One Year: The Miracle Cure

Summary

Slow Burn – One Year: The Miracle Cure

Podcast: Slow Burn (Slate Podcasts)
Episode Date: August 2, 2021
Host/Narrator: Josh Levine / Evan Chung (Producer, Narrator)
Main Participants: Diana Greene, Dr. John Truman, Mary Ziegler (historian)

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EPISODE OVERVIEW

This episode explores the story of Chad Greene—a young leukemia patient at the center of a national debate in the late 1970s about “miracle cures,” parental rights, and the meaning of medical freedom. Through first-person interviews, period news clips, and insights from historians, the episode traces how a fringe cancer treatment (Laetrile) became a rallying cry for personal liberty, political activism, and, ultimately, a cautionary tale.

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KEY THEMES & DISCUSSION POINTS

1. The Emotional Cancer Debate (Texas, 1977)

• Cancer patients and families testify before the Texas Senate, emotionally pleading to legalize Laetrile—an unproven cancer drug.

• The legitimacy of personal testimony vs. scientific evidence is fiercely debated.

  Notable Quote:
  "What would you rather have sitting here? A live anecdote or a dead statistic? I'm asking you to afford me a life sentence, not a death sentence."
  – Laetrile Advocate ([03:13])

2. Chad Greene's Story: Diagnosis, Hope, and Controversy

• Chad is diagnosed with leukemia at 20 months old; his parents, Diana and Jerry, are overwhelmed and desperate ([04:10]–[04:42]).

• Dr. John Truman, a leading pediatric oncologist, begins treatment—initial remission is achieved with chemotherapy.

• Diana becomes suspicious of chemotherapy toxicity and stops giving Chad his medication, turning to nutritional remedies instead.

  Notable Quote:
  "We all wanted what was best for him. We all loved him… We really believed that we had as much of a chance doing that and stopping the chemotherapy."
  – Diana Greene ([15:45])

  Notable Moment:
  Dr. Truman is shocked by the parents’ refusal to continue chemo ([15:29–15:45]).

3. Legal Intervention: Whose Child is it?

• Chad relapses. The hospital petitions the court, and police forcibly return Chad to the hospital for mandated chemotherapy ([16:49]).

• Media frames the dispute as state vs. parents’ rights.

• Public opinion is deeply divided; some see the state as overreaching.

  Notable Quote:
  "I thought it was going to be a big media circus in Boston… It went around lickety split."
  – Dr. John Truman ([20:18])

4. The Rise of Laetrile and the “Freedom of Choice” Movement

• Laetrile, made from apricot pits, is touted as a natural alternative—its supporters allege a broad medical conspiracy suppresses its use.

• The John Birch Society and other conservative groups frame the right to try Laetrile as a personal liberty issue, drawing parallels with Roe v. Wade.

  Notable Quote:
  "I'm signing the legislation but simultaneously wish to advise that I'm absolutely convinced there is no scientific evidence whatsoever which supports any contention that Laetrile either prevents or cures cancer."
  – Governor Edwin Edwards ([29:31])

• State-level victories: By the late 1970s, 27 states legalize Laetrile.

5. The Public's Desperation, the Power of Hope, and the Placebo Dilemma

• Many patients see Laetrile as a last hope and question what harm a supposed placebo could do to terminally ill patients.

• The medical community warns of false hope and potential fatalities in treatable cases.

  Notable Quote:
  “The greatest tragedy will be when the first little kid dies that has been treated with Laetrile that might have been saved through conventional treatment.”
  – State hearing doctor ([33:01])

6. Courtroom Drama and Escalation

• After courts prohibit Chad's alternative treatments, his family orchestrates a covert escape—flees to Mexico where Laetrile is legal ([40:13]–[41:36]).
• The Freedom of Choice Committee assists the Greenses' escape and publicizes their story, making Chad a symbol of the alternative medicine movement.

7. Denouement: Chad’s Decline and the End of the Laetrile Movement

• In Mexico, Chad is treated with Laetrile; his parents claim miraculous health, but soon his leukemia returns.

• Chad dies in October 1979, at age three ([48:42]).

• The episode closes with the aftermath: Chad’s parents return to the US, face (but avoid) jail time, and the Supreme Court finally shuts down legal avenues for Laetrile ([49:41]–[49:53]).

• Studies confirm Laetrile is ineffective; public support wanes, and the movement fades.

  Memorable Moment:
  Diana expresses regret and warns others:

  "Do not negate your doctor's advice or any medication that is prescribed for you unless that option has failed … Do not become a victim of your own fear or the deceptive tactics of false practitioners."
  – Diana Greene ([53:20])

  Memorable Reconciliation:
  Decades later, Diana sends Dr. Truman her book, acknowledging his attempts to help Chad. They have a belated, emotional conversation over Zoom ([54:28]–[55:00]).

8. Broader Implications: Faith vs. Medicine, Parental Rights vs. Child Welfare

• The story exemplifies cycles of “miracle cures” gaining popularity amid distrust of medical authority—a pattern that persists.

• Final reflections suggest that while medicine won the Laetrile battle, lasting public skepticism toward scientific consensus remains.

  Notable Reflection:
  "People’s willingness to listen to scientists was not necessarily coming back after Laetrile. And I think regulators and scientists forgot it at their own peril."
  – Mary Ziegler ([51:17])

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TIMELINE OF IMPORTANT SEGMENTS

• [00:48–03:26]: Texas hearings; patient testimonials; match between hope, anecdote, and medical evidence
• [04:10–09:30]: Chad Green’s diagnosis, early treatment, and parents’ turn toward alternatives
• [15:25–18:28]: Discovery of parents’ noncompliance with chemo; legal intervention; media storm
• [19:04–22:43]: Chad’s family's struggle; lobbying and support from pro-Laetrile activists
• [23:31–29:31]: History of Laetrile, John Birch Society activism, legislative battles, and bipartisan momentum
• [29:55–33:01]: National debate: freedom to choose vs. medical standards
• [40:13–43:16]: Family escape, Laetrile therapy in Mexico, public support
• [46:06–48:44]: Chad’s decline and death
• [49:41–50:58]: Legislative and judicial end to the Laetrile movement; public shift
• [51:17–53:48]: Reflections, lessons learned, Diana’s warning to others
• [54:28–55:41]: Emotional reconciliation between Diana and Dr. Truman

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MEMORABLE QUOTES AND MOMENTS

• "What would you rather have sitting here? A live anecdote or a dead statistic?"
  – Laetrile advocate ([03:13])
• "Parents’ rights are only up to a point. The child has its own rights. It is his right to life. And his right to life has greater meaning than the parent's right to decisions regarding their child."
  – Dr. John Truman ([19:31])
• "We did what they prescribed to do… We thought from what we heard that it seemed to have a positive outcome."
  – Diana Greene ([22:24])
• "You have canine ancestry. Whoa. I'm a son of a bitch."
  – Dr. Truman, reading hate mail ([36:16])

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CONCLUSION

The episode masterfully interweaves personal tragedy, shifting political landscapes, public skepticism, and the enduring search for agency in the face of serious illness. It’s a definitive look at the way desperation can power dubious remedies—and at the complex intersection of freedom, evidence, and authority in medicine. The legacy of the Laetrile controversy continues to resonate in contemporary debates over alternative therapies, vaccine skepticism, and the limits of parental rights.

