Eben Byers had it all. He was the 1906 National Amateur Golf champion. He was a millionaire before he was even born. He was such a ladies man they nicknamed him "Foxy Grandpa." He also had the misfortune of being the poster boy for the dangers of patent medicine. Byers thought he was taking a health supplement – a 2 oz shot of water that was part of the newest health craze in America – and ended up 6 feet UNDER the green, so radioactive he had to be buried in a lead lined coffin.

CHAPTERS

Intro (:00)

Eben Byers was RICH (1:50)

Yale and Golf (4:30)

Ladies Man or "Foxy Grandpa" (7:11)

Eben Byers: Elite Golfer (8:25)

The Byers Gravy Train (14:27)

The Injury (15:57)

The Perpetual Sunshine of Radithor (17:18)

William J.A. Bailey: Quack (19:03)

Radiation Fever (20:13)

The Radithor Con (23:40)

Radioactive Decay (26:14)

The Death of Byers and Radiation Fever (29:22)

Bailey Escapes Blame (32:27)

The Ballad of Eben Byers (33:59)

SOURCES

Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Nate Pedersen and Lydia Kang

Golf at Yale: The Players, the Teams, the Course by Bill Kelly and John A. Godley

The Great Radium Scandal by Roger M. Macklis

The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off by Ron Winslow

Eben M. Byers: The Effect of Gamma Rays on Amateur Golf, Modern Medicine and the FDA by C. Prentiss Orr

Pittsburger Won the Title (July 15, 1906 The Pittsburgh Press)

E.M. Byers, of Pittsburg, Defeats the Golf Champion (July 18, 1902 New York Daily Tribune)

Special Thanks to Bill Kelly and Nate Pedersen

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