The oldest serial killer in America reveals new information about his crimes in his first-ever televised interview. In this two-hour premiere of Interview With A Killer, journalist David Scott confronts Gary Michael Hilton about his killing spree.
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00:00:00You have a moniker, the National Forest Serial Killer.
00:00:09Oh, really?
00:00:10Mm-hmm.
00:00:11I think I prefer the beast of blood mouth.
00:00:15A killer perversely proud of his crimes.
00:00:19I set the record.
00:00:21I'm the oldest serial killer in American history.
00:00:24Isn't that amazing?
00:00:27He lurked in the woods.
00:00:29He lurked in the woods, preyed on hiking trails, and displayed the evil that can be found in the wilderness of the human mind.
00:00:36I'm your worst nightmare, David.
00:00:39Gary Michael Hilton is talking about his crimes for the first time ever.
00:00:43After ignoring innumerable requests from every kind of person in the world, it's time to break my silence.
00:00:55And he'll be confronted like never before.
00:00:58Now, you keep pointing to robbery, but was that just an excuse to torture and kill people?
00:01:05Torture and kill people?
00:01:06Yeah.
00:01:07Hold on.
00:01:08Torture?
00:01:09I didn't torture anybody.
00:01:13You kidnap people, chain them up in your car, beat them to death.
00:01:19You rape them.
00:01:19Most people would regard that as torture.
00:01:24No, no, no.
00:01:25Where are we going with this?
00:01:26Well, I think we're going to the mind of a psychopath.
00:01:31A psychopath?
00:01:32Devoid of empathy, mercy, or decency.
00:01:37Narcissistic?
00:01:39Psychotically so.
00:01:40You're nuts.
00:01:42You're nuts.
00:01:43I killed a mother.
00:01:45I killed a mother.
00:01:47Now awaiting a death sentence in Florida, Hilton says he's finally ready to come clean.
00:01:53I'm going to give you a news scoop.
00:01:56I did it.
00:01:57I'm confessing to a murder on camera.
00:02:01And reveal what really happened to his victims.
00:02:05She said something that really grabbed me.
00:02:08What's she saying?
00:02:10It's the last chapter of an American crime saga.
00:02:13Do you hate women?
00:02:15Yes and no.
00:02:17Yes.
00:02:18And our last chance to look inside the mind of one of the country's most terrifying serial killers.
00:02:24You have the power to haunt our dreams.
00:02:27Yes.
00:02:28Turn them into nightmares.
00:02:28Do you enjoy having that kind of power over us?
00:02:32You know, in a perverse kind of way, I do.
00:02:58I do.
00:03:00You know, in a perverse kind of way, I do.
00:03:01I do.
00:03:01I do.
00:03:31By now, I've come face to face with my share of killers.
00:03:39They've been deranged, troubled, violent.
00:03:43They're heinous crimes defined by a lifetime of hate or a split second of evil.
00:03:48But nothing could have prepared me for the likes of Gary Michael Hilton.
00:03:52New questions tonight about whether the man accused of killing and decapitating a Georgia hiker may in fact be a serial killer.
00:04:00In 2007, at the ripe age of 61 years old, Gary Hilton made national headlines by launching a shocking murder spree in an unexpected crime scene.
00:04:11The sprawling wilderness of America's national forests.
00:04:15Over four months, he abducted, raped, murdered, and decapitated unsuspecting hikers.
00:04:24Terrifying park visitors across the country.
00:04:27With Hilton lurking in the woods, no one was safe.
00:04:31It was like something out of a horror movie.
00:04:33Wearing a makeshift mask, Hilton used his victim's ATM cards in the aftermath of each grisly murder.
00:04:40Then, in January 2008, a massive manhunt led to his capture.
00:04:45Hilton's arrest made national news and brought an end to the carnage.
00:05:11Cops trapped this guy down and captured him.
00:05:1461-year-old Gary Michael Hilton now sits in a county jail.
00:05:18Charged with abducting and killing 24-year-old Meredith Emerson.
00:05:21The suspect in this case is also a possible suspect in other murders.
00:05:26His interrogation brought into focus a terrifying villain.
00:05:30Once you've taken someone, you're either going to kill them or you're going to get caught.
00:05:37Wickedly intelligent, boastful of his crimes.
00:05:41I'm the one that killed the girl.
00:05:43Okay, I'm the one that killed Mr. Lee.
00:05:45And contemptuous of his victims.
00:05:47I didn't kill them for any satisfaction.
00:05:50It was distasteful.
00:05:51It was dreadful.
00:05:53Trust me, it was.
00:05:54Of course, I was able to do it because of my general wage against society.
00:05:58Of course, of course.
00:05:59Hilton pleaded guilty to murdering 24-year-old Meredith Emerson in Georgia, as well as John and Irene Bryant, an elderly couple in North Carolina.
00:06:10He was also tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for the murder of 46-year-old Cheryl Dunlap in Florida, a crime to which he has never confessed until now.
00:06:20Today, he awaits execution after more than a decade on Florida's death row.
00:06:27But questions remain about Hilton's terrifying rampage.
00:06:31Many only he can answer.
00:06:34At 61 years old, he claims he became America's oldest serial killer.
00:06:39What caused him to snap?
00:06:41Why did he do it?
00:06:43Are there other victims?
00:06:44Despite all the attention, Hilton has never before spoken to the media.
00:06:51Okay, so the clock starts now.
00:06:5310.42?
00:06:54Yep.
00:06:55Good.
00:06:55Good.
00:06:56We have exactly 60 minutes.
00:07:00It was my first interview with a murderer sentenced to die.
00:07:04After all these years, why did Hilton finally want to talk?
00:07:08And what would he now reveal?
00:07:14Here you are, on death row, talking for the first time publicly about your crimes.
00:07:22That's right.
00:07:23We're here today, sir, to try and understand the mindset and motivations behind your actions in these cases.
00:07:31You're 78 years old now, right?
00:07:33Yes.
00:07:34In poor health, you say?
00:07:36Yes, very poor health.
00:07:38That's one reason I'm doing this, because I'm going to die soon.
00:07:42I have a congested heart failure.
00:07:43Tell me in your own words, why are you breaking your silence?
00:07:47Well, you hit it right on the head.
00:07:50And also, an answer is, I don't know.
00:07:54All I can say is, it's time.
00:07:56After 17 years, after ignoring innumerable requests from every kind of person in the world, it's time.
00:08:08That's the way I feel.
00:08:09It's time, after 17 years, to break my silence.
00:08:14In our correspondence, you said, I think I'm prepared to give you an interview that's a Lollapalooza.
00:08:20It'll knock your socks off.
00:08:22Yes.
00:08:22I will answer any question.
00:08:24Yes.
00:08:25About any subject, truthfully and completely.
00:08:29Yes.
00:08:29Can I count on you for that?
00:08:31You sure can.
00:08:32You said, be prepared to meet a whole different breed of cat.
00:08:37What breed exactly?
00:08:39Well, I'm just like no one else, really, you know.
00:08:42Serial killer?
00:08:43They're a dime a dozen.
00:08:44Psychopath?
00:08:46No.
00:08:48Sociopath?
00:08:48I have part of that in me.
00:08:52In the years since his murder spree, Hilton's infamy has seemingly only grown.
00:08:58He's been the subject of documentaries and internet lore.
00:09:02This is the case of Gary Hilton.
00:09:05His crimes spanned three states and millions of acres of pristine national forests and terrorized hikers everywhere.
00:09:12What did you think when the media dubbed you the National Forest Serial Killer?
00:09:18I think I prefer the Beast of Blood Mountain.
00:09:21The Beast of Blood Mountain.
00:09:22Mm-hmm.
00:09:23Does that give you a sense of accomplishment?
00:09:27No.
00:09:29Bound by chains and shackled to a violent past, Hilton may look different now after 12 years on death row.
00:09:35But he's about to give his first interview ever and open a window into a mind deranged since childhood.
00:09:44From a child, a little child, oh, I was always fascinated with death and destruction and guns and war.
00:09:54As a child at five, six years old, constantly, I've just always been fascinated with it.
00:10:02Born in Atlanta and raised in Florida by his mother and stepfather, Hilton's troubled and violent mind was evident as a teenager.
00:10:12Four minutes into the police interrogation, you call yourself a sociopath.
00:10:17Do you remember that?
00:10:19You said, I'm a sociopath.
00:10:21I'm a sociopath.
00:10:21But they call him antisocial.
00:10:23That's the new name for it, an antisocial personality.
00:10:26In my day, it was called a sociopathic character disorder.
00:10:30Were you diagnosed as a sociopath?
00:10:33As a matter of fact, I was.
00:10:35At age 14, Hilton fired a shotgun at his stepfather, nearly killing him.
00:10:41Authorities ordered a mental evaluation.
00:10:44At 14, I was seeing the head of the Dade County Child Guidance Clinic, who was a psychiatrist.
00:10:51I saw him for a year or two, and he just flat-toed me.
00:10:56What did he tell you?
00:10:57You have a sociopathic character disorder.
00:11:00Hilton had other textbook markers for psychopathy and a condition called paraphilia, an obsession with violent sexual fantasies.
00:11:10You admit to paraphilia?
00:11:12Strong.
00:11:13Strong.
00:11:14Strong.
00:11:14That's one of the reasons I am a killer.
00:11:18I've had strong paraphilia all my life.
00:11:25When I accidentally discovered masturbation, my paraphilia, as I was doing it for years, it was a battlefield, and they were women nude, and they were spread over a tree stump.
