Cornelius Packard "Dusty" Rhoads (June 9, 1898 – August 13, 1959) was an American pathologist, oncologist, and hospital administrator who was involved in a racist scandal and subsequent whitewashing in the 1930s.

During World War II, he worked for the United States Army helping to develop chemical weapons and set up research centers.

He publicized the letter in the Puerto Rican and American media, which led to a scandal, an official investigation,[2] and a US whitewashing campaign to protect Rhoads and, by extension, Rockefeller interests.

Alerted to the incident, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), which had established the Cornelius P. Rhoads Memorial Award in 1979,[6] commissioned a new investigation.

Castle to join his Rockefeller Anemia Commission, to conduct clinical research at Presbyterian Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

[11] Castle's research interest was pernicious iron deficiency anemia, specifically as caused by the parasitic hookworm, which was endemic on the island at rates of 80%, and tropical sprue.

[4] As recently as 2010, these conditions continued to cause high mortality in Puerto Ricans, as reported in the scientific journal Revista de Hematologia.

[4] Castle wanted to perform a similar study in Cidra, in conjunction with the School of Tropical Medicine, which was doing related research, but this was not approved.

He went to his office, where he wrote and signed a letter addressed to "Ferdie" (Fred W. Stewart, a colleague from Boston, by then working at the Memorial Hospital for Cancer Research in New York).

It certainly is odd that a man out with the entire Boston group, fired by Wallach, and as far as I know, absolutely devoid of any scientific reputation should be given the place.

The matter of consideration for the patients' welfare plays no role here — in fact all physicians take delight in the abuse and torture of the unfortunate subjects.

[2] In addition to distributing the letter to the media, Albizu wrote his own, charging that Rhoads was part of a US plot to exterminate Puerto Ricans.

He linked the letter to other complaints about American imperialism, saying that the US governors in Puerto Rico encouraged labor emigration rather than improving employment, and promoted birth control, which was offensive to the majority Catholic residents.

[2] Later that year, Governor Beverley struggled with a greater political crisis than the Rhoads letter over his own remarks encouraging birth control use on the island.

The Attorney General and medical community joined in absolving Rhoads of the Nationalist charges that he was part of a U.S. plot to exterminate Puerto Ricans.

"[3] Confirmed in Lederer's 21st century account, "records at Presbyterian Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Rhoads had performed his research, revealed no patients in the young pathologist's care had died under suspicious circumstances.

'"[4] During the investigations, Ivy Lee, who handled public relations for the Rockefeller family, and a team at the Institute began a campaign to defend Rhoads' reputation.

Starr says (in his 2003 article on the scandal) that Rhoads' colleagues did not believe the researcher's attempt to cast his letter as a "fantastic and playful composition...intended as a parody.

Time magazine headlined the incident as "Porto Ricochet"; Starr suggests they meant that Rhoads's humanitarian work in Puerto Rico had come back to bite him.

[2] In Puerto Rico, Albizu Campos used the Rhoads scandal as part of his anti-colonial campaign, attracting followers to the Nationalist Party.

In 1950, longtime Puerto Rican pro-independence activists Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola tried to assassinate President Truman to bring their cause to the world stage.

When later interviewed, Collazo said that as a young man, in 1932 he heard Albizu Campos speak about the Rhoads letter and decided to devote his life to the Nationalist movement.

[18] In 1934, Rhoads and another researcher published results of the success in using liver extract therapy to treat tropical sprue (and relieve anemia).

[6][23] In 2003, the chemical warfare experiments conducted at San Jose Island were also reviewed as a part of the investigation into Rhoads' actions in Puerto Rico.

Yale bioethicist Jay Katz described the chemical warfare tests as "unconscionable," saying that they were based on the "cheap availability of human beings" and the soldiers were "manipulated, exploited, and betrayed.

"[23] Due to his casualty studies on mustard gas from an accident during the war in Italy, Rhoads became interested in its potential for cancer treatment.

For the rest of his life, his research interest was in developing chemotherapy for cancer treatment,[21] but he served primarily as an administrator and scientific director at Memorial and Sloan-Kettering.

[6] In 1982, Puerto Rican social scientist and writer Pedro Aponte-Vázquez discovered new information at various archives which raised questions about the investigations conducted on Rhoads and Rockefeller Project.

[2] In 2002, Edwin Vazquez, a biology professor at the University of Puerto Rico, came across Rhoads' 1932 letter and contacted the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) about it.

[3] Eric Rosenthal of Oncology Times in 2003 characterized the case as the AACR having to "deal with the embarrassment of having history catch up to modern-day sensibilities.