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- [00:02]
Vanessa Richardson
Hi Crime House community. It's Vanessa Richardson looking for another Crime House original podcast to add to your rotation. You will love Clues with Morgan Absher and Kaylin Moore. Every Wednesday, Morgan and Kaelyn dig into the world's most notorious crimes, clue by clue. From serial killers to shocking murders. They follow the trail of clues, break down the evidence and debate the theories. It's like hanging out with your smart and true crime obsessed friends. Listen to Clues on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
- [00:45]
Crime House Announcer
This is crime house.
- [00:51]
Vanessa Richardson
We've all had those times when we were so sick we couldn't even get out of bed. And when you finally recovered, you probably felt really grateful for your good health, right? Happy to be up and energized, ready to get back to your life. So imagine you're someone who's been sick your whole life. And I told you that in just a few months I could transform you into a vision of perfect health. Not just good, perfect. You'd have a pretty hard time saying no. In 1911, two wealthy sisters were presented with this very opportunity in Washington State. After years of agony, a renowned female doctor offered a radical solution to their ailments. They put their bodies and their fortune into this physician's hands. But she didn't heal them as promised. She slowly squeezed the life out of them instead. From UFO cults and mass suicides to secret CIA experiments, presidential assassinations, and murderous doctors, these aren't just theories. They're real stories that blur the line between fact and fiction. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes. A Crime House original Powered by Pave Studios. Every Wednesday, I'll explore the real people at the center of the world's most shocking events and nefarious organizations. These cases are wild, and I want to hear what you think at the end of each episode. Leave a comment wherever you listen. Be sure to rate, review and follow so we can continue building this community together. And for early ad, free access to every episode plus exclusive bonus content. Subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. Today's topic isn't technically a cult, but I'd argue that the person at the center possesses all the qualities that make a cult leader. Her name was Linda Burfield Hazard, and although she didn't have a medical license, Linda claimed she could cure any disease except her methods and mother motives were a sham. She spent years defrauding her patients until a vengeful orphan, her childhood nurse, and two dogged investigators finally revealed the depths of Linda's depravity. That and a trail of bodies a mile long leading to a place known as Starvation Heights. All that and more coming up.
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- [04:32]
Vanessa Richardson
If you'd met Linda Burfield when she was a child, you'd never imagine she'd grow up to be a cunning and powerful predator. Linda was born in the rural outskirts of Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1867. She was the first of seven kids and from the limited information we have, it seemed to have been a loving family. Linda was especially close to her father, Montgomery. He was a Civil War veteran on the Union side who worked at a nearby sawmill turning trees into lumber. Montgomery and his wife Susan, worked hard to feed their family and to do it the right way. Unlike many families around them, they paid careful attention to their diet, feeding their kids mostly vegetarian meals. Vegetarianism was a fairly new concept at the time, and Linda's parents took right to it. But their kids diet wasn't the only thing Montgomery and Susan paid attention to. Early in Linda's life, Montgomery had a doctor check on her and the other children. They appeared to be healthy, but it seems like Montgomery just wanted to be certain. Sure enough, the doctor convinced Montgomery they were all sick with a chronic intestinal disease. To cure this invisible illness, the doctor prescribed blue mass pills. At the time, this was a common mercury based treatment that people believed could cure all sorts of things. The vomiting and diarrhea that resulted supposedly proved the drug was working. In reality, they were symptoms of heavy metal poisoning. Linda never held the treatments against her father. But later she did say the pills permanently damaged her digestive system and many of her teeth. Around this time, Linda became interested in medicine, probably because she wanted to fix what the pills had broken. But as a teenage farm girl, the notion of an actual career in healthcare foundation felt very far away. So in February 1885, when she was 18, Linda did what her family expected from her. She married a man named Irwin Perry, who was 14 years older. We don't know much else about Edwin except what Linda later shared. And in her opinion, he was a dishonest loser like most men she encountered. But for the moment, he