You're listening to a Morbid network podcast.

Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash.

And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid.

This is Morbid. How are you? I'm good. I'm looking at.

Snacking cheeses. Snacking cheases?

Yes.

I recommend, I think they're like... Fuck, are they? They're like the Bella, Romano or something like that? Yeah. Yeah, and they have Merlot ones. Belgioso? Yes. Not Bella at all.

Otio eoso, something like that. I apologize. I am only 1.4% Italian.

I'm not any % Italian, so no apologies for me. They have a Merlot one that's really good. An Espresso one, which sounds odd, but is good.

Sounds good to me. Then they.

Have a champagne one that I tried recently. And these are all cheeses, by the way. Really good. 10 out of 10 recommend. Sponsor us.

Send us cheese. Sponsor us cheese. I love cheese. Yeah, get the little snacking ones for the gals. There's an Ociago one that's just...

Chef's kiss. Chef's kiss. Yeah. If I'm going to do a snacking cheese at a Baby Bell or I forget what the brand is, it starts with an S. It's called like... Maybe it's like Supreme Bites or Super Bites, but it's Little Mini Bri cheeses.

I could.

Take Brie or leave Brie. That's upsetting. I know. I would never leave Brie in a million years. I might leave it.

If it hurt my feelings.

It could hurt my feelings, but I would still stay.

This has been cheese.

With Elena and Ash. I love it. I like that we both put each other first. I was just going to say. I like that. That was sweet of us.

That was nice of us.

I like that a lot. I like that. All right, well, I have a case today.

You're like, I don't know how to segue into this. I don't know how to.

Segue because this is a really- Here we are. -really sad one, and it's a really confusing one. I'm going to go ahead and tell you at the top of this that nobody's really ever convicted for one of the deaths that we're going to talk about. It's very unclear whether it's simply a death or, more complicated, Lee, a murder. Wow. Yes. We're going to be talking about Joan Robinson Hill and John Hill.

Okay.

But we're going to start with Joan. Joan Oliver-Robinson, she was said to be born on February sixth, 1931. I say said to be because her birth certificate was lost at some point, actually, and there's no record of her birth that exists as far as anybody knows. Wow. But as far as people do know, she was born to anonymous parents in rural Eagle Lake, Texas. A month after she was born, she was given up for adoption to the Edna Gleaney homein Fort Worth, Texas, where she was actually quickly adopted, which like, Yay. She was adopted by Davis Ash Robinson. He was known as Ash and his wife, Reya. Now, Ash Robinson, he was a classic Texas oil man, and I feel like oil men are a running theme in my case. I'm loving an oil tycoon.

You love an oil tycoon. Or maybe not. Maybe not. But you are interested.

In their stories. It's because I'm rich and I love- Oil tycoon? -i'm -a French oil story.

You love a Dallas story?

Yes, very like, whoa.

Very whoa.

Very fashy. Very shocking. Very thought.

Objectives.

Those are them. Ash Robinson, he was a classic Texas oil man. He wore a wide-brimmed cowboy hat all the time. He drove a Lincoln Continental. He was deeply suspicious of liberals, we'll say. As a child of the old south, he had views that were increasingly out of step with the world around him. That were interesting.

Yeah. But despite his hard exterior, he absolutely adored his wife and his new daughter.

Well, that's good. That's all we can ask.

He loved his family. I don't know if I really want to know anything else about his personal views, but he loved his family.

Honestly, the most important part, you love your family, you're taking care of them, that's good. Treat them nice.

Exactly. This was during a time where most dads were pretty hands-off and the baby's needs mostly to the mother or the woman in their life. But Ash was not about that life. He insisted on tending to the new baby's needs, repairing her formula, changing diapers. When she was old enough to take on trips, he would bring little Joan around with him to check on his oil wells at the time. Oh, man. Which was a very rare sight. That's really cute. Yeah. As she grew, there was nothing Ash would not do or give to his daughter. Do for or give to his daughter. Author Thomas Thompson wrote, Should a minor scratch appear on her arm, Ash would summon a specialist and, if necessary, a medical staff. He loved his daughter.

She was the apple of his eye. Yeah, she was just like precious cargo.

Very much so. Love that. When Joan was four years old, her father hired a chauffeur, quote, chiefly because he enjoyed going on rides with his daughter and did not want to divide his attention between her and the road.

Wow, that's really precious.

That's some dad.

Shit right there. That's some oil tycoon shit right there.

I was going to say that's not just like typical dad shit.

That's oil tycoon. Yeah, that's really rich dad shit, but.

Very adorable. Yeah, it's like hot girl shit adjacent. Yeah, there you go. Now, it was on one of those drives that Joan got her first glimpse of the animal that would play a very, very important role in her future. Ash would later recall, I remember well exactly what happened. As the car passed a field full of horses, Joni commenced to hollering that she wanted to ride those ponies. That was the beginning. Everything dates from that afternoon. Oh, wow. She fell in love with horses and became a.

Horseback riding. She became a horse girl.

At just four years old, where that's an age where a lot of kids would be pretty intimidated by a giant.

Fucking horse. For sure.

And just straight-up scared, not Joan. She became completely obsessed. Within a few weeks, Ash had purchased her an older horse that she learned to ride on, and of course, learned the responsibilities of owning an animal in general. Within a year, so when she was five years old, she was riding in competitions and winning ribbons alongside riders that were twice her age.

Or older.

Damn. Good for her. She was an incredible horseback rider. She loved it. As she entered high school, that love of horses was continually rivaled only by the love of her father. When she graduated and enrolled at Stevens College in Boon County, Ash and Reya Robinson actually leased a suite of rooms at a hotel across the street from the campus so that they wouldn't have to be apart from their daughter. Wow. Which I think that it's lovely that they loved their daughter so much.

Well, it was out of.

Love, obviously. It was out of love, but I definitely think it was a.

Little overboard. Yeah. I mean, you do need to... I can't imagine because my kids are so young that I'm like, I can't fathom being apart from them for any length of time.

You got.

To let them spread their ways. But I know at some point you got to let them be a little independent, but that's tough. At least you know it was out of love.

I think it's so different too. I think there's the added level that she was adopted and they wanted to have a baby so badly and did whatever they.

Could to have this baby. Maybe it was just sad to run abundance of love and protective nature.

Definitely. Now, at college, Joan was instantly popular with her peers and her instructors. She also maintained her passion for writing, and she spent most of her free time when she wasn't at classes or anything at the stables. But at the same time, she also was keeping up with her grades. She was doing really well in school, trying to satisfy her parents. While she may have loved her mother and father, she definitely did, their constant presence eventually did become stifling. Of course, you can imagine she's at college. She wants to branch out a little bit. One of her friends later said most of us felt sorry for her. She was completely under her parents' thumb. She couldn't even accept a date without checking with them first. With all that attention, she was hungry for love from somebody other than ma and pa.

I know that's the thing. It can backfire. That's exactly. But it's never intentional. You know what I mean?

You can understand it. No, and I really don't think it came from anywhere other than a place of just love. Really loving that child.

Real raw love. Yeah, it's sad.

Now, when she was younger in her childhood years, the love and attention that she got from her parents, specifically her father, helped Joan grow into a confident, empowered young woman. But as an adult, that same adoration had become a little more oppressive and smothering at this point. While she was still in college, she appeared in a drama department production, which sparked an interest in acting that actually led her all the way to Hollywood to take a screen test. -hollywood? -hollywood? And thatThat's what her father said. He said, Hollywood, but a little different. Because when he found out about her intentions to make a name for herself in acting, he was not pleased. He immediately refused to allow this, and he told her, I quote, Too many good girls had been destroyed by show business.

I mean, show business is a scary place. It is. You can see the hesitance that you would have to allow your child, your only child- Hundred %. -to enter that. I get that.

But again- And especially during this time.

That's the other thing. This is a very different time. I mean, any time really sucks.

Any time during show business is intense. But this was like a... It was frowned upon at this point in time.

Yeah. It's looked at very different at that time. So it's like, yeah. But it sucks for.

Her because it's like- It's what she.

Wants to do. No matter what, you want your parents to support your dreams.

Of course.

Absolutely. But it's a tough little double edged sword there.

It is. I do get to a degree where Ash was coming from, but I also understand- I get his worry. Yes, and I also understand why Joan would be disappointed.

Yeah, you can see both.

Sides there for sure. I think as much of him that wanted her to not become an actress, it also had a lot to do with the distance that would have been put between them. That's the thing. That was also a big part of it.

This is why this is one of those things that it's like you're not seeing these shitty parents who are just hard asses for the sake of being hard asses. You know what I mean? That just put all these crazy, unnecessary expectations on this child and have driven her to... It just seems like you can understand both sides of this coin here, which makes it so sad. It's a lot. Yeah, because you're like, I get it. I get both of you.

I get.

All of it. Yeah. You seem like you just all love each other and want to make each other happy, and it's difficult for that to happen.

Yeah. But over time, it would become clear that Ash Robinson's influence over his daughter's life extended well beyond professional and financial. While she was still in college, Joan Meton fell in love with a man named Spike. Shut up. Spike Benton. I immediately thought of you. Shout out to the rewatchers.

Is this William.

The Bloody? It's not. No. It's just Spike Benton.

It's just Spike.

It's.

Just Spike.

