"I'm Going to Give You a New Scoop": Gary Michael Hilton Faces Court TV's David Scott, 2024

Name: "I'm Going to Give You a New Scoop": Gary Michael Hilton Faces Court TV's David Scott, 2024
Uploaded: 2025-04-14T00:00:00Z
Duration: 1 h 27 min 38 s
Description: In his first televised interview, recorded on Florida's death row in December 2024, Gary Michael Hilton told Court TV's David Scott that he killed Cheryl Dunlap, a murder he had never before admitted.

In his first televised interview, recorded on Florida's death row in December 2024, Gary Michael Hilton told Court TV's David Scott that he killed Cheryl Dunlap, a murder he had never before admitted.

Subject: Gary Michael Hilton
Recorded: about December 2024
Runtime: 1:27:38

Content warning: Hilton describes in his own words the abduction, rape and beating to death of a young woman, the beating and shooting of an elderly couple, and the shooting and decapitation of a woman; he also describes violent sexual fantasies.

The Interview

In December 2024, Gary Michael Hilton, then 78 and on Florida's death row, sat for an interview with David Scott for Court TV's series *Interview With A Killer*. It became the two-hour premiere of the series' second season, "Psycho Killer", which aired on April 13, 2025. Court TV described it as Hilton's first televised interview. In it he told Scott that he had killed Cheryl Dunlap in Florida in December 2007, a murder for which he was convicted but which he had never admitted, and he gave his own accounts of the killings of John and Irene Bryant and Meredith Emerson.

Historical Context

Between October 2007 and January 2008, Hilton, a drifter then in his early sixties, killed four people in or near national forests in three states. John and Irene Bryant, aged 80 and 84, disappeared from Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina in October 2007. Cheryl Dunlap, 46, a nurse and Sunday school teacher from the Tallahassee area, disappeared in the Apalachicola National Forest in December 2007; her body was found later that month. Meredith Emerson, 24, was abducted on Blood Mountain in north Georgia on New Year's Day 2008. Hilton was arrested on January 4, 2008, after a witness recognised him at a gas station.

Circumstances of the Interview

Hilton pleaded guilty in Georgia to the murder of Meredith Emerson on January 31, 2008, in a deal that took the death penalty off the table in return for leading investigators to her remains. A Florida jury convicted him of Cheryl Dunlap's murder in 2011, and he was sentenced to death. In a federal plea in 2012 he admitted the Bryant killings and was sentenced in 2013 to four life terms plus 15 years, to be served consecutively with his state sentences. Hilton told Scott that he was in very poor health and that it was "time after 17 years to break my silence". Scott says on camera that they had 60 minutes. The episode also includes excerpts of Hilton's 2008 police interrogation, the 911 call that led to his arrest, and interviews with retired Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent John Cagle, two of Cheryl Dunlap's friends, and a forensic psychiatrist who evaluated Hilton for the defence.

What the Interview Covers

Hilton describes a childhood fascination with "death and destruction", a diagnosis of "sociopathic character disorder" at 14, and lifelong violent sexual fantasies. He gives his account of attacking the Bryants at a trailhead, saying he wanted their bank card, and of killing John Bryant in another forest. He then tells Scott, "I'm going to give you a new scoop. I did it," and describes killing Cheryl Dunlap after telling her he was letting her go. He recalls that she asked him to ask Jesus to forgive him. On Meredith Emerson, he disputes Scott's account of her captivity, admits raping her, and describes killing her. He calls himself "the oldest serial killer in American history" and says he had no prior violent crimes before 61. Asked about his own death, he says it frightens him, and that his victims "wanted to live, too".

What Makes the Recording Significant

The recording is Hilton's first known on-camera admission to the murder of Cheryl Dunlap, made while his challenge to that conviction was still pending in the federal courts. It sets his 2024 account beside his own words to police in 2008, and, according to Court TV, it is the first time he had described exactly what happened to the Bryants. The episode also records the investigators' and the victims' friends' view of the case 17 years on.

Archival Importance

The Emerson case is remembered for her resistance: the episode credits the false PIN numbers she gave Hilton with leaving a trail that helped investigators. The recording preserves the killer's own account late in his life, including statements that may bear on his appeals.

Important Caveats

Everything Hilton says about his crimes, motives and victims is his own account. His claims that Meredith Emerson "had a good time" and that he "treated them good" are contradicted by the record. His claim to have committed no violent crimes before 61 cannot be tested: the episode notes that he has been named as a suspect in other disappearances and deaths, including those of Patrice Endres, Rossana Miliani, Michael Scot Louis, Judy Smith and Jason Knapp, but he has never been charged in any of them. The narration's summary that he "abducted, raped, murdered, and decapitated" hikers over four months is Court TV's wording and does not describe every case. Whether his statements are admissible or affect his appeals is not established.

David Scott: You have a moniker, the National Forest Serial Killer.

Gary Michael Hilton: Oh, really?

David Scott: Mm-hmm.

Gary Michael Hilton: I think I prefer the Beast of Blood Mountain.

David Scott: A killer perversely proud of his crimes.

Gary Michael Hilton: I set the record. I'm the oldest serial killer in American history. Isn't that amazing?

David Scott: He lurked in the woods, preyed on hiking trails, and displayed the evil that can be found in the wilderness of the human mind.

Gary Michael Hilton: I'm your worst nightmare, David.

David Scott: Gary Michael Hilton is talking about his crimes for the first time ever.

Gary Michael Hilton: After ignoring innumerable requests from every kind of person in the world, it's time to break my silence.

David Scott: And he'll be confronted like never before.

David Scott: Now, you keep pointing to robbery, but was that just an excuse to torture and kill people?

Gary Michael Hilton: Torture and kill people?

David Scott: Yeah.

Gary Michael Hilton: Hold on. Torture? I didn't torture anybody.

David Scott: Kidnap people, chain them up in your car, beat them to death, you rape them? Most people would regard that as torture.

Gary Michael Hilton: No, no, no. Where are we going with this?

David Scott: Well, I think we're going to the mind of a psychopath.

Gary Michael Hilton: A psychopath?

David Scott: Devoid of empathy, mercy, or decency. Narcissistic. Psychotically so. You're nuts.

Gary Michael Hilton: [unclear: "Kill them with it" (captions only); compare 1:13:35]

David Scott: Now awaiting a death sentence in Florida, Hilton says he's finally ready to come clean.

Gary Michael Hilton: I'm going to give you a new scoop. I did it. I'm confessing to [unclear: "her murder" / "a murder"] on camera.

David Scott: On camera.

David Scott: And reveal what really happened to his victims.

Gary Michael Hilton: She said something that really grabbed me.

David Scott: What'd she say?

David Scott: It's the last chapter of an American crime saga.

David Scott: Do you hate women?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes and no. Yes.

David Scott: And our last chance to look inside the mind of one of the country's most terrifying serial killers.

David Scott: You have the power to haunt our dreams.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: Turn them into nightmares. Do you enjoy having that kind of power over us?

Gary Michael Hilton: You know, in a perverse kind of way, I do. [Music: title sequence, about 02:36 to 03:35]

David Scott: By now I've come face to face with my share of killers. They've been deranged, troubled, violent, their heinous crimes defined by a lifetime of hate or a split second of evil. But nothing could have prepared me for the likes of Gary Michael Hilton.

News Anchor: New questions tonight about whether the man accused of killing and decapitating a Georgia hiker may in fact be a serial killer.

David Scott: In 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, the sprawling wilderness of America's national forests. Over four months, he abducted, raped, murdered, and decapitated unsuspecting hikers, terrifying park visitors across the country. With Hilton lurking in the woods, no one was safe. It was like something out of a horror movie. Wearing a makeshift mask, Hilton used his victims' ATM cards in the aftermath of each grisly murder. Then, in January 2008, a massive manhunt led to his capture.

Police Radio: Okay, that one. What's the exact location? I had the person of interest in that missing woman case is at this, uh, Chevron gas station. He's throwing stuff in the dumpster here. I can go take him down if you want. Stay right there. Here comes the cops. Yes, they got him.

David Scott: Hilton's arrest made national news and brought an end to the carnage.

News Reporters: Cops tracked this guy down and captured him. 61-year-old Gary Michael Hilton now sits in a county jail, charged with abducting and killing 24-year-old Meredith Emerson. The suspect in this case is also a possible suspect in other murders.

David Scott: His interrogation brought into focus a terrifying villain.

Gary Michael Hilton: Once you've taken someone, you're either going to kill them or you're going to get caught.

David Scott: Wickedly intelligent, boastful of his crimes.

Gary Michael Hilton: I'm the one that killed the girl. Okay? I'm the one that killed...

David Scott: And contemptuous of his victims.

Gary Michael Hilton: I didn't kill [unclear: "children" (captions only)] for any satisfaction. It was distasteful. It was dreadful. Trust me, it was. Of course, I was able to do it because of my general [unclear: "wage" / "rage"] against society.

Investigator: Of course. Of course.

