Fdr's Deadly Secret

Pearl Harbor by Steven M.Gillon. FDR and Cocaine

2011-11-05T15:58:00.000-07:00

My co-author Eric Fettmann, who has read an advance copy of a new FDR book by Steven M. Gillon entitled "Pearl Harbor" discusses certain aspects of FDR's health. I'm told in particular he theorizes how Dr. McIntire treated FDR on a daily basis with nasal medicine for his "sinus" condition that contained cocaine. He further notes that a number of physicians confirmed that cocaine was commonly employed at this time. In the 1960's when I was an operating room technician, before med school, cocaine was routinely employed as an anesthetic for nasal treatments and still is today.

The use of cocaine by FDR for "sinus treatments" is not surprising. We know, from readily available information that from mid-1939, FDR saw McIntire on a daily basis for "sinus treatments". I believe the only incorrect assumption is that cocaine was being used to treat FDR for chronic sinusitis. Cocaine is a powerful anesthetic and vasoconstrictor and was being used to combat the pain brought on by the constant irritation from therapy. With the goal of affecting a slow cosmetic removal of the cancerous lesion, FDR had innumerable painful procedures over his left eye and in his sinuses, performed by McIntire Between early 1940 and late 1941. Daily use of cocaine obviously leads to addiction, ceasing use, brings about a"rebound" phenomenon, a nasal swelling and intense congestion begging for more cocaine. Mcintire had no problem obtaining cocaine for medical use.

Yes, FDR was probably dependent on cocaine from 1939 on. The really interesting part is how it affected the other aspects of his health, i.e. his blood pressure, and even more so his personality and decision making. I would refer the reader to "An Anatomy of an Addiction" by Howard Markel, 2011, Pantheon Books, which provides an excellent and detailed discussion of the effect of cocaine on Sigmund Freud and William Stewart Halsted. It is a good basis for the non-medical historian to begin to understand how FDR really functioned.

Unfortunately, the historical community continues assess Franklin Roosevelt as Howard Bruenn portrayed him and not how he really was. McIntire's continuous assertion that he rarely touched his patient is so much crap, he was a top notch physician and FDR always received the best medical care. McIntire knew how dangerous this was for FDR, he had not other options. Sometimes the best medical care creates addiction.

A Tale of Two Presidential Medical Coverups. Grover Cleveland and Franklin Roosevelt

2011-10-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a great example of how one cover-up was revealed and yet another perpetuated.

My reading of the recent (highly recommended) book By Matthew Algeo "The President is a Sick Man" brought about this post. You will soon discover why.

On July 1, 1893 Grover Cleveland had an extensive surgical procedure aboard the yacht Oneida to remove a (subsequently biopsy proven) cancer of the hard palate. A second surgery was eventually performed and he was fitted with a prosthesis (now in the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia) to replace the portions of his upper jaw (maxilla).

On August 29, 1898, reporter Elisha Jay Edwards

of the Philadelphia Press published the following article exposing the absolute truth of the incident based on an eyewitness account.

Two days later he followed it with a confirmation with even greater detail.

The White House, assisted by the reports of a rival newspaperman, Alexander McClure of the Philadelphia Times, went on a campaign to deny Edwards' story.

On September 1, 1893, The New York Daily Tribune published the following story which continued and cemented the cover-up

Edwards was villified. Twenty four years later he was vindicated. In September 1917, one of the operating surgeons, W.W. (Willlam Williams) Keen

wrote an article in the Saturday Evening Post that confirmed the story. Kean followed the story with a book, the first edition of which being a proud addition to my library. Kean lived to the ripe old age of 95. Kean was also connected to Roosevelt. He was called to Campobello at he outset of FDR's polio in 1921 and misdiagnosed him as having a spinal cord infarction (stroke). Most famously, he submitted an outrageous bill for his services to the family.

On April 13, 1945, Chicago Tribune reporter Walter Trohan (here with great Republican senator from Ohio, Robert Taft, who died of Cancer at age 63)

published on the front page of the Chicago Tribune, the following account of Franklin Roosevelt's (who died of cancer at age 63) health on the day after his death. Trohan lived to the ripe old age of 100 and was never publically villified for his article. Presidential physician Ross McIntire simply ignored it, as did the American public.

Twenty five years later, FDR's physician Howard Bruenn (here with Samuel Rosenman) published a paper that perpetuated and reinforced the cover-up, one that still needs to be continuously reiterated, despite our widely circulated book.

The ghost of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the most powerful man of the twentieth century, continues to exert its influence. Eventually, acceptance of Roosevelt's cancer will equal that of Cleveland's. Unfortuately, the process will have taken more far more than twenty-four years!

Sometimes doctors explode cover-ups after a quarter of a century- sometimes they perpetuate them.

"Hyde Park on the Hudson" Bill Murray, Margaret Suckley

2011-09-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

There will be quite a bit of attention paid in a year or so to a movie, adapted from a British play with the above title centered around a visit of King George VI to Hyde Park. I am sure it will be well written well produced and well acted as Bill Murray and Laura Linney will be playing the featured roles. The movie asserts a physically intimate "incestuous" relationship between FDR and his distant cousin Margaret Suckley. (I might point out here that the the second most influential man in FDR's life after his father, Reverend Endicott Peabody, was married to his first cousin).

The facts of the matter, though, are far from the reality. Whether or not FDR and Margaret Suckley ever physically consummated their relationship is still a matter of great speculation. By far the leading expert on the relationship is the renowned historian Geoffery Ward, who has not publicly opined on the matter. I'm sure after all the hoopla the press will be beating a path to his door to find out what he thinks.

My take is that Daisy, as FDR called the spinster Suckley (pronounced sook-lee), and the President were never physically intimate, though clearly she filled a very special emotional role in FDR's life. FDR, for all the public aplomb, was a very lonely man and enjoyed gossip. Daisy was the vehicle to share his intimate thoughts and kept him up on all of the goings on in Hyde Park. Their correspondence and her famous diary reveals that Daisy had a deep and enduring love for her distant cousin. I'm not sure that FDR was capable of loving anyone other than himself, though he surely had a great affection for her and let down his guard with Daisy as much as any person that can be documented.

Until 1941, FDR was intimately involved with Marguerite Alice "Missy" Lehand. He also had a fling with publisher Dorothy Schiff. FDR liked woman and was a flirt but it would be doubtful that Missy would have tolerated her "FD" having another steady bedmate. In the mid-twenties, as the great historian Frank Costigliola points out, FDR spent far more time alone with Missy rehabiliating from polio on the houseboat Larooco than he did with Eleanor. Unfortunately, all of the pertinent correspondence between FDR and Missy has been destroyed (unlike FDR's medical records!) Just to add another twist to this amazingly tangled web of intimacy, Missy was also in love with FDR confidante William Bullitt, who himself was concurrently involved in a homosexual relationship! (see Costigliola). Admittedly, this all sounds very strange, but it is indeed the case.

After 1918, Eleanor evolved into a role of a sister rather than a wife. She had a great respect for FDR and his ambition to be the POTUS and did what she could to assist him to that end. They entered into a peculiar, even bizarre by some standards, relationship, whereupon he set her up at Val Kill, where he established a furniture business for her and she lived in a blissful menage a trois with a well known lesbian couple, Nancy Cook and Marian Dickerman. The three women all taught at a prominent NYC girls school. Of course the love of Eleanor's life was the cigar-smoking reporter Lorena Hickok. One needs to go no farther than Rodger Streitmatter's 1998 publication of their correspondence "Empty Without You" to fully appreciate this. During FDR's Presidency, Eleanor would dutifully show up for ceremonial events and knit during a fireside chat, but other than matters of the children and Eleanor's "causes", that was about the extent of their relationship.

Now let's go back to the weekend of "Hyde Park on the Hudson." Daisy's diary, which I will address in more detail later, finds her to be an interested yet distant observer of the pomp and circumstance. It is doubtful that she played any greater role than that. The real female hero of the event was FDR's favorite daughter-in law, Betsey Cushing (yes, her father was the neurosurgical icon, Harvey Cushing) Roosevelt, who was more or less the official hostess. Eleanor wanted little to do with the whole event. Betsy was charming and filled the bill with great success.

Betsey was married at the time to FDR's oldest son Jimmy. After Jimmy took up with his nurse, they divorced (the first of four for him) and married the exceedingly wealthy and accomplished Jock Whitney. Whitney later became ambassador to the court of St. James where Betsey established a close and unique relationship with queen to be Elizabeth (who, with Margaret, did not make the 1939 trip). Betsey was truly one of the great women of the twentieth century as a patron of the arts and philanthroper. Interestingly and perhaps tellingly, her children with James were adopted by Whitney and abandoned the Roosevelt name! Hopefully someone will write a long overdue biography of Betsey.

Now that I've shocked most of you with the facts, I am going to enter into some educated speculation about Daisy and the "P" as she referred to him in her diary. "FDR's Closest Companion" edited and wonderfully annotated by Geoffery Ward is really all we have to historically assess their relationship. It is an exceedingly valuable tool and a must read for anyone attempting to understand FDR. The diary does, though, raise almost as many questions as it answers.

Virtually the most important years of the relationship between FDR and Daisy were from 1939 to 1941. In these years, Daisy gave FDR Fala, whose activities she virtually obsessed on. Likewise, the time included FDR's decision to run for an unprecedented third term and all of the monumental events that occurred prior to America's entry into World War Two. It also included the years that his pigmented lesion was cosmetically removed and the time he nearly died from a massive gastrointestinal bleed. In fact, the only entry into in the usher's diary on the night that FDR was nearest to death was, yes, Margaret Suckley. Yet for all of this, Daisy's diary is notably silent. It is also notable that nowhere does Daisy address the seizures that were observed and recorded by dozens of people with far less access to the president.

OK, now for the speculation: Of course, Daisy knew about all of FDR's medical problems. After FDR opened his library in 1941, he gave Daisy the job of "archivist", a position she occupied for many years after his death. While FDR was alive, he, with Daisy's assistance, made sure that not an iota of evidence about his health problems made it to the shelves. After he died, it was Daisy's mission to continue the job. Either she destroyed the sensitive parts of the diary or Doctors McIntire and Bruenn went over the diary together with her.

There is not a doubt in my mind that if Daisy knew of FDR's wishes to suppress the knowledge of any notion of his illness, she absolutely would have done everything in her power to follow them- and there is little doubt that she knew, though with a highly unsophisticated fund of medical knowledge. What remains of her diary is a sanitized version to best comport with FDR's wishes. I suspect the final product is a collaboration between her and Bruenn, who after 1970 created the presently accepted fairy tale of FDR's health.

OK. Now I've said it. I doubt many will believe what I just committed to cyber-posterity but somewhere down the line perhaps it will be appreciated.

Thanks for listening. comments appreciated.

My reward for an unedited video of the March 1, 1945 speech is now $15,000. (like the scientist who recently offered a cash reward to Michelle Bachman to produce a single person who is mentally retarded from an HPV vaccination, I have no expectation whatsoever that I will ever have to pay!)

Review of David M. Jordan's FDR, Dewey and the Election of 1944

2011-09-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

Since I am sensitive to the fact that posting a negative review on Amazon will adversely affect the sales of Mr Jordan's work (my critics were aware of this and used it to that end) I have decided instead to confine my comments to this blog.

Perhaps this review will be viewed as sour grapes, but as long as non-physician historians continue to opine upon medical facts, I feel obliged to defend the thesis put forth in "FDR's Deadly Secret" that Mr. Jordan dismissed in one sentence as "not dispositive".

This work once again echoes "the gospel according to Bruenn", that has influenced every FDR biography since James MacGregor Burns' Pulitzer Prize-winning work done in collaboration with Dr. Bruenn in 1969.
Mr Jordan even quotes Turner Catledge's July 1944 account of FDR's seizures without ever stating the reason for this behavior. My neurological colleagues, ones who are qualified to judge the veracity of my allegations, have chosen to publish my article on FDR's epilepsy as fact in their prestigious journal NEUROLOGY.

FDR's battle with cancer and other health problems played an ongoing and important role in many of his most important decisions, especially his obsessive focus on the establishment of the United Nations. FDR ran in 1944 because he felt that he could best accomplish this goal as a sitting president.

FDR's Deadly Secret has taken the important step of exposing the long-standing deception perpetrated by FDR and carried out by Doctors McIntire and Bruenn. Without consideration of the reality of FDR's health, any narrative of his life, especially from the period after 1940, cannot be considered valid.

An Amazing FDR Artifact. His T-Shirt from February 2, 1944

2011-08-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

The story of how the existence of this T-shirt came to light defies all odds.

On February 2, 1944, FDR went to Bethesda Naval Hospital for an operation to remove a "wen",known to doctors as an epidermoid cyst, from the back of his head at the hairline. It was described by Daisy Suckley to be about the size of a bantam's egg.

While the procedure was well known to have occurred, remarkable for anything pertaining to FDR's health, the details were not. Until the recent publication of Harry Goldsmith's book, rumors were rampant whether this was indeed a benign cyst of something more sinister and malignant.

The operation was one of the subjects addressed in the press conference of February 4th, where the President deflected the problem in his characteristic style of it to reporters with some humorous, inane comments.

The surgeon had been thought to be Winchell Craig, the chief of Neurosurgery at Bethesda. In fact, he was indeed present and scrubbed in but as first assistant to George Webster, the chief of plastic surgery. This fact was revealed in a letter from Webster to Goldsmith that Harry put in his book.

Webster's letter also confirms that the surgical lesion was indeed a wen. He also described that the surgery was inordinately bloody and FDR's t-shirt became soaked with blood and had to be removed and replaced.

After the procedure it was found, to the dismay of all present, that the bloody t-shirt had mysteriously disappeared. The entire hospital was locked down and searched but the shirt was never located. Webster bemoaned to Goldsmith that the fate of the t-shirt would never be known.

This is where an astounding degree of serendipity enters the picture.

About six years ago I was in Dayton, Ohio at the annual convention of collectors of Pulp magazines known as pulpcon (it has since been moved to Columbus). As most of my conversations at the time, I was speaking to one of the principal dealers, John Gunnison and the subject of my book on Roosevelt came up, since John was indeed a resident of Bethesda Maryland.

As I mentioned FDR, John piped in:

"my father was one of Roosevelt's medical assistants and worked at Bethesda."

I then mentioned the operation and was flabbergasted when John told me "oh yes, the operation was very bloody and FDR's t-shirt had to be replaced." When I enquired as to how he knew this he exclaimed, "my father was the one who was assigned to get a clean shirt. He took the bloody one, put it in his locker and replaced it with one of hos own!!" This conversation occurred at a time prior to the publication of Webster's letter, so there was absolutely no way that John could have known the story from anyone else and this was the first I had heard of it.

As it turns out, I had told my story to one of only a handful of people in the the world who knew the shirt's whereabouts! The odds of this happening are in the billions!

R.(Rolla) Harry Gunnison, John's father, was a pharmacist's mate at Bethesda whose primary job was to assist Ross McIntire and George Fox in putting together the packets of pills that FDR took when he traveled. (Sadly, Mr. Gunnison died in the 1970's, oh! the secrets he could have revealed)

After purloining the shirt, he took it home where his wife thoroughly laundered it. It has been in the possession of the Gunnison family ever since and John has kindly supplied me with photos.

So here it is, FDR's long lost (formerly) bloody t-shirt.

Another Roosevelt Fairy Tale

2011-07-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

FDR never denied his polio. In fact, he used it to his advantage as an example of how he overcame it to achieve the Presidency. Yet, he never admitted just how disabled he really was, taking extraordinary measures to present to his constituents the picture of a man who was only minimally bothered by his disability.

Here is a wonderful example. I just purchased this photo on ebay that ostensibly shows FDR after his polio riding a horse. With the state of his legs, this is simply impossible.

This must have been a very calm horse, for if he had taken a step, FDR would have surely fallen off. No doubt a skilled rider was just off camera should any problem had arisen.

I've included the back of the photo that confirms that this was (allegedly) taken after 1921,

The Yalta Speech. Reward Now $10,000. What was FDR's greatest speech?

2011-06-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

I recently offerred a $5000 reward for the first person to produce an unedited complete video of the speech delivered by FDR on March 1, 1945 to a national radio audience and a joint session of congress. I have now increased that amount to $10,000. It might as well be a million.

There is little dispute as to FDR's top two speeches: The first inaugural "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" and the day following December 7, 1941 "The day that will live in infamy". Take your pick which is better- they're both forever etched in history as among the greatest ever given (personally I vote for the first inaugural).

After that, there's room for debate. The March 1945 Yalta speech is my vote for number three in importance, obviously not on the basis of the horrendous oratorical performance, but as his final effort to consolidate his presidency into a legacy for the future of the world, The United Nations. It was the last ditch effort of a dying man to do what his mentor Woodrow Wilson could not, establish a successful vehicle to establish world peace.

What is not appreciated, despite every effort on my part, is that FDR actually knew he was doomed before his third term. Nonetheless, Frank Lahey put an exclamation point on it in July 1944, after which the United Nations became FDR's final obsession.

Unfortunately, Roosevelt's appeasement of "Uncle Joe" Stalin to get it done created an environment from which developed the cold war, Korea and Vietnam. The real tragedy of Yalta was not Poland. This was a "fait accompli" forged at Teheran. Stalin already had his puppet government established in Lublin and wasn't about to compromise his western flank.

The loss of Chiang Kai Shek as leader of China, (no bargain but the far better of two evils) was sealed by the secret agreements made at Yalta, unbeknownst to Chiang, his Cheif of Staff General Albert Wedemeyer and Ambassador Patrick Hurley. For a liberal democrat such as myself this may seem an odd assertion, but more than political philosophy, the hard, cold evidence is uncontrovertable.

The lack of existence of the Yalta Speech video is testimony to the incredible power over the media that FDR established over twelve years. If by some miracle a copy survives, it will blow a huge hole in Howard Brueen's fairy tale and confirm all we have asserted in our book. I'm not holding my breath!

It would be interesting to hear from readers how they rank FDR's top speeches. Please respond with comments to lomazow@comcast.net

A Tale of Two Years

2011-05-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

At the cost of being repetitious, here are a group of photos from 1940 and 1941. I just bought the earliest one, which underscores just how obvious the lesion was on January 5th.

January 5th

November 11th

September 1941

There are many others. I'll just keep hammering away until the increasingly obvious reality becomes the mainstream opinion. There is only one explanation for the changes in its appearance- surgical removal.

Another Small Piece of the Puzzle

2011-05-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

I found this letter on ebay recently in my ongoing search for for details about the real illness of FDR.

It was written in September 1944 by a patient at the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, whose duty was basically to sit around and wait to have a flare-up of malaria so experimental therapy could be undertaken.

Most significantly be writes "By the way, this hospital is the personal pet of President Roosevelt and he has a private suite on the nineteenth floor where he comes for a checkup once in a while".

Of course this was never acknowledged by Ross McIntire or anyone else and this is the first hard documentation of the location of FDR's "private suite" I have ever seen.

A related document comes from a newsletter from the museum devoted to the presidential yacht Potomac, an oral history of a nurse who states that he FDR was at Bethesda every Monday for "swim therapy", a curious assertion to say the least considering FDR had a pool constructed in the White House basement shortly after his first inauguration.

Best guess: the swim was to ease the discomfort from radiation therapy for his prostate and/or face.

