From The Smithsonian:
Today the little town of Olalla, a ferry’s ride across Puget Sound from Seattle, is a mostly forgotten place, the handful of dilapidated buildings a testament to the hardscrabble farmers, loggers and fisherman who once tried to make a living among the blackberry vines and Douglas firs. But in the 1910s, Olalla was briefly on the front page of international newspapers for a murder trial the likes of which the region has never seen before or since.
At the center of the trial was a woman with a formidable presence and a memorable name: Dr. Linda Hazzard. Despite little formal training and a lack of a medical degree, she was licensed by the state of Washington as a “fasting specialist.” Her methods, while not entirely unique, were extremely unorthodox. Hazzard believed that the root of all disease lay in food—specifically, too much of it. “Appetite is Craving; Hunger is Desire. Craving is never satisfied; but Desire is relieved when Want is supplied,” she wrote in her self-published 1908 book Fasting for the Cure of Disease. The path to true health, Hazzard wrote, was to periodically let the digestive system “rest” through near-total fasts of days or more. During this time, patients consumed only small servings of vegetable broth, their systems “flushed” with daily enemas and vigorous massages that nurses said sometimes sounded more like beatings.
Despite the harsh methods, Hazzard attracted her fair share of patients. One was Daisey Maud Haglund, a Norwegian immigrant who died in 1908 after fasting for 50 days under Hazzard’s care. Haglund left behind a three-year-old son, Ivar, who would later go on to open the successful Seattle-based seafood restaurant chain that bears his name. (Smithsonian Magazine)
Daisy Haglund's Death Certificate
April 5, 2025 at QZVX
T.K. says:
Yes, she starved to death but she also had stomach cancer: https://digitalarchives.wa.gov/DigitalObject/Download/e97ce244-5e2f-4e87-b849-9c0ad8755861
Good find!
April 5, 2025 at QZVX
Jason Remington says:
Yup! I believe that was what she was trying to cure. Linda Hazzard (the last name should have been a warning) was a scammer that hooked these people with promises of good health, and had them sign over the farm to her.
So, what is going to kill you first? The cancer or no nutrition for three months? Just insane. But apparently these scams are still going on.
Fasting is popular these days, for weight loss and other reasons given by the ones posting the videos for the revitalization methods.
Daisy Haglund starved to death
April 5, 2025 at QZVX
Jason Remington says:
Steven Smith found this to support the article by the Smithsonian.
And apparently, these same methods are still being used by “healers” these days,
Thank you, Steven.
article from the Seattle Star February 1908
2 years for murder
April 4, 2025 at QZVX
Jason Remington says:
In 1938, Hazzard died in the same sanitarium she practiced her starvation/fasting business at. She had served two years (1912-1914) for the death of a British heiress under her care. She was pardoned by Washington Governor Lister.
Hazzard was arrested again in 1925 after a patient (yes, Hazzard had returned to practice, unlicensed) died following an 84 day fast. The death was determined to be the result of tuberculosis.
I could find no newspaper accounts confirming the Smithsonian claim regarding Mrs. Haglund.