Dr. Brinkley's Miracle Cure For Impotence (with Betwixt The Sheets)

Summary

Summary of "Dr. Brinkley's Miracle Cure For Impotence (with Betwixt The Sheets)" – Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Podcast Information:

• Title: Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
• Host: Tim Harford
• Guest: Dr. Kate Lister, Host of Betwixt The Sheets
• Episode Title: Dr. Brinkley's Miracle Cure For Impotence (with Betwixt The Sheets)
• Release Date: February 7, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of Cautionary Tales, Tim Harford delves into the bizarre and cautionary story of Dr. John Romulus Brinkley, a notorious figure in early 20th-century American medicine. Joined by Dr. Kate Lister from the Betwixt The Sheets podcast, Harford unpacks Brinkley's rise and fall as a medical charlatan who peddled goat gland transplants as a cure for impotence.

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Early Life and Background of Dr. John Romulus Brinkley

Dr. Brinkley emerged in rural Kansas during the early 1920s, presenting himself as a medical practitioner capable of alleviating impotence through unconventional means.

• Birth and Upbringing: Brinkley was born in Carolina shortly after the Civil War. Growing up in poverty, he lost his parents at a young age and was raised by his aunt and uncle.

• Partial Medical Education: He attended the Chicago Bennett Medical School for Eclectic Medicine—a precursor to alternative medicine focusing on herbal remedies and physiotherapy. Unable to afford tuition, he dropped out and later purchased a diploma from the Kansas City Eclectic Medical School, a known diploma mill.

Dr. Kate Lister [07:54]: "He went to study at the Chicago Bennett Medical School. Eclectic medicine was just sort of the study of botany, herbal cures and a bit of physiotherapy as well."

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The Goat Gland Operation: Method and Practice

Brinkley's most infamous practice involved implanting goat testicles into human scrotums, claiming it would rejuvenate male vigor and cure impotence.

• Initial Procedure: A farmer, desperate to father a child, sought Brinkley's help. Despite Brinkley's reservations about the health risks, the procedure was performed using a billy goat's testicle.

Dr. Kate Lister [12:29]: "Well, he put them into the testicles, into the scrotums of men."

• Popularity: The procedure gained rapid popularity, attracting patients nationwide. Men believed the goat glands would enhance their masculinity and fertility, leading Brinkley to expand his operations and even travel to set up temporary clinics.

Tim Harford [15:16]: "Customers are happy. I can't imagine that anything is going to go wrong, but we'll find out after the break."

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Popularity and Media Presence

Brinkley's self-promotion was exemplary, leveraging media to build his reputation and expand his clientele.

• Advertising and Media Strategies: He advertised extensively, showcasing testimonials like the birth of "Billy, the first Goat Gland baby," to legitimize his treatments.

Dr. Kate Lister [16:16]: "This young boy, Billy, is used as the definitive proof, and it's peddled as this cure."

• Radio Empire: Brinkley established his own radio station, KFKB (Kansas First, Kansas Best), broadcasting medical advice and promoting his treatments. His radio presence was akin to today's influencers, captivating a nationwide audience.

Tim Harford [22:37]: "It's the TikTok of the 1920s. Right. This is the new cutting edge way of communicating."

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Scrutiny from the Medical Community and Downfall

Brinkley's meteoric rise drew the ire of legitimate medical professionals, notably Morris Fishbein of the American Medical Association, who sought to expose Brinkley's fraudulent practices.

• Medical Board Investigation: The Kansas Medical Board investigated Brinkley's credentials upon discovering he lacked legitimate medical training. An inspection revealed his unsterilized and unethical surgical procedures.

Tim Harford [27:00]: "So eventually, that's apparently frowned upon, isn't it? It is frowned upon."

• Media Exposure: Fishbein published exposés labeling Brinkley as a deliberate charlatan, undermining his credibility and prompting public scrutiny.

Dr. Kate Lister [24:46]: "This is Jobs. This is income. And it's also put Milford on the map."

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Dr. Brinkley's Attempt to Rebuild Through Politics

Undeterred by his professional disgrace, Brinkley ventured into politics, running for the governorship of Kansas.

• Political Campaigns: Brinkley's campaigns in 1930 and 1932 were marked by his continued reliance on self-promotion and media influence, though ultimately unsuccessful. His efforts further tarnished his public image as his opponents skillfully mocked his past as a medical quack.

Tim Harford [33:10]: "He who would have thought that a failed con man would be attracted by politics?"

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Legal Consequences and End of Brinkley's Career

Brinkley's relentless pursuit of his dubious practices led to multiple legal battles.

• Libel Suit and Court Findings: Brinkley sued Fishbein for libel, resulting in court revelations of his unethical medical practices. The jury decisively labeled him a "charlatan and a quack."

Tim Harford [37:12]: "The jury verdict is that Brinkley should be considered a charlatan and a quack."