Why the Right Didn't Reveal the FDR/ Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd Affair.

2011-05-19T04:34:00.000-07:00

Here's another document from the Westbrook Pegler papers at the Herbert Hoover Library in North Branch, Iowa.

It's a 1949 letter between two conservative (some would say ultra-conservative) journalists, John T. Flynn, author of The Roosevelt Myth (available free online) and Westbrook Pegler, who later "went off he deep end" writing for the John Birch Society.

The letter clearly reflects that both Flynn and Pegler knew the truth of Roosevelt/Mercer affair (as did Walter Trohan as previosly posted on this blog) whereupon Flynn lays out his philosophy as to why the information should not be released. It was not until 1966 that Jonathan Daniels finally came clean with the story that 0thers had been keeping quiet for over a decade and a half.

The letter also contain a bitter attack on the Roosevelt morality, frankly inferring that "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree".

Another Intentionally Deceptive FDR Photo

2011-05-14T18:51:00.001-07:00

This photo is presently on ebay, ostensibly showing FDR standing using a phone with both hands. This is a physiologic impossibility. Someone or something must be holding him up from below or his is being supported in some other way from behind.

The fact of the matter is that he was never able to stand unsupported after 1921. If he attempted this maneuver unassisted he would have fallen flat on his face.

Here's another example. Note the second photo where his left hand is behind his back holding a second cane that can be seen lateral to his left shoe.

FDR never denied he had polio and fought as valiant a fight as any one to overcome it. He did, though, go to great measures, as witnessed above, to hide the extent of his disability. As Carly Simon sung, nobody did it better! People visiting the White House were shocked to find that their president was wheel chair bound.

Sixty Three and Still Going Strong

2011-05-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

Since I am now 63 and was born on January 24th and FDR died at 63 on April 15th 1945 and was born on January 3oth, I have now outlived him. While I feel my age, I am just as active as I was thirty years ago.

Even accounting for the increased longetivity of the present, the cadaveric images from Yalta speak for just how sick our 32nd President was- dying of cancer that still today has not been completely accepted as the cause of his demise.

The official cover story of the deterioration being due to terrible strains of managing the war simply does not hold any water. FDR was working a four hour day the last year of his life and spent months of quiet rest in South Carolina and Georgia.

The Lahey Memorandum

2011-04-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

First of all, I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all of the fine people at Lahey, especially John Libertino, Lisa Polacke, for their hospitality and kindness in putting together a most pleasurable event last weekend. The star of the show was the Lahey Memorandum, the document rescued from destruction through the efforts of Dr. Harry Goldsmith, who was also in attendance. Now lets dissect what the memorandum really says and means.

The two previous posts are required reading.

The first question is why one of the world's pre-eminent surgeons is prognosticating on a cardiac diagnosis, especially so since the notion of hypertension even being dangerous at the time was not widely accepted?This is coupled with the fact that FDR had a serious abdominal problem in April 1944, well documented by Howard Bruenn in 1970, that was not seen or mentioned by Lahey.

Strange indeed.

As I have previously written, Bruenn likely conferred with Lahey over the wording of the memorandum and his 1970 whitewash was purposely designed to be compatible with it. Bruenn surely did not want to be caught in his lie if it came out. He undoudtedly knew about it. The deal was the following: Lahey and McIntire were long standing associates in FDR's treatment and when Lahey expressed concerned about his reputation and place in history. Mcintire recognized this as legitimate. The only continginency was that he could not mention the real reason for the prognosis- FDR's Deadly Secret.

The other interesting aspect of the document is that when it was finally turned over to Linda Strand by the law firm of Herrick and Smith, it was a copy. The original had been "stolen"! John Libertino believes that McIntire, who knew attorney Hanify, destroyed it. He has a hand-written letter from H &S attorney Edward B. Hanify stating that he did not know where the document was. My take was that Howard Bruenn was the culprit. Regardless, Mrs. Strand verified that the copy was indeed from the original.

The other mystery is Lahey's reference to a "trip to Russia". This did not occur until February 1945, long after the July 1944 date of the document. Roosevelt last trip across the Atlantic was Teheran in November 1943. He was also in Casablanca in January 1943, when Mcintire imposed a strict 8000 feet altitude restriction on his flight to protect his heart (a problem he allegedly didn't have until March 1944!).

Oh! What a tangled web we weave!!!

Others beside me know the truth of all this, likely told of it by Howard Bruenn himself. The family's silence is deafening. The ghost of the most powerful man of the twentieth century continues to prevail.

Did Frank Lahey participate in the coverup? Absolutely!

2011-04-07T05:06:00.000-07:00

People in Boston, where the venerable Dr. Frank H. Lahey ruled the roost until his death in 1953, are loath to believe that a man of his ethics (and politics) would participate in a medical coverup. Well, he did. Here's a letter that provides unequivocal proof of that fact, written in late 1944 to Admiral McIntire to explain the circumstances of an interviw by a reporter from a St. Louis newspaper.

The fact of the matter is that within the juggernaut of FDR's powerful medical deceptions, Frank Lahey was just another pawn.

Lahey had a very intense relationship with McIntire as one of the leaders of the military medical effort from 1942. Here is that proof as well.

This is only one of a number of panels of medical superstars that Lahey chaired for Mcintire during the war. Another panel included William Calhoun Stirling, FDR's urologist.

This is probably the time Lahey began seeing FDR professionally as well, or perhaps even earlier during the time of Roosevelt's, massive lower GI bleed between May and July 1942. Its only logical that as one of the world's leading experts, Lahey would have been consulted, though theres not one iota of proof (FDR was exceedingly efficient at covering up his medical problems).

The two great physicians had great respect for each other. That is the reason why Mcintire permitted Lahey to file his memorandum so that his reputation would be respected. One thing that can't be proven, though is highly likely to have occurred, is a deal between the two men whereupon Lahey was not permitted to reveal the real reason for his participation- Cancer.

This is why we are in the very peculiar position of a leading abdominal surgeon offering a cardiac prognosis and a brilliant clinical cardiologist (Bruenn) treating an acute abdomen (at Hobcaw in April 1944). None of this makes apparent sense, but in the context of the cover-up it does.

"In the last couple of years I used Howard"

2011-04-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

In 1951, as a result of a renewed accusation that FDR was "the sick man at Yalta" byJames A. Farley, Ross McIntire went into a "protect the boss" mode and, as the keeper of FDR's Deadly Secret granted an interview to U.S. News & World Report to squelch the rumors.

Of course the good and ever loyal Dr. McIntire went to his grave in 1959 denying that FDR had basically nothing more than a cold during his presidency. The whole interview is classic Mcintire, a collection of fabrications that even present day "mainstream" FDR historians would recognize as such. But there is one very revealing sentence that does irreparable harm to the fairy tale concocted by Howard Bruenn in 1970, one that that the very same historians consider gospel.

On the top of the third column of the page above, Mcintire, when asked about Bruenn, casually states "In the last couple of years I used Howard as I had used Dr. Duncan before him." The two year time period is also noted in his 1946 book and in 1946 correspondence back and forth between McIntire and Bruenn. Yet Bruenn, in his highly calculated 1970 work of medical half truths states unequivocally "I first saw the President in March 1944", something he made up as the keeper of the secret after Mcintire passed the torch, either actively or by his demise. Yet every major biography of FDR since continues to buy into this poppycock.

My Lahey Clinic lecture with Harry Goldsmith is in four days. Barring miracles, It will be the highlight of my FDR year.

$5000 Reward Offer

2011-04-03T10:46:00.000-07:00

I will pay $5000 cash for a complete unedited video of FDR's March 1, 1945 speech to congress. This is clearly one of Roosevelt's most important speeches, whereupon he pursues his legacy for the future, The United Nations and reports to the nation about his meeting with Stalin and Churchill at Yalta. No complete video has yet been located. The might seem surprising, yet the reason is quite clear. FDR made numerous ad libs and errors that were simply not permissable to be shown in the environment of airtight control of the media. Even the audio version (see link above) has been edited. In fact, Jonathan Daniels had a helluva time coming up with a workable transcript for the "official" version that went to the press and now appears on most websites (see Daniels book for details). You won't find it at the FDR Library. Perhaps, as Michael Moore found a "lost" FDR video of a 1944 speech taken when FDR was recovering from one of his episodes of "influenza", in this case probably a mild stroke, the video might be in some dusty corner of a library or press archive. Perhaps it as actually still classified as secret, despite being given to both houses of congress. Good hunting! Historical truth will be well served if it is located.

The truth about Lyndon Johnson's Gall Bladder Scar

2011-03-29T04:54:00.000-07:00

FDR was not the only president to manipulate the press about his health. Here is an anecdote from an extremely reliable source, a high-ranking naval physician, now retired.

After his September 1965 gall bladder surgery, Lyndon Baines Johnson is infamous for showing "spontaneously" showing his scar to the press. For this act, history remembers him as a hayseed with a lack of social graces.

The truth is quite different! It has never been published.

LBJ was with his close confidante, Jack Valenti, at Bethesda Naval Hospital after the surgery that had been performed at Bethesda by Dr. George A. Hallenbeck, chief of surgery at the Mayo Clinic. The president asked Valenti about the publicity surrounding the operation and was told that there was a problem. A rumor was circulating among the press that LBJ was operated on not for his gall bladder but for cancer.

Johnson immediately called Dr. Hallenbeck and asked him if the incision he made would be recognized as one for a gall bladder resection. Hallenbeck replied to the affirmative. LBJ then inquired what type of incision would be made for exploratory cancer surgery. The surgeon informed him that in this case it would extend in the midline from from just below the the breast bone to the pubic area.

Johnson immediately called a press conference that was conducted on the hospital heliport. The photo above was taken at this time.

After the conference, Johnson returned to his room and exclaimed to Valenti "That's one rumor taken care of!".

History corrected, hopefully a lot easier than with LBJ's predecessor.

My Talk at NYMAS

2011-03-27T16:30:00.000-07:00

I recently lectured at the New York Military Affairs Symposium on "FDR's Deadly Secret". Below is a link to the podcast of the talk. It may take some ime to download. If you can't access the link, go directly to www.nymas.org and search for the link www.bobrowen.com/nymas/podcasts/Steven%20Lomazow%20M.D%20-%20FDR%27s%20Deadly%20Secret%20160kbps.mp3

How Franklin Roosevelt Really Lived

2011-03-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

It is now nearly fifteen months since the publication of our book. While some inroads have been made, and will continue to be made, in getting to the reality of FDR's life, the 1970 fairy tale of Howard Bruenn and the concurrent and most influential Roosevelt biography ever written, by James MacGregor Burns, who collaborated with and was taken in by Bruenn hook, line and sinker, continue to permeate the historical mainstream. Until the Bruenn mythology is thoroughly exposed and expunged, it is simply not possible to accurately assess the life, accomplishments and thought processes of the most important president of the twentieth century.
Admittedly, there is no direct proof or "smoking gun", since the powerful ghost of FDR continues to loom largely, but half a decade of intense research continues to reinforce the correctness of our assertions.

To be considered a counterfactual historian is an incredibly difficult position to overcome, especially considering the power and importance of personality that it involves. Ross McIntire and Howard Bruenn were nothing more than the voice, both living and posthumous, of FDR himself, as is now most probably the unified silence of the Roosevelt grandchildren.

It is likely that from prior to his second term and surely prior to his third, that Franklin Roosevelt knew he was doomed to die of recurrent metastatic melanoma. From that time on, the knowledge of his mortality permeated his thought processes. Two hours of each and every day from 1939 on were spent with Dr McIntire (this is well documented in the usher's diary), either receiving medical treatment or masking the melanotic lesion above his left eye. Many of the "vacations" on naval ships were subterfuge for medical treatment. Many of the frequent episodes of "influenza" were not that at all, but rather were the effects of his two cancers and a likely stroke sustained in late 1943, from which he largely recovered but left him with disabling seizures (In this regard I want to thank Dr Joseph Sirven, head of epilepsy at Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, who recently provided key insight in the etiology and dating of FDR's seizures).

As I anxiously anticipate my visit to the Lahey Clinic Boston on April 9th and against great odds await the April 18th announcement of the 2011 Pulitzer prize for biography, I remain confident that eventually the truth will come to light. As I suspected, James Roosevelt will not be in attendance at the Lahey event in Boston. I can understand why and have no desire of putting him an uncomfortable position. If I knew (or even suspected) that my grandfather had a wish that he did not want violated, I would act similarly.

My Talk at Mayo Clinic. Latest news, downloads

2011-03-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I had the privilege of speaking at the Mayo Clinic, Phoenix. My talk on FDR's epilepsy was well received and my sincere thanks to Dr. Joseph Sirven, Chairman of the Departmant of Neurology and director of the epilepsy division for his wonderful hospitality and enthusiasm.

A podcast of my talk on "FDR's Deadly Secret" given at the New York Military Affairs Symposium (NTMAS) can be downloaded at

http://bobrowen.com/nymas/

just click below my picture on the website (may take a few seconds to load). Thanks here to Bob Rowen.

Looking forward with great anticipation to sharing the podium with Harry Goldsmith at the Lahey Clinic in Boston on April 9th.

Happy spring to all. Woke up to a snowstorm this morning!

your most appreciative blogger,

Steven Lomazow

SL

My Podcast on FDR's Epilepsy

2011-03-07T12:28:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of doing a podcast on http://www.epilpsy.com/ with Dr. Joseph Sirven, director of the epilepsy unit at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Here is the link to the podcast:

http://professionals.epilepsy.com/page/hallway_2011_podcasts.html

I will be lecturing at Mayo on the same topic on Friday March 19th at 7 AM.

The Earliest Picture of FDR's Melanoma- 1920

2011-02-23T12:28:00.001-08:00

I just bought this picture on ebay. It is undoubtedly from 1920 and clearly shows the pigmented lesion over FDR's left eye. It is the earliest it can be seen (and believe you me I've looked at thousands of photos). The earliest prior photo is from TIME Magazine in 1923.

As you can see it is quite benign appearing at this time and far less noticeable than the mole on his opposite cheek. Twenty-five years later it killed him, from a bleed into a brain metastasis.

The

2011-02-23T12:28:00.000-08:00

The epilepsy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

2011-02-16T04:12:00.000-08:00

My paper in Neurology, the official publication of the American Academy of Neurology, appeared in yesterday's issue. I look forward to the comments of my colleagues.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/48949651/The-Epilepsy-of-Franklin-Delano-Roosevelt

FDR's Many episodes of "the flu" and William Bradley Coley.

2011-02-08T18:24:00.000-08:00

I am presently involved in writing a biography of the great cancer fighter, George. T Pack, the founder and for many years the head of the gastric and mixed tumor service at Memorial Hospital (now Sloan Kettering) in New York City.

Among his many accomplishments Pack was known as "Mr. Melanoma" for his treatment of this dermatological killer with surgery, radiation and other modalities such as immunotherapy.

One method of immunotherapy used to fight melanoma in FDR's time by Pack were "vaccines" devised in the 1890's by bone surgeon Willam Bradley Coley. This included such proteinaceous mixtures as denatured Rabies virus. The quality of the therapy was judged by the amount of fever generated in reaction to the dosing.

Of course my one track mind went immediately to FDR as I realized the potential impact of such a treatment upon him.

Even, "pre-Lomazow/Fettmann" loyalists, that remain regrettably plentiful, will concede that FDR was always sick. The "official" reasons were everything from "swamp fever" "intestinal flu" (the alleged reason for losing two thirds of his blood and having none transfusions in 1941!) the the old favorite "the Grippe". The latter was the excuseFDR gave Churchill in 1944 to beg off from a summit intended to be held in Bermuda in April 1944 to plan something called Overlord. We all know that at the very least he had severe congestive heart failure at the time ( though the telegram went out over a week prior to Howard Bruenn allegedly seeing hime for the first time!)

Yet this does not explain the the countless episodes of presidential absences from view for days to weeks after 1935 or so.

As everything else a highly educated guess: early immunotherapy for melanoma probably accounted for at least a few of these strange febrile episodes.

When I told Ruben Oropeza, Dr. Pack's confidante (a la Daisy Suckley for FDR) about the removal of the melanoma in 1940, he immediately grasped why it could not be totally removed. As a man that removed thousands of melanomas over fifty years he aptly noted that, at the very least, the eyebrow would have to have been removed and "thrown in the bucket" along with the remainder of FDR's political career.

FDR loved being Preseident more than life itself and, in the end, he payed the price to stay in office until the day he died. There are still many very learned skeptics about everything we have been preaching but, in time, the world will appreciate the truth about this remarkable man and not the fairy tale that be and his physicians concocted.

The Epilepsy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

2011-02-04T13:27:00.000-08:00

My paper of this title will appear in the February 15th issue of NEUROLOGY, the most widely read amd prestigious peer-reviewed neurological journal in the world.

In the last two years of his life, FDR manifesting frequent lapses of consciousness that lasted seconds to minutes that neurologists would recognize as complex partial seizures. Epilepsy is defined and more than one seizure and, as in the case of FDR, many forms of seizures do not involve convulsions. An event that probably occurred the day prior to FDR's last visit to Warm Springs may have been convulsive but there are no direct descriptions, only a report of a "brain hemorrhage" that rapidly cleared by Walter Trohan (who almost undoubtedly got ir from a secret service agent) in the News Story Magazine article linked to this blog. Brain hemorrhages do not clear with such rapidity. The only one that FDR undoubtedly experienced was on April 12, 1945 that killed him. In the opinion of this blogger, it was most likely brought about as a manifestation of bleeding from a metastatic melanoma of the brain, a circumstance that occurs as a terminal event in over one quarter of patients who die of this often fatal form of cancer.

The paper describes three stunning eyewitness accounts (these are also in the book).

Here is a document that came out after the book and that is perhaps the most dramatic, showing that his daughter Anna was well aware of the episodes but, as all other reports, did not recognize them for what they truly were.

Now a bit of educated speculation. Based on the description of the events by Francis Perkins, Turner Catledge, Senator Frank Maloney and a dozen others, combined with thirty years of experience as a neurologist, it is possible that the photograph below caught FDR in the midst of one of his events.

This photo is interesting for a number of reasons. It was taken near San Diego, in FDR's private railroad car, the Ferdinand Magellan, on the occasion of his acceptance of the Democratic nomination for a fourth term, appearing in LIFE Magazine and triggering a major FBI investigation.

As it turns out, the balding naval officer in the foreground is none other than Howard Bruenn, whose constant presence at FDR's side at the time was supposed to be a secret. After a number of Bruenn's colleagues recognized the cardiologist, surmised he was there to treat presidential heart disease and started talking among themselves about it, J. Edgar Hoover and company were dispatched to "squelch the chatter" so to speak. This, of course, turned out to be only the top layer of many calculated deceptions with respect to FDR's health in 1944 and 1945.

I will post the Neurology paper on the day of its publication.

The King's Speech: FDR and George VI

2011-01-15T13:29:00.000-08:00

Last night , I saw "The King's Speech" and, of course the subject of FDR (not in the movie, though I loved the portrayals of Churchill and Chamberlain) came immediately to mind. Highly recommended.

Details of the June 1939 royal visit to America are beautifully documented on the website of the FDRL. Most of the photos are taken from the President's right.
http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/royalv.html

This picture of the King and the President, seen on pages 146 and 147 of a 1962 photographic bio of FDR by Graff, Ginna and Butterfield, is not included.