He was a young man from a pretty prominent New Orleans family. -oh. -like both of your interest there. -oh, my goodness. Yeah, he's from a pretty prominent New Orleans family, and he had recently graduated from the United States Military Academy. Oh, wow. Look at this guy. They met, they fell in love. Eventually, the relationship turned serious because love. Because love? Because love. And Spike approached Ash for his permission to marry Joan. He's like, I love your daughter. I really want to marry her. That's adorable. Ash was like, No.

Oh, and.

No, not happening. That's not adorable. He was like, You guys are too young. I really don't want Joan to marry you while you're an active member of the military. I also think it's going to be way too expensive for you guys to keep up with the horses, so no.

I mean, he just tacks that on. He's like, Horses are expensive as well.

He's like, Sorry, she's a really good rider. You're in the military, so you're going to move around a lot, which I'm not going to let that happen.

That must be so hard. It must be so hard. I dread this stuff because it's like you have to let go and you have to relinquish a little bit of control of your kids.

But you don't know how because you've never done it.

But you've spent their whole life doing nothing but trying to keep them safe and steer them the right directions and teach them things and make sure they're okay. Then you just have to release all of it.

And hope that whatever you did it.

All right. I can't imagine how much, but it's like the more you fight for control as they get older, from what I've witnessed, it feels like it just backfires. It must be such a hard balance to strike.

Because that's the thing. You just said you hope that you gave them enough that they're going to make good decisions. You also hope that you loved them enough and created a bond with them where if they're not doing okay, they'll come to you. Exactly. They'll talk to you about it. You have to have faith in that. Exactly. I think that is where letting go could become a little easier if you have that bond where you know that they'll still come to you. Exactly. I don't know if Ash even really thought about that. I think he was just blinded by like, I can't let.

This happen. Yeah, it was just blind fear of like.

She's going to leave. Exactly. For that reason, literally any reason he could possibly think of for them not to get married, he named and used in his argument against this idea. But despite his refusal, Joan insisted that she wanted to marry Spike, and eventually her father did relent and he gave his blessing. But it.

Took- Took a little bit. -it took some time. Yes. For all our morbid parents out there, this one's for you. If the time you're spending cooking these days only for your kid to completely reject the meal feels absolutely criminal at this point, listen up, because your new year is about to get a major upgrade. You need to try Little Spoon. Little Spoon delivers fresh, healthy meals and snacks that your kiddo will love for every eating stage. Little Spoon is a one-stop shop for healthy, easy mealtime and snack time for your baby, toddler, and big kid delivered right to you. Little Spoon delivers baby blends, biteables, plates, smoothies, lunchers, and snacks. Let me highlight a couple for you because I'm just absolutely obsessed. The plates for toddlers and big kid meals are amazing. They're meals free of junk and they taste so good. Even the pickiest eaters, and I got some of those, they're going to love them. Smoothies are also a big hit for us in this house. They're organic. They come in the form of a convenient pouch made with really good, easy flavors that kids are going to love, like strawberry banana shake.

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Rehydrate your sofa the new year. Grab your liquid IV, hydration, multiplier sugar-free in bulk nationwide at Costco, or get 20% off your first order when you go to liquidiv. Com and use code morbid at checkout. That's 20% off your first order when you shop better hydration today using promo code morbid at liquidiv. Com. Now, after the wedding, Joan and Spike moved down to Florida, where Spike had been stationed, actually. And just as they had done when she left for college, Ash and Raya Robinson also found a reason to relocate to Florida. And they rented an apartment just a few miles away from the newlyweds.

Guys, I love you, but you got to give them a little space.

This is bringing helicopter parent to.

Another level. I see that you have pure intentions here. You got to give her a little space.

Because the thing was, rather than being a source of support for the young couple, Ash became a constant presence in their lives. He started every single morning by going to have coffee at his daughter's house, which is really precious and so lovely.

There's got to be a little division here.

Yeah. If my grandpa came to my house every single day for coffee, like right now when I had just gotten married, I'd be like, I love you so much and you can totally do this, but this is a lot.

But we need a little separate. That's the thing. If it was just coffee every morning and that was their thing and they decided that was their thing and that was it. Otherwise, they had very regular, average time together. That's one thing, but it's like, because there's so much other, I'm sure it became a little stifling.

Yeah, a little like, domineering.

Unintentionally.

Now, it wasn't long before the stifling constancy of Ash Robinson became a point of contention for Spike and Joan in the marriage. Unfortunately, within six months, the marriage completely fell apart. Oh, boy. And Joan had sent her back to Texas with her parents. All three of them relocated back to Texas. Luckily for Joan, it wasn't long before she fell in love again, this time with a New Orleans lawyer named Cecil Burgess.

She's loving New Orleans here.

She does. And she's also just like, gorgeous. So you can see why.

She- She's not having.

Any trouble. Now, Cecil and Joan there, they both really shared a love of horses and riding the horses, and they really bonded over that. And before long, the prospect of marriage was raised yet again. But this time, Ash just flat out refused to allow his daughter to, quote, Run from the ruins of one marriage and into another. That was a read right there.

We're starting to overstep a little. A little bit.

In fact, he not only refused to give his blessing to this specific marriage, but he, quote-unquote, forbid it. Oh. Which like, okay.

Okay. He's pushing Joan at this point.

Forbiding your child to do something, especially when -you're not a child. -not a child. Is really just a recipe for them doing it immediately.

Ding, ding, ding. Because regardless of her father's feelings, Joan and Cecil ended up eloping in 1949, and they just got married by a justice of the peace without anybody there. Yeah, of course. But unfortunately, this marriage didn't really last long either. Within six months, Joan actually just ended up leaving Cecil and filed for divorce shortly after. At the time, the Robinsons told friends and family that had been a good man, but that he had a gambling problem that had ultimately ruined the marriage. But the truth was actually that Joan's parents had lied to her about Ash having a heart attack in order to lure her back to Texas. And once she was there, Ash had successively convinced Joan to leave her husband by offering to buy her a new car, mint coats, new horses, and telling her that he needed her more than Cecil did. Big yikes to that.

I don't.

Know if Cecil had a gambling problem and maybe that was just like a fragment of the truth, or if he really didn't at all. It was just that no matter what, they lured her back there by saying that Ash had a heart attack.

That's fucked up.

And he did not.

I'm just going to be honest with you. That's fucked up.

Yeah. See, the thing is-.

We've crossed a very large boundary. The boundary is so big.

This is dysfunctional at this point. This is...

This is toxic. This is not okay. Nothing I've been trying. I've been trying to be like, parents love their kids. It's hard. Shit. Wow. Okay. You just love being near her. But you're right. Coffee is nice every morning. But no.

We crossed over.

I gave a big, wide boundary, and they just galloped.

Right over it. Like a horse. Like a horse. Like a horse. Now, by 1951, when she was just 20 years old, Joan had graduated from college and was twice married and twice divorced. She was still living at home with her parents at this point. She was really completely free of responsibility, but she was ambitious and eager to leave some mark on the world. She started competing in horse riding tournaments again around Texas and the southern part of the country. Over the next 20 years, she would actually go on to win, quote, over 500 trophies, and two of her horses won several top awards in the 50s and '60s.

Damn. So she was really... She was.

Really- She was really talented -really good. She really wanted to have... She wanted to make some name for herself in some professional endeavor, and she set.

That goal.

For herself.

And succeeded. She had to say. She very much succeeded.

She couldn't have picked a better time to be unattached and unencumbered because by the late 1950s and early 60s, the oil boom in and around Texas made countless men into millionaires.

Just.

Millionaires. Millionaires. Coming out of the woodwork.

Dallas.

Millionaires. This whole movement really transformed the city into a playground for the elite and the newly wealthy.

It's Dallas.

It's telling you. As a member of the Old Guard, Joan Robinson was at the center of Houston's High Society.

She was old money.

She was old money. She was beautiful. She could have had whoever the hell she wanted. Wow, look at Joan. Dining at the finest restaurant. She was being photographed everywhere because she's pretty much a socialite, I would say. She was getting photographed at the opera, at nightclubs, freaking cafes even. Okay. According to Thompson, quote the author, There were weeks when Joan's name and photograph appeared six or eight times in the papers. Always she seemed to be flying off to a horse show or winging in from Hollywood where people augled her at the... I think it's the Mocambo. Mocambo? It's a nightclub. I looked up how to pronounce it, and it's like a place, but then it's also like a nightclub. I think it's the Mochambo. Yeah, I like it. I don't know. I've never been there. I haven't either. It doesn't exist anymore.

Her life sounds pretty fun.

Yeah, fancy-free. I love it. Like the shit you read about in.

Good books. Yeah, you know what? It sounds great for her. Love it.

Now, despite all the trouble her father's overbearing presence had caused, Joan always made a point to share her life with her parents. No matter what turmoil and tension there had been, she did love her parents, and she loved her dad. Years later, after Joan's death, her mother, Rea, would tell her reporter, I often felt the only real love in my life was Joan. Every time I went out with my daughter, I had a wonderful time. She made me feel loved. She made me feel wanted.

Which that breaks my heart. That really breaks my heart.

Ash wasn't a real love for her.

Yeah, and it's like, damn.

I wonder if because they didn't necessarily have that with each other in their marriage that they loved Joan to make up for that.