was all she had. After the wedding, Linda and Irwin settled down in Fergus Falls, about 175 miles northwest of Minneapolis to raise a family. They had two children, Roland and Nina Floy. What happened during the next decade is a mystery, but we do know the marriage fell apart in 1898. Irwin walked out the door and never came back. At least that's the version Linda told the courts. However, she later hinted that she was actually the one who left him. Part of the reason for their unhappiness might have come from Linda's ambition. She wasn't destined to be a housewife. She craved respect and attention. The first doctor she met may have damaged her insides, but she never forgot how her father hung on his every word. Linda thought back to her childhood dream of working in medicine. And in 1898, with her husband out of the picture, 31 year old Linda decided to go all in. There was no time for family in the future she envisioned. So she shipped her kids off to live with their grandma and began studying osteopathy. Or so she claimed. In 1898, there were two osteopathic medical schools in the U.S. the first was in Missouri, the second in Iowa. So it's not clear when or how she would have attended these schools. Around this time, Linda came across a book that changed everything. The no Breakfast Plan and the fasting cure by Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey. The book's central claim was simple. People are sick because they're eating too much. If you want to get healthy, skip breakfast and eat less. To most doctors, Dewey's no Breakfast cure was just another fad. Diet America in the late 1800s was full of those and actually still is today. Okay, I'll admit over the years I've definitely been persuaded by a bunch of different dieting schemes and methods. I'm sure a lot of us have. If you're in the same Boat. I'd love to know what your experience was like. Let us know in the comments. As for Linda, she was immediately intrigued by Dewey's ideas. She even claimed to have been under his care at some point. By studying his methods and trying them herself, Linda developed her own take on his theory. She came to believe that all diseases were caused by having too many toxins in the body. You could purge these toxins with fasting and daily enemas, what she called the internal bath. Enemas use a device like a rubber bulb to flush out a patient's colon. Linda thought removing all the waste from her bowels cleansed her digestive tract of poisons, allowing her body to focus on healing itself. And by 1901, the 34 year old was ready to share her findings with the world. That was the year she opened opened her own unlicensed medical practice in downtown Minneapolis. Under the name Dr. Linda Burfield Perry. She advertised her services as a doctor and a fasting specialist, treating all nervous diseases, liquor habit and vices, and promoted healing through fasting. This was a pretty big lie. Linda didn't actually have a medical degree and whatever training she had was minimal at best. 50 years earlier, basically anyone could have called themselves a doctor. But by the turn of the 20th century, that was changing. Modern medicine was developing rapidly and the industry was becoming much more regulated. But there was still a gray area which Linda used to her advantage. Besides, she didn't think having a degree mattered anyway. Linda wasn't planning to use actual medicine or chemicals to heal people. She promised to fix what traditional doctors couldn't and to do it naturally for people with nowhere left to turn. That was a very appealing proposition. But it was also a dangerous one. On October 10, 1902, a 41 year old stroke victim named Gertrude Young reached out to Linda for help. Gertrude was paralyzed on one side of her body after two years of failed treatments and she was ready to try anything to be able to walk and dress herself again. With a confident smile, Linda promised all that and more. She didn't mince words. It would be difficult. Gertrude would have to go 40 days drinking only small amounts of vegetable broth and orange juice. But in the end, she would be cured. Turns out Linda had a special talent for manipulation. Gertrude was so excited to begin this promising new regimen that she boasted about it to the local newspaper. But the treatment was harder than she imagined. On November 12, 33 days into her fast, she was found curled up on the floor, shaking and covered in black vomit. A doctor warned her to Eat. But Gertrude refused. She had to follow the protocol. Then, on November 18, after 39 days with almost zero food, Gertrude Young died. Her doctor said that she was the victim of, quote, cruel and unnecessary quackery. But Linda was adamant that she had nothing to do with Gertrude's death. She called a press conference and told reporters that she'd successfully treated 17 patients with the same method already. She said Gertrude simply hadn't followed Linda's instructions carefully enough. A medical panel convened to investigate, but in the end, they couldn't punish Linda. No one had forced Gertrude to fast, and no laws were broken. There was something else, though. Gertrude's jewelry was missing from her apartment. Linda told investigators that Gertrude had given it all away as a gift to one of her nurses. That nurse was mysteriously nowhere to be found. And a few months later, Linda moved into a much bigger office in Minneapolis. It was clear that Linda had a knack for getting what she wanted. And now that she had her fancy new headquarters, she set her sights on her next prize. 