The Doctor of Starvation Heights : Linda Hazzard

[00:00:09]Claire and Dora Williamson had travelled  to Washington State to undergo a radical medical treatment. They believed they were  going on a wellness holiday where Dr. Linda Hazzard would cure their ailments through  a rigid period of fasting. Eventually, the sisters became so emaciated that they could  barely function and by the time family members had come to rescue them, Claire was dead. From  there, investigators found a lengthy list of others who had died before her. All at the hands  of a doctor who was claiming to make them better.

[00:00:41]This is Monsters In February of 1911, sisters Claire and Dorothea  Williamson arrived in Seattle to undergo treatment at an exclusive Pacific Northwest sanitarium.  Claire and Dora were the daughters of a wealthy British Army officer and despite their education  and having been well traveled, they were still naive about people who wanted to get their money  through scams. They were orphans in their early thirties and their two other sisters had died  of scarlet fever when they were young, so they traveled the world and visited what other family  they had left. They took a ship from Liverpool, England to Quebec and then traveled to the west  coast. While staying in the Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, they saw an ad for  a book called Fasting for the Cure of Disease by Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard. The book appealed  to the sisters because they were constantly looking for new ways to become healthier.  They weren’t suffering any serious ailments, but they both believed they had a  variety of more minor medical issues.

[00:02:10]Dora believed she had swollen glands and  complained of joint pain, where Claire believed she had a dropped uterus. By today's  standards, they would be seen as hypochondriacs.

[00:02:22]Their interest in solving their medical  conditions had brought them to many health centers and institutions that promised  miracle cures, but they still didn’t feel completely healthy. They had given up meat and  wearing corsets in an effort to feel better, but it wasn’t enough. Claire wrote a letter to  Dr. Hazzard telling her that Dora’s eyes were bloodshot and seemed to be eliminating a good  deal of matter. She also explained that Dora’s period was 10 days late and that she had a sharp  pain over her right temple whenever she moved.

[00:02:52]Five days later, Dr. Hazzard’s book arrived at  the hotel. In it, the doctor explained how every single ailment in the human body was caused by  diet and could in turn be cured with fasting.

[00:03:05]The book states, “the only disease is impure  blood and its sole cause impaired digestion.”

[00:03:12]The sisters believed that they had finally  found the answer to their medical maladies.

[00:03:17]Claire and Dora had been considering going  to a sanitarium owned by Dr. John Kellogg of Kellogg’s Cereal fame, but it was all  the way in Michigan. Dr. Hazzard had a facility in Olalla, Washington  just south of British Columbia.

[00:03:33]In 1898, Linda Hazzard was married to her first  husband, Erwin Perry. They had two children, Rollin and Nina Floy in a small town in Minnesota.  Linda was not happy with a small town life and left her family to pursue a medical career in  Minneapolis, though she claimed later in court documents that Erwin left her and with no support,  she sent her children to live with her mother and set out to develop a career. She had trained as an  osteopathic nurse before discovering the book The Gospel of Health by Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey. Dr.  Dewey promoted the therapeutic benefits of fasting and Linda was hooked. She began working under  Dr. Dewey, learning everything about the process of fasting to cure illness. Despite Dr. Dewey not  being a supporter of internal baths, which is just a fancy name for an enema, Linda believed that  the combination of fasting and enemas were the best way to cure diseases. When Dr. Dewey passed  away a few years later, Linda opened her own fasting practice. Even though she had no medical  degree, she presented herself as Dr. Perry.

[00:04:42]Her divorce from Edwin was finalized in 1902 and  records show she claimed her first victim around the same time. Gertrude Young was in her care,  having been promised a cure for the paralysis that she had suffered due to a stroke. Dr. Perry had  ordered her on a 40 day fast and on the 21st day, Gertrude awoke in the night, vomiting  uncontrollably. Her family called her regular doctor who told her she needed to break  the fast, but she refused. Dr. Perry had assured her that the fast would cure her. On the 39th  day of the fast, Gertrude died. When the coroner determined the cause of death was starvation, he  tried to have the police bring charges against her. Gerturde’s family also noticed that all of  her jewelry was missing. Since Dr. Perry hadn’t broken any laws and the cause of death was under  question, she was never charged with a crime.

[00:05:36]Shortly after that, she met and married a  man named Samuel Hazzard. He was a drunk and a swindler who was dishonorably discharged  from the US Army after he had misappropriated funds. Not only that, but it turned out that Sam  had been married twice before, but only divorced once. This led Sam to being charged with  bigamy and sentenced to two years in prison.

