Starvation Heights by Gregg Olson

I don’t think I’ve ever read a more horrifically, frustrating true story. I picked up this book because it was a true story of a murder at the hands of a wellness influencer living in Olalla, Washington. It isn’t a direct yoga connection but more a connection to the wellness industry that has propelled yoga into a multi-billion dollar industry.

It is amazing how much the “wellness” community has not changed in more that 100 years. This takes place in 1911 when two wealthy British sisters decided to try a “sanatorium” in Olalla, WA run by Linda Burfield Hazzard. These two women, Clare & Dora Williamson were sole heirs to a large estate and had a passion towards fad health trends. The late Edwardian era was full of very odd health trends that had an intense focus on “natural wellness”. Natural wellness could be proper sleep, open air exercise and even the beginning popularity of vegetarianism. There was also the “electrical” health theory saying that electricity was life giving and incorporated dangerous gadgets to help boost the health.

During this time the United States gave doctor licenses to all sorts of medical practices. Surgeon, Family Physician, Osteopathic, Electropathy, and some other obscure medical practices. In Washington state during the early 1900’s there was a huge expansion of medical licenses awarded and a large number of the population were now “doctors”. A majority of these new doctors had never even stepped foot into any higher education institution (medical schools were just beginning) and only had to have a prerequisite of practicing “medicine” for two years before a new licensing regulation became the law in Washington state.

One of the people who received a license was Linda Hazzard. Her license of choice was in osteopathy. Durning this time period there were schools of osteopathy and it was legitimately recognized. However, Linda Hazzard received her “education” through Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey and his book The Science of Fasting. Dewey was her idol and she felt it was her mission to prove she was just as qualified as any male doctor.

Originally from Minnesota, Linda Hazzard had a pretty strong, healthy childhood. Her family owned and worked a farm and believed in preventing illness by yearly checkups with a doctor. This was an unusual practice for this time era. According to Hazzard, this doctor would prescribe a tonic each time and this is where she felt her health began to suffer. She claimed this tonic would make her sick for days on end and eventually lead her to start using enemas to overcome side effects.

Whether this is true or not, enemas became her religion next to fasting.

Hazzard sold the lie of being able to cure all manner of illness and disease through a specific fasting regimen that she concocted. The fasting part of her cure would only allow for broths made of vegetables (normally from cans but she would lie and say they were all super fresh) or watered down fruit juice. The other part of her regimen was enemas. The fasting would be forced for 20-40 days and enemas could end up being 3-4 times a day sometimes up to two hours each time.

Hazzard ran her “sanatorium” with her husband, Samuel. Their relationship was an odd one. She bullied and berated him constantly. Without digressing too much, Samuel Hazzard, a West Point graduate who stole thousands of dollars from the US Army while on commission was convicted of begamy because he abandoned his first wife to marry Linda. Years before Linda had fallen for Samuel she had abandoned her own husband and son to pursue her dream of practicing alternative medicine. They were meant for each other.

There is nothing wrong with the practice of fasting. There’s nothing wrong with alternative approaches to health. Also, there is nothing wrong with enemas, when done properly and for the right reasons.

So, what was the problem with Linda Hazzard and the sanatorium she ran, Wilderness Heights? Firstly, she was a bully and never backed down when challenged. She claimed she was always right and that the entire medical community was conspiring against her because they didn’t want her cure to be known. There had been rumors of her fasting practice causing harm and death but no charges were ever brought because she masterfully lied and bullied her way out of suspicion. At one point her license was revoked but she fought all the way to the State Supreme Court to force them to give it back. If people died she would always lied and claim that patients were fed full meals, had no problem with daily activity and were cured from what ever ailment or disease they came to her with. Or she would give the other story that they were already so ill before they came to her there was nothing she could do.

Hazzard was a master at marketing and wrote extensively. In 1908 she published Fasting and the Cure of Disease. From this she wrote pamphlets and leaflets offering her services and selling her sanatorium stays in Wilderness Heights. From these pamphlets, Claire Williamson became curious and contacted Linda Hazzard with questions about personal health issues and such. Of course, Hazzard had all the answers and promised Claire if she followed them then she would be cured.

Claire Williamson traveled all over the world with her sister, Dorothea, going to various sanatoriums in Switzerland, England and other places in Europe. The two adult sisters had been orphaned at a young age and were looked after by extended family. They could afford world travel and chasing health “cures” because they were heiresses of a large British fortune.

Eventually, the sisters were convinced by Hazzard they needed to visit in person for the best health outcome for them. For the first few weeks they stayed in a rundown Seattle boarding room while receiving the fasting cure & enema treatments from Hazzard. The sisters didn’t know why they weren’t getting better, why they didn’t have any energy and why they kept passing out. They ended up needing round the clock care from hired nurses and then they were transported by ferry to the Kitsap Peninsula to Ollala, WA. The sisters were so emaciated after just two weeks they were carried out on stretchers.

Once they arrived they found out the hard way there was no sanatorium actually built yet, so, they stayed in the personal home of Hazzard and her family. This would be the last location of Claire’s travels. Hazzard divided and conquered the sisters, claiming Dorothea was mentally ill and Claire was never going to survive her illness - that she was incurable. Samuel Hazzard helped falsify legal papers giving power of guardianship and most of the Williamson’s fortune to the Wilderness Heights accounts.

Somehow, before she succumbed to being starved to death, Claire was able to sneak out a letter to her lady’s maid who was currently living in Australia. This woman would eventually save Dorothea and help bring charges against Linda Hazzard. It took a year, British adjunct, British embassy and Dorothea paying for the trial for Kitsap County to even think of bringing charges against Hazzard.

The path to the trail, the trial itself and the aftermath are all just as frustrating as the torture  Hazzard inflicted on all her “patients”. I don’t want to give away the ending because I encourage you to read this book.

Why? Why did this book disgust & horrify me? I see what scam the 2026 wellness industry tries to hawk to desperate people and understand it is nothing new. Coffee enemas? Nothing new. Fasting diets? Nothing new. Unregulated health claims? Nothing new. Thankfully, there are still some consequences for people that claim to cure and end up causing only death. For example the founder of the pH Miracle Diet has been sentenced to prison for willful elder abuse & practicing medicine without a license.

In the end Linda Hazzard still had die hard supporters even though she was directly connected to 17 deaths that we know of. Four deaths occurred during her murder trial. When she became ill in 1938 at the age of 70 she underwent her own regimen believing she could cure herself and succumbed to starvation in her own home.

Side note: Every year on New Year's Day Olalla hosts a huge Polar Bear Plunge that draws hundreds of participants. I wonder if Hazzard and her supporters had any connection at all to how this event began in the first place. Just an interesting coincidence.