33 year old Samuel Hazard. Sam was everything Linda wasn't. Linda was rigid and fussy and dressed in fine clothing, like she was trying to hide the fact that she'd grown up on a farm. Meanwhile, Sam's elegance came naturally, but he was cosmopolitan, charming and devastatingly handsome. A West Point graduate and former army officer, he stood over six feet tall with jet black hair and a striking mustache. Sam spoke French, Spanish, German, and Latin. He loved to read and wax philosophical. He also had a weakness for alcohol, women and other people's money. He could smooth talk his way out of almost anything. Except, apparently, a bill. By the year 1900, when Sam was 31, the debt collectors were banging on his door. When his superiors at West Point discovered that he'd been cashing bad checks and habitually cheating on his wife, they kicked him out. So Sam fled to Minneapolis and reinvented himself as an insurance salesman under a new name, Samuel Hargrave. Before long, he made his way into the rings of local high society. And on March 7, 1903, he married Viva Estelle Fitzpatrick, the daughter of a state senator. But the marriage was a house built on sand. He never told Viva he was still married or that he'd used fake names for both of them at the courthouse to avoid suspicion. And within months, he was already having an affair with Linda. She'd come by Sam and Viva's building to treat their landlord who was sick, and the two hooked up almost immediately. On November 11, Sam married Linda using his real name, then had lunch with Viva and told her the news that their own marriage was a sham and his heart belonged to Linda. But, spoiler alert, the honeymoon stage didn't last long. A few Months later, in January 1904, the District Attorney charged Sam with bigamy, which is the legal term for having multiple wives. The next month, Sam stood trial and was found guilty, and the judge sentenced him to two years at Stillwater Prison. He managed to get out a few months early. On October 30, 1905, Sam walked out of prison and went right to the Globe building on fourth street where Linda lived and worked. He was hers, for better or worse. Even though Sam was free, their troubles weren't over. The trial had embarrassed Linda, and Sam was dodging secret service agents who believed he'd forged government checks. Linda had enjoyed her time in Minneapolis, but she and Sam needed a new beginning. Someplace where Linda could build her empire. And she knew just where to break ground. The bustling merchant town of Seattle, Washington. In 1906, Linda opened an office in the Northern bank and Trust building downtown and began advertising herself as a fasting specialist in newspapers and magazines. She took her husband's last name, calling herself Dr. Hazard, and she carried herself with all the confidence of a polished physician. She specifically targeted wealthy clients. Her services weren't cheap, and they appealed to people who were suspicious of or had given up on conventional medicine. She offered a so called natural alternative that could cure everything from headaches to cancer. In 1908, she published her first book, Fasting for the cure of disease. It was both a manifesto and a marketing tool advertising the benefits of fasting and enemas. The book was very successful at bringing prospective clients to her door once they were inside. Linda's booming hypnotic voice and unshakable confidence did the rest. And Sam, now calling himself the general manager of her practice, added an air of legitimacy with his erudite West Point manor. It was a great start, but Linda wanted even more. She wanted her own medical compound. And before long, she found the perfect spot. In 1910, Linda acquired 40 acres in Olalla, a remote island village across the Puget Sound, accessible only by ferry. It was beautiful, with plenty of trees and fresh air. There were cabins on the property for Linda's family, future patients. Her son Roland, who was 21, had moved to Washington with Sam and Linda. He would have his own cabin and eventually go on to work with his mother. Meanwhile, her daughter, Nina Floy, who went on to become a well regarded botanist, never quite forgave Linda for abandoning them. Over time, she intentionally distanced herself from her mother. That didn't seem to bother Linda. And she had big plans for her property in Olala. She dreamt of building a grand medical complex that would rival the best hospital in the world. She called it the Hazards Institute of Natural Therapeutics. The locals, however, would soon have another name for it. Starvation Heights.
