The Truly Wicked Valentines Day Murder

 Hello, and Welcome Back My Fellow Fascinated Fans!

 Todays true crime story is one that is very sad and twisted. On February 14, 2001, a man by the name of John Hamilton walked into his house that morning to pick up something he had forgotten, only to find his wife laying on the bathroom floor in a pool of her own blood.

Dr. John Hamilton was a seemingly loving and very devoted husband to his wife, Susan Hamilton, whom he had met at a friends birthday party in 1985, when he was at the age of 37 and she at 39. At the time they had both been recently divorced, and they each had two children of their own from their previous marriages. Susan Hamilton was described by many as intelligent, beautiful, and lovable, and just two years after her first date with John, they had gotten married at a local country club, and proceeded to live in their Oklahoma City home.

Photo of John and Susan Hamilton
Source: Internet Archive

By time, the couple had built a very envious lifestyle for themselves; they seemed to be very in love, they had beautiful cars, and they also lived in a top notch neighborhood. John was a very romantic man, and over the course of their 14 year marriage, he would constantly lavish Susan with the most expensive gifts. 

Although the family was a very lovable one, they did have enemies, because John had been an OB-GYN doctor, and not only did he deliver babies, but he also had an abortion clinic, which Susan would manage for him twice a week. So, this clinic had caused the doctor to have been a target of a couple of anti-abortion groups.

After finding his wife’s body, John had then phoned the police while attempting to perform CPR on Susan, and he had been shouting on the phone for them to hurry, claiming that he thinks his wife had dead.  When paramedics arrived they were met with a sickening scene, Susan had been strangled by two necklaces, and her head had been smashed with so much force that parts of her brain had been exposed.

Investigators had then spent the next few hours trying to understand what had happened, and they suspected that it could have been one of the anti-abortion groups that was targeting John. That was because just one week before Susan's murder a wanted poster spelling 'either dead or alive' with John's face on it had been faxed to him by an anti-abortion group. They had also been receiving threatening phone calls by them, and two days before the murder someone had even tried to set the clinic on fire.

At the time, it seemed that the police had zeroed in on the anti-abortion group theory, because it seemed very likely due to the circumstances. However, as routine in domestic murders, John was considered a suspect, and he had to be looked at. After closely examining John's timeline on the day of the murder, it seemed like he had a very strong alibi. 

That was because John had been performing a surgery at one of his outpatient clinics at 7:00 A.M, and then he had gone home at around almost 9:00 A.M, only to be paged in by another hospital for his 9:00 A.M surgery, and by 9:30 A.M it was reported that he had already been in his scrubs getting ready for his surgery. This had meant that he had only been at home for a few minutes, leaving him barely anytime to murder Susan and clean up before going back to the hospital again.

Later on though, investigators discovered a very weird Valentines Day card from Susan in John's car; the card was weird because it read, "I bought my card two weeks ago, so I guess it doesn't seem as appropriate now, but I do love you." This information had raised eyebrows at the time, because it revealed that maybe their relationship hadn't been as perfect as it seemed to be. 

Susan's neighbor and friend, had then confirmed the suspicions that the couple may have been having some problems at the time, when she revealed that Susan had confided in her, only one week prior to her murder, that she thought that John was being unfaithful. she had also revealed to her that John had been getting many calls that he refused to answer in front of her, and she had also revealed to her that she had later discovered that those phone calls were from a stripper. The friend also said that Susan told her that after she had checked his phone records, she had discovered that their had been hundreds of calls back and forth between them

It was also revealed, that although Susan had confronted John about it, he had claimed that the woman was just a patient that he was trying to help. When police later on had questioned the woman that John was talking to, she had also claimed that they had not been having an affair. 

In response to all this new information, police had then began closely investigating John further, and they became a lot more suspicious of him when they were informed with how John had been acting on the day of the murder. First responders had revealed to the police that even though he had claimed on the phone to the 911 operator that he had been performing CPR on Susan, when they had gotten their, they saw that John hadn't even been performing CPR correctly; that had seemed very suspicious since John was a doctor.

It was also revealed that John had been acting even more strange in the ride to the police station in the back of the patrol car, where he had been banging his head and his knuckles on the metal mesh. Investigators had the started to suspect that he may have been purposely inflicting injuries on himself to cover up for other injuries he may have gotten earlier.

Upon investigating John even further, they had found a hole in his timeline; because it was revealed that John's second surgery had actually been delayed to 9:40 because by then he hadn't shown up to the hospital and that is when they had paged him to come in. To investigators it seemed like that delay had opened up John's timeline by up to an hour, and that had been enough for them to decide that they would arrest him for the murder of his wife. 

Photo of John Hamilton
Source: Author Jennifer Chase

John had then been arrested and denied bail, and prosecutors had immediately gotten to work trying to piece up a story. Since they had no murder weapon and no motive, they had resorted to coming up with a story using the Valentines card that Susan had left him. Prosecutors believed that John had seen that card, and he had come back home to try and patch things up with Susan, but when she denied him any explanations, he had snapped and viciously murdered her. 

This story was also backed up by a rag, which had been found at the crime scene in the middle of Susan's pool of blood, which made it seem although someone had been attempting to clean up but quickly gave up. They had also hired a blood splatter expert, and after closely examining what John had been wearing that day, the expert had determined that splatters on his shoes could line up with the prosecutors story.

However, the most incriminating evidence that they had acquired was the blood, hair, and pieces of Susan's skin that they had later found in John's car. Even though John had claimed that these pieces were in his car, because he said that while performing CPR on his wife, he had realized that he left his car blocking the entryway, and so he had quickly went to move it so that it wouldn't block the ambulance's way. 

The most absolute evidence of all though, that had ultimately incriminated John, was actually pointed out by a blood expert that John's own team had hired. He had pointed out in court that there was a small blood stain inside John's cufflinks that lined up with the story of him beating up his wife. John had then been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and although he had tried to appeal the verdict many times, he had ultimately failed. Whether he truly guilty or not, John Hamilton is currently being held in a maximum security prison, and as of right now, he is there for life.

And this brings us to the end of todays true crime story my fascinated fans! Don't forget to share and let me know what you think about today's case in the comments below! Also don't forget to let me know about a true crime story that you find truly wicked!