WEBVTT - Radioactive Quackery: 'Doctor' Bailey and His Jaw-Dissolving ‘Energy Drink’ 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:06.559 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:07.520 with iHeartRadio. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:18.360 When financial hardship caused William John Aluisius Bailey to drop 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:22.720 out of Harvard University before finishing his degree, it didn't 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:27.360 stop him from awarding himself a degree anyway, a medical degree, 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:31.840 and he called himself doctor William Bailey, but the press 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.040 in the public considered him a quote scholarly looking man 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:37.600 and didn't really seem to care so much about his 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:41.839 credentials in his professional life. Many believed the promises he 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.559 made about his patent medicines regardless of his diploma, but 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.199 they should have cared, as his patent medicines could and 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:51.360 would literally eat holes in your bones and ravage your 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.040 body with cancer, and Bailey just kept the products rolling 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:58.560 off the line for years as his patients suffered. So 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:02.840 this one is a real villain story. Welcome to Criminalia. 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:07.720 I'm Marian tro Markin and I'm Holly Frye. William Bailey's 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:11.840 career was as a shady businessman, not a medical professional, 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:15.000 and between roughly nineteen oh six in the late nineteen thirties, 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:19.119 he launched a series of startup companies some of which 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:22.280 made him wealthy, but none of which managed to operate 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:26.400 for more than a few years. New discoveries of radioactive 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:31.120 elements created a patent medicine craze that Bailey capitalized on. 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:36.640 Products with lethal radioactive substances were sold with unproven promises 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:40.520 to cure everything from arthritis to impotence. It was said 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:45.640 they could help you regain your youth. Patent medicine wasn't 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:50.120 his first corporate venture. He didn't start in radioactive products. 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:54.080 But the first sleazy business endeavor that led him into 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:58.320 trouble was this. In nineteen twelve, Bailey was in the 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:04.520 automotive business sort of, and his company, the Carnegie Engineering Corporation, 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:07.840 claimed to be selling a newly designed automobile with the 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:12.919 price tag of approximately six hundred dollars. For perspective on that, 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:16.679 prices for Henry Ford's nineteen twelve Model T touring car 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:20.440 started at six hundred and ninety dollars. Bailey received some 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:24.480 fifteen hundred orders and presumably that many deposits too. It 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.040 was fifty dollars to get your name on the waiting list. 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:28.799 What got Bailey in. 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.320 Trouble with federal authorities wasn't his use of the name Carnegie, 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:36.040 though it waves like a giant red flag as the 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:39.920 American industrialist had nothing to do with this company, but 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:44.440 instead it was his inadequate production capacity. And they were right. 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:49.480 His factory was really just an abandoned sawmill that contained 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:52.480 nothing more than a single box of tools, and that 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:55.040 for sure is not how cars were built. In nineteen twelve, 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:58.880 as reported in the May eighth, nineteen fifteen edition of 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.120 The New York Times, Bailey was arrested for this. He 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:04.919 was found guilty and was fined and sentenced to thirty 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:05.680 days in prison. 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:09.919 At the time of his arrest, he was also president 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:14.280 and treasurer of another startup, the American Hardware and Machinery 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:18.440 Export Corporation, But after his release from prison, he set 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:23.160 out to conquer the world of patent medicines, specifically radioactive 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:26.720 patent medicines, which may have been inspired by physicist and 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:31.200 chemist Marie Currie's pioneering research on radiation and her visit 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:34.680 with United States President Harding in May of nineteen twenty one. 