David Scott: Hilton pleaded guilty to murdering 24-year-old Meredith Emerson in Georgia, as well as John and Irene Bryant, an elderly couple in North Carolina. He 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. Today, he awaits execution after more than a decade on Florida's death row. But questions remain about Hilton's terrifying rampage. Many, only he can answer. At 61 years old, he claims he became America's oldest serial killer. What caused him to snap? Why did he do it? Are there other victims? Despite all the attention, Hilton has never before spoken to the media.

David Scott: Okay, so the clock starts now. 10:42.

Gary Michael Hilton: Good. Good.

David Scott: We have exactly 60 minutes.

David Scott: It was my first interview with a murderer sentenced to die. After all these years, why did Hilton finally want to talk? And what would he now reveal?

David Scott: Here you are on death row...

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: ...talking for the first time publicly about your crimes.

Gary Michael Hilton: That's right.

David Scott: We're here today, sir, to try and understand the mindset and motivations behind your actions in these cases. Uh, you're 78 years old now, right?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: Um, in poor health, you say?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes, very poor health. That's one reason I'm doing this, because I'm going to die soon. I have a congestive heart failure.

David Scott: Tell me in your own words, why, why are you breaking your silence?

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, you hit it right on the head. Uh, and also an answer is, I don't know. All I can say is, it's time. After 17 years, after ignoring innumerable requests from every kind of person in the world, it's time. That's the way I feel. It's time after 17 years to break my silence.

David Scott: In our correspondence, you said, "I think I'm prepared to give you an interview that's a lollapalooza. It'll knock your socks off."

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: "I will answer any question..."

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: "...about any subject truthfully and completely."

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: Can I count on you for that?

Gary Michael Hilton: You sure can.

David Scott: You said, "Be prepared to meet a whole different breed of cat." What breed, exactly?

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, I'm just like no one else, really, you know.

David Scott: Serial killer?

Gary Michael Hilton: They're a dime a dozen.

David Scott: Psychopath?

Gary Michael Hilton: No.

David Scott: Sociopath?

Gary Michael Hilton: I have part of that in me.

David Scott: In the years since his murder spree, Hilton's infamy has seemingly only grown. He's been the subject of documentaries and internet lore.

Unidentified Narrator: This is the case of Gary Hilton.

David Scott: His crimes spanned three states and millions of acres of pristine national forest and terrorized hikers everywhere.

David Scott: What did you think when the media dubbed you the National Forest Serial Killer?

Gary Michael Hilton: I think I prefer the Beast of Blood Mountain.

David Scott: The Beast of Blood Mountain?

Gary Michael Hilton: Mm-hmm.

David Scott: Does that give you a sense of accomplishment?

Gary Michael Hilton: No.

David Scott: Bound by chains and shackled to a violent past, Hilton may look different now after 12 years on death row. But he's about to give his first interview ever and open a window into a mind deranged since childhood.

David Scott: From a child, a little child?

Gary Michael Hilton: Oh, I was always fascinated with death and destruction and guns and war, as a child at five, six years old. Uh, constantly, I've just always been fascinated with it.

David Scott: Born in Atlanta and raised in Florida by his mother and stepfather, Hilton's troubled and violent mind was evident as a teenager.

David Scott: Four minutes into the police interrogation, you call yourself a sociopath. You remember that? You said, "I'm a sociopath."

Gary Michael Hilton: And I'm [unclear: "not right" / "like"], but they call it antisocial. That's, that's the new name for it, an antisocial personality. In my day it was called a sociopathic character disorder.

David Scott: Were you diagnosed as a sociopath?

Gary Michael Hilton: As a matter of fact, I was.

David Scott: At age 14, Hilton fired a shotgun at his stepfather, nearly killing him. Authorities ordered a mental evaluation.

Gary Michael Hilton: At 14, I was seeing the head of the Dade County Child Guidance Clinic, who was a psychiatrist. I saw him for, um, a year or two. And he just flat told me.

David Scott: What did he tell you?

Gary Michael Hilton: You have a sociopathic character disorder.

David Scott: Hilton had other textbook markers for psychopathy and a condition called paraphilia, an obsession with violent sexual fantasies.

David Scott: You admit to paraphilia?

Gary Michael Hilton: Strong.

David Scott: Strong.

Gary Michael Hilton: Strong. That's one of the reasons I, I, uh, I am a killer. I've had strong paraphilia, uh, all my life. When I, I accidentally discovered masturbation, my paraphilia, as I was doing it for years, it was a battlefield, and there were women, women nude, and they were spread over a, a tree stump, and I would come along with a sword.

David Scott: Hilton went on to describe vile acts against women.

David Scott: That's how you would get off.

Gary Michael Hilton: This is my first sexual feelings.

David Scott: His adulthood was marked by a string of failed marriages and short-lived jobs, until in middle age he found himself broke, homeless, and alone, but for the pet dogs he says he felt closer to than any human being.

David Scott: You have an odd relationship with dogs. You seem more bonded with dogs than with the people in your, in your life, in your family.

Gary Michael Hilton: Oh, a million times more.

David Scott: Is that fair?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yeah.

David Scott: You told police, in the wolf world, there are no assault and battery laws, there are no murder laws.

Gary Michael Hilton: Right.

David Scott: Imagine such a world where there are no murder laws.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes, that's the world they live in.

David Scott: But in reality, in the real world, you're not a wolf, you're a human being, and she's an innocent stranger. So why kill, why murder Meredith Emerson?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yeah, it's a good question. Uh, it's a good question.

David Scott: What's the answer?

David Scott: It's not clear exactly when Gary Hilton decided to start stalking and killing people, but it is known that for years he frequented national parks in multiple states in his white van, posing as an ordinary hiker.

Unidentified Voice: What you doing out here?

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, [unclear: "here we come along, am I? Can you ask me that?" / "you're the poor person. Come along. Am I ask me that?"]

David Scott: At some point in his middle age, a lifetime of madness and failure had pushed him over the edge.

David Scott: Outside of crime, your life is utterly unremarkable.

Gary Michael Hilton: That's true.

David Scott: Is that fair?

Gary Michael Hilton: A complete abject failure, a nothing, a nobody, who never achieved anything, that never followed through on anything, who is a failure at everything.

David Scott: Except killing.

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, that was, that started when I was 61.

David Scott: In January 2008, Hilton was scouting the trails of Georgia's Blood Mountain for human prey. He was armed with a bayonet, a police baton, and a friendly red retriever named Dandy. Chattahoochee National Forest: 750,000 acres of thick woodlands in the North Georgia mountains.

David Scott: At what point did you first spot Meredith? Can you remember?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yeah. I was coming down off the Blood Mountain Trail and she was just coming up, and she had stopped and opened up her little collapsible dog bowl.

David Scott: Twenty-four-year-old Meredith Emerson was hiking with her dog on that day. The recent University of Georgia graduate was just settling into a new career and a bright future when she crossed paths with evil.

David Scott: She fit the profile. Single...

Gary Michael Hilton: Oh, definitely. Good looking.

David Scott: Single woman.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yeah. Good looking, young and everything.

David Scott: Unlikely to resist. Or so you thought. You told police that your MO was to lurk and sometimes watch with binoculars from a distance, just like a hunter would.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yeah. The Blood Mountain Trail is the most used day hiking trail in the state of Georgia. So on the one hand, that makes it an excellent hunting ground. On the other hand, it makes it no good because there's so many witnesses.

David Scott: You positioned yourself at the intersection of two trails, right?

Gary Michael Hilton: No, I was just coming down off the trail and boom, there she was.

David Scott: At what point did you decide she was the one you were going to strike?

Gary Michael Hilton: I'd already decided the instant I saw her.

David Scott: Closing the distance to Meredith on the trail was easy with the help of Hilton's dog, Dandy.

David Scott: You deploy your unwitting accomplice, Dandy, right? The icebreaker.

Gary Michael Hilton: I mean, you can't help but not use him. He's so lovable and everything.

David Scott: Well, you told police that was part of the strategy.

Gary Michael Hilton: You see, it's, it's reverse anthropomorphism. Rather than assigning human qualities to an animal, they assign animal qualities to humans. So he's got this laughing, lovable golden retriever. He must be okay.

David Scott: Right. Reverse anthropomorphism. Some men use dogs to meet women that way. You use your dog to meet victims that way. It worked on her, right? Now you're walking up towards the summit on the trail in close proximity. The presence of so many other people on the trail didn't dissuade you?

Gary Michael Hilton: I'm telling you, it should have. I walked up the trail with her for a ways, and several people saw me with her.

David Scott: Right.

Gary Michael Hilton: And as a matter of fact, one guy, and it turns out that he was law enforcement...

David Scott: Yeah, yeah.

Gary Michael Hilton: One guy said, "Are you with her?"

David Scott: Hmm.

Gary Michael Hilton: And I said, "No." [unclear: "That was, that should have killed it right there" / "That was back to the children right there"].

David Scott: Moments later, alone with Meredith on the trail, the former Army soldier brandished his bayonet blade and prepared to strike. But subduing her wouldn't be nearly as easy as he expected. Meredith Emerson was trained in martial arts and ready for the aging maniac.

David Scott: You confront her with the bayonet. She attacks the weapon.

Gary Michael Hilton: She shocked me. She had real quick hands, and she grabbed the knife blade. She cut her [unclear: "hand" / "head"] slightly. Like I said, the bayonet was not sharp. She grabbed it, and I was so slack, I was like lollygagging around. Didn't have a good, firm grip on it. And she twisted it right out of my hand.

