The Power of Starvation

Linda Burfield Hazzard ran a Washington sanitarium called Starvation Heights, promising miraculous cures through fasting, but her treatments often led to something far darker. When wealthy sisters Claire and Dora Williamson checked in for healing, only one would make it out alive. Claire’s shocking death exposed a web of manipulation, greed, and pseudoscience that stunned the world. Was Hazzard a misguided healer or a calculated killer? Tune in to uncover the truth behind Starvation Heights.

Sources:

Olsen, G. (2005). Starvation Heights: A true story of murder and malice in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. Thread Books.
Smithsonian Magazine. (n.d.). The doctor who starved her patients to death. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/doctor-who-starved-her-patients-death-180953158/

Washington State Archives, Digital Archives. (n.d.). Linda Burfield Hazzard: Healer or murderess? https://digitalarchives.wa.gov/Collections/TitleInfo/2508
 
Washington State Archives, Digital Archives. (2019, April 1). Linda Burfield Hazzard: Pioneering healer or serial killer? Archives News. https://digitalarchives.wa.gov/News/View/164
 
HistoryLink. (2006, October 26). Hazzard, Linda Burfield (1867-1938). HistoryLink.org – the free online encyclopedia of Washington state history. https://www.historylink.org/File/7955
 
People. (2025, January 5). British heiresses went to trusted doctor for alternative treatments. One starved to death, the other wound up emaciated. People. https://people.com/linda-hazzard-doctor-starvation-williamson-sisters-british-heiresses-8768984 

Beck, Kathrine. Hazzard, Linda Burfield (1867-1938), 26 Oct. 2006, www.historylink.org/File/7955.

“Certificate of Death- Claire Williamson.” Washington State Digital Archives, 19 May 1911.

Lovejoy, Bess. “The Doctor Who Starved Her Patients to Death.” Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Oct. 2014, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/doctor-who-starved-her-patients-death-180953158/.