The Force of Life Scandal

This is an IiHart podcast Guaranteed human. Living with a rare autoimmune condition brings uncertainty, but it can also create community. In season six of Untold Stories, Life with a severe autoimmune coondition, they go beyond MG and CIDP, as host Martine Hackett welcomes stories from other conditions like myositis and IGN into the conversation. Untold Stories is produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argenics. Listen to Untold Stories, Life with a severe Autoimmune condition on the iHart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts Hey everybody, we are getting ready to go on a trip. We're not packed yet, but our brains definitely are because we have a trip to Bajamar on the horizon. and it's kind of all I can think about. I'm so excited about the food. There are amazing restaurants and lounges there that I'm gonna sample everything I possibly can. I'm going to gaze into the water and mostly I am gonna watch the daily fllamingo parade which might be the thing I'm most excited about. There's also an incredible spa and I know Tracy's going to be takaking advantage of that. There is excited and then there is Bahamar excited. Start planning at bahamar. comot Alienwar's Back to schoolchool event is the perfect time to score top gaming gear with incredible features and advanced engineering to go beyond performance Start your Alienware journey with the Alienware fifteen gaming laptop featuring Intel core processors, game, live stream and multitask for hours on end. Pair your incredibly smooth gaming experience with immersive visuals and sound by saving on sleek alienware monitors, headsets and more. This limited time sale awaits you now at alienware dot com slash deals Inoring, gasping for air during sleep, daytime sleepiness. I'm Shquil O'Neill and this shouldn't be anybody's experience. As a doctor about Zepbound to zepatye, the first NNi FDA approved prescription medicine from moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity TZzbBound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and obesity to improve their OSA. Zbound is approved as a two point five, five, seven point five, ten, twelve point five, or fifteen milligram injection. Zbound contains trizepetide and should not be used with other trizepotide containing products or any GLP one receptor agonist medicines It is not known if ZPBound is safe and effective for use in children Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had Medulary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type two. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop step bound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia. If you're nursing, pregnant, plan to be or taking birth control pills, taking Z bound with a sulfonal urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar Side effects include nausea, diarrhea and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems Talk to your doctor. callall one eight hundred five four five five nine seven nine or visit zbound d. liily dot com Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of Hart Radio ast I'm Holly Fry, and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. We mentioned today's subject in our recent episode on Emil Kuay. and at the time I said he was on my shortlist because he was fascinating and Whh, that's the truth. E Virgil Neil'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, Yeahah. Oh 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 U, as well as an odd success He is not A rags to Rich's story He is a swindler and Flimflam man Rich's 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 EVirgil Neil today and next episode because there's a lot to get through It is a lot We'll start with how Ewing Virgil Neil was born in Georgetown, Missouri to Armistead, Arthur, and Ellen Neil That was in September of eighteen sixty eight His birthplace is frequently listed as Sedalia, Missouri Georgetown is a smaller municipality that's just a few miles north of Sedalia. While Neil 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 His dad was a really well respected teacher. While Neil'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 twenty He went this route instead of attending a traditional university Even before he graduated from the school, which happened in eighteen eighty nine, he was already working there, teaching courses like penmanship and mental arithmetic, basically how to do sums and ledgers in your head Biographer Mary Schafer Conroy theorized in her biography about Neil that this arrangement 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 From Sedalia, Neil moved on to Philadelphia 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 acccounting His company sold the rights to the book to the American book compomany, 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 llustrative bookkeeping. He earned royalties on those two titles for the rest of his life 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. Forer 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 dayss 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. 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 J 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 FI 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 mododern illustrative bookkeeping opens with the promise that it offers readers a new practical approach to the topic instead of the ways that bookkeing has been taught up to that point 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, etcetera. 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 s prettyty solid in its information. 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 Next, after his success in these books, Neil 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 On june fifteenth, eighteen ninety three. As publishing success was making him a nice amount of money, Neil married a young woman named Molly Heard He was also developing a growing interest in hypnotism during this time, and he started studying it in earnest by the mid eighteen nineties. 