• Additional Legal Troubles: Brinkley faced lawsuits for tax fraud and mail fraud, further dismantling his financial and professional standing.

Tim Harford [38:22]: "So this is the end of the 1930s. Sounds like it's basically the end for Brinkley's career."

• Final Years: Brinkley died in 1942 from multiple heart attacks, leaving behind a legacy of medical malpractice and deceit.

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Lessons Learned and Modern Parallels

The story of Dr. Brinkley offers timeless lessons relevant to today's society.

• Medical Quackery Today: Brinkley's exploitation mirrors modern instances of pseudoscience and unverified treatments promoted by influencers on platforms like TikTok and YouTube.

Dr. Kate Lister [39:37]: "Medical quackery is still very much with us. There's still people out there peddling all manner of lotions and potions and pills and powders."

• Importance of Credentials and Evidence: The episode underscores the necessity of verifying the qualifications of those offering medical advice and the value of evidence-based treatments.

Tim Harford [40:05]: "I'm all in favor of actual evidence."

• Influence of Media on Public Perception: Brinkley's adept use of media to manipulate public perception highlights the enduring power of media in shaping beliefs, a phenomenon amplified in the digital age.

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Notable Quotes

• Dr. Kate Lister: "He was a fucking lunatic, that's who he was." [06:37]
• Dr. Kate Lister: "Medical quackery is still very much with us. There's still people out there peddling all manner of lotions and potions and pills and powders." [39:37]
• Tim Harford: "I'm all in favor of actual evidence." [40:05]

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Conclusion

Dr. John Romulus Brinkley's tale serves as a potent reminder of the dangers posed by unverified medical practices and the seductive power of media influence. By examining his rise and fall, listeners are encouraged to critically evaluate the credentials and evidence behind medical treatments, both historical and contemporary.

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References: For a complete list of sources and further reading, please visit the show notes at timharford.com.

Transcript

[Tim Harford]

Foreign.

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[Tim Harford]

A 46 year old farmer walks into the local drugstore and bashfully asks the town's young doctor if he can talk to him about a rather delicate matter. Although John Romulus Brinkley is a newcomer to the rural Kansas town, he's proven himself by helping the locals through a recent flu epidemic. Sensing the man's embarrassment, the doctor ushers him into a back room. The problem is, the man explains hesitatingly, he's lacking in pep. His tires are flat. In short, he can't get it up. He and his wife long for a child to complete their family. Can the doctor help? Brinkley explains that he's tried treating the sexually weak with serums and tinctures and even electricity, but nothing has worked. Then, remembering his time working at an abattoir, Brinkley jokes, you wouldn't have any trouble if you had a pair of those buck glands in you. Well, why don't you put them in? Asks the farmer. Brinkley will later say that he felt sickened by the idea and tried to halt the conversation by explaining the Grave health risks. But the farmer is desperate to father a child and willing to give anything a go. I don't have a goat, the doctor protests. I do, the farmer replies. And so, late one night, the farmer, along with his billy goat, pays a visit to the doctor's office for a testicle transplant. Two weeks later, the farmer makes another late night visit to the doctor's office, this time with a spring in his step and a cheque for $150, equivalent to thousands of dollars today. He is delighted with his goat gland implants and has been telling his friends. Soon more men are making late night visits to the Milford Drugstore. Dr. Brinkley needs bigger premises and a barn for the goats. Patients will pick out the beast whose testicles they want implanted into their own. Men will come from all over America seeking treatment. Brinkley travels, too, setting up temporary clinics across America and even taking his treatments abroad. Newspapers report on the touring goat gland doctor. And the man himself discovers that the cutting edge technology of radio can bring him even more patience. So many he'll have to build a proper road between Milford Railway Station and his hospital. A man is as old as his glans, and his glans are as old as his sex glands, Brinkley tells his patients. So eager are they to feel the effects of revitalized sex glands that few stop to ponder the medical credentials of the charming Dr. Brinkley. I'm Tim Harford, and you're listening to cautionary tales. Dr. John Romulus Brinkley was a showman, a great self publicist and an unreliable narrator. The story about the farmer, for example, comes from Brinkley himself. And not everything he said was true. In particular, not everything he said about his own medical qualifications. To guide us through the Fantastical claims of Dr. John R. Brinkley and his no less fantastical life is Dr. Kate Lister, host of one of my favorite podcasts, Betwixt the the History of Sex, Scandal and Society. Kate, I am a huge fan. Welcome to Cautionary Tales.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Well, thank you very much for having me on. I'm always happy to talk about goat glands.

[Tim Harford]

I mean, the crossover between Betwixt the Sheets and Cautionary Tales is. Well, it's not too hard to find.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

No. This has been a long time coming, hasn't it really?

[Tim Harford]

No pun intended, but yes, it really has. It really has. I am very, very keen to Hear more about Dr. Brinkley, if you will pardon the pun. His story is nuts.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

He was a fucking lunatic, that's who he was.

