Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Part 1: The Williamson Sisters Sisters Dorothea and Claire Williamson were visiting Canada from England in 1910 when they noticed a peculiar advertisement published by a newspaper in nearby Seattle, Washington. The full-page ad featured a woman in a long dress, Dr. Linda Hazard, with her hands clasped and a knowing expression on her face.
The headline read, "Why I believe in starvation as a cure for all bodily ills." In it, Dr. Hazard renounced modern medicine and argued that prolonged fasting could cure any disease in the world. She stated that disease and hunger could not both exist in the body,
and that by eating almost nothing at all, one could starve out illness permanently. Dr. Hazard's ad mentioned a new spa she was planning to open in the countryside of Olaya, across the Puget Sound from Seattle. It would be called the Institute of Natural Therapeutics. There, Hazard and her husband would guide the ill through lengthy fasts until they were cured of whatever was making them sick.
The pair had already helped dozens of wealthy Seattle residents using similar methods and had fans from as far away as New Zealand. A short stay at the Institute would be relaxing and rejuvenating, or so the sisters thought. The two sisters were immediately enthralled with the idea. They were preparing to embark on a long trip to visit friends in different parts of the world, and neither had been feeling very well lately.
Claire had been suffering from discomfort and was diagnosed with a dropped uterus. Her sister, Dorothea, had been suffering from swollen glands and arthritis. A few weeks, maybe even a month, at a health spa run by a renowned doctor could help them grow strong enough to travel for the next six months. Hazard's extreme methods might seem strange and obviously dangerous to us today, but the sisters may not have thought they were strange at all.
The Williamson sisters were well known for their beliefs in alternative medicine. This was not the first time they had undertaken extreme treatment under the belief that it would grant them perfect health. The women were orphans who had mostly been raised by a series of nannies. They were well known to their extended family for getting pulled into fad diets and alternative health cures, none of which had ever worked. The women decided not to tell anyone about their plan to write to Dr. Hazard for advice.
It's important to note that Claire and Dora Thea Williamson were not average sisters who liked to travel together. They were in fact heiresses to a fortune worth over a half a million dollars in 1910. Despite their wealth, the girls experienced tragedy from a young age. Dora was born on September 9th, 1873 in India, and Claire was born in London in 1877.
Their father was a doctor in the British Army, but died just a few months after Claire was born. The girl's mother died when Dora was 20 and Claire was only 16, leaving the young women to navigate the early stages of adulthood without the guidance of either parent. No one who cared for the women knew anything about the dangerous situation they were about to put themselves in. What Claire and Dorothea didn't know was that between 1907 and 1913,
Dr. Linda Hazard would lose 14 of her fasting patients under suspicious circumstances. Part 2: Starvation Heights Claire responded to Dr. Hazard's newspaper article immediately, writing her a letter asking for help on behalf of herself and her sister. What she couldn't have known was that she was corresponding with Washington State's first female serial killer, who would go on to kill up to 40 victims before being caught.
That morning, Claire Williamson was writing to her own future murderer. In her note, Claire told Dr. Hazard about her and her sister's mild illnesses, the swollen glands, and general exhaustion they were both feeling. She wrote that Dorothea especially hadn't been feeling well, and that she had been trying an all-fruit diet consisting of only orange juice and a few grapes for the past few weeks.
Dorothea was too weak to leave her bed and didn't get her period when she had expected to. Claire asked Dr. Hazard for her help and if she could arrange for the women to spend a few relaxing days at the institute. Without knowing what she was doing, Claire painted herself and Dorothea as the perfect victims, writing: "We left England four months ago and are strangers here and do not know anyone who understands fasting."
The two women were the ideal targets. Rich, already weak from half-starving themselves on their own, and most importantly, isolated from their friends and family across the ocean. Linda Hazard wrote back to the sisters quickly, promising them both that she knew just the cure for all of their ailments. She wrote,
The sense of weakness that you now experience is the result of the toxic products that are stirred up through the fast you have undergone and the regimen upon which you have placed yourself." Hazard was happy to help the two women, but there was one catch. The Scenic Institute was not ready for patients yet and wouldn't be for at least the next six months. She offered Claire and Dorothea an alternative.
Hazard would arrange for an apartment in downtown Seattle for the women to stay in, where she would provide intense treatments on a daily basis. They agreed and quickly traveled to Seattle and settled into the Buena Vista Apartments on 4th Street. They paid $60 per month to Hazard for her services there. From the first day of their arrival, they were put on a strict diet.
