it to various
places and then end up likeshowing them well, but if you
have this miracle cure, youwouldn't have to look like this
mangled mannequin.
It was just horrible.
But I mean, what else?
There was, no, there was nointernet, no, nothing.
You know, it was entertainment,right?
Um, okay, so the syphilismuseum that, uh, dr bur Burke
(18:43):
ran was a place where customerswould come and they'd be awed
and disgusted as they viewed themannequins in the various
stages of the disease, ending ina lecture about the miracle
cures that, had the unwittingvictims been aware those
mannequins could avoid theatrocities on display in the
museum.
(19:07):
Play in the museum, brinkley andCrawford sought counsel with
Burke and learned the ropes tothe extent that Brinkley would
often use Burke's name once hewent back on the road again to
gain purchase with creditors.
So that allowed them access todrugs, furniture, clothing and
to continue promoting the fadfor healing with electricity.
So electricity wasn't that old,so that was like.
That was like the, the mystery,you know, newfangled thing that
(19:28):
was lighting up, literallylighting up society.
So to rope that into cures wassomething that people would
easily believe, because theynever believed that electricity
could have been a thing to beginwith.
So these two espouse theability to reinvigorate the most
deflated male ego.
Ego, or was it okay?
(19:50):
Uh, ego and ran advertisementsin local newspapers like are you
?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I just wish you guys could see my face sometimes
guess what they could fix that.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
So, yep, that gentleman, who in question, who
would read that ad, would thenpitch up at the fly-by-night
office of burke and crawford tobe interviewed and determined
that if they had the obligatory25 which is 857 in today's money
, by the way right then theissue could be resolved
expediently.
And then dr blakely wouldinject water subsidized by food
(20:26):
coloring into the buttocks ofthe hopeful, claiming that it
was electric medicine so thisguy's just injecting red food
dye into somebody's butt andit's like guess what life's
going to be better now.
Give me that 857.
I mean right.
(20:51):
Mm-hmm well, we certainly don'tget that for a hearing test.
Oh my goodness, yeah, but ifyou think that that single shot
is going to fix your maritalproblems and make you, you know,
younger, but why do they thinkthat?
(21:13):
I don't know, they were justcharmed.
I mean, obviously these guyshad some charisma and some
showboating that was going on.
No, I didn't.
More believable than not, Iguess.
So they would do this unbridledfor many months, until the
summer, and then they would likehitch a ride and hastily bid
(21:35):
their farewells.
So you know.
So basically, they do it untilthey things started to catch up
to them.
Maybe the red butted men of thewintertime returned in the
summer and were like you knowwhat this ain't working, I guess
.
(21:55):
All I got was a little redtattoo on my rear end.
Anyway, so they escaped toMemphis where Brinkley met
Minerva Talitha Jones, oh,minnie.
Oh, that's such a greatgranny's name.
It wasn't Her last name, wasn'tJones, was it?
Okay, that's name?
(22:17):
It wasn't her last name, wasn'tJones, was it?
Okay, that's joking.
Okay, minnie, she went byMinnie.
She was 21 and she was thedaughter of a prominent local
physician.
She liked dancing and she metBrinkley at a dance on a
riverboat in the summer of 1913.
I can just picture it All theboat, yeah, so all the white
dresses and the boating hats.
And anyway, right, they marriedat the old Peabody hotel, or
(22:43):
should I say Peabody hotel inMemphis.
Uh, four days after meeting.
Okay, well, you know, not thelongest right, Not the longest
engagement.
Um, I want to spoil theirmarriage day or their wedding
day.
So he neglected to tell anyonethat he was actually still
married, but he did let theinformation out on their
(23:06):
honeymoon.
Whoops, minnie was theforgiving type, but course not
so much.
He was enraged, understandablyso.
Then the greenville sheriffappeared.
Usually this wouldn't have beenan interstate affair, but given
(23:29):
that brinkley and crawford hadburned many hot and irritated
bridges behind them, the sheriffwas ready to exact revenge for
the humiliation caused by theduo.