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 nineteenth 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 And it turned out that after learning the tricks of the trade, he was pretty good at hypnotizing people Also during this time, that a name we mentioned in our Emil Kueay episode emerged and that was Ex Lamot Sage Sage was a stage name that Neil assumed to advertise himself as an expert hypnotist He toured the United States on bookings as Xenophon Leot Sage Asisted 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 Lomont Sage was pretty good at bringing in the ticket sales Hypnotism paid better than any position that business school had ever prepared Neil for and seeing that the demand for hypnotism material was high Neil 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 Hypnotism As It is, a book for Everybody, which we talked about quite a bit in the KA episode These works were published at Neil's latest company, he started so many, the New York Institute of Science. And the works of Exlomot Sage were wildly popular An account of Neil's life that was written in the nineteen thirties estimated that the New York Institute of Science made one point five million dollars from sales of books and hypnotism courses. All of which were shipped directly to customers' homes business model of sales eventually. God. company and Neil 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 shut her Coming up, we'll talk about a strange business arrangement that E Virgil Neil established in the early nineteen hundreds, but first we'll pause for a sponsor break Living with a rare autoimmune condition can bring a lot of uncertainty, but it can also bring people together in powerful ways. Tune in for seeason six of Untold stories, Life withith a severe autoimmune condition, a Ruby Studio production in partnership with Argenics. This season, host Martine Hackett brings you fresh stories from people living with MG and CIDP and expands the conversation to people living with other rare conditions, like myositis and IGAN Through their stories, you'll learn what it's like to participate in clinical trials seeking new treatments, how connection fuels hope, and how people can support one another along the way. Because living with a rare disease isn't about getting through it, it's about moving forward together. Listen to Untold stories, life with a severe autoimmune condition on the IiHart radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts turned off news altogether I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything It's the Range bait. feeles like it's trying to divide people If we got clear facts, maybe we could calm down a little NBC News brings you clear reporting Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there N BC News supportorting for America This is Matt Rogers from Los Culturistus with Matt Rogers and Bo and Yang. This is Bo and Yang from Los Culturistis, with Mat Rogers and Boon Yang. You know when people try a new food and suddenly it's like, wait, That's the reaction a lot of people are having when they first try cuteie mayo. It's the one with the red cap and the little baby on the bottle. You've probably seen it in the grocery store before And if you've ever just walked past it, some people would say that's a huge mistake because this mayo is different. Most mayonnaise uses whole eggs. Kwie only uses egg yolks, which gives it this rich umami flavor. It's smoother, deeper, and almost buttery. Once people try it, they start putting it on everything. Egg sandwiches, fries, burgers, some fans even swear by dipping It's a crust in it. and once you notice it, you start seeing it everywhere. Chefs use it. restaurants use it. People who really care about flavor use it. N Never tried it, grab the bottle with the red cap next time you're at the store Put it on just about anything, then you'll understand. Cute be, the original Japanese mayonnaise. Hey, I'm Hoda Coty, host of the podcast, Joy one hundred one with Hoda Cotney. Okay, if you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that Toget We're going have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people, like when actress Olivia Mun shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming. I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer, and that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartum depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Olympic champ Seaan Johnson revealed why she had no choice but to be a gymnast. There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it. Listen to Joy one hundred one with Hoda Cotby on the IHart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts Starting in nineteen oh three, 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. We' both operating out of the same offices at nineteen thirty one Broadway. That was in the area west of Central Park where the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts now sits combination of businesses seemed like an odd arrangement to members of the press The New York Sun on march third, nineteen oh three ran a piece titled Here's a hypnotic bank psycho telepathy and a loone shop in one office 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 when this journalist had tried to cancel an order from the accademy and have his name removed from all future distribution lists, He got a letter Signed by RF. Robertson, Psych DCD which read in part, quote, when I got your letter I was attracted by your handwriting. 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 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 Bard of the Columbia Scientific Academy was called to discuss this promising handwriting and make its writer a special offer on one of their courses So when a reporter from the New York Sun read about all of this in the British periodical Truth, She 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 She suddenly got passed off to E Viril Neil And Neil 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 cancellled order. Neil 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 DCD 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 CD 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 datas set sequences in computer science should not have existed in nineteen oh three. U 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 Ki Magi or Ki 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? Maybe not media savvy yet at that stage. Uh 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 It only made about five thousand dollars a year mful 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 y and fraudulent. It states at one point quote, to show how nicely the Chai Magi End of the Columbia Scientific Academy dovetails with the banking end and how harmoniously finance and the occult might be blended The literature 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 the reader of such advertisement borrow from the E. Virgil Neil and compomany 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. retty 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 The next day, the New York Sun ran an article with the headline Worried about Neil and company. Depositors you see don't like hypnotism in banking And in this article, the paper shared a phone call that Neil 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 son do something about it When contacted for more information on what he wanted the paper to do, Neil 