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Lost LA
Zzyzx: The Snake Oil That Fueled a Community
The kind of dreams that Curtis Howe Springer peddled were tied to health and prosperity, but it didn't take long before "the last of the old medicine men" brought Zzyzx to ruins. CSU Desert Studies Center's Jason Wallace outlines the ploy Springer used, a radio ministry, and how his bogus claims eventually caught up with him in the 1970s.
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