So Brinkley was arrested andtaken to Greenville, where he
was charged with forgery andpracticing medicine without a
license.
Soon afterwards, brinkley did abrief stint in the military,
but he was kicked out for beingin the sick bay too often and
(23:50):
being an unreliable soldier.
One fateful day, when he and hisnew bride were down on their
last dollars, he discovered anadvertisement in a local
newspaper for a generalpractitioner to take over a
practice in Milford Kansas.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I'm sitting here thinking $857 in today's money.
I can't imagine paying thatmuch for something In October
1917.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
On the edge of town, Brinkley stopped to read about
the fact that.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Welcome to Milford.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Not even half 200.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
And this is just for a single shot in the booty.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Minnie reportedly broke down in tears.
I cannot blame the sister, Iguess, I guess, but they were in
it now.
So they rolled up their sleevesand they vowed to make the best
of things.
They rented two rooms and theyopened an office in front, one
for the clinic and one to sleepin.
It was a struggle, and Minniehad to do things like rent out
(24:44):
her services as a midwife, andit was still a financial
struggle.
But one day a 46-year-oldfarmer named Bill Stitsworth
appeared at the clinic.
Pope, the author of Charlatan,the book where most of this
comes from, described Bill as abig featured, unshaven man in a
crumpled hat.
(25:05):
His visit didn't seem like itwould result in the- my shot
hasn't kicked in.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Has your shot kicked in?
Speaker 1 (25:12):
There's something wrong with me.
Stitsworth said when he wastaking a seat yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Though look at me you wouldn't judge it.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
I do.
Uh, there's something wrongwith me when it's said when he's
taking a seat.
Though, look at me, youwouldn't judge it.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
I do look husky, don't I?
Oh, minerva, that was mygreat-great-granny's name.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
What a farmer from Kansas sounds like.
But you know, bear with me so.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Brinkley nodded, stroking his goatee as the
author knew no, no, no, I'm allin.
No, no, no, she is marked safefrom this story.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
I'm a flat tire Bless .
So finally, with some coaxing,he was ready to spill the tea
about his erectile dysfunction.
Both men gazed uncomfortablyout the clinic window watching
livestock graze in the field.
Too bad, I don't have billygoat nuts.
(26:00):
The farmer remarked.
Farmer watching the goatshappily humping with reckless
abandonment.
What a scene.
Brinkley closed his eyes andconsidered shaking his head when
you know, you know you know,sensing a shift in possibilities
, begged and pleaded, accordingto brinkley.
Of course, some sources say thatbrinkley offered stittsworth
money for stitsworth's guineapiggery.
Regardless of which version ofthe story is true, though, it
(26:20):
still happened.
So, since it was an experimentthat neither man nor ethnicity
for Stitsworth slipped into theclinic several days later, in
the middle of the night,brinkley took out testicles and
patched them into Stitsworth'sfamily jewels, and 15 minutes
(26:42):
later the patient was pronouncedcured and sent home.
Several days later, the goatwas out of the bag and word
spread that the farmer wore apermagrin and his wife was
forever satisfied.
So soon others came for themiracle surgery that ensured
virility.
I'm telling you this story isthe reason why I started this
(27:03):
podcast, because I just can'tbelieve stuff like this actually
happened.
All right.
So, despite lacking scientificbacking, several patients
flocked to his clinic in Milford.
Brinkley leveraged hispersuasive skills and glowing
testimonials to attractwidespread attention.
Though medically dubious, theoperation brought him immense
(27:26):
wealth and celebrity status, andat the peak of his career
Brinkley was earning millions,proving that marketing could
sometimes trump medicine.
At first, brinkley used goatssourced from a clinic but demand
skyrocketed and people werecoming from all over the country
eager to undergo his bizarreoperation.
Brinkley needed more goats, andhe needed them fast, this is
(27:54):
Right.
So he started buying goats inbulk from livestock auctions,
bringing in truckloads to keepup with demand.