As can easily be seen, FDR's "brown blob" at this time was nearing the zenith of its extent.

Unlike FDR's melanoma, "Bertie's" stammer was not a secret and can be heard and seen on the wonderful website (my favorite video archive) of British Pathe. Here is a link to but one of the marvelous films that can bee seen without charge.
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=50494

I would also strongly recommend searching the site for Franklin Roosevelt, where countless videos of him can be seen as nowhere else. It was harder to hide the "blob" on video and the contrast between 1938/39 and 1942 provides stark and convincing evidence of how noticeable it was and how it disappeared.

One of the stars of the 1939 royal visit was FDR's all time favorite daughter-in-law, Betsey Cushing Roosevelt (soon to be Whitney). Eleanor cared little for the pomp and circumstance of FDR's world and Betsey acted as more or less the official hostess for much of the visit and made a highly favorable impression upon the couple.

While Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret did not accompany their parents, later, after Jock Whitney was appointed Ambassador to the Court of Saint James, the Whitney's and the new royals, Elizabeth and Phillip, struck up a close personal friendship with them and were among the very few who were addressed by their first names by HRH QE2!

30 days to the release of my paper on FDR's epilepsy. Our book is now available in paperback.

Yours in history,

SL

Ruben Oropeza, George T. Pack and Franklin Roosevelt

2010-12-31T10:33:00.001-08:00

George T. Pack was one of the top cancer surgeons of the first half of the twentieth century. Among other important accomplishments, he founded the Gastric and Mixed Tumor Service where he was "Mr. Melanoma" at Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center and treated countless international dignitaries, most famously Eva Peron and, surreptiously, Franklin Roosevelt.

Ruben Oropeza from 1963 to Pack's death was Pack's closest protegee and confidante. After Pack's stroke and heart attack, Oropeza performed all of his surgery with Pack scrubbed in at his side. He was totally devoted to Pack and managed all his medical affairs. Pack confided in him as he did with only one other individual, Dr. Irving Ariel. Ariel was sworn to secrecy about many of the details of what Pack told him. Oropeza is alive and well at age 81 and living in Texas and Mexico.

Dr. Oropeza has related information to me that is reliable and authoritarian. His recollections about Pack are quite analagous and equally as reliable as those of Margaret "Daisy" Suckley were to FDR.

As with Daisy, the vast balance of the material is an incredibly valuable and unique archive. I will be posting excerpts of his notes and hope to incorporate the material into a journal article.

The photographs above were among the archive I have so far received. With respect to FDR, there were two operations he personally performed on the melanoma, one local and the other (with Frank Lahey in Boston) an abdominal "open and close" procedure. The dates are still unclear.

Ruben Oropeza is the last living link to unlocking the truth of FDR. I will be posting excerpts from the material and hope to incorporate it into a more comprehensive scientific paper. I am incredibly fortunate to have been able to contact him.

Happy New Year to all!

SL

A Correction of the New York Times on Alzheimer's Disease

2010-12-18T11:25:00.000-08:00

The vaunted NYT did not see fit to publish my response to Lawrence K. Altman's subltle yet effective hatchet job of our book. Today they feature an article bluntly stating the Alzheimer's disease is "untreatable".

Perhaps hey will publish this letter, timely submitted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/health/18moral.html?_r=1&hp

Dear Editor,

First of all, Alzheimers is not untreatable as the author bluntly states. There are two classes of drugs that have proven efficacy, albeit modest, that reduce progression and slow disability. Patients with early diagnosis might opt to begin these medications "off label" since they are only indicated for moderate to severe disease. I know I would.

A good analogy analogy here is that, just like drugs for baldness, early use may not regrow brain cells, but can reduce the frequency of dropout. Early diagnosis and provision of patients with all therapeutic options is essential, not only for dementia, but for all disease. With current understanding, genetic counseling is an important adjunct to medical treatment.

The days when patients not being informed of disease such as maligancies are thankfully coming to an end (though not as fast as some might think, especially in Japan!) The prevalence of AD (50% at age 85) mandates aggressive, state-of-the-art, measures at prevention of progression.

Steven Lomazow, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Neurology
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
President, Neurological Association of New Jersey

When Was the First Operation on FDR's Eye? 1935!

2010-12-15T09:11:00.000-08:00

Two photographs I recently purchased on eBay spurred my renewed interest in finding the date that FDR's melanoma was first operated upon.

According to Dr. Ruben Oropeza, Dr. George Packs's closest protegee and an exceedingly valuable source of information, Pack was following FDR for a "Hutchinson's Melanotic Freckle" for ten years prior to his death and personally performed two operations on FDR, the first being a local excision, and the second, a much later "open and close" laparotomy with Frank Lahey and Isodore Ravdin.

The photos below are entirely consistent with that scenario. The first was taken on January 30th 1935 and shows only the scar that had been seen on photos for at least twenty years and probably comes from the childhood incident described by Geoffrey Ward that occurred in early childhood.

The second photo, taken 14 months later is dramatically different, with an entirely new scar in the eyebrow directly below the lesion. Remember, any notion of a malignancy by the public and FDR's political career is over. This dates back prior to the second term! Quite clearly the lesion was cosmetically removed beginning in mid to late 1940 (see the cover of the book that has a photo from mid-August 1940). By Pearl Harbor it was gone, with absolutely no other explanation other than staged surgical removal.

Pretty impressive, huh?

I'll be shortly off to the FDRL yet again to comb through all of the 1935 photographs and FDR's daily schedule to try to determine with greater accuracy when the first operation took place. Obviously, more to follow.

FDR's battle with his health was sooooooooooo different than has been portrayed and had a tangible and previously unappreciated effect on many of his political decisions.

The paperback edition of our book is to released in two weeks. My paper in NEUROLOGY on FDR's epilepsy will appear on February 15th (I'll post a link to it on the blog after it is released).

Season's Greetings to all.

Could It Happen Again? George W. Bush

2010-11-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

I am often asked whether a cover-up of presidential health on the scale of FDR could occur again.

Judge for yourself.

Here is a link to a webpage that makes a strong argument that George W. Bush was wearing a portiable defibrillator during his presidency.

http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2004/12/35839.php

Here's yet another, far more convincing photo.

A similar bump was seen under his jacket at his recent appearance at the world series.

Upcoming Events

2010-10-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

1) Release of the paperback of our book in January 2011

2) January 5, 2011. Medical Grand Rounds at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, NJ
"A Cancer on the Presidency, The Medical History of Franklin Delano Roosevelt"

3) Publication (approved but exact date pending) of my paper entitled "The Epilepsy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt" in the prestigious journal Neurology.

4) April 9, 2011. My co-author and I will share the podium at the Lahey Clinic in Boston with Dr. Harry Goldsmith for a comprehensive discussion of the health of FDR.

Changing long-standing historical misperceptions is an agonizingly slow process, especially since they go direct against the very powerful desire of the most important historical figure of the twentieth century!

More on the Truth of the Lucy Mercer Affair

2010-10-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a definitive document obtained from the Trohan papers at the Hoover Library in Iowa.

It pretty much tells it the way it really was. The famous incident of Eleanor finding the letters in the suitcase upon FDR's return from France was not the first time she was confronted with the affair. The great Geoffrey Ward agrees with this version.

Howard Bruenn and the Lahey Memorandum

2010-10-20T03:59:00.000-07:00

On January 30, 1990 Jan Herman the medical historian of the Navy, interviewed Howard Bruenn at his summer home in Maine. Jan has kindly supplied me with the complete transcript of that most interesting encounter. It was, in retrospect, an interesting work of manipulative fiction on the part of Bruenn.

An excerpt:

Q: (Dr. Harry) Goldsmith reiterates your 1970 findings, but then steps off from there and talks about the President having cancer. He also brings up the subject of Dr. Lahey.

A: Lahey, at the only meeting we had following my initial examination [in March 1944], said, "This is nothing in my field." and signed himself off.

Q: Lahey really didn't have anything to do with the President's care after that?

Oh, no, not a bit. To my knowledge, he never saw him again. Dr. Paullin, some time after the President died, wanted me to give him my notes, but I didn't give them to him. I was afraid that he might do what Lord Moran [Churchill: Taken From the Diaries of Lord Moran, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1966] did to Churchill. He went into some pretty personal things and did himself and Mr. Churchill no good. I can tell you Churchill was very fond of his scotch and so on, but that had nothing to do with history.

Q: Back to the cancer, Goldsmith went into this thing about the mysterious pigmentation above the President's left eyebrow. He says there's a photograph that was taken much later in which the pigmentation is missing.

A: That's a photograph error or something. He never had anything wrong with that. He had something on top of his head, something benign. A doctor named Winchell, a surgeon from Mayo, took it off at Bethesda, no problem. (What Bruenn was referring to here was actually neurosurgeon Winchell Craig, who assisted George Webster to remove a benign epidermoid cyst from the back of FDR's head in February 1944. Webster or Craig never removed anything from FDR's face. By this time the lesion above the left eye was long gone, having been cosmetically removed between mid 1940 and late 1941. sl)

In his 1970 paper for Annals of Internal Medicine (aka"The Gospel According to Bruenn), The eminent cardiologist describes Dr. Lahey's impression after examining FDR for the first and only time. Here are Bruenn's handwritten notes, allegedly written at the time , that appear verbatim in his paper:

(click on image to enlarge)

The Lahey memorandum quite clearly states that in July 1944, Lahey informed Admiral McIntire that after again examining the president, he determined that he would not survive a fourth term. McIntire then informed Roosevelt of the prognosis.

The greatest abdominal surgeon of his day quite cryptically opined that a cardiac problem would inevitably return and bring about FDR's demise.

The memorandum was only to be released if Dr. Lahey's reputation subsequently came under criticism for "allowing" FDR to run when terminally ill.

Why then did Bruenn include Lahey's concerns about the abdomen in his 1970 paper, especially when the entire thrust of the article was to promote the notion of a purely cardiovascular death?

The answer is quite clear: Bruenn was quite aware of the memorandum in 1970 and inserted this language to protect Lahey and specifically reduce the probability that the memorandum would be released.

In fact, the intentional deception can be carried even further: The 1970 paper was written in such a manner that if the Lahey Memorandum ever became public, it would consistent with Bruenn's treatise and not expose him as a participant in the cover-up. Clever indeed, and to this day, quite successful in its purpose.

Oh! What a tangled web we weave!

On the face of it, this all might seem quite conspiratorial, yet four years of watching this unfold tells me that it is indeed the case.

Last Wednesday I attended a well prepared and well received lecture at the Lahey Clinic by Dr. David Steinberg, whereupon the eminent director of the ethics returned a facsimile of the memorandum to the clinic. Among others, James Roosevelt Jr., the oldest son of FDR's oldest son, and a major executive in the administration of the Lahey Clinic was in attendance. While it was not the appropriate forum to address the above controversies about the memorandum, it did raise some very valid and interesting questions that will hopefully be dealt with in the near future.

My sincere thanks to Doctors Steinberg and Phil Kousoubris for their hospitality and courtesy.

And Nobody Read It....

2010-10-09T13:45:00.000-07:00

I just bought this newspaper, the April 13, 1945 Chicago Tribune, on Ebay for $25. I was the only bidder. It is one of countless newspapers reporting the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt but this one contains a little different information than all the others.

Just below the picture of the new President Truman on the front page appears an article by Walter Trohan (no byline but most definitely Trohan) entitled "President's Health Failed Steadily Since Late '43".

(double click on the article to enlarge it)

The article reports that Howard Gerald Bruenn, a cardiologist, was commissioned into the Navy in late 1942 and was almost constantly with FDR since he was commissioned. It also discusses a "parade of doctors" that had been seeing FDR and that he was told in the Summer of 1944 that he had six months to live (as confirmed in the Lahey memorandum). It also mentions that an operation for cancer was anticipated by Dr. Lahey but he later determined it was "too late." The doctor mentioned who "refused to operate" was William Calhoun Stirling.

This is not at all the picture painted by Bruenn in 1970 of the gallant leader struck "out of the blue" by an unexpected brain hemorrhage. In his paper Bruenn clearly asserts that he saw the FDR for the first time in March 1944.

The widely circulated Tribune laid out a story that was largely accurate the day after FDR died. For the most part- either nobody read it or nobody cared!

In 2010 we have finally brought the true story of FDR's Deadly Secret back to the front pages of America. Perhaps this time it will be believed!

A Page From FDR's Calendar

2010-09-17T05:42:00.000-07:00

At the FDR library there is a database that can be easily accessed that records FDR's activities each day of his presidency. It is taken from a number of sources, primarily the White House Usher's diary.

If one searches under the key word "doctor", a remarkable record comes out. Virtually every day FDR is in Washington from late 1938 to 1945, ther is a record to document a protracted visit to the doctors office. The cover story is that he had been seeing presidential physician Ross McIntire for "sinus" treatment. The reality is likely quite a bit different and related to his panoply of other unadmitted medical problems.

Visits to the hospital clearly documented on laboratory slips are not reflected in the diary. Just another of the many layers of cover-up of the extensive amount of medical treatment FDR received. Treatment that occupied a large and previously unappreciated portion of his life.

Just one page of dozens for your perusal.

A Photo on Ebay

2010-09-16T05:32:00.000-07:00

This photo is presently for sale on Ebay. See for yourself. How long will it take before the world accepts the fact that FDR had melanoma?

A Curious Gruping of Signatures. 4 Roosevelts in Two!

2010-09-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

I bought this for a pittance on eBay recently. It was advertised as an authentic signature of older FDR's half brother James Rossevelt "Rosy" Roosevelt (1854-1927), which indeed it is. Rosy was also the father of FDR's slightly older and somewhat strange and embarrasing half-nephew and short-lived Harvard Classmate Taddy, who may have been the nidus for the bitter disappointment of FDR not being named to the premier Harvard society, The Porcellanian.

The document in question is a fragment of a 1925 legal document, perhaps his will. The most interesting aspect of the document. wholly missed by the seller, was the witness, E.R. Roosevelt, none other than FDR's wife Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt. This is surely a more valuable signature than the one featured in the sale. It also completes the rather curious grouping of signatures with two Roosevelts in it!

I have been kindly invited to attend a lecture on October 18th at the Lahey Clinic concerning the Lahey Memorandum.The post-lecture Q and A should be most interesting! As I have said, FDR probably had a secret middle-of-the-night operation there for his metastatic cancer (open and close by all reports).

AStunning New Photograph Portrait ca.1920

2010-09-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

I just purchased this magnificent close-up portrait of FDR on eBay.

I initially thought it was earlier but this Chicago Tribune file photo is clearly dated to the 1920 campaign and he is apparantly wearing the same suit and tie, leading to the conclusion that this portrait was airbrushed, considering the lack of the mole on the right cheek and lack of the scar on the lateral left eyebrow seen in earlier photos that probably came from the incident as a child described in Geoff Ward's Before the Trumpet. The pre-malignant melanoma still dates back to 1920.

Here is a pot-pourri of earlier pictures from various dates. As previosly noted, on the basis of these photographs, it would appear that FDR had some minor cosmetic work done about the time of the 1920 campaign.

Wikileaks. Old News! See Amerasia Magazine

2010-08-08T15:19:00.000-07:00

In early 1945, Amerasia Magazine published the title article above. It was a top secret document that had been purloined and leaked, most probably by John Stuart Service.

see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerasia

The FBI then raided the Amerasia offices and found a huge cache of top secret material. Unfortunately, the case against Service was botched and he never came to appropriate justice. In fact, he was reinstated and later wrote extensively in his own defense.

The notorious Joseph McCarthy used the Amerasia leak in his red-baiting rantings in the early 1950's.

A lot different than the current environment. The Amerasia leaks were quite similar in importance to those recently found on Wikileaks. Perhaps we've learned our lesson. Perhaps not!

The Grace Tully Papers

2010-08-03T18:43:00.000-07:00

FDR has once again made the news with the "discovery" of the sequestered Grace Tully papers, the former archive of the disgraced FDR biographer Conrad Black, currently imprisoned. Black's excellent, exceedingly long volume was published by Public Affairs, the same house that published our book.

Hightlights of the "new" material include a letter to FDR from Mussolini, a nice letter from Joseph Kennedy and a letter expressing great concern for FDR's health by Lucy Rutherford, in which she arranges her last visit to Warm Springs.

It is no secret that Tully knew about Lucy. In fact she mentioned her neing in Warm Springs in 1948 and no one picked up on its significance. The Chicago Tribune knew about Lucy's presence in 1948 and sat on the story until Jonathan Daniels' 1966 article in LIFE.

I don't expect anything significant in the remainder of the archive with respect to FDR's health though it will be fun to go over some fresh material. We are quite correct in our book about the reality of the situation and it will take a while until it sinks in so that mainstream historians come on board. It will happen- just a matter of time. No credible medical professional has yet to puch a hole on our thesis.

FDR most probably died of a brain hemorrhage into a metaststic melanoma- period.

This blogger would be most receptive to presenting a personal lecture at any academic venue.

Yours in history,

SL

The Top Ten Disgraced American Military Leaders. Stanley McChrystal

2010-06-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

The world loves lists. This one seems appropriate in view of the recent fracas over General Stanley McChrystal. I'd love to hear comments and suggestions for additions. Thanks!

In view of the recent highly-publicized firing of General Stanley McChrystal, I offer my retrospective list of the top ten American disgraced military leaders (in descending order).

1) Benedict Arnold
Arnold is the epitome of the word “traitor, the first in American history and by virtue of the fact that he actually led battles against his former country must head the list as the number one all-time disgraced military leader.

2) Douglas MacArthur
MacArthur’s greatness as a World War II general, career military officer and rehabilitator of Japan is unquestioned. His highly publicized recall by President Harry Truman for insubordinate behavior in Korea, nearly bringing about World War III with China, ranks as the greatest act of outright defiance of an American president.

3) George B. McClellan
The legendary firing of George McClellan by President Abraham Lincoln for failure to press the Confederacy is one of the defining moments of the Civil War. He was replaced by the bumbling and incompetent Ambrose Burnside, himself soon removed in favor of Joseph Hooker. Unsuccessfully ran for President against Lincoln in 1864.

4) Curtis Lemay
Another brilliant career officer. The orchestrator of B-29 incendiary bombing of Japan during World War II and subsequently fortified the Strategic Air Command. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, after the Soviets turned back he urged President Kennedy to bomb Cuba. Fortunately, he was overruled and a nuclear holocaust was averted. It was later revealed that the Russians had and were authorized to use tactical nuclear weapons in the event of invasion. After retiring from the military in 1968 he further reduced his credibility as the vice-presidential candidate of segregationist George Wallace.

5) William Hull
After fighting in American Revolutionary campaigns in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, in 1805 he was appointed governor of Michigan Territory. At the outbreak of the War of 1812, he was appointed brigadier general and charged with defending Michigan and attacking Canada. His poorly planned invasion of Canada forced him to retreat to Detroit, where he surrendered without a fight. He was court-martialed and convicted of cowardice and neglect of duty. His death sentence was remitted by President James Madison because of his earlier service.

6) Joseph Stilwell
A brilliant field commander and beloved leader during WW II, he nearly lost China to the Japanese while vainly campaigning in Burma and his “Vinegar” personality later so incensed Chiang Kai-shek that he threatened to make peace with the Japanese that would have mobilized over a million troops against our forces in the Pacific. He was recalled by President Franklin Roosevelt and replaced by the more diplomatic Albert C. Wedemeyer.

