Join Asheville physician Benjamin Gilmer, Sat., Mar. 26, 1 pm, author of The Other Dr. Gilmer: Two Men, a Murder, and an Unlikely Fight for Justice (Ballantine, 304 pp., hb., $28). A true story about a shocking crime and a mysterious illness that will change your notions of how we punish and how we heal, The Other Dr. Gilmer expands on the popular This American Life episode produced with journalist Sarah Koenig (Serial).
Fresh out of residency, Dr. Benjamin Gilmer joined a rural North Carolina clinic only to find that its previous doctor shared his last name. Dr. Vince Gilmer was loved and respected by the community—right up until he strangled his ailing father and then returned to the clinic for a regular week of work. Vince’s arrest for murder shocked his patients. How could their beloved doctor be capable of such violence? The deeper Benjamin looked into Vince’s case, the more he became obsessed with discovering what pushed a good man toward darkness.
When Benjamin visited Vince in prison, he met a man who appeared to be fighting his own mind, constantly twitching and veering into nonsensical tangents. Sentenced to life in prison, Vince had been branded a cold-blooded killer and a “malingerer”—a person who fakes an illness. But it was obvious to Benjamin that Vince needed help. Alongside This American Life Benjamin resolved to understand what had happened to his predecessor.
About the author: Benjamin Gilmer is a family medicine physician in Fletcher, N.C. He is an Albert Schweitzer Fellow for Life and associate professor in the department of family medicine at UNC and at the Mountain Area Health Education Center. A former neurobiologist turned rural family practitioner, Dr. Gilmer has lectured across the country about medical ethics, rural health, and the intersection of medicine and criminal justice reform. He lives with his wife, Deirdre; their two children, Kai and Luya; and their dog, Prince Peanut Butter, in Asheville.
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