wilhelm reich
thirties psychoanalyst and contemporary of freud. Member of the german Communist party until 1936. Exiled from Germany for his opposition to the Nazi party. Author of such books as Listen Little Man, The Sexual Revolution and the Mass Psychology of Fascism. Provided a revolutionary analysis of the means by which fascist and totalitarian states find support amongst the populace. Introduced the term "character armoring" to represent neuroses manifesting themselves as obstructions to the flow of energy within the human body. 

Moves to Norway and later the USA, where his work on bioenergy leads him to develop the concept of "orgone energy". Develops "orgone accumulator box" which works like a tanning-bed for this orgone energy. Is widely ridiculed for this as well as his subsequent claim to have found a cure for cancer, and a weather-changing machine. Yet his "orgone box" repeatedly saves the lives of mice injected with cancer cells and placed inside it. 

Puts ten milligrams of radium in an orgone box- the result is everyone in the 3-story building gets radiation sickness and radiation detectors 120 miles away pick up trace amounts of radioactivity.
His "orgone boxes" are destroyed by the FDA when he attempts to sell them across state lines.

He then moves from New York to Arizona to continue his weather research. he is hired twice by farmers who want him to make it rain and on both occasions DOES.  One week after his arrival in a small arizona town a torrential rainstorm breaks out and more rain falls in a week than did inthe previous 40 years.

Still continues to sell "orgone boxes". In 1955 FDA hauls his ass into court. Sentenced to a year in jail in '56. Dies on Nov. 3rd 1957 aged 60.
Wilhelm Reich revolutionized psychoanalysis and invented machines that, while they seem doubtful, have striking amounts of evidence in existence in favour of them actually working