He was careful about the breedhe preferred Toggenberg's and
Sainin's Swiss breeds known fortheir vitality and their humpy
energy.
He marketed these goats asparticularly potent, claiming
(28:17):
they would impart extra vigor tohis patients.
I just can't, I just can't.
Oh man, my dad's gonna listento this.
Okay, hi, john, uh.
Brinkley understood the powerof storytelling.
By associating certain goatbreeds with specific traits, he
made his treatment feelpersonalized and scientific,
(28:39):
even though it was completepseudoscience.
Then came Brinkley's mostaudacious marketing move he
started letting patients picktheir own goats.
I mean you know they're going toget up and personal in a guy's
biz, you know you want to makesure you connect right.
(29:00):
So, at the peak of his practice, patients were allowed to walk
through his pens and choose thegoat that they believed would
give them the most vitality,vitality I just can you picture
these poor men walking throughman man and just looking at
(29:22):
these goats and being like, um,dude, I think I want your.
I mean, no, it's just horrible.
So, anyway, but brinkley playedit up.
Well, I mean, he had somebodyhe had to drop out because he
was too busy drinking andwhatnot.
So, yeah, no, he didn'tgraduate.
He didn't graduate.
Uh, he didn't have a license.
Um, well, first of all, thepatients were not anesthetized,
(29:52):
it was just a local anestheticand then he would just chippity,
chopchop and shuppity-shove.
Sometimes it would be the wholegoat testicle and sometimes
there would just be like slicesof it that would, supposedly he
decided would migrate to wherethey needed to go.
It wasn't, yeah, no, and hiswife would sew them up.
So she had no trainingwhatsoever.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
My jaw is on the floor.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
And we'll we'll learn later some of this, some of
what happened here as a resultof this so-called surgery.
But he did and I don't think Italk about it later, but he did
after he started getting realpopular with this, you know, new
business venture, he went backto school particularly this, to
(30:37):
study surgery.
But, um, his and I think he wasauditing this medical school
and he got kicked out of thatbecause he just didn't attend
enough and the professor wasquoted as saying, like um, dude,
you need to get your lifetogether and like, maybe worry
about your education more thanyour alcohol.
So it seems like he had someconflicts of interest there that
(31:01):
kept him.
But, um, okay, so yeah,absolutely no, no training or
right or scientific evidence I'mthinking like byog.
He kept telling people you know,if you feel a certain spark,
that could be the right goat.
You know that could be the goatfor you.
Uh, and that was geniusmarketing.
By letting patients choosetheir own goats, he made them
(31:24):
feel like they were part of thehealing process, like they were
selecting the source of theirown rejuvenation.
so this gave the operation asense of agency and control,
which is a powerfulpsychological effect.
So it's almost like insinuatingif you, if it doesn't go well,
well that's on you.
You didn't pick the right goat,you know, hi John.
(31:45):
So of course the choice waspure theatrics.
I mean, the procedure was thesame, no matter what goat they
picked, and it was just asdangerous.
Patients suffered severecomplications, infections and
sometimes death, but sometimesdeath.
But of course, frankly, keptthese stories quiet, driving
them out with glowingtestimonials and relentless
advertising, because alsoremember, this one looks like a
(32:08):
good one.
Guys aren't gonna go.
Well, you know I can't, I can'tperform.
And you gave me this miraclesurgery and I still can't
perform because it makes themfeel Wow, it's almost like the
emperor's new clothes, you know,it's like look at these
beautiful garments.
If you can't see them, thatmeans you're stupid, you know.
Meanwhile he's strutting aroundin the nude.
(32:29):
Okay, so let's see.
Eventually, brinkley's demandfor goats became so great that
he set up contracts withregional goat farmers ensuring a
constant supply, and heemployed remind me also.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
This brinkley character traveled to midwest.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
No medical buying goats at auctions and bringing
them back to milford kansas ohyeah, okay spectacle.
I almost said it became a test.
Oh yeah, sure, sure, sure sureit's like my mind is in the
wrong.
