Dr. John Hamilton murder of wife Susan on Valentine's

This case's notoriety led this episode to stand out among season 10's. A few other series have covered Dr. Hamilton's murder of his wife Susan both before Forensic Files in 2005, and after. One recent standout was Dateline: Secrets Uncovered. In this November 2021 version, John Hamilton himself was interviewed from prison. I'll speak more about this later, but spoiler – he's still an asshat.

There were a few special moments for the avid watcher of Forensic Files. Those familiar with the series will acknowledge that it's quite rare to hear the interviewer speak during the interview segments. But right at the end when Susan's ex-husband Richard "Dick" Horton is alluding to God judging John Hamilton for his crimes, the interviewer can be heard asking for clarification. Another rare occurrence was the inclusion of a juror from the trial itself. Harold McFall's single segment was used to express his fellow jurors' temperament during deliberations. They felt sorry for him, but felt the evidence was overwhelming.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Fanatics may have also recognized one extra tidbit. After the episode's second break, around the 9:30 mark, what looks like file footage of an exotic dancer is briefly shown. A closer look should reveal this is actually "Miss Bunny", from the episode Summer Obsession (s10e27). This dancer had worked with "Summer", an exotic dancer at Delilah's Den in Philadelphia. Craig Rabinowitz killed his wife Stephanie in order to get more money to spend on his favorite dancer, Summer. It's interesting that the original Miss Bunny footage appeared in our episode, and she wasn't to be featured in the series for another 2.5 months (11 episodes) after Deadly Valentine (s10e16) aired.

Police's investigation points to John Hamilton

Thankfully, the police left no stone unturned when looking for Susan Hamilton's killer. It would've been easy to chalk up her murder to an overzealous anti-abortionist with a penchant for their version of vengeance. But John Hamilton's peculiar behavior combined with a fairly apparent motive caused them to dig deeper. This of course led to the discovery of blood spatter (not just transfer stains) on John's clothes, plus Susan's blood in his car.

It seemed a little unusual that the media and not the police were responsible for obtaining the voice-stress analysis of John Hamilton's 911 call. A layperson could tell there was something abnormal in his speech, mannerisms, and behavior as he spoke to the 911 operator – I'd think the investigators would've also picked up on this and thought to secure a professional analysis to support their other mounting evidence.

Not shared in this episode, but the Dateline interview saw John Hamilton attempting to explain how Susan's blood had gotten into his car if he'd only discovered his wife's murder after arriving home. His story (and he was sticking to it) was: He came home and saw his wife bleeding profusely from a grievous head injury in their upstairs bathroom. In an attempt to save her life, he began to administer CPR and he called the paramedics. Then, he stopped trying to revive Susan to move his car to give the paramedics better access to the victim. This is both laughable and pathetic at the same time. The paramedics are pros – they certainly don't need the courtesy of premium parking when they arrive at a life-and-death scene.

John Hamilton's series of disastrous choices

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

On the topic of John Hamilton's buffoonery, a few additional items stood out in our episode. The first seemed to be a repeated pattern of his inability to cover his tracks. First from his wife Susan: Dr. Hamilton was discovered slipping money to one of his grown children after Susan demanded he stop. She threatened to divorce him if he defied her mandate again. Then, John made a feeble attempt to become intimate with a patient of his who was less than half his age and an exotic dancer. He seemed to make no effort to cover his tracks here as literally dozens of calls (over 100 according to Dateline) were readily visible on their shared phone bill. Even without cell phones, one would think John could find a more clandestine way to contact his superficial love interest.

After failing to obfuscate the evidence of his deeds from Susan, John was equally haphazard after committing a much more heinous crime. Although cast-off blood spatter got on his clothes, Dr. Hamilton didn't think to change his shirt nor shoes. He also carelessly transferred Susan's blood to his car when he drove to Mercy hospital to perform his second surgery that day. And even though he did find a way to discard the murder weapon itself, he didn't think to hide or destroy the Valentine's Day cards he'd received from Susan that morning. The passive-aggressive messages within these cards were a certain indication of what might've enraged Dr. Hamilton that morning.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

His card had a particularly cringeworthy phrase written inside: "We are important, loving, caring people together." I've sent and received numerous cards in my 30+ years of adulthood, to and from several partners. I've never used the term "important" when describing us. I had my partner watch this episode with me – in the next card I give her, I'm going to use Dr. Hamilton's narrative verbatim. Let's see if she finds it off-putting (or remembers its source).

John Hamilton's greatest clownery was seen in the surveillance video when he was at the police station for questioning. I'm not sure which emotions he was hoping to convey, but he came across as nothing more than a bad actor. From rocking to crying to pleading, Dr. Hamilton wanted to seem "out of control". The best footage occurred late in the episode – John was now wearing prison orange and expressing his discomfort to a detective:

Hamilton: "Can you leave the door open? I mean, it's just, I mean I feel like I'm in a cage. I'm sorry, but…"
Detective: "I tried to explain to you that they're discussing cases and everything else…"
Hamilton: "I know, I know … that's why I was hoping there was someplace else you could put me. This is just – I'm sorry, I am so distraught. I need … I just, I want to talk to somebody. I wanna – I just can't, I mean, I will go nuts sitting here…"
Other detective: "Well, that's the whole purpose of you being here, okay?"

Lingering questions about Susan Hamilton's murder

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Reviewing the YouTube comments, it was apparent that many folks didn't approve of John nor Susan Hamilton when it came to their vocation. Being a doctor who performs abortions would paint a target on Dr. Hamilton in any town, and most were no kinder to his wife Susan for helping run his practice. It seems the Hamiltons didn't live in a gated community – perhaps these weren't as widespread in 2001. I wonder how the laws would work if a group of protesters wanted to picket a house within a gated community in today's age.

Our episode mentioned testing the DNA of the blood found on John Hamilton's clothing. I can see testing some of the spatter blood for evidence that he was at the scene while the attack was being committed, but testing all of the blood seems like overkill. What else might they have been looking for? If they found a DNA profile that was not Susan's, what avenue of further investigation might this have led detectives down?

Prosecutor Wes Lane spoke of Susan Hamilton's reaction to her husband's attempts to foster a relationship with the exotic dancer. His quote mentions Dr. Hamilton's betrayal was "nuclear in her eyes, and she even moved out … for a night". I'm not sure if packing an overnight bag and choosing to cool down by staying at a friend's house is necessarily considered "moving out".

Finally, I was curious about Dr. Hamilton wanting to send money to one of his grown children. I fully support Susan's anger when she learned John was sending the money after promising her that he wouldn't – this is clearly deception. But John Hamilton was an obstetrician; he went to medical school and had a thriving practice. He probably made decent money. Susan worked at his practice (other articles indicated only two days per week), so it seems Dr. Hamilton was the family's clear breadwinner. If he wanted to send money to his own child, he should have been able to put his foot down and done so.

Where is John Hamilton now in 2024?

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

The defense's own expert, Tom Bevel, concurred with the prosecution's expert when it came to the probable source of the blood spatter found on Dr. Hamilton's shoes and shirt. On December 19, 2001, Dr. John Hamilton was found guilty of the murder of his wife Susan Hamilton after the jury deliberated just two hours. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole and serves his time at the Dick Conner Correctional Center in Hominy, Oklahoma.

The Okalhoman mentions a lawsuit that was filed by a patient of Dr. Hamilton. Kimberly Piper claimed that the doctor prematurely discharged her from his care on the day he murdered Susan, which was just two days after Piper suffered a miscarriage. This negligent, hasty release led to complications and additional medical bills.