by Rebecca J. Becker
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| Sue Hill portrait sketch by Rebecca J. Becker |
"When Miss Sue Hill, beautiful and 22 years old, has played her part as a star witness in the defense of her brother, she will return to her Oklahoma home to attend the trial of her divorced husband and father of her 3-year-old child, who is accused of the murder of Miss Hill’s alleged sweetheart..." (1)
October, 1921: Sue Hill was desperately trying to save two men - - her brother, William Riley Hill, and her former husband, Robert Oren Peevy.
Newspapers increasingly used racial epithets to characterize William Riley, referring to him as a shiftless, worthless half-breed.
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| William Riley Hill, below, and his ex-wife Thelma Hill from The Denver Post, 27 August 1924, Page 13 |
Part of Sue Hill's argument was to defend William Riley's social and economic status. She reminded the court that their mother had been a member of a prominent Chickasaw family well known in Oklahoma, and that their father had left his family a fortune valued at well over three million dollars:
23,000 ACRES OF LAND LEFT BY FATHER.
Sue Hill, who is a graduate of Crescent College... had the following to say Thursday regarding the Hill estate:
“... Our father left us 23,000 acres in the Pauls Valley oil district. The land is worth $150 an acre. We have not enjoyed any of the income yet because my youngest sister, Ruth, must become of age before any of us get the property. That will be very soon now.” (2)
Ruth Hill was currently a high school student back in Sue's hometown, Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.
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| Ruth Hill is second from left, back row Junior Class photograph from Pauls Valley high school yearbook, 1922 |
Startlingly, so was Robert Oren Peevy, Jr.!
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| Robert Oren Peevy, Jr. is far left, back row Pauls Valley high school yearbook, 1922 |
This boy was not Sue's son - - he was the firstborn child of her ex-husband.
So who was the boy's mother?
Her name was Maude Rydens [or Ridings] Peevy, and although Robert Oren Peevy Sr. was very much alive, Maude was listed as a widow in the Southwestern Insane Asylum (now the San Antonio State Hospital).
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| Southwestern Insane Asylum, Bexar County, Texas |
Peevy had committed Maude to the asylum not long after their son's birth, and she had been an inmate within its walls for years.
In the 1950s, Maude Peevy was moved to the Kerrville State Hospital, where she died on Valentine's Day, 1961.
But in October, 1921, back in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma- - two weeks before her brother's trial began in Colorado, Robert Oren Peevy had calmly walked up to Sue's lover on a crowded street, and put five bullets into the man.
Now it would be Peevy himself whose sanity was in question.
But first Sue tried to save her brother, to no avail.
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| William Riley Hill portrait sketch by Rebecca J. Becker |
Within days of her ex-husband's arrest, despite her best attempts to prove his innocence, a Colorado jury found William Riley Hill, guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
(Under Colorado law, because all the evidence had been circumstantial, the judge could not sentence Hill to death.)
Now Sue faced her ex-husband's upcoming trial, knowing that her best efforts might again prove futile.
Perhaps it was this knowledge that drove her to such a desperate and public unveiling.
WOMAN UNVEILS SECRET OF LIFE TO SAVE PEEVY
Sue's young son, Lucian, stood by his father's side during jury selection, holding his father's hand.Frank Pruett, Slain Ardmore Oil Man, Was “Best Friend” to Man Now on Trial at Pauls Valley.
(Special to The Ardmoreite).
... Defense statement is that: R. O. Peevy and Miss Sue Hill were married in April, 1914, Frank Pruett, oil man, was Peevy’s best friend, but while pretending friendship he began making love to Mrs. Peevy, who was but a girl 17 years old, while her husband was 35 years old.
Finally succeeding in gaining the affections of Mrs. Peevy, he persuaded her to bring suit for divorce against her husband.
After this was granted, the woman took the child custody of which was given her by the court, and traveled with Pruett as his wife. Later she went with Pruett to Ardmore where Mrs. Pruett lived with him clandestinely.
At Pruett’s insistent demand she submitted to an operation in a town in Texas and hovered between life and death for several days as a result, coming again to Oklahoma City her former husband made a visit to her, attempting to bring about a reconciliation. Here the woman told him the story of Pruett’s influence over her and he went away.
Meeting Pruett upon the streets of Pauls Valley Peevy suddenly was filled with rage against the man who had broken up his home, and killed him.
Insanity Hinted
It is expected that through this the defense will attempt to show that Peevy was temporarily insane when he walked up to Pruett and shot him four [sic] times, killing him instantly. (3)
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| Robert Oren Peevy portrait sketch by Rebecca J. Becker |
Perhaps her testimony was, in part, a bid for Lucian's future as well as for his father's.
Whatever motivations lay behind her courageous actions, this time Sue's testimony proved nearly miraculous:
Tulsa World [Tulsa, Oklahoma] 15 January 1922, Page 6:
But any joy over Peevy's release from prison was tempered by the horrifying news emblazoned in headlines across the nation:UNWRITTEN LAW FREES
Peevy Cleared of Murder of Frank Pruett at Pauls Valley
PAULS VALLEY, Jan. 14. - - R. O. Peevy, who had been charged with the killing of Frank Pruett, October 3, 1921, on the streets of Pauls Valley, was found not guilty late today by a jury in district court after 42 minutes retirement.
