Feb. 3, 2025

Joan Robinson Hill and Dr. John Hill - Part 2 of 3

Joan Robinson Hill and Dr. John Hill - Part 2 of 3
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Joan Robinson Hill and her husband, Dr. John Hill, were the darlings of Houston’s high society in the 1960s. Joan was a champion equestrian from one of Houston’s wealthiest families, and John was a successful plastic surgeon with a love for classical music. They were young, attractive, and seemed to have it all—a picture-perfect couple moving through a world of horse shows, charity events, and fancy parties.

But behind the scenes, things weren’t as perfect as they seemed. Joan and John were opposites in many ways, and their differences caused tension from the start. To make matters worse, Joan’s father, Ash Robinson, was a major presence in their lives. He was fiercely protective of Joan and had no problem getting involved in her marriage, which only added more strain. By 1969, the cracks in their relationship couldn’t be ignored any longer. The problems in their marriage came to a head, setting off a chain of events that would stretch over six years and leave a trail of heartbreak, betrayal, and tragedy for everyone involved.

Hear part 3 today by supporting us on Patreon.

Today's snack: Kolaches

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Hi, I'm Rich and I'm Tina.

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And if there's one thing we've learned in over twenty years.

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Of marriage, some days you'll feel like killing your husband.

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And some days you'll feel like killing your wife.

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Welcome to love, Mary Kill.

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How do you Tina?

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Hey?

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Rich?

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How are you today?

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Great? How are you?

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I'm okay.

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I'm a little bit sad. At the end of part

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one of this episode, we talked about the Lions, and

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I was really excited about the Lions game, which was

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last night. Yeah, and they lost.

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It was a big disappointment.

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It was kind of a huge surprise.

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It was I mean, you know, last year the Lions

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exceeded expectations. They went much farther than anyone thought. But

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this year everyone thought they were going to go all

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the way and not everyone everyone ever, So for them

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to lose in their first playoff game was a big disappointment.

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But that's okay.

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I'm gonna move on and I'll be okay.

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Who's the Lion's quarterback Jared Goss? Maybe he should try

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to steal Taylor Swift from Travis Kelsey because I think

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she's like a good luck charge. She seems to be right,

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so I should you know.

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Yeah, it's a great idea.

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Work on that, all right.

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I think he has a.

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Sense some shirtless pics of Jared got to Taylor's.

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Is not sure how Jared Goff's current girlfriend or maybe

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wife would feel about that, but yeah.

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You don't know Jared Goss's marital it's a shocked I.

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Know that is shocking.

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The other thing is, as you know, I'm flying to

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Paris tonight, and you know how I get on days

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that i'm having before I have a big flight, especially

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like to Europe or something like that, I just get antsy.

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I can't sit still, I can't concentrate on it.

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And you like to leave for the airport at least

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six hours early.

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Kind of why I leave earlier is because I just

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am antsy and I just want.

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To get on with it.

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I understand.

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Other than that, I'm doing great.

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Well on your trip to Paris is kind of it's

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kind of a quick trip. Really, yeah, I'm only going

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to be I really do feel empathy for you because

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you get there and you're going to be exhausted because

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you don't sleep on planes, and then you're expected to

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perform and yeah, you only have a couple of well

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you have more than a couple of days. But yeah,

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by the time you are acclimated, you're going to have

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to come home.

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Yeah, I really have two days in the office and

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that's it. So it's yeah, it's a little stressful, but

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I'll get through it.

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Oh, you'll make the most of it, and hopefully you'll

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bring home some yummy Parisian.

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I don't know if I will this time. I'm not

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gonna have much time, So just prepare yourself.

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All right, I'll prepare myself. I'll just go get some

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Costco with songs.

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There you go.

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I did make you a yummy treat today, though, yummy

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another judge of that. Have you ever heard of coolachism?

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Yes, yes I have.

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Well, I made colachis for you.

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Wow, you're such a star, you know.

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I'd like to.

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I like to do it up if I can. Then

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I had a little time, so I did. But if

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you're not familiar with Colachi's, they are a beloved breakfast

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staple in Texas. They're kind of like a pastry. You

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can actually fill it with fruit or sausage or cheese.

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I did fruit.

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I've got a blueberry kolachi and raspberry kolachi.

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So yeah, they're originally.

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From Nancy sirch.

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Czecho, Slovakia or check the Czech Republic, I guess. But anyway,

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here's your here's your COLACHIESE.

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Wow, enjoy them?

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It was like amazing.

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Did you enjoy your kolachi?

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I truly did. That was really delicious. I thought they

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were cookies when you said colachia, I thought that was

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like your little jam filled cookie. But this is like

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the size of like a bagel, so it's quite an

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undertaking you.

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I feel like they might be bigger than they're supposed

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to be, like wider maybe the pictures I saw. I've

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never seen one in real life, but the pictures I

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saw they look a little more compact. And I think

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the fruit to bread ratio is a little bit low.

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I think it could.

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It took me a while to get to the jam.

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Yeah yeah.

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But other than that, I think they are really good.

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Yeah.

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I hadn't eaten yet today, and that's good because it was.

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I mean, yeah, it's pretty. It's a filling snap. Thank

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you very much. I would give it a nine out

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of ten.

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Nine.

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If you would have used the cream cheese, it probably

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would have been a ten out of ten.

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Yeah, I would give it a nine out of ten.

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Good for you. I mean, that's that's a big undertaking.

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That's like dough.

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And I made the dough last night and it's kind

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of just like bread dough. And it wasn't that hard.

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It was a little bit involved kind of assembling.

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The whole thing.

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But thank you, delicious, You're welcome. Well, should we continue

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on with the story of Joan Robinson Hill and John Hill.

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Absolutely, But before we start, let me just mention that

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I looked up the house on Zillow last night and

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the houses for your sale, which is kind of wild.

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So we're going to buy it and then we're gonna

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air five million.

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Oh so perfect.

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It's a little outside of our budget, but we can

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airbnb it. I love Mary Kill.

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Oh my god, that's a great idea.

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Yeah, I have a great idea.

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Sure we would earn our money back.

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Yeah, just a couple of months. Have a Murder Mystery

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theme party in the music room.

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Yeah. But I hope you put the link to the

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house on the show notes so everyone can see it,

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because it's it's a very interesting property. A house is

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it's beautiful, but it also has you know, like the

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checkerboard tile.

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It's a little dated our style exactly, well.

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Right, I mean our start was like like pottery barn

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and this is more like, Yeah, it's very cool. Definitely

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you should go look at that. And I also just

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googled a picture of Joan and John, and I mean

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they are a beautiful couple. Beautiful couple.

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Would you like to give us a recap of part one?

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Absolutely? Joan Robinson was the daughter of a wealthy Texas

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oil man, Ash Robinson. Ash was very involved in his

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daughter's life, even moving to be close to her while

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she was in college and when she got married. Right

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Joan met and married John Hill, who was studying to

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be a plastic surgeon. They were a beautiful couple and

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darlings of Houston's high society, but they were also opposites.

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Joan loved her horses, she liked to swear, and she

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enjoyed going to parties. John was religious, who loved his

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mother and loved to play and listened to music obsessively.

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John had an affair with a woman named Anne Kirth,

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but was coerced to return to his marriage by Joan's dad,

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but he continued the affair. In March nineteen sixty nine,

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Joan suddenly got very ill. When we left off at

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the end of part one, John had finally decided to

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take Joan to the hospital, although she should have gone

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to the hospital much much sooner.

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For sure.

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John said that he had arranged for Joan to be

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treated at Sharpstown Hospital, claiming that she would be treated

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like a queen there. He decided to drive Joan himself

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rather than calling an ambulance. The decision to take her

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to Sharpstown was puzzling. It was a small suburban hospital

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without an emergency room or an intensive care unit, a

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far cross from the world class facilities available at the

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Texas Medical Center, which was actually closer to the Hill Mansion.

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But John insisted that Joan would receive special care at Sharpstown,

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and he was a doctor, right, He knew doctors all

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over the place, so everyone just trusted him. I don't know, No,

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I don't either. The drive there was agonizingly slow. Joan

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lay in the back seat, weak and barely conscious, while

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her mom, Rhea, sat in the front growing increasingly anxious.

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Quote he drove like a snail. Rhea later recalled, I

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felt like we were never going to get there. It

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was almost as if he didn't want us to. At

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one point, Joan's voice broke through the tense silence. Mother,

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I'm blind, I can't see you, she said. Rhea turned

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to her daughter in alarm, but John dismissed the comment

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as a blackout, showing little concern. When they finally arrived

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at Sharpstown Hospital, it became evident that John's so called

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arrangements were dubious at best. No one seemed to know

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that Joan was coming. A nurse eventually assisted Joan into

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a wheelchair and took her to a private room. John

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had contacted doctor Walter Burtonoe, an internal medicine specialist who

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practiced at Sharpstown. Doctor Burtonou was surprised by the call.

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He had never treated Joan before and had only met

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her briefly at social events. When Burtno asked him why,

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John explained that Joan disliked doctors, but had expressed favorable

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opinions about Burtono in the past. Again, Burtonou was a

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little confused since he really hadn't spent much time with Joan.

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John described Joan's symptoms diarrhea, vomiting, and nausea, making the

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situation sound routine. As a result, Doctor Burtonoe didn't initially

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sense the urgency. However, when a nurse checked Joan's blood

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pressure and found it dangerously low at sixty over forty,

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she immediately called doctor Burtnoe, who was just a block away.

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He rushed over to the hospital. Doctor Burtonou ordered IV

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fluids to stabilize Joan's blood pressure, initially suspecting food poisoning

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as a possible cause. He also requested ur analysis and

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stool cultures. But to say, despite the ivy fluids, Joane's

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blood pressure remained perilously low, prompting doctor Burtneau to wonder

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if Joan was suffering from septic shock due to a

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massive bacterial infection. By late afternoon, a nurse noted that

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Joan wasn't producing any urine, an alarming sign of potential

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kidney failure. That evening, Ash arrived to see his daughter.

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Despite her weakened state, Joan was lucid and managed a

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faint smile as ashe promised to fill her hospital room

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with yellow roses the next day to cheer her up.

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That would be nice, she whispered. Ash kissed Joan good night,

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not knowing that it would be the last time he

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would ever see her. By eight PM, Joan's condition had

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taken a dire turn. A renal specialist was called in

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and quickly confirmed severe kidney failure. The medical team debated

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transferring her to a hospital across town that had a

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dialysis machine, but Joan was deemed too critically ill to

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survive the journey. Instead, they opted for peritoneal dialysis, a

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procedure less invasive than hemodialysis but still a risk each

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other choice given her fragile state.

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So John knew this smaller hospital didn't have the appropriate

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facilities to really take care of her.

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I'm sure he must have. I mean, if you're a doctor,

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you make your rounds in multiple hospitals. I'm sure he

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was familiar with all the hospitals in the area. The

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doctors needed John's consent to proceed with the peritoneal dialysis,

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but he was nowhere to be found. Although he had

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visited Joan a few times earlier in the day, by

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this point he had returned home. The hospital called him

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at nine to fifteen PM, secured his verbal approval for

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the procedure, and informed him of the urgency. Despite this,

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John didn't arrive at the hospital until nearly eleven pm.

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What a guy.

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Huh, that's horrible. Why would he even leave her?

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I know exactly.

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When he finally walked into Joan's room, she was lucid

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but terrified. Please John, don't leave me, she begged. He

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pulled a chair to her bedside and promised to stay.

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By twelve thirty am, there was a glimmer of hope.

240
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Joan's condition appeared to stabilize slightly. John decided to step

241
00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:03.840
out and rest on a couch in the patient records

242
00:11:03.879 --> 00:11:07.559
room down the hall. At two thirty am, everything unraveled.

243
00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:12.080
Joanes's vital signs plummeted, signaling sudden heart failure. A nurse

244
00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:14.720
rushed to her side just as Joan suddenly raised her

245
00:11:14.759 --> 00:11:18.279
head and gasped. John, the on call resident, was summoned

246
00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:21.120
immediately In a last ditch effort to save her. He

247
00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:24.320
administered a shot of adrenaline directly to her heart, but

248
00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:27.600
it was too late. Joan Robinson Hill was pronounced dead

249
00:11:27.639 --> 00:11:30.519
at thirty eight years old. When a nurse woke John

250
00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:34.320
to deliver the news, he screamed no, repeatedly, rocking back

251
00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:37.080
and forth in anguish. Suddenly, he said, I need to

252
00:11:37.080 --> 00:11:40.159
call my mother. The statement struck her as odd. Shouldn't

253
00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:42.240
his first call have been to Jones's parents.

254
00:11:42.919 --> 00:11:45.639
Under Texas law, an autopsy must be conducted by the

255
00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:49.039
county coroner on any individual who dies within twenty four

256
00:11:49.080 --> 00:11:52.440
hours of being admitted to a hospital. The coroner is

257
00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:55.360
required to determine the cause of death before the body

258
00:11:55.399 --> 00:11:59.480
can be released for embalming or cremation. In Jones's case,

259
00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:04.039
this critical procedure was bypassed. After Joan was pronounced dead.

260
00:12:04.120 --> 00:12:07.600
Doctor Burton no informed John that an autopsy was mandatory.

261
00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:11.960
John nodded, saying well, yes, of course. However, while doctor

262
00:12:11.960 --> 00:12:16.279
Burton now began contacting the hospital pathologists to initiate the process,

263
00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:19.360
John made a call of his own to his friend,

264
00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:22.840
doctor Jim Oates. He asked Oates to arrange for the

265
00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:26.000
funeral home to claim Joan's body and began preparing it

266
00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:29.080
for burial. So he knew exactly what he was doing there.

267
00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:32.200
I mean, I wouldn't say one hundred percent. It could

268
00:12:32.279 --> 00:12:35.759
be just, you know, in the moment he started kind

269
00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:38.679
of making arrangements. But I don't know. I don't know

270
00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:39.759
for sure if he knew what he.

271
00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:40.279
Was doing or not.

272
00:12:40.919 --> 00:12:44.159
By six am, a hearse arrived at the hospital's rear entrance.

273
00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:47.679
Two attendants loaded Jones's body and transported it to the

274
00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:51.399
funeral home. By six forty am, the embalming process was

275
00:12:51.480 --> 00:12:55.600
already underway. Meanwhile, doctor Burton no managed to reach the

276
00:12:55.639 --> 00:12:59.759
hospital pathologist at home between four and six am, informing

277
00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:02.600
him of Jones's unexplained death and that her body had

278
00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:05.799
been sent to the funeral home. The pathologist, assuming that

279
00:13:05.919 --> 00:13:08.840
proper protocols were in place and that the funeral home

280
00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:12.600
would hold off on embalming, did not rush. He eventually

281
00:13:12.679 --> 00:13:16.080
arrived at the funeral home around ten am. To his shock,

282
00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:20.000
the embalming process was already in progress. By this point,

283
00:13:20.200 --> 00:13:23.600
all of Jones's blood and vital fluids, the most critical

284
00:13:23.639 --> 00:13:29.159
components for toxicological testing, had been drained and were irretrievably lost.

