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Post by Kate on Apr 9, 2015 19:12:32 GMT -5
I would call this case "gothic." Why would John Hill have recorded Joan's voice and played it back for Ann Kurth to hear? I don't believe everything that Ann said, but I think that she was becoming suspicious and asking too many questions and John Hill was trying to either kill her, drive her crazy, or make others think that she was crazy. I mean if she had told people that Joan was haunting the house, it would have discredited her. Hill was a nasty piece of work without any morals.
I can understand how John Hill was able to fool a young woman into thinking that he was something that he wasn't, but how did he fool Ash Robinson?
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Post by Joanna on Apr 23, 2015 1:02:54 GMT -5
There have been reports that John Hill persuaded Joan to collect her urine so that he could analyze it and, instead, injected her with the urine, which caused her illness.
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Post by julia on Apr 24, 2015 6:46:42 GMT -5
There have been reports that John Hill persuaded Joan to collect her urine so that he could analyze it and, instead, injected her with the urine, which caused her illness.
The injection of urine couldn't have resulted in the infection that caused Joan Robinson's death and as a physician, her husband would have known this. There is actually a cure known as urotherapy, which some believe is a cure-all for everything from the common cold to cancer. In urotherapy, the patient either drinks his or her own urine, or it is injected. Drinking urine sometimes caused nausea/vomiting, etc., but there are no adverse reactions to the injections unless they are administered under unsterile conditions. A few years ago, people were injecting the urine of pregnant women to aid in weight loss. It didn't work, but those who had the injections didn't experience any ill effects, so far as is known. Unless a person is dehydrated, 95 percent of his/her urine consists of water and the amount of toxins is negligible.
If Hill wanted to kill his wife, he would have injected her with bacteria obtained from wounds, feces, etc. and as a doctor, who performed frequent surgeries, he would have had easy access to all sorts of bacteria, including Streptococcus and Staphylococcus, because hospitals are full of them. The repeated injections of numerous bacteria would have almost certainly resulted in bacteremia, the symptoms of which are fever, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, hypotension, etc., and we know she was lying in her own waste when the maid arrived that morning. Absent immediate treatment, the toxins would have initiated a full-body inflammatory response resulting in multiple organ failure and profound septic shock. |
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Post by kitty on Apr 25, 2015 16:06:00 GMT -5
Thank you, Julia. I've heard of urotherapy. When I was trying to lose weight, I read about injecting the urine of a pregnant woman, but the injections were very expensive. Then I learned that in addition to the injections, you had to limit your calories to 500 a day. Anybody can lose weight on a 500 calorie a day diet, so the injections didn't really have anything to do with the weight loss, it was just a way for somebody to make money.
My opinion is that John Hill collected bacteria from the hospital, like you said, and that's what he was growing in the petrie dishes that Ann Kurth saw in his apartment. He didn't care about anyone but himself. I suppose he pretended to care about his rich patients, but all he was really interested in was making money and playing his music.
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Post by madeline on Apr 28, 2015 17:14:17 GMT -5
When a person is so sick that they're not able to get up and get to the bathroom and they're lying in their own waste like Joan Robinson was, they're dying. People get sick all the time, but if they can walk, they're always able to get to the bathroom. Considering how sick she was, it's unbelievable that John Hill didn't know that she was seriously ill. Then he said that she didn't like hospitals, but no one else had ever heard her say that. When someone is that sick, they wouldn't object to being taken to the hospital.
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Post by pat on Jan 9, 2016 15:42:22 GMT -5
I was just reading "The Ghost of Elvis" where we were discussing what killed him and if he had septicemia and I thought of Joan Robinson. John injected her with all kinds of bacteria he got from the hospital, so she had to have been septic by the time he took her to the hospital. They must have drawn blood in the hospital, so what happened to that blood and what did it show? Was John able to get rid of the blood and the results because he was a doctor?
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Post by julia on Jan 14, 2016 22:39:49 GMT -5
I was just reading "The Ghost of Elvis" where we were discussing what killed him and if he had septicemia and I thought of Joan Robinson. John injected her with all kinds of bacteria he got from the hospital, so she had to have been septic by the time he took her to the hospital. They must have drawn blood in the hospital, so what happened to that blood and what did it show? Was John able to get rid of the blood and the results because he was a doctor?
After drawing blood, the hospital would have had to wait for cultures to grow before attempting to identify what was causing her organs to shut down. Unless the samples were thrown out, and I can't imagine that they would have been because the patient died within 24 hours of admission, I'm sure the medical examiner would have requested the samples and they would have been examined for bacterial/viral infection as well as poison. Someone said she could have died from toxic shock syndrome, but from what I've read here, she didn't have a high fever or a rash, which are usually associated with TSS. I'm convinced that her husband killed her because his actions indicate that he wasn't acting in his wife's best interests.
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Post by pat on Jan 15, 2016 15:29:40 GMT -5
After drawing blood, the hospital would have had to wait for cultures to grow to before attempting to identify what was causing her organs to shut down. Unless the samples were thrown out, and I can't imagine that they would have been because the patient died within 24 hours of admission, I'm sure the medical examiner would have requested the samples and they would have been examined for bacterial/viral infection as well as poison. Someone said she could have died from toxic shock syndrome, but from what I've read here, she didn't have a high fever or a rash, which are usually associated with TSS. I'm convinced that her husband killed her because his actions indicate that he wasn't acting in his wife's best interests.
Thank you, Julia. I'm sure you're right. Does anyone know what the ME found in the samples?
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Post by Joanna on Jan 16, 2016 20:25:13 GMT -5
Lee, do you know if Boot Hill is still with the office of the state's attorney in Maryland? Also, do you know what happened to Connie Hill, John Hill's third wife?