7) George Patton
The swashbuckling and brilliant field commander who nearly lost his command and was soundly and publicly disciplined by Dwight Eisenhower after slapping a shell-shocking soldier on August 3, 1943.

8) George McChrystal

9) George Casey/John Abizaid
Both men were fired in early 2007 by President George W. Bush in a “clean sweep” of the military leadership of the Iraqi war. They publicly opposed the buildup of troops on the grounds that it could delay "the development of Iraqi security forces and increase anger at the United States in the Arab world." Replaced by Admiral William J. Fallon.

10) Thomas Algeo Rowley
While commander of a division at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, the brigade suffered heavy casualties confronting Confederates and he was thrown from his horse during the retreat. Following a confrontation with Brigadier General Lysander Cutler, he was removed for drunkenness and disobeying orders. Convicted by a court martial, he was reinstated by order of Secretary of War Stanton only to resign on December 29, 1964 after not being re-assigned to a field command.

Dishonorable mention: General Ricardo Sanchez (Abu Gharaib). Lieutenant William Calley (My Lai)

Does anybody know Oliver Stone?

2010-06-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

Just back from a "grand" time at the FDR Reading Festival at Hyde Park (as usual we were skipped over by book TV). Gave two lectures which were well received and signed about thirty books. The next event is the paperback edition in January.

Anyhow, I've been thinking that Oliver Stone would make a great movie of our book. A la "JFK" but this one really happened! Eventually the truth will be accepted. There's just too much evidence to ignore and an ever increasing body of legitimate historians are believers. It would nice, though, to get a bump from Hollywood. So if anyone knows Mr. Stone, please give him a heads up. For that matter, the same goes for the History Channel or HBO (they did a three part series in 1980 based on Jim Bishop's book, starring Jason Robards as FDR)

More new an interesting information to follow.

SL

Rewriting History: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Howard Gerald Bruenn.

2010-06-06T11:04:00.000-07:00

Over and over, we find instances of how the written word changed or redefined a historical event. Perhaps the most quoted example, the epitome of Yellow Journalism, the “I’ll furnish the war” telegrams between William Randolph Hearst and Frederick Remington, are themselves open to dispute by W. Joseph Campbell. In his Summer 2000 article in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Campbell presents a well-documented and convincing argument that the communications, as reported by the sole source of the anecdote, James Creelman, were never sent.

It is undisputable is that the pen has had a remarkable and long-standing influence on the way history is perceived. No better example is the legacy of Paul Revere as defined by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in his epic poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride” in the January 1861 issue of the venerable Atlantic Monthly. Prior to the poem, Revere was best remembered as a silversmith and engraver. After 1861, he rose to the iconic status he enjoys today as one of the major heroes of the American Revolution. Longfellow had the specific intention of creating a legend and, as the most “revered” poet of the age, his words were exceedingly successful to that end.

Over the years, historians have recognized that Longfellow’s account was, in great part, historical fiction and Revere’s role in the events of 1775 role have been taken in a more realistic perspective.

Intentional deceptions often take time to be realized and accepted and this is the case that I have been persistently making about the 1970 paper in Annals of Internal Medicine by Doctor Howard Gerald Bruenn entitled “Clinical Notes on the Illness and Death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. “ Bruenn wrote that paper with very much the same intent as Longfellow- to redefine how the world thought about his mentor and patient. He had a great teacher. “The Juggler” Roosevelt practiced deception as religion. His masterful manipulation of the press projected a lasting and powerful impression on the vast majority of the American people of an image that often did not exist. Yet, if it was not reported, it virtually never happened.

The intentions of Bruenn’s 1970 paper are laid out in the accompanying editorial . “We are given, by Dr. Bruenn, the picture of a great and gallant man, fatigued by the burdens of his office and by his hypertension and reduced cardiac reserve, yet quite able to exercise his judgment and to use the fruits of his unique knowledge and experience in guiding the war effort.”

Twenty-five years after Roosevelt’s death, Bruenn’s paper set the standard for every subsequent historical account of Roosevelt’s life. The myths he perpetrated, the twentieth century equivalent of Longfellow’s “one if by land and two if by sea” remain, for the most part, unscathed.

Roosevelt didn’t care about his health and was never informed of his diagnosis? He remained mentally clear until the moment he died? The presidential physicians were incompetent and made false statements to cover their own shortcomings? All unadulterated poppycock!

If Longfellow had wrote it might have read this way:

Read on my children and you shall see
Of the health and the greatness of Franklin D.
His heart was sick, but his mind was clear
Free to inspire a freedom from fear

He led the nation through depression and war
With a pressure of blood that continued to soar.
His docs kept him going the best they could
Though they would not tell him that all was not good.

He lost forty pounds, his doctors aghast
“I like my flat tummy” he said when they asked
There were no strokes. There was no cancer
A bad circulation was the only answer.
He led us with vigor till the day he died
Out of the blue in April forty-five.

The Sick Man at Yalta

2010-05-24T05:04:00.000-07:00

My article on the historical implications of FDR's health at Yalta and afterwards is presently on History News Network.

http://www.hnn.us/articles/126978.html

Another Graphic and Important Report of Roosevelt's Seizures

2010-05-11T15:38:00.000-07:00

I've been going through my files from my trip to the Herbert Hoover Library in Iowa where I went to peruse the Walter Trohan papers. I have already shared a number of the documents with you but this one, for some reason escaped. When I saw it again today, its importance became quite evident.

The players:

1) The Colonel- Robert McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune , a notably anti-Roosevelt yet quite credible newspaper.

2) pmaloney- J. Loy. "Pat" Maloney, managing editor of the Tribune who was later responsible for the infamous 1948 "Dewey Defeats Truman" Headline

3) Walter- Walter Trohan, long-standing White House reporter for the Tribune and the source of many unique and credible accounts of Roosevelt's behavior and health. Highly suggested reading- his 1975 memoir "Political Animals".

4) Anna Boettinger- Roosevelt's oldest child and only daughter.

click on document for greater resolution

What you have just read is a reliable account of FDR's daughter describing her father's seizures. There is one glaring error, they began months before he ran the fourth time, not the third, nonetheless dramatic. As previously written, these events were interpreted as "little strokes" or "burstings" by those outside Roosevelt's very inner circle (Ross McIntire, Howard Bruenn, "Pa" Watson, Harry Hopkins and most probably a number of other physicians who treated him). They were quite clearly what neurologists (as I am) would diagnose as complex partial seizures.

The implications are obvious (see the Dwyer memorandum on this blog for yet another graphic report)

More on Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, Cary Grayson

2010-05-02T12:32:00.000-07:00

The above note was obtained on my recent trip to the Cary Grayson papers at the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace in Staunton. When I came across a file of letters of condolence to Gertude Grayson upon the death of her husband from lymphoma, I looked for and found this one from Lucy (Mercer) Rutherfurd.

Since FDR and Grayson were both very tight-lipped we will never know the the true extent of their relationship but there is much room for educated speculation.

It is highly probable that the two men were extremely close and that Grayson called most of the shots medically for FDR until his own death in 1938. It is no coincidence that Ross McIntire was not promoted until shortly after Grayson's death.

There is absolute evidence in the Grayson papers that not only McIntire was chosen by Grayson, but also fellow Virginian Edmund "Pa" Watson. The other important individual in FDR's life for whom CTG was responsible was George Adam Fox, the medical aide who functioned in the same capacity for Woodrow Wilson.

Grayson was undoubtedly aware of FDR's affair with Lucy and likely facilitated her presence at the two inaugurals he chaired. Interestingly, when Grayson needed to rest up for his 1934 surgery at the Mayo Clinic (where both Hopkins and FDR son James were operated as well) (Mayo was the FDR and company clinic of choice until Frank Lahey came on the scene), he chose to go to stay at Hobcaw Barony, the estate of his old friend Bernard Baruch. It is likely no coincidence that in April 1944 when FDR need a similar rest and being too sick to fly to Guantanamo (the plans were active until at least April 30th), he chose Hobcaw as an alternative.

The Probable Truth of the Lucy Mercer Affair

2010-05-02T06:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a letter found in the Westbrook Pegler file at the Herbert Hoover Library. It lays out what is probably the true story of how Eleanor learned about Lucy Mercer and how she reacted ab when she she did.

Even a very prominent FDR historian who has written about the affair has told me privately that he believes this version to be the truth. For your reading pleasure:

The Yalta conference was supposed to be in November 1944!

2010-04-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

I have just finished reading "My Dear Mr. Stalin. The Complete Correspondence of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin, edited by Susan Butler, Yale University Press, 2005.

Aside from some very good source material on Poland, there is one revelation that can only be surmised with an advanced (post FDR's Deadly Secret) understanding of FDR's health.

p. 264 Stalin to Roosevelt, October 17, 1944

"Ambassador Gromyko has informed me about his recent conversations with Mr. Hopkins, in which Mr. Hopkins expressed an idea that you could arrive in the Black Sea at the end of November and meet with me on the Soviet Black Sea Coast. I would extremely welcome the realization of this intention. From the conversation with the Prime Minister (Churchill had just met with Stalin in Moscow), I was convinced that he also shares the idea. Thus the meeting of the three of us could take place at the end of November in order to consider the questions which have accumulated since Teheran. I would be glad to receive a message from you on this matter."

p. 265 Roosevelt to Stalin, October 23, 1944

I am delighted to learn from your message dated October 19 and from reports by Ambassador Harriman of the success attained by you and Mr. Churchill in approaching an agreement on a number of questions that are of high interest to all of us in our common desire to secure and maintain a satisfactory and durable peace. I am sure that the progress made during your conversations in Moscow will facilitate and expedite our work in the next meeting when the three of us should come to a full agreement on our fiture activities and mutual interests.

We all must investigate the practicability of various places where our meeting in November can be held (emphasis added) such as accessibility, living accomodations, security, etc., and I would appreciate suggestions from you. I have been thinking about the practicabilty of Malta, Athens, or Cyprus if my getting into the Black Sea on a ship should be inpracticable or too difficult, I prefer traveling and living on a ship.

p. 267 Roosevelt to Stalin November 18, 1944

All three of us are of one mind- that we should meet very soon, but problems chiefly geographical do not make this easy at this moment. I can, under difficulties arrange to to go somewhere now in order to get back here by Christmas, but, quite frankly, it will be far more convenient of I could postpone it until after the Inauguration which is on January twentieth.

FDR then goes on to make excuses for the dealy based on "constitutional obligations".

Just as the April 1944 Bermuda summit had to be cancelled due to FDR's health (this is not speculative, see details in the book) so, most probably, did the Yalta conference have to be delayed.

The more likely reality:

Fdr's health worsened necessitating a postponement and trip to Warm Springs to recuperate (his first visit there since April 1943). I initially thought that the operation describd below was the reason but a re-reading of the Suckley diary makes that possibility very weak- There was not enough time to allow for recovery. When the operation took place is still unknown- so many layers of smokescreen!

There is ever increasing evidence of a top secret operation (still!) at Lahey, largely based on information gathered by Dr. Harry Goldsmith and personal conversations with Dr. Ruben Oropeza, a close confidante and protege of Dr. George T. Pack. Most probably, the primary surgeon was Pack (the greatest melanoma surgeon of the twentieth century) assisted by Frank Lahey (a world-reknowned abdominal surgeon) Richard Cattell (Lahey's number 2 and head of the clinic after Lahey's death in 1953) and Isador Ravdin (renowned surgeon from the University of Pennsylvania who later operated on Dwight Eisenhower's ileitis. Ravdin had been stationed in Burma (where he treated Mountbatten), but did return to the US once in 1944).

By all reports, the surgery was "open and close" after the discovery by the surgeons of widespread abdominal and liver metastases.

No, we can't prove it, though the records are probably sequestered in the Boston area. Let's just call it "educated speculation".

Reviews of Our Book

2010-02-27T19:36:00.000-08:00

Aside from what appears to be a viscious and intentional effort to reduce our book sales on Amazon.com (you see we are conspriracy theorists after all!), the overwhelming majority of reviews have been favorable. We have yet to hear from a single expert specialty physician who has controverted our scenario in any significant way.

“An engrossing medical biography. … Given what we know now about cancerous lesions and the dangers of malignant melanomas, the authors make a plausible case. ... Their work is buttressed by an array of private notes and diary entries from those who dealt with Roosevelt in the White House and were alarmed by what they saw but did not publicize.”—David Shribman, Wall Street Journal

“The authors present their material in an engaging, though not sensationalistic manner. As a result, 'FDR’s Deadly Secret’ will find a wide following among those interested in one of American history’s most compelling medical mysteries." -- Claude R. Marx, Boston Globe

“The most provocative evidence the authors present is that Roosevelt had a left-sided hemianopia — a loss in vision — toward the end of his life. This indicated a mass in the right side of his brain. Lomazow and Fettmann arrive at this conclusion based on an ingenious bit of research.” – New York Times Week in Review

“[An] astounding argument…If Lomazow and Fettmann are right, Republican Thomas E. Dewey or a different Democrat should have been elected president in 1944. In that case, Harry S. Truman, FDR's vice president, would almost certainly not have been commander-in-chief from 1945 to 1952. The Cold War and subsequent American history might have taken a very different path. Lomazow and Fettmann's research is of great importance.” – Dr. Barron H. Lerner, Slate

“An increasingly feeble and distracted FDR died in office and was succeeded by Harry Truman, who performed well as the 33rd president. But this chilling new book by Eric Fettmann and Steven Lomazow reveals that America had a narrow escape. … The point of this well-researched book is not to score points off a deceased president, but to assert the vital importance of honesty in discussions of presidential health.” — Geoffrey Wawro, University of North Texas, History Book Club and Book of the Month Club

“This is a superior addition to the diseases-of-famous-men genre. … Journalist Fettmann and neurologist Lomazow assert that they’ve discovered the true cause of FDR’s 1945 death … We will never know the truth, but the authors make a reasonable case.” – Publishers Weekly
“Effective and thought-provoking ... easy to entertain the authors’ charges of a medical cover-up ... intriguing.” -- Kirkus Reviews

“Readable and interesting and should appeal to both specialists and the general public. Recommended.” – Library Journal

"Fascinating and grisly ... graphic and telling ... If Roosevelt was suffering from even a fraction of the diseases Lomazow and Fettmann say he was, the disclosure ... at the very least casts Roosevelt's presidency in a new light." -- Ira Stoll, Commentary

"A persuasive case ... The documentation the authors cite is thorough enough to be compelling. ... [A] meticulously pieced-together case study." — Elizabeth Lopatto, Bloomberg News
"Well-told ... The authors make a good case for their thesis ... Lomazow and Fettmann have gone as deeply into the medical evidence as is possible, and produced a convincing sidelight to history." — Palm Beach Post

"‘FDR's Deadly Secret’ documents a pattern of deceit about the president's health." -- Glenn C. Altschuler, Tulsa World

“Historians and lovers of history might smother their valentines with kisses if they receive Steven Lomazow and Eric Fettmann’s ‘FDR’s Deadly Secret’ today. … ‘FDR’s Deadly Secret’ will likely be fodder for those who believe FDR was impaired when he went to Yalta to meet with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin near the end of World War II.” — Howard Dukes, South Bend (IN) Tribune

“A lively and readable account of a fascinating subject and, taken for what it is—a strong possibility rather than a slam dunk—its argument is a valuable contribution to presidential history.” — Martin Rubin, Washington Times

“Lomazow and Fettmann are right that this ancient history matters. It raises anew the moral argument over whether a political leader has any right to medical privacy.” — Brian Bethune, Macleans

"An extraordinary medical detective story that will force some re-evaluation of the nation’s longest-serving president. ... the first-hand testimony of so many involved, and the brilliant medical detective work of the authors, makes their scenario accurate, in my opinion, beyond a reasonable doubt."—Barry Casselman, Racefor2012.com

Our article in Neurology Today. What was FDR's Deadly Secret?

2010-02-17T18:23:00.001-08:00

The currrent issue of the American Academy of Neurology publication Neurology Today contains a long and well-written article on our book.

http://journals.lww.com/neurotodayonline/Fulltext/2010/02040/What_Was_Franklin_D__Roosevelt_s_Deadly_Secret_.13.aspx

Response to a comment.

2010-02-04T20:15:00.000-08:00

This comment was left by an anonymous reader but since it epitomizes many that have been posed, I felt compelled to address it.

The commentors remarks are in regular type and I have interjected my answers in Italics.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "FDR's Deadly Secret.":

i found this subject most interesting but it will prove a frustrating thesis due to lack of definitive proof....however that does not mean that we cannot know....

i was surprised to learn that fdr was a frequent visitor to bethesda naval hospital and needed 9 pints during a blood transfusion...

the nine pints (and possibly more) were administered not in one session, but over a period of two months. These are only the ones that we can prove with certainty

of interest is why there was no autopsy of roosevelt and why all of his medical records were destroyed....bethesda surely has some for which an enterprising investigator should submit a foia request to have those records released....

No autopsy was performed because it would have revealed many facts about FDR's health that were hidden then and many that are still hidden today. There have been many FOIA (freedom of information act) requests over the years, a nunber of which have reavealed considerable information, vis a vis those of Kenneth Crispell and Carlos Gomez in 1981. Virtually every Roosevelt historian interested in pursuing FDR's health has gone down this avenue. There is very little that can be accomplished with further requests.

a medical file as deep as fdr's does not just disappear without concerted help...

quite true indeed. See: Ross T. McIntire and Howard G. Bruenn

a cranky reviewer on amazon suggests that fdr's reading by hand was due to failing eyesight - astigmatism from old age and that he had used that method since 1938 rather than de novo during the congressional report as this book reports although the reviewer offers no proof about the old age causation.

the reviewer you mention is a non-physician with an obvious desire to discredit the book. his ideas about failing eyesight are laughingly inept. Our conclusions are based on four years of intensive research in consultation with hundres of top physicians. I am a board certified neurologist and stand by my findings without qualification. If the commentor can produce a single expert of equal standing, I would be more apt to listen. To this point, none of the hundreds of my colleagues have found reason to dispute my findings.

this same reviewer mentions that fdr's paralysis was due to Guillain-Barré syndrome rather than polio and that the blood transfusion could have been due to diverticulitis....again no proof was offered....

See our blog post that discusses Guillain Barre Syndrome. FDR had polio. Likewise, the diverticulitis theory has been discussed with dozens of board certified gastroenterologists and surgeons and is not the reason for the GI bleed.

this book covers an excellent subject and should not be dismissed out of hand as some know-nothing types are wont to do...

Thank you!

Our Page in the Current Issue of History Book Club Magazine

2010-01-30T18:36:00.000-08:00

Click on the image to read.

