Pod Insights Stuff You Missed in History Class E. Virgil Neal: Hypnotist, Fraudster, Tycoon - Part 1 About this episode E. Virgil Neal’s career started out with writing successful textbooks, but then took a turn into being a stage hypnotist and then a series of dicey mail-order businesses.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:06 Holly Frey? We've all tumbled down an internet rabbit hole trying to self-diagnose, and it leaves us more anxious than informed. Our feeds are full of wellness trends, but how do we know what's real, what's exaggerated, and what's just wrong? Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association breaks it all down. Emmy-nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez talks to doctors, influencers, and real people trying these trends, not to cancel them, but to understand them. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. So listen to Health vs. Hype wherever you get your podcasts.
1:38 Tracy V. Wilson? The Old Gaze are back with Silver Linings, their lovable podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with ViiV Healthcare. Robert, Mick, Bill, and Jessa strut back down memory lane for season two, sharing lessons on life, love, and loss. These are the kind of insights that only come from experience. So tune into Silver Linings with The Old Gaze on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
2:06 Holly Frey? Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeart Radio.
2:17 Holly Frey? Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frey.
2:19 Tracy V. Wilson? And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
2:22 Holly Frey? We mentioned today's subject in our recent episode on Emile Koue. And at the time, I said he was on my shortlist because he was fascinating. And who, that's the truth. E. Virgil Neal's life was such a wild ride that it sounds fictional. I was trying to describe it to a friend of mine last night while we were talking. And he was like, wait, is this all the same guy? And I was like, yeah.
2:46 Holly Frey? His career had this seemingly bright start as a writer of accounting and banking textbooks that were very well regarded and used for decades because of how good they were. And then his life took some very wild turns into hypnotism, patent medicine, and fraud, as well as an odd success. He is not a rags to riches story. He is a swindler and flim flam man to riches story. Although he was plagued with accusations of all kinds of crimes throughout his life, including collaborating with an enemy during wartime. So we're going to tackle E. Virgil Neal today and next episode, because there's a lot to get through.
3:31 Tracy V. Wilson? It is a lot. We'll start with how Ewing Virgil Neal was born in Georgetown, Missouri, to Armistead Arthur and Ellen Neal. That was in September of 1868. His birthplace is frequently listed as Sedalia, Missouri. Georgetown is a smaller municipality that's just a few miles north of Sedalia. While Neal would later in his life, claim that he had been born into a poor farming family. His father was actually a school teacher. They did own farmland, but that was not really the source of their income.
4:07 Holly Frey? Yeah, his dad was a really well-respected teacher. While Neal's earliest years aren't particularly well documented, which isn't that odd for somebody in his place in life. He did, we know, enter a two-year business school program at Central Business College in Sedalia at the age of 20. He went this route instead of attending a traditional university. Even before he graduated from the school, which happened in 1889, he was already working there, teaching courses like penmanship and mental arithmetic, basically how to do sums and ledgers in your head. Biographer Mary Schaefer Conroy theorized in her biography about Neil that this arrangement
4:48 Holly Frey? may have been a deal that the school made with him to make paying for his courses more viable. After he graduated, he continued to work at the business school. Neil would later claim that he devised an arithmetic program that was taught to students so that they could quickly make calculations in their heads. The school did tout a program like that in their marketing materials over the years, but whether or not he was the originator of it is not substantiated one way or the other.
5:19 Tracy V. Wilson? From Sedalia, Neil moved on to Philadelphia. He claimed to have worked at the Pierce College of Business in Pennsylvania briefly. There's not substantiation for that either. Next, he moved on to Rochester, New York, and he worked at a textbook company there. And as part of his assignments, he wrote the book, Modern Banking and Bank Accounting. His company sold the rights to the book to the American Book Company, and Neil is said to have made a significant amount of money in that deal. American Book Company published the material as two separate books, Modern Illustrative Banking and Modern Illustrative Bookkeeping. He earned royalties on those two titles for the rest of his life.
6:04 Holly Frey? And these books are really quite practical. They represent a shift in the way that such concepts were taught to offer students a model of real business practices to work through so that they could understand the real world applications of their business education. Modern Illustrative Banking walks readers through the process of running a bank. Per its opening pages, the book, quote, "is designed to reproduce as nearly as possible the practical workings of a national bank." This came with sample documents and transactions, quote, "to cover in abbreviated form two days' business of the First National Bank, Rochester, New York. During the first day, all of the business forms of the bank are handled by the student.
