When Dorothea and Claire Williamson arrived in Seattle, Washington on February 27, 1911, they were eager to begin a radical new treatment program that would help them both overcome assorted "female troubles". They had no idea that the "treatment" would result in one of them dying a gruesome death and propel them both to the centre of a bizarre medical scandal that would generate international outrage.
Born and raised in England, the sisters had inherited a fortune from their Scottish grandfather. Being independently wealthy, they used their money to fund a long odyssey to various medical clinics around the world as they searched for a cure to assorted medical complaints. Although the complaints were largely minor (and possibly imaginary), they could afford the best care and try any fad cure that happened to be in vogue at the time.
In the course of their travels, they came across a new book, Fasting For The Cure of Disease, which argued that many diseases were due to the eating of meat and assorted nutritional problems that could be cured by fasting. The author, Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard, was one of the few women doctors of that era which made her seem even more remarkable to the Williamson sisters. After Claire Williamson wrote to Dr. Hazzard, both sisters received a brochure describing how well-to-do patients under her care could undergo the radical fasting cure and receive the full benefits offered in her book.
From the very beginning, there were warning signs which the Williamson sisters chose to ignore. Though Linda Hazzard freely used the "Doctor" title, she did not actually have a medical degree. She was allowed to practice medicine in the state of Washington because of a legal loophole in the licensing law "grandfathering" practitioners of alternative medicine (she was actually trained as an osteopath). Despite her questionable credentials, Linda Hazzard was able to launch her own medical practice in Seattle beginning in 1907, She then established herself as a "fasting specialist" offering medical treatment following the principles laid down by fasting pioneers Edward Hooker Dewey and Henry S.. Tanner. Dewey (under whom Hazzard reportedly trained) became famous for his "No Breakfast Plan" while Tanner was notorious for his forty-two-day fast at New York's Clarendon Hall.
Expanding on the therapeutic fasting principles laid down by her predecessors, Linda Hazzard proclaimed in her assorted books and pamphlets that fasting could cure anything from cancer to hysteria. That her medical colleagues were condemning her as a quack hardly deterred patients traveling from across the United States and even as far as Europe to try the fasting cure for themselves. Linda Hazzard enjoyed the notoriety and wrote pamphlets describing the "organized persecution from newspaper and physicians". She even claimed to be the victim of a colossal conspiracy by medical doctors trying to suppress the truth (sound familiar?). Prospective patients heard nothing about the various deaths that had already been attributed to her since 1903 when she first began starving her patients.
Not that the adverse publicity did anything to deter people desperate for a miracle. In fact, the demand became so great that Linda Hazzard gave up her Seattle office and established a larger clinic in nearby Olalla, Washington. There, the new clinic which Hazzard named "Wilderness Heights" could provide the fasting cure to patients to purge their body of "toxins".
It was about this time that Linda Hazzard first took on the Williamson sisters as patients. When they arrived in Seattle on February 27, 1911, they went straight to Hazzard's Seattle office where the treatment was explained to them. Dorothea and Claire both enthusiastically agreed to to begin the treatments which would involve systematic fasting, enemas, baths, and vigorous massages. At first, their treatment was at the Seattle location while they stayed in a nearby apartment and saw Linda Hazzard five times a week.
Despite the adverse symptoms that developed, including their growing steadily weaker and light-headed (which they attributed to "euphoria"), the Williamson sisters continued with their treatments and were even among the first patients at the new Olalla clinic when it opened soon afterward. Their faith in Linda Hazzard was unshakeable, even when both Williamsons became so emaciated that they could barely walk. A full-time nurse was hired to care for them both but that was not enough for Linda Hazzard.
While they were still living in Seattle, Hazzard's control over the sisters became tighter than ever. She even convinced them to grant her control over their sizeable estate during their "recovery." Though their nurse was alarmed enough at what was happening to go to another doctor for help, there was nothing anyone could do without having the sisters declared incompetent. By mid-April, Hazzard had moved the Williamsons to her newly-built clinic in Olalla and her power over them became absolute. Since both sisters were completely bedridden by this point, Hazzard arranged for their transfer to Olalla in a special ambulance.
