Joan Robinson Hill

Passions

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Lifestyle

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Family

American socialite and equestrian whose unexplained death at age 38 led to her husband, John Hill, becoming the first person to be indicted by the state of Texas on the charge of murder by omission. The case precipitated a series of events that included the 1972 murder of John Hill and, two years later, the fatal police shooting of the man accused of that murder. The daughter of wealthy oil tycoon Davis Ashton "Ash" Robinson and his wife, Rhea (nee Rhea Ernestine Gardere), Joan became an equestrian at a young age. She excelled and continued the sport into adulthood, ultimately winning several national titles. After two youthful marriages that ended in divorce, Joan married plastic surgeon John Hill in 1957. After a tumultuous marriage, she died following a short illness on 19 March 1969. Autopsy examinations failed to determine a cause of death beyond an infection from an unknown source. Her father, Ash Robinson, subsequently accused Hill of poisoning his daughter, and petitioned the district attorney to prosecute her husband for murder. Hill's murder trial was held in February 1971 but ended in a mistrial. As a second trial was approaching, Hill was gunned down by an intruder at his home. A suspect, Bobby Wayne Vandiver, was arrested and indicted for the murder, but was killed in a shootout with police before his trial. Two other suspects, Marcia McKittrick and Lilla Paulus, were convicted as accomplices to Hill's murder and served time in prison. The case was the subject of Thomas Thompson's 1976 book "Blood and Money" and the 1981 made-for-television film "Murder in Texas." Link to Wikipedia biography