If you’re seeking a deeply human window into a transformational chapter of American medical and political history—with clear resonance today—this episode is essential listening.

Transcript

[Diana Greene]

Hi, I'm Julianne Moore. I learn a lot from every role, but some things stay with me more than others, like the impact of Alzheimer's disease. It's important to think about brain health now because there's so much we want to do. Acting early to protect brain health may help reduce the risk of dementia from conditions like Alzheimer's disease. Ask your doctor about your risk factors and for a cognitive assessment, learn [e-mail].

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

This is a paid partnership with Lily.

[Josh Levine]

Hey, this is Josh Levine, the host of One Year. I hope you're enjoying our season on 1977. This week's episode comes from our producer Evan Chung. Here it is.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

While I've been waiting to testify, since this meeting opened, in this country, 200 people have died of cancer.

[Narrator / Historian]

It was an emotional day in Austin when the Texas Senate Committee on Human resources met on May 2, 1977. Over the next three hours, members of the crowd took turns at the microphone.

[Mary Ziegler]

I had lost previously five members of my family to cancer and had seen them suffer.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

And they tried everything, all of their chemotherapy and all of their high powered poisons, and it didn't stop it.

[Narrator / Historian]

The witnesses talked about the fear that gripped them when they discovered they were ill.

[Mary Ziegler]

I was diagnosed as having cancer of the breast. My doctor had given me a 50%.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

Chance of living, and I could tell that he was kissing me goodbye. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to anybody.

[Narrator / Historian]

But then they described how their desperation turned to hope when they learned of another option, a chemical compound extracted from apricot pits and bitter almonds known as Laetril.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

On the 10th day of the Laetril treatment, I got up out of bed one morning and I walked to the restroom. I said, patsy, my God, I'm not crippled.

[Mary Ziegler]

Four weeks ago, my doctor gave me a clean bill of health.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

If these people were cured and I'm one of them, then my goodness sakes, why not let the people in this great state use this substance?

[Narrator / Historian]

The people who testified that day had gone to Mexico for Laetril treatments because it wasn't approved for cancer therapy in the United States. One by one, they pleaded with the senators to legalize Laetril in Texas so that others could be saved just like they were. But in the face of all the heart wrenching testimonials, a doctor took to the microphone.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

It's very difficult to get up here and go against something that there's so much emotion because where there isn't a lot of knowledge, there's a lot of misk and that's my concern here.

[Narrator / Historian]

There was a reason that Laetril wasn't approved in the U.S. the medical authorities had determined that it didn't work.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

The testimony that you have not heard today is from those patients who have died from cancer. You've taken Laetrel. They can't speak to the other side of the coin.

[Narrator / Historian]

The cancer patients in the room found that argument offensive. They demanded to be seen as real people, not mere anecdotal evidence.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

What would you rather have sitting here? A live anecdote or a dead statistic? I'm asking you to afford me a life sentence, not a death sentence.

[Narrator / Historian]

The bill to legalize Leotrille cleared the committee without opposition. It was a scene that played out over and over, a national debate a about who gets to decide which medical treatments are okay and which are illegal. With almost 700,000Americans developing cancer in 1977, the stakes of that debate were enormous. And the pro Laatril side was winning in statehouses and households all across America. In August of 1977, in Nebraska, Diana and Jerry Greene received terrible news. Their 20 month old son had cancer.

[Diana Greene]

We were immediately just transported into a place of fear and just complete meltdown.

[Narrator / Historian]

Chad had always been an impish little kid, full of mischievous energy. But now he was looking out at his mother from the inside of a laminar flow unit. Chad was diagnosed with cancer of the blood and bone marrow leukemia. Based on the doctor's grim report, Diana Greene wondered whether they were just prolonging the inevitable.

[Diana Greene]

You know, what kind of a situation is this gonna be for him? You know, would it be kinder? Would it be kinder if he's going to pass anyway? To let him do that and not put him through this?

[Narrator / Historian]

Diana decided that she wasn't giving up, that she was going to fight for her son's life. The choices she made in that fight would spark a massive controversy.

[Diana Greene]

We had been given such nebulous odds. I know it sounds foolish, but we didn't think we were taking a chance.

[Narrator / Historian]

There would be a bitter court battle, claims of sinister motives, and a shocking disappearance. At the center of it all was a little boy who had no say at all in what was about to happen.

[Dr. John Truman]

We're being told by the government that.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

People are too stupid to think for themselves and make decisions. So we're gonna make those decisions for you. I think it's one of the greatest frauds that's been foisted upon the citizens of the United States.

[Diana Greene]

They started calling him Leotril Boy. That was the bombshell that sent everything off in a different direction.

[Narrator / Historian]

This is one year, 1977. The miracle cure.

[Dr. John Truman]

In 1977, along came this wonderful little boy with his very devoted parents.

[Narrator / Historian]

This is Dr. John Truman.

[Dr. John Truman]

I'm a physician, a pediatrician, the pediatrician who no family would ever want to meet because my field is blood diseases and cancer in children.

[Narrator / Historian]

Dr. Truman was one of the top childhood cancer specialists in the country. He ran the pediatric hematology oncology unit at mass general in boston. After chad green was diagnosed, the green family moved in with jerry's parents in massachusetts so chad could be treated by Dr. Truman.

[Diana Greene]

He was very optimistic. He had more enthusiasm, for sure.

[Dr. John Truman]

And they said, well, let's go, let's continue.

