Ep 5: Hilton's Story

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Yes, on Interstate 10, in the actual fly swamp, he goes. You'll find him here. It was a remote.

Site in central Louisiana, four and a half hours east of Conroe, the Atchafalaya Swamp is a largely uninhabited area between Lafayette and Baton Rouge. It's such a remote area that Google Street View hasn't even captured it. So my producer, Ben Kebrick and I drove.

Out there, all right, so we're now, we're on this super long, flat bridge, up on these tall.

Pylons over the swamp. It's so incredibly remote, Hilton said. To take the Whiskey Bay exit off of the middle of the 18 mile long Atchafalaya Basin Bridge, one of the longest bridges in the world. It's an eerie place. I mean, we are out in the middle of nowhere.

There was sort of a wooden shack, so it might have been there, all right. It looks like nothing out this way. I mean, let's turn back and see if there's anything by that gate.

Oh, you know what, I bet that's the shed right there, yeah.

Oh, kind of like, is this one of the people we're trying to meet? It may be.

It was the man we came here to meet, Marcus Guidry Hey, how's it going? Back in 1995, Guidry was a deputy for St. Martin Parish in Lafayette. And it was around midnight when he.

Was dispatched to the scene. I got a call from the FB.I. they were investigating an abduction, kidnapping and possibly the dumping of a child's body. And gave me some very vague description of the area. I mean, I've been here all my life. Guidry drove his unmarked black.

Camaro to the area he thought Hilton had described There's no lights around this area. Were you kind of nervous about what you might find? Yes, we're always cautious when we come.

In this area, it's one of the most remote places, right off a major interstate. I've worked several.

Homicides here in the same area. Guidry says that as he neared the shack, it became obvious that something was decomposing nearby. The odor was overwhelming. I rolled my window down and smelled it. Guidry got out of the car and shined his flashlight into the foliage.

How a parent could lose a child under those circumstances, you know, poor little 12-year-old boy, innocent as innocent can be, he didn't deserve none of this.

You don't know, no one will ever know.

Found a body in the swamp. And here it all of a sudden is okay. We're at this point and crap, all that we've done is for not, we're not getting him back alive. All the polygraphs and.

Interviews, the overnight shifts and sleepless nights hadn't been enough. Paulette's visit to Connie and Carl's pleading press conference had been too late. McKay Everett had been dead the whole time, and the moment had come for someone to break the news to Carl and Paulette.

Morning wee hours of the morning, Carl woke me up. There were FBI agents, there were family and friends. And he said, Polly, I'm so sorry I wasn't big enough to get McKay home.

Paulette had never experienced anything like it before in her life. When she came to, she found she was paralyzed.

I tried to move and I couldn't, I tried to talk and I couldn't.

The only parts of her body she could move were her eyes. Since the first night when she'd found out that McKay was missing, her body had been acting strangely.

That first night, I didn't know what was happening, but my left arm started pulling up, I started dragging my right leg, my voice started slowing. Of course, I didn't know what it was.

Paulette would later learn she'd suffered a stroke to her basal ganglia that left her temporarily paralyzed.

And so for that first day, I told myself, today I will move a big toe. I mean, I can do anything else, but I'm going to move my toe.

When Paulette describes this time period, she focuses on the physical, the stroke and how she worked to overcome it. Because the emotions she felt after McKay's death are painful to relive and impossible to describe.

It's devastating. There's really not a good word in the English language that describes it. You know, it's just think of every word that's negative and leaves you feeling totally empty and roll them all into one.

One moment should feel empty and numb, the next should be overwhelmed by emotion.

The intense rage and anger was unbelievable. It wasn't just anger, it was downright rage.

It was an awful situation. But she was buoyed by the out-of-body experience she had during her stroke seeing McKay and the Angels.

I told myself, Girlfriend, you're in for the fight of your life, you've lost your child and now you can't move or talk. I've been on the struggle of my life ever since and I will not give up.

That same night, some five miles away, Hilton Crawford was in a very different struggle for his own life.

Before we take this statement, I need to go ahead and give you your Miranda rights, and that is, you have the right to remain silent.

