Books like Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen
In 1911, wealthy British heiresses Claire and Dora Williamson arrived at Starvation Heights, a sanitorium in the Pacific Northwest, to receive the controversial “fasting treatment” of Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard. Intended as a holiday, the sanitorium became a site of medical malpractice and murder. Within a month the sisters were reduced to emaciated shadows of themselves, and Hazzard quietly appropriated their assets through forged bank drafts and the disappearance of their jewelry. The investigation revealed Hazzard’s pattern of exploiting patients for profit and even orchestrating deaths. Gregg Olsen’s narrative details the harrowing events, the isolation of the sanitorium, and the broader context of early 20th‑century medical ventures, making this one of America’s most disturbing criminal cases.
First publish date: 1997
Genre: History/Modern History
Authors: Gregg Olsen
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