[Tim Harford]

Okay, so I think we already gathered that. But give us the backstory. So before we get into these unusual treatments, what was his early life like? Was there any sign of this interest in Goatlands?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

What we know about him is gathered from his own testimony and testimony of people he knew, him and various historical records. But you've got to take everything with a pinch of salt when it comes to Brinkley, because he was the master of spin. He appears to have been born in Carolina only a decade after the Civil War had ended. So you sort of have to factor that into it. It was the bloodiest conflict America had ever seen. So it's a post war world. Everyone's kind of walking around like, what on earth was that? He's born, he grows up quite poor, his parents die when he's young and he's raised by an aunt and an uncle and he gets married in his 20s. At some point he works in an abattoir, which is where we think he first saw a goat and went, oh, I'll store that away for future use.

[Tim Harford]

Yeah, I could use that. Yes.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

For some reason, he thought that a goat was the most hygienic animal. That's your first red flag, that one, isn't it?

[Tim Harford]

I have all sorts of thoughts about goats, but hygienic is not the one that.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

It doesn't leak to mind, does it?

[Tim Harford]

Maybe that's just my own ignorance.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Maybe that's just our goat prejudice. But anyway, he thought that they were fantastic. He gets married to his first wife, a woman called Sally Wick, and they go on the road as this kind of traveling medicine act together. So you've already got the start of this combining of quack medicine and showmanship. So they would go to rural towns and sort of put on a big show for the local folks and then flog them. Well, snake oil, really. Just nonsense and rubbish, but they were pretty good at it.

[Tim Harford]

There's a famous economics paper about the history of the market for snake oil. And it grew hugely during the period we're discussing, so the late 1800s and then the first half of the 20th century. Huge market and a lot of it involved circuses. So you had to get a crowd in order to sell them whatever it was that you were selling them. And circus is a good way to attract attention.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

It seems completely mad. I mean, would you take medical advice from a clown at a circus?

[Tim Harford]

Nothing against clowns, but that wouldn't be my first port of call. But I guess when we think about the demand for what we might call unproven treatments today, they're being.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

That's true.

[Tim Harford]

They're being sold on, on the TikTok on YouTube and again, it's attention. You've got an influencer, somebody who you're paying attention to because they're doing interesting things and then suddenly they're trying to sell you their latest goop or creams or pills. And it's so different.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

But if he'd been around today, I think he would have been on TikTok, but he was traveling around towns, he's doing his act, he's selling nonsense. And then at some point he tries to settle down in Chicago. And he must have had a thought along the way of like, I'm not really a doctor.

[Tim Harford]

Yeah, well, okay. Spoiler. He's not a doctor.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Something must have occurred to him like I'm treating all these people and I'm not a medical person at all.

[Tim Harford]

So he had no medical qualifications.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

He can do attitude, Tim, is what he had. He had.

[Tim Harford]

That's what I wanted, my doctors grit. Did he claim to be a doctor or did he have any sort of qualifications at all?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Not at this point. And the qualifications that he does get are best described as dubious.

[Tim Harford]

Right.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

He went to study at the Chicago Bennett Medical School. Eclectic medicine was just sort of the study of botany, herbal cures and a bit of physiotherapy as well. So it's already a little bit. Okay. And it's not an accredited college that he's studying at. And he doesn't even manage to finish it because he can't pay the tuition fees at this point. He seems to be working a lot of different jobs to try and pay these fe and he can't. So he drops out. And then eventually he goes to the Kansas City Eclectic Medical School, which again is a nonsense. It's just a front. They were known as diploma mills. And he just buys a diploma in the same way that occasionally charlatans get exposed today because they've bought a PhD online.

[Tim Harford]

Okay, so he's got a fig leaf of a qualification, but he hasn't really got any serious training. And then he ends up in Milford, Kansas. How did he end up there from Chicago?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

He ditches his wife, by the way, in between these two points, and his children, he just leaves them and he takes up with another woman called Minnie who he bigamously marries. And at this point he's trying to run a kind of a medical center in Chicago where he's basically injecting men with colored water and telling them that this is good for their manly vigor and the authorities get wise to it. And so he Needs to get out there quick, smart. And there's an advert for the town of Milford where they need a physician. So he thinks that will do me and him and Minnie pack up their spotted handkerchief and head to Kansas.

[Tim Harford]

Yeah. And then. Yeah, Flu hits. And he tends people.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

He was really popular.

[Tim Harford]

I mean, a good bedside manner will get you a long way. And with flu, I mean, at the time, there was no flu vaccine. I guess there's no treatment. So you just kind of like, be nice to people and be nice to people.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Chicken soup. Yeah, that kind. But he was really popular when he first arrives. Cause he's this new doctor. Nobody's questioning that he calls himself a doctor. It's a small rural town. There's a few hundred people, and they're just thrilled to have a doctor.

