← Stuff You Missed in History Class
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- [00:00]
Tracy V. Wilson
This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.
- [00:04]
Jana Kramer
This is Jana Kramer from Wind down with Jana Kramer. So why do they call it a dishwasher? Well, don't worry, it's not a trick question or anything. It's just because it washes dishes. If the filter and the dishwasher itself are dirty, those dishes aren't actually getting clean. That's why you need Cascade Platinum Plus. Powered by two times the cleaning power of Dawn, Cascade Platinum plus doesn't just remove 100% of grease and residue from dishes, it cleans your dishwasher and filter too. So you get clean dishes and a dishwasher that keeps washing. Just scrape, load and done. Find Cascade Platinum plus at your local retailer. Cascade is a proud sponsor of the Elton John Impact Awards, honoring those who have helped shape a more inclusive and compassionate world with their artistry, advocacy and unwavering commitment to equality. Cascade would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of this year's deserving honorees. Don't miss the Elton John Impact Awards podcast, available on June 1st on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere podcasts are heard.
- [01:00]
Holly Fry
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. Most people are only driving about 40 miles a day, and most EVs can handle 200 to 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. The pickup is incredible. It's super agile and it is easy to maintain. The way forward is electric. Learn more@electricforall.org the old gays are back
- [01:36]
Tracy V. Wilson
with Silver Linings, their lovable podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with Veiv Healthcare. Robert, Mick, Bill and Jesse strut back down memory lane for season two sharing lessons on life, love and loss. These are the kind of insights that only come from experience. So tune in to Silver Linings with the old gays on the iHeartRadio. Appreciate Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Work can be a little weird and I know when I first started working, networking for work was even weirder. Sometimes it can feel hard to thrive and move forward in your career, and that is where LinkedIn comes in. LinkedIn helps you get ideas and insights from experts in your field, connect with people professionally grow your network and access tools designed to help you find the right fit for your next role. Whether you're just getting started, figuring out your next move or looking to accelerate your career, LinkedIn is built to support you at every stage because LinkedIn is the network that works for you. Visit LinkedIn.com class to learn more.
- [02:36]
Holly Fry
Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartradio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry.
- [02:50]
Tracy V. Wilson
And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
- [02:52]
Holly Fry
This is part two of a two parter, and this is an instance where you really do have to listen to the first part before you jump into this one or it's not gonna make any sense. Because we are picking up right in the middle of the fraud case against E. Virgil Neal's company, Force of Life, for the completely bogus treatments that it advertised and sent consumers through the mail. We are also, in this episode, going to get to the company that finally shifted Neil into a position as a head of a pretty respected business in the beauty industry, although it too had some roots in its old charlatan ways and its beginnings. So we left off in Part one as the news was breaking that investigators on a joint task force headed up by the Postmaster General had been digging into Neil's business dealings for about a year to put together a case against Force of Life. And that is where we are picking up.
- [03:49]
Tracy V. Wilson
So the investigation into Force of Life quickly revealed that not only Neal and his immediate associates, but also a number of prominent men were all part of this company. A lot of them were high ranking officers at one or more banks. Others had invested heavily in a company called New York Food and Chemical Company, which was a wholesaler that Force of Life purchased medications from. But the biggest scandal was that the company was tied to General James R. O', Byrne, sometimes reported incorrectly as Jock John R. O byrne. James Rowan O' Byrne was born in Ireland on September 25, 1839. His family moved to the U.S. before he turned one to escape the Great Hunger, and O' Byrne grew up entirely in the U.S. he attended Fordham University, was valedictorian of his graduating class, became a lawyer before enlisting at the start of the American Civil War. He was part of the 37th New York Regiment, which was known colloquially as the Irish Rifles. He was a decorated soldier. He earned a Medal of Honor after being wounded in battle. He suffered three bullet wounds, one through the lung. He was discharged and became the Provost Marshal of Washington, D.C. he very famously was part of the manhunt that ended in John Wilkes Booth capture after President Abraham Lincoln was shot, and then he guarded the President's deathbed. He held a number of posts in Washington D.C. after the Civil War ended and eventually moved back to New York City. And this man, frequently referred to as a hero, understandably, based on all that stuff I just read, apparently ended up tangled with E. Virgil Neal. O' Byrne was listed as the President of Force of Life.
