E. Virgil Neal: Hypnotist, Fraudster, Tycoon - Part 1

Summary

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Stuff You Missed in History Class

Episode: E. Virgil Neal: Hypnotist, Fraudster, Tycoon – Part 1
Hosts: Holly Frey & Tracy V. Wilson
Date: June 8, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this wild first installment, Holly and Tracy explore the tumultuous, stranger-than-fiction life of Ewing Virgil Neal (1868–1949), a man whose career threads through legitimate business education, hypnotism, mail fraud, patent medicine, and flamboyant self-promotion. Neal, initially respected for his practical banking textbooks, veered dramatically into performance, deception, shady enterprises, and relentless reinvention. This episode traces Neal’s progression from earnest educator to master swindler, introducing the major highlights and scandals of his early career leading up to a national medical fraud investigation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Business Savant to Published Author

• Origins and Early Life

  • Born in Georgetown, Missouri in 1868 to a schoolteacher father (not the poor farmer he would later claim).
  • Attended Central Business College in Sedalia at 20; began teaching there before graduation.

• Textbook Author and Educator

  • Authored Modern Banking and Bank Accounting in Rochester, NY—a success, later split into Modern Illustrative Banking and Modern Illustrative Bookkeeping by the American Book Company.
  • These textbooks emphasized real-world application and practical business methods for students wanting to learn authentic banking and bookkeeping practices (06:21–08:47).

  “This book is designed to reproduce as nearly as possible the practical workings of a national bank.”
  —Holly Fry, quoting Neal’s Modern Illustrative Banking (06:34)

  “We believe the time has arrived when all progressive teachers will welcome practical business methods, even though they supplant long cherished school forms and practices.”
  —Tracy V. Wilson, quoting Neal’s Modern Illustrative Bookkeeping (07:57)

• Book Repackaging Hustle

  • Established a publishing house in Rochester, mainly republishing out-of-copyright poetry (keeping all profits).

2. The Hypnotism Turn

• Personal Life & Stage Persona

  • Married Molly Hurd in 1893.
  • By the mid-1890s, immersed in the vaudeville hypnotism circuit as “Xenophon LaMotte Sage”—with Molly as stage assistant “Olga Helen Sage.”
  • Demonstrated success as a hypnotist and entered the lucrative world of mail-order hypnotism courses (09:20–10:50).

• Correspondence Courses & Early Mail Fraud

  • Authored Philosophy of Personal Influence and Hypnotism As It Is: A Book for Everybody through the New York Institute of Science.
  • Made an estimated $1.5 million via direct mail—until the US Postal Service intervened over fraudulent practices (teaching palmistry) (10:50–11:53).

  “The business model of direct sales eventually got the company and Neal into a lot of trouble...”
  —Holly Fry (11:33)

3. Blending Pseudoscience and Business: The Columbia Scientific Academy & "Hypnotic Banking"

• Odd Business Arrangements

  • Around 1903, Neal operated both the E. Virgil Neal Co. bank and the Columbia Scientific Academy from the same New York office.
  • Newspaper skepticism mounted as both pseudo-academic and financial activities overlapped—e.g., an ad encourages people to borrow money, then offers a banking service next door.

  “Here’s a hypnotic bank, psycho-telepathy and a loan shop in one office.”
  —Paraphrased from The New York Sun headline (16:00)

• Dubious Credentials and Character Reading

  • Neal’s cohort “R.F. Robertson, Psych DCD,” claimed credentials from untraceable institutions and described himself as a “character delineator.”
  • The Academy offered correspondence courses in “chimagi,” “character reading,” and more.

• Media Confrontation and Public Unease

  • Neal admitted to the press some of their advertising was essentially just marketing fiction (18:14–20:47).

  Reporter: “Who is Robertson and what is Psych DCD?”
  Neal: “A banker with a psychology doctorate and character delineator degree...”
  —Holly Fry, describing the reporter’s interview (18:45)

• Depositors Panic

  • After press coverage, bank clients worried their funds were tied to hypnotism scams.
  • Neal demanded that the press correct any implication of overlap, insisting, “It was wrong to mix up the bank with the Academy. There’s no connection between the two.” (22:17)

  “[Depositors] were uneasy, you see, about the money they had on deposit with us and were inclined at first to withdraw their accounts...”
  —Neal (quoted by Tracy V. Wilson, 22:19)

  “They can run their business like a grocery store.”
  —Frederick D. Kilburn, NY State Superintendent of Banks (23:55)

4. Rapid-Fire Grifts and Pseudo-Scientific Scams

• Advertising Blitz & Psychological Promotion

  • Deceptive advertisements for the Columbia Scientific Academy proliferated, promising “personal magnetism” and “secrets from high priests of the occult” (28:33–29:25).

