Episode 696: Linda Hazzard & Starvation Heights (Part 2)

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Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash, and I'm Elena, and this is Morbid.

This is morbid in the late morning.

Yeah, early afternoon, early afternoon.

What have you?

Yeah, I had food poisoning last night.

Ew.

So that's cool.

Got some funky chicken from takeout.

Luckily, no one else did.

So I was not doing it last night.

It was a rough night, but I'm here now.

Hey, you survived.

And I survived.

And I'm literally drinking.

This is not an ad.

I'm drinking liquid IV currently.

If you like felt like shit the night before or like you lost a lot of whatever, whatever you had,

liquid IV is the go-to.

It really, again, and again, this is not an ad.

I'm literally just saying this.

I am currently.

That's my glass.

I'm drinking liquid IV.

I got a little bit car sick the other day on the way home.

Yeah.

And I had a liquid IV after and it helped.

Curious.

Look at that.

This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA.

I'm drinking the orange creamsicle or dreamsicle flavor.

I need to try that.

One of those.

And it's really good.

I love like creamsicle flavored anything.

I fully recommend it.

It's helped a lot because I felt very, very,

obviously this morning when I got up, I felt super dehydrated.

And I also, and it's like, I got up and kids were up.

So it's like, you have to be on, on.

You can't just be like slugging around.

So I downed some of that.

And I was like, you know what?

I don't feel that bad.

Boom.

Yeah.

That's great.

So here I am.

It vacated the premises and now we are back in business.

Back in business.

I know you threw that off really quick.

That was actually very impressive because I've had food poisoning before and been down like the very next day as well.

Yeah.

It's just one of those.

I mean, you're also living that mom life.

Yeah.

You're just not, you can't be.

It's just like one of those things.

Obviously, this is awesome, though.

Yeah, I was going to say I usually do.

Yeah.

But But yeah.

Well, that was bad news.

Do you guys want some good news?

Let's go.

There's so much good news to come.

But for now, we'll just give you one piece.

We are doing a live show.

What?

And then like a real one.

In person.

You can buy tickets.

We are going to be at the Wilbur in Boston, like for real this time.

Nobody send a pandemic through the fucking air.

Yeah, don't do it.

Just let us have one goddamn live show universe.

It's been a while.

It's been a long while.

Wow.

It's literally been like five years.

Yeah.

So remember when we were going to do a whole tour and then COVID just said, yeah, COVID said absolutely not.

But

we're doing this one live show for now.

Yeah.

And we're so excited about it.

We're already, we've been planning it and we're going to make it like a little different.

Yeah.

But really fun.

We want to make it like an experience.

Yes, exactly.

I was going to say an event, but experience.

An event.

We're going to make it an event.

It already is.

I'm very excited.

We're going to meet you guys.

Yeah, we're going to do a meet and greet.

We're going to do 50 meet and greets.

So definitely, if you want to meet us and greet us.

Yeah, we want to meet and greet you.

Get those tickets.

Tickets are going to go on sale August 8th.

I don't know what time.

I can update you.

Keep an eye on socials.

Yeah, we'll make sure to update you guys.

And the link for tickets, obviously, we will be posting on our socials.

So keep an eye out for that.

That's going to be fun.

The countdown is on.

We're fucking excited.

And it's going to be fall.

It's going to be fall, everybody.

I'm so excited.

We went to TJ, Max, so you should go.

We did.

We stopped there.

Because they have their fall decor.

And we just summoned Halloween this morning.

It felt so right.

It felt so good.

You know what's going on?

Pumpkin pillows.

You just said that like you were disassociating into a blip.

I got some pumpkin pillows.

You just looked zooted off your rocker, my guys.

Just went to a place of, I went to a place of Halloween.

I know.

You know, I wanted

the Diet Coke ghost, but I can't find it.

The viral Diet Coke ghost.

I'm looking for the viral Diet Coke ghost.

I'm going to try another HomeGoods later because I'm psychotic like that.

Go for it, man.

But yeah, I got some pillows.

I got, what else did we get?

Oh, I got a candle.

Of course.

I got a candle.

But of course.

I have a stockpile right now of Halloween packages, like just decorations that are just in my dining room.

just waiting.

I'm like, come on, waiting to be torn open.

September 1st.

Let's go.

It's on.

It is.

All right.

September 1st, it's on.

It's on.

So on.

It's on site.

It is on site.

So this is part two of Linda Hazard and Starvation Heights.

Horrific tale so far.

Yeah, thank you.

That's correct.

Yeah.

This has been awful and it's only going to get worse.

Yay.

So in part one, we introduced you to the woman who called herself Dr.

Linda Hazard.

She's even a doctor.

That's the thing.

Thank you.

You're taking the words out of my mouth.

She had no medical degree to her name.

None.

But, you know, she called herself her doctor.

We went over her strange-ass partner, husband, Sam, and all the drama surrounding their getting together between

him being like a big old bigamist, leaving her, coming back, leaving her again, and then showing back up again once he realized that she had an idea that was going to make some money.

Yeah.

People be people in.

People be people in, and philanders be philandering.

It's true.

But unfortunately, that money-making idea was pretty bogus because Linda's big idea, if you don't remember, was that fasting, quote unquote, could solve any and all ailments afflicting patients.