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:38.760 That is conjecture on our behalf, but her work does 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.200 line up with the radium trend and with Bailey's new 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:45.000 business plans, and we'll talk a little bit more about 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:46.440 her later in the episode. 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.360 So a few years earlier, a nineteen thirteen article in 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:54.440 the Lancet Medical Journal noted that radium water did seem 0:03:54.520 --> 0:04:00.400 to boost the libido of newts yes the Amphibian, though 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:03.680 there was no proof of that still. One of Bailey's 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:08.520 earliest patent medicine products was called Lasico for superb manhood, 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:12.280 an alleged cure from male impotence, which got him fined 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:15.080 in nineteen eighteen by a Chicago court for exploiting a 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:17.799 quote quack aphrodisiac. 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:23.000 By nineteen twenty two, Bailey had launched another new company 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:27.320 called Associated Radium Chemists, operating out of New York City. 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.880 Arium The company's signature product appears to first show up 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:35.599 in a newspaper advertisement from November of nineteen twenty two. 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.240 It was sold in a tin container, and that container 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:43.520 held forty two tablets of quote genuine radium, and it 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:47.159 costs only a dollar, which is roughly twenty dollars a 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:51.239 ten today. According to instructions on the label, one should 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.760 quote take two tablets with glass of water before or 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:59.279 after each meal to derive the most beneficial effects. Arium 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:04.400 should be taken regularly as directed. Arium was marketed as 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:09.279 an aphrodisiac, but associated radium. Chemists also produced other items, 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:14.320 including linarium, which was a liniment, ointarium which was an ointment, 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:19.800 dentarium which was a toothpaste cap, aarium, a hair tonic 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:24.360 dax for soothing coughs, and claques for treating influenza. 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.920 An advertorial in the Zanesville Signal on December second, nineteen 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:35.279 twenty six, claimed quote, recent investigation shows that the pep energy, endurance, 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.520 and nerve force of the average man past forty may 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:42.040 often be increased by one hundred percent by getting into 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:46.560 his system the marvelous restorative radium power of aarium. 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:51.279 Another advertisement for arium, printed in the Newark, Ohio Advocate 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:56.400 on February sixteenth, nineteen twenty three, stated quote, is rheumatism 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:01.560 dragging you into old age? How radium reduces it, inflammation, relieves pain, 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:05.000 and renews the energy and vigor of use. Ariam now 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:08.800 recommended by leading physicians as the new harmless way to 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:13.440 obtain radium for internal use. Five thousand dollars reward if 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:18.480 they fail, foreshadowing aside that five thousand dollars reward should 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:22.000 have gone to anyone who lived through trying arium to 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:28.120 cure anything. Consumers, though, loved this product. Of many positive 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:31.720 testimonials was this one from Reverend H. McKenna in nineteen 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:35.760 twenty five, who, after taking Ariam tablets, stated quote, I 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:40.400 feel like a kid. Bailey's patent medicine business was off 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:41.000 with a bang. 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:44.839 While Reverend McKenna may have felt like a kid again 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.760 when he took Ariam tablets, he didn't know he was 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:50.400 playing with poison. We're going to take a break for 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:52.839 a word from our sponsors, and when we return, we'll 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.320 talk about whether or not William Bailey's radium infused products 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:59.120 were or were not good for your health. 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:16.760 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about William Bailey's companies 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:21.240 and his two most popular products, the radiendocrenator device and 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:22.760 his Ratathor elixir. 