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Hey weirdos, I'm Ash.
And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid.
This is Morbid. How are you?
I'm good. I'm looking at snacking cheeses.
Snacking cheeses? Yes.
I I recommend I think they're like oh fuck are they they're like the Bella Romano or something like that yeah yeah and they have Merlot ones Belgioso yes not at all Gioioso something like that I apologize I am only 1 .4 percent Italian I'm not any percent Italian so no apologies for me um they have a Merlot one that's really good yeah an espresso one which sounds odd but is good sounds good to me they have a champagne one that i tried recently and these are all cheeses by the way really good 10 out of 10 recommend we love this send us cheese sponsor us cheese oh i love cheese yeah i get the little
uh little snacking ones for the gals and there's an asiago one that's just chef's kiss chef's kiss yeah if i'm gonna do a a snacking cheese at like a baby bell or I forget what the brand is.
It starts with an S.
It's called like maybe it's like Supreme Bites or like Super Bites but it's Little Mini Brie Cheeses.
Ooh I could take Brie or leave Brie.
That's upsetting. I would never leave Brie in a million years.
I might leave it if it hurt my feelings.
It could hurt my feelings but I would still stay.
This has been cheese with Ash and Alayna.
I love it. I like that we both have put each other first i was just gonna say i like that was sweet of us that was nice of us i like that all right well i have a case today you're like i don't know how to segue i don't know how to segue because this is a really really sad one and it's a really confusing one i'm gonna go ahead and tell you at the top of this that nobody's really ever convicted for one of the deaths that we're going to talk about oh and it's very unclear whether it's simply a death or or uh more complicatedly a murder wow yes so we're going to be talking about joan robinson hill
and john hill okay but we're going to start with joan so joan olive robinson she was said to be born on february 6 1931 i say said to be because her birth certificate was like lost at some point actually oh and there's no record of her birth that exists as far as anybody anybody knows wow but as far as people do know she was born to anonymous parents in rural eagle lake texas and a month after she was born she was given up for adoption to edna glena to the edna glaney home in fort worth texas where she was actually quickly adopted which like yay oh and she was adopted by davis ash robinson hey
he was known as ash and his and his wife raya oh now ash Ash Robinson, he was a classic Texas oil man.
I feel like oil men are a running theme in my case.
I'm loving an oil tycoon these days.
You love an oil tycoon.
Or maybe not. Maybe not, but you are interested in their stories.
It's because rich, and I love a rich oil story.
You love a Dallas kind of story.
Oh, yes. Yes. Very like, whoa.
Very whoa. Very flashy.
Very shocking. talking very that so those are them so ash robinson he was a classic texas oil man he wore a wide -brimmed cowboy hat all the time he drove a lincoln continental yeah and he was uh deeply suspicious of liberals we'll say okay yep as a child of the old south he had views that were increasingly out of step with the world around him that were interesting yeah but despite his heart exterior, he absolutely adored his wife and his new daughter.
Well, that's good. Yeah.
That's all we can ask.
He loved his family.
I don't know if I really want to know anything else about his personal views, but he loved his family.
And honestly, the most important part, you love your family, you're taking care of them.
That's good. Yeah. Treat them nice.
Exactly. And this was kind of during a time where most dads were, you know, pretty hands off and left the baby's needs mostly to the mother or the woman in their life.
But Ash was not about that life.
He insisted on tending to the new baby's needs preparing her formula changing diapers when she was old enough to take on trips he would bring little Joan around with him to check on his oil wells at the time oh man which was like a very rare sight that's really cute yeah and as she grew there was nothing ash would not do or give to his daughter do for or give to his daughter author thomas thompson wrote should a minor scratch appear on her arm ash would summon a specialist and if necessary a medical staff like he he loved his daughter yeah she was just like precious cargo very much love that when joan was four
years old her father hired a chauffeur a chauffeur quote chiefly because he enjoyed going on rides with his daughter and did not want to divide his attention between her and the road wow that's really precious that's some dad shit right that's some oil tycoon shit i was gonna say that's not just like typical dad shit that's oil tycoon that's really rich dad shit but like very adorable yeah it's kind of like hot girl shit adjacent yeah there you go now it was on one of those drives that joan got her first glimpse of the animal that would play a very very important role in her future ash would later
recall i remember well exactly what happened as the car passed a field full of horses joni commenced to hollering that she wanted to ride those ponies that was the beginning everything dates from that afternoon oh wow she fell in love with horses and horseback riding at just four years old where you know that's an age where like a lot of kids would be pretty intimidated by a giant fucking horse for sure and you know just like straight up scared not jones she became completely obsessed within a few weeks ash had purchased her an older horse that she learned to ride on and of course learned the responsibilities
of owning an animal in general yeah within a year So when she was five years old, she was riding in competitions and winning ribbons alongside riders that were twice her age or older.
Damn. Good for her.
She was an incredible, incredible horseback rider.
She loved it. As she entered high school, that love of horses was continually rivaled only by the love of her father.
And when she graduated and enrolled at Stevens College in Boone County, Ash and Rhea Robinson actually leased a suite of rooms at a hotel across the street from the campus.
So that they wouldn't have to be apart from their daughter.
Wow. Which, you know, I think that it's lovely that they loved their daughter so much. Well, it was out of love, obviously.
It was out of love, but I definitely think it was a little overboard. Yeah.
I mean, you do need to – I mean, I can't imagine because my kids are so young that I'm like I can't fathom being apart from them for any length of time.
You got to let them spread their wings.
But I know at some point you got to let them like be a little independent, but that's tough.
Yeah. And at least you know it was out of love.
And I think it's so different too.
I think there's the added level that she was adopted.
And they wanted to have a baby so badly and did whatever they could to have this baby.
It was just out of an abundance of love and protective nature.
Definitely. Now at college, Joan was instantly popular with her peers and her instructors.
And she also maintained her passion for riding.
And she spent most of her free time when she wasn't at classes or anything at the stables.
But at the same time, she also was keeping up with her grade.
She was doing really well in school trying to satisfy her parents.
And while she may have loved her mother and father, she definitely did, their constant presence eventually did become stifling.
And, of course, you can imagine she's at college.
She has to branch out a little bit.
One of her friends later said most of us felt sorry for her.
She was completely under her parents' thumb.
She couldn't even accept a date without checking with them first. With all that attention, she was hungry for love from somebody other than Ma and Pa.
I know. That's the thing.
It can backfire. that's exactly but it's never intentional you know what i mean like it's always you can understand it no and i really i really don't think it came from anywhere other than a place of just love really loving that child real real raw love yeah it's sad now when she was younger you know in her childhood years the love and attention that she got from her parents specifically her father helped joan grow into like a confident empowered young woman but as an adult that same same adoration had become a little more oppressive and smothering at this point yeah while she was still in college
she appeared in a drama department production which sparked an interest in acting that actually led her all the way to hollywood to take a screen test hollywood hollywood and that's kind of what her father said he said hollywood but a little different because when he found out about her intentions to make a name for herself in acting he was not pleased oh he He immediately refused to allow this.
And he told her, I quote, too many good girls had been destroyed by show business.
I mean, show business is not a, is a scary place.
It is. You can see the, you can see the hesitance that you would have to allow your child, your only child.
100%. To enter that, I get that.
But like. And especially during this time.
Like. That's, and that's the other thing.
This is a very different time.
I mean, any time really sucks.
Any time entering show business is like intense.
tense but this was like that's it was like frowned upon at this point in time yeah and it looked it's looked at very different at that time so it's like yeah and but it sucks for her because it's like it's what she wants to do no matter what you want your parents to like support your dreams you know of course absolutely but it's a tough it's a tough little double -edged sword there it is i do get to a degree where where ash was coming from but i get his worry yes and i also understand why Joan would be disappointed yeah you can see both sides there for sure and I think as much of him as much of him
that wanted her to not become an actress it also had a lot to do with the distance that would have been for sure that's the thing that was also a big part of it that's this is why this is one of those things that it's like you're not seeing these like you know shitty parents who are just hard asses to for the sake of being hard asses you know what I mean that just like put all these crazy unnecessary expectations on this child and i've like driven her to it just seems like it's like you can kind of understand both sides of this coin here which makes it so sad it's a lot yeah because you're like
i get it i get both i get i get a little bit yeah you seem like you just all love each other and want to make each other happy and it's difficult for that to happen yeah but over time it would become clear that ash robinson's influence over his daughter's life extended well beyond professional and financial while she was still in college joan met and fell in love with a man named spike shut up spike benton i immediately thought of you shout out to the rewatchers is this william the bloody it's not no it's just spike benton it's just spike it's just like uh he was a young man from a pretty prominent
new orleans family so like both Both of your interests there.