• Testimonial-Based Manipulation

  • Testimonials filled with infomercial-style language (“I could make $25 per day reading character alone...”) mirrored modern sales techniques.

  “If you invest in our course... it is probably the last dollar you will ever find it necessary to borrow as long as you live.”
  —Excerpt from Academy pamphlet (20:47)

• Shell Game of Businesses

  • Neal constantly juggled overlapping, questionable businesses out of the same address—including the National Protective Association (an “insurance” company).
  • He manipulated ambiguity, dodging legal consequences and re-emerging with new cons each time (31:31–33:31).

5. Patent Medicine and Medical Mail Frauds

• The New York Institute of Physicians and Surgeons

  • Neal partnered with Thomas F. Adkin to promote “vitaopathy,” which claimed to cure with tonics and even photos of doctors concentrating from afar—a blend of mild health advice and outright quackery.
  • Ads styled as articles lured customers, culminating in fraud charges (33:31–36:09).

• The Force of Life Company & Presidential Interference

  • Neal’s involvement with the Force of Life Chemical Company brought him national attention—and federal investigation—when an ad for a supposed “liquid life” serum ended up on President Theodore Roosevelt’s desk.
  • Sting operations by postal inspectors exposed the absurdity of its claims, including a diagnosis made from a horse’s blood sample (36:09–41:42).

  “An advertisement for Force of Life crossed the desk of President Theodore Roosevelt ... 'I have it—at last ... a rare chemical combination ... which might truly be called liquid life.'”
  —Tracy V. Wilson, quoting the ad as read by Roosevelt (36:09)

  “The prognosis was so bad, I felt sorry for the horse.”
  —Postal inspector (paraphrased by Holly Fry, 39:40)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Neal’s Career Arc:

  “He is not a rags to riches story. He is a swindler and flim-flam man to riches story, although he was plagued with accusations of all kinds of crimes throughout his life...”
  —Holly Fry (02:39)

• On Early Banking Texts:

  “This book is designed to reproduce as nearly as possible the practical workings of a national bank.”
  —Holly Fry (06:34)

• On the Oddity of Dual Businesses:

  “How nicely the chimagi end of the Columbia Scientific Academy dovetails with the banking end, and how harmoniously finance and the occult might be blended.”
  —Holly Fry, quoting The New York Sun (20:47)

• On Being Caught in a Lie:

  “That was actually, ‘A form of advertising, you know.’”
  —Neal, when asked about a made-up board meeting (18:14)

• On Brazen Medical Claims:

  “He claims to have discovered the vital principle of life itself, the dynamic force that creates and maintains existence...”
  —Holly Fry, quoting quack ad copy (38:26)

• Sting Operation Humor:

  “The prognosis was so bad, I felt sorry for the horse.”
  —Investigator, after submitting horse blood (39:40)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Neal’s Early Life and Textbook Success: 03:47–08:47
• Move into Hypnotism and Publishing: 09:20–11:53
• Columbia Scientific Academy and Bank Scandal: 16:00–24:25
• Explosion of Deceptive Ads: 28:33–31:31
• Patent Medicine Ventures and Vitaopathy: 33:31–36:09
• Force of Life Company and Federal Investigation: 36:09–41:42
• Cliffhanger Ending (More Scandals to Come): 41:42

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Tone & Style

Holly and Tracy balance journalistic skepticism with wry, affectionate humor, making clear both the absurdity and the craftiness of E. Virgil Neal’s exploits. Their storytelling underscores how Neal repeatedly leveraged shifting trends—education, mysticism, pseudoscience, and mail-order commerce—to swindle gullible audiences while narrowly evading serious legal consequences.

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Conclusion

Part one concludes with Neal’s life at a fever pitch of notoriety after his patent medicine business attracted the scrutiny of President Roosevelt and federal authorities, setting up Part two for continued drama and further scandal. Listeners are left with a fascinating portrait of an endlessly slippery character, thriving on credulity and loopholes in an age of burgeoning mysticism and commerce.

