Poisoned Blood [Mass Market Paperback]

Philip Ginsburg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1989

In the blood-chilling tradition of In Cold Blood and Fatal Vision comes the true story of a woman who systematically murdered several members of her family--and almost got away with it! "Fascinating . . . suspenseful."--Newsday. HC: Scribner.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The tale of a woman with a genius for deception, this is one of the most riveting true-crime stories in memory. Audrey Marie Hilley grew up in Alabama as a pampered child, feeling that she was entitled to the best; when her middle-class lifestyle after marriage and two children did not provide funds for the best, she kited checks and then poisoned her husband for his insurance money and attempted to poison her daughter. Arrested, she jumped bail and assumed a new identity, that of Robbi Hannon, met and married a second husband and moved with him to New Hampshire. Evidently bored with that identity, she left temporarily and returned as her "twin sister," Teri, announcing that Robbi had died; the disguise apparently fooled her husband, but not all of the people she had known as Robbi. She was eventually unmasked, returned to Alabama for trial, found guilty of murder and imprisoned in 1983. The saga of this cold, cruel and calculating person, told expertly by former Providence Journal-Bulletin reporter Ginsburg, is memorable. First serial to Good Housekeeping; Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Marie Hilley, seemingly an ordinary housewife, was convicted of the poisoning murder and attempted murder of her husband and daughter, respectively. She skipped bail and lived as a fugitive for three years. Hilley was the subject of R. Robin McDonald's Black Widow ( LJ 9/15/86). Ginsburg updates the story about Hilley, who died after a 1987 prison escape, and provides more details about her convoluted fugitive existence. Her penchant for deception in all things led to her capture. (Neither book offers any psychological explanation.) About a fascinating case, this account is recommended for crime collections lacking Black Widow . Literary Guild alternate. Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1st THUS edition (May 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446353124
• ISBN-13: 978-0446353120
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,194,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Venomous! Lethal!, February 2, 2001

By 

Becky - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poisoned Blood (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the spellbinding true story of the life and crimes of Audrey Marie Hilley, a "typical" suburban Alabama housewife and mother whose life was an intertwined rope of secrets, lies, deceptions, and ultimately murder.

When her daughter Carol was stricken with an ailment that her doctors were unable to diagnose or even treat effectively, Marie Hilley seemed the epitome of a loving and concerned mother.

But nothing was further from the truth.

For she had been calculatingly, cold bloodedly, and systematically poisoning Carol with arsenic for almost a year. In a life filled with actions that are incomprehensible to the conscience driven person, this act of attempted murder was the most nefarious, heinous, inhumane, and demonic that any person, any woman, or any mother could have ever conceived or committed.

When the shocking truth of Carol's illness finally emerged, her relatives and law enforcement officials realised with dawning horror that this incident was likely not an isolated one. Four years earlier, Marie's husband Frank had died after a short illness. Doctors ruled that he died from natural causes.

Little did they know.

He too had been poisoned with arsenic.

This was not the end of the strange odyssey of Marie Hilley. Arrested for passing fraudulent cheques and attempted murder, she skipped bail for three years, remarried, forged a new identity for herself as Robbi Homan, and fled to New Hampshire. There, as "Robbi", she faked terminal illness, staged her own death in Texas in what can be termed as a symbolic act of self destruction, and returned to New Hampshire masquerading as Robbi's twin sister, Teri Martin! Due to the suspicions of "Robbi's" former friends and colleagues, this act led to her eventual capture.

In 1 of the best true crime books ever penned, author Ginsburg weaves a shocking and sordid expose of a creature, that fortunately, is the rarest kind - a pure, 100% sociopath, a woman for whom the truth was an elusive commodity. Like us, he seems puzzled as to the WHYS of Audrey Marie Hilley, and though this brilliant book is a painstakingly researched biography of her life and crimes, for the reader it evokes more questions than answers.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of My Favorites, June 8, 2004

By 

TawnTawn (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poisoned Blood (Hardcover)

I have re-read this book so many times it fell apart. Great writing, can't put it down type book. If you are interested in sociopaths, this is one of the best studies of one - although Audrey Marie Hilley refused any psychiatric evaluation - she did show many of the characteristics: lying, greed, using people for her own ends, as well as doing things that just didn't make any sense at all. Probably a borderline personality disorder as well, as she liked to cheat on her husband, set fires for insurance money, job hop, tell tall tales for attention, kite checks, etc. Killing her husband, and trying to kill her own daughter, perhaps her mother, mother-in-law, son and daughter-in-law, there was something in her that wanted to control everyone around her, and benefit from it as well. I hope that Carol and Mike are doing well - Carol was one tough cookie. Just an amazingingly well-told story.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Of The Line True Crime, January 19, 2009

By 

Dan Bogaty "Mr. Congeniality" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Poisoned Blood: True Story of Marie Hilley, Cold-blooded Killer (Hardcover)

POISONED BLOOD by Philip E. Ginsburg is the strange and brutal story of Audrey Marie Hilley, a woman so cold that she poisoned her family because she was strapped for cash and felt that her lifestyle was more important than the lives of her husband and daughter. But there is more to the story than just that. In addition to being unfeelingly greedy, Marie Hilley was also a competent middle class lady who, having mastered well all the social graces of the 1970's South, played on the trust that her magnetic persona afforded her. She used the confidence she engendered in others to take advantage of them by weaving elaborate falsehoods and convincing them to help her with whatever it was she wanted at the moment.
But there's more. Marie Hilley over a three year period fabricated not only the stories of her life, but also her actual identities. She had at least two additional names in the space of three years, and these were not simply aliases, but deceptions so thorough, so bizarre, and so outrageous that you have never read anything like it.
Ginsburg writes exceptionally well, and, as is a hallmark of good true crime, there is extensive back story on Marie and many of the other players so the reader learns not only what happened, but why it happened; and he details the principal characters' lives from childhood on.
The single question hovering over the story is whether Marie Hilley was simply greedy and evil or insane. Ginsburg seems to conclude that she was a fluctuating mixture of both - devious calculation and madness. And you will not want to put the book down while you are forming your own opinion.
POISONED BLOOD is top echelon true crime and ranks with such greats as the books of Darcy O'Brien, Lowell Cauffiel, and Jack Olsen. I think it would appeal to a wide spectrum of readers, and it is a must read for true crime aficianados.