In a tan prison uniform, Hilton sat on a couch in an interrogation room with a video camera rolling, and he was racking his brain. Trying to find words to explain what had happened, Hilton needed to tell investigators a story that would keep him off of Texas notorious death row.

I think probably the best way for us to start is to go ahead. And begin with how you began planning this particular incident, when that first started, and who you contacted to make it work?

Hilton looked down at the carpet and rubbed his hands together nervously.

When I first met this guy, it started from there. Yes, sir, go ahead, the two people who are involved in this thing, decide yourself.

Hilton had previously told his sons and a jail guard that the kidnapping was masterminded by a man named R.

Hi, well, I'm Tanny Shannon.

Tanny interviewed Hilton Crawford extensively for his book, Seed of Villainy, which tells an account of the crime from Crawford's perspective.

My next door neighbor happened to be an attorney. She came home one evening and my wife and I were on the back deck sharing margaritas and we waved. And she came over and told us all about the case, told us about Hilton Crawford and what a nice man he was. She just didn't really think he could have done this.

Tanny was an author looking for a project.

And she said, You know, this is a guy you need to write about. He's a very interesting character. I said, OK, give me his name and I'll write to him. The first thing I asked him was why he did this, and he said, Well, honestly, I don't know.

Tanny is probably the person who spent the most time with Hilton after Hilton's arrest, and Hilton has since passed away. So Tanny is therefore key to understanding why Hilton committed this crime and Hilton's version of what happened.

He maintained that he had kind of been duped into this and that the intent was to return McKay whether or not the ransom was paid. He indicated that he struggled with the whole thing. But he described it to me as feeling like he was in a dream and just going through the motions automatically. I don't know that really makes any sense or not, but that was his description. What I do know is that he was pressured to do this and that he felt an extreme need to cut his losses. To get his hands on some money so he could cover up all of these bad things that had happened.

We'll dive into what Hilton was desperate to hide in the next episode, but first, let's walk through what Hilton told investigators the night they found McKay's body.

Go ahead and begin with how you began planning this particular incident.

The audio can be hard to make out, so I'll make sure to restate the important parts.

I went to the lower level there of Louisiana Downs.

Hilton told investigators he'd met R.

He described him as well-dressed, kind of a Cajun-looking guy with a Cajun accent.

He said the first time they met, Remington asked him a couple of questions about his horse and then asked for his business card.

He said, Uh, you have a car? and I said, Yeah, I do, and that was it.

After that, Hilton said he would occasionally run into Remington at the racetracks. They would exchange tips about racehorses to help one another. Place bets. And Remington would sometimes call Hilton at work to chat. Hilton said. He didn't have Remington's number. Remington was always the one who called him.

He just kept getting in deeper and deeper and deeper. He just didn't know when to say uncle and admit that he had put himself in a very bad position.

According to Hilton, Remington called him in June, and Hilton told him about his financial difficulties. Remington said he knew how Hilton could quickly make hundreds of thousands of dollars through kidnapping. Hilton said that at first he dismissed the idea, but his financial situation kept getting worse, and a ransom kidnapping started sounding more appealing.

It started kind of growing on me, growing on me, growing on me.

Hilton said a month before he abducted McKay, Remington called him and again brought up the kidnapping. Hilton remembered Carl talking about making a lot of money through Amway, and he decided McKay was the perfect target.

As he told it, he was resentful about Carl trying to pressure him into the Amway business, but in truth, he may have simply been trying to justify his actions.

Remington told him it was best to find a woman to make the ransom call, so Hilton reached out to an ex-employee of his, Irene Flores. He kept things vague, telling her that he had a job coming up where she could make some fast money and should only need to make a phone call.

She said Well, I'm ready.

Hilton said that on Sunday, September 10th, two days before McKay's kidnapping, Remington called him again, and Hilton told Remington about Carl and McKay.

I said, Well, I got this friend of mine that I know pretty well off.

Hilton told Remington that Carl was having an Amway meeting in two nights and that McKay would be home alone.

And he said, Well, set it up.

Hilton said he finalized the plans with Remington and called Irene the next day.