But her idea of fasting was really just starving people.

Yeah, it definitely wasn't fasting.

No, and I don't want to hear it.

Starving.

I don't want to hear it.

I don't want to hear it.

I'm not talking about fasting.

No, I'm talking about starvation here.

But that's why she opened the clinic, Wilderness Heights, which eventually, like we remember from part one, the locals started calling Starvation Heights, right?

Which is really horrifying.

People were dying left, right, and center.

And as I said at the end of part one, things were going to take a much darker tone when people started signing over their estates and power of attorney to Linda and Sam.

That's when shit feels like it's going to get really shenanigan-y, because it's like once you start signing over property and money.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Money is the root of all evil.

It really is.

Truly.

So given the number of patients who died as a result of Linda Hazard's supposed miracle cure, it would be reasonable to wonder why so many people continued to put their faith and their money into her big idea.

Yeah.

But there aren't many more things powerful than the fear of illness and death.

And for a lot of people living with those fears, the hope that Wilderness Heights represented outweighed the skepticism and reason.

Yeah.

So people all over the world continued to read the books of Linda Hazard and would travel to Washington to seek out her miraculous cure.

It's desperation, man.

It is.

Anybody with chronic illness or painting?

That's the thing.

Like on its head, you can say, oh my God, why would anybody ever go there?

Like, why would you subject yourself to that?

But if you don't have chronic pain or chronic illness or anything, then you can't really understand that kind of desperation.

You just can't.

So among those who sought the help out of Linda Hazard in 1911 were Claire and Dora Williamson, two wealthy British sisters who had actually just gotten a large, or not just gotten when they were younger, they received a large inheritance after their parents had died pretty early on.

Okay.

And they invested a significant amount of money in traveling and experiencing the latest in health trends.

That was like their big thing.

Okay.

They were like health gurus before.

I was just going to say they were like health TikTok girlies.

Yeah.

Before that was a thing.

Exactly.

They were trying all the latest things.

Yeah.

So the sisters had seen an ad for one of Linda's books while they were staying in a hotel in Victoria, British Columbia.

And once they finished the book, they were enamored with the so-called doctor and her quote-unquote, quote, revolutionary methods.

Oh, no.

Quote-unquote.

Quote-unquote.

Isn't that fun to say?

Quote-unquote.

Quote-unquote.

Neither were ever seriously ill up to this point, but they both had a tendency to indulge in hypochondria.

A little bit.

It can happen.

It sure can.

I've all seen people like that.

And they constantly sought out new, fast cures for whatever was ailing them.

According to author Bess Lovejoy, Dora Dora complained of swollen glands and rheumatic pains, while Claire had been told that she had a dropped uterus.

Damn.

Which I haven't heard of.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But as enthusiastic followers of the alternative medicine movement, they had both invested lots and lots of time and money into chasing products that claimed to provide relief, but up to this point, nothing had worked.

So from what they read, the sisters envisioned this beautiful lakeside retreat in Wilderness Heights, where they could rest and receive treatment for their chronic conditions.

But when they arrived in Washington in February 1911, they were very surprised to find Wilderness Heights an unfinished and putting it nicely, very rustic location.

Well, Wilderness Heights.

Wilderness.

It wasn't at all the exclusive modern camp that they had envisioned.

Instead of housing them at the sanitarium, though, Linda arranged for them to stay at an apartment on Seattle's Capitol Hill, and she would just go there daily to quote unquote provide treatment.

Okay.

Quote unquote.

Quote unquote.

Thank you.

I feel like they were probably picturing, if I can always bring it back to Gilmore Girls.

Let's go.

If you ever see the first Life and Death Brigade party that they have, that's like in the woods and it's very like Great Gatsby-S.

I don't know if I remember that, but it's like tents and candlelights and like it's very like everyone's, you know, dressed in white.

I think I actually, is that when they jump off the thing the next day?

The next day, yeah.

Yeah.

And no, so I feel like that's what they were picturing when they heard like wilderness heights.

They were like, oh, this is going to be fancy.

Yeah.

We're going to be in these like beautiful tents, like the bougie tents where they're like massive and they have like queen beds in there.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, I want to go to one of those.

I know that was, I was always very jealous of that life and death brigade party.

Yeah, like, I want to have a party like that.

Invite me, I would go.

Yeah, I'll find a wooded area, and you're all invited.

Awesome.

All right, so

she just didn't say whether or not it would be haunted.

Exactly, come at your own risk.

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So, under her care, Claire and Dora were subjected to days-long fasts with intermittent meals of one cup of the juice from a tomato a couple times a day.

Yeah.

When they weren't resting, the sisters would receive, Are you ready?

Am I ready?

Hours-long enemas in a bathtub.

Hours-long enemas.

Hours long

enemas.

No part of me can conceive of that.

I can't even conceive of like one enema.

I don't even know how long they take.

I know it's not supposed to be hours.

Hours feels insane.

Hours feels like torture.

Like, I'm not even being hyperbolic.

That sounds like fucking torture.

It literally does.

So when the practice became too much on their bodies because it was torture and they would eventually pass out,

instead of stopping, Linda had canvas supports installed on the tub to keep their heads from slipping underwater so she could continue the enemas.

And they're passed out at this point.