6:48 Holly Frey? But during the second day, the business forms are dispensed with, and only the entries for the various transactions are recorded, historical data for them being furnished in the text." Just for the purposes of explaining my understanding, this isn't a course that you would take in two days. It just is broken out as though it is covering two days' worth of business.
7:12 Holly Frey? FYI, it breaks down what duties are done by various positions at the bank. And then at the end of these two days' worth of sample business, quote, "dividends are declared, statements made, and the books closed."
7:26 Tracy V. Wilson? Modern illustrative bookkeeping opens with the promise that it offers readers a new, practical approach to the topic instead of the ways that bookkeeping has been taught up to that point. Quote, "This book is designed to teach bookkeeping as it is practiced by the best business houses. We have no apology to offer for the innovations in methods or the deviation from the school forms of balance sheets, statements, loss and gain accounts, et cetera. We believe the time has arrived when all progressive teachers will welcome practical business methods, even though they supplant long cherished school forms and practices." The book is pretty solid in its information.
8:11 Tracy V. Wilson? It basically lays out a two-book system. One, the journal daybook to record transactions as they take place. And then the other, the ledger into which those transactions are recorded as sorted into the accounts. The whole thing emphasizes checking and rechecking your arithmetic to make sure your books are accurate.
8:30 Holly Frey? Next, after his success in these books, Neal decided that he would actually like to have his own publishing house. And he set one up in Rochester, New York. This was a case where he didn't look for writers to create new works, nor did he write anything himself during this time. But he sure did publish a lot. He looked for material that was out of copyright and particularly poetry, and he just republished that. With no author to pay, his publishing company, which was pretty much just him, kept all of the money from sales.
9:03 Tracy V. Wilson? On June 15th, 1893, as publishing success was making him a nice amount of money, Neal married a young woman named Molly Hurd. He was also developing a growing interest in hypnotism during this time, and he started studying it in earnest by the mid 1890s. Some accounts say that he became interested in this after seeing a stage hypnotist. That's not really something that can be verified, but there really would have been plenty of opportunities for him to have been exposed to this concept at the end of the 19th century in the US. We've talked about this recently on the show. This was a period when mysticism of any kind was becoming very popular.
9:46 Tracy V. Wilson? And it turned out that after learning the tricks of the trade, he was pretty good at hypnotizing people. It was also during this time that a name we mentioned in our Emile Kue episode emerged, and that was Ex Lamott Sage. Sage was a stage name that Neal assumed to advertise himself as an expert hypnotist near toward the United States on bookings as Xenophon Lamott Sage, assisted by Olga Helen Sage, who was, of course, his wife Molly. The two of them were frequently booked in various vaudeville theaters. And it turned out that Ex Lamott Sage was pretty good at bringing in the ticket sales.
10:26 Tracy V. Wilson? Hypnotist paid better than any position that business school had ever prepared Neal for.
10:33 Holly Frey? And seeing that the demand for hypnotism material was high, Neal leaned back into his publishing experience and wrote a correspondence course under that name called The Philosophy of Personal Influence. He also wrote a book called Hypnotist as It Is: A Book for Everybody, which we talked about quite a bit in the Kue episode. These works were published at Neal's latest company. He started so many, the New York Institute of Science. And the works of Ex Lamott Sage were wildly popular. An account of Neal's life that was written in the 1930s estimated that the New York Institute of Science made $1.5 million from sales of books and hypnotism courses,
11:17 Holly Frey? all of which were shipped directly to customers' homes. That business model of direct sales eventually got the company and Neal into a lot of trouble. The U.S. Postal Service went after them for mail fraud, because, among other things, he was teaching palmistry, and the company had to shutter.
11:37 Tracy V. Wilson? Coming up, we'll talk about a strange business arrangement that E. Virgil Neal established in the early 1900s. But first, we'll pause for a sponsor break.
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14:40 Speaker 07 based on real feedback, is made with 100% white meat chicken and is now better than ever. You gotta try the new Burger King Chicken Nuggets and sauces today.