285
00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:33.360
Despite the setback, the pathologists conducted the autopsy as best

286
00:13:33.399 --> 00:13:37.120
he could. He examined Joanes's body, collected tissue samples, and

287
00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:41.159
inspected her internal organs. Most appeared normal, but he noted

288
00:13:41.159 --> 00:13:45.240
that her pancreas was unusually soft and inflamed, a sign

289
00:13:45.399 --> 00:13:50.600
consistent with acute pancreatitis. Based on this observation, he tentatively

290
00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:54.600
concluded that pancreatitis was the likely cause of death. The

291
00:13:54.679 --> 00:13:58.440
autopsy concluded by eleven thirty am, and Jones's body was

292
00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:02.039
returned to the undertaker to complete the embalming process. The

293
00:14:02.120 --> 00:14:07.919
possibility of uncovering any toxicological evidence was gone forever. In

294
00:14:07.960 --> 00:14:11.240
the early hours of Wednesday morning after Joan's death, John

295
00:14:11.320 --> 00:14:15.799
hesitated to deliver the devastating news to ashen Rhea. His friend,

296
00:14:15.879 --> 00:14:19.480
doctor Oates, finally urged him, John, it's your duty. You

297
00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:23.480
need to tell them. Together, they drove to Jones's parents' home,

298
00:14:23.559 --> 00:14:27.360
where John broke the news. The Robinsons were paralyzed by grief,

299
00:14:27.960 --> 00:14:31.399
ash and Ria Satin's stunned silence, unable to speak, staring

300
00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:33.639
blankly ahead as the weight of the law sank in.

301
00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:37.279
By sundown, more than one hundred of Jones's friends and

302
00:14:37.279 --> 00:14:40.879
neighbors had gathered at the Robinson's home to offer their condolences.

303
00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:44.159
On Thursday, Diane and Eunice made the drive back from

304
00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:47.759
Dallas to Houston, still in disbelief that their vibrant friend,

305
00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:50.240
whom they had just seen days earlier, was gone.

306
00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:53.440
Diana and Unis were staying with John and Joan the

307
00:14:53.480 --> 00:14:56.240
week before, and they were there when she started to

308
00:14:56.240 --> 00:14:56.639
get sick.

309
00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:59.720
That's right. Diane was livid and sought out John for

310
00:14:59.720 --> 00:15:04.360
anne answers. Why did Joan die, John, she demanded. He replied,

311
00:15:04.759 --> 00:15:08.200
she died of pancreatitis. I just didn't recognize the symptoms.

312
00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:12.080
I wasn't treating her for that. Diane's anger flared, Why

313
00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:15.559
the hell not? You've been through every goddamn specialty there is.

314
00:15:16.039 --> 00:15:19.200
Ash paid for it. John, on the defensive, claimed that

315
00:15:19.320 --> 00:15:22.360
Joan had refused to go to the hospital, insisting she

316
00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:27.080
hated them. Diane wasn't convinced. Then, answer me this, She said.

317
00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:29.600
If Joan was so sick that she died just hours

318
00:15:29.639 --> 00:15:32.120
after getting to the hospital, why did it take you

319
00:15:32.159 --> 00:15:35.080
so long to get her there? It doesn't add up, John,

320
00:15:35.399 --> 00:15:38.200
None of it does. Later that evening, Diane was seen

321
00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:42.039
in an intense conversation with Ash. As the discussion wore on,

322
00:15:42.279 --> 00:15:48.159
Ash became visibly agitated, his face flushing with barely contained anger. Finally,

323
00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:52.159
he stood abruptly, slammed his stetson onto his head, and

324
00:15:52.279 --> 00:15:55.440
stormed out into the night, leaving a tense silence in

325
00:15:55.519 --> 00:15:58.799
his wake. So Ash was a true Texan and couldn't

326
00:15:58.840 --> 00:16:00.639
go anywhere without his Stepta on his head.

327
00:16:00.679 --> 00:16:03.399
I think Ash was about as Texan as a Texan Kim.

328
00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:05.919
Be well poor, Yeah, I mean he just must have

329
00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:09.240
been breathed, yes, but both he and Ria must have

330
00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:12.399
just been so upset. The next day was Jones's funeral.

331
00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:15.919
At nine am, Ash Robinson arrived at the Assistant District

332
00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:21.480
Attorney's office accompanied by his lawyer. Addressing Assistant Daid McMaster

333
00:16:21.559 --> 00:16:24.759
with urgency, Ash declared, I have reason to believe my

334
00:16:24.840 --> 00:16:27.559
son in law murdered my only child. This is going

335
00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:30.960
to sound unbelievable, but it's the truth. Ash laid out

336
00:16:31.080 --> 00:16:33.759
all the troubling facts he had gathered. Joan had been

337
00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:38.080
in perfect health, vibrant and active, before suddenly falling ill.

338
00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:42.080
Her decline began after eating French pastries that John brought

339
00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:45.159
home one evening. John had been laid that night and

340
00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:48.720
presented the pastries as a peace offering. Diane had found

341
00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:52.879
it peculiar that John insisted on deciding who wait which pastry.

342
00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:55.240
For the record, they were not Colachi's that he brought.

343
00:16:55.360 --> 00:16:58.200
Yeah, I just started a sweat. I'm like, wait a minute,

344
00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:00.879
but I know you wouldn't do that. Ash continued, describing

345
00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:05.279
John's behavior during Joan's illness. Despite her severe condition, John

346
00:17:05.319 --> 00:17:08.160
delayed calling another doctor and only took her to the

347
00:17:08.200 --> 00:17:11.079
hospital when she was on the brink of death. Worse,

348
00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:14.279
the hospital he chose was ill equipped to handle her case.

349
00:17:14.759 --> 00:17:17.319
To top it off, her body was embalmed before a

350
00:17:17.400 --> 00:17:20.799
proper autopsy could be conducted, a move that, ashe believed,

351
00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:26.759
was intentional. Ash dismissed the pancreatitis explanation as implausible. At first,

352
00:17:26.839 --> 00:17:30.160
McMaster suspected Ash was merely a grieving father looking for

353
00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:34.160
answers in his sorrow, but as ashe spoke, his allegations

354
00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:38.200
piqued McMaster's curiosity. By the end of the conversation, the

355
00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:42.359
assistant DA promised to follow up within the next week. Ash,

356
00:17:42.519 --> 00:17:46.160
a man accustomed to getting his own way, boiled over. No,

357
00:17:46.839 --> 00:17:49.079
that'll be too late. I want you to get the

358
00:17:49.160 --> 00:17:52.160
coroner out here before they close the coffin. Don't you

359
00:17:52.240 --> 00:17:55.839
understand John Hill wants her buried as fast as possible.

360
00:17:56.400 --> 00:18:04.400
McMaster contacted the Harris County Coroner, Josi chickim Min's helped

361
00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:04.680
me out.

362
00:18:04.920 --> 00:18:06.920
I don't know, I would say just shimsick.

363
00:18:07.319 --> 00:18:11.480
Okay, we'll go with that. He instructed Jeshiviks to visit

364
00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:14.960
the funeral home and inspect Jones's body if necessary, He

365
00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:17.519
was to halt the funeral. How many times are you

366
00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:18.640
going to make me say this name?

367
00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:21.400
You could just call him doctor J. That's what That's

368
00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:22.519
what I started writing.

369
00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:25.680
In my notes. Doctor J quickly gathered some background information.

370
00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:29.680
He contacted Sharpstown Hospital to obtain joones medical records and

371
00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:33.000
spoke with a hospital pathologist who had conducted the autopsy.

372
00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:37.920
The pathologist said his initial conclusion was pancreatitis, but confessed

373
00:18:37.960 --> 00:18:41.319
he wasn't certain. At doctor J's insistence, he agreed to

374
00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:45.119
turn over the remaining tissue samples for further examination. Before

375
00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:48.400
ending the call, Doctor J pressed the pathologist about why

376
00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:52.880
Jones' body had been embalmed before the legally required autopsy.

377
00:18:53.240 --> 00:18:56.200
The pathologists had no explanation. I don't know, he said,

378
00:18:56.440 --> 00:18:59.440
it was just a screw up all around. Later, doctor

379
00:18:59.519 --> 00:19:01.880
J awry at the funeral home, blending in with the

380
00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:06.640
mourners to avoid drawing attention. After discreetly examining Joan's body,

381
00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:09.720
he concluded that the tissue samples would suffice for further

382
00:19:09.799 --> 00:19:13.480
analysis and chose not to delay the funeral. The service

383
00:19:13.599 --> 00:19:17.039
was a massive event. The chapel overflowed with people, with

384
00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:21.079
many standing outside in the driveway. Speakers broadcast the ceremony

385
00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:24.880
to the crowd, while two TV stations and several newspaper

386
00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:29.039
and radio reporters documented the occasion. As the service ended,

387
00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:32.200
Ash and Rhea entered the lead Cadillac limousine to head

388
00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:35.799
to the cemetery. When Ash spotted John approaching, he quickly

389
00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:38.039
told the driver, I don't want him in this car.

390
00:19:38.119 --> 00:19:41.720
Lock the s doors, but John was faster, slipping into

391
00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:44.200
the vehicle before the doors could be secured. At the

392
00:19:44.200 --> 00:19:48.079
graveside ceremony, Ash's grief morphed into rage. As he turned

393
00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:51.279
to walk away, he made a chilling proclamation, loud enough

394
00:19:51.279 --> 00:19:53.880
for others to hear. If the law doesn't get that

395
00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:56.160
son of a bitch, I will.

396
00:19:56.759 --> 00:19:59.119
Not content to wait for the Assistant DA to do

397
00:19:59.240 --> 00:20:03.400
his job. Ashe launched his own investigation, he hired Clyde Wilson,

398
00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:06.880
the same private investigator who had accompanied John to retrieve

399
00:20:06.920 --> 00:20:10.920
his belongings from Anne's house. Wilson took statements from Diane

400
00:20:10.920 --> 00:20:14.359
in Eunice, documenting their observations from the weekend when Joan

401
00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:17.839
fell ill. Diane had already shared her poison a Claire

402
00:20:17.960 --> 00:20:20.160
theory with others. That was what the pastry was. It

403
00:20:20.200 --> 00:20:22.799
was in a Claire, and the rumor mill was quickly

404
00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:26.440
churning in the town. Ash also spoke with Fie and Archie,

405
00:20:26.440 --> 00:20:30.359
the Hill family's household staff. Their statements saying they believed

406
00:20:30.359 --> 00:20:33.480
that Joan was murdered were written by Ash himself and

407
00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:37.680
left unsigned, raising doubts about their authenticity. The couple had

408
00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:41.720
continued working for John after Joan's death. Ash's dining room

409
00:20:41.799 --> 00:20:46.519
became a chaotic command center for his investigation. Piles of documents,

410
00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:50.720
medical charts, textbooks, and hastily scribbled notes from his discussions

411
00:20:50.759 --> 00:20:54.759
with doctors covered the table. Meanwhile, Assistant d. A. McMaster

412
00:20:54.920 --> 00:20:59.119
grew increasingly frustrated with Ash's constant interference. The old man

413
00:20:59.160 --> 00:21:01.680
called his office man multiple times a day, sharing new

414
00:21:01.720 --> 00:21:05.440
findings or theories. McMaster tried to brush him off, reminding

415
00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:08.319
him that no action could be taken until doctor j

416
00:21:08.599 --> 00:21:12.359
finalized the autopsy report. When the report finally arrived at

417
00:21:12.359 --> 00:21:14.839
the end of March, it was a blow to Ash's hopes.

418
00:21:15.160 --> 00:21:19.039
The conclusion was that Joan had died from acute focal hepatitis,

419
00:21:19.240 --> 00:21:22.519
likely of viral origin. While doctor j conceded that it

420
00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:25.799
was possible Joan had been poisoned, perhaps through a pastry

421
00:21:25.960 --> 00:21:29.440
or her medicine, the report maintained that hepatitis was the

422
00:21:29.480 --> 00:21:32.599
cause of death. McMaster told Ash there was no way

423
00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:35.200
he could make a murder case, but ashe refused to

424
00:21:35.200 --> 00:21:37.920
give up, he hired his own team of medical experts

425
00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:41.640
who reviewed the autopsy results in Joan's medical records. They

426
00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:44.960
found some red flags. Joan's chart showed no signs of

427
00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:49.400
jaundice or elevated billy rubin, two key indicators of hepatitis,

428
00:21:49.680 --> 00:21:53.319
and even the most severe viral hepatitis rarely caused death.

429
00:21:53.400 --> 00:21:57.559
So quickly, frustrated but determined, Ash sought out Frank Briscoe,

430
00:21:57.640 --> 00:22:01.519
the former Harris County DA who had recently transitioned into

431
00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:04.880
private practice. Brisco with his deep knowledge of the legal

432
00:22:04.920 --> 00:22:08.640
system and his connections with the Harris County Justice Department,

433
00:22:08.920 --> 00:22:12.799
seemed like Ash's best hope. John, aware of Ash's suspicions,

434
00:22:12.839 --> 00:22:14.720
knew that it was only a matter of time before

435
00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:17.720
the pressure would mount. One day, he brought Boot over

436
00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:20.240
to Ash and Rhea's house for a visit. When John

437
00:22:20.279 --> 00:22:23.400
extended his hand for a handshake, Ash coldly ignored it.

438
00:22:23.839 --> 00:22:26.680
John tried to make small talk, but Ash swiftly cut

439
00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:30.359
him off. I'm not satisfied with either autopsy, Ash declared,

440
00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:34.000
I want Jones' body exzoomed for a proper autopsy. John

441
00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:38.200
said he didn't want Jones's grave disturbed. Ash's reply was sharp,

442
00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:40.359
Then we have nothing to say to each other.

443
00:22:40.440 --> 00:22:42.720
Oh wow, we should mention that Boot is the son

444
00:22:42.759 --> 00:22:45.119
of John and Joan. We talked about him last episode,

445
00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:47.640
and he's probably about.

446
00:22:47.319 --> 00:22:50.079
Eight or nine at this time. Yeah, his real name

447
00:22:50.119 --> 00:22:51.559
was Robert, but they called him Boot.

448
00:22:51.640 --> 00:22:51.920
Boot.

449
00:22:52.440 --> 00:22:55.680
Kind of surprised that Ash didn't try to get custody

450
00:22:55.680 --> 00:22:56.119
at Boot.

451
00:22:56.400 --> 00:22:58.519
Yeah, I'm sure he wanted to get custody, but he

452
00:22:58.599 --> 00:23:01.799
knew without John being convicted of murder, there was no

453
00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:03.759
way he was going to get custody from his dad.

