Unknown Gender History: Mrs. Virginia Hill, Kentucky Serial Killer Mom

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Mrs. Virginia Hill, Kentucky Serial Killer Mom - 1963

Deaths:

Dec. 9, 1957 – Arson murder of 3 children, Danny Ray (26 mo), Helen (13 mo), Lee (3 mo), & unplanned death of adult male rescuer, Theodore Hamilton (45).

1961 – two children (son, 3; daughter, 2) died one month apart of supposedly “natural causes.”

Apr. 7, 1963 – Kenneth Dwayne Hill, 2, strangled or smothered.

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FULL TEXT: Falmouth, Ky., April 26 – At 26, Mrs. Virginia Hill has lost six of her seven children.

Two died of natural causes.

She admitted killing one other and setting a fire in which three more died, officials said.

Mrs. Hill was in jail while the Pendleton county grand jury took up her case today.

She was arrested after a pathologist found contusions on the neck of Kenneth Hill, two, who died April 7. Police said Mrs. Hill admitted smothering the boy with a pillow after her husband said he was leaving her, but that she could give no reason for the act.

~ Signs Statement ~

Sheriff’s deputies said yesterday that Mrs. Hill signed a statement saying she set the fire in which three of her children and a Falmouth man died on Dec. 29, 1957.

“She didn’t give any reason for starting the fire; she just said something about dropping a match in a box,” a deputy said. “But she said she was separated from her husband at the time.”

Deputies said she has been charged with murder in Kenneth’s death and with arson.

The fire victims were her children by a former husband, Mervin Jenkins. They were Danny Ray, 26 months; Helen, 13 months, and Lee, three months. The other victim was Theodore Hamilton, 45, who apparently was overcome by smoke.

Authorities said Mrs. Hill has been married three times. Her present husband is Billy Hill, a feed store worker.

Two other children of Mrs. Hill died a month in 1981. Their deaths were listed at the time as caused by sickness.

Mrs. Hill’s last child, a son, was born four months ago and is now staying with his grandmother, Mrs. Margie Perkins.

[“Woman Admits Killing Tots,” The Bridgeport Post (Ct.), Apr. 26, 1963, p. 35]

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FULL TEXT: Falmouth, Ky. – A Pendleton circuit court jury yesterday found Mrs. Virginia Hill, 26, mentally unfit to stand trial on five charges of murder, four connected with death of her children.

Mrs. Hill was arrested in April after an autopsy showed contusions on the neck of her 2-year-old son, Kenneth Dwayne Hill. Police said she admitted smothering him.

The other charges were filed against Mrs. Hill as the result of a fire December 29, 1957. The fire took the lives of her three small children by two previous marriages and of Theodore Hamilton, 45, Falmouth, who tried to rescue the tots.

[“As Unfit Trial – Jury Reports in Deaths of Her Three Children,” The Kansas City Times (Mo.), Jul. 27, 1963, p. 5]

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FULL TEXT: Falmouth, Ky. – Mrs. Virginia Hill, convicted of killing her two-year-old son, Thursday was sentenced to 15-year prison terms on each of four other manslaughter charges. The time is to be served concurrently with her previous 15-year prison sentence.

The 28-year-old mother of seven was denied a new trial on her earlier conviction by Pendleton Circuit Judge John T. Lair.

Judge Lair concurred with the recommendation of attorneys that Mrs. Hill receive concurrent sentences in the deaths of three other Hill receive concurrent sentences in the deaths of three other Hill children and a neighbor man. She was accused of setting a fire to her apartment in 1957 in which the four perished. The neighbor had attempted to rescue the children.

Mrs. Hill was found guilty June 3 of smothering her son, Kenneth, with a pillow April 7, 1963.

[“Sentence Mother In 4 Fire Deaths,” The Daily Times (New Philadelphia, Oh.), Jul. 2, 1965, p. 7]

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