Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: The Goat Testicle Solution

Episode Date: October 21, 2014

Welcome to Sawbones, where Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin McElroy take you on a whimsical tour of the dumb ways in which we've tried to fix people. This week: We give you some extra balls. Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers (http://thetaxpayers.net)

Hey folks, just MacRoy here. Listen, just with a warning ahead of time while this week's show will still be free profanities you've come to expect from us. We do get into some adult topics. So if you're listening with the kids, you might want to make sure they're comfortable with that. I guess I don't know what your relationship is like with your kids. I'd have that whole bird's in the beast talk with them before listening to this episode if I were you. You go ahead and knock that out. Thanks. Saw bones is a show about medical history and nothing the hosts say should be taken as

medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. The one is about to books. One, two, one, two, three, four. We came across a pharmacy with the two windows busted's lost it out We were saw through the broken glass and had ourselves a look around Some medicines, some medicines that escalate my cop for the mouth All right, I'm welcome to the solvones marital tour of misguided medicine

I am your co-host Justin McAroy and I'm sitting at right I mean max fun week everybody I am Yoko who's just a McRoy. And I'm Sidney McRoy. I have a McSfun week, everybody. Deep in, almost in the home stretch of McSfun week. Yeah, I hope you've been enjoying it. I hope you've had a lot of fun. Thank you to everybody sharing episodes. We are joined by our third member,

our unofficial mascot. Our unofficial mascot. This is a two and a half person. Oh, no. So plus, two and a half person. Oh, no. So plus, uh, two and a half, not, I wouldn't call her a man. No, I don't want to call you a man either. So it's not really accurate. Yeah. Two and a half person podcasts, uh, sawbounds. Uh, she dressed as an ninja turtle just for this. Yeah. Uh, so thank you. She's adorable. She's the cutest. Uh, thank you to everybody tweeting about the show and sharing your favorite episodes yesterday

and leaving ratings and reviews. You've all been wonderful. There's a still more to come though. Max one week isn't over yet. So go to maxmmumfund.org and find, slash Max one week, final list of activities there. Said we owe people an apology.

We do? Yeah, for last week we talked about cataracts and, well, I don't know how to put this, but it was a little much for some folks. Did that bother people? It taped it. I got a lot of people saying who had like initially thought, and nothing bothered me,

then they were indeed bothered by all the eyeballs and cutting the of the eyeballs and in pleasantness. See, I understand conceptually that that kind of thing bothers people, but it's so hard from like literally nothing. You've at least gotten past the point where you'll tell like hugely upsetting stories while we I appreciate that. That's true. I will say this one thing. Spit kind of bothers me.

Spit does bother you. Like to see spit that kind of bothers me. But cutting into eyes, nah, that's fine. You knew that all day. But I was hoping you could dig into your archives and pull us out something a little lighter that we could talk about this week. Well, let me see what I got. Um, oh, I know. You want to talk about Ebola? No.

That's not, you don't think that's lighter. No, I'm trying again. Uh, oh, okay, I got, I got like three more episodes worth of Black Death stuff. You want Black Death? Is that lighter? Is that? Little lighter. Uh, uh, uh a broken heart syndrome?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that briefly in one episode before. But Dr. John Brinkley, you may remember him as the goat testicle doctor. Now that perfect. Yeah, goat testicles, I thought that might be what?

With a doctor. I want to put away the paper I was using for fully work. I provided the fully work for that segment. I didn't know what that was, but I figured it out in context. That's my foley one. Those are my verbal skills. I know what it means in context now. Did somebody submit this one to us?

Well, most recently, Michael emailed us asking us for this topic. That's saw bones at maximumfund.org. But I will say, I realize that there are probably people listening going, I recommended that. I suggested that too. And I know we've had this suggested several times. And I hadn't done it.

Like I said, because we kind of alluded to him, I think when we talked about Aphrodisiacs or something. Maybe. What's this full's name? Dr. John Romulus Brinkley. Oh, that's a good middle name. You know what? You know what, sad though?

