Skip to main content

December 18, 1867 - Linda Hazzard

Hazzard built a practice around extreme fasting protocols administered at her Washington sanitarium, attracting patients who believed they were seeking legitimate medical care. What distinguished her case was the combination of genuine institutional credibility — she had secured a medical license and operated a recognized facility — and systematic financial predation on the patients under her care. The gap between her self-presentation as a therapeutic pioneer and the deaths of at least fifteen people made her one of the more quietly methodical figures in the history of medical fraud.

From Wikipedia

Linda Hazzard

Linda Laura Hazzard (née Burfield; December 18, 1867 – June 24, 1938), nicknamed the "Starvation Doctor", was an American quack, swindler, and convicted serial killer noted for her promotion of fasting, pummeling and hours-long enemas as treatments. In 1911, Hazzard was found guilty of manslaughter in the state of Washington and was sentenced to 2 to 20 years of hard labor for killing at least 15 people for financial gain at a sanitarium she operated on the Kitsap Peninsula in the early 20th century. She was released on parole after only serving two years and later, on the condition that she move to New Zealand, received a full pardon from Governor Ernest Lister in 1916. Hazzard died at 70 after subjecting herself to her own treatment methods.

⚠ Report a problem with this article

  • Last updated on .