On a winter evening in Bessemer, Alabama, the lives of a family were irrevocably shattered by a man with a long and violent history. On January 7, 1977, 34-year-old Lois Jean Tatum, her 36-year-old husband John Tatum Jr., and her 60-year-old mother, Willie Mae Hammock, were tragically killed in their home. The perpetrator was Walter Hill, a man already known to the criminal justice system for a string of violent offenses that stretched back decades.
The catalyst for the horrific events
of that day was Hill's infatuation with Willie Mae Hammock's 13-year-old ward, Toni. Hill had approached Hammock seeking permission to marry the young girl, a request that was unequivocally denied. This refusal ignited a murderous rage within Hill. He followed the 60-year-old woman to a bedroom closet and shot her in the back of the head. He then proceeded to the dining room where he shot John Tatum Jr. twice in the head. Lois Jean Tatum fled through the house, but Hill pursued her and shot her in the back of the head as well. The brutal slayings were witnessed by Toni and her 16-year-old adopted brother, Robert.
Following the murders, Hill’s reign of terror continued as he abducted the two traumatized teenagers. He forced them into a car and began a desperate flight, eventually heading towards Georgia. The ordeal for the children was a harrowing extension of the violence they had just witnessed. Their escape came when the vehicle they were in broke down in North Carolina. Robert managed to flee and alert the authorities, leading to Hill's swift capture. The murder weapon was found in his possession at the time of his arrest.
Walter Hill’s criminal history was extensive and marked by repeated acts of extreme violence. His first known murder occurred in 1952 when he was just 17 years old. Throughout his life, he had been in and out of prison, even escaping on one occasion. Prior to the triple homicide in Bessemer, he had been paroled despite a history that included another murder conviction while incarcerated. The case against him for the deaths of the Tatum family and Willie Mae Hammock was built on the powerful and courageous testimony of the two children he had abducted. Hill was initially convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in October 1977. However, due to technical errors in the trial, he was granted a retrial. In August 1979, he was once again found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death. After years of appeals, Walter Hill was executed in the electric chair at Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama on May 2, 1997, bringing a final, grim chapter to a story of immense loss and brutality.