00:11:43And I would come along with a sword.
00:11:46Hilton went on to describe vile acts against women.
00:11:50That's how you would get off.
00:11:52This is my first sexual feeling.
00:11:56His adulthood was marked by a string of failed marriages and short-lived jobs, until in middle age, he found himself broke, homeless, and alone.
00:12:07But for the pet dogs, he says, he felt closer to than any human being.
00:12:12You have an odd relationship with dogs.
00:12:15You seem more bonded with dogs than with the people in your life and your family.
00:12:21A million times more.
00:12:23Is that fair?
00:12:23Yeah.
00:12:24You told police, in the wolf world, there are no assault and battery laws.
00:12:28There are no murder laws.
00:12:29Right.
00:12:30Imagine such a world where there are no murder laws.
00:12:33Yes.
00:12:34That's the world they live in.
00:12:35But in reality, in the real world, you're not a wolf.
00:12:39You're a human being, and she's an innocent stranger.
00:12:42So why kill?
00:12:44Why murder Meredith Emerson?
00:12:47Yeah, that's a good question.
00:12:49Uh, it's a good question.
00:12:54What's the answer?
00:13:04It's not clear exactly when Gary Hilton decided to start stalking and killing people.
00:13:10But it is known that for years, he frequented national parks in multiple states in his white van, posing as an ordinary hiker.
00:13:19What you doing out here?
00:13:21Well, here we, uh, we have four persons come along, am I?
00:13:25Can they ask me that?
00:13:26At some point in his middle age, a lifetime of madness and failure had pushed him over the edge.
00:13:33Outside of crime, your life is utterly unremarkable.
00:13:37That's true.
00:13:38Is that fair?
00:13:39You're a complete, abject failure, a nothing, a nobody, who never achieved anything, that never followed through on anything, who is a failure at everything.
00:13:53Except killing.
00:13:55Well, that was, that started when I was 61.
00:13:59In January 2008, Hilton was scouting the trails of Georgia's Blood Mountain for human prey.
00:14:08He was armed with a bayonet, a police baton, and a friendly red retriever named Dandy.
00:14:15Chattahoochee National Forest, 750,000 acres of thick woodlands in the North Georgia mountains.
00:14:26At what point did you first spot Meredith?
00:14:29Can you remember?
00:14:30Yeah, I was coming down off the Blood Mountain Trail, and she was just coming up.
00:14:35And she had stopped and opened up her little collapsible dog bowl.
00:14:4124-year-old Meredith Emerson was hiking with her dog on that day.
00:14:46The recent University of Georgia graduate was just settling into a new career and a bright future when she crossed paths with evil.
00:14:54She fit the profile, single woman.
00:14:56Oh, definitely good-looking.
00:14:59Single woman.
00:14:59Yeah, good-looking, young, and everything.
00:15:02Unlikely to resist, or so you thought?
00:15:04You told police that your M.O. was to lurk and sometimes watch with the binoculars from a distance, just like a hunter would.
00:15:13Yeah.
00:15:14The Blood Mountain Trail is the most used day hiking trail in the state of Georgia.
00:15:20So on the one hand, that makes it an excellent hunting ground.
00:15:23On the other hand, it makes it no good because there's so many witnesses.
00:15:29You positioned yourself at the intersection of two trails, right?
00:15:32No, I was just coming that off the trail, and boom, there she was.
00:15:36At what point did you decide she was the one you were going to strike?
00:15:40I'd already decided through the incident I saw her.
00:15:43Closing the distance to Meredith on the trail was easy with the help of Hilton's dog, Dandy.
00:15:49You deploy your unwitting accomplice, Dandy, right?
00:15:54The icebreaker?
00:15:55I mean, you can't help but not use him.
00:15:57He's so lovable and everything.
00:16:00Well, you told police that was part of the strategy.
00:16:03You see, it's reverse anthropomorphism.
00:16:06Rather than assigning human qualities to an animal, they assign animal qualities to humans.
00:16:15So he's got his laughing, lovable golden retriever.
00:16:19He must be okay.
00:16:21Right.
00:16:22Reverse anthropomorphism.
00:16:23Some men use dogs to meet women that way.
00:16:26You use your dog to meet victims that way.
00:16:29It worked on her, right?
00:16:30Now you're walking up towards the summit on the trail in close proximity.
00:16:35The presence of so many other people on the trail didn't dissuade you?
00:16:38I'm telling you, it should have.
00:16:41I walked up the trail with her for a ways, and several people saw me with her.
00:16:49Right.
00:16:50And as a matter of fact, one guy, and it turns out that he was law enforcement.
00:16:55Yeah.
00:16:55Yeah.
00:16:56One guy said, are you with her?
00:16:59Hmm.
00:17:00And I said, no.
00:17:01That was, that should have killed it right there.
00:17:03Moments later, alone with Meredith on the trail, the former army soldier brandished his bayonet blade and prepared to strike.
00:17:11But subduing her wouldn't be nearly as easy as he expected.
00:17:15Meredith Emerson was trained in martial arts and ready for the aging maniac.
00:17:20You confront her with the bayonet.
00:17:22She attacks the weapon.
00:17:24She shocked me.
00:17:27She had real quick hands, and she grabbed the knife blade.
00:17:31She cut her head slightly.
00:17:33Like I said, the bayonet was not sure.
00:17:35She grabbed it, and I was so slack, I was like mollygagging around.
00:17:40Didn't have a good, firm grip on it.
00:17:43And she twisted it right out of my hand.
00:17:46So she disarms you.
00:17:47But she loses control of the bayonet, too, at the same time.
00:17:53Now you know you've badly miscalculated.
00:17:55You resort to your second go-to weapon, the police baton.
00:17:59And she just proceeded to grab the baton and took that out of my hand.
00:18:04So now you're getting your ass kicked by a girl in the woods.
00:18:06No, no.
00:18:08Sounds like it.
00:18:10Not at all.
00:18:11Really?
00:18:11I sensed at this moment that pressing Hilton might help reveal just how prideful and heartless he is.
00:18:19To get inside his head, I needed to get under his skin.
00:18:23What do you think?
00:18:24You're armed.
00:18:24She's not.
00:18:25You have, what, 40 or 50 pounds on her.
00:18:28Not very manly of you, Mr. Hilton.
00:18:31You pick a weak victim.
00:18:33An Army soldier would call that a punk move.
00:18:35No one was there but her and me.
00:18:39And I'm telling you frankly, even the best of us have bad days.
00:18:45Okay?
00:18:46And no, it wasn't a punk move because guess what happened then?
00:18:51After she took the bat, she took the bayonet, what happened then?
00:18:56You had to hand fight her, you said.
00:18:58And what happened then?
00:19:00Well, you overpowered her just barely, it sounds like.
00:19:02No, not just barely.
00:19:04No?
00:19:05Where did you get that at?
00:19:06Well, you said to the police, I had to hand fight her.
00:19:09I probably have multiple fractures in my right hand.
00:19:11Yes, that's right.
00:19:12And I still couldn't get control of her.
00:19:14She would feign or pretend that I was in control and then start fighting again.
00:19:18So I had to hit her a number of times.
00:19:20Straight punches to the face or the head.
00:19:24Right.
00:19:24But I had control of her.
00:19:26I had her with my left hand the whole time.
00:19:31So what happened?
00:19:32I beat her ass.
00:19:33Can I ask you this?
00:19:36Empathy, mercy, decency.
00:19:40Did those ideas ever register with you at all?
00:19:43Yes.
00:19:44I have four different personalities.
00:19:47A soldier, a scientist, an artist, and a comedian.
00:19:50Hilton says he has multiple personalities, to which he ascribes four respective professions, though he is qualified in none.
00:19:59The soldier and the scientist, they're totally rational, unemotional.
00:20:03The artists are concerned with textures and feelings and emotions.
00:20:07And the comedian wants to make people happy.
00:20:11The soldier personality is emotionless.
00:20:15Kill them all, let God sort them out.
00:20:17That's the soldier mentality.
00:20:19Is it possible that all that talk about being an Army soldier was delusional on your part?
00:20:26No.
00:20:27No.
00:20:27No?
00:20:28No.
00:20:28I've been tested too many times.
00:20:31I've been in too, too many fights for over 20 years.
00:20:35Hilton forcibly abducted Meredith Emerson and chained her to the chassis inside his white van.
00:20:43While Meredith languished, a massive search was underway to find her that garnered widespread media attention.
00:20:50But the scale of the crime scene, nearly a million acres of Georgia's Chattahoochee National Forest, was daunting.
00:20:57No trace yet of a missing 24-year-old Gwinnett County woman.
00:21:01We were there from sunup to sundown.
00:21:03Meredith Emerson could do anything.
00:21:06If anybody can survive this, she can.
00:21:07We haven't found anything here yet.
00:21:10The community rallies.
00:21:11Yeah, I thought this would just pass unnoticed.
00:21:15Just another hiker missing in the mountains, man.
00:21:18No big deal.
00:21:19Maybe a paragraph in the paper.
00:21:21Good grief.
00:21:23Suddenly, the investigation was blown wide open.
00:21:26Police pick up a digital trail as Meredith repeatedly sends Hilton to ATM machines with the wrong pin number.
00:21:33Hilton is publicly identified as the prime suspect, last seen by witnesses with Meredith Emerson alive.
00:21:43The race is on to rescue Meredith and apprehend Hilton.
00:21:47It is going to be a white male between the ages of 50 and 60 years old.
