Linda Burfield Hazzard, 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 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". Her second book was "Scientific Fasting: the Ancient and Modern Key to Health". 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, 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. 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.
On March 28, 1910, Earl Edward Erdman, a City of SeattleCivil Engineer, died of starvation in the Seattle General Hospital. He had kept a diary which detailed Hazzard's treatment during the preceding weeks that provides an insight into the treatment Hazzard prescribed to her patients. The following are excerpts from his diary: This diet continued more or less unchanged until his hospitalization on March 28. He died that afternoon, just before his coworker was to transfuse blood.
Deaths attributed to Hazzard
1908
Mrs. Elgin Cox
Daisey Maud Haglund - The official cause of her death was stomach cancer. Her inability to eat would have caused her to starve to death even without Hazzard's assistance.
Ida Wilcox
1909
Blanche B. Tindall
Viola Heaton
Eugene Stanley Wakelin - Died from a bullet in the head on Hazzard's property. Whether she was responsible for the shooting remains unknown, though it is speculated to be the case.
