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- Hi friends, how are you today? I hope you're having a wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's Murder, Mystery, and Makeup Monday. If you're new here, hi, my name is Bailey and on Mondays I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's heavy on my
Noggin. And I do my makeup at the same time. If you're interested in true crime and you like makeup, I would say you should subscribe because that's what I do. Today's story has to do with a doctor, which a doctor, first of all, lots of corrupt doctors out there, but they're the scariest kinds of like,
Killers? Well, this guy is very controversial that we're talking about today, but doctors are scary because they have so much power, you know? When you think about it, they could be the scariest type of killer. So today's story is pretty controversial because this man, this doctor, was seen as someone who did a lot of good, but he also did a lot of bad. So...
So today we're talking about John Ronald Brown. Ronald, John Ronald. So John was born in 1922 in Mesa, Arizona, and he was born into a very strict Mormon family. It was said his father especially was like the disciplinary, the more strict one, very straightforward and a very intimidating man. Not really much is said about their upbringing.
there because they did have a big family, but there's really not much said about them. But at some point, the whole family picks up and they move to the Mecca, Utah. You know, Utah. This is where John would end up graduating from high school. At the age of 16, it was said that John was very, very smart. Okay, school was very easy for him and that he just breezed right through it.
It was clear to like John's teachers and I'm not sure about his parents, but like his teachers and stuff, they all thought like this John guy, he could really do great things with that brain of his. Yeah, like because he was really smart. The 1940s comes along and so does World War II.
And with that being said, that's when the draft happens. So during the draft, it's kind of like America just needed all the young men that they could get. So John gets drafted. When you get drafted, you have to take a general classification test.
And this is essentially like a placement test to see where this person would fit best within the military. So like if you scored a certain way, they would place you as like the numbers guy or maybe you scored differently than that guy. You would be the chef, the guy in charge of the guns. So it really just depended on how you scored where you would be placed within the military. So when it came to John, he had scored so high on his test
that the military was like, all right, we're actually gonna put you through medical school and you're gonna do that. Which is cool, I think. Yeah, I mean, that's cool. To put him through medical school? Come on. Yeah.
That's cool. So John ends up breezing right through medical school and he ends up graduating from the Utah School of Medicine in 1947. And during this time is when he met his first wife. Her name was Helen and they would go on to have five kids. So he's settling in
to his family life, married, five kids, and working as a general practitioner. And he seems like he's doing great, okay? But as time goes on, for some reasons unknown, his marriage doesn't work out, and the two, they end up getting a divorce. And then not long after,
Like literally not that long after as most guys, I swear they move on so quick. What the fuck? John would go on to remarry and have three more kids. So at this point, John, second marriage, eight kids. He's got his hands full a little bit, but he can manage, I think. I don't know. So.
Fun side note, John was already part of a massive Mormon family. So like having a lot of kids was really not a big deal because he came from a big family as well. But the random fun fact that I absolutely got fixated on, one of his nieces is that LuLaRoe leggings lady, Deanne Stidham.
The blonde hair? Not kidding. That's his niece. Small world, right? Maybe they're all related. Now that's incest. Okay, so fun fact, yay. Love a fun fact. In 1967, at this point, it had been about 20 years since John had been a doctor.
And things are going great for him. He's doing well. But things change. Like he gets rattled. His cage gets rattled a bit. During one of his procedures, he was removing someone's thyroid. And I guess when he was performing the surgery on the table, the patient almost dies. Like they almost lose the person.
And it was just a really close call and it definitely had an impact on John. It just kind of woke him up a bit. And after this, he realized that he needed and wanted to go back to school so he could further train as a surgeon. He just felt like maybe he was underprepared, but also he just didn't want that to ever happen again.
So at this point, John is now 45 years old and he's ready to further his education and again, make sure that he never has a close call like that again. So he ends up going off to school. He goes to the New York Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.
Great. To become a surgeon. Like mentioned before, he's a very, very intelligent man. And John would even tell people that he never opened a book like once to study and that he had a photographic memory and school was like nothing to him. Which now looking back at first, I was like, okay, yeah, he doesn't open a book to study. But like, I don't know if that's a good flex for a surgeon. I'd be like, hmm.
Maybe you should though. Anyways, so he brags to people. He's like, I have a photographic memory. I could look at it once and I can remember everything. But I kind of believe him because school was a breeze. He passed his exams and he did really well. He succeeded. But...
Cousin is always a butt. During closing exams, there's two parts. There's the written part, right? And that part, he, no problem, he got it. But I guess there was a second part to the test that he was really not ready for. And that was the oral exams. Oh yeah, he completely choked on the orals.
You know what I mean, you perv. I didn't even say it, that was you. You nasties. So in medical school, or I guess, sergiology school, sergiology, surgeon school? I guess they have you do both written and oral exams.
And John, he completely bombed the oral side of it, like I had said. When people ask John, like, how did you fail the oral part of it? That's usually maybe the easiest part of the exam. John's reason was that he had a very domineering father. And that's why he was really intimidated when doing the oral part of it. John said that whenever he was face to face with authority figures, he would just clam up
shut down and forget everything that like he ever knew. So even though he did nail the exam, he still failed the second part. Therefore he was not certified to practice surgery.