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Transcript

[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Martine Hackett]

Welcome to stuff you missed in history class.

[Holly Fry]

A production of iHeartradio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Holly Fry]

We mentioned today's subject in our recent episode on Emile Kuei and at the time I said he was on my short list because he was fascinating and whew, that's the truth. Eva Neil's life was such a wild ride that it sounds fictional. I was trying to describe it to a friend of mine last night while we were talking and he was like, wait, is this all the same guy? And I was like, yeah. His career had this seemingly bright start as a writer of accounting and banking textbooks that were very well regarded and used for decades because of how good they were. And then his life took some very wild turns into hypnotism, patent medicine and fraud as well as an odd success. He is not a rags to riches story. He is a swindler and flim flam man to Rich's story, although he was plagued with accusations of all kinds of crimes throughout his life, including collaborating with an enemy during wartime. So we're going to tackle Eve Virgil Neal today and next episode because there's a lot to get through.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It is a lot. We'll start with how Ewing Virgil Neal was born in Georgetown, Missouri to Armistead Arthur and Ellen Neal to that was in September of 1868. His birthplace is frequently listed as Sedalia, Missouri. Georgetown is a smaller municipality that's just a few miles north of Sedalia. While Neil would later in his life claim that he had been born into a poor farming family, his father was actually a schoolteacher. They did own farmland, but that was not really the source of their income.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, his dad was a really well respected teacher. While Neil's earliest years aren't particularly well documented, which isn't that odd for somebody in his place in life, he did, we know, enter a two year business school program at Central Business College in Sedalia at the age of 20. He went this route instead of attending a traditional university. Even before he graduated from the school, which happened in 1889, he was already working there, teaching courses like penmanship and mental arithmetic, basically how to do sums and ledgers in your head. Biographer Mary Schaeffer Conroy theorized in her biography about Neil that this arrangement may have been a deal that the school made with him to make paying for his courses more viable. After he graduated, he continued to work at the business school. Neil would later claim that he devised an arithmetic program that was taught to students so that they could quickly make calculations in their heads the school did tout a program like that in their marketing materials over the years, but whether or not he was the originator of it is not substantiated one way or the other.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

From Sedalia, Neil moved on to Philadelphia. He claimed to have worked at the Pierce College of Business in Pennsylvania. Briefly, there's not substantiation for that either. Next he moved on to Rochester, New York, and he worked at a textbook company there, and as part of his assignments he wrote the book Modern Banking and Bank Accounting. His company sold the rights to the book to the American Book Company, and Neil is said to have made a significant amount of money in that deal. American Book Company published the material as two separate books, Modern Illustrative Banking and Modern Illustrative Bookkeeping. He earned royalties on those two titles for the rest of his life.

[Holly Fry]

And these books are really quite practical. They represent a shift in the way that such concepts were taught to offer students a model of real business practices to work through so that they could understand the real world applications of their business education. Modern Illustrative Banking walks readers through the process of running a bank. Per its opening pages, the book quote is designed to reproduce as nearly as possible the practical workings of a national bank. This came with sample documents and transactions to cover in abbreviated form two Days Business of the First National Bank, Rochester, New York. During the first day, all of the business forms of the bank are handled by the student, but during the second day the business forms are dispensed with and only the entries for the various transactions are recorded, historical data for them being furnished in the text. Just for the purposes of explaining my understanding, this isn't a course that you would take in two days. It just is broken out as though it is covering two days worth of business. FYI, it breaks down what duties are done by various positions at the bank. And then at the end of these two days worth of sample business quote, dividends are declared, statements made, and the books closed.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Modern Illustrative Bookkeeping opens with the promise that it offers readers a new practical approach to the topic instead of the ways that bookkeeping has been taught up to that point. This book is designed to teach bookkeeping as it is practiced by the best business houses. We have no apology to offer for the innovations in methods or the deviation from the school forms of balance sheets, statements, loss and gain accounts, et cetera. We believe the time has arrived when all progressive teachers will welcome practical business methods even though they supplant long cherished school forms and practices. The book is pretty solid in its information, it basically lays out a two book system. One, the journal daybook to record transactions as they take place, and then the other, the ledger into which those transactions are recorded as sorted into the account. The whole thing emphasizes checking and rechecking your arithmetic to make sure your books are accurate.