They had so much extra love to.

Shower her with. Not in a marital way or anything like that, but it was a different love that they really devoted their.

Lives to. Well, that's the thing. As... I mean, as twisted as that love God at the end with that lying about a heart attack and all that, that's fucked up. But you know, even that was done out of, I think, desperation and because of a love that is a little different than we can comprehend. A bit toxic. Yeah. But yeah, this just feels like, I don't know. They needed family therapy. They did. They did. But this was the 15th. They would have benefited from it. Yeah, it wasn't going to happen then. It was not going to happen. But now I'd be like, just sit down.

With some people. Back then, they were like, Do cocaine about it. Yeah, that's fine. It'll intensify everything. Yeah, everything will be great. No, they were not doing cocaine. I'm not saying that. I'm just lolling because it's just in the 50s. But meanwhile, Ash continued to be a dominant presence in Joan's life. He was finding ways to drive off any potential suitors before any real relationship could begin. One former boyfriend, Travis Vell, recalled meeting Ash for the first time, and he said, I could see the hate in his eyes. That old bastard leaned on me every way he could. I got the impression that Joan wanted to get away from her father, but she both loved him and feared him. Now, as exciting as Houston Nightlife was, by 1957, Joan had grown really tired of the casual dates that were not really going anywhere. A future of jet setting and horse shows just wasn't as exciting as it once had been. It was great, but it wasn't everything she wanted. Now, one afternoon in the spring while attending a horse show, she ran into a man named Dr. Riley Foster. He was a family friend and actually one of the city's most well-respected surgeons.

He was in the company of a young man that he introduced as Dr. Joan Hill. Joan was immediately drawn to this Dr. John Hill.

Dr.

John? He was a very good-looking guy in Joan's eyes. He had an earnest personality. Later that afternoon, Joan called Riley Foster's wife, Maggie, and insisted that they set her up with John Hill as soon as they could. She was.

Really.

Into it. Look at her.

-i'm just going after what.

She wants. She is. That Joan is a go-getter. She is. She is. Now, let's talk a little bit about John Hill. Let's go. Let's do it. He was born 1931, and he'd been raised in the Rio Grande Valley, which is a section of Texas wedged between Mexico and the Gulf. His parents, Raymond and Myra Hill, had what one person described as a, quote, business-like marriage, based more on sustainability and practicality than on love or romance. Not what I'm personally looking for.

Yeah.

John was right in the middle of the three kids, and he was said to be the most dominant and energetic of the Hill children. He was known mostly for his curiosity and penchant for taking things apart to see how they worked, how everything functioned. Growing up, he and his brother, Julian, they had a really close bond. They were almost inseparable. That actually surprised some people because of their polar opposite personalities, which immediately reminded me of us. Yes, absolutely. Because all the time people are like, You guys are really close, but you have completely.

Different people.

It works. It just works. They developed a deep love for music that they bonded over between the two of them. That would really... They would maintain that love for the rest of their lives, and it was a huge part of their relationship. I love that. Now, that passion that they shared came in handy at Church, where Maira was a strict follower of the doctrine and raised her children to do likewise. She was a very devoutly religious woman. Now, it was actually her idea for John to become a doctor. She constantly reminded him, quote, There are 10 doctors in my family, and I'd be so proud if my two sons became the 11th and 12th. Whoa.

Lots of pressure. I was just going to say no pressure, though.

Even despite a pronounced defiant streak in his personality, though, John did make his mother's dream come true when he came home for Christmas break during his sophomore year in college, and he announced that he did want to attend medical school.

Look at John.

I know. He was like, Hey, Mom. I got you. Good news. I'm about to be number 10. Number 10. Number 10. By the time he moved to Houston for his medical residency, John had decided that there were too many heart surgeons in.

The area. A common problem.

Yeah, fuck that. He was like, Let me pursue plastic surgery because there's a lack of plastic surgeons in this region, and I could also become hella rich.

I was just going to say, and it definitely doesn't hurt to.

Pay check. He was like, Let's do it. Now, while some of John's friends and family remember him as a quiet, unassuming young doctor, there was also definitely a streak of arrogance and recklessness about him that people remember that occasionally caused problems. In one incident early on in his medical career, he performed surgery on an older person who was suffering alcoholism. This surgery was basically he was performing it in order to drain excess fluid from the man's stomach. I guess the procedure is a relatively common simple one, but there is a risk of puncturing the bowel, which can cause a obviously massive infarction.

You don't want to do that.

That is precisely what happened. Whether he realized that he had hit the poop pipe, for lack of a better term, whether he realized he did that or not is unknown. But when he finished the surgery, John simply sewed up the patient and walked away. And days later, the man developed peritonesis?

Yeah.

Peritonitis. Sorry, peritonitis, and ended up dying. Now, when John was called before the senior surgeon at the hospital, he flatly denied having perforated the bowel, but said if it did happen, it was so minor that it didn't need a repair when it did happen.

Honey, you can't perforate the bowel. You just can't. Like, even minorly.

You can't do that. Yeah. The surgeon that he had to talk to later said that guy had a million defenses, but he was so charming and so eager that I didn't want to wreck his career over one mistake.

One mistake. It caused somebody's life.

Yeah. I don't know if I would call that a mistake. Eek. Yeah. But anyway. All right. To friends, Joan and John, when they did get together because they did, they made a bit of an unlikely pair. To Maggie Foster, the woman who had set them up at Joan's request, the relationship actually seemed doomed to fail, in her opinion.

Okay.

She was like, I didn't really want to set them up.

I'm going to set them up. But- Set them up to knock them down.

She was like, I didn't have any plans to do that until Joan called me and asked me to. Maggie said, She knows horses and nightclubs and where Pa keeps his checkbook. John Hill knows how to play the trombone and make sutures. He's a mama's boy who winces every time Joan says Goddam, which is off. Maggie, which is off. Serving the tea. She's like.

Joan says God damn a lot.

She's like, Joan says God damn a lot. John doesn't like it. He's a mama's boy.

Fuck them both. She's like a daddy's girl. He's a mama's boy. It's like eee.

Yeah, it's not great. But Joan and John, they did hit it off, like I said. She was taken by his charm and welcomed the opportunity to share her luxurious world with somebody who still found Houston society exciting, which I think, in turn, made it exciting for her again.

Yeah, because she's been here the whole time. She's just been living this life.

Yeah, and it was getting dull because I think she.

Was lonely. But now through someone else's eyes, it's like, Oh, this.

Is pretty luxurious. Right, exactly. Now, more importantly, though, for one reason or another, Ash Robinson didn't lose his mind at the idea of Joan and John dating. This was the first time this had happened. In fact, when Joan brought John to meet her father and asked for his permission to get married, Ash was more than hospitable and even took an interest in John and his career.

Maybe he saw his daughter with a doctor. I think he just looked at this as a respectable career, the.

Most respectable. I think so. I definitely think so.

He's going to make a lot of money.

He is setting himself up for a life in.

Texas, not somewhere else. Exactly. They're staying here. He's got a lot of money.

They're going to be part of the social circle. They're going to be.

Part of the social circle. Part of high society. He's a doctor. Right.

Yeah, I get it. Years later, Thompson speculated it must have occurred to Ash Robinson that the alliance was on balance, one that he could live with. Joan was 26 years old, and if she had to marry somebody, then John Hill was not the worst.

Of choices. That's the thing. It doesn't seem like he's a bad guy.

No.

I don't know anything about this case, so I am just spew, spew.

I don't know.

That he is a bad guy, to be honest. Maybe I'll regret saying that. But right now I get why Ash was like.

This.

Looks fine.

I will tell you early on that I think you're going to go on the same roller coaster that I did.

Itried rollercoasters, so.

Let's go. I still don't know how I feel about John one way or the other.

This sounds so weird because we're talking about John. I know. I think John's great.

You're like, Take your earrings out.

Let's fight. I'm like, Yeah. We're not getting on a roller coaster, and after John, we'll get vertigo. Okay. That'd be bad.

John Hill, I should say. Yeah. Ash didn't say no. Yeah, he was fine with it. John and Joan married in September of 1957, and they had a ceremony held in her parents' huge backyard. It was-Gorgeous. -sure it was gorgeous. It sure was gorgeous. Gorgeous. The next day, the society pages and all the local papers described the wedding in storybook terms, like one outlet that reported, The bridge a glow and an elegant white... The bridge, the bride. I was like, I think it was bride. I think it's this bride. The bride a glow in an elegant white lace gown.

After.

The honeymoon, the couple accepted Ash's invitation to live with them at his estate, noting that it would help them financially, while neglecting to mention that it would also give Ash the opportunity to keep a close eye on his daughter in New South.

I was going to say, I mean, that was definitely the reason. He was like, Wow, you could just live in my house.

It'll save you so much money. For John, though, who had just begun his residency, living with Ash and Raya Robinson was a godsend. At the time, surgical residents were only paid $in $65 a month.

Damn. Crazy. Well, like breaking their backs to go.

Through a residency. Exactly. It was barely anything considering the work week that could range anywhere from 60 to 80 hours. Damn. The arrangement made it so that the couple not only saved on rent, but also benefited from meals and food and electricity and all the things that you have to pay for. Ray and Ash.

Coming to the rescue.