But I kind of get it because I'm the same way. Oral exams, I just clam up. I just freeze a lot in front of people when they ask me questions. Like for example, I was on a date the other day and they were like, "What kind of music do you listen to?" This is not even close, but this is my example. "What kind of music do you listen to?" And I'm like, "Music? I've never heard of music." I go, I go blank. Like I never knew anything about me. So frustrating.
So I get it, John. Some of us just aren't good at oral. Now this is a total bummer for John because like this is what he feels like he's meant to do, be a surgeon. And if that wasn't hard enough, in 1970, his second wife suddenly died out of like nowhere at the age of 44. Now I couldn't find, not that it's any of my business, but you know, I was just curious, but I couldn't find how she died.
I have no idea. I have no idea. But either way, like it's a complete shock, obviously for John. And now he's a widower with eight kids and he couldn't follow his passion in life, being a surgeon. His life took a sharp left into funky town. His life completely flipped upside down. And in my personal opinion, I feel like this is the moment, the point where John is,
Snaps. A person can only take so much, and usually when we snap, we don't do bad things. But some people, they do take that sharp left into funky town, and it ain't good. Nay nay. What happened to John between the years 1970 and 1973 is unclear, but John decided to take his life back and say F it to the man. He was just gonna perform operations without a license.
He was like, dude, I'm smart enough.
I'm smart. I could do it. I mean, this is what he's believing. So John decides to pick a specialty and his specialty would be gender reassignment surgeries. Very specific. And at this time in 74, not really a big discussion, right? Not really a mainstream thing. But what he did know was that there was a black market for him to move into and work in.
And in the black market, you can probably get away with not having a degree, certificate, whatever. Nobody is going to check. So John, he would be offering his patients a very steep discount. Okay. At one point, he was like charging people $2,500 for a gender reassignment surgery versus $10,000 to $20,000 that other doctors would be charging at that time. So...
That's a bargain. Now, the downside to being a bargain bitch, there was a lot of experimenting going on, okay? Some of John's experiments were actually quite successful. Like for example, John had developed a technique where he would cut enough of a penis away to make it similar to a clit.
So his patients, they could feel pleasure and also have an orgasm, which is major. It's one thing having the parts, but also the feeling and having an orgasm, huge. Of course, getting to that point wasn't easy. He had a lot of trial and errors, but he also had very successful procedures and patients who praised him for his work.
It was said by many within the trans community, they referred to him as like a savior of some sorts or their knight in shining armor. Because no doctors were offering this type of procedure, especially for people who couldn't afford the $10,000 to $20,000. $2,500 is affordable. He was helping people, you know?
Great. Another downside of John not being licensed or anything of that nature, John would end up working and performing surgeries wherever he could. So, I mean, literally wherever he could because I read in one article they said on a train.
I was trying to figure that one out in my head and I was like, on a train? Okay. But he would do surgeries in hotel rooms, on top of kitchen counters, in different people's garages. It just, anywhere he could work, he could probably make it work. And as you can imagine, not sanitary, not safe. Lots of questions. I don't know. Are you sure? On a train? In a garage?
Not a good idea. People noted that like, yes, John was very intelligent, smart, well-spoken, but him as like a people person, as a normal like person who can carry a conversation, he was off in that nature. He didn't put much effort into having a conversation and just people skills. He also did not put much effort into his overall appearance, which we know is not everything, but when it comes to your doctor,
You hope that there's some type of cleanliness look to them, right? At least that's what I think. I could be wrong. It was said that John would look messy. His hair would be like all over the place, greasy. He just looked like he spilled mayonnaise like all over. You know those grease spots you get on your shirt that only come from mayonnaise?
He had a lot of that going on. There was this one report from a woman. She went to go see him to get medication of some sorts. But she said that John had like come into the room wearing only one shoe and what looked like food stains all over his scrubs. One shoe. All right. Maybe he didn't need the other one. Anybody think of that?
I just solved it. Later down the line, there would be like a medical assistant who came out and said that there were a handful of times during surgery where like mid-surgery, John's pants were just, they were just too big or something and they would just fall off mid-procedure, right? Well, maybe not unprofessional. Yeah, it is. Bailey, what are you trying? Maybe it's not that bad.
I don't know why I'm... Anyway, so his pants fell off handfuls, a handful of times. I think my favorite story though is there was one patient who came in to see Dr. John and they're in the waiting room and they're sitting there waiting and John walks into his room and literally the patient said that he was eating raw hot dogs straight from the package.
He's literally raw dogging it. Look, in my mind, this would be a red flag that he's probably losing it or something. But who knows? I mean, we don't know. Like, was he losing it? Did he not care? I was thinking, doesn't he have money to like maybe take care of him? So I don't, who the frick knows? But I think we can all agree on saying that it wasn't a good look. It's not a good look. I'm not trying to blame anyone.
the people who went and saw him as a patient. I'm just saying these stories sounded fake to me, but this is what they said and I believe them because if you look at pictures of John, he just looks like a hot mess. And it seems like he just really lost it. He just went, we'll get into it. Anyways, John did have like a team of medical assistants on hand. Unfortunately, many of them had
no medical background at all. And allegedly were hired as barter for their own surgery. I mean, it's this underground thing, the black market. So the rules are different. Kind of makes sense. It just feels like when I was doing the research, it was like nobody was really making sure the patient themselves were okay. John would just come in, do his thing and then get the fuck out. And like, there was no...
hair involved. Well, you know how it goes. People are talking.
