Robert “the Traveller” Hill doesn’t need to yell who he is.  His shaved-off eyebrows, his penchant for proclaiming the wonders of female masturbation and his batshit-crazy aura clearly accomplish this. Anyone who’s ever watched a Tacoma City Council meeting, slinked around Tacoma’s blogosphere or peeked at Councilman Mike Lonergan’s secret laminated list of PEOPLE WHO WILL BURN IN HELL should know Robert Hill by now. He’s become something of a half-cocked Tacoma semi-celebrity. And the dude has earned it.



Knowing Robert Hill is one thing. Defining him or summing him up is something different. Robert Hill is many things to many people. A nut job. A threat. An activist. A rabble-rouser. A fringe candidate. An artist. A felon. A weirdo. A pervert. A fascinating anomaly. There are nearly as many opinions of the Traveller as Hill has personas.



Many people know of Robert “the Traveller” Hill, but very few people actually know him. While local cartoonist, artist and social commenter R.R. Anderson has helped shine a cyber-spotlight on the Traveller’s antics, the Melon Online has done its part to bring Hill’s political views into focus, and even The News Tribune has pounced on opportunities to spill blog ink when the Traveller does something particularly attention-grabbing — like taking his pants off at a City Council meeting — overall public knowledge of Hill is fairly limited.



That’s how Hill likes it.



The Traveller has been covered in Tacoma, but still an overall feeling of confusion follows the man. Part of that confusion seems to be of his own creation, and part of it surrounds who he is and what makes him tick.



When I pitched this story to my editor, those were the questions I proposed answering. I’ve since come to believe no one will ever answer them completely.



However, I did get to spend two hours on a Sunday afternoon with the Traveller at the Déjà Vu on South Tacoma Way. I momentarily found myself in his bizarre world of fake guns and two-dollar bills, and it was a trip I won’t soon forget.

The backstory

According to the transcripts of a recent court case in which Hill pleaded guilty to forgery, the Traveller was born Dec. 4, 1969, though he notes in proceedings, “I have no personal knowledge of that, but I believe that to be true.”



If it is true, it makes him 38.



For the past 20 or so of those years — as obtaining anything more specific from the Traveller proved repeatedly impossible — Hill has lived in the Tacoma area. He came here as a college student in the late ’80s, and though these days he seems to float freely between King and Pierce counties — maintaining phone and pager numbers in both area codes — Hill considers himself a Tacoman. He has a mailing address in the Proctor District and, at least according to court documents, has a physical address on South Sprague Avenue. Though he’s been a character in these parts for a long time, Hill initially gained notoriety when he ran for City Council in Tacoma in 2007 — battling incumbent Julie Anderson. His strange ways piqued the interest of the Melon, a KUPS radio show turned blog, as well as that of R.R. Anderson, who maintains a “fan site” dedicated to the Traveller.



“We found him to be a very peculiar character,” says Elliot Trotter of the Melon Online. “You don’t see a person like Robert Hill in politics very often.”



“For me, the Traveller began as the only reason I would watch the city meetings. I wanted to start an archive of Traveller antics at the meetings just as a hobby,” says Anderson. “I first heard about him through The New Takhoman Web site — that there was a guy in sunglasses and a cowboy hat holding signs about a ‘masturbation day.’ I felt compelled to learn more about this character.”

The dangerous stuff

Hill’s legend or infamy, depending on which way you look at the one-of-a-kind character, has only been enhanced by a string of bizarre performances at Tacoma City Council meetings.



He frequently faces the gavel of Mayor Bill Baarsma, typically for kinky and baroque ramblings about female masturbation during public comment periods or sometimes just for taking his pants off during proceedings.



Far more alarming to City of Tacoma officials, though, Hill seems to have a thing for weapons — at least fake ones. He raised tensions and eyebrows in February by attending a Human Services Commission meeting with a fake .38-caliber pistol strapped to his ankle, and at a subsequent City Council meeting in March, the Traveller showed up with two metal briefcases. Thanks to his growing reputation as a potential danger, police asked him to open the cases before granting Hill access to the meeting. In typical Traveller form, he refused.  He was not allowed entry.   



So tired is the City Council of Hill’s antics that Councilman Mike Lonergan, after the early-July trouser-dropping incident, recently asked the city attorney to look into ways of keeping Hill out of City Council meetings, period. That sentiment was strengthened when Hill was again kicked out of a Council meeting on July 15 for being “disruptive.”  While you can bet Tacoma will do its legal research before taking such a step — so as to avoid a violation of Hill’s rights or the rights of any other future Tacoma wing nut — the idea of a Traveller-free environment for all City Council meetings is one with widespread appeal throughout City Hall. Tacoma lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum seem tired of Hill’s “presentations,” and off the record, more than a few female city employees have told me the Traveller “weirds them out.” City Manager Eric Anderson says there are two reasons why Hill’s shtick is growing old and raising concern: the disruptions are making others who attend Council meetings uncomfortable, and there’s a genuine concern for safety that seems rational based on what looks to be an intensification of Hill’s craziness.