- [05:47]
Holly Fry
And the New York Times, like other papers, followed this entire case closely. By January 17th of 1906, the paper was reporting that the company's offices were being dismantled. And according to the Times, quote, E. Virgil Neal, the originator and first president of the Force of Life Chemical Company, for whom post office inspectors armed with warrants have been searching several days in this city, Washington and Syracuse, is still at large. Neal is charged with conspiracy to defraud by use of the United States mails. Jointly with Dr. William Wallace Hadley, Chief Medical Director, Mrs. Laura M. Wilson, Consulting Medical Director, and Arthur H. Williams, Treasurer of the Force of Life Concern. These three Force of Lifers have already been arrested and are now out on $2,500 bail each.
- [06:40]
Tracy V. Wilson
That write up also noted that O' Byrne had made a statement through his attorney that he had no part in the company's day to day management. Another article appearing in an Illinois paper noted, quote, general o' Byrne was seen following the arrests, but his counsel refused to allow him to be interviewed.
- [07:01]
Holly Fry
If it sounds like a lot had happened in the lead up to this story breaking publicly, that's because it had the investigation complete with those ongoing back and forth correspondences between the Force of Life Company and federal agents posing as customers, which we talked about in some detail in part one, had been quietly playing out for a full year before any warrants were issued or arrests were made. And as the investigation was made public, it was revealed that the whole thing had been a joint effort. After Roosevelt had gotten the U.S. post Office involved. Assistant U.S. district Attorney Clarence Haughton was also brought on as well as two men who served as counsel for the New York County Medical Society, Champ S. Andrews and John S. Cooper. As investigators were working on collecting evidence, the legal team was building their case.
- [07:54]
Tracy V. Wilson
One of the documents that came to light in the investigation was a letter written by Dr. Hadley's colleague Laura M. Wilson to E. Virgil Neal. It hinted that o' Byrne may have been either suspecting something was going on at Force of Life or just really wanted to be on top of the company's business activities and that Wilson and Neil were trying to figure out how to Keep safe some aspects of the business away from him by preventing the company's secretary from taking down everything that was said in a meeting. That letter was printed in part in the New York Times, and it read, quote, you do not state why General O. Byrne wanted you to take the minutes of the meeting. I do not believe he realizes fully what you have to do. I hope you will read my letters to the committee. Ms. Neikirk is trusted with a good many confidential things. It seems to me she might be safely trusted to do this. Should anything of any private nature come up, she could be excused from the room. And you can take this part of the report and mail it as a supplementary report. But if Ms. Neikirk cannot be trusted to take work of this kind, it will be necessary to get some. Someone who can be trusted. Because even if you had time, there are too many things of greater importance that you should do.
- [09:19]
Holly Fry
Yeah. Basically like just tell the secretary to leave the room. Sometimes it's fine. She just won't take that down. And he'll never know. He doesn't need to know. So it does seem like they were trading on O. Byrne's good name while they knew they were doing really nefarious
- [09:34]
Tracy V. Wilson
stuff and keeping him from knowing about the nefariousness. Yeah.
- [09:40]
Holly Fry
What the New York Times described as, quote, reams of lurid Force of Life pamphlets, circulars and correspondence had been turned over or seized as those various members of the Force of Life staff had been arrested. And it enabled investigators to piece together the way that the whole operation functioned. Some of the pills the company provided, and I'm using the word pills very loosely, as you'll see in a moment, were touted in this seized material as life ray capsules. And the literature claimed that they contained radium and suggested that they could prolong human life to 200 years. On the upside, they did not actually contain any radium at all. They were found to have phosphorus in them when they were tested. But these were also capsules that you were not supposed to take orally. It was claimed that they just gave off emanations of, quote, wonderful revitalizing power that would cure disease and improve health. Customers were sent these capsules for free on loan after signing a pledge that they would return them once their treatment was complete. Other courses of treatment laid out in correspondence with patient customers ranged from folk remedies to the reading of poetry. There was also among the acquired documents a letter from a person who was very angry that they had not been paid for the fictional testimonials they had provided Force of Life. And it came to light that those many blood samples that people sent them after they were requested, those had been going right in the trash. No one analyzed them. The only scientific equipment found at the offices was a single microscope and a handful of test tubes. Based on what I read, it didn't sound like those had ever been in use. But all of this theater was part of luring clients into the idea that they were working with a benevolent company that truly wanted to help them. And then once that trust was established with people who were gullible or desperate, it was really easy to transition to selling them treatments.
- [11:46]
Tracy V. Wilson
E. Virgil Neal was also running a food manufacturing business at the same time that Force of life was operating. This one was called Neil Biscuit Company, and it manufactured foods that were marketed as digestion aids. This company didn't ever get rolled into any of Neil's legal issues, Though it did have ties to the New York Food and Chemical Company. So that was there. The same company that prominent New Yorkers had invested in as the manufacturer of medications purchased for use by Force of Life. So these things were kind of connected. But no legal fallout from that one?
