The Horrors Of Dr. Hazzard
Dr. Linda Hazzard
I have this morbid fascination with serial killers. I don’t idolize them or anything, I just find their behavior interesting. More of a “what makes them tick?” fascination than a “Wow, this guy killed the most!” if you know what I mean.
Last night while watching “Deadly Women” on Investigation Discovery channel, I learned of a doctor who was a serial killer and happened to be a woman. We rarely hear about women serial killers. I think the most talked about female killer is Aileen Wuornos. Rarely do I hear people talk about, much less know the horrific history of Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian Countess who is said to have butchered more than 600 young girls and bathed in their blood. Aileen Wuornos was brought onto the public’s attention due to the books and movie that was released in the last few years.
Anyway. The show “Deadly Women” did a piece on Elizabeth Bathory and a lesser known serial killer named Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard. Dr. Hazzard was known as a “fasting specialist”. Meaning she believed that with fasting, one could cure themselves of all diseases. Starving the body is used in many religious ceremonies as well as meditative practices. Clear the body, clear the mind.
Dr. Hazzard was labeled as a sadistic killer, because she derived pleasure from her macabre methods. Dr. Hazzard would convince her patients that with her methods, they would be cured completely of their ailment within months. The doctor created a “sanitarium” which she named “Wilderness Heights”. The treatment was basic and evil. She would feed them 8 ounces of a watered-down tomato soup or asparagus soup and some orange juice once a day during their stay and convince them that through this new method, they would be able to go home cured in no time. When the patients complained of starvation, she would convince them just to hold off a bit longer because they were “almost done with the treatment”. Needless to say, many of them suffered a horrible death.
Neighbors from around town dubbed Dr. Hazzard’s place “Starvation Heights” since it was not uncommon for them to run across patients who tried to escape. Looking like living skeletons, many of the doctor’s neighbors would take it upon themselves to feed these patients. One eyewitness described how her parents found a patient of Dr. Hazzard crawling on the road. She described them looking like holocaust victims. The eyewitness told of how her parents took the person home and fed them.
While her patients were moribund, laying in what essentially became their death beds, The doctor and her husband would take their time and steal everything they could from the patients. Going through their belongings, stealing cash and valuables as well as forging documents for monetary gains.
Dora Williamson
Around 1912 Dr. Hazzard was convicted for the death of a wealthy Australian woman Claire Williamson, who at the time of her death weighed less than 50 lbs. The only reason why Dr. Hazzard was caught was because Claire Willimason’s sister (Dora) was also in treatment and had managed to get a hold of a family member to come to her rescue. They both testified against the doctor, who was found guilty and sent to Walla Walla prison in Washington state. After serving only 2 years, she was pardoned by the governor and the doctor and her husband fled to New Zealand.
Years later (1920) she had returned to Washington state and opened a new sanitarium called “School of Health”. Not having a medical license anymore, she continued starving her patients under her new sanitarium. 15 years later a fire broke out and burned the place to the ground. Never to be built again.
Dr. Hazzard, now elderly, fell ill one day and like most delusional killers, she knew that her treatment was the only thing that could save her. Dr. Hazzard died in 1938 after months of fasting. Dying by her own hands, the same way many of her victims had perished before.
It’s only a shame that justice did not prevail in this story. Serving 2 years of a 20 year sentence for murdering countless victims speaks volumes of the jaded justice system of the olden days.
Dr. Hazzard’s story does not end there. The story does have it’s paranormal side as you can imagine.
The show interviewed and the current residents of the actual place which was once known as “Starvation Heights”. The old sanitarium, now turned into a home, still stands in good conditions. Many of the old original fixtures like the kitchen sink, bathtub and even window panes still exist. The show “Deadly Women” went and interviewed the people that currently inhabit this building. They are well aware of it’s macabre history and find it fascinating to be living in a place with such gruesome history. The current resident showed the original bathtub in which Dr. Hazzard would dismember her victims. The bathtub is still in use by the husband, wife and kids. The kitchen sink which was once used to prepare the watery tomato soup to starving victims is now being used by the family in a normal day to day lifestyle.
You would assume that with such a tragic history, the building would be torn down à la Jeffrey Dahmer style. Apparently some people are not bothered by such things that happened in the past. The current residents did mentioned some paranormal activity that happens around in their home. Feeling of being watched all the time is not uncommon. As if there was always someone in the house with them. They talked about faint apparition of faces that were seen through the time-stained window panes. Victims of Dr. Hazzard maybe?
