lucypattie1856

I too am obsessed with the murders of the Hills. Someone in a recent post asked what had become of the son, ROBERT ASHTON HILL. I did an internet search and there is a 48 year old ROBERT ASHTON HILL in the Montgomery County (MARYLAND) attorney's office. Robert "Boot Hill was born in 1960 or '61. He also lived at one time in Houston. I believe this is the Hill's son...Check out the MontgomeryCounty Maryland Attorney's website for a resume on Hill

No, you are not the only one obsessed with this case! I first read "Blood and Money" when it was serialized in Cosmopolitan magazine back in the 1970's. I was fascinated by the story and waited eagerly for the book to come out. At that time I was a starving graduate student and NEVER splurged on hardback books. But I bought this one. It was the first true crime book I ever read and sparked my interest. Now I have a large collection of true-crime books; my family thinks I have serious problems!

I don't believe John Hill deliberately poisoned Joan via the pastries, but I do believe he saw an opportunity to get rid of her when she was so sick, and took it. He desperately wanted out of the marriage so he could marry Ann Kurth. If he had divorced Joan, he wouldn't have gotten a penny; Ash Robinson would have seen to that. Joan would have kept the house and the music room and gotten a big chunk of alimony and child support. John had left Joan once but, if Thompson's book is to be believed, was "persuaded" to come back by Ash Robinson. He must have felt so trapped and powerless that early spring of 1969 -- and then Joan got sick. As a physician, John would have known that Joan's continuing episodes of vomiting and diarrhea would cause dehydration. I believe he waited as long as possible to take her to the hospital because he hoped she would go into shock and die. He took her to Sharpstown Hospital, a good distance from Kirby Drive, hoping to delay treatment as long as possible. And it worked. By the time Joan received treatment, she was too ill to survive. What started as a probable stomach virus ended in her death.

I'm less fascinated by John Hill's demise because we know who did it, if not why. Never having been to Houston or even Texas, I guess I don't really understand the "old boy network" and how Ash could have John murdered and get away with it. Or why Lilla Paulus would be so vengeful to agree to orchestrate the killing. Why would she have risked her freedom to have someone she didn't even know murdered?

I love the pictures of Joan that someone posted earlier. The paperback version of "Blood and Money" has a few pictures, but the hardback doesn't.

BTW, at a family funeral several years ago, I met some distant cousins who had lived in Houston during the time of Joan and John's respective deaths. When I started asking them if they remembered the story, they looked at me as if I'd sprouted two heads! They said "we didn't pal around with high society people when we lived there." But they admitted to remembering all the talk about Joan's death.