Specifically hikers or any female alone?

[Native New Yorker]

You know what bugs me the most about this guy?
I think that in his past- aside from the murders- there were many, including three wives who wanted NOTHING more to do with this guy, oh, and I forgot his family....so what did they all do?
They just walked away...and left society defenseless against this monster...
I guess that there was little else they could do, but it still bugs me....

 

[aj1020]

You know what bugs me the most about this guy?
I think that in his past- aside from the murders- there were many, including three wives who wanted NOTHING more to do with this guy, oh, and I forgot his family....so what did they all do?
They just walked away...and left society defenseless against this monster...
I guess that there was little else they could do, but it still bugs me....

I still don't understand what his family and ex-wives were supposed to do??? People get divorced everyday. People are disowned by their families every day. Most of the time the individual doesn't turn out to be a serial killer. I think that most people would do something, say something, or try to stop this monster, IF they would have thought something like this would happen. I highly doubt they stood idly by, knowing full-well that he would become a serial killer.

 

[Native New Yorker]

I agree, what could any of them do?
However, although every family has its share of quarrels, don't any of you think it is odd that no one in his family had seen him in 20 years? Or wanted to see him? What about the resounding silence from ex-wives, family?
What I am getting at, is that I think that many were indeed afraid of this man, and were just happy to get away from him.

 

[Tallytowngirl]

I totally agree, Native New Yorker. All these folks who knew him and want nothing to do with him - his family, ex wives... And how about Tabor? Hilton supposedly blackmailed him and threatened him with bodily harm to the point Tabor (allegedly) pulled a glock, and Tabor never called the police? I mean, hello? Or the guy who reported Hilton beating a dog... If he'd also reported that Hilton tried to run his wife over, with the van... Lots of if-onlys in Hilton's past, but also some really strange behavior on the part of the folks he had run ins with. What was it about him that made them NOT call the police?

But the other thing that really bugs me is that he kept getting pulled over by different law enforcement people, or what have you, and kept talking his way out!

Thank goodness his strange crazy backwards luck finally gave out. He didn't kill anybody this month! And never again.

 

[aj1020]

I think it's easy for you to pass judgment on all those people who didn't react appropriately to Hilton's actions and call LE because you weren't there, but can any of us be so sure that we would have done things differently in their shoes??

 

[Tallytowngirl]

I think it's easy for you to pass judgment

I hadn't meant to sound as if I were passing judgment - nothing so harsh!
I'm just astonished at Hilton's strange "good fortune" - he acted so mean and hostile to so many people and got away with it for so long. They're all his victims, and I really wasn't trying to "blame the victim."

We discussed this situation in another thread - the bystander effect. and interestingly enough, there was a "This I believe" about it last night on NPR.

A Busybody`s Guide to Improving the World

When I was a teenager, a man I knew killed his son and himself. On the TV news the neighbors were shocked that something like this would happen here, and they had no idea the family was in such trouble.

It was a lie. We all knew what that man did to his kids. We told ourselves it was none of our business, and now we were lying because we were complicit in a child’s death. We’d seen the bruises on the children and did nothing. We’d seen the way he talked to them and said nothing. And so when the TV cameras came along, we told them we saw nothing.

I helped kill that kid, like everyone else, in the name of minding my own business.

But, as Seriously Searching will say, this is a bit off topic... (Sorry SS! )

 

[panglossian]

Thanks for that link Tallytowngirl.
I think it also involves picking your battles. If someone perceives a lot of personal battles within their day, they will prioritize to the most immediate battle within the needs hierarchy. That won't be the neighbor or stranger unless they would be necessary in resolving a battle.

I don't know why Hilton's family stayed silent, I'm sure they had their reasons. Given his age how many in his family still survive...

 

[aj1020]

I don't know why Hilton's family stayed silent, I'm sure they had their reasons. Given his age how many in his family still survive...

I agree - we don't know these people, but one can only assume that they had their reasons for keeping their distance from him - or maybe he's the one that stayed away from his family. The point is we just don't know his family situation and trying to figure out what happened without more clues is asinine.

Thanks for the link, Tally. I absolutely makes sense to me why people didn't contact LE all those times when Hilton's behavior was questionable. It may have been out of the ordinary, but most may have just viewed it as odd and went about their day to deal with their own, more important issues.

 

[GlitchWizard]

I think it's easy for you to pass judgment on all those people who didn't react appropriately to Hilton's actions and call LE because you weren't there, but can any of us be so sure that we would have done things differently in their shoes??

What good would it have done to contact law enforcement for weird behavior, anyway? Unless a law is broken, they can't do anything - and if a law is broken but isn't a huge one - he's out again anyway.

 

[Tallytowngirl]

What good would it have done to contact law enforcement for weird behavior, anyway? Unless a law is broken, they can't do anything - and if a law is broken but isn't a huge one - he's out again anyway.

no, I know, I know. He never got seen doing anything more than being weird or cranky - things that lots of perfectly harmless people might do. So don't call the cops, give the guy some slack, he's already got enough problems, being old, toothless and living in a van...

Here's another example of crazy stupid luck that I started to mention in my earlier post - he had an outstanding Georgia warrant out for his arrest, (I think for leaving the other van out in the woods). It's what they held him on until they gathered enough on him for Meredith's murder. But nobody in Georgia thought it important enough to add it to the national database. If LE here in FL had seen he had an outstanding warrant... well it was only abandoning a car, so they probably would have let him go, anyway.

