The field of alternative medicine has always fostered an environment of greed. In most cases, the ultimate goal is fame and fortune. That was certainly the case with The Starvation Doctor, Linda Hazzard.
Lynda Laura Burfield was born in Carver, Minnesota in 1867. Little is known about her early childhood.
When she was 18, Linda, who had changed the spelling of her name, married 30-year-old Erwin Perry. The couple settled in Fergus Falls, where they had two children, Rollin and Nina.
A few years later, the two separated, with Linda claiming in her divorce papers that Erwin had abandoned her and the children in 1898. Though no one really believed the abandonment story – especially as she willingly left her children with Erwin in order to pursue her own goals – the divorce was finalized in 1902.
From there, Linda moved to Minneapolis, and set up shop as a medical doctor. The fact that she didn’t have a medical degree seemed to slip her mind.
Linda developed a “cure-all” method that she swore by – a method of fasting. She firmly believed that too much food was the root of all disease, and therefore fasting would clean the body of all of its toxins, and diseases.
In October of 1902, Gertrude Young became a patient of Linda’s. She believed that the “good doctor” would cure her of the partial paralysis she suffered as the result of a stroke in 1900.
Linda and a hired nurse met with Gertrude, and her friend, at Gertrude’s apartment. They were there to offer instructions, and check on the progress of the treatment.
On November 12th, Gertrude was found sweating, shaking, and vomiting up a dark, pungent smelling phlegm. When Linda was called, her only advice was that the windows should remain open, in order to keep the air in the rooms fresh. This did not help Gertrude.
Later that day, Gertrude’s friend sought advice from a different nurse, wanting nothing more than to help Gertrude through her pain. The nurse went to Gertrude’s apartment, then immediately called for a Dr. Williams, who had treated Gertrude just a couple months prior.
When Dr. Williams arrived, he urged Gertrude to break her fast. He explained to her that the fast was not the miracle cure she thought it to be, and that it was doing her more harm than good. Gertrude refused – she believed in Linda, and her cure.
On November 18th, 1902, on the 39th day of her fast, Gertrude Young passed away.
When Gertrude’s body was taken to the coroner, it was Dr. Williams who took charge, as he was the county coroner. Himself, as well as three physicians from the University of Minnesota all came to the same conclusion – Gertrude had died as a result of “cruel and unnecessary quackery” at the hands of “Doctor” Linda Perry. Dr. Williams immediately demanded she be charged.
However, the question was what, exactly, she could be charged with.
While law enforcement were looking into the case, they were also looking into some missing jewels of Gertrude’s. Linda claimed that Gertrude had given them all away as gifts to the nurse who helped her. The friend who had stayed with Gertrude denied these claims. She knew that the jewels had been precious to Gertrude, and she wouldn’t have given them. Making matters worse for Linda, the nurse she claimed had been gifted the jewels could not be found, and some speculated that the nurse had never existed in the first place.
In the end, no charges could be officially filed against Linda. The jewels were never found, and there were no laws on the books against fasting as a medical procedure. Linda used this victory to her advantage, and moved into a larger office space, where she advertised her “successful” fasting procedure.
In 1903, she married Sam Hazzard – who’s actual name was Samuel Hargrave. Sam had been a West Point graduate, and a Marine. However, his alcoholism greatly affected his career. Eventually, he was dishonourably discharged for misappropriating military funds. Sam was the kind of man Linda was looking for – a man practiced in fraud and theft.
When the two married, Sam had already been married twice before. In fact, he had never formally divorced his second wife, Viva. In January of 1904, she filed bigamy charges against Sam, testifying before a grand jury that Sam had deserted her mere months after they were married, but that he’d never filed for divorce.
Sam was eventually found guilty, and sentenced to two years in prison. He was released in October of 1905, much to Linda’s delight. She had plans, and she needed his help.