[00:05:59]Once Sam was released from prison in 1905,  Mr. and now Dr. Hazzard moved to Washington state to start over. They bought a 40 acre  lot in a small town called Olalla in Kitsap County. In case you’re unfamiliar with the  area, it’s an hour ferry ride from Seattle, just west of the Puget Sound. Linda started  commuting to Seattle to treat patients while she turned her property, which she named  Wilderness Heights, into a sanitarium.

[00:06:28]There was a specific reason that the Hazzard’s  chose Washington as their destination.

[00:06:34]Medical treatments were becoming more regulated  and laws were being created that required doctors to hold a medical degree and be licensed  in order to practice medicine. Washington state had grandfathered in a law that allowed  “practitioners of alternative medicine” to obtain licenses to practice. This gave Linda Hazzard an  opportunity to be a legitimately licensed doctor.

[00:07:00]While working on building her facility  in Olalla, Dr. Hazzard opened a practice in Seattle in 1906 and began treating people  using fasting, enemas, and day long hot baths as a treatment. Over the next four years,  9 people would die while under the care of Dr. Hazzard. One more notable victim of Dr.  Hazzard was a woman named Daisy Maud Haglund, a Norwegian immigrant whose parents had, at  one time, owned Alki Point. She died in 1908 and left behind a three-year-old son named Ivar  Haglund who would go on to open one of the most iconic seafood restaurants in the Seattle area. In  1909 a patient named Eugene Stanley Wakelin died from a gunshot to the head. Dr. Hazzard had been  given power of attorney over his estate and even though he was the son of a British lord, Eugene  himself was not rich. It’s speculated that the doctor killed him expecting to gain a substantial  amount of money, but it was never proven.

[00:08:01]Despite telling Dr. Hazzard that they weren’t  well enough to travel, in the fall of 1910, the Williamson sisters went to Riverside, California  to be in warmer weather through the winter. While there, Claire was receiving treatment for  her dropped uterus, but after writing to Dr. Hazzard, she received a response telling her  to stop the treatment because fasting was the only thing that could cure her. The letter  included an invoice for $5 for the advice.

[00:08:28]When the sisters were ready to travel to  Wilderness Heights, Dr. Hazzard gave them the bad news that construction had been delayed  over the winter. They opted to stay in Seattle and begin their treatment. They arrived in Seattle  on February 26th, 1911 and met Dr. Hazzard in person for the first time the next morning. She  explained the process to the women. Upon arrival, the patient was put on a vegetarian diet of  two meals a day. The next week they would be reduced to one meal a day for a few days, then  it would be cut down again to a small amount of fruit. Soon the patient would be given vegetable  broth for 3 days before starting a 45 day fast.

[00:09:07]During this entire time, the patients would  undergo constant, sometimes hours-long enemas.

[00:09:13]They were also required to constantly walk. Dr.  Hazzard told the sisters, “Your bodies are full of poison, you need to walk it out. No matter  how difficult it may be as the fast continues, you must persevere and walk. Walk! Walk! Walk!” Of  course, the fast didn’t stop there. After 45 days, they were allowed to eat some lima  bean broth and then fasted some more.

[00:09:37]On April 22, 1911, Claire and Dora were  transported to the Wilderness Heights sanitarium.

[00:09:42]They both weighed about 70 pounds and Dr.  Hazard hired two ambulances to take them across the Puget Sound to the newly built sanitarium.  Neighbors watched as two skeletal forms wrapped in blankets were brought out of the apartment  building on stretchers and placed in ambulances.

[00:10:00]In the time since the sisters had started their  fast, Claire had modified her will to include a 25-pound monthly stipend to the Hazzard  Institute of Natural Therapeutics. The modification also included instructions that,  upon her death, she was to be cremated under the supervision of Linda Hazzard. Doroa had  also given Dr. Hazzard power of attorney.

[00:10:22]After getting the women into the house in  Olalla, Dr. Hazzard split them up. Dora was told that Claire was too weak for visitors  and Claire was told that Dora had gone insane.

[00:10:34]17 days later after being brought to  Wilderness Heights, Claire died of starvation. Only the autopsy report didn’t  say that she died of starvation, but that’s because the autopsy was performed by  Dr. Hazzard herself. Prior to Claire’s death, the sisters had sent a telegram to their  childhood nanny asking her to come see them.

[00:10:57]Margaret Conway was a nursemaid for the  Williamson family and despite Claire and Dora now being adults, she was still close  with the girls. When their mother died, Margaret had taken over the mother role and  they felt just as much her own children by now.

