Spreading his Gospel: Brinkley was a master marketer and packed his medical sales pitches with miraculous claims and appeals for pious living.
“DOCTOR DISCOVERS SEX SECRET; HE IS USING GOAT GLANDS,” a local newspaper headline blared, and demand for the procedure took off.
Surgical Strike: Neither Brinkley nor his wife, Minnie, ever obtained proper medical credentials, but they made big money on Brinkley’s quack treatments and operations.
When his Kansas radio station was shut down by the federal government, he built a “border blaster” station in Mexico, XER using its powerful transmitter to reach much of North America.
To draw in more listeners, he gave airtime to several Jackson County musicians, including balladeer Samantha Bumgarner
Always eager to cite his impoverished Jackson childhood, Brinkley returned to the county in 1935 after he found wealth, buying a summer home and 9,000 acres of land.
John Brinkley
Brinkley is regarded as little more than a curiosity in Jackson County, but his legacy is marked alongside state road 107. A state historical marker was installed in 1994 next to a granite monument Brinkley erected in tribute to his Aunt Sally, who raised him.
Brinkley’s name still appears in the stone walls at the entrance of his former summer home