People aren't talking. A lot of people are actually sharing positive experiences that they've had with Dr. John. You know, here's this doctor who you can get a gender reassignment surgery for an affordable price and they had successful outcomes. So he was gaining a lot of credibility in that sense. But there were many others who were suffering from different problems that John ended up creating for them.
and they would end up having to go to other local doctors to have John's work fixed or just undone completely. I'm sure you can imagine how frustrating and financially straining that would be, but how frustrating that would be. Upsetting, violating, sad. You know, a lot of doctors and whatnot are talking about this, having to do all of these revisions.
and revokes his medical license for the sake of his family. So, he's going to be a victim of the murder of his father.
"for gross negligence and practicing unprofessional medicine "in a manner which involved moral turpitude." I know I liked that, moral turpitude. That's a good word. I was like, ooh, hits, moral turpitude. Anyways, revoked, which honestly though, you think he would get arrested, not just revoked. I don't know. What do I know? I know nothing. I'm just a girl doing my makeup, aren't ya?
Yep. Well, John's like, damn, I can't practice in California any longer. But that doesn't mean I can't practice somewhere else. So John packs up and he heads out to the Caribbean where he would pick up the same old tricks, right? He would do the same old thing. He was performing surgeries in the Caribbean without...
a license, and this time he was performing a bunch of different plastic surgeries. Just whatever the people wanted, he was like, "Yeah, I'll do it. I'm down." I guess he really enjoyed his time there though, 'cause he would stay there for quite some time and do his thing out there. And it would be in the Caribbean where John would meet his third wife, Julie. Julie met John in 1981.
at a questionable age. Okay, she was only 17 years old when she met John. John was at the ripe age of 59. Yeah, what do they got in common? Not sure, probably a lot. I'm not sure, doubt it.
but okay. Anyways, they fall in love allegedly. But I did find an article where Julie claimed that it was an arranged marriage, but it was only one article. So I'm not really sure, but either way, they did end up getting married. Julie would later on say that like John was the love of her life. He taught her how to read, how to write. And he essentially raised her.
Which is sad because it sounds more like she really needed a father figure and John took advantage of that. But that's my personal opinion. She did go on to say that if she had the opportunity to marry him again that she would in a heartbeat. But two things can be right at the same time. She probably loves him a lot and John is a bad guy. So two things are right at the same time.
Great. We solved everything. Julie and John would go on to have two kids of their own, which brings John's total to 10 children. And he wasn't showing up for any of them. Okay? He was in the Caribbean. He was busy. But just like before, things would eventually catch up to John and he would end up losing permission to practice in St. Lucia. I hear St. Lucia's really nice. Anyways, but you know, that's his thing. He...
once again gets caught for doing what he's doing and he loses permission to practice. So he's like, "God damn it." So he ends up moving back to California. Now this time he goes to the San Diego area. Now the reason he goes to San Diego is because where he ends up moving was really close to the border to Mexico. So he wanted to open up his own practice in Tijuana, Mexico. So he did just that. He got like this place and
He could drive to work 'cause the border was right there. Like it just was great for him. He said like when he first got to Tijuana, Mexico, he went on a walk. He went on this deep walk and did a lot of self-reflection. And John claimed that as they always do, John was like, I talk to God and God told me
that I was meant to do gender reassignment surgery for God's children, the trans community. And he knew deep down in that moment that he had to continue on. Like this was his mission in life. So hold your thoughts as well, because I know what you're thinking. Because I was thinking this the whole time too. I was like, well, John is like the only doctor who's making this gender reassignment surgery affordable. People are coming to him because they want
help they want to feel like themselves in their body like and he's helping them and I mean back in the 70s fuck I mean who who was feeling like doing that but then it's like was he did he see a place for opportunity this is where we don't know we don't know it's I don't know I don't know anyways so
This is his calling in life. Okay, great. So John opens up his place in Tijuana, Mexico, doing his practice. And as time goes on, he had a new innovation that he was ready to share with the world. It was huge. He was like, "Announcement, gather people. I have something to say that you're gonna wanna hear." John said,
that he had come up with a procedure that allegedly made the penis up to two inches longer. Now, talking about penis growth here, now when talking about enhancing
people's ears perked up. They're like, "Say no more, doc." "Two inches? Sign me up." You know what? Why didn't I look into how he did that? I don't know why. I kind of glossed over this. I was like, "Oh, that's interesting." Because, well, let me just keep going.
But it is interesting. Now a penis enlargement surgery, groundbreaking. People wanted to know more, okay? This got him a lot of attention and he was starting to become quite notorious.
And when it came to John, there was no, there was no middle ground with this guy. People either loved and praised John for his work and what he did within the trans community. But then there was the other side. Many hated this guy for butchering patience and just brushing it under the rug and kind of carrying on and not fixing or trying to fix his mistakes or even acknowledge them. Shit.