I talked to her Monday, we went over what she needed to say and so forth, and so on.

The next day, on the night of the kidnapping, Hilton had an early dinner with his wife, Connie, at her sister's house. He said he initially planned to bring one of his employees to the Everett's Amway meeting, but that man had bailed. Still, the plan was in motion, so he drove through the rain to pick up R.L. Remington at a strip mall.

He met Remington at a strip center that was fairly close to McKay's house.

Hilton said he found Remington waiting by himself with a duffel bag.

And they went together to McKay's home.

On the way over there, he opened up that duffel bag and he had a policeman's shirt.

When Hilton had told the story to his sons the day before, he'd said there was a third man present who put on a policeman's shirt and abducted McKay. But in this telling, it was just Hilton and Remington, Hilton said. Remington put on the policeman's shirt and put a hood with a drawstring into his back pocket. Hilton pulled up into the Everett's back driveway and Remington went up to the house.

According to Crawford, Remington went to the door.

He walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. They stayed there 30 40 seconds, They talked a little bit. I don't know what was said there.

And got McKay to open the door and then put a bag over his head and abducted him and put him in the trunk.

Was McKay struggling? Yeah, it looked like, yeah.

Crawford says he backed out suddenly and there was a neighbor across the street bringing out garbage cans, almost hit the person.

That neighbor, of course, was Bill Kahn, who saw Hilton's Gold Chrysler back down the driveway. And he made note of the Crown dealership sticker on the back left bumper before the car sped off.

He had to stop and buy gas with McKay in the trunk of his car. What kind of planning is that? A number of things there that just don't make any sense, especially someone that has the law enforcement experience that he had.

And in the story that Hilton told Tanny, this unplanned stop angered R.

Remington became very irate about the things that Crawford had done wrong.

We know from a gas station receipt that Hilton did stop for gas at 8.

I reached her mother and Irene wasn't at home.

Hilton said he kept trying to call Irene, but Irene's mother told him she wasn't home.

And I called again, I got hold of her mother again.

Presumably, these would be the three phone calls made from Hilton's cell phone to Irene Flores number at 1110, 1113 and 1130.

We never did get hold of Irene.

In Hilton's story to law enforcement, this was the point where R.

And that's when he started getting upset because he said, Y'all just don't know what you're doing.

From this point on, Hilton's stories to Tani and law enforcement were relatively consistent in both. R.L. Remington is angry as they drive east on Interstate 10 towards Lafayette, Louisiana.

Remington was telling him what a fool he was and so forth.

And they start hearing noises from inside the trunk, the sounds of McKay struggling for his life, trying to pry open the trunk of the car with the tire iron.

The noise in the trunk kept getting a little louder, he said. Fall off the side of the road.

R.

So I pulled off the side of the road, it was about in the trunk.

Hilton said Remington grabbed a flashlight from the glove box and marched back to the trunk.

And I heard something like.

According to Hilton, Remington beat McKay with the flashlight, then got back into the car as if nothing had happened.

That's the word you do, he said. He's all right, but he's going to be quiet for a while.

Remington told Hilton that McKay was all right, but he'd be quiet for a while. It's remarkable how cold and clinical Hilton is, while describing Remington beating McKay. Everett, a child he supposedly loved, a child who called him Uncle Hilty. The trunk was now silent as they continued on I-10 through Lafayette, Louisiana.

So I opened the trunk and I looked in there and there was a lot of blood in there.

And Remington took Hilton's gun out of its case.

I'm saying, what's going on? He said. Y'all screwed the deal up.

Remington told Hilton to leave and to not say a word about the crime, or he'd come for Hilton's family.

He said, You best get your ass in the car and not say a word about it.

Hilton said that was the point where he drove back to the Best Western in Beaumont, Texas, and checked in at 4 A.

Before you go anywhere, let me back you up a little bit.

Investigators wondered why Remington had let Hilton live as he was the only witness to the murder.

Why do you suppose that he let you go? You just witnessed a murder?

And they pointed out it was strange that they hadn't gotten rid of the gun.

And he gives you the gun back.