454
00:23:04.559 --> 00:23:06.759
It took ten days after the funeral for John to

455
00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:09.640
finally reach out to Anne. She was livid that he

456
00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:13.759
had not contacted her since Joan's death. John apologized, explaining

457
00:23:13.799 --> 00:23:16.319
that things have been chaotic, but he was dropping off

458
00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:19.240
his son Robert, who we just talked about. The nickname

459
00:23:19.279 --> 00:23:23.000
Boot was actually dropped immediately after Joan passed away. He

460
00:23:23.119 --> 00:23:25.200
was dropping Robert off to see a movie and they

461
00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:28.079
would have a couple of hours to talk before long.

462
00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:32.160
John and Anne's romance was rekindled. On May twenty sixth,

463
00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:34.680
nineteen sixty nine, just two and a half months after

464
00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:37.240
Joan's death, John and Anne went to pick up a

465
00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:39.240
marriage license. Y had two and a half months.

466
00:23:39.279 --> 00:23:40.079
That's disgusting.

467
00:23:40.200 --> 00:23:41.160
That's really quick.

468
00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:44.400
They secretly married and spent their honeymoon in a motel

469
00:23:44.519 --> 00:23:47.480
near six Flags of Texas while their children enjoyed the

470
00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:48.279
amusement part.

471
00:23:48.359 --> 00:23:49.480
Oh she had three sons.

472
00:23:49.599 --> 00:23:50.480
Yes. Yeah.

473
00:23:50.839 --> 00:23:53.799
Ash caught wind of John's quick remarriage from a gossip

474
00:23:53.839 --> 00:23:56.759
columnist who had been tipped off. He was enraged, but

475
00:23:56.799 --> 00:24:00.359
he was also excited. This was potentially explosive of new

476
00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:04.400
information that could damage John's reputation without wasting a moment,

477
00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:09.240
Ash contacted Frank Briscoe. Brisco Like assistant Da McMaster, was

478
00:24:09.279 --> 00:24:12.839
beginning to grow weary of Ash's relentless pursuit, but the

479
00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:16.559
news of John's rapid remarriage struck a nerve. It suggested

480
00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:20.839
a possible motive and gave Ash's suspicions more weight. Risco

481
00:24:20.920 --> 00:24:23.400
decided to reach out to McMaster, who had worked for

482
00:24:23.480 --> 00:24:25.599
him during his tenure as district attorney.

483
00:24:26.119 --> 00:24:26.799
The two men.

484
00:24:26.680 --> 00:24:28.920
Discussed the case and agreed that the best course of

485
00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:31.880
action to appease Ash and the public would be to

486
00:24:31.880 --> 00:24:34.880
present the case to a grand jury, which was convened

487
00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:38.559
early in the summer of nineteen sixty nine. Meanwhile, John's

488
00:24:38.559 --> 00:24:42.200
plastic surgery practice began to suffer. The whispers around town

489
00:24:42.279 --> 00:24:46.000
grew louder, and the gossip about his hasty remarriage began

490
00:24:46.039 --> 00:24:47.519
to take a toll on his reputation.

491
00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:49.759
I was just going to ask about that, because you

492
00:24:49.839 --> 00:24:52.759
had said that John and Joan were sweethearts of the

493
00:24:52.839 --> 00:24:57.720
Houston High society. So they kind of turned their backs

494
00:24:57.720 --> 00:25:00.359
on him then after that quick marriage.

495
00:25:00.079 --> 00:25:00.920
Yes, very much so.

496
00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:05.759
John endured Ash's relentless accusations with restraint until he learned

497
00:25:05.759 --> 00:25:09.400
that Ash was now suggesting John's involvement in the tragic

498
00:25:09.480 --> 00:25:12.680
death of his own brother years earlier. That crossed the

499
00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:17.000
line for John. Furious, he contacted private investigator Clyde Wilson,

500
00:25:17.039 --> 00:25:20.240
who was no longer working for Ash. Wilson recommended that

501
00:25:20.319 --> 00:25:23.000
John volunteer for a lie detector test to clear his

502
00:25:23.119 --> 00:25:26.480
name and dispel the cloud of suspicion looming over him.

503
00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:29.880
We talked about what was his brother's name, Julian, Julian,

504
00:25:29.960 --> 00:25:34.119
and Julian took his own life, allegedly over his frustration

505
00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:36.799
over his sexuality. I think you implied, yep.

506
00:25:37.240 --> 00:25:40.319
John mulled over the suggestion for several days before making

507
00:25:40.359 --> 00:25:43.359
his decision. He would take the test, but only under

508
00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:47.920
specific conditions. He refused to undergo a standard polygraph examination,

509
00:25:48.079 --> 00:25:51.720
claiming that he had no faith in its reliability. Instead,

510
00:25:51.759 --> 00:25:55.359
he would submit to a sodium pentathal injection, often referred

511
00:25:55.400 --> 00:25:56.559
to as truth serum.

512
00:25:57.039 --> 00:25:58.519
Oh that's really interesting.

513
00:25:58.519 --> 00:26:00.880
I know, I've never seen a case where truth series.

514
00:26:00.920 --> 00:26:02.839
You didn't really know if that was real.

515
00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:06.039
It was back in the day, so it's not admissible

516
00:26:06.039 --> 00:26:09.400
in court, but sodium pentathal had been used in some

517
00:26:09.480 --> 00:26:14.000
law enforcement circles in the nineteen sixties, despite growing skepticism

518
00:26:14.039 --> 00:26:18.359
about its accuracy in detecting lies. John also stipulated that

519
00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:21.000
the test must take place at a hospital, not the

520
00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:25.359
police station, and that the entire procedure would be recorded. Lastly,

521
00:26:25.400 --> 00:26:28.119
He demanded that both parties swear to keep the details

522
00:26:28.119 --> 00:26:30.039
of the test confidential from the media.

523
00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:31.400
The proposal was.

524
00:26:31.359 --> 00:26:35.240
Sent to Assistant DA McMaster, who accepted the conditions. In

525
00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:38.480
early June nineteen sixty nine, John underwent the test at

526
00:26:38.519 --> 00:26:43.079
Sharpstown Hospital. The anesthesiologist who administered the procedure was a

527
00:26:43.079 --> 00:26:46.480
familiar face, having worked on ten to fifteen of John's

528
00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:49.640
surgeries over the years, though none in the past two years.

529
00:26:50.200 --> 00:26:53.680
After making some inquiries, McMaster was satisfied that the doctor

530
00:26:53.799 --> 00:26:55.519
was ethical and unbiased.

531
00:26:56.039 --> 00:26:58.799
Do you think the sodium pentathal makes you like kind

532
00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:00.880
of drunk and loose life a little bit?

533
00:27:01.359 --> 00:27:01.599
Maybe?

534
00:27:01.599 --> 00:27:05.680
I think it's basically it's an anesthesia, And basically the

535
00:27:05.759 --> 00:27:08.400
idea behind using it as a truth serum is that

536
00:27:08.440 --> 00:27:11.279
you give just enough of it through an IV that

537
00:27:11.319 --> 00:27:15.359
the patient is not completely under but they're just scroggy, yeah,

538
00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:18.160
and so they're more likely to tell the truth, I guess.

539
00:27:18.440 --> 00:27:20.160
But again, I think it was I think it's been

540
00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:25.079
largely disproven that it's accurate under the influence of sodium pentathal.

541
00:27:25.160 --> 00:27:28.720
John answered all the questions posed to him. Nickmaster noted

542
00:27:28.759 --> 00:27:33.079
that John appeared almost unnervingly composed his responses came off

543
00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:38.839
as rehearsed, too precise for someone undergoing a supposedly spontaneous examination.

544
00:27:39.720 --> 00:27:42.160
When asked if he had caused Joan to ingest anything,

545
00:27:42.319 --> 00:27:45.039
or had injected anything that could have contributed to her

546
00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:50.079
or worsened her illness, John responded with a firm, unwavering no, sir,

547
00:27:50.240 --> 00:27:54.319
I did not. The interrogators pressed further, not in any way,

548
00:27:54.359 --> 00:27:58.559
shape or form, to which he replied again, without hesitation, no, sir.

549
00:27:59.480 --> 00:28:01.039
We'll be back after a break.

550
00:28:07.240 --> 00:28:10.119
The grand jury that had convened in early summer nineteen

551
00:28:10.200 --> 00:28:13.400
sixty nine ended without bringing any indictment in the death

552
00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:16.839
of Joan. There was simply no hard evidence. The foreman

553
00:28:16.920 --> 00:28:19.440
of the grand jury later said to a reporter that,

554
00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:22.359
certainly there was evidence that John Hill wasn't a very

555
00:28:22.400 --> 00:28:26.480
good husband, but they couldn't indict someone for adultery. But

556
00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:28.640
you can indict a ham sandwich.

557
00:28:29.839 --> 00:28:33.200
Well, I I don't believe I know what you're talking about.

558
00:28:33.319 --> 00:28:34.720
You've never heard that saying before.

559
00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:35.680
I don't think so.

560
00:28:36.279 --> 00:28:38.440
Just one of those things that people say, like you

561
00:28:38.480 --> 00:28:40.000
can indict anything you want to.

562
00:28:40.279 --> 00:28:42.839
Okay, interesting, I've learned something new today.

563
00:28:43.400 --> 00:28:45.160
That's funny because it's usually the other way around. You

564
00:28:45.160 --> 00:28:47.720
always see these things. They're like, I've never heard that before.

565
00:28:48.359 --> 00:28:53.000
Well that one. Ash was outraged, of course. Assistant Da

566
00:28:53.279 --> 00:28:55.960
McMaster was at the end of his rope with Ash.

567
00:28:56.039 --> 00:28:58.400
He said, show me some evidence and I'll get an

568
00:28:58.440 --> 00:29:01.920
indictment and that is prison. Decisely what ashe intended to

569
00:29:01.960 --> 00:29:05.200
do on the advice of his medical experts, ashe became

570
00:29:05.279 --> 00:29:08.319
convinced that the best chance to uncover hard evidence about

571
00:29:08.519 --> 00:29:12.640
Joan's death was to exhume her body and conduct another autopsy,

572
00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:16.279
this time with the top pathologists in the country, supported

573
00:29:16.279 --> 00:29:19.759
by a team of leading medical professionals. Normally, such a

574
00:29:19.799 --> 00:29:22.960
request would have to come from the next of kin John.

575
00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:27.079
In this case, however, a grand jury could also request

576
00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:31.359
an exhumation, provided a judge approved it. Determined to pursue

577
00:29:31.400 --> 00:29:35.000
this path, Ashe urged his attorney, Frank Briscoe to push

578
00:29:35.039 --> 00:29:38.720
for the exhumation, assuring him that the money was no object.

579
00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:43.759
But Briscoe, worned down by Ash's relentless determination, made inquiries

580
00:29:43.799 --> 00:29:46.960
of his own and concluded that his second autopsy would

581
00:29:47.079 --> 00:29:51.119
likely yield little new evidence. He advised Ashe to let

582
00:29:51.119 --> 00:29:54.559
go of the idea and move on with his life. Ash, however,

583
00:29:54.680 --> 00:29:59.160
refused to back down, and frustration, he fired Briscoe, who

584
00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:03.079
later told a report Ash has had an absolute fixation

585
00:30:03.200 --> 00:30:06.200
on his daughter's death. I've never seen anything like it.

586
00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:08.680
I kind of can't blame Ash. I mean, if you

587
00:30:08.799 --> 00:30:09.839
really know.

588
00:30:10.759 --> 00:30:12.359
Yeah, if you've got more money than you know what

589
00:30:12.400 --> 00:30:14.839
to do with, and you, you know, think that there's

590
00:30:14.839 --> 00:30:17.720
something suspicious about your daughter's death, why wouldn't you use

591
00:30:17.720 --> 00:30:18.839
every avenue you had to?

592
00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:22.000
Yeah, I think I get an Ash then turned to

593
00:30:22.039 --> 00:30:26.000
his close friend and fellow Houston businessman, Cecil Hayden for advice.

594
00:30:26.599 --> 00:30:30.599
Hayden suggested that Ash hire the city's most prestigious law firm,

595
00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:35.920
Vincent Elkins, Weem's, Searles and Connolly. Renowned for its influence

596
00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:39.759
and legal prowess. The firm boasted an army of talented attorneys.

597
00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:43.200
I'm surprised Ash didn't hire them. Off the bat. Ash

598
00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:46.359
retained a young, but highly regarded lawyer from the firm,

599
00:30:46.720 --> 00:30:51.359
Richard Keaton. Keaton approached the matter with discretion. He quietly

600
00:30:51.400 --> 00:30:54.440
inquired at the DA's office to gauge District Attorney Carol

601
00:30:54.559 --> 00:30:59.920
Vance's stance on the exhumation. Vance, like his assistant Daid McMaster,

602
00:31:00.680 --> 00:31:04.160
was weary of the Johan Robinson Hill case. However, with

603
00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:07.640
political ambitions of his own, Vance understood the value of

604
00:31:07.680 --> 00:31:11.960
cooperating with a law firm as powerful as Vinson and Elkins.

605
00:31:12.440 --> 00:31:17.079
Buoyed by Keaton's encouragement, Ash launched a strategic campaign to

606
00:31:17.279 --> 00:31:21.720
build support for the exhumation. He persuaded several prominent Houston

607
00:31:21.799 --> 00:31:25.960
physicians to write letters to da Vance urging further investigation

608
00:31:26.039 --> 00:31:30.000
into Jones' death through another autopsy. Ash also wrote directly

609
00:31:30.039 --> 00:31:33.400
to Vance, offering to cover all expenses, including the cost

610
00:31:33.480 --> 00:31:38.000
of securing the best pathologist in the country. Facing mounting pressure,

611
00:31:38.119 --> 00:31:41.039
Vance decided to present the matter to a new grand jury.

612
00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:45.000
After reviewing the evidence, including a heartfelt plea from Ash,

613
00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:49.400
the grand jury voted in favor of proceeding with the exhumation.

614
00:31:50.160 --> 00:31:54.160
Ash hired doctor Milton Helpern, the renowned chief medical examiner

615
00:31:54.200 --> 00:31:57.640
of New York City, often described as Sherlock Holmes, with

616
00:31:57.680 --> 00:32:02.319
a microscope. Widely considered the nation's top coroner. Helpern's expertise

617
00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:05.240
came with a hefty price tech for Ash, rumored to

618
00:32:05.279 --> 00:32:08.559
be in this sixth figure range, though the exact amount

619
00:32:08.599 --> 00:32:12.599
was undisclosed until now. John had not retained an attorney,

620
00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:15.599
but news of the exhumation prompted him to act. He

621
00:32:15.720 --> 00:32:21.000
hired Richard Racehorse Haynes, a legendary trial lawyer whose nickname

622
00:32:21.079 --> 00:32:24.759
stemmed from his high school football days. Racehorse advised John

623
00:32:24.799 --> 00:32:27.960
to assemble a team of medical professionals to observe the

624
00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:31.839
autopsy and safeguard his interests. You can bet your last

625
00:32:31.880 --> 00:32:34.880
dollar ashe will have his own team there, he warned.

