Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: When financial hardship caused William John Aluisius Bailey to drop
Speaker 2: out of Harvard University before finishing his degree, it didn't
Speaker 2: stop him from awarding himself a degree anyway, a medical degree,
Speaker 2: and he called himself doctor William Bailey, but the press
Speaker 2: in the public considered him a quote scholarly looking man
Speaker 2: and didn't really seem to care so much about his
Speaker 2: credentials in his professional life. Many believed the promises he
Speaker 2: made about his patent medicines regardless of his diploma, but
Speaker 2: they should have cared, as his patent medicines could and
Speaker 2: would literally eat holes in your bones and ravage your
Speaker 2: body with cancer, and Bailey just kept the products rolling
Speaker 2: off the line for years as his patients suffered. So
Speaker 2: this one is a real villain story. Welcome to Criminalia.
Speaker 2: I'm Marian tro Markin and I'm Holly Frye. William Bailey's
Speaker 2: career was as a shady businessman, not a medical professional,
Speaker 2: and between roughly nineteen oh six in the late nineteen thirties,
Speaker 2: he launched a series of startup companies some of which
Speaker 2: made him wealthy, but none of which managed to operate
Speaker 2: for more than a few years. New discoveries of radioactive
Speaker 2: elements created a patent medicine craze that Bailey capitalized on.
Speaker 2: Products with lethal radioactive substances were sold with unproven promises
Speaker 2: to cure everything from arthritis to impotence. It was said
Speaker 2: they could help you regain your youth. Patent medicine wasn't
Speaker 2: his first corporate venture. He didn't start in radioactive products.
Speaker 2: But the first sleazy business endeavor that led him into
Speaker 2: trouble was this. In nineteen twelve, Bailey was in the
Speaker 2: automotive business sort of, and his company, the Carnegie Engineering Corporation,
Speaker 2: claimed to be selling a newly designed automobile with the
Speaker 2: price tag of approximately six hundred dollars. For perspective on that,
Speaker 2: prices for Henry Ford's nineteen twelve Model T touring car
Speaker 2: started at six hundred and ninety dollars. Bailey received some
Speaker 2: fifteen hundred orders and presumably that many deposits too. It
Speaker 2: was fifty dollars to get your name on the waiting list.
Speaker 1: What got Bailey in.
Speaker 2: Trouble with federal authorities wasn't his use of the name Carnegie,
Speaker 2: though it waves like a giant red flag as the
Speaker 2: American industrialist had nothing to do with this company, but
Speaker 2: instead it was his inadequate production capacity. And they were right.
Speaker 2: His factory was really just an abandoned sawmill that contained
Speaker 2: nothing more than a single box of tools, and that
Speaker 2: for sure is not how cars were built. In nineteen twelve,
Speaker 2: as reported in the May eighth, nineteen fifteen edition of
Speaker 2: The New York Times, Bailey was arrested for this. He
Speaker 2: was found guilty and was fined and sentenced to thirty
Speaker 2: days in prison.
Speaker 1: At the time of his arrest, he was also president
Speaker 1: and treasurer of another startup, the American Hardware and Machinery
Speaker 1: Export Corporation, But after his release from prison, he set
Speaker 1: out to conquer the world of patent medicines, specifically radioactive
Speaker 1: patent medicines, which may have been inspired by physicist and
Speaker 1: chemist Marie Currie's pioneering research on radiation and her visit
Speaker 1: with United States President Harding in May of nineteen twenty one.
Speaker 1: That is conjecture on our behalf, but her work does
Speaker 1: line up with the radium trend and with Bailey's new
Speaker 1: business plans, and we'll talk a little bit more about
Speaker 1: her later in the episode.
Speaker 2: So a few years earlier, a nineteen thirteen article in
Speaker 2: the Lancet Medical Journal noted that radium water did seem
Speaker 2: to boost the libido of newts yes the Amphibian, though
Speaker 2: there was no proof of that still. One of Bailey's
Speaker 2: earliest patent medicine products was called Lasico for superb manhood,
Speaker 2: an alleged cure from male impotence, which got him fined
Speaker 2: in nineteen eighteen by a Chicago court for exploiting a
Speaker 2: quote quack aphrodisiac.