Yet Another Stunning Report of Roosevelt's Seizures and Disability

2010-01-28T14:40:00.000-08:00

This report comes from an oral history taken for the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library on December 1, 1969 of Walter S. Robertson, a senior offiical in the state department. The document is 28 pages in length. The following begins of page 24:

"I had been out in Australia for two years and I was coming home to go over to the State Department, and I went by to tell him (General Douglas MacArthur) goodby. I haven't seen this in print anywhere. The man who collected General MacArthur's papers probably doesn't know it ever existed. I'm telling you of a personal conversation I had with him on August 1, 1944. As I went in he greeted me and said. "You can't guess where I've been." He said, "I've just come back from a meeting with the President in Honolulu." It was a secret meeting, it later came out. He said: "He asked me to come to meet him there, and I hadn't seen Franklin Roosevelt for X-number of years" -- I forget how many -- he had been out in the Phillippines and then down to Australia. And he sais, "I was so shocked when I saw him. He's a doomed man." He said: "Before, he was this dominant personality that dominated every conference he was in." He said: He sat there, and his head bobbed up and down, and his mouth sort of hung open. Admiral Leahy was his aide, and we talked." However, I don't think I'll put on the record what he said. And he said "You can't guess what he wanted of me," and then he told me. But then he went on to say: "If he lives until November, he will be elected President of the United Sttaes, but whoever is elected the Vice President of the United States will serve his term. He's an ill man and don't you be surprised to hear of his death at any moment," But Roosevelt did go back, he went to his doctors and they said he was all right, and he ran. Then when they inaugurated him in January they propped him up -- the doctors saying he was all right. He was inaugurated in January and was dead in April. But Douglas MacArthur told me in his office in August '44 not to be surprised at his death at any moment. I'll tell you off the record -- I won't put in on tape -- what it was the President . . . (machine turned off)

This is but one of dozens of similar accounts, though perhaps one of the most graphic and one of the earliest, of the degree of medical problems FDR was experiencing. This is the first account I've seen of MacArthur's comments from his meeting with FDR in Honolulu.

To recount, other graphic reports of his seizures come from: Anna Roosevelt Halsted, Frances Perkins, Senator Frank Maloney, future NYT editor Turner Catledge, to mention only a few.

As stated in the book, these seizures most probably came from a stroke as a consequence of vascular disease. The visual deficit seen after January 1945 was more probably related to a brain metastasis from melanoma as was the fatal brain hemorrhage on April 12th 1945.

I will leave it to you to judge the impact of these astounding findings on the course of history.

When did they know? Connecting more dots.

2010-01-23T13:59:00.000-08:00

I have previously posted a photograph from LIFE magazine, published in 1937, with a caption that stated FDR had been avoiding photographers for four days for a "sty" that in his eye that I subquently found to be his left eye, raising the question as to when they really knew of the malignant potential of the lesion. There is now some further evidence to report.

In my recent conversations with Dr. Pack's close confidante, Dr. Oropeza, he told me that Pack told him that they were following the lesion for "about ten years" and that it was a "Hutchinson's Freckle" that eventually turned malignant. As you can read in my paper with Dr. Ackerman, that was exactly the thinking in the 1930's.

Re-reading Dr. Harry Goldsmith's book, which is full of stories collected in the early 1980's akin to the ones I am getting now, he recounts on page 70-71 his conversation with Dr. Harry Ungerleider, a retired physician who had examined FDR in 1935 and found a "medical problem" during an insurance exam, after which, because he refused to release the information to government agents, he was hounded by the FBI and IRS to the point that he personally burned the file.

Are Doctors Oropeza and Goldsmith making this up? I think not.

Connecting Dr. Oropeza's story with that of Dr. Ungerleider, there is a suggestion that what the latter physician noted was the pigmented lesion above FDR's left eye.

This is all admittedly incredibly speculative and circumstantial but, if true, dates the problem prior to the second term, during the time when Cary Grayson was still alive (and probably calling the medical shots).

I could never assert with any reasonable probability that the lesion was diagnosed this early, but, knowing the case as I do, my gut feeling tells me that it was.

Knowing more about FDR’s Health. Why does it matter?

2010-01-23T04:38:00.000-08:00

Since publication of our book, perhaps the most frequent question I am asked is “Even if we now know FDR died of cancer, what’s the difference? This sentiment even rose to the level of a bad joke in the opening monologue on a recent Jay Leno show.

If one is to believe the conventional wisdom as espoused by the editors of the Annals of Medicine in the accompanying editorial to Howard Bruenn’s 1970 paper “We are given, by Dr. Bruenn, the picture of a great and gallant man, fatigued by the burdens of his office and by his hypertension and reduced cardiac reserve, yet quite able to exercise his judgment and to use the fruits of his unique knowledge and experience in guiding the war effort”, then the findings in each and every historical treatise about Roosevelt and his policies since this time should be considered valid. In fact, the reality of FDR’s health and the consequences of it upon his behavior and decision making are a far different story.

It is quite evident, despite the protestations of Howard Bruenn to the contrary, that FDR was well aware of his diagnosis and prognosis prior to accepting the 1944 Democratic nomination for president (we believe he knew it prior to the third term). The Lahey memorandum makes it clear that the president was informed, in no uncertain terms, on July 7th 1944, that he would not survive a fourth term. This had to have had a tangible effect upon Roosevelt’s thought process going forward, especially in light of the fact that he had personally witnessed the decline of Woodrow Wilson and the consequential failure to establish a successful world peace organization due to his marked infirmity. Roosevelt had a close personal relationship with Wilson’s physician, Cary Grayson, and the very same person who administered daily physical therapy to the hemiplegic Wilson, George Fox, later became Roosevelt’s daily personal medical assistant as well.
The establishment of the United Nations dominated Roosevelt’s thinking in the last year of his life. It is easy to see how different his approach might have been with an unlimited amount of time as opposed to the reality of his knowing of his race against death. How much did he then appease Stalin, whom he considered essential to any success?

By 1945, Roosevelt was barely functioning. Was he unable to comprehend the legitimacy of a Japanese peace offer brought to him in January 1945 by MacArthur? If he pursued it more vigorously would we have been spared the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives at Iwo Jima and Okinawa? Would it have been necessary to use atomic weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
If Roosevelt was able to focus on the information brought to him in March 1945 by General Albert C. Wedemeyer (who wrote he was in “never-never land”) about the future of China, or if he heeded the warnings of Governor George H. Earle about Stalin (instead of exiling him to Samoa) would there have been a Korean war? Would there have been a war in Vietnam? Would there have been a cold war?

All of these questions must now be revisited, based on the enhanced knowledge we now have about the thinking process and mental capabilities of the man responsible for making the most important decisions.

The cadaverous images of the cachectic Roosevelt at Yalta and the dozens of reliable reports of his diminished ability to function in the last year of his life are largely attributable to diseases not at all addressed until now.

So does it matter? Yes Mr. Leno, it surely does.

Our Letter to the Editor of the New York Times

2010-01-17T10:53:00.000-08:00

In the extensive article devoted to our book “FDR’s Deadly Secret” (Science Times, January 5th), Lawrence K. Altman implies that we may not have adequately “fact-checked”. The case we have laid out is a result of four years of painstaking research. It is the consummation of the prevailing opinions of hundreds of highly trained physicians, across many disciplines, to whom we have presented our findings at many of America’s finest institutions of medicine including Harvard, Columbia, Mount Sinai, SUNY Albany and in the inaugural lecture of The Surgeon General’s Lecture Series at the Bethesda National Naval Medical Center.

As to melanoma, we consulted with the “legendary” Dr. A. Bernard Ackerman (as the Journal of The American Academy of Dermatology called him on the occasion of his 70th birthday) with whom I co-authored a paper in Archives of Dermatology after we examined many hundreds of photographs at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park. In their abstract, the editors of this esteemed publication wrote “the lesion, when fully developed most closely resembled a melanoma with central regression”. This is reflective of the degree of care and high level of expertise utilized in all of the material presented.

Nor are all of our findings speculative. That Roosevelt suffered a near-fatal gastrointestinal bleed in 1941 requiring at least nine previously unreported transfusions over two months is an absolute certainty. That he suffered frequent and clinically evident seizures for over a year before his death goes well beyond any reasonable doubt and the evidence presented that presidential cardiologist Howard Bruenn’s 1970 paper is less than an unimpeachable or unbiased source is overwhelming.

As my colleagues in the top echelon of the various specialties that deal with the panoply of pathology that FDR manifested publicly weigh in, it will provide even more reinforcement that our findings are consistent with the highest levels of present-day medical reasoning.

Our book unequivocally states that we cannot prove our hypothesis with absolute certainty absent the presence of tissue or medical records. This does not, though, require that we continually qualify every observation and statement as we present it. We hope that those who offer future critique will do so only after thoroughly reading the entirety of what we have presented, in both the book and our blog www.fdrsdeadlysecret.blogspot.com, the latter containing a wealth of corroborative and supplementary photos, videos and documents that we were unable to include in our original thesis.

“FDR’s Deadly Secret” is, by any measure, the most comprehensive discussion of the health of our thirty-second president. The enhanced knowledge of the facts of FDR’s health that we provide will permit historians to more accurately assess this highly-important and often controversial American persona.

Steven Lomazow, M.D.
Eric Fettman

What Caused the 1941 GI Bleed?

2010-01-09T19:13:00.000-08:00

In some measure, I am publishing this post to illustrate the degree of thought that went into "FDR's Deadly Secret" and to show that our conclusions are not made flippantly are as part of a loosely constructed "conspiracy theory". I also wanted to emphatically answer Dr. Altman's inference in Science Times that we may not have "fact checked".

Our conclusions are based on sound medical reasoning backed by years of intensive research. As David Shribman so eloquently concluded in his review of our book in The Wall Street Journal, more information is better than less!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580904574638352930354872.html

So what follows is probably more than you ever wanted to know about the secret medical life of FDR.

While our book devoted considerable space to FDR's May-July 1941 lower GI bleed (and reveals for the first time that there is unequivocal objective evidence for at least nine transfusions), a detailed discussion of the differential diagnosis was felt to be far too technical and speculative to discuss there. This blog is a better forum.

Ever since the analysis of the laboratory reports in the Anna Halsted file at the FDRL revealed the details of this nearly catastrophic event, I have been trying to arrive at a reasonable answer as to its cause. This has led to study in the areas of gastroenterology, urology, radiation oncology and medical history that have been both instructive and fascinating to this neurologist. I have consulted with dozens of highly trained physicians in various disciplines and spent many hours of independent research in an effort to reach the most plausible conclusion.

This post may be too technical for the non-physician, but I think my colleagues in the medical profession will find it fascinating. We have a remarkably large amount of objective laboratory evidence from this incident to work with. Just why Ross McIntire chose to preserve this material and send it to Mrs Roosevelt in 1957 is not entirely clear, but one can hazard a guess.

1) Eleanor Roosevelt was already aware of the specific details (down to the actual lab numbers) of this episode. Whether it was FDR himself or Ross Mcintire that told her is unclear, but her letter to her daughter, as seen in Bernard Asbell's book (the original letter personally examined at the FDRL) is absolute and specific.

2) Perhaps McIntire kept them as a reminder that he almost lost his star patient at the time. As we say in the book, this is the only incident where poor medical follow-up can be documented. All the rest (missing obvious heart failure, the cardiac consult motivated only after the family insisted) are a part of Howard Bruenn's 1970 fairy tale.

3) There is no link apparent link to the deadly secret that one can connect with these lab results. though, as you will see, there may be one indeed.

You will also see that volume and type of medical testing done suggests that the etiology of the problem was probably a mystery even to FDR's physicians at the time.

Now the facts:

FDR's hemoglobin was 13.5 in March 1940, shortly after returning from his second two-week "mystery cruise" aboard the USS Tuscaloosa. At the time, he was out of the public eye for at least two additional weeks, cancelling 3 or 4 press conferences, with a cover story as told by Steve Early to the press that he had "Swamp Fever".

The following 4 photos are from Steve Early's scrapbook at the FDRL. See for yourself!

While there are urinalyses seen from this time and the succeeding months, the next hemoglobin we have is 4.5 on March 5 1941, the day after he returned from Staunton Virginia. (I was just in Staunton to do research at the Wilson Library and the director told me that FDR was reported to look pretty bad on that day, understandable considering that he only about a third of his normal blood volume.

The indicies from the May 5th lab report show a chronic process. Since this number apparantly caught them by surprise, it is fair to surmise that the bleeding was slow and not noticed by FDR or his daily attendants- George Adam Fox, his "physical therapist" who was McIntire's right hand man and Arthur Prettyman, his valet, to whom most probably fell the task of helping FDR on and off the john and cleaning up after it.

Existing lab reports reveal the following-

1) normal upper and lower GI contrast studies. Dr. Behrens remarks that there may have been a silght abnormality in the area of the cecum (possibly due to FDR's 1915 appendectomy), but the study was interpreted as normal.

2) Entamoeba Coli, a benign one-celled parasite, reported in stool for ova and parasites.
3) Normal blood chemistries, other than a low chloride.
4)Persistent low-grade proteinuria.
5)Negative studies for hemolysis.
6)A grossly bloody stool (bright red in color) on two occasions in July.

7) At least nine well-document sudden rises in hemoglobin between May and July 1941 for which there is no other reasonable explanation than transfusion.

Here is a compendium of all the lab work from this time.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20430562/FDR-s-Weight-Chart-and-1941-Bloodwork

All this comes together as a chronic lower GI bleed with a documented loss of 9 grams of hemoglobin in 14 months with ongoing blood loss for two months requiring at least nine transfusions until the patient was apparantly stabilized.

This is beginning to look very much like a classic New England Journal of Medicine CPC, I'll bet you didn't know that there was actually one done in that esteemed journal for the case of Eleanor Roosevelt, after her unexplained death (from undetected miliary tuberculosis). Unlike FDR, medical reports of ER's final illness and autopsy (FDR never had one, its easy to understand why) are completely transparent, authorized to be released by the family and contained, in graphic detail, at the FDRL.

Differential diagnosis:

The most common cause of lower GI bleeding fitting these criteria would be colon cancer. The negative contrast study and the four year survival speaks loudly against this probability, as it does for bowel metastases from melanoma (see 1943 for this one!). Probably next in order of common causes would be diverticuli. This would not be completely excluded with a negative lower GI study, but I am told that the bleeding in this instance is generally paroxysmal and would most probably have been noticed. Remember, the hemoglobin of 4.5, unlike FDR's fatal brain hemorrhage, really did come as a "bolt out of the blue", completely unnoticed until FDR basically collapsed.

One thing this wasn't was hemorrhoids, the cover story. I've yet to find a single physician who doesn't chuckle when presented with the facts and the wholly untenable diagnosis. Even small amounts of bleeding from hemorrhoids (or other rectal pathology such as fissures) is eminently noticable and easily correctable. To lose nine gram of hemoglobin (8 pints of blood) by this route in a little over a year, not to mention in the POTUS, is a virtual impossibility. How this never got challenged until this time is mind-boggling but, of course, how a cosmetically significant "brown blob" over FDR's left eye could disappear without mention in two years is equally remarkable.

There aren't really too many other common causes, so this takes us into the "zebras".

Here is my best (highly educated) guess: radiation bowel disease. This comes from studying the history of the treatment of prostate cancer as best summarized in a wonderful May 2002 article by Samuel R. Denmeade and John T. Isaacs in Nature Reviews. Cancer (also remember that FDR's radiologist, Charles F. Behrens, literally "wrote the book" on the effects of radiation on the body).

http://www.scribd.com/doc/25010145/Prostate

In 1941, Charles Huggins and Clarence Hodges published that prostatic cancer is influenced by androgenic (male hormonal) activity, using the level of an enzyme in the blood, acid phosphatase, as an objective measure. In the same year, Huggins’ classic paper described the effective use of surgical and/or chemical castration with the administration of oral estrogen. This was the first systematic approach to the treatment of Prostate cancer and earning Huggins a Nobel Prize in 1966.

Prior to Huggins’ seminal work, brachytherapy, the surgical implantation of radium into prostate through the perineum (the area between the base of the penis and rectum), bladder or rectum was the treatment of choice. It was uncomfortable and technically difficult and rapidly fell out of favor after hormonal therapy was introduced. Prostatectomy was used mostly as a palliative measure until its technique was improved by Terrence Millin in 1945.

Though obviously speculative, the timeline of the advances in medical and surgical treatment at the time of Roosevelt’s illness fits quite well. One of Roosevelt’s frequent prolonged absences from public view, such as the "mystery cruise" or the “swamp fever” that followed would have sufficed to perform and recover from the relatively minor surgical procedure of radium implantation. Likewise, the lower gastrointestinal bleed that resulted in a loss of two-thirds of FDR’s blood between March 1940 and May 1941 would be explained by the well-recognized complication of radiation bowel disease, as would the laboratory evidence consistent with a subsequent radiation nephritis.

This also explains the well-documented presence of urologist William Calhoun Stirling, who was on the scene according to Walter Trohan and Stirling’s soon-to-be estranged daughter, at least as early as 1942. Stirling would have overseen any hormonal therapy and the tentative surgical procedure referred to in Trohan’s important 1975 book “Political Animals”. The recommended procedure could easily have been an orchiectomy. (By the way, Trohan’s 1975 memoir has been been almost completely overlooked by scholars, probably since it is not indexed, to the point that even the incredibly comprehensive archive at the FDRL didn’t have a copy (they do now, courtesy of yours truly). It is an important resource and a unique and critical look into FDR like no other).

My co-author, a non-physician, cringed at the prospect of even mentioning the possiblity of removing FDR's testicles, but that's the stark reality of real medicine. If FDR thought that a cutting edge procedure would prolong his ability to remain in power, he probably would have done it. The whole prostate scenario also gives us some insight into FDR's ability to perform sexually. He was sexually active (probably exclusively with Missy until her stroke) and here is the evidence (note another of the thirty or so aliases)!

For the uninitiated, "motile organisms" are sperm.

In keeping with the highly confidential and sensitive nature of any treatment for prostatic disease, there is no laboratory evidence of acid phosphates levels but this surely would have been available to Mcintire’s board of consulting physicians. There is no reason whatsoever to believe that a competent urologist such as Stirling would not have employed the most advanced measures to treat the world’s most important patient. Even the anticipated operation allegedly described in 1945 by Eleanor to Veronica Lake correlates well with the onset of the newly described advances in surgical prostatectomy.

There's a lot to digest here, but I'm glad for the opportunity to get it into cyberspace. I remain intensely interested in communicating with any physician who might be able to offer additional insight into the etiology of this event, since, despite the educated speculation above, the actual reason for the problem has yet to be determined with reasonable medical certainty.

Thanks.

The Gospel According to Bruenn.

2010-01-07T14:27:00.000-08:00

Here is my article that recently ran on http://www.hnn.us/.

http://hnn.us/articles/120718.html

Some people think that this is a snipe at Dr. Bruenn and that I am trying to demean his reputation. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Howard Gerald Bruenn was a doctor's doctor and, by all reports. a superb and cutting-edge cardiologist at the the time the specialty was in its infancy. It was for this reason that he came to the attention of Ross Mcintire, who entrusted him above all others with the health of the world's most important patient. I have previously publicly and vigorously defended Ross McIntire, who has been villified as a liar, an incompetent and even a "medical ignoramus" (by the highly regarded historian, Thomas Fleming) in an article I wrote for Navy Medicine.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20281239/Navy-Med-Article

That Howard Bruenn fell under the spell of the most charismatic person of the 20th century is not surprising. He lived with the man for over a year and professed to Daisy Suckley on March 31st 1945, a mere two weeks prior to FDR's death:

“Miss Suckley, to begin with, you realize that like all people who work with this man – I love him. If he told me to jump out of the window, I would do it, without hesitation.”

Bruenn's role as keeper of FDR's deadly secret goes to the larger question that has been and will be debated in the future: the role of a presidential physician to balance the confidentiality of his patient and the welfare of his country. When Roosevelt was alive, it came straight from the top and after he died, both Mcintire and Bruenn's loyalty remained with FDR's wishes.