Many who were going into surgery with John, they had no idea that he was kind of guessing and practicing on patients. He just wouldn't tell them, which I could probably understand why, but not a good look, John. There was an article that came out in the magazine Penthouse Forum, and it was about Dr. John and his penis enlargement procedure, which they called him the, quote, "incredible dick doctor."
End quote. Giving him high praise. He's, wow, he's really doing it differently. Bleep, blop, bloop. Meanwhile, an expose was being released by Inside Edition, which is, you know Inside Edition, right? Okay, great. So Inside Edition was working on an expose and it aired on television and they called him, quote, the worst doctor in America ever.
Butcher Brown. So, I mean, he's this great dick doctor. And then on the other side of things, he's Butcher Brown, which that hits too. Now, there was a journalist who went to go like interview John and stuff for the Inside Edition article, which mind you, it started off as being just kind of, it wasn't supposed to be an expose. But this journalist who went to interview John was like, I saw too much.
I gotta say something. So, um, journalist is there and John invites this journalist to like stand in while he is doing a procedure on a patient. Now get this. In the middle of the procedure, the patient that was being worked on wakes up.
the middle of the procedure wakes up and I guess was just screaming bloody murder and it's not funny it's not funny but John the journalist said John turns to this person and says like oh yeah don't worry it's perfectly normal they scream like that sometimes it's perfectly normal don't be alarmed and then goes back to like doing his thing so there's that all
Okay. I think Butcher Brown is more accurate. God, could you imagine? Oh, waking up. No, no, no. All this attention was probably great for John because it really got the word out about his services. And even Dr. John at one point guessed that in the 25 years, he was doing this for 25 years,
he was performing surgery illegally, which just blows my mind. For 25 years, he guessed that he had probably performed around 600 gender reassignment surgeries. So even bad press, he was like, well, it's getting people talking about me and getting my name out there. While working in his Tijuana office, John, once again, it was said he was frugal.
which I feel like again, when you're a surgeon and in this case you shouldn't be, but he did not invest in like a clean office space. There were many reports that the building had no running water. Sometimes it would last for quite some time. Sometimes he would have running water. It depended on the day. And at least once or twice a day, he would have sewage like backflow. So he still appeared to be a hot mess, but the clients were coming in and he was quite busy.
I'm not sure where his money went. Maybe to all his damn kids. Maybe. And again, maybe he was nailing his mission in life because there were many people out there who were very happy with his work. There were a ton of women who came forward and said that Dr. John had changed their lives and that they were finally free from suffering in the wrong body and that
they could go on to finally live happy, healthy lives as themselves, which many of them did. So you could see how controversial this guy is. Is he helping people who wouldn't have been able to afford help any other way? Or is he just like, is he a monster who's actually doing more harm than good? Is he okay?
it's the hot dogs for me. Maybe you shouldn't be a practicing surgeon, sir. So despite there being happy customers, it seems like that majority of his patients were left in way worse shape than when they first came to him. Let me give you some insight into Dr. John's results and trigger warning
We're talking about a lot of different holes here. All of the holes will be covered because boy, did some people have some complications. Wow. There were several patients who came to John for the gender reassignment surgery. His specialty was like the vagina. So they would go to him wanting a brand new vagina. So when wanting gender reassignment male to female, a vagina is a big part of
of just that. And John made a lot of promises to people that he could do just that. He'd give them a vagina, but making sure to leave like the proper nerves and whatnot so the patients could have an orgasm as well. Huge. So it all sounded great, but the results that a lot of people got were very different. On some patients, John would remove the penis
but in return wouldn't give them a vagina. There were some patients who ended up with nothing
down below except a tiny hole. I saw a picture, a tiny, I'm talking a tiny hole. Like a pinky isn't even getting up there. Like it made no sense, right? That would be very frustrating. With other patients, look, this might be a bit much, but like he would take the penis and he would cut the penis in half, split open the penis and sew it to like the inside of the thighs.
or like in their groin area at times. And it was said to kind of look like a vulva. He's like, "Yeah, if you squint, it looks great." Can't imagine waking up during that surgery.
Holy crap. Sometimes he would make successful vaginas, but when doing so, the doctor is... What they're supposed to do is remove the hair follicles from the ball skin, and they're supposed to do this first. Don't ask me how. I didn't look, but they're supposed to do that. And see, if you don't do that, what happens is the hairs, they would grow inside their new reconstructed vagina, and in turn would get horrible, horrible infections. John was...
was known to forget to remove the hair follicles from time to time. Many of his patients were getting a lot of infections. There were many patients who came out of the procedure with just non-working parts, little holes in places that didn't even make sense, parts removed with nothing replaced, infections galore, and abscesses, which I never really knew what an abscess looked like.
So naturally, I'm curious. Out of this whole story, this is the one thing I did Google. I was like, what's an abscess look like? When I tell you the regret of that Google search, this was happening on not everyone, but a lot of people's lower regions. I'm squeezing my butt cheeks together right now so hard. Like, whew.