Speaker 1: By nineteen twenty two, Bailey had launched another new company
Speaker 1: called Associated Radium Chemists, operating out of New York City.
Speaker 1: Arium The company's signature product appears to first show up
Speaker 1: in a newspaper advertisement from November of nineteen twenty two.
Speaker 1: It was sold in a tin container, and that container
Speaker 1: held forty two tablets of quote genuine radium, and it
Speaker 1: costs only a dollar, which is roughly twenty dollars a
Speaker 1: ten today. According to instructions on the label, one should
Speaker 1: quote take two tablets with glass of water before or
Speaker 1: after each meal to derive the most beneficial effects. Arium
Speaker 1: should be taken regularly as directed. Arium was marketed as
Speaker 1: an aphrodisiac, but associated radium. Chemists also produced other items,
Speaker 1: including linarium, which was a liniment, ointarium which was an ointment,
Speaker 1: dentarium which was a toothpaste cap, aarium, a hair tonic
Speaker 1: dax for soothing coughs, and claques for treating influenza.
Speaker 2: An advertorial in the Zanesville Signal on December second, nineteen
Speaker 2: twenty six, claimed quote, recent investigation shows that the pep energy, endurance,
Speaker 2: and nerve force of the average man past forty may
Speaker 2: often be increased by one hundred percent by getting into
Speaker 2: his system the marvelous restorative radium power of aarium.
Speaker 1: Another advertisement for arium, printed in the Newark, Ohio Advocate
Speaker 1: on February sixteenth, nineteen twenty three, stated quote, is rheumatism
Speaker 1: dragging you into old age? How radium reduces it, inflammation, relieves pain,
Speaker 1: and renews the energy and vigor of use. Ariam now
Speaker 1: recommended by leading physicians as the new harmless way to
Speaker 1: obtain radium for internal use. Five thousand dollars reward if
Speaker 1: they fail, foreshadowing aside that five thousand dollars reward should
Speaker 1: have gone to anyone who lived through trying arium to
Speaker 1: cure anything. Consumers, though, loved this product. Of many positive
Speaker 1: testimonials was this one from Reverend H. McKenna in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty five, who, after taking Ariam tablets, stated quote, I
Speaker 1: feel like a kid. Bailey's patent medicine business was off
Speaker 1: with a bang.
Speaker 2: While Reverend McKenna may have felt like a kid again
Speaker 2: when he took Ariam tablets, he didn't know he was
Speaker 2: playing with poison. We're going to take a break for
Speaker 2: a word from our sponsors, and when we return, we'll
Speaker 2: talk about whether or not William Bailey's radium infused products
Speaker 2: were or were not good for your health.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about William Bailey's companies
Speaker 1: and his two most popular products, the radiendocrenator device and
Speaker 1: his Ratathor elixir.
Speaker 2: Shortly after launching Associated radium Chemists, Bailey founded another company,
Speaker 2: American Endocrine Laboratories, which occupied several different locations across New
Speaker 2: York City between the early nineteen twenties and nineteen thirty,
Speaker 2: when it closed its doors. Its flagship product was called
Speaker 2: the radio Endocrinator, and it was according to company marketing
Speaker 2: materials quote the last word in scientific manufacture. The product
Speaker 2: was housed in a case called the adapter and was
Speaker 2: intended to be worn against your skin. The radioactive source
Speaker 2: inside the adapter consisted of seven then give or take,
Speaker 2: radium soaked blotterlike pieces of paper, each one the size
Speaker 2: of a credit card. Each was covered with a thin
Speaker 2: piece of plastic and two gold wire screens.
