Character and Mental Health
Hill's biographer John E. Tuhy (Sam Hill: The Prince of Castle Nowhere, 1983) occasionally questions aspects of Hill's own account of his life and doings or finds contradictions in anecdotes told at various times. He believes that Hill was at least somewhat manic-depressive and sees strong signs of a manic, or at least hypomanic, state in his many, often abortive projects, in the 1920s and possibly of paranoia in his belief that the Soviet Union was out to harm him. He raises the possibility that some early aspect of this "instability" might have played a part in Hill's parting of ways in business from J.J. Hill. A 1901 letter from Sam to the elder Hill suggests that he believed his father-in-law was at least in some degree disappointed in him: he refers to having "often been an embarrassment to you," although the historical record gives no indication of any important business errors on the younger Hill's part during his association with his father-in-law.
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