Exactly. In addition to all of that, as members of Huston society, most social events and other entertainment were paid for by Jones parents. They got to live this lifestyle and.

Not pay for it. Not have to rub two pennies together.

Without the crushing financial stress that most medical students experience, John and Joan were able to enjoy the early days of their marriage. But John's frequent appearances in the society pages was a constant irritant to the Ethics Committee at the hospital. They believed having a surgical resident among all that nightlife was ethically questionable. They actually insisted that he cease his celebrity nightlife appearances if he was going to continue his residency.

I can see that.

Yeah, I can see that. I don't want to know that my doctor is out all night at a nightclub. I don't want to know.

Anything about my doctor.

Yeah, just that he's nice to me.

When I'm there. I like my doctor. Say, I love my doctor. He does a good job. Yeah. That's all I want to know about him. I don't want to open up a tabloid and see him hanging out with whoever at.

The nightclub. Just like, Downing Cristal. Yeah, I.

Don't want to see that.

I'm good.

Do it by all means. Go. I don't give a shit where you're doing, Doctor.

But like... Dodge the photos. Yeah.

Dr. Jeffrey, it's fine. Just do.

Your thing.

Yeah, exactly. Don't tell me about it. I don't need to know. They're like, We don't need you showing everybody what you're doing all the time. Exactly.

The Ethics Committee, they weren't the only thing that put distance between John and Joan Hill because they did since John had to ease up on these appearances. Joan's schedule was usually really, really busy and required her to travel most days out of the week. John really hardly ever went with her. Even when he could, he didn't really. Oh.

Not making an effort.

No. The result of these circumstances was that they pretty much began living separate social lives. John focused on his career and his music because, remember, he's really passionate about musicand- Oh, yeah. -and Joan on her horses and competitions. But neither at this point seemed resentful or jealous of the other.

All right. They just have their own things and whatever.

And it worked for a bit. In June of 1960, Joan actually ended up giving birth to a boy that the couple named Robert Ashton Hill. They nicknamed him, or excuse me, I should say, Ash, his grandfather, nicknamed him Boot. Boot? Yeah.

That's hilarious.

I'm not sure what that was about. Little Boot. That's-oh, it's adorable. It's adorable. Little Boot. Hey, little Boot. Little Boot, Boot. I think it's adorable.

I love it. It makes me laugh because it's so cute.

I don't know if that was a Texas thing. I'm sure, yes. Look at little Boot. Look at this little Boot. A little cowboat, Boot. But the pregnancy and the birth had been actually difficult for Joan. For John, the baby was the first sign of major changes in his life that he had.

Been enjoying. You mean she created a whole human in her body and now things have to be a little different?

Yeah. Okay. She is dealing with the after effects of creating and delivering human life. It's a.

Little tough. It's a big thing.

For one thing, as we all know, children are expensive. They sure are.

Time-consuming. Very much so.

John, being in his final year of residency, meant that they would need to continue relying heavily on Ash and Reya, Jones' parents, for financial and practical support. Practical support? Practical support.

For Ash Robinson, though, the birth of his grandson could not have been a more laboratory event. He fucking loved that boy.

That's just like, I'm like, he just wants to like, I don't know. He just loves kids.

He loves his family. He loves his family.

I know, it's a lot. I'm like, he really does love his family. He does. It's just sweet.

He said, well, he loves most of his family. He said of his son-in-law's apprehension about becoming a father. I don't care if he's ready or not. We're very happy. He's like, I don't give a fuck about him.

I don't give a fuck about that guy.

I'm.

Happy. Yeah, he's like, I'm psyched. I'm a grandpa. I got a little boot now.

I'm grandpa fucking Ash. This is my little boot. Thanks. Shut up. That's so cute. That's hilarious. But of course, just as he had done with his own daughter, Ash adored boot and wasted no time, lavishing him with gifts and attention. That's really sweet. They were really close for a long time. I love that. John and Joan, they managed to survive the distance between them caused by their different interest and their social lives. They kept up appearances for their neighbors and the society pages. But I think becoming parents, and for John specifically, the baby, and more specifically, Ash's adoration of the baby, brought about new opportunities for criticism in the Robinson Hill household that was going to test the strength of their marriage. By 1963, Ash had become more vocally dismissive of John, telling friends that John contributed nothing to the household, seemed to have no trouble spending his own money on a piano or other musical interests, but not providing at all for his kid. Once at a party, Ash was overheard telling another guest, here comes the famous plastic surgeon John Hill, who never even bought his son a jar of baby food. Can you imagine being a party-goer, having that conversation?

You're just.

Like, Damn. John Hill is right over there, and you're in between that, the tension within that moment. I'd be like.

I have to go. That's like a mic drop, boom. That's like, he's not even buying his kid baby food, and it's.

Like eek.

Yikes. That's not a good look, my friend. That is not a.

Good look. Yeah. The thing was, in the world of Huston's elite, John was checking all the right boxes as he was climbing up the social ladder, but as long as he lived in his father-in-law's house, he was never going to be considered to be truly successful. In fact, when his colleague, Dr. Nathan Roth, offered him a position at his private practice, it came with the stipulation that John move himself and his family out of the house and into his own home. John was obviously very happy to accept this offer because tensions had gone past a point of-.

Being manageable at.

This point. -being any manageable. The $5,000 personal loan Roth was giving him was a nice asset. Yeah, that helps. So while the opportunity to establish himself in private practice was incredibly exciting, there was still the matter of Ash Robinson, or more specifically, how John was going to tell Ash Robinson that not only would he no longer need his financial support, but that he would be moving away with the two most important people in the man's life.

Oh, boy. Yeah.

Not surprisingly, Ash responded poorly to the news. I'm not shocked. Joan insisted that it was for the best and that the house that they found for their little family was only a few miles away, so it wasn't like they wouldn't be able to still see each other every day. Regardless, John had made up his mind, and in 1963, the family moved to their own home about 10 minutes away from the Robinsons. Not bad. At the same time, John eagerly joined Roth's surgical practice as a junior partner, anticipating a really bright future. Unfortunately, though, the Hills would not have much time to celebrate the positive developments in their lives because just a few weeks after the move, this is really sad, John's brother, Julian, was found dead in the attic of a family friend's home. There was an empty bottle of barbituates beside him. Oh, Jeez. Now, nobody really knew why he had ended his life, but there was a predominant theory that Julian had struggled with anxiety and depression for a long time and that he may have been living his life as a closeted gay man. Oh, that's so sad. He had a lot on him and the bleak future that he envisioned for himself because he lives in Texas.

In the- In the 60s at this point.

-the 60s at this point, very early 60s, that had just become too much for him to bear. But because this happened right as they were starting to get out on their own, it set them back big time because they were best friends, John and Julian. That's sad. It was the first tragedy that they really went through as a couple. But unfortunately, it was just the beginning of a.

Downward spiral. It'll test you.

They would experience a lot more tragedy. In the years that followed Julian's death and the start of John's professional career, Joan and John continued to drift slowly but steadily apart. After joining the practice, John, he really threw himself fully into building a name for himself at the practice and among the social circles. He acquired or achieved pretty much all the hallmarks of a successful surgeon. When he wasn't occupied with work, John enthusiastically pursued his musical interests, which left little time for his wife or his son. Joan often was pretty upset and lamented that John hardly knew their son and never really made any attempt to engage in the typical father-son activities like camping or sports or- Literally anything.

-anything at all. That's shitty.

It is.

To not make an effort.

That's the thing. Her complaints about this lack of a relationship were not baseless.

Because it's like, I get that you're trying to move up in the lab. You're trying to make a better life for her.

Yeah, be successful at.

Work and whatnot. But to not make any time for your child, that's on you, man.

It would be one thing if you were pouring everything into work. That would still be something that I would want to talk about. But it was like you're pouring a lot into work.

And you're your social status.

And your social status and your personal hobbies and leaving nothing for our son.

No, not impressed by that.

Because since moving into their home, John had spent thousands and thousands of dollars renovating the place to accommodate his interests and his tastes. Despite a substantial increase in his salary, actually, within just one year of private practice, he was making $168,000 annually, which would be like making $1.5 million today. Oh, shit. It. But the family was struggling with finances even at.

That level. Because he was going so hard.

Because he was going so hard on his own shit, not even pouring it into a little booth there. But the most important thing to John, in his own eyes, was to build a music room in the house where he could retreat. It's like, What are you.

Fucking retreating from? Retreating from what, man? You don't.

See your kid. You don't see your kid ever. He just wanted to retreat to play or listen to music. After contracting with Houston-based engineer Louis Earth, John told the man, Since I was a little boy, it has been my dream to build such a room. Money is no object. The only goal is perfection. It's like, Money is an object. You have a fucking family to provide for, and we were spending.

All of this money. It's an object, man.

Now, years later, Louis recalled his initial conversation with John, noting that the man was not just insistent, but he said he actually seemed obsessed. He was like, he.

Was really- So.

Obsessed about this room. -really intense about this. Not only did the music room dig the hills deeper into debt, but it also gave John one more place where he could escape his family, which he did not need. By the summer of 1968, after years of frustration, Joan demanded that he take a few days off and drive with her to pick up boot from summer camp, where he'd been for four weeks. He went to a little program.

John.

