At the dawn of the twentieth-century, major advances in science and technology brought incredible change to the field of medicine, enhancing and extending the lives of millions. Yet at the same time, a lax regulations and minimal oversight made it possible for countless medical grifters to get rich offering quack medical solutions to everything from whooping cough to cancer, sometimes at the expense of their patient’s lives.

When Linda Hazzard opened her sanitarium, the Institute of Natural Therapeutics at Wilderness Heights, in Olalla, Washington in the first decade of the 1900s, she claimed her rigid fasting and elimination approach to dieting was a miracle cure for a variety of illnesses, both trivial and serious. For years, Hazzard operated what amounted to a health retreat for the wealthy, without any oversight from the state or federal agencies. In the end, Hazzard’s starvation cure resulted in the deaths of over a dozen people and her arrest and trial for manslaughter, but through all of it, she maintained it was a viable treatment—standing by her methods up until they ended her own life.

Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!

References

Hines, Terrence. 1997. "Starvation Heights." Skeptical Inquirer.

Lovejoy, Bess. 2014. "The doctor who starved her patients to death." Smithsonian Magazine, October 28.

Olsen, Gregg. 2005. Starvation Heights: A True Story of Murder and Malice in the Woods of the Pacific Northwest. New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group.

Seattle Daily Times. 1911. "Erdman diary tells method of treatment." Seattle Daily Times, August 14.

Seattle Star. 1908. "Charged with starving eight-months-old baby." Seattle Star, January 30: 1.

—. 1911. "Denies she 'fasted' 2 girls." Seattle Star, August 9: 3.

—. 1911. "'Fast cure' woman is arrested." Seattle Star, August 7: 3.

—. 1909. "Prosecutors think they can put a stop to starvation cure." Seattle Star, June 26: 1.

—. 1908. "Sign doesn't make a doctor." Seattle Star, June 8: 6.

—. 1909. "Woman starves to death under care of Dr. L.B. Hazzard." Seattle Star, June 24: 1.

—. 1908. "WQeeden case leads to Dr. Hazzard's arrest." Seattle Star, January 31: 1.

Tacoma Daily Ledger. 1912. "Dr. Hazzard has her first inning." Tacoma Daily Ledger, Janaury 28: 1.

—. 1912. "Dr. Hazzard's trial begins." Tacoma Daily Ledger, January 16: 1.

—. 1912. "Final arguments in Hazzard case." Tacoma Daily Ledger, February 3: 2.

—. 1912. "Heiress testifies against Dr. Hazzard." Tacoma Daily Ledger, January 20: 1.

—. 1912. "Mrs. Hazzard breaks down, and is attended by a dcevoted follower." Tacoma Daily Ledger, February 5: 1.

—. 1904. "Samuel Hazzard sent to Minnesota prison." Tacoma Daily Ledger, March 16: 3.

—. 1912. "Witnesses deny state's charges." Tacoma Daily Ledger, January 30: 1.

—. 1912. "Woman bathed by young men." Tacoma Daily Ledger, January 23: 1.

—. 1911. "Woman meet before judge." Tacoma Daily Ledger, October 22: 1.

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Weirdos!! It's the 100th Listener Tales, and it's brought to you by spooky brides! We're serving up some wedding themed listener tales that are brought TO you, BY you, FOR you, FROM you, and ALLLLL about you! Today we're also offering up a side of ACTUAL terror when unknown sounds make us wonder if a story inadvertantly opened the hellmouth up in the Podlab!

LISTEN to this (nearly)Nicholas-free version on all podcast platforms OR WATCH the Nicholas version on Youtube on 7/31/2025! (You don't want to miss it! Nicholas had us cackling!)

If you’ve got a listener tale please send it on over to Morbidpodcast@gmail.com with “Listener Tales” somewhere in the subject line- and if you share pictures- please let us know if we can share them with fellow weirdos! :)

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In early 1948, Los Angeles couples were terrorized by a series of robberies and car thefts committed by a criminal the press dubbed “The Red Light Bandit,” a reference to the red light he used to flag down his victims. Fortunately, the bandit’s crime spree was quickly cut short when police arrested Caryl Chessman, a Los Angeles resident with a criminal history going back to his teen years.

Chessman was charged with multiple counts of robbery, rape, grand theft, and because of an unusual interpretation of events, he was also charged with kidnapping. Due to the attachment of kidnapping, several of the charges were defined as a capital offense and Chessman was convicted and sentenced to death.

In the years following his conviction, Chessman’s death sentence became a source of considerable controversy—an already controversial sentence applied in a non-lethal case due to a bizarre application of the law. For ten years, Chessman fought the sentence all the way to the US Supreme Court, with support from a wide variety of sources, both notable and ordinary.

Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!

References

Chessman, Caryl, and Joseph Longstreth. 1954. Cell 2455, Death Row: A Condemned Man's Own Story. New York, NY: Prentice Hall.

Erikson, Leif. 1960. "Chessman executed with a smile on his lips." Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, May 2: 1.

Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. 1948. "Mother on stretcher testifies for 'genius'." Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, May 10: 1.

—. 1948. "Wild chase nets 'Red Light Bandit' suspects." Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, January 24: 3.

Los Angeles Times. 1941. "Crime victims point to youths." Los Angeles Times, February 14: 2.

—. 1943. "Honor farm escapee says he only lost his memory." Los Angeles Times, September 5: 14.

—. 1948. "Red-Light Bandit receives two death sentences." Los Angeles Times, June 26: 17.

Pasadena Independent. 1948. "Red Light Bandit strikes again." Pasadena Independent, January 20: 8.

People v. Caryl Chessman. 1959. CR. 5006 (Supreme Court of California , July 7).

Press-Telegram. 1941. "Five bandit suspects held in shootings." Press-Telegram (Long Beach, CA), February 2: 1.

Ruth, David E. 2014. "'Our free society is worthy of better': Caryl Chessman, Capital Punishment, and Cold War culture." Law, Crime and History 31-55.

Time Magazine. 1960. "The Chessman affair." Time Magazine, March 21.

Times, Los Angeles. 1948. "Bandit using red spotlight kidnaps girl." Los Angeles Times, January 23: 19.

—. 1948. "Deasth asked in Bandit case." Los Angeles Times, May 19: 32.

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