It became a spectacle.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Trucks I'm thinking that actually would take some
local skill or knowledge cominglong before you saw it so you
could smell it too?
Speaker 1 (33:09):
uh well, of course not.
Brinkley didn't just sell aprocedure, he sold a fantasy.
By letting men pick their owngoats, he made them believe they
were choosing their destiny andrenewal.
It was smoke and mirrors, butit was so effective.
Brinkley understood humanpsychology better than most
doctors of his time.
He knew people wanted tobelieve in miracles and he made
his goat gland procedure feelmagical.
It wasn't just surgery, it wasan experience.
(33:31):
But, dear listeners, the magicdid not last.
In 1930, morris Fishbein and theAmerican Medical Association
(33:51):
launched a campaign to exposeBrinkley as a fraud.
They published testimonies fromvictims who suffered horrific
complications and challenged thelegitimacy of his medical
license.
Eventually, brinkley's empirecollapsed, but the image of
hopeful men walking through goatpens searching for a cure that
never existed stayed in thepublic memory, a testament to
(34:13):
the power of belief and thedangers of medical quackery.
Brinkley performed thousands ofsurgeries, often charging
exorbitant fees for whatamounted to little more than
placebo procedures.
His techniques were highlyunorthodox.
Rather than employing sterilesurgical environments, he
sometimes conducted operationsin rooms that failed to meet
basic medical standards.
(34:34):
The procedure involved makingan incision in the scrotum and
inserting a small slice of goattesticle tissue which is
something I thought I'd neversay and Brinkley claimed would
seamlessly integrate with thehuman body.
However, the reality was farfrom his promises.
Many patients developedgangrene, severe infections and
long-term complications.
(34:55):
Yet due to Brinkley'spersuasive charm and the placebo
effect, many still reportedinitial improvements,
reinfection and discredibility.
Brinkley also experimented onwomen, claiming that goat ovary
transplants could enhancefertility and restore youth.
These procedures, too, werebased on little more than
speculation and marketingtactics, and yet they drew in a
(35:17):
steady stream of hopefulpatients.
As his wealth and reputationgrew, so did his ability to
deflect criticism.
At least for a time, I wasfeeling run down and low on
energy, but after seeing DrBrinkley I felt like a new man
More pep, more vigor, thanks tohis goat gland treatment.
These testimonials werepowerful.
(35:37):
In an era before rigorousmedical regulations, word of
mouth and personal stories weregold.
Brinkley knew that hearinganother man's success story
would convince thousands to tryhis cure.
But not every testimonial was aglowing endorsement.
Behind the marketing werecountless untold stories of pain
, regret and loss oh, thankgoodness failures.
(36:11):
The truth is that many mensuffered severe infections,
chronic pain and worse.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
But these stories never made it to the airwaves.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
One of the most haunting testimonies came from
the family of a man named HarryChandler.
Chandler sought out Brinkleyhoping to regain his lost
vitality, but the surgery led toa severe infection.
His condition deteriorated andhe died just weeks later.
His family was devastated andfurious.
They spoke out warning othersabout the dangers of Brinkley's
procedures.
Family members were quoted assaying they promised him a
(36:44):
second chance at life.
Instead, they took him from us.
I wish he'd never heard of thatman.
But stories like Chandler's wereburied under Brinkley's
avalanche of positivetestimonials.
He was careful about whichvoices he amplified and which he
silenced.
He also used testimonials tobuild his image as a beloved
public figure.
He presented himself as acaring doctor who genuinely
(37:06):
wanted to help people.
He even played testimonialsfrom women who praised him for
curing their husband's quoteweakness and saving their
marriages.
My husband was tired anddistant, but after seeing Dr
Brinkley he's back to his oldself.
Our marriage is stronger thanever.
Thank you, doctor.
These stories weren't justtestimonials, they were
(37:26):
narratives.
They created a fantasy of hopeand transformation, convincing
men and their families to spendthousands of dollars on a
dangerous, unproven procedure.
