Heard this sad podcast recently...
Dr Benjamin Gilmer took over a family practice in a small town in North Carolina. Interestingly, the previous doctor had the same surname as his (unrelated) and was serving time for ruthlessly strangling his father to death!
As he went on with his job, he soon realised that his patients had only lovely things to say about the previous Dr Gilmer' about his caring nature, compassion, dedication and his magical touch. Soon, Benjamin developed a keen interest to explore the real Dr Vince Gilmer, his predecessor.
Vince's father was a Vietnam war veteran who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic and was in a medical facility. A few hours before the murder, Vince had taken his wheelchair-bound father for a boating outing. To cut the story short, he was strangled, had all his thumbs and fingers amputated and had the body dumped by the woods to rot.
Vince Gilmore himself had been on anti-depressive medications and allegedly had had a history of purposely crashing on to a pillar intentionally to avoid sitting for a career advancement examination. Anyway, a few days before the said incident, he had stopped his medication on his own accord.
Then came the ugly court case, the vilification, the opening of dirty linen, the frolicking of profound hindsight knowledge enhanced learned officers of the court around their road kill that finally decided that Dr Vince Gilmore had indeed willfully murdered his father in cold blood.
Along the way, Vince, sacked his attorney to represent himself with disastrous outcomes. He proclaimed the lack of serotonin made him do the things that he did, but the jury did buy the story.
As Dr Benjamin dwells into his namesake's case, he could not fathom why Vince had bouts of abnormal behaviour and unusual facial movements. He thought of Huntington's disease for the possible explanation for all his misdeeds.
The case was reopened, and genetic testing confirmed positive for Huntington's disease. He was placed in a psychiatric hospital instead and was doing better while his case goes on.
No matter how much we think we know, there are heaps of mountains of things that beg to be unravelled. And we think we know everything.
Dr Benjamin Gilmer took over a family practice in a small town in North Carolina. Interestingly, the previous doctor had the same surname as his (unrelated) and was serving time for ruthlessly strangling his father to death!
As he went on with his job, he soon realised that his patients had only lovely things to say about the previous Dr Gilmer' about his caring nature, compassion, dedication and his magical touch. Soon, Benjamin developed a keen interest to explore the real Dr Vince Gilmer, his predecessor.
 |
| Dr Benjamin Gilmer |
Vince's father was a Vietnam war veteran who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic and was in a medical facility. A few hours before the murder, Vince had taken his wheelchair-bound father for a boating outing. To cut the story short, he was strangled, had all his thumbs and fingers amputated and had the body dumped by the woods to rot.
Vince Gilmore himself had been on anti-depressive medications and allegedly had had a history of purposely crashing on to a pillar intentionally to avoid sitting for a career advancement examination. Anyway, a few days before the said incident, he had stopped his medication on his own accord.
Then came the ugly court case, the vilification, the opening of dirty linen, the frolicking of profound hindsight knowledge enhanced learned officers of the court around their road kill that finally decided that Dr Vince Gilmore had indeed willfully murdered his father in cold blood.
Along the way, Vince, sacked his attorney to represent himself with disastrous outcomes. He proclaimed the lack of serotonin made him do the things that he did, but the jury did buy the story.
 |
| Dr Vince Gilmer |
The case was reopened, and genetic testing confirmed positive for Huntington's disease. He was placed in a psychiatric hospital instead and was doing better while his case goes on.
No matter how much we think we know, there are heaps of mountains of things that beg to be unravelled. And we think we know everything.
Reference: This American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/492/dr-gilmer-and-mr-hyde
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