The Radio Disease Killer

Ken Raines

In 1926, The Golden Age printed a short article by William Hudgings that he was quitting his E.R.A. medical practice to serve the Lord "unencumbered":

"For the information of readers of THE GOLDEN AGE who frequently write to me personally concerning the Abrams diagnosis and treatment, and about the electronic home treatment machine known as the RDK ("Radio Disease Killer"), I wish to explain that I have severed my relationship with the RDK Corporation of America and also with the Brooklyn Electronic Institute, in order to be entirely unencumbered in my service for the Lord and King." (The Golden Age, November 17, 1926, p. 113.)

Hudgings was a director of the Peoples Pulpit Association, which was a Watchtower Society incorporation in New York that published such things as The Finished Mystery. (Proclaimers, p. 73) He was well known to "Bible Students" (now called Jehovah's Witnesses) at the time. He had an electronic (E.R.A.) institute "a stone's throw" from "Bethel" (Watchtower Society headquarters in Brooklyn, New York) according to Roy Goodrich. This apparently was the "Brooklyn Electronic Institute" mentioned by Hudgings above.

Hudgings was also called a "Physicist and Popular Scientific Writer" on the back cover of a pro-ERA booklet, The Abrams Way. I found a copy of this booklet in a copy of Albert Abrams' book, New Concepts in Diagnosis and Treatment printed in 1924 by New Century. The Abrams Way booklet does not list an author and may have been written by Hudgings himself. The only ads (also on the back cover) listed Hudgings' two books, Dr. Abrams and the Electron Theory (on the ERA) and Introduction to Einstein and Relativity which were also offered by New Century.

I have a copy of Hudgings's Introduction to Einstein book by the title, Introduction to Einstein and Universal Relativity put out by Arrow Book Company of New York in 1922. New Century apparently obtained the rights to publish both of Hudgings' books. I don't know what further connections this company had to Hudgings. The Relativity book was printed by Hammond Press, W. B. Conkey Company which also printed Angels and Women for AB ABAC Company and Studies in the Scriptures for the Watchtower Society.

I don't have any information on the RDK (Radio Disease Killer) or who invented it. It is apparently another E.R.A. machine like the Biola, designed to be used by individuals at home to treat their deadly diseases. The fact that many Golden Age readers wrote to Hudgings about the RDK suggests that either The Golden Age had mentioned the RDK before or Jehovah's Witnesses heard about it through the grape vine. Perhaps The Golden Age mentioned all this in a previous issue, but I have not found it yet. At the momment I have re-read through each Golden Age issue through 1925 and taken notes, but haven't found anything else.