David Scott: So she disarms you.

David Scott: But she loses control of the bayonet, too, at the same time.

David Scott: Now you know you've badly miscalculated. You resort to your second go-to weapon, the police baton.

Gary Michael Hilton: And she just proceeded to grab the baton and took that out of my [unclear: "head" / "hand"].

David Scott: So now you're getting your ass kicked by a girl in the woods.

Gary Michael Hilton: No, no.

David Scott: Sounds like it.

Gary Michael Hilton: Not at all.

David Scott: Really?

David Scott: I sensed at this moment that pressing Hilton might help reveal just how prideful and heartless he is. To get inside his head, I needed to get under his skin.

David Scott: [unclear: "What do you think? You're armed" / "Why do you think you're armed?"], she's not. You have, what, 40 or 50 pounds on her. Not very manly of you, Mr. Hilton. You pick a weak victim. An Army soldier would call that a punk move.

Gary Michael Hilton: No one was there but her and me, and I'm telling you frankly, even the best of us have bad days, okay? And no, it wasn't a punk move, because guess what happened then? After she took the bat, she took the, the bayonet, what happened then?

David Scott: You had to hand-fight her, you said.

Gary Michael Hilton: And what happened then?

David Scott: Well, you overpowered her, just barely, it sounds like.

Gary Michael Hilton: No, not just barely.

David Scott: No?

Gary Michael Hilton: Where did you get that at?

David Scott: Well, you said to the police, "I had to hand-fight her. I probably have multiple fractures in my right hand."

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes, that's right.

David Scott: "And I still couldn't get control of her. She would feign or pretend that I was in control and then start fighting again. So I had to hit her a number of times, straight punches to the face or the head."

Gary Michael Hilton: Right. But I had control of her. I had, had her with my left hand the whole time.

David Scott: And so what happened?

Gary Michael Hilton: I, I beat her ass.

David Scott: Can I ask you this? Uh, empathy, mercy, decency. Did those ideas ever register with you at all?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes. I have four different personalities: a soldier, a scientist, an artist, and a comedian.

David Scott: Hilton says he has multiple personalities, to which he ascribes four respective professions, though he is qualified in none.

Gary Michael Hilton: The soldier and the scientist, they're totally rational, unemotional. The artist is concerned with textures and feelings and emotions, and, and the comedian wants to make people happy. The soldier personality is, is [unclear: "emotionless" / "emotional"]. Kill them all, let God sort them out. That's the soldier mentality.

David Scott: Is it possible that, um, all that talk about being an Army soldier was delusional on your part?

Gary Michael Hilton: No. No. No. I've been tested too many times. I've been in too, too many fights for over, over 20 years.

David Scott: Hilton forcibly abducted Meredith Emerson and chained her to the chassis inside his white van. While Meredith languished, a massive search was underway to find her that garnered widespread media attention. But the scale of the crime scene, nearly a million acres of Georgia's Chattahoochee National Forest, was daunting.

News Anchor: No trace yet of a missing 24-year-old Gwinnett County woman.

Search Volunteers And Friends: We were there from sunup to sundown. Meredith Emerson could do anything. If anybody can survive this, she can. We haven't found anything here yet.

News Reporter: The community rallies.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yeah, I, I thought this would just pass unnoticed. Just a, another hiker missing in the [unclear: "mountains, and" / "mouth, man"], no big deal. Maybe a paragraph in the paper. Good grief.

David Scott: Suddenly, the investigation was blown wide open. Police pick up a digital trail as Meredith repeatedly sends Hilton to ATM machines with the wrong PIN number, signaling his location. Hilton is publicly identified as the prime suspect, last seen by witnesses with Meredith Emerson alive. The race is on to rescue Meredith and apprehend Hilton.

Law Enforcement Official: It is going to be a white male between the ages of 50 and 60 years old, approximately.

David Scott: But the next discovery would change everything.

News Anchor: The 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.

David Scott: It turns out that Meredith Emerson is not the first person attacked on Hilton's killing spree, only the latest.

David Scott: You never intended to let her go.

Gary Michael Hilton: Never.

David Scott: Now, you keep pointing to robbery, but that sure seems like a pretext for what you describe as paraphilia. Was that just an excuse to torture and kill people?

Gary Michael Hilton: No. Torture and kill people?

David Scott: Yeah.

Gary Michael Hilton: Hold on. Torture? I didn't torture anybody.

David Scott: You kidnap people, chain them up in your car, you beat them to death, you rape them. Most people would regard that as torture.

Gary Michael Hilton: No, no, no, no. Where are we going with this?

David Scott: Well, I think we're going to the mind of a psychopath.

Gary Michael Hilton: A psychopath?

David Scott: Devoid of empathy, mercy, or decency. Narcissistic. Psychotically so. You're nuts.

Gary Michael Hilton: I'm nuts?

David Scott: Yes, you are nuts.

Gary Michael Hilton: Okay.

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David Scott: All day above Blood Mountain, the State Patrol's infrared detectors scanned for body heat below. The search for Meredith Emerson made national headlines and was a desperate race against time.

Law Enforcement Official: Do everything we can do to make sure that, uh, if she's up there, that we get her out of there, get her out of there safely.

David Scott: Police now knew who took her and which way he was driving. They also knew that Hilton could snap at any moment.

Law Enforcement Official: It's a missing persons investigation right now, and that's how we're pursuing it.

David Scott: And 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.

News Anchor: The 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.

David Scott: Four months earlier, John and Irene Bryant had just arrived at Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. The retired couple were 80 and 84 years old, but fit and young at heart and avid hikers. But on this day, the Bryants walked onto the trailhead and into an ambush. 61-year-old drifter Gary Hilton was armed and lying in wait.

David Scott: Irene and John Bryant, right? October 2007.

David Scott: Hilton has never discussed exactly what happened to the Bryants until now. The crime scene is North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest, half a million acres, with hundreds of miles of hiking trails.

David Scott: At what point did you spot the two octogenarians?

Gary Michael Hilton: Uh, when they got out of their car at the trailhead.

David Scott: In the parking lot?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yeah. It was just a little parking lot.

David Scott: And, and why them? Were there no lone girls out there that day to pick on?

Gary Michael Hilton: No. I, I, again, I violated one of my rules. I said no couples, because two murders would, would, would generate a lot of publicity. I was down to one [unclear: "Ritalin" / "ramen"], two spoons of coffee, $2. I'd been living out of dumpsters from a picnic area for two weeks. I'd lost a ton of weight. I think I was probably about down to 140. And I just said, "Hey, this has got to stop." And I had to take [unclear: "some money" (both machine readings) / "someone" (as Scott repeats it)].

David Scott: What do you mean, when you say you had to take someone?

Gary Michael Hilton: To get money.

David Scott: For robbery purposes?

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, yes. I'm going to stake out this trailhead, and the first person that shows up goes.

David Scott: It was the Bryants?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: Okay. What happens next?

Gary Michael Hilton: So I kind of geared up, and so I say to John Bryant, "You know what? We're going to take your credit card and run it." And he said, "[unclear: "I'll go to hell" / "Aw, go to hell"]." And he just brushed right past me. And I deployed the baton and hit him on the back of his left knee. So the guy whirls around. He was a big guy. A big, strong man, just as fit as can be. He whirls around. He's carrying this, uh, trekking stick, this hiking stick that they love to carry. So he goes after me with that. So I just brushed it away, and then whack. [unclear: "Hit him" / "He didn't want"] on the side of the head, then pulled out a pepper spray, sprayed him in the face. He steps forward a few feet and goes down.

David Scott: Where was Irene?

Gary Michael Hilton: She was a few feet ahead of him. And then he does the craziest thing. I can't believe this. He said, "Irene, I can't see. Hit him for me." I just beaten him down. And he's a big guy, six foot plus, and now he's telling his wife to fight me. And bless her heart, Irene, she was all heart.

David Scott: She comes at you.

Gary Michael Hilton: She springs right into a fencing position, you know, like en garde, you know, and pow, and stabs me in the chest. I go, "Ah," and I brush it to one side and whack, hit her with the expander. She goes down. Then I'm going to take him with me. Bryant never gets up, but he does another crazy thing. While he's sitting there, he pulls his wallet out, and he takes his credit cards out, and he throws them. Inexplicable.

David Scott: Did you abduct both of them at that point?

Gary Michael Hilton: No, no, I, I only abducted, uh, him. She wouldn't get in the van.

David Scott: So what'd you do to her?

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, I put him in the van, locked him in the van, closed the door, and I, and I went back over to her a few feet away. She knew what was coming, and she said, "I'm not getting in the van." The police always tell you, don't get in the vehicle, you're as good as dead. And she says, "I'm not getting in the van." I gave her my Dirty Harry voice. I said, "You're not getting in the van?" She said, "No." And I immediately laid into her. I beat her, and, and her blood blew up and hit me in the eyes, and it turned my vision red. Oh, nasty. Nasty, nasty, nasty.

