When a Texas socialite winds up dead, naturally everyone suspects her husband. But when he ends up being murdered, tongues really begin to wag. The death of Joan Robinson Hill sparked a series of events befitting a soap opera script.
Joan Robinson was born on February 6th, 1931 in Houston, Texas. As an infant, she was adopted by rich oil tycoon Davis “Ash” Robinson and his wife Rhea.
Joan grew up happy and healthy. She especially took a shine to horses and riding. She became an award winning equestrian, taking home several national titles.
But Joan was also very whimsical and impulsive. She was married and divorced twice by the age of 20. She had a very active social life and prided herself on being the life of the party.
It was at one such party that she met John Hill, a medical student. Despite Ash’s protests, Joan was smitten. The couple were inseparable. On September 28th, 1957, the couple married. By this time, John had graduated medical school, becoming “one of the city’s leading plastic surgeons”, according to the Houston Chronicle. By all accounts, Joan was living a charmed life. And it could only get better.
On June 14th, 1960, Joan gave birth to their son, Robert Ashton “Boot” Hill. Despite being a large part of Houston’s social scene, the couple largely led separate lives. Joan focused on her career as an equestrian, and John spent a large portion of his time performing and listening to music – or so he said.
It wasn’t long before people began noticing that Joan and John were a mismatched couple. Gossip among Houston’s social elite was rampant. Many speculated and John only married Joan for her money, while she seemed blissfully oblivious to his wandering eye.
Tongues definitely began to wag when it was discovered that John had met another woman – Ann Kurth. Ann had been a classmate of Joan’s in school. And she’d been deeply jealous of everything that Joan had. What better way to get revenge than to steal her husband?
Ann was ruthless. When Joan discovered the affair in 1968, she attempted to put a stop to it. Ann was furious and took it out on John. She threatened to see other men, and caused him a great deal of emotional distress. John, distraught, would spend all of his time making it up to Ann while leaving Joan to her own devices.
Joan tried everything to make John stay. She changed her appearance, her clothes, and she even attended ‘self-improvement programs’ in the hopes that John would come back to her. Nothing worked.
By Valentine’s Day, John was fully courting Ann. He gave her everything she wanted – candy, a bracelet, money, and flowers. Joan received nothing. She was devastated. She began sleeping in late, which concerned her maid. Joan had always been an early riser, ready to tend to her horses. This was odd behaviour.
After a few mornings of this listless behaviour, Joan suddenly became extremely ill. John gave his wife a glass of orange juice, which promptly made her throw up. The maid asked John to please make sure Joan was alright. He replied that it was nothing, and left the house.
Initially, it was thought that Joan’s illness was influenza, her symptoms matched. When her condition worsened, she was rushed to Sharpstown General Hospital, which was often described as ‘sub-par’. On March 19th, 1969, Joan Robinson Hill died mysteriously. She was only 38.
As per Texas law, John had to be informed. He was also told that there needed to be an autopsy. John said he understood, the law was the law of course. However, the moment he could get away, John called a funeral home and arranged for Joan’s body to be taken as quickly as possible – he wanted to avoid an autopsy and circumvent the law. Less than four hours after her death, Joan’s body was taken to a funeral home.
Within an hour of receiving the body, the funeral home began the embalming process. At 10AM, the hospital’s pathologist, Dr. Arthur Morse, went to the funeral home in order to perform the autopsy. Finding her already embalmed, he couldn’t perform a full examination. He concluded that it was possible – though not certain – that Joan had died of pancreatitis due to a maroon colouration of her pancreas.
Ash refused to believe his daughter had died of such natural causes. He immediately got in touch with a number of doctors, all of whom informed him that pancreatitis was a very unlikely cause of death.
On March 21st, 1969, prior to attending Joan’s funeral, Ash visited Assistant District Attorney I. D. McMaster and accused John Hill of killing Joan. After being told that John had knowingly circumvented the legal necessity of an autopsy, McMaster contacted the Harris County Medical Examiner, Joseph Jachimczyk. He was told to go to the funeral home right away in order to perform his own examination. He ordered Dr. Morse’s preliminary report, as well as blood and urine samples taken from Joan upon her hospitalization.
As Jachimczyk put together his report, Ash assembled a team of doctors in order to go over the case and prove that his son-in-law had murdered Joan. Ash was certain that John had poisoned Joan in order to get her out of the way so that he could marry Ann. He also remembered John’s highly suspicious behaviour regarding Joan’s eating habits prior to her death.
John always made sure he served Joan specific foods, especially pastries, and often got angry with her if she tried to eat anything else. John would refuse to let her eat anything he hadn’t specifically given to her. Suspicious, yes, but not definitive proof. However, Ash had an axe to grind – he was certain beyond a reasonable doubt that John had poisoned the pastries he’d fed to Joan.
Jachimczyk dashed Ash’s suspicions. He determined that the cause of death could not be poison. He found that the cause of death was acute focal hepatitis, based upon a reasonable probability. McMaster felt that there wasn’t enough evidence to file charges against John Hill. Ash refused to let it go.
Ash sought out the assistance of Dr. Milton Helpern, the chief medical examiner from New York City who was lauded as the “best pathologist in the United States”.