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:29.160 Shortly after launching Associated radium Chemists, Bailey founded another company, 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:34.880 American Endocrine Laboratories, which occupied several different locations across New 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:38.000 York City between the early nineteen twenties and nineteen thirty, 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:42.400 when it closed its doors. Its flagship product was called 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:45.880 the radio Endocrinator, and it was according to company marketing 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:51.400 materials quote the last word in scientific manufacture. The product 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:54.040 was housed in a case called the adapter and was 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:57.960 intended to be worn against your skin. The radioactive source 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:01.280 inside the adapter consisted of seven then give or take, 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:05.200 radium soaked blotterlike pieces of paper, each one the size 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.760 of a credit card. Each was covered with a thin 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.360 piece of plastic and two gold wire screens. 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:16.480 Users were encouraged to wear it wherever and whenever, at home, 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:20.679 at work, it didn't matter. Promotional booklets and materials showed 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:25.440 both men and women wearing nothing but their radiendocrinator strapped 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:29.040 to their head, their neck, back, among other places on 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:33.360 the body. It's intended, and we should say alleged health 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:37.840 benefits came from irradiating the endocrine glands, which quote have 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:42.640 so masterful of control over life and bodily health. As 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:46.560 for one very cringe inducing example of its use, men 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:51.920 were advised as follows quote mail, place radiendocrenator in the 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:55.400 pocket of this adapter, with the window upward toward the 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:59.920 body where adapter, like any athletic, strap the cloth label 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.800 in the front. This puts the instrument under the scrotum 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:08.520 as it should be where at night Radi eight as directed. 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:13.080 This terrifying device sold for one hundred and fifty dollars, 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.680 which might seem very high, although it was initially priced 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:17.679 at one thousand. 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:24.840 Coincidentally, when American Endocrine Laboratories first opened, it occupied space 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.480 in the same building as Vitamin Corporation, which was owned 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:32.200 by doctor Hermann Ruben, who hawked a product called Maston's 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:38.040 Vitamin Health Tablets. Ruben's relationship with Bailey and American Endocrine 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:42.720 Laboratories is not completely clear, though it is clear there 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:47.320 was one. A nineteen twenty four newspaper advertorial featuring Bailey 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:51.240 included a photograph of Rubens standing next to a radiendocrinator. 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:53.720 It was egg shaped and about the size of a 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:57.400 football and mounted on a stand. Other articles would follow 0:09:57.440 --> 0:09:59.280 and included similar photos of the men. 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.320 The earliest reference to the radio indocrinator and to American 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:07.600 Endocrine Laboratories is in a booklet that came out in 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:12.240 nineteen twenty three. That same year, Rubin published two books, 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:17.120 each mentioning the device. One was Scientific Rejuvenation Without Operation 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.600 and the other was The New Science of Endochronology in 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:26.480 its relation to rejuvenation American Endocrine Laboratories marketed and distributed 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:30.559 them both, plus a third book titled Your Mysterious Glands, 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:34.160 How Your Glands Control Your mental and physical development and 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:37.120 Moral Welfare that was published a few years later. 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:42.600 Rubenaugh denied that he held any interest in Bailey's company, and 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.560 also denied he sold the radio indocrenator, but he did 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.839 admit he used the device on patients in his medical practice, 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:53.560 and admitted that when he prescribed it to patients, he 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:58.440 did so through a company called Raticent Endocrine Laboratories, and 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:03.280 he called the product the Rootcronator, and so yes, if 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:06.280 it looks like a duck and it wacks like a duck, 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.319 then it is probably a duck. The endocrinator was just 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:15.679 another name for the radi endocarnator, and Radison Endocrine Laboratories 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:21.080 was another name used by American Endocrine Laboratories. So technically 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:24.800 he didn't sell the radi endocrenator. But who did he 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:28.160 think he was fooling? A bit of a spoiler about 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:32.480 the guy. Because of Reuben's business interests in sketchy health 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:36.520 products and devices, he was expelled from the medical societies 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:38.360 of the State of New York and the County of 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:41.360 New York in March of nineteen twenty four, and in 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:45.400 nineteen twenty six, Ratison Endocrine Laboratories changed their name to 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.240 US Gamma Laboratories. Guys, we see you. 