David Scott: Hilton dumped Irene Bryant's body near the trail and held a battered John Bryant captive in his white van. He masked his face with duct tape and used the Bryants' ATM card to withdraw his payday for murder and kidnapping: $300.

David Scott: There are easier ways to get money.

Gary Michael Hilton: There are.

David Scott: So you're...

Gary Michael Hilton: It was all, it was all stupid. Very stupid.

David Scott: I mean, yielding what, a few hundred dollars over the course of six months?

Gary Michael Hilton: Very stupid. The, the smart thing to do would be to take people in parking lots.

David Scott: Okay. What about getting a job and earning some money? Don't take anybody.

Gary Michael Hilton: I'm 61 years old. I'm sick with MS. I'm burned out. I have no resume. I'm going to walk into a phone room looking for a job as a telemarketer?

David Scott: Better than going out there killing innocent people, right?

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, robbing a bank was better than that. No, there's no, there was no, no practical way of, of working.

David Scott: Hilton then drove John Bryant deep into yet another national park, the Nantahala National Forest, to end his life.

Gary Michael Hilton: I wanted to get him a, a little further away, uh, because there were some houses within earshot. But John tried to run from me, and he fell down an embankment, and he caught his arm between two trees and, and broke it, broke it right here. So I tried to get him up, and he couldn't get up like that. So, you know, I had the pistol in my pocket. I just, pow, shot him in the side of the head. Through-and-through shot.

David Scott: John and Irene Bryant left four children and 11 grandchildren behind. For the next few weeks, Hilton was in between murders, what criminologists called the serial killer's cooling-off period.

David Scott: Can you explain to me what happens in your mind in that cooling-off period?

Gary Michael Hilton: I'm putting the [unclear: "feature" / "pizza"; probably "future"] out of my mind. And I have future foreshortening. I, I just get up every day and go hiking.

David Scott: You're not thinking about it at all?

Gary Michael Hilton: Trying not to.

David Scott: Is the appetite for it rebuilding over the course of the weeks in between?

Gary Michael Hilton: There was never an appetite for it.

David Scott: Well, how can that be?

Gary Michael Hilton: Because I told you, as soon as I started this, I said no.

David Scott: Well, why didn't you stop then, as soon as you started it?

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, I didn't see any alternative.

David Scott: What do you mean?

Gary Michael Hilton: That's what I mean. And if that sounds illogical, well, that's, that was my state of mind.

David Scott: Your mindset was that you couldn't see a way forward without continuing to kill?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: Just weeks after murdering the Bryants in North Carolina, Hilton was yet again broke and out for blood. He had made his way to Florida's Apalachicola National Forest, a thousand square miles of dense woods, and set his sights on a nurse and Sunday school teacher named Cheryl Dunlap.

Gary Michael Hilton: She was walking on the trail. She was walking.

David Scott: Now, you've never publicly told exactly what happened there, right?

Gary Michael Hilton: No, I haven't. And, uh, that case currently is under appeal. As a matter of fact, it hasn't been finally adjudicated. But hey, I'm going to give you a new scoop.

David Scott: This is Gary Hilton at an ATM machine in Tallahassee, Florida, in December 2007. His face is disguised to hide his identity. He's robbing his latest victim. But that is the least of his sins.

David Scott: You have the power to haunt our dreams.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes, sir.

David Scott: Turn them into nightmares. To worry about our daughters, to worry about our mothers, to worry about ourselves. Do you enjoy having that kind of power over us?

Gary Michael Hilton: You know, in a perverse kind of way, I do. The woman I killed in Tallahassee, that, um, I have my current [unclear: "best in it" / "destin"; probably "death sentence"] for, she was a devout Christian and, uh, a real [unclear: "wheel" (Whisper only)] in the church.

David Scott: Cheryl Dunlap.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: Um, now, you've never publicly told exactly what happened there, right?

Gary Michael Hilton: No, I haven't. And, uh, that case currently is under appeal.

David Scott: Right.

Gary Michael Hilton: As a matter of fact, it hasn't been finally adjudicated. But hey, I'm going to give you a new scoop. I did it. So, there you have it.

David Scott: You did it?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes. I'm confessing to [unclear: "a murder" / "her murder"] on camera that I've never [unclear: "had"] before.

David Scott: You murdered...

Gary Michael Hilton: So I'm giving you something, David.

David Scott: You murdered Cheryl Dunlap.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes, I did. I did it. And I'll be glad to tell anyone I did.

David Scott: After committing a double murder in North Carolina in the fall of 2007, Hilton fled one massive crime scene for another, arriving in Florida's Apalachicola National Forest. Yet again, Hilton found himself broke, hungry, and hunting for a human target. He was living out of his van and living out a fiendish killing spree.

David Scott: Where did you first spot her?

Gary Michael Hilton: In the, um, Leon Sinks Recreation Area, on the trail.

David Scott: Mm-hmm. Did you follow her?

Gary Michael Hilton: I staked out the trail, and I had binoculars. I, I was covered with a, um, mosquito net.

David Scott: I see.

Gary Michael Hilton: For camouflage.

David Scott: Now, this is part of the Apalachicola National Forest, another enormous, enormous stretch of a thousand square miles.

Gary Michael Hilton: It's about 40 by 40 miles. I finally had to get somebody, because I had a little bit of peanut butter, some fruit juice, one [unclear: "Ritalin" / "rolin"], a few spoons of coffee, and I had to take someone.

David Scott: When Cheryl Dunlap wasn't tending to her patients as a nurse, she was teaching Sunday school. But on this day, she was simply enjoying a walk in the pristine national forest. Hilton 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. After using her ATM card to steal her money, he decided to end her life. But first, he would toy with her.

Gary Michael Hilton: I put all her stuff together that I'd taken, her car keys and her cell phone and everything, and said, "I'm going to let you go. Uh, but first, I'm going to go into town and run your credit card, just to make sure it's good."

David Scott: Did she seem hopeful? Did she believe you?

Gary Michael Hilton: I, I believe so.

David Scott: Okay. Tell me, how did Cheryl die?

Gary Michael Hilton: I said, "Come on, let me, let's go. I'm going to chain you to a tree." And I have a, a chain and a lock, and she grabs it and goes right down and to put it on herself. She was already used to the drill, and I kind of had a feeling that she was going to try to not click that lock, you know what I mean? Just pretend it was locked. And as soon as she was down there and with her back to me, I had my pistol in a, a fanny pack there, a little .22, and I pulled it out and shot her in the back of the head.

David Scott: Hilton then dismembered her head and hands and burned her body.

Gary Michael Hilton: Cheryl Dunlap, she was all religion. And it, it gave me a kind of a perverse amusement to think I just terrorized an entire church.

David Scott: Okay.

Gary Michael Hilton: I just, I just have affected their life for the rest of their life. They'll never forget it. And all those little kids that she taught Sunday school to, you know, to find out that she was killed and her head, head was cut off and her hands were cut off. It, you know, it, it, it could haunt them, and, uh...

David Scott: Well, it will scar them for the rest of their lives.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes, right.

David Scott: You enjoy that? Amuse yourself?

Gary Michael Hilton: No, it's just, uh, I, I have to admit, yeah, I kind of like, ha ha, you know. But she said something that really grabbed me, kind of rattled me, what she said.

David Scott: What'd she say?

Friend Of Cheryl Dunlap: Cheryl 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. She was so proud of them, and she loved them so much. She had her scrubs on. Uh, I, I love that picture, uh, because she just, it was Cheryl.

David Scott: Cheryl Dunlap had lived a life of service.

Friend Of Cheryl Dunlap: There's probably not a day that goes by that I don't think about her. No. Because she was really, we were like, you know, in each other's lives, you know, in a deep way.

David Scott: When she wasn't treating patients in her nursing job, she was teaching Sunday school.

Friend Of Cheryl Dunlap: The thing that I miss most about Cheryl is her ability to listen. We spoke every day on the phone.

David Scott: Cindy Wechter and Laura Mayo were Cheryl Dunlap's best friends.

Friend Of Cheryl Dunlap: I miss the thought that she was always praying for me, and 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.

David Scott: On December 1st, 2007, she disappeared.

Friend Of Cheryl Dunlap: So I got a call and was told that she didn't show up for Sunday school. And they asked if I had heard from her, and I said, "No." I said, "But that doesn't sound like Cheryl." And I said, "This is concerning."

David Scott: Dunlap's disappearance matched Hilton's MO. She was last seen in the Apalachicola National Forest, just outside Tallahassee, Florida. Withdrawals were made from her bank account by a man wearing a makeshift mask of tape. And then two weeks later, her decapitated body was discovered by a hunter.

News Anchor: Authorities also believe Hilton may be connected to yet another woman's disappearance in Florida.

Cindy Wechter: From 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. I just felt this sense of darkness and evil.

Laura Mayo: The first time I heard the name Gary Hilton was, as Cindy said, wow, it was like there was no soul. But he was definitely an evil person.

David Scott: Hilton had never before confessed to Cheryl Dunlap's murder. We played part of his confession for Cheryl's dear friends, Cindy Wechter and Laura Mayo.

David Scott: How did Cheryl die?

Gary Michael Hilton: Gunshot in the back of the head.

David Scott: You were walking behind her?

Gary Michael Hilton: No, no, I, I said, uh, I was letting her go.

