March 30th is National Doctor's Day! So we here at Bag of Bones are taking the opportunity to mention a few in the medical profession, you should be thankful you DIDN'T get referred to! Of course, we've had a few episodes on doctors who get a little drunk with power and if you've missed them... you should definitely check them out! Our most recent evil doctor episode, is Linda Hazzard. She claimed she was a doctor and even had a license to prove it for a while. She settled her practice in Washington around Seattle, and lead people on the journey of fasting. Only, she took fasting all the way to starvation and beyond, accepting the "gifts" of land, money and jewelry from her victims... or rather... patients. Listen to her episode here: Fasting as a Weapon Norman Baker would lure people in by the thousands promising cures for their cancer. He would instead inject them with a mixture of nonsense and charged them outrageous fees while waiting for them to die. His trusting souls suffered every inch of the way. Listen to this horrible man's life here: Norman Baker- Call Him What He Is- A Serial Killer Walter Freeman was the showman of doctors. He was a neurologist and believed he found the answer to all things by way of lobotomies. He would scramble people's frontal lobes on stage, even two at a time, making sure to pause for the camera, so they got his best side. While some of his recipients would claim to have been helped, some would even return for a second or third scrambling- but most... received permanent cognitive behavior problems and would never recover. Walter Freeman got away with it for a really long time... Listen to his episode here: Who Needs A Personality Anyway? Here's a few others we haven't gotten around to doing episodes on... Morris Bolber was known as the Mob Doctor, since he discovered to be a part of the Philadelphia Poison Ring" in the 1930s. He'd participate in arson, counterfeit schemes and insurance fraud, but would be best know for giving injections of arsenic to victims in order to "protect" them. Of course, they would die, rather quickly and the mob would collect insurance that each person had signed prior to their doctor visits. He was thought to have killed over 50 people using this method, but when he was arrested in 1939, he turned states evidence and was sentenced to life in prison instead of the electric chair. He died in prison in 1954. H.H. Holmes decided that being a dentist, wasn't his true calling after all. He discovered there was too much "accountability" with that gig. He tried his hand at murder and insurance fraud instead. It kept him on the run for a good long time. He is best known, perhaps for the supposed Murder Castle that turned him into a serial killing superstar. The media created a murder house that was filled with secret rooms and passageways where he could quiet abscond with unsuspecting victims and chop them up into little bits at his leisure. He was a doctor, yes. He was a serial killer... yes. But he was no where near the celebrity the media made him out to be. He was eventually arrested and tried for the murder of his former business partner. He, himself, began the rumors that he killed more than 27 people, but no evidence could be found of these murders. The "notorious" H.H. Holmes was hung in 1896 at the age of 34. A more modern story, Dr. Harold Shipman. He is a British doctor that had a busy practice for decades. He was loved by his patients and was one of the few doctors that would perform house calls. He would pray on the elderly and it's believed he took the lives of over 250 patients that trusted him. Some for money, some for the simple fact that he could. He was married with four children and got away with it for years. He would be bestowed the title of Dr. Death. He would be tried for the deaths of 15 people but never confessed. He would be sentenced to 15 life sentences but would end up committing suicide the night before his 58th birthday, while in prison. Marcel Petiot was also a piece of work... he would be known as a serial killer from the WWII era. After trying to make in the French Army and then serving as a mayor, he found his true passion... or rather power, came with the title of doctor. He was literally chased from his home in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne and made his home in Nazi occupied Paris, France. He evil-doctor niche was that he would tell the Jewish citizens he could help them flee the country to find safety. He say they needed to be inoculated against the diseases in the other country before they could go. He would inject them with a cyanide serum and then dump their bodies in the river Seine. That apparently wasn't enough. He moved his practice to his home to be able to up the ante where he would kill his victims and attempt to burn them. He killed so many, he couldn't keep up with the burning and eventually the stench of death alerted the neighbors. He was arrested and tried for killing 26 people, but it is believed his body count was way of 60. He was found guilty... and beheaded. And then, there's one name that comes to mind when you think of the evil doctors out there that everyone agrees is the worst of the worst: Josef Mengele. He was nicknamed the Angel of Death. He would acquire this name for his early role in choosing who would live to work and who would die among the prisoners that arrived at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Children and the elderly were mostly escorted directly to the gas chambers. He was a highly trained and respected doctor and medical researcher. In 1935, he earned his PhD in physical anthropology. During his studies, he came to believe in the theory of racial science. He truly believed that Germans were biologically different and superior to all other races. This racial science was practically the foundation of the Nazi platform and made it "acceptable" to sterilize, experiment on and simply annihilate a specific race of humans He was a prominent member of the German SS as of 1938 and would be responsible for the death of millions. He would move up the ranks in the Nazi Party quickly and find himself at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of the Auschwitz camps and also served as a killing center for Jews deported from throughout Europe. He was given free rein to to follow his experimental curiosities. Mengele was fascinated with genetics. Twins, in particular. He would perform tons of experimental surgeries, amputations, even sewing people together. When he was done with them, they were sent to the gas chamber as the expendable lab rats he felt they were. According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia: Mengele was one of more than a dozen SS medical personnel who conducted experiments on people imprisoned at Auschwitz. These doctors included:
He was a horrible, horrible man and his documented research has turned the stomachs of many ever since. I know, for myself, I don't think I could endure the research on this man to bring you a full episode. This bite size will have to do. And... did you know, he was tried for his crimes?? He was captured, but was let go because they didn't know who he really was. He snuck off and hid in South America for 30 years before he died in a drowning accident after having a stroke at the age of 67. Ugh! Stay healthy everyone!! An apple a day...
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