If I had cardiac disease, I could only hope to find a personal physician with the competence and ethics of Howard Bruenn. To expose the truth about FDR, and he surely could have done it, was against all that Howard Bruenn was about- the loyalty, competence and ethics of the medical profession that, quite frankly, only a well trained physician can fully appreciate.

I recently had lunch with an internist who practiced with Bruenn for many years, who told me his work was always scrupulously documented and meticulously comprehensive. Not at all surprising for one of America's best clinical cardiologists.

My paper on FDR in Journal of Medical Biography. Additional comments on FDR and Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS).

2010-01-07T03:44:00.000-08:00

Here is a pdf file of my paper "The Untold Neurological Disease of Franklin Delano Roosevelt" in the current issue of the well-respected British Journal of Medical Biography.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/24896077/jhm

The editor is a neurologist, Christopher Gardner-Thorpe. I chose to submit this work to JHM because it had previously published Armond Goldman's article on FDR in which he opined that Roosevelt's polio was actually Guillain-Barre Syndrome. That article garnered, and continues to garner, considerable attention. I have seen it referred to in a number of comments surrounding our book.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/25009888/fdr-gbs

To address that question:

I had the opportunity to get into the Robert Lovett papers at Harvard, which I, in turn, had sent in toto to the FDRL where they are now available on microfilm. In the file, there is a note from Lovett that reveals that FDR probably had a spinal tap at the outset of his 1921 illness (in fact, there is evidence that FDR later underwent a second spinal tap to donate his serum to other victims of Polio, since it was then believed that the spinal fluid of polios was therapeutic. Such was his dedication to curing the disease).

GBS was described in 1916 and Lovett (as many of FDR's later physicians) being the world's leading expert on Polio would surely have known how to differentiate the two. Unfortunately he died unexpectedly in 1924, leaving FDR to find another guru who eventually turned out to be Dr. McDonald. As I have stated at other times, the world's leading expert on polio in the late 1920's was none other than "Doctor" Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who, had he not chosen to re-enter public life, would have surely spent the remainder of his days at Warm Springs, promoting his rehabilitation center and treating fellow polios- so much for Howard Bruenn's 1970 myth that FDR did not care about his health!

The bottom line here, is that Lovett would surely have known that a spinal tap would unequivocally differentiate between the two diseases (polio has white cells, GBS high protein) and most probably knew the results (as undoubtedly did FDR himself). It can therefore safely be inferred that FDR's 1921 neurological illness was indeed polio.

Despite Goldman's sound academic treatise, based largely on a statistical analysis, he was not privy to the fact of the spinal tap (at least, he didn't cite it in his references). This, aside from the facts that the degree of atrophy, the muscle tenderness at the outset of the disease and the perfect timing for the incubation period between FDR's well known visit to the Boy Scout camp and onset of his illness are all most compatible with polio, all lead to the inevitable conclusion that FDR's 1921 illness was poliomyelitis.

A New Find. An Authentic Specimen of FDR's Wen.

2010-01-06T16:26:00.000-08:00

Comment number 41 of Larry Altman's article in tuesdays Science Times was indeed intriguing, claiming that the father-in-law of the commentor, David Greenspan of Madison, Wisconsin, had a slide of "Roosevelt's mole".

Of course this led to an immediate search to find "number 41". Within an hour I was on the phone with him, a very knowledgable and amiable medical scientist at the University of Wisconsin. He told me his ex-wife, a pediatrician living in Conneticut was in possession of the slide and gave me her phone number.

Shortly afterwards I was on the phone with the daughter of Dr. Richard Berlin, who had done a year in patholgy at Bethesda and gone on to a career as surgeon, dying in 1993. Prior to death, Dr. Berlin gifted his "prize possesion" to his daughter.

She initially told me it was from the lesion above Roosevelt's left eye and that it was not cancerous. She than said she'd call me in a few days when she located it. 5 minutes later she called back with the news that she had found it.

It was labeled "John Doe" and "Bethesda Naval Medical Center" and dated February 2, 1944. Dr Berlin had annotated it "Frank Delano Roosevelt, Epidermoid Cyst".

Thanks to the letter from William Webster, the primary surgeon for the procedure (removal of a cyst the size of a hen's egg fron the back of FDR's head), on page 82 of Harry Goldsmith's book, it became immediately evident that it was indeed an artifact of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an authentic piece of the "wen" which Dr. Webster wrote was sent to the pathology lab, where the young Dr. Berlin was waiting. He took a specimen of the biopsy and, as they say, the rest is history!

To my knowledge this is the only authentic specimen of FDR known. Obviously, the holy grail would be a be a similarly documented piece of the the pigmented lesion (which I obviously believe will document malignancy). Since the "wen" became a public event, commented upon by FDR in a news conference shortly after the procedure and discussed quite openly in Daisy Suckley's diary, the level of security may have been a bit lax. I doubt that any biopsy of the melanoma would have had any similar opportunity to surface.

There are only two other stories of specimens. One, from Hugh L'Etang's second, less widely circulated book is that pathologist William Ober (of Teaneck New Jersey where Eric now lives,btw) saw a specimen and reported to L'Etang that it was a seborrheic keratosis, a benign lesion.

The other, more intriguing, report appears on the Dr. Zebra website, mentioning that Dr. Philip Kousoubris a radiologist at the Lahey Clinic was told by "an older physician" who was a pathology resident in the early 1940's that he was present when a slide of Roosevelt's pigmented lesion showed a malignancy and was immediately confiscated by the FBI and it is presently housed in a safe in a Newton Massachusetts law firm!

That physician is still alive and when Dr. Kousoubris approached him again, the senior pathologist told him that he would not discuss it any further and that was that! Phil has given me his name but it is probably best to let him continue to work privately to get the information.

Incidentally, Phil is my connection at Lahey. His efforts to get a CME program for me there has met with curious resistance (whether thus is related or not, the director if the Tufts University Foundation that runs the clinic is none other than James Roosevelt, Jr.).

I am personally convinced that FDR had a surreptitous surgery at Lahey in the winter of 1943-44 as exquisitely documented in Harry Goldsmith's book. Harry, who I speak with regularly, told me that his source is absolutely reliable, not to mention that Linda Strand, Lahey's "gumad" for lack of a better term, told Harry that she met FDR at Lahey Clinic while he was there under an assumed name and that she had made all the arrangements! This incident, which I have personally discussed at length with Harry, is an incredibly important piece information. perhaps the most important line in Harry's self-published book, A Conspiracy of Silence, available on Amazon and an indispensible source for anyone seriously interested in FDR's health (by the way, If anyone want's to talk to Harry, contact me and I will give you his contact information).

To add fuel to the fire, I just had a most amazing conversation with Dr. Ruben Oropeza, a close associate of Dr. George Pack, the greatest melanoma surgeon of the early part of the twentieth century, for eight years (1959-1967, Pack died in 1969). Dr Oropeza, whose credibility has been testified to me by an eminent NYC plastic surgeon, told me that Lahey assisted Pack himself in an operation on FDR's melanoma in Boston, at that the operation was performed at 5AM. Dr Oropeza has not read Dr Goldsmith's book and was unaware of the information in it, essentially an independent confirmation of something that probably occurred. Oropeza told me of many things, including news of a second operation involving another prominent surgeon and Pack, related to Oropeza by Pack himself. More on that later, we are in the process of trying to independently confirm this story from relatives and associates of the other surgeon, a very big name indeed.

If there is any chance to to find medical records of FDR's cancer, I believe the best chance is at Lahey, but, to this point, they have been absolutely stone silent. Oropeza also told me that Pack told him that "the records will not come out for 100 years". Should that be the case, I will be 96 years old. I really don't want to wait that long!

(my girlfriend reminded me after reading this that you might know what a "wen" is. It is a benign (non-cancerous) cyst which in this case was allegedly removed because it was bothering FDR when he wore a hat. sl

Fascinating New Video from the 1945 Yalta Conference. The Memoir of Col. Joseph Gregory Mayton.

2009-12-20T14:11:00.000-08:00

By pure serendipity, I saw this video on ebay and speculated a bit less than twenty dollars to acquire it. It was worth it.

The video is an oral history of Col. Joseph Gregory Mayton, who was chief of the Russian division of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, predecessor to the CIA). Mayton attended the 1945 Yalta conference as translator for and liason of General George Marshall and was recruited by virtue of his fluency in the Russian language.
Being the super-spy that he was, he was aware of the repression and atrocities perpetrated by Stalin and was anti-communist. This resulted in his being "blackballed" for an official position in Moscow and it is clear that the Soviets had a docier in him since, as you will see, they "knew about him" at Yalta.

Most importantly, he took his camera with him and shot video of the conference, combining it with that taken by the U.S. Army Signal Corps into a remarkable 30 minute film that contains large amounts of previously unseen footage. Some of the video, obviously outtakes, shows FDR in a state never before publicly seen, something that would never have been permitted during his lifetime.

By way of background, Mayton was born in 1897 in Russia, emigrated in 1918, spent some time in Houston (where he knew LBJ as as schoolteacher) and had some academic connection with LSU prior to his time in the service. He was discharged in October 1945. He was married, probably had no children and died in Altanta at the ripe old age of 97. This video was made in 1988, when Mayton was nearly over 90 years old, but he most definitely "has all his marbles" to put it in neurological parlance.

There is only one glaring factual error in the video, FDR's whereabouts in March 1944,but that is really not diminish the importance and credibility of Mayton's dialogue.

The host of the film, Ted Baehr, is presently director of a fundamentalist Christian film reviewing organization, but this is really all about Mayton.

The video is in five parts since one can only put 10 minute segments up on You Tube (thank goodness for 21st Century technology).

I hope you enjoy this fascinating, unique and informative historical document as much as I did.

ps. We have just (1-7-10) acquired Mayton's de-classified OSS file from the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. I was made aware of it by the most accomodating President of the OSS Society, Charles Pinck (http://www.osssociety.org/) and sent my great researcher, Tim Frank, there to retrieve it. It confirms everything we know about Mayton and, among other things, reveals that he had one child, a daughter, who, if she is still alive, would be around eighty years old.)

1 of 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYljU7zZQIM

2 0f 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhzzSGeND5Q

3 of 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vGQ_1APY3M

4 of 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK3vLU_PNPo

5 of 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdHpP1Aslx0

A New and Important Find

2009-10-31T06:42:00.000-07:00

This memo is part of a group of documents recently received from the rarely viewed Walter Trohan papers at the Herbert Hoover Library in Iowa.

The author "Dwyer" is Orville "Doc" Dwyer a Chicago Tribune reporter who had been with the newspaper since the early 1920's and earned his nickname by exposing quack medicine.

The recipents were Trohan and two other high level executives at the paper W.B. "Don" Maxwell and Stanley "Little Giant" Armstrong.

Dr. Louis E. Schmidt, referred to in the document was a urologist. Mr. Maloney was also a high level Tribune exec and Col. McCormick was the publisher.

This document is important for a number of reasons:

1) It provides one of the best descriptions of Roosevelt's seizures

2) It re-confirms Francis Perkins' observation that the FDR's seizures were occurring for years.

3) It shows, for the first time, that daughter Anna had observed them and understood, to some degree, their importance.

4) It shows that the seizures were misinterpreted as "small strokes" by those outside the inner circle of doctors and staff (at the least McIntire, Bruenn, Duncan, Craig, Watson, Lahey, Paullin and probably Hopkins) and explains the basis of Dr. Wold's allegation of multiple strokes in the 1948 Look Magazine article as leaked to him by Trohan.

5) It shows that Anna was likely unaware of FDR's prostate problems. Schmidt, a urologist, would almost surely have addressed this had he been told about it.

6) And, perhaps most importantly, It underscores the implications of FDR's medical debility upon his ability to function as commander-in-chief.

Not quite as monumental, but also adding to our ever increasing understanding of this remarkable deception is this memo by Trohan himself:

It reveals what the those around FDR, including Marvin McIntyre, Jim Farley and Steve Early, knew about the Lucy Mercer affair. While the facts of 1919 appear to be somewhat incorrect, the overall implications are the same. The report from Mike Reilly about the facts of April 12, 1945 are quite accurate and the document clearly shows that the Tribune sat on the Lucy Rutherfurd story for the 17 years until Jonathan Daniels made it public.

There is perhaps even more yet to be found in Iowa!

(ps. This post was written in October. I have since visited the Hoover libray and spent a most rewarding day researching the papers of Walter Trohan and Westbrook Pegler. In fact, my conversations with the great Roosevelt biographer Geoffrey Ward lead me to believe that Geoff now believes that the version of the story about Lucy in the Dwyer letter is actually correct. Of similar importance, this document also reveals that the Trib and Colonel McCormick sat on the Lucy story for 17 years until it was first publicly acknowleged in an article by Jonathan Daniels).

The Margaret Suckley Diary

2009-10-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

Basically, Margaret "Daisy" Suckley's diary explodes many of the long-held myths perpetrated by Howard Bruenn. Here is a downloadable transcript of all the references Daisy made to FDR's health, many of which are discussed in greater detail in our book.

By perusing the entries chronologically, one can appreciate a story within itself, documenting the true story of the deterioration of FDR's health as seen through the eyes of one who loved him intensely and without qualification.

FDR shared many of his inner thoughts with Daisy, yet, by no means, all of them. Even with this "Closest Companion", he was far less than candid about his deadly secret, often leading the medically unsophisticated spinster to her own research.

It is through Daisy that we learn about Harry Setaro (aka Harry Lenny) who was permitted to massage the president by virtue of his contacts with her. One untold piece of history only recently came to light. A 1945 check made out to Daisy by FDR to reimburse her for paying Setaro.

FDR probably considered Setaro nothing more than a harmless amusement. He was far too medically sophisticated, especially with respect to polio, to believe that this retired boxer had any possiblility of improving his condition, though Daisy appears to be convinced of his value. Of course though, even Daisy had no real idea of the true nature of most of FDR's medical problems.
Geoffrey Ward's book "Closest Companion" is essential reading to any serious FDR enthusiast.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/21180092/Daisy-s-Diary

The Tale of FDR's Handwriting

2009-10-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

FDR always was acutely aware of his importance in history. As an autograph collector himself, he knew that when he attached his signature to a letter or document, it would likely be preserved. He took great pride in creating a written record of his achievements and there are many thousands of examples of his signature and handwriting in existence.

When his handwriting began to deteriorate, likely due to a hereditary tremor further enhanced by multiple metabolic medical problems, he made an often valiant and concerted effort to minimize the changes. At the end, he simply could not do it.

Here's two interesting examples. The first is his famous "FDR" monogram that he used on more casual correspondence. The first in a July 1941 letter Harold Ickes, referring to "the flu" at the time he was actually in the midst of his anemia that required at least nine transfusions. The second is a November 1944 communication to Adolf Berle.

Another great way of comparing FDR's signatures is on his checks. Here's a number of examples documenting the dramtic deterioration in the last year of his life, including the last check he ever signed. The body of the checks are in the hand of Grace Tully.

"He never told the truth, when a good lie would do"

2009-10-11T08:42:00.001-07:00

The title of this post is a quote from Douglas MacArthur upon hearing of FDR's death. Truman put it more succinctly. "He lies" was his response to a 1944 inquiry about what FDR was really like.

Here are some first hand examples, by FDR himself and his partner in deceit, Louis Howe.

The Early Scar

2009-10-07T18:41:00.000-07:00

Even having seen literally thousands of photographs of FDR over the last three years and invariably directing my attention to his left eye, it took a while to sort out exactly what I was seeing.

It is a matter of absolute certainty that the pigmented lesion above the eye was surgically removed between early 1940 and late 1941. The point, of course, was to do it slowly without (pardon the pun) raising any eyebrows that something was awry. It was a phenomenally successful effort, and likely reinforced Roosevelt's belief that, when it came to hiding his health problems, he could get away with almost anything (and he did!).

Before Ross Mcintire began carving at the lesion, there had been some trauma to the area, with a scar within and lateral to the eyebrow seen in photos as early as 1915. This scar shows up in some some photos in the 1920's, is especially well seen in photos of FDR at his first inauguration, and shows up throughout the 1930's.

This was initially a source of confusion but it answers are a bit clearer.

Geoffrey Ward's first book on FDR "Before the Trumpet" (p. 145) describes an incident where the nine-year old Franklin sustained a deep cut on his forehead from a falling curtain rod while on a ship with his father. The point was that stoic and proud FDR insisted that his father not be told, rather asking for a cap to cover the wound. This incident may be the source of that scar. It is also clear from a few photos that another well known skin lesion, the benign waxy mole on his right cheek was, at one time, a considerable cosmetic eyesore. This may also have functioned in sensitizing him to the appearance of his face. It is also apparant that, sometime in the late teens or early 1920's some minor cosmetic reduction was performed. The photographs below are ample testimony.

It is clear that this scar is not the one seen on the jacket of the book,

The old scar continues to be evident in some photos after 1942. It could also be speculated that McIntire the old scar as a portal to treat FDR's mew and malignant problem.

How Deep was the Cover-up?

2009-10-04T16:20:00.000-07:00

On the face it, a simple x-ray report on an unknown patient, this document tells many stories.

Found in the archives of the Franklin D. Roosevelt library, it is one of the relatively few surviving medical records of the President. Exactly why Ross McIntire decided to separate this one from what must have been countless others is a matter of speculation, but we can make a highly educated guess.

It is dated January 10, 1940. Just about the time a reknowned cancer doctor, Reuben Peterson, sent a friendly letter to FDR mentioning his concerns about the pigmented lesion over his left eye- a wake-up call that it something must be done so that it didn't raise concerns among other, less well-intentioned, observers. Roosevelt was about to attempt what no man had ever done, run for a third term as president, and even the slightest whiff of suspicion that he had a malignant disease would spell an abrupt end to that lofty ambition.

The handwritten annotations and typed interpretion were by Dr. Charles Francis Behrens, the navy's top radiologist. At the time, radiologists performed the dual function of interpreting films and treating patients, mostly with cancer, with radiation therapy. He was at the top of his field in both, authoring many scientific papers and editing the first textbook on the effects of radiation on the body, Atomic Medicine, in 1948. He would also be an integral part of the diagnostic team put together to treat Roosevelt in 1944, as noted by Howard Bruenn in his 1970 paper. Every existing x-ray report of FDR carries Behren's signature. Whatever was really wrong with Roosevelt, Behrens knew. His interpretations were the portal that all others relied on.

The films were taken at the White House and transported to the Naval Hospital in the nearby foggy bottom section of Washington (near the site of the present-day Vietman memorial) by Mcintire's right hand man, George Adam Fox, to be read by Behrens. The text of the interpretation is revealing.

"View of the siuses (sic) in the Caldwell position shows the antra and the ethmoids to be fairly clear. The frontals do not show well but there is possibly some haziness on one side. The turbinates are swollen on the same side. The lateral view of the frontal sinuses is negative."

There is no secretarial signature at the bottom. That, the fact that no patients name appears, the mis-spellings and hand-written annotations indicate that Behrens generated the entire dociument himself. Even with an anonymous patient, it was far too sensitive to be seen by anyone other than Ross McIntire.

The most telling aspect of the report are the words "on one side" and "on the same side". This is most definitely intentional, since leaving out such an essential point of information as the side of the pathology is something that any trained radiologist would never purposefully do. Almost surely, the problematic side was the left one but any written mention of the side of FDR's problem was strictly verboten.