00:21:54But the next discovery would change everything.
00:21:58The body of 84-year-old Irene Bryant was discovered on November 9th in the North Carolina woods.
00:22:03And her husband, 80-year-old John, is still missing.
00:22:06It turns out that Meredith Emerson is not the first person attacked on Hilton's killing spree, only the latest.
00:22:12You never intended to let her go.
00:22:15Never.
00:22:16Now, you keep pointing to robbery, but that sure seems like a pretext for what you described as paraphilia.
00:22:25Was that just an excuse to torture and kill people?
00:22:29No.
00:22:30Torture and kill people?
00:22:32Yeah.
00:22:33Hold on.
00:22:34Torture?
00:22:34I didn't torture anybody.
00:22:39You kidnap people, chain them up in your car, you beat them to death, you rape them.
00:22:46Most people would regard that as torture.
00:22:49No, no, no, no.
00:22:50Where are we going with this?
00:22:52Well, I think we're going to the mind of a psychopath.
00:22:57A psychopath?
00:22:58Devoid of empathy, mercy, or decency.
00:23:03Narcissistic?
00:23:05Psychotically so.
00:23:07You're nuts.
00:23:09I'm nuts.
00:23:10Yes, you are nuts.
00:23:11Okay.
00:23:12This week, Lori Vallow Daybell representing herself.
00:23:21What to expect and what to look for each day in the cult mom conspiracy trial.
00:23:26Opening statements with Julie Grant.
00:23:29Mornings at 8, 7 central on Court TV.
00:23:32The NWSL is on Ion.
00:23:34Barbara Banda and the Pride battle the spirit.
00:23:37Take it in the box!
00:23:38And Lola Bansa and The Current take on the dash.
00:23:41What a strike!
00:23:43Coverage starts Saturday at 5 p.m.
00:23:45Ion.
00:23:46It's on.
00:23:47On.
00:23:50All day above Blood Mountain, the state patrol's infrared detectors scanned for body heat below.
00:23:57The search for Meredith Emerson made national headlines and was a desperate race against time.
00:24:03Do everything we can do to make sure that if she's up there that we get her out of there, get her out of there safely.
00:24:08Police now knew who took her and which way he was driving.
00:24:12They also knew that Hilton could snap at any moment.
00:24:15It's a missing persons investigation right now and that's how we're pursuing it.
00:24:18And the scale of the investigation had expanded to three states when police realized that Meredith Emerson wasn't Hilton's first victim, only the latest.
00:24:28The body of 84-year-old Irene Bryant was discovered on November 9th in the North Carolina woods and her husband, 80-year-old John, is still missing.
00:24:37Four months earlier, John and Irene Bryant had just arrived at Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina.
00:24:43The retired couple were 80 and 84 years old, but fit and young at heart and avid hikers.
00:24:50But on this day, the Bryants walked onto the trailhead and into an ambush.
00:24:5761-year-old drifter Gary Hilton was armed and lying in wait.
00:25:02Irene and John Bryant, right?
00:25:05October 2007.
00:25:06Yeah.
00:25:06Hilton has never discussed exactly what happened to the Bryants until now.
00:25:12The crime scene is North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest, half a million acres, with hundreds of miles of hiking trails.
00:25:22At what point did you spot the two octogenarians?
00:25:28When they got out of their car at the trailhead.
00:25:30In the parking lot?
00:25:31Yeah.
00:25:32It was just a little parking lot.
00:25:34And why then?
00:25:35Were there no lone girls out there that day to pick on?
00:25:39No.
00:25:40Again, I violated one of my rules.
00:25:42I said, no couples, because two murders would generate a lot of publicity.
00:25:48I was down to one Ritalin, two spoons of coffee, $2.
00:25:54I'd been living out of dumpsters from a picnic area for two weeks.
00:26:00I'd lost a ton of weight.
00:26:02I think I was probably about down to 140.
00:26:05And I just said, hey, this has got to stop.
00:26:09And I had to take some money.
00:26:12What do you mean when you say you had to take someone?
00:26:17To get money.
00:26:19For robbery purposes?
00:26:21Well, yes.
00:26:22I'm going to stake out this trailhead.
00:26:25And the first person that shows up goes.
00:26:29It was the Bryants?
00:26:30Yes.
00:26:30Okay.
00:26:31What happens next?
00:26:32So I kind of geared up.
00:26:34And so I said to John Bryants, you know what?
00:26:38We're going to take your credit card and run it.
00:26:41And he said, I'll go to hell.
00:26:43And he just rushed right past me.
00:26:45And I deployed the baton and hit him on the back of his left knee.
00:26:51So the guy whirls around.
00:26:55He was a big guy.
00:26:57A big, strong man.
00:27:00Just as big as can be.
00:27:01He whirls around.
00:27:02He's carrying this trekking stick, this hiking stick that they love to carry.
00:27:08So he goes after me with that.
00:27:10So I just brushed it away and then whack.
00:27:14Hit him on the side of the head.
00:27:17Then pulled out a pepper, sprayed him in the face.
00:27:21He steps forward a few feet and goes down.
00:27:24Where was Irene?
00:27:25She was a few feet ahead of him.
00:27:27And then he does the craziest thing.
00:27:29I can't believe this.
00:27:31He said, Irene, I can't see.
00:27:35Hit him.
00:27:37I had just beaten him down.
00:27:40And he's a big guy, six foot plus.
00:27:43And now he's telling his wife to fight me.
00:27:47And bless her heart, Irene, she was all heart.
00:27:51She comes at you.
00:27:52She springs right into a fencing position, you know, like on guard, you know.
00:27:58And pow!
00:27:59And snaps me in the chest.
00:28:01I go, ah.
00:28:03And I brush it to one side and whack.
00:28:07Hit her with the expander.
00:28:09And she goes down.
00:28:11Then I'm going to take them with me.
00:28:14Brian never gets up.
00:28:15But there's another crazy thing.
00:28:18While he's sitting there, he pulls his wallet out.
00:28:21And he takes his credit cards out.
00:28:24And he throws them.
00:28:28Inexplicable.
00:28:29Did you abduct both of them at that point?
00:28:31No.
00:28:32No.
00:28:32I only abducted him.
00:28:36She wouldn't get in the van.
00:28:37So what'd you do to her?
00:28:39Well, I put him in the van, locked him in the van, closed the door.
00:28:43And I went back over to her a few feet away.
00:28:46She knew what was coming.
00:28:47And she said, I'm not getting in the van.
00:28:50The police always tell you, don't get in the vehicle.
00:28:53You're as good as dead.
00:28:54And she says, I'm not getting in the van.
00:28:57I gave her my dirty Harry voice.
00:28:59I said, you're not getting in the van.
00:29:02She said, no.
00:29:04And I immediately laid into her.
00:29:06I beat her, and her blood blew up.
00:29:12And it hit me in the eyes, and it turned my vision red.
00:29:16Oh, nasty.
00:29:18Nasty, nasty, nasty.
00:29:20Hilton dumped Irene Bryant's body near the trail
00:29:23and held a battered John Bryant captive in his white van.
00:29:28He masked his face with duct tape
00:29:30and used the Bryant's ATM card to withdraw his payday
00:29:34for murder and kidnapping.
00:29:36$300.
00:29:39There are easier ways to get money.
00:29:41There are.
00:29:42So you're choosing.
00:29:43It was all stupid, very stupid.
00:29:46I mean, yielding what, a few hundred dollars
00:29:48over the course of six months?
00:29:49It was all very stupid.
00:29:51The smart thing to do would be to take people
00:29:53in parking lots, okay?
00:29:56What about getting a job and earning some money?
00:29:59Don't take anybody.
00:30:01I'm 61 years old.
00:30:04I'm sick.
00:30:06With MS, I'm burned out.
00:30:09I have no resume.
00:30:11I'm going to walk into a phone room
00:30:13looking for a job as a telemarketer.
00:30:16Better than going out there
00:30:17killing innocent people, right?
00:30:19Well, robbing a bank was better than that.
00:30:24No, there was no practical way of working.
00:30:30Hilton then drove John Bryant deep into yet another national park,
00:30:34the Nantahala National Forest to end his life.
00:30:38I wanted to get him a little further away
00:30:42because there were some houses within earshot.
00:30:45But John tried to run from me.
00:30:48And he fell down in an embankment.
00:30:51And he caught his arm between two trees and broke it right here.
00:30:58So I tried to get him up, and he couldn't get up like that.
00:31:05So, you know, I had the pistol in my pocket.
00:31:07I just, pow, shot him in the side of the head, through and through shot.
00:31:12John and Irene Bryant left four children and 11 grandchildren behind.
00:31:20For the next few weeks, Hilton was in between murders,
00:31:23what criminologists called the serial killer's cooling-off period.
00:31:27Can you explain to me what happens in your mind in that cooling-off period?
00:31:34I'm putting the feature out of my mind.
00:31:37I have future forced yarding.
00:31:38I just get up every day and go hiking.
00:31:43You're not thinking about it at all?
00:31:45Trying not to.
00:31:46Is the appetite for it rebuilding over the course of the weeks in between?
00:31:52There was never an appetite for it.
00:31:55Well, how can that be?
00:31:58Because I told you, as soon as I started this, I said no.
00:32:02Well, why didn't you stop then, as soon as you started it?
00:32:05Well, I didn't see any alternative.
00:32:07What do you mean?
00:32:08That's what I mean.
00:32:09And if that sounds illogical, well, that was my state of mind.