[Narrator / Historian]

He put chad on a treatment of intense chemotherapy. Every week, Chad came into the hospital to get a spinal injection, and he was also prescribed pills to take at home. After six weeks of treatment, it seemed like Dr. Truman's optimism was well founded.

[Dr. John Truman]

And he was now perfectly well. And he was the most adorable little boy. I have to say. I've never seen a handsomer nor more winsome child.

[Diana Greene]

He didn't even lose his hair. I mean, that's just not done. I mean, he still had his blonde curls. He had color in his face. Sometimes, while Dr. Truman would be examining chad, he would just say, you know, he's the healthiest looking kid in the clinic.

[Narrator / Historian]

The treatment got easier. Now chad only had to take his chemotherapy pills at home and come into the clinic once a month for checkup. In December 1977, Dr. Truman did a routine test of chad's white blood cell count. The results of that test were a little odd.

[Dr. John Truman]

I noticed that his blood counts were absolutely normal. Now, by my reckoning, with the medication that we were taking, his counts should be a little lower, a little lower than normal, Just to show that the medication was doing its effect. So I raised the dose just a tiny bit. And to see them a month later, and it was still absolutely normal, I began to wonder. Raised the dose a second time. By the third month, when chad arrived, it was obviously he was sick. He had a fever, he was feeling badly. And I thought, oh, my goodness. Sure enough, the blood test showed that the leukemia was back.

[Narrator / Historian]

Chad had relapsed. The leukemia must have become resistant to the drugs. Maybe the dosages had still just been off. But then Dr. Truman realized there could be another explanation for what he was seeing.

[Dr. John Truman]

It was clear in my mind I hadn't thought of it at first. I said, was he getting these pills?

[Diana Greene]

And at that time, I told him.

[Narrator / Historian]

Diana and Jerry had stopped giving Chad his chemotherapy medication three months earlier.

[Dr. John Truman]

Now that changed the whole thing.

[Narrator / Historian]

We'll be back in a minute.

[Josh Levine]

Hey, this is Josh Levine. If you like our show, please follow One Year in its own feed in your podcast app. You'll get all of our episodes as soon as they come out, plus bonus content. You won't get in this feed. And you'll be the first to know what year we'll cover in our next season. Just search one year from Slate on any podcast app.

[Narrator / Historian]

Six years before Chad Green fell ill, Richard Nixon stood before Congress and declared a war on cancer.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

The time has come in America when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atomic and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread disease.

[Narrator / Historian]

But landing a man on the moon, it turned out, was much easier than curing cancer. Even the basic questions still needed to be answered. What caused cancer? Is it one thing or hundreds of separate diseases? In just a few years, it became clear that the war on cancer wouldn't be a flashy success like the Apollo program. Instead, it felt like an actual war. Vietnam. We were stuck in a medical quagmire. When experts talked about the possibility of a cure, it sounded more and more like propaganda.

[Mary Ziegler]

There wasn't just a loss of faith in the government, but in the medical profession specifically.

[Narrator / Historian]

Mary Ziegler is a historian and law professor at Florida State University. She says that crisis of confidence emboldened cancer patients.

[Mary Ziegler]

The idea was that medicine, at the end of the day, was a product like any other, that doctors shouldn't be babying them and protecting them from themselves. Doctors should be giving them the opportunity to decide which risks they wanted to take.

[Narrator / Historian]

By 1977, that self help message was everywhere. Manage your diet. Take up jogging. Try out acupuncture. The women's liberation movement said that you know your own body and you should walk away from a doctor who doesn't give you the treatment that you want. The feeling was pervasive. The experts were fallible, even untrustworthy, and didn't always have your best interests at heart. Sometimes you just had to take matters into your own hands. The reality was there were important developments in cancer research in the 1970s, even if they weren't so visible to the public. And perhaps the greatest success story was in the treatment of childhood cancer.

[Dr. John Truman]

By 1971, thanks to some extraordinary science, breakthroughs were made, and cancer suddenly became much, much more curable. The potential had only been around for six years. In 1977, the predicted survival rate for.

[Narrator / Historian]

Children was now around 50% and rising. Dr. Truman had introduced Diana and Jerry greene to one of his patients who had benefited from the new developments, A little boy named david. Two years after completing chemotherapy, Diana. He was free from all signs of leukemia. But that wasn't enough evidence for Diana. She obsessively poured over the background material the hospital provided about Chad's chemo treatments, and she didn't like what she saw.

[Diana Greene]

Some of the chemotherapeutic drugs said right on there that it could accumulate in your body, it could kill you. So we were like, well, what are we doing? Are we giving him things that are going to help him, or is this just going to make his existence on earth worse?

[Narrator / Historian]

Diana and her husband wanted to find something they could do to help their son, something they could control. They started doing their own research and found books that made claims about nutritional remedies for cancer. Based on their reading, they designed a special diet for Chad.

[Diana Greene]

I was making him some kind of a pressed vegetable juice to keep his vitamin a levels up. Carrot, celery, apple actually was really good. So it was the idea that if we could keep up his nutrition enough that it would counter bad side effects of chemotherapy and keep him strong, which it actually did. And so we always thanked God because we prayed for him, and we thanked the information about the nutrition that we had gathered and that we practiced.

[Narrator / Historian]

In the 70s, there were a lot of studies suggesting that nutrition and cancer were linked somehow, but scientists couldn't name a specific diet that helped treat the disease. Yet the greens believed that their own research had blessed them with the answer, and that when Chad's cancer went into remission, it was in spite of the chemo, not because of it. By November 1977, they were convinced that the chemo was an invasive force that.

[Diana Greene]

Could destroy Chad's body, Because we believe that, you know, they were all things that could kill him and how they built up in your bloodstream, how they traveled over the blood brain barrier. I mean, we read all those things, and maybe, you know, we should have brought that to the attention, consulted with somebody that had more experience with it. But we just drew our own conclusions from it, and we stopped giving him the pills.

[Narrator / Historian]

Dr. Truman could not believe it when Diana told him what they'd done.

[Dr. John Truman]

I never encountered anyone who would not treat their child as aggressively as necessary if there was any remote chance of cure. It never crossed my mind that such people existed on the face of the earth. And I'm not exaggerating.

[Diana Greene]

We all wanted what was best for him. We all Loved him. He was our focus. I mean, we really believed that we had as much of a chance doing that and stopping the chemotherapy.

