Deadly Valentine

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

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

On Valentine's Day in 2001, Susan Hamilton was murdered in her own home. All signs pointed to the most unlikely suspect - her husband, Dr. John Hamilton.

Original air date: September 21, 2005

Posted: May 10, 2023
By: Robert S.

Season 10, Episode 16

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On Valentine's Day 2001, Oklahoma City's 911 center received a phone call. Dr. John Hamilton, a prominent obstetrician, told the operator that his wife Susan had been the victim of a savage beating. She was in the couple's bathroom, nude, unconscious, and bleeding from a severe head injury. This was no accident, and Dr. Hamilton feared his wife of 15 years may not make it. He attempted to administer aid until the paramedics arrived.

Dr. Hamilton told investigators he'd performed two surgeries at the hospital that morning. He then picked up flowers to bring his wife for Valentine's Day. It seemed that an intruder had gained entry, murdered Susan, and escaped through the back door, leaving it ajar. But neighbors did not report seeing any suspicious persons or activity during the morning, and there was no evidence of forced entry into the Hamiltons' home.

Susan Hamilton had been severely beaten in the upstairs bathroom of the house she shared with her husband of 15 years
Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Police expanded their radius of potential suspects, and they started considering a group of people interested in doing harm to both John and Susan Hamilton. As an obstetrician, Dr. Hamilton performed abortions, and as Susan ran his office, both had been the targets of protests and picketing by anti-abortion activists. It was certainly plausible that an overzealous radical may have attacked Susan Hamilton.

Then, a major deception was uncovered in the weeks before Susan's murder. After agreeing he'd no longer continue supporting one of his grown children, Susan caught Dr. Hamilton sending his son money. Frustrated with John's lies, Susan packed a go-bag and spent a night with her friend. Upon returning, Susan told her husband under no uncertain terms, if he ever lied to her again, he could consider their marriage over.

Questioning the couple's friends and family uncovered another of John's lies. It seemed Dr. Hamilton had recently taken special interest in the subject of one of his cases. Phone records showed dozens of calls to an exotic dancer patient of the doctor. This seemed to indicate he was seeking something beyond their doctor-patient relationship. When Susan discovered these communiqués, she became enraged. She told Dr. Hamilton he would no longer be the dancer's doctor, forcing him to write her a letter confirming the termination. This had taken place less than a week before Susan's murder.

In considering Dr. Hamilton as a possible suspect in his wife's murder, the police had a solid indication of his means and motivation. But Dr. Hamilton had been performing surgeries at the hospital – his opportunity seemed implausible. Investigators once again looked closely at phone records and learned that John Hamilton had actually left after his first surgery. He was then paged numerous times, urgently asked to get to the hospital for his second patient's surgery. His alibi was quickly crumbling.

Finally, a close look at the clothing Dr. Hamilton was wearing and the inside of his car would piece together the story of how Susan was attacked and killed. It seemed unlikely that the mild-mannered doctor would snap and beat his wife to death, but the evidence pointed in no other direction – or did it?

The Facts

Case Type: Crime

Crime

  • Murder

Date & Location

  • February 14, 2001
  • Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Victim

  • Susan Hamilton (Age: 55)

Perpetrator

  • Dr. John Hamilton (Age: 52)

Weapons

  • Neckties
  • Marble figurine

Watch Forensic Files: Season 10, Episode 16
Deadly Valentine

The Evidence

Forensic Evidence

  • 911 call analysis
  • DNA: Victim's
  • Phone records
  • Written narrative: Victim

Forensic Tools/Techniques

  • Luminol

Usual Suspects

No Evil Geniuses Here
?

  • None occurred in this episode

Cringeworthy Crime Jargon
?

  • None uttered in this episode

File This Under...
?

  • Fake 911 call
  • Stripper / Strip club

The Experts

Forensic Experts

  • Tom Bevel: Blood Spatter Expert

Quotable Quotes

Anti-abortion activists created and posted fake wanted posters for Dr. Hamilton in Oklahoma City
Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files
  • "Here in the bible belt, that’s not something that citizens typically embrace. We know it [abortions] goes on; it does happen, but to be openly doing something like that, and have a clinic that does those kinds of procedures, didn’t sit well with a lot of people." - Tamara Pratt: Reporter, KWTV
  • "On this, I’m very confident that this doctor is not stressed to the degree that I think he would be under those circumstances. Which makes me feel very confident he rehearsed this before he made his call." - Leo Brunette: Voice Stress Analyst
  • "He seemed to be out of control with emotions one way or another. He would get upset and start moving back and forth. He would start crying. He’d stop. And that was one of the concerns that I had; it was almost like he was acting." - Randy Scott: Lead Investigator
  • "Dr. Hamilton’s claims presented some major contradictions. I don’t expect to find spatter. The spatter I observed were present on the front of his shirt below his neck, on both sleeves at the cuff, and these suggested that his arms and his body had been in close proximity to a spatter event." - Ross Gardner: Crime Scene Analyst
  • "The stripper actually told me that she that she really believed that John Hamilton was trying to work up the nerve to ask her out on a date. There wasn’t any relationship there. But he knows men pretty well, and he was trying to work up the courage to even get to first base, and he wasn’t even off home plate yet." - Wes Lane: Prosecutor
  • "This is Dr. Hamilton’s witness [Tom Bevel] there to help him get off the murder charge. It was absolutely a Perry Mason moment. And you could turn and look at the jurors and see them all go, 'Oh.'" - Tamara Pratt: Reporter, KWTV

TV Shows About This Case

  • American Monster: The Last Valentine (s03e07)
  • True Crime with Aphrodite Jones: Loved to Death (s03e06)
  • Primetime: Valentine's Day Murder (February 13, 2003)
  • Forensic Factor: Bloody Valentine (s02e02)

Last Words

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.

Dr. Hamilton's defense tried to suggest that an unknown intruder broke into the couple's house and killed Susan
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

Reports suggest between 60 and 100 calls were made my Dr. Hamilton to a stripper he'd seen as a patient
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.

Multiple cards that Susan had bought for John contained notes indicating her aggrevation with his lies
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

Activists stand up for a range of causes with the hopes of pushing their agenda upon others
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?

The defense mistakenly supported the prosecution's case when Tom Bevel agreed with the prosecution's expert
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.

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Author Robert S. profile image
Robert S.
I've been a fan of Forensic Files since the show's inception, and it is still my favorite true crime series. I have seen every episode several times, and I am considered an expert on the series and the cases it covers.