00:32:14Your mindset was that you couldn't see a way forward without continuing to kill?
00:32:20Yes.
00:32:20Just weeks after murdering the Bryants in North Carolina, Hilton was yet again broke and out for blood.
00:32:30He had made his way to Florida's Appalachia-Cola National Forest, a thousand square miles of dense woods,
00:32:37and set his sights on a nurse and Sunday school teacher named Cheryl Dunlap.
00:32:43She was walking on the trail.
00:32:44She was walking.
00:32:45Now, you've never publicly told exactly what happened there, right?
00:32:49No, I haven't.
00:32:50And that case currently is under appeal.
00:32:56As a matter of fact, it hasn't been finally adjudicated.
00:33:00But, hey, I'm going to give you a new scoop.
00:33:03This is Gary Hilton at an ATM machine in Tallahassee, Florida, in December 2007.
00:33:17His face is disguised to hide his identity.
00:33:20He's robbing his latest victim.
00:33:22But that is the least of his sins.
00:33:24You have the power to haunt our dreams.
00:33:28Yes.
00:33:29Turn them into nightmares.
00:33:30To worry about our daughters.
00:33:32To worry about our mothers.
00:33:33To worry about ourselves.
00:33:34Do you enjoy having that kind of power over us?
00:33:38You know, in a perverse kind of way, I do.
00:33:40The woman I killed in Tallahassee that I have my current destiny for, she was a devout Christian and a real wheel in the church.
00:33:52Cheryl Dunlap.
00:33:54Yes.
00:33:55Now, you've never publicly told exactly what happened there, right?
00:33:59No, I haven't.
00:34:00And that case currently is under appeal.
00:34:05Right.
00:34:06As a matter of fact, it hasn't been finally adjudicated.
00:34:09But, hey, I'm going to give you a new scoop.
00:34:13I did it.
00:34:16So, there you have it.
00:34:18You did it.
00:34:19Yes.
00:34:19I'm confessing to her murder on camera.
00:34:23That I've never had before.
00:34:26You murdered.
00:34:27So, I'm giving you something, David.
00:34:28You murdered Cheryl Dunlap.
00:34:30Yes, I did it.
00:34:31I did it.
00:34:33And I'll be glad to tell anyone I did.
00:34:36After committing a double murder in North Carolina in the fall of 2007, Hilton fled one massive crime scene for another, arriving in Florida's Appalachicola National Forest.
00:34:50Yet again, Hilton found himself broke, hungry, and hunting for a human target.
00:34:57He was living out of his van and living out a fiendish killing spree.
00:35:02Where did you first spot her?
00:35:04In the Leon Sinks Recreation Area, on the trail.
00:35:12Mm-hmm.
00:35:13Did you follow her?
00:35:15I staked out the trail, and I had binoculars.
00:35:18I was covered with a mosquito net.
00:35:21I see.
00:35:22For camouflage.
00:35:23Now, this is part of the Appalachicola National Forest, another enormous, enormous stretch of 1,000 square miles.
00:35:32It's about 40 by 40 miles.
00:35:34So, I finally had to get somebody, because I had a little bit of peanut butter, some fruit juju, one Ritalin, a few spoons of coffee, and I had to take someone.
00:35:53When Cheryl Dunlap wasn't tending to her patients as a nurse, she was teaching Sunday school.
00:36:04But on this day, she was simply enjoying a walk in the pristine National Forest.
00:36:09Hilton kidnapped and held Cheryl Dunlap captive, just as he had done to other victims, keeping her for days bound by chains to trees and inside his van.
00:36:19After using her ATM card to steal her money, he decided to end her life.
00:36:25But first, he would toy with her.
00:36:27I put all her stuff together that I'd take in her car keys and her cell phone and everything, and said, I'm going to let you go.
00:36:36But first, I'm going to go into town and run your credit card just to make sure it's good.
00:36:42Did she seem hopeful?
00:36:44Did she believe you?
00:36:46I believe so.
00:36:47Okay.
00:36:47Tell me, how did Cheryl die?
00:36:50I said, come on, let's go.
00:36:52I'm going to train you to a tree.
00:36:54And I have a chain and a lock.
00:36:57And she grabs it and goes right down to put it on herself.
00:37:03She was already used to the drill.
00:37:05And I kind of had a feeling that she was going to try to not click that lock.
00:37:11You know what I mean?
00:37:12Just pretend it was locked.
00:37:13And as soon as she was down there and with her back to me, I had my pistol in a fanny pack there, a little .22.
00:37:23And I pulled her out and shot her in the back of her head.
00:37:29Hilton then dismembered her head and hands and burned her body.
00:37:38Cheryl Dunlap.
00:37:39She was all religion.
00:37:41And it gave me a kind of a perverse amusement to think I just terrorized an entire church.
00:37:52I just, I just have affected their life for the rest of their life.
00:37:58They'll never forget it.
00:37:59And all those little kids that she taught Sunday school to, to find out that she was killed and her head was cut off and her hands were cut off.
00:38:10And it, it, you know, it, it could haunt them and, uh,
00:38:15Well, it will scar them for the rest of their lives.
00:38:17Yes.
00:38:17Right.
00:38:18You enjoy that and amuse yourself.
00:38:20No, it's just, uh, I have to admit.
00:38:23Yeah.
00:38:23I kind of like, ha, ha, ha, ha, you know, but she said something that really grabbed me, kind of rattled me.
00:38:31What'd she say?
00:38:31Cheryl was sitting here and the girls that we mentored together were running through the room and they were smiling and laughing and Cheryl had the biggest smile on her face.
00:38:54She was so proud of them and she loved them so much.
00:38:57She had her scrubs on, uh, I love that picture, uh, because she just, it was Cheryl.
00:39:03Cheryl Dunlap had lived a life of service.
00:39:07There's probably not a day that goes by that I don't think about her.
00:39:09No.
00:39:10Cause she was really, we were like, you know, in each other's lives, you know, in a deep way.
00:39:17When she wasn't treating patients in her nursing job, she was teaching Sunday school.
00:39:21The thing that I miss most about Cheryl is her ability to listen.
00:39:29We spoke every day on the phone.
00:39:32Cindy Wechter and Laura Mayo were Cheryl Dunlap's best friends.
00:39:37I miss the thought that she was always praying for me.
00:39:41And I knew that no matter what was going on in my life, wherever she was and wherever I was, and even if we didn't talk, if something was going wrong in my life, she would know about it and she would be praying for me.
00:39:53On December 1st, 2007, she disappeared.
00:39:58So I got a call and was told that she didn't show up for Sunday school and asked if I had heard from her.
00:40:04And I said, no, I said, but that doesn't sound like Cheryl.
00:40:08And I said, this is concerning.
00:40:11Dunlap's disappearance matched Hilton's M.O.
00:40:14She was last seen in the Apalachicola National Forest, just outside Tallahassee, Florida.
00:40:20Withdrawals were made from her bank account by a man wearing a makeshift mask of tape.
00:40:26And then two weeks later, her decapitated body was discovered by a hunter.
00:40:30Authorities also believe Hilton may be connected to yet another woman's disappearance in Florida.
00:40:37From the first time I saw him and from the first time I heard him speak, I knew that something was just not right with him.
00:40:43I just felt this sense of darkness and evil.
00:40:48The first time I heard the name Gary Hilton was, as Cindy said, wow, it was like there was no soul.
00:40:56But he was definitely an evil person.
00:41:01Hilton had never before confessed to Cheryl Dunlap's murder.
00:41:05We played part of his confession for Cheryl's dear friends, Cindy Wechter and Laura Mayo.
00:41:12How did Cheryl die?
00:41:14Gunshots in the back of the head.
00:41:16You were walking her behind her?
00:41:17No, no.
00:41:18I said I was letting her go.
00:41:22Oh, that trick.
00:41:24Yeah, that trick.
00:41:26Yeah, he's a tricky guy.
00:41:2817 years later, Hilton still recalls her final words that shook the hardened killer to his core.
00:41:36But she said something that really grabbed me.
00:41:41What'd she say?
00:41:42She said, before you die, ask Jesus to forgive you for what you've done.
00:41:51And she just said, kind of rattled me.
00:41:54Did that make you think twice?
00:41:56No.
00:41:57Did that make her more human?
00:41:58She's not lying.
00:41:59Do you?
00:42:00Oh, she was human.
00:42:02Didn't matter.
00:42:03It didn't matter.
00:42:06What I thought about was God's grace was right there with her.
00:42:11Even though she was facing death, you're telling him to ask for forgiveness?
00:42:18I think that's so powerful.
00:42:20She would start sentences off like, if my life is to be prophetic.
00:42:27And she would say that in a way that she knew certain things.
00:42:33And I don't think she knew all of this.
00:42:36But you know how there are times there are people that have a knowing?
00:42:39So when I heard that, it just brought me immense joy.
00:42:44And I was just so proud of my friend.
00:42:46Just so proud of her.
00:42:47Back in 2007, there were few clues as to how Cheryl died.
00:42:56And Hilton might have gotten away with it if he hadn't had the urge to strike again.
00:43:02Just one month after killing Cheryl Dunlap, Hilton prowled another national forest.
00:43:08Out of money and out of his mind.
00:43:11This time, it was Georgia's Blood Mountain, where another missing woman was fighting for dear life.
00:43:16Do you hate women?
00:43:18Yes and no.
00:43:20Yes, yes.
00:43:22But Hilton's final murder victim, Meredith Emerson, had a clever plan of her own.
