What is known about hilton?

[whitefoot_hp]

MY curiosity has been growing as this case has started coming to a close. But i have some questions. Was Hilton that infamous of a hiker/roamer for authorities to be able to declare him a POI so quickly, i presume off of witness testimony? Is he, or was he, an avid hiker, and possibly a member of WB?

[warraghiyagey]

Maybe it's just too early to talk about this here.
Just my thought. Wouldn't mind seeing this thread go away. . . for a long while.

[STEVEM]

MY curiosity has been growing as this case has started coming to a close. But i have some questions. Was Hilton that infamous of a hiker/roamer for authorities to be able to declare him a POI so quickly, i presume off of witness testimony? Is he, or was he, an avid hiker, and possibly a member of WB?

We already know enough about this guy. What have we learned about ourselves?

[SGT Rock]

No WhiteBlaze member by that name.

[Marta]

MY curiosity has been growing as this case has started coming to a close. But i have some questions. Was Hilton that infamous of a hiker/roamer for authorities to be able to declare him a POI so quickly, i presume off of witness testimony? Is he, or was he, an avid hiker, and possibly a member of WB?

I think (but have no particular inside information, so this is just speculation on my part) that the quick ID was completely the result of matching his license plate number. If someone hadn't noticed the van and written down the plate number, we'd still be burning up the lines talking about a nondescript, scruffy guy seen by a bunch of people, but with no idea in the world who he was.

[NorthCountryWoods]

Maybe it's just too early to talk about this here.
Just my thought. Wouldn't mind seeing this thread go away. . . for a long while.

It's a sad situation, but if you'd rather not hear about it, avoid the thread.

Whitefoot brings up a valid question....Did Hilton appear like just another hiker out on the trail? How often were people sharing shelters, food, companionship with him? Was he plotting all along or did he just snap?

Having an open discussion and educating ourselves about his behavior may help prevent further tragedies.

[warraghiyagey]

It's a sad situation, but if you'd rather not hear about it, avoid the thread.

Whitefoot brings up a valid question....Did Hilton appear like just another hiker out on the trail? How often were people sharing shelters, food, companionship with him? Was he plotting all along or did he just snap?

Having an open discussion and educating ourselves about his behavior may help prevent further tragedies.

I hear ya NCW. Good call.

[Almost There]

He's crazy! According to a lady that lived near an Atlanta park where he would take his dog, some people thought he was creepy and others thought he was a pretty nice guy, but he always had that element of potentially snapping. He did what he did because he was a little bit twisted and a whole lotta crazy.

[dessertrat]

He was a crazy bum and a drifter. He was not a hiker in the sense that you mean, although he might have gone out on the trail sometimes for the day.

[karo]

Ya'll please don't refer to him as crazy. I would hate to see him get out of jail on an insanity defense. I agree anyone that would kill like that is not right in the mind, but it is taken too far. He probably should have been locked up years ago, but too many are walkng around right now free as a bird with serious mental problems because they are not treated for their problems. Then something like this happens, just horrible.

[Bulldawg]

I saw Winton Porter of Mountain Crossings on a local Atlanta news station last night telling the reporter that he had been a person of interest (not in the sense of this case) for some time. They had been trying to the the USFS to do something about him for some time. But the y guy knew the rules. He would live out of his van for 2 weeks, leave for 24 hours, and then return. Perfectly within the rules of USFS laws, so until he broke the law there was nothing the USFS could do. It's just horrible it took this to get him off the trail. As bad as this may sound, I certainly hope they somehow link him with other murders. This brings those families closure and hopefully gets him in the express lane for execution.

[liminalgrey]

Did Hilton appear like just another hiker out on the trail? How often were people sharing shelters, food, companionship with him? Was he plotting all along or did he just snap?

Answering these questions would involve a lot of guessing and speculation and I doubt we will ever actually know the answers. But, FWIW, a guy who is thru-hiking this year thinks he saw Hilton on the trail in 2005: http://trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=214242

[High Life]

freaking scary , considering i came thru that area solo on the AT around
nov 10th . i wonder if i saw him , passed him , said " hi " to him ..
scares the crap out of me ..

[Sly]

We already know enough about this guy. What have we learned about ourselves?

No we don't. I don't know of his past or if he's invoved in any other murders. I haven't changed...

[Lone Wolf]

We already know enough about this guy. What have we learned about ourselves?

we know just the tip of the iceberg about this *******. i've learned i really want him to suffer and die. how about you?

[Sly]

Answering these questions would involve a lot of guessing and speculation and I doubt we will ever actually know the answers. But, FWIW, a guy who is thru-hiking this year thinks he saw Hilton on the trail in 2005: http://trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=214242

That was interesting. Wind-up never mentioned if the guy called the dogs name.

[Waterbuffalo]

The police got his information from Locals in the area that know of him and recognized the vehicle

[dessertrat]

Three days of abuse, hoping that you are going to live, and then being killed. It makes me sick. Lethal injection isn't "cruel" enough, and it is awful to think that he might live out his life with three hots and a cot at our expense, whether he is sentenced to life or death.

[STEVEM]

we know just the tip of the iceberg about this *******. i've learned i really want him to suffer and die. how about you?

LW, I've learned how much it hurts to lose a person I never knew.

[Toolshed]

Three days of abuse, hoping that you are going to live, and then being killed. It makes me sick. Lethal injection isn't "cruel" enough, and it is awful to think that he might live out his life with three hots and a cot at our expense, whether he is sentenced to life or death.

I just now found that out. As a father of 2, I cannot even begin to explain that bitterness and anger that wells up inside of me just thinking about scumbags like this. And the sumabitches biggest concern is the "quality of his jail cell" ARrrrrrggghhhhh......!!!!!