Oh, my goodness. Yeah, he's from a pretty prominent New Orleans family.
And he had recently graduated from the United States Military Academy.
Oh, wow. Look at this guy.
So they met. They fell in love.
Eventually, the relationship turned serious because love.
Because love. Because love.
And Spike approached Ash for his permission to marry Joan.
He's like, I love your daughter.
I really want to marry her.
That's adorable. Ash was like, no. Oh.
No. Not happening. That's not adorable.
He was like, you guys are too young.
young I really don't want Joan to marry you while you're an active member of the military and I also think it's going to be way too expensive for you guys to keep up with the horses so no I mean he just tacks that on just like horses are expensive as well so he's like sorry she's a really good rider uh you're in the military so you're gonna move around a lot which uh I'm not gonna let that happen that must be so hard it must be so hard I dread this kind of stuff because it's It's like you have to let go.
Yeah. And you have to relinquish a little bit of control with your kids.
Because you've never done it.
But you've spent their whole life doing nothing but trying to keep them safe and steer them the right directions and teach them things and like make sure they're okay.
And it's like and then you just have to release all of it.
And hope that whatever you did.
And hope you did it all right.
Right. So it's like I can't imagine how much but it's like the more you fight for control role as they get over I older I just like from what I've witnessed it feels like it just backfires there and it must be such a hard like balance to strike you know because that's the thing you hope that like you just said you hope that you gave them enough that they're gonna make good decisions and you also hope that you know like you loved them enough and created like a bond with them where if they're not doing okay they'll come to you and you have to have faith in that exactly And I think that is where letting
go could become a little easier if you have that bond where you know that they'll still come to you.
Exactly. And I don't know if Ash even really thought about that.
Yeah. I think he was just blinded by, like, I can't let this happen.
Yeah, it was just blind fear of, like, she's going to leave. Exactly.
And for that reason, literally any reason he could possibly think of for them not to get married, he named and used in his argument against this idea.
But despite his refusal, Joan insisted that she wanted to marry Spike, and eventually her father did relent, and he gave his blessing.
But it took some time.
It took a little bit.
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Now, after the wedding, Joan and Spike moved down to Florida, where Spike had been stationed, actually.
And just as they had done when she left for college, Ash and Rhea Robinson Robinson also found a reason to relocate to Florida.
And they rented an apartment just a few miles away from the newlyweds.
Guys, I love you. But you got to give them a little space.
This is bringing helicopter parent to another level.
I see that you have pure intentions here.
You know you could.
Right. You got to give her a little space.
Because the thing was, rather than being a source of support for the young couple, Ash became a constant presence in their lives.
he started every single morning by going to have coffee at his daughter's house which is really precious and so lovely but like if there's got to be a little division here yeah like if my you know my grandpa came to my house every single day for coffee like right now when i had just gotten married i'd be like i love you so much and you can you can totally do this but this is a lot but like we need a little separate and that's the thing if it was just coffee every morning that was their thing and they decided that was their thing and that was it and otherwise they had very like regular average
time together you know like that's one thing but it's like because there's so much other i'm sure it became a little stifling yeah a little like domineering unintentionally now it wasn't long before the you know the stifling constancy of ash robinson became a point of contention for spike and joan in the marriage and unfortunately within six months the marriage completely fell apart oh boy and joan it sent her back uh to texas with her parents all three of them relocated back to texas uh luckily for joan it wasn't long before she fell in love again this time with a new orleans lawyer named cecil
burgess she's loving new orleans here she does and she's also just like gorgeous so you can see why yeah she she's not having any trouble now cecil and joan there they both really shared a love of horses and riding the horses and they They really bonded over that.
And before long, the prospect of marriage was raised yet again.
But this time, Ash just flat out refused to allow his daughter to, quote, run from the ruins of one marriage and into another.
Ooh. Yeah, that was a read right there.
We're starting to overstep a little.
A little bit. A little bit.
In fact, he not only refused to give his blessing to this specific marriage, but he, quote, unquote, forbid it.
Oh. Which, like, okay.
Okay. And he's pushing Joan at this point.
Forbidding your child to do something, especially when they are not older, is really just a recipe for them doing it immediately.
Ding, ding, ding. Because regardless of her father's feelings, Joan and Cecil ended up eloping in 1949 and they just got married by a justice of the peace without anybody there.
Yeah, of course. But unfortunately, this marriage didn't really last long either.
and within six months, Joan actually just ended up leaving Cecil and filed for divorce shortly after.
At the time, the Robinsons told friends and family that Cecil had been a good man, but that he had a gambling problem that had ultimately ruined the marriage.
But the truth was actually that Joan's parents had lied to her about Ash having a heart attack in order to lure her back to Texas.
And once she was there, Ash had successively convinced Joan to leave her husband by offering to buy her a new car mink coats new horses and telling her that um he needed her more than cecil did big yikes to that um so he didn't see i don't know if cecil had a gambling problem and maybe that was just like a a fragment of the truth or if he really didn't at all and it was just that you know i they no matter what they lured her back there by saying that ash had a heart attack that's fucked up and he did i'm just gonna be honest with you that's fucked up yeah see we've crossed a very large boundary
the boundary is so big this is dysfunctional at this point so this is toxic this is not okay nothing i've been trying i've been trying to be like you know parents love their kids it's hard you know shit wow okay you just love being near her but your coffee's nice every morning but no we crossed over that i gave a big wide wide boundary and they just just galloped right over it like a horse like a horse like a horse yeah now by 1951 when she was just 20 years old joan had graduated from college and was twice married and twice divorced so she was still living at home with her parents at this point
she was really completely free of responsibility but she was ambitious and eager to leave some kind of mark on the world.
So she started competing in horse riding tournaments again around Texas and the southern part of the country and over the next 20 years she would actually go on to win quote over 500 trophies and two of her horses won several top awards in the 50s and 60s.
Damn. So she was really talented.
Like really good. And she really wanted to have she wanted to make some kind of name for herself like in some professional endeavor and she set that goal for herself and succeeded.
She very much succeeded.
And she couldn't have picked a better time to be unattached and unencumbered.
Because by the late 1950s and early 60s, the oil boom in and around Texas made countless men into millionaires.
Oh, just millionaires.
Millionaires. Coming out of the woodwork.
Dallas. Dallas millionaires.
And this whole movement really transformed the city into kind of like a playground for the elite and the newly wealthy.
It's Dallas. It's Dallas.
and as a member of the old guard joan robinson was at the center of houston's high society she was old money she was old money she was beautiful she could have had whoever the hell she wanted she was look at joan dining at the finest restaurant she was being photographed everywhere because she's pretty much a socialite i would say she was getting photographed at the opera nightclubs freaking cafes even and according to thompson quote uh the author there were weeks when Joan's name and photograph appeared six or eight times in the papers always she seemed to be flying off to a horse show or winging
in from Hollywood where people ogled her at the I think it's the Mocambo it's a nightclub I looked up how to pronounce it and it's like a place but then it's also like a nightclub I think it's the Mocambo I like it I don't know I've never been there I haven't either it doesn't exist anymore her life sounds pretty fun yeah fancy free like the shit you read about in and like good books yeah just like say you know what sounds great for her love it now despite all the trouble her father's overbearing presence had caused joan always made a point to share her life with her parents no matter what turmoil
and tension there had been she did love her parents and she loved her dad years later after her joan's death her mother rea would tell a reporter i often felt the only real love in my life was joan every time i went out with my daughter i had a wonderful time she made me feel loved she made me feel wanted which that breaks my heart breaks my heart like like ash wasn't like a real love for her you know yeah and it's like damn and i i wonder if because they didn't necessarily have that with each other in their marriage that they they loved joan to kind of make up they had so much extra love to shower her
with not in like a marital way or anything like that but just it was like a different kind of love that that they really devoted their lives to.
I think it's like, I mean, as twisted as that love got at the end with, like, the lying about a heart attack and all that, like, that's fucked up.
But you know even that was done out of, I think, desperation because of a love that is a little different than we can comprehend.
But, yeah, it's like this just feels like, I don't know.
They needed family therapy, I think.
I didn't, but this was, like, the 50s.
They would have benefited from it.
Yeah, it wasn't going to happen then.
It was not going to happen.
But now I'd be like, just, you know, sit down with some people.
Yeah, back then they were like, do cocaine about it.
Yeah, just, you know, that's fine.
It'll intensify everything.
Yeah, everything will be great.
No, they were not doing cocaine.
I'm not saying that.
I'm just, like, lolling.
