Double tap to edit Ebenezer McBurney Byers was a wealthy American socialite, sportsman, and industrialist. In 1906 he won the U.S. Amateur Golf Championship. The man rose to fame in the early 1930s when he died of radiation-induced cancer after taking Radithor, a popular patented drug made from radium dissolved in water. On March 31, 1932, Eben Byers was officially pronounced dead. The diagnosis was multiple cancers caused by radiation.At 51, the former athlete suffered from weight loss, headaches and tooth loss. His lower jaw had almost completely decayed.