626
00:32:35.440 --> 00:32:38.400
On August sixteenth, nineteen sixty nine, jones grave was dog

627
00:32:38.480 --> 00:32:41.599
up in our casket transported to ben Top Hospital for

628
00:32:41.759 --> 00:32:46.000
another autopsy. Doctor Helpern led the procedure, while Ash and

629
00:32:46.079 --> 00:32:49.680
John both had their respective medical teams present. Ash's side

630
00:32:49.680 --> 00:32:53.799
included several prominent physicians, while John's team consisted of three

631
00:32:53.799 --> 00:32:58.440
pathologists and two additional doctors. The moment the casket was opened,

632
00:32:58.480 --> 00:33:03.160
something unexpected was to severed. Dried mud inside. The mud

633
00:33:03.279 --> 00:33:07.160
was old, predating that day's excuamation. This raised an immediate

634
00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:11.920
question had Jones's casket been disturbed before? Shock and confusion

635
00:33:12.039 --> 00:33:15.960
swept through the room as the revelations sunk in. Investigations

636
00:33:16.039 --> 00:33:19.680
quickly uncovered that just three days after Joan's burial, John

637
00:33:19.720 --> 00:33:22.400
had obtained a permit from the health department to have

638
00:33:22.599 --> 00:33:26.920
her grave opened. Yes, oh my gosh. John explained that

639
00:33:26.960 --> 00:33:29.359
he had been searching for a valuable ring he believed

640
00:33:29.400 --> 00:33:32.960
Joan had been buried with. According to cemetery staff, John

641
00:33:33.160 --> 00:33:37.680
personally inspected Joan's body but didn't find the ring. This

642
00:33:37.799 --> 00:33:42.079
process was brief, and Joan's grave was resealed. Wow.

643
00:33:42.119 --> 00:33:44.400
I know, that's quite a revelation, isn't it. I mean,

644
00:33:44.440 --> 00:33:47.200
I just can only imagine how shocked the doctors were

645
00:33:47.240 --> 00:33:48.599
when they figured that out.

646
00:33:48.720 --> 00:33:51.759
I just can't imagine. Whoever makes that decision was like,

647
00:33:51.839 --> 00:33:54.960
oh yeah, well, because that's not an easy thing to

648
00:33:55.440 --> 00:33:56.799
get right, passed right.

649
00:33:56.920 --> 00:33:57.640
Yeah.

650
00:33:57.759 --> 00:34:01.720
To Ash's team of doctors, this incident appeared deeply suspicious.

651
00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:04.960
They speculated that John might have been searching for evidence

652
00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.079
of incriminating needle marks rather than a lost ring. Months later,

653
00:34:09.079 --> 00:34:12.519
a college friend of Jones, who had selected her burial dress,

654
00:34:12.559 --> 00:34:15.840
recalled a conversation with John when she asked if Joan

655
00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:19.719
should be buried with any jewelry. John had insisted no,

656
00:34:20.079 --> 00:34:25.039
absolutely not. As the autopsy proceeded, Hulpert identified needle marks

657
00:34:25.039 --> 00:34:28.119
on Joanes's arm, but determined they were consistent with the

658
00:34:28.159 --> 00:34:32.000
ivs she received in the hospital. No unexplained marks were found.

659
00:34:32.559 --> 00:34:37.440
Then came a startling discovery. Jones's heart was missing. That's crazy.

660
00:34:40.039 --> 00:34:44.480
Doctor Morris, the hospital pathologist who had conducted the initial autopsy,

661
00:34:44.559 --> 00:34:47.639
explained that he had removed it for further study. He

662
00:34:47.760 --> 00:34:51.000
defended the decision, stating that proper analysis of the heart

663
00:34:51.360 --> 00:34:54.559
would have been unnecessary if Joan's blood had been available,

664
00:34:54.880 --> 00:34:59.039
but the embalming mishap had rendered that impossible. The shocks

665
00:34:59.039 --> 00:35:03.480
didn't end there. Her brain was also missing. When questioned,

666
00:35:03.519 --> 00:35:07.679
doctor Morris casually admitted, Oh, it's in the trunk of

667
00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:10.320
my car. I'll go get it.

668
00:35:11.079 --> 00:35:14.559
What the are you kidding, I'm kidding?

669
00:35:14.639 --> 00:35:17.920
Oh my, oh my god. Disbelief rippled through the room,

670
00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:21.960
but Morris clarified during the original autopsy had preserved Joan's

671
00:35:21.960 --> 00:35:25.639
brain in formulin, a solution used to fix tissue for

672
00:35:25.760 --> 00:35:29.800
microscopic examination. This was common. He claimed it was in

673
00:35:29.800 --> 00:35:32.280
his car because he was in the process of transferring

674
00:35:32.280 --> 00:35:35.559
a number of specimens between labs. True to his word,

675
00:35:35.840 --> 00:35:40.039
Morris retrieved the brain, now sectioned and stored in a container.

676
00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:46.840
Oh gosh, that's crazy. The autopsy lasted seven hours. While

677
00:35:46.880 --> 00:35:51.119
no immediate breakthroughs occurred during this phase, Haulprin collected multiple

678
00:35:51.159 --> 00:35:54.360
tissue samples to analyze further in New York. He assured

679
00:35:54.400 --> 00:35:57.000
everyone that a detailed report would follow soon.

680
00:35:57.719 --> 00:36:01.280
Holy cow, I know, it's just shocking.

681
00:36:01.480 --> 00:36:03.559
I remember this whole reading about this whole thing in

682
00:36:03.599 --> 00:36:05.079
the autopsy just blew my mind.

683
00:36:05.280 --> 00:36:08.480
Yeah. Well, thank goodness they exhumed her body, I guess

684
00:36:08.519 --> 00:36:10.239
to learn all these new things.

685
00:36:10.320 --> 00:36:11.119
Yeah.

686
00:36:11.360 --> 00:36:14.960
John's troubles didn't stop with the autopsy. His once busy

687
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:18.320
plastic surgery practice was in freefall. He had gone from

688
00:36:18.360 --> 00:36:20.599
being one of the most sought after surgeons in town

689
00:36:20.719 --> 00:36:23.639
to someone no one wanted near their face, at least

690
00:36:23.679 --> 00:36:27.079
not if they valued their reputation. Sure, people still came

691
00:36:27.119 --> 00:36:29.840
in for consultations, but it didn't take long for John

692
00:36:29.880 --> 00:36:32.199
to realize that most of them were just there to

693
00:36:32.239 --> 00:36:35.960
gawk at the murder suspect doctor. And then there was Ash,

694
00:36:35.960 --> 00:36:38.880
who was running a full blown smear campaign against him.

695
00:36:39.239 --> 00:36:43.000
Ash made sure everyone knew John was under suspicion. Robert's

696
00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:46.079
school was getting anonymous calls accusing John of being a

697
00:36:46.159 --> 00:36:49.599
murderer and warning that his influence wasn't good for the kids.

698
00:36:49.960 --> 00:36:52.280
John's home phone rang off the hook with middle of

699
00:36:52.320 --> 00:36:55.400
the night calls from people telling him to confess, even

700
00:36:55.440 --> 00:36:57.920
as church got dragged into the mess, with the minister

701
00:36:58.039 --> 00:37:02.960
receiving complaints, ended up standing before the congregation apologizing for

702
00:37:03.039 --> 00:37:05.840
the embarrassment he had brought on the church. You would

703
00:37:05.840 --> 00:37:07.760
think his new wife, Anne might have been a bright

704
00:37:07.840 --> 00:37:11.239
spot in all of this, but no. John told his lawyer,

705
00:37:11.360 --> 00:37:15.000
Racehorse Haines that marrying Anne was the biggest mistake of

706
00:37:15.039 --> 00:37:19.679
my life. He claimed she was abusive, verbally, emotional, even physically.

707
00:37:20.079 --> 00:37:22.480
At one point, she allegedly punched him so hard she

708
00:37:22.559 --> 00:37:23.400
broke his nose.

709
00:37:23.760 --> 00:37:24.599
I'm not mad at that.

710
00:37:25.719 --> 00:37:29.239
Anne was consumed by jealousy of Joan, and she wasn't

711
00:37:29.280 --> 00:37:33.360
subtle about it. She tore up pictures, smashed Joan's trophies,

712
00:37:33.639 --> 00:37:36.480
scratched up her silver cups, and even threw some of

713
00:37:36.480 --> 00:37:38.960
her things into a bonfire. It was like she was

714
00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:42.119
trying to erase any trace of Joan. But Anne had

715
00:37:42.119 --> 00:37:44.840
her own reasons to be upset. After the wedding, she

716
00:37:44.880 --> 00:37:47.239
found out that John was in serious debt and his

717
00:37:47.360 --> 00:37:50.360
finances were only getting worse as his practice dried up.

718
00:37:50.760 --> 00:37:53.360
On top of that, John's mother, Myra, had moved in

719
00:37:53.440 --> 00:37:55.960
after Joan's death and didn't seem to have plans to

720
00:37:56.079 --> 00:38:00.719
leave anytime soon. By October nineteen sixty nine, John done.

721
00:38:01.039 --> 00:38:03.119
He went to Racehorse and asked him to write up

722
00:38:03.119 --> 00:38:07.239
divorce papers. But Racehorse told him bad idea. If you

723
00:38:07.320 --> 00:38:10.280
divorce Anne now, she'll side with Ash and she could

724
00:38:10.320 --> 00:38:12.800
say a lot of things that might sink you. Plus,

725
00:38:12.840 --> 00:38:16.199
with Helpern's autopsy results still pending, it'll make you look

726
00:38:16.239 --> 00:38:20.239
even guiltier. So John stayed married for now. But make

727
00:38:20.280 --> 00:38:22.800
no mistake, it wasn't out of love. It was pure

728
00:38:22.880 --> 00:38:26.000
damage control. The marriage was a nightmare, but it was

729
00:38:26.039 --> 00:38:28.679
the lesser of two evils, at least for the moment.

730
00:38:29.360 --> 00:38:33.239
While everyone was anxiously awaiting for doctor Helpern's final autopsy

731
00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:37.559
report four months after the exhumation, mind you, other findings

732
00:38:37.599 --> 00:38:41.480
started trickling in. Doctor j who had initially ruled Joan's

733
00:38:41.519 --> 00:38:45.320
death as hepatitis, updated his opinion. Now he was saying

734
00:38:45.360 --> 00:38:49.559
that Joan died from a fulminating infectious process, which is

735
00:38:49.599 --> 00:38:52.639
a fancy way of saying some kind of severe fast

736
00:38:52.679 --> 00:38:57.480
moving infection, but what kind he didn't know. Meanwhile, John's

737
00:38:57.480 --> 00:39:00.679
team of doctors chimed in with their own conclusion, bacterial

738
00:39:00.760 --> 00:39:05.440
meningitis with septocemia. So now we had four different explanations

739
00:39:05.440 --> 00:39:10.840
for Jones' death, pancreatitis, hepatitis, meningitis, and a mysterious infection

740
00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:13.639
no one could pin down. None of it was helpful

741
00:39:13.679 --> 00:39:17.880
for Ash's cause. Ash kept calling doctor Helpern's office, hoping

742
00:39:17.880 --> 00:39:21.079
for answers more useful in his crusade against John, but

743
00:39:21.199 --> 00:39:24.239
all he got was delay after delay. He was used

744
00:39:24.280 --> 00:39:26.519
to pushing people until they gave him what he wanted,

745
00:39:26.840 --> 00:39:28.800
but this time it felt like he was hitting a

746
00:39:28.800 --> 00:39:32.719
brick wall. John had finally reached his breaking point. He

747
00:39:32.840 --> 00:39:36.000
stormed into Racehorse Haines's office and told him, I can't

748
00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:39.320
live with Anne for another day. Racehorse, ever, the voice

749
00:39:39.320 --> 00:39:41.960
of reason, begged him to hold on just a little longer.

750
00:39:42.360 --> 00:39:44.800
He reminded John that as long as they were married,

751
00:39:44.880 --> 00:39:48.239
Anne couldn't testify against him. Let's at least wait for

752
00:39:48.360 --> 00:39:51.960
doctor Helpern's report, Racehorse said. But John wasn't having it.

753
00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:56.119
He was done, so reluctantly, Racehorse started drafting the paperwork

754
00:39:56.159 --> 00:39:58.679
for what he later called the War on Kirby Drive.

755
00:39:59.239 --> 00:40:01.519
And then he and unhatched what might be one of

756
00:40:01.559 --> 00:40:04.039
the worst plans in the history of bad plans.

757
00:40:04.079 --> 00:40:05.840
Oh wow, here was the idea.

758
00:40:06.320 --> 00:40:10.039
John would fake a romantic reconciliation with Anne. He would

759
00:40:10.039 --> 00:40:13.679
suggest a spontaneous road trip to Louisiana, turn on the

760
00:40:13.760 --> 00:40:17.679
charm and brace yourself, pull the car over somewhere along

761
00:40:17.719 --> 00:40:19.960
the way to make love to her. Then, in the

762
00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:23.840
afterglow of this manufactured passion, he would drop the bombshell

763
00:40:24.199 --> 00:40:27.280
they had to divorce. But don't worry, it wasn't about her.

764
00:40:27.800 --> 00:40:30.760
It was all because Racehorse believed the divorce would make

765
00:40:30.800 --> 00:40:34.400
it easier to defend John. Meanwhile, back at the mansion,

766
00:40:34.599 --> 00:40:37.400
movers hired by John would be packing up all of

767
00:40:37.440 --> 00:40:40.320
Anne's belongings and shipping them back to her old house,

768
00:40:40.519 --> 00:40:43.320
which she hadn't sold yet. John even went so far

769
00:40:43.360 --> 00:40:45.599
as to break a window at Anne's house so that

770
00:40:45.639 --> 00:40:49.280
the movers could get in, and the plan actually worked,

771
00:40:49.800 --> 00:40:54.480
except that Anne was blindsided. Furious and humiliated, she stormed

772
00:40:54.519 --> 00:40:57.760
back to Houston and drove straight to Ash's house. By

773
00:40:57.760 --> 00:40:59.599
the end of that visit, she had become one of

774
00:40:59.639 --> 00:41:03.519
Ash's his most valuable allies in his crusade against John Oh.

775
00:41:03.559 --> 00:41:03.880
Wow.

776
00:41:04.280 --> 00:41:07.920
Looking back on it later, Racehorse admitted quote in retrospect,

777
00:41:07.960 --> 00:41:10.199
this was not one of our better ideas, but that

778
00:41:10.360 --> 00:41:12.559
was the only way we could get control of the castle,

779
00:41:12.639 --> 00:41:13.400
so to speak.

780
00:41:13.639 --> 00:41:15.119
Do you know how long they were married for?

781
00:41:16.079 --> 00:41:16.800
It wasn't long.

782
00:41:16.840 --> 00:41:18.920
I think it was less than a year, maybe even

783
00:41:18.960 --> 00:41:19.599
six months.

784
00:41:19.719 --> 00:41:20.079
Wow.

