The History of the Hoxsey Formula

The story of the Hoxsey formula spans nearly two centuries and encompasses some of the most dramatic events in American medical history: a legendary origin involving a horse and wild herbs, a charismatic healer who built the largest private cancer clinic in the world, a 25-year war with the medical establishment, a landmark courtroom victory, and ultimately, a tragic irony that would claim the life of the man who spent his life promoting a cancer cure.

The Origin Legend (1840)

According to family tradition recounted in Harry Hoxsey's 1956 autobiography You Don't Have to Die, the Hoxsey formula originated in 1840 with his great-grandfather, John Hoxsey, an Illinois horse breeder and Quaker farmer.

The story goes that John Hoxsey had a favorite stallion that developed a cancerous lesion on its leg. Considering the horse's condition hopeless, he put the animal out to pasture to die. But instead of dying, the horse repeatedly grazed on a specific clump of shrubs and flowering plants—and over time, healed itself completely.

Intrigued, John Hoxsey gathered these wild herbs, which included red clover, alfalfa, buckthorn, and prickly ash. He combined them with traditional remedies used for cancer and developed three formulas: an herbal liquid tonic, a salve, and a powder. The treatments reportedly proved so effective on animals that horse breeders began bringing their prize livestock from as far away as Indiana and Kentucky.

The formula was passed down through the Hoxsey family. Harry's father, John C. Hoxsey, worked as a veterinary surgeon and used the formula to treat animals—and, secretly, humans as well.

Harry Hoxsey: From Coal Miner to Cancer Clinic Operator

Harry Mathias Hoxsey was born on October 23, 1901, near Auburn, Illinois, the youngest of twelve children. At age fifteen, he quit school to work as a coal miner. He later sold insurance and completed his high school education through correspondence courses. He had no formal medical training.

Around 1918, when Harry was seventeen, his father lay dying. On his deathbed, John C. Hoxsey passed the family formulas to his youngest son with these words:

"Now you have the power to heal the sick and save lives... They will persecute you, slander you and try to drive you off the face of the earth."

This deathbed prophecy would prove remarkably prescient.

The First Clinic (1924)

In 1924, Harry Hoxsey opened his first clinic in Taylorville, Illinois. Almost immediately, he faced arrests for practicing medicine without a license. This would become a pattern: by his own count, Hoxsey was arrested more than 100 times over his career—more than any other person in American medical history.

That same year, Hoxsey visited Chicago to demonstrate his remedies to officials of the American Medical Association. According to his account, he successfully treated a Chicago policeman, Sergeant Thomas Manix, who had terminal cancer. Manix reportedly recovered and lived another ten years.

Impressed, AMA officials made an offer to purchase the formula—but on terms that would have pushed Hoxsey out entirely. Hoxsey refused, believing it would violate the promise he made to his dying father. According to Hoxsey, this rejection ignited a decades-long war: "Morris Fishbein declared war on Hoxsey."

Building an Empire

Undeterred by legal troubles, Hoxsey continued expanding. On March 9, 1936, he opened a clinic in Dallas, Texas at the Spann Sanatorium on Gaston Avenue. This would become his flagship operation.

By the mid-1950s, the Hoxsey enterprise had grown into something remarkable:

• The Dallas clinic was reportedly the largest privately owned cancer center in the world
• 14 clinics operating across 17 states
• An estimated 8,000 to 12,000 patients treated annually
• Gross annual income of $1.5 million (equivalent to approximately $17 million today)
• Some 40 new patients arriving daily

Hoxsey promoted his clinic through "border radio" stations in Mexico—powerful transmitters that could reach across the United States, following the example of other controversial medical promoters like John Brinkley, the "goat gland doctor."

The War with the Medical Establishment

Morris Fishbein: The Antagonist

Hoxsey's primary opponent was Dr. Morris Fishbein, the powerful editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association from 1924 to 1950. During his tenure, JAMA became the most influential medical periodical in history.

Fishbein was famous for his anti-quackery crusades. He had been sued more than 30 times for a total of $40 million but had never lost a case—until Hoxsey. Significantly, Fishbein himself had practiced medicine for only one year after his residency before beginning his career as a medical editor and writer.

The "Blood Money" Article

In 1949, Fishbein published a devastating attack on Hoxsey in the Hearst newspapers' Sunday magazine supplement, read by an estimated 20 million people. The article, titled "Blood Money," portrayed Hoxsey as a "malevolent charlatan" and repeated allegations that had been printed in JAMA for years.

But this time, Hoxsey fought back in court.

The 1949 Libel Trial: David vs. Goliath

Hoxsey sued Fishbein, Hearst publications, and the AMA for libel and slander, seeking $1 million in damages. What seemed like a hopeless David-versus-Goliath contest became a landmark case.

Fifty of Hoxsey's patients testified on his behalf. Many brought before-and-after photographs documenting their conditions. Some stated they had been treated by other physicians without success before being cured at Hoxsey's clinic.

Under cross-examination, Fishbein was forced to make stunning admissions:

• He had failed anatomy in medical school
• He had never treated a patient in his entire career after his brief residency
• He had never had a private patient
• Most remarkably: Hoxsey's external pastes actually did cure external cancer

Chief Judge William H. Atwell found Fishbein's statements to be "false, slanderous and libelous."

