The death of Joan Robinson Hill at 38 years old led to her husband, John Hill, becoming the first person to be indicted by the State of Texas on the charge of murder by omission. The case precipitated a series of events that included the 1972 murder of John Hill and, two years later, the fatal police shooting of the man accused of that murder.
She died following a short illness on March 19, 1969. Autopsy examinations failed to determine a cause of death beyond an infection from an unknown source. Her father, Ash Robinson, subsequently accused Hill of poisoning his daughter, and petitioned the district attorney to prosecute her husband for murder. Hill's murder trial was held in February 1971 but ended in a mistrial. As a second trial was approaching, Hill was gunned down by an intruder at his home. A suspect, Bobby Wayne Vandiver, was arrested and indicted for the murder, but was killed in a shootout with police before his trial. Two other suspects, Marcia McKittrick and Lilla Paulus, were convicted as accomplices to Hill's murder and served time in prison.
The case was the subject of Thomas Thompson's 1976 book Blood and Money and the 1981 made-for-television film Murder in Texas.
Background
On September 28, 1957, Joan Robinson married Dr. John Hill, described by the Houston Chronicle as "one of the city's leading plastic surgeons". The couple had a son, Robert Ashton "Boot" Hill, born on June 14, 1960.Thompson 1976, pp. 52–53
John and Joan Hill became a regular part of Houston's social scene, but largely led separate lives. Joan focused on her equestrian career while John devoted his spare time to performing and listening to music.Thompson 1976, pp. 49–52
By 1968, the Hills had begun to have significant conflicts in their marriage. After beginning an extramarital affair with a woman named Ann Kurth in the fall of 1968, Hill left his wife and began divorce proceedings against her, but withdrew the petition when the couple reconciled shortly before Christmas of that year.Thompson 1976, pp. 82–87 John continued to see Kurth after returning to live with his wife.Thompson 1976, pp. 87 Robinson Hill died on March 19, 1969, at Sharpstown General Hospital after contracting an illness that was initially thought to be influenza. Her symptoms included fever, vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea. She was first treated at home by her husband, but admitted to hospital when her condition worsened.
Death, investigation, and trials
Death Robinson Hill died on March 19, 1969, at Sharpstown General Hospital shortly after contracting an illness that was initially thought to be influenza.
Upon being told that his wife was dead, John Hill's cries were so loud that they were heard by patients on the second floor of the building. Hill managed to ask someone to call a friend and his wife, who lived nearby. Jim Oates was a doctor and a fellow musician; his wife, Dottie, was a nurse. The couple had just seen the Hills five days earlier at Houston's annual wild game dinner. Dottie Oates did not at first recognize Joan Robinson Hill, due to her edema and discoloration from ruptured superficial blood vessels.Thompson 1976, pp. 117–118
First autopsy Texas state law at the time required an autopsy by the county coroner for anyone who died in a hospital within twenty-four hours of admission. The law stated that the autopsy must be performed and a cause of death determined before any embalming or burial could take place, and provided criminal penalties for its breach. Drs. Bertinot and Lanza, who had attended Robinson Hill, were summoned back to the hospital when she died. Dr. Bertinot spoke to John Hill about the legal need for an autopsy and called the hospital's pathologist to start the process. Hill asked Jim Oates to call a local funeral home to claim Robinson Hill's body. Less than four hours after her death, the funeral home removed Robinson Hill's body from the hospital.Thompson 1976, pp. 118–119
Within an hour after moving the body from Sharpstown General, the funeral home began the process of embalming Robinson Hill's body. The hospital's pathologist, Dr. Arthur Morse, arrived at the funeral home at 10 a.m. to carry out the autopsy, only to find that the body had already been embalmed. Dr. Morse did not have the ability to take blood samples, since Robinson Hill's blood had been replaced by the embalming fluid. Morse concluded his autopsy at 11:30 a.m. without finding any signs of what caused Robinson Hill's death aside from a maroon coloration of her pancreas and offered an opinion that she may have died from pancreatitis.Evans 2007, p. 84
Second autopsy
On Thursday, March 20, 1969, Diane Settegast and Eunice Woolen, who stayed with the Hills as house guests a week before Joan's death, returned to Houston to attend Robinson Hill's funeral, and Settegast called on Hill to pay her respects. On arriving at the house she found him upstairs in the music room with his son and some friends, watching a Laurel and Hardy film and laughing. Surprised that he did not appear to be grieving, she began to leave in disgust, but was stopped by Hill before she reached the front door. During the ensuing conversation, she expressed disbelief at the speed of her friend's death, and asked Hill why he had not been able to help her. Hill replied that he wanted to take his wife to hospital but she refused to go, saying "You know what she was like about hospitals". Settegast became suspicious as she did not recognize Hill's observation of her friend, and voiced her concerns to Ash Robinson. Since receiving Dr. Morse's opinion that his daughter had died from pancreatitis, Robinson had been consulting doctors on the matter, who had advised him that this was an unlikely cause of death. On the morning of Friday, March 21, the day of Joan Robinson Hill's funeral, Ash Robinson visited the office of Assistant District Attorney