John Bosley Ziegler

John Bosley Ziegler (ca. 1920–1983) — known as John Ziegler and Montana Jack — was the American physician who originally developed the anabolic steroid Methandrostenolone (Dianabol, DBOL) which was released in the US in 1958 by Ciba. It was banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Controlled Substances Act. Later in his life, he was outspoken against its use in sport, saying "It is bad enough to have to deal with drug addicts, but now healthy athletes are putting themselves in the same category. It's a disgrace. Who plays sports for fun anymore?" Ziegler suffered from heart disease, which he partially ascribed to his experimentation with steroids, and he died from heart failure in 1983.

Biography Early life Ziegler was born in the Midwestern United States but he returned to his family roots in southern Pennsylvania and graduated from Gettysburg College in 1942. He was descended from three generations of doctors going back to the American Civil War, and his father had been both practicing physician and a scientist who had discovered the salt tablet.

He served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific in World War II, where he suffered extensive bullet wounds. His experience of surgery and convalescence lead to a speciality in recuperative medicine at the University of Maryland Medical School. He served his internship and residency at Marine hospitals in Norfolk Virginia and Mobile Alabama, before completing a two-year residence in neurology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. In 1954, after he settled in Olney, Maryland he specialized in the treatment of handicapped and seriously injured patients whilst conducting part-time chemistry research at Ciba Pharmaceuticals in Summit, N.J. With the research assistance of Ciba Pharmaceuticals, Ziegler began to look for synthetic substance that would mimic testosterone. Working at CIBA allowed Ziegler access to books and records from Germany where experiments with testosterone had been carried out by the Nazis, and which had been confiscated by the United States after the war. Ziegler sought a drug without after-effects and hit on an anabolic steroid, methandrostenolone (Dianabol, DBOL), made in the U.S. in 1958 by Ciba. In later years Ziegler regretted introducing AAS to athletes. He recollected "but I wish to God now I’d never done it. I’d like to go back and take that whole chapter out of my life."