The small community of Olalla, Washington on Puget Sound earned the fitting name of ‘Starvation Heights’ after one of its notorious residents that is ‘Dr.’ Linda Burfield Hazzard did some horrible things there. Somewhere in the woods of Olalla, sits an abandoned cemetery. This is the story of a psychopathic serial killer. Despite little formal training and a lack of a medical degree, she was licensed by the state of Washington as a ‘fasting specialist’.
This ‘Dr.’ Linda Burfield Hazzard’s only true occupation at that time would be just to be a quack. Linda Hazzard began pursuing her own career in Minneapolis and in the year 0f 1902, her first patient named Gertrude Young died under her care of apparent starvation. After undergoing a 40-days fast prescribed by Hazzard. At that particular time, Hennepin County Coroner launched an official inquiry into Gertrude’s death with hopes of bringing murder charges against ‘Dr.’ Linda Burfield Hazzard.
In the end, the panel of three physicians conducting the inquest could not bring any official charges against Linda because she technically was not a doctor and Gertrude was a willing participant in her own treatment. While in Minneapolis, Linda falls in love with and marries a man named Samuel Chrisman Hazzard who was a real piece of work. He has been described as a drunk, a lecher, and a swindler. Not something you really want to be remembered as but for Linda, her marriage to Sam was most likely more of a strategic business decision than it was an act of love.
That is because she believed his former army experience his confidence and his handsome masculine appearance would lend credibility to her practice. But as it turns out, Sam Hazzard was dishonorably discharged from the Army for misappropriating army funds, had been married twice before and apparently forgot to officially divorce one of his ex-wives because when he went to marry Linda, he was charged with bigamy and sentenced to two years in the Minnesota State Prison. In prison, Sam made plans to leave Linda and reconcile his relationship with his ex-wife.
Linda would not have any of that because it did not fit her plans. So after visiting Sam in prison only once, she somehow managed to woo him over and when he was released in 1906, the two left for Seattle to start over. It is also a strategic business plan for Linda. Linda Hazzard got to call herself a doctor there. That is why she decided to build a large health sanitarium in neighboring Olalla and she even published several books including one titled ‘Fasting For The Cure Of Disease’ which caught the attention of two wealthy British Eris’s and hypochondriacs who were on holiday in neighboring Vancouver British Columbia.
Picture: Fact Republic
Both of them are so eager to start the fasting treatments, so they rented a room in Seattle and Dr. Hazzard began administering a litany of odd regiments. These include only one or two small meals per day of a light vegetable broth daily enemas that sometimes when hours on end. A bizarre massage therapy session involved Dr. Hazzard beating her fists against the sister’s foreheads and backs while shouting odd exorcism-like expressions. This went on for nearly two months before the sisters were transferred to the sanitarium but by this point, the sisters had lost an alarming amount of weight. Then, the sister’s nanny named Margaret Conway received a cryptic telegram at her home in Sydney asking her to leave for Olalla immediately and come visit them.
After she arrived at Dr. Hazzard’s office, Margaret was blindsided by Dr. Hazzard’s matter-of-fact delivery news that one of the sisters had died and the other was mentally insane. Margaret visited the sanitarium where she found one of the sisters who now weighed only 60 pounds. Other patients seek help from Margaret and she leaves the sanitarium and immediately gets in touch with the sister’s uncle. The uncle rescue one of the sisters. Dr. Hazzard agrees but not before demanding payment of $2000. Dr. Hazzard was arrested in 1911 and charged with the murder of one of the sisters. She also found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter and sentenced to 2 to 20 years in the state penitentiary but not before killing 2 other patients. She was then released and opened to another sanitarium. She died at the age of 70 while practicing her fasting treatment.
In all, there we at least 19 deaths because of her including her own in each of the cases, her patients have prescribed one or two small meals of light vegetable broth per day. In addition to undergoing Dr. Hazzard’s crazy regiments.
Sources: YouTube Explore Always.