[Holly Fry]

Next, after his success in these books, Neil decided that he would actually like to have his own publishing house. And he set one up in Rochester, New York. This was a case where he didn't look for writers to create new works, nor did he write anything himself during this time. But he sure did publish a lot. Uh, he looked for material that was out of copyright and particularly poetry. And he just republished that. With no author to pay. His publishing company, which was pretty much just him, kept all of the money from sales.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

On June 15, 1893, as publishing success was making him a nice amount of money, Neil married a young woman named Molly Hurd. He was also developing a growing interest in hypnotism during this time, and he started studying it in earnest by the mid-1890s 90s. Some accounts say that he became interested in this after seeing a stage hypnotist. That's not really something that can be verified, but there really would have been plenty of opportunities for him to have been exposed to this concept at the end of the 19th century in the U.S. we've talked about this recently on the show. This was a period when mysticism of any kind was becoming very popular. And it turned out that after learning the tricks of the trade, he was pretty good at hypnotizing people. It was also during this time that a name we mentioned in our Emile Couet episode emerged, and that was ex LaMotte Sage. Sage was a stage name that Neil assumed to advertise himself as an expert hypnotist. He toured the United States on bookings as Xenophon lamotte Sage, assisted by Olga Helen Sage, who was of course his wife Molly. The two of them were frequently booked in various vaudeville theaters. And it turned out that Ex lamott Sage was pretty good at bringing in the ticket sales. Hypnotism paid better than any position that business school had ever prepared Neil for.

[Holly Fry]

And seeing that the demand for hypnotism material was high, Neil leaned back into his publishing experience and wrote a correspondence course under that name called the Philosophy of Personal Influence. He also wrote a book called Hypnotism As It A Book for Everybody, which we talked about quite a bit in the Kua episode. These works were published at Neil's latest company. He started so many the New York Institute of Science and the works of ex Lamont sage were wildly popular. An account of Neil's life that was written in the 1930s estimated that the New York Institute of Science made $1.5 million from sales of books and hypnotism courses, all of which were shipped directly to customers homes. That business model of direct sales eventually got the company and Neil into a lot of trouble. The US Postal Service went after them for mail fraud because, among other things, he was teaching palmistry and the company had to shutter.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Coming up, we'll talk about a strange business arrangement that E. Virgil Neal established in the early 1900s. But first we'll pause for a sponsor break.

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[Holly Fry]

Starting in 1903, the E. Virgil Neal Co. Banking firm and the Columbia Scientific Academy, where Neil was a board member, kind of set up the whole thing, were both operating out of the same offices at 1931 Broadway. That was in the area west of Central park where the Lincoln center for Performing Arts now sits, and that combination of businesses seemed like an odd arrangement to members of the press. The New York sun on March 3, 1903, ran a piece titled Here's a Hypnotic Bank, Psycho, Telepathy and a Loan Shop in one office.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That article describes how a British journalist had been investigating the Columbia Scientific Academy and had come away declaring it to be part of, quote, the American magnetic and psychic force swindle when this journalist had tried to cancel an order from the Academy. And have his name removed from all future distribution lists. He got a letter signed by R.F. robertson, Psych DCD which read in part, quote, when I got your letter, I was attracted by your handwriting. Like the educated eye of an artist. Who sees in a rough piece of marble an angel. My eye caught in your handwriting. At a glance, a whole life pictured vividly before me. There was so much history in your handwriting. So much undeveloped power and latent energy and talent. That I could not destroy the letter without writing and extending my previous offer. The letter continues to talk about the journalist's handwriting. Calling it, quote, one of the strongest I have ever seen. And accusing the journalist of having, quote, neglected the development of those God given faculties, however, that lied dormant in every individual until brought to light and cultivated. The letter even claims that a special meeting of the board of the Columbia Scientific Academy. Was called to discuss this promising handwriting. And make its writer a special offer on one of their courses.