Five months after Joan’s death, Dr. Helpern agreed to examine the body. By this time, a Harris County grand jury requested an autopsy, as they were tasked with investigating Joan’s death. Helpern gathered a team and set about his task.
The series of autopsies could not find a definitive cause of death, indicating only that Joan suffered a “massive infection from an undetermined source”. Ash took that as a good sign, and hounded McMaster to go after John Hill for murder. John just kept on behaving as though nothing was wrong.
Immediately following Joan’s death, John married Ann Kurth. However, despite the advice of his attorney not to, he divorced her less than a year later. Now, she could testify against him in court if she chose to.
In February of 1970, she did just that before a grand jury. She informed them that John had confessed to her that he’d killed Joan. The jury wasn’t sure if she was being truthful – she was a jilted ex-wife, after all. Though damning testimony, the jury needed more.
In April of 1970, a year after Joan’s death, Dr. Helpern issued his final report. He determined that John’s mistreatment of Joan at home as well as “the delay in seeking specialized medical attention at a hospital” were factors in Joan’s death.
McMaster wasn’t sure they could prosecute John Hill for first-degree murder, but he tried something a little unprecedented – John Hill was charged with murder by omission, which meant that Joan’s death was a direct result of John failing to provide an adequate level of care.
The grand jury voted 10-2 in favour of indicting John Hill for murder by omission. They felt that he had “wilfully, intentionally, and culpably” contributed to Joan’s untimely death.
On February 15th, 1971, John Hill stood trial for the murder by omission or Joan Robinson Hill.
Ann Kurth displayed her ruthlessness once again. She testified against Hill, stating that he had tried to kill her by crashing their car into a bridge on June 30th, 1969. Ann also claimed that Hill repeatedly threatened to kill her like he’d killed Joan.
She told the court that Hill kept petri dishes in their refrigerator, and became easily annoyed if she ever asked about them. She claimed that he’d told her in a fit of rage that they were cultures grown from human waste, and that he’d injected the cultures into pastries he’d fed Joan before her death. She testified that Hill often threatened to do the same to her if she ever crossed him.
Upon hearing this testimony, Hill’s attorney called for a mistrial, a request that was granted after some deliberation. Ann’s testimony leaned more towards first-degree murder, rather than murder by omission. A second trial was called, set to begin in the fall of 1972.
In June of 1971, Hill married Connie Loesby, his third and last wife.
John Hill would never make it to his second trial.
On September 24th, 1972, Hill and Connie returned home, eager to spend time with Hill’s mother and his son, Robert. They found the pair bound with tape over their mouths. An intruder had broken into the home.
Upon the couple’s return, the intruder grabbed Connie, told her it was a robbery, and attempted to bind her as well. She managed to get away and run down the street, where a neighbour heard her call for help and allowed her to use their phone to call the police. As Connie was running away, she heard shots being fired from her home.
When the police and ambulance arrived, they found Hill lying face down in a pool of his own blood. Robert was standing over him, wailing. There were no vital signs to be found – John Hill was dead. The accused murderer had been murdered.
When the body was turned over, a disturbing sight greeted police. Hill’s eyes, nose, and mouth had been taped over. It was noted that this was a common type of killing un Houston’s underworld. It was found that John Hill had been beaten, and shot three times. Once in the chest, shoulder, and right arm. The events of the last three years of John Hill’s life were really looking like something taken right out of a soap opera.
As with Joan’s death, the death of John Hill was the topic of rumour and gossip among Houston’s social elite. The most prevalent theory that had tongues wagging was that Ash Robinson had ordered John Hill’s execution. Connie and Robert supported this theory. Ash vehemently denied being involved, maintaining that Hill had murdered his daughter, and he wanted to see him stand trial and face sentencing.
A few months later, Bobby Wayne Vandiver was charged with John Hill’s murder. He claimed that a ‘Houston madam’ named Lilla Paulus had hired him and his girlfriend, Marcia McKittrick, to murder Hill. It was rumoured that they’d all been hired by Ash Robinson, though those rumours have never been substantiated.
Before Hill’s murderer could stand his own trial, Vandiver was shot dead in an unrelated police incident. Marcia McKittrick, fearing for her own life, agreed to testify against the madam. She was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, while her testimony gave Lilla Paulus a 35 year sentence. Ash Robinson was never brought up during this testimony.
In 1977, a civil jury cleared Ash Robinson of any suspicion in the murder of John Hill. Shortly thereafter, he and his wife Rhea relocated to Florida in order to put the tragic events behind them.
The death of Joan Robinson Hill, and it’s unsatisfying conclusion, looks like a scripted soap opera. Her death, and the murder of her accused killer are certainly a case of reality being much stranger than fiction.
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Sources:
Blood & Money: The Strange Case of Dr. John Hill and Murder in Texas – Skarlet – Soapboxie
Texas doctor, who killed wife with poisoned pastry, was eventually gunned down in murder-for-hire as sordid story later became made-for-tv movie starring Sam Elliott and Farrah Fawcett – Mara Bovsun – The New York Daily News
Joan Robinson Hill Wikipedia page
Death of Joan Robinson Hill Wikipedia page