In 1918 in Milford, Kansas, John R. Brinkley, a fake doctor with no properly accredited medical education, opened a 16-room clinic where he promoted goat glands as a cure for over 20 ailments. The scam continued to go unnoticed due to patients being too embarrassed to talk about what happened in the operating room, until a few brave individuals stepped forward to tell their stories. In today's episode we learn more about Dr. Brinkley's unnecessary treatments and how his fraudulent diploma led to over 40 deaths and countless injuries.



"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from the Obsessed Network exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.



Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod



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S3 Ep24: Inside Dr. Brinkley’s Operating Room: A Deadly Pursuit of Virility

Crime is so commonplace that it takes something particularly shocking to be labelled the “crime of the century.” Even so, there are a lot of cases that have earned the distinction. In each episode of Crimes of the Centuries, award-winning journalist Amber Hunt will examine a case that’s lesser known today but was huge when it happened. The cases explored span the centuries and each left a mark. Some made history by changing laws. Others were so shocking they changed society.

History

Society & Culture

True crime

In the 1960s, after losing all 10 of the babies they'd conceived, Marie Noe and her husband, Arthur, became the most famous bereaved parents in America, with most of the deaths attributed to "crib death," later called Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). After a journalist revisited the case in 1998, investigators took another look at the mysterious series of deaths, prompting Marie Noe to share a horrifying secret that had been weighing on her for more than 30 years.



"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history



DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK!  Order today at www.centuriespod.com/book (https://www.centuriespod.com/book)!



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S4 Ep11: Marie Noe and Her Cradle of Death

On September 6, 1949, 28-year-old World War II veteran Howard Unruh ate the breakfast his mother made him, then armed himself with a Luger pistol and walked calmly through his Camden, New Jersey, neighborhood, shooting everyone in sight. He told police afterward he'd had a kill list of specific people he'd felt had wronged him, but by the end of his 12-minute rampage, 13 would be fatally wounded, three of them innocent children.



"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history



DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK!  Order today at www.centuriespod.com/book (https://www.centuriespod.com/book)!



Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod



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S4 Ep10: The Walk of Death: Howard Unruh

While the grift he deployed had been named for another man, Bernie Madoff took the concept of a Ponzi scheme and pumped it full of steroids, allowing it to keep him -- and plenty of others -- filthy rich for literally decades. In the end, Madoff bilked some $65 billion from thousands of clients, all while maintaining such a sheen of respectability that he was charged with helping write the very rules he himself eschewed.



"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history



DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK!  Order today at www.centuriespod.com/book (https://www.centuriespod.com/book)!



Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

S4 Ep9: The Monster of Wall Street

Italian-born Charles Ponzi had grown up hearing from his mother that he was destined for greatness, so it was no surprise to her when she visited him in America to find him wealthy beyond her wildest dreams. Ponzi had come up with a get-rich-quick scheme that he insisted was legal. To his credit, it took federal authorities a good seven months to figure out how it wasn't. In this episode, meet the man whose name would go down in history to be synonymous with "grifter."

 

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history



DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK!  Order today at www.centuriespod.com/book (https://www.centuriespod.com/book)!



Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod



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S4 Ep8: Charles Ponzi's Scheme

In the midst of nationwide bombings that pit union backers against anti-union bosses, an explosion at the Los Angeles Times building crossed a line that changed everything. At 1:07 a.m. on Oct. 1, 1910, a blast tore through the Times building, killing 21 people. Times officials immediately blamed organized labor, which ultimately bore out: Not only were three union-affiliated co-conspirators convicted soon after the bombing, but nearly 40 other union officials would eventually be convicted on charges related to that and other bombings that had been plaguing the country.



"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history



DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK!  Order today at www.centuriespod.com/book (https://www.centuriespod.com/book)!



Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod



Episode sponsor:



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S3 Ep24: Inside Dr. Brinkley’s Operating Room: A Deadly Pursuit of Virility

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