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:54.600 Some historians believe that Ruben and not Bailey, may have 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:58.920 actually been the one who invented the radiandocrenator, sometimes referred 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:02.800 to as the clinic type radi indocrenator. The problem with 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.400 this version of the instrument was that it couldn't be 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.120 mass produced and sold to the public because it was big. 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:10.640 Remember we mentioned a moment ago it was the size 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:14.160 of a football. So either Reuben or Bailey, and it 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:18.320 is not clear which created what became known as the standard, 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:22.240 smaller version of the device, described at the time as quoted, 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:25.720 the newest type of radiu indocrenator for home use is 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:29.040 a very small device and comes together with adapters for 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:30.320 attaching it to body. 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:36.280 Bailey left American Endocrine Laboratories probably in the mid nineteen 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:40.840 twenties ish when he began focusing on his newest patent 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:45.439 medicine called Ratathor the elixir would become his most famous 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:50.000 and infamous product. He manufactured it at the New Bailey 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:52.679 Radium Laboratories in East Orange, New Jersey. 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:56.880 Ratathor consisted of only a few ingredients, but they were 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:02.959 very potent ingredients. Give ingredients were radium, specifically the radium 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:06.319 two twenty six and two twenty eight isotopes, as well 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:11.800 as the radioactive element mesothorium. The rest just some otherwise 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:16.840 harmless distilled water. This was marketed as a cure for asthma, constipation, 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:21.240 low libido, diabetes, mental illness, and one hundred and forty 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:25.120 five other ailments, and it worked by quote exciting the 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:30.040 endocrine system into battling its afflictions, and one marketing campaign 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.840 offered one thousand dollars to anyone who tried it and 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:36.120 didn't think it was great. And no one ever claimed 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:37.080 that reward. 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:39.560 But they should have, because if they lived to tell 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:43.480 about it, it was a miracle. Today this product is 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:46.800 considered one of the very first quote unquote energy drinks, 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.719 but it's also one of the most well known examples 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:54.480 of radioactive quackery. But in the nineteen twenties, for thirty dollars, 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:58.560 you could, with no warning label in sight, purchase a 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.680 case of twenty four to two ounds bottles for perspective, 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:05.040 that's upwards of five hundred dollars a case in today's money. 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.679 Bailey had his hands in a lot of things, though 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:12.800 in nineteen twenty four. In nineteen twenty five, he was 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.800 also president of the Thorwn Company, located in New York City. 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:22.440 The company specialized in thorium pharmaceutical preparations and marketing materials. 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:27.080 Promised that they sold quote internal sunshine. That was their 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:32.200 euphemism for claiming they cured male impotence. Thorium is a 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:36.840 naturally occurring radioactive metal, and today it is a known carcinogen. 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.800 An example of one advertisement from nineteen twenty five featured 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:45.360 a muscular, confident and shirtless man and claimed quote amazing 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.080 earth power builds vigorous man power. 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:53.120 All his good fortune changed. In June of nineteen twenty six. 