- [12:26]
Holly Fry
No. This man was so good at shell companies. And like obscuring the truth by having 22 different legal entities sprouting off of one another, none of which could be easily traced. We'll talk more about that. But here's the thing. In all of this, everyone wanted to hear, of course, from Eve Virgil Neal. But nobody could find him. A thorough search of the company's Syracuse office, where he was rumored to be hiding, turned up nothing. The janitor of the building was questioned, and he told investigators that Neil had last been there late Saturday afternoon. But that information was a little problematic because it contradicted a statement that his mother had made that he had left Syracuse for Manhattan on Friday, the day before. The janitor claims to have seen him last. No one seemed to know where he was, but there were a lot of rumors circulating about it. Various accounts placed him in hiding right there in Syracuse. Others said that he was at a sanitarium because he was very ill and getting treatment. And other accounts, including his mother's, said that he had left the country entirely.
- [13:34]
Tracy V. Wilson
Coming up, we'll talk about why federal authorities were so eager to pursue the Force of Life case and how it played out. But first, we will pause for a sponsor break.
- [13:49]
Holly Fry
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. Most people are only driving about 40 miles a day and most EVs can handle 200 to 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. The pickup is incredible. It's super agile and it is easy to maintain. The way forward is electric. Learn more@electricforall.org this is Dr. Joy from
- [14:24]
Dr. Joy
Therapy for Black Girls. If you could enjoy a spotless space without so much scrubbing, wouldn't you? Of course you would. Well, I've got you. Dawn Power Wash Dish Spray cuts through the mess and gets everything clean in half the time. We're talking about both the toughest messes in everyday dishes. Plus its work goes beyond the sink, like to clean counters, stoves, grills and to remove stains on laundry. And it's really good at getting those hard to clean dishes. So basically, Dawn Power Wash cleans everything from dishes to grills, removing all the grease and grime and does it twice as fast. Not bad. You can find Dawn Power Wash Dish Spray at your favorite retailer. Dawn is a proud sponsor of the Elton John Impact Awards, honoring those who have helped shape a more inclusive and compassionate world with their artistry, advocacy and unwavering commitment to equality. And we'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of this year's deserving honorees. You won't want to miss the Elton John Impact Awards podcast, available on June 1st on the iHeartRadio app. And everywhere podcasts are heard, I turned off news altogether.
- [15:29]
Tracy V. Wilson
I hate to say it, but I
- [15:31]
Holly Fry
don't trust much of anything. It's the rage bait.
- [15:36]
Tracy V. Wilson
It feels like it's trying to divide people.
- [15:40]
Holly Fry
We got clear facts. Maybe we can calm down a little. NBC News News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the Facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News Reporting for America, she was
- [15:57]
BritBox Narrator
the sister who went unnoticed. A daffodil might look plain next to a lily, but on its own, there is much to be admired. Now her greatest chapter is yet to come. The most important thing is to be yourself. From the world of Jane Austen Din's Pride and Prejudice comes a new BritBox original drama, Mary, you Will Flourish, based on the best selling novel the Other Bennett Sister, now streaming only on Britbox. Watch with a free trial@britbox.com.
- [16:32]
Holly Fry
A lot of the fervor around Force of Life and the official charges against its officers. That was conspiracy to obtain money under false pretenses by the use of the United States mail was fueled by the same concerns that led to the creation of the first consumer protection law in the United States, the Pure Food and Drug act of 1906. That piece of legislation, which was also known as the Wiley act after the chief chemist at the US Department of Agriculture, was, per its own description, an act for preventing the manufacture, sale or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines and liquors, and for regulation therein and for other purposes. So this was obviously not an effort that sprung up out of nowhere. According to the Food and Drug Administration, almost 100 pieces of proposed legislation related to food and drug regulation had been introduced into Congress between 1879 and the passing of the 1906 law in June that year. This was a time before drugs had to be approved by the FDA to go to market, and patent medicines were common. And they were often very dangerous. Like, if it was benign but just got your money, that was the best possible outcome. A lot of these had really, really scary stuff in them. Those Life ray capsules had been a focus of concern because of all of this, as this whole cause got underway.
