Linda Hazzard

Hazzard's cabin, Renee Totten Forgotten Places Photography The living can be far more frightening than the dead, especially when the living includes a starvation specialist intent on 'curing' her patients.

2011 marks the 100 year anniversary since the conviction of Doctor Linda Hazzard. In 1911 she was found guilty of manslaughter in the murder of Claire Williamson. The doctor from Ollala is the subject of one of our stories on the ghost tour because of her connection to the Butterworth Mortuary and the Market area. Northwest author and New York Times bestseller, Gregg Olsen wrote Starvation Heights, a true crime novel about Doctor Hazzard and we use his writing for much of our story. It is a fascinating book.

Photographer Renee Totten captured the emaciated remains of the Doctor's original cabin in a series of photographs. We have written about her before for the ghost tour blog. She is a ghost hunter herself and her eye for detail in her photos hint at her own inquisitiveness. Her photographs are online at www.forgottenplacesphotography.com.

Mercedes from Market Ghost Tour will be involved with an event on July 16^th, 2011 alongside Gregg Olsen and Darren Thompson, from WSPIR (Washington State Paranormal Investigations and Research.)

Starvation Heights Centennial Celebration "Last Gasp Tour"

Olalla Grange, Olalla, WA

Benefit for the Kitsap Regional Library Foundation: Enjoy an afternoon with acclaimed author, Gregg Olsen, as we revisit the home of Dr. Linda Hazzard. Tour her original 1911 residence; view the famous front room, living room, and infamous claw footed bathtub. Be careful, as we pass the ravine, on the way to what's left of her famous sanitarium deep in the woods.  This may well be the last time a tour will be available to the public on the "Hazzard" property before the woods reclaim history.  An event not to be missed!

Saturday Tour includes:

We will first gather at the Olalla Grange (7554 Fragaria Road SE, Olalla, WA 98359)

12:00-12:20 Gregg Olsen presents Starvation Heights

12:20-12:45 Ghost Stories presented by Mercedes Yeager of Market Ghost Tours

12:45-1:15Paranormal talk by Darren Thompson of WSPIR

1:15-2:00 Guided tours of the Hazzard home, ravine and sanitarium

**Special VIP tour, Friday, July 15th Twilight Tour $150.00 per ticket includes: special dinner, lecture and tour guided by Gregg Olsen. For special VIP tickets call 360-475-9039.

You can buy tickets through Market Ghost Tour: CLICK HERE

Starvation Heights to be made into a film

It has been announced that the producer of the Twilight series will produce a film based on Starvation Heights and the story of Dr. Linda Hazzard. We have been waiting for this announcement and are very excited. Congratulations to the author, Gregg Olsen!

The story of Dr. Linda Hazzard is a horrific tale of murder. She was a starvation specialist in the early 1900s in Washington State. She is listed as a serial killer in many books. We share her story on our ghost tour because of her association with the Butterworth mortuary. Some people believe the ghosts of her patients are still in the building.

This is very exciting news! Read the press release below: 

Eric Thompson's Vigilante Entertainment and Gregg Olsen are pleased to announce that Vigilante has optioned New York Times bestselling author Olsen's true crime book, STARVATION HEIGHTS for a feature film.

STARVATION HEIGHTS is the nonfiction account of so-called fasting specialist Linda Burfield Hazzard who operated a sanitarium near Seattle a century ago. Dr. Hazzard's fiendish methods cost at least 40 people their lives as she and her husband held them captive in a remote location across Puget Sound.

Thompson, who formerly ran the Maverick Films genre label Maverick Red, will produce with Mark Morgan and Michael Becker of Imprint Entertainment.Morgan produced THE STEPFATHER, the TWILIGHT series for Summit as well as PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF for Sony. Thompson is now in post production on the independent horror film RITES OF SPRING, directed by Padraig Reynolds.
The script will be co-written by Reynolds and Thompson. Reynolds is repped by John Norris at Artist and Directors Cooperative.

"I've long been fascinated by the haunting, gothic horror story  presented in STARVATION HEIGHTS as a woman doctor uses weight loss  to control her patients to build her own personal fortune. It's a mirror for modern day society." Thompson said.

Olsen is the author of eight true crime books as well as four novels. He lives in Olalla, Washington, the town where the doctor plied her trade. "The trick to a storyline that occurred a century ago is finding a way to make it relevant to a contemporary audience. Eric has come up with a brilliant concept for STARVATION HEIGHTS that will resonate, shock, and thrill today's filmgoers." Olsen said.

Starvation Heights
www.starvationheights.com
In 1911 two wealthy British heiresses came to a sanitarium near Seattle to undergo the revolutionary fasting treatment of Linda Burfield Hazzard. 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.

Starvation Heights

Michele and I recently had Gregg Olsen come on the Market Ghost Tour. He is the author of Starvation Heights, an incredible book about Linda Hazzard, a fasting doctor here in Seattle. His ability to create vivid images in his writing invokes a Seattle from the early 1900's; the Northwest, in it's rugged inception, the personalities and culture of the time become alive, while many of Dr. Hazzard's patients die.

It is a frightening read.

The true story revolves around two rich English sisters that undergo Hazzard's fasting cure. The results are fatal and the trial that follows a gripping testimony to a young territory and country. If you read this book, you will not be disappointed.  

Some links:

Starvation Heights, on Amazon.com
Starvation Heights
Gregg Olsen
Gregg Olsen, about the Market Ghost Tours