Contained in the Case of Joan Robinson Hill Case, Texas Socialite Who Died Mysteriously

Ash Robinson was all the time protecting of his solely daughter, Joan.

The highly effective Texas oilman adopted Joan when she was a couple of months previous, after which supported her all through an early equestrian profession that started on the age of three. Later, he rented out an condominium blocks away from her on her faculty campus as a way to watch over her. When she wished to get married, Ash had the ultimate say, although Joan’s first two marriages resulted in divorce.

However when Joan all of a sudden died in March 1969 amid a marital dispute along with her third husband, John Hill, Ash believed the felony justice system had let his daughter down by failing to adequately examine whether or not Hill had poisoned her. So, Ash allegedly took issues into his personal fingers.

Right here’s what occurred.

A ‘Match Made in Heaven’

A celebrated equestrian who competed in entrance of 1000’s at a younger age, in response to The Brownsville Herald, Joan was no stranger to successful first-place medals in her using competitions. She was even profiled by Sports activities Illustrated in 1959 when her well-known horse, Belinda — bought by her father — retired. After attending faculty, Joan was twice married earlier than assembly Hill, one among Texas’s most outstanding plastic surgeons. The couple married in 1957 however continued to dwell largely separate lives, in response to a Crime Journal profile about Joan’s — and later Hill’s — loss of life.

“It seemed like a match made in heaven,” Dick DeGuerin, a Texas legal professional who later labored on the case, advised native ABC 13 in 2023. “This lovely excessive society horse girl, the one daughter of a rich oil man and John Hill, good-looking, dashing plastic surgeon on the high of his occupation.”

However by the late Sixties, the idyllic socialite couple grew to become much more distant, and Hill started an affair with a lady he would later marry in 1969, months after Joan’s loss of life.

Joan’s Dying

In March 1969, Joan all of a sudden fell in poor health shortly after Hill initiated divorce proceedings towards her. For a number of days, Hill appeared reluctant to take his sick spouse to the hospital and as a substitute opted to deal with her himself, in response to The New York Occasions. 

Joan died simply 15 hours after Hill lastly introduced her to the hospital as soon as her situation worsened, in response to the Abilene Reporter-Information. A number of pathologists would disagree on what led to her loss of life – though Ash thought he knew whose fault it was, in response to United Press Worldwide.

A Father’s Revenge

For years after Joan died, her father Ash refused to imagine his daughter’s loss of life was merely a tragic accident. In response to ABC 13, Ash employed non-public investigators to dig into his suspicions that Hill had poisoned his spouse and killed her.

“He had affect within the court docket,” longtime Houston reporter Tom Kennedy, who lined the Hill case, advised ABC 13. “He had unbelievable affect with the grand jury.” Three grand juries investigated Hill on account of Ash’s stress, resulting in his indictment in 1970, in response to The Related Press. 

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However Hill was by no means charged, in response to United Press Worldwide. Subsequently, prosecutors believed Ash determined to take justice into his personal fingers. Hill was shot outdoors his dwelling by a masked gunman in 1972, three years after marrying Ann Kurth, the lady with whom he had an affair throughout his marriage to Joan. 

By 1977, Ash was indicted for orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot associated to his former son-in-law’s loss of life, in response to The Victoria Advocate. However Ash was discovered not responsible after jurors stated there was not sufficient proof for them to convict the 79-year-old grieving father, who continued to plead his innocence. ”I did not need him lifeless,” Ash stated on the trial, in response to the Occasions. ”The killing did not resolve his issues or mine.”