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:57.400 He may have been focused on ratathor, but federal authorities 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.880 were focused on well him. The United States Attorney for 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:04.840 the District of Maryland filed an order for the quote 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.840 seizure and condemnation of fifty six packages and one hundred 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:12.440 and thirty five boxes of arium tablets shipped from New 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:16.440 York by Associated radium chemists, stating that the company's claims 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:20.680 quote regarding the curative and therapeutic effects of said article 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:25.600 were false and fraudulent. The court case became known as 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:29.560 the United States versus fifty six packages of Arium tablets. 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:34.360 When the United States Department of Agriculture analyzed the seized arium, 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.120 they found that the tablets were actually composed of mainly 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:43.280 lithium carbonate, starch, and talc, and each contained eight point 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:46.800 five eight nanoquieries of radium. 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.560 Also in June of nineteen twenty six, the United States 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.600 attorneys for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the District 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:57.600 of Connecticut filed similar orders for the seizure and condemnation 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:02.640 of additional packages of areum tablets. These seized packages of 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.120 tablets shipped in February and July of nineteen twenty seven 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:11.120 from New York to Tacoma, Washington. A subsequent analysis showed 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:15.640 that arium's content had changed slightly. These tablets contained a 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:19.880 different amount of radium two point six nanacuries each, and 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:24.800 strychnine had been added to the ingredients. Bailey closed down 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:29.440 associated radium chemists and moved on. He played very fast 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:31.960 and loose with company and product names that by the 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:35.760 early nineteen thirties, he was running three different companies that 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:41.120 sold radioactive products to the public. Like Bailey Radium Laboratories, 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.080 These three new companies were all based in East Orange, 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:51.400 New Jersey, Adrenay Company, Bioay Company, and Thorinator Company. None 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:54.600 of the three survived very long, and although Bailey blamed 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:57.640 their failure on the effects of the Greek Depression, it 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:00.720 was really his ongoing trouble with federal authority that was 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:02.160 the cause of their demise. 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:07.280 It was a high profile radiation poisoning and subsequent death 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.880 from Ratathor consumption that led to measures that would end 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:15.520 Bailey's radium rain and strengthen the Food and Drug Administration's 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:19.520 powers and oversight. Because the FDA was still very new, 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:23.160 it was still quite weak, and the investigation into Ratithor 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.680 and William Bailey was handed over to the Federal Trade Commission, 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:29.880 a group that had more power. This was a nail 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:33.160 in the coffin for bunk radioactive so called cures. 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:38.399 Here's the thing about radium. It was discovered by Marie 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:40.879 and per Curie in eighteen ninety eight, and it is 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:45.360 a naturally occurring silvery white radioactive metal that's formed when 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:50.520 uranium and thorium, which are two other natural radioactive substances, 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:55.240 decay in the environment. Radium glows blue green in the dark, 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.080 and it gives off light for years without any apparent 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:03.160 power source. Because of its chemical similarity to calcium, radium 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.640 behaves chemically like calcium. When it's in the human body. 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:10.760 That's bad because it replaces the calcium in your bones. 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:15.080 It is known as a quote bone seeker. Rather than 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:18.520 passing through the body, it leaves behind radium deposits, and 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:22.680 those deposits destroy blood cells, bone marrow, and other tissue. 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.160 Depending on your level of exposure, it can cause everything 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:31.679 from anemia, hair loss, cataracts, broken or loose teeth, impairment 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:35.080 of the body's functioning of tissues and its organs, and 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:40.040 an overwhelming increased risk of cancer. Radium can be lethal. 