It was just in the 50s.
But meanwhile, Ash continued to be a dominant presence in Joan's life.
He was finding ways to drive off any potential suitors before any real relationship could begin.
One former boyfriend, Travers Fell, recalled meeting Ash for the first time, and he said, I could see the hate in his eyes.
That old bastard leaned on me every way he could.
I got the impression that Joan wanted to get away from her father, but she both loved him and feared him.
Eek. Yeah. Now, as exciting as Houston nightlife was, by 1957, Joan had grown really tired of the casual dates that were not really going anywhere, and a future of jet -setting and horse shows just wasn't as exciting as it once had been.
It was great, but it wasn't everything she wanted.
Yeah. Now, one afternoon in the spring while attending a horse show, she ran into a man named Dr. Riley Foster.
He was a family friend and actually one of the city's most well -respected surgeons.
And he was in the company of a young man that he introduced as Dr. John Hill.
Joan was immediately drawn to this Dr. John Hill.
Dr. John? Mm -hmm. He was a very good -looking guy in Joan's eyes.
He had an earnest personality.
nationality. So later that afternoon Joan called Riley Foster's wife Maggie and insisted that they set her up with John Hill as soon as they could.
She was really into it.
Look at her. Now look after what you want.
She is. That Joan is a go -getter.
She is. She is. Now let's talk a little bit about John Hill.
Let's go. Let's do it.
He was born 1931 and he'd been raised in the Rio Grande Valley which is a section of Texas wedged between Mexico and the Gulf.
His parents Raymond and Myra Hill had what one person described as a quote business -like marriage huh yeah based more on sustainability and practicality than on love or romance not what i'm personally looking for yeah john was right in the middle of the three kids and he's uh he was said to be the most dominant and energetic of the hill children he was known mostly for his curiosity and penchant for taking things apart to see how they worked how everything functioned okay growing up he and his brother other Julian where they had a really really close bond.
They were almost inseparable and that actually surprised some people because of their polar opposite personalities which immediately reminded me of us.
Yes, absolutely. Because all the time people are like you guys are really close but like you're completely different people.
It's like it works and it just works and they developed a deep love for music that they bonded over between the two of them and that would really kind of they would maintain that love for the rest of their lives and it was a huge part of of their relationship.
I love that. Now that passion that they shared came in handy at church where Myra was a strict follower of the doctrine and raised her children to do likewise.
She was a very devoutly religious woman.
Okay. Now it was actually her idea for John to become a doctor.
She constantly reminded him, quote, there are 10 doctors in my family, and I'd be so proud if my two sons became the 11th and 12th.
Whoa. Lots of pressure.
I was just going to say no pressure sure though yeah even despite a pronounced defiant streak in his personality though john did make his mother's dream come true when he came home uh for christmas break during his sophomore year in college and he announced that he did want to attend medical school look at john i know he was like hey mom i got news i'm about to be number 10 number 10 number 10 by the time he moved to houston for his medical residency john had decided that there were too many heart surgeons in the the area a common problem yeah fuck that and he was like let me pursue plastic surgery
because there's a lack of plastic surgeons in this region and i could also become hella rich i was just gonna say and it definitely doesn't hurt to paycheck he was like let's do it now while some of john's friends and family remember him as a quiet unassuming young doctor there was also definitely a streak of arrogance and recklessness about him that people remember that occasionally cause problems. Yeah.
In one incident early on in his medical career, he performed surgery on an older person who was suffering alcoholism.
And this surgery was basically, he was performing it in order to drain excess fluid from the man's stomach. I guess the procedure is a relatively common, simple one, but there is a risk of puncturing the bowel, which can cause a obviously massive infection.
You don't want to do that.
And that is precisely what happened.
Whether he realized that he had hit the poop pipe, for lack of a better term, whether he realized he did that or not is unknown.
But when he finished the surgery, John simply sewed up the patient and walked away.
And days later, the man developed peritonitis and ended up dying.
Now, when John was called before the senior surgeon at the hospital, he flatly denied having perforated the bowel, but said if it did happen, it was so minor that it didn't need a repair when it did happen.
Honey, you can't perforate the bowel.
You just can't. Like, even minorly.
Like, you can't do that.
Yeah. The surgeon that he had to talk to later said that guy had a million defenses, but he was so charming and so eager that I didn't want to wreck his career over one mistake.
One mistake? It caused somebody's life.
yeah i don't know if i would call that like a mistake eek yeah but anyway all right to friends joan and john when they did get together because they did they made a bit of an unlikely pair to maggie foster the woman who had set them up at joan's request the relationship actually seemed doomed to fail in her opinion okay she she was like i didn't really want to set them up set them up to knock them down she was like i didn't have any plans to do that until joan called me and asked me to maggie said she knows horses and nightclubs and where pa keeps his checkbook john hill knows how to play the trombone
and make sutures he's a mama's boy who winces every time joan says goddamn which is often maggie which is off serving the tea she's like joan says goddamn a lot she's like joan says goddamn a lot john doesn't like it he's a mama's boy fuck them both and she's like a daddy's girl he's a mama's boy it's like yes yeah great but Joan and John they did hit it off like I said hey she was taken by his charm and welcomed the opportunity to share her luxurious world with somebody who still found Houston society exciting which I think in turn made it exciting for her again yeah because she's been here the whole time
she's just been living this life yeah and it was kind of getting dull yeah I think she was lonely But now through someone else's eyes, it's like, oh, this is pretty luxurious.
Right, exactly. Now, more importantly, though, for one reason or another, Ash Robinson didn't lose his mind at the idea of Joan and John dating.
Huh. This was the first time this had happened.
In fact, when Joan brought John to meet her father and ask for his permission to get married, Ash was more than hospitable and even took an interest in John and his career.
Maybe he saw his daughter with a doctor.
Maybe he just looked at this as a respectable career.
career the most I think so I definitely think so and he's gonna make a lot of money and he is setting himself up for a life in Texas not exactly yeah so they're staying here he's got a lot of money they're part of they're gonna be part of this social circle part of high society he's a doctor right yeah I get it and years later Thompson speculated it must have occurred to Ash Robinson that the alliance was on balance one that he could live with yeah Joan was 26 years old And if she had to marry somebody, then John Hill was not the worst of choices.
That's the thing. It doesn't seem like, you know, he's like a bad guy.
So no, I don't know anything about this case.
So I'm just spew spew.
I don't know that he is a bad guy.
Maybe I'll regret saying that.
But right now I get why Ash was like, you know, this looks fine.
I will tell you early on that I think you're going to go on the same roller coaster that I did.
I hate roller coasters.
So let's go. I don't, I still don't know how I feel about John one way or the other.
This sounds so weird because we're talking about John and I'm like, I think John's great.
You're like, take your earrings out.
Let's fight. I'm like, yeah, we're not getting on a roller coaster, John.
We'll get vertigo. Okay.
That'd be bad. John Hill, I should say.
Now, so Ash didn't say no. Yeah, he was fine with it.
So John and Joan married in September of 1957 and they had a ceremony held in her parents' huge backyard. It was gorgeous.
Sure, it was gorgeous.
Gorgeous. yes the next day the society pages and all the local papers described the wedding in storybook terms like one outlet that reported the bridge a glow in an elegant white lay or the bridge i was like i think it was bright i think it's his bride the bride a glow in an elegant white lace gown after the honeymoon the couple accepted ash's invitation to live with them at his estate damn noting that it would help them financially while neglecting to mention that it would also give ash Ash the opportunity to keep a close eye on his daughter in New South Wales.
I was going to say, I mean, that was definitely the reason.
He was like, wow, you could just live in my house.
It'll save you so much money.
For John, though, who had just begun his residency, living with Ash and Rhea Robinson was a godsend.
At the time, surgical residents were only paid $165 a month.
Damn. Crazy. While like breaking their backs.
Yeah. To go through a residency.
Exactly. Exactly. It was barely anything considering the work week that could range anywhere from 60 to 80 hours.
Damn. And so the arrangement made it so that the couple not only saved on rent, but also benefited from meals and food and, you know, electricity and all the things that you have to pay for.
Yeah, Rhea and Ash coming to the rescue.
Exactly. And in addition to all of that, as members of Houston society, most social events and other entertainment were paid for by Jones parents.
Yeah. So they got to live this lifestyle and not have to pay for it.
Rub two pennies together.
Right. Without the crushing financial stress that most medical students experience, John and Joan were able to enjoy the early days of their marriage.
But John's frequent appearances in the society pages was a constant irritant to the ethics committee at the hospital.