Yeah.

Yeah.

To me, that sounds like torture.

Torture.

And like, and that she's going above and beyond to torture.

And she's like depraved.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's depraved.

Exactly.

After two months of treatment like this in Seattle, Linda transferred Claire and Dora to Wilderness Heights now for continued treatment.

By that time, they weighed about 70 pounds each.

These are grown women that weighed 70 pounds each, and they were so emaciated that neighbors actually took notice of their poor condition.

Wow.

Others would have been concerned for their safety too, if they had any idea what was going on over in Washington.

But according to Lovejoy, quote, the sisters were used to their family disapproving of their health quests and told no one where they were going when they left for the United States a few months earlier.

So no one knew where they they were.

Given past disapproval from their friends and the discouragement from Linda Hazard, Claire and Dora never contacted anyone during their ordeal until it was too late.

Oh, that's awful.

Yeah.

So their horrifying experience was finally discovered when their former governess, which is kind of like, it's like a nanny and a teacher.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like way back when.

But Margaret Conway, she received a mysterious telegram on April 30th, 1911.

Margaret had been the girl's primary caregiver since their parents had passed passed away at a young age.

So she was super close with them.

She was like the closest thing to a mother that they had.

So they always stayed in touch after Claire and Dora had grown and Margaret returned home to Australia.

Actually, the sisters were planning to visit her in a few months.

So when she got this strange telegram that read, Come SS Marima, May 8th, First Class, Claire.

So she assumed that it was a note informing her they would be arriving later than they expected because remember, they already had a trip planned.

She would have set the note aside and probably probably forgotten all about it if it hadn't been for the strange phrasing.

She wondered why Claire would have mentioned that they were traveling first class

because she knew that the girls were, she knew them practically their entire lives and they had never really been the type to flaunt their wealth.

So it seemed out of character for Claire to mention that they were, you know, traveling in luxury.

Bambougie.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So unable to shake the strangeness of the telegram, Margaret called the steamship company to inquire about the boat's arrival, and she was surprised to learn that the SS Marima wasn't sailing to Sydney, Australia on May 8th.

It was sailing from Sydney to the United States.

Oh, damn.

So she was still confused by the telegram, but she was sure it was some kind of indication that something was wrong and that Claire and Dora needed help.

So she booked the only ticket that she could on the boat as a third-class passenger and left for Washington.

What a badass.

On May 8th.

Yeah.

That's somebody who loved them.

When I say she's the closest thing to a mom they had, this woman was essentially their mother.

Yeah, that's like love.

Yeah, big time.

So when she finally arrived in the U.S., Margaret was met by Sam Hazard at the train station.

And they traveled by bus to Margaret's hotel in Seattle.

It was during the bus ride that Sam told Margaret awful news.

Claire had died.

Holy shit.

So she had just got this telegram from Claire, couldn't shake it, figured out that like something was up, got there.

And by the time she got there, Claire had already died.

And according to...

She didn't even have any health problems before.

No, no health problems.

She starved to death.

Wow.

She literally starved to death.

According to Sam and Linda, Claire's death had been caused by a, quote, course of drugs she had been given in childhood, which had, quote, shrunk her internal organs and caused cirrhosis of the liver.

No.

Yeah.

By the time the sisters had reached the clinic, Linda said Claire's illness was too far advanced for the, quote, beautiful treatment to be of any use.

Beautiful treatment.

Yeah.

So when Margaret finally reached the mortuary where Claire's body was on display, she was shocked by what she saw.

In death, a once vibrant young woman who she had known since childhood was a shadow of herself.

Claire was alarmingly emaciated.

There are photos if you do see.

Yeah.

It's horrible.

And they're of her living.

Yeah.

And her features, like her face, her hands, the color of her hair, had all become distorted to the point that everything just looked wrong.

Margaret did not recognize this girl.

It's true.

It's horrifying.

Yeah.

So the horrifying revelations continued, unfortunately, once they arrived at Wilderness Heights, where Margaret was taken into Dora's room.

To her horror, Dora looked like she also might die at any minute.

Yeah.

By that time, she weighed 50 pounds.

Dora.

Wow.

And according to Lovejoy, quote, her sitting bones protruding so sharply, she couldn't sit down without pain.

Oh my God.

So she was so small that she couldn't sit down because her bones were protruding through her skin.

And there's a picture of her, too.

Yeah.

Living, obviously.

And it is horrifying.

No, it's scary.

To Margaret, everything about what the hazards told her seemed wrong, though.

She knew these girls since they were little, and she didn't remember them ever having any kind of medical treatment that would have caused.

chronic problems, like they were saying.

And although she wasn't a doctor, she could easily see that Dora was starving to death.

Absolutely.

And she suspected that Claire's death might have also been related to the treatments that she was getting from Linda Hazard.

But despite all of that, Dora remained committed to staying with Linda in Washington.

In fact, to Margaret's continued horror, even if Dora had wanted to leave Wilderness Heights at that point, it seemed unlikely that she could because at some point during their time in Washington, both girls made Linda Hazard the executor of their estate.

And Dora signed over power of attorney to Sam.

You will never tell me that these people, the Hazards, are not fucking diabolical, evil fucks.

Diabolical, evil.

You will never convince me.

