Monster generally doesn’t review true crime books…
The cabin is in the mountains of northern Georgia, near the town of Cleveland. Out in the middle of the woods, miles from anywhere, there’s no one around to hear you scream.
Yesterday I started reading a book, and this morning I finished it, so I thought I’d write up a little report on Trails of Death: The True Story of National Forest Serial Killer Gary Hilton. I’m not usually attracted to true crime sorts of books, my most recent reads have been geology texts, so this is a case of moving from rocks to someone who would spend the rest of his life breaking rocks.
I should start by saying that Gary Hilton is one absolutely bad dude, an individual who killed multiple people, a serial killer. To make things worse, he hunted hikers. That’s what makes the story so relevant to this blog and to me. He hunted hikers. I just had to say that again, it makes a shiver go up my spine – The National Forest Serial Killer.
An Apt Book Name – Trails of Death
Gary Hilton’s story is dark, he haunted (and hunted) woods, kidnaped, sexually assaulted, murdered, and then dismembered his victims. How many victims there were is still unknown, it’s certain he killed four individuals, likely he murdered five more. We will never really know if that was all, National Forests can be vast places, sometimes impossible to search effectively.
Trails of Death: The True Story of National Forest Serial Killer Gary Hilton is a matter of fact telling of Hilton’s story, covering his childhood and sections of his adult life. Like so many individuals who commit violent crimes, he was abused as a child. I don’t say that as a way to excuse or mitigate the dramatic depths of Mr Hilton’s true nature, it’s simply a fact.
I’m not sure if anyone will ever know exactly what childhood abuse does to a victim’s psyche. I was both physically and sexually abused and I didn’t turn out to be a serial killer. Regardless of causes, Gary grew from a bad boy to a very bad man.
Gary Hilton – aka The National Forest Serial Killer
Somehow Hilton escaped from military service and escaped after shooting his abusive father with a rifle. The shot wasn’t deadly, but Gary Hilton escaped any significant consequences for his crime. Perhaps this was when Hilton’s fear of getting caught disappeared, I can only guess.
As Wikipedia says, Gary Hilton is a suspect in a number of murders:
On September 7, 1997, several human bones and personal items were found in Pisgah National Forest, scattered near a campground. The decedent was eventually identified as 51-year-old hiker Judy Smith, who was last seen in Philadelphia five months earlier on April 10, 1997. It has been speculated that she might have been a victim of Hilton, who had left one of his victims in a similar condition near where Smith’s body was discovered.
20-year-old Jason Andrew Knapp, a Clemson University student, was last seen by his roommate at their residence in University Terrace Apartments in South Carolina on April 11, 1998. His roommate said that Knapp was watching a movie at approximately 10:30 p.m. that evening. Authorities found Knapp’s white 1990 Chevrolet Beretta abandoned nine days later on April 21, 1998. The vehicle was parked at Table Rock State Park, in Pickens County, South Carolina. He was declared legally dead in 2018. Due to similarities to his other known crimes, Hilton was proposed as a suspect but he denied any connection to Knapp.
Hairdresser Patrice Marie Tamber Endres, 38, disappeared from her hair salon, Tamber’s Trim ‘N Tan, in Cumming, Georgia, on April 15, 2004, between 11:37 and 11:50 a.m. Her remains were found on December 6, 2005, in Dawson County, Georgia. Hilton was known to have been in Forsyth County, because he had been stopped for a traffic violation there. In his statements to investigators, Hilton told them that he would usually go to hair salons to ask for money, usually around lunchtime. Investigators were unable to find an alibi for him on the day of Patrice’s disappearance.
26-year-old Rossana Miliani, a hiker from Miami, Florida, was last seen at approximately 12:00 p.m. at the Ramada Inn hotel in Cherokee, North Carolina. Miliani called her father from the hotel that day and told him she was going hiking on the Appalachian Trail. A store clerk who read about Miliani’s disappearance claimed she sold a backpack to Miliani and an unidentified white man in his 60s in Bryson City, North Carolina, in 2005. Following Hilton’s arrest, the store clerk contacted authorities to note the similarities between Hilton and the suspect.
Michael Scot Louis, 27, a South Daytona resident, went missing on November 21, 2007. A few weeks later on December 6, his dismembered remains were found by a fisherman in Ormond Beach, packed in black bags which had been dumped in the Tomoka River. The remains were not immediately connected to Louis, with identification occurring several days later by a lab in California. His head was never located. Authorities have stated that while Hilton remains a suspect in the murder and was in the area at the time, he is not the only one.
All of those cold-cases occurred during a period of eleven years from 1997-2007, which preceded the murders for which he’s been convicted. Those were circa 2007-2008.
Gary Hilton – Convicted
We’ve already covered the murders Gary Hilton is suspected of committing, what about the crimes we know about?
There were four murders for which Hilton has been convicted:
John and Irene Bryant – A married couple in their ’80’s, avid hikers who disappeared in Pisgah National Forest. Their loss was made more tragic when it was discovered that John attempted to call 911 the day of their disappearance, but the call was dropped. Their bodies were found separately, Irene on November 10, 2007 and then John remains were discovered on February 3, 2008 in Nantahala National Forest.