00:43:28That would lead to Hilton's capture and end the killing.
00:43:31Hi, I have the person of interest in that missing woman case is at this Chevron gas station.
00:43:42He's throwing stuff in the dumpster here.
00:43:44I can go take him down if you want.
00:43:46No, sir.
00:43:46Stay right there.
00:43:47Please are there?
00:43:48Yes.
00:43:49They got him.
00:43:51Gary Michael Hilton is finally about to face justice.
00:43:55He lurked in the woods, preyed on hikers, and says he became America's oldest serial killer.
00:44:16I was always real good to my victims.
00:44:20Until you bludgeoned them.
00:44:21Until they either shot them or bludgeoned.
00:44:25Once you've taken someone, you're either going to kill them or you're going to get caught.
00:44:30In 2007, Gary Michael Hilton, a deranged 61-year-old drifter, launched a killing spree in national forests spanning three different states.
00:44:43John and Irene Bryan had been slain in North Carolina.
00:44:47Cheryl Dunlap was murdered in Florida.
00:44:50And on New Year's Day in 2008, a young woman named Meredith Emerson went missing on Georgia's Blood Mountain.
00:44:58You never intended to let her go?
00:45:01Never.
00:45:01Right.
00:45:02Right.
00:45:03Now, Hilton's talking for the first time ever about his murderous midlife crisis.
00:45:09I'm going to give you a news scoop.
00:45:11I did it.
00:45:13Making news with a murder confession.
00:45:16Yes, I'm confessing to a murder on camera that I've never had before.
00:45:23And opening a window into the mind of a madman.
00:45:26Outside of crime, your life is utterly unremarkable.
00:45:31A complete, abject failure.
00:45:34Except killing.
00:45:35Well, that started when I was 61.
00:45:40Did it really?
00:45:41Man, I know.
00:45:42I knew that was coming.
00:45:44I set the record.
00:45:46I'm the oldest serial killer in American history.
00:45:49Isn't that amazing?
00:45:50I'm the oldest serial killer in American history.
00:46:20That was a great night.
00:46:23I made it right on my phone.
00:46:24It feels like you are dry.
00:46:27I let you go.
00:46:27I let you cry.
00:46:28I let you cry.
00:46:29I keep going.
00:46:34Don't cry.
00:46:36I don't let you cry.
00:46:38I don't know.
00:46:39I keep going.
00:46:42I don't see my last Muir thing.
00:46:43I do anything.
00:46:44I hope a ginger Maurrer every day.
00:46:46On New Year's Day, 2008, 24-year-old Meredith Emerson went for a walk on a mountain park trail and crossed paths with evil.
00:46:57You told police that your M.O. was to lurk and sometimes watch with binoculars from a distance, just like a hunter would.
00:47:05Yeah.
00:47:06And were you doing that on this day?
00:47:09No, I was just coming that off the trail and boom, there she was.
00:47:13Meredith fiercely fought the attacker, but Hilton overpowered her and chained her inside the white van he lived in.
00:47:20And thus begins four days of living hell for Meredith Emerson.
00:47:25No.
00:47:26Yes.
00:47:27Sitting across from Hilton on Florida's death row, I'm staring at a real-life paradox.
00:47:33He's happy to admit to serial murder, but protests being characterized as inhumane.
00:47:39She had a good time.
00:47:40No, she didn't.
00:47:41Yes, she did.
00:47:43No, she didn't.
00:47:43David, I was there.
00:47:45I know, but I knew you were there, but you were in Gary Hilton world.
00:47:49In the real world, she was being tormented and tortured.
00:47:53She was not tormented and tortured.
00:47:56They fight and then they submit.
00:48:01Right.
00:48:01And a lot of it is because of me.
00:48:03I reassure that it's going to be okay, but just quit fighting or you're going to get hurt.
00:48:07Seventeen years ago, when he was interrogated, Hilton told police he had a magical ability to comfort and lull his victims into submission.
00:48:17And he still stands by that claim.
00:48:19All of my victims fought me initially, but I quickly gained control and then they all became strangely submissive.
00:48:28That's because of my power.
00:48:29I could put them at ease.
00:48:31She stuck in your van, chained to the chassis?
00:48:34No, no.
00:48:35She was unrestrained 90% of the time.
00:48:40Only during transit was she restrained.
00:48:42You had a collar on her neck?
00:48:44I'm telling you, we had a relaxing time.
00:48:47I gave her books to read.
00:48:49She would read them and everything.
00:48:52She wouldn't need anything.
00:48:53I kept trying to know.
00:48:55You're so delusional that you think she was having a good time.
00:48:59Oh, well, she wasn't being tortured.
00:49:02You told police she was not having a bad time at all enjoying herself.
00:49:07I could tell that.
00:49:08Well, in a sense, she did.
00:49:10The advice to people, if they're abducted, is to engage your abductor and to make yourself a person to them.
00:49:19Hilton offered police this advice for anyone being held captive.
00:49:23Tell them about your family, what your dreams and hopes and plans and schemes are, because the abductor is psychopathic.
00:49:31He's looking at you in a human way.
00:49:33You want to make yourself a human.
00:49:35Turns out, that's exactly what Meredith Emerson tried to do in The Clutches of the Madman.
00:49:41But the cruel irony is lost on Hilton.
00:49:45She would joke.
00:49:46This is her engaging you to try and save her life.
00:49:50David, you are talking through your ass.
00:49:55You might be telling yourself that to make yourself appear less evil, but she was not having a good time, Mr. Hilton.
00:50:03No, I'm not.
00:50:06Less evil, I'm your worst nightmare, David.
00:50:11You're not trying to appear less evil.
00:50:14No.
00:50:16Here, she is fighting for her life, heroically, valiantly.
00:50:21That meant nothing to you in terms of empathy, mercy, or decency, did it?
00:50:26Not at that moment.
00:50:29I was always real good to my victims that treated them good.
00:50:33You think so?
00:50:34I know I did.
00:50:35Until you bludgeoned them.
00:50:37Until they either shot them or bludgeoned them.
00:50:40Yeah.
00:50:41But you have 0.0 empathy.
00:50:44First chance you get, you rape her.
00:50:47Yes.
00:50:50Paraphilia?
00:50:51Paraphilia is a fixation on sexual sadism, a condition Hilton admits drove him to rape Meredith Emerson.
00:51:01And yet he denies both the brutality and the gratification of the act.
00:51:06I didn't enjoy it.
00:51:08I just did it because I planned it.
00:51:11Come on.
00:51:12No.
00:51:12You expect anyone to believe that?
00:51:14Yes.
00:51:15You also told the police that you didn't force her.
00:51:18No.
00:51:18That seems ridiculous.
00:51:21You're enforcing this whole...
00:51:24Oh, it was a rape.
00:51:25Made no mistake, but I didn't physically overpower her or anything.
00:51:32No trace yet of a missing 24-year-old Gwinnett County woman.
00:51:36All day above Blood Mountain, the state patrol's infrared detectors scanned for body heat below.
00:51:42But there's still hope for Meredith Emerson as news crews and search teams descend on Blood Mountain.
00:51:50We heard that there was a missing hiker January 2nd.
00:51:54It was in an area within the jurisdiction of my unit.
00:51:58Detective John Cagle of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation got the call to find Meredith Emerson.
00:52:04We learned that Meredith was a recent graduate of the University of Georgia.
00:52:09She was living in an area north of metro Atlanta and had a job in marketing.
00:52:16She was an experienced hiker.
00:52:19She also had studied martial arts.
00:52:22So this is not somebody who would have just gotten lost on the trail.
00:52:26We all became very concerned that this was something more than an overdue hiker.
00:52:33We had hundreds and hundreds of volunteers just show up to help look for Meredith.
00:52:41We organized search teams to go on Blood Mountain and to search not only the trail, but off the trails.
00:52:49The search is on.
00:52:50That was a shocker.
00:52:52You told police you didn't like seeing that.
00:52:54You've ridiculed the people who didn't know her but came out to help anyway.
00:52:59I ridiculed the people.
00:53:01No, I didn't.
00:53:02You see the candlelight marches where Meredith Emerson and other people show up.
00:53:09People that don't even know the girl.
00:53:11I mean, 35,000 people a year get shredded, maimed, and beaten to death in car wrecks.
00:53:17Okay?
00:53:18I mean, you know what I'm talking about?
00:53:20It's a virtual greet.
00:53:22An enormous crime scene.
00:53:23It's no wonder the police were stymied for so long.
00:53:27You watched this search unfold, right?
00:53:30Civilly?
00:53:30Hundreds of searchers.
00:53:32Helicopters.
00:53:33Dogs.
00:53:34People walking the grid out there in the middle of nowhere.
00:53:36Did you just watch all that play out in amusement?
00:53:40I didn't know anything about that.
00:53:42You didn't?
00:53:43Nope.
00:53:43Hilton didn't know it, but he had just become the prime suspect and was about to become the prey.
00:53:50We began to interview people that had been on the trail New Year's Day and had seen Meredith.
00:53:58They began to comment that they had seen her talking with an older guy.
00:54:05The older guy was acting very strangely.
00:54:08So we began to put out a description of this person that had been seen with Meredith.
00:54:15And we got a call to our tip line from someone who says, I think I know who you're looking for.
00:54:22His name is Gary Hilton.
00:54:25After stalking and killing unsuspecting hikers in two other states, Hilton is now the one being hunted.
00:54:32The captive Meredith has a plan of her own.