[Holly Fry]

So when a reporter from the New York sun read about all of this in the British periodical Truth. He decided to go to the Academy offices And see exactly what was going on. When he got there, he asked for Mr. Robertson. And was presented with someone by that name. And when he started asking questions about that letter that had been republished in Truth. He suddenly got passed off to E. Virgil Neal. And Neil was surprisingly frank in some of his answers. To the questions this journalist posed. Which he later almost certainly probably wished he had not been. He was asked about the claim that the board of directors had met to discuss this amazing handwriting. On a canceled order. Neil told the reporter that was actually, quote, a form of advertising, you know. When he was questioned about who Robertson was and what the credential psych DCD meant. He was told that Robertson was a banker who got a doctor of psychology from Iowa College, which accounted for the first date. And that the CD that followed stood for character Delineator. A degree that Neil claimed Robertson got from the American College of Sciences in Philadelphia. Neil did not elaborate on what that degree would actually involve. My research of that phrase only connects it to data set sequences in computer science. Which would not have existed in 1903. So it seems to have been kind of one of those. It will sound good and no one will know how to even question me about it kind of phrases. The Columbia Scientific Academy, which former banker Robertson was president of. Offered correspondence courses in the art of what it called chimaji or chimagi, I don't know, which encompassed a variety of skills, including character reading.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

When the reporter asked about the bank located at the same address, Neil's initial response was, quote, how did you know about the bank?

[Holly Fry]

Maybe not media savvy yet at that stage.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Then he told the reporter that it was a private bank, not a public bank, and that as such it did not have to adhere to national laws, only to state laws, and that those were, quote, a little more lax. He also explained that because the bank's customers are mostly people and institutions who wanted short term loans, that it only made about $5,000 a year.

[Holly Fry]

The masterful part of the way this article was written is the way that the reporter kind of connects the dots between these two seemingly oddly paired businesses operating out of the same offices without ever like saying, hey, this is obviously wacky and fraudulent. It states at one point, quote, to show how nicely the Kai Magi end of the Columbia Scientific Academy dovetails with the banking end and how harmoniously finance and the occult might be blended. The literature of the institution has just let himself loose in one of the pamphlets. Here's what it says. If you have not the money, it will pay you to borrow the money. If you invest in our course of instruction and master our course and follow its teachings, it is probably the last dollar you will ever find it necessary to borrow as long as you live. So the article doesn't state whether there is any kind of direction or suggestion for the reader of such advertisement to borrow from the E. Virgil Neal Co. Bank. But even if it didn't, a bank that specialized in short term loans also housing a business with dubious claims that encourages people to take out such loans, it's pretty dicey at best. But though the copy definitely leads the reader to consider that problem, as I said before, the write up in the sun is very careful not to explicitly state that these two businesses are connected.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The next day the New York sun ran an article with the headline Worried about Neal and Co. Depositors, you see, don't like hypnotism in banking. And in this article the paper shared a phone call that Neil had made to the paper in which he blamed the paper for causing him problems. He stated on the phone, quote, that article printed in this morning's sun about the bank has caused the bank some annoyance. Some of our depositors have been around this morning to find out what it all meant. They were uneasy, you see, about the money they had on deposit with us and were inclined at first to withdraw their accounts. I told them it was all a mistake about the bank and that I'd like to have the son do something about it. When contacted for more information on what he wanted the paper to do, Neil said that, quote, it was wrong to mix up the bank with the Academy. There's no connection between the two. He was adamant that Robertson wasn't involved in the bank at all and that the Academy didn't teach hypnotism, but only included literature about hypnotism as an extra with its regular courses. He went on to say that he had a report made by commercial credit reporting agency R.G. dunn Co. That indicated that the banking concern was sound and above board. When the sun contacted the State Superintendent of Banks, Frederick D. Kilburn, he said that the state bank department had, quote, no jurisdiction over such concerns as the banking house of E. Virgil Neal and company. So far as any legal supervision of such concerns goes, there is none. They can run their business like a grocery store. So even though Neil admitted to the reporter that the company lied to people as a form of advertising, and even though there was an obvious shady connection between these two business entities, there were just never any real repercussions for this, aside from some of the bank's customers getting worried and maybe closing their accounts.

[Holly Fry]

Columbia Scientific Academy and many other shady businesses continued for Neal, and we'll talk more about that after we hear from the sponsors that keep stuff you missed in history class going.

