The “Doctor” Who Starved Her Patients and Called It a Cure

At the beginning of the 20th century, modern medicine was still developing, and medical regulation in the United States was far less rigorous than it is today. Across the country, alternative treatments flourished, promising natural, simple, and sometimes miraculous cures for virtually every illness.

Into this world stepped Linda Laura Burfield Hazzard, a Minnesota woman with no formal medical degree but enormous self-confidence, a commanding personality, and one doctrine she presented as the answer to almost every disease: prolonged fasting.

Hazzard was born in Carver County, Minnesota, in 1867. As a young woman, she married Irwin Perry and had two children. By the late 1890s, she had left her previous life behind and begun establishing herself as a healer.

She was influenced by Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey, a prominent advocate of fasting as a treatment for illness, but took the idea to a far more extreme level. By 1901, she was operating an unlicensed practice in Minneapolis under the name “Dr. Linda Burfield Perry.” Her advertisements carried a phrase that would come to define her philosophy: “Fasting Is Nature’s Remedy.”

The Woman Behind “Starvation Heights”

Hazzard's theory was deceptively simple. She believed illness resulted from overeating, poor digestion, and what she described as “impure blood.” Her solution was to give the digestive system an extended rest, “cleanse” the body, and supposedly allow it to heal itself.

In her 1908 book, Fasting for the Cure of Disease, Hazzard presented prolonged fasting as a scientific path to better health.

Despite having no medical degree, she was able to obtain a license to practice in Washington state through a legal provision that allowed certain experienced alternative practitioners to be licensed without completing conventional medical training.

It was in Olalla, a small community in Kitsap County across Puget Sound from Seattle, that her methods would become infamous.

There, Hazzard established an estate with the pleasant-sounding name Wilderness Heights.

Locals had another name for it: Starvation Heights.

Patients arrived looking for health, tranquility, and natural healing. What awaited them was very different.

Hazzard's regimen involved near-total food deprivation, repeated enemas, and aggressive massages. She insisted that weakening and “cleansing” the body was necessary for healing. Patients under her care sometimes became so physically debilitated that resisting her authority became increasingly difficult.

Seattle health officials were aware of concerns surrounding Hazzard's methods, but intervention was complicated by the fact that she was licensed and her adult patients were considered to have consented to treatment.

The Warning Signs Began in Minnesota

Problems surrounding Hazzard's methods had emerged even before she arrived in Washington.

In 1902, Gertrude Young, who was seeking treatment for partial paralysis, came under Hazzard's care. Following a prolonged fast, Young died. The examining physician attributed her death to exhaustion caused by starvation.

The local prosecutor ultimately found no basis for criminal charges. At the time, there was no clear law preventing someone from advising another adult not to eat when the decision was considered voluntary.

Hazzard continued practicing.

After moving to Washington in 1907 with her second husband, Samuel Hazzard, her operation expanded. Within several years, her name had become associated with a disturbing series of deaths.

Among them was Daisy Maud Haglund, who died in 1908 after fasting under Hazzard's supervision. Her young son, Ivar Haglund, would later become famous in Seattle as the founder of Ivar's seafood restaurants.

Other patients died as well, including Blanche Tindall, Viola Heaton, Maud Whitney, Earl Erdman, Frank Southard, and Ivan Flux. The Washington State Archives has documented at least 14 deaths in the state associated with Hazzard's treatments.

But allegations surrounding Hazzard went far beyond dangerous medical practices.

Patients Lost More Than Their Health

As patients became physically weaker, some signed over powers of attorney, property, valuables, or control of their finances to Hazzard or her husband.

In the case of Ivan Flux, it was alleged that Hazzard gained control over some of his money and property while he was fasting. After his death, his family reportedly discovered that very little remained.

Another patient, Louis Ellsworth Rader, became the subject of an attempted intervention by health officials. He was moved to another location and later died.

A pattern was beginning to emerge: Vulnerable patients arrived seeking health, became increasingly weak under Hazzard's regimen, and in some cases lost control over their finances before dying.

It would take two wealthy British sisters to finally bring national attention to what was happening.

The Sisters Who Brought Down Linda Hazzard

Claire and Dorothea Williamson were wealthy British sisters interested in alternative medicine. While staying in Victoria, Canada, they encountered Hazzard's writings and eventually decided to travel to Washington for treatment.

Because relatives disapproved of their interest in alternative healing, the sisters kept their plans secret.

They arrived in Seattle in February 1911. Hazzard told them that her Olalla facility was not yet ready, so the sisters initially stayed in a Seattle apartment under the supervision of a nurse.

Their treatment began immediately: extremely limited food, repeated procedures, and increasing isolation.

By April, both women had become dangerously weak. They were transported by ambulance and private boat to Hazzard's property in Olalla.

Shortly before the move, Claire signed an addition to her will granting an annuity to Hazzard's institution and giving instructions concerning what should happen to her body after death.

Claire died soon afterward.

Hazzard denied that starvation was responsible and was involved in the examination of Claire's body. Questions were subsequently raised about the causes of death attributed to several patients under Hazzard's care.

Dorothea survived, but she was extremely weak and had fallen under the Hazzards' legal control.

Then someone came looking for her.

The Woman Who Refused to Walk Away

Margaret Conway, the sisters' former childhood governess, received a troubling telegram and traveled from Australia to the United States to investigate.

When she arrived, she learned that Claire was dead and was told that Dorothea was mentally ill.

At Olalla, Conway found Dorothea in extremely poor condition. She also heard troubling accounts from other patients and, according to her later testimony, noticed Hazzard using possessions that had belonged to Claire.

When Conway attempted to leave with Dorothea, she was told that she could not because the Hazzards had obtained legal guardianship over her.

Conway managed to contact the sisters' cousin, John Herbert, who traveled to Washington to help. Even then, securing Dorothea's release was not straightforward. After negotiations, money was paid before Dorothea was allowed to leave.

The British vice consul in Tacoma, Lucian Agassiz, became involved, and mounting diplomatic and public pressure finally helped bring the case before authorities.

The Trial of the “Financial Starvationist”

Linda Hazzard was arrested in August 1911.

The case quickly became a newspaper sensation. At its heart was a growing American debate over where personal freedom and alternative medicine should end and medical oversight should begin.

At trial, prosecutors presented medical testimony and evidence involving financial documents, powers of attorney, inheritance arrangements, jewelry, and allegations of forgery.

The prosecutor memorably characterized Hazzard as a “financial starvationist,” suggesting that her patients' bank accounts were being depleted along with their bodies.

Hazzard insisted that she was being persecuted for challenging conventional medicine. She portrayed herself as an innovator whose natural treatment threatened the medical establishment.

Her attorney did not put her on the witness stand. During the proceedings, the judge even reprimanded Hazzard for signaling to witnesses.

Ultimately, she was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder.

Prison Didn't End Her Career

Even a criminal conviction did not permanently stop Hazzard.

She served approximately two years in prison before receiving a pardon. After her release, she and her husband moved to New Zealand, where she continued promoting her ideas and working under titles including dietitian and osteopath. She also published another book.

Around 1920, Hazzard returned to Olalla.

Her Washington medical license had been revoked, preventing her from officially operating another medical sanitarium. Instead, she established what she called a “school of health” and continued promoting fasting.

The new facility eventually burned down in 1935.

Three years later, Hazzard's story reached an extraordinary conclusion.

In 1938, Linda Hazzard died after undertaking a prolonged fast herself. The treatment she had spent decades promoting to others ultimately contributed to her own death.

Her story remains a disturbing chapter in American medical history and a powerful example of what can happen when charismatic certainty, unproven treatments, and inadequate medical oversight come together.