One promoted goat gland transplants as a remedy for lost virility or infertility. Another blamed aluminum cooking utensils for causing cancer. The third was targeted by the Food and Drug Administration as "public enemy number one" for his worthless cures.

John Brinkley, Norman Baker, and Harry Hoxsey were the ultimate snake oil salesmen of the twentieth century. With backgrounds in lowbrow performance--carnivals, vaudeville, night clubs--each of these charismatic con men used the emerging power of radio to hawk alternative cures in the Midwest beginning in the roaring twenties, through...