Agreed to take the trip, but neither of them knew that it would be a trip that only further complicated things in their marriage. Here, Joan is being like, Can you actually show up for once? Yeah. Then the one time this motherfucker does show up, it changes everything in a bad way. What happened? It was at Camp Rio Vista that John first met a woman named Anne Kirth.

Don't even. She was.

A woman who would change his life dramatically.

Don't even.

Like John and Joan, Anne had visited the camp that weekend to pick up her children. One afternoon, as John was sitting with the other families in the mess hall for lunch, he just leaned over and introduced himself to Ms. Anne there and her son, who were seated right by him. Over the course of the weekend, John and Anne just kept bumping into one another at the camp while Joan was off somewhere taking care of their fucking child.

Oh, come on.

When they returned to Houston a few days later, John called Dan.

He was like, Hey. Oh, he just had our number?

Yeah, he got our number over the course of that bonding time where he was supposed to be showing up for.

His son. Oh, I tell you.

He called Dan and he said, Oh, my film developed. Took a bunch of pictures while we were away this weekend. Do you want to see some of the pictures? Huh, I would love to meet up and show you some of the pictures. That's it. Just look at.

Pictures together. -yeah, totally. This is fine. -not fuck at all. -everything's totally fine. Yeah.

Anne knew that John was married to a society woman, no less, but she figured she would entertain the little fantasy for a little while longer before ultimately shutting it down for the sake of.

Decency and decorum. And come on. Yeah. What the fuck?

Both of you. What the fuck? But the problem was she liked the attention. Oh, fuck off. And more than that, she really liked John Hill.

Well, he's married. .

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Please, Anne.

Yeah, bitch, please. After a few weeks of clandestine meetings, I love the word clandestine.

Yeah, it makes it sound so much nicer than.

It actually is. I know. Secret asshole meetings. -fucked up.

-meetings. Bullshit. Betrayal.

Gross meetings. The clandestine, too.

We go. You have time for that.

Now you're fucking good, though. After a few weeks of those secret meetings, John was upfront with Anne about his intentions. She later recalled, he informed me that from this moment on, I was to consider my time fully taken up by Dr. John Hill.

I'm sorry, what?

He was like, You're mine. I want you. Marked territory.

This is really gross. Agreed. This is really gross. Yeah.

Well, and Anne was like, Okay, what about your wife?

John said- Oh, now you're asking about his wife? Yeah. I love that.

Did you hear about your wife? Did you hear about your wife? What about your wife? Oh, what? I was like, Oh, shit. I don't really hear about her.

Yeah, let's ask about her now that it's not sounding so great to you.

Exactly. When she asked about Joan, John said their relationship had been over for quite some time, and he was, trapped in a marriage. He had to get out.

Of it. Oh, shut up.

It's like, Then get out of it and give me a call once that's done. Exactly. Over the years, he said they drifted apart. They were living two separate lives. They had very different interests, different goals. She wanted to raise their kids. Did. He didn't. By the end of summer, though, John and Anne had become lovers. Now he had to figure out how he was going to get out of his marriage.

The fact that this man met this woman and this woman met this man at a summer camp, picking up their children. They should be ashamed.

Of themselves. -150 million %. Now, one fall day, Joan returned home from a horse show to find a note. I repeat, a note. They'd been married, I want to say probably 10 years at this point.

He did not burger from Sex of the City.

Fuck you. I wrote that in my notes. Did you? I literally, I will show it to you. Oh, my God. I literally wrote that in my notes. The note that he wrote her said, Things have not been good between us. I've gone away for a few days to find myself.

I'm sorry. I can't.

Donate me. And then this is what I wrote, Obviously infuriated at the equivalent of burgers. I'm sorry I can't know.

I'm sorry.

I can't donate me. I can't donate me. I do hate you. A post-it. Oh, my God. I can't. Well, same level. That's fucked up. That is. Obviously fucking enraged, Joan called the surgical practice over and over and over and over again, but her husband never returned any.

Of her calls. Her husband and the father of her child.

Correct. Never returned her calls. That night she went to her parents, which I would be like, Daddy. I'm writing it like I've been wronged.

Let Ash know.

Honey, you let your daddy know. Let Ash isn't going to stand for this. That night she went to her parents. She told them what happened, and Ash's instinct, this man's this man's of a fagea. His instinct was to hire a private detective to find all the information he possibly could to destroy his son-in-law. You know what?

Let's go. I mean, just parent things.

I'm sorry. If you leave- You.

Aren't my kid.

It's gloves off. You aren't my kid and you leave your fucking, my grandson, your son. Boot? I'm sorry. Gloves off.

You hurt Joan and Boot? Ash isn't letting.

This go. I would never. No. And neither would Ash Robinson.

He's going to get the Coast Guard.

On it. He's based on this. Logit. Joan managed to de-escalate her dad. But the next day- I mean, it's fun to talk about. It's fun to talk about. She de-escalated him in the moment. But the next day, once she had gotten over the initial shock of abandonment, she also felt pretty vindictive. In the two weeks that followed, she told everybody about what her husband had done, how he simply walked out on her and boot, and she was like, I hope I fucking tarnish his.

Entire reputation. Yeah, I'm Tom Petty, too. That would be-.

Which I have Tom Petty tattooed on my body. Yeah, like, fuck that. You're gone. Literally done.

You walk out on your wife and your child.

What do you expect? Then the worst part of this, and I feel like you'll agree, the worst part of this to me is finally, after the word had spread all around Houston, John called Joan finally, and asked if they could meet. I wouldn't answer any.

Calls before that. But now that he's getting.

It everywhere. Now that people are talking, then you want to talk to me. Yeah. Oh, okay. I'd be like, I'm busy. I have a manicure. Now, this is just hot girl shit. With her best friend waiting just around the corner, Joan and John met at a downtown restaurant. She had a BFF right there, and they met to discuss their marriage in the future. It did not take more than a few minutes for this conversation to turn into a shouting match, and John just got up and left.

Can't take the heat.

Can't. When Joan returned to where her friend was waiting, the two women jumped in their car and followed John, and the woman that they could now see was in his vehicle with him.

This is so gross.

He brought his mistress to a meeting to discuss his marriage. He was like, Wait in the car while I figure this out. This is so icky. I know. It's giving, if you're watching Real Housewives of Miami right now, that's what it's giving, my baby Lisa.

This.

Is just really gross. It's horrible.

I feel for Joan so hard here. I do, too. This is just really gross.

You will feel for Joan for the rest of ever. I really do. After a slow motion car chase back to John's office, Joan confronted John and Anne, the woman who was in the car, demanding to know whether they were having an affair. Now, this is where she gets wild as fuck. To her absolute astonishment, John lied and told his wife, He was having an affair with this woman's husband and that he was being blackmailed. What? Wait, what?

He said he was having an affair with her husband?

Yeah. Which was not true.

Why didn't he just say, I'm having an affair with this woman?

I couldn't tell you.

That is the strangest lie I have ever heard.

I don't know if it was because Anne was right there.

No, there's literally...

You can try to.

Find a little string of logic there. There's no string of logic. You're having an affair. Why are you lying about the person you're having an.

Affair with? I don't know. The only- I'm.

Just.

Like, what? I think because back then, being was so frowned upon that people thought it was something you could be cured of. Maybe he thought he was being like, Oh, there's something wrong with me and she'll forgive me for this.

I don't know about.

That logic. Yeah, that logic is ridiculous, but that's the only thing that I can see as to why he.

Would have done that. I'd be like, What?

Yeah, exactly. What? Joan was stunned by this news. Yeah. And also found it very hard to believe. Then she became even more suspicious when just a few weeks later, anonymous notes started arriving in the mail telling her her husband was having an affair, but with Anne. That Anne was only one of several women that he'd been cheating on.

This guy seems to have all the time. Suddenly all his time is just open. He's got lots.

Of time. My God, and he's a plastic surgeon. This really is Real Housewives of Miami.

I love that he's like, Yeah, I don't have to hang out with my child or know my child at all.

But I do have several mistresses.

But I have a handful of mistresses.

Like a straight up roster. Like a straight up roster. By then, he was more or less living in Anne's house, and had cut off all communication with Joan.

I take back my original John.

I know. I was leading you a.

Bit straight. I didn't know any of this. How dare you, John? I said it on purpose. How dare you, John?

When I say my opinion of John is like, I'm not sure about him. I'm sure about the fact that he's an asshole. I'm sure about this. I'm just not sure about a later part, and we'll get there. By then, he's living in Anne's house. He cuts off all communication with Joan. In response, Joan was like, I'm going to do my dad's idea. I'm going to hire a private investigator. She hired a private detective to follow her husband, which is how she learned for real, 100% solid proof that he and Anne were having an affair and that he was living with Anne. She didn't even know where he was living because he just left. Damn. And then she finds out that he's living there.

Are so shameful. How shameful for.

Both of them. If I was Anne, I'd be like, Why the fuck did you say that you were sleeping with my husband?

That's why I'm like- That's why I'm like Anne... Bye..

Now, throughout the fall of 1968, the Hills marriage had devolved into a strange dance of jealous stalking. Jones attempts to get incriminating information on her husband. It's just divorce. Just a whole bunch of nasty.

Just divorce. Pretend you don't know each other. I'm pretty sure this guy doesn't want to know his child anyway, so just let them go off together and it's fine.