Speaker 1: Users were encouraged to wear it wherever and whenever, at home,
Speaker 1: at work, it didn't matter. Promotional booklets and materials showed
Speaker 1: both men and women wearing nothing but their radiendocrinator strapped
Speaker 1: to their head, their neck, back, among other places on
Speaker 1: the body. It's intended, and we should say alleged health
Speaker 1: benefits came from irradiating the endocrine glands, which quote have
Speaker 1: so masterful of control over life and bodily health. As
Speaker 1: for one very cringe inducing example of its use, men
Speaker 1: were advised as follows quote mail, place radiendocrenator in the
Speaker 1: pocket of this adapter, with the window upward toward the
Speaker 1: body where adapter, like any athletic, strap the cloth label
Speaker 1: in the front. This puts the instrument under the scrotum
Speaker 1: as it should be where at night Radi eight as directed.
Speaker 1: This terrifying device sold for one hundred and fifty dollars,
Speaker 1: which might seem very high, although it was initially priced
Speaker 1: at one thousand.
Speaker 2: Coincidentally, when American Endocrine Laboratories first opened, it occupied space
Speaker 2: in the same building as Vitamin Corporation, which was owned
Speaker 2: by doctor Hermann Ruben, who hawked a product called Maston's
Speaker 2: Vitamin Health Tablets. Ruben's relationship with Bailey and American Endocrine
Speaker 2: Laboratories is not completely clear, though it is clear there
Speaker 2: was one. A nineteen twenty four newspaper advertorial featuring Bailey
Speaker 2: included a photograph of Rubens standing next to a radiendocrinator.
Speaker 2: It was egg shaped and about the size of a
Speaker 2: football and mounted on a stand. Other articles would follow
Speaker 2: and included similar photos of the men.
Speaker 1: The earliest reference to the radio indocrinator and to American
Speaker 1: Endocrine Laboratories is in a booklet that came out in
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty three. That same year, Rubin published two books,
Speaker 1: each mentioning the device. One was Scientific Rejuvenation Without Operation
Speaker 1: and the other was The New Science of Endochronology in
Speaker 1: its relation to rejuvenation American Endocrine Laboratories marketed and distributed
Speaker 1: them both, plus a third book titled Your Mysterious Glands,
Speaker 1: How Your Glands Control Your mental and physical development and
Speaker 1: Moral Welfare that was published a few years later.
Speaker 2: Rubenaugh denied that he held any interest in Bailey's company, and
Speaker 2: also denied he sold the radio indocrenator, but he did
Speaker 2: admit he used the device on patients in his medical practice,
Speaker 2: and admitted that when he prescribed it to patients, he
Speaker 2: did so through a company called Raticent Endocrine Laboratories, and
Speaker 2: he called the product the Rootcronator, and so yes, if
Speaker 2: it looks like a duck and it wacks like a duck,
Speaker 2: then it is probably a duck. The endocrinator was just
Speaker 2: another name for the radi endocarnator, and Radison Endocrine Laboratories
Speaker 2: was another name used by American Endocrine Laboratories. So technically
Speaker 2: he didn't sell the radi endocrenator. But who did he
Speaker 2: think he was fooling? A bit of a spoiler about
Speaker 2: the guy. Because of Reuben's business interests in sketchy health
Speaker 2: products and devices, he was expelled from the medical societies
Speaker 2: of the State of New York and the County of
Speaker 2: New York in March of nineteen twenty four, and in
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty six, Ratison Endocrine Laboratories changed their name to
Speaker 2: US Gamma Laboratories. Guys, we see you.
Speaker 1: Some historians believe that Ruben and not Bailey, may have
Speaker 1: actually been the one who invented the radiandocrenator, sometimes referred
Speaker 1: to as the clinic type radi indocrenator. The problem with
Speaker 1: this version of the instrument was that it couldn't be
Speaker 1: mass produced and sold to the public because it was big.
Speaker 1: Remember we mentioned a moment ago it was the size
Speaker 1: of a football. So either Reuben or Bailey, and it
Speaker 1: is not clear which created what became known as the standard,
Speaker 1: smaller version of the device, described at the time as quoted,
Speaker 1: the newest type of radiu indocrenator for home use is
Speaker 1: a very small device and comes together with adapters for
Speaker 1: attaching it to body.