Once there, Dorothea and Claire were moved to a private cabin to join all the other patients at Wilderness Heights. From the outside, it appeared to be a palatial spa where well-off patients could enjoy the expensive treatment they were receiving. Inside, the reality was very different. Patients at the clinic were kept on a restricted diet of tomatoes, oranges, and asparagus juice which continued for months. They also had daily enemas and vigorous massages to accelerate the process. Due to the odd stories about the type of treatment patients there received, local residents of Olalla gave the clinic the nickname of "Starvation Heights."
Linda Hazzard and her husband had total control over all communications between the patients and the outside world, including their mail. She also made it standard practice to persuade patients to grant her control over their assets (in order to "protect their property" while the patients were convalescing). Both Hazzards even managed to convince patients to change their wills making the doctor their beneficiary.
Perhaps sensing that she was on the verge of death, Claire Williamson managed to crawl off the property with a message asking for help which she gave to a local village boy. The message was to a family nurse, Margaret Convey, who was in Australia at the time. Delivered by telegram, the message said "Come SS Marama May 8th, first class. Claire." Though there were no other details, Convey set sail for Vancouver, Washington and arrived on June 1. It was Sam Hazzard who met her when the ship arrived telling her that Claire had died and that Dorothea was "hopelessly insane."
Convey was immediately suspicious and those suspicions seemed confirmed when she met Linda Hazzard (who happened to be wearing one of Claire Williamson's dresses at the time). When she insisted on seeing Dorothea, she found her reduced to skin and bones, pleading with Convey to take her away.
What followed was a bizarre battle of wills with Linda Hazzard refusing to release Dorothea whom she insisted was insane. She also claimed power of attorney over the Williamson sisters' assets and she was demanding payment for the medical bills both sisters had racked up at her clinic. As for Claire's death, Hazzard maintained that the death was the result of the treatment Claire had received before becoming her patient.
Desperate to save Dora's life, Margaret Convey then turned to Claire and Dorothea's uncle who was living in Oregon at the time. The uncle, John Herbert, had not been aware of Claire's death and, when he went to the Seattle funeral parlour where the body was on view, was so horrified at the condition of Claire's body that he refused to believe it was hers. When Herbert investigated further, Hazzard showed him a letter supposedly written by Claire supposedly affirming her faith in Linda Hazzard's treatment. The letter was typewritten and unsigned.
While John Herbert returned to Seattle to plan his next move, Margaret Convey stayed at the clinic to tend to Dora who was growing steadily weaker. Despite her alarming health, Dora continued to get her daily enemas and starvation diet. In desperation, Convey managed to get herself assigned as Dora's full-time nurse and snuck in extra food to keep her alive. She also questioned other patients and learned that Hazzard was treating them much the same. As part of her investigation, Convey discovered that Dorothea had been forced to sign a note given Sam Hazzard $500 (she had been under the impression that the money was going to a relative). Showing this to Dorothea finally convinced her that she was being cheated. With the help of John Herbert, Linda Hazzard released her, but only after Dorothea was forced to pay another $500 which Hazzard claimed was still owing on the bill.
By July 22, 1911, Dorothea Williamson was free and the quest for justice began. After getting help from the British consul, she and Margaret Convey convinced authorities to begin investigating Linda Hazzard's clinic. First of all, they had to get an attorney to remove Linda Hazzard's name from legal papers assigning her guardianship, then they slowly built a case against the Hazzards. Since the clinic was located in Olalla and had considerable political clout, gaining persuading people to testify against Linda Hazzard was difficult. Along with questions about Claire Williamson's death, the Hazzards were also suspected in the disappearance of more than $6000 worth of jewelry from the the sisters' property which had been returned by the clinic.
When Dorothea Williamson's lawyer, Frank Kelly, went to the county prosecutor and laid out the case against the Hazzard clinic, a new problem came up. Though the prosecutor, Thomas Stevenson, grudgingly agreed to proceed with the case, he also pointed out that the county had very little money to conduct the type of case that would convict Linda Hazzard and her husband. With the threat of an international incident hanging over his head (Claire Williamson had been a British subject), Stevenson agreed to lay charges if Dorothea Williamson subsidized the court costs involved. Though the request for money seemed unbelievable, Dorothea finally agreed. As Frank Kelley told the district attorney, "If she has to pay to stop her sister's murderer, so be it."