In 1906, the two headed west, and settled in the state of Washington. Even though Hazzard had no medical degree, she was licensed to practise in Washington through a loophole. As a practitioner of an “alternative” medicine, she could call herself a doctor, but did not require the educational background to back it up.
In Olalla, Washington, which was a small town only reachable by ferry, the Hazzards established Wilderness Heights, a sanitarium, where she encouraged her patients to fast, undergo brutal beatings, though she called them massages, and endure her harsh tone, and domineering personality.
While there were a few survivors of her fasting methods, many died under her “care”. Every time, she would claim that her patient had passed due to undisclosed, or pre-existing condition. She never took responsibilities for the lives she endangered under her care.
So notorious was her sanitarium, the locals began referring to it as Starvation Heights.
While vacationing in Victoria, British Columbia, British socialite sisters Claire and Dorothea, nicknamed Dora, Williamson saw an ad for “Doctor” Hazzard’s fasting cure in 1911. The sisters often complained of minor ailments, such as swollen glands and rheumatic pains. They believed that this new “alternative medicine” would cure them of everything.
Soon, they were in correspondence with the Hazzards, and made arrangements to travel to Seattle, Washington. From there, they believed that they were going to experience a lush, luxurious countryside estate upon their arrival. But that wasn’t exactly what happened.
Instead, Hazzard set them up in an apartment on Capital Hill. She then immediately began implementing her treatment, feeding them broth made only of canned tomatoes. They were instructed to have only one cup, twice a day. They were also subject to torturous poundings from Hazzard’s fists and hands, which she called massages. Another aspect of the treatment involved hours-long enemas.
For weeks, the sisters endured this treatment, all the while having Hazzard hover over them, domineering as always, and commanding their every action. As the sisters grew weaker and weaker, Claire still held onto hope that the treatment would work, while Dora fell increasingly into bouts of confusion and mental distress.
But that didn’t stop Hazzard. She continued her treatments on the sisters, and spoke to them constantly. At one point, she had her lawyer draw up papers, which she made Claire sign. The papers signed over Claire’s properties and accounts to the Hazzards. They were also able to obtain legal guardianship over Dora.
The Hazzards firmly believed that they had the sisters in their clutches, just as they’d done to dozens of patients before them.
As the sisters grew weaker and weaker, Hazzard decided it was time to move them from the apartment, to Olalla. They were moved by ambulance, and brought to the ferry for their journey. At that time it was estimated that the sisters only weight approximately 70 pounds.
When the sisters arrived, they didn’t find the lavish estate they were promised. Instead, they were set up in the attics of Hazzard’s personal residence. Claire had a room to herself, while Dora was set up outdoors.
The sisters were kept separate, with Hazzard being their only visitor. Her only interest was in administering her treatments, and the steady decline of both Claire and Dora.
Somehow, Dora managed to get a wire to their childhood nurse, Margaret Conway, who was visiting family in Melbourne, Australia. When Margaret received the wire, it was so nonsensical, she immediately left for Seattle. However, the voyage would take a lot of time. Time was not on anyone’s side.
When Margaret finally arrived, she was met by Samuel Hazzard. He tried valiantly to warn her away, but she insisted on being brought to see the sisters. While on the voyage, Margaret was informed that Claire had passed.
Hazzard had conducted the “autopsy” herself, and declared that Claire had not succumbed to her treatments, but rather to a pre-existing condition from her childhood. Margaret didn’t buy it for a second. Especially not when she saw the state that Dora had been left in.
Dora was weak, mentally distressed, and emaciated. Margaret knew something was horribly wrong, but Hazzard cowed her at every turn. She used her domineering personality to try to keep Margaret under her thumb.
Meanwhile, she’d sent her husband into town, with documents stating that he had access to the accounts owned by the Williams sisters, and withdrew a large sum of cash. At no point did anyone in the bank find this suspicious.
While trying to thwart Hazzard, Margaret tried to feed Dora in small amounts, so as to regain her strength. As Dora’s mental clarity began to return, she informed Margaret about the papers the sisters had signed in their weakened state.