That guy sucks. It's something. But instead of just getting divorced, Joan drove around Anne Kirt's neighborhood, started shopping where Anne shop, followed John regularly in the hopes that she would catch him in the midst of the affair. By the end of the year, private detectives had confirmed that John had taken his own bachelor apartment, which signaled to Joan that their separation was definitely permanent. At just 37 years old, she was about to become a divorcee for the third time. That shame to her.

I was going to say.

I personally don't think there's any shame in it. No. But I can't imagine having to go.

Through that at this point in time. In this time period, in this place, and dirt and in high society, all three of those things laying on her. I didn't take that into account when I first was like, Just get divorced. What the fuck? I totally forgot that she's been divorced two other times. Right. In that place and in that time and in that whole society, that that.

Would be looked at. One divorce alone would be looked at.

Exactly. But three, I can understand why she was a little scared.

Exactly. She was just going through it at this point. I think this is when she hit breakdown.

Yeah, this sounds awful.

I think before she was feeling vindictive, and she wanted to get some proof of this, and she didn't know what she was going to get when she got there. But then all of this just came to a screeching halt and hit her all at once.

Well, that's the thing. You can get so many little bits and pieces of, quote-unquote, proof.

But.

When you get that one- That just rocks you. -that hits and really shows you that it's happening, it's a different feeling.

It's a different hit.

It's a different hit because you can know it without knowing it. Then when you know it, it's like... The way that hits.

Differently is like eek. For lack of a better way to say it, you can't lie to yourself anymore.

No, you can't. Because once you see it right in front of your face, it's like over.

I should say you can't convince yourself that it's not true anymore. Not lie to yourself.

Because that's exactly what my ex from like a million years ago. The same that asshole. You remember, everybody remembers there were little bits and pieces. I would find that I was like, very clearly he's cheating on me very clearly. But when I got the one, when I was able to call that number and got that voice on the other end who was not a man, that he was under a man's name. I think it was. It was Jim. This person was labeled Jim in his phone. I just thought Jim spoke a little strange through text message to him. When I called that number and it was not Jim. It was not Jim.

The caller on the other line said, My.

Name is not Jim. My name is not Jim. She said, Who are you? I said, Oh, girl. Then me and her became friends.

I know, I love that. You did the other woman, that movie thing. Hell, yeah. I love it. Now, Joan wasn't quite.

There yet. No, this is a very different situation. We did not have.

Children together. Yeah, that's a whole different thing. You weren't divorced ever.

At that point? No, I was not.

You still.

Aren't that great. No, it's great. It's awesome. I love it.

Me too. But Joan, not quite there.

But Joan, unfortunately.

Had gone through it. She had gone through it. She called John, and she pleaded for him to return, saying that she wanted to work through their differences. Like, she wanted to give this a fighting chance. Yeah. But he explained that he was too wrapped up with Anne, and he couldn't see how he could just walk away from Anne. That is- From Anne. -devastating. And to be.

Told- But you can walk away from the mother of your child.

And your child. To be told, I can't just walk away from this woman after this man has walked out on you and your baby.

That's really disgusting. That's fuck. That's honestly despicable.

It is. Now, Jones doorbell rang one day in November, and she answered it to find a lawyer standing before her with a divorce citation. She was being served papers. The document alleged that despite John's attempts at civility, his wife's behavior had led to irreconcilable differences and that he was seeking to end the marriage. Joan was stunned and enraged, and she showed the citation to her father, who swore he would take care of everything. Now, this is wild. Ash was like, No, I'm going to take care of this. This is not happening. A few days later, Joan gets a letter from John asking that, quote, she become reconciled with him and forgive his transgressions.

The fuck?

The letter also noted specific details about his intention to pay back all the money that he had borrowed from Joan's parents and explicitly stated, It is distinctly understood that this is not my idea or intention to influence any judicial action now pending.

Did Ash have something to do with this?

I cannot-.

Confirm nor deny. Correct.

I can neither confirm nor deny. Many people believe that Ash did have something to do.

With it. Okay. But no one knows.

For sure. Nobody could prove it, but people thought so, which leads me to my next paragraph. Despite being on John's letterhead and burying his signature, the tone heavily suggested that Ash had used whatever influence he had to force John to reconsider ending his relationship with Joan. He was like, Allegedly, you're not going to.

Leave my daughter. Allegedly.

Either way, though, Joan was happy to have avoided this great embarrassment that she thought a third divorce would be and what everybody would have shamed her for. Everything that happened, notwithstanding, she was pleased that John was going to end his relationship with Anne and finally come home. I regret to inform you that her happiness would not last long. She's breaking my heart. Yeah, it's a tragic case. No one knows what 100% did lead John Hill to sign this letter, so obviously, allegedly, prepared by his father. But in doing so, he put himself in an unexpectedly difficult position. He had agreed to return home to Joan, but he had yet to end his relationship with Anne.

Oh, my God. John, get it fucking together.

Please.

Get it together.

Now, Anne was starting to get the feeling that he was pulling away.

Anne, you get it together, too. Like, Jesus Christ, everybody. Everybody get it together. The writing is on.

The wall. Now, in response, Anne pushed hard on John and those working in his surgical practice for information about his finances and.

His whereabouts. Now he's just doing the same thing to Anne that he did to Joan?

Exactly. Jesus. Exactly. Because she's trying to track him down all the time, the implication was either that she intended to sue him or she was hoping to get him out of his marriage.

To.

Make matters worse, Ash Robinson intended to make sure that his son-in-law lived up to his end of whatever bargain the two men had allegedly struck. Allegedly. And allegedly. And while John attempted to manage, I say quote-unquote, two perilous relationships, he was constantly followed, intimidated, and threatened by anonymous men who were allegedly hired.

By Ash. Allegedly. There's nothing to confirm nor deny that those men were hired by Ash. Not at this point. It's just somebody saying that they think that might be what happened.

It's Texas High Society rumor.

I was going to say, feels Texas High Society for sure.

It's also from the 60s. Yeah. Now, whether for the sake of everybody's safety or some other reason, John made the decision to move back home with Joan at the end of the year. I hate this. It's a lot. In the first months of 1969, Joan tried to make several changes in what she saw as self-improvements aimed at keeping John happy. Like, she was just trying to do anything she possibly could to save her marriage.

Yeah, there's nothing like getting cheated on.

Yeah. He, meanwhile, ran himself ragged, splitting his time between life at home, work, and of course, more clandestine. Alina doesn't like that word secret gross meetings with Anne. After everything that had happened, Anne was growing tiresome of the affair and started demanding that John decide between his wife or her. It's like.

Christ on a cracker. You knowbut John, goddamn. That's what.

I say. To add insult to injury, at the same time, John's music room was finally completed with a final price tag of just over $100,000. This music room cost more than their entire house. This one room inside of their home was more expensive than their entire home. And it's like, what? And it's just for him.

So he's just getting a fun present? He gets a fun reward after everything.

Yes.

Okay.

And the room was exactly as he envisioned it. Oh, good. And it gave him a reason to stay home with Joan, but didn't solve the problem because now he's just shutting himself in that room. He's home, but is he? But is he really there? Now, despite the letter he presented to his wife and whatever attempts at self-improvement Joan was making, there was just too much resentment and acrimony between the two of them to trip that marriage to ever survive. Within the first three months of the year, John and Joan spent most of the time shouting at each other or harboring suspicions. That's deep. That's deep. That's deep. It's likely that they would have ended up divorced had Joan not come down with what appeared to be a serious case of the flu in early March. Around the 15th of March, her friends became rather concerned about her health. She'd been sleeping a lot more than usual. She didn't really seem to have any energy for even the most basic social functions. According to Joan, she and John got in a fight over dinner the previous evening, and after struggling to fall asleep, he gave her a tranquilizer, which made her exceedingly tired.

Joan's two friends became more alarmed the next day when they stopped by to check on her and learned that she had spent all day vomiting. They became even more alarmed in the days that followed as her illness had progressed considerably. Now, by March 17th, two days later, Joan was constantly exhausted and experiencing regular bouts of vomiting and unfortunately, diarrhea as well. That afternoon when the maid went to check on her after John had left for work, he's leaving while his wife is in this condition and they're trying to figure out their marriage. The maid found Joan lying on the bedroom floor covered in vomit and feces. That's putting it lightly.

Oh, my gosh.

There were signs around the room that she had tried to make it to the bathroom, but was too weak to even.

Get there. Oh, my God. That breaks my heart.

It's horrific.

The next day, Rea Robinson, Joan's mother, stopped by to visit her daughter, and that's when she learned the condition that Joan was in. She had no idea.

That also breaks my heart because when you're married and you're that sick, you're supposed to be married to someone who will take.

Care of you. You're married to a fucking doctor. Yeah, and.

It's like she can't even count on him for that. That's really sad. Of course it is. The loneliness she must have felt in that moment. Because I can't imagine. I think that all the time when I get sick- About single parents? Yeah. What do you do? I'm like, My gosh. It just tears my soul apart.

To think about it. I was too all alone in that state.

Yeah, but to actually have a partner, a quote-unquote.

Partner, and to.

Still be left alone- You can't even count on them to take care of you?

Fucked.

That's such a bummer.