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15:27 Holly Frey? Starting in 1903, the E. Virgil Neil and Company Banking Firm and the Columbia Scientific Academy, where Neil was a board member, kind of set up the whole thing, were both operating out of the same offices at 1931 Broadway. That was in the area west of Central Park, where the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts now sits. And that combination of businesses seemed like an odd arrangement to members of the press. The New York Sun, on March 3, 1903, ran a piece titled, "Here's a Hypnotic Bank: Psycho-Telepathy and a Loan Shop in One Office."
16:05 Tracy V. Wilson? That article describes how a British journalist had been investigating the Columbia Scientific Academy and had come away declaring it to be part of, quote, "the American magnetic and psychic force swindle."
16:20 Tracy V. Wilson? When this journalist had tried to cancel an order from the academy and have his name removed from all future distribution lists, he got a letter signed by R.F. Robertson, Psych DCD, which read in part, quote, "When I got your letter, I was attracted by your handwriting. Like the educated eye of an artist who sees in a rough piece of marble an angel, my eye caught in your handwriting at a glance a whole life pictured vividly before me. There was so much history in your handwriting, so much undeveloped power and latent energy and talent that I could not destroy the letter without writing and extending
17:03 Tracy V. Wilson? my previous offer." The letter continues to talk about the journalist's handwriting, calling it, quote, "one of the strongest I have ever seen," and accusing the journalist of having, quote, "neglected the development of those God-given faculties, however, that lied dormant in every individual until brought to light and cultivated." The letter even claims that a special meeting of the Board of the Columbia Scientific Academy was called to discuss this promising handwriting and make its writer a special offer on one of their courses.
17:41 Holly Frey? So when a reporter from the New York Sun read about all of this in the British periodical Truth, he decided to go to the academy offices and see exactly what was going on. When he got there, he asked for Mr. Robertson and was presented with someone by that name. And when he started asking questions about that letter that had been republished in Truth, he suddenly got passed off to E. Virgil Neal. And Neal was surprisingly frank in some of his answers to the questions this journalist posed, which he later almost certainly probably wished he had not been. He was asked about the claim that the Board of Directors had met to discuss this amazing handwriting on a canceled order.
18:26 Holly Frey? Neal told the reporter that was actually, quote, "a form of advertising," you know? When he was questioned about who Robertson was and what the credential psych D C D meant, he was told that Robertson was a banker who got a doctor of psychology from Iowa College, which accounted for the first D, and that the C D that followed stood for character delineator, a degree that Neil claimed Robertson got from the American College of Sciences in Philadelphia. Neil did not elaborate on what that degree would actually involve. My research of that phrase only connects it to data set sequences in computer science should not have existed
19:06 Holly Frey? in 1903. So it seems to have been, you know, kind of one of those, it will sound good and no one will know how to even question me about it kind of phrases. The Columbia Scientific Academy, which former banker Robertson was president of, offered correspondence courses in the art of what it called Kai Magi, or Kai Magi, I don't know, which encompassed a variety of skills, including character reading. When the reporter asked about the bank located at the same address, Neil's initial response was, quote, "How did you know about the bank?"
19:44 Holly Frey? Maybe not media savvy yet at that stage of his career.
19:49 Holly Frey? Then he told the reporter that it was a private bank, not a public bank, and that as such, it did not have to adhere to national laws, only to state laws, and that those were, quote, "a little more lax." He also explained that because the bank's customers were mostly people and institutions who wanted short-term loans that only made about $5,000 a year. The masterful part of the way this article was written is the way that the reporter kind of connects the dots between these two seemingly oddly paired businesses operating out of the same offices without ever like saying, hey, this is obviously.
20:30 Holly Frey? Wacky and fraudulent. It states at one point, quote, "To show how nicely the Kai Maggi end of the Columbia Scientific Academy dovetails with the banking end and how harmoniously finance and the occult might be blended, the literatur of the institution has just let himself loose in one of the pamphlets." Here's what it says, "If you have not the money, it will pay you to borrow the money. If you invest in our course of instruction and master our course and follow its teachings, it is probably the last dollar you will ever find it necessary to borrow as long as you live." So, the article doesn't state whether there is any kind of direction or suggestion for
21:13 Holly Frey? the reader of such advertisement to borrow from the E. Virgil Neal and Company Bank. But even if it didn't, a bank that specialized in short-term loans, also housing a business with dubious claims that encourages people to take out such loans, it's pretty dicey at best. But though the copy definitely leads the reader to consider that problem, as I said before, the write-up in the Sun is very careful not to explicitly state that these two businesses are connected.