785
00:41:20.599 --> 00:41:24.599
By February nineteen seventy, six months after the autopsy, Doctor

786
00:41:24.639 --> 00:41:28.079
Helpern's report was still nowhere to be found. But Da

787
00:41:28.199 --> 00:41:32.000
Carrol Vance, under constant pressure from Ash Robinson and his allies,

788
00:41:32.280 --> 00:41:35.440
had an idea. Why not assemble a third grand jury

789
00:41:35.480 --> 00:41:38.519
to take another swing at the case. After all, Helpern's

790
00:41:38.559 --> 00:41:42.159
report was supposedly coming any day. Now Here's where things

791
00:41:42.199 --> 00:41:44.920
get really strange. One of the jurors selected for this

792
00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:48.639
new grand jury was none other than Cecil Hayden. We

793
00:41:48.719 --> 00:41:52.519
mentioned him once before. Cecil was Ash Robinson's close friend

794
00:41:52.880 --> 00:41:55.679
and the guy who had originally suggested that Ash hire

795
00:41:55.719 --> 00:41:59.239
the powerful Vincent and Elkins law firm. So this is

796
00:41:59.239 --> 00:42:03.239
a real conflict of interest for reasons that still I

797
00:42:03.320 --> 00:42:06.599
don't understand. Nobody in Houston seemed to think that this

798
00:42:06.760 --> 00:42:09.840
was a problem, not the Houston Bar Association and not

799
00:42:09.960 --> 00:42:12.400
the media. It almost felt like the deck was just

800
00:42:12.480 --> 00:42:16.239
stacked against John Hill. John and Racehorse decided it was

801
00:42:16.280 --> 00:42:19.000
time to fight back. They filed a ten million dollar

802
00:42:19.119 --> 00:42:22.800
lawsuit against Ash Robinson. The claim was that ashe was

803
00:42:22.840 --> 00:42:25.920
conspiring to get John indicted for a crime he didn't commit,

804
00:42:26.199 --> 00:42:30.360
damaging his reputation and causing major financial harm. But the

805
00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:33.480
lawsuit wasn't just about money. The real goal was to

806
00:42:33.480 --> 00:42:37.000
give Racehorse subpoena power. Now he could call the same

807
00:42:37.039 --> 00:42:40.360
witnesses who were testifying before the grand jury and find

808
00:42:40.400 --> 00:42:43.360
out exactly what they were saying. Back in the grand

809
00:42:43.440 --> 00:42:47.119
jury room, it was clear who was really in charge. Officially,

810
00:42:47.159 --> 00:42:50.199
they elected a foreman, but everybody knew Cecil Hayden was

811
00:42:50.280 --> 00:42:53.280
running the show and most of the jurors seemed more

812
00:42:53.280 --> 00:42:56.719
than happy to follow his lead. Then came another twist.

813
00:42:56.960 --> 00:43:01.400
On March twelfth, nineteen seventy, John and Anne's divorce was finalized.

814
00:43:01.880 --> 00:43:04.360
Less than twenty four hours later, Ann walked into the

815
00:43:04.360 --> 00:43:07.639
grand jury room ready to spill everything. Oh boy, and

816
00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:10.840
she told quite a story. She claimed that not only

817
00:43:10.920 --> 00:43:13.519
had John killed Joan, but he had also tried to

818
00:43:13.599 --> 00:43:17.360
kill her three times and she wasn't done. An said

819
00:43:17.400 --> 00:43:21.119
that John's sodium pentathal test was a total sham. She

820
00:43:21.199 --> 00:43:24.119
claimed that he had researched the drug, found an antidote,

821
00:43:24.480 --> 00:43:27.320
and injected himself with it the morning of the test.

822
00:43:27.840 --> 00:43:30.119
She said she saw him giving himself a shot in

823
00:43:30.159 --> 00:43:31.119
the hip that morning.

824
00:43:31.239 --> 00:43:32.079
Oh my goodness.

825
00:43:32.519 --> 00:43:36.280
A sodium pentathal was already considered unreliable as a truth serum,

826
00:43:36.599 --> 00:43:39.800
but the idea of an antidote, there's no evidence that

827
00:43:39.840 --> 00:43:43.400
such a thing actually exists. So Anne's story was dramatic,

828
00:43:43.480 --> 00:43:47.719
but it wasn't exactly credible. Still, with Cecil Hayden's steering

829
00:43:47.800 --> 00:43:51.800
the grand jury and Ash Robinson's influence looming large, it

830
00:43:51.880 --> 00:43:54.639
was clear that this wasn't going to be an easy fight.

831
00:43:54.519 --> 00:43:55.320
For John Hill.

832
00:43:55.880 --> 00:43:59.400
So Cecil Hayden being on the grand jury? Was that

833
00:43:59.760 --> 00:44:02.719
not a coincidence? I mean someone paid off.

834
00:44:02.880 --> 00:44:07.000
They looked into it, and everyone involved swore that it

835
00:44:07.039 --> 00:44:11.480
was just it just happened that way. It wasn't anything suspicious,

836
00:44:11.519 --> 00:44:12.320
but yeah.

837
00:44:12.159 --> 00:44:12.840
You have to wonder.

838
00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:17.079
Yeah. By April nineteen seventy, the clock was ticking. Da

839
00:44:17.199 --> 00:44:20.480
vance was growing more and more frustrated. It had been

840
00:44:20.639 --> 00:44:25.079
eight months since doctor Helpern performed his autopsy and still

841
00:44:25.400 --> 00:44:29.199
no final report. Meanwhile, the grand jury's time was running out.

842
00:44:29.480 --> 00:44:31.440
They were set to wrap up in a few weeks.

843
00:44:31.800 --> 00:44:34.960
If they didn't indict John Hill before then, the case

844
00:44:35.039 --> 00:44:38.480
might be dead. Vance decided to push things along. He

845
00:44:38.559 --> 00:44:41.519
had one of his assistants called doctor Helpern to check in.

846
00:44:42.039 --> 00:44:46.639
Halpern sounded embarrassed the report still wasn't done, so they

847
00:44:46.679 --> 00:44:50.039
floated an idea. Instead of finishing the report and sending

848
00:44:50.039 --> 00:44:52.599
it over, what if helper In just came to Houston

849
00:44:52.639 --> 00:44:56.239
and presented his findings directly to the grand jury. Helper

850
00:44:56.280 --> 00:44:59.599
And agreed on one condition, someone had to pay for

851
00:44:59.639 --> 00:45:03.119
his time, and of course Ash Robinson was more than

852
00:45:03.159 --> 00:45:07.719
happy to cut that check. Let's talk about Helpern's findings.

853
00:45:07.719 --> 00:45:11.079
Scientifically speaking, there wasn't much in the report that hurt

854
00:45:11.159 --> 00:45:14.159
John Hill. There was no evidence that Jones's body had

855
00:45:14.199 --> 00:45:17.400
been tampered with during the first exhumation when John was

856
00:45:17.440 --> 00:45:21.400
looking for that missing ring, No suspicious injection marks were found,

857
00:45:21.760 --> 00:45:27.000
and toxicology didn't reveal anything criminal. But then Helpern's report

858
00:45:27.039 --> 00:45:31.119
took a strange turn, he started veering off into gossip. Basically,

859
00:45:31.679 --> 00:45:35.400
he brought up the infamous pastries, the Hill's crumbling marriage,

860
00:45:35.679 --> 00:45:38.960
John's affair with Anne, and Effie's claim that Joan had

861
00:45:39.000 --> 00:45:41.960
been left lying in a soiled bed. None of this

862
00:45:42.119 --> 00:45:44.679
was medical evidence. It was like Helpern was trying to

863
00:45:44.679 --> 00:45:48.360
appease Ash with drama and hearsay since he couldn't find

864
00:45:48.400 --> 00:45:52.599
anything solid to pin on John. Eventually, Helpern got around

865
00:45:52.679 --> 00:45:56.239
to his actual conclusion about Joan's cause of death. He

866
00:45:56.360 --> 00:46:02.159
dismissed the previous findings pancreatitis, hepatitis, acute meningitis is wrong.

867
00:46:02.719 --> 00:46:06.159
So what did he think killed Joan? His answer, and

868
00:46:06.280 --> 00:46:11.480
acute inflammation of some sort, the origin of which I

869
00:46:11.599 --> 00:46:16.880
cannot determine, very definitive. He added that the likely portal

870
00:46:16.920 --> 00:46:20.920
of entry was through the elementary track, meaning it must

871
00:46:20.960 --> 00:46:24.559
have been something she ate or maybe not. Helper And

872
00:46:24.639 --> 00:46:27.920
threw in one last bombshell. He believed that the failure

873
00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:31.119
to provide medical attention at home and the resultant delay

874
00:46:31.159 --> 00:46:35.679
in hospitalization for a diagnosis and effective therapy aggravated a

875
00:46:35.760 --> 00:46:40.039
situation which proved fatal. In plain English, he was pointing

876
00:46:40.039 --> 00:46:45.199
the finger at John for negligence. The report was completely inconclusive.

877
00:46:45.639 --> 00:46:48.239
Some people in the Houston medical community thought it was

878
00:46:48.400 --> 00:46:51.280
enough to suggest that John was at least guilty of neglect.

879
00:46:51.760 --> 00:46:55.320
Others blasted Helpern for relying on unverified stories from the

880
00:46:55.360 --> 00:46:59.119
Hills maid and house guests. So here we were eight months,

881
00:46:59.239 --> 00:47:03.199
multiple auto and still no definitive answers. But one thing

882
00:47:03.280 --> 00:47:06.320
was clear. The grand jury wasn't about to let John

883
00:47:06.400 --> 00:47:10.199
Hill off the hook just yet. Racehorse Haines was starting

884
00:47:10.239 --> 00:47:12.840
to sweat. Word had gotten back to him that someone

885
00:47:12.840 --> 00:47:16.519
from the DA's office, after hearing doctor Helpern's report, had

886
00:47:16.519 --> 00:47:19.760
made a cutting remark quote, I wouldn't let a dog

887
00:47:19.960 --> 00:47:22.639
die the way that doctor let his wife die. Not

888
00:47:22.800 --> 00:47:25.159
exactly the kind of sentiment you want floating around the

889
00:47:25.159 --> 00:47:28.039
grand jury room when your client's fate is on the line.

890
00:47:28.679 --> 00:47:31.480
Racehorse knew that he had to do something bold, so

891
00:47:31.760 --> 00:47:35.440
he suggested that John Hill appear before the grand jury himself.

892
00:47:35.960 --> 00:47:39.159
This was risky, very risky, but the idea was to

893
00:47:39.239 --> 00:47:41.880
show that John had nothing to hide. If he came

894
00:47:41.920 --> 00:47:45.280
across as genuine and cooperative, maybe it would sway the

895
00:47:45.400 --> 00:47:49.960
jurors in his favor. Surprisingly, John agreed. John walked into

896
00:47:50.039 --> 00:47:53.000
that jury room and answered every question they threw at him.

897
00:47:53.159 --> 00:47:56.880
And here's the thing. His answers weren't incriminating. He didn't

898
00:47:56.880 --> 00:47:59.440
admit to anything that they could nail him on legally.

899
00:48:00.039 --> 00:48:02.280
But it wasn't what he said that left an impression.

900
00:48:02.519 --> 00:48:07.079
It was how he said it. John came across as cold, emotionless,

901
00:48:07.159 --> 00:48:09.760
like a robot. He spoke about Joan's death in such

902
00:48:09.800 --> 00:48:12.679
a detached, clinical way it was as if he were

903
00:48:12.719 --> 00:48:15.599
discussing the case of a random patient, not his wife.

904
00:48:16.039 --> 00:48:18.280
At one point, when asked if he had any regrets

905
00:48:18.320 --> 00:48:21.599
about how he'd handle things, John said, well, of course,

906
00:48:21.639 --> 00:48:24.679
that's very difficult to say. Then he launched into a

907
00:48:24.760 --> 00:48:28.760
technical explanation that sounded more like a medical defense than

908
00:48:28.840 --> 00:48:33.239
a heartfelt reflection, and it got worse. John contradicted some

909
00:48:33.360 --> 00:48:37.280
key witness accounts. For example, he claimed he'd help Joan

910
00:48:37.360 --> 00:48:39.800
down the stairs when they were taking her to the hospital,

911
00:48:40.119 --> 00:48:43.159
but Archie, Effie, and Rhea, who were all there, had

912
00:48:43.239 --> 00:48:46.480
testified that John had ordered Joan to walk down herself.

913
00:48:47.079 --> 00:48:49.679
To put it bluntly, his attitude rubbed the jurors the

914
00:48:49.679 --> 00:48:53.639
wrong way. They were expecting remorse sorrow, anything to show

915
00:48:53.679 --> 00:48:58.360
he cared. Instead, they got icy detachment. And here's the kicker.

916
00:48:58.760 --> 00:49:01.039
When John walked out of that room, he thought he

917
00:49:01.159 --> 00:49:04.559
nailed it. He genuinely believed he had convinced the grand

918
00:49:04.639 --> 00:49:07.480
jury to see things his way and that there wouldn't

919
00:49:07.480 --> 00:49:12.559
be an indictment. Spoiler alert, John's confidence might have just

920
00:49:12.599 --> 00:49:16.159
been a little misplaced. The day after John testified, the

921
00:49:16.199 --> 00:49:18.880
grand jury asked for a one month extension on their

922
00:49:18.960 --> 00:49:22.440
ninety day term. When a grand jury asks for more time,

923
00:49:22.800 --> 00:49:26.320
it's usually not because they need extra coffee breaks. Racehorse

924
00:49:26.400 --> 00:49:30.440
knew exactly what it meant, and indictment was almost certainly coming.

925
00:49:30.800 --> 00:49:33.440
So in a last ditch effort, Racehorse picked up the

926
00:49:33.440 --> 00:49:38.400
phone and called Assistant da Id McMaster. The message John

927
00:49:38.559 --> 00:49:42.559
was now willing to take a standard police administered polygraph test.

928
00:49:43.079 --> 00:49:46.480
This was a huge gamble, but Racehorse was hoping it

929
00:49:46.599 --> 00:49:50.119
might change the tide. McMaster was open to the idea,

930
00:49:50.199 --> 00:49:52.159
but there was a catch. John would need to stay

931
00:49:52.199 --> 00:49:55.719
in jail for forty eight hours under constant observation. First,

932
00:49:56.159 --> 00:49:59.800
why well, if someone pops a handful of tranquilizers before

933
00:49:59.840 --> 00:50:02.800
a holygraph, it can completely skew the results.

934
00:50:02.880 --> 00:50:05.079
I didn't know that before, so now I'm going to

935
00:50:05.159 --> 00:50:06.519
keep that in mind if I ever have to take

936
00:50:06.559 --> 00:50:07.400
a Pollycraft.

937
00:50:08.239 --> 00:50:09.760
I don't think you're going to ever have to take

938
00:50:09.760 --> 00:50:12.239
a polygraph, though, although you always say you want to.