00:54:35They fight and then they submit.
00:54:39And a surprise in store for the aging maniac.
00:54:42She kept on fighting you, right, with her brains, outsmarting you with the bank cards.
00:54:48She didn't outsmart.
00:54:49Got you running around.
00:54:51You think so, huh?
00:54:52Oh, absolutely.
00:54:55Did you not figure out what she was doing?
00:55:05In the days after Meredith Emerson's disappearance on New Year's Day 2008, police are on the brink of finding her and her captor, Gary Michael Hilton.
00:55:18She's an innocent stranger.
00:55:20So why Meredith Emerson?
00:55:23Yeah, that's a good question.
00:55:28It's a good question.
00:55:29What's the answer?
00:55:30It was just the mission at the time.
00:55:35The mission at the time?
00:55:37Yep.
00:55:38The mission to what?
00:55:40To kill, murder, and take her ATM card and get the money out of it.
00:55:50But when Hilton demanded Meredith's ATM card, she repeatedly gave him bad pin numbers,
00:55:56which he used at machines along the escape route, leaving a trail of digital breadcrumbs for Georgia detective John Cagle.
00:56:04We found out that there, in fact, had been activity throughout the week.
00:56:08The first night on January 1st, there was activity at a bank about 15 miles from Blood Mountain.
00:56:16And then another attempt at a bank about 40 miles south.
00:56:23And then the following day, there was another attempt about 70 miles southwest of Blood Mountain.
00:56:29So they're all over the place.
00:56:32She was doing that to give us time to try to catch up.
00:56:35She kept on fighting you, right, with her brains, outsmarting you with the bank cards.
00:56:42She didn't outsmart.
00:56:43I knew what she was doing.
00:56:44How many times did she have you running to ATMs?
00:56:47One, I don't know, off the top of my head.
00:56:51Oh, several times.
00:56:51Five times, yeah.
00:56:53You gave the police a virtual roadmap as you tried to use her ATM card.
00:56:58She knew this was the way to hold the window open for a rescue and to be tracked.
00:57:05You think so, huh?
00:57:06Oh, absolutely.
00:57:09Did you not figure out what she was doing?
00:57:12I think she miscalculated.
00:57:14Well, kept her alive for four days.
00:57:16You might have killed her that first day.
00:57:18Who knows?
00:57:20Thanks to Meredith, police now have a bead on Hilton.
00:57:23But they know that time may be running out for her because the killer could snap at any moment.
00:57:30We were getting closer to Hilton, but we seemed to be just a step behind.
00:57:37The longer these things go on, the less likely there's a good outcome.
00:57:44You told police there was never any plan to let her go.
00:57:47Right.
00:57:47I knew that if I let her go, I'd be identifying.
00:57:50I knew she couldn't be let go.
00:57:53I knew she was doomed.
00:57:55Yep.
00:57:56I was as good as caught if I let her go.
00:57:58On the last day, you pulled the cruelest trick of all on her.
00:58:02You told her you were letting her go home.
00:58:05Well, cruel.
00:58:06Very cruel.
00:58:07Pure evil.
00:58:08No?
00:58:09Well, what if I told her, today I'm going to kill you?
00:58:14Equally evil.
00:58:15Equally evil.
00:58:16Yes.
00:58:17You tie her to a tree, you bag up all her stuff, and now it's the iron bar, right?
00:58:22Yes.
00:58:23Solid iron bar struck her with that.
00:58:26Yes.
00:58:26She said, no, let me go.
00:58:28Yes.
00:58:28You remember that?
00:58:29Mm-hmm.
00:58:30Put her hands up.
00:58:31Yeah.
00:58:32You keep striking her.
00:58:33Uh-huh.
00:58:34You'll see some defensive wounds to her hands.
00:58:37Oh, God, yes.
00:58:38Beat her into unconsciousness.
00:58:40Mm-hmm.
00:58:40And you say, I kept striking her to ensure she was dead.
00:58:45Yeah.
00:58:46You feeling anything at this point?
00:58:48Yes.
00:58:49What are you feeling?
00:58:50Loathing.
00:58:52It's terrible.
00:58:54Beating someone to death is, number one, it's a hard way to die, and it's a hard way to kill anyone.
00:59:02Oh, I wouldn't have done it if I had my guns with me.
00:59:05Did you ever consider not killing her?
00:59:09No.
00:59:10Not taking her?
00:59:12No.
00:59:13You didn't have to kill her.
00:59:15Yes, I did.
00:59:16If you didn't kill her, you wouldn't have to cut her up, right?
00:59:19If I didn't kill her, I'd have been caught.
00:59:21And then, you decapitate her with what you describe as a standard serrated pigeon knife.
00:59:30Bread knife.
00:59:30Why'd you do that?
00:59:32Because her hair is full of forensic evidence, including dog hair.
00:59:39Her hair is full of Dandy's hair, and they get DNA off dog hairs.
00:59:44You say you did that for forensic reasons, right?
00:59:46Yes.
00:59:47It's like a lot more common variety paraphilia.
00:59:50No.
00:59:51Because the filing of a corpse is a telltale sign of paraphilia.
00:59:56No.
00:59:57No.
00:59:57No.
00:59:57You're barking up the wrong tree there.
00:59:59Sure.
01:00:00Positive.
01:00:01It was dreadful.
01:00:03I'd already told you.
01:00:04I couldn't even look.
01:00:06The fact that he had decapitated her.
01:00:11I asked him why, what was that about?
01:00:13And he said that he had done that for forensic purposes.
01:00:18And if anybody's ever met Gary Hilton, he did that because he liked it.
01:00:24Finally, police used Meredith's ATM's smoke signal to hone in on Hilton and spread the word.
01:00:32The cab 911, what's the exact?
01:00:34Okay.
01:00:35I have this, the person of interest in that missing woman case is at this Chevron gas station.
01:00:42The van is here.
01:00:44The dog is here, the red dog.
01:00:45And I saw the man's face.
01:00:47And I've been watching the news.
01:00:48And I know it's him.
01:00:49I know it's him.
01:00:49He's throwing stuff in the dumpster here.
01:00:53I can go take him down if you want.
01:00:55No, sir.
01:00:55Stay right there.
01:00:56Okay.
01:00:57He looks like he's finishing up.
01:00:58You guys got to hurry.
01:01:00Just hours after Hilton murdered Meredith, police tracked him down outside a gas station.
01:01:06Here comes the cops.
01:01:08Yes.
01:01:09Yes.
01:01:09Wait for there?
01:01:10Yes.
01:01:11They got him.
01:01:13Brought to heel by a young woman who outsmarted a serial killer.
01:01:17And lost her life in the process of stopping him.
01:01:21Meredith was not with him when he was arrested.
01:01:24We did not believe this was going to have a good outcome for Meredith.
01:01:28Hilton's arrest made headlines as hikers across the southeast could breathe a sigh of relief.
01:01:34Gary Michael Hilton, of course, is the suspect who is now in custody.
01:01:37Cops tracked this guy down and captured him.
01:01:4061-year-old Gary Michael Hilton now sits in a county jail.
01:01:43One thing I didn't ask you about this.
01:01:45Did you have to put something to keep her quiet, like a gag, so to speak, or anything?
01:01:49No, no, no.
01:01:50Was she unconscious at that point?
01:01:53Never.
01:01:54She was hard to submit.
01:01:56Prosecutors in Georgia cut a deal with Hilton for the sake of the victim's family.
01:02:01Tell police where he hid Meredith's remains, and the state will take the death penalty off the table.
01:02:06Cagle then set out to bring Meredith home from a remote location in the woods.
01:02:12I found her clothes first, and I began to just on my hands and knees, began to push back leaves and brush next to the tree.
01:02:24And I went probably 15 feet, maybe 20 feet, doing that, until I was able to uncover the leaves that exposed her head.
01:02:37I had another agent with me, and I said, I told him to stay with Meredith because we're not going to leave her.
01:02:46The Emersons were finally able to lay their beloved and brave daughter to rest.
01:02:52They had a memorial service for Meredith in Athens, Georgia, and thousands of people came that didn't even know Meredith.
01:03:01Her friends, her family were all alike.
01:03:05They were all just good, solid people.
01:03:08So it was a tough time for the family and the friends and the hiking community.
01:03:12But to authorities in Georgia, there were still unanswered questions.
01:03:18Why did Gary Hilton kill these people?
01:03:21And what set him off?
01:03:24Listen, I know as well as anyone, I'm a crime expert, and I know that serial killers never, ever start when they're 61 years old.
01:03:36And they don't wake up and start killing people.
01:03:38It doesn't happen.
01:03:40So how do you account for that?
01:03:41Well, let me finish.
01:03:43It's never happened in the past, and it's never going to happen again.
01:03:48I set the record for I'm the oldest serial killer in American history.
01:03:55And I understand that the probability, you know, that I have been killing people before is perhaps 90%, you know.
01:04:09So I can understand someone not believing me, and trust me, nobody will believe me.
01:04:16My best friend of 10 years was visiting me a couple of weeks ago, and he still was not sure.
01:04:24My legal team is still not sure.
01:04:28Do you maintain, contrary to common sense and logic and statistics, you maintain-
01:04:35Well, hold it.
01:04:35Let me answer that with a saying that I've come up with.
01:04:39You must always leave room for the exception.
01:04:42All these years later, Hilton remains perversely proud of his crimes.
01:04:52But this deranged serial killer's reign of terror is over.
01:04:56And now Gary Hilton is the one in chains and about to finally face justice.