Speaker 2: Bailey left American Endocrine Laboratories probably in the mid nineteen
Speaker 2: twenties ish when he began focusing on his newest patent
Speaker 2: medicine called Ratathor the elixir would become his most famous
Speaker 2: and infamous product. He manufactured it at the New Bailey
Speaker 2: Radium Laboratories in East Orange, New Jersey.
Speaker 1: Ratathor consisted of only a few ingredients, but they were
Speaker 1: very potent ingredients. Give ingredients were radium, specifically the radium
Speaker 1: two twenty six and two twenty eight isotopes, as well
Speaker 1: as the radioactive element mesothorium. The rest just some otherwise
Speaker 1: harmless distilled water. This was marketed as a cure for asthma, constipation,
Speaker 1: low libido, diabetes, mental illness, and one hundred and forty
Speaker 1: five other ailments, and it worked by quote exciting the
Speaker 1: endocrine system into battling its afflictions, and one marketing campaign
Speaker 1: offered one thousand dollars to anyone who tried it and
Speaker 1: didn't think it was great. And no one ever claimed
Speaker 1: that reward.
Speaker 2: But they should have, because if they lived to tell
Speaker 2: about it, it was a miracle. Today this product is
Speaker 2: considered one of the very first quote unquote energy drinks,
Speaker 2: but it's also one of the most well known examples
Speaker 2: of radioactive quackery. But in the nineteen twenties, for thirty dollars,
Speaker 2: you could, with no warning label in sight, purchase a
Speaker 2: case of twenty four to two ounds bottles for perspective,
Speaker 2: that's upwards of five hundred dollars a case in today's money.
Speaker 1: Bailey had his hands in a lot of things, though
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty four. In nineteen twenty five, he was
Speaker 1: also president of the Thorwn Company, located in New York City.
Speaker 1: The company specialized in thorium pharmaceutical preparations and marketing materials.
Speaker 1: Promised that they sold quote internal sunshine. That was their
Speaker 1: euphemism for claiming they cured male impotence. Thorium is a
Speaker 1: naturally occurring radioactive metal, and today it is a known carcinogen.
Speaker 1: An example of one advertisement from nineteen twenty five featured
Speaker 1: a muscular, confident and shirtless man and claimed quote amazing
Speaker 1: earth power builds vigorous man power.
Speaker 2: All his good fortune changed. In June of nineteen twenty six.
Speaker 2: He may have been focused on ratathor, but federal authorities
Speaker 2: were focused on well him. The United States Attorney for
Speaker 2: the District of Maryland filed an order for the quote
Speaker 2: seizure and condemnation of fifty six packages and one hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty five boxes of arium tablets shipped from New
Speaker 2: York by Associated radium chemists, stating that the company's claims
Speaker 2: quote regarding the curative and therapeutic effects of said article
Speaker 2: were false and fraudulent. The court case became known as
Speaker 2: the United States versus fifty six packages of Arium tablets.
Speaker 2: When the United States Department of Agriculture analyzed the seized arium,
Speaker 2: they found that the tablets were actually composed of mainly
Speaker 2: lithium carbonate, starch, and talc, and each contained eight point
Speaker 2: five eight nanoquieries of radium.
Speaker 1: Also in June of nineteen twenty six, the United States
Speaker 1: attorneys for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the District
Speaker 1: of Connecticut filed similar orders for the seizure and condemnation
Speaker 1: of additional packages of areum tablets. These seized packages of
Speaker 1: tablets shipped in February and July of nineteen twenty seven
Speaker 1: from New York to Tacoma, Washington. A subsequent analysis showed
Speaker 1: that arium's content had changed slightly. These tablets contained a
Speaker 1: different amount of radium two point six nanacuries each, and
Speaker 1: strychnine had been added to the ingredients. Bailey closed down
Speaker 1: associated radium chemists and moved on. He played very fast
Speaker 1: and loose with company and product names that by the
Speaker 1: early nineteen thirties, he was running three different companies that
Speaker 1: sold radioactive products to the public. Like Bailey Radium Laboratories,
Speaker 1: These three new companies were all based in East Orange,
Speaker 1: New Jersey, Adrenay Company, Bioay Company, and Thorinator Company. None
Speaker 1: of the three survived very long, and although Bailey blamed
Speaker 1: their failure on the effects of the Greek Depression, it
Speaker 1: was really his ongoing trouble with federal authority that was
Speaker 1: the cause of their demise.