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[Martine Hackett]

about getting through it, it's about moving forward together. Listen to untold stories Life with a Severe autoimmune condition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Guess who's back in the house? The old gays return for season two of Silver Linings, their hit podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with Veeve Healthcare. Just wait until you hear what hosts Robert McBill and Jesse have in store. This time around, they strut back down memory lane, navigating life, love, loss and everything that shaped them along the way. And as usual, someone just might break into song. From leather bars to bathhouses, dance floors to drag brunch, nothing stays off limits. These are the kinds of insights that can only come from experience. So listen to your elders, honey, and discover the silver linings you can take with you all Sass, zero filter and decades of perspective from four friends proving that queer joy only gets better with age on the podcast that never gets gets old. Listen to Silver Linings, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Holly Fry]

Following newspaper mentions of Neil and the Columbia Scientific Academy in the first years of the 20th century offers a wild breadcrumb trail of shady dealings. Just four days after Neil's interaction with the sun, advertisements for the Columbia Scientific Academy seem to explode in number in papers across the country. And the copy is so obviously deceitful. One that appeared in the San Francisco examiner is designed to look like a regular article, and it's titled Personal Magnetism. Its subheaders tout how this is something that prominent men use to gain influence and how a reporter stumbled across secret methods to, quote, charm and fascinate the human mind. And it also notes that this information came from high priests of the occult who had kept the secrets for years.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That ad, which again was disguised as an article, says that, quote, one of the leading colleges of the city of New York had spent $5,000 having 10,000 copies of a book titled the Secret of Power printed in accordance with the author's wishes to be given away for free. If you sent your name and address to the Columbia Scientific Academy, the write up said you could get your free copy in the mail. And in it you could, quote, develop a wonderfully magnetic personality and learn how to read the character secrets and loves of others in a few days study. That study would be done at home. And then you could use your new knowledge to get, quote, lucrative employment or an advance on your salary. Or you could just gain friendship and influence, all without anybody being any the wiser about you being in control of their behavior. There are several testimonials from alleged satisfied customers included in this ad. They included all the hallmarks of, like, modern infomercial sales. One from a man named Fred Perkins reads, quote, I have been in great demand since I read the work of the Columbia Scientific Academy. People are amazed and mystified at the things I do. I believe I could make $25 per day reading character alone if I were to charge for my services. If anyone would have told me I would receive so much wonderful information, I would have thought him crazy. The ad then closes by asking that only people who are really interested in this information request a copy, since there is a limited supply of them. This free giveaway, of course, was a way for the academy to build up its mailing list and then start sending these interested people literature about their courses to lure them into spending their money just the way that British journalist was told. His handwriting was fascinating and evidenced a person with incredible untapped power.

[Holly Fry]

We can help you unleash that power if you just send us some cash. There is another interesting exchange in that initial write up in The sun from March 4. The report that Neal produced to show that the banking firm was above board also mentioned his involvement in another business, National Protective association of the United States. When questioned about that one, Neal said that it was an insurance company and that he was no longer connected with. Was still operating at the time. The reporter spoke with E. Virgil Neal, and it was headquartered in the very same building as the banking house of E. Virgil Neal Co. And the Columbia Scientific Academy. Though Neil acted nonchalant in this exchange between him and the reporter and kind of like he had forgotten that company was under the same roof. It's a weird detail. This isn't necessarily like a breadcrumb to connect the dots, but it offers up another piece of evidence that he seemed to be constantly on the move from career to career, starting up sort of a shell game of businesses, always looking for the next way to make a buck, often by trading on the hopes of naivete or of his potential customers. He had been dodging negative attention just enough to stay out of trouble. But his next venture found itself in the spotlight and a huge scandal broke that implicated a lot of people, many of them very well respected.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