[Narrator / Historian]

But now Chad's leukemia was back. Dr. Truman pleaded with the Greenes to come back to the hospital. He still thought Chad stood some kind of a chance. Maybe if they started over again with the full chemotherapy.

[Diana Greene]

And if you can believe this, we still didn't want to give it to him.

[Dr. John Truman]

Now all the time, remember, the clock is ticking. Those leukemia cells double every day. Two cells become 4, four become 8, 1632. Now this had been going on for three months at that point. It's an overwhelming number of cancer cells. But we had to act.

[Narrator / Historian]

It was the afternoon of February 22, 1978, a Wednesday. Chad had just finished lunch and Diana was looking out the big bay windows of her in law's house.

[Diana Greene]

And I could see the police cars. They went out and blocked our driveway. They were there to take Chad.

[Narrator / Historian]

The police told them that a hearing had just been held in Probate Court. Dr. Truman had convinced the hospital to file a neglectful parent petition against the greens. The judge appointed a legal guardian with the power to make decisions for Chad's care. They were taking Chad back to Mass General to get chemo. And there was nothing Diana and Jerry could do about it.

[Diana Greene]

My husband was really, oh my gosh, he was so angry and he had his fists clenched and kept standing up and there was a policeman behind him that would put his hand on his shoulder and make him sit down, sit down.

[Narrator / Historian]

Diana rode with Chad in the police ambulance as it took him back to the hospital. The legal guardian signed the papers and Chad was forced back onto chemotherapy against his parents wishes.

[Dr. John Truman]

Oh, I felt badly. I felt badly for the parents. I knew how this was going to hurt them and upset them. And I had never done this before. I was a bad guy for the first time in my life and I knew I was a bad guy. And I knew there would be consequences.

[Narrator / Historian]

Dr. Truman wouldn't have to wait long to see those consequences.

[Dr. John Truman]

I remember at 6:30 in the morning the phone rang and it was a reporter for the Globe. And he said, what the hell are you doing at the Mass General? Taking a child with cancer and putting him in the hospital against the parents wishes. And I remember turning to my wife and said, dorothy, I think my career is over.

[Narrator / Historian]

When the story broke, what a lot of the public saw was a giant medical institution sending the police to rip a child from his home to force drugs into his body that his family didn't want.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

His parents say they have the right to decide what is best for their son.

[Narrator / Historian]

The Greens were eventually allowed to bring Chad home, but the judge required that a nurse come by the house twice a day to make sure that this time he was actually getting his pills. Diana told reporters that being on chemotherapy alone altered Chad's personality, transforming him into a wild animal.

[Mary Ziegler]

He would just start to shake and.

[Diana Greene]

Throw himself on the floor, throw himself against the wall and just scream. And if anybody was near him, he would take his hands and claw your face and pull your hair and bite.

[Mary Ziegler]

And just go crazy.

[Diana Greene]

If you go through some of my older interviews, I'm fairly adamant that we're standing up for what we believe is a parent's right and that we should have freedom of choice for things that don't have definite outcomes.

[Dr. John Truman]

Well, parents rights are only up to a point. The child has its own rights. It is his right to life. And his right to life has greater meaning than the parent's right to decisions regarding their child.

[Narrator / Historian]

54% of respondents to a Boston Globe poll sided with the Greens. One woman wrote, may God help the future of this great country when responsible parents can no longer exercise their responsibility regarding their own children. The Greens hired an attorney, and their battle against Dr. Truman and Mass General escalated very quickly, and the case could.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

Go to the United States Supreme Court.

[Diana Greene]

Then I would say that we both had our fists up. We were in a fight then.

[Dr. John Truman]

I thought it was going to be a big media circus in Boston. I never thought that we'd start going around the world, which it did. It went around lickety split.

[Diana Greene]

We got boxes and boxes of mail from people all over the country. Some of the mail didn't even have our name or address on it. It said, family with the boy with leukemia. And it got delivered to our house.

[Narrator / Historian]

The public support for Dr. Truman was no less passionate. Many people felt he had an ethical obligation to try to save Chad's life.

[Dr. John Truman]

In fact, once our son was riding his bike down an old train track area, and a couple of thuggish kids came along, said, hey, hey, kid, give me your wallet. They looked in his wallet, and his name was truman. And the two thugs said, truman, did you know this Dr. Truman who's looking after the kids? He's my dad. Oh, hey. Well, in that case, hey, here's your wallet back. Tell your dad you're doing the right thing, okay?

[Narrator / Historian]

And it looked like what Dr. Truman was doing was right for Chad. He was back in remission now, just over a month after being forced back onto chemo. But Diana and Jerry Greene never gave up searching for ways to at least supplement Chad's chemo with their special diet or with something else. In April 1978, Diana and Jerry traveled to a convention in Hartford, Connecticut. The organization hosting it billed itself as a non profit consumer group for freedom of choice in healthcare. The fda, on the other hand, called it a front for promoters of unproved remedies, eccentric theories and quackery. Convention goers recognized the greens from TV and they approached them, offering donations and legal help. Diana and Jerry met doctors and cancer patients who told them about the success they'd seen with another kind of treatment, a cocktail of what they said were more natural remedies.

[Diana Greene]

They were actually calling it metabolic therapy. I know that some of it might sound kind of of hokey, like why did we believe such a thing? But we thought from what we heard that it seemed to have a positive outcome on a lot of people. So we did what, you know, what they prescribed to do.

[Narrator / Historian]

They kept it all a secret from the courts, from the press and from the doctors. It was five months later when the word got out about what Chad was getting. Supplements of vitamin A, enzyme enemas and a daily tablet of Laetril.

[Dr. John Truman]

I found out reading it in the newspaper. Somebody said, hey, did you realize that he's getting leotril? I thought, oh my God, what's that gonna do?

[Narrator / Historian]

Let's take a quick.

[Mary Ziegler]

This is the living story of triumph over cancer. Triumph not through the orthodox therapies, but triumph through nature's own answer to cancer.

[Narrator / Historian]

This is from a late 60s film touting a miraculous remedy.

[Mary Ziegler]

Here is a vial of leotril extracted from apricot kernels. Within it lies the power to control cancer.

[Narrator / Historian]

Leotril had been around since about 1950, thanks to a father and son team in California, Ernst T. Krebs Sr. And Jr. It was Krebs Jr. Who gave the concoction its name to wit Levomandelo Nitrile Beta diglucoside or laitril for short. That's la Etrile. Krebs Jr. Called himself a biochemist and sometimes a doctor. In fact, he'd been expelled from med school and had no graduate degree. He also had no real data showing that leetril had healing properties. But here's how leetril's proponents claimed it worked. One of the components of leotril is cyanide.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

The cyanide factor is so firmly locked in the molecule that it can only be released at the site of the malignancy.