Do you know true fact? He later changed it to John Richard Brinkley? You do fuss. Because he thought Romulus was too sweet. He couldn't live up to the pressure of having such a sweet, sweet name. He was made fun of for it. And he didn't like that.

So. I can't imagine. So his dad was, it was John Richard Brinkley. And so he just went ahead and became John Richard Brinkley. John Richard was trying to break the cycle of boring. And I'm not going to have my son suffer the same fate. He actually made himself a second and then created a third. Oh, okay.

Yeah. It almost skipped a generation. The Richard skipped a generation. So he was born in 1885 and I think I already kind of mentioned his dad. So let me tell you just a little bit because if we're going to tell the whole story, let me tell you a little bit about his dad. So his dad was a doctor, a medical doctor. I think it's interesting.

His father was married a total of five times. The first time his marriage was annulled because he was too young to get married. And this was in the, well, this would have been the mid 1800s. So he must have been a toddler. Yeah. So I'm figuring three or four. Three or four. three or four. He went on to get married four more times all to him and much younger than him. At one point he married a Sarah and then her niece also

named Sarah came to live with him. Okay. And John, the doctor that we will be speaking of, the John Romulus, right? He is the product of His dad and the niece Sarah not wife Sarah, but niece Sarah however then she died And so he was raised by his father and the first Sarah Okay, Sarah won although he referred to her as aunt Sarah, he was aware that wasn't his mother.

So he did call her. Well, this is some wild, I'm my own grandpa stuff falling on here. I'm trying to depart this all out. And you know, with origins like that, I can't believe the dude in turn out more normal. I know. It's a wonder. He had some problems. So he was raised mainly actually by Antsara because his father passed away when he was pretty young. And so mainly by Antsara, he came from humble origins, not a great educational background,

not a great, not a lot of money. He started out when he started working as a patent medicine salesman, which we've talked about before. So basically, he was like an early medical huckster who kind of went around the country, trying to sell people stuff that wasn't really medicine, but he was trying to pass it off as medicine. Right.

And he pretty early on got married to a younger woman, named Sally, and they actually did this as a team. So early on, they would go around, they had a medicine show that they ran. So we've mentioned medicine shows before, how we... Yeah, it was sort of a touring production where you would get some entertainment and you would also be persuaded to buy some pills or a tonic or a tincture. And they usually would pose as something that may be exotic or unfamiliar to the average

town's person. So they pretended to be quakers because not everyone was familiar with quakers. And so they were thought to maybe have medical knowledge beyond the realm of the norm. So they would pretend to be quakers and they would sell a of a reality tonic. But he really did want to be a real doctor. I had high hopes, aspirations. Yes, even though he's- Make it to your make it, I say. That was the plan.

I'll just keep pretending I'm a doctor and then maybe one day- It'll stick. It'll work out. So they eventually settled in Chicago and he entered the Bennett Medical College of Eclectic Medicine. Eclectic Medicine? Eclectic.

Do you know what that is? Eclectic Medicine. I mean, I certainly get a vibe, but is it legit? Well, no. It was a popular, it was kind of a branch of medicine in the early 1900s, and it drew from different, it was eclectic. It drew from different areas of medicine. None of them particularly real. A lot of herbal stuff, similar to, I think we've talked about the Tomsonians who kind of created their own branch of medicine, their own like medical beliefs, basically just kind of drew on anything that sounded like it

might work, not really evidence-based. I like some late decemberists, some C.E. shanties, some Bruce Springsteen, Ruth Rock, and influence the indie thing. Just whatever. Whatever, whatever worked. Whatever felt good that day. So he actually was working his way through medical school. He worked at Western Union at night, and he went to school during the day.

And this would have worked out fairly well. Although I mean, it was a struggle. He was constantly in debt. It was raising a young family and trying to go to school, except his marriage kept having problems. So first of all, he came home one day, and his wife had taken their daughter and run off and filed for divorce.