Cheryl Dunlap – On December 7, 2007 Cheryl failed to appear at her church where she taught sunday school. Then on December 16, 2007 a hunter and his dogs found her decapitated remains in Apalachicola National Forest. Her ATM card had been used 5 times in Tallahassee, FL for withdrawals totalling $700 after her disappearance.
Meredith Emerson – On News Years Day 2008 24-year-old sales manager Meredith Hope Emerson decided to go for a hike along the Freeman Trail on Blood Mountain, in Georgia’s Vogel State Park with her dog Ella. On January 3, 2008 Merideth’s car, a Chevy Cavalier, was found with a dog leash, police baton, and water bottle. A day later her dog was found, wandering in a supermarket parking lot. Then on the 5th authorities found bloodied clothing in a dumpster near a Quick Trip.
Rael first met Hilton in the 1980s when Hilton was caught trespassing on Atlanta city property and Rael was appointed as his attorney. Rael went on to defend Hilton on several charges over the years, including arson and false solicitation of charitable donations. The two began to socialize more outside of the courtroom, and when Rael mentioned he wanted to produce a movie, Hilton jumped right in with the story idea.
“Deadly Run” tells the story of a respected Atlanta-area realtor who is leading a double life. He has a wife, son and daughter, but he also has a cabin on a rural piece of land, where he takes abducted women, setting them loose in the woods and hunting them down. Hilton served as a consultant on the film, even finding the location of the cabin in Cleveland, Ga.
The movie went straight to video and eventually Rael and Hilton went their separate ways. But it wasn’t the last time Rael would hear about Hilton.
A Chevron gas station in DeKalb County, Ga. Hilton is vacuuming his van and washing out the interior. Inside the van, the rear seatbelt is cut out. Police pull up and surround Hilton. In a nearby dumpster, they find the seatbelt and fleece tops with blood on them.
from Shooting Script by Kelley Freund – University of William and Mary
I’d say this was a case of life imitating art, were it not for the fact I hesitate to call a straight to video film any sort of art, and I’m not so sure the film wasn’t a rehearsal for murder!
Boogie Man Sort of Serial Killer
Trails of Death: The True Story of National Forest Serial Killer Gary Hilton was a quick read, it was relatively simple, easy to follow, and the story was quite compelling, if you find serial killers compelling.
I didn’t expect to read a true crime book, the part where the title of the book combines the words “National Forest” with the word “killer” create a combination a certain Monster could not resist. Once I started the book, I found it hard to put down, finishing it in a single day.
If you like “True Crime” kind of stories, you probably don’t care so much that Gary Hilton was the National Forest Serial Killer, it’s the story of the killer himself that draws you in. For me, the National Forest part of the title makes it a required read.
What’s In A Name – The National Forest Killer
I hang out in National Forests and am habitually unaware of security, or the possibility of running into a bad dude, or bad dudes. I felt more like a target in downtown Washington, D.C. or St. Louis than I’ve ever felt out while camping. Maybe that’s not ideal.
Bliss (wife #2 for those with scorecards) and I travelled for over a month in 1989, thru National Grasslands, National Monuments, National Forests, and National Parks, with a State Park in Utah thrown in for good measure. I carried our travelling money (which was everything we had in the world) in my wallet, which was frequently left on the dash of my Nissan truck.
I’m not sure if life is different now, or if I am the one that’s different now, but I would never do that again!
Killers of All Shapes and Sizes
In my work as a managing community organizer I once trained a young man from Chicago. He said he was greatly worried about his own safety out in the small towns we often canvassed door-to-door. That perplexed me greatly at first, I grew up in a small town, and the small town is not where I found dangers in life.
He, on the other hand, was a young black man in rural Illinois. My trainee didn’t find danger in the big city crowds, but he was certainly looking over his shoulder for every minute in the small towns that make up a good portion of downstate1 Illinois. I tend to be color blind when it comes to race, at least that’s always what I used to say, I thought by being color blind I was being fair to everyone.
The truth, of course is not so pretty, he was absolutely correct about his own personal risk. I was wrong.
the Security Monster
More Security Conscious
Apparently the conclusion is simple. More than yesterday, more than ever, I need to more be security conscious today and tomorrow than I was yesterday.
I know how criminals think, I know they look for an easy “mark”. That’s why little old ladies are the victims of smash and grab kind of crime. I am no longer young, my beard is close to pure white, sometimes I use a cane, I walk with a limp at times, and anyone who studies me at all will see I have a bad back with limited mobility.
I may very well look like an easy “mark”, if I was a lady I’d be the perfect target. And, girl fits the same profile. I’m going to need to get a little more serious about security. Part of getting old…
Downstate in Illinois is everything outside Cook County (and the counties which directly surround Cook.) Downstate is about 1/3 the population and close to 50 times the size of Cook and what are commonly called the “collar counties”. ↩︎