Written by Javier Ortega - javier@ghosttheory.com
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Javier,
If Hazzard truly believed in her treatment then how could she be labeled a serial killer? Hmmm, that’s a bit perplexing.
I have seen something on the woman that would kill kids and drain their blood into her bathtub. I think she believed that by bathing in the blood of children, she’d stave off aging.
This sounds like a job for Ghost Adventures. Actually, no, it sounds more like a job for Ghost Hunters since it doesn’t have too much activity. But I do have to say that if it were me living in that house, I would have a problem using the same fixtures that were used for brutal killings. Relaxing, candlelit bath in the same place that body parts were kept. hmmmm…no.
How about doing the dishes in the same sink where she washed her hands after the day’s dismemberment. Again, no. It would be bad enough to know that the place had a history, but worse to have knowledge that the plumbing was shared. Much like the piano that was haunted in an episode of Paranormal State. I can imagine that little old lady looking at the current owners and saying, “What do you intend to do with this bathtub? I don’t like what I’m feeling off of it. What do you intend to do?”
That’s my question for the current owners. Great story. I would be interested in checking this house out, myself. It would be interesting to see what EVP’s came up.
jbondo,
Even if Hazzard believed in her own treatment, that would just make her a delusional/sadistic serial killer.
That was Elizabeth Bathory. Although, it was not her children’s blood. It was blood of hundreds of young (virgin) girls.
-Javier
I seen one of them shows on a woman who killed her husbands and i think the police suspected she feed them to her pigs? you know anything about this? I can’t remember her name? and i think she had like 8 men in her life or somthing like that?
You probably are referring to Belle Gunness, the Norwegian woman in Indiana.
O.K., the house is no longer habitable, and it is not in good shape at all. In fact, it is barely standing. The occupants have built a new home on the same property and are salvaging the lumber. I know this because I am the previous occupant.
Haywood Zarathustra,
Did Belle Gunness actually feed the bodies to her hogs?
-Javier
Journey,
You used to live in the “Wilderness heights” home?
what can you tell us about it?
-Javier
Journey,
What are the chances that you would be looking at this page, the day it was posted about the old homestead? OMG, we need details. I’m buzzing to find out what your experiences were in the house.
Michka
sounds like everyone else who makes money from fleecing gullible masses — only without the slowly killing them (with their own participation) part.
if only more people had a firmer grasp on skepticism and/or science and weren’t so ready to believe BS, i seriously think the world would be a much better place.
I’m also fascinated with serial killers Javier and had never heard of this woman. Fascinating. Have you ever heard of Blanche Taylor Moore?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanche_Taylor_Moore
She worked at a grocery store not far from where I grew up and I knew someone who worked with her. Anyway, she once brought a cake in for everyone (I think it was the store manager’s birthday or something). The girl I knew didn’t have a piece but everyone who had a piece ended up getting sick.
Well, apparently some people indeed aren’t too bothered about the past of the place they’re living and sleeping in, nerves of steel? not believing in ghosts? or maybe some rush
?
Gunness fed some of her army of victims to her hogs. She was built like Rampage Jackson.
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/gunness/index_1.html
HI Haywood Zarathustra, that rings a bell! thanks for helping out on that one!
Looks like Chip Coffey in drag!
Javier,
I didn’t mean Elizabeth Bathory used her own children’s blood. I just meant children in general and now that you mention it I do remember that it was young girls. Actually I think it was a movie about her.
As for being a serial killer, I guess you’d be correct. However, if you really believe that the people will be cured you are not really cognizant of actual murder. Most serial killers kill people on purpose. Of course this woman could have become whacked later in life and only then started to believe in her treatments. If this were the case then I would say yes to her being a straight up serial killer.
BC,
Never heard of her, but it’s interesting.
You think she might have put arsenic in the cake? That’s why I never eat stuff that is “home made”
I stick to Twinkies….
-Javier
Bea,
LOL….now now, let’s be nice.
… in a dress…lol…..
-Javier
I just wrote it just to make you laugh . . . and it worked.
See, I’m so totally psychic dude!! lol
“built like Rampage Jackson” “Chip Coffey in drag!” lmao’ love this site!!
but it’s all true!
There was a book written about this lady called Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen. It chronicles the stay of Claire and Dora Williamson and the aftermath. It is very well written and well researched. Its worth a read.