[00:11:13]Margaret arrived in Seattle on June 1st 1911.  She was met by Sam Hazzard and told that Claire had died and that Dora was insane. She was  then taken to a mortuary where she was shown an embalmed body that she would later say was not  Claire. He attempted to keep her from seeing Dora, but after repeated demands, she was finally  taken to Wilderness Heights. There she saw Dora who now only weighed less than 60 pounds. The  emaciated woman initially begged to be taken away, but when Margearet returned the next day, she  was no longer willing to leave. Margaret stayed in an attic bedroom of the Hazzards’ home  and began taking care of Dora. At first, Dr. Hazzard wouldn’t allow her to be present  during enemas or to see Dora without clothes, but soon the nurse on site left and Dr.  Hazzard allowed Margaret to take over her duties. Margaret knew that Dr. Hazzard’s  treatment was actually killing Dora and when nobody was looking she would add some rice or  some flour to Dora’s vegetable broth. Anything to give her some extra sustenance. Soon, Margaret  was able to move into the small cabin where Dora was living by herself. Over time, Dora regained  some strength and was awoken from the spell that Dr. Hazzard had put on her. After a few weeks,  Margaret was approached by another, severely emaciated patient. The woman told Margaret that  they were prisoners there and asked for help.

[00:12:41]When Margaret informed Dr. Hazzard that she  wanted all of Claire’s belongings so her and Dora could leave, the doctor told her that  Dora couldn’t leave. Dr. Hazzard had had the county declare Dora mentally incompetent and  now the doctor had complete guardianship of her. Margaret was able to send a cable message to  the girls’ uncle in Portland, Oregon and inform him of the situation. John Herbert arrived at  Wilderness Heights and told Dr. Hazzard that he intended to take Dora. She told him that he  could but he would have to settle her bill.

[00:13:12]Then she handed him an invoice for $2000 with  a remaining balance of $700. That would be like $20,000 today. They argued through the night  and John ended up giving them $500 to settle the bill. As Margaret, John, and Dora board the  ferry that would take them away from Olalla, a local resident pointed and commented on  how skinny Dora was. Then a woman could be heard saying, “That’s one of those girls  from Starvation Heights.” It turned out that the residents of Olalla had given the sanitarium  their own name and this one was much more fitting.

[00:13:48]John and Margaret reported the situation to the  British vice-consul in Tacoma, Washington. Not only to get justice for Claire and Dora, but  to try to save the other prisoners trapped and starving to death under Dr. Hazzard’s care. The  first order of business was in regaining control of Dora’s guardianship and Claire’s estate. In  court, Dr. Hazzard tried to finagle her way into keeping control of both, but her paperwork didn’t  add up and finally, the lawyer she claimed was hired by the Williamson sisters confessed that  he never was. The court ordered the guardianship voided and all possessions once belonging  to the Williamsons were returned to Dora.

[00:14:27]The vice-consul pressured the Kitsap County  district attorney to prosecute Linda Hazzard.

[00:14:33]The district attorney initially said  they couldn’t afford it. The small county across the sound from Seattle did  not have the resources. Despite a young woman being murdered in the county, money  was the reason she was going to get away with it. In order to get justice for her  sister’s murder, Dora offered to pay for all the costs associated with trying Dr.  Hazzard with the crime. In August 1911, an arrest warrant was issued for Linda Barfield  Hazzard for the murder of Claire Williamson.

[00:15:04]During the investigation into Dr.  Hazzard while preparing for her trial, it was discovered that the local authorities  knew the so-called doctor well. In May of 1911, authorities were alerted that a man was starving  to death under the care of Dr. Hazzard. That man was Lewis Emerson Rader who had served in the  Washington House of Representatives until 1899.

[00:15:26]He had sought treatment from the fasting doctor  for a stomach issue and ended up dying after 29 days of fasting. The health department at  the time didn’t have the authority to do anything about the reports because the doctor  was licensed to practice her form of treatment.

[00:15:41]Dr. Hazzard had performed the autopsy on  Lewis Rader and she cited his cause of death as stomach prolapsis. It seemed that the  good doctor would starve her patients to death, do the autopsy and then use the condition of  the internal organs as the cause of death.

[00:15:58]But the condition of the internal organs was  caused by starvation. Was she intentionally lying or did she just know that little about how  starvation worked, nobody will know for sure. It would seem coincidental that all of the patients  who died were of a wealthier class and she tended to create paperwork that would give her access  to their money. The Williamsons and Lewis were brought to Olalla in secret and Dora and Lewis’  bodies were removed under the same secrecy.

[00:16:27]She didn’t want people to know they had been at  Starvation Heights. It was also discovered that Lewis Rader had once owned some of the property  that became Linda Hazzard’s and it’s possible his death released her from a debt. I think she  knew exactly what she was doing to an extent. It would be her final victim who would make me think  she believed that fasting was a valid cure-all.

[00:16:51]The records showed that Dr. Hazzard  had caused at least 15 deaths while practicing her fasting therapy. Two of those  deaths happened after Dr. Hazzard’s trial.