Hoxsey won the case—though he was awarded only nominal damages: $1.00 for himself and $1.00 for the slander of his father. The judge reasoned that since Hoxsey's promotion depended largely on claiming AMA persecution, he had actually benefited from the attacks.

The Supreme Court upheld the decision, ruling that the AMA had used restrictive trade techniques. Shortly after, Morris Fishbein was forced to resign from the AMA.

The 1953 Fitzgerald Report

Four years after the libel victory, Hoxsey received support from an unexpected source: the United States Congress.

Senator Charles Tobey's son had been diagnosed with cancer and given less than two years to live. After receiving alternative treatment and making a full recovery, Tobey Jr. informed his father of alleged conspiratorial practices in organized medicine. Senator Tobey initiated a congressional investigation.

Benedict F. Fitzgerald Jr., Special Counsel for the Senate Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, conducted the investigation. His report, submitted to the Congressional Record on August 3, 1953, reached explosive conclusions:

"A conspiracy does exist to stop the free flow and use of drugs in interstate commerce which allegedly has solid therapeutic value. Public and private funds have been thrown around...to close up and destroy clinics, hospitals, and scientific research laboratories which do not conform to the viewpoint of medical associations."

On the Hoxsey libel verdict specifically, Fitzgerald wrote:

"The jury, after listening to leading pathologists, radiologists, physicians, surgeons, and scores of witnesses...concluded that Dr. Fishbein was wrong; that his published statements were false, and that the Hoxsey method of treating cancer did have therapeutic value."

The 1954 Physicians' Investigation

In 1954, an independent team of ten physicians from around the country conducted a two-day inspection of the Dallas clinic. After examining hundreds of case histories and interviewing patients, they released a signed report:

"The clinic is successfully treating pathologically proven cases of cancer, both internal and external, without the use of surgery, radium, or x-ray. We as a committee feel that the Hoxsey treatment is superior to such conventional methods of treatment as x-ray, radium, or surgery. We are willing to assist this clinic in any way possible in bringing this treatment to the American public."

The FDA Campaign and Shutdown

The First Public Warning (1956)

Despite these victories, the FDA intensified its campaign. In April 1956, the agency published a warning in the Federal Register stating that its scientists had determined Hoxsey's treatments were "not only worthless but dangerous."

This was historic: the first time ever that the FDA had publicly denounced a cancer cure as fraud.

The Post Office Poster Campaign (1957)

In 1957, the FDA took the extraordinary step of placing "BEWARE" posters in 46,000 post offices throughout the nation, warning consumers that Hoxsey's treatment was "worthless and fraudulent." This remains one of the largest public warning campaigns in FDA history.

Hoxsey challenged the poster campaign in court (Hoxsey Cancer Clinic v. Folsom), claiming the government was depriving him of property rights without due process. The court ruled against him.

The Final Ban (1960)

On September 21, 1960, the FDA officially banned the Hoxsey Method, declaring it "worthless and discredited." All 17 Hoxsey clinics were closed and padlocked. The Hoxsey treatment was labeled "the biggest health hoax of the 1950s."

The Move to Mexico

The story did not end with the FDA ban.

Mildred Nelson, R.N., had worked with Harry Hoxsey since 1946. A graduate of Harris School of Nursing in Fort Worth, she had originally come to Dallas to "take her mother away from that quack." Her mother, Della Mae Nelson, had been diagnosed with incurable cancer. After her mother was cured by the Hoxsey treatment, Mildred converted from skeptic to believer and rose to become Hoxsey's head nurse.

In 1963, with Hoxsey's blessing and his original formulas, Nelson founded the Bio-Medical Center in Tijuana, Mexico—less than three miles from the U.S. border. At Hoxsey's urging, she omitted his name from the clinic to avoid controversy.

On her approach to medicine, Nelson later said:

"When you really get right down to the whole scope of medicine, the only stable drugs we have today are a product of the herbs. But scientifically we do not know all the interactions that take place. Not being scientifically minded, and being a nurse at heart, I have found that it is more important to have results than scientific proof."

Nelson ran the clinic for 36 years, treating an estimated 30,000 patients. She died on January 28, 1999, at age 79. Her sister, Liz Jonas, continues to operate the clinic today, claiming to have treated over 250,000 patients since 1963.

His Final Years

Harry Hoxsey chose to stay in Dallas after the clinic moved to Mexico, devoting his attention to investments in the oil business. He was 62 years old when the Bio-Medical Center opened in Tijuana, and after decades of legal battles, he was ready for a quieter life.

In 1967, at age 66, Hoxsey was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

He tried his own treatment first. When it didn't work, he made a practical decision: he underwent conventional surgery. This was not hypocrisy—it was honesty. Hoxsey had always maintained that his formula worked for many patients, not all. When faced with his own mortality, he tried what he believed in, and when that failed, he sought other options. That's intellectual honesty, not contradiction.

He spent his final seven years as an invalid and died in late December 1974. He was buried without an obituary or newspaper tribute in Dallas—nearly forgotten by the city where he had once operated the largest private cancer center in the world.

Sources: Texas State Historical Association, WETA Boundary Stones

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