America's prisons will soon be full of outlaw podiatrists — calloused, hardened criminals. The New Yorker examines wide-ranging negligence and fraud cases in Manhattan and reveals that one podiatrist in Chicago is also on death row.

That particular podiatrist, Ronald Mikos, whacked a witness who was set to testify against him in a Medicare fraud investigation. Others, including 13 from a company called Citywide Foot Care, stopped short of murder but face the wrath of the law for similar scams — mostly billing for procedures that were not carried out. "One podiatrist, Albert Kalajian, saw his income go from $34,694 to $484,493 in a single year after he joined the Citywide staff," explains Jeffrey Toobin.

Some blame the, um, less glamorous nature of the job for such transgressions. "One prominent criminal-defense attorney in New York, who has represented several podiatrists, came to view his clients harshly. "These are the people who had no hope of getting into medical school," the lawyer said, echoing "Seinfeld." "They are three steps below dentistry."