So he tracked them down. He found them. This is why he had several interruptions in his medical education. So he tracked them down, he found them. This is why he had several interruptions in his medical education. So he tracked them down and then kidnapped his daughter and went to Canada for a while. Okay. And then he came back and him and his wife

reconciled and got back together. That's nice. And then she got pregnant again and ran away again. Okay. And so he tracked her down again with their two children now and Basically she was like I don't want you going back to medical school I'm done with this doctor thing stay here with me and he said Okay, all right. I'm not gonna go back to medical school. Well, that's good happy ending But I still want to be a doctor. Okay

so He gave up his dream for a little while and then he started kind of looking around He was living in near Kansas City at the time and he he thought well There's a there's a school there. Maybe I could get into so he went and applied there among different medical schools And then he went back to the to Bennett cop medical college the first medical school and said okay I need my records, you know like of the years that I've I've already completed so that I can get into one of these new medical schools. And they said, dude, you owe us like a ton of intuitions. So no. No. So it's kind of like when I try to graduate and Marshall told me that I had $430 in parking tickets. Yes, you can't graduate till you pay the

credit card. I tried to pay your parking tickets, folks. That is true can't graduate till you pay your ticket folks. That is true. Don't be like me. That is the truth. There was also a book that I had from the library. Really? It slowed you down. That was an issue too.

So, they wouldn't forward his record, so he couldn't actually attend any of the medical schools he applied to, including the one in Kansas City. However, the Kansas City eclectic medical university did not have what I would call high standards. He was able to get a degree for the low low price of $500. A bargain! And no actual attendance, no, you know, not actually going to any classes there.

Oh, cool. Like Phoenix University. Yeah. Well, I mean, don't they make them do something? I think you have to out just kidding. I think Phoenix is like a real thing. I know there's somebody who's mad now. Yeah I'm sorry. I don't know. No this was not like Phoenix. This was like here's 500 bucks and they were like great. Here's your degree. Oh like the WVU. Let's see. There's now. Well interstate rivalry. Yeah, go hard. Go hard. OK.

Sorry. Sorry. I didn't agree. And that agreed that way. The tree for our wife's Virginia listeners enjoy. Well, for our, yeah, for our Huntington listeners. Huntington listeners, yeah. For three of you.

I'm not enjoying that. I loved that. So that degree, so to speak, I would be doing air quotes if I wasn't holding our daughter. That degree was good in about eight states. Oh, okay. Believe it or not at the time. So that's fine. They didn't have cars.

Yeah. You can get one state and stick with it. There you go. So he took his fake degree and he started trying to get work as a doctor. But the problem was people knew, I mean, it was a fake degree and he started trying to get work as a doctor. But the problem was people knew, I mean, it was a fake degree. So he was having trouble. It was like, it was printed on gum. He was having trouble getting patients. At first, he was also, he hadn't completed any of kind of what would have been a residency training at the time, like an apprenticeship of any kind. And so without doing that, it was hard to get work as well. So he had his fake degree,

his wife, he's trying to drag her around with now their three children to find work. And she basically just said, I'm through with this buddy and took off. And he let her go that time. So exit Sally and three children. Did he have another, for now? Did he take a lesson from his dad and have another Sally waiting in the wings? Not another Sally, but hold on. Okay.

So, he moved on down to South Carolina and he hooked up with this other doctor named Crawford, who was also like a patent medicine man. Mm-hmm. And they opened an office and they started giving out injections for virility. He was really into virility. You'll find this is a theme in his life.

It was one of the few things maybe he showed up for in medical school, like formal lectures or something. He was there for virility class front and center. He was really into virility. So, they started giving injections for virility that were actually just colored water, which was a popular trick of patent medicine meant at the time. Just giving an injection to something that looked like it might be a medicine. And he actually charged 25 bucks a piece for these. Whoa, what's mid back then? It would have been, it would have been over 100 bucks, I believe.

They called it electric medicine from Germany. I guess that made it sound like, I don't know, maybe the Germans were known for their... Electric medicine? And their sexual prowess, stamina or something? Viral Germans. Viral is a German that man is. I've heard that. That's a very popular expression. A very special expression here.

