Linda Hazzard – doctor-hunger (9 photos)

Doctors of various specialties are unanimous in their opinion: it is better to leave the table with a feeling of slight hunger than to crawl away with a belly full and then suffer from the gradually approaching diseases that accompany overeating.





But everything has boundaries, and if there is a skew in one direction or another, then the patient can only sympathize.



Today, Pike Place Market, a public market in Seattle, is a bustling tourist destination known for its quaint shops, fresh produce and fish. During the day, people buy food and flowers here, and in the evening, pub regulars gather on First Avenue in search of a pleasant pastime. But a century ago, two places on the market were associated with a much less cheerful story. A story of hardship so extreme that it proved fatal.

"Doctor" Linda Burfield Hazzard came to Washington State around 1906 from Olalla, Kitsap County. Despite not having a medical degree (she only had a dubious training as an osteopathic nurse), she was licensed to practice medicine in Washington State through a loophole reserved for alternative practitioners.

However, her particular method of “medicine” was dangerously unusual. Hazzard was a proponent of fasting to treat illness and even published a book on the topic in 1908. According to the “educated” young lady, the cause of all diseases was “unclean blood”, which arose due to poor digestion. Her treatment included tiny portions of thin soup and oranges. And the icing on the cake was daily enemas with massage. Moreover, the latter was so active that it looked more like a banal beating. Within weeks, some of Hazzard's patients looked like skeletons.



Sanatorium of death

But her treatments attracted attention and generally worked, as demonstrated by the appearance of skeletal characters in society. And soon representatives of the intelligentsia of Seattle began to come to Hazzard to cure all their ailments. She treated some of them in her office at the market hotel. She later housed patients at her sanitarium in Olalla, Washington. She named the place "Wilderness Heights" and the locals renamed it "Hunger Heights".



Linda Burfield Hazzard

Some of Hazzard's patients prayed to her. But other Seattle residents noticed that the number of people she was treating who appeared to be dying had increased. And before leaving for a better world, they prudently transferred the property to Hazzard. Despite complaints and press coverage, Seattle's health director said he could not intervene because the patients were all adults and voluntarily on their last diet.

Hazzard broke down when wealthy British heiress Claire and Dorothea Williamson, both in their 30s, arrived for treatment in February 1911. The young women saw a newspaper advertisement for Hazzard's book while vacationing in Victoria, British Columbia. By April, the poor things were so exhausted that they were transported by ambulance to the Olalla Sanatorium. Just before leaving, Hazzard's lawyer persuaded Claire to sign a codicil - an additional document to her will, providing an annual scholarship of 25 pounds to the Hazzard Institute. Around the same time, Hazzard began wearing Claire's dresses, hats and diamonds.



Claire and Dorothea Williamson

Across the ocean, the Williamsons' childhood nanny, Margaret Conway, received a strange telegram asking her to come to Olalla. By the time of her arrival, Claire Williamson had died. Conway was taken to the morgue to identify the body. But she did not recognize her former pupil. Conway then tried her best to convince Dorothea, who weighed about 30 kilograms at the time, to leave Olalla. But it took the intervention of the sisters' respectable uncle from Portland and the payment of a large sum to Hazzard before Dorothea was released.



Sisters before treatment and Dorothea after leaving the sanatorium

The Williamson case brought even more attention to Hazzard. And a British lawyer in Tacoma put pressure on the Seattle authorities to open a criminal case. When the city said it couldn't afford it, Dorothea offered to foot the bill. In August 1911, Hazzard was finally arrested. Newspaper headlines called her a pervert. The great healer said that she was being persecuted because she was a successful woman. But after medical evidence proved she simply starved her patients to death, the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter. Hazzard was sent to prison in Walla Walla, where she served two years. Although she was only convicted for the death of Claire Williamson, it is estimated that 40 more people died as a result of her "care". She died in 1938 after undergoing her own health program based on fasting.



There were rumors that Claire was secretly cremated at the morgue, and a more presentable corpse was given instead for burial. One of the employees pleaded guilty to illegally removing Claire's body from the Olalla resort. But the morgue itself was never charged with a crime.



Today, this place has become the site of ghost tours (what would we do without it?), and even the subject of several paranormal investigations. As the first full-service morgue in Seattle—and one of the first in the United States—it has seen its fair share of troubling events. But one of the most dangerous characters in her crazy activities was Linda Hazzard. Therefore, before you rush into the arms of a specialist who promises to fix everything, it is better to visit a couple more for consultation. Just to be on the safe side and reassure yourself.