[Tim Harford]

And then somehow he makes this leap from eclectic medicine. So basically, colored water and some herbs and spices and that. I mean, that's pretty ordinary. There's a lot of people doing that. At this point in history, he leaps into the goat gland game.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Yeah.

[Tim Harford]

I know that there are different accounts of the first operation, but we know that he did, in fact, implant goat gland. So what? Where would I really. I'm gonna regret asking this. Where did he put them?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Well, he put them into the testicles, into the scrotums of men. And there are descriptions of the surgery that he did.

[Tim Harford]

Scrotums being stretchy, there's room for four testicles rather than two.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

You've pretty much got it. So he had this idea that you had to use the goat's GL within 20 minutes of severing it. So he would basically castrate the goat, cut out the gland from the testicle, put it in salted water to keep it at room temperature, and then rush it into the other room, where he would have numbed up his victim's scrotum with local anesthetic. And then with two incisions, he would put the entire gland just under the surface of the skin. And he said that he was doing things like joining up blood vessels and ensuring oxygen supply. And he wasn't doing any of that.

[Tim Harford]

He's jamming it.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

He's just jamming a bullock in. And then he stitches it up. That's what he was doing.

[Tim Harford]

That can't be good for you.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Well, no, but do you know what? He didn't come up with this in a vacuum. This was the time of very, very early hormone treatment. And I say early in the fact that they discovered what hormones were. And he wasn't the only mad person Grafting testicles into other testicles. There was an American Russian physician called Serge Voronov who at least was medically qualified, and he was doing it with monkey tattoos.

[Tim Harford]

I don't know if that makes it better or worse.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

I don't know. I don't know. But you could.

[Tim Harford]

This is part of the story, actually, which is that you've got these quacks, but the mainstream of medical practice is not necessarily any better. It doesn't necessarily have any more evidence, They've just got more authority and it.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Made sense to them in a way of like, right, we've discovered that testosterone is important for men and it makes them feel peppy. And we've discovered it's made in testicles. So if we take a testicle and we put it in another testicle, see how it's fallen apart quite quickly? No, but I was like, I was with you right up until that feels like spinal tap.

[Tim Harford]

Four testicles.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Four testicles is more than two. So that was the theory behind it. So you've got Serge Voranov doing it with monkey glands. Apparently, he wasn't inserting the entire gland, he was cutting slivers off and then stitching it up inside men's scrotums. He at least was medically trained and had some gloss of pseudoscience with it. Brinkley had nothing. He just had a scalpel and a goat.

[Tim Harford]

Now, the thing that I find most astonishing about this is that a load of men seem really keen to have this done.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Oh, it was hugely popular.

[Tim Harford]

Chewing around the block.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

It was hugely popular. The gland therapy, as it was called at the time, was really big. In the 20s and 30s, you could even buy, like, rejuvenating face cream that claimed it was made from glans. It was like the thing because it was sort of like a pseudo hormone. The absolute apex of it was having actual testicles.

[Tim Harford]

Yeah.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

So apparently the first person that came to Brinkley and went, would you please put a goat testicle inside mine? And he went, ooh, I'll have to have a think about that. And then eventually went, yeah, all right, then. So he said that he wanted to do this because he was impotent and his wife wanted to get pregnant. And lo and behold, his wife becomes pregnant, the baby is born. They call him Billy. Of course they do. And it's hailed as the first goat glam baby. Because if there's one thing Brinkley is amazing at its self publicity. I've got in front of me a copy of his advertisement for Billy the First Goat Gland baby. So if I show that to you.

[Tim Harford]

I'm looking at, oh, what a cute baby.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

It doesn't look at all like a goat, does it?

[Tim Harford]

I mean, a toddler, I guess, rather than a baby, but he looks about one, but yes. Kansas surgeon uses goat glands to cure sterility first goat gland baby. Dr. John R. Brinkley. And Billy. Amazing.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

So he uses this as an opportunity to launch this incredible treatment. This young boy, Billy, is used as the definitive proof, and it's peddled as this cure. It'll get rid of impotence. It'll pep you up, It'll rejuvenate your sex life. And he was charging people, well, it's about $750, but in today's money, that's well over 10 grand.

[Tim Harford]

Off the top of my head, I would say that's probably a year's income. Depends exactly how you measure it.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Can I just show how desperate people were for this treatment, though?

[IRS Representative]

Yeah.

[Tim Harford]

I mean, people today spend a great deal for fertility treatment. You know, it's enormously important. Of course.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Just cast your mind back to when Viagra was launched.

[Tim Harford]

Yeah.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

People lost their minds with it, didn't they? There was reports of doctors having to stamp prescriptions with a rubber stamp because the hand was cramping from signing so many of them. So that's how popular Viagra was. This was their Viagra.

[Tim Harford]

Yes.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

And they really thought that it was gonna work. So he has cues around the block and not just from the local community. There was Chinese patients who came to see him that had been traveling around the world and thought they were just stop off in Kansas to have goat testicles put inside themselves, and it becomes this huge media sensation.