Yeah. People say that in Huntington all the time. It does be a local thing. Mm-hmm. Totally true. However, after about two months, they hadn't paid any of their bills for the storefront that they had rented for electricity, for the place where they were living, basically any bills. Sure, we're going to see with Mr. Brinkley.

They'd pass some bad checks, and they basically had to sneak out of town before they were arrested. Nice. So he headed on to Memphis and this is where he gets remarried. Oh good. So he does not meet another Sally. He does meet a young lady. Again, much younger than him, named Mini. And I think this is great.

They fall in love four days later. I believe they got married. They gone a honeymoon and while on their honeymoon, he's tracked down and arrested for passing all those bad checks in South Carolina. You know, it's not perfect. It's not what I wanted, but it's our story. It's still special. It's our story. No one else has a story like this. I love you. It's still special. It's our story. No one else has a story like this. I love you He's taken back to South Carolina to stand trial and when he gets there he basically by the way just says it wasn't me. It was Crawford So they track him down too and take him back. Oh

But his father-in-law so many's dad. This is why it's important, many entered the picture. Mr. Mini. Mr. Mini. He helps out by bailing him out of jail because he is actually a medical doctor. Again, he keeps finding doctors. He's not one, but he keeps finding doctors. He has some money, and so he does help bail him out, which I don't know why you do that at that point. You know, you want to believe that your daughter has found a legit guy and he wants to give him every opportunity. I don't know because I, like I really am a doctor. You're correct. And if Charlie brought home a guy who had a fake medical degree.

He's more like a doctor groupie than, right? He's like Louise Goosebumps in, in, uh, in bookie nights. You know, he's not part of it really, but like, God, he wants you so bad. But I mean, he calls himself Dr. Brinkley. Like he, he's not a- It's not a affectionate guy. He bought a medical degree. I'm not like an affectionate.

Like I call, he's like Dr. Phil. It's like all my aunt's definitely- It is in the medical box. It's definitely in the aunt's definitely- Even though she's not, I'm talking to my aunt, but like, she's family, basically, so I call her aunt's definitely sort of like that.

It's basically like that. Yeah, but giving somebody the title ant, even if they're not technically your ant, doesn't then entitle them to like do surgery on you. That's true. Or scribe medicine. I would not ask Ansteadfinity to do surgery on it. No, that's not a good idea, because she's not a surgeon.

That's correct. So, for whatever reason, many's dad bails him out. He goes back to Memphis to get back to his life there that he's with his fake medical degree that he's attempting to build when guess who shows up. Who? Old Sally. Sally, dog. Sally traction down with her three kids in tow and

she's mad. Not happy. She doesn't want him back but she doesn't like the big of me. Oh, because yeah right now he's married to two women. Technically I guess in the eyes of the law. So here's the thing, she shows up to tell many, like just so you know, he married me first. That's my man. That's my man. And many apparently doesn't care. The only thing they're concerned about

is that big of me, of course, is illegal. Right. So they high-tailed out of town again. Again. Again. So they start. I'm starting of town again. Again. Again. So they start. I'm starting to feel bad for that guy. He's just trying to make his way through this crazy world.

So basically at this point, he's traveling around. He finds some work here and there as a doc. He makes enough money to pay his debt to Bennett Medical College eventually so that they will release his records to Kansas City who officially graduates him not after completing any actual training but because he gives him $100 more dollars. Oh great.

So at that point, it's not one of their fake degrees, it's one of their real degrees that he still didn't earn. And these are still all from what would have been considered even at the time highly questionable medical schools. Sounds official, though. And what did he do during this period? He actually started working at a meat packing plant. Okay. He was doing medical work there, like for the workers. I don't know, occupational medicine, I guess. Sure. You're on staff.

Dr. at the meat packing plant. With his new medical degree, he starts working at the meat packing plant. And this is very important because it is here that he becomes fascinated with goats. Finally. Oh, I've been waiting for the goats to enter the story. So I guess among the meats that are packed at the plant, are goat meats. And goats and goat byproducts.