If they are having people sign over their estates and making them have power of attorney over their estates, you're fucking evil.

And just slowly killing people and watching them torture away.

Like,

she's, this is so, like, all forms of murder are obviously, like, unthinkable.

This is such a different...

This is on another level.

Like, this is slow, methodical,

prolonged

torture.

Yeah.

It's fucked.

So

Margaret wants to do something, but she's technically a servant or what was considered a servant at that time.

So she lacked the confidence or the authority to remove Dora from the sanitarium herself.

She must have felt so helpless.

She did, but she wasn't just going to leave Dora there to die.

No way.

So.

It just seemed that she wasn't really a match for Linda Hazard because Linda was also known to have a very dominating personality.

But in the days that followed, Margaret stayed in Washington and she just sat there trying to come up with a plan to save Dora.

Margaret.

Yeah.

Margaret.

Yeah, that's a real one.

During that time, she was keeping in regular contact with the Hazards too, and she started to notice some shocking things.

It appeared since Claire's death that Linda and Sam had helped themselves to Claire's personal items, clothing, jewelry,

just all of her stuff, which totaled nearly $6,000 then and would be over $200,000 today of personal belongings.

They are evil fucking assholes.

Yup.

Holy shit.

And, oh, evil assholes.

To add insult to injury, Linda Hazard even gave Margaret an update on Dora's condition while she was dressed in one of Claire's robes.

Shut the fuck up.

Yeah.

She's evil.

No, she's truly evil.

She's straight up evil.

She, I don't think she ever had the plot to begin with, but if she did, she lost her.

She lost the motherfucking plot.

That is evil.

Evil.

So knowing there was nothing she could do to help Dora herself, Margaret decided to reach out to the girl's uncle, John Herbert, who luckily lived in nearby Portland, Oregon at this time.

When he received word, he immediately traveled to Alala and was equally shocked to find Dora in the state she was in.

But when he demanded that he be allowed to take her away, he was met with the same challenges that Margaret had run into.

Dora was technically there of her own free will.

And even if they argued that she was in no condition to make that decision for herself, Sam Hazard had power of attorney.

Oh, yeah, they made sure they covered every base.

Yeah.

In the end, after much arguing, Herbert agreed to pay the Hazards $1,000 in order to be allowed to remove Dora from Wilderness Heights and take her to a proper hospital.

So

this is all about money.

That's the thing.

These are adults.

Yeah.

The fact that they have to pay these people $1,000 to take another adult out of their care shows you how fucking diabolical they are.

And shows you

not only how diabolical they are, but the fact that this is just all about

money.

It's all money.

Yeah.

The fact that she's wearing her Claire's clothing.

Yeah.

Like, get the fuck out of here.

While she's sitting there telling a loved one about Claire's sister's condition.

Yeah.

So in the past, legal challenges to Linda's treatment had failed, like we know, because the prosecutor couldn't get past the protections that Linda and Sam were hiding behind.

And it seemed like the death of Claire Williamson wasn't going to be any different.

But this time there was an element that Sam and Linda hadn't counted on.

Claire and Dora Williamson weren't her typical patients.

Nope.

They were extremely wealthy.

And while Dora herself might not have been able to mount a campaign to get any kind of justice, there were several other powerful people behind her who were now very eager to pursue this.

Hell yeah.

Yeah.

Take them down.

So the uncle, John Herbert, went to the district attorney to see what could be done about this.

And he received the same answer that everybody else had.

We really can't do anything about this.

But he was like, yeah, fuck that.

Yeah, fuck that.

So after getting nowhere with the district attorney, he went to the British consulate.

Hell yeah.

And sought the advice of counselor Lucian Agassiz.

And after doing some digging, Agassi discovered the large number of deaths connected to the hazards and the suspicious detail that several of those patients had signed over their estates to Hazard right before they died.

You can't ignore that.

Not even immediately, right before they die, which goes to show you she's starving these people to tell them that they're going to be cured of their ailments, but they're getting so foggy in their mind because they have no fucking sustenance.

Exactly.

That they're like, oh yeah, like, okay, I'll sign.

That's, it's part of torture.

Like, that's literally part of torture is like lack of sleep, which is going to come with being starved, starvation, like deprivation of all those things that you need because it makes you loopy and will make you either say things you don't actually mean

or sign away things that you don't know what you're even signing.

Exactly.

Like they did, they were diabolical with this.

They really were.

They were diabolical and methodical.

Very methodical.

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So, obviously, the problem was in order to push for an investigation, Agassi Agassi would need a living victim to make a complaint and Dora wasn't in any condition to do so.

She weighs 50 fucking pounds at this time and she's sitting in a hospital bed.

But luckily within a few days, he ended up finding the wife of a man who almost died at Wilderness Heights and the two of them were willing to make a complaint.

Yes.

Snow girls.

On August 6th, 1911, Linda Hazard was finally arrested, this time for manslaughter

in the death of Claire Williamson, and she was placed in a holding cell in Seattle.

She told a reporter, I'll get $10,000 bail, all right.

The doctors have been angry because I've been successful with my cure.

And when Claire died, they thought they had a great chance to get me out of the way, but they won't do it.

Oh, go fuck yourself.

Also charged in connection with the case was E.R.