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.680 In fact, Marie Currey highlighted that the effects of radiation 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.200 on the human body were not well understood at the time, 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:50.399 and she never condoned its use in things that people 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:54.119 might eat or drink. In nineteen thirty four, she died 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:58.199 of aplastic anemia caused by radiation poisoning. Because of her 0:18:58.240 --> 0:18:59.560 groundbreaking work. 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.679 When Ratathor hit the market, it was already known that 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:07.960 radium was dangerous, although it's unclear whether the public understood 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:12.159 that it could be lethal. In nineteen thirteen, five years 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:17.000 before Bailey sold his Lassico for superb Manhood product, British 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:20.919 scientist Walter Lazarus Barlow published a study correctly noting that 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:25.520 ingested radium accumulates in the bones, and in nineteen fourteen, 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:30.119 Professor Ernst Zublin, a medical professor at the University of Maryland, 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:32.560 warned of its dangers to the body in a published 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:36.440 review of seven hundred medical reports, many of which showed 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:39.960 that bone necrosis and ulcerations were a frequent side effect 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:44.720 from ingesting radium. Despite their work, Ratithor sales remained strong 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:47.639 through the nineteen twenties. According to a two thousand and 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:50.960 seven report published in the Journal of Radiologic Protection, we 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.119 now know that when radium is taken internally, the poisoning 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:56.320 can be fatal within one month. 0:19:57.800 --> 0:19:59.440 We're going to take a break here for a word 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:02.400 from our Sponenzers, and when we're back we will talk 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.639 about a man named Eben Byers who died a horrific 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:09.959 and tragic death because of his continued consumption of radium 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:10.800 infused water. 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:28.040 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's meet Evan Byers, a popular 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:31.600 industrialist slash playboy of the nineteen twenties. 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:37.280 Eben Byers died from his consumption of Ratathor. He was 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:41.840 a Pittsburgh industrialist. He was suave, He was popular. He 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:44.960 was also an amateur golfer with promise. He won the 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:48.919 US Amateur Golf Championship in nineteen oh six. It was 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:52.520 in nineteen twenty seven, after an arm injury just wouldn't 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:56.119 heal properly and was spoiling his golf game, that his 0:20:56.240 --> 0:21:01.320 physician suggested that he tried Bailey's Ratithor. Doctor Moyer, who 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:05.320 prescribed the drink for buyers, insisted to federal authorities when 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:09.280 later questioned that it was not harmful, stating quote, I 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:12.400 never had a death among my patients for radium treatment. 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:15.439 I have taken as much or more radium water of 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:18.439 the same kind mister Byers took, and I am fifty 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:22.560 one years old, active and healthy. I believe that radium 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:25.679 water has a definite place in the treatment of certain diseases, 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:28.719 and I prescribe when I deem it necessary. 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:33.520 Byers was a well known guy, and his illness and 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:38.000 death caused an inquiry into radioactive patent medicines like Ratithor. 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:42.320 Federal authorities had some suspicions about the safety of the 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:46.520 product before Buyer's death, and Federal Trade Commission lawyer Robert 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:51.240 Heiner Wynn had been dispatched to interview him. Of that interview, 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:55.720 which took place shortly before Buyers died, when described him 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.520 as quote young in years and mentally alert, He could 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:04.440 hardly speak. His head was swathened bandages. He had undergone 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:08.000 two successive operations in which his whole upper jaw, excepting 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:11.000 two front teeth, and most of his lower jaw, had 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:14.800 been removed. All the remaining bone tissue of his body 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:20.280 was slowly disintegrating and holes were actually forming in his skull. 