Speaker 2: It was a high profile radiation poisoning and subsequent death
Speaker 2: from Ratathor consumption that led to measures that would end
Speaker 2: Bailey's radium rain and strengthen the Food and Drug Administration's
Speaker 2: powers and oversight. Because the FDA was still very new,
Speaker 2: it was still quite weak, and the investigation into Ratithor
Speaker 2: and William Bailey was handed over to the Federal Trade Commission,
Speaker 2: a group that had more power. This was a nail
Speaker 2: in the coffin for bunk radioactive so called cures.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing about radium. It was discovered by Marie
Speaker 1: and per Curie in eighteen ninety eight, and it is
Speaker 1: a naturally occurring silvery white radioactive metal that's formed when
Speaker 1: uranium and thorium, which are two other natural radioactive substances,
Speaker 1: decay in the environment. Radium glows blue green in the dark,
Speaker 1: and it gives off light for years without any apparent
Speaker 1: power source. Because of its chemical similarity to calcium, radium
Speaker 1: behaves chemically like calcium. When it's in the human body.
Speaker 1: That's bad because it replaces the calcium in your bones.
Speaker 1: It is known as a quote bone seeker. Rather than
Speaker 1: passing through the body, it leaves behind radium deposits, and
Speaker 1: those deposits destroy blood cells, bone marrow, and other tissue.
Speaker 1: Depending on your level of exposure, it can cause everything
Speaker 1: from anemia, hair loss, cataracts, broken or loose teeth, impairment
Speaker 1: of the body's functioning of tissues and its organs, and
Speaker 1: an overwhelming increased risk of cancer. Radium can be lethal.
Speaker 1: In fact, Marie Currey highlighted that the effects of radiation
Speaker 1: on the human body were not well understood at the time,
Speaker 1: and she never condoned its use in things that people
Speaker 1: might eat or drink. In nineteen thirty four, she died
Speaker 1: of aplastic anemia caused by radiation poisoning. Because of her
Speaker 1: groundbreaking work.
Speaker 2: When Ratathor hit the market, it was already known that
Speaker 2: radium was dangerous, although it's unclear whether the public understood
Speaker 2: that it could be lethal. In nineteen thirteen, five years
Speaker 2: before Bailey sold his Lassico for superb Manhood product, British
Speaker 2: scientist Walter Lazarus Barlow published a study correctly noting that
Speaker 2: ingested radium accumulates in the bones, and in nineteen fourteen,
Speaker 2: Professor Ernst Zublin, a medical professor at the University of Maryland,
Speaker 2: warned of its dangers to the body in a published
Speaker 2: review of seven hundred medical reports, many of which showed
Speaker 2: that bone necrosis and ulcerations were a frequent side effect
Speaker 2: from ingesting radium. Despite their work, Ratithor sales remained strong
Speaker 2: through the nineteen twenties. According to a two thousand and
Speaker 2: seven report published in the Journal of Radiologic Protection, we
Speaker 2: now know that when radium is taken internally, the poisoning
Speaker 2: can be fatal within one month.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a break here for a word
Speaker 1: from our Sponenzers, and when we're back we will talk
Speaker 1: about a man named Eben Byers who died a horrific
Speaker 1: and tragic death because of his continued consumption of radium
Speaker 1: infused water.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's meet Evan Byers, a popular
Speaker 2: industrialist slash playboy of the nineteen twenties.
