Blood, & Money. The Strange Case of Dr. John Hill & Murder in Texas.

In the late 50's Joan Robinson, daughter of Texas Business man Ash Robinson, was the belle of every ball in Houston. She was an excellent horse woman who earned many trophies and medals at various horse shows in Houston Texas. Joan was a popular society girl and had many connections, knowing everyone who was worth knowing in Houston during the 1950s and 60s.

Joan was the only child of her wealthy Texas oilman father, Ash Robinson, and he made sure that his daughter had everything that she wanted. Joan's life was filled with love, admiration, and horses, until she met John Hill who was attending medical school one night at a party. The two became inseparable and were soon married despite Ash Robinson's gentle protests that Joan had been rather flighty in the past and married twice before the age of 20, with both marriages lasting less than one year.

John did not money when he marrid Joan and Ash Robinson agreed to pay for the couples expenses up until John Hill became Dr. John Hill. Ash made it possible for the young couple to live in the manner that his daughter was accustomed to. The Hills had a son in 1960, during John's first year of residency. Ash Robinson doted on his grandson the same way in which he doted on Joan, he engaged a diaper service, a private Nurse, and just about everything under the sun.

By this time, people were beginning to notice what a mismatch Joan and John really were, and questions that had been one the minds of all who knew them were now being openly discussed. Joan was happy and open, while John seemed overly private, unhappy, and complex. Was John Hill a gold digger? Did he charm Joan in order to make life in medical school easier? These questions would soon be answered. If he loved Joan, he would pamper her and respect Ash for making his dreams a reality, but if he were a gold digger he would meet another woman and dump Joan cold.

John did indeed meet a woman named Ann Kurth while out with his son. Ann was a great beauty, and a very conniving woman to boot, who had her three sons with her when she men John for the first time. An affair began instantly, with Ann Kurth's sights being set on acquiring all that was Joan Robinson Hill's. The two had actually attended school together and Ann was well aware of Joan's position with high society. She felt that she was inferior to Joan and wanted John to prove to her that she was better than Joan by leaving her.

In the years after John had become a physician, he had become more irritated with the Robinson family in general, and wanted to distance himself from them. And now with the stress of his new mistress he was spending very little time with Joan and his son. Joan had at some point discovered he was having an affair, and told her father. Together they tried to put a stop to it, but Ann was extremely cunning, and began tormenting John with threats of seeing other men, and had John emotionally off balance. He would run to Ann and stay with her, while Joan was left alone.

Joan did everything to please John and went on a self improvement program. She changed her style of clothes and straightened her hair. She didn't need much help in the looks department as she had been blessed naturally with movie star quality glamor. John made an effort to give her more time, while Ann fumed, angry at what she considered to be a slight to her charms. On Valentine's Day John gave Ann the works with candy, a bracelet, and wads of cash, and his wife received nothing. Now Joan was both livid at John for staying out all night, and hurt by his choosing someone else. She was now sleeping in late, which concerned her maid as Joan was usually an early riser. She had become very ill, and her father, mother and John were all waiting on her, as she lay round listlessly. One one morning John gave her a glass of orange juice that she threw up, and this continued throughout the evening. Eunice, the concerned maid, asked Dr. John Hill what was wrong, and John replied, that she has a virus and went off to work. Hours later Joan was dead at the age of 38.

It is believed today that it could have been toxic shock poisoning, which no one knew anything about in the 1960s, but Ash believed that John Hill and Ann Kurth killed his daughter together. Ash got the best lawyers that money could buy and after the trial John was found not guilty, but Ash made threats, and swore that he would get even. There was another trial scheduled for one year after John was exonerated.

John Hill married Ann, but the marriage was very short lived, approximately nine months, due to Ann's jealousy and demanding ways. John moved on to marry someone else very quickly, while Ann wrote a self serving book, Prescription Murder, in which she accused John of killing Joan and then trying to murder her.

In 1972 Dr. John Hill was ambushed and shot to death in his home. He was with his new wife, Connie, and his son, who were both left unharmed.

There were more civil suits brought by John Hill's mother, and Ann Kurth.

The story became a bestseller called Blood and Money by Thomas Thompson and later a TV movie called Murder in Texas, with Farrah Fawcett playing Joan Robinson.

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