- [18:01]
Tracy V. Wilson
But the case against Force of life sputtered. Among other things, one official testified that he had learned that Neal had been offered consultation from the brother of a Chicago attorney general that would ensure Force of Life's literature was written and edited in a way that they would be able to avoid mail fraud charges in return for money, of course. And Neil apparently refused this deal. From there, the case really unraveled, and then it fell apart. The charges were dismissed on April 24, 1904. There's an alternate version of this story as told by the American Medical association in its 1915 publication Medical Mail Order Frauds. That version states that, quote, when it was found that an influential New York politician, General James R. O', Byrne, was president of it, the investigation ceased. The newspaper publicity, however, killed the business. While the stories in the newspapers certainly didn't help, Neil would later say that the legal costs of defending the company were what had wiped it out.
- [19:12]
Holly Fry
E. Virgil Neal emerged from hiding after the case had ended, and he did not publicly disclose where he had been. At the end of April, the Syracuse Post Standard ran the story Neil returns for business. The article noted, quote, when asked last night as to his plans and in regards to his whereabouts and doings for the past few months, he answered absolutely nothing to Say to every question he gave the same reply. This article also commented on the rumors that Neil had been in a sanitarium for his ill health, noting, quote, neil does not look as if he had been ill. Now, obviously you cannot tell by looking at a person if they are sick. That is a huge issue in disability rights. But all of the write ups about Neil during this time noted how very healthy he looked and acted, pointing out that the rumor of illness seemed to have simply been a ruse of some sort to help wiggle out of appearing in court.
- [20:10]
Tracy V. Wilson
He still had the Neil Biscuit Company and for a brief period went back to his same old claims about improving people's health with his products. He set up multiple other business ventures that operated in similar ways to those we've already discussed, advertising free services and then offering items for sale using the advertorial style of placement in newspapers that made ads look like articles and offering up testimonials that weren't easily traced to actual clients. But these other ventures all struggled, and in 1907, E. Virgil Neal declared bankruptcy.
- [20:50]
Holly Fry
One aspect of Neil's life that is very, very fuzzy in all of these years around the scandal is his marriage. His wife Molly, who we mentioned briefly in part one, kind of vanishes from his story. According to biographer Mary Schaeffer Conroy, she doesn't get mentioned in the public record again until her death in 1944, at which point she was living in Arizona, away from E. Virgil Neal. It is unclear if she left when the force of life scandal and the hearing were playing out, or if the couple had been estranged in some way before that. There are even rumors and speculation that he left her for another woman. She was still listed as married to Neil in her obituary, but it's unclear if there ever was a divorce. But in any case, by then Neil had remarried twice. In fact, there is so much haze around Eva Neil's romantic partners and marriages that it is almost impossible to put together a clear picture. This is a problem that stems from a couple of things. Right there is the fact that Neil was a very messy man in a lot of ways, and particularly in his relationships with women. He was involved, allegedly with a lot of women. The other problem is that official accounts and records listing the women he was seen with often just call them Mrs. E. Virgil Neal rather than specifying their names. So aside from the fact that people who are married to other people are still humans with their own names and should be recognized as such, the historical record, like the practice of calling women misses Their their husband's name makes things like this very, very difficult to figure out. Additionally, he also sometimes traveled with women from his family, like his mother and his sisters. So it's unclear if the women that were sometimes with him, which were sometimes called Ms. Or Mrs. Neal, were actually, you know, benign relatives or actually paramours. Some versions of his life list a woman named Emma as his first wife. There was a woman named Emma with him at one point on a ship manifest, but it is unclear who that woman was to him. His first wife's name was Molly. Uh, the nature of his relationships with the other women that he married also causes some confusion. His second wife, Harriet Metammeister, had been called his wife for quite a while before they actually got legally married. And she seems to have been in the picture with perhaps a little bit of overlap with his first wife, Molly. Harriet and Neil were consistently together by 1907. So there's just so much confusion to try to untangle here. And we will get into his third wife later, which has its own set of rumors.
- [23:39]
Tracy V. Wilson
As we mentioned a moment ago, Neil started up a handful of ventures in the aftermath of the Force of Life scandal, most of which came and went at a pretty rapid pace. But one that he founded in 1907 after his bankruptcy actually had some lasting power, and that was to Calan Manufacturing Company. Like many of his other businesses at that time, it started in Syracuse and it would become a very lucrative international brand.
