Dr Norman G Baker
Birth: Nov. 27, 1882
Muscatine
Muscatine County
Iowa, USA
Death: Sep. 8, 1958
Dade County
Florida, USA
Convicted felon, inventor, and charlatan. He was a star mentalist on the vaudeville circuit in the early 1900's and made
a fortune in the 1910's by inventing the Tangley Calliaphone. He built KTNT (Know the Naked Truth) radio in Iowa in 1925 and
published TNT Magazine, where he made relentless attacks over the air and in print on established medical procedures and the
American Medical Association. In 1930, President Herbert Hoover helped to launch Baker's tabloid newspaper, the Midwest Free
Press by participating in a publicity stunt in which the president pushed a golden key from Washington D.C. to start Baker's
printing press. Although having no formal education, he called himself "Dr." and opened a hospital in Iowa where
he claimed he could cure cancer and many other maladies. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor of Iowa in 1932, even
though his radio station had been shut down by the Federal Radio Commission and he had been run out of the state. His campaign
was conducted while he was a fugitive from justice in Mexico, where he opened a cross-border radio station, XENT. He was sued
and his hospital in Iowa shut down, so he moved his cancer patients to Eureka Springs, Arkansas in the building that is currently
the Crescent Hotel. He was finally convicted of federal mail fraud in 1940 because of his "guarantees to cure cancer"
sent through the mail and he was imprisoned for four years. Several books about his life are available including Quacks &
Crusaders - the Fabulous Careers of John Brinkley, Norman Baker, and Harry Hoxsey; Doctors, Dynamiters and Gunmen - the Life
Story of Norman Baker; The Throttle - a Fact Story of Norman Baker; and The Grand Old Lady of the Ozarks. (bio by: Goldie
Browning)
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