Absolutely fucked. Raya was horrified. Absolutely horrified at the state she found her daughter in and demanded to know why John hadn't called an ambulance.

Because like you said, he's a doctor. He's a doctor. He should know this isn't okay.

Yeah, like plastic surgeon or not. You went through all your residency, you're a doctor. She was told by John that he was, quote, making arrangements for Joan to go to Sharpestown Hospital where she would have intensive care and be treated like a queen.

I don't think it's that hard to make arrangements here. No, call an ambulance.

Now, at the time, because obviously she was so distracted by the state that her daughter was in, it didn't occur to Rea that Sharpestown Hospital was twice as far away as the Texas Medical Center. She should have just been brought there. At the time, it also didn't strike her as strange that under the obviously dire circumstances, John was prioritizing Joan being treated like a queen, but not treating her like one himself. It doesn't.

Make any sense. It's like, No, she doesn't need to be treated like a queen. She needs to be treated medically. She needs to be treated medically. She just needs to be treated.

Yeah. So after some brief argument between Ash and John, the three, Rea, John, and Ash managed to get Joan into the car. Oh, my God. John drove to Sharpsville while Rea attended to Joan in the back seat.

What? This is wild.

And it was a much further away hospital than the one that they could have gone to. Joan was admitted to Sharpstown Hospital on March 18th, 1969, for what doctors immediately assumed was a severe case of the flu. But that would be debated upon four years to come. At first, John's tone and that of the doctor he had asked to provide care for his wife was casual, and it hardly fit the situation at hand. It was only when one of the nurses checked Joan's blood pressure that they realized the grave danger she was in. In addition to the vomiting and diarrhea, Joan's blood pressure was perilously low, indicating that, again, she was in real danger. Dr. Walter Bertinot, I believe it is, recalled, I dropped everything and went over. I canceled out my whole schedule. Holy shit. Her blood pressure, I don't know a lot about it, I know you will, was a 60 over 40.

Damn.

Yeah. Like she.

Was- He should have seen that. Oh, 100%. As a doctor, he should have seen that something was dire.

-amiss. -here, damn. -blood pressure 60 over 40. She actually should have been in shock and basically on the verge of death. Holy shit. But the doctor found her sitting up in bed. What the fuck? Based on the symptoms she and John had reported, the doctor assumed that she had contracted some food poisoning or maybe a bacterial infection, which could possibly explain the wide range of symptoms she had described. The attending doctors attempted to get Joan's blood pressure up while they waited on lab results from blood and fecal samples. But within just six hours after being admitted, Joan's kidneys started to fail. Oh, no. Now, by 8:00 PM that night, doctors diagnosed her with kidney failure and actually considered moving her to a nearby hospital where she could be put on a dialysis machine. Holy shit. Because he's saying that he made all these arrangements for her to be treated there, but they don't even have a.

Dialysis machine. I was just going to say it doesn't look like everybody's ready for her.

At that point, Joan was far too fragile to be moved. Instead, they wanted to attempt a peritoneal dialysis, inserting a tube into the stomach and forcing a blood purifying solution through her until she could be stabilized. But the problem was that the physicians wanted John Zon approval before beginning the procedure, and he was nowhere to be found.

What?

John Hill didn't resurface until nearly 11:00 PM. By that point, the surgeons had gone home, hoping that they could still perform the life-saving procedure in the morning. He sat by his wife's bedside throughout the night as Joan slipped in and out of consciousness.

This is awful.

Sometime in the middle of the night, she yelled out her husband's name, and he woke up just in time to see, and this is very graphic, a torrent of blood race up from her innards and splash out of her mouth. The hemorrhage had been very, very severe, and despite their best efforts to stabilize her, Joan Robinson Hill died in the early morning hours of March 19th, 1969.

Holy shit.

They were just about to do a.

Life-saving procedure. What a horrifying death. Beyond. Oh, I feel so awful.

Beyond. Immediately following her death, John's reaction seemed quote-unquote, normal. We talk about this a lot, but it seemed quote-unquote, normal. For a man who had just lost his wife, he wailed, he sobbed loudly, screaming no over and over and over. But his hospital staff tried to comfort him. Several did find it odd that rather than call Jones parents, John's first reaction was to call his own mother and a friend of his, Dr. Jim Oates, who lived just a few miles away. When Dr. Jim and Doddy Oates arrived at the hospital, they were both shocked to find that nobody had even washed the body yet and that Joan was still covered in blood. Oh, my God. So, Doddy began washing Joan as carefully as she could while John walked in and out of the room frequently interrupting her. The fuck. Now, according to Texas law, anybody who dies in a hospital must be autopsied by the coroner within 24 hours of their death to determine the cause of death before the body is released.

Wow.

I know.

I thought that was great. When Dr.

Bertinot informed John that the coroner must be called, he acknowledged what the man was saying, but immediately instructed Dr. Oates to call a funeral home and have them come claim Joan's body to prepare for her burial as soon as possible. No. Yeah.

I would be like, You better find out what happened to my wife. Wouldn't that be your threat? You'd be like, What the hell happened?

You would think. He thought it was the flu.

I'm sorry. That's not the flu. You think that's the flu? I'd be like, Even if it started as the flu, what the.

Fuck happened? Or a bacterial infection, and it's.

Like, well- But why wouldn't you want to be absolutely sure?

Why wouldn't you? Exactly.

And if it's law, then let it happen. And you're a doctor. Why would you ever step.

In between that? And you're a doctor.

You know that. That's the thing. You know the law, and it's like, why step in between it if it's only going to give you more information.

I don't know.

Huh.

The doctor managed to reach the coroner sometime between 4:00 and 6:00 AM, but by then, the body had already been illegally removed from the hospital and taken to the funeral home to be prepared.

What?

Later, sometime after 7:00 AM, the coroner would make his way to the funeral home, intending to do the autopsy there. Yeah. But by the time he arrived, the embalming process had already been completed. Are you shitting me? And the technician at that point was moving on to the cosmetic procedures.

What?

Now, despite the embalming process already having begun, the coroner stopped the procedure and began his autopsy. What? He took requiset tissue samples and other biological samples.

I guess he's just trying at that point to get anything- I think.

At that point, he's like, I don't need my fucking license stripped away from me for not doing an autopsy.

That's the thing. You're doing what you can do at this point. I think that's what it was. He's trying to follow.

The law. Exactly. He took requisite, excuse me, tissue samples and other biological samples that could possibly help identify the cause of death. But as far as he could tell from his examination, there was nothing to indicate what caused Joan to decline so quickly.

That's the thing. It felt like it was.

So fast. It was a matter of days.

Yeah.

He thought it could have been a cause of acute pancreatitis, which could have accounted for a lot of her symptoms, but there were still other symptoms that didn't quite fit. Now, nevertheless, pancreatitis was listed as Joan's cause of death, and the funeral was scheduled for March 21st, 1969. But in the days that followed, questions and rumors began circulating among Joan and John's social circles. The top two questions on everybody's lips were, how could John, a doctor, not have recognized the signs of pancreatitis?

That's what's fucking me up.

Two, why hadn't he taken her to the.

Hospital sooner? Exactly.

Ash Robinson had his own questions and suspicions. I am positive of that. Rather than direct them at John, he instead went to the district attorney's office the day of his daughter's funeral. News of Joan's death had been in all the papers, and all of the papers were citing pancreatitis as the case. But Ash explained to the assistant district attorney, ID, McMaster, that he had reason to believe John was responsible for his daughter's death. Oh, shit. And he cited the following as evidence. He said, number one, Joan had been perfectly healthy up to that point. Number two, she only became ill after eating food and taking medication that was given to her by John. Number three, she was obviously very, very sick in the days leading up to her death, and John didn't take her to a hospital or allow anyone in the house to come see her.

That's weird.

According to him. Number four, he promised to take her to Sharpestown Hospital because she was going to receive the best care possible there, but when they arrived, the hospital had no ICU available for her, no bed available in the ICU. Again, like I just noted earlier, they lacked several of the machines and services that Joan needed.

Well, that's the thing. It's like he's saying, I made arrangements. You didn't make any arrangements. No, they didn't have a dialysis machine for her. I mean, that's insane.

Now, number five, he said, Despite having died within the window of time, necessitating an autopsy, her body was whisked away from the hospital to the funeral home before the coroner even arrived. Yeah, that's wild. Which I don't even know how they managed to get.

Away with that. I know.

Finally, he said he consulted with several area physicians who claimed many of Joan's symptoms did not sound like symptoms of pancreatitis.

I mean, I don't blame Ash for at least questioning this. I would also question this. You're not just going to take this as like, Okay, well, I guess that's how she died. Moving on. Anyways. No.

It's like in the midst of this crazy divorce. I'm not saying John did this one way or the other, but if that was my child and there was all of these circumstances surrounding this strange sudden death? Absolutely. You can question it.

It is Texas law here that she was supposed to have an autopsy. And you broke that. You went out of your way to make sure she didn't. Strange. That would be weird to me because I'd be like, No, my first thing as her parent would be, I want to know exactly what happened here. Tell me everything. I want all the details. I want to know what happened here.

As her husband, why.

Would you know? That's the thing. As her husband, you should also feel the exact same way, and why don't you?

You don't because you're estrange. That's question mark.

Question mark. That's strange to me. Right.

