Volume 56, Number 1 - Winter 2010

 

By Michael Franzblau, MD

Born in Buena Vista, Oregon, on March 8, 1886, Dr. Leo Leonidus Stanley spent his early years in San Miguel, California, until he completed high school. He attended Stanford University, graduating from its medical school in 1912. He served his internship at Lane Hospital in San Francisco, which at that time was Stanford’s teaching hospital.

From 1913 to 1951, Stanley was the chief medical officer at San Quentin Prison, except for his service during World War II as a medical officer in the U.S. Navy. He was innovative and industrious during his tenure at the prison. He brought modern medical services to the inmates and published the results of his observations and therapeutic endeavors in many peer-reviewed journals.

Stanley was the first West Coast physician to use spinal anesthesia, when appropriate, in his general surgical practice at the prison. He also kept meticulous records of the health status of prisoners under his care. He required that all new inmates to San Quentin have a Wassermann test for syphilis, and he published the statistical results.

In addition to routine surgeries, such as appendectomies, Stanley performed many operations to improve the appearance of inmates. He took “before and after” photographs of some of his patients, eventually donating the images to the Marin County Library. His motivation for performing these plastic surgeries was his theory that some criminals might reform if their physical appearance improved.

Stanley’s scientific interests were manifold. In peer-reviewed journals such as JAMA, Bone and Joint Surgery, Endocrinology, and Clinical Medicine and Surgery, he published articles on malignant tumors, bunions, fractures, diseased appendixes, and malformations of noses and ears. 

Two of Stanley’s projects elicited widespread interest from both the public and the medical profession. The first was his effort to reverse the aging process by injecting the testes of rams into elderly inmates of the prison. He ground up the testicular material and injected the paste-like substance into the subcutaneous tissue of the lower abdomen. He claimed the injections enhanced the virility of his patients, without any complications or infection.

The second project was Stanley’s performance of voluntary vasectomies on 600 prisoners, based on his view that the rate of recidivism would be reduced by sterilization. Stanley told inmates willing to have vasectomies that he would put in a good word at the parole board hearings on their behalf.

In addition to his many medical efforts, Stanley published two books for the general public, Men at Their Worst and My Most Unforgettable Convicts, in which he described prisoners he met and cared for during his long tenure at San Quentin.

After his retirement, Stanley lived in San Rafael. As a member of the Mt. Tamalpais Riding Club, he rode horses until the age of 87. He also acted as a ship’s doctor for cruises originating on the West Coast. He died in 1976.

---