The Doctor Who Starved Her Patients to Death
news article · 2014
LINK
SUMMARY
Smithsonian Magazine narrative history of the Hazzard case by Bess Lovejoy (October 28, 2014). It records that Hazzard, despite little formal training and no medical degree, was licensed by Washington as a 'fasting specialist'; that the wealthy British sisters Claire and Dorothea Williamson came to her care; that Hazzard was arrested on August 15, 1911 on a first-degree murder charge for starving Claire Williamson to death; that the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter and her medical license was revoked; and that the prosecution described a parallel 'financial starvation', forged checks and letters that emptied the Williamson estate. British Vice Consul Lucien Agassiz investigated after Claire's death. Secondary source corroborating the licensing, the Williamson prosecution, and the financial exploitation.
NOTES
Bess Lovejoy’s Smithsonian Magazine article (October 28, 2014) is a secondary narrative history used here to corroborate the licensing, the Williamson prosecution, and the financial dimension of the case. It records Hazzard’s Washington licensure as a “fasting specialist” without a medical degree, the arrival of the British heiresses Claire and Dorothea Williamson, Hazzard’s August 15, 1911 arrest for the death of Claire Williamson, the manslaughter verdict and revocation of her license, and the prosecution’s account of “financial starvation”: forged checks and letters that drained the Williamson estate while Claire was being starved.