A nurse hired by Hazard served the women one cup of tomato or orange juice twice per day, and that was it. They were also forced to drink large amounts of warm water. They did not eat any other food. Claire and Dorothea were also subjected to enemas, which could last for hours at a time. When the women started fainting in the bathtub during their treatments, the nurse placed a canvas across the top of the tub for them to collapse on.
Hazard was also a believer in strong massages, which Dorothea later described as feeling more like being beaten again and again. She used her fists to punch both of them on the shoulders, back, and stomach. They were also required to go on vigorous walks through downtown, using up what few calories their bodies were receiving through their liquid diet. The women quickly became too weak to do anything but lay in bed. They were bruised and exhausted,
yet shockingly by all accounts seemed happy with the way the treatment was progressing. After two months of starvation, Hazard told them that she wanted them to return with her to Olaya, a 40-minute ferry ride from the apartment in Seattle. Although the institute was still not ready yet, they could live in two adjoining rooms in the attic of the home Hazard shared with her husband. That way, they could receive even more direct attention from the attentive doctor.
Claire and Dorothea agreed to the move. According to Dorothea, neither of them weighed more than 70 pounds at that point and could not stand or walk without assistance. Two private ambulances were required to transport them to a ferry which would take them the rest of the way. Neighbors talked among themselves about the two emaciated women but did not report what they saw to the police. Before leaving,
Dr. Hazard asked Claire to sign documents providing the Institute with 25 pounds sterling per year from the Williamson family. She also signed a document stating that if she died, she wanted her body to be cremated in Seattle as soon as possible. Once they reached the Hazards' home in Olaya, they couldn't help but be disappointed. Instead of the charming cottages of the Institute they had come to imagine, they were faced with a drafty attic and a rundown shack of a home.
Still, Linda Hazard promised them that the torturous cure was working and that one day soon they would wake up feeling completely healthy again. Little did they know that in just 17 days, Claire Williamson would be dead. Part Three: The Telegram Claire died in early May of 1911 in the attic of the Hazards' home in Olaya. The two sisters were kept in separate rooms and were forbidden to communicate with one another.
At the time of her death, she reportedly weighed less than 50 pounds. Dr. Hazard herself performed Claire's autopsy and proclaimed that her diet had nothing to do with her death. She recorded on her death certificate that she in fact died from cirrhosis of the liver. On April 30th, a mysterious telegram was sent by one of the women to Margaret Conway, who had served as a nurse for Claire and Dora during their childhood.
Margaret now lived in Australia, far from rural Washington state. Unfortunately, the contents of the message have been lost, but whatever it said was so nonsensical and alarming that she knew something was very wrong. Margaret immediately made arrangements to visit and get to the bottom of whatever was going on. She left Sydney a week later by boat and arrived in Washington a few weeks after that.
Margaret expected to meet the women in Seattle after disembarking from her long journey. Instead, she was met by Sam Hazard, Dr. Linda Hazard's husband. He invited Margaret to Linda's downtown office, where he broke the news that her beloved Claire, whom Margaret had helped raise as a little girl, had died less than a month earlier from cirrhosis of the liver.
Dr. Hazard blamed the young woman's death on medicine she had been given as a child, which she claimed shrunk her internal organs and badly damaged her liver. Even the powerful fasting treatment had not been enough to save her. To make matters worse, Sam Hazard claimed that Claire's sister Dora had gone insane with grief. Margaret was shocked. How could this have happened? She was immediately suspicious of Sam Hazard and his wife.
Sam did everything he could to assure Margaret that Claire had died of unfortunate but natural causes. He offered to take her to see Claire's body, which had been embalmed by the E.R. Butterworth & Sons Mortuary near Pike Place Market, close to Linda Hazard's office. Margaret agreed and was taken to see Claire's body, which was on display at the mortuary. When she peered in the casket, she was shocked and confused.
The woman she saw lying before her did not look like Claire. They had some similarities, and it had been some time since Margaret had seen either of the girls. But the woman in the box did not look like the girl she took care of all those years ago. Their faces and hands had different shapes. Most tellingly, the dead woman's hair was a much lighter color than Claire's. Margaret did not voice her suspicions, but asked to be taken by ferry to Olia to visit Dorothea.
She was now certain that something was very, very wrong and she was worried for Dora's life. When Margaret reached the Hazards property in Olaya, she was met by a horrifying sight. Dora was a living skeleton, weighing no more than 50 pounds. Bones protruded from every part of her body, making it difficult for her to sit down without extreme pain.
There are different accounts about what happened next, but the most likely story says that Dora first begged Margaret to take her away from Olaya. However, when Margaret returned the next day to retrieve Dora, she no longer wanted to leave. She insisted that her treatment from Linda Hazard was helping to restore her to full health, despite the fact that she barely had the strength to sit up and was slowly starving to death.
