46. Interview with Robert “Bob” Hill: Part 1

[Robert “Bob” Hill has been a resident of Tallahassee all forty-two years of his life and was a primary witness in the case against Earl Bishop. A personable, family man, Bob lives with his wife and daughter in the heart of Tallahassee, a few miles away from FSU’s campus. He sits now on his couch wearing a buttoned denim shirt tucked into his jeans with his nickname sewed into the breast, his hands covered in motor oil]

6 July 2011

– Please, call me Bob. Mr. Hill’s my pops. [Mr. Hill laughs loudly]

– ‘Bout the Bishop boy?

– Don’t mind discussin’ it none. Don’t know what I can tell you I ain’t already told the authorities back then though.

– Weren’t much to tell. I seen the black fella out there carryin’ on and then the house went up, so I wrote down his license plate and called 911.

– Was going to get something from my truck when I seen it. Hell of a scene, let me tell you. And I’ll admit, I ain’t the quickest on the draw. I wouldn’t never thought to look at Bishop’s license plate, or even wanted to if I hadn’t just finished up with America’s Most Wanted, but you know how it is with them shows.

– [Mr. Hill shakes his head and smiles] I tell you, I love that nonsense like ain’t nobody’s business. Used to hate it though. Never really had much a thing for TV at all, tell you the truth, ‘cept maybe some a them sitcoms when I’m bored. You see, Martha—my wife—she loves America’s Most Wanted. I used to think the whole idea a it was just as dumb as all them other reality shows they got on television nowadays. No sense at all, no goddamn sense to any a them, just a bunch of people runnin’ ‘round committin’ all types a adultery, doin’ thangs that’d be illegal for you and me but don’t show up on the police radar when it’s a bunch a TV and movie stars doin’ it.

– Like the ones my daughter’s always starin’ at all bug eyed and fixin’ herself up in the mirror to look like them girls, no goddamn sense. Got her runnin’ ‘round the house talkin’ ‘bout how everybody just found out this one fella’s a gay and now they all messin’ with him and it ain’t fair ‘cause he ain’t done nothin’ wrong and there’s all types a yellin’ and screamin’ goin’ on in that damn house they done packed twenty damn people in. No goddamn sense. That ain’t reality no way I know it.

– Hold a minute!

– Apologize, ain’t mean to startle ya. Just realized how I mighta sounded a little earlier. That ain’t how I meant, when I said “black fella” ‘bout Bishop. I ain’t mean black fella like how you might think I meant it. I ain’t tryin’ to offend nothin’ ‘round here. I know how sensitive people is nowadays with all this politically correct and incorrect nonsense they got going on. Don’t take to none of it myself. Bishop was dark, I ain’t, and ain’t nothin’ wrong with neither. Ain’t nothin’ any party’s to be ashamed of.

– I ain’t know his name when I saw him gettin’ in his car, did I? Never saw him before in my life. So I gotta call him that black fella. What else I’m s’posed to call him? The fella in the truck? How many people got trucks in Tallahassee? Damn near everybody in this goddamn city got some sort a pickup, I bet. And I know we got a whole lot of black fellas ‘round here too and, like I said, ain’t nothin’ wrong with that. But I think it’d be mighty easier to catch a fella if I’d said the black fella in the truck with such and such license plate, ‘stead a just saying [Mr. Hill gets overly animated] ‘I reckon t’was some fella in a truck with such and such license plate.’ [Mr. Hill settles down, shaking his head] Wouldn’t’ve been much help at all if all I said was that, wouldn’t I?

– You know it. Would’ve had half the city out looking for any color type a fella. That’s a whole lot a fellas to look through. So, you see, right there. I cut that cop work right in half.

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