- [18:35]
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- [18:59]
Vanessa Richardson
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- [19:04]
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- [19:38]
Vanessa Richardson
In 1910, 43 year old Linda Burfield Hazard, also known as Dr. Hazard, and her husband, 41 year old Sam, had dodged their past and settled into their new lives in Seattle, Washington. Linda's business was booming. She had several nurses on staff and in May of that year she'd purchased a beautiful tract of land from one of her patients. It was several acres of forest and waterfront where she planned to build a sanatorium. Her star was on the rise, but it was only a matter of time before her reckless behavior brought her down to earth. The catalyst turned out to be two wealthy British sisters named Claire and Dorothea, or Dora Williamson. Despite all their money, 34 year old Claire and 38 year old Dora had a difficult childhood. Their father, a British army officer, died when Claire was just an infant. Their mother passed away when Claire was 14 and two of their sisters also died from scarlet fever. All those tragedies may have fostered a kind of hypochondria in Claire. She'd always been what people called delicate and somewhere along the way Claire started to believe that her unhappiness was linked to a physical ailment. Claire convinced Dora that she had these same issues and quack doctors validated their beliefs. An osteopath in London had convinced them that Dora suffered from swollen glands in inflamed ovaries and a misplaced uterus Osteopathy is a branch of medicine that was invented in 1874 with the philosophy that the doctor should treat the whole patient, not just the diseased area. Today, the field has expanded quite a bit, and osteopathic doctors are trained and licensed the same way as conventional doctors. But in the early 1900s, it was still the Wild West. Anyone could call themselves an osteopath and offer whatever misguided diagnoses or treatments they wanted. Which is probably what happened to Dora and Claire. If they were poor, they would have had to do their best to get by. But the sisters had inherited a huge fortune from their uncle, which meant they were able to spend their time and their money chasing the idea of perfect health. In 1910, they traveled to medical institutions all over North America and finally to Vancouver, British Columbia. Less than a day's ride by boat to Seattle to. They stopped eating and wearing corsets. They went from one fad diet to the next and pursued what we'd now call alternative medicine. They distrusted traditional doctors and said that conventional medicine was for idiots. And then, on September 2, 1910, they discovered Linda. That day, they were in Vancouver when Claire opened a newspaper from nearby Seattle and saw an advertisement for Linda's book, Fasting for the Cure of the Disease. She immediately wrote to Linda requesting a copy. The book came in the mail a week later, and the sisters immediately started restricting their food and taking daily enemas. But after a couple of months, they still felt ill. So they wrote back to Linda and asked for help. She told them to come at once. The sisters arrived in Seattle towards the end of February 1911. On the 27th of that month, they met Linda at her office in the Northern bank and Trust building. The 43 year old Dr. Hazard was everything they'd hoped for. Confident, knowledgeable, commanding. She boasted about all the lives she'd saved with her program and sneered at conventional doctors and non vegetarians. The term meat eater was one of Linda's favorites slurs. After listening to the sister's story, Linda said her program would definitely cure them. She didn't need to do an exam. She already knew the girls were very sick and had to start treatment right away. The best place for that would be her new sanitarium at Olala. However, Linda told them it was still under construction. Until it was ready. She wanted the women to rent an apartment nearby and come to her office five days a week for treatment. In addition, one of her trusted nurses, Nellie Sherman, would check on them daily. Claire and Dora's regimen was extremely strict. 1 cup of tomato broth made from canned tomatoes. Twice a day, nothing more. Sometimes a splash of asparagus water or a few drops of orange juice, but only when Linda permitted it. Then came the enemas. Hours long procedures. Using up to 12 gallons of warm water at a time. The sisters stood in the bathtub, fitted with canvas supports designed to catch them when they inevitably fainted. Finally, there were the massages. Linda pounded their backs and heads with her fists, shouting, eliminate. Eliminate. As she worked. Witnesses said it sounded more like beatings than therapy. The sisters endured it all without complaint. They trusted Linda when she said it was necessary to eliminate the poison in their bodies, and they answered faithfully. When Linda started asking prying questions about their finances. That was probably because Claire and Dora couldn't think clearly. After a month of treatment, the sisters