[Tim Harford]

This is one of the reasons why nerds like me are very keen on randomized trials, because people are able to convince themselves that all sorts of things work. Impotence is sometimes just in your head.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Yep.

[Tim Harford]

Sometimes it's got a physical cause sometimes you're overthinking it.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Yeah.

[Tim Harford]

And I can well imagine that this guy went home from his goat gland operation full of confidence, and suddenly he could get it up.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

So, like, when they look at placebo effect, it's more effective if the person administering the treatment looks like a doctor has a white coat. Call them Dotsell's doctor. If there's some level of surgical intervention, we're more inclined to believe. And this has got all of the above. Plus, when they go home, they actually do have a lump in their scrotum that is a goat's testicle. So, I mean, I am unaware if there is any medical benefit whatsoever to doing this, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no.

[Tim Harford]

Kate, you can't argue with results. Baby Billy was born. Baby Billy, the first Goat gland baby Customers are happy. I can't imagine that anything is going to go wrong, but we'll find out after the break. You are listening to Cautionary Tales with me, Tim Harford with my special guest, Dr. Kate Lister, of the brilliant Betwixt the Sheets podcast. And so after the break, we will hear the next twist in the story about how the goat gland doctor became a radio star.

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[Amica Insurance]

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[Tim Harford]

Welcome back to Cautionary Tales with me, Tim Harford and the inimitable Dr. Kate Lister. So, Kate, we were 100 years ago, the early 1920s at this point. Just how big was Brinkley's goat gland transplant operation?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

It was big and it was growing all the time because the more he did it, the more he self publicized, the more people wanted to come and see him. So it becomes this beast that's feeding on itself. And he would do things like get famous newspaper editors to come and have a transplant and they would then report on their progress. Some guy from the LA Times, Henry Chandler, came down and. I know, I know. See, that's, that's commitment to journalism.

[Tim Harford]

I've met a couple of newspaper editors. I'm not sure they'd go for the need more testicles. Really not.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

But he would do things like that. And then he would. And then. So then he's got major newspapers writing about him. And his absolute coup de grace is he leapt into radio and he utilized that in such a powerful way. He set up his own radio station and they called it kfkb.

[Tim Harford]

Kansas First, Kansas Best.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Kansas First, Kansas Best.

[Tim Harford]

But it's very much. It's the TikTok of the 1920s. Right. This is the new cutting edge way of communicating.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

And it really was cutting edge as well. And he would have local acts and local music groups come on and do their little bit like local choirs would come on and sing. But as well, he had his own segment twice daily where he would dispense medical advice.

[Tim Harford]

Yeah.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Which you're into very dubious territory here. Again, people from all over the country would write in about their medical complaints.

[Tim Harford]

All over the country. I thought it was a local radio station.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

It had a really big reach. It wasn't listened to just in Kansas. Is that the power of this thing was enormous. I think at one point it was the biggest radio station in the country. The most popular and most listened to radio show.

[Tim Harford]

So he's a huge success.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Massive.

[Tim Harford]

That sort of success must start to attract scrutiny.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Well, it does. It's not local radio. So other people are listening in. And you've got a situation where Brinkley is reading out random people's medical complaints, diagnosing them live on the air and then Prescribing a treatment that only his pharmacy could supply. So whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. Some warnings going off there, but it was again, massively, massively popular. But you can imagine other doctors, real doctors with actual credentials listening into this and going, hang on a minute, hang on a minute, just give me a second. So he's getting way, way, way too big for his boots and he's making loads of money. And his neme was an actual proper doctor, Morris Fishbein, who was a member of the American Medical Association. And he was hell bent on exposing quacks and charlatans, of which, as we've already said, there were many. And this was his life's work. So he was onto Brinkley pretty quickly.

[Tim Harford]

And he didn't hold back, did he?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

He did not. He did not.

[Tim Harford]

Got one quote in front of me, says he described Brinkley as a charlatan of the rankest sort whose radio station was being used to victimize people and to enrich himself, which I don't know, seems fair enough.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

It's all true. That's exactly what was happening. But you've gotta remember that Brinkley had managed to cultivate this huge popularity in the local community and well, in the wider community as well. So to begin with, Morris Fishbein is this sort of lone voice. It's like, oh, you're meanie. Trying to take away our young successful doctor. And of course the Milford residents love it because it's bringing loads of money to the town, it's bringing loads of business into the town.

[Tim Harford]

So they don't want to challenge us.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

They don't want to challenge him. Shut up. Shut up.