- [24:10]
Holly Fry
We will talk a lot more about Tokalan after we hear from the sponsors that keep the show going. 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. Most people are only driving about 40 miles a day, and most EVs can handle 200 to 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. The pickup is incredible. It's super agile and it is easy to maintain. The way forward is electric. Learn more@electricforall.org this is Dr. Joy from
- [24:54]
Dr. Joy
Therapy for Black Girls. If you could enjoy a spotless space without so much scrubbing, wouldn't you? Of course you would. Well, I've got you. Dawn Power Wash Dish Spray cuts through the mess and gets everything clean in half the time. We're talking about both the toughest messes and everyday dishes. Plus, its work goes beyond the sink like to clean counters, stoves, grills, and to remove stains on laundry. And it's really good at getting those hard to clean dishes. So basically, dawn powerwash cleans everything from dishes to grills, removing all the grease and grime and does it twice as fast. Not bad. You can find Dawn Power Wash Dish Spray at your favorite retailer. Dawn is a proud sponsor of the Elton John Impact Awards, honoring those who have helped shape a more inclusive and compassionate world with their artistry, advocacy and unwavering commitment to equality. And we like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of this year's deserving honorees. You won't want to miss the Elton John Impact Awards podcast, available on June 1st on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere
- [25:54]
Tracy V. Wilson
podcasts are heard I turned off news altogether.
- [25:59]
Holly Fry
I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything. It's the rage bait.
- [26:06]
Tracy V. Wilson
It feels like it's trying to divide people.
- [26:10]
Holly Fry
We got clear facts. Maybe we could calm down a little. NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the Facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News reporting for America.
- [26:26]
BritBox Narrator
She was the sister who went unnoticed. A daffodil might look plain next to a lily, but on its own there is much to be admired. Now her greatest chapter is yet to come. The most important thing is to be yourself. From the world of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice comes a new Britbox original drama, Mary, you Will Flourish, based on the best selling novel the Other Bennet Sister, now streaming only on Britbox. Watch for the free trial@britbox.com.
- [27:02]
Holly Fry
One thing to note about Virgil Neal, and we've alluded to it already, and it also would be obvious even if we hadn't, was how adept he had become at obfuscating the details of any given business's ownership and leadership structure. He would register the addresses of businesses, sometimes at his home address, other times at offices, but rarely was he listing them where they were actually operating. Similarly, his executives associated with the business often included people who were only minimally connected to it. Or he would sometimes list himself as an owner, president, etc. In one filing, but list someone else on another. In instances where he was required to list out a group of executives, they were often mentioned only with a last name, making it difficult to impossible to try to verify or track those people down. There were almost certainly some fictitious employees among them. This was all done to create a muddled paper trail that made things like legal actions and tax Tracking more difficult. And with Touchelan, he also made a new choice in marketing only to women and often making his wife Harriet the front and center in the advertising, which made it less obviously associated with him.
- [28:20]
Tracy V. Wilson
Touchelan was also a different path for Neil because it was a beauty brand and it may have existed as a venture of Harriet's before Neil got involved with it. The name Tucheline was supposedly coming from Greek, meaning the beautiful. Although this is a whole concept in the ancient Greek world, it doesn't just mean physical beauty, it's a broader concept than that. The company's advertising followed the same exact playbook and sales tactics that he had been using for years, placing advertorials in newspapers. These would once again include testimonials of people helped by Tukalan's products and would offer information and beauty advice at no charge. In some cases, write ups would include recipes so people could make the products themselves at home. However, they always included an ingredient that needed to be ordered directly from Tokulan. These were touted as proprietary ingredients, but analysis later showed that they were usually common things like rose water that had been of doctored up with other ingredients like colorants and glycerin. If a customer didn't want to make the concoction herself and risk making errors with that, she could also just order the pre made version from Ton.
- [29:45]
Holly Fry
One ad that ran in numerous papers in 1909 was written, according to a splashy graphic at the top, by the Countess de Kergamo, not a real person, and it described how she had been born into nobility but was alas sadly not beautiful, and how she had sought help from many beauty experts. But they all came up short until she found to coin products including to coin complexion Powder Creme, to Coalan, to Coulan perfume, to Coulan Dentacrem and to Coalan Talcum powder, as well as various preparations that made use of these and other products. This very lengthy write up concludes with a note that a local supplier has plenty of these products in stock to meet the growing demand and that consumers should call and reserve them. The Countess de Kerguemo was just one of a long line of fictitious women cooked up by Neel to promote Toquelon.
- [30:41]
Tracy V. Wilson
The same year those ads were running, Neil set up a production facility in France. It appeared the beauty business was going really well. And as France, and specifically the village of Grasse on the Riviera was known as the place for quality perfume being made, Neil got a home there to oversee the factory workings. He still maintained a home in New York. Although E. Virgil Neal continued to run a variety of quick money businesses, including a corset manufacturing concern that was also under the Touchalan branding umbrella, it seemed as though his cosmetics business, and especially the perfume line, was becoming legitimate and somewhat respected. As it gained reputation, Neil pivoted away from some of his shadier advertising practices and more toward what you'd expect from a legitimate perfume and cosmetics brand. He still used testimonials, but they almost all featured his wife Harriet, and the practice of giving something away for free and then offering a tie in for purchase slowly disappeared.