were completely at Linda's mercy. Claire had dropped from £120 to about 70. She couldn't walk without assistance, and still she refused to eat. Dora was in slightly better physical shape, but she was starting to suffer from confusion and memory loss. While Claire and Dora wasted away, their friends and family were oblivious. Their closest relative, Uncle John Herbert, lived in Portland, Oregon. Others were scattered around North America, England and Australia. None of them had any idea where Claire and Dora were or what they were doing. Because the sisters had faced so much criticism over their pursuit of alternative medicine therapies. Over the years, they'd learned it was just easier to keep everyone in the dark so no one knew they were slowly dying. On April 21, 1911, after more than a month of fasting, Linda came to their apartment and told them their cabins at the sanitarium were finally ready. She packed their bags and ordered an ambulance to pick them up the next morning. On April 22, their neighbors watched the sisters get carried out on stretchers. The ambulance drove them to the Seattle waterfront where a private boat launch waited. But they didn't board right away. First, Linda's attorney climbed into the ambulance. He had some papers for Claire to sign. Too weak and confused to read carefully, Claire jotted down her signature. Those documents were an update called a codicil to her will. It said that if Claire died, her estate would pay the Hazard Institute 25 pounds of silver per year as a thank you for her treatment. That's roughly $3,000 in today's money. The codicil was co signed by the ambulance driver, which made it a legally binding document. Claire didn't ask questions. She did as she she was told. And then it was time for the girls to board the boat. When Claire and Dora arrived at Olala, Linda immediately separated the sisters into different cabins. And now that they were in Linda's custody, the stealing accelerated. Linda took possession of their clothes and jewelry for safekeeping. With her attorney's help and a signed document from Claire, she appointed herself executive of Claire's estate. And once she got her hooks into Claire's accounts, she used this power to charge Claire for various bills. Meanwhile, Dora's confused mental state created an opportunity to pilfer her trust fund, too. Linda went to the nearby Kitsap county court with a letter that Dora supposedly signed making Sam Hazard her legal guardian. It claimed that she was too mentally unwell to manage her own affairs. And from that point on, the Hazards had complete control over every legal, financial, and health decision. And they'd laid their trap just in time. On May 19, 1911, Claire died at the young age of 34. She weighed 50 pounds at the time. Linda performed the autopsy herself in a bathtub and and claimed Claire died of liver damage caused by medication she'd been given as a child. Linda insisted it had nothing to do with starvation. Claire's organs were simply too damaged to save. She took a few days to notify Claire's family. When she finally reached the sister's uncle, John Herbert, in Portland on the 22nd, he was flabbergasted. He had no idea Claire was even being treated at the sanitation sanitarium, let alone that she had a terminal disease. When he saw her body, John didn't even recognize her. The woman before him looked nothing like Claire. John's shock turned to horror when Linda started taking Claire's organs out of little white pouches and holding them up like a kid at a science fair. She prattled on about how shrunken each one was, ignoring John's clear panic and revolution convulsion. Then she gave him more chilling news. Dora was also dying. Linda didn't elaborate, but she did tell John that Dora's mental health issues stemmed from menopause, even though she was only 38. Like many people in the days before sex education, John hadn't even heard the word menopause. And when he learned that it involved female reproduction, he didn't press for details. When John left Olalla a few days later, Linda breathed a sigh of relief. Linda was already parading around the sanitarium and Claire's clothing and jewelry. Once Dora passed away, Linda figured she'd be able to take whatever was left. But there was one person she didn't account for. Margaret Conway. The Williamson sisters. Childhood Nanny. I'm using the word nanny. But Margaret was much more than that. After their mother died, she basically raised Claire and Dora. Eventually, Margaret moved to Australia to be near her own family. Even then, she and the girls constantly kept in contact with letters. She was the closest thing they had to a mother. On April 30, 1911, less than a month before Claire's death, Margaret had received a cryptic telegram from her. It was brief quote, Come SS Marama, May 8th, first class. The words were unlike Claire, who was usually very eloquent. We don't know how or when Claire sent the telegram, but it seems like it was her one and only cry for help before she died. The message was clear. Claire wanted her to come and the ship, the Merrima was leaving in a week. Margaret