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Post by Graveyardbride on Jan 17, 2016 16:40:32 GMT -5
Thank you, Julia. I'm sure you're right. Does anyone know what the ME found in the samples?
Joseph A. Jachimczyk, M.D., performed the autopsy and obtained the samples from Sharpstown Hospital. Her liver revealed abnormalities consistent with infection and the cause of death recorded on the death certificate is “acute hepatitis - viral.” Later, Dr. Jachimczyk said she died as the “result of a fulminating infectious process, the specific nature of which is no longer determinable.” In 1980 when it was suggested Joan Robinson could have died from toxic shock syndrome, Dr. Jachimczyk said she had some of the symptoms of toxic shock, but not others, and the bacteria present in her body did not fit the pattern of toxic shock syndrome.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Jan 17, 2016 17:42:15 GMT -5
Lee, do you know if Boot Hill is still with the office of the state's attorney in Maryland? Also, do you know what happened to Connie Hill, John Hill's third wife?
Connie Loesby Hill never believed John Hill killed Joan, or any of the other negative things said of him. In 1981, she married James C. Calaway, an eccentric, ultra-liberal millionaire and they moved from Texas to Colorado. They donated the James C. and Connie L. Calaway Academic Building at Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs, where Boot Hill earned his bachelor’s degree. The marriage has been plagued by numerous separations and divorce actions. Calaway is now around 85 and Connie around 75. Both currently live at 1023 Heritage Dr. in Carbondale, Colorado. Of interest, James Calaway is a member of the NAACP and less than 1% of the Carbondale population is black, leading one to conclude he’s something of a hypocrite.
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Post by julia on Jan 19, 2016 23:26:22 GMT -5
Joseph A. Jachimczyk, M.D., performed the autopsy and obtained the samples from Sharpstown Hospital. Her liver revealed abnormalities consistent with infection and the cause of death recorded on the death certificate is “acute hepatitis - viral.” Later, Dr. Jachimczyk said she died as the “result of a fulminating infectious process, the specific nature of which is no longer determinable.” In 1980 when it was suggested Joan Robinson could have died from toxic shock syndrome, Dr. Jachimczyk said she had some of the symptoms of toxic shock, but not others, and the bacteria present in her body did not fit the pattern of toxic shock syndrome.
Lee, if it isn't too much trouble and you have the autopsy report, could you post the exact findings concerning the liver and any other abnormalities noted in the report?
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Post by Graveyardbride on Jan 21, 2016 16:11:13 GMT -5
Lee, if it isn't too much trouble and you have the autopsy report, could you post the exact findings concerning the liver and any other abnormalities noted in the report?
Not all these organs show abnormalities, but I thought the findings might be of interest.
Liver: Periportal spaces are crowded with an inflammatory cell infiltrate comprised of polymorphonuclear leukocytes, macrophages and lymphocytes. There is diffuse inspissation of bile, multiple foci of necrosis, with similar inflammatory cell infiltrate, and focal hemorrhage.
Pancreas: Post-mortem autolysis, Grade I.
Adrenals: Acute congestion, Grade I.
Ovary: Hemorrhagic corpus luteum.
Esophagus: Diffuse loss of the mucosa, replaced by a layer of fibrin with a diffuse inflammatory cell infiltrate comprised of polymorphonuclear leukocytes, macrophages and lymphocytes, which extends in some areas deep into the muscle layers. The vascular structures are moderately to markedly dilated and there are multiple foci of interstitial hemorrhage.
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Post by Kate on Jan 24, 2016 0:31:45 GMT -5
Julia, can you tell anything from these organs that we didn't already know?
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Post by julia on Jan 29, 2016 2:17:41 GMT -5
Not all these organs show abnormalities, but I thought the findings might be of interest.
Liver: Periportal spaces are crowded with an inflammatory cell infiltrate comprised of polymorphonuclear leukocytes, macrophages and lymphocytes. There is diffuse inspissation of bile, multiple foci of necrosis, with similar inflammatory cell infiltrate, and focal hemorrhage.
Pancreas: Post-mortem autolysis, Grade I.
Adrenals: Acute congestion, Grade I.
Ovary: Hemorrhagic corpus luteum.
Esophagus: Diffuse loss of the mucosa, replaced by a layer of fibrin with a diffuse inflammatory cell infiltrate comprised of polymorphonuclear leukocytes, macrophages and lymphocytes, which extends in some areas deep into the muscle layers. The vascular structures are moderately to markedly dilated and there are multiple foci of interstitial hemorrhage.
There’s nothing in the information describing the liver to indicate what bacteria, virus or poison killed her. Sepsis is the body’s response to an infection. When the body attempts to respond to, for example, a bacterial or viral attack, it triggers a complicated chemical process that can cause the immune system to, in effect, spiral out of control, as toxic chemicals causing tissue damage and organ failure are released. Once the process begins, it’s almost impossible to reverse, even today, and Joan Robinson died in 1969. Today, a person suffering from sepsis has a better chance of survival, but even now, every hour of delay in treatment decreases the patient’s survival rate by 7-8%. If emergency treatment is delayed by 4-6 hours, for example, the patient’s chances of survival are decreased by almost 50% and the delay in treating Joan Robinson was much longer than that. The article says she had lain in her own waste that night, so she should have been taken for emergency treatment the night before. Even with today’s improvements in medicine, by the time she arrived at the hospital, the infectious process had done irreparable damage and after a delay of 12-18 hours, it’s doubtful she could have survived.
The autopsy confirms that she was having, or had just finished her menstrual cycle and this may be the reason some think she died of TSS, but her symptomology doesn’t suggest TSS.
There are some abnormalities in the esophagus, but the examiner failed to record the thickness of the fibrin, so the findings could indicate anything from acid reflux to esophageal cancer and she was a smoker.
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