- [31:51]
Holly Fry
He also started expanding into offices in London as well as France, and started to more carefully ensure that Touchelan didn't have any crossover associations with his more dubious business ventures. In some cases, this meant founding new companies to handle things like patent medicines and so that they could be removed from Touchelan's factories as part of this reorg. Tokulan, which had always had a hyphen after its first syllable, so it was T O dash K, a L O N became one non hyphenated word. Just took a long. And beauty products were all under that company. Some of the product line at that point was retired, some of them were renamed and eventually makeup products like eyebrow and lip pencils, rouge, face powders and a skin beautifier that sounds like a foundation or a concealer were all added to the line.
- [32:45]
Tracy V. Wilson
One aspect of this new setup that Neil was able to really manipulate was the multinational identity of the business. In the US advertisements, he'd talk about Touchelan's European identity. And then in Europe, he sometimes introduced new products or renamed old products as being the latest development from America. Also in Europe, he was able to parlay his relative anonymity into a rewritten image for himself. He started to tell versions of his life story and education that weren't entirely accurate or left out. Things like his various accusations of fraud. And these strategies worked really well. Tucalan started bringing in massive profits and E. Virgil Neel became incredibly wealthy in the process. He was able to expand sales of the Tikalan product line into a lot more countries around the world. He basically had a beauty empire.
- [33:44]
Holly Fry
Yeah, when we say a lot more countries, I'm not going into all of it because it gets really big, but like we're talking like into Russia and the Soviet Union, eventually into Australia, into Asia. Like he was kind of all of the continents but Antarctica, he was hitting them with product at that point. In Europe, all of the scandal of the early 1900s was kind of left behind. And Neil, who is now a rich and respected businessman, moved in very heady circles. In September of 1910, the New York Times reported that Neal was given an audience with Pope Pius X, along with the former president of the force of life company o'. Byrne. It read, quote, James R. O' Byrne with Mr. And Mrs. E. Virgil Neal of New York came this week from Monte Carlo to Rome where an introduction from Archbishop Ireland obtained for them the honor of private audience of the Holy Father, to whom they were presented by Monsignor Hermano Sraniero. The Pope was extremely kind and had the whole party sit next him at his desk. As the audience took place in the Pontiff's private library, he gave Mrs. Neal a photograph of himself with a long autograph inscription which he wrote in the visitor's presence. When they went, he insisted on accompanying them to the door of the room.
- [35:04]
Tracy V. Wilson
What's interesting is that during all this he did still have a number of shady businesses and related lawsuits. Back in the United States During World War I, Neil and his wife Harriet were back in the US on a number of occasions. And during that time, a product of his called Nooksated Iron was the focus of a fresh accusation of fraud. The product was manufactured by Day Health Laboratories of Detroit, at least on paper. In reality, it was produced in offices Neil had in New York. The claim of nuxated iron was that it would, quote, increase vigor, snap and staying power. Ad copy talked about how it would enrich the blood and bring color back to the face. Its listed ingredients were, quote, organic iron in the form of iron peptinate, nux vomica, and glycerol phosphate of calcium. Nux vomica sounds very gross, and there was not much nux vomica in it, just 1, 500 of a grain in each tablet. But that was actually strychnine. The biggest issue for critics, bigger than that anyway, was that it claimed to be a wonder drug when its main ingredient, which was iron, was commonplace and readily available. That wasn't the only problem, though. One of the drug's medical endorsers, Dr. Howard James, was convicted for dispensing drugs ill illegally and admitted that he had a drug misuse problem of his own. Other doctors that endorsed nuated iron had similarly problematic backstories, including faked work histories and fake credentials. In April of 1918, Neil was arraigned on a fraud charge in New York. He entered a not guilty plea and was detained with Bail set at $5,000.