21:44 Tracy V. Wilson? The next day, the New York Sun ran an article with the headline, "Worried About Neal and Company: Depositors You See Don't Like Hypnotist in Banking." And in this article, the paper shared a phone call that Neal had made to the paper in which he blamed the paper for causing him problems. He stated on the phone, quote, "That article printed in this morning's Sun about the bank has caused the bank some annoyance. Some of our depositors have been around this morning to find out what it all meant. They were uneasy, you see, about the money they had on deposit with us and were inclined at first to withdraw their accounts. I told them it was all a mistake about the bank and that I'd like to have the Sun do something about it."
22:31 Tracy V. Wilson? When contacted for more information on what he wanted the paper to do, Neal said that, quote, "It was wrong to mix up the bank with the academy. There's no connection between the two." He was adamant that Robertson wasn't involved in the bank at all and that the academy didn't teach hypnotism, but only included literature about hypnotism as an extra with its regular courses. He went on to say that he had a report made by Commercial Credit Reporting Agency RG Dunn and Company that indicated that the banking concern was sound and above board. When The Sun contacted the State Superintendent of Banks, Frederick D. Kilburn, he said
23:15 Tracy V. Wilson? that the State Bank Department had, quote, "No jurisdiction over such concerns as the banking house of E. Virgil Neal and Company. So far as any legal supervision of such concerns goes, there is none. They can run their business like a grocery store." So even though Neal admitted to the reporter that the company lied to people as a form of advertising, and even though there was an obvious shady connection between these two business entities, there were just never any real repercussions for this, aside from some of the bank's customers getting worried and maybe closing their accounts.
23:52 Holly Frey? Columbia Scientific Academy and many other shady businesses continued for Neal, and we'll talk more about that after we hear from the sponsors that keep stuff you missed in history class going.
24:06 Speaker 07 Okay, chicken nugget fans, I've got huge news. The new Burger King Chicken Nuggets just dropped, and they are the crispiest, the juiciest, and the tastiest chicken nuggets ever at Burger King. Burger King heard that a lot of you didn't like the old chicken nuggets, so they got to work and reinvented them. To go along with the new chicken nuggets, a lot of the sauces were reinvented too, because better chicken nuggets deserve better sauces. We're talking new buffalo sauce, honey mustard, sweet and sour, and even a whole new option, too, the new special savory sauce, which is only available for a limited time at participating U.S. restaurants. I mean, you need to taste it all for yourself.
24:49 Speaker 07 This new chicken nugget, reinvented based on real feedback, is made with 100% white meat chicken and is now better than ever. You gotta try the new Burger King Chicken Nuggets and Sauces today.
25:03 Speaker 06 Livrite, publishers of John U. Bacon's New York Times bestseller, The Gales of November, a chronicle of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald's 1975 shipwreck. Never has it been told better than by Mr. Bacon in this colorful book, writes John J. Miller of The Wall Street Journal, while author Hampton Sides proclaims that it's destined to be a classic. The Gales of November, now in paperback.
25:32 Holly Frey? We've all done it, tumble down an internet rabbit hole trying to self-diagnose. And sometimes doing our own research can leave us more anxious than informed. Your feed is packed with wellness trends telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy-nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel, and YouTube, talks to doctors, influencers, and real people trying these trends. Not to cancel them, not to hype them more, but
26:17 Holly Frey? to actually understand them. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Start asking better questions and listen to Health vs. Hype on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
26:35 Tracy V. Wilson? Guess who's back in the house? The old gays return for season two of Silver Linings, their hit podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with ViiV Healthcare. Just wait until you hear what hosts Robert McMillan and Jesay have in store this time around. They strut back down memory lane navigating life, love, loss, and everything that shaped them along the way. And as usual, someone just might break into song. From leather bars to bathhouses, dance floors to drag brunch, nothing stays off limits. These are the kinds of insights that can only come from experience. So, listen to your elders, honey, and discover the silver linings you can take with you. All sass, zero filter, and decades of perspective from four friends
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27:40 Holly Frey? Following newspaper mentions of Neal and the Columbia Scientific Academy in the first years of the 20th century offers a wild breadcrumb trail of shady dealings. Just four days after Neal's interaction with the sun, advertisements for the Columbia Scientific Academy seem to explode in number in papers across the country. And the copy is so obviously deceitful. One that appeared in the San Francisco Examiner is designed to look like a regular article, and it's titled "Personal Magnetism." Its subheaders tout how this is something that prominent men use to gain influence, and how a reporter stumbled across secret methods to, quote, "charm and fascinate the human mind."