“It seems like there’s been an escalating effort to disrupt,” says City Manager Anderson.



For this reason, the city manager recently upped the police presence at Council meetings to two officers at all times — a change for which Hill is solely responsible.



“He’s had some issues,” says police spokesman Mark Fulghum of Hill. “It’s precautionary.”



But if all Hill had on his rap sheet were disruptions, he’d be nothing more than a colorful character. Instead, there’s genuine concern about Hill as a possible threat, thanks, it appears, to his love of fake weaponry and two recent arrests.



Until late June, Hill was a candidate for Pierce County sheriff — though he’d be quick to point out that it was actually Jesse Hill running, one of his many personas. In the eyes of the court, though, people and their personas aren’t separated, and when Hill pleaded guilty to felony forgery charges on June 24, it effectively knocked Robert and Jesse Hill off November’s ballot.



The forgery case against Hill stems from a fairly trivial event. According to Hill, in April he requested a temporary restraining order against a man he says was harassing his mother.  When Hill’s request led only to a hearing on the matter and not the 14-day Temporary Anti-Harassment Protection Order he had expected, Hill became angry. His anger intensified when he realized his name had been typed in all capital letters on court documents — a practice that, for his own reasons, Hill hates vehemently. It was enough to send him over the edge. In a moment of extreme exasperation — angry and finding himself with the case files in his hand while returning them to a court clerk — the Traveller took a moment to change his name on all documents related to the case. And in an ill-thought-out attempt to speed along the bureaucratic process, he also squiggled Judge David Kenworthy’s signature on the 14-day Temporary Anti-Harassment Protection Order — a fuckup that records clerks quickly spotted.



As the Traveller found out, forging a judge’s signature is a felony. In an allocution statement written by Hill from June 24, he explained his guilty plea and apologized for his actions.



“As a libertarian, forgery is completely outside my normal actions. And as a candidate for public office, I have yet to endure the penalty of the damage to my reputation this felony will cause.”



Indeed, the incident rendered the Traveller ineligible for public office, and thus ended his campaign for sheriff. But perhaps far more damaging to Hill’s “reputation,” the forgery conviction and the public court records that accompanied it gave major media outlets a glimpse into his recent past — and it’s a glimpse that has only helped to multiply the fears swirling around Hill since his first appearance at City Hall with fake pistols.



According to court records associated with Hill’s forgery conviction, prosecutors painted him as a possible time bomb, saying the Traveller posed a “very serious concern for public safety.” Hill was arrested on the forgery charge May 1 at the Bullseye Gun Store on Puyallup Avenue. At the time, he was trying to purchase a gun and being turned away for mental reasons. According to court documents, “The responding officer’s report states that the officer has had prior contact with the defendant and knows that he ‘indeed has mental health issues.’”



Prosecutors noted Hill had a case pending against him in Henderson, Nev., on charges related to bringing a gun into a casino and also said Hill had recently been “sort of lurking around the county premises such as the Annex and the Election Center as well as here in the County City Building.”



Based on these facts, prosecutors asked for bail to be set at $70,000 — a request granted by the judge.  



Major media outlets jumped on the newly unearthed, possibly violent, details from Hill’s legal transgressions. It wasn’t long before the fear Hill generates had tripled. Though court documents also reveal that his gun charges in Nevada stem from “being seen in a casino showing two replica handguns and wearing two holsters,” even fake guns are enough to scare people when you’re talking about a character like the Traveller.

Let’s meet at Déjà Vu

Of course, no cover story dedicated to Robert “the Traveller” Hill would be complete without at least attempting to talk to the suspected madman — a task that proved easier than I had suspected. After obtaining a 206 telephone number for the Traveller from R.R Anderson, I reached Hill on the first try. We decided during a preliminary conversation that a Sunday afternoon meeting would work best. During a phone conversation two days later, Hill made a surprising suggestion.



“Déjà Vu opens at 3 in the afternoon,” he said. “How about we meet there? It’ll be nice and cool inside for talking.”



Naturally, I agreed. It seemed like an alternative press gift from the gods. Stories about Robert “the Traveller” Hill are almost always entertaining, but trips to a titty bar with Tacoma’s reigning City Council lunatic are the things exposés are made of. 



That Sunday, I sat in the Déjà Vu parking lot as 3:10 p.m. approached. Of the 50 beautiful and three ugly women who allegedly work at the Vu, the strippers I saw punching in seemed predominantly ugly. I watched several men enter the club — which conveniently opens at 3 p.m. on the Sabbath — but none resembled Hill. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for, but something told me I’d recognize the Traveller when he arrived. Would he be bearded? Would he be wearing three sets of sunglasses? I had no way of knowing.



When Hill did pull his aging blue sedan into the Déjà Vu parking lot, it was obvious. The driver wore a black bucket cap, and the fearless way the beaten and dirty car rounded the parking lot corner told me the Traveller was behind the wheel. After backing into a parking spot and putting up a mangled metallic windshield cover, Hill emerged. He wore a short-sleeved, collared, orange shirt with a yellow T-shirt underneath. Suspenders and one pair of round, John Lennon-style sunglasses completed the look. As I came closer and introduced myself, I noticed Hill had a shirt pocket full of two-dollar bills and a transparent plastic carrying case around his neck equipped with sanitary wipes. His eyebrows were stubble — still growing back from when he shaved them off earlier this year. I didn’t allow myself to speculate what the wipes might be for.



