Bio

Mack Oran Hill was born on August 12, 1953. Texas Department of Criminal Justice records list his native county as Tarrant County, Texas. The same record listed his prior occupation as paint and body work, his education level as seven years, and his prior prison record as a 12-year sentence from Tarrant County for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. He was received by TDCJ on October 1, 1981, and was paroled to Lubbock County on June 10, 1985.

Before the murder of Donald Franklin Johnson, Hill had been connected to auto-related work and business dealings in Lubbock, Texas. Johnson, who later became the victim in Hill’s capital murder case, had known Hill through previous business ventures. Records and case summaries state that Hill and Johnson had been partners in several unsuccessful business ventures before the 1987 killing.

Hill’s criminal history was presented during the punishment phase of his capital murder trial. According to the case material, the State introduced evidence of prior drug-related conduct, involvement in aggravated robberies, a credit card fraud conviction, and parole violations. Evidence was also presented that Hill possessed illegal weapons, including a switchblade knife and brass knuckles, and that he regularly carried a gun. These details were used by the prosecution during punishment, after Hill had already been convicted of capital murder.

The punishment phase also included testimony from Hill’s wife, Nancy. She testified that Hill killed her stepfather, Bob Murray, in 1978. According to that testimony, Hill shot Murray, wrapped his body, and disposed of it in a dry well. Herbert Wayne Elliot, who was later identified as Hill’s accomplice in the Johnson case, also testified that Hill had admitted killing his wife’s stepfather. However, the checked sources do not show that Hill was separately convicted for Bob Murray’s death. For that reason, Murray should be listed carefully as a reported or alleged additional victim, while Donald Franklin Johnson should be listed as the confirmed conviction victim.

Murder Story

Donald Franklin Johnson was 43 years old and lived in Lubbock, Texas, where he operated a residence and auto repair or paint-and-body shop. In early March 1987, Johnson had recently purchased a truck and a travel trailer. Hill knew Johnson from earlier business dealings, and the two men had been involved in several unsuccessful ventures. Hill went to Johnson’s residence and shop with Herbert Wayne Elliot, an acquaintance who later became a key trial witness.

According to Elliot’s trial testimony, the visit began on the evening of March 2, 1987. Johnson showed Hill and Elliot his newly purchased truck and travel trailer. Elliot testified that he fell asleep while Hill and Johnson were talking. He said he later woke when Hill told him it was time to leave. As Elliot stood up, Hill pulled a gun from his coat pocket and shot Johnson in the face. The TDCJ inmate sheet records the offense date as March 3, 1987, and identifies Johnson’s cause of death as a gunshot wound from a .25-caliber pistol.

After the shooting, Elliot testified that Hill moved Johnson’s body into the bathroom. Hill then used a knife to bleed the body before placing a bag over Johnson’s head and torso. He removed keys and money from Johnson’s pants, then wrapped the body in carpet and blankets and tied the bundle with neckties. Elliot said that, at Hill’s direction, he backed his car to the door so Hill could place Johnson’s body in the trunk. The two men then left the scene, with Elliot driving his car and Hill driving Johnson’s truck.

The next day, according to Elliot’s testimony, Hill placed Johnson’s body inside a 50-gallon drum, added water and concrete, then sealed and locked the container. Hill and Elliot loaded the drum onto Johnson’s truck and drove to Amon Carter Lake near Bowie, Texas. They backed the truck toward the water and rolled the drum into the lake. After returning to Lubbock, they removed Johnson’s belongings from his residence and shop and moved them into storage. Hill and Elliot later traveled away from Lubbock and lived for a period in Johnson’s travel trailer.

In August 1987, Hill stayed in Bowie, Texas, with longtime acquaintance Ronny Anderson. Anderson later testified that Hill took him to a secluded area of Amon Carter Lake and showed him the top of a barrel that had become visible because the lake level had dropped. Hill told Anderson the barrel contained the body of a man who had been shot in the head. Hill then tried to push the barrel farther under the water. Later that month, a fisherman discovered the barrel. Authorities recovered and opened it, and the body inside was identified as Donald Franklin Johnson.

At the time of Hill’s arrest, he had been in possession of Johnson’s truck and travel trailer for several months. Hill was arrested by Texas Rangers on August 21, 1987, in Flower Mound, Texas. He was later indicted on November 5, 1987, for capital murder in the course of committing or attempting to commit robbery.

Hill’s capital murder trial ended with a conviction on July 7, 1989. On August 3, 1989, he was sentenced to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence on May 5, 1993, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari on June 13, 1994. Hill later pursued state and federal habeas relief. In 2000, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied his request for a certificate of appealability, leaving his conviction and sentence in place.

Hill’s appeals included claims that the prosecution had failed to disclose implied leniency agreements with witnesses and had withheld impeachment evidence. The state habeas court held an evidentiary hearing on the witness-leniency issue and found that no undisclosed deals had been made. The federal courts also rejected Hill’s arguments, and the Fifth Circuit concluded that he had not made the required showing for further review.

Hill was originally scheduled for execution on June 6, 2001, but he received a temporary stay while the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals considered a prosecutorial-misconduct claim. That claim was later rejected, and a new execution date was set. Hill continued to deny killing Johnson during his trial, appeals, and time on death row.

Mack Oran Hill was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, on August 8, 2001. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice lists him as the 250th person executed in Texas since the state resumed executions, and Amnesty International also identified his execution as Texas’s 250th since 1982. He was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m.