Self-Made Doctor

The new intern who began his duties at Brooklyn's Women's Hospital soon after he got out of the Army in 1945 seemed to have everything. He showed the hospital authorities photostats of degrees from Scottish and German universities; medical patter rolled smoothly off his tongue. The confidence inspired by his earnest, sympathetic eyes and velvety bedside manner suggested that William R. MacLeod would go far in his chosen profession. Within the next few months he had helped deliver 475 babies.

For almost five years, MacLeod transferred from one hospital to another in the New York area, always making a good impression, never making a detectable medical mistake. But this summer he made a serious tactical mistake by missing a payment on a car he had bought in Hartford.

When police made a routine check across the state line it showed that no William R. MacLeod had been licensed to practice medicine in New York State. Within hours horrified hospital authorities had the dreadful truth: MacLeod, by then installed as senior resident at Dobbs Ferry Hospital, had been practicing medicine for five years without even a medical degree.

Red-faced hospital authorities scrabbled through their records to see how MacLeod had gotten away with his fraud. Born in Ste. Cecile, Quebec, he had gone to grade school in Maine and almost finished high school in Ste. Cecile. Between odd clerical jobs he served a hitch in the U.S. Army. In 1941 he rejoined the Army and was assigned to the Medical Corps. Private MacLeod read every medical book in sight, carefully noted the Army medics' talk and techniques. At war's end, self-taught "Dr. MacLeod" felt ready for professional duties.

Forging credentials and references, he applied to a medical placement agency. Since hospitals were then clamoring for interns, he was soon placed. Said Superintendent Miriam Watnick of Brooklyn Women's Hospital: "He was a very good doctor and a nice person. He had a marvelous personality and impressed all of us at the hospital. I can't imagine him being a fake . . . He had a medical diploma and references. What could we do?" Nobody, it seemed, had had the time or taken the trouble to check MacLeod's references.

Last week, just short of the date when he had hoped to leave Dobbs Ferry Hospital, perhaps to start in private practice, 37-year-old William MacLeod appeared before Police Judge John T. McCormick. By coincidence, he had taken care of McCormick at the hospital only a few weeks earlier and the judge had thought the "doctor" quite an impressive fellow. In court McCormick took care of "Dr." MacLeod : one year in the county penitentiary.

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