Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings/Conspiracy Theories Book II

Starvation Doctor: Linda Hazzard

Linda Burfield Hazzard (December 18, 1867 – June 24, 1938), nicknamed the "Starvation Doctor" was an American quack, fraud, and swindler noted for her promotion of fasting as a treatment. She was imprisoned by the state of Washington for a number of deaths resulting from this at a sanitarium she operated there in the early 20th century. Her treatments were responsible for at least 15 deaths. Born 1867 in Carver County, Minnesota, she died during a fast in 1938.

Career

Hazzard was born Lynda Laura Burfield in Carver, Minnesota, one of eight children born to Montgomery and Susanna Neil (Wakefield) Burfield. She had no medical degree but was licensed to practice medicine in Washington State through a loophole that grandfathered in some practitioners of alternative medicine without degrees. According to her book The Science of Fasting, she studied under Edward Hooker Dewey, M.D., a champion of fasting.

She created a "sanitarium", Wilderness Heights, in Olalla, Washington, where inpatients fasted for days, weeks, or months on a diet of small amounts of tomato and asparagus juice and occasionally a small teaspoon of orange juice. While some patients survived and publicly sang her praises, dozens died under her care. Hazzard claimed that they all died of undisclosed or hitherto undiagnosed illnesses such as cancer or cirrhosis of the liver. Her opponents claimed that they all died of starvation. Local residents referred to the place as "Starvation Heights". She assured people that her method was a panacea for all manner of ills because she was able to rid the body of toxins that caused imbalances in the body.

During her medical career, Hazzard wrote two books about what she claimed to be the science behind fasting and how it could cure diseases. The first book she wrote was "Fasting for the Cure of Disease" (1908). Her second book was "Scientific Fasting: the Ancient and Modern Key to Health" (1927).

In 1912, she was convicted of manslaughter for the death of Claire Williamson, a wealthy British woman, who weighed less than 50 pounds at the time of her death. At the trial, it was proven that Hazzard had forged Williamson's will and stolen most of her valuables. Williamson's sister, Dorothea, also took the treatment, and, it is alleged; only survived because a family friend showed up in time to remove her from the compound. It is suggested that one of them managed to smuggle a telegram to alert the family; however, by the time of arrival, Claire had already died. Dorothea was too weak to leave on her own, weighing less than 60 pounds. She later testified against Hazzard at trial.

Hazzard was sentenced to 2 to 20 years in prison, which she served in the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. She was released on parole on December 26, 1915, after serving two years, and the following year Governor Ernest Lister gave her a full pardon. She and her husband, Samuel Chrisman Hazzard (1869–1946), moved to New Zealand, where she practiced as a dietitian and osteopath until 1920.

In 1917 a Whanganui newspaper reported that she held a practicing certificate from the Medical Board of the state of Washington. Because she used the title Doctor she was charged in Auckland under the Medical Practitioners Act for practicing medicine while not registered to do so, found guilty and fined £5 plus costs (approximately NZ$600 plus costs or US$462.13 plus costs in 2014).

In 1920, she returned to Olalla, Washington, and opened a new sanitarium, known publicly as a "school of health" since her medical license had been revoked, and continued to supervise fasts until it burned to the ground in 1935; it was never rebuilt.

Linda Burfield Hazzard died of starvation in 1938 while attempting a fasting cure.

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