And he notices, and so he's in part of the whole process, like the slaughterhouses there and everything. So he sees the live animals before they become you know not packed me right and he notices that the goats are like they're really down to get down I guess the goats are like the the jock in a horror movie like this could be our last night. What if we die tonight? I don't want to diverge in you. No me neither.

Let's do this thing. And that's and that's what all the goats are doing all the time. Not the cows, not the pigs. Cows are residing in their fates. Pigs don't know what's up. No. Goats are down to clown. And he he starts thinking about this because he's already, you know, like I said,

fascinated with virility. And so this is where he starts piecing together. How can I take my knowledge of goat, goat horniness and my fake medical knowledge and use it to serve mankind? Now, this was almost the end of his story. Yeah. Because right at this point when he's on the verge of his great revelation about goats, World War I happens and it almost interrupted his career because he was a reservist so he was called up. But he only served two months because he basically spent the whole time hospitalized for a nervous breakdown. Yeah, that would be stressful. Yeah, why?

I can't fall in for that. Well, with this guy's history. With this guy, maybe he was running something in his scam. So it almost interrupted his, what is to be known for very shortly, but not quite. Speaking of interruptions, I'm going to need you to do something for me Justin. Let me guess. Billing department. Head to the Billing department. Let's go. Okay, so Interruption passed Sydney. What's next for John? So at this point, John Brinkley decides we're gonna

settle down, Minnie and I. We're gonna settle down. No more running. No more running. Sally can't find me. We're gonna settle down in Milford, Kansas. And this will be the site of his great revelation. Beautiful Milford. So first of all, he starts working in Milford right at the onset of the flu pandemic of 1918. And he makes quite a name for himself at this time. This is basically why he is able to go on and do what he does next because he's got a really good bedside manner. He's really well-liked by the people he cares for.

And you know, there are a lot of patients all the sudden who desperately need a doctor and are not taking the time to check credentials. The thing about the flu at the time, there wasn't a lot to do about it. So just being there and holding people's hands. A little TLC. Yeah, I mean, that would have been considered the standard of medical care. So whether or not the patients were living or dying, he probably wasn't, you know, discredited.

So at this point, he's made a name for himself, people kind of like him, and a young guy shows up at his office, and he's there for what he calls sexual weakness. And he says, Oh boy, you just hit, you hit right on the button. Boy, did you come to the right place? And he's like, you know, this is my thing. He's here for sexual weakness.

That's virility is my favorite thing to take care of. So he says doc, is there anything you can do to, you know, put the spark back in the bedroom for me and the messes? And he has this, Dr. Brinkley has just great knowledge about goats and he's like, he actually makes a comment to him, you know. You're pushing a goat. If you just had goat testicles, you wouldn't have any problems.

And this young man says. Boy, you have got to nail that delivery. You get one shot to look somebody in the eye and say, you know, if you had go testicles, I see even that, I don't think you would buy that for me. I don't think I could sell it the way that Romulus good. Well, the way Romulus sold it worked because the young man says,

well, why don't you just give me go testicles? Sure. And he says, all right, I'll do it for $150. Grab a seat, cup squat. Which is great. Which is great. Which is great that not only does he talk this guy into letting him try this experimental surgery on him. She's a 150.

She's a 150. 150 dollars at the time. Oh, forget about that. Corrected. 150 dollars, you know, in 1918. So the guy agrees and he takes, you know, goat testicles and basically the way he would do this surgery is he would just, I guess this is going to be kind of, kind of bad. I'll use my mind's eye, thanks.

Just kind of puts him in the sack. With the others? Yeah, with the others. Really? Yeah. Bonus. Yep. Okay. Just kind of put them in there.

Just get in there. So the guy later on claims that it works. And this is supported by the fact that shortly after this, his wife actually gets pregnant. This is the story. No. This guy's wife gets pregnant and even better for the time. It's a boy. Fantastic.

