Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

Ray Hill led a quintessentially rich life. He was a Baptist evangelist. He helped organize the first

gay march on Washington. He established a hospice center for AIDS patients.

He hosted a radio call-in show for prison inmates.

He lost his left leg.

He was, in the words of many, an absolutely colossal character in the colossal state of Texas.

Oh, did I mention he was also a convicted cat burglar?

We might as well just go back to the beginning.

Raymond Wayne Hill was born in Houston on October 13th, 1940.

He was ambitious from the very moment he entered the world.

He once told the Houston Chronicle,

I was born to rub the cat hair the wrong direction.

His parents were labor activists.

His mother organized nurses for the Teamsters and his father organized shipyard workers

for the AFL-CIO.

He was also gay.

When he came out in high school,

his mother was relieved.

In later life, Hill recalled her saying

well we notice you dress up more than the other boys

in the neighborhood

and we thought you were trying to pretend

...