[at-l] (Guest Post) Williams Winans Murder

[AThiker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Felix)]

rick boudrie wrote:

> >From what I have seen, 7 hikers of any clasification have been killed on the
> AT itself.  Of these, I believe 5 were reported to be thru hikers:  Janice
> Balaza (1975), Susan Ramsey & Robert Mountford (1981) and Molly LaRue &
> Geoffrey Hood (1990).
>
> Most everytime this topic has come up you see a chorus of very experienced
> hikers sharing how safe the AT is.  It is said that one is more likely to be
> murdered in thier home town than out on the Trail.  For some time now I have
> been bothered by those comforting reports when I consider the fact that one
> THRU HIKER has been murdered for every 1500 THRU HIKERS that report to have
> hiked the entire AT.

Well, I'm not sure that it is fair to limit it to thru-hikers. Why does that
matter? You could just as easily say that those named 'Balaza' have a higher
chance than those named 'Jones'. Of the millions that use the trail, the total
number of murders is low. I certainly doubt that any of the murders happend
BECAUSE the folx were thru-hikers. (I'm most certain in the case of Molly and
Geoff.)


--
Felix J. McGillicuddy
ME-->GA '98
"Your Move"
http://Felixhikes.tripod.com/