Margaret even saw evidence of this, when she saw Hazzard wearing some of Claire’s clothing, and squirrelling away approximately $6,000 worth of diamonds and jewels.
Margaret knew that Dora was in mortal peril, and tried to have her removed from the home. Again, Hazzard stood in her way. Margaret sent word to a nearby uncle of Dora’s, John Herbert, who resided in Portland, Oregon.
The family had no idea that the sisters had travelled to Washington to undergo treatment. They often disagreed with the sisters’ interest in alternative medicine, and their pursuit of treatment. When John heard of Dora’s state, he rushed to help his niece.
Upon his arrival, he was appalled to see how frail Dora had become. John haggled, and ended up paying a hefty sum, but he managed to secure Dora’s release from the property.
When they all returned to Seattle, John contacted Lucian Agassiz, the British Vice Consul, in order to seek justice for both of his nieces.
The more the two men looked into the Hazzards, the more disturbed they became. They found that the Hazzards had been involved in the deaths of many wealthy patients who had sought out Linda for her treatments. Not only had these individuals perished under her care, but they’d also, like Claire, signed over large portions of their finances, and their estates, to the Hazzards.
One death, however, stood out to the men. A New Zealand man, Eugene Wakelin, had been found on the property, with a gunshot to the head. He’d sought out Hazzard’s fasting treatment, and she’d wound up being the administer of his estate, and draining his financial accounts.
John and Lucian had discovered more than a dozen people who had died as a result of the treatment administered by Linda Hazzard. Despite this, the Hazzards themselves were always flush with cash. They knew they had their case.
On August 15th, 1911, Linda Hazzard was arrested for the first-degree murder of Claire Williamson. The trial began the following January.
The courtroom was full of people, waiting to hear former nurses and servants of the Hazzards, as they testified against their employer. They detailed the excruciating pain the sisters had undergone, and how the Hazzards had routinely, and continuously, gotten their hands on their patients’ finances.
Linda Hazzard refused to take any responsibility for Claire’s death, or the deaths of any of her patients. Instead, she insisted that this trial was a personal attack against her, and the entirely of the field of alternative medicine. She maintained that every single patient she had lost had died from conditions that did not relate, at all, to her treatment methods.
In the end, the jury did not believe Linda Hazzard’s side of the story. Instead, the found her guilty of manslaughter. She was sentenced to hard labour, and her medical license was revoked.
Following the events in Washington, Dora went to live in Australia, but never fully recovered from Linda Hazzard’s treatment. For the remainder of her life, she required special care.
On December 26th, 1915, Linda Hazzard was released from prison. The following year, for reasons that remain unknown, she was given a full pardon by Governor Ernest Lister.
The Hazzards then relocated to New Zealand, where they tried to set up another sanitarium. In 1917, she was charged in Auckland under the Medical Practitioners Act for practicing medicine without a license. She was fined £5.
In 1920, they left New Zealand, and returned to Olalla, where they opened a “school of health”. Hazzard continued her treatment, until her new “school” burnt to the ground in 1935. It was not rebuilt.
In 1938, Linda Hazzard began her own fasting treatment, in order to cure herself. She ended up passing away as a direct result.
The field of alternative medicine is full of people who only wish to take advantage. Linda Hazzard was one such practitioner. And in a very ironic way, she perished from the very treatment she was peddling.
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Sources:
The Doctor Who Starved Her Patients to Death – Bess Lovejoy – Smithsonian Magazine
Doctor Linda Hazzard and Starvation Heights – Seattle Terrors
Linda Hazzard, “The Starvation Doctor” – Talk Murder With Me
Linda Hazzard: The Starvation Doctor – Rupert Taylor – Owlcation
The Starvation Doctor: Quack Cure or Murder? – Forgotten Minnesota
Serial Killers podcast – “The Starvation Doctor” Linda Hazzard – Part 1 and Part 2