939
00:50:12.480 --> 00:50:15.960
McMaster wanted to make sure John wasn't gaming the system,

940
00:50:16.360 --> 00:50:18.639
but there was no way Resource could agree to that.

941
00:50:18.920 --> 00:50:22.239
Two days behind bars would be a pr disaster for John.

942
00:50:22.599 --> 00:50:26.360
Imagine the headlines. So that plan fizzled out as quickly

943
00:50:26.360 --> 00:50:30.320
as it started. Meanwhile, the DA's office was brainstorming their

944
00:50:30.360 --> 00:50:34.400
next move. McMaster and his colleague Ernie Ernst sat down

945
00:50:34.440 --> 00:50:38.360
with their boss, DA, Carrol Vance. The truth was they

946
00:50:38.360 --> 00:50:41.079
didn't have a slam dunk murder case against John Hill,

947
00:50:41.360 --> 00:50:45.199
but Ernst had a bold idea. He said, quote, look,

948
00:50:45.239 --> 00:50:47.199
we might not be able to prove that John did

949
00:50:47.199 --> 00:50:50.159
something that directly caused Joanes death, but what if we

950
00:50:50.320 --> 00:50:54.079
argue that he's guilty of murder biomission. This was a

951
00:50:54.079 --> 00:50:57.119
long shot. There were maybe twenty cases in US history

952
00:50:57.119 --> 00:51:00.800
where someone had been convicted of murder biomission. But the

953
00:51:00.880 --> 00:51:03.679
law is clear. If you owe a duty to someone,

954
00:51:03.920 --> 00:51:06.559
like say your wife, and you fail to act, and

955
00:51:06.639 --> 00:51:09.800
that failure leads to their death, you can be guilty

956
00:51:09.800 --> 00:51:13.639
of homicide. The argument went like this, John, as Joan's

957
00:51:13.719 --> 00:51:16.840
husband and a doctor, had a duty to provide her

958
00:51:16.880 --> 00:51:21.840
with proper medical care. By withholding treatment and delaying her hospitalization,

959
00:51:22.239 --> 00:51:25.559
he was criminally negligent, and if they could prove that

960
00:51:25.679 --> 00:51:29.360
negligence caused Joan's death, they could charge him with first

961
00:51:29.360 --> 00:51:33.280
degree murder. Vance agreed it was worth a shot. They

962
00:51:33.320 --> 00:51:36.199
took the case back to the grand jury, and guess what.

963
00:51:36.960 --> 00:51:39.400
The grand jury voted to indict.

964
00:51:40.320 --> 00:51:43.800
John was rattled by the indictment, but racehorse wasn't. He

965
00:51:43.920 --> 00:51:47.360
was confident that they would win at trial, and despite everything,

966
00:51:47.480 --> 00:51:49.679
John had a reason to feel good. There was a

967
00:51:49.719 --> 00:51:54.000
new woman in his life, Connie Losby. Connie was nothing

968
00:51:54.119 --> 00:51:57.559
like Joan or Anne. She was graceful, refined.

969
00:51:57.239 --> 00:51:57.880
How dare you?

970
00:51:58.760 --> 00:52:02.239
I felt a little bad writ that. But Joan wasn't graceful.

971
00:52:02.280 --> 00:52:04.039
She was like a you know, she was a horse

972
00:52:04.039 --> 00:52:06.960
scowl and she was a country yell. But the biggest

973
00:52:06.960 --> 00:52:09.920
thing with Connie and John was that Connie shared John's

974
00:52:09.960 --> 00:52:12.760
deep love for music. Connie had been immersed in it

975
00:52:12.840 --> 00:52:15.840
since she was seven, starting with piano lessons and later

976
00:52:15.960 --> 00:52:19.239
adding singing to her repertoire. At age twelve, she even

977
00:52:19.280 --> 00:52:22.320
earned a master's degree in music, flirted with the idea

978
00:52:22.320 --> 00:52:25.599
of an opera career, and eventually found her calling teaching

979
00:52:25.679 --> 00:52:27.840
music at a junior college near Houston.

980
00:52:27.960 --> 00:52:29.280
Oh my god, you're going to leave me for a

981
00:52:29.320 --> 00:52:32.360
woman like Connie who loves procyl haram aren't real.

982
00:52:34.760 --> 00:52:36.920
I don't think there are actually any women that loved

983
00:52:36.960 --> 00:52:41.599
prokel arams, so probably not. John and Connie met in

984
00:52:41.639 --> 00:52:45.119
December nineteen sixty nine after she performed in a musical

985
00:52:45.519 --> 00:52:49.000
playing harpsichord and singing. Connie was in a news junkie

986
00:52:49.039 --> 00:52:52.239
and had no idea who John Hill was. After the event,

987
00:52:52.320 --> 00:52:55.000
John invited her to his home for a private concert

988
00:52:55.039 --> 00:52:58.519
in his cherished music room. For months, she attended these

989
00:52:58.599 --> 00:53:02.599
musicals at the mansion, enjoying the music. One day, John

990
00:53:02.639 --> 00:53:04.639
called Connie out of the blue, saying he had a

991
00:53:04.679 --> 00:53:07.280
gift for her. She invited him over, and he showed

992
00:53:07.360 --> 00:53:10.360
up with a record by Elizabeth Schwarzkoff, a singer that

993
00:53:10.400 --> 00:53:14.639
they both admired. From that moment their romance began to blossom.

994
00:53:14.920 --> 00:53:17.360
At first, John was cautious, he knew how it would

995
00:53:17.400 --> 00:53:20.199
look a new romance while his first wife's death was

996
00:53:20.239 --> 00:53:23.760
still under investigation and his second marriage in a shambles.

997
00:53:24.239 --> 00:53:26.920
To keep things under the radar, Connie would visit under

998
00:53:26.960 --> 00:53:30.039
the guise of giving music lessons to John's son Robert.

999
00:53:30.559 --> 00:53:33.159
After the lessons, she would stay for dinner, and their

1000
00:53:33.239 --> 00:53:36.679
evenings often ended in the music room, sharing their mutual

1001
00:53:36.760 --> 00:53:40.199
love for classical music. For a while, Connie didn't ask

1002
00:53:40.280 --> 00:53:43.599
John about Joan's death, but after the indictment she gently

1003
00:53:43.639 --> 00:53:46.599
broached the subject. John brushed it off, saying he had

1004
00:53:46.639 --> 00:53:49.679
simply made a poor choice in in laws. He told

1005
00:53:49.719 --> 00:53:52.599
Connie it had been a difficult time for him and asked.

1006
00:53:52.280 --> 00:53:53.039
For her support.

1007
00:53:53.519 --> 00:53:56.519
Without hesitation, Connie assured him that she would be behind

1008
00:53:56.559 --> 00:53:59.320
him one hundred percent. She believed there was no way

1009
00:53:59.400 --> 00:54:02.320
John could have been involved in something as awful as murder.

1010
00:54:02.800 --> 00:54:06.519
A few weeks later, John proposed Connie. Ever, the pragmatist

1011
00:54:06.639 --> 00:54:08.280
said sure, how about tomorrow.

1012
00:54:08.440 --> 00:54:11.000
Oh my gosh, John some prize.

1013
00:54:11.920 --> 00:54:14.199
But John thought he had better run the idea by

1014
00:54:14.239 --> 00:54:18.239
his lawyer first. Predictably, Racehorse hated it. He told John,

1015
00:54:18.400 --> 00:54:20.639
you might as well drive straight to Huntsville and spend

1016
00:54:20.639 --> 00:54:22.480
your wedding night there at least you'd be close to

1017
00:54:22.519 --> 00:54:23.360
the state prison.

1018
00:54:24.199 --> 00:54:27.559
I really like or Racehorst too, other than his who

1019
00:54:27.559 --> 00:54:28.239
he's defending.

1020
00:54:28.840 --> 00:54:29.800
The message was clear.

1021
00:54:30.159 --> 00:54:33.199
Reluctantly, John agreed to hold off on the wedding for now.

1022
00:54:33.519 --> 00:54:35.719
So they had only known each other for weeks.

1023
00:54:36.079 --> 00:54:39.199
Yeah, I think they just knew, you know, they to

1024
00:54:39.239 --> 00:54:42.280
be fair. John and Connie were. They were a lot alike,

1025
00:54:42.360 --> 00:54:44.920
and they seemed like they were really perfect for each Well.

1026
00:54:45.079 --> 00:54:47.400
That goes back to our question from last time. You know,

1027
00:54:47.840 --> 00:54:49.639
I think it's better not to be so alike.

1028
00:54:49.760 --> 00:54:50.519
Could be, could be?

1029
00:54:50.599 --> 00:54:51.239
In my opinion.

1030
00:54:51.599 --> 00:54:54.960
As the trial loomed, Racehorse Haines felt confident to him

1031
00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:57.719
the state of Texas didn't have a murder case. At best,

1032
00:54:57.719 --> 00:55:00.920
they had a shaky malpractice claim, and even if John

1033
00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:04.119
Hill were somehow convicted, Racehorse was sure he could get

1034
00:55:04.159 --> 00:55:08.360
it overturned on appeal, especially since Ash Robinson's buddy, Cecil

1035
00:55:08.400 --> 00:55:12.280
Hayden had served on the grand jury. Still, Racehorse made

1036
00:55:12.280 --> 00:55:15.320
one last attempt to get the charges dropped. He pressed

1037
00:55:15.360 --> 00:55:19.199
Assistant DA's McMaster and Ernst, but they weren't budging. They

1038
00:55:19.239 --> 00:55:23.320
believed John was guilty. Plus McMaster had his own ambitions.

1039
00:55:23.599 --> 00:55:26.039
He was gearing up to run for district judge and

1040
00:55:26.119 --> 00:55:29.000
being tied to a high profile murder case wouldn't hurt

1041
00:55:29.039 --> 00:55:33.760
his campaign. Jury selection began on February sixteenth, nineteen seventy one.

1042
00:55:34.039 --> 00:55:37.880
The prosecution's strategy leaned heavily on witness testimony, and they

1043
00:55:37.880 --> 00:55:41.840
brought in several key players, including jones neighbor Van Maxwell,

1044
00:55:42.119 --> 00:55:45.360
and the Hill family's housekeeper e Fie Green. But everyone

1045
00:55:45.480 --> 00:55:49.159
was waiting for the star witness, Anne Kerth, John's ex wife.

1046
00:55:49.480 --> 00:55:52.920
Racehorse knew that Anne's testimony could be explosive. He had

1047
00:55:52.960 --> 00:55:56.320
a strategy ready. He planned to argue that her testimony

1048
00:55:56.440 --> 00:55:59.960
wasn't admissible in Texas. Like most states, a spouse case

1049
00:56:00.039 --> 00:56:04.199
can't testify about private conversations during a marriage, even after

1050
00:56:04.239 --> 00:56:08.280
a divorce. Those are considered privileged. But the judge allowed

1051
00:56:08.280 --> 00:56:11.400
Anne to testify with limits. She could only talk about

1052
00:56:11.440 --> 00:56:16.079
events before their marriage or incidents involving alleged violence. That

1053
00:56:16.280 --> 00:56:18.440
opened the door for Anne to tell the jury her

1054
00:56:18.480 --> 00:56:22.239
shocking story, including claims that John had tried to kill her,

1055
00:56:23.000 --> 00:56:25.760
and testified that a week before Jones's death, she and

1056
00:56:25.880 --> 00:56:28.559
John were at their love nest when she spotted three

1057
00:56:28.639 --> 00:56:32.079
Peatrie dishes near the sink. She said they contained something

1058
00:56:32.159 --> 00:56:36.199
red with small dots in it. According to Anne, John

1059
00:56:36.239 --> 00:56:39.559
told her he was conducting an experiment. Then she opened

1060
00:56:39.559 --> 00:56:42.519
the fridge and saw a box of pastries. John warned

1061
00:56:42.519 --> 00:56:43.400
her not to eat them.

1062
00:56:43.679 --> 00:56:46.639
I had microbiology back in the day.

1063
00:56:46.760 --> 00:56:47.599
What did the dots mean?

1064
00:56:47.679 --> 00:56:50.239
I wasn't sure he was harvesting. Probably some sort of

1065
00:56:50.280 --> 00:56:51.239
harmful bacteria.

1066
00:56:51.480 --> 00:56:51.800
Okay.

1067
00:56:52.320 --> 00:56:55.760
Then came her most jaw dropping allegation and claimed that

1068
00:56:55.840 --> 00:56:58.639
on the night of June twenty ninth, nineteen sixty nine,

1069
00:56:58.760 --> 00:57:01.880
John admitted to murder Joan. She said that they were

1070
00:57:01.920 --> 00:57:04.239
out for a late night drive after an argument, and

1071
00:57:04.400 --> 00:57:07.360
John suddenly confessed that he had used cultures from the

1072
00:57:07.400 --> 00:57:11.159
Petrie dishes grown from, as Anne put it, every kind

1073
00:57:11.159 --> 00:57:14.239
of human excretion he could get his hands on, to

1074
00:57:14.360 --> 00:57:18.599
poison Joan, and testified that John then drove toward a

1075
00:57:18.639 --> 00:57:22.079
concrete bridge and deliberately rammed the car into the abutment

1076
00:57:22.159 --> 00:57:25.320
on her side. She said she only survived because she

1077
00:57:25.440 --> 00:57:28.320
wasn't wearing a seatbelt and managed to throw herself toward

1078
00:57:28.480 --> 00:57:32.360
John just before the impact, but it didn't stop there.

1079
00:57:32.639 --> 00:57:35.440
Anne claimed that John pulled a syringe from his coat

1080
00:57:35.480 --> 00:57:38.360
pocket and tried to inject her. She fought him off

1081
00:57:38.440 --> 00:57:41.840
until headlights appeared a car pulling up behind them. It

1082
00:57:41.960 --> 00:57:43.880
was a woman and her teenage son who.

1083
00:57:43.679 --> 00:57:44.440
Offered to help.

1084
00:57:45.119 --> 00:57:48.840
Police records confirmed the crash, but John had a different explanation.

1085
00:57:49.320 --> 00:57:52.079
He told Racehorse that Anne had grabbed the wheel during

1086
00:57:52.119 --> 00:57:55.440
an argument, causing the wreck, and when the police showed up,

1087
00:57:55.800 --> 00:57:58.000
he said that he had fallen asleep at the wheel,

1088
00:57:58.199 --> 00:58:02.000
which seemed like the simplest excuse at the time. Racehorse

1089
00:58:02.119 --> 00:58:06.199
was relentless in his objections during Anne's testimony, arguing that

1090
00:58:06.239 --> 00:58:11.039
her claims were prejudicial, inflammatory, and impossible to ignore, even

1091
00:58:11.079 --> 00:58:14.280
if the judge instructed the jury to disregard certain parts.

