A self-proclaimed healer was convicted of luring desperate cancer patients to Mexico and charging them thousands of dollars for quack treatments such as the "digitron" energy adjustment device.
James Gordon Keller, who treated thousands of people, was convicted Monday of 11 federal counts of using interstate communications to defraud patients.He could get up to 55 years in prison at sentencing Oct. 9.
Prosecutors argued that Keller charged for amazing but unapproved and unproven treatments. Among them were a substance called "Tumorex" and a instrument called a "digitron" that purportedly adjusted patients' "energies."
The verdict enraged many of Keller's former patients, who had crowded into the courtroom during the two-week trial.
"What do we do if our cancer returns? I'm not going to go to a doctor, no way," said Libby Hodges of Newport Beach, Calif., who testified for the defense.
"The crime that was committed during this trial was saying Jim Keller was guilty."
Keller said he believed the treatments worked but that he never claimed to be able to cure cancer.