The Other Dr. Gilmer: Two Men, a Murder, and an Unlikely Fight for Justice

Family physician Gilmer’s gripping debut starts out as a murder tale, morphs into a medical mystery, and lands as a heartbreaking account of how poorly the American prison system treats the mentally ill. When the author joined a rural North Carolina clinic, he became fascinated with the clinic’s founder, Vince Gilmer—no relation—who was in prison for murdering his mentally ill father in 2004. At first, after hearing an unfounded rumor that the other Gilmer was being released, he was fearful the man would come after him for taking his practice, but he soon set out to reconcile the murderer with the person the clinic’s patients revered. Working with a radio journalist, the author discovered Gilmer had a number of medical problems, including antidepressant withdrawal and head trauma from a car accident, that could have made him violent enough to kill his father. In the process, the two Gilmers became friends, and after the radio journalist aired a story about the other Gilmer languishing in prison with various neurological disorders, the author fought to have him released on a clemency plea while becoming an advocate for prison reform for the mentally ill. (The other Gilmer remains in prison.) The author does a fine job humanizing everyone involved. This painful look at a terrible social injustice deserves a wide audience. Agent: Lara Love Hardin, Idea Architects. (Mar.)