So, and thus Jim Brewer's classic goat boy sketch was born. This is where he comes from. That's where he got the idea. They actually did name the kid Billy in honor of the goat. No, it's a bit on the nose, but it's a different time. I'm not making this up. So at this point, everybody wanted it. And I should say, he was not the only guy

who was experimenting with this idea. There were doctors at other places in Europe who were trying, they were actually taking the material from testicles, not actual testicles from animals, but like crushed dog, guinea pig, lamb, monkey testicles, not actual testicles from animals, but like crushed dog, guinea pig, lamb, monkey testes, just pieces of it and injecting the material into human testicles and in an attempt to do the same thing. And this was probably not so much for sexual weakness as what we would now call a rectile

dysfunction. Got it. I would say. So, this really took off in Milford. He did lots and lots of transplants. He started charging $750 a piece, which I did check this out. That would be about $8,800 a surgery now. Yeah, I was. The problem with this is that the more surgeries he did, the more times things could go wrong.

I could see how there might be a slip up with him not being a doctor at all. All through this time period, as I tell you more about what happened next, you've got to understand he's constantly being sued. Okay. There are wrongful death suits and then just people suing him for him not working. Although, still, more people claim that it does work.

One reason is that he actually, at one point, only advertises it for what he calls intelligent patients. Okay, discerning. And I think the reason is that he believes that intelligent people are less likely to want to go tell other people if it doesn't work. Okay. Yeah.

I got go balls and it didn't work. Yeah, no kidding. Anything stupid people will just go tell everybody. So he'll only do it if he thinks you work. Okay. Yeah. I got go balls and it didn't work. Yeah, no kidding. Anything stupid people will just go tell everybody. So he'll only do it if he thinks you're smart enough. It's got gave me goat-tiscos. I don't do it any better than I did it before. He's a charlatan.

You know, they did it for women as well. Nice. Where did he put them? About where he thought her ovaries were? Maybe actually. Well, yeah, I mean, he never really went to, I mean, he never finished a decent medical school. So I'm about where he thought they were.

The Wimbledon Sheerish! And I think this is great. He would give them either male goat testicles or he would get a female goat and get the ovaries. And the way he would decide which one a woman got was based on what gender child she wanted. Oh, good. Kind of a customization makes a match, kind of, deal.

I'm into it. Yeah. If you want a male child, you know, you get goat testes. If you want a female child, you get goat ovaries. He advertised very heavily. And the more surgeries he did, the more things he claimed that they could fix. So instead of just fixing virility and fertility, he could cure flu, dementia, and fizzema, insanity, acne, hypertension. Basically, anything could be cured with goat testicles.

Uh-oh, folks, you know what that makes is a cure-all. And what do we know about cure-alls? Is that they cure nothing? Uh, this was related to his belief, by the way, that sex energy was the basis of all energy. And what do we know about curals? Is that they cure nothing? This was related to his belief, by the way, that sex energy was the basis of all energy. Now I'm into that, like, organ energy, right? Like the kind of energy that Albert Einstein tried to capture in a sex box. That's the same thing.

It was good to have that. You know what I still ask people to tweet when they listen to that, that they found out that our greatest mind spent an afternoon You know what I still I asked people to tweet when they listened to that that they found out that Our greatest mind spent an afternoon trying to capture sexual energy in a box And I still see those tweets from time to time. That makes me happy every time I see that He thought that goat testes contained what he called. This is great. This is his actual writing I was reading vitamin which was an indeterminate substance

But he thought was very important, you know, vitamin. He did run into a hiccup when he tried to use angora goats instead of toganburg goats. And angora goat balls, I guess, smell really bad. And so all of his patients were not thrilled about the angora goat test. They wanted the toganburg smell. the ingora goat test. They wanted the Togginberg Spend. That you try to cut costs. You try. You try some Santa materials. This is what you call you on it.

You do. They notice that this is different. Dude, you're doing something that doesn't work for $750 each. Why Ross the boat? You know what was weird too is that in the article I was reading it said that Toggenberg Goats were actually more common so he was finding like the rare goat testicles that are all I guess it's like fancy cheeses are really smelly. Yeah literally. Yeah. Just stick with cheddar. So the AMA was getting involved at this point. He's making all this money. And they're trying to

shut him down. But the more that they advertise that he's a quack, the more he kind of turns his publicity his way. And it's like the AMA is trying to stop you from this great new procedure. And he relies a lot on testimonials. So he gets his patients to come on and, you know, talk about how great it is, because they were. He also, he started a radio show. So this guy got really big into radio advertising, and he would answer questions.