But for every glowingendorsement there were hidden
tragedies.
In 1932, after Brinkley losthis medical license, more
patients came forward revealinghorrific complications gangrene,
(37:48):
impotence and excruciating pain, and some reported losing their
livelihoods due to lingeringhealth issues reported losing
their livelihoods due tolingering health issues.
Morris Fishbein, editor of theJournal of AMA, as we mentioned,
he exposed those stories,revealing the dark side of
Brinkley's empire.
In his scathing articles,fishbein pulled testimonials
from victims and their families,breaking Brinkley's carefully
(38:09):
constructed illusion.
Fishbein knew that the only wayto fight Brinkley's
testimonials was withtestimonials of his once made
him rich, now contributed to hisdownfall.
Testimonials can be powerfulboth for building and destroying
reputations.
In Brinkley's case, they werehis greatest weapon and his
ultimate undoing.
His story reminds us of thepower of words and the
(38:31):
importance of questioning whatwe hear, even when it's spoken
from the heart.
Some of his former patientslater testified against him in
court, detailing horrific sideeffects from his so-called
rejuvenation operations.
In many cases, the insertedgoat tissue rotted inside the
body, leading to deadlyinfections.
Yet Brinkley's skill in publicrelations kept the negative
(38:52):
press at bay for many, manyyears.
In fact, brinkley's medicalempire was built on more than
just surgical procedures.
He was a master of masscommunication, recognizing the
power of radio.
In the 1920s he launched KFKBKansas First, kansas Best, one
of the earliest commercial radiostations, and through his
(39:14):
broadcasts he promoted hiscontroversial procedures,
advertised patent medicines andeven dispensed medical advice
over the airways.
His folksy charm and ability toconnect with the everyday
American made him a householdname.
He pioneered an early form ofinfomercial radio, blending
entertainment with promotion andattracting thousands of new
(39:34):
patients.
His radio station also featuredcountry music, farm reports and
religious programming, creatinga community that trusted him
implicitly.
You're tuned to KFKB Kansas'finest, bringing you music,
medicine and a whole lot ofmiracles.
And reading about this, I meanthis was really revolutionary,
because it kind of reminds me ofthe age of the Internet,
(39:57):
because there weren't anyregulations about what could be
on the air or what kind ofcontent would be out there.
There was no filter, there wasnothing.
So, um, he literally had somuch money, he just built this
(40:21):
massive radio tower, plucked upa station and started talking.
Almost sometimes it was 15hours of content a day.
Can you imagine, um, right, soso he would fill the airwaves
with music, entertainment,health advice, but then he ran a
(40:41):
segment called medical questionbox and listeners would write
in with their symptoms and hewould prescribe treatments for
them, including, obviously, hisown branded medicines over the
air.
Yeah, so we all know I we allknow that this is fraught with
issues but also just to say, hecreated his own supposed
(41:06):
medicines that he patented, andhe wouldn't call them what they
were, he would number them.
He'd be like number 40, so thatnobody could like just
replicate it.
And number 40 would probably belike arsenic and a little, a
little, yeah, a little, yeah, alittle dash of alcohol, a little
session of you know paprika orsomething.
And so, um, he would say, well,you need to rush to your
(41:28):
nearest pharmacy and getBrinkley's miracle cure number
50.
And um, so, I know, um.
But in spite of all of this,what made kfkb stand out was the
music.
He hired musicians to performlive on his station.
They weren't polishedorchestras, they weren't.
They were folk musiciansplaying fiddles, banjos and
(41:51):
guitars.
It was the music of ruralamerica, which people back then
called hillbilly music.
And to his surprise, the musicwas a hit.
Farmers, ranchers and small townfolks across the Midwest tuned
in daily, brinkley realized hetapped into something big, a
deep cultural vein thatmainstream radio had ignored.
He began broadcasting more liveperformances featuring local
(42:14):
talent like Fiddler Fiddlin',john Carson and bands playing
traditional ballads, gospeltunes and dance numbers.
