Jean Hill | |
---|---|
Born |
Norma Jean Lollis February 11, 1931 Ferguson, Oklahoma, U.S. |
Died | November 7, 2000 Dallas, Texas, U.S. |
(aged 69)
Cause of death | Complications of a blood disease |
Resting place | Grove Hill Memorial Park |
Nationality | American |
Other names | Lady In Red |
Education | Wewoka High School |
Alma mater | Oklahoma Baptist University |
Occupation | Teacher |
Known for | Witness to assassination of John F. Kennedy |
Spouse(s) | Bill Hill (m. 1951; div. 1964) |
Children | 2 |
Norma Jean Lollis Hill (February 11, 1931 – November 7, 2000) was an eyewitness to the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Hill was known as the "Lady in Red" because of the long red raincoat she wore that day, as seen in Abraham Zapruder's film of the assassination. A teacher by profession, she was a consultant for Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK and co-wrote JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness with Bill Sloan.
Hill's claims have been both disputed and embraced. While official sources have considered her an unreliable witness for a number of reasons, other researchers investigating the assassination and the conclusions of the Warren Commission consider her a highly credible witness. Critics point to her statement that she saw Jack Ruby, the killer of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, at the scene of the assassination in Dealey Plaza when other witnesses placed him in the offices of The Dallas Morning News at the time. Others point to significant circumstantial evidence of an apparent smear campaign to undermine the testimony and credibility of Hill, the closest civilian witness to the assassination and its immediate aftermath.
Jean Hill was a consistent critic of the official report of the Warren Commission since its release and in 1992 she co-wrote a book entitled The Last Dissenting Witness. In this book she made the assertion that her reported testimony before the Warren Commission was fabricated by the commission, a claim also made by others about Warren Commission testimony. Others point out that those claims cannot be verified one way or the other, and argue that the Warren Commission did not fabricate testimony at all, although some people who probably committed perjury point to the possibility of an internal conspiracy.
Hill was born and raised in Ferguson, Oklahoma. After her parents divorced in 1943, she moved with her father to Wewoka, Oklahoma where she later graduated from Wewoka High School. Upon graduation, Hill enrolled at Oklahoma Baptist University. She dropped out after two years after marrying Bill Hill. The couple had two children, Jeanne and Billy. Hill eventually returned to college and earned a degree in elementary education in 1955. Hill worked as a teacher in Oklahoma City until 1962 when the family moved to Dallas for Bill Hill's job at Science Research Associates.