28:25 Holly Frey? And it also notes that this information came from "high priests of the occult who had kept the secrets for years." That ad, which, again, was disguised as an article, says that, quote, "One of the leading colleges of the city of New York had spent $5,000 having 10,000 copies of a book titled 'The Secret of Power' printed in accordance with the author's wishes to be given away for free."
28:53 Tracy V. Wilson? If you sent your name and address to the Columbia Scientific Academy, the write-up said, you could get your free copy in the mail. And in it, you could, quote, "develop a wonderfully magnetic personality and learn how to read the character's secrets and loves of others in a few days' study." That study would be done at home. And then you could use your new knowledge to get, quote, "lucrative employment" or "an advance on your salary," or you could just gain friendship and influence, all without anybody being any the wiser about you being in control of their behavior. There are several testimonials from alleged satisfied customers included in this ad.
29:36 Tracy V. Wilson? They included all the hallmarks of like, modern infomercial sales. One from a man named Fred Perkins reads, quote, "I have been in great demand since I read the work of the Columbia Scientific Academy. People are amazed and mystified at the things I do. I believe I could make $25 per day reading character alone if I were to charge for my services. If anyone would have told me, I would receive so much wonderful information, I would have thought him crazy."
30:07 Tracy V. Wilson? The ad then closes by asking that only people who are really interested in this information request a copy, since there is a limited supply of them. This free giveaway, of course, was a way for the academy to build up its mailing list and then start sending these interested people literature about their courses to lure them into spending their money, just the way that British journalist was told his handwriting was fascinating and evidenced a person with incredible untapped power.
30:38 Holly Frey? We can help you unleash that power if you just send us some cash. There is another interesting exchange in that initial write-up in The Sun from March 4th. The report that Neil produced to show that the banking firm was above board also mentioned his involvement in another business, National Protective Association of the United States. When questioned about that one, Neil said that it was an insurance company and that he was no longer connected with it. It was still operating at the time the reporter spoke with E. Virgil Neal, and it was headquartered in the very same building as the banking house of E. Virgil Neal and Company and the Columbia Scientific Academy, though Neal acted nonchalant in this
31:23 Holly Frey? exchange between him and the reporter and kind of like he had forgotten that company was under the same roof. It's a weird detail. This isn't necessarily like a breadcrumb to connect the dots, but it offers up another piece of evidence that he seemed to be constantly on the move from career to career, starting up sort of a shell game of businesses, always looking for the next way to make a buck, often by trading on the hopes of naivete or of his potential customers. He had been dodging negative attention just enough to stay out of trouble, but his next venture found itself in the spotlight and a huge scandal broke that implicated a lot of people, many of them very well respected.
32:08 Tracy V. Wilson? While Neal faced a number of legal problems all through his life because of his business dealings, he was also sued for more personal reasons. In 1904, he was sued by a man named John Showerman for using his influence to cause Mrs. Showerman to abandon her husband. It's unclear how or if that legal action was resolved, but it is evidence that E. Virgil Neal was kind of perpetually in hot water.
32:39 Holly Frey? Yeah, and reading sort of the longish biography that exists about him, I couldn't even include all the ones. There's like, oh, and then he got sued for swindling a widow out of her money, like on a kind of more one-to-one swindle basis rather than setting up a whole company. There were a lot of instances like that. Apparently also a bit of a womanizer, so that caused him some problems. But undaunted by all of the legal attention he frequently got, Neal started other questionable businesses, but one, the New York Institute of Physicians and Surgeons, was one that he eventually tried to distance himself from when it got in trouble with authorities. The man who was really the driver of that business was Neal's
33:21 Holly Frey? colleague, Thomas F. Amkin. They had worked on a lot of these kind of bizarre business schemes together. The main product of this entity that it sold was something called videopathy. Ads for videopathy are wild and they were laid out again to look like articles with titles like a message to the sick. The claim was that Adkin could cure people of all manner of infirmities and even bring them back from the brink of death. It was free to get a consultation and then according to their ads, quote, "charges for treatment are moderate." There was even a mail order option if you couldn't get to Adkin in person.