And they believed having a surgical resident among all that nightlife was ethically questionable.
questionable, and they actually insisted that he cease his celebrity nightlife appearances if he was gonna continue his residency.
I, I can see that. Yeah, I don't wanna know that my doctor's out all night at a nightclub.
I don't wanna know anything about my doctor.
Yeah, just that, like, he's nice to me when I'm there.
I like my doctor. See, I love my doctor.
He does a good job.
Yeah. That's all I wanna know about him.
I don't wanna see him.
I don't wanna open up a tabloid and see him, like, you know, hanging out with whoever at the nightclub.
Just, like, down in Cristal.
Yeah, i don't want to see that i'm good like do it all by all means go i don't give a shit what you're doing doctor but like dodge the photos yeah like dr jeffrey it's fine like just do your thing yeah don't tell me about it so i get it they're like we don't need you showing everybody what you're doing exactly and the ethics committee they weren't the only thing that put distance between john and joan hill because they did since john had to ease up on these appearances joan's schedule was usually really really busy and required her to travel most days out of the week and john really hardly ever
went with her even when he could he didn't really oh uh they're not making an effort no the result of these circumstances was that they pretty much began living separate social lives john focused on his career and his music because remember he's really passionate about music and joan on her horses and competitions but neither at this point seemed resentful or jealous of the other all right so they just have their own things and and it worked for a bit yeah in june of 1960 joan actually ended up giving birth to a boy that the couple named robert ashton hill ah and they nicknamed him or uh excuse
me i should say ash his grandfather nicknamed him boot boot yeah that's hilarious i'm not sure what that was about a little boot.
Little boot. That's adorable.
Hey, a little boot.
I love it. It makes me laugh because it's so cute.
I don't know if that was like a Texas thing.
Like, I'm sure. Yeah.
Like, oh, no, look at this little boot.
A little cowboy boot.
But the pregnancy and the birth had been actually difficult for Joan.
And for John, the baby was the first sign of major changes in his life that he had been enjoying oh you mean she created a whole human in her body and now things have to be a little different yeah okay and you know like she is dealing with the after effects of uh creating and delivering human life yes yeah it's a little tough it's a big thing uh for one thing as we all know children are expensive they sure are time consuming very much so and john being in his final year of residency meant that they would need to continue relying heavily on ash and rhea jones parents for financial and practical
practical support practical support for ash robinson though the birth of his grandson could not have been a more celebratory event he fucking loved that boy that's just like i'm like he just wants to like i don't know i don't know he loves his family i know it's but i'm like he really does love his family he does kind of sweet he said well he loves most of his family he said of his son -in -law's apprehension about you know becoming a father i don't care if he's ready or not we're very happy he's like i don't give a fuck about him fuck about that i'm happy yeah he's like i'm psyched i'm a grandpa i
got a little boot now i'm grandpa fucking ash this is my little boot shut up that's so cute that's hilarious but of course just as he had done with his own daughter ash adored boot and wasted no time lavishing him with gifts and attention and it's really sweet they were really close for a long time and john and joan they managed to survive the distance between them caused by their different interests and their social lives they kept up appearances for their neighbors and the society pages but i think becoming parents and you know for for john specifically the baby and more specifically ash's adoration of the baby brought
about new opportunities for criticism in the Robinson Hill household that was going to test the strength of their marriage.
By 1963, Ash had become more vocally dismissive of John, telling friends that John contributed nothing to the household, seemed to have no trouble spending his own money on a piano or other musical interests, but, like, not providing at all for his kid.
Once at a party, Ash was overheard telling another guest, here comes the famous plastic surgeon john hill who never even bought his son a jar of baby food can you imagine being a party goer like having that conversation and you're just like damn and like john is like right over john hill yeah he's right over there and you're in between that like the tension within that moment i'd be like and that's like that's like a mic drop boom oh yeah That's like he's not even buying his kid baby food.
Yikes. That's not a good look, my friend.
That is not a good look.
Yeah. And the thing was, in the world of Houston's elite, John was checking all the right boxes as he was climbing up the social ladder.
But as long as he lived in his father -in -law's house, he was never going to be considered to be truly successful.
In fact, when his colleague, Dr. Nathan Roth, offered him a position at his private practice, it came with the stipulation that John move himself and his family out of the Robinsons' house.
and into his own home.
John was obviously very happy to accept this offer because tensions had gone past a point of being any kind of manageable.
And the $5 ,000 personal loan Roth was giving him was a nice asset.
Yeah, that helps. So while the opportunity to establish himself in private practice was incredibly exciting, there was still the matter of Ash Robinson or more specifically how John was going to tell Ash Robinson that not only would he no longer need his financial support, but that he would be moving away with the two most important people in the man's life.
Oh, boy. Yeah. Not surprisingly, Ash responded poorly to the news.
Not shocked. Joan insisted that it was for the best and that the house that they found for their little family was only a few miles away, so it wasn't like they wouldn't be able to still see each other every day.
Regardless, John had made up his mind, and in 1963, the family moved to their own home about 10 minutes away from the robinsons so not bad yeah at the same time john eagerly joined roth's uh surgical practice as a junior partner anticipating a really bright future unfortunately though the hills would have or would not have much time to celebrate the positive developments in their lives because just a few weeks after the move this is really sad john's brother julian was found dead in the attic of a family friend's home home he uh there was an empty bottle of barbiturates beside him oh geez now
nobody really knew why he had ended his life but there was a predominant theory that julian had struggled with anxiety and depression for a long time and that he may have been living his life as a closeted gay man oh that's so sad so he had like a lot on him yeah and the bleak future that he envisioned for himself because he lives in Texas in the 60s at this point, very early 60s.
That had just become too much for him to bear.
But because this happened right as they were starting to kind of, you know, get out on their own, it set them back big time because they were best friends, John and Julian.
That's sad. Yeah. And it was the first tragedy that they really went through as a couple.
Yeah. But unfortunately it was just the beginning of a downward spiral.
It'll test you. Yeah.
and they would experience a lot more tragedy.
In the years that followed Julian's death and the start of John's professional career, Joan and John continued to drift slowly but steadily apart.
After joining the practice, John, he really threw himself fully into building a name for himself at the practice and among the social circles.
He acquired or achieved pretty much all the hallmarks of a successful surgeon.
And when he wasn't occupied with work, John enthusiastically pursued his musical interests which left little time for his wife or his son john joan often was pretty upset and lamented that john hardly knew their son and never really made any attempt to engage in the typical father -son activities like camping or sports or literally anything anything at all that's shitty it is and to not make an effort and that's the thing her her complaints about this lack of a relationship were not baseless because it's like I get that you're trying to move up in the ladder.
You're trying to make a better life and all that.
Yeah, be successful at work and whatnot.
But to not make any time for your child, that's on you, man.
And it's like it would be one thing if you were pouring everything into work.
That would still be something that I would want to talk about.
Yeah. But it was like you're pouring a lot into work.
And your social status.
And your social status and your personal hobbies.
Yeah. And leaving nothing for our son.
Not impressed by that.
Because since moving into their home, John had spent thousands and thousands of dollars renovating the place to accommodate his interests and his tastes.
And despite a substantial increase in his salary, actually within just one year of private practice, he was making $168 ,000 annually, which would be like making $1 .5 million today.
But the family was struggling with finances, even at that level.
because he was going so hard because he was going so hard on his own shit not even like pouring it into a little boot there but the most important thing to John in his own eyes was to build a music room in the house where he could retreat it's like what are you fucking retreating from retreating from what man you don't see your kid you don't see your kid ever he just wanted to retreat to play or listen to music and after contracting with Houston based engineer Louis Earth John told the man since I was a little boy it has been my dream to build such a room money is no object the only goal is perfection okay
it's like money is an object you have a fucking family to provide for and you're spending all of this man now years later uh louis recalled his initial conversation with john noting that the man was not just insistent but he said he actually seemed possessed whoa like he was like he was so obsessed Really, really intense about this.
Not only did the music room dig the hills deeper into debt, but it also gave John one more place where he could escape his family, which he did not need.
By the summer of 1968, after years of frustration, Joan demanded that he take a few days off and drive with her to pick up boot from summer camp where he'd been for four weeks.
He went to a little program.
