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While some speak of a ‘kind and gracious’ person, others remember the big-game-hunting Minnesota dentist as ‘always money-hungry’
The dentist vilified around the world for killing a beloved lion in Zimbabwe is thought of fondly by at least one of his neighbors in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
Anita Gibson said on Friday that the Walter Palmer she knows is a “kind and gracious” person and a doting father. Her daughter often played with Palmer’s daughter when both were students at Eden Lake elementary school about a decade ago, Gibson said. Walter Palmer was the parent at home for their play dates. “Seeing him as a dad”, she said, she observed him as attentive.
The Palmers are “a very nice family”, Gibson added.
Several of Palmer’s patients at his dental office in nearby Bloomington paint a more mixed and mundane picture of the man.
“He just cleaned my teeth for 10 years,” said Brandon Thomas. “I don’t know anything about his penchant for poaching.”
Former patient Lexy McGuire remembered him as “always money-hungry”.
“My family stopped going to him because he would ask for our money before even working [on our teeth],” said McGuire.
“However, the media is making him out to be this evil person and I don’t believe he had bad intentions on killing the lion. I don’t think he would have done this if he knew he would lose clients [or] money over it.”
Palmer first came to global attention on Tuesday when the Telegraph named him as the hunter behind the death of Cecil the lion in early July outside Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. The hunters had used bait to lure the much-loved black-maned animal – the collared subject of Oxford University researchers – away from the park’s protections and on to private land.
Palmer, an avid big-game bow hunter who reportedly paid as much as $65,000 for the opportunity, shot Cecil and with his hunting party, then spent 40 hours tracking the lion before shooting, skinning and beheading him.
As the story quickly spread in news reports and on social media, details of Palmer’s background emerged, including a 2008 conviction in Wisconsin for lying to authorities about poaching a black bear outside of the permitted hunting area. Palmer also had a 2003 misdemeanor conviction for fishing without a license in Minnesota and settled a 2005 sexual harassment complaint by paying $127,500 to a former employee out of court.
Palmer issued a statement early in the week admitting to the killing with a statement expressing regret. But in the face of widespread outcry he had shuttered his dental office and went into apparent hiding. By the end of the week, Zimbabwe had called for his extradition from the United States, and the US Department of Fish and Wildlife announced it had the matter under investigation, with Palmer complying with an open plea for him to make contact with the agency.
The international uproar shook patient Drew Preiner, who tweeted that it’s “so weird to see this happen to someone you know … so different when you see that they are human just like you and me.”
Preiner said he was “not saying what he did wasn’t wrong. [He] definitely deserves to pay the consequences, but the shaming and death threats and calls for suicide [are too much].” Preiner posed the question of whether “social media has turned us all into shaming-hungry monsters?”
A nearby Domino’s shop has taken “prank orders” for pizzas to be delivered to Palmer’s office and home, a worker there said.
Palmer’s River Bluff Dental office was the scene of a vehement protest on Wednesday. But by Friday it had gone quiet, with only a small cluster of news trucks parked in front. The scene was the same on the street where Palmer lives, where on Friday morning the only excitement was a neighbor asking a news crew not to shoot video of “my minor children”.
Palmer could not be reached for comment.
Anita Gibson said on Friday that the Walter Palmer she knows is a “kind and gracious” person and a doting father. Her daughter often played with Palmer’s daughter when both were students at Eden Lake elementary school about a decade ago, Gibson said. Walter Palmer was the parent at home for their play dates. “Seeing him as a dad”, she said, she observed him as attentive.
The Palmers are “a very nice family”, Gibson added.
Several of Palmer’s patients at his dental office in nearby Bloomington paint a more mixed and mundane picture of the man.
“He just cleaned my teeth for 10 years,” said Brandon Thomas. “I don’t know anything about his penchant for poaching.”
Former patient Lexy McGuire remembered him as “always money-hungry”.
“My family stopped going to him because he would ask for our money before even working [on our teeth],” said McGuire.
“However, the media is making him out to be this evil person and I don’t believe he had bad intentions on killing the lion. I don’t think he would have done this if he knew he would lose clients [or] money over it.”
Palmer first came to global attention on Tuesday when the Telegraph named him as the hunter behind the death of Cecil the lion in early July outside Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. The hunters had used bait to lure the much-loved black-maned animal – the collared subject of Oxford University researchers – away from the park’s protections and on to private land.
Palmer, an avid big-game bow hunter who reportedly paid as much as $65,000 for the opportunity, shot Cecil and with his hunting party, then spent 40 hours tracking the lion before shooting, skinning and beheading him.
As the story quickly spread in news reports and on social media, details of Palmer’s background emerged, including a 2008 conviction in Wisconsin for lying to authorities about poaching a black bear outside of the permitted hunting area. Palmer also had a 2003 misdemeanor conviction for fishing without a license in Minnesota and settled a 2005 sexual harassment complaint by paying $127,500 to a former employee out of court.
Palmer issued a statement early in the week admitting to the killing with a statement expressing regret. But in the face of widespread outcry he had shuttered his dental office and went into apparent hiding. By the end of the week, Zimbabwe had called for his extradition from the United States, and the US Department of Fish and Wildlife announced it had the matter under investigation, with Palmer complying with an open plea for him to make contact with the agency.
The international uproar shook patient Drew Preiner, who tweeted that it’s “so weird to see this happen to someone you know … so different when you see that they are human just like you and me.”
Preiner said he was “not saying what he did wasn’t wrong. [He] definitely deserves to pay the consequences, but the shaming and death threats and calls for suicide [are too much].” Preiner posed the question of whether “social media has turned us all into shaming-hungry monsters?”
A nearby Domino’s shop has taken “prank orders” for pizzas to be delivered to Palmer’s office and home, a worker there said.
Palmer’s River Bluff Dental office was the scene of a vehement protest on Wednesday. But by Friday it had gone quiet, with only a small cluster of news trucks parked in front. The scene was the same on the street where Palmer lives, where on Friday morning the only excitement was a neighbor asking a news crew not to shoot video of “my minor children”.
Palmer could not be reached for comment.
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