begged the company to find her assistant seat and on May 8, she sets sail for America. Somehow, Sam Hazard knew when she was arriving and met Margaret when her boat docked in Vancouver, Washington on June 1st. The first thing he said to her was that Claire was dead before she could even process this. Sam told her that, by the way, Dora had also gone insane. Margaret felt her heart shatter into a thousand pieces. She had a million questions, but Sam couldn't or wouldn't answer any of them. Instead, he brought Margaret to Olala where Linda was waiting. Like John Herbert, Margaret didn't recognize the body before her as Claire's. She felt sickened as Linda casually listed all the horrific details of Claire's autopsy. The more Linda talked, the more Margaret wondered if the self styled doctor had actually caused Claire's death. Especially when she saw Claire's belongings in Linda's office. Still, nothing would prepare Margaret for what came next. She couldn't contain her shock when she laid eyes on Dora. The young woman had been reduced to about 50 or 60 pounds. Her lips had receded so far they no longer covered her teeth, giving her the appearance of a skeleton. To Margaret's horror, Dora didn't want to leave. She insisted the treatment was working, that she just needed a little more time. But her time was running out. At New Balance, we believe if you run, you're a runner, However you choose to do it. 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- [33:39]
Crime House Announcer
What's the real science behind all the popular UFO claims on television? What's the true history behind today's growing beliefs in Atlantis, the flat Earth theory, and ancient aliens? And when you take away the media hype, what do scientists really say about COVID 19 and global warming? Since 2006, the Skeptoid podcast has been revealing the true science, true history, and true facts behind nearly a thousand of our most popular urban legends and mysteries. Each episode of Skeptoid looks at a famous story you know and reveals the part of it you haven't heard. Check out episodes covering mysteries such as popular ghost stories, famous UFO cases, alternative science claims, cryptids, and urban legends or conspiracy theories. Find out why the truth behind these popular legends is even more interesting. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts, just search for skeptoid that's s k e p t o I d or visit skeptoid.com for full transcripts of the entire catalog. Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena.
- [34:54]
Vanessa Richardson
In May 1911, Margaret Conway arrived at Linda Hazard Sanatorium in Olalla, Washington. Margaret was the Williamson's nanny and the closest thing they had to a mother. Claire was already dead, and Margaret knew Dora didn't have long to live. Linda's protocol had withered Dora's body into a tiny stalk, and her heart could give out at any moment. Even then, Dora refused to leave Olala. But Margaret wasn't going to give up on her. Instead of trying to convince her to go, Margaret asked if she could stay to help care for her. So Linda agreed, and Margaret moved into Dora's cabin, where she began trying to save her life. She secretly added rice and flour to the tomato broth when Linda wasn't looking. Small amounts, just enough to give Dora a few more calories without being detected. She also started investigating what had really happened to Claire. Margaret discovered that Linda had manipulated the court into many, making Sam Hazard Dora's legal guardian. The very day that happened, he'd withdrawn $583 from her trust fund. That's nearly $20,000 in today's money. As for the sister's jewelry, all those diamonds and sapphires were gone. Linda could probably tell that Margaret was getting suspicious. She definitely didn't like the old nurse hanging around. But she sensed an opportunity to exploit the situation. Sometime in June, Linda gave her Claire's diary. The last entry, supposedly written by Claire, said she wanted to leave all of her possessions to Linda. The plan backfired. Margaret knew Claire's handwriting, and she could immediately tell the entry had been forged. Margaret also noticed something else disturbing. She wasn't receiving any mail. When she asked about it, Linda said the mailbox was literally locked for security. But when Margaret encountered the mailman in town, he had no idea what she was talking about. That's when Margaret realized Linda had been intercepting everything. But as long as Dora was loyal to Linda, Margaret knew she had to tread carefully. That or she needed proof of Linda's fraud. And it wasn't long until Margaret found what she was looking for. In late spring or early summer, Margaret discovered the $583 check that Sam had cashed in Dora's name. When she showed it to Dora, the sickly woman realized the truth about her doctor. Finally, Dora was ready to leave. But it wouldn't be so simple. Sam technically had custody of Dora, and Linda monitored everything at Olala. Margaret and Dora would have to get creative. One night, as rain pelted the roof of the cabin, Margaret crept outside and down the road to a local