The morning of September 15, 1930, was undeniably warm in Kansas.
That summer had been the hottest ever recorded in the state.
After the usual formalities were exchanged, the show began.
John Brinkley and his staff in the middle of an operation.
Then an orderly brought up a goat from the basement.
The distressed animal was placed on a side table and an orderly held the goats head.
After a full forty-five minutes of tense labor, the doctor announced the operation a success.
The members of the Kansas State Medical Board thanked him and took their leave.
Forty-eight hours later they unanimously revoked his license to practice on grounds of gross immorality and unprofessional conduct.
Dr. Brinkley filed an appeal, but the Kansas Supreme Court threw it out.
In the statement, the court accused Dr. Brinkley of being an empiric without moral sense.
Who was Dr. Brinkley?
However, he always wished to become a doctor.
As a boy he devoured home health books and his unclesmateria medica.
He even joined a travelling medical show selling patent medicine and hawking virility tonics.
At school, Brinkley learned about glandular extracts and their effects on the human system.
He determined that this new field would help move his career forward.
After three years of medical school, Brinkley was forced to quit because of unpaid tuition fees.
For a while, he began working as an undergraduate physician, but failed to establish himself.
He joined the Army Reserve Medical Corps.
The salary from this position allowed him to pay Bennett Medical University the amount owed for tuition.
Toggenburg goats, the breed used by Dr. John R. Brinkley for his goat-gland transplantations.
But it was as a surgeon that Brinkley achieved both fame and fortune.
According to his own testimony, Brinkley got into the business by sheer luck.
One day in 1918, a farmer named Bill Stittsworth dropped into his office complaining of sexual weakness.
According to Brinkley, Stittworth then begged the doctor to try the operation.
Either way, the operation was a success.
Word spread and soon people started flocking into the clinic for a new pair of goat testicles.
He also operated upon women, giving them goat ovaries.
One of his patients, Charley Tasine, even fathered a child, appropriately named Billy.
By then, Brinkley was conducting up to forty operations a week at $750 a pop.
An Arkansas supplier delivered regular shipments of goats which the doctor kept them in a pen behind the clinic.
Each client was invited to browse the herd and choose the most agreeable.
The town of Milford too gained from Brinkleys success.
He gave the town electric lights and a new bank.
He paved the two-mile road to the railroad station, and tried but failed to start a zoo.
John Brinkley and his wife Minerva Telitha “Minnie” Jones.
Despite Brinkleys meteoric rise in publicity, not all of his operations ended in success.
Brinkley himself advertised a 95 percent success rate.
Some of his patients suffered from infection, and an undetermined number died.
In 1930, the Kansas State Medical Board revoked his license.
Six months later, Brinkley lost his radio license.
He received nearly one third of all votes, but still lost.
On a clear night, Brinkleys voice could be heard as far away as Canada.
In 1934, under pressure from the United States, Mexico revoked Brinkley’s broadcast license.
Two years later, he declared bankruptcy.
He suffered three heart attacks, and a blood clot formed in one of his legs leading to amputation.
On May 26, 1942, Brinkley died of heart failure in San Antonio.
He was later buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.