34:05 Holly Frey? There were some basic pieces of medical advice involved in the, the information they would give out. Some medications were issued. There were dietary guidelines that they gave to people to follow. But that all seems pretty benign. There were however, a lot of really dubious elements to videopathy. One write-up claimed that the in-home treatment involved taking some sort of tonic and then staring into the eyes of a photograph of one of the company's doctors who was scheduled to concentrate on you at the exact same time. There was a letter that the company sent out to patients that offers instructions in what sounds a lot like auto suggestion, which we talked about in the Kue episode.
34:50 Holly Frey? It told patients to think very hard about getting well and to verbally speak phrases that supported that idea. When Adkins and Neal were charged with fraud, Neal's counsel made clear during the hearing that videopathy was entirely the work of Adkin and not him. A fraud order shut down the New York Institute of Physicians and Surgeons on August 2nd, 1905, and even Jill Neal kind of emerged relatively unscathed.
35:17 Tracy V. Wilson? That next venture was a company called Force of Life Chemical Company, although it was often shortened to just Force of Life Company. In January 1906, headlines started hitting the papers like "Claimed to Raise the Dead" and "Roosevelt Causes Arrests in Big Medical Scandal" and "Gigantic Swindle Probably Baird." All of these were about the Force of Life Company and here's what happened. An advertisement for Force of Life crossed the desk of President Theodore Roosevelt.
35:53 Tracy V. Wilson? It read in part, quote, "In the glare of a midnight light bending over his crucible and retorts, Dr. William Wallace Hadley cried triumphantly, 'I have it!' At last he had succeeded in making a rare chemical combination of concentrated extracts which might truly be called liquid life. There it was, glimmering in its sheen of ruby red, while the retort itself seemed to quiver and vibrate, as if in the effort of restraining the tremendous dynamic force it held, there was less than the force of life, the power that makes men live and think. Without this subtle essence in your system, death would occur before
36:37 Tracy V. Wilson? you could read three of these lines. With it in sufficient quantity, you can combat any disease. To discover and make the vital principle of life has been the dream of the chemist and the goal of the medical professor of all ages."
36:55 Holly Frey? In addition to that ad, a letter was also mailed out by the company to prospective customers, presumably from a mailing list gathered up in one of their many other little industries, and it read, quote, "Dr. Hadley's modest art. By his mysterious control over disease and death, Dr. Wallace Hadley, the eminent thaumaturgic panopathist of this city, has made the human heart beat again in the body of a woman rescued from the grave. And as a result of his successful experiment, he makes the startling statement that no disease should cause death. He claims to have discovered the vital principle of life
37:35 Holly Frey? itself, the dynamic force that creates and maintains existence. He seems to have absolute control over human life and the diseases that attack it." These materials, which intimated that death could be thwarted by lecithin, offered to ship orders anywhere in the US. And it had been sent to the president after it had been received by a woman from Springfield, Missouri. And President Roosevelt forwarded it to the Postmaster General, George Bruce Cordelieu, who opened an investigation.
38:08 Tracy V. Wilson? By the way, lecithin might sound familiar because it's used in all kinds of products. It's kind of an umbrella term under which a variety of fatty substances from both animal and plant sources are grouped. The defining characteristic of lecithin is that it attracts both fats and water. So it's really effective at smoothing out the texture of foods and acting as an emulsifier. Lecithin is also taken as a supplement. It's used in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. It is definitely not the elixir of life. Its discoverer, though, is on Holly's episode shortlist.
38:48 Holly Frey? Sure is. It's another French scientist. I'm trying to space him out, I swear. Investigators quickly uncovered more problematic evidence in this case. They set up a sting of sorts by writing to force of life posing as patients. One such fake patient was named Lucille Hoffman, and she wrote to the company that she was 22. She wrote this sort of plaintive letter where she shared very personal information about herself and her health struggles. And at first, she got pretty standard replies about various things she could do to improve her health. But when she wrote back, again, she is not a real person, when she wrote back that she was not getting any better, she was asked to submit a blood sample.