grocery store. She had the owner send a telegram to Dora's uncle, John Herbert, who was a lawyer, begging him to come at once. John took the first train to Seattle, and on July 19, he stepped off the ferry in Olala and demanded that Dora be released. When Linda refused, John threatened to involve the authorities. Linda countered with a bill. Nearly $2,000 for Dora's care. That's over $60,000 in today's money. And until Dora paid it, she wasn't going anywhere. John negotiated. They finally settled on $875, which was essentially ransom for a dying woman. On July 22, 1911, Margaret and John carried Dora's skeletal body onto the steamer leaving Olala. As they departed, Margaret looked back at the cluster of cabins and the dozen or so other patients wandering the property. They looked like skeletons. Most were too tired to walk and just sat there, staring blankly ahead. Margaret wished she could come back and save all of them. But for now, at least, the ordinary deal was over. She later described her time in Olala as, quote, a period of horror on horror, of starving, emaciated bodies drawing themselves about. An inferno of fear and horror. Safe with Margaret and her uncle, Dora slowly began to recover. The fog lifted from her mind, and she understood how close she had come to death. She cried, cried for her sister Claire and made a vow to Margaret and the world. Linda Hazard would pay for her crimes. Unfortunately, that was beyond their abilities. So they contacted the British Embassy and got the support of 36 year old Vice Consul Lucian Agassi. Lucian's job was to see to the needs of British nationals living abroad. He was moved by Dora's plight and took a special interest in her case. He immediately hired an attorney who helped remove Sam's guardianship over Dora. Once that was successful, they dug into Linda's past, hoping to find evidence of criminal misconduct that revealed a pattern of victims going back years, both at the sanitarium and earlier. Some of them were important people. Lewis Ellsworth Raider was a father, former state legislator, who'd once owned the property where Starvation Heights now sat. He died in May 1911 after fasting for 37 days under Linda's care. Ivan Flux was another, a British rancher who came to America with plenty of money, but died mysteriously. Broke. More names soon followed. Earl Edward Erdman, Frank Southard, Lydia Maude, Whitney Daisy Hagland. Aside from the fact that these patients were all under Linda's care, many had something else in common. They'd signed over large portions of their estates to Linda before they died. Unfortunately, it would be hard to prosecute Linda for murder or theft since all of her patients accepted treatment willingly. And Kitsap county, where Olala was located, was poor. They couldn't afford an expensive criminal investigation, especially against someone as well connected and powerful as Linda. So Dora made an extraordinary offer. She would pay for the entire prosecution herself. With the money and evidence in hand, Lucian pressured the Kitsap County District Attorney's office to take action. On August 5, 1911, a deputy sheriff stepped off the ferry at olala and arrested 43 year old Linda for Claire's murder. Linda loudly proclaimed that she was being set up by the medical board, a petty group of doctors who just wanted her out of the picture. She vowed to beat the charges. The next day, August 6th, Linda was released on a ten thousand dollar bail. The trial began five months later, on January 15th, 1912. By that point, the case was pretty much all the local newspapers could talk about. Residents packed the courthouse eager to hear the details of what had happened at Starvation Heights. They came for a spectacle. And they got it. Linda arrived wearing a full length velvet gown with ostrich feathers in her hat. And from the very beginning, she treated the proceedings with contempt. She laughed out loud during testimony, signaled to witnesses from the defense table and joked that the trial felt more like a play than a legal battle. However, that didn't mean she wasn't taking the threat seriously. Behind the scenes, she and Sam did everything they could to destroy the prosecution's case. One of their allies tracked down potential witnesses and either bribed or or threatened them to keep silent. Things took a dangerous turn on January 20, 1912. That day, the British Vice Consul, Lucian Agassi, returned home to find his windows smashed. Nothing was missing, but a trunk that had belonged to Claire was open. And someone had rifled through it. We don't know exactly what they were looking for, but it could have been Claire's diary. This was the same diary that Linda had given Margaret, hoping to prove that Claire's last wish was to give Linda everything. Except now it looked like that move had backfired. Turns out the burglars didn't find the diary because Lucien had already given it to a handwriting expert for analysis. They proved that the last diary entry was a forgery. Not only that, but the expert believed the Linda had done the forging. And that was just the start. The prosecution called over 100 