Butterworth, the owner of a local mortuary who was alleged to help Linda cover up their crimes.

E.R.

E.

R.

Emergency.

E.

R.

Butterworth.

Emergency.

You don't.

You don't deserve that last name.

No, you don't.

That's a cool ass last name.

Sweet Lake Syrup.

No.

You're

gross.

You're the meanest.

Rude.

I'm too tired.

She had food poisoning, and I'm in the middle of the story, okay?

Yeah, so fuck that.

So after her arrest, Linda and Sam did everything they could to dominate and control the narrative.

She said that Dora was mentally incompetent.

She claimed that Claire explicitly asked the hazards to take over care of Dora once she was gone and even signed over the estate to cover any costs associated with it.

Oh, that's a cat.

Claire wanted this.

She said, Oh, yeah.

She said, said, Claire wanted to be sure I would be paid for my services if she died.

Okay.

Are you kidding me?

Yeah.

She even.

Who gives a shit about that?

Yeah.

After I die, I don't care what happens.

I don't give a fuck.

I don't care what happens.

And also, Linda, I doubt Claire said that.

Even if she did, she was delirious because she was starving.

Yes.

But of course, Linda even tried her usual tactic of domination during the grand jury, but it proved ineffective on them.

They were like, yeah, we're not starving and we think you're an asshole.

During Dora's testimony, she eventually became well enough where she could give testimony.

She gave detailed descriptions of the horrors that she and her sister suffered at the hands of Linda and Sam.

And during that, Linda would quote, blaze hate and defiance at her prosecutor, her voice shrill and high ringing through the courtroom.

Oh, she must have been such, oh, she was

definitely domineering.

But after hearing the extent of her of the testimony and witnessing Linda's behavior, she really didn't do herself any favors there.

No, the judge allowed the case to move forward to trial.

Hell yeah.

So the trial started on January 15th, 1912, to a courtroom packed with curious spectators and the hazards critics who had been around for years at this point, just fucking waiting for something to happen.

Among the 39 witnesses planned by the defense, more than a quarter were medical experts who would testify the harm caused by Linda's fasting program.

The state's case was led by Thomas Stevenson, and it was pretty simple.

It was designed to demonstrate criminal intent rather than just negligence alone.

Yeah, because this isn't just negligence.

No, once you, it's like pure criminal intent.

It's like we've been saying all along, once you get the money into this,

it's clear what was happening.

And he argued that.

He said Linda and Sam Hazard lured the two young women to Washington with the intention of swindling them out of their inheritance and just allowing them to starve to death.

The defense, on the other hand, had nearly twice as many witnesses, but mostly patients who had received care from Linda and would provide a counter-narrative about how their lives had been saved thanks to her.

No stop.

Which most hadn't.

No.

The most compelling testimony came a few days into the trial when Dora Williamson told her story of life under

Linda Hazard's care.

She told the jury, I was quite well before going to Washington, except for a slight attack of indigestion, and I am, as a rule, very healthy.

Claire was also very well, except for a weakness

peculiar to a woman, which had troubled her for more or less than five years.

And she went on to explain that Linda's methods were unlike anything she had ever experienced and involved quote-unquote vigorous slapping,

starvation, and hydrotherapies where female patients were bathed by young male attendants.

Oh, so now we're getting even worse here.

Yeah.

Cool, Linda.

Yep.

According to Dora, the sisters told Linda that they were planning to leave in late April or early May and that they had intended to go on a visit with their former governess in Australia.

And Dora said, she told us that her treatment would do us a great deal of good and that we would be wonderfully benefited.

But it became clear to both of them that things at Wilderness Heights were not what they expected them to be.

And that was when Dora said, I began to live in fear of Dr.

Hazard.

Often she was harsh and unkind to me, especially when I cried because of my weakness.

Oh my God, what an asshole.

Yeah.

What an asshole.

And what a scary individual.

What an Dr.

Linda Hazard, you're an asshole.

Cross off doctor.

Linda Hazard, nobody.

Whack.

Quack Linda Hazard.

Quack, quack asshole.

Like, you suck.

Fuck.

Like, harsh because they're crying because she's torturing them.

Like,

what the fuck?

You have to be.

I'm not shocked, though.

Didn't she like abandon her children?

She just had no intention of taking them.

And who knows what happened to her first husband?

Does she see any instinct of being kind to another human being there?

So testimony was also offered by the girl's uncle, John Herbert, who told the jury that he had serious concerns that the body in Claire's coffin wasn't even her body.

Whoa.

Wasn't even her.

Whoa.

He told the jury the body in the coffin did not resemble Claire.

In Claire's, in life, Claire's hair was brown.

The being in the coffin had hair and eyelashes of a lighter hue.

The being in the coffin.

The being in the coffin.

So they, so her hair is lighter now?

Her hair was lighter.

And remember, Margaret said that too.

Shit, maybe it wasn't.

It might not have been.

And if you think about it, she had a deal with somebody at the mortuary.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They might have just been.

Oh, damn.

I think they were doing that.

Yeah.

That makes sense.

But it's also like, why?

That's the thing.

I'm like, where is she?

Where is she?

Did she look worse?

Probably.

Like, there might have been evidence of more abuse

on her.

I think so.

Yeah.

