John Ronald Brown

John Ronald Brown (July 4, 1922 – May 16, 2010) was an American surgeon who was convicted of second-degree murder after the death of a 79-year-old patient in his care.

Early life The son of a physician, Dr. Brown was born on July 4, 1922. He did well in school, graduating from high school by the age of 16. When drafted by the US Army during World War II, he scored exceptionally highly on the Army General Classification Test, which resulted in the Army sending him to medical school. Brown, by contrast, freely admitted that he was willing to operate on anybody who would pay him. His lack of a formal surgical qualification made it necessary for him to carry out gender-affirming procedures in his office on an out-patient basis, rather than in a fully equipped surgical theatre. He also operated on patients in motel rooms, and his own garage.

In 1977, following the death of one patient and a lawsuit from another, Brown's medical license was revoked by the California Board of Medical Quality Assurance for "gross negligence, incompetence and practicing unprofessional medicine in a manner which involved moral turpitude".

During the 1980s Brown began soliciting and advertising surgical services in the United States, whilst performing the surgical procedures in Mexico. In 1986, an article in the magazine Forum reported on his procedure for surgically increasing penis length. The Forum article and an Inside Edition television documentary made several years later ("The Worst Doctor in America") both portrayed Brown as an incompetent and inept surgeon. While some of his patients were satisfied with their surgical results and praised Brown, he gained an overall poor reputation and the nickname "Butcher Brown" amongst the trans community. Despite this, desperate individuals continued to seek him out.

In 1990, Brown spent 19 months in prison for practicing medicine without a license. The charge came after Brown operated on a thirty-year-old transgender woman from Orange County, California. After leaving prison, Brown worked as a taxi driver for a year before re-establishing himself in medical practice. Police also discovered video tapes of Brown's operations.

Brown was prosecuted in California for second-degree murder – an unusually severe charge in medical cases. A surgeon, who was a witness for the prosecution, testified that Brown had not left a large enough skin flap to properly cover the bone and stump. The flap was stretched too tightly to allow adequate blood flow and the tissue in the flap died, allowing an infection of Clostridium perfringens and producing gangrene. To make the murder charges stick, the prosecution had to establish that Brown had a history of incompetence and recklessness. A number of transgender women gave testimony of their experiences of Brown's treatment and subsequent medical history. However, he continued to have some supporters amongst former patients, even after his arrest.

Brown was convicted by unanimous decision and sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison.

Illness and death By spring 2010, Brown's health had deteriorated greatly and he came down with numerous health problems, including a severe bout of pneumonia. Treatment for his pneumonia eventually proved useless, his body eventually rejecting antibiotic medication. While arrangements to move Brown to a rest home in San Diego were being made, he died on the evening of 16 May 2010, at age 87.