witnesses who testified about everything from Claire's mistreatment to Sam Hazard's attempt to cash a check Claire had supposedly made out to him. He tried to do this after Claire was already dead. However, the most damning testimony came from Dora herself. She spent four days on the stand describing how she and her sister had been systematically starved and robbed. And despite her earlier claims, she now believed the only thing wrong with Claire when they started was how easily manipulated she'd been. On February 4, 1912, a jury convicted 44 year old Linda of manslaughter. Three days later, the judge sentenced her to between two and 20 years of hard labor at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. As it turned out, two years was all she'd get. She was released in December 1915 on good behavior. In June 1916, Governor Ernest Lister pardoned her on one condition. She had to leave the country. So Linda and Sam moved to New Zealand where she practiced as a physician, dietitian and osteopath. She published another book and made a good amount of money. But Washington was calling. In 1920, 52 year old Linda returned to Olalla. She still owned the land and she'd made enough in New Zealand to finally complete her dream sanitarium. Since her medical license was now permanently revoked, she called it a school. School for Health. Despite everything that had happened, people still lined up to be her patients. Her method offered hope to people without it. And her charismatic confidence could always seal the deal. She was punished a few times for practicing medicine without a license. However, she never spent another minute in jail. And patients continued to die on occasion during dangerously long fasts. Linda continued her deadly practice until 1935, when the Sanitarium burned to the ground. By that time, her ideas had mostly fallen out of fashion. Even then, Linda maintained absolute faith in her methods. She put herself through daily enemas for her entire life. And when death came knocking in 1938, the 70 year old fasted one last time to prove to the world the power of her protocol. Instead, she died of starvation. Linda bragged that she'd treated over a thousand patients during her career, and it's estimated that over a dozen people died in Linda's care, although the true number could be much higher. As far as mass murdering cult leaders go, that's less than Jim Jones, but more than Charles Manson. Like Jones and Manson, Linda's victims weren't foolish. They were suffering and desperate for hope. Traditional medicine had failed them. So they turned to a person whose unshakable certainty and hypnotic charisma overrode any doubts they may have had. Today, only ruins remain at starvation heights. But the Linda hazard of the world still exist, preying on our desire for health, for answers, for transformation. When we find ourselves reaching for that magical cure all, maybe we should stop and ask ourselves, is this real? Or do I just want to believe? And if you think fasting is a dangerous path to health, just wait until you hear this week's Cult Watch. Today I'm highlighting the miracle mineral Solution. In the mid-2000s, a former Scientologist named Jim Humble started an organization he called the Genesis 2 Church of Health and Healing. Jim had some kind of mystical experience that convinced him he was the incarnation of a God from the Andromeda galaxy. So right away, you kind of know all you need to know about him. But Jim also said that we. While hiking through a South American jungle, he discovered a magical potion that could cure literally anything. Cancer, diabetes, autism, you name it. Jim claimed to have personally cured 800 HIV patients in Africa, not to mention 100,000 cases of malaria. Jim called this liquid the magical mineral solution and sold it as a kit. You add a few drops of it to acid like lemon juice, to activate it before drinking it. As it turns out, the secret ingredient in MMS is household bleach. And mixing it with acid creates chlorine dioxide, a toxic chemical used to treat wastewater. In 2020, a five year old boy died after consuming this poison, which his parents thought would cure COVID 19. Many people have already been arrested for peddling the MMS treatments, but it's still out there. Just one more example that when something looks too good to be true, it probably is. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crime. Come back next week. We'll decode the episode together and hear another story about the real people at the center of the world's most notorious cults, conspiracies and criminal acts. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media Crime House on TikTok, Tock and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad free, plus exciting bonus content. We'll be back next Wednesday. Conspiracy Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson and is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertzovsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Xander Bernstein, Spencer Howard and Michael Langsner. Thank you for listening.
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