- [36:59]
Holly Fry
Neil's behavior in this case was very different from his previous charges. With force of Life, he did not go into hiding. He showed up for his arraignment with his lawyer. He paid his bail, and then he sued the New York Tribune for libel over calling him a quack in their coverage over it. This is conjecture on my part, but all of this seems a little bit as though his took along business was legitimizing, and he wanted this Nooksated Iron problem to be handled swiftly and in a way that cleared his name as much as possible. He was at the same time named in a lawsuit for mail fraud related to another company he was associated with, the Cartilage Company, which sold a harness by mail that it claimed could stretch a user's vertebrae and increase their height. In these cases, as before, Neil's lawyer also worked to distance E. Virgil Neal from the products, claiming that really they were the work of someone else and thus get him out from under any responsibility for them. I was not able to find any sort of clear indicator of how these few cases we've just been talking about resolved. But Nooksated Iron was sold for years after this, so it seems to have been resolved in favor of the company in some way.
- [38:14]
Tracy V. Wilson
After World War I, Neil appears to have spent almost all of his time in Europe, including building a new sprawling mansion called Chateau d' Azur in a village north of Nice. This was also a time when his second marriage ended. That's similarly nebulous the way his first marriage did, although we do know that he and Harriet legally divorced and that he almost immediately remarried to a much younger woman named Renee Baudier. There were rumors that Neil had become obsessed with Renee after meeting her when she was still a teenager, and that she may have lived at his house as a sort of adopted daughter before his marriage to Harriet ended. That's one of many things in these episodes that's not substantiated, and it may have endured over the years because Renee lied about her own age to appear younger than she was. We really don't have any additional solid information about how Neil and his third wife met and became romantically involved, but they did get married on July 28, 1924. A few months later, on October 13, the couple welcomed a baby, a son that they named after Neil's alter ego from his hypnotism days. The baby was Zen Lamott Neal.
- [39:37]
Holly Fry
Perhaps the most intriguing part of Neil's story is how easily his image was rehabilitated. The many shady dealings of his life largely seem to vanish from public memory. Even in the US in 1933, Time magazine ran an article about him titled Medicine from Sedalia. This write up opens with a long description of a luxury car that the magazine says is valued at $52,000 and how it was seen sitting outside of a hotel. And then, as this article unrolls, it's revealed that the vehicle belongs to E. Virgil Neal, and it's kind of evidence of his incredible success. This article also makes him sound downright wholesome. Writing quote, his rise to wealth began like that of many another US tycoon on a farm 64 years ago at Sedalia, Missouri. He still talks with a Midwestern inflection. Bland drawling, soothing. This article, incidentally, has been called out for being kind of a fluff piece and not well researched, but it does go on to mention many of his more nefarious dealings. But the summation is kind of like that. Neil was to be admired for amassing such a huge fortune.
- [40:51]
Tracy V. Wilson
With the construction of Chateau d', Azur, a period of truly moving to Europe completely, including divesting all ties to US Production started for Neil and for Touchelan. He shuffled the company's primary headquarters around his existing offices in other countries to minimize the amount of taxes that were due for import and export.
- [41:12]
Holly Fry
Export.
- [41:13]
Tracy V. Wilson
Throughout the 1930s, both his French and English branches of the company grew, each developing their own lines of products to best suit their specific markets.
- [41:24]
Holly Fry
But as World War II loomed, living in France and having production facilities in both France and London created some challenges. Occupation by Italian and German forces in the two French cities where Neill was based on Nice in Paris meant that he had to move production if he wanted to keep the business going. He had boasted when he visited the US in the 1930s that he and Benito Mussolini were friends. And he called Mussolini a great man. But just the same, his factory in Nice was seized by the Italian government during Occupation, so he opened factories in Monte Carlo and Marseille. Production continued in London and in an already established factory in Switzerland, enabling Touchelan to survive through the war. At this point, Touchelan's holdings were so diversified across multiple continents that the shell game he had played to keep his financial situation inscrutable to others kind of helped Evrgil Neil keep everything running.
- [42:25]
Tracy V. Wilson
There were also rumors that Neil and Renee had nefarious dealings during the war that kept them living very comfortably while other people suffered. The FBI compiled a file on him on the suspicion that he had traded with the enemy, in part because Touchelan had continued its production lines and kept advertising in Magazines in Paris all through the war, even when Paris was occupied, he and Rene and their associates had been friendly with the Germans in France and that got them labeled as collaborators. They denied these claims and asserted that anything that had been deemed suspicious in their activities was simply part of the larger effort to keep the business running and keep people employed. Ultimately all of the evidence against him and this was circumstantial.
- [43:16]
Holly Fry
Yeah, this is a much bigger story in and of itself if you want to kind of pick apart how one person or one company is figuring out how to get through the war. The biography that we mentioned by Mary Schaeffer Conroy goes into all of this in deep detail, mentioning all of the various. Like it's a spider web of people they're connected to and how they are connected to German occupation officers, et cetera. That biography is called the Cosmetics Baron you've never heard of. It's a very long book but it's full of a wealth of information. In 1946, the Neil's went to Geneva and they ended up spending most of the next several years there. In the early summer of 1949, E. Virgil Neel came down with pneumonia and he died in Geneva on June 30th of 1949.