Friends Of Cheryl Dunlap: Oh, that trick. Yeah, that trick. Yeah, he's a tricky guy.

David Scott: Seventeen years later, Hilton still recalls her final words that shook the hardened killer to his core.

Gary Michael Hilton: But she said something that really grabbed me.

David Scott: What'd she say?

Gary Michael Hilton: She said, "Before you die, ask Jesus to forgive you for what you've done." And [unclear: "she just said" / "Jesus said"], kind of rattled me.

David Scott: Did that make you think twice?

Gary Michael Hilton: No.

David Scott: Did that make her more human?

Gary Michael Hilton: [unclear: "You know why?" / "Not why"]

David Scott: Do you...?

Gary Michael Hilton: [unclear: "Oh" / "Or"] she was human. Didn't matter. Didn't matter.

Friend Of Cheryl Dunlap: What I thought about was God's grace was right there with her. Even though she was facing death, you're telling him to ask for forgiveness. I think that's so powerful.

Friend Of Cheryl Dunlap: She would start sentences off like, "If my life is to be prophetic," and she would say that in a way that she knew certain. And I don't think she knew all of this, but you know how there are times, there are people that have a knowing. So when I heard that, it just brought me immense joy. I was just so proud of my friend, just so proud of her.

David Scott: Back in 2007, there were few clues as to how Cheryl died, and Hilton might have gotten away with it if he hadn't had the urge to strike again. Just one month after killing Cheryl Dunlap, Hilton prowled another national forest, out of money and out of his mind. This time, it was Georgia's Blood Mountain, where another missing woman was fighting for dear life.

David Scott: Do you hate women?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes and no. Yes. Yes.

David Scott: But Hilton's final murder victim, Meredith Emerson, had a clever plan of her own that would lead to Hilton's capture and end the killing.

Police Radio: Hi, I had the person of interest in that missing woman case is at this, uh, Chevron gas station. He's throwing stuff in the dumpster here. I can go take him down if you want. Sir, stay right there. [unclear: "Wait for that" / "Police are there"]. Yeah, they got him.

David Scott: Gary Michael Hilton is finally about to face justice. [Break; the second hour of the premiere begins with a recap]

David Scott: He lurked in the woods, preyed on hikers, and says he became America's oldest serial killer.

Gary Michael Hilton: I was always real good to my victims.

David Scott: Until you bludgeoned them.

Gary Michael Hilton: Until [unclear: "they" (both machine readings); probably "I"] either shot them or bludgeoned them.

Gary Michael Hilton: Once you've taken someone, you're either going to kill them or you're going to get caught.

David Scott: In 2007, Gary Michael Hilton, a deranged 61-year-old drifter, launched a killing spree in national forests spanning three different states. John and Irene Bryant had been slain in North Carolina. Cheryl Dunlap was murdered in Florida. And on New Year's Day in 2008, a young woman named Meredith Emerson went missing on Georgia's Blood Mountain.

David Scott: You never intended to let her go.

Gary Michael Hilton: Never.

David Scott: Right.

David Scott: Now, Hilton's talking for the first time ever about his murderous midlife crisis.

Gary Michael Hilton: I'm going to give you a new scoop. I did it.

David Scott: Making news with a murder confession.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes, I'm confessing to a murder on camera that I've never had before.

David Scott: And opening a window into the mind of a madman.

David Scott: Outside of crime, your life is utterly unremarkable.

Gary Michael Hilton: A complete abject failure.

David Scott: Except killing.

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, that was, that started when I was 61.

David Scott: Did it really?

Gary Michael Hilton: Man, I knew, I knew that was coming. I set the record. I'm the oldest serial killer in American history. Isn't that amazing? [Music: title sequence, about 45:50 to 46:30]

David Scott: On New Year's Day 2008, 24-year-old Meredith Emerson went for a walk on a mountain park trail and crossed paths with evil.

David Scott: You told police that your MO was to lurk and sometimes watch with the binoculars from a distance, just like a hunter would.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yeah.

David Scott: And were you doing that on this day?

Gary Michael Hilton: No, I was just coming down off the trail and boom, there she was.

David Scott: Meredith fiercely fought the attacker, but Hilton overpowered her and chained her inside the white van he lived in.

David Scott: And thus begins four days of living hell for Meredith Emerson.

Gary Michael Hilton: No.

David Scott: Yes.

David Scott: Sitting across from Hilton on Florida's death row, I'm staring at a real-life paradox. He's happy to admit to serial murder, but protests being characterized as inhumane.

Gary Michael Hilton: She had a good time.

David Scott: No, she didn't.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes, she did.

David Scott: No, she didn't.

Gary Michael Hilton: David, I was there.

David Scott: I know, but, I knew you were there, but you were in Gary Hilton world. In the real world, she was being tormented and tortured.

Gary Michael Hilton: She was not tormented and tortured. They fight, and then they submit, right? And a lot of it is because of me. I reassure [unclear: "her" / "them"] that it's going to be okay, but just quit fighting or you're going to get hurt.

David Scott: Seventeen years ago, when he was interrogated, Hilton told police he had a magical ability to comfort and lull his victims into submission, and he still stands by that claim.

Gary Michael Hilton: All of my victims fought me initially, but I quickly gained control, and then they all became strangely submissive. That's because of my power. I could put them at ease.

David Scott: She's stuck in your van, chained to the chassis.

Gary Michael Hilton: No, no. I, she was, she was unrestrained 90% of the time. Only during transit was, was she restrained.

David Scott: You had a collar on her neck.

Gary Michael Hilton: I'm telling you, we had a relaxing time. I, I gave her books to read. She would read them and everything. She wouldn't eat anything. I, I kept trying to...

David Scott: No. You're so delusional that you think she was having a good time.

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, she wasn't being tortured.

David Scott: You told police, um, "She was, she was not having a bad time at all. Enjoying herself. I could tell that."

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, in, in the sense she did.

David Scott: The advice to people, if they're abducted, is to engage your abductor and to make yourself a person to them.

David Scott: Hilton offered police this advice for anyone being held captive.

Gary Michael Hilton: Tell them about your family, what your dreams and hopes and plans and schemes are, because the abductor is psychopathic. He's looking at you in the inhuman way. You want to make yourself a human.

David Scott: Turns out that's exactly what Meredith Emerson tried to do in the clutches of the madman. But the cruel irony is lost on Hilton.

Gary Michael Hilton: She would joke.

David Scott: This is her engaging you to try and save her life.

Gary Michael Hilton: David, you, you are talking through your ass.

David Scott: You might be, you might be telling yourself that to make yourself appear less evil, but she was not having a good time, Mr. Hilton.

Gary Michael Hilton: No, I, I'm not... Less evil? I'm your worst nightmare, David.

David Scott: You're not trying to appear less evil?

Gary Michael Hilton: No.

David Scott: Here she is, fighting for her life, heroically, valiantly. That meant nothing to you in terms of empathy, mercy, or decency, did it?

Gary Michael Hilton: Not at that moment. I was always real good to my victims. I treated them good.

David Scott: You think so?

Gary Michael Hilton: I know I did.

David Scott: Until you bludgeoned them.

Gary Michael Hilton: Until [unclear: "they" (both machine readings); probably "I"] either shot them or bludgeoned them, yeah.

David Scott: But you have 0.0 empathy. First chance you get, you rape her.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: Paraphilia?

Gary Michael Hilton: That was, yes.

David Scott: Paraphilia is a fixation on sexual sadism, a condition Hilton admits drove him to rape Meredith Emerson, and yet he denies both the brutality and the gratification of the act.

Gary Michael Hilton: I didn't, I didn't enjoy it. I just did it because I'd planned it.

David Scott: Come on.

Gary Michael Hilton: No.

David Scott: You expect anyone to believe that?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: You also told the police that you didn't force her?

Gary Michael Hilton: No.

David Scott: That seems ridiculous. You're, you're [unclear: "enforcing this whole something" / "forcing this whole circle"].

Gary Michael Hilton: Oh, it was a rape. Make no mistake. But I didn't over, physically overpower her [unclear: "in any way" / "or anything"].

News Anchor: No trace yet of a missing 24-year-old Gwinnett County woman.

David Scott: All day above Blood Mountain, the State Patrol's infrared detectors scanned for body heat below. But there's still hope for Meredith Emerson as news crews and search teams descend on Blood Mountain.

John Cagle: We heard that there was a missing hiker January 2nd. It was in an area within the jurisdiction of my unit.

David Scott: Detective John Cagle of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation got the call to find Meredith Emerson.

John Cagle: We learned that Meredith was a recent graduate of the University of Georgia. She was living in an area north of metro Atlanta, uh, and, and had a, a job in marketing. She was an experienced hiker. Uh, she also had studied martial arts. So this is not somebody who would have just, um, gotten lost on the trail. We all became very concerned that, uh, this was something more than an overdue hiker. We had, uh, hundreds and hundreds of volunteers just show up to help look for Meredith. We organized search teams to go on Blood Mountain and to search not only the trail, but off the trails.

David Scott: The search is on.

Gary Michael Hilton: That was a shocker.

