John Ronald Brown was born on July 14, 1922. He grew up as the son of a physician. He showed strong academic skills from a young age and graduated from high school by the time he was 16 years old. During World War II, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. While there, he performed well on the Army General Classification Test. As a result, the Army sent him to medical school.

After completing his medical education, Brown graduated from the University of Utah School of Medicine in 1947. He began working as a general practitioner and practiced medicine for nearly twenty years. During this time, he encountered challenges in his career. After a near-fatal incident with a patient during a thyroid surgery, he decided to pursue formal surgical training to improve his skills.

Though he excelled in the written tests for the American Board of Plastic Surgery, Brown did not pass the oral assessment. He attributed this failure to the influence of his father, whom he described as domineering.

On May 9, 1998, John Ronald Brown performed a leg amputation on Philip Bondy, a 79-year-old patient, in Tijuana, Mexico. Bondy suffered from body integrity identity disorder, which led him to wish for the amputation of a healthy limb. The following day, Bondy was found dead in a National City, California hotel room by Dr. Gregg M. Furth, who had traveled with Bondy and had considered surgery but decided against it.

An autopsy revealed that Bondy died from gas gangrene, a serious infection. When police searched Brown's home, they found several disturbing items, including blood-soaked towels, anaesthetizing drugs, surgical instruments, and videotapes of his surgeries.

Brown was charged with second-degree murder, which is unusual in cases involving medical malpractice. During the trial, a surgeon testified that Brown had not properly left enough skin around the amputation site, which led to inadequate blood flow and allowed the infection to develop. To support the murder charge, the prosecution needed to show that Brown had a history of negligence and incompetence. Several transgender women testified about their negative experiences with him.

Brown was found guilty of second-degree murder and was sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison. Later, his health declined significantly. He suffered from various medical issues, including pneumonia. Despite treatment, he did not recover and died on May 16, 2010, at the age of 87.