John agreed to take the trip, but neither of them knew that it would be a trip that only further complicated things in their marriage so here joan is being like can you actually show up for once yeah and then the one time this motherfucker does show up it changes everything what happened in a bad way it was at camp rio vista that john first met a woman named ann kurth don't even was a woman who would change his life dramatically don't even like john and joan ann had visited the camp that weekend to pick up her children one afternoon as john was sitting with the other families in the mess hall
for lunch he just leaned over and introduced himself to miss ann there and her son who were seated right by him and over the course of the weekend john and ann just kept bumping into one another at the camp while joan was off somewhere uh you know taking care of their fucking child oh come on and when they returned to houston a few days later John called Ann he was like hey oh he just had her number yeah he got her number over the course of that uh bonding time where he was supposed to be uh showing up for his son oh I tell you he called Ann and he said oh I had uh my film developed like took
a bunch of pictures while we were away this weekend do you want to see some of the pictures huh so I would love to meet up and show you some of the pictures and that's it just look at pictures yeah totally this is fine It's fine.
Everything's totally fine.
Yeah. Anne knew that John was married to a society woman, no less.
But she figured she would entertain the little fantasy for a little while longer before ultimately shutting it down for the sake of decency and decorum.
Anne, come on. Yeah.
What the fuck? Both of you.
What the fuck? But the problem was she liked the attention.
Oh, fuck off. And more than that, she really liked John Hill.
Well, he's married.
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The afternoon photo sharing was soon followed by a lunch, then another lunch, and before long, Anne and John were engaged in exactly the kind of relationship that Anne said she had planned to avoid from the start.
Please, Anne. Yeah, bitch please.
After a few weeks of clandestine meetings.
I love the word clandestine.
Yeah, it makes it sound so much nicer than it actually is.
I know, secret asshole meetings.
Fucked up. Bullshit.
Betrayal. Gross meetings.
But clandestine too.
Oh, you have time for that.
Not your fucking kid though.
So after a few weeks of those secret meetings, John was up front with Ann about his intentions.
She later recalled, he informed me that from this moment on I was to consider my time fully taken up by Dr. John Hill.
I'm sorry, what? he was like you're mine i want you marked territory this is really gross agreed this is really gross yeah well and ann was like okay what about your wife john said oh now you're asking about his wife yeah i love that did you hear my eye roll from over here oh what huh it's like oh shit about her yeah let's let's ask about her now that it's not sounding so great to you exactly yeah so when she asked about joan john said you know their relationship had been over for quite some time, and he was, quote, trapped in a marriage he had to get out of.
Oh, shut up. It's like, then get out of it and give me a call once that's done.
Over the years, he said they drifted apart.
They were living two separate lives.
They had very different interests, different goals.
You know, she wanted to raise their kid.
He didn't. And by the end of summer, though, John and Anne had become lovers, and now he had to figure out how he was going to get out of his marriage.
The fact that this man met this woman and this woman met this man at a summer camp picking up their children yeah they should be ashamed of themselves 150 million percent now one fall day joan returned home from a horse show to find a note i repeat a note they've been married like i want to say like probably 10 years at this point he did not burger from sex of the city this girl i wrote that in my notes did you i literally i will show it to you i literally literally wrote that in my notes.
The note that he wrote her said, things have not been good between us.
I've gone away for a few days to find myself.
I'm sorry. I can't.
Don't hate me. This is what I wrote.
Obviously infuriated at the equivalent of burgers.
I'm sorry. I can't.
I'm sorry. I can't.
Don't hate me. I do hate you.
I'll post it. Oh my god.
I can't. Same level.
That's fucked up. Same level.
That is. So obviously fucking enraged, Joan called the the surgical practice over and over and over and over again but her husband never returned her husband and the father of her child correct never returned her calls so that night she went to her parents which I would be like daddy right you're like Ash I've been wronged let Ash know Ash isn't going to stand for this that night she went to her parents she told them what happened and Ash's instinct this man's this man's is a faja his instinct was to hire a private detective to find all the information he possibly could to destroy his son -in -law
and you know what let's go i mean just parent things you know i'm sorry if you you are my kid it's gloves off you're my kid and you leave your fucking my grandson your son boot i'm sorry gloves off you hurt joan and boot ash isn't letting this go I would never.
And neither would Ash Robinson.
He's going to get the Coast Guard on it.
Like, he's on this.
Legit. So Joan managed to, you know, de -escalate her dad.
But the next day...
Yeah, I mean, it's fun to talk about.
It's fun to talk about.
Oh, so she de -escalated him in the moment.
But the next day, once she had gotten over the initial shock of abandonment, she also felt pretty vindictive.
And in the two weeks that followed, she told everybody about what her husband had done, how he simply walked out on her and boot.
and she was like i hope i fucking tarnish his entire reputation yeah i mean i'd be i'm tom petty too like that would be which i have tom petty tattooed on my body yeah like fuck that you're gone literally done you walk out on your wife and your child and then what do you expect the worst part of this and i feel like you'll agree the worst part of this to me is finally after the word had spread all around houston john called joan finally and asked if they could meet Wouldn't answer any calls before that.
But now that he's getting it everywhere.
Now that people are talking, then you want to talk to me.
Oh, okay. I'd be like, I'm busy.
I have a manicure. Now, this is just hot girl shit.
With her best friend waiting just around the corner, Joan and John met at a downtown restaurant.
She had her BFF right there.
And they met to discuss their marriage in the future.
It did not take more than a few minutes for this conversation to turn into a shouting match. And John just got up and left. Can't take the heat.
Can't. So when Joan returned to where her friend was waiting, the two women jumped in their car and followed John and the woman that they could now see was in his vehicle with him.
This is so gross. He brought his mistress to a meeting to discuss his marriage.
She was like, wait in the car while I figure this out.
This is so icky. I know.
It's giving, if you're watching Real Housewives of Miami right now, that's what it's giving.
My baby Lisa. This is just really gross.
It's horrible. Like, I feel for Joan so hard here.
I do, too. Like, this is just really gross.
You will feel for Joan for the rest of ever.
Yeah. I really do. So after a slow -motion car chase back to Joan's office, Joan confronted Joan and Anne, the woman who was in the car, demanding to know whether they were having an affair.
Now, this is where shit gets wild as fuck.
book to her absolute astonishment.
John lied and told his wife quote, he was having an affair with this woman's husband and that he was being blackmailed.
What? Wait, what? He said he was having an affair with her husband.
Yeah. Which was not true.
Why didn't he just say I'm having an affair with this woman?
I couldn't tell you.
That is the strangest lie I have ever heard. I don't know if it was because Anne was right there like no there's literally like you can try to find a little string of logic there there's no string of logic either way you're having an affair why are you lying about the person you're having an affair with I don't know I the only I'm just like what I think because back then like being gay was so frowned upon that people thought it was something you could be cured of so maybe he thought he was being like oh like there's something wrong with me and like she'll forgive me for this i don't know about that logic
yeah there's that logic is ridiculous but i that's the only thing that i can see as to why i would have done that so i'd be like what yeah exactly what so joan was uh stunned by this news yeah and also found it very hard to believe and then she became even more suspicious when just a few weeks later anonymous notes started arriving in the mail telling her her husband was having an affair but with ann yeah and that ann was only one of several women that he'd been cheating with this this guy seems to have all the time yeah suddenly all his time is just open yeah he's got lots of time my god and he's
a plastic surgeon this really is real housewives of miami this is just i love these like yeah i don't have time to hang out with my child or know my child at all but i do have several mistresses but i have a like a handful of mistresses like a straight up wow okay yeah so by then he was more or less living in anne's house and i'd cut off all communication with joan i take back my original john i know i was leading you i was leading you a bit astray i didn't know any of this how dare you john yeah and when i say My opinion of John is like I'm not Sure about him I'm sure about the Fact that he's
an asshole like I'm sure about this I'm just not sure about a later part And we'll get there But so by then he's Living in Anne's house he cuts off all communication With Joan and in response Joan was like I'm gonna do with my dad's idea I'm gonna hire a private investigator So she hired a private detective to follow Her husband which is how she learned For real like 100 % Solid proof that he and Anne Were having an affair and And that he was living with Anne.
She didn't even know where he was living, because he just left. Damn.
And then she finds out that he's living there.
They both are so shameful.
How shameful for both of them.
And if I was Anne, I'd be like, why the fuck did you say that you were sleeping with my husband?
That's why I'm like, Anne, bye.