While Neil faced a number of legal problems all through his life because of his business dealings, he was also sued for more personal reasons. In 1904, he was sued by a man named John Showerman for using his influence to cause Mrs. Showerman to abandon her husband. It's unclear how or if that legal action was resolved, but it is evidence that Eve Virgil Neal was kind of perpetually in hot water.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, and reading sort of the longish biography that exists about him, I couldn't even include all the ones there's like, oh, and then he got sued for swindling a widow out of her money, like on a kind of more one to one swindle basis rather than setting up a whole company. And there were a lot of instances like that. Apparently also a bit of a womanizer. So that caused him some problems. But undaunted by all of the legal attention he frequently got, Neil started other questionable businesses. But one, the New York Institute of Physicians and Surgeons, was one that he eventually tried to distance himself from when it got in trouble with authorities. The man who was really the driver of that business was Neil's colleague, Thomas F. Abkin. They had worked on a lot of these kind of bizarre business schemes together. The main product of this entity that it sold was something called videopathy. Ads for vitaopathy are wild and they were laid out again to look like articles with titles like A message to the Sick. The claim was that Adkin could cure people of all manner of infirmities and even bring them back from the brink of death. It was free to get a consultation and then according to their ads, quote, charges for treatment are moderate. There was even a mail order option if you couldn't get to Atkin in person. There were some basic pieces of medical advice involved in the information they would give out. Some medications were issued, There were dietary guidelines that they gave to people to follow, but that all seems pretty benign. There were, however, a lot of really dubious elements to vitiopathy. One write up claimed that the in home treatment involved taking some sort of tonic and then staring into the eyes of a photograph of one of the company's doctors who was scheduled to concentrate on you. At the exact same time, there was a letter that the company sent out to patients that offers instructions and what sounds a lot like auto suggestion, which we talked about in the Kui episode. It told patients to think very hard about getting well and to verbally speak phrases that supported that idea. When Adkins and Neal were charged with fraud, Neal's counsel made clear during the hearing that phytopathy was entirely the work of Adkin and not him. A fraud order shut down the New York Institute of Physicians and surgeons on August 2, 1905, and E. Virgil Neal kind of emerged relatively unscathed.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That next venture was a company called Force of Life Chemical company, Although it was often shortened to just force of Life Company. In January 1906, headlines started hitting the papers like Claimed to Raise the Dead and Roosevelt causes Arrests in Big Medical Scandal and Gigantic Swindle. Probably Baird. All of these were about the Force of Life Company. And here's what happened. An advertisement for Force of Life crossed the desk of President Theodore Roosevelt. It read in part, quote. In the glare of a midnight light, bending over his crucible and retorts, Dr. William Wallace Hadley cried triumphantly, I have it. At last he had succeeded in making a rare chemical combination of concentrated extract which might truly be called liquid life. There it was, glimmering in its sheen of ruby red, while the retort itself seemed to quiver and vibrate as if in the effort of restraining the tremendous dynamic force it held. There was lecithin, the force of life, the power that makes men live and think. Without this subtle essence in your system, death would occur before you could read three of these lines. With it, in sufficient quantity, you can combat any disease to discover and make the vital Principle of life has been the dream of the chemist and the goal of the medical professor of all ages.

[Holly Fry]

In addition to that ad, a letter was also mailed out by the company to prospective customers, presumably from a mailing list gathered up in one of their many other little industries. And it read, quote, Dr. Hadley's Modest Art. By his mysterious control over disease and death, Dr. Wallace Hadley, the eminent thaumaturgic panopathist of this city, has made the human heart beat again in the body of a woman rescued from the grave. And as a result of his successful experiment, he makes the startling statement that no disease should cause death.

[Martine Hackett]

He claims to have discovered the vital

[Holly Fry]

principle of life itself, the dynamic force that creates and maintains existence. He seems to have absolute control over human life and the diseases that attack it. These materials, which intimated that death could be thwarted by lecithin, offered to ship orders anywhere in the US and it had been sent to the President after it had been received by a woman from Springfield, Missouri. And President Roosevelt forwarded it to the Postmaster General, George Bruce Cortelyou, who opened an investigation.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

By the way, lecithin might sound familiar because it's used in all kinds of products. It's kind of an umbrella term under which a variety of fatty substances from both animal and plant sources are grouped. The defining characteristic of lecithin is that it attracts both fats and water. So it's really effective at smoothing out the texture of foods and acting as an emulsifier. Lecithin is also taken as a supplement. It's used in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. It is definitely not the elixir of life. Its discoverer, though, is on Holly's episode shortlist.

