Over a decade ago, a Cody neurosurgeon made local headlines with a string of alleged misconduct that ranged from defaming other physicians to contributing to the death of a patient to hiding assets from a federal bankruptcy court in the face of multiple medical malpractice lawsuits. Now, a much bigger audience is going to hear the story of Dr. John Henry Schneider.

One of the world’s most popular true crime podcasts, Dr. Death, features Schneider in its new, six-episode season that debuts today (Thursday). The first two episodes are available wherever you get your podcasts, with the other four exclusively available through Audible's early access program.

“This is the story of a doctor who fashioned himself as a cowboy,” host Laura Beil says in the opening episode. “He [Schneider] rolled into Wyoming in his dress boots, ready to saddle up and be a hero, but the legend he left behind was one of broken bodies, lawsuits, bankruptcy and fraud.”Dr. Death is a household name in the world of podcasting, with tens of millions of downloads; two of its four prior seasons have been turned into TV series for the streaming platform Peacock.

Beil, who has reported extensively on systemic failures within the healthcare system for outlets like The New York Times and ProPublica, receives many tips about problematic doctors.

In this case, Beil said she was particularly struck by the fact that Schneider managed to get hired by a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in Iowa City in 2018. That was despite having had his Wyoming medical license revoked several years earlier, after a patient died from pain medications Schneider or his PA had prescribed.

The VA continued to employ the surgeon even after federal prosecutors in Montana indicted him; it was only after USA Today featured Schneider’s hiring in a front page story — one that drew the attention of the U.S. Senate and the Dr. Death team — that they parted ways.

“There were a lot of people who dropped the ball, but the VA? Come on,” Beil said. “There could not be a redder red flag than a guy who’s lost his license and they’re like, ‘OK.’”

The podcast features several patients and family members who reported suffering from unnecessary and poorly performed surgeries; a Casper surgeon who was allegedly targeted by Schneider; a fellow physician who raised concerns about Schneider’s infection rate; an assistant U.S. attorney in Billings who prosecuted the surgeon for bankruptcy fraud and others.

To Beil’s disappointment, Schneider did not sit for an interview with Dr. Death, though his attorney provided written responses to questions posed by the team. In it, Schneider generally denied any wrongdoing, contended the podcast was disapproportionately focusing on negative outcomes among many successful ones and asserted that he had been the victim of unfair attacks from competitors.

The podcast has been in the works for nearly two years. Most of the reporting was done by Zach Stauffer, who visited Park County in December 2024.

“I’m drawn to stories about power, injustice, and people who deserve better,” Stauffer said in a Wednesday email, “and this story of Dr. Schneider had many of the elements that keep me going in my reporting.

The flyer

The podcast picks up Schneider’s story in early December 2010. That’s when roughly 14,000 Big Horn Basin residents opened their mailboxes to find a mysterious flyer inside.

The document purported to have been sent by an unhappy patient of Cody Dr. Jimmie Biles who warned people to “beware” of the surgeon and made a series of false accusations against him.

Attorneys retained by Biles later determined the flyer had actually been sent by a nurse in Indiana, Lisa Schaurette Fallon, who’d never met Biles. They then gathered damning documents and emails indicating that Schneider — a close family friend of Schaurette’s — was behind the mailing.

In a couple messages, Schneider appeared to offer to destroy Schaurette’s hard drive and promised a $250,000 “payoff” if she could withstand a deposition by Biles’ attorneys.

Schneider ultimately agreed to a settlement with Biles in mid 2012 that, according to Dr. Death’s reporting, approached $3 million.

The death of a patient

Meanwhile, Schneider’s ability to practice medicine was called into question. In December 2011 — just days before Biles sued Schneider over the flyer — one of Schneider’s surgical patients, 47-year-old Russell Monaco of Billings, died of a drug overdose from a mixture of prescribed painkillers. 

The Wyoming Board of Medicine temporarily suspended Schneider’s license for a couple months, until he took a class on the proper use of fentanyl. 