These shows were among thefirst to bring rural folk music
to national audience, which laidthe groundwork for what we know
as today's country music.
Brinkley didn't just popularizehillbilly music, he legitimized
(42:34):
it by putting it on the radio.
He turned a regional, oftenstigmatized style of music into
a national phenomena.
But his ambitions didn't stopthere, because when Fishbein and
the AMA figured out a way toshut him down because of his
medical suggestion box, theyshut down his license to
(42:56):
broadcast.
So then he figured out oh well,guess what?
I can go to Texas, right on theborder, and actually get a
staggering 1 million watts tobroadcast my radio station, not
just in the Midwest but in theentire United States.
So this guy loses his licenseand his broadcasting license in
(43:17):
Kansas, moves to Del Rio, texas,and builds a new station called
XERA, and they called it theborder blaster, yeah, and so he
circumvented all the regulationsand continued his and actually
broadened his lucrative medicalempire.
Xera's powerful signal reachedas far north as Canada and as
(43:41):
south as South America.
It was the most powerful radiostation in the world and
Brinkley used it to promote hisdubious cures and, of course,
hillbilly music.
Broadcasting from Villa Acuna,mexico, it's Zira, the voice of
the continent, bringing you thebest in music, news and health.
Zira introduced countlesslisteners to artists like the
(44:04):
Carter family and Jimmy Rogers,who would go on to become
country music legends.
The station became a culturalforce, spreading the sound of
rural America across thecontinent.
Ironically, while Brinkley'smedical empire was built on guys
the airwaves, he brought ruralmusic to urban audiences and
help shape American popularculture.
In 1930, brinkley bid forpolitical power, running for
(44:27):
governor of Kansas as a write-incandidate, because, I mean, you
know, celebrities, running foroffice isn't a new thing, right,
yep, yep.
His campaign was fueled by hisradio influence and promises of
economic prosperity and healthcare reform.
Despite his medicalcontroversies, he nearly won,
(44:50):
demonstrating his profoundinfluence over the public.
It was widely believed that hewould have won if it had not
been for a last minutelegislation that dictated that
the writing candidates nameneeded to be J, period, r,
period, brinkley, and nothingshort of that.
So if somebody wrote JohnBrinkley or J Brinkley, that
wouldn't have been counted, soyeah.
So if somebody wrote JohnBrinkley or Jay Brinkley, that
wouldn't have been counted, soyeah.
(45:10):
So I mean, but for a writingcandidate to be that close, he
probably should have won, right?
So after that his empire beganto collapse.
His medical license was againrevoked and lawsuits from
disgruntled patients started topile up.
The Federal Radio Commissionhad shut down KB, as we know,
but the AMA, led by MorrisFishbein, intensified his
(45:33):
campaign against him.
Brinkley's fortunes dwindled andhe was eventually found guilty
of mail fraud in 1941.
So the mail fraud was tied tohow he used to bounce his signal
to Kansas and then actuallybroadcast from Kansas.
So he was doing some.
I know he was super cleveranyway.
(45:56):
Yeah, I know.
Yeah, don't mess with the USPS,right?
Folks, who is this?
Morris Fishbein?
As the Journal of the AmericanMedical Association editor,
fishbein saw Brinkley for whathe was.
He knew he was a fraud and hewanted.
(46:18):
They called him the.
What do they call him?
The quack buster.
He didn't want, he wanted toprotect the vulnerable.
Um, and brinkley was just oneof those untouchables with money
power in his own media empire.
So basically, fishbine made ithis lifelong mission to to get
(46:40):
him to nab him.
Um fishbine was born in stlouis, missouri, in 1889, when
the medical field was teemingwith snake oil salesmen and
dubious cures, as we talkedabout those patent medicines
that we talked about, that werefilled with alcohol and I'm like
from this whole story so far,you were found guilty of mail
fraud.
Well, so-called doctors offeredtreatments that were more
(47:00):
dangerous than the diseasesthemselves.
So in 1924, fishbein became theeditor of the journal of the
american medical association, orjama, and so that position gave
him an influential platform.