1092
00:58:14.599 --> 00:58:18.880
At one point, Racehorse demanded a mistrial Judge Huey, of

1093
00:58:19.239 --> 00:58:22.639
Judge Huey, it's a great name. He refused, but after

1094
00:58:22.719 --> 00:58:25.639
lunch he called the attorneys to his chambers. He had

1095
00:58:25.679 --> 00:58:29.440
reviewed Anne's testimony and agreed with Racehorse. The motion for

1096
00:58:29.519 --> 00:58:33.840
a mistrial was granted. McMaster and Ernst were stunned. They

1097
00:58:33.840 --> 00:58:36.239
pleaded with the judge to reconsider, but it was over.

1098
00:58:36.679 --> 00:58:39.559
After ten days of testimony. The trial was scrapped. And

1099
00:58:39.639 --> 00:58:44.119
a new one was scheduled. Racehorse celebrated, but John wasn't happy.

1100
00:58:44.519 --> 00:58:47.519
His ordeal would drag on even longer now, and on

1101
00:58:47.639 --> 00:58:50.480
his way out of the courtroom, two jurors had approached him,

1102
00:58:50.519 --> 00:58:53.239
shook his hand and wished him luck. Later, it came

1103
00:58:53.239 --> 00:58:56.159
out that the jury had taken an informal poll before

1104
00:58:56.199 --> 00:58:59.559
being dismissed, and most of them were leaning toward acquittal.

1105
00:59:00.559 --> 00:59:03.920
Ash Robinson was furious. He confided in a friend that

1106
00:59:03.960 --> 00:59:06.639
he had poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into seeking

1107
00:59:06.840 --> 00:59:09.280
justice for Joan, only to have it all go up

1108
00:59:09.320 --> 00:59:12.360
in smoke. His friend tried to reassure him, saying that

1109
00:59:12.400 --> 00:59:16.079
there would be another trial. Ash's response, their damn well

1110
00:59:16.119 --> 00:59:19.079
better be. With the first trial behind him and the

1111
00:59:19.119 --> 00:59:22.519
second one months away. John approached Racehorse with a question,

1112
00:59:22.840 --> 00:59:26.400
could he finally marry Connie? Racehors gave him the green light,

1113
00:59:26.480 --> 00:59:29.320
this time telling him to go for it. In June

1114
00:59:29.360 --> 00:59:32.039
nineteen seventy one, John and Connie tied the knot in

1115
00:59:32.119 --> 00:59:35.519
her hometown near Seattle, but their new life together wasn't

1116
00:59:35.559 --> 00:59:39.800
exactly off to a fairytale start. Financially, John was in ruins.

1117
00:59:40.280 --> 00:59:42.280
The bank had called in the loans he had taken

1118
00:59:42.320 --> 00:59:44.800
to keep himself afloat, and he didn't have the money

1119
00:59:44.840 --> 00:59:48.639
to repay them. Their plans for a European honeymoon were scrapped.

1120
00:59:49.280 --> 00:59:52.119
Connie didn't mind one bit. She was happy simply to

1121
00:59:52.159 --> 00:59:56.039
be marrying John. The retrial, however, loomed over their lives.

1122
00:59:56.480 --> 00:59:59.199
It kept getting delayed, and Ash Robinson made sure the

1123
00:59:59.239 --> 01:00:02.559
DA's office didn't forget about it. He bombarded them with

1124
01:00:02.639 --> 01:00:06.559
phone calls demanding to know when the new trial would begin. Eventually,

1125
01:00:06.599 --> 01:00:10.639
it was scheduled for November nineteen seventy two, but enthusiasm

1126
01:00:10.719 --> 01:00:13.840
for the case was running on fumes. Ernie Ernst had

1127
01:00:13.880 --> 01:00:16.719
retired and I. D. McMaster had moved on to his

1128
01:00:16.840 --> 01:00:19.800
new role as a district judge. The case was shuffled

1129
01:00:19.840 --> 01:00:22.960
from prosecutor to prosecutor, none of whom seemed eager to

1130
01:00:23.000 --> 01:00:26.039
take it on. Ashe tried to breathe new life into it,

1131
01:00:26.079 --> 01:00:29.159
claiming he had found a mystery witness with explosive new

1132
01:00:29.159 --> 01:00:32.920
allegations against John. The DA's office dismissed it as just

1133
01:00:32.960 --> 01:00:37.119
another entry for the nut call's folder. Meanwhile, John and

1134
01:00:37.159 --> 01:00:40.639
Connie were quietly building a new life together, Connie opened

1135
01:00:40.639 --> 01:00:43.920
a music school, while John's patient roster slowly began to

1136
01:00:43.960 --> 01:00:47.119
fill up again. Their social calendar was far quieter than

1137
01:00:47.159 --> 01:00:50.440
it had been during John's marriage to Joan. Instead, the

1138
01:00:50.480 --> 01:00:53.440
couple spent their evenings at home, often in the music room,

1139
01:00:53.920 --> 01:00:57.039
enjoying each other's company and finding solace in their shared

1140
01:00:57.079 --> 01:01:00.719
love of music. In September nineteen seventy to, just two

1141
01:01:00.800 --> 01:01:04.039
months before John's retrial, he and Connie flew to Seattle

1142
01:01:04.079 --> 01:01:07.119
for her cousin's wedding. Afterward, they planned to head to

1143
01:01:07.199 --> 01:01:11.039
Las Vegas for an annual plastic surgery convention. On their

1144
01:01:11.039 --> 01:01:14.800
flight to Vegas, the plane made a stop in San Francisco. Connie,

1145
01:01:14.920 --> 01:01:17.840
not usually one for spontaneity, turned to John and said,

1146
01:01:17.920 --> 01:01:19.800
why don't we stay here for a day. No one

1147
01:01:19.800 --> 01:01:23.039
will miss us at the convention. John didn't need convincing.

1148
01:01:23.320 --> 01:01:25.800
He hated Las Vegas and he wasn't looking forward to

1149
01:01:25.840 --> 01:01:29.119
the conference. What started as a one day detour turned

1150
01:01:29.119 --> 01:01:32.800
into four. They embraced the charm of San Francisco, attending

1151
01:01:32.840 --> 01:01:37.199
the opera, dining at elegant restaurants, riding the iconic cable cars,

1152
01:01:37.639 --> 01:01:40.960
and exploring Golden Gate Park. Eventually, they made their way

1153
01:01:40.960 --> 01:01:43.119
to Vegas to catch the final couple of days of

1154
01:01:43.159 --> 01:01:46.199
the convention. When they returned to Houston, they hailed a

1155
01:01:46.239 --> 01:01:49.159
taxi from the airport. As they pulled up to the house,

1156
01:01:49.239 --> 01:01:52.000
Connie jumped out, excited to share stories of their trip

1157
01:01:52.079 --> 01:01:55.599
with Robert John's now twelve year old son. John stayed

1158
01:01:55.639 --> 01:01:58.760
behind to settle the fair with the driver. Connie approached

1159
01:01:58.760 --> 01:02:01.239
the front door, ringing the bell well. She pressed her

1160
01:02:01.239 --> 01:02:04.719
face against the glass panel behind it, squishing her nose playfully,

1161
01:02:05.039 --> 01:02:07.400
hoping to make Robert laugh when he came to the door,

1162
01:02:07.679 --> 01:02:10.960
but no one came. Myra John's mother was supposed to

1163
01:02:11.000 --> 01:02:13.719
be watching Robert, yet there was no sign of her either.

1164
01:02:14.360 --> 01:02:18.159
Connie rang the bell again and saw someone approaching the door. Squinting,

1165
01:02:18.239 --> 01:02:20.719
she assumed it was Robert in some kind of costume.

1166
01:02:21.440 --> 01:02:24.840
The door opened and Connie froze. Standing in front of

1167
01:02:24.880 --> 01:02:28.039
her was a strange man pointing a gun. He grabbed

1168
01:02:28.039 --> 01:02:30.519
the necklace around her neck and said this is a robbery.

1169
01:02:31.119 --> 01:02:34.719
Before Connie could react, John appeared behind her. He pushed

1170
01:02:34.719 --> 01:02:38.199
her aside and stepped toward the gunman. Panicked, Connie ran

1171
01:02:38.239 --> 01:02:41.480
toward a neighbor's house. Just as she reached their property line,

1172
01:02:41.519 --> 01:02:45.320
she heard gunshots. My husband's being murdered, she screamed, as

1173
01:02:45.360 --> 01:02:48.639
the neighbor opened the door. The neighbor quickly called the police.

1174
01:02:49.199 --> 01:02:52.239
Another neighbor, hearing the commotion, ran toward the Hills home.

1175
01:02:52.800 --> 01:02:57.000
There he found young Robert Hill standing over his father's body, sobbing,

1176
01:02:57.159 --> 01:03:01.079
They've killed my daddy. When emergency responded arrived, they found

1177
01:03:01.159 --> 01:03:04.400
John Hill lying face down near the front door. Turning

1178
01:03:04.440 --> 01:03:07.760
him over, they saw adhesive tape covering his nose and mouth,

1179
01:03:08.039 --> 01:03:11.760
with more tape sealing his eyes shut. The paramedics checked

1180
01:03:11.760 --> 01:03:14.519
for vital signs, but it was too late. John Hill

1181
01:03:14.840 --> 01:03:15.280
was dead.

1182
01:03:16.360 --> 01:03:16.599
Wow.

1183
01:03:16.800 --> 01:03:19.440
I didn't see that coming. What kind of did but

1184
01:03:19.559 --> 01:03:20.000
I didn't.

1185
01:03:20.480 --> 01:03:23.079
Yeah, I'm afraid that is where we are going to

1186
01:03:23.199 --> 01:03:26.159
end part two. Wow, a lot more of this story

1187
01:03:26.199 --> 01:03:26.639
to tell.

1188
01:03:27.000 --> 01:03:30.000
It's crazy that there's a whole nother episode to go.

1189
01:03:30.360 --> 01:03:31.199
Yeah, there is.

1190
01:03:32.079 --> 01:03:33.719
I don't want to put the car before the horse,

1191
01:03:33.760 --> 01:03:36.880
but I'm guessing that that wasn't a real burglary attempt.

1192
01:03:37.039 --> 01:03:38.719
Well, I guess you're gonna have to come back for

1193
01:03:38.800 --> 01:03:41.280
part three to find out more about that, which is

1194
01:03:41.320 --> 01:03:43.199
not going to happen until I get back from Europe,

1195
01:03:43.199 --> 01:03:44.599
so you're gonna have to wait a few days.

1196
01:03:44.639 --> 01:03:46.480
Felt like I can't read the script because you have

1197
01:03:46.559 --> 01:03:47.119
part three.

1198
01:03:47.280 --> 01:03:50.760
Here, I'm gonna take away have permissions right now.

1199
01:03:51.239 --> 01:03:53.280
I'm going to share it with the listeners too. We're

1200
01:03:53.280 --> 01:03:53.880
not gonna wait.

1201
01:03:55.440 --> 01:03:57.280
So we already talked a little bit about if you

1202
01:03:57.360 --> 01:04:00.639
were in ashes shoes that you probably would have acted

1203
01:04:00.679 --> 01:04:02.320
similarly in trying to.

1204
01:04:02.440 --> 01:04:05.320
Get limitless amounts of money. Yeah, I would definitely want

1205
01:04:05.320 --> 01:04:07.159
to avenge the death of my child. Sure.

1206
01:04:07.719 --> 01:04:10.039
But do you think that John actually killed Joan?

1207
01:04:10.639 --> 01:04:10.760
Oh?

1208
01:04:10.880 --> 01:04:12.559
Yeah, I think so. I think he had something to

1209
01:04:12.599 --> 01:04:12.960
do with it.

1210
01:04:13.000 --> 01:04:16.159
If you don't, I don't know, I really to me really,

1211
01:04:16.760 --> 01:04:19.079
I mean, we've we've gone through all the medical evidence.

1212
01:04:19.079 --> 01:04:21.400
We're going to go through their back, multiple autopsies, so

1213
01:04:21.400 --> 01:04:22.440
we're really not going to learn.

1214
01:04:22.840 --> 01:04:25.239
And that's the third part has nothing to do with

1215
01:04:25.320 --> 01:04:25.880
Joan's death.

1216
01:04:25.920 --> 01:04:29.119
No, it's really about finding justice for John's death at

1217
01:04:29.119 --> 01:04:32.360
this point. But Jon's death, I don't know. I mean,

1218
01:04:32.400 --> 01:04:33.679
it just seems in the fact that.

1219
01:04:33.679 --> 01:04:37.519
He took her to the smaller hospital and he's a doctor. Yeah,

1220
01:04:37.599 --> 01:04:39.760
you know, if you're a doctor, you know when someone

1221
01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:41.079
is on death's.

1222
01:04:40.760 --> 01:04:42.840
Door, right you should. Yeah.

1223
01:04:42.960 --> 01:04:44.920
Yeah, so I think he knew how ill she was,

1224
01:04:45.360 --> 01:04:48.400
the fact that he left her there and he thought

1225
01:04:48.440 --> 01:04:50.360
he was in love with this other woman, I think

1226
01:04:50.440 --> 01:04:54.159
the cards are stacked against him. Yeah, And the thing

1227
01:04:54.239 --> 01:04:56.320
with that Anne had said with the Peatri dishes is

1228
01:04:56.320 --> 01:05:00.079
how he was harvesting harmful bacteria, Like that's one of

1229
01:05:00.079 --> 01:05:03.199
the smarter ways that we have heard of poisoning someone.

1230
01:05:03.760 --> 01:05:07.079
So you know, if if you could introduce I think

1231
01:05:07.480 --> 01:05:12.679
like human excrement into your digestive system, I think that

1232
01:05:12.719 --> 01:05:14.360
could probably kill you, right.

1233
01:05:14.239 --> 01:05:16.440
Yeah, I do think Anne's testimony there, I mean, she

1234
01:05:16.480 --> 01:05:18.559
was definitely out to get John. She had an axe

1235
01:05:18.599 --> 01:05:21.400
to grind with him. But the fact that she talked

1236
01:05:21.440 --> 01:05:23.559
about the Petrie dishes and she had that level of

1237
01:05:23.599 --> 01:05:26.360
detail to it kind of makes me think, yeah, maybe

1238
01:05:26.400 --> 01:05:29.119
there was something to that because she wasn't really a

1239
01:05:29.159 --> 01:05:32.199
medical professional, so she wouldn't have known what that.

1240
01:05:32.119 --> 01:05:33.199
Meant or anything like that.

1241
01:05:33.280 --> 01:05:36.239
So yeah, that is interesting. I don't know, I have

1242
01:05:36.320 --> 01:05:37.239
mixed feelings about it.

1243
01:05:37.239 --> 01:05:41.280
But what makes you think that he is Innocent's evidence?

1244
01:05:41.360 --> 01:05:45.199
Yeah, the fact that no autopsy found anything really you know,

1245
01:05:45.280 --> 01:05:47.880
damaging to him specifically, but I guess if he didn't

1246
01:05:47.960 --> 01:05:48.480
have we.

1247
01:05:48.440 --> 01:05:50.760
Had tissue samples, but we didn't have blood, right.

1248
01:05:51.039 --> 01:05:51.639
Yeah.