[Narrator / Historian]

They claim that when the leotril reaches a cancer cell, it launches a precision strike.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

It becomes poisonous to the cancer cell and only to the cancer cell. Then that's the end of the tumor.

[Narrator / Historian]

In 1953, the California Medical association published a report that totally discredited leotril. They said there was no evidence of any effect on cancer and that the whole cyanide theory made no sense. The Krebses and their supporters pointed to that report as the beginning of decades of persecution. It became illegal to transport or to manufacture laetril anywhere in the United States. Cancer patients who were wanted to try it would have to go on the black market or cross the border to Mexico where it was legal. Leotril was completely on the fringes. That all began to change. On June 2, 1972, with guns drawn, police raided the office of a doctor in the bay area. He'd been caught giving laetril to undercover cops. But that wasn't the end of the story. It turned out this doctor had some very noisy friends. He was a prominent member of the John Birch society.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

The John Birch Society, in spite of the attempts of the communists to destroy it, has grown to be the largest organization in the world which is actively opposing the communist conspiracy.

[Narrator / Historian]

The John Birch Society was a far right group that saw communist plots everywhere. The Birchers lobbied hard against everything from the civil rights movement to the fluoridation of water to the schooling of young children.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

Their innocence dashed to the ground with sex educational slides like these.

[Mary Ziegler]

The Birchers generally were opposed to what they saw as sort of communist style.

[Narrator / Historian]

Big government historian Mary Ziegler and so.

[Mary Ziegler]

They didn't like the idea of the FDA telling americans what drugs they could or couldn't take. And they could say, well, if the government is willing to not even let you consider a potential cancer treatment, where will big government stop?

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

If government protects me from leotra, who.

[Dr. John Truman]

Will protect me from government?

[Narrator / Historian]

Members of the John Birch society formed an organization called the committee for freedom of choice in cancer therapy. The Birchers put their decades of lobbying know how into a nationwide fight for.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

The FDA and other agencies of government have used every means at their disposal to prevent this story from being told. But ladies and gentlemen, in the name of humanity, someone simply has to stand up against the bureaucracy. And we are determined to do it.

[Narrator / Historian]

By the mid-1970s, the freedom of choice committee claimed to have tens of thousands of members. The more they got the word out about leotrel, the more the more it appeared in newspaper headlines and on magazine covers. In 1974, the fight over Leetril got featured on 60 Minutes.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

Its detractors in the medical establishment call it medical quackery. Useless against cancer. Its supporters call it a miracle. And they see sinister motives in organized medicine's rejection of it.

[Narrator / Historian]

The FDA and medical associations insisted that they were protecting vulnerable Americans from harm, that the science was clearly against Laetril and it was dangerous to suggest otherwise.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

In the 150 records, there was not one single case that we could document had any beneficial effect from this treatment. I think it's very similar to what people used to buy as snake oil at the medicine shows. It doesn't work. In a sense it's real consumer fraud.

[Narrator / Historian]

Doctors said Leotril was worse than just useless. They presented evidence that it could be toxic, potentially even lethal, especially in its oral form. The FDA was not going to budge. They held the power over all interstate commerce of Leetrill. The Freedom of Choice Committee's only hope was to try to win over state lawmakers. And across 1977, to the shock of the FDA, they did. Again and again.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

Saturday, Indiana approved the use of Laetril and today the Florida legislature approved it later. Laetril has been legalized in seven states.

[Diana Greene]

Eleven states have legalized.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

Thirteen states now have Leetril. And the Leetril supporters seem to have the medical establishment on the run.

[Narrator / Historian]

Eventually, 27 states would make Leotril legal to prescribe. In some cases, these bills passed by sometimes overwhelming margins and the politicians that endorsed them didn't necessarily believe in Leotril.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

I'm signing the legislation but simultaneously wish.

[Dr. John Truman]

To advise that I'm absolutely convinced that.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

There is no scientific evidence whatsoever which supports any contention that Laetrel either prevents or cures cancer.

[Narrator / Historian]

That's Governor Edwin Edwards, a Democrat from Louisiana. John Birch Society members may have been leading the efforts, but support for Leotrel laws cut across the political spectrum.

[Mary Ziegler]

Everyone from the most conservative people in Congress to Shirley Chisholm, the sort of famous unbought and unbossed black feminist, all saying they were in support of of legalizing Laetril.

[Narrator / Historian]

A Harris Poll in June 1977 showed that a wide majority of the American public supported legalizing Laetril in their states. Only 13% were opposed. So how were so many people persuaded? Why did the public and the politicians get behind what had been an obscure drug that virtually the entire scientific community was calling worthless Quackery? Because the leotro lobby had framed the debate not as a matter of medical effectiveness, but as a question of personal freedom.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

I plead with the fda, give us.

[Dr. John Truman]

The freedom to choose our own therapy.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

Why should I, an American citizen, have to go on the black market or.

[Dr. John Truman]

Smuggle something that I should have the freedom to choose?

[Narrator / Historian]

That rhetoric that Americans had a right to choose what they did with their bodies, might sound familiar.

[Mary Ziegler]

That strategy was predicated pretty much 100% on Roe v. Wade.

[Dr. John Truman]

We're saying that a person should have a right to use this drug, just like a person has a right to have an abortion, in which the United States Constitution give a woman that right.

[Narrator / Historian]

The Supreme Court had only decided Roe v. Wade four years earlier, and the politics around it weren't yet settled. Even the reactionary Birchers thought it could be used to their advantage.

[Mary Ziegler]

So they wanted to argue that Roe was not about anything specific to women or even really specific to reproduction, but that it was a decision about the freedom of patients to make decisions without interference from the state.

[Narrator / Historian]

It was a strange coalition, everyone from abortion rights advocates to evangelicals to holistic health practitioners rallying behind the right of cancer patients to choose Laetril, all to the frustration of the medical authorities.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

To say that the Laetril promoters are offering cancer patients free choices is to debase the concept of freedom beyond all recognition.