David Scott: You told police you didn't like seeing that. You, you've ridiculed the people who didn't know her, but came out to help anyway.

Gary Michael Hilton: I ridiculed the, the people? No, I didn't. You see the candlelight marches for Meredith Emerson and other people, and people show up and they, people that don't even know the girl. I mean, 35,000 people a year get shredded and maimed and beaten to death in car wrecks, okay? I mean, yeah, what I'm talking about is a virtual grief.

David Scott: An enormous crime scene. It's, it's, it's no wonder the police were stymied for so long.

David Scott: You watched this, this search unfold, right? [unclear: "So there are" / "Civilian,"] hundreds of searchers, helicopters, dogs, people walking the grid out there in the middle of nowhere. Did you just watch all that play out in [unclear: "Houston" (Whisper only)]?

Gary Michael Hilton: Oh, no. I didn't know anything about that.

David Scott: You didn't?

Gary Michael Hilton: Nope.

David Scott: Hilton didn't know it, but he had just become the prime suspect and was about to become the prey.

John Cagle: We began to, uh, interview people that had been on the trail on New Year's Day and had seen Meredith. They began to comment that they had seen her, uh, talking with, uh, an older guy. The older guy was acting very strangely. So we began to put out a description of this person that had been seen with Meredith. And we got a call to our tip line, uh, from someone who says, "I think I know who you're looking for. His name is Gary Hilton."

David Scott: After stalking and killing unsuspecting hikers in two other states, Hilton is now the one being hunted. The captive Meredith has a plan of her own.

Gary Michael Hilton: They fight, and then they submit.

David Scott: And a surprise in store for the aging maniac.

David Scott: She kept on fighting you, right, with her brains, outsmarting you with the bank cards.

Gary Michael Hilton: She didn't outsmart.

David Scott: Got you running around.

Gary Michael Hilton: You think so, huh?

David Scott: Oh, absolutely. Did you not figure out what she was doing? [Break]

David Scott: In 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.

David Scott: She's an innocent stranger. So why Meredith Emerson?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yeah, that's a good question. It's a good question.

David Scott: What's the answer?

Gary Michael Hilton: It was just the mission at the time.

David Scott: The mission at the time?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yep.

David Scott: The mission to what?

Gary Michael Hilton: To kill, murder, and take her ATM card, and, uh, get the money out of it.

David Scott: But when Hilton demanded Meredith's ATM card, she repeatedly gave him bad PIN numbers, which he used at machines along the escape route, leaving a trail of digital breadcrumbs for Georgia detective John Cagle.

John Cagle: We found out that there, in fact, had been activity throughout the week. The first night, uh, on January 1st, there was activity at a bank about 15 miles from Blood Mountain. And then another attempt at a bank about 40 miles south. And then the following day, there was another attempt about 70 miles, uh, southwest of Blood Mountain. So they're all over the place. She was doing that to give us time to try to catch up.

David Scott: She kept on fighting you, right, with her brains, outsmarting you with the bank cards.

Gary Michael Hilton: She didn't outsmart. I knew what she was doing.

David Scott: How many times did she have you running to ATMs?

Gary Michael Hilton: One... Oh, I don't know, off the top of my head. Several times.

David Scott: Five times.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yeah.

David Scott: You gave the police a virtual road map as you tried to use her ATM cards. She knew this was the way to hold the window open for a rescue and to be tracked.

Gary Michael Hilton: You think so, huh?

David Scott: Oh, absolutely. Did you not figure out what she was doing?

Gary Michael Hilton: I think she miscalculated.

David Scott: Well, kept her alive for four days. You might have killed her that first day.

Gary Michael Hilton: Who knows?

David Scott: Thanks to Meredith, police now have a bead on Hilton. But they know that time may be running out for her, because the killer could snap at any moment.

John Cagle: We were getting closer to Hilton, uh, but we were, we, we seemed to be just a step behind. The longer these things go on, uh, the less likely there's a good outcome.

David Scott: You told police there was never any plan to let her go, right?

Gary Michael Hilton: I knew that if I let her go, I'd be identified. I knew she couldn't be let go. I knew she was doomed. Yep. I was as good as caught if I let her go.

David Scott: On the last day, you pulled the cruelest trick of all on her. You told her you were letting her go home.

Gary Michael Hilton: Oh, cruel?

David Scott: Very cruel. [unclear: "Pure evil" / "You're evil"].

Gary Michael Hilton: No. Well, what if I told her, uh, "Today I'm going to kill you"?

David Scott: Equally evil.

Gary Michael Hilton: Equally evil?

David Scott: Yes. You tie her to a tree, you bag up all her stuff, and now it's the iron bar, right?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: Solid iron bar. Struck her with that.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: She said, "No, let me go."

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: You remember that?

Gary Michael Hilton: Mm-hmm.

David Scott: Put her hands up.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yeah.

David Scott: You keep striking her.

Gary Michael Hilton: Uh-huh.

David Scott: You'll see some defensive wounds to her hands.

Gary Michael Hilton: Oh, God, yes.

David Scott: Beat her into unconsciousness.

Gary Michael Hilton: Mm-hmm.

David Scott: And you say, "I kept striking her to ensure she was dead."

Gary Michael Hilton: Yeah.

David Scott: You feeling anything at this point, or...?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: What are you feeling?

Gary Michael Hilton: Loathing. It was terrible. Beating someone to death is, is, number one, it's a hard way to die, and it's a hard way to kill anyone. Oh, I wouldn't have done it if I had my guns with me.

David Scott: Did you ever consider not killing her?

Gary Michael Hilton: No.

David Scott: Not taking her?

Gary Michael Hilton: No.

David Scott: You didn't have to kill her.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes, I did.

David Scott: If you didn't kill her, you wouldn't have to cut her up, right?

Gary Michael Hilton: If I didn't kill her, I'd have been caught.

David Scott: And then you decapitate her with what you describe as a standard serrated...

Gary Michael Hilton: Bread knife.

David Scott: Bread knife. Why'd you do that?

Gary Michael Hilton: Because her hair is, is full of forensic evidence, including dog hair. Her hair is full of Dandy's hair, and they get DNA off dog hairs.

David Scott: You say you did that for forensic reasons, right?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: [unclear: "Is that" / "It's like"] a more common variety paraphilia? Because defiling, defiling a corpse is a, is a telltale sign of paraphilia.

Gary Michael Hilton: No, no. You're barking up the wrong tree there.

David Scott: Sure?

Gary Michael Hilton: Positive. It was dreadful. I'd already told you I couldn't even look.

John Cagle: The fact that he had, uh, decapitated her, uh, I asked him why, what was that about? And he said that he had done that for forensic purposes. And, uh, if anybody's ever met Gary Hilton, uh, he, he did that because he liked it.

David Scott: Finally, police use Meredith's ATM smoke signal to hone in on Hilton and spread the word.

911 Call: Okay, 911. What's the exact location? I have this, the person of interest in that missing woman case is at this, uh, Chevron gas station. The van is here. The dog is the red dog. And I saw the man's face. And I've been watching the news, and I know it's him. I know it's him. He's throwing stuff in the dumpster here. I can go take him down if you want. Oh, there. Stay right there. Okay. Looks like he's finishing off. You guys got to hurry.

David Scott: Just hours after Hilton murdered Meredith, police tracked him down outside a gas station.

911 Call: Here comes the cops. Yeah. Yeah, they got him.

David Scott: Brought to heel by a young woman who outsmarted a serial killer and lost her life in the process of stopping him.

John Cagle: Meredith was not with him when he was arrested. We did not believe this was going to have a good outcome from here.

David Scott: Hilton's arrest made headlines as hikers across the Southeast could breathe a sigh of relief.

News Reporters: Gary Michael Hilton, of course, is the suspect who is now in custody. Cops tracked this guy down and captured him. 61-year-old Gary Michael Hilton now sits in a county jail.

Investigator: One thing I didn't ask you about: did you have to put something to keep her quiet, gag, so to speak, or anything like that? She, she, was she unconscious at that point?

Gary Michael Hilton: Never. She was hard to subdue.

David Scott: Prosecutors in Georgia cut a deal with Hilton for the sake of the victim's family: tell police where he hid Meredith's remains, and the state will take the death penalty off the table. Cagle then set out to bring Meredith home from a remote location in the woods.

John Cagle: I found her clothes first, and I began to just, on my hands and knees, began to push back leaves and, and brush next to the tree, and, and I went probably 15 feet, maybe 20 feet doing that, until I was able to uncover the leaves that exposed her, her head. I had another agent with me, and I said, uh, I told him to stay with Meredith, because we're not going to leave her.

David Scott: The Emersons were finally able to lay their beloved and brave daughter to rest.

John Cagle: They had a memorial service for Meredith in Athens, Georgia, and thousands of people came that didn't even know Meredith. Her friends, her family, uh, were all alike. They were all just good, solid people. And so it was a tough time for, for the family and the friends and the hiking community.

David Scott: But to authorities in Georgia, there were still unanswered questions. Why did Gary Hilton kill these people, and what set him off?

Gary Michael Hilton: Listen, I, 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, and they don't wake up and start killing people. It doesn't happen.

David Scott: So how do you account for that?