It was like the medicine box or something, and he would answer questions. It was like the medicine box or something and he would answer questions and then advertise all of his products and procedures. And he got a lot of publicity when he did the procedure on the then owner of the LA Times who felt like it worked great. And he spent some time in LA and actually got a lot of Hollywood endorsement at that time. It said that he did this procedure on some stars of the time, but I don't know any names. But this is actually why. Can't believe you wouldn't be rushing to volunteer that information. I have goat walls, but this is actually why, did you know that the term goat gland was used at the

time in Hollywood for when you would add voiceover to a silent film? No, I did not know that. Yeah, when you would try to make it a, make it a talkie to make it, you know, fit the time, it was called goat glance because of this procedure. I did not know that. So he built a radio station to continue to advertise in Mexico, which was, have you heard of these border blasters?

Yeah, it was a song by the, I'm on the Mexican radio. He was one of the first ones to do this. All of sound, I think, is anything? Yeah. Yeah, okay. I heard that reference as I was reading about border blasters. He did this.

Basically, that way he could skirt any U.S. laws about, you know, being a charlatan on the air, because you weren't allowed to be like a fortune teller, you know, that kindlatan on the air because you weren't allowed to be a fortune teller or that kind of stuff on the air. So he would call in via telephone to broadcast, from the US, to Mexico to broadcast from Mexico, which is actually specifically banned now by the Brinkley Act, named for him. Wow. I did none of that. So he would give it my advice, sell meds. He also launched the careers of several country music artists this way. And he would sell other fake stuff. For instance, my favorite autograph pictures

of Jesus. I don't know where they thought he found a pen. Okay. He eventually expanded to adding human testicles for transplant instead of just goat testicles. He got them from criminals on death row. And that procedure would cost you 5,000 bucks. In addition, he opened the National Doctor Brinkley Pharmaceutical Association and sold a bunch of colored water that way.

The classics. So this guy was making a mint. I mean, he had houses and cars and was filthy, filthy rich until 1930 when at long last the AMA was finally able to build a case and shut him down. And this was, they were working on him. The FRC was working on shutting down the radio stations, finally finding ways to every time they would make a law, he would skirt it and they finally made enough to stop him. He was actually even violating the international treaties at that point because it was back and forth across the border. So as they shut him down, his last ditch effort to stop it was to run for governor of Kansas. Nice.

Which he actually did a total of three times. But it was twice. It was three times. He almost won. The last time he won 30% of the vote. And this was just a right in candidate. What a different state that would have been. As a right in candidate, he did this. And his goal was then he could give himself back a medical license.

I think how sweet Kansas would be now Kansas. He was actually he went down as the he was known as the Milford Messiah because of all this. He did in total 16,000 transplants. Amazing. But the as I mentioned everything was kind of caveman in around him at this point. He was in addition to the AMA and the FRC. He was investigated for tax fraud and for mail fraud. By 1941, he had to declare bankruptcy and he basically lost everything. And in 1942, due to multiple

blood clots and he lost his leg and he had several heart attacks, he passed away. Yeah, pretty good timing though. Yeah, the money lasted right to the very end. Yeah he died of penniless which has always seemed like pretty good time in New May. He made the best use of his money. Yeah. He was alive. Yeah for sure. It's like Jim Triliving says on Tragonston. You never see a hearse with a breaks truck behind it. You know, you gotta spend it while you're here. Anyway, this is our Canadian Dragons, Dan Fancast and Medical History.

There are Canadian listeners right now are cheering. And everyone else in the US is going, who? Man, they're all on YouTube, catch it, anyway. All of them, thank you. I don't know why you do that, but thank you. This has been our show, Saul Bones. Thank you so much for listening. Gosh, we sure appreciate you.

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