Margaret refused to give up on the remaining Williamson sister, who she knew wouldn't be alive for much longer without more nutrients. She stayed in Olaya and visited Dora every day, trying to convince her to leave. She snuck rice into Dora's tomato juice, hoping to provide her with enough calories to stay alive. During one of her visits, two other alarmingly thin patients approached Margaret and asked her for help in escaping.
They no longer wanted to be treated by Dr. Hazard, they said, but were not allowed to leave. Eventually, Margaret had enough. She had convinced Dora to come with her to seek medical help at a real hospital. She told the Hazards that she was leaving and taking Dora with her. That was when Linda and Sam revealed something shocking.
When Claire and Dora were taken from Seattle to Aliyah, Claire had signed paperwork stating that in the case of her death, her remains should be taken care of by Linda. At the same time, Dora had signed away custody of herself and given power of attorney to Linda and Sam. Although she was an adult, Linda had deemed her insane and had Dora sign a document stating that she could not take care of herself. Dora would not be leaving with her old nurse.
she would be staying in Olaya with the Hazards for the rest of her life. To add to the horror, Margaret noticed that Linda was wearing one of Claire's old dresses, her favorite hat, and some of her jewelry. She had clearly helped herself to some of Claire's fine items after her death and would continue to receive $25 per month from Claire's inheritance. Although Margaret was not a timid woman, she didn't feel comfortable taking Dora away without the Hazards' permission.
She was used to her position as an employee of the Williamson family and didn't want to make the wrong decision. However, she knew of someone who could help the dying woman. Margaret snuck off the property as soon as she had the chance to. She sent a telegram to the Williamson sisters' uncle, John Herbert, in nearby Portland, Oregon. Mr. Herbert rushed to Olia and demanded the release of his niece, but still the hazards would not budge.
They claimed that Dora still owed them over $2,000 for her and Claire's treatments, and that Dora would not be allowed to leave until that debt was paid off. Meanwhile, a British vice council in Tacoma, Washington named Lucian Agassi heard of Dora's struggle. He quickly traveled to Olaya and together with a sister's uncle negotiated a ransom of $1,000, still a significant amount of money.
The two men also released Dora from being under the Hazard's legal custody. When Dora was finally released, she weighed only 60 pounds. Part 4: The Trial
That was when the media frenzy started. The Vice Consul Lucian Agassiz pressured Kitsap County, Washington, where the town of Olaya is located, to press charges against Linda and Sam Hazard, claiming that they had conspired to murder Claire and Dora and steal the wealthy heiress' money after their deaths. They had been stopped before their evil plan could be completely carried out by the concerns of Margaret and the help of the women's uncle.
Dora was one of the lucky ones to escape with her life. Unfortunately, this was not the first time, nor would it be the last time the Hazards would hatch this kind of plan. A handwriting expert found that the writing on Claire's last will and testament and the final entry in her diary did not match previous examples of her writing. They were a close match, however, to Linda Hazard's writing. Part of the forged will read, "'My things shall go to my cabin for life,'
and an exact list be taken and kept by Dr. Hazard. My clothes shall go to Dr. Hazard to be done with as she wishes. A jewel shall be given to Nellie for her great kindness to me and one to Miss Robinson, and my diamond shall go to Dr. Hazard."
Linda and Sam stopped at nothing to wring every last drop of money out of the sisters. After her death, Claire's gold fillings were pried from her mouth and sold to a local dentist. All told, the prosecution estimated over $6,000 worth of cash, fine clothing, and jewelry from the two sisters were missing, almost $200,000 in today's currency. Throughout the trial, witnesses stated that Dr. Hazard never seemed very concerned about the verdict.
She never wavered from her claim that Claire had died from cirrhosis of the liver and that the extreme fasting had nothing to do with her death. Linda Hazard told reporters that she was being attacked because she was a female doctor, which was very rare at that time.
She spoke at length about how she felt she had been persecuted in the past for being a successful woman in a traditionally male field. However, it's important to remember that Hazard did not have any real medical training and was legally allowed to practice only through a loophole in the law. At times, it seemed like Linda Hazard was cruelly mocking Dora and the jury.
When she was asked if she made any money off the Williamson sisters and her other patients, Hazard said, "I didn't starve." While her patients slowly withered away, Hazard herself was using their money to buy fine food and clothing, which she could never otherwise afford. After an expensive trial lasting three weeks, Linda was charged with manslaughter and was sentenced to between two and 20 years in prison for the death of Claire Williamson.
