Dr. Vince Gilmer worked as a physician at the Cane Creek Clinic, located in rural Fletcher, North Carolina. His patients loved him and remembered him as a man who frequently made house calls to patients who could not easily travel. If a patient was cash-strapped, Dr. Gilmer accepted payment in bushels of corn. His neighbors nicknamed him “Bear”, on account of his generous “bear hugs.”

In July 2004, police arrested Dr. Vince Gilmer and charged him with the murder of his father. According to the police, Dr. Gilmer strangled his father with a rope. He then clipped his father’s fingers from his hands using a pair of hedge shears. His father’s corpse was found perpendicular to the road, weathered and unburied. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Dr. Gilmer was around 40 years old when he murdered his father.  

So, he’s behind bars, right? We’ll get to that in a bit.   

The small town he served was devastated by not only the grisly murder but the loss of a man they relied upon. Violent murder notwithstanding, Dr. Gilmer was beloved.    

This is where things take an even stranger turn – you may have noticed we’ve frequently referred to Dr. Gilmer by his full name – Dr. VINCE Gilmer. Why? Because the doctor who replaced him in 2009 (and still practices in the area) is named Dr. BENJAMIN Gilmer.   

No, they are not related.  

Dr. Ben Gilmer entered the story as a young doctor looking to start his career. He took an interest in his predecessor’s bizarre case. The more he learned about Vince, the more his behavior disturbed him. Dr. Ben Gilmer wondered if there was a clinical explanation for the man’s Jekyll-to-Hyde transformation.   

He interviewed several of Vince’s friends and neighbors. He learned the doctor suffered a concussion (car crash) six months before he murdered his father. His predecessor’s father (the murdered man) had been diagnosed with schizophrenia earlier in his life and lived in a residential psychiatric facility before his death. His son withdrew him from this facility a few weeks before he murdered him.  

After Ben broke the ice, Vince’s friends produced notes written by the man several weeks before he murdered his father. “Something is wrong with my brain and help me.”   

Ominous.   

Vince described SSRI discontinuation syndrome in his notes, citing it as a potential explanation for his increasingly violent impulses. He stopped taking antidepressants the week of his father’s murder.  

Vince mentioned SSRI discontinuation syndrome again during his trial. He described how his father molested him for years and claimed he tried to molest him the night he killed him. The court dismissed that part of Vince’s testimony, as Vince represented himself and dismissed his court-appointed attorney.  

The opposition painted Vince as a violent sociopath. Before his sentencing, a team of psychiatrists and psychologists evaluated him. They believed the SSRI discontinuation syndrome was a smokescreen Vince slotted strategically into his defensive narrative, thinking it would evoke the court’s sympathy and spare him the worst.   

With that in the background, we return to his successor, Dr. Ben Gilmer. Small towns have long memories. He found that his surname, which he coincidentally shared with Vince, was an unexpected liability. Many in the town did not trust him. Many more avoided him outright, believing him the blood relative of a violent murderer.   

A journalist eventually approached Ben. She wanted to write a story about Vince and considered Ben a hot lead. Ben wanted nothing to do with her, fearing what might become of him and his family in the unlikely event Vince was one day released from prison. He didn’t want a target on his back.   

In 2012, his feelings changed, and Ben agreed to speak with the journalist at length. They also arranged to meet directly with Dr. Vince Gilmer in prison.   

Upon meeting Vince, Ben immediately sensed something was wrong with him. He described him as looking like a “caged animal” and appeared “20 years older than he actually was.” After the first meeting went reasonably well, they agreed to a second, with one significant change – a psychiatrist would join them.  

After meeting Vince, the psychiatrist confided privately with Ben, telling him that Vince may be suffering from Huntington’s disease. Vince’s father, Dalton, was not known to have the disease. He was known, however, to exhibit violent and unpredictable tendencies, and these behaviors intensified as he aged. Recall he lived in a residential psychiatric facility. If Dalton Gilmer did have Huntington’s, his son likely inherited it.  

But Vince’s incarceration made it difficult to test him for it. Circumstances changed when Vince threatened to commit suicide, which forced the prison to move him to a psychiatric hospital. The hospital ordered several tests, among them tests for genetic diseases, like Huntington’s. The results confirmed their hunch: Dr. Vince Gilmer had the disease.   

To Ben’s surprise, Vince responded positively to the news. He was grateful he had an answer. He finally “knew what was wrong with him.”   

By this time, Ben’s curiosity regarding his predecessor’s history had turned into sympathy and compassion.   

“I thought of him as a friend, as a patient, and someone who was really suffering, all those things helped our relationship evolve and kept me engaged with him all these years and continued to inspire me to fight for him. I also liked him because I knew what he was like before the murder from the stories I was hearing from his friends and patients.”  

If possible, he wanted Vince liberated from prison and placed in a psychiatric hospital that could care for him properly. Ben partnered with a team of doctors and lawyers and petitioned the governor of Virginia to grant Vince clemency. Ben’s efforts to liberate Vince lasted several years. The governor refused, but after reading a book published by Ben and his colleagues covering Dr. Vince Gilmer’s story in detail, the governor recanted. He granted Dr. Vince Gilmer clemency in January 2021.  

Both Ben and Vince are optimistic about the future, even though the latter’s brain disease is terminal.   

A shocking murder with several shocking twists of their own – though there are not many like it we can use for the sake of comparison.   

What do you think about the case’s outcome? Let us know your thoughts below.  

Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Chief Executive Officer and Founder

Dr. Jeffrey Segal, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Medical Justice, is a board-certified neurosurgeon. Dr. Segal is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons; the American College of Legal Medicine; and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. He is also a member of the North American Spine Society. In the process of conceiving, funding, developing, and growing Medical Justice, Dr. Segal has established himself as one of the country’s leading authorities on medical malpractice issues, counterclaims, and internet-based assaults on reputation.

Dr. Segal was a practicing neurosurgeon for approximately ten years, during which time he also played an active role as a participant on various state-sanctioned medical review panels designed to decrease the incidence of meritless medical malpractice cases.

Dr. Segal holds a M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine, where he also completed a neurosurgical residency. Dr. Segal served as a Spinal Surgery Fellow at The University of South Florida Medical School. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa as well as the AOA Medical Honor Society. Dr. Segal received his B.A. from the University of Texas and graduated with a J.D. from Concord Law School with highest honors.

In 2000, he co-founded and served as CEO of DarPharma, Inc, a biotechnology company in Chapel Hill, NC, focused on the discovery and development of first-of-class pharmaceuticals for neuropsychiatric disorders.

Dr. Segal is also a partner at Byrd Adatto, a national business and health care law firm. Byrd Adatto was selected as a Best Law Firm in the 2021 edition of the “Best Law Firms” list by U.S. News – Best Lawyers. With over 50 combined years of experience in serving doctors, dentists, and other providers, Byrd Adatto has a national pedigree to address most legal issues that arise in the business and practice of medicine.