 

[GlitchWizard]

That's the eerie thing about serial killers. Most of them aren't whacked out acting weirdos like this one. You'd never know. *shudder*

no, I know, I know. He never got seen doing anything more than being weird or cranky - things that lots of perfectly harmless people might do. So don't call the cops, give the guy some slack, he's already got enough problems, being old, toothless and living in a van...

Here's another example of crazy stupid luck that I started to mention in my earlier post - he had an outstanding Georgia warrant out for his arrest, (I think for leaving the other van out in the woods). It's what they held him on until they gathered enough on him for Meredith's murder. But nobody in Georgia thought it important enough to add it to the national database. If LE here in FL had seen he had an outstanding warrant... well it was only abandoning a car, so they probably would have let him go, anyway.

 

[Native New Yorker]

It is too bad that when GMH tried to run over that man's wife, that it was not reported ( the man just reported Hilton for threatening his dog)...I know that it is a lot of trouble to make such reports...and might not have made any difference ultimately...
Hilton was incredibly lucky...and seems to have flown under the radar for many years......

I am just horrified at all that was found in his van ( see the thread on the Bryants) HOW many people did this monster kill??

 

[Native New Yorker]

http://wlos.com/newsroom/nc/topstory/topstory1.shtml
see link at end of article for search warrant

***thank you, Sweetmop!***

 

[Blondieskatz]

Here's another example of crazy stupid luck that I started to mention in my earlier post - he had an outstanding Georgia warrant out for his arrest, (I think for leaving the other van out in the woods). It's what they held him on until they gathered enough on him for Meredith's murder. But nobody in Georgia thought it important enough to add it to the national database. If LE here in FL had seen he had an outstanding warrant... well it was only abandoning a car, so they probably would have let him go, anyway.

How tue that is Tt. You hear about it all the time once these serial killers are caught. Somewhere along the way they had been stopped for speeding or some traffic violation or even taken to jail for some reason.

 

[happy2bn10ec]

It is too bad that when GMH tried to run over that man's wife, that it was not reported ( the man just reported Hilton for threatening his dog)...I know that it is a lot of trouble to make such reports...and might not have made any difference ultimately...
Hilton was incredibly lucky...and seems to have flown under the radar for many years......

I am just horrified at all that was found in his van ( see the thread on the Bryants) HOW many people did this monster kill??

I know this is O/T, so sorry - I don't know about ya'll, but I am
baffled by the fact that this man reported Hilton for threatening his dog but not for trying to RUN OVER HIS WIFE???:waitasec: :waitasec: :waitasec:

 

[Tallytowngirl]

I know this is O/T, so sorry - I don't know about ya'll, but I am
baffled by the fact that this man reported Hilton for threatening his dog but not for trying to RUN OVER HIS WIFE???:waitasec: :waitasec: :waitasec:

Me too! And I don't even think it was HIS dog, I think it was just some dog...

 

[DeltaDawn]

Here's a link to a photo that gives an idea of where the car was and what the road looks like.

As for the keys being in the car - the police, so far as I know, have not reported what they found (or didn't find) in the car... so nothing is official. I learned about the car being locked and the purse under the seat from an article that quoted a friend of Cheryl's, who was one of the people who found the car on Monday morning. She said the purse was there but the keys and cell were not, and the car was locked. However, the same newspaper and journalist had printed incorrect information in a previous article and had to retract it... so whether this info. is correct, I don't know for a fact.

When you click on the photo link above from Tallytowngirl there is a sign/poster for Cheryl. I think the wording of the sign is very important..It says LAST SEEN HERE. This leads me to believe by the wording they used that someone did infact report seeing Cheryl either in her car or in the area near there..otherwise it would have said her car was found here..not last seen here. I think her cell was either not with her or dead, so she couldn't call for help so she decided to walk back to the gas station.



Also interesting if she took her keys, wallet and cellphone. Hilton did not like his vics to be carrying cellphones. The girl that he cased on the trail the day prior to Meredith's abduction said he worked it into the conversation asking two key things, do you have a cellphone and are you alone. That girl was with a group that was just arriving. So he was very astute at what he was looking for in a vic. And patient enough to have the time, place and vic meet his requirements.

 

[MeoW333]

I have a question, if anyone knows the answer to this. It says in the article that Hilton was born in Atlanta, Ga. Yet on a background check, his social security # was issued in FL. Is this a common thing, to have a SS# issued in a different state than where one is born?

"Born in Atlanta, Ga. to William E. Hilton and Cleo M. Reynolds, Gary Hilton once pursued a promising life."
http://insideedition.com/news.aspx?storyID=1174

 

[DeltaDawn]

Yes, back in the day people didn't automatically get a SS#. So he may have waited to get one until he was enlisted in the service.

 

[Hiker]

While you now have to have SS#s for children to do things like list them as dependents on your income tax and get health insurance for them, this was not always the case. Many people did not get an SS card until they went to work or to college in the past because children were not required to have an SS# unless they had income that had to be reported to the IRS (like a trust fund's interest income) or they were drawing SSI or SS survivor benefits or Food Stamps or welfare.