And so the case against Linda and Sam Hazzard was finally underway. After an arrest warrant was filed on August 4, 1911, Linda Hazzard was charged with Claire Willliamson's death. While waiting for the case to come to trial, Frank Kelley and Thomas Stevenson began investigating other suspicious deaths linked to the clinic. Their efforts were helped along by the media storm over the allegations against Linda Hazzard. Newspapers in Seattle and Tacoma provided lurid headlines about the "starvation atrocities". Records relating to all deaths linked to Linda Hazzard's practice were carefully examined and a suspicious pattern emerged with bank records and evidence of wire transfers showing that the Hazzards had systematically drained the accounts of many of her patients after their deaths. That was enough for the American Medical Association to pull Linda Hazzard's medical license and she was belatedly put out of business.
By the time the Hazzards' trial finally began, things had become even more bizarre. The investigation into Linda Hazzard's history turned up the fact that Sam Hazzard was actually married to another woman and that he had committed bigamy by marrying Linda as well. Patient deaths linked to Linda Hazzard dated back to 1902 when she was practicing in Minnesota although she had managed to avoid charges by moving to Washington. Funded by Dorothea Williamson, the district attorney brought in prominent medical experts who testified that Claire Williamson had died from starvation rather than from peritonitis as the defense claimed. Not surprisingly, the defense insisted that the trial was an attempt by orthodox medicine to suppress the truth of Linda Hazzard's starvation treatment. While some of her patients attempted to testify in her defense, they were not allowed to by the judge. On the other hand, the list of names of patients who had died while in Linda Hazzard's care seemed like overwhelming evidence of her malpractice.
Whatever else you could say about the trial, it was certainly memorable. Appearing on Linda Hazzard's behalf were various patients and relatives of patients who believed strongly in her treatment despite the various deaths that had occurred. One of them, John Ivar Haglund, testified that he believed in her special diet even though his wife, Daisy, had been one of the first to die in Hazzard's care. In fact, his faith in Linda Hazzard was so strong that he allowed his young son Ivar to continue as her patient. Other patients were not so supportive, however. They testified that Linda Hazzard was frequently seen wearing clothing and jewelry belonging to dead patients. Some even alleged that she and Sam had removed the gold crowns from the mouths of dead patients to be sold to a local jeweler.
The most damaging evidence against Linda Hazzard was the discovery of a badly decomposed body on the grounds of her clinic. The body was identified as a wealthy patient who had been shot in the head. While the police suspected suicide many of Linda Hazzard's accusers believed that he had been murdered so that she and her husband could control the patient's estate.
Despite a spirited defense, Linda Hazzard was convicted of manslaughter on February 4, 1912. The judge sentenced her to twenty years in prison. As the sheriff came to take her away, she loudly protested her innocence and accused conventional medical doctors of conducting a vendetta against her. "The high and mighty with the diplomas and letters after their names have done this!”, she said while being led away.
But that was hardly the end of Linda Hazzard. After serving two years in the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla, she received a full parole on December 26, 1915. The governor granted her a full pardon a year later.
Linda and Sam Hazzard then moved to New Zealand where she was able to offer her services as a health specialist. Though she was not allowed to practice medicine, she still continued to write books and attract followers. After ten years, she had earned enough money to return to the United States and open a School of Health in Olalla. No longer licensed to practice medicine, Hazzard still managed to attract patients agreeing to be starved for their health. This continued until her school burned down in 1935 and was never rebuilt. Linda Hazzard died three years later, reportedly as as a result of prolonged fasting.
As for the total death count of patients under Linda Hazzard's care, that is still a matter of debate. While there are fourteen known victims, some suggest that there are far more victims still buried on the Olalla property where her clinic was located. It seems fitting that there are local legends about the ghosts of these patients being seen walking the grounds.
Probably in search of a good meal.
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