Qua. Now, throughout the fall of 1968, the Hills' marriage had devolved into a strange dance of jealous stalking, Joan's attempts to get incriminating information on her husband.
and it's just divorce just a whole bunch of nasty just divorce pretend you don't know each other i'm i'm pretty sure this guy doesn't want to know his child anyway so just let them go off together and i'm you know it's fine and it's that sucks it's something but instead of just you know getting divorced they drove or joan drove around ann kurtz neighborhood started shopping where an shopped followed john regularly in the hopes that she would catch him in the midst of the affair by the end of the year private detectives had confirmed that john had taken his own bachelor apartment which signaled
to joan that their separation was definitely permanent at just 37 years old she was about to become a divorcee for the third time and that shame to her i was gonna say i personally don't think there's any shame in it no but i can't imagine having to go through that in this time period in this place and during like in high society all three of those things laying on her i didn't take that into account when i first was like just get divorced what the fuck i totally forgot that she's been divorced two other times right and that in that place and in that time and in that whole society that that would be
looked at one divorce alone would be exactly but three i can i can understand why she was a little scared exactly and so she was just going through it at this point i think this is when she she hit like breakdown yeah this sounds awful yeah so she could i think before she was feeling like vindictive and she wanted to get some kind of proof of this and she didn't know what she was going to get when she got there but then all of this just came to a screeching halt and hit her all at once well that's the thing when you get you can get so many little bits and pieces of like quote -unquote proof right
but when you get that one that just rocks and really shows you that it's happening it's a different feeling it's a different hit it's a different hit because you can know it without knowing it right and then when you know it it's like oh and the way that hits differently is like and like you can't for lack of a better way to say it you can't lie to yourself anymore no you can't because once you see it right in front of your face it's like over because you you i should say you can't convince yourself that it's not true anymore not lie to yourself because that's exactly what my my ex from like a million years
ago the same that asshole that it was this you remember i everybody remembers there were little bits and pieces i would find that i was like very clearly he's cheating on me like very clearly but when i got the one when i when i was able to to call that number and and got that voice on the other answered who was not a not a man yeah that he was under a man's name right uh i think it it was it was jim yeah um she this person was labeled jim in his phone and and i just thought jim spoke a little strange through text message to him yeah and so when i called that number and it was not jim it was not jim
the caller on the other line said my name is not my name is not jim and she said who are you and i said oh girl and then me and her became friends so i know i kind I love that.
You did the other woman in that movie thing.
Hell yeah. I love it.
Now, Joan wasn't quite there yet.
No, this is a very different situation.
We did not have children together.
Yeah, that's a whole other thing.
And you weren't divorced ever at that point.
No, I was not. Or you still aren't.
That's great. No, it's great.
It's awesome. I love it.
Same. Me too. But Joan, unfortunately, had gone through it.
She had gone through it.
So she called John and she pleaded for him to return saying that she wanted to work through their differences.
Like she she wanted to give this a fighting chance, you know?
Yeah. But he explained that he was too wrapped up with Ann and he couldn't see how he could just walk away.
That is devastating.
And to be told. But you can walk away from the mother of your child.
And your child. Like to be told.
Wow. I can't just walk away from this woman after this man has walked out on you and your baby.
that's really disgusting that's honestly despicable it is now jones doorbell rang one day in november and she answered it to find a lawyer standing before her with a divorce citation she was being served papers the document alleged that despite john's attempts at civility his wife's behavior had led to irreconcilable differences and that he was seeking to end the marriage joan was stunned and enraged and she showed the citation to her father who swore he would take care of everything now this is wild so ash was like no i'm gonna take care of this like this is not happening and a few days later
joan gets a letter from john asking that quote she become reconciled with him and forgive his transgressions the fuck the letter also noted specific details about his intention to pay back all the money that he had borrowed from Jones parents and explicitly stated it is distinctly understood that this is not my idea or intention to influence any judicial action now pending did Ash have something to do with this I cannot confirm nor deny correct I can neither confirm nor deny many people believe that Ash did have have something to do with it okay i but no one nobody could prove it but people thought
so uh which is leads me to my next paragraph despite being on john's letterhead and bearing his signature the tone heavily suggested that ash had used whatever influence he had to force john to reconsider ending his relationship with joan he was like allegedly you're not going to leave my allegedly yeah either way though joan was happy to have avoided this great embarrassment that she she thought a third divorce would be yeah and what everybody would have shamed her for and everything that happened notwithstanding she was pleased that john was going to end his relationship with ann and finally
come home i regret to inform you that her happiness would not last long no break in my heart yeah this is a tragic case no one knows what 100 did lead john hill to sign this letter so obviously allegedly prepared by his father allegedly but in doing so he put himself in an unexpectedly difficult position he had agreed to return home to joan but he had yet to end his relationship with anne oh my god john get it fucking together please like get it together and now anne is starting to get the feel or was starting to get the feeling that he was pulling away and you get it together too like jesus christ
everybody everybody got it together the writing is on the wall okay now in response anne pushed hard on john and those working in his surgical practice for information about his finances and his whereabouts.
So now he's just doing the same thing to Ann that he did to Joan?
Exactly. Jesus. Exactly.
And because she's like, you know, trying to track him down all the time, the implication was either that she intended to sue him or she was hoping to get him out of his marriage.
Yeah. And to make matters worse, Ash Robinson intended to make sure that his son -in -law lived up to his end of whatever bargain the two men had allegedly struck.
Allegedly. and allegedly and while john attempted to manage uh manage i say quote unquote two perilous relationships he was constantly followed intimidated and threatened by anonymous men who were allegedly hired by ash allegedly allegedly so there's nothing to confirm nor deny that those men were hired by us not at this point somebody saying it's just i think that might be what happened it's texas high society rumor feels texas high society it's also like from the 60s yeah babble language learning app helps crack the case of confusing foreign conversations every unsolved mystery starts with a miscommunication but with babble's
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Now, whether for the sake of everybody's safety or some other reason, John made the decision to move back home with Joan at the end of the year.
I hate this. It's a lot.
So in the first months of 1969, Joan tried to make several changes in what she saw as self -improvements aimed at keeping John happy.
Like she was just trying to do anything she possibly could to save her marriage.
Yeah, there's nothing like getting cheated on.
Yeah. He, meanwhile, ran himself ragged, splitting his time between life at home, work, and, of course, more clandestine.
Alina doesn't like that word, secret gross meetings with Anne.
After everything that had happened, Anne was growing tiresome of the affair And started demanding that John decide between his wife or her.
It's like Christ on a cracker.
You know what, John?
God damn is what I say.
And to add insult to injury, at the same time, John's music room was finally completed with a final price tag of just over $100 ,000.
This music room cost more than their entire house.
this one room inside of their home was more expensive than their entire home and it's like what and it's just for him so he's just getting a fun present yes it's a fun reward after everything yes okay and the room was uh exactly as he as he envisioned oh good and it gave him reason to a reason to stay home with joan but uh didn't solve the problem because now he's just shutting himself in that room yeah he's home but is he but is he really there now despite the letter he presented to his wife and whatever attempts at self -improvement joan was making there was just too much resentment yeah like
what between the two of them no way that marriage to ever survive within the first three months of the year john and joan spent most of the time shouting at each other or harboring suspicions like harboring suspicions on joan's end yeah it's likely that they would have ended up divorced had joan not come down with what appeared to be a serious case of the flu in early march huh around the 15th of march her friends became rather concerned about her health she'd been sleeping a lot more than usual she didn't really seem to have any energy for even the most basic social functions according to joan she
and john got in a fight over dinner the previous evening and after struggling to fall asleep he gave her a tranquilizer which made her her exceedingly tired jones two friends became more alarmed the next day when they stopped by to check on her and learned that she had spent all day vomiting and they became even more alarmed in the days that followed as her illness had progressed considerably now by march 17th two days later jone was constantly exhausted experience and experiencing regular bouts of vomiting and and unfortunately diarrhea as well.
Jeez. That afternoon when the maid went to check on her after John had left for work, he's like leaving while his wife is in this condition and they're trying to figure out their marriage.
Jesus. The maid found Joan lying on the bedroom floor covered in vomit and feces.
And that's putting it lightly.
Oh my gosh. There were signs around the room that she had tried to make it to the bathroom, but was too weak to even get there.
Oh my god, that breaks my heart.
It's horrific. oh the next day raya robinson joan's mother stopped by to visit her daughter and that's when she learned the condition that joan was in she had no idea that also breaks my heart because like when you're like you're married and like that's you're that sick you're supposed to be married to someone who will take care of you 100 you're married to a fucking doctor yeah and it's like she can't even count on him for that like that's really sad like the loneliness she must must have felt in that moment because i can't imagine i think that all the time when i get sick oh like about like
single parents yeah and like what do you do i'm like my gosh like it just like tears my soul apart to think about it all alone in that state yeah but to actually have a partner a quote -unquote partner and to still be left alone and count on them to take care of you fucked like that's such a bummer absolutely fucked so rea was horrified yeah absolutely absolutely horrified at the state that she found her daughter in and demanded to know why John hadn't called an ambulance.
Because like you said, he's a doctor.
He's a doctor. You should know this isn't okay.