But he also explained that he was prevented from taking Dora away from Wilderness Heights by the Hazards, who managed to get her to sign over power of attorney, and how he

suspected them of having stolen much of their wealth with a plan to steal more once dora died hell yeah they got half of that inheritance and remember she was dora was 50 pounds when somebody finally

working on that as expected the defense denied the charges against linda offering several witnesses many of whom worked at the sanitarium yeah that's not a conflict

hello and they testified that the young women were not being starved or mistreated one nurse told the jury we felt sometimes that we were being we were even giving the patient too much food.

Wow, let's look into your background too now.

One extra cup of torture.

Are you fucking kidding me right now?

That's really gonna, that's gonna tick them over.

How do they find this many fucking assholes to work in one place and sit there and be like, yeah, I thought I was overfeeding them when this grown woman is 50 pounds?

It's insane.

It's insane.

And people are dying left and right of being starved to death.

And you're like, I thought I was overfeeding them.

How did they find you?

How did you all find each other?

Shit.

You can't even like conceive of it.

No, I can't.

I can't conceive of that way of thinking.

And I realized I've never met anybody who's capable of this.

No, it's so scary.

But the defense wasn't just looking to reject the charges.

They were actually looking to frame Linda as a victim of the state.

She was the victim here.

Oh, yeah.

According to them, she had offered life-saving treatments to patients who suffered long-term from previously untreatable illnesses.

And for that, she was being persecuted by the medical industry.

Wow.

Where, where, when?

Wow.

Call the Wambulance.

It's because she's not part of the medical industry.

Exactly.

If you want to be part of the medical industry, go get your fucking degree.

Yeah, you're a scam artist.

You're not doing shit medically.

But she and her defense attorney explained that Claire had not died from starvation, but from a previous illness, so it was impossible to hold Linda accountable for something when it was well beyond her control.

Eh, eh, wrong answer.

Thomas Stevenson had expected the tactics used by Hazard's lawyer, and he was ready for cross-examination.

And not only did he highlight the ways where the defense, the defense's witnesses' testimony was directly contradicted by the evidence, he also accused several of them of having been coached by Linda in terms of what to tell the jury.

Yeah.

And in the case of Watson Webb, a patient and sometimes assistant at Wilderness Heights, it was revealed that he had been instructed to form friendships with other patients to get personal and sensitive information from them, which could later be used to keep them compliant.

What else do you need to know?

Yeah.

What else?

Yeah.

By the way, they're so fucking evil.

And so, and again, so methodical.

And the worst part is these are debt.

They are preying on people who are suffering.

And suffering.

Like desperate, in pain, sick, and just like desperate to feel better.

Yep.

And they're having like they're going this far into manipulating and torturing and hurting

people and scamming them.

Like money.

What the fuck?

How do you know?

And she claims that her whole thing was that she wanted people to be relieved from these.

You didn't want that shit at all.

It's like, no, you didn't.

You wanted their money.

Exactly.

By the beginning of February, though, both sides had rested their case and prepared for closing statements.

And Stevenson told the jury, this case is of unusual significance.

We are not here to avenge the death of Claire Williamson, but to protect the public, not only from Mrs.

Hazard, but from others like her.

There are other Claire Williamsons all over the U.S.

who may fall into the clutches of a woman such as this.

When Dorothea and Claire first came to Mrs.

Hazard, she thought they were just ordinary patients coming to be plucked.

But when she found out they were women of great means and she had them in her power, she developed the criminal intent.

She allowed Claire to die friendless and alone, but she could not get rid of Dora, so she did the next best thing.

She had herself appointed as Dora's guardian.

Yeah, she's evil.

She's a monster.

She is.

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As expected, Linda's lawyer, E.D., she has a thing for like E,

E,

Carr, argued against nearly everything the prosecution said.

He told the jury, the real reason for this prosecution is that Mrs.

Hazard is not a college graduate.

Her offense consists of not having been educated in the school of hard knocks.

Take every single fucking seat in the courtroom, sir.

Like, shut up.

Every single fucking seat.

This is not a snobby, she doesn't have her medical license and people are mad.

She's literally actively torturing and killing and starving people and stealing their money.

And it's being proven.

Like, can we not pretend that we're just, poor fucking Linda didn't get a degree?

Stop it.

Shut the fuck up.

Stop it.

It's also been proven at this point that she's coached.

her witnesses on her side of the thing and that she hired people to get personal information to use and hold over the heads of people she was stealing from.

Exactly.

Like, we're really pretending, poor fucking Linda,

she didn't get a fucking degree.

Yeah.

Too bad.

I think it's okay.

Be so for real.

Be so for real right now.

Holy shit.

He went on to address the charges, though, saying, she's lost some patients, but where is the physician who has not?

Indeed, punishment, should it be necessary at all, could be handled by the market itself.

If she isn't doing good, her practice will dwindle and she will have to go back to that garden.

Wow.

I'm like speechless.

Okey-dokey.

Cool.

Anyway, the jury deliberated for 20 hours, which is far too long in my opinion, before emerging to finally find Linda Hazard guilty of manslaughter.

Bye.

In fact, when the jury was polled, five members were in favor actually of finding her guilty of first-degree murder.

I would have been counted among those five, to be quite honest.

Same.

I would have been counted among all five.

