Clark Stanley

Clark Stanley (b. c. 1854 in Abilene, Texas, according to himself; the town was founded in 1881), the self-styled "Rattlesnake King," marketed snake oil as a patent medicine.

Stanley claimed that he, after 11 years as a cowboy, studied for more than two years with a Hopi medicine man at Walpi, Arizona, from 1879. This supposedly included learning the secrets of snake oil. With the help of a Boston druggist he began marketing his product at Western medicine shows. In 1893 he and his rattlesnakes became a hit attraction at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. His act included the killing of rattlesnakes and squeezing their bodies, and what came out he labeled snake oil. Later he went on to establish production facilities in Beverly, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island.

In 1916, subsequent to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, Stanley's concoction was examined and found to be of no value (it was mostly mineral oil). He was fined $20.00 (corresponds to $443 in 2017). The term snake oil was well established as a worthless concoction sold as medicine.