[Tim Harford]

I mean, I found this when Cautionary Tales did the story of the Radium Dial Company and these poor young women who were giving themselves radium poisoning working, painting this radioactive paint on watch faces and other things. One of the problems they faced was that not only did the doctors not take them seriously, and not only did the company deny everything, but their local community ostracized them because they were like, you are gonna shut down this factory. It's the 1930s, it's a tough time economically. You're gonna destroy everyone's jobs just cause you're moaning about the fact that your jaw's fallen off or something. They were so lonely because the local community would not back them against the Radium Dial Company. And it seems like we've got a similar thing going on here with Brinkley. That, yeah, okay, fine, maybe the goat glands work, maybe they don't. But this is Jobs.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

This is jobs. This is income. And it's also put Milford on the map. The goat gland capital of the United States. Isn't it fabulous? And there are loads of people out there who really think that he's helped them. There are many others that did not. He was sued at least 12 times in the 1930s because, unsurprisingly, these operations were not a success. He's not gonna give the testimonials of the people who wander back in going, my scrotum's gone purple. There were people having infections. There were people that died, actually. So he was sued and kind of managed to bat it away and hush it up each time. But Morris Fishbein was not going to let it go. He was extremely angry. And so he starts exposing him in very highly publicized news articles. And then more people are kind of asking questions of like, hang on a minute. What do you mean he's not a doctor? Yeah, that kind of thing.

[Tim Harford]

So do the authorities do anything?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

They do eventually. I mean, they have to get involved. Because he's practicing medicine without a license. He's operating on people with no qualifications or reason to do this at all. So eventually, that's apparently frowned upon, isn't it? It is frowned upon. Even in 1930s, it's caused for people to have a think about it. So in 1930, he was called before the Kansas Medical board to face 11 charges. It's like, can you show us your medical certificate? And he's just holding up a piece of paper with doctor written and crayon on it.

[Tim Harford]

So when the Kansas Medical board looked into his qualifications, I mean, what sort of investigation did they do?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

They did a pretty thorough investigation, actually, which, in an act of. It's not even confidence. It's just lunacy. But this is how much of a charlatan he was. He actually invited members of the medical board to come and watch him do one of his procedures.

[Tim Harford]

And they came.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

And they came. Of course they came. So representatives come down and they watch him literally sewing goat balls into a human being with unsterilized equipment. At which point he's like, ta da. And is genuinely shocked that they go, holy. No more for you. No, you are done. It's worth saying as well here that the boy goats survived, but the girl goats that he took ovaries out of to graft into women did not.

[Tim Harford]

Will no one think of the goats?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

No, just somebody. Justice for the goats. That's all that I'm saying. They often get left out of this particular story.

[Tim Harford]

I see that his license to practice was revoked on the grounds of gross immorality and unprofessional conduct.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Yes, you can't get much, much firmer than that, can you?

[Tim Harford]

No, you can't. Okay. He's lost his license to practice medicine. Potentially a disaster. He's still got the radio, though. He's still got that potential cash cow.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

He does. And it's a big cash cow as well. And he's still got his Dr. Brinkley show and he's still offering up medical advice and people are still writing in and he's still peddling his quack cures. And it's all right for a while, but our mate Morris Fishbein hasn't forgotten about him. And the pressure is now coming on the Kansas authorities to investigate whether it is ethical or not to have a disbarred lunatic offering up medical advice.

[Tim Harford]

Yes, and the Federal Radio Commission get involved in the. Spoil sports.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Spoil sports. But again, that's exactly what he is doing. He isn't a medically qualified doctor. The advice that he's given up is just gibberish. And he's administering care to actual sick people. They're writing in with things that really are wrong with them.

[Tim Harford]

And he's got no idea what he's talking about.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Not a clue. Not a clue. So eventually they have to pull the plug on it. And no more surgery and no more radio for you.

[Tim Harford]

So things are not looking good for Dr. John R. Brinkley because he's not a doctor anymore.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

He's not.

[Tim Harford]

And neither is he a DJ anymore. He's lost his radio show. Surely, though, this can't be the end. This man is a master of reinvention. Dr. Kate Lister will be back to continue his story after the break.

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[Tim Harford]

Today you're listening to Cautionary Tales with me, Tim Harford, and my guest, Dr. Kate Lister of the Betwixt the Sheets podcast. So Kate, we've been hearing the story of Dr. Brinkley. He's a showman without a show. Cause he's lost his goat gland practice. He's lost his radio station. What's he gonna do?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

If it was any other normal human being, you'd just give up, wouldn't you? You'd be I've been shamed on a national level here. I've been exposed as the worst kind of charlatan. He decides politics. That's the place for me. That's what I will do.

[Tim Harford]

So he who would have thought that a failed con man would be attracted by politics?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

It was the olden days, Tim. We'll never see the like again. So he runs twice to be the governor of Kansas.

[Tim Harford]

That's a big job.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

It's a big job.

[Tim Harford]

He's not just running for mayor. Okay, Governor of Kansas.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

As we've discovered, not being remotely qualified for a position is no obstacle to Brinkley. He just can do attitude and so.