Me, I would have been all five.

I would have taken up all five of them.

Yeah.

But unfortunately, they were in the minority.

Wow.

Minority.

So the lesser lesser charge was applied.

At least there was a fucking charge there.

Thank you.

There was a charge, but like kind of kooky that it wasn't a higher charge.

Truly.

When the verdict was read, Linda had a complete breakdown in the courtroom.

Get the fuck over it, Linda.

And she was removed.

This is so interesting to me.

She was removed from the courtroom and placed in the home of a local woman who had been approved to care for female prisoners between verdict and sentencing.

I have never heard of that.

I have never heard of that.

And who applies for that?

I'm very interested in that.

I feel like that would be be so many implications come with that.

Absolutely.

Like, are you going to hold me hostage?

Who's this local woman?

She's brave.

Someone should interview her.

Raisin, in fact.

She's, she's, she's probably fucking,

she's probably like a brick shithouse.

Like, don't go with her.

She's got to be.

Like, you got it.

Like, she, she can kick your ass.

I guarantee you.

She's not scared of anything.

Yeah, she's not, she's not little or frail.

Frail.

Or flail.

Or flail.

She won't flail in.

She's not frail.

Quarter, quarter.

Frail.

I've lost the ability to speak.

I don't see

me as as well.

I'm just very interested in this local woman.

I know.

No, so was I.

We need to give her a backstory.

I need to learn more about her.

Local woman, who are you?

Who are you?

Show yourself.

So later that day, reporters were told that Linda was in no condition to speak.

Oh, no.

Us either.

Poor Linda.

So her husband, Sam, spoke on her behalf.

Sam told them that her collapse, quote, resulted from the shock of the verdict, since Linda had been fully confident that she would be acquitted.

Oh no, it was the consequences of her very fucked up actions.

Can you imagine?

So sad for her.

He added, the most unfortunate thing was the statement made in court tonight that Mrs.

Hazard is at the end of her rope financially.

She has ample funds as soon as she can get at them.

Yeah, she stole them from the people that she's been starving to death.

Exactly.

I also love that he was like, the most upsetting thing was that they said she was poor.

Yeah, they said she didn't have a lot of money.

She has so much money from those dead people.

Like, damn.

Oh, Jesus Christ, Sam, get it together.

Get it fully together.

But of course, true to form, with his wife facing a very lengthy jail sentence, his biggest concern was the insinuation that they were poor.

Yeah.

Unreal.

Yeah, he doesn't give a fuck.

He's like, we are not poor.

A few days later, Linda Hazard was back before the judge where she was sentenced between two and 20 years of hard labor at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla, which is a fun place to say.

Walla Walla.

And her license to practice medicine in Washington was permanently revoked.

Bye, bitch.

I also love her husband was also like, he's like, how dare you say we're poor?

Because now I won't be able to get lots of ladies because they're going to think I'm poor.

Like, that was his only thought there.

I'm not poor.

It was not even like, don't say my wife is poor.

It was like, don't fucking say I'm poor.

Yeah, don't spread that around.

Don't put that around.

I'm going to go out and date.

She's gone for a while.

I'm out.

My girl's at hard labor.

Yeah.

That's Sam for you.

Exactly.

He was out anyway, even the whole time they were married.

So Linda would maintain her innocence forever.

She claimed that she had always been working in the best interest of her patients.

Babe, no one believes that.

Was that when you were vigorously slapping them?

Yeah, none among us.

She would say that death was to be expected in a sanitarium.

And in fact, she had lost far fewer patients than most surgeons.

She has some,

she has some gall.

She has the most insane complex about actual medical professionals.

She sure does.

And I've like, I'm like, you should stop because it's so obvious how jealous you are and how inferior you feel to actual medical professionals.

yeah like you should stop you gotta stop girl she's like surgeons kill people all the time it's like and so do they're not starving people though no they're not it's a little different they are actively trying to save people's lives there are accidents yeah and there are and then there's straight up starvation yeah

and uh vigorously slapping people and giving them hours-long enemas and allowing them passing out young female patients to be bathed by male attendants like let's let's not do you want to keep talking about surgeons some more?

She did.

She sure did.

She said any financial compensation she received directly or indirectly was merely to cover the costs of patients' health care

or given as thanks for having provided them relief where others had failed.

Of course.

Doctors had failed.

You should always tip your doctor.

for saving their life, saving your life.

Yeah, totally.

That's how that works.

Yeah.

As a show of commitment to her own treatment, she frequently spent long periods fasting in her cell in Walla Walla in order to prove the value of the practice.

Go ahead, girl.

Yeah, go ahead, girl.

Go ahead, get down.

Linda Hazard was released on parole on December 26, 1915, after serving only

two

years.

What the fuck?

Two years.

Yep.

For reasons that remain unclear, everybody.

Just one year after her release, the governor at the time, Ernest Lister, gave her a full pardon.

She got a full pardon.

what was going on with them

big thing what was going on that was my immediate thought as well what the fuck was going on with them luckily though he was unable to return her medical license later

what the fuck is wrong with you yeah something was definitely going on why

why give this random hoe a pardon like literally like i'm sorry why i would i reserve those words for for women like this yeah what What?

I need to.

That's one of those times when you go, you come out here and you explain.