This guy was just fucking people up and he was like, "Well, you know, I'm just practicing. I don't know. Eat a hot dog." Dr. John performed something he called an ileum loop. Basically, he made a vagina not out of a penis, but what he did, new idea, new innovation of his, he was like, "Hey, what if I used part of the intestine and like reconstructed a vagina out of that?" Now, unsure where he got this idea of his,
but this would end up causing bigger problems. I guess what happens is like your intestines, well, they're used to help like digest your food. Okay, great. So when it's digesting your food, it secretes enzymes and it secretes, just it secretes, secretions are happening and that breaks down all the food and whatnot. So the intestines are gonna do their job and still secrete enzymes and whatnot. And I guess it smells horrible. So
one patient who he tried this on, this poor patient had a vagina that allegedly just reeked, like reeked because it was intestine. So, I mean, it makes sense, but it's like, what was this guy? Like, maybe he should have opened a book. I don't know. I don't know.
We don't know. There was another woman who came after John and really tried, well tried to sue, but also just take down John after she almost died from his quote unquote work. For some reason, after the operation, she developed, look, look, she developed a hole, a brand new hole between her rectum and her vagina. So there's like a new hole there.
And she said that literal poop, literal poop would just like run right out of her. 'Cause like there's no muscle, you know, like it was just, she even said at times the poop would be quote pouring out. Yeah, that sucks. I'd be pissed too. That's a life-ruiner right there. Well, because of this person coming forward, John actually ends up
getting arrested. Right? Bravo! Yay! Finally he's arrested! The year's like 1990. He's arrested and he only ends up spending 19 months in prison for practicing without a medical license. I'm taking a moment of pause and reflection because you think it would there would be more importance to this. Like you would be longer than 19 months I feel like
especially because this is his second time getting caught doing this, you think this would be a major red flag and that they would put him in prison for...
longer period. But again, who am I? I don't know. You know, like we don't know anything. Silly us. We're dumb. Well, like I had mentioned earlier, like John was considered like this savior and this doctor who was willing to do what no other doctor would wanted to do. And Justina's like this kind of good guy, but boy, the tables were turning. John, at this point, people were talking in
and word is spreading about how he is just fucking up people left and right. And it seemed like, okay, he's definitely doing more harm than he is good. Law enforcement was really also over this guy. Like they had been keeping their eye on him. It's just, well, were they? They said they were, but it's like, were you?
Because he said he was doing this for 25 years. Anyways, they're over this guy. And it wasn't just law enforcement who was over this guy. The trans community was also over this guy. A lot of other surgeons who kept having to fix all of John's botched surgeries also over this guy. And...
And it felt like more and more patients were coming into these doctors asking to help be fixed from Dr. John. It was becoming like this new normal for them. Well, hopefully you would think, you know, with time spent in prison, it would give John some time to reflect and maybe think that maybe it's not God's plan. Maybe there's something else for you, John. Maybe you should do something else. So he gets out of prison.
And this is when he decides to start working a quote unquote normal job. So he starts working as a taxi driver for about a year. But he felt this deep calling again. His calling. He's like, I need to go back to Mexico and keep doing my surgeries. Rebranding.
So he did just that once again. At this point, John is doing all types of surgeries. I mean, it's not just gender reassignment. He's doing basically any type of plastic surgery. So he's doing boobies, facelifts, tummy tucks, lipo, giving people new noses, you name it. John was really down to try. He would say yes to anything. "I could do that, yeah."
he'd probably open a book once and be like, "Got it, here we go." So he's back doing the same old shit, just different day. So let's jump to the year 1998. That's where we meet a man named Greg Firth.
Greg Firth, yes. Now, Greg was desperate to have his leg amputated. Yeah, it just sounds so weird. This one was new to me because I never heard of this either. I was learning so much with the story because, okay, Greg was desperate to have his leg amputated. He desperately wanted his healthy leg removed.
Let me explain, let me explain because this is a real thing. This is considered a very rare psychological disorder called aptinonyphilia. I probably nailed it. It's a real disorder. Some people refer to it as a fetish. I'm not sure, you know, but look, it's a real thing. Now this is when you have a very
very strong urge to have a physically healthy limb removed. For example, I guess with this situation that I pray to God I'd never have or experience and bless those who do because boy, this sounds like it fucking sucks. These people struggle with like, they'll feel like their arm isn't theirs and it doesn't belong to them. And then they have all this anxiety around this foreign thing on their body.
And they desperately just like need to cut it off. They need to get rid of it. Yes, yes. I mean, huh? What? Yeah, yeah. I was like, huh? Huh? Could you imagine how horrible? Oh my God. I did a little bit of digging on this because I was like, tell me more. What the fuck?