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, let me finish. It's never happened in the past, and it's never going to happen again. I set the record for, I'm the oldest serial killer, uh, in American history. And I understand that the probability, you know, that I have been killing people before is perhaps 90%, you know. So I can understand someone not believing me, and trust me, nobody will believe me. My best friend of 10 years, of 10 years, was visiting me a couple of weeks ago. He still was, was not sure. My legal team is still not sure.

David Scott: Do you maintain, contrary, contrary to common sense and logic and statistics...

Gary Michael Hilton: You hold... Let me answer that with a, with a saying that I've come up with. You must always leave room for the exception.

David Scott: So you maintain you must always leave room for the coincidence.

David Scott: All these years later, Hilton remains perversely proud of his crimes. But this deranged serial killer's reign of terror is over. And now Gary Hilton is the one in chains, and about to finally face justice.

John Cagle: I believe he is nothing more than a bully and a weak-minded coward who preys on others. [Break]

Film Clip: Don't make me do this. Run. Damn it.

David Scott: In 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. Gary Hilton is listed on the movie's IMDb page as an uncredited member of the crew. The film's producer, Sam Rail, says Hilton even embellished the screenplay with detailed ways of tormenting the female characters. Some scenes were filmed near Blood Mountain, where Gary Hilton abducted 24-year-old Meredith Emerson in 2008.

David Scott: Back in '95, you helped make a movie called *Deadly Run*. Is that art imitating life or life imitating art?

Gary Michael Hilton: Uh, it's, it's neither. This is... Sam Rail acquired this... Here's, here's the genesis of that. Sam Rail acquired this property.

David Scott: Uh, in other words, a screenplay. Well, you did work on the film, right?

Gary Michael Hilton: No.

David Scott: You didn't help him with the film?

Gary Michael Hilton: No.

David Scott: That, he credits you with ideas, like, "Let's have the women fight back."

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes. That, that guy has caused me more mischief, uh, than [unclear] in the world.

David Scott: Not a chance? You say none of that's true?

Gary Michael Hilton: No.

David Scott: Uh-huh. Okay. It's an eerie coincidence that the plot of the movie revolves around hunting women down and killing them.

Gary Michael Hilton: It is.

David Scott: The cabin used to shoot a scene is a stone's throw from one of your old crime scenes.

Gary Michael Hilton: No, it isn't.

David Scott: Blood Mountain.

Gary Michael Hilton: No, it's not a stone's throw.

David Scott: Oh, 20 minutes, 20 miles.

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, it's a long throw.

David Scott: It's surprising that Hilton would deny an association with the film. In the aftermath of his arrest, he appeared to relish any notoriety.

Gary Michael Hilton: I'm kind of like a Hollywood celebrity that's been [unclear: "banned" / "bad"], and now [unclear: "trying to"]. You see what I mean? The, the more you limit it, the, the bigger demand it makes.

David Scott: You are infamous.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes, sir.

David Scott: Collectors of murder memorabilia think you're a big celebrity.

Gary Michael Hilton: Oh, yeah. I'm a hot commodity.

David Scott: You enjoy all that attention?

Gary Michael Hilton: It's, it's better than being ignored.

David Scott: After Hilton cut a deal in Georgia to avoid the death penalty there, police tried to get him to talk about his other crimes, the murders of John and Irene Bryant in North Carolina and the killing of Cheryl Dunlap in Florida. But instead, he put on a dizzying display of derangement.

Gary Michael Hilton: Hey, let me... Okay. In four and a half billion years, the sun is going to run out of nuclear [unclear: "pool"; probably "fuel"]. It will start to collapse in on itself. Kind of like the Lone Ranger. And the Lone Ranger would come galloping into town. There would be all the [unclear: "schmuckup talents"] people, right? And here the Lone Ranger be wearing this mask, a skin-tight outfit, a really elaborate two-gun rig mounted with silver, with chrome pistols. I have a rage against society, and I guess most people would fit the bill as far as the victim goes. Wasn't it you that asked me what's it like to [unclear: "have someone's health"]? Okay. Uh, it was dreadful. The only thing you can do, it's so dreadful that the only thing you can do is go on auto. I told you it wasn't worth...

John Cagle: Hilton's no different than any other serial killer. They always think they're the most, you know, important and the smartest person in the room. And Hilton's no exception. The only time he's smarter than anybody is when he's alone in his cell. That's the time he's the smartest guy in the room.

David Scott: Do you think you're smart?

Gary Michael Hilton: [unclear: "Oh, yeah" / "I am"].

David Scott: You do. Now, they say serial killers are the smartest of the killing group.

Gary Michael Hilton: They do.

David Scott: But I can't tell how smart you are. Cunning, sure. Uneducated for the most part. Basing your crimes in such sprawling settings seems clever, but you did a lot of stupid things along the way, too, right?

Gary Michael Hilton: Sure did.

David Scott: Hilton's many missteps would come back to haunt him, this time in a Florida courtroom where the death penalty was back on the table.

Gary Michael Hilton: And if they want to spend, uh, a million dollars, uh, 2 million to convict me, and then, uh, another 2 million to, to get death, and then, uh, another 8 million to, uh, defend the death penalty...

David Scott: That's exactly what authorities did in Florida state court for the abduction and murder of beloved nurse Cheryl Dunlap.

Dr. Abby Strauss: Gary was not the ordinary killer. There were too many levels to him.

David Scott: Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Abby Strauss was one of the first to evaluate Gary Hilton's mind for the Florida court case.

Dr. Abby Strauss: I 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. Why did you not kill anybody until you're 61 years old?

David Scott: Hilton greeted Dr. Strauss with his characteristic grandiosity.

Dr. Abby Strauss: I said, "Mr. Hilton, glad to meet you." And he said, "Dr. Strauss, oh yes, I knew you were coming. By the way, did you read The New York Times today?" And I am there to talk to him about the charges of murder against him. And it seemed almost like it was a deflection of some sort. Gary had a script. Obviously very bright. And he basically tried to control the interview. At first, he said that he was happy to be in jail. It took a lot of the pressures off. He didn't have to worry about anything, and he was going to retire in jail. But when we started talking about his mother, things changed. He talked about how, indeed, he is a misogynist. He hates women. And his hatred was deep.

David Scott: Do you hate women?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes and no. Yes. Yes.

David Scott: Here's how you described women to police.

Gary Michael Hilton: You see, part of my dislike, or I wouldn't call it hatred, but almost, for women, is that they have all the advantages. Don't be fooled by a woman's nurturing instinct. Look at their [unclear: "free will" / "pre-oil"] personalities, and you're going to find women are the most hateful, avaricious, accumulative, greedy, and heartless.

David Scott: You believe all that?

Gary Michael Hilton: Women have all the advantages. They're smarter. They're more intuitive. They're more patient, which is a very prime virtue. Uh, it's a very valuable virtue. They're more patient. Uh, and they have all the... It's not fair. It's not fair.

David Scott: Are those your reasons for hating?

Gary Michael Hilton: It's just not fair.

David Scott: I can't tell if you're joking or not.

Gary Michael Hilton: No.

David Scott: Dr. Strauss has a theory about Hilton's hatred of women.

Dr. Abby Strauss: Apparently, his mother divorced his biological father when he was roughly five years old, and they, she got married to the stepfather, and it was not a good relationship. Gary said that his mother would speak to him about the importance of giving her new husband a good orgasm. How destructive to a kid who's trying to figure out life, to have to live what he knows about his mother's orgasmic history.

David Scott: Strauss testified at the Dunlap trial, State of Florida versus Gary Michael Hilton, and presented his findings as a mitigating factor during the sentencing phase.

Dr. Abby Strauss: A child can grow up with this emptiness inside of them.

Dr. Abby Strauss: I got the feeling that the jury thought I was giving them a bunch of psychological BS.

David Scott: The evidence against Hilton was overwhelming.

David Scott: Your lawyers are presenting mitigating factors, which were underwhelming. And then the state plays videos of you post-murders, happy-go-lucky, basically celebrating. At one point you say, in a sing-song voice...

Gary Michael Hilton: I had to kill those bitches. I killed them with it. [unclear: "That's 'cause of the park" / "This is the park"]. Yeah. But first I gotta go hide it somewhere else.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes. You know, that was funny because I...

David Scott: Funny?

Gary Michael Hilton: This was after Cheryl.

David Scott: This is after...

Gary Michael Hilton: Yeah, it, it was funny because I wanted to, uh, erase, delete everything on the camera. This is a digital camera, and I knew that you just can't hit "delete". I don't remember saying that, but it sounds like something I would say.

David Scott: Showed how devoid of remorse you were.

Gary Michael Hilton: Boy, you, you're on the attack. You, you've got me at a loss for words, David.

David Scott: In 2011, Hilton was convicted of first-degree capital murder in Florida...

News Anchor: ...where he'll face the death penalty in the killing and decapitation of this woman, Cheryl Dunlap.

David Scott: He also pled guilty to the murders of Irene and John Bryant in North Carolina. Their family took to local media to express their outrage at the serial killer.

Bryant Family Member: He beat my mother to death. He shot my father in the head. He murdered two people for no reason other than the trophies of their clothes and the $300 he got from their bank card.

