Paperback: In 1911, two wealthy British heiresses, Claire and Dora Williamson, came to a sanitorium in the forests of the Pacific Northwest to undergo the revolutionary "fasting treatment" of Dr Linda Burfield Hazzard. Dr Hazzard's dietary regimen called for a cup of tomato broth twice a day. She might vary the stock to include an asparagus broth. Some orange juice were allowed in the mornings.
She also stressed on the necessity of an exercise program that included vigorous walks several times a day. Dr Hazzard explained, "Your bodies are full of poison. You need to walk it out. No matter how difficult it may be as the fast continues, you must persevere and walk. Walk! Walk! Walk!"
It was supposed to be a holiday for the two sisters.
But within a month of arriving at what the locals called Starvation Heights, the women were emaciated shadows of their former selves, waiting for death. They were not the first victims of Linda Hazzard, a quack doctor of extraordinary evil and greed who would stop at nothing short of murder to achieve her ambitions.
As their jewelry disappeared and forged bank drafts began transferring their wealth to Hazzard's accounts, Dora Williamson sent a last desperate plea to a friend in Australia, begging her to save them from the brutal treatments and lonely isolation of Starvation Heights.
In
Starvation Heights (1997), a haunting saga of medical murder set in an era of steamships and gaslights, Gregg Olsen reveals one of the most unusual and disturbing criminal cases in American history, with more scandal than a novelist could conjure - hypnotism, strange mental powers, forgery, the desecration of a body, the pressure brought by the British in a prosecution on American soil, and of course, a hideously cruel murder of a beloved sister.
The Earl Edward Erdman Diary (
The Seattle Daily Times, 14 August 1911) - On 28 March 1910, Earl Edward Erdman, a City of Seattle civil engineer, died of starvation in the Seattle General Hospital. He had kept a diary which had detailed Buzzard'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:
1 February - Saw Dr Hazzard and began treatment this date. No breakfast. Mashed soup dinner. Mashed soup supper.
5-7 February - One orange breakfast. Mashed soup dinner. Mashed soup supper.
8 February - One orange breakfast. Mashed soup dinner. Mashed soup supper.
9-11 February - One orange breakfast. Strained soup dinner. Strained soup supper.
12 February - One orange breakfast. One orange dinner. One orange supper.
13 February - Two orange breakfast. No dinner. No supper.
14 February - One cup of strained tomato broth at 6pm.
15 February - One cup hot strained tomato soup night and morning.
16 February - One cup hot strained tomato soup am and pm. Slept better last night. Head quite dizzy. Eyes yellow streaked and red.
17 February - Ate three oranges today.
19 February - Called on Dr Dawson today at his home. Slept well Saturday night.
20 February - Ate strained juice of two small oranges at 10am. Dizzy all day. Ate strained juice of two small oranges at 5pm.
21 February - Ate one cup settled and strained tomato broth. Backache today just below ribs.
22 February - Ate juice of two small oranges at 10am. Backache today in right side just below ribs.
23 February - Slept but little last night. Ate two small oranges at 9am. Went after milk and felt very bad. Ate two small oranges 6pm.
24 February - Slept better Wednesday night. Kind of frontal headache in am. Ate two small oranges 10am. Ate one and a half cups hot tomato soup at 6pm. Heart hit up to ninety-five minute and sweat considerable.
25 February - Slept pretty well Thursday night. Ate one and a half cups tomato broth 11am. Ate one and a half cups tomato broth 6pm. Pain in right below ribs.
26 February - Did not sleep so very well Friday night. Pain in right side just below ribs in back. Pain quit in night. Ate one and a half cups tomato broth at 10.45am. Ate two and a half pump small oranges at 4.30pm. Felt better afternoon than for the last week...
This diet continued more or less unchanged until his hospitalization on 28 March 1910. He died that afternoon. (Source: Wikipedia, Linda Hazzard)
About the author: Throughout his career,
Gregg Olsen has demonstrated an ability to create a detailed narrative that offers readers fascinating insights into the lives of people caught in extraordinary circumstances. The award-winning author has written nine non-fiction books, nine novels, a novella, and contributed a short story to a collection edited by Lee Child as well as been a guest on scores of national and local television shows, including educational programs for the History Channel, the Learning Channel, and Discovery Channel. He, a Seattle native, lives in Olalla, Washington, with his wife, twin daughters, three chickens, Milo (cocker spaniel) and Suri (dachshund).
Olsen's next true crime book,
If I Can't Have You: Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder of Her Children, will be out on 20 May 2014.
