August 28, 2018

Poisonous: Audrey Marie Hilley

1 hour 30 minutes

Homemaker Audrey Marie Hilley killed her husband, Frank, in 1975, and attempted to kill her daughter three years later. Her choice of victims, which also included her mother and mother-in-law, were the people close to her. Her motive was money.

What makes her case extraordinary is how she managed to elude arrest for three years while on the run, and then, while serving a 20-year-to-life sentence, managed to obtain a prison furlough and disappear into the woods of Alabama.

Her story begins in May 1975 when Frank Hilley visited his doctor complaining of nausea and pain in his abdomen. His doctor diagnosed a viral stomach ache. The condition persisted and Frank was admitted to a hospital for tests that indicated liver malfunction. Physicians then diagnosed infectious hepatitis. Because the symptoms closely resembled those of hepatitis, no tests for poison were conducted. After he died, the cause of death was listed as infectious hepatitis.

Over three years later, Audrey took out a $25,000 life insurance policy on her daughter, Carol. Within a few months, Carol began to experience nausea and was admitted to the emergency room several times. A year after insuring her daughter, Audrey gave Carol an injection that she said would help with her nausea. But her symptoms only worsened.

Audrey Marie Hilley was eventually arrested for the murder of her husband and the attempted murder of her daughter. But what if Carol had died? Would she have continued killing family members? All signs point to yes.

Today’s quiet end discussion, Poisonous, covers the twisted life and outrageous crimes of a woman to appeared to be a normal, 1960s housewife. Audrey Marie Hilley kept a home, raised her children, and just happened to commit murder when she was short on funds.

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Madison Reed

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