David Scott: The Bryants' children say they don't believe that Hilton is sorry.

David Scott: No empathy, no mercy, no decency.

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, I think, let's not go that far. Although, let me tell you, Meredith is the one that really gets to me. She was 24 years old. I stole over 50 years of her life. She was such a great girl. Just graduated from a fine school, Georgia, and was, had a bright future, and, and I took it all from her. Just, it's terrible. It's, it was terrible.

David Scott: You said about Cheryl Dunlap, uh, "The community went absolutely nuts over this. Sure, she's a nurse, and she teaches Sunday school to fifth graders, but you'd think I killed Mother Teresa. Hey, look, it's just another murder. So many, you know, there's a million murders." This is how you're discussing the murder victim. You waxed poetic about Meredith and your regrets over her loss, and here you're deriding Cheryl.

Gary Michael Hilton: It's, it's just nothing. What do you... I, I don't know the answer to that.

David Scott: Having terrorized and taken the lives of others, Hilton is now about to reveal the one thing that terrifies him.

David Scott: You said death is like a roaring fire. It can induce a blind panic that will make you trample your best friend to get away with it.

Gary Michael Hilton: Very true.

David Scott: And Gary Michael Hilton is about to meet his fate.

David Scott: The idea of your own death still frightens you.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: You're 78 years old now, right?

Gary Michael Hilton: Time is short. And I guess you could, you could say that, that it is against [unclear: "me" (end cut)].

Friend Of Cheryl Dunlap: As far as Gary Hilton getting the death penalty, the law is the law.

David Scott: Laura Mayo and Cindy Wechter were Cheryl Dunlap's best friends. Cheryl's life was mercilessly cut short by serial killer Gary Michael Hilton in 2007.

Friend Of Cheryl Dunlap: I know that my faith dictates that I forgive, but the fact that he got the death penalty is probably fitting for someone like him. He cannot hurt anybody else. And I hope that he can reconcile everything he's done with God.

Cindy Wechter: I also felt like he, he realizes that he's killed so many people, but yet he realizes he's going to die. And so it did, like Laura said, it did feel like it was fitting. It was the law, and the people who made the judgments and everything decided that this was fitting.

David Scott: Back in 2008, Hilton taunted investigators and dared the courts to charge him with capital murder.

Gary Michael Hilton: I'm telling you right now, I'm going, I'm going to dig my heels in and get around to executing me 17 years from now, when I'm 78 years old and I'm, I'm decrepit and [unclear: "anything" / "everything"]. Hey, they can do it.

David Scott: But now, exactly 17 years later, I'm sitting across from a decrepit 78-year-old Gary Hilton. And today, it is the death penalty that he fears most.

David Scott: You said something in, in the correspondence that, uh, that I thought was especially striking. I thought I'd start with this. You said, "Confronting the reality of death..."

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: "...is, of course, much different from the abstract concept."

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes.

David Scott: "Death is like a roaring fire. It can induce a blind panic that will make you trample your best friend to get away with it."

Gary Michael Hilton: Very true.

David Scott: Have you witnessed this intimately in the course of imposing death on your victims?

Gary Michael Hilton: No. Their death was, uh, to them, completely unexpected.

David Scott: And yet, what surprises 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.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes. And for that, I'm ashamed, and, and, and I feel guilty.

David Scott: Because the way you struck down those innocent people, you would think that life is cheap to you.

Gary Michael Hilton: But that's right.

David Scott: Does that just apply to other people's lives, not your own?

Gary Michael Hilton: No, it applies to their lives, too.

David Scott: Does it apply to yours?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes. And when I say I want to live...

David Scott: Yeah.

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, they wanted to live, too. I know they did. And I know what I took from them.

John Cagle: He wants people to remember how big a serial killer he is when he, when he dies. Um, we'll see what the look on his face is when they bring him in to be executed.

David Scott: Detective John Cagle once helped bring Hilton in, and now hopes one day to see him off.

John Cagle: [unclear: "by Gary Hilton" (captions only)] I look forward to being there for that.

David Scott: To stave off execution, Hilton has been appealing his death sentence for years. His latest effort is now pending at the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. It's unclear how his stunning admission to the Dunlap murder earlier in our interview will impact his appeal.

Gary Michael Hilton: I'm going to give you a new scoop. I did it.

David Scott: You did it?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes. I'm confessing to a murder on camera that I've never had before.

David Scott: You murdered...

Gary Michael Hilton: So I'm giving you something, David.

David Scott: You murdered Cheryl Dunlap.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes, I did. I did it. And I'll be glad to tell anyone I did.

David Scott: Why'd you wait so long to confess to this crime?

Gary Michael Hilton: You know, you have lawyers, and they pound it in you, you know, not to say anything. But as I told you before, I'm to the point where I don't care. I don't care. There's nothing they can do to me.

David Scott: Hilton may finally be on the brink of his long overdue demise. But 17 years on, will nature take him before the state of Florida can put him to death?

David Scott: You're in poor health, you say?

Gary Michael Hilton: Yes, very poor health. 'Cause I'm going to die soon.

David Scott: Is that why you're here today?

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, yeah. Yeah. Time is short. But hey.

David Scott: And then there's the question of other victims.

David Scott: No prior murders?

Gary Michael Hilton: No prior felonies committed, violent felonies committed against persons of any type.

David Scott: Until you're 61 years old. It's unbelievable.

Gary Michael Hilton: It's very hard to believe. Isn't that amazing?

David Scott: It's hard to imagine that Gary Michael Hilton's compulsion to kill started so late in life. And some in law enforcement suspect that Hilton could be behind similar unsolved murders. For former Georgia detective John Cagle, there's one outstanding case that hits close to home: the 2004 disappearance of Patrice Endres, a hairdresser from Cumming, Georgia.

John Cagle: Patrice had been abducted from her hair salon that she had.

David Scott: In his lengthy interrogation with investigators, Hilton revealed that he liked to visit beauty salons to hustle money for a fake charity.

Investigator: That's where that beauty shop comes from.

Gary Michael Hilton: Well, they, they're working on Saturday, and that's primarily, that's their day. That's when the owner is going to be there. That's the busiest time of the week on any beauty shop, the Saturday morning.

Investigator: Do they tend to give up good money [unclear: "as there"]?

David Scott: Patrice's remains were found near the same wooded area where Hilton hid Meredith Emerson's body. The remains of Patrice Endres were recovered three miles from the Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area.

John Cagle: The 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.

David Scott: No prior murders?

Gary Michael Hilton: No prior felonies committed, violent felonies committed against persons of any type.

David Scott: Until you're 61 years old. It's unbelievable.

Gary Michael Hilton: It's very hard to believe. Isn't that amazing? When I started doing this, after having all these fantasies and everything for so long, I found that I didn't like it at all. It wasn't anything like the daydreams, the reality. No. And I dreaded it, and then putting it off and putting it off, procrastinating it.

David Scott: Because the impulse was in you?

Gary Michael Hilton: No, I didn't. I, once I actually did it...

David Scott: I see.

Gary Michael Hilton: Once I actually did it.

David Scott: Hilton has come under suspicion in connection with several other missing persons in the years leading up to his killing spree, including Judy Smith, Jason Knapp, Rossana Miliani, and Michael Scot Louis. All vanished from national forests in the southeastern United States, Hilton's hunting grounds. But he has never been charged in connection with these or any other attacks.

Gary Michael Hilton: When I started out, if anyone saw me in the area, or even worse, with the victim, it was an abort decision. However, by the end of the whole thing, my mind was just ragged, you know, disordered.

David Scott: And as a result of these crimes, or some kind of descent into madness?

Gary Michael Hilton: Not into madness. I was already mad.

David Scott: Uh, were you taking these chances to amuse yourself or increase the challenge involved?

Gary Michael Hilton: No.

David Scott: Is there anything that could have happened to prevent you from murdering these people? Is there anything we at large could have done to stop this? How would you advise us with respect to all the other Gary Hiltons out there?

Gary Michael Hilton: Couldn't help you on that.

Gary Michael Hilton: Yeah, that's a good ending question.

Gary Michael Hilton: Thank you, ma'am.

David Scott: And with that, Gary Hilton's first and likely last interview comes to an end. If he has any secrets left, he may now take them to the grave, while the families and friends of his victims continue to pick up the pieces of their lives from the carnage left in his wake. For Detective John Cagle, the Meredith Emerson case would finish a long career in law enforcement.

John Cagle: This was the last case I worked at GBI. I retired in April 2008. There are people, even to this day, 17 years later, that remember this case and, and are still struggling with it.

David Scott: As 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.

Friend Of Cheryl Dunlap: When I think about Cheryl, I do think about her life. I [unclear: "don't" / "'ll"] think about just a random something funny, and I would get in her car for lunch, and her car would be a mess.

Friend Of Cheryl Dunlap: I remember the good times. I remember us walking around the lake, Lake Ella, remember, in Tallahassee? And then we would stop and pray, and we would talk about things, and it, she was just always there, you know?

Friend Of Cheryl Dunlap: I want Cheryl to be defined by her life and not her death.

Friend Of Cheryl Dunlap: [unclear: "I want Cheryl to be defined by her life."] [End of programme, 1:27:38] ---