The board’s prosecutor began seeking to permanently revoke Schneider’s license in April 2012, but the board didn’t take action until March 2014.

Dr. Death’s reporting notes that more than two full years passed between Monaco’s death and the revocation of Schneider’s license. However, Beil praised Wyoming Board of Medicine Executive Director Kevin Bohnenblust for sitting for an interview and explaining how the process played out.

Filing for bankruptcy

Months after losing his Wyoming license, while facing multiple malpractice suits, Schneider filed for bankruptcy in December 2014. He claimed few assets, but the trustee in the case, Joe Womack, would later allege that Schneider had intentionally tried to put them out of creditors’ reach through a “complex scheme” that involved multiple trusts and LLCs held by family members.

Schneider — who denied the allegations — was eventually indicted in Montana on five felony counts for allegedly hiding some assets.

Meanwhile, he was hired as a surgeon at the Iowa City VA, where he was accused of poor outcomes. Though Schneider still held valid medical licenses in Montana and Utah at that point in 2017, the VA moved to fire him following USA Today’s reporting.

Back in Montana, Schneider pleaded guilty to one felony count of concealing bankruptcy assets for failing to disclose a bank account that held about $309,000.

A question of remorse

At his August 2018 sentencing hearing in Billings, Schneider said he was “working hard to be the best reformed man I can — a man of character, temperance and integrity for my family, community and my God.”

“The best I can do is heartfully acknowledge and apologize for my mistake, accept responsibility and make restitution,” Schneider said, requesting probation.

But U.S. District Court Judge Susan Watters saw a lack of true remorse. She ordered Schneider to serve the two years in federal prison recommended by prosecutors.

“I mean, we can have the lowest or highest drug dealer in this courtroom … and they're very sorry. They seem to understand what they've done and how they’ve negatively impacted their community,” Watters said. “I don't really get that feeling from you, Dr. Schneider.”

“I still think that you put you first,” she added. 

Before checking into custody in February 2019, Schneider posted a long online screed that displayed little temperance. He hurled insults and attacks at Biles, attorneys who had opposed him, the trustee in his bankruptcy case and former patients — including Monaco and Monaco’s family. 

“I have lived well and laughed at the lawyers beating drums and soliciting my accusers, satisfied they will never find peace,” Schneider wrote. “If their ancestors are in heaven or hell, I will find them and secure my revenge. Persecution is eternal.”

The post prompted Biles to file another suit for breaching their earlier settlement and resulted in Schneider agreeing to pay the physician another $340,000, court records say.

Schneider was released from prison in October 2020 and, according to Dr. Death’s reporting, subsequently moved into a $1.1 million home in coastal Oregon.

Looking out for patients

In Wednesday’s interview, host Beil said the Dr. Death podcast is not so much about troubled doctors as about institutions and systemic failures

“... because doctors who hurt people, they could not be as harmful as they are without the systems that enable them,” she said.

Another common theme, Beil said, is that “patient safety always suffers when you start to make decisions that do not put the patients first.”

Reporter Stauffer said some people he interviewed said Schneider got too focused on money. The podcast highlights a comment Schneider allegedly made to a colleague in Billings: that he saw himself as “more of an entrepreneur.”

Shortly before he became enmeshed in controversy, court records indicate Schneider claimed to be worth as much as $17 million. He had planned to partner with other local surgeons and open a surgical center in Billings in 2012, but the plans fell apart after Monaco’s death and Biles’ suit.

Beil expressed particular gratitude to the patients and family who spoke to the Dr. Death team. Asking people to speak about the worst thing that’s ever happened to them “re-traumatizes people,” Beil said, so she’s always grateful when people are willing to share their stories.

“They do it in the hopes of helping other people,” she said, as there’s nothing in it for them.

“The main thing that I try to convey in this is you just have to hope the system works,” Beil added, “and so by series like this, … you want to bring these things to light in hopes that there will be changes, and there will be accountability, there will be justice, and that it will help other people in the future.”