that he could cure cancer, but did argue that he could "devitalize disease organisms" in living tissue, "with certain exceptions". In a 1931 profile, Rife warned against "medical fakers" who claim to cure disease using "electrical 'vibrations, stating that his work did not uphold such claims. An obituary in the Daily Californian described his death at the age of 83 on August 5, 1971, stating that he died penniless and embittered by the failure of his devices to garner scientific acceptance. Rife blamed the scientific rejection of his claims on a conspiracy involving the American Medical Association (AMA), the Department of Public Health, and other elements of "organized medicine", which had "brainwashed and intimidated" his colleagues. Health fraud after his death Interest in Rife's claims was revived in some alternative medical circles by the 1987 book by Barry Lynes, The Cancer Cure That Worked, which claimed that Rife had succeeded in curing cancer, but that his work was suppressed by a powerful conspiracy headed by the American Medical Association. The American Cancer Society (ACS) describes Lynes' claims as implausible, noting that the book was written "in a style typical of conspiratorial theorists", and that Lynes "... cites names, dates, events and places, giving the appearance of authenticity to a mixture of historical documents and speculations selectively spun into a web far too complex to permit verification by any thing short of an army of investigators with unlimited resources." After this book's publication, a variety of devices bearing Rife's name were marketed as cures for diverse diseases such as cancer and AIDS. An analysis by Electronics Australia found that one typical 'Rife device' cost AU$105 for a rudimentary circuit that simply produced a tiny pulsed electrical current (at a single fixed frequency of about 40kHz). It consisted of a nine-volt battery, wiring, a switch, a standard 555 timer chip and two short lengths of copper tubing meant to act as handheld electrodes, delivering a current which the author estimated at 1 milliamp at most. He described this as "the tip of an enormous iceberg", with a wide range of more elaborate devices also on sale from different suppliers, varying widely in design and ranging in price from AU$1,500 to AU$34,000. Such 'Rife devices' have figured prominently in several cases of health fraud in the U.S., typically centered around the uselessness of the devices and the grandiose claims with which they are