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| Dick Estell The Radio Reader Public Radio's Reading Program |
| (non-fiction) |
| Airs July 14 thru August 11, 2008 |
In 1917, John R. Brinkley---America’s most brazen young con man---set up a
medical practice and introduced an outlandish surgical method using goat glands
to restore the fading virility of local farmers. It was all nonsense, of course, but
thousands of paying customers quickly turned “Dr.” Brinkley into America’s
richest and most famous surgeon.
Thumbing his nose at American regulators, he built the world’s most powerful
radio transmitter just across the Rio Grande to offer sundry cures, and killed or
maimed patients by the score. Brinkley became the most creative criminal this
country has ever produced.
Charlatan is a marvelous portrait of a boundlessly audacious rogue on the loose
in an America that was ripe for bamboozling.
medical practice and introduced an outlandish surgical method using goat glands
to restore the fading virility of local farmers. It was all nonsense, of course, but
thousands of paying customers quickly turned “Dr.” Brinkley into America’s
richest and most famous surgeon.
Thumbing his nose at American regulators, he built the world’s most powerful
radio transmitter just across the Rio Grande to offer sundry cures, and killed or
maimed patients by the score. Brinkley became the most creative criminal this
country has ever produced.
Charlatan is a marvelous portrait of a boundlessly audacious rogue on the loose
in an America that was ripe for bamboozling.
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