It's like there's only 200 people who have reported to have this psychological disorder. But again, I kept coming across articles that called it a fetish. And I don't know what to call it. Either way, it just sounds really scary, awful, and sad. So the problem here is that
most doctors agree that gender reassignment surgery does no harm because it's simply making a change for the better. These people can go on to live happier lives, be better, live healthier, happier, you know, it's for the better. Amputating a healthy limb for what seems to be no reason, doctors consider this not to be the same thing,
And therefore, doctors cannot perform this operation because most likely they would lose their license over it. But you know who wouldn't lose their license? John.
because he doesn't have one. Oh dear, yes. So John's like, "Yeah, I'll cut off a leg. You want your leg cut off? Sure. If that's what you want, sure. John is down." So circling back to Greg, Greg is suffering from this and he desperately wants his leg removed. So he travels down to go see John and he asks, "John, will you do this amputation for me?" Explains the whole situation. It sounded like John didn't really even ask questions. He was just kind of like, "All right, sure." He agrees, they're gonna do it.
Greg heads in for surgery, but I mean something out of a movie because Greg said that at the very last minute he was laying down and he's looking around the room and he was like noticing how unclean everything was. And he was like the tools were dirty and like rusted and like.
It just wasn't clean. So Greg gets that feeling in his gut. He tells the doctor, he tells Dr. John like, "Okay, just stop. I have to stop. I don't think I could do this." He tells him that he doesn't feel comfortable with going through with this and decides to just back out, like right at the last minute.
Woo. So Greg totally backs out of the situation, which is good for him. But unfortunately, Greg says that he actually felt bad for bailing
on John's surgery. So he tells John, like, I actually have a friend who suffers from the same disorder and I'll recommend you to him. So Greg contacts his friend and this friend is a 79 year old man. He's suffering from the same condition. And his name is Philip Bondi. And again, Philip too had suffered from the same thing as Greg and wanted his leg removed. So
So Greg is telling this Philip guy like, yeah, I found a doctor who'll do it. Bleep, blop, bloop. Just giving all the details. If he were a true friend, he would have mentioned what he noticed when he was about to get the surgery done. But can't judge. So...
This sounds great to Philip. Philip's like, "Dude, I am 79 years old. I am ready to have this leg removed." Okay, it's been here for far too long. May 9th, 1998, Philip goes in for surgery. Now, surgery goes well, leg is removed, and it was said Philip was quite happy with the results.
The results being that he didn't have his leg anymore. Philip did have one complaint. It was said that he had one complaint. And that complaint was that towards the end of the procedure, he said the medication wore off and he woke up and he could feel his leg being sawed off. So three out of five stars, maybe? I'm not sure. But look, Philip in the end, he was...
happy. Now, according to Dr. John, this was the first time allegedly he had ever done this procedure. And I guess he was unsure what to do with the amputated leg. I'm not sure what doctors do with amputated legs either. And John, there's like, you can't just Google it, right? John didn't know what to do. So he's like, okay, uh,
I know what to do. He drives out to the middle of nowhere, middle of nowhere, just as far as he can go. John takes the amputated leg, throws it out of the car window, and just hopes that the animals will take care of it. And that's...
where the leg went. So since this procedure was very, very illegal, Dr. John made sure, or at least he tried to make sure and cover his tracks. It's like Diddy though, he threw a leg out the window. So after the procedure with Philip was done, Dr. John puts Philip
in a hotel in San Diego at the Holiday Inn and drops him off, left him alone in a room, no aftercare or anything. And Phillip just like really tried his best to power through the healing process. It wouldn't take long for Phillip to notice that his healing process was not going to be easy, nor was it going smoothly.
Things were not great. Philip had apparently called down to like the hotel front desk on two different occasions because he needed help getting back into his bed. He needed help getting to and from the bathroom. He had fallen out of his bed trying to get to the hotel phone in the first place. When he was able to get to the phone, he asked for help to get back into bed. Now with these phone calls coming through to the hotel team,
They are starting to kind of recognize like, hmm, something's kind of going on with this guy. One of the hotel staff members noticed that Philip seemed to be in a lot of pain and also that it was kind of a bloody mess in there. Like his stump wasn't, it was still bleeding. It didn't seem to be taken care of.
Anyways, this person offered to call the paramedics. Like, do you need, I think you need help, bro. And Phillip kept saying like, no, no, no, don't call anybody. I'm fine. It's fine. Everything's fine. So Phillip ends up talking to his friend, Greg, the one who recommended him for the surgery, you know? So he talks to Greg on the phone. He's telling him what's going on, telling him that he's alone and in a lot of pain.
Greg decides to fly out and he ends up checking into like a connecting hotel room so he could be there, take care of his friend and nurse him, you know, during the healing process since there was literally no aftercare. You think like Dr. John would like give some vitamins or something like here's a cream. Put it on. You're welcome.
but nothing. Greg said that he and Philip stayed up all night talking about how Philip felt so much better. Not like physically, but he felt that he had finally achieved his goal in life, which was having only one leg and that he was really happy about it. And then the two of them went to bed
And that was that. The next morning, Greg comes into the hotel room to bring Philip breakfast and, you know, check on him. And that's when he discovers his friend was dead. Now, not just like dead in his sleep. Greg called it a quote unquote chaotic scene. Now, according to Greg, the scene was intense.
He said that Philip was laying half on the bed and half off of the bed. He had blood oozing from what looked like his blackened stump. Also, he noticed that the hotel phone was like tipped over. He did have a wheelchair. Philip had a wheelchair. Wheelchair was completely flipped upside down and the bed sheets were all pulled out.