Both Pruett and Peevy live in Pauls Valley.
The unwritten law and insanity were the principal pleas of the defense. Of the 150-odd witnesses called during the five days term, Mrs. Peevy, wife of the freed man, was the outstanding one.
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| Hill Admits Murder of Stepdaughterfront page of Rocky Mountain News [Denver, Colorado] 23 February 1922 |
Sue's brother, William Riley Hill, had written a confession, admitting that he had, indeed, brutally murdered his stepdaughter.
His reason?
He said he had been insane.
Sue, who had never wavered in her brother's defense, and who had spent so long working for his release, must have been devastated at his confession.
We have no record that she ever visited him again.
Despite the judge's sentencing, William Riley Hill did not spend the rest of his life in prison.
Records show that prison officials considered him unbalanced shortly after he was first imprisoned, but prison medical personnel attributed his mental illness to an advanced case of syphilis. Once prison doctors treated the physical disease, they noted an improvement in William Riley's mental health, but apparently it didn't last.
Sue's brother was then transferred to the Colorado Insane Asylum (later known as the Colorado State Hospital) in Pueblo, where he died, many decades later.
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| Colorado Insane Asylum (later Colorado State Hospital) |
What would happen to Sue Hill after such unbearable drama, after her brother's confession, and after having allowed thousands of strangers to share the secrets of her own adultery and betrayal?
For a short while, Sue and her son Lucian were reunited with Robert Oren Peevy, living with him in Oklahoma City.
Perhaps it was too much to expect that they'd be able to build a stable family life on such a turbulent foundation. Or, perhaps there was already another romantic partner waiting in the wings...
We mentioned, in Part Three, a witness who testified at Sue Hill's ex-husband's trial - - a man we suggested you keep in mind as we continued with Part Four.
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| Billy Frame portrait sketch by Rebecca J. Becker |
That witness was Billy Frame. Frame admitted he'd acted as the messenger for Sue's murdered lover, Frank Pruett, and had delivered love letters and money to Sue on Frank's behalf.
Did Frame fall in love with Sue Hill, even then? Did they meet by chance, months after the trial was over? Or did Sue turn to him when her attempts at reconciliation with Peevy failed?
All we know for certain is revealed in two documents from 1925 The first, an Oklahoma City directory, shows Sue and Robert Oren Peevy sharing the same address on East 7th Street in that city.
The second - - from September, 1925 - - is a marriage license for Sue Hill and William Johnson Frame: Billy Frame, the go-between who testified at Robert Oren Peevy's trial.
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| Sue Hill and William Johnson Frame - Marriage License and Certificate |
Finally, she found a husband from whom she didn't want to run away. The marriage lasted until Frame's death, in 1944. The couple lived together in Frame's hometown of Ardmore, Oklahoma.
In 1926 - - the year after Sue married Billy Frame - - Sue's youngest sister, Ruth Hill, also got married.
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| Ruth Hill portrait sketch by Rebecca J. Becker |
At last their father's estate, valued at over $3 million, could be distributed. Sue and William Frame don't seem to have lived an opulent life, though - - they lived in a very modest brick bungalow, and their names never appear in the society pages.
After Frame's death, Sue made one more attempt at marital bliss.
Shortly after becoming a widow, she married W. T. Flippin in Oklahoma City - - only to divorce him the following year, on the grounds of cruelty.
Sue returned to calling herself Mrs. William J. Frame, and erased Flippin from her life completely.
By 1952 Sue was living in Los Angeles, and she seems to have found her niche in California.
For the next twenty years, she was rarely out of The Los Angeles Times' society pages. As a member of the Turf Club, her name is linked with such notables as James Stewart, Desi Arnaz, Jimmy Durante and Ann Miller, and she never missed the opening of Santa Anita racetrack, or the Hollywood Park.
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| from The Los Angeles Times [Los Angeles, California] 03 May 1957, Page 92 |
On the 16th of April 1969, William Riley Hill died, still a resident of the Colorado State Hospital (formerly the Colorado Insane Asylum).
Four years later, on the 27th of November, 1972, Sue died. She's buried in Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.
It had been nearly sixty years since Sue Hill and Nola Beam accepted a dare, and ran away from Crescent College.
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| Nola Beam portrait sketch by Rebecca J. Becker |
Nola outlived her best friend and fellow outlaw by twenty years. She'd married Morris Adair Wilkins in 1915, and they were together until his death. She was 92 years old when she died in Arkansas City, Kansas, in 1992.
Two girls, with eerily similar troubled childhoods among families tormented by tragedy and loss.
Two students who found friendship and adventure together, for a time, at Crescent College.
Two young women whose lives followed such very, very different paths...
We celebrate them both, and all the other students and faculty who found shelter for a time in the limestone castle in the Ozarks.
If you, or anyone you know, is related to Nola Beam, Sue Hill, or any other Crescent College student or faculty member, please get in touch! We would love to hear from you!!
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(1) The Denver Post [Denver, Colorado] 27 October 1921, Page 1.
(2) The Denver Post [Denver, Colorado] 27 Octoebr 1921, Page 4.
(3) The Daily Ardmoreite [Ardmore, Oklahoma] 11 January 1922, Page 8.