[Tim Harford]

He'S got all the stars of his KFKB radio station who can kind of shill for him and support him. So how does it go? I mean, is he crushed?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Not nearly as epically as you would hope that he would be. It's a reasonably close call. I think. Eventually he came in third, I think. So they had this rule in place where if the vote didn't match exactly the name that he's running under, which was John R. Brinkley, then the vote would be discounted. So if somebody didn't put J R. Brinkley, if they just put something like Doc Brinkley, it would just be thrown out immediately. It has been suggested that if that hadn't happened, he might have taken it.

[Tim Harford]

So he doesn't win in 1930 because of all those votes for Doc Brinkley and John Brinkley, and he doesn't get in. He nearly makes it. He tries again in 1932, loses again. Can't be it for Brinkley.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Well, the second time that he ran, it did more damage to his public image because his opponents realized that they could make a mockery of him, and they did. They held him up as just this crank little guy, goat ball guy, who's been disbarred and discredited, and da, da, da, da. So it created even more.

[Tim Harford]

That would have done more damage earlier. But, okay, eventually they figure out that's an attacker.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Eventually. So he upsticks and he moves to Del Rio, Texas, which is way down there on the border, where he tries again to practice medicine. Only this time he takes an increased interest in people's prostate glands.

[Tim Harford]

Why do I think that's worse? Somehow I think that's even worse.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

But, okay, I don't think that he's injecting or grafting anything into anybody, but he's certainly examining people. And this is like a world of suppositories. And it's all nonsense. And again, it's the same thing. It's that, oh, it's manly vigor. It'll rejuvenate you. Da, da da da. He gets another radio show. Another radio show, another radio show, which again, proves to be incredibly popular and again, is his downfall, because he can't just go somewhere and shut up and do his weird prostate thing. He has to broadcast it. So again, he attracts attention.

[Tim Harford]

But the border is important there. Right? Because he can put the radio transmitter in Mexico.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Yeah, yeah. So he gets around the American authorities that way because he's not allowed to do it in America, but from Mexico, even though they can hear it In America.

[Tim Harford]

Yeah, I think they called it a border blaster. So he's got this massive radio mast near his home, but it's in Mexico. And therefore he's immune to American regulation.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

And again, this show is broadcast across the States. You could pick it up in every single one of the states. It was that powerful.

[Tim Harford]

So he resurrects his career, if indeed it ever really went away. By 1938, he's got another hospital in Arkansas.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Yep.

[Tim Harford]

He's living the high life. He's got mansions, he's got yachts, Cadillacs, luxury holidays. Nothing can go wrong for Doc Brinkley.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Yeah, but Maurice Fishbone hadn't forgotten about him.

[Tim Harford]

Oh, right. His old nemesis.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

His old nemesis. And of course, because Brinkley can't keep quiet and stay off the radar, Maurice Fishbein is just like, right, I'll have you. And he publishes a number of exposes calling him a quack and a charlatan. And is it a desperate act? Is it a mad act? It's certainly what Oscar Wilde ended up doing. Brinkley, to defend himself against this, decides that he's gonna sue him for libel.

[Tim Harford]

Bold move.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

A terrible. Don't do it. If what the person is saying is perfectly true.

[Tim Harford]

Because it all then gets laid out in court.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

All of it. All of it gets laid out in court. The goat glands, the unsterilized equipment, the operating while drunk. The fact that 42 people that we know of died from these awful operations because of infection and God knows what else. And how many goats died. Justice for the goats.

[Tim Harford]

I think we're probably gonna leave with the 42 people dying. Okay, that's my suggestion. But yes, fine, fair enough. But that's not good for Brinkley.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

None of it's good for Brinkley. Obviously, the court finds in Fishbein's favour.

[Tim Harford]

I love. The jury verdict is that Brinkley should be considered a charlatan and a quack in the ordinary well understood meaning of these words. Like, I like it.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Yeah. And there you go. And now there's a legal precedent for it. He is legally a quack and a charlatan.

[Tim Harford]

And then I would love to have been a fly on a wall when this letter arrives. The IRS sue him for tax fraud.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Yeah. Cause he wasn't paying his taxes. Of course he wasn't.

[Tim Harford]

Who would have thought?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Who would have thought?

[Tim Harford]

And then the post office sue him for mail fraud.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Yeah. People sued him. It's like shark circling, isn't it? And like once somebody's made the first bite, as they're all going in he loses everything, and we're not gonna feel remotely sorry for him at all.

[Tim Harford]

Right, so this is the end of the 1930s. Sounds like it's basically the end for Brinkley's career.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Pretty much all avenues have been cut off to him. He kind of limps along for a little bit, muttering about the injustice of it and about trying to resurrect some kind of nonsense career. But he eventually suffers multiple heart attacks, so his health is failing and he died in 1942, penniless and in disgrace.

[Tim Harford]

Kate, this has been a joy. Whenever we have one of our cautionary conversations, I always try to reflect, always want to learn the lessons from history. So one lesson I've learned is that I'm not going to have goat testicles implanted in my scrotum.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

A wise move.