[Narrator / Historian]

This is the FDA's commissioner, Donald Kennedy, at a U.S. senate hearing in July 1977.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

Mr. Chairman, if I sound a little angry, it's because I am. I hope, however, that I am not seen as unsympathetic, because in fact, my anger derives from the sympathy I feel for those cancer patients who turn to Laetril. They are being victimized twice, once by their disease and once by the profiteers.

[Narrator / Historian]

But it was those exact cancer patients who were the strongest advocates for Leetril. For most of them, Laetril had nothing to do with politics. They just wanted to take something, anything, that might cure their disease.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

I came back a day Grady soldier and I developed cancer.

[Dr. John Truman]

And would die.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

At the writer denied the writer taking this Leo trail. And I think it's awful.

[Narrator / Historian]

In 1977, the New York Times editorial board called for the FDA to make Leotrill available for the gravely ill. To put the matter bluntly, the Times said they have little or nothing to lose. It was a common argument. Maybe Leotril didn't do anything. Maybe it was at best a placebo. But what's the harm in a placebo for a patient who has no other hope? The harm, many others said, was what might happen to patients who did have other options. And some asked what freedom of choice really meant for those who didn't get to choose for themselves. At a state hearing, one Doctor warned, the greatest tragedy will be when the first little kid dies that has been treated with Laetril that might have been saved through conventional treatment. Every day for five months, Diana and Jerry Greene secretly cut a 500 milligram tablet of Leotril into three pieces and gave it to Chad, along with the other components of their metabolic therapy, the special diet, vitamin supplements, and enzyme enemas.

[Diana Greene]

He was vibrantly healthy. He had strength. The news media was constantly filming him just because he was running down a sidewalk or riding a tricycle or, you know, running on the beach. Then we just attributed part of that to the. A little recipe of things that we're holding it all together.

[Narrator / Historian]

The Greens legal case had progressed from probate court to district court to superior court to the Massachusetts supreme judicial court. When the justices ruled against the Greens, they appealed to the federal district court in Boston. On their way out of a hearing in September 1978, Diana and her attorney told reporters the truth about Chad's treatment regiment. After Diana dropped that bombshell, their story entered a whole new phase. The Greens had gotten themselves enmeshed in a much larger national controversy over Leotrill. Chad had become Leotrill boy.

[Diana Greene]

I really tried hard to get it back where it had been, to get that label off, but it was just almost inflexible. Once it was out there, it just spread all over the country that way.

[Narrator / Historian]

Fight for Leotrill boy back in court, said one newspaper. Leotrill boy's life on trial, said another. The story was big enough in Great Falls, Montana, that the page one headline referred to Chad by first name alone. The opinions of the public in the press were getting even more charged, and polarized. Mail started pouring in for Dr. Truman at the hospital.

[Dr. John Truman]

The prolaytril letters were not letters that you might necessarily want to read to your mother. The. The F word popped up a great deal. I like this one. It's in fact, the only telegram I ever received in my life. A four word telegram. You have canine ancestry. Whoa. I'm a son of a bitch.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

I guess.

[Dr. John Truman]

That one I read to my mother.

[Narrator / Historian]

By this point, the focus of the court battle had completely changed. It was no longer a fight over parental rights. Laetril itself was on trial.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

Now, during two weeks of hearings, a judge heard testimony from both sides. Some said that Laetril could have a beneficial effect, that it could make the child feel better.

[Narrator / Historian]

The Greens said they were willing to keep Chad on chemotherapy so long as the court allowed them to administer laetril too. But Dr. Truman said that wasn't good enough. He was convinced that Leetril would poison Chad and he was determined to prove it.

[Dr. John Truman]

Laetril has got consequences. It's got cyanide in it and that's how it works. According to the people who say it works, it works because of the cyanide kills the cancer cells. Nonsense.

[Narrator / Historian]

Tests of Chad's cyanide levels showed he wasn't in immediate danger. But Dr. Truman felt that over time there was a risk of chronic cyanide poisoning.

[Dr. John Truman]

It was a straight line up indicating that somewhere in the not too distant future it was going to be toxic. It was not the sort of thing you should be giving to a child.

[Narrator / Historian]

The greens expert witnesses disputed that interpretation of how dangerous Leotril was. But they also conceded that leotril had no observable effect in curing leukemia. As all this was going on, Chad would sometimes sit in the corridor outside the courtroom playing with the toy cars that lawyers used to explain auto accidents to juries. The hearing ended on January 19, 1979, after two weeks of testimony. Four days later, the judge made his ruling.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

Today, a Massachusetts superior court judge ordered the parents to stop giving their child the controversial drug Laetril and other less conventional treatments. The court court order held that the drugs were unapproved and harmful to the health of the child.

[Narrator / Historian]

Chad was still in medical custody of the state. They were not allowed to leave Massachusetts. He had to stay on chemotherapy. Even his diet would now have to be supervised by a nutritionist at the hospital. Jerry Greene told the Boston Globe, I honestly believe the Massachusetts General hospital is trying to kill our son.

[Diana Greene]

That order went farther than we thought it would go at the time. To deny him the things that we found that helped him so much. Stay well in our opinion, wasn't an option.

[Mary Ziegler]

I think the court has made a.

[Diana Greene]

Medical decision when it cannot make a medical decision. So they have taken all of our rights away, including what we're going to feed our son.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

Unless they win an appeal to the supreme court, they feel they have lost control of their child.

[Narrator / Historian]

For Dr. Truman in the hospital, it was a complete legal success. But if there was any feeling of victory, it didn't last.

[Dr. John Truman]

I never would expect someone to be so contemptuous of a judicial decision that they would sneak out.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

On Wednesday, Chad and his parents disappeared from his grandparents house in Scituate, Massachusetts. And apparently they have packed up the boy and left the state.

[Narrator / Historian]

We'll be back in a minute. Jerry Greene's mother had gone out for dinner on January 24, 1979. When she came home, she found a note from Jerry and Diana. She told reporters it said only that they'd left with Chad, who for an unknown destination in order to protect him from any further ignorance and pride, greed and violence.

[Diana Greene]

I feel there are alternatives for closing in on them. They're spirited people. They're spirited. They're brave. I will hear from them. I don't know when. It's not over. It's certainly not over.

[Narrator / Historian]

The Greens attorneys said they had no idea where they'd gone. The state pursued kidnapping and contempt charges. Jerry's parents said they didn't know anything beyond what Diana had written in the note. But that wasn't the truth.

[Diana Greene]

The folks did know what we were doing. I did leave the note. But that was staged.

