John R. Brinkley

American medical fraudster

• Born: July 8, 1885
• Birthplace: Jackson County, North Carolina
• Died: May 26, 1942
• Place of death: San Antonio, Texas

Cause of notoriety: Brinkley claimed in his controversial “goat gland operation” to restore male virility. He was sued for malpractice and for libel and was indicted for mail fraud by the U.S. Postal Service.

Active: 1918-1942

Locale: Milford, Kansas; Villa Acuña, Mexico; and Del Rio, Texas

Early Life

John R. Brinkley (BRIHN-klee) was the son of John Brinkley, an unlettered country doctor, and Candice Burnett. Orphaned at age ten, the young Brinkley was raised by an aunt. He received his early education in Tuckaseigee, North Carolina, but never earned a diploma. In his mid-teens, he led a nomadic life and worked as a telegrapher. From 1907 through 1915 he received dubious credentials from schools of little repute, such as the Eclectic Medical University of Kansas City and the Bennett Medical College of Chicago.

Medical Career

In spite of his questionable degrees, Brinkley was licensed to practice medicine in Arkansas and later established his practice in Milford, Kansas. He began performing his notorious “goat gland operation” in 1918, which involved implantation of Toggenberg goat glands in human men and which Brinkley claimed could restore male fertility as well as virility. Soon the $750 rejuvenation operation was in high demand, and Brinkley became wealthy.

In 1923 he created Kansas’s first radio station and only the fourth commercial station in the United States. KFKB (which stood for Kansas’s First, Kansas’s Best) became a powerful radio station which broadcast and promoted ads for Brinkley’s secret remedies. Brinkley also organized a network of pharmacies in his radio coverage area, known as the National Dr. Brinkley Pharmaceutical Association, and prescribed medicine by number which one could get only at the local affiliated pharmacy, which sent a portion of the profits to Brinkley.

In 1928 Dr. Morris Fishbein, secretary of the American Medical Association, lambasted Brinkley for diagnosing illnesses over the radio as well as promoting medicines on the air. As a result, the State Medical Board of Kansas revoked Brinkley’s medical license in 1930. That year, the Federal Radio Commission would not renew his broadcasting license. Still widely popular, Brinkley next ran for governor, but none of his three campaigns—in 1930, 1932, and 1934—met with success.

In 1931 he received authority from Mexican officials to assemble the world’s most powerful transmitter at Villa Acuña, Mexico. Under the call sign of XER, Brinkley used his new “border blaster” transmitter to reach listeners as far north as Canada. In 1933 he moved his entire medical staff and facilities across the border to the Roswell Hotel in Del Rio. The Mexican government issued a license for Brinkley to begin broadcasting from his 500-kilowatt transmitter under the new call letters XERA. The new AM station, with its powerful antennas, could broadcast throughout the United States and Canada, and even as far as the Soviet Union. Brinkley’s fabulously lucrative business supported his flashy lifestyle. Estimates are that he earned twelve million dollars between 1933 and 1938. In 1938 he moved his medical activities to Little Rock, Arkansas.

About the time Brinkley moved back to Arkansas, he lost a libel suit against Fishbein, fought numerous malpractice suits, battled the Internal Revenue Service over back taxes, and was indicted for mail fraud by the U.S. Postal Service. Soon, Brinkley’s station was out of business, and in January, 1941, he filed for bankruptcy. When World War II began in Europe, Brinkley further provoked the U.S. government by allowing Nazi sympathizers to broadcast their propaganda. In 1941, XERA was expropriated by the Mexican government, and three days later Brinkley suffered a massive heart attack. On May 26, 1942, he died in San Antonio of heart failure. He was buried in Memphis, Tennessee.

Impact

John R. Brinkley’s role in exposing America’s vulnerability to medical quackery cannot be understated, but he had an equally important impact on legislation to regulate radio broadcasting. Because of Brinkley’s actions, in April of 1941 the Mexican government struck a deal with the United States to restrict cross-border links between U.S. radio studios and Mexican transmitters through the Communications Act of 1934, commonly known as the Brinkley Act, which led to the shutdown of XERA and placed limitations on the abuse of broadcasting.

Bibliography

Juhnke, Eric S. Quacks and Crusaders: The Fabulous Careers of John Brinkley, Norman Baker, and Harry Hoxsey. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002. A major contribution to the understanding of medical quackery of yesteryear and today, this book examines the careers of Brinkley, Baker, and Hoxsey.

Lee, R. Alton. The Bizarre Careers of John R. Brinkley. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002. Perhaps the most complete account of Brinkley’s life, delivered in academic yet humorous detail.

Young, James Harvey. The Medical Messiahs: A Social History of Health Quackery in Twentieth-Century America. 1966. Reprint. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992. Summarizes the development of patent medicines in America from the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act through the mid-1960’s.