1249
01:05:51.920 --> 01:05:54.280
I just wish that there was some like smoking gun

1250
01:05:54.320 --> 01:05:56.559
in the autopsy that pointed to him. But I guess

1251
01:05:56.559 --> 01:05:59.360
at this point John has paid the price regardless. Do

1252
01:05:59.400 --> 01:06:02.239
you think that the DA's office acted properly in the

1253
01:06:02.239 --> 01:06:05.239
way that they indicted and charged John or do you

1254
01:06:05.280 --> 01:06:08.679
think they acted under pressure from Ash and others?

1255
01:06:09.079 --> 01:06:12.400
I think there was definitely pressure there Cecil being on

1256
01:06:12.480 --> 01:06:16.719
the grand jury was definitely suspicious, right, and he was

1257
01:06:16.760 --> 01:06:21.880
a staunch advocate for ashe and the politics too of

1258
01:06:22.000 --> 01:06:24.239
the DA. It was at the DA the assistant DA

1259
01:06:24.400 --> 01:06:27.199
was running for a judge position.

1260
01:06:27.320 --> 01:06:29.239
Yeah, yeah, so I think for him it was the

1261
01:06:29.320 --> 01:06:32.559
publicity was not a bad thing. So it does seem

1262
01:06:32.599 --> 01:06:36.440
a little shady like it seems like money and politics, kind.

1263
01:06:36.280 --> 01:06:41.320
Of local political races really can change the course of

1264
01:06:41.360 --> 01:06:42.960
an investigation and a trial.

1265
01:06:43.159 --> 01:06:45.280
Yeah, for sure. What do you think is going to

1266
01:06:45.320 --> 01:06:46.079
happen from here?

1267
01:06:46.719 --> 01:06:49.480
I mean, I think Ash maybe is gonna.

1268
01:06:49.239 --> 01:06:51.199
Have to do you think he's behind this.

1269
01:06:51.920 --> 01:06:54.119
Well, obviously there's a whole other part, so yeah, so

1270
01:06:54.199 --> 01:06:56.800
I think he is behind them and I think, I

1271
01:06:56.840 --> 01:06:57.159
mean he.

1272
01:06:57.079 --> 01:06:59.599
Had really he really hated John hen to hate him

1273
01:06:59.599 --> 01:07:00.280
after a while.

1274
01:07:00.360 --> 01:07:03.079
And I don't blame I mean, I don't blame him.

1275
01:07:03.159 --> 01:07:06.840
But you can't take justice into your own hands. Yeah,

1276
01:07:07.159 --> 01:07:08.360
murder is never okay.

1277
01:07:15.079 --> 01:07:16.719
I thought before we close, it would be fun to

1278
01:07:16.800 --> 01:07:20.679
share some interesting horse facts since this case revolves around Joan,

1279
01:07:20.719 --> 01:07:23.159
who was a champion of question, and since John's lawyer

1280
01:07:23.159 --> 01:07:24.039
was named racehorse.

1281
01:07:24.400 --> 01:07:27.639
Right, sure, well he wasn't named racehorse because he liked racehorses.

1282
01:07:27.679 --> 01:07:28.440
No, he wasn't.

1283
01:07:28.480 --> 01:07:30.320
But still it's a tie in, all right.

1284
01:07:30.599 --> 01:07:31.320
I've not I didn't.

1285
01:07:31.360 --> 01:07:33.480
I never knew much about horses. Have you ever ridden

1286
01:07:33.480 --> 01:07:35.599
a horse or been a horse person?

1287
01:07:36.639 --> 01:07:40.760
Yes, I have a couple few times. And if you're

1288
01:07:40.800 --> 01:07:43.239
not a horse rider, it's I don't think I've ever

1289
01:07:43.239 --> 01:07:46.119
been a sore as I was my entire life. Were

1290
01:07:46.159 --> 01:07:50.280
you like a teenager it was maybe it was a

1291
01:07:50.320 --> 01:07:52.599
long rite, I don't know, but my inner thighs were

1292
01:07:52.719 --> 01:07:56.519
just they hurt. Horses in general kind of scare me

1293
01:07:56.519 --> 01:07:59.280
because there's they're so large, it's very big. And I

1294
01:07:59.320 --> 01:08:01.800
had an that was yeh. I can't remember if she

1295
01:08:01.880 --> 01:08:04.559
was kicked by a horse or her ankle was stepped

1296
01:08:04.599 --> 01:08:07.000
on by a horse and she was never the same again.

1297
01:08:07.119 --> 01:08:07.599
Oh wow.

1298
01:08:07.840 --> 01:08:10.960
And so when Emma, our daughter, wanted to take she

1299
01:08:11.119 --> 01:08:13.960
was really into horse She wanted to be a horse girl,

1300
01:08:14.000 --> 01:08:16.319
and she she was a horse girl, except I wouldn't

1301
01:08:16.359 --> 01:08:17.159
let her take lessons.

1302
01:08:17.199 --> 01:08:17.840
Yeah, she was.

1303
01:08:18.159 --> 01:08:21.239
She was really she was really small when she was little,

1304
01:08:21.279 --> 01:08:23.680
and I just, I don't know, It's one of the

1305
01:08:23.680 --> 01:08:25.319
things I feel kind of bad about. We never said

1306
01:08:25.359 --> 01:08:26.960
no to our kids, but that was one thing that

1307
01:08:27.479 --> 01:08:29.680
she really wanted to do that, but I just kept

1308
01:08:29.920 --> 01:08:32.920
envision her getting kicked or falling off the horse.

1309
01:08:32.960 --> 01:08:35.399
So yeah, all right, So here are my interesting horse facts.

1310
01:08:35.840 --> 01:08:39.399
There are estimated sixty million horses in the world, combining

1311
01:08:39.479 --> 01:08:42.159
wild and domesticated horses. Do you know how many wild

1312
01:08:42.239 --> 01:08:45.399
horses there are in the US. I wasn't able to

1313
01:08:45.439 --> 01:08:50.720
find a number globally, but twenty thousand, somewhere between seventy

1314
01:08:50.760 --> 01:08:54.439
one and ninety six thousand. That number is dropping year

1315
01:08:54.479 --> 01:08:57.000
over year. The Bureau of Land Management they kind of

1316
01:08:57.039 --> 01:09:00.000
managed this sort of wild horse population in the US,

1317
01:09:00.279 --> 01:09:03.159
and they're actually they actually want it to decline because

1318
01:09:03.199 --> 01:09:06.920
they believe that the amount of like land, public land

1319
01:09:06.920 --> 01:09:08.760
that they have to roam on is not big enough

1320
01:09:08.800 --> 01:09:10.760
to sustain as many horses as.

1321
01:09:10.680 --> 01:09:12.600
There are are They mostly in the West.

1322
01:09:12.760 --> 01:09:17.359
Yeah, they're mostly in like California, Oregon, Utah, Montana, and Wyoming,

1323
01:09:17.399 --> 01:09:19.840
so pretty much where you would expect. The horses have

1324
01:09:20.399 --> 01:09:23.359
near three hundred and sixty degree vision, but they have

1325
01:09:23.680 --> 01:09:26.119
their blind spots are directly in front of them and

1326
01:09:26.199 --> 01:09:29.920
directly behind them, which is why it's really dangerous to

1327
01:09:30.039 --> 01:09:33.079
approach a horse from behind. So you're was it your aunt?

1328
01:09:33.520 --> 01:09:36.159
So maybe that's what she did, because that's Horses get

1329
01:09:36.239 --> 01:09:38.800
really upset if you approach them from behind, and that's

1330
01:09:38.800 --> 01:09:43.279
when they kick. Many people pat horses to reward them

1331
01:09:43.319 --> 01:09:46.159
for a job well done, but horses do not find

1332
01:09:46.319 --> 01:09:50.520
being padded rewarding. They really like to be scratched, not padded.

1333
01:09:51.159 --> 01:09:53.159
So remember that if you ever come across a horse.

1334
01:09:53.600 --> 01:09:56.600
Horse's grades for up to seventeen hours a day.

1335
01:09:57.079 --> 01:09:59.039
That's a lot of greasy.

1336
01:09:59.319 --> 01:10:01.560
I know, I only grades for like sixteen.

1337
01:10:03.399 --> 01:10:05.920
It's got to be a cloak a close time between

1338
01:10:05.960 --> 01:10:06.560
you and horse.

1339
01:10:07.359 --> 01:10:09.359
But due to their physiology, they have to take in

1340
01:10:09.439 --> 01:10:10.840
food constantly.

1341
01:10:10.359 --> 01:10:12.039
And small that must be exhausting.

1342
01:10:12.479 --> 01:10:16.920
Yes, and they are physiologically incapable of burping or throwing up.

1343
01:10:17.560 --> 01:10:19.920
Mmmm. Is that because they have multiple chambers to their

1344
01:10:19.920 --> 01:10:20.760
stomach like cows.

1345
01:10:20.920 --> 01:10:22.239
I'm not a horse doctor.

1346
01:10:22.279 --> 01:10:26.279
I can't explain why they're physically physiologically incapable.

1347
01:10:26.439 --> 01:10:27.560
I just know that they are.

1348
01:10:27.840 --> 01:10:30.439
But this is why they are prone to getting colic,

1349
01:10:30.520 --> 01:10:33.000
because they can't like release gas.

1350
01:10:32.640 --> 01:10:33.920
From know they have colic.

1351
01:10:34.199 --> 01:10:36.680
Yeah, of courses are prone to getting colic. There are

1352
01:10:36.800 --> 01:10:40.000
fewer bones in a horse's body than a human, only

1353
01:10:40.039 --> 01:10:42.720
by one. Okay, so it's really close.

1354
01:10:43.079 --> 01:10:45.359
Well, they have fewer bones in their feet, probably because

1355
01:10:45.359 --> 01:10:47.000
their feet are or their hooks.

1356
01:10:47.199 --> 01:10:48.439
I'm not sure I understand.

1357
01:10:48.840 --> 01:10:50.399
Well, we have a lot of bones in our hands

1358
01:10:50.439 --> 01:10:52.760
and our feet that we articulate for, like you know,

1359
01:10:53.039 --> 01:10:54.159
digital movement.

1360
01:10:54.000 --> 01:10:58.479
Rights are a little simpler. Maybe I have two more

1361
01:10:58.560 --> 01:11:01.279
quick facts. All horses are one of the few mammals

1362
01:11:01.319 --> 01:11:03.600
where the males do not have nipples.

1363
01:11:04.119 --> 01:11:05.319
Oh, thank you for sharing that.

1364
01:11:05.560 --> 01:11:06.800
I know they share.

1365
01:11:06.960 --> 01:11:10.119
The other mammals that don't have nipples are mice and rats, right.

1366
01:11:09.960 --> 01:11:13.880
Right, I didn't know that. I mean why it is

1367
01:11:14.119 --> 01:11:17.760
baffling why male species have but it is it is.

1368
01:11:17.720 --> 01:11:18.199
A little odd.

1369
01:11:18.720 --> 01:11:22.319
Last fact is horses do doze while they're standing up,

1370
01:11:22.399 --> 01:11:25.680
but to get proper deep r em sleep, they need

1371
01:11:25.720 --> 01:11:28.600
to lie down. So many a horse owner has actually

1372
01:11:28.640 --> 01:11:31.359
experienced people driving by and stopping to tell them that

1373
01:11:31.399 --> 01:11:33.960
their horse is dead, but their horse is just lying

1374
01:11:34.000 --> 01:11:35.199
down and taking a nap.

1375
01:11:36.479 --> 01:11:38.760
I actually thought the horses slept standing up.

1376
01:11:38.760 --> 01:11:41.000
I think most people do. Yeah, I thought that as well.

1377
01:11:41.199 --> 01:11:44.239
What do you think horse are em sleep looks like?

1378
01:11:44.520 --> 01:11:47.119
I bet they have really good dreams of just running

1379
01:11:47.119 --> 01:11:51.439
around and being crazy in the wind and grazing, and

1380
01:11:51.640 --> 01:11:53.319
they probably dream of burping.

1381
01:11:53.840 --> 01:11:57.079
Like I had a dream last night about a person

1382
01:11:57.119 --> 01:12:00.199
that I worked with like one hundred years ago, when

1383
01:12:00.239 --> 01:12:02.920
I didn't even I didn't like the guy. It wasn't

1384
01:12:02.920 --> 01:12:04.920
like a romantic dream or anything like that. It was

1385
01:12:05.000 --> 01:12:06.279
just like he was in my dream. And then I

1386
01:12:06.279 --> 01:12:08.319
woke up and I was like, why was that guy

1387
01:12:08.399 --> 01:12:09.079
in my dream?

1388
01:12:09.800 --> 01:12:11.920
Dreams are so weird, so random.

1389
01:12:12.079 --> 01:12:15.079
Yeah, I don't remember my dreams anymore, Like, very rarely

1390
01:12:15.079 --> 01:12:17.359
do I remember a dream. It kind of makes me sad,

1391
01:12:17.399 --> 01:12:20.479
because I like those random things where something pops into

1392
01:12:20.520 --> 01:12:21.439
your head and you're like.

1393
01:12:21.399 --> 01:12:23.279
Oh, this one, where did that comes from? This one? Really?

1394
01:12:23.560 --> 01:12:26.319
I was like, I really actively disliked this guy, so

1395
01:12:26.359 --> 01:12:27.159
it's kind of weird.

1396
01:12:27.319 --> 01:12:30.760
Yeah, very strange. Well, thank you so much for hanging

1397
01:12:30.760 --> 01:12:33.399
out with us. We truly appreciate each and every one

1398
01:12:33.399 --> 01:12:33.600
of you.

1399
01:12:34.199 --> 01:12:36.520
If you can't wait to hear what happens to Ash

1400
01:12:36.560 --> 01:12:39.640
and Part three, you can join us on Patreon. Go

1401
01:12:39.680 --> 01:12:42.920
to patreon dot com Slash Love Mary Kill for early

1402
01:12:43.279 --> 01:12:47.039
ad free episodes and the multi parts are all available

1403
01:12:47.039 --> 01:12:49.399
at the same time, and we give you a monthly

1404
01:12:49.439 --> 01:12:53.399
bonus episode. Please rate, review, follow and subscribe, Find us

1405
01:12:53.439 --> 01:12:55.920
on social media, or send us an email.

1406
01:12:55.640 --> 01:12:58.239
At Lovemarykill at gmail dot com.

1407
01:12:58.319 --> 01:13:00.119
And if you want to send us a snack.

1408
01:13:00.399 --> 01:13:05.079
LMK podcast po Box one one one, Dexter Michigan four

1409
01:13:05.159 --> 01:13:07.560
eight one three zero and a couple.

1410
01:13:07.279 --> 01:13:09.600
Of people have sent us snacks that we haven't gotten

1411
01:13:09.600 --> 01:13:12.640
to yet. Thank you so much, We really appreciate it.

1412
01:13:13.079 --> 01:13:15.720
Until next time, don't kill your wife and don't kill

1413
01:13:15.760 --> 01:14:01.680
your husband.