Speaker 1: Eben Byers died from his consumption of Ratathor. He was
Speaker 1: a Pittsburgh industrialist. He was suave, He was popular. He
Speaker 1: was also an amateur golfer with promise. He won the
Speaker 1: US Amateur Golf Championship in nineteen oh six. It was
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty seven, after an arm injury just wouldn't
Speaker 1: heal properly and was spoiling his golf game, that his
Speaker 1: physician suggested that he tried Bailey's Ratithor. Doctor Moyer, who
Speaker 1: prescribed the drink for buyers, insisted to federal authorities when
Speaker 1: later questioned that it was not harmful, stating quote, I
Speaker 1: never had a death among my patients for radium treatment.
Speaker 1: I have taken as much or more radium water of
Speaker 1: the same kind mister Byers took, and I am fifty
Speaker 1: one years old, active and healthy. I believe that radium
Speaker 1: water has a definite place in the treatment of certain diseases,
Speaker 1: and I prescribe when I deem it necessary.
Speaker 2: Byers was a well known guy, and his illness and
Speaker 2: death caused an inquiry into radioactive patent medicines like Ratithor.
Speaker 2: Federal authorities had some suspicions about the safety of the
Speaker 2: product before Buyer's death, and Federal Trade Commission lawyer Robert
Speaker 2: Heiner Wynn had been dispatched to interview him. Of that interview,
Speaker 2: which took place shortly before Buyers died, when described him
Speaker 2: as quote young in years and mentally alert, He could
Speaker 2: hardly speak. His head was swathened bandages. He had undergone
Speaker 2: two successive operations in which his whole upper jaw, excepting
Speaker 2: two front teeth, and most of his lower jaw, had
Speaker 2: been removed. All the remaining bone tissue of his body
Speaker 2: was slowly disintegrating and holes were actually forming in his skull.
Speaker 1: Timothy J. Jorgensen, a professor in the Department of Radiation
Speaker 1: Medicine at Georgetown University, stated about Buyers in an article
Speaker 1: for The Conversation that quote, although the product contained no narcotics,
Speaker 1: he became at least psychologically, if not physiologically, addicted to it.
Speaker 1: He continued to consume large amounts of Ratathor even after
Speaker 1: his arm had healed In fact, Buyers was so pro
Speaker 1: ratathor that he gifted cases of it to friends. He
Speaker 1: was a huge fan, and he even had it given
Speaker 1: to his race horses. But then things took a turn
Speaker 1: for the worse. By lost a considerable amount of weight
Speaker 1: and began having headaches, and then began to suffer bone
Speaker 1: necrosis in his jaw, which caused him to lose several teeth.
Speaker 1: Radium jaw was a real thing. The condition caused dental pain,
Speaker 1: loose teeth, lesions, and ulcers, and the failure of tooth
Speaker 1: extractions to heal. A Wall Street Journal headlined bluntly stated
Speaker 1: quote the radium water worked fine until his jaw came off.
Speaker 1: All the radium that Buyers had consumed had accumulated in
Speaker 1: his bones and caused his death in March of nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty two. He was fifty one.
Speaker 2: When Evan Byers died from using the product. His physician,
Speaker 2: doctor Mayer, claimed he quote knew that his patient had
Speaker 2: really died from quote a combination of blood diseases which
Speaker 2: had induced gout. And autopsy, though did not agree with
Speaker 2: Moyer's conclusion. It was discovered that Buyers had an abscess
Speaker 2: on his brain. All but six of his teeth had
Speaker 2: fallen out, and his body contained more than three and
Speaker 2: a half times the lethal amount of radium. When he died.
Speaker 2: He was buried in a lead lined coffin. Normally, that's
Speaker 2: to help keep out moisture and preserve the body for
Speaker 2: longer and prevent odors and toxins from escaping. In this case,
Speaker 2: it was specifically to block the radiation being released from
Speaker 2: the bones in his body. Radium has a half life
Speaker 2: of sixteen hundred years, so Buyer's bones have virtually the
Speaker 2: same amount of radium in them now as they did
Speaker 2: the day he died.