After entering the establishment, the Traveller and I found seats directly in front of the shiny golden pole but toward the back of the room. Booths built for lap-dancing lined the edges of the Vu’s space, and as we began to talk, a rather large stripper was in the midst of flopping all over a gentleman I’d seen changing into a less sweaty shirt in the parking lot before he came in. She slapped her ass on his chest, and I thought to myself, “Now there’s $20 that might not be worth it.”



The lap dance to our right, not to mention the stripper onstage showing off her butthole to a Limp Bizkit song for the Sunday-afternoon crowd of eight people, didn’t faze the Traveller.



During the entire two-hour encounter, he remained focused on the conversation at hand. His eyes were on me, and he seemed sincere and passionate about his positions. As a low ranking Déjà Vu employee disinfected the pole between strippings, Hill decried Bill Baarsma and the City Council for stepping on his freedom of speech. While the six other men inside the Vu sat transfixed on a particularly agile stripper positioning her bruised leg behind her head, the Traveller sounded almost sane when talking about his desire to legalize prostitution and drug use. He shuffled through paperwork from time to time, which he’d brought specifically for the occasion — at one point handing me two fliers for “World Masturbation Day” and at another point passing me an orange piece of paper that laid out his political platform. From that platform, he talked about his desire to tear down the Tacoma Dome and build affordable housing in its place, close to the transportation hubs. He also talked extensively about the need to decriminalize carrying a concealed firearm without a permit.



After respectfully declining a lap dance, from a stripper who gave the Traveller and me a questioning glare, I asked Hill what he does for a living. This seemed like a natural question since every political race he’s entered — and there have been plenty — has had a filing fee. I’d also noticed he paid the Déjà Vu cover with a $50 bill. The Traveller obviously has an income.



He told me he helps people with computer issues and also teaches women how to masturbate. I asked him if he was serious, and he said he was. I asked him if business is booming.



“I wouldn’t say booming,” Hill answered, going on to tell me how he decides whether a woman who replies to his ads is serious or not. “I tell them this can surely wait a few days, and if they call back and still want to do it, I know they’re serious about learning to masturbate.”



Eventually, around the time the really big stripper approached the pole, throwing down a comforter so she didn’t hurt herself, I asked Hill about his recent forgery conviction. He immediately admitted his wrongdoing.



“I got emotional,” he said. “Now I’m dealing with it.”



“But with everything, Robert — the fake guns, the briefcases, the arrest in Nevada — are you dangerous?” I asked.



“I’m not dangerous to you in here. I’m not dangerous to her,” he said, pointing at a skinny, naked woman. “If people are afraid of fake guns, that’s their problem — not mine.”



After two hours I figured I had as much as I was going to get. I gathered my notebook and left the Traveller to himself at the Déjà Vu. It was a setting that seemed natural for Hill. On my way out, I asked one of the strippers if she’d ever seen Hill before.



“He comes here all the time,” she said. “He’s kind of a weirdo, but we all think he’s harmless.”

Dangerous, crazy or neither?

That, of course, is the million dollar question. After my Déjà Vu encounter with the Traveller, many questions remain. Is Hill simply trying to get a rise out of people, or are his delusions sincere? Will his fake guns someday escalate to real guns, or does he just like watching the City Council squirm?



As with everything Hill touches, there are many ways to look at the situation.



“I think that fucker is going to go ballistic one day,” one local newspaper reporter who covers City Council meetings told me. “He makes me want to carry a gun.”



“I think Robert’s main downfall may be that he sees too much relevance in himself,” says the Melon’s Trotter. “I think Robert may think he’s having a far greater impact than he is. I don’t think Robert realizes those things.”



“He’s certainly trying to make Tacoma a better place,” Trotter continues. “And he certainly knows how to use the system, which is honestly commendable. Everything that people seem to tell me would indicate he’s potentially dangerous, but I’ve never felt threatened by him.”

Trotter’s Melon cohort, Chris Van Vechten, agrees.



“What struck me about Robert was he was incredibly sincere,” says Van Vechten. “He makes it a lot more fun to watch City Council meetings. He’s very knowledgeable. What he does is not random.”



“I wouldn’t leave my girlfriend alone with him,” continues Van Vechten. “But I don’t think he’s really dangerous.”



That may be the case, but the thing about bringing guns into the mix — fake or not — is they’re bound to freak people out. Freaking people out is, really, one of the only practical purposes a fake gun has. Freaking people out also may be one of the main functions Robert “the Traveller” Hill has — though I’m no closer to knowing what actually makes him tick than I was going into this. He may be batshit crazy, or he may be yanking all of Tacoma’s chain. I still don’t really know. No one does.



What I do know is he’s good at it.