So he didn't waste any timeusing it.
He launched a full-scaleassault on all quacks, frauds
and charlatans, exposing them inthe pages of jama with biting
(47:22):
wit and relentless scrutiny, andaddressing the advertisements
of the time, such as this onefeeling tired, lost that spark,
visit Brinkley's clinic forrejuvenation treatment.
Like no other, youth is just agoat gland away.
It sounds absurd now, but backthen people were desperate and
(47:43):
Brinkley was charismatic.
He used his radio station toadvertise his quack cures.
He became that media mogul anda millionaire.
But he wasn't just sellingfalse hope.
His procedures were dangerousand, as we talked about, led to
infections, complications anddeaths.
But people believed him inspite of all this.
So Fishbine knew he was upagainst powerful forces,
advertisers, manufacturers andeven some in the medical
(48:05):
community who profited from thefake remedies.
But he never backed down andhis efforts weren't in vain.
By exposing dangerous quacksand promoting evidence-based
medicine, fishbein helped pavethe way for stricter regulations
on medical advertising and drugapproval, protecting countless
people from harmful treatments.
But he knew he needed astrategy.
(48:25):
So he began meticulouslycollecting evidence, those
testimonies from victims,medical records and even
interviews with doctors who hadtreated Brinkley's failed
surgeries.
He built a case, piece by piece, determined to expose the truth
.
For months Fishbein followedBrinkley's movements, attending
his public lectures, gatheringhis pamphlets and ads.
He studied Brinkley'sbroadcasts, taking notes on his
(48:48):
outrageous medical claims.
Fishbein was patient andstrategic.
He stalked Brinkley like apredator circling its prey, and
then he wrote article afterarticle naming names and shaming
fraudsters.
He took on giants like HarryHoxie, who sold herbal cancer
cures without a shred ofscientific evidence.
He was fearless.
(49:09):
He wasn't just debunking falseclaims, he was fighting for the
integrity of medicine itself.
He understood that public trustwas the foundation of medical
science.
Fishbein's crusade wasdangerous, though.
He faced lawsuits, threats andintense backlash.
Hoxie sued him for libel notonce but twice, and although
Fishbein lost one of the cases,he refused to be silenced.
(49:30):
Instead he doubled down,continuing his fight against
medical fraud until hisretirement in 1950.
In 1930, fishbein published ascathing expose in the Journal
of American Medical Association,calling Brinkley a charlatan
and labeling his goat glandprocedure as the quackery of the
most vicious sort.
It was a public declaration ofwar.
(49:52):
Furious Brinkley sued Fishbeinfor libel.
It was a bold move, but thatwas also his fatal mistake,
because the trial became a mediacircus.
Brinkley strutted into thecourtroom confident and defiant,
but Fishbein came prepared,armed with his mountain of
evidence.
He systematically dismantledBrinkley.
Strutted into the courtroomconfident and defiant, but
Fishbein came prepared, armedwith his mountain of evidence.
He systematically dismantledBrinkley's defense, exposing his
(50:13):
lack of medical credentials andthe bogus nature of his
treatments.
Under cross examination,brinkley admitted he never
graduated from any accreditedmedical school and Fishbein
revealed that Brinkley'spatients often suffered severe
complications and sometimes diedfrom his procedures.
The judge ruled in Fishbein'sfavor, declaring that Brinkley
was a charlatan in the ordinary,well-understood meaning of the
(50:36):
word, which I thought was aninteresting way to say that the
verdict destroyed Brinkley'sreputation.
He lost his medical license,wealth and eventually his radio
station.
Fishbein didn't just defeatBrinkley, he sent a message to
every would-be quack in AmericaHis legacy is a testament to the
power of science, truth andpersistence.
But the victory came at a cost.
(50:58):
Brinkley never forgave Fishbeinand he blamed him for his
financial ruin.
Fishbein spent his final yearsfighting lawsuits, facing
bankruptcy and battling illness.
He died penniless.