Yeah, like plastic surgeon or like, no, like you went through all your residency, you're a doctor.
And she was told by John that he was, quote, making arrangements for Joan to go to Sharpstown Hospital where she would have intensive care and be treated like a queen.
I mean, I don't think it's that hard to make arrangements here.
Call an ambulance. Now, at the time, because because obviously she was so distracted by the state that her daughter was in, it didn't occur to Rhea that Sharpstown Hospital was twice as far away as the Texas Medical Center.
Like, she should have just been brought there.
And at the time, it also didn't strike her as strange that under the obviously dire circumstances, John was prioritizing Joan being treated like a queen but not treating her like one himself.
Yeah. It doesn't make any sense.
And it's like, no, she doesn't need to be treated like a queen.
She needs to be treated medically.
like she just needs to be treated yeah so after some brief argument between ash and john the three raya john and ash managed to get jone into the car and and john drove to sharpsville while raya attended to jone in the back seat what this is wild and it was a much further away hospital than the one that they could have gone to jone was admitted to sharpstown hospital on March 18, 1969, for what doctors immediately assumed was a severe case of the flu, but that would be debated upon for years to come.
At first, John's tone and that of the doctor he had asked to provide care for his wife was casual, and it hardly fit the situation at hand.
It was only when one of the nurses checked Joan's blood pressure that they realized the grave danger she was in.
In addition to the vomiting and diarrhea jones blood pressure was perilously low indicating that again she was in real danger yeah dr walter uh bear to not i believe it is recalled i dropped everything and went over i canceled out my whole schedule holy shit uh her blood pressure i don't know a lot about it i know you will was six a 60 over 40 damn yeah like she was she was he should have seen I've never seen that.
Oh, 100%. As a doctor, he should have seen that something was dire.
Amiss here. Yeah. Damn.
Blood pressure 60 over 40.
She actually should have been in shock and basically on the verge of death.
Holy shit. But the doctor found her sitting up in bed.
What the fuck? Based on the symptoms she and John had reported, the doctor assumed that she had contracted some kind of food poisoning or maybe a bacterial infection, which could possibly explain the wide range of symptoms she had described.
The attending doctors attempted to get Joan's blood pressure up while they waited on lab results from blood and fecal samples, but within just six hours after being admitted, Joan's kidneys started to fail.
Oh, no. Now, by 8 p .m. that night, doctors diagnosed her with kidney failure and actually considered moving her to a nearby hospital where she could be put on a dialysis machine.
Holy shit. Because he's saying that he made all these arrangements for her to be treated there, but they don't even have a dialysis machine.
I was just going to say it doesn't look like everybody's ready for her.
And at that point, Joan was far too fragile to be moved.
So instead, they wanted to attempt a peritoneal dialysis, inserting a tube into the stomach and forcing a blood purifying solution through her until she could be stabilized.
But the problem was that the physicians wanted John's approval before beginning the procedure.
And he was nowhere to be found.
what john hill didn't resurface until nearly 11 p .m and by that point the surgeons had gone home hoping that they could still perform the life -saving procedure in the morning so he sat by his wife's bedside throughout the night as jones slipped in and out of consciousness this is awful sometime in the middle of the night she yelled out her husband's name and he woke up just in time to see and this is very uh graphic a torrent of blood race up from her innards and splash out of her mouth oh the hemorrhage had been very very severe just and despite their best efforts to stabilize her joan robinson hill
died in the early morning hours of march 19th 1969 holy shit like and they were just about to do a life -saving procedure horrifying death beyond oh i feel so awful beyond immediately following her death john's reaction seemed quote -unquote normal we talk talk about this a lot but it seemed quote -unquote normal yeah for a man who had just lost his wife he wailed he sobbed loudly screaming no over and over and over but his hospital staff tried to comfort him several did find it odd that rather than call jones parents john's first reaction was to call his own mother and a friend of his dr jim oats
who lived just a few miles away when dr jim and dotty oats arrived at the hospital they were both shocked to find that nobody had had even washed the body yet and that joan was still covered in blood so god dotty began washing joan as carefully as she could while john walked in and out of the room frequently interrupting her fuck now according to texas law anybody who dies in a hospital must be autopsied by the coroner within 24 hours of their death to determine the cause of death before the body is released wow i know i thought that was great yeah when dr bertinot informed john that the coroner
must be called he acknowledged what the man was saying but immediately instructed dr oats to call a funeral home and have them come claim jones body to prepare for her burial as soon as possible um no yeah i would be like you better find out what happened to my wife like that would wouldn't that be your front you'd be like what the hell happened you would think he thought it was the flu i'm sorry that's not that you think that's the flu i'd be like even if it started if it started as the flu what the fuck happened or a bacterial infection and it's like well but why wouldn't you want to be absolutely
sure why wouldn't you exactly and if it's law then let it happen and you're why would you ever step in between that and you're a doctor you know that that's the thing you know the law and it's like why step in between it if it's only going to give you more information i don't know huh so the doctor managed to reach the coroner sometime time between four and six a .m but by then the body had already been illegally removed from the hospital and taken to the funeral home to be prepared what later sometime after seven a .m the coroner would make his way to the funeral home intending to do the autopsy
there yeah but by the time he arrived the embalming process had already been completed are you shitting me and the technician at that point was moving on to the cosmetic procedures what now despite the embalming process already having begun the coroner stopped the procedure and began his autopsy what he took requisite tissue samples and other biological samples i guess he's just trying at that point and one i think at that point he's like i don't need my fucking license stripped away from me for not doing an autopsy like you're doing what you can do at this point and i think that's what it was trying
to follow the law exactly so he took requisite uh requisite excuse excuse me, tissue samples and other biological samples that could possibly help identify the cause of death.
But as far as he could tell from his examination, there was nothing to indicate what caused Joan to decline so quickly.
That's the thing. It felt like it was so fast. It was a matter of days.
Yeah. He thought it could have been a cause of acute pancreatitis, which could have accounted for a lot of her symptoms, but there were still other symptoms that didn't quite fit.
Now, nevertheless, pancreatitis was listed as Joan's cause of death and the funeral was scheduled for march 21st 1969 but in the days that followed questions and rumors began circulating among joan and john's social circles the top two questions on everybody's lips were how could john a doctor not have recognized the signs of pancreatitis that's what's fucking me up and two why hadn't he taken her to the hospital exactly ash robinson had his own questions and suspicions i am positive of that rather than direct them at john he instead went to the district attorney's office the day of his daughter's
funeral news of jones death had been in all the papers and all of the papers were citing pancreatitis as the case but ash explained to the assistant district attorney id mcmaster that he had reason to believe john was responsible for his daughter's death and he cited the following as evidence he so i said number one number one jone had been perfectly healthy up to that point yeah number two she only became ill after eating food and taking taking medication that was given to her by jone number three she was obviously very very sick in the days leading up to her death and john didn't take her to
a hospital or allow anyone in the house to come see her that's weird according to him number four Or he promised to take her to Sharptown Hospital because she was going to receive the best care possible there.
But when they arrived, the hospital had no ICU available for her, like no bed available in the ICU.
And again, like I just noted earlier, they lacked several of the machines and services that Joan needed.
Well, that's the thing.
It's like he's saying like I made arrangements.
You didn't make any arrangements.
No, they didn't even have a dialysis machine for her.
I mean, that's insane.
Now, number five, he said, despite having died within the window of time necessitating an autopsy, her body was whisked away from the hospital to the funeral home before the coroner even arrived.
Yeah, that's wild. Which I don't even know how they managed to get away with that.
I know. And finally, he said he consulted with several area physicians who claimed many of Joan's symptoms did not sound like symptoms of pancreatitis.
I mean, I don't blame Ash for at least questioning this.
I would also question this.
Yeah. You're not just going to take this as like, okay, well, I guess that's how she died.
Moving on. Anyways.
No. And it's like in the midst of this crazy divorce.
Like, I'm not saying John did this one way or the other, but if that was my child and there was all of the circumstances surrounding this strange sudden death.
Absolutely. Well, and it's like there, it is Texas law here that she was supposed to have an autopsy and you broke that and it's like, and you went out of your way to make sure she didn't strange.
That would be weird to me because I'd be like, no, my first thing as her like parent would be I want to know exactly what happened here.
Yeah. Tell me everything.
I want all the details.
I want to know what happened here.
And as her husband, why would you know?
That's the thing. As her husband, you should also feel the exact same way.
And why don't you? You don't because you're estranged and question mark, question mark, question mark.
That's strange to me.
Right. Yeah. So McMaster, the district attorney there, listened patiently while Ash spoke.