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 accademy 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 Dunan company that indicated that the banking concern was sound and above board When the son contacted the state superintendent of banks, Frederick D. Kilburn, He said that the state Bank Dpepartment had quote no jurisdiction over such concerns as the Banking house of E. Virgil Neil and Company So far as any ill legal supervision of such concerns goes, there is none. They can run their business like a grocery store So Even though Neil 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 banks, customers getting worried and maybe closing their accounts Columbia Scientific Academy and many other shady businesses continued for Neil. and we'll talk more about that after we hear from the sponsors to keepep Stuffy Miss and History Class going Living with a rare autoimmune condition can bring a lot of uncertainty, but it can also bring people together in powerful ways. Tune in for season six of Untold Stories, Life with a severe autoimmune condition, a Ruby Studio production in partnership with Arenics. This season, host Martine Hackett brings you fresh stories from people living with MG and CIDP and expands the conversation to people living with other rare conditions, like myositis and IGAM Through their stories, you'll learn what it's like to participate in clinical trials seeking new treatments, how connection fuels hope, and how people can support one another along the way. Because living with a rare disease isn't about getting through it, it's about moving forward together. Listen to untold stories, life with a severe autoimmune condition on the IiHart radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts I turned off news altogether. I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything It's the range bait feeles like it's trying to divise people If we got clear facts, maybe we can calm down a little NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there NBC News orting for America This is Matt Rogers from Los Culturistos with Matt Rogers and Bo and Yang. This is Bo and Yang from Los Culturistis with Matt Rogers and Boen Yang. You know when people try a new food and suddenly it's like, wait, that's the reaction a lot of people are having when they first try cutepie Mo. It's the one with the red cap and the little baby on the bottle. You've probably seen it in the grocery store before And if you've ever just walked past it, some people would say that's a huge mistake because this mayo is different. Most mayonnaise uses whole eggs. Kwie only uses egg yolks, which gives it this rich umami flavor. It's smoother, deeper, and almost buttery. Once people try it, they start putting it on everything. Egg sandwiches, fries, burgers, some fans even swear by dipping It's a crust in it. And once you notice it, you start seeing it everywhere. Chefs use it. restestaurants use it. People who really care about flavor use it. N Never tried it, grab the bottle with the red cap next time you're at the store Put it on just about anything, then you'll understand. Cuteie, the original Japanese mayonnaise. Hey, I'm Hoda Coty, host of the podcast, Joy one hundred one with Hoda Coty. Okay, if you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that T We're going to have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people, like when actress Olivia Mun shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming. I've gone through breast cancer and they helped my mother through breast cancer, and that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartum depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Olympic champ Seaan Johnson revealed why she had no choice but to be a gymnast. There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it. Listen to Joy one hundred one with Hodic Coty on the IHart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts Following newspaper mentions of Neil and the Columbia Scientific Academy in the first years of the twentieth century offers a wild breadcrumb trail of shady delings Just four days after Neil's interaction with the Sn, advertisements for the Columbia Scientific Academy seemed 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 personersonal Magnetism Its subheers tout how this is something that prominent men use to gain influence and how a reporter stumble across secret methods to quote, charm and fascinate the human mind 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 thousand dollars haaving ten thousand copies of a book titled The Secret of Power printed in accordance with the author's wishes to be given away for free 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 But he 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. 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 twenty five dollars 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 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. 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 The way that British journalist was told, his handwriting was fascinating and evidenced a person with incredible untapped power. 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 fourth 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 Neil and it was headquartered in the very same building as the Banking House of E Virgil Neil and Company and the Columbia Scientific Academy No Neil acted nonchalant in this exchange between him and the reporter and kind of like he had forgotten that Ebody 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 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 While Neil faced a number of legal problems all through his life because of his business dealings, he was also sued for more personal reasons In nineteen oh four, he was sued by a man named John Showererman for using his influence to cause misses Sherman to abandon her husband. unclear how or if that legal action was resolved, but it is evidence that EVirgil Neil was kind of perpetually in hot water 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. And There were a lot of instances like that Apparently also a bit of a womanizer so that caused him some problems ndaunted by all of the legal attention he frequently got Neil 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 Neil's colleague, Thomas F. Adkin. 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 Videiopathy 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 Abkin 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 There were some basic pieces of medical advice involved in the information they would give out some medications were issued. There were dietary guidelines that they gave to people to follow. Pall seems pretty benign. There were, however, a lot of really dubious elements to Videopathy