However, she only served two of those years before being released. Hazard reportedly briefly tried out her own fasting cure while in prison, but did not last more than a few weeks following her own instructions. You might expect that everyone who heard what happened to Claire and Dora would be in favor of sending the Hazards to prison for many years. Shockingly, that is not what happened.
Even as the trial went on, there was no shortage of people willing to enter the Institute and subject themselves to the tortures of Hazard's starvation cure. She maintained a surprising number of followers and supporters from all over the world, even after the details of Claire's death were published in newspapers around the country. Fans of Hazard and her work were located all over the world,
A group of 121 people in New Zealand wrote letters and signed a petition trying to persuade the judge to overturn the case. She was eventually fully pardoned under the condition that she moved to New Zealand for at least the next several years. One newspaper article at the time speculated that Linda Hazard would have been given a much harsher sentence if she had been a man.
While in New Zealand, Hazard wrote another book on the benefits of extreme fasting called "Diet in Disease and Systemic Cleansing." She continued practicing alternative medicine there before returning yet again to Washington State. In 1920, Hazard opened her school of health where patients continued to die under mysterious circumstances, leaving their money to Linda and Sam.
The residents of Olaya must have been shocked to find the couple returning so soon. But Linda had technically served her time in prison for her role in Claire's death. Although she was not allowed to call herself a doctor anymore, she still successfully operated the sanitarium until 1935 when it burned to the ground. Part 5: Linda and Sam So who exactly were Linda and Sam Hazard?
the mysterious couple who seemed to have the ability to make even the most educated, worldly people in Washington bend to their will. Their disturbing behavior started long before Claire and Dora read Linda's advertisement in that Seattle newspaper. Linda Laura Burfield was born on December 18, 1867, in Carver, Minnesota. She was part of a large family and was one of eight children
She married at 18 and had two children, but later abandoned her family to start her own alternative medical practice where she preached that fasting could cure anything from indigestion to cancer. It is believed that she killed her first patient in Minnesota around 1902, but was able to avoid getting in legal trouble because she only coached the patient to starve themselves and did not physically harm them herself.
Linda met Sam Hazard, a graduate of the prestigious West Point Military College, and the two immediately fell deeply in love. They were perfect for each other. She was a burgeoning serial killer, and he was a convicted swindler who apparently had no problem with his new wife killing people for money. Sam had also been in legal trouble for stealing money from the army. He had been married twice before meeting Linda, although he only successfully divorced one of his previous wives.
He spent two years in jail for the crime of bigamy, or being legally married to more than one person at once. The hazards and their extreme fasting cure was linked to the deaths of at least several dozen people, including a magazine publisher, a lawyer, politicians, and a wealthy rancher who supposedly fasted for 53 days and died with less than $100 in his pocket.
As the number of deaths grew, Linda and Sam's bank account grew with it. Sometimes the patient's family and friends would sense that something was wrong and would try to convince them to leave. But the patients always insisted on staying under Linda's care. Linda and Sam figured out that as long as they did not physically kill people with their own hands, it would be extremely difficult for them to get into legal trouble.
However, they were involved with one mysterious death not linked to the fasting diet. In 1909, the body of a 26-year-old British man named Eugene Wakelin was found on the Hazard's property. He died of a gunshot wound to the head, which was assumed to be a suicide.
However, it was later speculated that Sam Hazard shot Eugene Wakelin out of frustration after learning that despite his title as the son of a British Lord, he was in fact not wealthy. Part six, hypnotized to death. Dorothea Williamson went on to recover at least physically from her time under the care of the Hazards. However, the hole her sister's death left behind could never be filled.
and tragedy was not done with her. After the trial, where she served as principal witness against Linda Hazard, Dora moved to Australia. She was engaged to an old family friend in 1914. The newlywed couple decided to return to Dora's home and settled in England, but her new husband tragically drowned on August 29, 1914, less than six months after the wedding.
The biggest mystery remaining from this tragic story is how Linda and Sam Hazard managed to convince so many wealthy, often well-educated people to sign away their rights and torture themselves using methods of extreme fasting. One newspaper article read, "Many accounts of the family's action declare that the woman asserts an iron will over all with whom she is thrown in contact. Her powers ranging from the weakened patient at the fasting sanitarium to the husband."
Other, more scandal-inclined reporters speculated that Linda Hazard's obsession with the occult gave her magical powers, including the power to hypnotize someone to act against their will. She used her dark magic to influence people to starve themselves to death. Was Linda Hazard a sociopath or did she possess the power to hypnotize? Maybe she was just a naturally persuasive person. Whatever the truth is,
It's only known by the few who escaped starvation heights.