[Holly Fry]

Sure is. It's another French scientist. I'm trying to space him out, I swear. Investigators quickly uncovered more problematic evidence in this case. They set up a sting of sorts by writing to force of light, posing as patients. One such fake patient was named Lucille Hoffman, and she wrote to the company that she was 22, and she wrote this sort of plaintive letter where she shared very personal information about herself and her health struggles. And at first she got pretty standard replies about various things she could do to improve her health. But when she wrote back again, she is not a real person. When she wrote back that she was not getting any better, she was asked to submit a blood sample. And the investigator that was working this case sent in a bottle of blood from a horse, and he received a reply that Lucille was sadly dealing with an array of medical ailments, some quite serious. This investigator actually said jokingly in his testimony about all of this, that the prognosis was so bad that he felt sorry for the horse. There was also what was alleged to be a personal message from Dr. Wallace Hadley to this woman that read, quote, I cure disease. I combat any and all maladies. I make hopeless invalids. Well, I unclasp the remorseless fingers of death. I stop the rush with which Father Time hurries you to the grave. Another faux patient created by postal investigators that kind of went through this same process got a slightly different but similar note which invoked the Bible by quoting Matthew 11:28. It read, do not be skeptical. Have confidence in me. Be sure as I am that I can cure disease. Come ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Reverently I repeat the words and sacredly will I fulfill the trust put in me by the Great Healer. I can say no more.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That seems like a fun place to stop for the day. Although we will be saying a whole lot more about this case and E. Virgil Neal next time.

[Holly Fry]

Oh, E. Virgil Neal, you're cracking me up baby. I honestly loved doing this research, but right now I'm gonna love listener mail.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yay.

[Holly Fry]

Because it involves nothing flim flammy. One of my favorite things, which is sewing and a particularly delightful project. This is from our listener Katie, who we read an email from not that long ago, but it's an update on what's been going on with her project. She had sent in an email that included some haunted mansion embroidery that I was very excited about. Katie writes, hi Holly and Tracy, y' all were pretty intrigued with my haunted mansion embroidery a couple of months ago. It isn't abandoned, but this is the sewing that was occupying me recently. My 10 year old daughter, whose name I'm not gonna say just because she's very young, is portraying Abigail Adams for living history at our small classical school tonight. The whole ensemble having made a muslin first easily took me upwards of 40 hours. She picked the fabric, which I think is gorgeous. Fifth graders portray American history figures up to roughly 18, 20 and sixth graders portray anyone. From then on I've been visiting the classes before they choose their subjects with lists of less obvious figures as suggestions. And yes, many of the people on my suggestion list are people I have heard about on your show, among others. Tonight we have 5th graders as Patrick Henry, Sybil Ludington, Tisquantum, and someone's own ancestors named Nancy Hart. Sixth grade choices, among others are Frederick Douglass, Ted Williams, Sonora Webster Carver, and Henry Ford. Past years have seen Maria Tallchief Milton Hershey, Julia Child, John Muir, and Alvin York. Anyway, thanks again and hope you like to see the sewing. This dress turned out so pretty and so sweet and I just love it. I am so delighted and I can't even imagine, like how joyous it must be. Listen, when I was a kid before I was good enough to sew my own clothes, it was always really delightful when I got to pick the fabric for something. So it shows on your beautiful daughter's face how much she loves that fabric. I love that fabric. She looks phenomenal. So congratulations. I love this. I love this so much. I love everything about it. Give me all the cute historical costumes on kids. Who doesn't want to learn about history by dressing up like it? That was the best part. I just had such a weird flashback to an awkward moment in seventh grade that did not come up in my head until just this moment. We'll talk about it on behind the Scenes. Anyway, thank you for writing and sharing that beautiful picture with us and your adorable letter. And I just love how you're helping people learn about history this way. I'm now thinking about that thing and I can't stop laughing. If you would like to write to us, you could do [e-mail] Our show notes for this week's episodes and all of our episodes are connected to those episodes. If you go to mystinhistory.com and just look at the information underneath Any different track listing? If you want to subscribe to the podcast and you haven't, you can do that on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Jenny Garth]

Wouldn't it be great to never buy gas again? EVs are as easy to charge as your phone and they are a perfect addition to your everyday life.

[Holly Fry]

Most people are only driving about 40

[Jenny Garth]

miles a day, and most EVs can handle 200, 400 miles of range on a charge. And there are hundreds of EV models available today, so there's something perfect for every lifestyle and budget. I drive an ev. I've had it for a couple of years. It's my favorite car I've ever owned. It is so fun to drive.

[Holly Fry]

The pickup is incredible.

[Jenny Garth]

It's super agile and it is easy to maintain. The way forward is electric. Learn [e-mail] when it comes to what

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[Sean Duffy]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Holly Fry]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

Some exclusions apply. American Family Mutual Insurance Company SI and its operating companies 6000American Parkway, Madison, Wisconsin this is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.