So it was clear that Philip, he knew things were bad. Maybe he knew he was dying. And he was really struggling to get to the phone for help. Sadly, though, Philip did not make it. I mean, it was brutal and extremely heartbreaking for Greg, as I'm sure it would be for anyone. A medical examiner said that Philip died from something called gaseous gangrene.
which is like a flesh eating bacteria that it kills extremely quickly, but sadly is very treatable if caught early on. So where were you, John? John, you should have just like antibiotics or something, right? During their procedure, John had not left a large enough skin flap to properly cover the bone and stump, which then allowed the infection to grow, which then produced like the gangrene.
So he didn't have enough practice, I guess, would be his excuse.
He's like, "It was my first time, give me a break." Well, someone ends up calling the cops. Not sure if it was Greg or someone at the hotel itself, but the police do come out and investigate the situation at the Holiday Inn. So Greg tells the police officers that Phillip actually lost his leg in a recent car accident that happened in Mexico. And he was in the hotel trying to recover from this car accident. The detectives were like,
It's a little, it's a smash. Because look, they were thinking, if you're in a car accident, why was his leg the only thing that was hurt? Like nothing else. He had no bruises anywhere, no bumps, no little cuts.
no just other signs of injury anything else just the leg removed so instantly they knew something something ain't right you're lying greg lie out so police are kind of like looking around the room for any clues or anything and luckily they come across a big clue they find two different receipts
Now there's nothing better than receipts. So one of them was for $5,000. It was a receipt $5,000 and on it, it said surgery. That's it. And they also find another receipt for $5,000. But on this one, it just said hospitalization, which is like, what's he paying five grand for? I feel like he got ripped off there. So obviously this is gonna bring further questions, but lucky for the police officers and detectives, right at the bottom of the receipt,
was the name Dr. John Ronald Brown. Whether this was a car accident or not, they knew that they had to go talk and find this John Ronald Brown guy. Luckily, he was pretty easy to find. So detectives show up at the apartment where John is staying at and they're like, "Hey, well, 'cause he's not in trouble yet. They haven't proven anything." So they're like, "Hey, John, like, can you come down to the department? We just wanna ask you for a statement."
This guy died, we just want a statement. John was like, "Okay, I don't mind giving a little statement. That's fine." So he gets dressed. According to detectives and whatnot, they said that he just looked like, again, like the mayonnaise stains were just all over his shirt. The mayonnaise stains. Triggered.
Anyways, okay, so John goes down and instead of giving just a little statement John gave them a 29 page statement. This guy just when given the opportunity he had things to say. He initially avoided saying that he had actually amputated Phillip's leg but he did acknowledge that he had driven Phillip to the clinic and then he visited him at the Holiday Inn the following day to like look over the wound and he told all
officers that when he went to the Holiday Inn, he noticed that there was like some minor red marks and also the stump had a pale blue tint to it. So the police were like, "Why don't you help him out there?" But John said that he didn't want to give antibiotics because he thought it seemed quote, "clean enough." Oh, okay. All right. Thanks doc. Meanwhile, this is all going down, right? The questioning.
Police were actually searching John's apartment. They had gotten a warrant and all that good stuff. Great. So they're inside of John's apartment and boy, the mess they saw. Now this was like gross, real gross. Inside of John's apartment, they found bloody shoes, bloody pillows, used needles. There were like a bunch of bloody towels in the bathtub and they were soaking in bleach.
Also, they noted that the mattress, the mattress was covered and like soaked in blood. And then they found two or three dozen empty tubes of crazy glue.
Let that sink in, 'cause I know you know what he used that Krazy Glue for. If you don't know, maybe you don't know, but Krazy Glue is a fast-acting, strong adhesive. Now, assuming here, 'cause I've done this in the past, I'm no pillow princess. I've definitely used Krazy Glue to like, you know, seal up a cut.
whatever, maybe you've done that too, I don't know. But I'm assuming, and they were assuming, he was probably using this to seal up wounds and all that stuff, who really knows? But it seemed to be his go-to item, the Krazy Glue, staple in his practice. Now there was another major key piece of evidence that they came across, a bunch of videotapes.
Oh yes, videotapes, videotapes. Nothing good is on a videotape. John, you see what he did? He had his medical assistants record some of his procedures and he was gonna use this as like a before and after, as promo video. Like here's what they look like before and then here's after.
And then some of the videos appear to be more of like training videos for other doctors. So he just had a bunch of different videos and that was really the jackpot 'cause it showed the detectives everything. 'Cause yeah, I mean, it couldn't get any better than that. That's like what was gonna seal the deal. Circling back to John who was being questioned. If you've ever watched like a police questioning thing,
They're all over YouTube. But usually the police will step out for a minute and leave the person being questioned in the room alone, right? So John was left alone and John was getting impatient. Like he said that he had grown quite bored and he was a little upset that there was nothing to read. So John, in his mind, he didn't think he was in trouble.
So he just got up and walked out of the building and just decided to walk home. He thought he was done. He was like, "All right, I'm out." So John's walking home and that's when he said it didn't take long before he noticed that he was surrounded by 10 to 12 different officers. They roll up and arrest him. He was truly dumbfounded. Like he really did not understand why he was being arrested or what he even did wrong.