- [44:08]
Tracy V. Wilson
Neil's obituary in his hometown paper, the Sedalia Democrat reflects the edit that his life story went through as he gained commercial success. It jumps right from his early life to his later business success. Reading quote, Mr. Neal was a native Missourian, born near Lincoln and attended Central Business College here, later becoming a member of the faculty. Leaving Sedalia, he went to New York and successfully conducted a perfumery business and from there went to France where his business reached an international scope. Goes on to talk about his beautiful home in France, the last time he visited Sedalia, and how he worked right up until the day he died. There's no mention of any of the legal tangles that happened in the middle and some cases alongside all of that.
- [44:58]
Holly Fry
Yeah, the Tookalong Company lived on after its founder, although who exactly owned it at various points is a little bit hazy. Like many other things in his life, it was operated by a company that had been founded in the years prior to Neil's death to manage the company's international affairs. And although the owners of that management company are documented, there's been a lot of speculation that they were managing it after Neil's death on behalf of a new owner, but we don't know exactly who that was. Over the course of the 25 years following Neil's death, The company changed hands several times, ultimately becoming part of the larger, privately owned Cooper cosmetics in the 1970s.
- [45:42]
Tracy V. Wilson
In his will, Neil left two thirds of his liquid assets to his wife and the remaining third to his son, Zen. Neil Zen refused his inheritance. Any money made from sales of assets was to go into a trust, which was likely used to be used to manage his debts.
- [46:01]
Holly Fry
Zen went on to work for Touch Alone for a while. He actually became a member of its board of directors. His wife, Renee was also involved in the business for a while, but she was eventually pushed out. His son Zen eventually moved to California and worked in retail as a buyer, and he seemed to largely separate himself from his father's legacy. And Renee died, I think in 1982. That is the wild Life of Eve.
- [46:27]
Tracy V. Wilson
Virgil Neal Wild is the word I was thinking of also.
- [46:31]
Holly Fry
I just I have so many thoughts. I can't wait for Friday episode Do
- [46:35]
Tracy V. Wilson
you have listener mail?
- [46:37]
Holly Fry
Yes, I have listener mail. This is from our listener Kimberly who writes hi Holly and Tracy. I had previously written in about Mammoth Cave Mummy but just listened to your behind the scenes on Mirror Balls Disco balls. The bathroom you talked about with disco balls is actually in a gas station or a chain of gas stations now in Kentucky called Hop Shops. The one I heard about first is in Northern Kentucky, which I guess kind of makes sense based on what I learned about mirror balls in your episode. Anyway, I have never seen this bathroom as I try to avoid gas station bathrooms at all costs but know folks who have stopped there on purpose just to push the button and make the disco ball come out. Listen, that's the only reason I'd be in there. I kind of love the idea that it's such a random and unexpected place that has the disco ball bathroom rather than a place where you might expect it. Anyway, I have attached a photo of some disco ball cookies I did through my cookie business. I often listen to the podcast as I bake and feel like you all are my super interesting co workers that always have fun stories to tell at the water cooler. I've also included some updated photos of my kitties, Calypso the Gray and White Fluff and Jupiter the Tortie. They both love sleeping on my daughter's bed during the day but never together so it's a constant fight for territory. They don't seem to care much for history, but maybe they'll grow into it one day. Keep up the good work Kim. This is so cool and I love seeing these disco ball cookies and I had seen a mention of where that where that disco ball bathroom was, but then I lost track of it. So thank you for the reminder. Northern Kentucky Hop Shops Go see the disco ball. I kind of want to. I'm trying to think if I would. My travels would take me there at any point in the near future. Thank you for writing us that email. And also listen, we always want cookie and cat pictures all day, every day. I can't think of a better thing. If you would like to write to us us. Show us whatever cookies you've been making or where you like to use public bathrooms. Be a weird email, but who knows? Everybody's got their thing. You could do that@history podcastheartradio.com if you would like to look at the show notes for the episodes, they are all@mystinhistory.com connected to the associated episode. If you would like to subscribe to the show and you haven't gotten around to that yet, it's so easy. You can do it on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.
- [48:58]
Tracy V. Wilson
Stuff you 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.
- [49:13]
Holly Fry
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BritBox Narrator
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Holly Fry
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Holly Fry
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Holly Fry
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Tracy V. Wilson
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