Yeah. So, McMaster, the district attorney there, listened patiently while Ash spoke. While he was speaking, he assumed that the man was still lost in his grief and needed to get these accusations out of his symptoms. System, you mean? System. All of his systems. All of them. But with each point, Ash's theory got maybe not stronger, but certainly more plausible.

To the man. It's interesting, at the very least. Yeah.

And the assistant DA there knew, sorry, I said the DA, he's the assistant DA. He knew that when someone as wealthy and powerful as Ash Robinson spoke, he was at the very least to be afforded the courtesy of being taken seriously. So he did. But by the end of the conversation, McMaster said, You know what? I'm going to look into this. But that was not enough for Ash Robinson. He insisted that they needed to get somebody to the funeral home that day to stop his daughter's body from being put into the ground beyond reach. He was like, I don't know. We're not looking into this. We're doing something about this. Knowing this would likely be impossible, McMaster, nonetheless, said he would do his best. He reached out to Dr. Joseph Yehimchik. I'm doing my best with that pronunciation. I did look it up. He was the well-respected coroner of Harris County, and McMaster explained everything about the situation to him. At first, Yehimchik couldn't believe what he was hearing. How was he supposed to stop a funeral right as it was beginning and demand to reexamine the body?

That's.

A big ask. But he knew that McMaster wasn't going to ask this if he didn't think it was important, so he made his way down to the funeral home, where he started reviewing the evidence and preparing to examine the body as mourners began arriving in the parlor upstairs. This is honestly one of the most wild things I've.

Ever heard. Wild.

As far as he could tell, the entire process from the death to the embalming had been complete and utter chaos.

This is just.

A lot. Although many of the tissue samples taken by the coroner were still available, the fluid samples had already been discarded. Not that it would have mattered much because the samples were taken after the embalming process had begun, which is likely why they were discarded. Probably. After talking with the coroner and reviewing the documentation, he decided there was no need to remove the body from the casket or disrupt the funeral. He said, I think I can make a determination from the notes and the samples that are still available. You got to go on with this funeral. People are upstairs.

He's just trying.

To- Talk about pressure. Yeah. Now, while the Harris County coroner reviewed the case, Ash started gathering evidence he believed would prove John guilty of murder. Most significant, he believed, were the reports from the maid and the butler, Effie and Archie Green, a married couple.

Oh, and Effie and Archie. Effie and Archie, cuties.

Effie Green explained how she had found Joan on the morning that she was taken to the hospital. Oh, that awful.

Way she found her.

Right, and how she had seen John give Joan pills, and she, too, suspected he was responsible for her death, for Joan's death. She also gave Ash a bottle of pills that she claimed John had given her for her own headaches and told the man that just after John had given her the bottle, Boot told her, Effie, don't take those pills. You'll go to sleep like my mother did and never wake up.

Oh, my God.

And Boot was little at that point. Oh, Boot. I don't know if he really said that, but that's.

What Effie claims. That's what Effie claims.

But.

Heartbreaking. True or not, that's a heartbreaking sentence. Yes.

The evidence was curious, to say the least, but McMaster couldn't get around the fact that, and this is just like his opinion, he was like, If you guys are so frightened by John Hill and you think he's a murderer, why are you still employed by him?

Because he's paying them.

Because he's a breached doctor.

I'm like, what? They can't just quit. I don't know. That's a silly question. You don't know their situation. I'm glad you agree. You don't know what that's about. Yeah. Because it's like... Okay.

I'm like, okay. Come on. It's also like, because I'm.

Fucking terrified of him. Well, that's the other thing. Okay, so I care about Joan and Boot. Right. I'm just going to leave Boot? I'm just going to leave this house and be like, Well, they're pretty scary. Bye. Bye. See you. Good luck, kid.

Yeah, exactly. It's also Texas. They weren't going to get a job anywhere else if they left John's house.

Yeah, exactly. He's like, high society shit.

Exactly.

He had influence. Yeah, you got to take that into.

Consideration with these people. Which he didn't. But a week or so later, Dr. Yehimchik presented his report to the district attorney's office, much to the disappointment of Ash Robinson. I know. After conducting his own tests on the tissue samples, the doctor concluded that Joan had not died from pancreatitis, but he said she died from acute focal hepatitis. According to the coroner, the blood test conducted upon Joan's arrival at the hospital ruled out any bacterial infection, and the toxicology report showed no evidence of poison, but it had been taken after embalming, so it was possible that it could have been corrupted. But to his best- Determination. -estimation, determination, she died from acute.

Focal hepatitis.

This will change. The results of the second autopsy were just as crushing for Ash Robinson, who still believed that John was responsible for his daughter's death. He was not done yet. He's a dad. He's a dad. He assembled a panel of doctors to review the findings, including Grady Hallman, one of John Hill's closest friends, which I was like, interesting that you would put him on the panel. Yeah. The panel is- But maybe it's to.

Show that this is somebody who could be biased. Right. But we'll see if he can just look at the information from an unbiased.

Lens as a doctor. -maybe it was pointed.

-yeah, maybe it was.

The panel was immediately skeptical of the findings, with one of the physicians saying, I will stake my reputation that she did not have hepatitis. In addition to the fact that Joan had none of the tell-tale signs of hepatitis like jaundis, they all noted that hepatitis is almost never fatal within the first few days of symptoms. They were like, I don't.

Think so. They were like, This is pretty wild.

Now, encouraged by the opinion of his assembled panel, Ash was hell-bent on seeing that John was brought to justice one way or another. To aid in this pursuit, he hired former district attorney Frank Brisco, a man known for meticulous research and an impressive number of wins under his belt. That spring, Brisco went to Dr. Yehimchik to pose some hypothetical questions. He wondered, was it possible for somebody to inject another person with hepatitis? Or could someone inject another person with a bacteria that could cause hepatitis? Now, Yehimchik acknowledged that when it came to such things, pretty much anything was possible, but those scenarios were highly improbable. Instead, Yehimchik believed that Joan likely contracted the hepatitis from eating shellfish on a recent trip to Mexico City, which is possible. But then a whole panel of doctors.

Disagreed with that. It was like, no.

Honestly, at this point, it's just a bunch of doctors disagreeing.

With each other. Disagreeing, yeah.

Whatever information Brisco was after, Yehimchik clearly wasn't going to change his opinion on the cause of death. He said she died of hepatitis. I believe it. I'm not saying I believe it. He's saying he believes it.

He's saying that.

In late May, another surprising piece of news came the Robinson's way, though. Just under three months after his wife's death, John married Anne. John Hill and Anne Kirth were married.

You've got to be shitting me.

Now, it gets worse.

Are you fucking.

Kidding me? The news reached Ash by way of a gossip columnist. That's how he found out. He went straight to Brisco, who assured Ash that this turn of events actually could be valuable should the case make its way to a grand jury.

That doesn't look good.

Doesn't look good. So Brisco was like, Honestly, I'm so sorry that you're going through this. This is terrible, but this could be good for.

Our case. Because it's like, even if you didn't do anything, dude, three months. What the fuck do you think that's going to.

Look like?

Under three months. Come on, you too.

Jesus. What are you doing? Now, in fact, less than a year earlier, John had provided Joan with a document swearing he would give up his mistress and commit to working on the marriage. The news of this marriage, this new one, not only meant that John had not given up his relationship with Anne, but it also implied that he never had any intention of reconciling with Joan and potentially could have been seeking another way out of the marriage, which, like I said, is helpful to a potential case. Of course. With Brisco's help, Ash took the new information to ID McMaster, hoping that the assistant district attorney would reconsider taking the case to a grand jury. And as luck would have it, something about the story had been nagging at McMaster since he was first approached by Ash a few months earlier. Actually, McMaster was suspicious of Dr. Yehimchik's conclusion. He consulted an expert on hepatitis from the Veterans Administration Hospital who informed him that while it would have been possible to inject somebody with hepatitis, it still wouldn't have killed.

Jones so quickly. That's what's so wild.

This person said that if Joan had died from hepatitis, someone would have noticed the signs of the illness far sooner and treatment would have been possible. This expert who had said all of this was clear that not having examined the body himself, he couldn't make any determination about the cause of death. But based on what McMaster had told him, it did not sound like Joan died from hepatitis.

For.

Mcmaster, who had big political ambitions and sensed a big opportunity in the case, the news of John's marriage to Anne and this conversation that he had with this expert strengthened the case against Hill. The assistant district attorney started building his case against John Hill for the murder of his wife. Holy shit. That is where we are going to break for part one because I feel like I just threw so much information at you.

Oh, poor, Joan. This is the like, Joan just breaks my heart because it's like, Fuck. Yeah. It's like that. What a horrible, horrible death, and to have it turn into such chaos afterwards when she was already going through chaos in her life and like, Poor boot. Just like, Poor Ash.

Poor all of these people. Just so many people involved.

Jeez, Louise.

This is really sad. It's a tragic case. In part two, it only gets crazier. I don't know how. I think, is actually longer than part one. I'm not going to tell you what to expect at all from part two because this story is about to take a fucking turn. Okay. With that being said, we hope that.

You keep listening. We hope you- -keep it.

-weird. But I'm so weird that you do mean things to your wife. Yeah, don't.

Cheat on people.

Don't cheat on people, though. Don't let them be sick and not do anything about it. Just be a good person.

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