In summary, this fascinating document is more evidence that their was an active cover-up of Roosevelts melanoma as early as January 1940.

FDR and the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda

2009-10-02T06:49:00.000-07:00

On August 31, 1942, FDR made one of his "public" appearances (aside from the 29 secret ones) at the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda Maryland. Here is a video of his speech at the dedication ceremonies. Ross McIntire is mentioned at the outset.

FDR took a special interest in the center, choosing the site and providing a rough design of the building. He laid the cornerstone in 1938.

This video comes from the website of British Pathe www.britishpathe.com , the best and most accessible repository of FDR videos in existence. I showed it as part of my lecture on FDR's health at NNMC as the inaugural lecture in the Surgeon General's Lecture Series on FDR's health on November 7, 2007. An ongoing debt of thanks is due to surgeon general VADM Adam Robinson and naval medical historians Jan Herman and Andre Sobocinski.

FDR's Cooks: Henrietta Nesbitt and Daisy Bonner

2009-10-02T04:53:00.000-07:00

If you make a pilgrimage to Hyde Park to FDR's home, you will see that the cafeteria at the welcoming center there is named after his White House cook, Henrietta Nesbitt.

There is a bit of underlying humor and irony here. By all reports, FDR hated Mrs. Nesbitt's cooking and much preferred that of his cook at Warm Springs, Daisy Bonner.

Daisy was preparing FDR's last meal, his favorite souffle, when he was fatally stricken with a brain hemorrhage on April 12, 1945. The note that Daisy wrote on the wall of the Little White House that fateful day can still be seen there.

FDR's favorite meal was Brunwick Stew, as prepared by Daisy. It was be served to him at as a surprise at the planned barbeque/minstrel show he never attended the afternoon of his death.

Here's the recipe:

3 to 3-1/2 pounds stewing chicken (cut into 8-10 pieces)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons bacon fat

1 medium yellow onion, diced

2 green onions, diced

3 cups small potatoes, diced

3 large tomatoes, peeled and diced

1-1/2 cups Lima or butter beans, fresh or frozen

1 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen

1/2 cup okra, diced

1/2 cup sherry

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons butter

We found this picture of Daisy, who died in 1958, in a rare African-American oriented magazine, Sepia (now at the FDRL).

FDR and Harvey Cushing

2009-10-02T03:51:00.000-07:00

The relationship between FDR and the iconic father of American neurosurgery, Harvey Cushing, came about through the marriage of their children, James and Betsey. Betsey was FDR's favorite daughter-in-law, playing host to Britain's royal family during their visit to Hyde Park in 1939. The marriage lasted between 1930 and 1940, ending in divorce, and produced two children. Betsey Cushing then married John Hay "Jock" Whitney, and became one of America's greatest philanthropists and patron of the arts, leaving an estate reportedly over $700,000,000.
see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsey_Cushing_Roosevelt_Whitney

Cushing at left, Betsey at far right

The correspondence between these two giants was documented in this 2001 paper:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20524289/FDR-and-Harvey-Cushing

Ironically, FDR and Cushing had another connnection. At the outset of FDR's fatal brain hemorrhage on April 12, 1945, Roosevelt's blood pressure soared to 260/150, a phenomenon seen as a consequence of a rapid elevation in intracranial pressure (basically, a reflex effort by the body to maintain blood circulation to the brain). This was first described by Cushing in 1902 and is known as the the Cushing response or Cushing's phenomena.

H. W. Cushing: Some experimental and clinical observations concerning states of increased intracranial tension. American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Thorofare, N.J., 1902, 124: 375-400

When did they know?

2009-10-01T04:47:00.001-07:00

I found the caption on this 1937 photo intriguing. As soon as I saw that FDR was avoiding the press because of a "sty" in the eye, it raised suspicion that perhaps something else was being treated. Further research yielded the fact that, of course, it was the left eye that had the "sty".
A coincidence?

After four years of researching this incredibly deceptive man, one thing becomes entirely evident- no public statement about his health can be taken at face value.

All of the stories of "sinusitis" "flu" "intestinal flu" "grippe" "swamp fever" must be taken with the proverbial grain of salt. Knowing what we do tells us that we really don't know very much at all.

Could they have been treating FDR's melanoma as early as 1937? Of course, but there is not a shred of direct evidence. Then again, there is not a shred of evidence that it was ever treated and we know with absolute certainty that it was.

Any review of the pages and pages of visits to the White House doctor's office, essentially daily from late 1938, the mysterious trips and voyages, and the plethora of known deceptions we have already uncovered, tells us that we have only begun to unravel the many layers of smokescreen.

The most exciting prospect of this book getting wide attention is that we have one last opportunity to "shake the tree" (without Dr. Bruenn to squelch it, as he did quite successfully in 1979). We are most excited to see what fruit may fall out.

See for yourself. Here is the 1979 TIME magazine article published following the release of Harry Goldsmith's paper. Note, in particular, Dr. Bruenn's response. It is easy to see now that the keeper of FDR's deadly secret was lying through his teeth, but its taken fully thirty more years before we can finally expose these comments for what they were.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920723,00.html

FDR and Poker

2009-09-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

While fishing was FDR’s favorite outdoor social activity, poker was a favorite source of indoor relaxation with friends and staff. Behavior at the poker table is often an unguarded and telling reflection of the player’s personality. Regulars in the presidential poker game included the closest members of his inner circle, Harry Hopkins, “Pa” Watson and Dr. Ross McIntire, as well as other members of the cabinet, staff and White House press corps. The following anecdotes speak for themselves:

(Walter Trohan, Political Animals, p. 68)
Roosevelt was a great bluffer and a driver in command of the game, calling on this person to ante up, bet or fold up. Nothing delighted him more than a successful bluff, although he never seemed to suspect there was some hesitancy to win on the part of most of his opponents, including his staffers. He was most unhappy when one of his bluffs failed, almost childishly so. My delight was getting a pair, back to back at stud poker, a great favorite for him, and calling his bluff. One of the first signs of his declining health came when he became vacant and forgetful at the poker table and often had to be invited to make his play.

(Robert Jackson, That Man, p. 143)
Hopkins was uniquely lucky and played his cards for everything there was in them. Secretary Ickes, like myself, was not a particularly colorful player. Watson was a rather careless player, bent on thorough enjoyment of the game rather than results. Dr McIntire was a keen player and thoroughly intelligent.

The President studied the players as much as he did the cards. We often caught him bluffing but throughout the trip there was a marked peculiarity in his playing. Invariably he lost the early part of the game and we would have him down several dollars. Invariably he made it up in the last three or four hands of the evening. We finally told him that the only way we could beat him was to break up the game and we were going to arrange to have a fire call about four hands before the finish.

(Samuel Rosenman, Working With Roosevelt, p. 148.)
The President thought he was a good poker player. That opinion, however, was not shared by all those who played with him- and some of them should know. He lost more often than he won. All of us took particular pride and joy in winning from him, and nothing pleased him more than to win from us. As the president grew older, Doc McIntire insisted that the number of hours of card playing on his birthday be cut. From the all-night sessions which used to take place in Albany, they gradually shrunk to 4 A.M. then to 2 A.M., and finally, much to the President’s disgust, to midnight. He would complain about quitting early, but on a glance from Doc we would all insist, and if necessary just get up and quit.

(Navy Nurse Barbara Lint, oral history describing a visit to Bethesda Naval Hospital, Potomac Currents, V. 2 no. 3.)
She remembers a time when he wheeled himself...unannounced … into the solarium where a taboo poker game was going on. Instead of a dressing down, the men were surprised by FDR’s request to be dealt in.

The following comes from wordsmith and father of two world-class poker players, Richard Lederer.
Because of paraplegia brought on by his polio, Franklin D. Roosevelt was unable to relax by taking long walks or playing golf or tennis. But he often had dinner with his poker-playing pals and then adjourned to a marathon session of cards. His favorite game was seven-card stud. Among the regulars were the Vice President, Speaker of the House, Attorney General, Secretary of Commerce, and at least one Supreme Court Justice. The President's secretary, “Missy” LeHand, served cocktails and often played in the game. One of the rules was that nobody could discuss anything serious at the evening poker sessions. The only thought was how to outfox the other players.

From Doris Kearns Goodwin: During the war, he'd relax with marathon poker games with his cabinet. The only thing he thought about was how to beat these guys in poker. There's a story about an annual poker game he held on the night that Congress was supposed to adjourn. There was a rule that whoever was ahead at the moment that the speaker called to say Congress was adjourned would win the poker game.

Well, he's playing one year, and it turns out that when the speaker called at 9:30, Roosevelt was doing terribly and his secretary of the treasury, Morgenthau, was way ahead.
So Roosevelt took the phone and pretended it was someone else on the line. "Well I'm so glad you're calling, but we're in the middle of a big poker game." Then they kept playing and playing until finally around midnight Roosevelt pulled ahead. He whispered to an aide, "Bring me the phone." So he says into the phone, "Oh, Mr. Speaker, you're adjourning. How fine!" Then to his friends, "Well, boys, I guess I win!"

Everything was great until Morgenthau read in the newspaper the next day that Congress had adjourned at 9:30. He said he was so angry he actually resigned for a few moments until the charm of Roosevelt persuaded him it was all in fun.

The 1941 Transfusions and 1944-45 Weight Chart

2009-09-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

In preparation for the many lectures I have presented to physicans, I prepared two slides based on available laboratory evidence at the FDRL and from information from Howard Bruenn's 1970 paper.

The first slide documents the abrupt rises in hemoglobin level that are absolute confirmation of at least nine transfusions FDR received in 1941. The is no other physiologic explanation. Bruenn's notion that the anemia responded to Iron therapy, like many other of his assertions, is not viable.

The second slide is a chart of FDR's weight in 1944-1945. The solid line is documented in Bruenn's paper. The dotted line is a reasonable estimate based on the countless reports of ongoing weight loss seen during three years of research.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20430562/FDRs-Weight-Chart-and-1941-Bloodwork

Some Additional Reading

2009-09-29T06:35:00.000-07:00

An informative and well-written paper 1955 paper reflecting the understanding of FDR's health pre-Bruenn

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20368790/FDR-health-1955-paper

Harry Hopkins' medical biography, written by Dr. James Halsted
An absolutely definitive account.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20368863/Harry-Hopkins-Medical-Bio

The earliest known description of the embalming of FDR in the hand of the embalmer, F. Haden Snoderly

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20368936/FDR-Embalming-Notes

Walter Trohan's article in the Chicago Tribune, April 13, 1945

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20368895/Chicago-Trib-April-13-1945

Doctor Roosevelt and his Magnificent Obsessions

2009-09-28T02:20:00.000-07:00

As all human beings who are driven and successful, Franklin Roosevelt had a constructively obsessive side to his personality. He was well as known collector. His world class collection if naval models and prints is presently on display in New York City. Obviously, he is also remembered for his stamp collecting, which afforded him the ability to escape from the pressures of his hectic daily life.

After 1921, his obsession turned to rehabilitating himself from polio. Seeking every possible way of returning function to his polio-stricken muscles, he educated himself to the level of the finest physicians of the time. His passion for gaining and spreading knowledge in this area is well documented in his correspondence about polio with others, most notably a remarkable 1924 letter to a South Carolina physician, William Egleston, whose daughter had contracted the disease, and had sent FDR a letter about another of his afflicted patients. (pardon the poor reproduction).

In his compassionate and intimate reply, Doctor Roosevelt offers his advice for treatment and lays out his philosophy about the disease. It is notable for a number of reasons.

At the outset, FDR lays out an extremely (and uncharacteristically) candid account of his own case, recounting the onset of his symptoms and the early erroneous and harmful attempts at massage, followed by a detailed description of his present state of rehabilitation, at a level, not as a patient, but as one physician to another, essentially a consultation in contemporary Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (a specialty which was yet to be founded), based on the "hundreds of cases" he had studied.

His findings are, for the most part, as valid today as they were then, including a remarkably innovative way of documenting objective improvement, using the level of water he could stand in as measure of the ability of his thigh muscles (quadriceps) to support him. His views on bracing are revolutionary for the time and remain valid today. His feelings about the positive attitude needed to overcome disease is as sound a piece of psychiatric advice that can be offerred then- and now!

In short, this letter demonstrates that, by 1924, Franklin Roosevelt had educated himself to the very highest level, that of the most learned physicians in the field, in the rehabilitation of polio. His passion and obsession extended so far as to risk the bulk of his personal fortune, against the advice of his family and friends, in an effort to turn Warm Springs into a word-class rehabilitation center.

Interestingly, his fourth recommendation "sunlight- all the patient could get" may have had a bearing upon his development of melanoma (a concept, even today debated at the highest level by dematologists).

His discovery of and effusive praise of Dr. William McDonald (see page 30 of the book) is even further testimony to his remarkable knowledge of and intense passion about his disease* Geoffrey Ward's wonderful biography of FDR's early life, "A First Class Temperament" is, by far, the most comprehensive treatment of his physical and mental battle with polio (see for, instance, p. 731).

One important point needs to be made about the above. This type of behavior with respect to his polio flies in the face of Howard Bruenn's later assertion that FDR showed no concern for his physical problems. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

This 1929 letter is an excellent exposition on FDR's attitude about the medical profession.

FDR with Dr. McDonald.

In the end, Roosevelt's last great obsession, to succeed where Woodrow Wilson had failed, in cementing his legacy for the future of the world by creating a lasting world peace organization (he would clearly have reveled in what President Obama did last week in chairing a meeting of the security council) is a key to understanding his behavior in 1944- running for a fourth term knowing he would soon die, as well as not putting much consideration at all into his choice for vice-president nor including him in the inner circle of his advisors.

*the callous way he eventually disposed of McDonald when he longer needed him (a la Earl Looker, see page 48 of the book) speaks to another, less meritorius aspect of the FDR personality.

The Early Show, Featuring Ross McIntire

2009-09-27T11:42:00.001-07:00

The scenario of the deceit surrounding FDR's profound anemia is discussed in detail in our book (see page 60). Here is the official account of the news conference on May 5, 1941, the day we came perilously close to President Henry Wallace.

Honorary Consultants and Frank Lahey

2009-09-27T07:42:00.000-07:00

Here is the back of the photo that appears on page 122 of our book, listing the names and titles of the men in the photo.

Ross McIntire utilized the "creme de la creme" of the medical and scientific community on his many panels. Walter Dandy, for instance, was one of the world's leading neurosurgeons (though Winchell McKendree Craig, then at Bethesda and longtime chairman of Neurosurgery at the Mayo Clinic, was FDR's neurosurgeon). One of the members of another of these special commissions was William Calhoun "Pete" Stirling.

You can see that this photo is dated from 1942, long before Lahey allegedly first examined FDR. The real date of his first exam is unknown. Harry Goldsmith mentions a possible exam in November 1943 in his recent self-published book "Conspiracy of Silence", though there is no reason to believe that even this was the earliest time FDR saw Lahey.

The myth that McIntire was incompetent and did not use adequate expertise in treating FDR has not been adequately refuted. Ross McIntire did what he did at the behest of his commander in chief, knowingly and unselfishly sacrificing his future reputation for the sake of the duty and honor of his position.

Here's the article I (SL) wrote for Navy Medicine in his defense.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20281239/Navy-Med-Article

Speaking of Frank Lahey, here's the letter he sent to Ross McIntire after he was hounded for information by St. Louis Post Dispatch. After FDR's death, reporter Raymond "Pete" Brandt continued to pursue information and was summarily stonewalled (see the book for more)

Brandt.

The Right Answer for the Wrong Reason

2009-09-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

You will read in our book about how the train of events to suspect melanoma occured, beginning with the 1961 paper of Dr. F. Massie (other than as one of the many rambling and often incredible assertions of Emanuel Josephson in 1948), based on a slide in a paper presented at a 1949 conference, that turned out not to be FDR's brain at all.

Here is the slide that started it. Even more coincidentally, the fatal tumor is in the right parietal lobe of the brain, just like the one that was the source of the hemorrhage that killed the President.

The Gospel According to Bruenn

2009-09-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

Until recently, Howard Bruenn's 1970 paper has been considered the unimpeachable last word about FDR's health. Our analysis in the book documents example after example of inconsistencies, purposeful exclusions and outright falsehoods. Here's the documentation to support one of them.

As you can see in the paper above, the second paragraph of the begins by unequivocally stating "I (Bruenn) first saw President Roosevelt professionally in March 1944".

Here are two letters from 1946 that explode this myth. A correspondence between Ross Mcintire and Howard Bruenn. Bruenn's letter is in response to Mcintire's request for his thoughts to include in his 1946 book "White House Physician" (In fact, the two year period of treatment appears in the book as well). You can also see how well Bruenn understood FDR's driving desire to establish the United Nations.

So you can now easily see that the myth of Howard Bruenn's first exam of FDR occurring on March 28th, 1944 only came to after he became the keeper of FDR's deadly secret.

Here is Howard Bruenn's original evaluation of Eleanor Roosevelt in May 11,1943. Shortly after he was stationed at Bethesda and probably about the time he actually first saw FDR.

March 28th 1944 was not the first time that Howard Bruenn saw FDR though it was probably about the time that he realized that FDR had deteriorated to the point that if he didn't attend to him on a daily basis and more aggressive treatment undertaken, he would not survive even to live out his third term. Therefore, it necessitated that he come out of the shadows and reveal his presence to others outside the most inner circle of FDR's confidantes who saw FDR on a daily basis.

As to March 28th being the date FDR's "wholly unsuspected" cardiac problems were diagnosed and shortly afterwards necessitating a period of "rest and relaxation", here is the itinerary for the planned trip to Guantanamo dated March 23rd.

Much more about this particular deception, among many deceptions, is in our book.

Later in the paper , Bruenn describes the regimen outlined for FDR shortly after he allegedly first examined him. Here is a contemprary document pertaining to this regimen:

The bulk of the document is quoted verbatim in the paper, with notable exceptions:

The references to the prostate and the left maxillary antrum have been eliminated. It is not difficult to surmise why.

Now you see it.... Now you don't!

2009-09-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

Probably the best way of all to appreciate the disappearance of the pigmented lesion above the left eye of FDR is watching it in videos. Especially between 1936 and 1940, newsreels reveal the starkly obvious lesion, accentuated even more by FDR's habit of raising his eyebrows while speaking. Only because FDR was the most photographed person on earth and the lesion was in an area that could not be hidden can this remarkable video record be created.

Take a look for yourself:

November 7, 1938

September 4, 1939

September 30, 1940

It is just not possible to determine when, and how many times, the lesion was operated upon by Ross McIntire. A few days were needed away from the glare of the public and press for the area to calm down after being surgically manipulated in some fashion. There were many opportunities for this to have happened. Many of the daily visits to the White House doctor's office were likely devoted to treating and soothing the area, which surely must have been chronically inflammed. Much of the "sinus" treatment was probably just another smokescreen necessitated by the deadly secret.

What can easily be seen, though, is by the time of the "Arsenal of Democracy" speech on December 27, 1940, even accounting for the use of make-up (pancake makeup was invented by Max Factor in 1935), the lesion is noticibly lighter. Also, note again, that FDR's hands do not leave his side.

After this, the difference is unmistakable. In all videos from 1941 and forward, the lesion is, at most, a faint shadow of scar tissue.