01:05:02I believe he is nothing more than a bully and a weak-minded coward who preys on others.
01:05:07Don't make me do this.
01:05:18Run, dammit!
01:05:20In the 1995 B-horror movie, Deadly Run, a psychotic killer kidnaps women and releases them into a mountain wilderness, only to stalk and hunt them down.
01:05:32Come on back, little bunny rabbit!
01:05:34Gary Hilton is listed on the movie's IMDb page as an uncredited member of the crew.
01:05:42The film's producer, Sam Reel, says Hilton even embellished the screenplay with detailed ways of tormenting the female characters.
01:05:53Some scenes were filmed near Blood Mountain, where Gary Hilton abducted 24-year-old Meredith Emerson in 2008.
01:06:00Back in 1995, you helped make a movie called Deadly Run.
01:06:07Is that art imitating life or life imitating art?
01:06:11Uh, it's neither.
01:06:13This is, Sam Reel acquired this, here's the genesis of that.
01:06:19Sam Reel acquired this property.
01:06:21Uh, in other words, a screenplay.
01:06:25But you did work on the film, right?
01:06:27No!
01:06:28You didn't help him with the film?
01:06:29No, that...
01:06:30He credits you with ideas like, let's have the women fight back.
01:06:33Yes, that guy has caused me more mischief than in the world.
01:06:40Not a chance.
01:06:42You say none of that's true?
01:06:43No.
01:06:45Uh-huh.
01:06:46Okay.
01:06:46It's an eerie coincidence that the plot of the movie revolves around hunting women down and killing them.
01:06:53It is.
01:06:54The cabin used to shoot a scene is stone's throw from one of your old crime scenes.
01:07:01No, it isn't.
01:07:02Blood Mountain?
01:07:03No?
01:07:05It's not a stone's throw from...
01:07:0620 minutes, 20 miles?
01:07:09Well, it's a long throw.
01:07:13It's surprising that Hilton would deny an association with the film.
01:07:17In the aftermath of his arrest, he appeared to relish any notoriety.
01:07:23I'm kind of like a Hollywood celebrity that's been bad and now he's trying to...
01:07:28You see what I mean?
01:07:29The more you limit it, the bigger demand it makes.
01:07:32You are infamous.
01:07:35Yes, sir.
01:07:36Collectors of murder memorabilia think you're a big celebrity.
01:07:39Oh, yeah.
01:07:40I'm a hot commodity.
01:07:42You enjoy all that attention?
01:07:44It's better than being ignored.
01:07:47After Hilton cut a deal in Georgia to avoid the death penalty there, police tried to get him to talk about his other crimes.
01:07:55The murders of John and Irene Bryant in North Carolina and the killing of Sheryl Dunlap in Florida.
01:08:02But instead, he put on a dizzying display of derangement.
01:08:07Okay, let me, okay, in four and a half billion years, the sun's gonna run out of nuclear fuel and fuel.
01:08:12It'll start to collapse in on itself.
01:08:14It's kind of like the Lone Ranger.
01:08:15And the Lone Ranger would come galloping into town.
01:08:18They would be all the schmuck townspeople, right?
01:08:20And here the Lone Ranger would be wearing this mask, a skin-tight outfit, a really elaborate two-gun rig mounted with silver with chrome pistols.
01:08:31I have a ring against society, and I guess most people would fit the bill as far as the victim goes.
01:08:35Wasn't it you that asked me what's it like to cut someone's head off?
01:08:38Mm-hmm.
01:08:38Okay.
01:08:40It was dreadful, and the only thing you can do is so dreadful that the only thing you can do is go on autopilot.
01:08:45I told you it wasn't worth it.
01:08:46Hilton's no different than any other serial killer.
01:08:48They always think they're the most, you know, important and the smartest person in the room.
01:08:53And Hilton's no exception.
01:08:55The only time he's smarter than anybody is when he's alone in his cell.
01:08:59That's the time he's the smartest guy in the room.
01:09:03Do you think you're smart?
01:09:05Oh, yeah.
01:09:06You do?
01:09:06Now, they say serial killers are the smartest of the killing group.
01:09:11They do?
01:09:11But I can't tell how smart you are.
01:09:14Cunning, sure.
01:09:16Uneducated for the most part.
01:09:17Basing your crimes in such sprawling settings seems clever.
01:09:21But you did a lot of stupid things along the way, too, right?
01:09:24Sure did.
01:09:27Hilton's many missteps would come back to haunt him, this time in a Florida courtroom where the death penalty was back on the table.
01:09:35And if they want to spend a million dollars, two million to convince me, and then another two million to get death, and then another eight million to defend the death penalty.
01:09:50That's exactly what authorities did in Florida State Court for the abduction and murder of beloved nurse Sheryl Dunlap.
01:09:58Gary was not the ordinary killer.
01:10:03There were too many levels to him.
01:10:05Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Abby Strauss was one of the first to evaluate Gary Hilton's mind for the Florida court case.
01:10:14I was hired by the Office of the Public Defender in 2009 to see him to do a psychiatric evaluation, and I was trying to get a sense of what happened.
01:10:26Why did you not kill anybody until you were 61 years old?
01:10:30Hilton greeted Dr. Strauss with his characteristic grandiosity.
01:10:34I said, Mr. Hilton, glad to meet you.
01:10:37And he said, Dr. Strauss?
01:10:38Oh, yes, I knew you were coming.
01:10:40By the way, did you read the New York Times today?
01:10:43I am there to talk to him about the charges of murder against him.
01:10:48And it seemed almost like it was a deflection of some sort.
01:10:53Gary had a script, obviously very bright, and he basically tried to control the interview at first.
01:11:00He said that he was happy to be in jail.
01:11:04It took a lot of the pressures off.
01:11:06He didn't have to worry about anything, and he was going to retire in jail.
01:11:10But when we started talking about his mother, things changed.
01:11:14He talked about how, indeed, he is a misogynist.
01:11:17He hates women, and his hatred was deep.
01:11:21Do you hate women?
01:11:22Yes and no.
01:11:24Yes, yes.
01:11:26Here's how you described women to police.
01:11:28You see, part of my dislike, or I wouldn't call it hatred, but almost, for women is that they have all the advantages.
01:11:34You don't be fooled by a woman's nurturing instinct.
01:11:36Look at their free will personalities, and you're going to find women are the most hateful,
01:11:42avaricious, accumulative, greedy, and heartless.
01:11:48Believe all that?
01:11:49Women have all the advantages.
01:11:51They're smarter, they're more intuitive, they're more patient, which is a very prime virtue, a very valuable virtue.
01:12:03They're more patient, and they have all the...
01:12:07It's not fair.
01:12:11It's not fair.
01:12:12Are those your reasons for hating?
01:12:14It's just not fair.
01:12:19I can't tell if you're joking or not.
01:12:21No.
01:12:23Dr. Strauss has a theory about Hilton's hatred of women.
01:12:27Apparently his mother divorced his biological father when he was roughly five years old,
01:12:33and they got married to the stepfather, and it was not a good relationship.
01:12:38Gary said that his mother would speak to him about the importance of giving her new husband a good orgasm.
01:12:46How destructive to a kid who's trying to figure out life to have to live what he knows about his mother's orgasmic history.
01:12:56Strauss testified at the Dunlap trial.
01:12:59State of Florida versus Gary Michael Hilton.
01:13:02And presented his findings as a mitigating factor during the sentencing phase.
01:13:06A child can grow up with this emptiness inside of them.
01:13:10I got the feeling the jury thought I was giving him a bunch of psychological BS.
01:13:15The evidence against Hilton was overwhelming.
01:13:19Your lawyers are presenting mitigating factors, which were underwhelming.
01:13:23And then the state plays videos of you post-murders, happy-go-lucky, basically celebrating.
01:13:30At one point, you say, in a sing-song voice, I had to kill those bitches.
01:13:37I killed them with a seal boom.
01:13:44Because of the park.
01:13:45Yeah.
01:13:46But first, I got to go hide it somewhere else.
01:13:50Yes.
01:13:51You know, that was funny.
01:13:54Because I...
01:13:55That's funny?
01:13:55This is after Cheryl.
01:13:59This is after...
01:14:00Yeah, it was funny because I wanted to erase, delete everything on the camera.
01:14:10This is a digital camera.
01:14:12And I knew that you just can't hit the delete.
01:14:17I don't remember saying that, but it sounds like something I would say.
01:14:20It showed how devoid of remorse you were.
01:14:26Boy, you're on an attack.
01:14:29You've got me at a loss for words, baby.
01:14:33In 2011, Hilton was convicted of first-degree capital murder in Florida.
01:14:39Where he'll face the death penalty and the killing and decapitation of this woman, Cheryl Dunlap.
01:14:44He also pled guilty to the murders of Irene and John Bryant in North Carolina.
01:14:49Their family took to local media to express their outrage at the serial killer.
01:14:54He beat my mother to death.
01:14:56He shot my father in the head.
01:14:58He murdered two people for no reason other than the trophies of their clothes and the $300 he got from their bank card.
01:15:06Brian's children say they don't believe that Hilton is sorry.
01:15:09No empathy, no mercy, no decency.
01:15:13Well, I think it must not go that far.
01:15:16Although, let me tell you, Meredith is the one that really gets to me.
01:15:21She was 24 years old.
01:15:23I stole over 50 years of her life.
01:15:27She was such a great girl.
01:15:29I just graduated from a fine school, Georgia, and I had a bright future, and I took it all from her.
