He used the murder of a "friend" (one of his victims) to get people to give him money to go on a hike, over the protests of said woman's parents.

Was that the whole "Trail of Tears" thing? I've seen mentions of it here and there but nothing really about what it was for (something about a pilgrimage to New Zealand?) and how it went. Though regardless of what it was, assuming he's the one who dubbed it "Trail of Tears," the name is infinite shades of problematic.