Speaker 1: Bailey absolved himself in Buyer's death by stating he only
Speaker 1: provided ratathor to patients on a doctor's prescription. One such practitioner,
Speaker 1: doctor CG. Davis, was very pro radium and had written
Speaker 1: glowing things no pun intended about it in the American
Speaker 1: Journal of Clinical Medicine, including that quote radioactivity prevents insanity,
Speaker 1: rouses noble emotions, retards old age, and creates a splendid, youthful,
Speaker 1: joyous life. At least six other physicians, according to Federal
Speaker 1: Trade Commission's investigation Information, prescribed ratithor and stated that none
Speaker 1: of their patients had died.
Speaker 2: Radium infused drinks were removed from the market in December
Speaker 2: of nineteen thirty one, just three months before buyer's death
Speaker 2: from them. Ultimately, in the interest of protecting public health,
Speaker 2: the FTC closed down the Bailey Radium laboratories, but after
Speaker 2: the federal investigation, Bailey carried on. In nineteen thirty seven,
Speaker 2: he became a partner in lee Caalpadine Company of New
Speaker 2: York City. Their sole product consisted of calpidine tablets made
Speaker 2: of compressed pelletized seaweed. That's right, there was nothing radioactive
Speaker 2: about this one. Marketing claims, though, were totally sketched, and
Speaker 2: promised that the tablets could treat thirty two specific diseases.
Speaker 2: And because of those outrageous promises that couldn't be backed up,
Speaker 2: he ran up against the FDA's mission and to crack
Speaker 2: down on such false claims. This was likely the final
Speaker 2: patent medicine Bailey marketed to the public.
Speaker 1: In the end, Bailey died a wealthy man, suffering no
Speaker 1: consequence from the deadly effects of his snake oil products,
Speaker 1: while no serious or significant legal consequence. That is, he
Speaker 1: once said of his ratithor and its safety. Quote, I
Speaker 1: have drunk more radium water than any man alive, and
Speaker 1: I have never suffered any ill effects. But that too,
Speaker 1: was not the truth. He died in May of nineteen
Speaker 1: forty nine at the age of sixty four of bladder cancer.
Speaker 1: Twenty years later, when his body was exhumed and tested
Speaker 1: for radioactive isotopes, Geiger counters found his body had been
Speaker 1: quote ravaged by radiation, and because of that half life,
Speaker 1: he still is.
Speaker 2: There's no cure for what ails this, But what.
Speaker 1: Do you have for us? No, there isn't, And in fact,
Speaker 1: that's kind of what inspires this drink. A few different
Speaker 1: things inspired this drink. One, of course, from a visual standpoint,
Speaker 1: I love the idea of radium being this kind of cloudy,
Speaker 1: silvery white and glowing greenish at night. Of course, there's
Speaker 1: going to be some fun color in this one. But
Speaker 1: the other thing that struck me about the story is
Speaker 1: just the damn denial that people would be in and
Speaker 1: be like, no, that's not that thing that I gave
Speaker 1: that guy. That's poison. That's no way, that's not the
Speaker 1: problem at all. We're calling it radium denial. It has
Speaker 1: nothing dangerous in it. If you're allergic to alcohol, or
Speaker 1: if you drink too much, please drink responsibly. Anything can
Speaker 1: be problematic if you have too much of it, even water.
Speaker 1: But we're hoping that our listeners are a little bit
Speaker 1: more judicious than that. And this is a really easy
Speaker 1: one to put together. You want a very very cold,
Speaker 1: pre chilled martini glass. Normally I don't care what glass
Speaker 1: you use, but this one, I really think like a
Speaker 1: pointy martini glass is gonna look the best. And you'll
Speaker 1: see why. There is a visual element to this. You
Speaker 1: are gonna put into your shaker, so simple, a half
Speaker 1: ounce of lime juice, a half ounce of orja, or
Speaker 1: a regular almond syrup. I will caveat this one and say,
Speaker 1: book for an almond syrup that has that like silvery
Speaker 1: slightly milky look to it. And then you're just gonna
Speaker 1: do an ounce and a half of gin and you're
Speaker 1: gonna shake this with ice and then strain it into
Speaker 1: your pre chilled glass. And then you are gonna take
Speaker 1: a half ounce of midori and you're gonna very slowly
Speaker 1: and carefully pour it over a spoon down on one
Speaker 1: of the side edges of your glass. It won't all
Speaker 1: sink to the bottom, but some of it will some
Speaker 1: of it is gonna color your drink, and it ends
Speaker 1: up giving it this really fun green glow that kind
Speaker 1: of comes from below. Here's the thing. I also had
Speaker 1: an accident one where it did it just mixed itself
Speaker 1: really fast, and even that green was quite beautiful and glowy.
