Joan and John Hill Murder Investigations

Duration: 15:27

Year Published: 197019721975

Sound: sound

Description: On March 19, 1969, socialite and champion horsewoman Joan Robinson Hill passed away at Sharpstown General Hospital in Houston. She was only 38 years old. The suspicious circumstances leading up to her death and the inability of multiple autopsies to sufficiently determine a probable cause prompted three grand jury investigations, the first-ever indictment for murder by omission in Texas, years of scandalous intrigue, and possibly a murder-for-hire plot. Joan Hill was the daughter of millionaire oilman Ash Robinson. She married Dr. John Hill—later to become one of the city’s leading plastic surgeons—in 1957. The couple lived near Joan’s parents in the upscale Houston neighborhood of River Oaks, and had one son, Robert, nicknamed “Boots.” After 11 years of marriage, John asked Joan for a divorce. At his daughter’s request, Robinson pressured his son-in-law towards reconciliation. The following March, Joan was stricken with a mysterious illness. Her condition worsened over several days, until John finally took her to Sharpstown General. Unlike the nearby Texas Medical Center, the suburban hospital lacked an emergency room and intensive care unit. Joan passed away 15 hours later. Contrary to state laws requiring an autopsy in such a situation, the hospital released Joan’s body to a funeral home for embalming before an examination could occur, hindering the ability to determine a cause of death. Robinson was certain his former son-in-law had poisoned his daughter, hiring his own medical examiner and compelling the district attorney to call three grand jury investigations. With the third, concluded on May 22, 1970, John Hill was indicted on charges of murder by omission for his alleged intentional withholding of lifesaving medical care. The case went to trial in February 1971, ending in a mistrial following unsubstantiated testimony from John’s second wife, Ann. On September 24, 1972, two months before the second trial began, John was gunned down in his River Oaks mansion. Despite initial appearances of a robbery attempt, law enforcement soon discovered that the doctor’s killer was actually a hired assassin. Only alleged accomplices Marcia McKittrick and Lilla Paulus were convicted of the crime. Triggerman Bobby Vandiver died in a shootout with Longview police in 1974. At trial, McKittrick testified that Paulus had identified Robinson as the one who ordered the killing, presumably to avenge his daughter Joan’s death. Unable to corroborate the claim, prosecutors never filed any criminal charges against him. Connie Hill, John’s third wife, later sued Robinson for plotting the murder, but the jury declined to award damages. By 1980, some officials speculated that Joan’s suspicious illness and death was actually caused by toxic shock syndrome. This film from Houston’s KPRC-TV captures an assortment of news footage related to the 1970 grand jury investigation into John Hill and the 1975 murder trial of Lilla Paulus. The dramatic saga became the subject of two books, Thomas Thompson’s Blood and Money and Ann Kurth’s Prescription Murder. The latter served as the basis for a 1981 made-for-television movie, Murder in Texas, starring Farrah Fawcett as Joan.