And while he was speaking, he assumed that the man was still lost in his grief and just needed to get these accusations out of his symptoms. System, you mean?
System. All of his systems. All of them.
But with each point, Ash's theory got maybe not stronger, but certainly more plausible to the man.
It's interesting at the very least. Yeah.
And the assistant DA there knew, sorry, I said the DA, he's the assistant DA.
He knew that when someone as wealthy and powerful as Ash Robinson spoke, he was at the very least to be afforded the courtesy of being taken seriously so he did yeah but by the end of the conversation mcmaster said you know what i'm gonna look into this but that was not enough for ash robinson he insisted that they needed to get somebody to the funeral home that day to stop his daughter's body from being put into the ground beyond reach he was like you i don't know we're not looking into this we're doing something about yeah knowing this would likely be impossible mcmaster nonetheless said he
would do his best blessed so he reached out to dr joseph yahimchik i'm doing my best with that pronunciation i did look it up uh he was the well -respected coroner of harris county and mcmaster explained everything about the situation to him at first yahimchik couldn't believe what he was hearing how was he supposed to stop a funeral right as it was beginning and demand to re -examine the body that's big ask but he knew that mcmaster wasn't going to ask this if he didn't think it was was important so he made his way down to the funeral home where he started reviewing the evidence and preparing to
examine the body as mourners began arriving in the parlor upstairs this is honestly one of the most wild things wild as far as he could tell the entire process from the death to the embalming had been complete and utter chaos this is just a lot and although many of the tissue samples taken by the coroner were still available the fluid samples had already been discarded not that it would have mattered much because the samples were taken after the involving process had begun which is likely why they were discarded probably so after talking with the coroner and reviewing the documentation he decided
that there was no need to remove the body from the casket or disrupt the funeral and he said i think i can make a determination from the notes and the samples that are still available and like you got to go on with this funeral people people are upstairs yeah like like he's just trying to talk about pressure yeah now while the harris county coroner reviewed the case ash started gathering evidence he believed would prove john guilty of murder most significant he believed were the reports from the maid and the butler effie and archie green a married couple oh effie and effie and archie effie and archie
cuties effie green explained how she had found joan on the morning that she was taken to the hospital oh Oh, that awful way she found her.
Right, and how she had seen John give Joan pills, and she, too, suspected he was responsible for her death, for Joan's death.
And she also gave Ash a bottle of pills that she claimed John had given her for her own headaches, and told the man that just after John had given her the bottle, Boot told her, Effie, don't take those pills.
You'll go to sleep like my mother did and never wake up.
Oh, my God. And Boot was little at that point.
oh boo i don't know if he really said that but that's that's what he claims yes oh that's a true or not that's a heartbreaking sentence yes the evidence was curious to say the least but mcmaster couldn't get around the fact that and this is just kind of like his opinion he was like if if you guys are so frightened by john hill and you think he's a murderer why are you still employed by him um because he's paying them because he's a rich He's a pre -breach doctor.
That's, I'm like, what?
They can't just quit.
I don't, that's kind of, that's a silly question.
It's like, you don't know their situation.
I'm glad you agree.
You don't know what that's about.
Yeah. Cause it's like, okay.
Like, come on. And it's also like, cause I'm fucking terrified of him.
Well, that's the other thing.
It's like, I don't, and okay.
So I care about Joan and Boot.
Right. So I'm just going to leave this house and be like, well, they're pretty scary.
So bye. Bye. See ya.
Good luck, kid. Right.
Exactly. And it's also Texas.
they weren't gonna get a job anywhere else yeah if they left john's yeah exactly he's like high society shit exactly he had yeah you gotta take that into consideration which he didn't but a week or so later dr yahimchik presented his report to the district attorney's office much to the disappointment of ash robinson i know after conducting his own tests on the tissue samples the doctor concluded that jone had not died from pancreatitis but he said she died from acute focal hepatitis according to the coroner the blood test conducted upon jones arrival at the hospital ruled out any bacterial infection and the toxicology
report showed no evidence of poison but it had been taken after embalming so it was possible that it could have been corrupted but to his best you know estimation determination she died from acute focal hepatitis This will change.
The results of the second autopsy were just as crushing for Ash Robinson, who still believed that John was responsible for his daughter's death.
So he was not done yet.
He's a dad. He's a dad.
He assembled a panel of doctors to review the findings, including Grady Hallman, one of John Hill's closest friends, which I was like, interesting that you would put him on the panel.
Yeah. But maybe that's like – Maybe it's to show that this is somebody who could be biased.
right but we'll see if he can just look at the information you know from an unbiased lens as a doctor maybe it was pointed yeah maybe it was so the panel was immediately skeptical of the findings with one of the physicians saying i will stake my reputation that she did not have hepatitis whoa in addition to the fact that joan had none of the telltale signs of hepatitis like jaundice they all noted that hepatitis is almost never fatal within the first few days of symptoms yeah Yeah.
So they were like, I don't think so.
They were like, this is pretty wild.
Now encouraged by the opinion of his assembled panel, Ash was hell bent on seeing that John was brought to justice one way or another.
And to aid in this pursuit, he hired former district attorney Frank Brisgo, a man known for meticulous research and an impressive number of wins under his belt.
That spring, Brisgo went to Dr. Yehimchik to pose some hypothetical questions.
questions he wondered was it possible for somebody to inject another person with hepatitis or could someone inject another person with a bacteria that could cause hepatitis whoa now yahimchick acknowledged that when it came to such things pretty much anything was possible but those scenarios were highly improbable yeah and instead yahimchick believed that joan likely contracted the hepatitis from eating shellfish on a recent trip to mexico city which is possible yeah but But then a whole panel of doctors disagreed with that.
Was like, no. So it's just, honestly, at this point, it's just a bunch of doctors disagreeing with each other.
Disagreeing, yeah. Whatever information Briscoe was after, Yahimchik clearly wasn't going to change his opinion on the cause of death.
He said she died of hepatitis.
Yeah. Like, I believe it.
I'm not saying I believe it.
He's saying he believes it.
He's saying that. In late May, another surprising piece of news came the Robinsons' way, though.
just under three months after his wife's death john married ann john hill and ann kurth were married you've got to be shitting me now it gets worse are you fucking kidding me the news reached ash by way of a gossip columnist that's how he found out and he went straight to briscoe who assured ash that this turn of events actually could be valuable should the case make its way to a grand jury that doesn't look good done look good so briscoe was like honestly i'm so sorry that like you're going through this this is terrible but like this could be good for our case because it's like even if you didn't
do anything dude three what the fuck do you think that's gonna look like under three months like come on you two what are you doing now in fact less than a year earlier john had provided joan with a document swearing he would give up his mistress and commit to working on the marriage so the news of this marriage this new one not only meant that john had you know uh not given up his relationship with anne but it also implied that he never had any intention of reconciling with joan and potentially could have been seeking another way out of the marriage which like i said is helpful to a potential
case of course so with brisgo's help ash took the new information to id mcmaster hoping that the assistant district attorney would reconsider taking the case to a grand jury.
And as luck would have it, something about the story had been nagging at McMaster since he was first approached by Ash a few months earlier.
And actually McMaster was suspicious of Dr. Yahimchik's conclusion.
So he consulted an expert on hepatitis from a veterans administration hospital who informed him that while it would have been possible to inject somebody with hepatitis, it still wouldn't have killed Joan so quickly.
That's what's so wild.
And this person said that if Joan had died from hepatitis someone would have noticed the signs of the illness far sooner and treatment would have been possible.
Yeah. And this expert who had said all of this was clear that not having examined the body himself he couldn't make any determination about the cause of death but based on what McMaster had told him it did not sound like Joan died from hepatitis.
Damn. So for McMaster who had big political ambitions and sensed a big opportunity in the case the news of john's marriage to ann and this conversation that he had with this expert strengthened the case against hill the assistant district attorney started building his case against john hill for the murder of his wife holy shit and that is where we are going to break for part one because i feel like i just threw so much information at you oh poor joan this is like joan just breaks my heart like because it's like fuck yeah and it's like that what a horrible horrible death and to have it turn into
such chaos afterwards when she was already going through chaos in her life and like poor boot yeah just like poor ash poor all of these just so many people involved like jeez it's a tragic case and in part two it only gets crazier part two i think is actually longer than part one wow so you know uh i'm not gonna tell you what to expect at all from part two because this story is about to take a fucking turn okay so with that being said we hope that you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but i'm so weird that you do mean things to your your wife.
Yeah, don't cheat on people.
Don't cheat on people.
Don't let them be sick and do anything.
Just be a good person.
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