Especially because, by Hilton's own admission, Remington wasn't wearing gloves and his fingerprints would be all over the weapon.

You said nothing about him wearing gloves, he didn't have no gloves.

But when law enforcement recovered the weapon, they found no fingerprints on it, and they never managed to track down Remington either. R.L Remington, if he even exists, remains at large to this day.

And then it just kind of, you know, died from there.

Agent Donnie Miller says Hilton maintained up until his death that he hadn't killed McKay. He said after his death, somehow, Remington would come to light and we would understand how he'd played into this.

Someone had told him that R.

To this day, Paulette isn't sure whether she believes Hilton's story about R.

I don't know if it was a blame shift, but I do know that. I did not know Hilton to smoke, I did not know Hilton to drink beer, I knew him to drink liqueur, you know, that kind of alcohol. When they found McKay, there were cigarette butts and beer.

Near McKay's body crime scene, investigators found two bud light cans and an empty cigarette pack that looked like they'd been left there. Recently. They found a latent fingerprint on the cigarette pack belonging to someone other than Hilton. But ultimately, it was unclear whether the beer or cigarettes had any connection to the crime. That was one of the reasons my producer and I visited the crime scene.

Seeing this coarse can over here. Do you think this is sort of more or less like what it would have looked like in terms of stuff lying around? Or is it different today than back then? It's a lot more heavily traveled right now. But at the time, I mean, you could see, you know, beer can here and there because the homeless they like to drink, they'll throw a can out. Somebody would get off the interstate to come in and use the bathroom.

Tanny Shannon, the author who interviewed Hilton extensively in prison, says that many of the investigators working on the case weren't sure what to make of Hilton's story.

Law enforcement personnel in general were pretty much split down the middle over whether or not he actually did this.

Tanny thinks that when initial searches for Remington turned up nothing, law enforcement gave up and decided Remington wasn't real.

And they just readily assumed that he was making it up. Their determination was that he was using it to justify his crime, or using that as a story to lessen his responsibility. That was a decision that they reached rather early on, or that they seemed to reach and they seemed to be trying to prove. Rather than actually look at all of the evidence in the case. Now, I might be wrong there, but at least that's the impression I got.

But while Tanny spent years interviewing Hilton, he didn't talk to investigators about their side of the story. All the investigators we spoke to felt a thorough search had been done and that they'd ruled out the existence of R.L. Remington.

The FBI did a deep, deep dive.

We did everything we could to put meat on the bones of that story. A lieutenant in the sheriff's office did a composite drawing and it went out all over the United States.

They went and searched everything with Remington.

They asked all these people. No one we talked to knew of this person. There were no records that we could find that, revealed an R.L Remington.

You know, as you start digging and digging and digging, it's like, this could be, this could be, this could be, maybe it could be.

This is crap.

It's hard to prove that. R.

The evidence was just overwhelming.

And at the crime scene, investigators found two more pieces of evidence the brass casings of the bullets shot into McKay and what company manufactured those casings. Remington.

It just boggles the mind. I could not understand what would drive him to that, and that's why I started interviewing him to begin with.

Why had this 56-year-old man with a wife and two children risked everything on such a foolhardy scheme?

You know, here's a guy that had so much going for him. He had a wonderful family, he was capable of earning, he had friends that cared about him and so forth. He had an awful lot going for him. For someone that would go to this extreme.

How had he sunk so low that he could heartlessly kill 12-year-old McKay Everett, the boy who called him Uncle Hilty?

If I would have put all of this stuff together, I would have done something and McKay would still be alive.

For more information, including pictures, find us on Social at the Ransom podcast or visit our website ransompodcast.

They say money can't buy love, but it turns out you just have to wait till the end for the check to come. We trade uncomfortable truths for comfortable lies, imaginary solutions to real problems. I'm James Sexton, host of unlikely sources. You may know me from my books or my many interviews, such as Soft White, Underbelly, Lex Friedman. Or one of the many other places. I've shared my perspective on love life and the law. I know a divorce lawyer isn't the first person you think of for advice on how to keep your relationship strong. But wisdom is found in unexpected, counterintuitive places.

Be available May 28th.