And this was kind of like a common theme throughout the story is that John just like, he didn't, I don't know what the word is for that, but he didn't have that, he wasn't aware of himself, of his actions. He was in his own fucking world. He was in his own world. He was like, "I didn't do anything wrong. What are you guys arresting me for? I don't get it." Yeah, I threw a leg out the window, but it was in Mexico. Like he just didn't get it. So John's arrested, great. And at his trial, the prosecution,
Felt like. They had solid evidence. I mean, they had a bunch of victim testimonies from over the decades John had been practicing and they also had videotapes of his illegal surgeries. Some were just straight up disgusting. The judge had to watch the videotapes because they're the judge and they have to see the evidence.
And it was said that the judge actually was so grossed out by the tapes that they had asked for them to be turned off, which was like, to us probably sounds like, okay. But for a judge to do that, it had to be pretty brutal. You get it? You get it. But they had to watch it anyways. Like he couldn't not watch the video tapes. So in one of the videos, this is all the information I could get from these videos. In one of the videos, I guess you can see somebody's balls. You could see that the balls were removed
and then stuck to the wall with push pins. Unsure as to what that was showcasing, but balls on the wall was on the tapes. I think that's like enough in itself to tell you that whatever's happening is not, I don't know. That was literally the only story I could get from the videotapes, balls on the wall. I'm like, that's...
Not that I want to see the gory, nasty stuff. It was just like, give me a little bit more. What else? I mean, balls on the wall is weird. That's weird. What was that about? What was that shot needed for? We don't know. And I guess that's probably why John should be in prison. Boom. I should be a judge.
The game was finally over for Dr. John Ronald Brown. He was convicted of one count of second degree murder, as well as an additional seven counts of unlawful practice of medicine. John was sentenced to 15 years to life. Now mind you, he's 75 years old at this time, so it's basically a life sentence, but let's just imagine in a crazy world that he's only like 30.
15 years to life. I don't know. Did they ever find the leg? I don't know. I don't know. It's fine because it's essentially a life sentence. After going to prison, this is where John, I think he truly was not mentally well because he's in prison and he still genuinely did not understand why he was there. He really thought that he was just a normal person
Okay, a little shady doctor who just happened to have a patient die. And he kind of was pushing this narrative, like, especially in court. Like, look, if any doctor has a patient die, shouldn't they be arrested too? Like, what's the difference between me and them? A license, but, you know. He...
Drugs? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. His brain just like could not compute the situation at all. John did appeal numerous times, but he never got out of prison. He was there for at least 12 years and then he would end up dying of pneumonia at the age of 88. Which is really a shame because after he died they found like these master plans that John was working on. It was master plans on how to cure AIDS and
According to his notes, he was gonna do so with this special hyperbaric chamber that had yet been invented, but he was gonna work out those details behind bars. I'm sure there'd be probably one person willing to try it. Many find John to be, again, is polarizing the word? When it comes to John, many feel that he did good and he did bad. And I think a lot of people have a hard time
With that, how can somebody be good and bad? But it's like, you know...
I don't know. I don't know. He did a lot of like awful, terrible procedures on people. He did a lot of harm on them. And he also did some good as well. Nobody really knows what his true intentions were. A lot of people just kind of called him a little quote unquote like crazy. But many wonder like, did he actually have good intentions with his work? Did he go into it wanting to help? Or did he just see an opportunity to take advantage of
a situation since he didn't have a license or was he just a complete psychopath? I don't know. A lot of people were just left with many questions and same here. Last night I was thinking, I was just like, I don't know. Like I mean, I don't think he should have been doing what he's doing. We can all agree on that, right? Great. But I can see
The good and the bad. I don't fucking know. No, he's dead. RIP. Anyways, you may be watching this at home like, oh my god, wow, that's crazy. But just so you know, like the black market when it comes to doctors and whatnot is still very much around. I've heard of people going to plastic surgeons in very shady areas to get fillers. It's real shady. You just like never know what you're gonna get. I was...
When researching this story, I came across so many recent stories about people who went to a plastic surgeon to get filler or implants and instead got
Like instead of a filler they got like liquid, was it asphalt? It was something wild instead. So be careful. I don't know because I also understand it. The need for an affordable option, not the need but the want for an affordable option, especially when it comes to a major surgery or when it comes to something small like
You may not agree with it, but I definitely, like I understand both sides, you know? And then this is like a bigger topic. It comes into whole healthcare and like, don't open that door. Oh, fuck. For those of you out there who maybe want to go see a doctor in a shady ass garage, I would say one thing and one thing only, don't do it, but listen to your intuition. Follow your heart.
♪ Yo intuition ♪ Like that great guy. Too bad though he like gave his friend, ah fuck, this story's just fucked up. Hey, Lula rogue girl though. This is her uncle. Scamming people runs in the family. Maybe. Anyways, John should have been taken down a long, long time ago. Unfortunately, that just did not happen. And that is that. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Make good choices.
Shall we? Yes. And I will be seeing you guys very soon. Have a good day. I said that. Okay, bye.