You explain to me.

It was fuking.

You explain to me why the fuck you are not only fully pardoning her.

Are you kidding me?

But two, trying and failing to get her medical license back.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Come on.

Yeah.

Come on.

If you weren't fucking,

that's canon now because you made it certainly seem like you were.

You made it so weird.

There is no conceivable reason Ernest be for real right now truly Ernest you are not Ernest no so later that year Linda and Sam moved to New Zealand probably because Sam was like I can cheat on you but you can't cheat on me yeah no and she continued to promote herself as a doctor there and offered services as an osteopath and a dietitian Wow yeah awesome when the authorities in Auckland became aware of the fact that she did not have an actual license and was not even a doctor she was arrested again and fined in a scene that was reminiscent of her early days of practicing in Minnesota.

Awesome.

Homegirl just spent forever in jail.

Yeah.

But not long enough at all.

In 1920, she and Sam moved back to Alala, Washington, where she was determined to rebuild her sanitarium.

Girl, give it up.

Where she dubbed, which she dubbed a school for health.

Give it up.

She didn't.

Just name it what it is.

And there she continued to treat patients through a quote-unquote variety of alternative health practices, which remained a legal practice thanks to the various loopholes in law.

Cool.

Yeah.

Awesome.

She oversaw operations of the Institute until 1935.

Would it burn to the ground due to unknown causes?

I don't know if those causes are completely unknown, everybody.

It burned to the ground.

I'm going to go out on a limb

and say the causes are not entirely unknown.

One thing about me is, I love that.

One thing about me is, that's karma.

One thing about me is, as long as no one is hurt, yeah, that's a-okay.

Yeah, get everybody out.

Yeah, see that building burn.

Yeah, bye.

Bye.

Then, in her early 70s, Linda's health began to fail.

Oh, no, but she knows how to fix it.

Thank goodness.

Yeah, she turned to the same treatments that she once provided her patients.

Yeah, she has a miracle cure.

Long periods fasting in the hope of curing herself.

Cool.

But in the end, those hopes were dashed.

What?

On June 24th, 1938, in the most ironic twist of fate, Linda Hazard died from starvation.

Linda Hazard died from her miracle cure, which was really just starvation.

That's

that's that's prose.

Period.

That's just,

that's just period.

Yeah.

That's what that is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, you.

You reap what you sow, my friend.

You sure do.

You starved other people claiming it was a miracle cure.

You stole their shit stole all their shit lied to their family members yeah possibly working with a corrupt mortician yeah

yeah and the saddest thing is nobody even knows how many people died under her care because not everything was documented yeah and she got she got away with it a lot yeah that's why she was doing it that's why she continued to do it

So that is the story of Linda Hazard and her fucked up life.

That is horrifying.

The fact that she died of starvation, though, is just like full circ.

That's,

I mean, I just,

I could never.

I could absolutely never.

Never.

No.

I just can't.

I can't.

I can't imagine any of this.

I literally can't imagine any of this.

And again, the knowing that these people were like literally desperate to just feel even slightly better.

Yeah.

And they went to this place thinking that it was someone who genuinely wanted to help them feel better.

And they put all their faith and all their, you know, everything into them and all their trust.

And these people were the worst fucking people.

This was a nightmare facility.

Like to go through chronic pain, chronic illness, whatever they were going through, and then get to this place and be literally starved and tortured.

That's the thing.

That's even more pain and suffering that they dealt with on top of whatever conditions they had.

Like while they're already feeling horrible, now they're being tortured and starved on top of it and abused.

Abused or like hit.

Yeah.

And shit.

Like what this whole, I had never heard of this before.

This shook me to my core.

I had heard something very,

I don't remember where I heard it, but I heard like a super quick like thing about it once.

And I was like, what is that?

Yeah, it's messed up.

Yeah.

It's just so sad.

I just don't know how people are capable of it.

It's awful.

I really don't.

Yeah.

So yeah

do something kind today yeah

totally don't don't be a shitbag don't hurt people don't hurt people hurt people it's true and you're not hurt you're not you're fine you're doing great you're good you're awesome i believe in you you're gonna be doing awesome things go get yourself a treat yeah i had a donut this morning get yourself a treat yeah Whatever a treat is to you, get it.

Yeah.

It can be anything.

Anything.

Yeah.

If you think a fucking bowl of strawberries is a treat, go get a treat.

A bowl of strawberries is a treat, it is, especially fresh strawberries.

Fresh strawberries, you put a little bit of sugar on top or a little whipped cream, bitch.

You took the words out of my mouth, yeah.

Go get yourself a little treat,

and then just you know what, on top of angel food cake.

Oh, just make it a strawberry shrink.

Yeah, do that, okay?

We're leaving you that hot.

Yeah, we love you, and we hope you keep listening, and we hope you keep it weird, but not as weird as Linda in her Starvation Heights fucking project from Nightmares.

Yeah, she sucks.

She is a cuckoo bitch.

Go to Sam.

Oh, Sam's the bail.

Everybody's horrible.

Yes.

Nobody's good except Margaret and

Uncle.

And Uncle.

Yeah.

And Uncle Herbert.

Uncle Herbert.

Uncle Herbert.

Uncle Habit to the rescue.

Uncle Habit.

Oh, man.

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