01:15:42Just terrible.
01:15:44It was terrible.
01:15:46You said about Cheryl Dunlap, the community went absolutely nuts over this.
01:15:53Sure, she's a nurse, and she teaches Sunday school to fifth graders, but you'd think I killed Mother Teresa.
01:16:00Hey, look, it's just another murderer.
01:16:03Some of you, you know, there's a million murders.
01:16:06This is how you're discussing the murder victim.
01:16:09You waxed poetic about Meredith and your regrets over her loss.
01:16:15And here, you're deriding Cheryl.
01:16:21It's just nothing.
01:16:23What do you...
01:16:25I don't know an answer to that.
01:16:27Having terrorized and taken the lives of others, Hilton is now about to reveal the one thing that terrifies him.
01:16:37You said death is like a roaring fire.
01:16:40It can induce a blind panic that will make you trample your best friend to get away with it.
01:16:45Very true.
01:16:47And Gary Michael Hilton is about to meet his fate.
01:16:51The idea of your own death still frightens you.
01:16:54Yes.
01:16:55You're 78 years old now, right?
01:16:56You time this short.
01:16:58I guess you could say that it is against me.
01:17:10As far as Gary Hilton getting the death penalty, the law is the law.
01:17:17Laura Mayo and Cindy Wechter were Cheryl Dunlap's best friends.
01:17:21Cheryl's life was mercilessly cut short by serial killer Gary Michael Hilton in 2007.
01:17:29I know that my faith dictates that I forgive.
01:17:35But the fact that he got the death penalty is probably fitting for someone like him.
01:17:42He cannot hurt anybody else.
01:17:45And I hope that he can reconcile everything he's done with God.
01:17:50I also felt like he realizes that he's killed so many people, but yet he realizes he's going to die.
01:17:58And so it did, like Laura said, it did feel like it was fitting.
01:18:01It was the law and the people who made the judgments and everything decided that this was fitting.
01:18:06Back in 2008, Hilton taunted investigators and dared the courts to charge him with capital murder.
01:18:14But now, exactly 17 years later, I'm sitting across from a decrepit 78-year-old Gary Hilton.
01:18:34And today, it is the death penalty that he fears most.
01:18:39You said something in the correspondence that I thought was especially striking.
01:18:44I thought I'd start with this.
01:18:45You said, confronting the reality of death.
01:18:48Yes.
01:18:49Is, of course, much different from the abstract concept.
01:18:53Yes.
01:18:53Death is like a roaring fire.
01:18:56It can induce a blind panic that will make you trample your best friend to get away with it.
01:19:02Very true.
01:19:02Have you witnessed this intimately in the course of imposing death on your victims?
01:19:09No.
01:19:09Their death was, to them, completely unexpected.
01:19:14And yet, what surprised me about that statement is that even after all the cruelty and killing you've done, the idea of your own death still frightens you.
01:19:24Yes.
01:19:24And for that, I'm ashamed and I feel guilty.
01:19:28Because the way you struck down those innocent people, you would think that life is cheap to you.
01:19:34That's right.
01:19:34But does that just apply to other people's lives, not your own?
01:19:37No.
01:19:38It applies to their lives, too.
01:19:40Does it apply to yours?
01:19:41Yes.
01:19:42And when I say I want to live, well, they wanted to live, too.
01:19:48I know they did.
01:19:49And I know what I took from them.
01:19:51He wants people to remember how big a serial killer he is when he dies.
01:20:00We'll see what the look on his face is when they bring him in to be executed.
01:20:03Detective John Cagle once helped bring Hilton in, and now hopes one day to see him off.
01:20:12I look forward to being there for that.
01:20:15To stave off execution, Hilton has been appealing his death sentence for years.
01:20:21His latest effort is now pending at the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
01:20:27It's unclear how his stunning admission to the Dunlap murder earlier in our interview will impact his appeal.
01:20:34I'm going to give you a new scoop.
01:20:37I did it.
01:20:38You did it.
01:20:39Yes.
01:20:40I'm confessing to a murder on camera that I've never had before.
01:20:46You murdered...
01:20:47So I'm giving you something, David.
01:20:49You murdered Cheryl Dunlap.
01:20:51Yes, I did it.
01:20:54And I'll be glad to tell anyone I did.
01:20:57Why'd you wait so long to confess to this crime?
01:21:00You know, you have lawyers and they pound it in you.
01:21:07You know, not to say anything.
01:21:10But as I told you before, I'm to the point where I don't care.
01:21:15I don't care.
01:21:15There's nothing they can do to me.
01:21:17Hilton may finally be on the brink of his long overdue demise.
01:21:23But 17 years on, will nature take him before the state of Florida can put him to death?
01:21:30You're in poor health, you say?
01:21:32Yes, very poor health.
01:21:33Because I'm going to die soon.
01:21:35Is that why you're here today?
01:21:36Well, yeah, yeah.
01:21:37Time is short, but hey.
01:21:40And then there's the question of other victims.
01:21:44No prior murders?
01:21:46No prior felonies committed, violent felonies committed against persons of any type.
01:21:54Until you're 61 years old.
01:21:55It's unbelievable.
01:21:56It's very hard to believe.
01:21:58Isn't that amazing?
01:22:08It's hard to imagine that Gary Michael Hilton's compulsion to kill started so late in life.
01:22:14And some in law enforcement suspect that Hilton could be behind similar unsolved murders.
01:22:22For former Georgia detective John Cagle, there's one outstanding case that hits close to home.
01:22:28The 2004 disappearance of Patrice Andrus, a hairdresser from Cumming, Georgia.
01:22:35Patrice had been abducted from her hair salon that she had.
01:22:40In his lengthy interrogation with investigators, Hilton revealed that he liked to visit beauty salons to hustle money for a fake charity.
01:22:49That's where that beauty shop comes from.
01:22:51They're working on Saturday and that's primarily...
01:22:53That's their day.
01:22:54That's when the owner is going to be there.
01:22:56That's the busiest time of the week on any beauty shop is Saturday morning.
01:23:00Do they tend to give up good money as...
01:23:02Yes, yes.
01:23:03...all the men in the area...
01:23:04Patrice's remains were found near the same wooded area where Hilton hid Meredith Emerson's body.
01:23:12The remains of Patrice Andrus were recovered three miles from the Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area.
01:23:20The loose connection to a beauty salon or a hair salon and then the proximity of the forest where her remains were recovered kind of reopened our thoughts.
01:23:35No prior murders.
01:23:38No prior felonies committed...
01:23:42Violent felonies committed against persons of any type.
01:23:45Until you're 61 years old.
01:23:47It's unbelievable.
01:23:48It's very hard to believe.
01:23:50Isn't that amazing?
01:23:52When I started doing this, after having all these fantasies and everything for so long, I found that I didn't like it at all.
01:24:03It wasn't anything like the daydreams.
01:24:07The reality, no.
01:24:09And I dreaded it.
01:24:10And then putting it off.
01:24:12And putting it off.
01:24:13Procrastinating it.
01:24:15Because the impulse was in you?
01:24:17No, I didn't.
01:24:19Once I actually did it.
01:24:22I see.
01:24:23Once I actually did it.
01:24:27Hilton has come under suspicion and connection with several other missing persons in the years leading up to his killing spree.
01:24:34Including Judy Smith, Jason Knapp, Rosanna Miliani, and Michael Scott Lewis.
01:24:42All vanished from national forests in the southeastern United States.
01:24:47Hilton's hunting grounds.
01:24:48But he has never been charged in connection with these or any other attacks.
01:24:54When I started out, if anyone saw me in the area, or even worse, with the victim, it was an abort decision.
01:25:05However, by the end of the whole thing, my mind was just ragged, you know, disordered.
01:25:12As a result of these crimes, or some kind of descent into madness?
01:25:17Not into madness.
01:25:18I was already mad.
01:25:21Were you taking these chances to amuse yourself or increase the challenge involved?
01:25:29No.
01:25:29Is there anything that could have happened to prevent you from murdering these people?
01:25:39Is there anything we at large could have done to stop this?
01:25:44How would you advise us with respect to all the other Gary Hiltons out there?
01:25:51Couldn't help you on that.
01:25:54Yeah.
01:25:57That's a good ending question.
01:25:59Thank you, ma'am.
01:26:01And with that, Gary Hilton's first and likely last interview comes to an end.
01:26:07If he has any secrets left, he may now take them to the grave.
01:26:12While the families and friends of his victims continue to pick up the pieces of their lives
01:26:17from the carnage left in his wake.
01:26:22For Detective John Cagle, the Meredith Emerson case would finish a long career in law enforcement.
01:26:28This was the last case I worked at GBI.
01:26:31I retired in April 2008.
01:26:33There are people, even to this day, 17 years later, they remember this case and are still struggling with it.
01:26:44As for Laura Mayo and Cindy Wechter, the last thing they want to do is think about the man who took their dear friend Cheryl Dunlap's life.
01:26:53When I think about Cheryl, I do think about her life.
01:26:57I'll think about just a random something funny.
01:27:02I would get in her car for lunch.
01:27:05And her car would be a mess.
01:27:07I remember the good times.
01:27:08I remember us walking around the lake, Lake Ella, remember, in Tallahassee.
01:27:12And then we would stop and pray and we would talk about things.
01:27:15And she was just always there, you know.
01:27:19I want Cheryl to be defined by her life and not her death.
01:27:22I want Cheryl to be defined by her life and not her life and not her life and not her life.