[Tim Harford]

But maybe there are. Who knows, maybe there are even broader lessons to draw. What do you take from all?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

I think there are lots of lessons from this for the modern world, because medical quackery is still very much with us. There's still people out there peddling all manner of lotions and potions and pills and powders, claiming to do this, that and the other. And it doesn't do anything of the sort. And I think check your credentials as well is like, look into the background of the person that's selling you something. Just because they put on a good show doesn't mean that they absolutely know what they're talking about.

[Tim Harford]

Yeah. I mean, it is amazing how much gets sold basically by influencers now. It's on YouTube, it's on TikTok. And actually the main reason why people buy it is because, well, they like the influencer. They find them impressive, they think they're cool and that's enough.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

We should just be a bit firm with that and just say no. We shouldn't be selling nonsense to people, no matter what it does.

[Tim Harford]

I'm all in favor of actual evidence.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Evidence.

[Tim Harford]

You know, the other thing this whole story reminded me of, Kate, is, do you know Lydia E. Pinkham, Lily the Pink?

[Dr. Kate Lister]

I do know the story of Lily the Pink, yes.

[Tim Harford]

So we did a cautionary tale about her, and as you know, she developed this medicinal compound most efficacious in every case. And it was basically just booze and some herbs and probably didn't do much harm, probably also didn't do much good. But what I was really struck by is, oh, yeah, she's a quack, right? There's no evidence that this works. She's got no particular credentials. And they set up this operation and it makes a huge amount of money. Then I looked at what the actual qualified medical profession had to offer for women's troubles. So we're talking period pains, extreme period pains, miscarriages, prolapsed uteruses, none of which the doctors at the time were really very interested in diagnosing. But what doctors were doing was prescribing medicines such as calomel. Calomel is basically just a mercury compound. It rots your face away, it's poisonous. I mean, Lilly was basically just giving people some medicine that was about as strong as sherry, wasn't really going to do them any harm. And so one of the lessons that I drew, and I think this does tie into Brinkley too, is if people are not getting what they need from mainstream medicine, of course they're going to look for alternatives.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

And Lydia Pinkham was another master at personal image, wasn't she? She had her face on billboards up and down the country as this trustworthy woman with her efficacious compound.

[Tim Harford]

She was so famous. In fact, when Great little story when Queen Victoria died, some newspaper editors didn't actually have a photograph of Queen Victoria, so they slapped a picture of Lydia Pinkham and Sexley, you know, lady of a certain age looks about right.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Close enough. Yeah, close enough, yeah.

[Tim Harford]

Well, I suppose that this is the broader lesson. Right. If we don't have the real thing, we go for a substitute. That's true if it's a photograph of Queen Victoria or Lydia Pinkham, but it's also true for medicines.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Yeah.

[Tim Harford]

So two very different characters, but fundamentally they're both spotting a gap in the.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Market and exploiting it.

[Tim Harford]

Yeah.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Or marketing themselves really successfully.

[Tim Harford]

Marketing is a. It's the best drug, isn't it? Kate, this has been such a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining me. What should we call this Betwixt the Cautionary.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Cautionary tales?

[Tim Harford]

Well, if people would like a pure and unadulterated shot of Betwixt the Sheets, the podcast is available in all the usual pod places.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

It's available wherever you get your podcast. Just give us a Google and we.

[Tim Harford]

Will jump up and just give us a 5 second. What is Betwixt the Sheets? For people who don't know, Betwixt the.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Sheets is us having a look at the seedier side of history and getting betwixt the sheets of the great and the good and the not so great and the good as well, and learning what our ancestors got up to in the sack.

[Tim Harford]

It's a joy to listen to. I love it. So I hope some more people will discover it. Kate Lister, thank you so much.

[Dr. Kate Lister]

Thank you.

[Tim Harford]

For a full list of our sources, see the show [e-mail] Cautionary Tales is written by me, Tim Harford with Andrew Wright, Alice Fiennes and Ryan Dilley. It's produced by Alice Fiennes and Marilyn Rust. The sound design and original music are the work of Pascal Wise. Additional sound design is by Carlos San Juan at Brain Audio. Ben Nadaff Haffrey edited the scripts. The show features the voice talents of Melanie Guttridge, Stella Harford, Oliver Hembrough, Sarah Jupp, Mircea Munro, Jamal Westman and Rufus Wright. The show also wouldn't have been possible without the work of Jacob Weisberg, Greta Cohn, Sarah Nix, Eric Sandler, Carrie Brody, Christina Sullivan, Keira Posey and Owen Miller. Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. It's recorded at Wardour Studios in London by Tom Berry. If you like the show, please remember to share, rate and review. It really makes a difference to us. And if you want to hear the show ad free, sign up to Pushkin plus on the show page on Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin fm. Plus.

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