But his victory over brinkleywas more than personal.
It was a turning point inmedical history.
It set a legal precedent thatquackery would not be tolerated,
(51:22):
and it paved the way forstricter medical advertising and
licensing regulations.
It was a battle of fact versusfraud, and fact won.
That doesn't often happen thesedays.
He showed that truth andscience must always come before
profit and deception.
And today, as we navigate anage of misinformation and
(51:45):
miracle cures which are stillsold online, fishbein's story is
more relevant than ever.
So, in conclusion, john RBrinkley's life was a paradox.
He was both a visionary and acon artist, a pioneer in radio
and a fraud in medicine.
His rise and fall underscorethe power of persuasion and the
dangers of medicalmisinformation.
His legacy is a cautionary taleabout the intersection of media
(52:06):
, medicine and regulatoryoversight.
His story continues to be asignificant chapter in the
history of medical fraud, areminder that even the most
charismatic figures must be heldaccountable for their actions.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
Wowzers, that was such a wild story.
That was such a wild story andI wasn't expecting it to like
take that turn from medicalprocedures and whatnot to oh,
now we have a whole ass radiostation and oh, we're in trouble
in Kansas, so screw it.
(52:42):
So head on down over to Mexico.
Don't know why I whipped outthat accent, Sorry.
And now we're reaching whippedout that accent, Sorry.
And now we're reaching up toCanada and South America, and
yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
I mean, it seemed like he was unbeatable at every
point.
It was like downtrodden andthen it got worse.
So if he hadn't been shut downin Kansas, he wouldn't have been
able to broadcast to basicallythe entire continent, like all
the americas they were like wegot him, and then they're like
now he's worse, he's reachingmore people.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
Yeah, well, you did a really good job.
Thank you for sharing that.
I've never heard of this quackbefore well, we'll put um.
Speaker 1 (53:24):
there's also a really um like indie documentary made
about this where it's likeanimated partially and partially
.
Uh, I think the author makes umthe author of the book that I
keep referencing documentary towatch, but also the book is just
so well-written so there's somuch more detail.
(53:51):
I was telling Amanda I couldhave talked all week about this,
so I tried really hard not tomake this a two-patter.
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Two-patter.
She thought it was going to bea two-patter.
Good job you did well.
Yeah, you still yeah, youcovered the whole story and you
did it in one.
Look at you, go girl.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
Look at me, we're learning.
So, amanda, what can ourlisteners expect to hear next
week?
Speaker 2 (54:16):
Yeah, so next week you'll be hearing about a little
slime ball who earned himselfthe nickname Dr Death.
But no, no, no, not not the drdeath you're thinking of.
Oh no, no, there's another onein town oh no, I know it's not
(54:37):
as light and funny as this one,but it's I so far.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
It's not as heavy as my last one, so yeah okay, you
know if it's all relative, wegot to tell the stories, whether
they're heavy or not.
We'll try and bring some palatecleansers to our listeners.
Speaker 2 (54:51):
Oh, please, please, please, you guys email in those
stories.
What did Richard call them?
Speaker 1 (54:58):
Medical mishaps.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
Medical mishaps.
I'm really looking forward tothat.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
Me too.
I can't wait to hear what youguys have to say.
Speaker 2 (55:09):
Yeah, looking forward to that.
Me too.
I can't wait to hear what youguys have to say.
Okay, so in the meantime, don'tmiss a heartbeat.
Subscribe or follow Doctoringthe Truth wherever you enjoy
your podcast, for stories thatshock, intrigue and educate.
Trust, after all, is a delicatething.
You can text us directly on ourwebsite at doctoringthetruth,
at buzzsproutcom.
(55:29):
Please email us your own storyideas and comments or medical
mishaps at doctoring the truthat gmail.
Be sure to follow us oninstagram and facebook we're on
facebook now, um, at doctoringthe truth, and remember to
download rate review so we cancontinue to bring you quality
(55:49):
content.
Until then, stay safe and staysuspicious.
Goodbye.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.