[Narrator / Historian]

Almost immediately after the judge issued his order, the family hatched an elaborate escape plan together. Diana called up a member of the Freedom of Choice Committee in California. He told her the committee would help them flee Massachusetts. They would have to be careful.

[Diana Greene]

We didn't know if we were being watched. We didn't know if people were keeping any kind of tab on us. I know that sounds paranoid, but we just didn't know.

[Narrator / Historian]

They did know that they had only a narrow window for their escape. Chad was still getting visits twice a day to make sure he was getting his chemotherapy medication.

[Diana Greene]

The nurse came in the morning and she was able to give him his pills. We had to time it so that we could get where we were going before she showed up again.

[Narrator / Historian]

Once the nurse was out of the house, a friend pulled up with the car.

[Diana Greene]

We took our luggage out, actually in trash bags so that nobody would see a suitcase.

[Narrator / Historian]

The Greens faces had been all over the news for a year. They did what they could to keep from being recognized. Diana colored her hair, took off her glasses, and put on heavy makeup. Jerry shaved off his mustache.

[Diana Greene]

I just stuck Chad's hair up in his hat so that you couldn't see any of it.

[Narrator / Historian]

The plan was for their friend to drive them to Connecticut, where they would rendezvous with a second person. They switched vehicles and drove to the airport. The Greens boarded the plane as quickly as possible, filled with anxiety over being spotted.

[Diana Greene]

And we took a flight that was overnight, and we arrived very, very early in the morning. In San Diego, it was still dark.

[Narrator / Historian]

When they got off the plane. In California, a group of people from the Freedom of Choice Committee was waiting for them at the airport. The committee members gave Chad a Big Wheel tricycle. And they gave his parents the money they'd raised to help them escape to a place where they'd be Safe from legal action.

[Diana Greene]

And it was one of them that actually drove us from San Diego into Mexico to the clinic in plain.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

Three year old Chad Green and his parents came here across the Mexican border to the Central Medical del Mar in Tijuana. The reason they came is because this Mexican hospital has been prescribing Laetril for years for cancer patients.

[Dr. John Truman]

Green's escaped to Mexico. Oh, after all that. After all that.

[Narrator / Historian]

Dr. Truman learned of their escape from the news.

[Dr. John Truman]

I felt so badly for Chad. There was just no question in my mind that this was the end of the line.

[Narrator / Historian]

The doctors at the Tijuana clinic said that they would keep Chad on both laitril and chemotherapy. But Dr. Truman didn't take any comfort in that.

[Dr. John Truman]

No, we knew that whatever chemotherapy was being given was likely not going to be done properly and that we might just as well expect that it's not going to be done at all.

[Narrator / Historian]

As for Jerry and Diana Green, they finally had the freedom that they'd fought for for so long to give Chad the treatment they chose. The images broadcast back to the US showed Chad with his unmistakable blond hair and his wide smile, giggling and scampering around with his new friends in Tijuana.

[Diana Greene]

One day he and his friend were out there with the hose and he was soaking wet and he stuck the hose in the living room running water and I had to chase him down with him trying to squirt me.

[Narrator / Historian]

The Greens snuck into Texas for a surprise appearance on the Phil Donahue Show. Chad was a huge hit with the studio audience grabbing at the microphone and laying down on the stage. He was an adorable anti establishment hero. The Leotrille movement couldn't have asked for a better symbol of success in all, in August 1979, seven months after they'd arrived in Mexico, Diana spoke to a reporter as Chad ran around her playing in a fountain. She said that Chad was cured.

[Diana Greene]

I believe that God is the healer and that because of his direct healing power in Chad's life, all the things have worked to bring about this wonderful.

[Mary Ziegler]

Test results of being 100% normal.

[Diana Greene]

Now I'd like to stand on the rooftop so they could hear me. In Massachusetts.

[Narrator / Historian]

Life in Mexico had been more tumultuous than the TV reports let on. Chad missed his home, but if they returned, the state of Massachusetts could arrest the Greens on contempt charges. One of their attorneys was trained trying to find a way to allow them back safely. But the Greens fired him after a dispute. The next day, he told the press that the Leotrill lobby had been trying to use Chad for their own political purposes. By the time of that interview, where Diana proclaimed that Chad was cured, he was off chemotherapy entirely. Chad was taking only Laitril and what the greens called called metabolic therapy. The next month, Chad started growing lethargic. He wouldn't eat much, and he had trouble sleeping. His behavior reminded his parents of what he was like back in August 1977, when he was first diagnosed with leukemia.

[Diana Greene]

You know, I'd seen him kind of go back and forth, you know, feeling better and then feeling like this and back and forth. And I never attributed it to, oh, gosh, he's relapsed, and this is really bad. You know, I don't even know what kind of a state of mind that is, other than to say that you kind of. You must be kind of in a state of denial about the possibilities of what can happen.

[Narrator / Historian]

One Friday in October, Jerry Greene was off running an errand. Diana was at home with Chad, and. And he asked her to pick him up and put him on the bed.

[Diana Greene]

So I just laid him down there in front of the picture window. And then he said, mom, where's my dad? I want my dad. Will you go get him? And I said, well, okay.

[Narrator / Historian]

Diana left Chad home alone and managed to track down Jerry at the local restaurant. She told him that his son was asking for him. They got in the car immediately and drove back to Chad.

[Diana Greene]

He was kind of sitting up, and Jerry picked him up and held him for a while and rocked him. And he was just talking to him about, you know, are you okay? What do you want to do? And he wanted to lay down on the bed. And he said, but don't leave me. At first, I could tell his eyes were a little fearful. And so I just asked him, I said, are you afraid of something? And he said, yeah. And so I sang to him because he liked me to sing specific songs. And so I was singing, and he kind of relaxed, and then he would turn around and point out that window and say, I want to go out there. Help me. And I said, do you want to go outside? No, I never understood that. I didn't understand. Look outside. I don't see anything, you know, blue sky. And he said that at least three times. Help me, Mom. Let me go out there. And then he'd kind of be quiet for a little while. And then he took a very long, extended breath. And after that, it's as if his eyes were just blank, like I couldn't see him there. Leukemia victim Chad Green is dead.

[Dr. John Truman]

He was three years old.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

He was Buried where he was born in Hastings, Nebraska. It was a simple ceremony.

[Dr. John Truman]

On a mid October day, Diana and.