I. D. McMaster, where he accused John Hill of killing his wife, telling McMaster of the circumstances surrounding her death and autopsy. After listening to Robinson's story, McMaster said that he would look into it, then telephoned Harris County Medical Examiner Joseph Jachimczyk, telling him to go to the funeral home, examine the body before the funeral, and stop the service if necessary. Jachimczyk then telephoned two people–the administrator of Sharpstown Hospital, and Morse. On hearing of the circumstances in which Morse had performed his autopsy, he ordered the pathologist to hand over blood and urine specimens taken from Robinson Hill, and his preliminary report. Jachimczyk felt there was enough material for him to perform his own autopsy. He then drove to the funeral home to view the body, doing so as mourners began to arrive for the service, but saw no need to halt proceedings.Thompson 1976, pp. 119–125
While awaiting the medical examiner's results, Ash Robinson continued to gather evidence against his son-in-law, assembling a team of respected doctors at his home to discuss the case. These included his general practitioner, Ed Gouldin, and Grady Hallman. Robinson also took statements from people connected with his daughter, including Settegast, Woolen, and the Hill's household employees Archie and Effie Green. Jachimczyk delivered his report on the second autopsy at the end of March, ruling out any poisoning, and concluding, "it is my opinion based upon a reasonable probability that the cause of death is due to acute focal hepatitis, probably viral in origin."Thompson 1976, pp. 129–134 On reading the report, McMaster felt there was no case, but Robinson refused to believe that no crime had been committed. He hired lawyer Frank Briscoe, a former Harris County District Attorney who had recently left office. As part of his investigation, Briscoe spoke to Morse. He asked the pathologist whether it would be possible to inject someone with hepatitis. Morse felt this an unlikely scenario, but offered the lawyer an alternative opinion on how Robinson Hill may have contracted the virus. He said that he had been told that in the days prior to her death Robinson Hill had eaten both shellfish and snails, and Morse felt one of these may have caused her to contract hepatitis. Robinson then petitioned his son-in-law to give permission for Joan's body to be exhumed for another autopsy, but Hill refused.Thompson 1976, pp. 134–136
Third autopsy
Ash Robinson sought to hire "the best pathologist in the United States" to conduct another autopsy on his daughter. Robinson's search led him to Dr. Milton Helpern, who was the chief medical examiner for New York City at the time.Evans 2007, pp. 87–91 Helpern agreed to come to Houston to examine Robinson Hill's body five months after her death. An autopsy was also requested by a Harris County grand jury investigating the death of Robinson Hill. That autopsy was performed by a team of ten doctors led by Dr. Robert Bucklin, who was then the medical examiner for Galveston County, and including Dr. Helpern, who was deputized as an acting Harris County medical examiner.
As soon as the casket was opened, Helpern found pieces of dried mud in it, indicating that the casket had been opened after Robinson Hill was originally buried. When questioned, the funeral home informed the medical team present at the autopsy that John Hill had obtained an order to disinter his wife three days after her funeral. Hill claimed he wanted to retrieve a piece of jewelry that had been buried with her. While making the wake and funeral arrangements, Hill insisted that his wife be buried with no jewelry at all—not even her wedding ring.Thompson 1976, p. 125 Helpern found nothing amiss related to the disinterment, but noted that Robinson Hill's stomach and its contents were never removed and examined at the original autopsy. The pathologist's disapproval became disbelief when he discovered that Robinson Hill's brain and heart were missing.
Dr. Morse then made an embarrassed admission to not returning the organs prior to burial. Morse offered that he did, however, know the whereabouts of Robinson Hill's brain—it was in the trunk of his car. The Texas pathologist retrieved the brain for Dr. Helpern's examination. Helpern thought there might be traces of meningitis, but declined to state whether he thought this was a cause of Robinson Hill's death. He examined the body of Joan Robinson Hill for seven and a half hours; Helpern then went back to New York with his tissue samples, saying he would issue a report on his findings at a later date.
The series of autopsies indicated that Robinson Hill had suffered a "massive infection" from an undetermined source, but because the body had been embalmed before an initial examination was conducted, an exact cause of death could not be identified. The hospital and the Harris County medical examiner initially listed Robinson Hill's cause of death as hepatitis, but there were no signs of the disease (such as jaundice) noted; medical test results were also not indicative of hepatitis.Sizer, p. 42 Dr. Bucklin listed Robinson Hill's cause of death as meningitis and sepsis. Following the autopsy, Joseph Jachimczyk issued a fresh report in which he observed "It is now my opinion that Joan Robinson Hill came to her death as a result of a fulminating infectious process, the specific nature of which is no longer determinable." He went on to recommend that the matter be investigated by a grand jury.Thompson 1976, pp. 169 Dr. Milton Helpern did not issue his report until April 1970, more than a year after the death of Robinson Hill. Helpern's report noted that John Hill's treatment of his wife at home and the delay in seeking specialized medical attention at a hospital were factors in the death of Robinson Hill.(subscription required)
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