[00:17:01]Three of the death certificates had been  written by outside doctors instead of by Dr. Hazzard herself and they listed  starvation as the cause of death.

[00:17:10]Linda Hazzard was arrested on August 5th, 1911  at her home in Olalla. At the time of her arrest, she had a young blind boy at her  facility who had been fasting for three weeks with the goal of restoring  his eyesight. Through fasting… Yeah.

[00:17:27]During the trial, Dr. Hazzard claimed that  she was only being prosecuted because she was a woman and other doctors didn’t like her  natural methods. The prosecutor presented a letter that was sent to Claire Williamson’s  bank requesting funds in the amount of $1,005 dollars be sent directly to Linda  Hazzard. That letter was dated April 22nd, but the bank sent the funds directly to Claire  and it seemed that the doctor and her husband were not aware of this because on May 26th, Sam  Hazzard stormed into a bank branch in Seattle and demanded to know why they hadn’t gotten their  money. Well, Claire had died on May 18th and when the cashier he confronted was questioned, he  said that Sam hadn’t made any mention of it. It was almost as if Sam wanted the cashier to believe  she was still alive. On top of that, on June 4th, Sam had used the questionable power of attorney  to withdraw $539.10 from Claire’s account.

[00:18:22]Dora’s testimony was also damning. She described  the diet of a thin vegetable broth and occasional fruit juice, the constant enemas, the day long  baths, the excessive exercise, and the violent, pounding massages. Linda Hazzard used the  fact that she was looking healthy as proof that the fasting worked. Ignoring the fact  that STOPPING her ridiculous and dangerous treatment was the reason Dora looked better.  Dora then described the numerous financial transaction slips she signed yet never  received any money. The district attorney showed her transfer slip address to her bank  asking for $583 dollars to be transferred to Samuel Hazzard’s account. When asked if she  had signed it, she shook her head and said no.

[00:18:56]On February 4th, 1912, Linda Burfield Hazzard was  found guilty of manslaughter. The jury first voted for first-degree murder but couldn’t  reach a unanimous decision. Instead, they chose to find her guilty of manslaughter.  Linda yelled to the press that she was the victim and was being persecuted, but for the  first time in their relationship, Sam grabbed her arm and told her to shut up. He loved his  wife and didn’t want her to do any more damage.

[00:19:22]Linda made a statement during sentencing saying,  “I can only say that I have not had a thought of doing anything wrong and that a great injustice  has been done me. It only takes time, of course, to right all these matters.” With that, the judge  sentenced her to 2 to 20 years in prison. On July 1st, he medical license was revoked by the  Washington State Board of Medical Examiners.

[00:19:38]Linda Hazzard wasn’t sent straight to prison  though, she was released on bond while she awaited an answer to her appeal. During  this time, two more women would die under the instruction of Linda Hazzard: Mary Bailey and  Ida Anderson. Linda was tried for those deaths, but since the district attorney believed she would  already be going to prison for her past crimes, he didn’t really push the issue. Released  once again, it was learned that a wealthy British man was in the midst of the fasting  process. He was able to make it away from Starvation Height with his life, luckily. In  the last days of 1913, Linda Hazzard had lost her appeals and was ordered to the Washington  State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington.

[00:20:22]On December 19th, 1915 almost exactly  2 years after walking into prison, Linda Hazzard walked out a  free woman. The following year, Governor Ernest Lister gave her a full pardon in  exchange for her agreement to leave the country.

[00:20:37]She and Sam moved to New Zealand where she  worked as a dietitian and osteopath until 1920. In 1917 she was charged in Auckland under  the Medical Practitioners Act for practicing medicine while not registered to do so. She  was found guilty and fined a whopping 5-pounds.

[00:20:56]In 1920, She moved back to Olalla, Washington  where she opened a new sanitarium called The School of Health. Since she no longer  had a medical license, she claimed that she was operating a school and she would call her  patients “students”. She continued her starvation treatments for 15 more years, even receiving  legal reprimands for practicing without a license. It didn’t stop her from starving people  though and many more people died under her care.

[00:21:23]In 1925 Leonard Ritter paid to attend  the “school” where he fasted for 84 days, going from 168 to 100 pounds. He died as a result.  The authorities came after Linda Hazard and she was fined $100. No jail time. In 1935, the  facility burned down and was never rebuilt.

[00:21:47]Three years later, in 1938, Linda  Hazzard claimed her final victim.

[00:21:52]She wasn’t feeling well, so she began a  fasting cure on her own. At the age of 70, it didn’t take long for her to succumb  to starvation. She died on June 24th, 1938. She believed that fasting was the only  thing that would cure her of her illness, but in reality, like the rest of  her victims, it was what killed her.