[Narrator / Historian]

Jerry Greene would return to Massachusetts. They surrendered themselves to the court in December 1980. A judge found them guilty of contempt, but chose not to give them a sentence. He said, any further punishment beyond what has already been endured by this couple would certainly be unfair. That same year, 1980, the actor Steve McQueen went to Mexico to get leotril treatment for lung cancer. It didn't work. McQueen died within four months of crossing the border. In the 1970s, Leetril was a symbol of hope for cancer patients who needed something to believe in. Now that hope was gone and the federal courts were done with laetril, too.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

The supreme Court may at last have stopped the legal use of Laetril for cancer treatment. A lower court said those who wanted to use it should be allowed to today. The supreme court said no.

[Narrator / Historian]

Historian Mary Ziegler.

[Mary Ziegler]

Again, the U.S. supreme Court rejected the argument that food and drug law allowed doctors to prescribe Laetril. And they also, at least implicitly, rejected the argument that there was a right to choose Laetril.

[Narrator / Historian]

The leaders of the leetril movement had gambled in pushing for further clinical trials of the drug, believing they'd finally be vindicated. But in 1982, a study by the National Cancer Institute once again found that leotril made no improvement in patients. The diehard leotril supporters were unfazed, but the public grew more and more uncomfortable.

[Mary Ziegler]

Defending it, the kind of plausible deniability that people who had supported leotril had had. Some of that vanished.

[Narrator / Historian]

No more states passed leotril bills. In states where laws were on the books, doctors couldn't be prosecuted for prescribing leotril, but patients stopped asking them for it. The leotril movement had won the freedom to choose in some parts of the country. But once it was clear that the drug didn't work, no one was choosing it.

[Mary Ziegler]

The leotrol movement struggled, lost a lot of its political support, and eventually sort of faded away to the point where most Americans don't even know what it is.

[Narrator / Historian]

The FDA and the medical societies had been proved right, and the American people believed them, at least in this one specific case.

[Mary Ziegler]

A lot of scientists and regulators sort of looked at this as this weird blip on the screen, essentially saying, that was this freak thing that happened with Laetril, and people in state legislatures and congress and the courts lost their minds for a little bit, but there's no lasting effects, and I think that's wrong. People's willingness to listen to scientists was not necessarily coming back after leotril. And I think regulators and scientists forgot it at their own peril.

[Narrator / Historian]

In 1979, the Boston Globe asked Dr. John Truman if anything good came out of Chad green's story. He said that Chad's death was tragic, but that it had reaffirmed that children are not the private property of their parents.

[Dr. John Truman]

There is a 50, 50 chance that Chad Green would be now 45 years old, whatever it is, and he'd have his own children, as the vast majority of my patients have their own children now.

[Narrator / Historian]

One of his patients who did survive was David, the little boy that he'd introduced to the greens to show them that chemotherapy worked.

[Diana Greene]

I know that that child lived, and I know he grew up. It's hard. It's hard to take that in, that maybe if I'd made a different decision, that could be his story.

[Narrator / Historian]

Have you struggled at all with the feeling that you were responsible for what happened to him?

[Diana Greene]

Yes, I sure have. I do regret it. I do regret it, Evan. I mean, if I could go back in time, I would change it. That's just not something I can do.

[Narrator / Historian]

In 2007, Diana published a book about Chad's story. In the epilogue, she I would be remiss in my duties if I did not warn others in our situation not to follow in our footsteps. Learn all you can about nutrition and your disease. Practice faithfully what you learn, but do not negate your doctor's advice or any medication that is prescribed for you unless that option has failed.

[Diana Greene]

Failed.

[Narrator / Historian]

Do not become a victim of your own fear or the deceptive tactics of false practitioners. Diana lives in the same city in Nebraska where Chad was born. She had two more kids with Jerry before they divorced. She's Diana meyer now, and she has another son with her second husband.

[Diana Greene]

I have grandsons now. And they like to know about uncle chad.

[Narrator / Historian]

In her book, Diana also wrote that she believes that Chad would have died sooner if Dr. Truman had not intervened. She mailed him a copy, and she.

[Dr. John Truman]

Wrote in the front of it. And I almost get a lump in my throat. To Dr. John Truman, with deep respect and gratitude for your high ideals and continued faithful service to children. Be blessed always, diana.

[Narrator / Historian]

The last time Diana and Dr. Truman spoke was in a courthouse in January 1979. But this month, they met on a zoom call.

[Dr. John Truman]

You look like you're not much older than you were when I last saw you.

[Diana Greene]

Oh, my goodness.

[Dr. John Truman]

No, seriously, you really do. You look wonderful. But tell me more about your kids.

[Narrator / Historian]

They spoke for about an hour. A lot had happened in the last 42 years, and there was a lot they wanted to say.

[Diana Greene]

Boys right here in town and a girl.

[Dr. John Truman]

Nice. That's wonderful.

[Diana Greene]

So tell me what you're doing at the hospital now.

[Dr. John Truman]

Well, I'm a sort of grand old man.

[Josh Levine]

Evan Chung is One Year's producer. Slate plus members get to hear this show and every Slate podcast without any ads, and they'll never hit a paywall on slate.com if you join Slate plus, you'll also be supporting the work we do here, and we'll have some more members. Only episodes for one year coming out later this season. It's only a dollar for the first month, so please sign [e-mail] OneYearPlus Next time on One Year, 1977, Elvis Presley dies and the National Enquirer springs into action.

[Freedom of Choice Committee Member / Laetril Advocate]

He was locked up with security guards and what have you. They suspect that the tabloid press might try and do something crazy like this. They were right.

[Josh Levine]

One Year is produced by me, Josh Levine, and Evan Chung, with editorial direction by Lo and Liu and Grand Gabriel Roth. Madeline Ducharme is One Year's assistant producer. You can send us feedback and ideas and memories from [e-mail] we'd love to hear from you. Our mix engineer is Merritt Jacob. The artwork for One Year is by Jim Cook. Thank you to the Washington State Archives and the Food and Drug Administration. And special thanks to Genevieve Foley, John Graham, William Dugan, Stuart Nightingale, Wayne Pines, Stephen Saltonstall, Peter Reinstein, Josh Mabe, Jared Holt, Derek John, Susan Matthews, Alicia Montgomery, Sung Park, Katie Rayford, Asha Soluja, Amber Smith, Seth Brown, Rachel Strom, and Chow Tu. Thanks for listening. We'll be back with more from 1977 when next week.