PUBLISHED/TitleTown Publishing true crime
Trails of Death: The True Story of National Forest Serial Killer Gary Hilton
Fred Rosen
Murder wasn't enough for Gary Hilton. Scheduled to be tried for murder by the State of Florida in January 2011, Hilton is expected to be quickly convicted. Having confessed to the murder of Meredith Emerson that he’d committed in Georgia, Hilton was spared the death penalty in that state because he’d made a deal—life in prison in turn for revealing the location of her body. Or rather, locations. Thinking he could outsmart the authorities, he chopped up Meredith Emerson's body, severing her head and hands with a kitchen knife—and buried the parts separately in an attempt to avoid identification. But Hilton’s confession set off a chain of events that led police in North Carolina and Florida to look at a couple of unsolved murders on their books that fit Hilton’s MO—kidnap people from a hiking trail in a national park, get them to reveal the PIN codes for their bank accounts, withdraw their money, kill them, and then bury the body in the park—far off the beaten path.
But before Hilton could be charged for the heinous murder of John and Eileen Bryant, an elderly couple on a fall foliage hike in North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest, the Feds grabbed the case, claiming jurisdiction since the murders occurred on federal land. While there is a federal death penalty, if convicted Hilton’s case could be tied up in legal limbo for decades. At the age of 61, he’d likely cheat the executioner—and cheat the families looking for a measure of justice, closure, and perhaps revenge.
But with Hilton’s upcoming Florida trial for the murder of Cheryl Dunlap—she’d been hiking in Apalachicola National Forest—the Feds are bowing out and letting Florida take the case. With that state averaging two executions per year, it is expected that Hilton will be convicted quickly, and be on his way to a lethal injection sooner than he thinks.
With the cooperation of former Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent John Cagle, Florida prosecutor Georgia Cappleman, and the families of Meredith Emerson, the Bryants, and Cheryl Dunlap, author Fred Rosen has collected first-person stories and photographs from all involved. Coupled with Hilton's revealing, detailed Georgia confession, Rosen will provide a window into the very heart of darkness.
Trails of Death is a story of crime, police work, and the inner workings of the American criminal justice system. Perhaps this time justice will be served.
But before Hilton could be charged for the heinous murder of John and Eileen Bryant, an elderly couple on a fall foliage hike in North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest, the Feds grabbed the case, claiming jurisdiction since the murders occurred on federal land. While there is a federal death penalty, if convicted Hilton’s case could be tied up in legal limbo for decades. At the age of 61, he’d likely cheat the executioner—and cheat the families looking for a measure of justice, closure, and perhaps revenge.
But with Hilton’s upcoming Florida trial for the murder of Cheryl Dunlap—she’d been hiking in Apalachicola National Forest—the Feds are bowing out and letting Florida take the case. With that state averaging two executions per year, it is expected that Hilton will be convicted quickly, and be on his way to a lethal injection sooner than he thinks.
With the cooperation of former Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent John Cagle, Florida prosecutor Georgia Cappleman, and the families of Meredith Emerson, the Bryants, and Cheryl Dunlap, author Fred Rosen has collected first-person stories and photographs from all involved. Coupled with Hilton's revealing, detailed Georgia confession, Rosen will provide a window into the very heart of darkness.
Trails of Death is a story of crime, police work, and the inner workings of the American criminal justice system. Perhaps this time justice will be served.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo by S. Russell
Fred Rosen is a former columnist for the Arts and Leisure Section of The New York Times and is now one of the leading true crime authors in the United States. He's published many works in the genre including the true crime classic Lobster Boy, and his most recent, Deadly Angel, for HarperCollins. Rosen is the winner of Library Journal's Best Reference Source 2005 award for The Historical Atlas of American Crime (Facts On File, h/c & t/p). His other works of historical nonfiction include Cremation in America (Prometheus h/c), Contract Warriors (Alpha Books t/p), Gold! (Avalon, h/c and t/p) and Did They Really Do It? (Thunders Mouth t/p). Rosen also writes about the latest crimes hitting the headlines for Hustler magazine. An adjunct professor of criminal justice at Ulster County Community College in upstate New York, you can find him on the web at www.fredrosen.com. His well-read true crime blog, "The Bottom Line," is at www.theopencase.com.