39:32 Holly Frey? And the investigator that was working this case sent in a bottle of blood from a horse, and he received a reply that Lucille was sadly dealing with an array of medical ailments, some quite serious. This investigator actually said jokingly in his testimony about all of this that the prognosis was so bad that he felt sorry for the horse. There was also what was alleged to be a personal message from Dr. Wallace Hadley to this woman that read, quote, "I cure disease. I combat any and all maladies. I make hopeless invalids well. I unclasp the remorseless fingers of death. I stop the rush with which father time hurries you to the grave."
40:16 Holly Frey? Another faux patient created by postal investigators that kind of went through this same process, got a slightly different but similar note, which invoked the Bible by quoting Matthew 1128. It read, "Do not be skeptical. Have confidence in me. Be sure, as I am, that I can cure disease. Come ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Reverently, I repeat the words, and sacredly will I fulfill the trust put in me by the great healer. I can say no more."
40:49 Tracy V. Wilson? That seems like a fun place to stop for the day, although we will be saying a whole lot more about this case and E. Virgil Neil next time.
40:58 Holly Frey? Oh, E. Virgil Neil, you're cracking me up, baby. I honestly loved doing this research, but right now I'm gonna love listener mail.
41:08 Tracy V. Wilson? Yay.
41:09 Holly Frey? Because it involves nothing flim flammy, one of my favorite things, which is sewing, and a particularly delightful project. This is from our listener Katie, who we read an email from not that long ago, but it's an update on what's been going on with her project. She had sent in an email that included some Haunted Mansion embroidery that I was very excited about. Katie writes, "Hi Holly and Tracy. Y'all were pretty intrigued with my Haunted Mansion embroidery a couple of months ago. It isn't abandoned, but this is the sewing that was occupying me recently. My 10-year-old daughter, whose name I'm not going to say just because she's very young, is portraying Abigail Adams for Living History
41:51 Holly Frey? at our small classical school tonight. The whole ensemble, having made a muslin first, easily took me upwards of 40 hours. She picked the fabric, which I think is gorgeous. Fifth graders portray American history figures up to roughly 1820, and sixth graders portray anyone from then on. I've been visiting the classes before they choose their subjects with lists of less obvious figures as suggestions. And yes, many of the people on my suggestion list are people I have heard about on your show. Among others tonight, we have fifth graders as Patrick Henry, Sybil Leddington, Tisquander, and someone's..." Own ancestors named Nancy Hart. Sixth grade choices, among others, are Frederick Douglass, Ted Williams, Sonora Webster Carver,
42:33 Holly Frey? and Henry Ford. Past years, I've seen Maria Tallchief, Milton Hershey, Julia Child, John Mayer, and Alvin York. Anyway, thanks again, and hope you like to see the sewing. This dress turned out so pretty and so sweet, and I just love it. I am so delighted, and I can't even imagine like how joyous it must be. Listen, when I was a kid,
42:59 Holly Frey? before I was good enough to sew my own clothes, it was always really delightful when I got to pick the fabric for something. So it shows on your beautiful daughter's face how much she loves that fabric. I love that fabric. She looks phenomenal. So congratulations. I love this. I love this so much. I love everything about it. Give me all the cute historical costumes on kids. Who doesn't want to learn about history by dressing up like it? That was the best part. I just had such a weird flashback to an awkward moment in seventh grade that did not come up in my head until just this moment. We'll talk about it on Behind the Scenes.
43:36 Holly Frey? Anyway, thank you for writing and sharing that beautiful picture with us and your adorable letter. And I just love how you're helping people learn about history this way.
43:47 Holly Frey? I'm now thinking about that thing, and I can't stop laughing. If you would like to write to us, you can do so at [email protected] . Our show notes for this week's episodes and all of our episodes are connected to those episodes. If you go to missedinhistory.com and just look at the information underneath any different track listing. If you want to subscribe to the podcast and you haven't, you can do that on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.
44:18 Tracy V. Wilson? Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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45:36 Tracy V. Wilson? Long hours, work deadlines, family commitments. You give so much to everyone else. Isn't it time to invest in yourself? The University of Arizona Global Campus is built for working adults with flexible online degree programs designed to fit your life. Your previous education, training, and eligible experience may even help you earn college credit. At UAGC, you can take one accelerated course at a time, helping you move toward your goals in five- and six-week class formats. Visit uagc.edu today. A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. In season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, host Martine Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG, CIDP, and the
46:21 Tracy V. Wilson? broader rare disease community, exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope, progress, and connection. Produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argenx. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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