Speaker 1: So it still has an effect of the visual, but
Speaker 1: that would also be for presentation only when you serve it.
Speaker 1: If the green is on the bottom, make clear to
Speaker 1: whoever is drinking it that they're going to want to
Speaker 1: swizzle it up before they actually take a sip. This
Speaker 1: is a really yummy drink for me. I will say
Speaker 1: I made a complete disaster version earlier that I didn't
Speaker 1: care to speak on beyond acknowledging that it happened. But
Speaker 1: this one turned out beautifully and was a relief where
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, my goodness, have I lost my
Speaker 1: sense of like how things could go together? And I
Speaker 1: don't know what happened on the first one happened. I
Speaker 1: just lost my mind.
Speaker 2: It happened.
Speaker 1: I tried too much, and a lot of flavors gotten
Speaker 1: in argument. I will put it that way.
Speaker 2: It seems like a very simple drink now it is.
Speaker 1: It's very simple. It's super easy. If this is one
Speaker 1: of those ones that if it is too potent for
Speaker 1: you in its martini form, you can add a little
Speaker 1: club soda to it. You could even add a little
Speaker 1: tonic to it, and you essentially get like a gin
Speaker 1: and tonic with a honeydew note, which is quite lovely.
Speaker 1: I think there are some drinks like that already that
Speaker 1: are called like a Japanese gin and tonic or a
Speaker 1: Japanese tonic. It's delicious. The mocktail on this one is
Speaker 1: pretty simple. We have talked about before, subbing out gin
Speaker 1: for a flat tonic, and I stand by it for
Speaker 1: this one. And then your orja and your lime juice
Speaker 1: are the same. And then in lieu of madori a
Speaker 1: honeydew syrup. And in case people don't remember, that's easy
Speaker 1: to make. Just chop up some honeydew and boil it
Speaker 1: with a cup of water and a cup of sugar,
Speaker 1: and let that boil for a little while, and then
Speaker 1: strain it and keep that boiled sweet candied honeydew and
Speaker 1: put it on ice cream, your toast or whatever, or
Speaker 1: just eat it with a spoon like I do, because
Speaker 1: you cannot control your childlike some That is the radium denial,
Speaker 1: which contains no radioactive ingredients and is in fact yummy.
Speaker 1: And I want to raise it in honor of poor
Speaker 1: Eben who lost his life to.
Speaker 2: Quackery what he thought was a health drink.
Speaker 1: This is a problem always, it continues. There a lot
Speaker 1: of issues going on regarding what substances are and are
Speaker 1: not monitored by the FDA. And so just for our listeners,
Speaker 1: you're all bright, bright people, I know, but always be
Speaker 1: a little careful. When people over promise things to sound miraculous,
Speaker 1: it's probably not really going to be what they say
Speaker 1: it is. But I can promise you that the radium
Speaker 1: denial is very delicious. It's not going to cure anything,
Speaker 1: but it might put a smile on your face, and
Speaker 1: really that's all I can ask for it.
Speaker 2: Sometimes that's a cure.
Speaker 1: It does have restorative properties. In that room, we are
Speaker 1: so grateful that you've spent this time with us today
Speaker 1: and we hope we will see you right back here
Speaker 1: next week at Criminalia, where there will be more snake
Speaker 1: oil and a little more of the cures. What a
Speaker 1: Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.