Amazingly, what had been a prominent facial feature had disappeared without any public notice. Only one record exists that the pathologic potential of the lesion was noticed at all- the January 1940 letter of Reuben Peterson (see the book for details).

March 18, 1941

November 3, 1941

December 1941

As stated by the eminent dermatologist, the late A. Bernard Ackerman, in our paper in the Archives of Dermatology, there are only too possibilities, based on physical characteristics, that this lesion could be: Solar Lentigo (aka sunspot or senile keratosis) or Melanoma. Even more relevant, while rarely these lesions may spontaneous regress, the natural history of either of them is incompatible with its disappearance over so short a time.

To read the entire paper: http://www.scribd.com/doc/14660879/Derm-Article

Therefore, within any degree of medical probability, the lesion was intentionally removed. What you have just seen is the unequivocal objective evidence of that removal!

January 6, 1945. The Smoking Gun Video

2009-09-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

Franklin Roosevelt did not personally deliver his 1945 State of the Union address to congress as had been his custom until 1943 (In 1944, he begged off because of "the flu", perhaps partially true) Instead, on January 6, he transmitted it to congress and spoke to the nation over the radio.

The reason is quite clear. By this time he was incapable of standing anywhere near long enough to give the 15 page, 8,253 word speech standing on the podium of the House of Representatives. He had to marshal his strength for the upcoming inaugural for which he absolutely had to stand to deliver an abbreviated address (the shortest in presidential history).

January 1945 was not the time for FDR to reveal to the world, for the first time, his increasingly debilitated condition. He needed to continue his image of strength for the inauguration, and, even more importantly, for his upcoming trip to Yalta.

Instead, it was decided that a short newreel video would be done, under the most optimal of conditions, to speak to America. Make up artists and lighting specialists were brought in from Hollywood to optimize the appearance of president's wan complexion and cachectic body and the production was made.

The video is divided into three carefully edited excerpts, but there is still much to be seen knowing that from this time FDR was struggling with his vision, most probably from a metastatic brain tumor in the right posterior portion of his brain.

Even before he begins speaking, watch carefully and you will see that he uses his left hand to mark the place on the page from which he is about to speak. Soon afterwards, be begins to use his left hand as a stylus to keep his place. He stumbles over the word "numbers" than accentuates the words "places" and "times" to try to cover his initial hesitation.

In the second excerpt, he again uses his left hand to mark his place and after the phrase "war torn world" then uses his right hand as a marker, crossing it over his left.

In the third excerpt, he abandons all pretense and is essentially reading the text following his left hand along the page.

Here is a color still photo of the speech.

In contrast, here is a video of FDR speaking in October 1944, less than three months prior to the State of the Union video. There are a few minor stumbles, but his hands remain at his side. The contrast is remarkable.

On March 1, 1945 FDR give the worst performance of his life during his speech to congress, deviating from the prepared text, (according to the New York Times, 49 times, we never counted) due to a primarily left sided visual deficit. On April 12, he died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage emanating from the right posterior portion of his brain- the area that controls the left side of vision.

Do FDR's Medical Records Exist? The Case For.

2009-09-25T12:57:00.000-07:00

In our book, we do not go against the conventional wisdom that FDR's medical records were destroyed by Ross Mcintire. If this was the case, though, we firmly believe it was done to honor the expressed wishes of the most powerful and charismatic man of the twentieth century rather than to cover any alleged incompetence of his physicians.

In fact, the bulk of the medical records that do exist document the only incident, in our mind, that Ross McIntire was indeed asleep at the wheel, permitting FDR's hemoglobin to fall to the nearly fatal level of 4.5 grams in May 1941 (America was perilously close to President Henry Wallace at that time). So I ask, if Ross Mcintire didn't destroy those records to cover his real mistake, why would he later destroy records to cover himself?

One possible reason they weren't destroyed is that Eleanor already knew about it, as witnessed by her strikingly specific letter to Anna at the time the problem occurred (so much for the myth that she didn't care about "physiology"). She would never have even found out that much if FDR didn't tell her himself, most likely because neither he nor his doctors actually knew the reason why it occurred and didn't feel it was related to the deadly secret (though it most likely was- to our thinking, induced as consequence of the radiation he received).

The story of the famous safe at the hospital, and who had access to it, is well known, as per Howard Bruenn's version (the only one anybody ever quotes, as per the 1970 "gospel"). The story is in the book, but we are still unclear as to why the records that McIntire supplied to Eleanor were only the selected ones we have examined.

As an opposing view, there is a strong case to be made that the records were not destoyed. The prime evidence here is FOIA file DFI-1259, obtained by Ken Crispell and Carlos Gomez for their 1985 book "Hidden Illness in the White House" (see p. 254).

Ken Crispell has died and Carlos Gomez (currently a hospice physicisn in the Washington, D.C. area) has no idea where the original document is. The document, dated November 17, 1981, from the chief legal officer of the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda states unquivocally that FDR was a patient there 29 times and lists all the known aliases FDR was treated under!

Considerable efforts to locate the legal officer have not met with success. Many of the aliases on the document correspond to those on existing records, but others do not, and some documents have names that are not on the list, most notably F. David Rolph, that appears on nearly all the documents from the time of the anemia in 1941 (though close names, like Rolph Frank, for which we have no records, are on the list).

The obvious question: Where did the chief legal officer get the information from? There is only one answer- the allegedly "lost" medical file.

More corroboration for the exisistence comes from numerous conversations with a physician who was at Walter Reed in the late 1970's. The physician wishes to remain anonymous, but, trust me, he/she, who we shall call Dr. X, exists and appears credible.

As the story goes, Dr. X was nosing around the hospital at the time working on another project (prune bellies, to be exact) and came across a VIP file that intrigued them. It had various reports and x-rays, some of which were photocopies, with different names though all with the same accession number! This immediately aroused Dr. X's suspicion that they were those of FDR. Upon further inspection, they appeared to be of someone who was being treated for, among other things, a urological malignancy.

Included in these records was a retograde pyelogram (see "John Cash" in the previous post) showing an abnormality of the left kidney (ibid). Also noted incidentally was a severe metastatic lesion eroding the L3 vertebral body and that the level was somewhat difficult to surmise due to the presence of a "transitional vertebra".

Aside from the fact a the metastatic lesion of the spine would be quite consistent with either melanoma or prostate cancer, it provides an alternative explanation for the severe pain FDR was experiencing at Bremerton, Washington in August 1944 and even moreso for the incident described by son James at his fourth inauguration in January 1945.

If one looks at the John Cash letter, Dr Reuter also describes an anomaly of the left kidney and "six lumbar vertebrae" another term for a transitional vertebra, a fairly rare developmental anomaly of the spine. Therefore, either this is one of the greatest coincidences in medical history, or Dr. X was looking at FDR's x-rays!

The alternative take to Howard Bruenn's story is that the records do indeed exist and are not destroyed, but presently lost under one of FDR's many assumed names or no name at all. If they are anywhere, they are in St. Louis at the national records center (That's where all documents older than 10 years wind up these days).

When thinking about the whereabouts of FDR's medical records, I envision the last scene from George Lucas' great film "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

The records are right next to the holy grail!!!!

What was the Cause of FDR's Malignant Hypertension?

2009-09-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

This one may be two technical for non-physicians and was clearly too controversial for the book, but its a line of thinking that has come from many years of research.

I give all the credit here to Dr. Barry Wiener, a brilliant educator and nephrologist at Jersey City Medical Center, whom I had the privilege of working beside for three years. Over the years, we had many conversati0ns around the etiology of a low grade proteinuria (seen repeatedly and consistently from 1939) FDR had, as documented by many surviving reports of urinalyses.

The eureka moment came when I first mentioned to Barry, after countless conversations, that FDR may have undergone radiation therapy for prostate cancer. A light came on and he immediately referrred me to a chapter in a textbook "Acute Renal Failure" edited by Barry M. Brenner and J. Michael Lazarus (W.B. Saunders, 1983) about an entity known as radiation nephritis. see: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/243766-overview

First described by Luxton in 1952, it documents a clinical course entirely consistent with that of FDR.

So, it is entirely possible (I won't say probable here) that malignant hypertension well documented that FDR had at least from March 1944 on, may have been, in large part, a consequence of the radiation therapy he received for his prostate cancer in 1940 or even before. This, of course, was superimposed upon his relatively mild and intermittent hypertension seen as early as 1933, his 2 pack a day use of tobacco use and a history of childhood nephritis from rheumatic fever.

The whole thing fits like the proverbial glove and raises the question of when the diagnosis of prostate cancer was made and when it began to be treated. Obviously, FDR's physicians could not have known about a condition that was described seven years after his death! While kidney pathology from radiation is decribed in Behrens' 1949 textbook, there is no mention of the clinical course as described in 1952.

We do not believe that it is at all a coincidence that Roosevelt's radiologist, one of the inner circle of his physicians, Charles F. Behrens, was the editor of the first textbook on the effects of radiation on the body, "Atomic Medicine", in 1949.

There is more smoke here. A letter appears at the FDRL (Box 6, McIntire Files) from internist Paul Dickens, another of the inner circle doctors, forwarding a letter from Doctor F.A. Reuter to Ross Mcintire about "John Cash", allegedly the son of a White House policeman, concerning a remarkably extensive and invasive workup for low grade proteinuria (protein in the urine that is normally not seen).

The question arises that, on the face of it, a young man underwent a "million dollar" workup for a benign condition that affected many thousands of children from exposure to rheumatic fever (as had been FDR). It seems like "much ado about nothing" for a child, but it wouldn't have been for the president of the United States.

In fact, our research indicates that there was a White House policeman at the time named John Cash. On the other hand, John Cash is one of the thirty plus known aliases to have been used by FDR and a 1944 laboratory report found in the FDR papers at the FDRL carries this name, as well as documenting a profound (4+) proteinuria (incidentally, never reported by Howard Bruenn despite the fact that he undoubtedly saw it).

The March 10th date is also interesting. This result, over two weeks prior to Bruenn's alleged first exam and just about the time that Ross McIntire decided that FDR needed a vacation in Cuba rather than meeting with Winston Churchill to plan the invasion of Europe, surely would have raised some concern but not a whiff of it appears anywhere.

This is just one of the fascinating and frustrating aspects of the layers of smokescreen laid down to cover FDR's Deadly Secret. More to come!

Did FDR Have Two Cancers?

2009-09-25T08:26:00.000-07:00

As I have just written a prominent FDR historian, our book presents a scenario that FDR may have had two cancers. This is a understandably tenuous assertion, considering that as yet, it is not accepted that he even had one! While most of the contemporary rumors centered around prostate cancer, obviously we are making a case for the melanoma as well.

The basis for this idea is anchored the evidence-based scientific literature.

One reason is medical statistics. If indeed the fatal hemorrahge emanating from the right side of FDR's brain was from a metastatic tumor as we believe, then it could not have come from a prostatic primary, since prostate cancer virtually never metastasizes to the brain (less than a handful of reported cases in the entire medical literature). On the other hand, melanoma is the tumor with the greatest propensity of all to metastasize to the brain. Over 90% of patients have brain metastases at autopsy and, in 25-50% of melanoma patients, the terminal event is brain hemorrhage!

As far as the abdominal tumor is concerned, this is a little less clear. We are convinced that the highest probablity for FDR's weight loss was a partial bowel obstruction. All of the Frank Lahey/George Pack references in the book are testimony to it. It makes no sense whatsoever for America's greatest abdominal surgeon at the time (Lahey) to be offering a prognosis on a cardiac standpoint. In addition, Howard Bruenn clearly states in his 1970 paper that when Lahey examined FDR in April, the condition was serious enough that it warranted informing the President (quite concordant to what later appeared in the Lahey memorandum!).

Both prostate cancer and melanoma frequently metastasize to the bowel, though melanoma is notorious for intussusception (intermittent telescoping of the bowel into itself) that produces the intense abdominal pain consistent with symptoms exhibited by FDR at Teheran (November 1943), Hobcaw (April 1944) and Camp Pendleton, near San Diego (August 1944).

Short of an open biopsy, for which there is no evidence FDR ever underwent, it is not possible to say with certainty which one it was. Even today, a pre-operative diagnosis of malignant bowel obstruction from melanoma is often missed.

It is our belief that it was indeed melanoma though with less assurance than for the brain metastasis, but the very real possibility is raised that FDR's doctors did not know, and may never have known, exactly which malignancy was the source of the abdominal pain (the "growth" even FDR himself suspected, albeit temporarily, when he told Harold Ickes about it in May 1944).

Our discussions with melanoma specialists about the time frame for the maligant bowel obstruction reveals that it is entirely consistent with contemporary thinking. This is not the case for the brain metatastasis, hence we could not postulate that metastatic disease was the cause of the seizures, which appear to have been on the basis of an otherwise clinically silent stroke (Dr. Wold may have been partially right, but for the wrong reason).

All of this thinking has evolved over three years of intensive research and discussions with countless expert physicians. We sincerely hope and believe that it will eventually come to be accepted by historians as the reality of FDR's medical history, though, as all things new and radically different, it will be subject to a vigorous debate.

The Bannister Letter

2009-09-25T07:29:00.000-07:00

This letter was given to us by Margeritta "Mickey" Allardice, the daughter of William Calhoun Stirling, I've never seen it referred to previously.

Obviously, this is a censored FBI document, written almost two months after FDR's death. The author is special agent W.G. Bannister, a regional FBI director and was sent to Director J. Edgar Hoover. It was probably obtained through a FOIA request but the source is unknown (I will be asking Mickey how she acquired it).

This letter was written about the same time a three part article "The Strange Death of President Roosevelt" appeared in an obscure but credible magazine, News Story. For a pdf of the complete article see: http://www.scribd.com/doc/12902806/News-Story (195 downloads so far!)

The rumors addressed in the third and fourth paragraphs of the letter center around FDR's mental status at Yalta and his prostate cancer and probably arise from the Walter Trohan/William Calhoun Stirling connection that is the source of virtually all of our present understanding of FDR's prostate problems.

The identity of the informant is unknown, though further research into any Montana connection with a New York reporter might provide further insight.

All in all, this is a new, important and interesting document concerning FDR's health. We are happy to bring it to public attention.

Here is a 1939 photo of FBI special agents. Bannister is second from the left in the first row. Hoover is the man on the left in the first row in the white suit. to Hoover's left is Edward Tamm, his right hand man.

The Tamm Memorandum

2009-09-23T18:03:00.000-07:00

This document, an FBI report signed by J. Edgar Hoover to Steven Early, was facilitated by Hoover's right hand man, Edward Tamm and has been referred to as the Tamm Memorandum in a number of books. It probably came to light through a FOIA request by Ken Crispell and Carlos Gomez for their 1985 book. This copy came to us from Margherita Allardice, William Calhoun "Pete" Stirling's daughter. The source of much the information was probably Chicago Tribune reporter Walter Trohan, who most likey got it directly from Stirling.

Interestingly, Stirling probably became FDR's doctor thorough White House press secretary Steve Early, his bridge and golf buddy. Stirling was a racist and anti-semite. We can date his medical care of FDR to prior to September 1943 because he did not talk to his younger daughter, Mickey, for a long time afterwards because she married a Jew and her recollections of his mentioning his treatment of FDR was from before their estrangement. Early had southern roots and was a descendant of Confederate General Jubal Early.

Through this memorandum, Early learned that it was his close friend who had been the source of the rumors that triggered the "avalanche of rumors". There is no record of Stirling ever speaking about FDR again.

The Fala Speech. September 23, 1944. FDR at his best.

2009-09-23T04:04:00.000-07:00

On September 23, 1944 FDR gave his famous "Fala speech", one that did much to reassure the American voting public that their President was up to the task of running the country for the next four years. The 39 minute, 30 second speech (only partially seen here) was delivered in a friendly environment at a campaign dinner in Washington, D.C., before the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffers. Warehousemen and Helpers of America. It shows FDR at his very best, despite the fears of his staff and family that, in his weakened physical state, he would be unable to carry the day. His incredible showmanship and guile are demonstrated to the fullest. The clip of the speech begins 20 seconds into this biopic and lasts about two minutes. It's worth the wait! There's also a relatively long clip of the March 1, 1945 speech to congress shortly afterwards.

Text of the entire speech: http://www.hpol.org/fdr/fala/

The Yalta Speech

2009-09-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

If you have any doubts as to what were getting at with respect to the errors FDR made while giving this speech, this should help.

Here's the 31 page speech, annotated by us to show the errors:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12772464/Yalta-Speech?secret_password=1hu8abw8qwlyrp6rezcc

Once you've downloaded it, then also download the original audio at:

http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3338

Now listen to the audio while simultaneously viewing the annotated text. What you experience is very convincing- the objective evidence that is one of the major keys to unlocking "FDR's Deadly Secret".

Here's a few of the existing videos that include portions of the speech:

On the Tuscaloosa February 1940

2009-09-13T06:40:00.000-07:00

These color frames are part of a film made by the US Navy for the President to commemorate his second cruise on the USS Tuscaloosa in February 1940. FDR felt at home on naval vessels and , being away from the press and public, felt it was less necessary to pay undue attention to the appearance of the pigmented lesion above his left eye. The purpose of this "mystery cruise" was ostensably to inspect the defenses ofthe Panama Canal. It is quite possible that this, and other voyages, were venues where he cauld have some"work done" to his lesion. The only staff members on this trip were his constant companion, VADM Ross McIntire, his chief of staff General Edmund "Pa" Watson (seen standing directly behind him), and his naval aide ADM (then Captain) Daniel J. Callahan, who died on the bridge of the USS San Franciso on November 13, 1942 at the battle of Savo Island (near Guadalcanal) and was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He is seen here boarding the cruiser. The lesion is starkly obvious, in contrast to the shadow (perhaps further attenuated by make-up) seen only ten months later while giving his "Arsenal of Democracy" speech on December 27th.

During a performance of the crew Admiral McIntire (second from right) casts a watchful eye on his star patient. Watson is to his left. Callahan is at extreme left.

Article reporting the "Mystery Cruise"

With the chief petty officers.

During the cruise:

On the left- a carefully staged photo taken from the right (Captain Callahan saluting at left). FDR could not take a single step unassisted.

On the right- photo taken the same day (same suit, same car) from the left showing the lesion

Two photos taken during the cruise showing FDR somewhat atypically using sunglasses (to cover recent surgery?)

A postal cover commemorating the first cruise (to northern waters including Campobello Island)

A webpage summarizing the three cruises

http://webspace.webring.com/people/ru/usstuscaloosa/fdr.htm

A book excerpt describing the third cruise:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Uezmu4jQC_UC&pg=PA483&lpg=PA483&dq=fdr+tuscaloosa+address+of+captain&source=bl&ots=AX4xrF-qws&sig=9Ym9iTz_mhpq0h2GMC0H9yJGzSg&hl=en&ei=9gKtSobtMoGxlAeJyfzLBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7#

At the close of the second cruise, FDR gave a brief speech, preceeded by these comments by Captain Badt:

Introduction by Captain Harry A. Badt, U. S. Navy Commanding Officer, U. S. S. TUSCALOOSA:
"Mr. President, it is always a pleasure to have you on the TUSCALOOSA. We are all sorry to see you leave tomorrow, but we are hoping that you will make another cruise with us soon and the officers and men of the TUSCALOOSA all want to wish you continued good health."