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Upcoming film will investigate the death of the Fort Fisher Hermit
By John Staton, Wilmington StarNews,
2024-07-09
Robert E. Harrill, better known as the Fort Fisher Hermit, died more than 50 years ago. But his story isn't quite finished.
An upcoming documentary by Wilmington filmmaker Rob Hill will take a close look at the Hermit's 1972 death at the age of 79, officially ruled as happening by natural causes but long considered suspicious by many who've followed the case, including Hill.
"There never really was a real investigation. The detectives saw it as a heart attack and wrote it off," Hill said. "My intention is to examine all the theories that have jumped out over the years, and I'm going to present theories that have not been explored."
That film delved into the legend of Harrill, and how for nearly 20 years he squatted in a World War II-era ammunition bunker in the forbidding tidal marshes of Fort Fisher south of Kure Beach after coming to the area in his early 60s. Bearded, often shirtless and wearing a straw hat, Harrill became a source of public fascination and entertained thousands of visitors, treating many to nuggets of homespun wisdom. In the 1960s and early '70s, going to visit the Hermit was just something locals and visitors did, almost like a tourist attraction.
As part of a crowd-funding campaign to raise money to complete his new documentary, Hill recently released a trailer for "The Fort Fisher Hermit II: Beyond the Marsh," which will investigate Harrill's death as a cold-case, true-crime mystery. The finished film will present a theory as to who the Hermit's killer or killers might be, Hill said.
Hill said the festival will include guided walks to the bunker, as well as live music, barbecue and drinks at Carolina Beach bar The Last Resort, which has a prominent mural of Harrill on one of its outside walls. The festival will also feature a Hermit look-a-like contest, along with an outdoor screening of "The Fort Fisher Hermit: The Life & Death of Robert E. Harrill" and a preview of Hill's upcoming film.
The trailer for "The Fort Fisher Hermit II: Beyond the Marsh" references how a number of government organizations didn't want Harrill living in the bunker. Neither did interests who wanted to develop the land. In a recording included in the trailer, Harrill said people would sometimes come to his bunker at night and beat him up or even shoot at him.
Harrill was rumored to have large sums of money collected from visitors buried near the bunker, which some point to as a possible motive for killing him. Investigators found more than $1,000 buried there after Harrill's death.
In the film's trailer, Justin Varella, a detective with the New Hanover County's Sheriff's Office, says there is basically no physical evidence in the case ("We got nothing"), and asks, "Who wants to accept the fact that he rolled over and died of a heart attack?"
Hill said he's been working with Varella and with NCSO detective John Corpening, who also appears in the trailer for for the film, exchanging information and discussing various theories of the Hermit's demise.
Varella and Corpening didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment, but Jerry Brewer, public information officer with the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office, said that Harrill's death is "an inactive case."
Also appearing in the upcoming film's trailer is Fred Pickler, a friend of Harrill's who was a New Hanover County Sheriff's Deputy at the time of Harrill's death and who also appeared in Hill's first Hermit documentary. Pickler has long said the sheriff's office bungled the investigation into Harrill's death, and he and others have offered various theories as to how Harrill died.
An initial autopsy was not performed on Harrill, but his late son, George Edward Harrill, had his father's body exhumed in 1984. Medical examiners were unable to determine a specific cause of death.
A North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation was also inconclusive. The SBI told the StarNews in 2022 that the agency was involved in an investigation regarding Harrill but declined to release details, citing the state’s public record exemption for criminal investigations.
Hill said he started shooting footage and conducting interviews early this year, but "this film's been on my mind for a while. I've got this poster over my desk. The Hermit's always looking at me, like, 'OK, let's get this done.'"
He won't have a release date for a while, Hill said, but it's the "unresolved questions" that have kept him following the Hermit's story since he started work on his first documentary back in 2001. "For the sake of Robert Harrill, for the sake of his family, I just feel like I need to do this."
The Hermit continues to receive guests to this day. Harrill's grave in the Newton family cemetery next to Federal Point Cemetery off Dow Road has a frying pan next to it in which visitors often leave coins and other mementoes.
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