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:25.480 Timothy J. Jorgensen, a professor in the Department of Radiation 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:29.959 Medicine at Georgetown University, stated about Buyers in an article 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:34.400 for The Conversation that quote, although the product contained no narcotics, 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:39.119 he became at least psychologically, if not physiologically, addicted to it. 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:43.760 He continued to consume large amounts of Ratathor even after 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:48.400 his arm had healed In fact, Buyers was so pro 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:52.280 ratathor that he gifted cases of it to friends. He 0:22:52.359 --> 0:22:54.800 was a huge fan, and he even had it given 0:22:54.960 --> 0:22:58.680 to his race horses. But then things took a turn 0:22:58.720 --> 0:23:02.000 for the worse. By lost a considerable amount of weight 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:05.720 and began having headaches, and then began to suffer bone 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:09.199 necrosis in his jaw, which caused him to lose several teeth. 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:13.640 Radium jaw was a real thing. The condition caused dental pain, 0:23:13.800 --> 0:23:17.480 loose teeth, lesions, and ulcers, and the failure of tooth 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:22.280 extractions to heal. A Wall Street Journal headlined bluntly stated 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:26.400 quote the radium water worked fine until his jaw came off. 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:30.720 All the radium that Buyers had consumed had accumulated in 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:33.800 his bones and caused his death in March of nineteen 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:38.760 thirty two. He was fifty one. 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:40.600 When Evan Byers died from using the product. His physician, 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:45.120 doctor Mayer, claimed he quote knew that his patient had 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:48.600 really died from quote a combination of blood diseases which 0:23:48.640 --> 0:23:53.040 had induced gout. And autopsy, though did not agree with 0:23:53.080 --> 0:23:57.400 Moyer's conclusion. It was discovered that Buyers had an abscess 0:23:57.520 --> 0:24:00.480 on his brain. All but six of his teeth had 0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:03.119 fallen out, and his body contained more than three and 0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:07.359 a half times the lethal amount of radium. When he died. 0:24:07.440 --> 0:24:10.760 He was buried in a lead lined coffin. Normally, that's 0:24:10.800 --> 0:24:13.240 to help keep out moisture and preserve the body for 0:24:13.359 --> 0:24:17.840 longer and prevent odors and toxins from escaping. In this case, 0:24:17.880 --> 0:24:21.520 it was specifically to block the radiation being released from 0:24:21.560 --> 0:24:24.720 the bones in his body. Radium has a half life 0:24:24.760 --> 0:24:28.879 of sixteen hundred years, so Buyer's bones have virtually the 0:24:28.920 --> 0:24:30.880 same amount of radium in them now as they did 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:31.720 the day he died. 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:37.480 Bailey absolved himself in Buyer's death by stating he only 0:24:37.520 --> 0:24:43.040 provided ratathor to patients on a doctor's prescription. One such practitioner, 0:24:43.119 --> 0:24:47.000 doctor CG. Davis, was very pro radium and had written 0:24:47.240 --> 0:24:50.960 glowing things no pun intended about it in the American 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:56.480 Journal of Clinical Medicine, including that quote radioactivity prevents insanity, 0:24:56.840 --> 0:25:02.400 rouses noble emotions, retards old age, and creates a splendid, youthful, 0:25:02.480 --> 0:25:07.120 joyous life. At least six other physicians, according to Federal 0:25:07.119 --> 0:25:12.200 Trade Commission's investigation Information, prescribed ratithor and stated that none 0:25:12.240 --> 0:25:13.600 of their patients had died. 0:25:14.680 --> 0:25:17.920 Radium infused drinks were removed from the market in December 0:25:18.000 --> 0:25:21.080 of nineteen thirty one, just three months before buyer's death 0:25:21.160 --> 0:25:25.280 from them. Ultimately, in the interest of protecting public health, 0:25:25.359 --> 0:25:29.520 the FTC closed down the Bailey Radium laboratories, but after 0:25:29.520 --> 0:25:33.879 the federal investigation, Bailey carried on. In nineteen thirty seven, 0:25:33.920 --> 0:25:36.639 he became a partner in lee Caalpadine Company of New 0:25:36.720 --> 0:25:41.240 York City. Their sole product consisted of calpidine tablets made 0:25:41.280 --> 0:25:45.760 of compressed pelletized seaweed. That's right, there was nothing radioactive 0:25:45.760 --> 0:25:50.480 about this one. Marketing claims, though, were totally sketched, and 0:25:50.640 --> 0:25:54.320 promised that the tablets could treat thirty two specific diseases. 0:25:54.880 --> 0:25:58.160 And because of those outrageous promises that couldn't be backed up, 0:25:58.320 --> 0:26:00.520 he ran up against the FDA's mission and to crack 0:26:00.560 --> 0:26:04.840 down on such false claims. This was likely the final 0:26:04.920 --> 0:26:07.240 patent medicine Bailey marketed to the public. 0:26:08.040 --> 0:26:11.359 In the end, Bailey died a wealthy man, suffering no 0:26:11.520 --> 0:26:14.720 consequence from the deadly effects of his snake oil products, 0:26:14.960 --> 0:26:19.399 while no serious or significant legal consequence. That is, he 0:26:19.480 --> 0:26:22.439 once said of his ratithor and its safety. Quote, I 0:26:22.520 --> 0:26:25.439 have drunk more radium water than any man alive, and 0:26:25.600 --> 0:26:30.640 I have never suffered any ill effects. But that too, 0:26:31.000 --> 0:26:34.080 was not the truth. He died in May of nineteen 0:26:34.160 --> 0:26:37.600 forty nine at the age of sixty four of bladder cancer. 0:26:38.440 --> 0:26:42.080 Twenty years later, when his body was exhumed and tested 0:26:42.080 --> 0:26:46.440 for radioactive isotopes, Geiger counters found his body had been 0:26:46.520 --> 0:26:51.320 quote ravaged by radiation, and because of that half life, 0:26:51.400 --> 0:26:52.359