Gary Gilmore
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Gary Mark Gilmore (December 4, 1940 – January 17, 1977) was an American career criminal who gained international notoriety as the first person executed in the United States after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 after Gregg v. Georgia lifted the four-year moratorium instated by Furman v. Georgia.
Biography
Gary Mark Gilmore was born in a rural Texas town in December 1940, the second of four sons. His parents drifted around the country most of the time while he and his brothers were growing up, with his father peddling and scamming people with phony magazine and newspaper subscriptions.The Gilmore family settled in Portland, Oregon in the early 1950s, where Gary Gilmore began getting into trouble with the law, with offences ranging from shoplifing to assault and battery charges. He dropped out of high school at age 15 and drifted across the Midwest making a living out of robbing houses and stores.
He was convicted of armed robbery in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1964, and received an 18-year prison sentence. He was conditionally paroled in March 1976 and sent to Provo, Utah to live with a distant cousin of his who tried to help him find work and make a living for himself. But Gilmore's self-destructive nature soon got the best of him, as he couldn't stay away from the quick and easy life of crime as he saw it. Gilmore began stealing money and items from stores and homes.
Gilmore was convicted of killing Ben Bushnell, a motel manager, in Provo, Utah on July 20, 1976. He had also been charged with murdering Max Jensen, a Sinclair gas station employee in Orem, Utah the previous day, but that case never went to trial apparently because there were no witnesses. Gilmore's trial was held from October 5 to October 7, 1976 — he was quickly convicted of the murder, mostly because there was no defense on his part. The jury also recommended the death penalty for Gilmore due to the special circumstances to the crime. Because Utah then had two methods of execution, firing squad or death by hanging, Gilmore was given a choice, in which he replied, "I'd prefer to be shot."
During the three months Gilmore was on death row awaiting his execution, he attempted suicide twice. The first was on November 16, 1976 and the second was a month later on December 16. The execution was stayed three times. While incarcerated, Gilmore developed a deep dislike for two of his fellow inmates, convicted murderers and rapists Pierre Dale Selby and William Andrews, the "Hi-Fi Murderers." Gilmore had to pass the men's cells on his way to the firing squad, and as he was led past he laughed at the men and called out, "I'll see you in Hell, Andrews and Pierre!"
Gilmore was shot by a firing squad on January 17, 1977, at 8:07 AM, after angrily telling his lawyers to drop the appeals they had filed in defiance of his wishes. The night before, Gilmore had requested an all-night gathering of friends and family at the prison mess hall. On the morning of the 17th, he enjoyed a last meal consisting of a hamburger, hard-boiled eggs, a baked potato, a few cups of coffee, and three shots of whiskey. He was then taken to an abandoned cannery behind the prison which served as the prison's death house. He was strapped to a chair, with a wall of sandbags placed behind him to absorb the projectiles of the bullets. Five prison guards stood concealed behind a curtain with five small holes cut for them to place their rifles through which were aimed at him. Gilmore's last words were: "Let's do it."
Gilmore requested that, following his execution, his eyes be used for transplant purposes. Within hours of the execution, two people received his corneas, inspiring the British punk rock band The Adverts to write and release "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" later that year. Gilmore's body was cremated.
According to Mikal Gilmore's memoir, Utah's tradition dictated that five men comprise a firing squad - four of them with loaded rifles and one with a gun containing a blank, so as to not know who fired the fatal shot. Upon inspecting the clothes worn by Gary Gilmore at his execution, Mikal noticed five holes in the shirt — indicating, he wrote, that "the state of Utah, apparently, had taken no chances on the morning that it put my brother to death" (p. 390).
References to the execution
- The Oakland-based performance artist Monte Cazazza sent out photos of himself in an electric chair on the day of Gilmore's execution. One of these was mistakenly printed in a Hong Kong newspaper as the real execution. Cazazza was also photographed alongside COUM Transmissions/Throbbing Gristle members Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti for the "Gary Gilmore Memorial Society" postcard, in which the three artists posed blindfolded and tied to chairs to depict Gilmore's execution. [link]
- A December 11, 1976 episode of Saturday Night Live featured the cast singing a Christmas-themed medley enitled "Let's Kill Gary Gilmore For Christmas." Among its more memorable lyrics are set to "Winter Wonderland": "In the meadow we can build a snowman/One with Gary Gilmore packed inside/We'll ask him, "Are you dead yet?" He'll say, 'No, man'/But we'll wait out the frostbite 'till he dies."
- In 1977, The Adverts had a top 20 hit in the UK with the song "Gary Gilmore's Eyes". The lyrics describe an eye donor recipient realizing his new eyes came from the executed murderer.
- Gilmore's story is documented in Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song (1979), which was adapted by Mailer for the 1982 television movie of the same name starring Tommy Lee Jones as Gilmore. Jones won an Emmy for his portrayal of Gilmore.
- Gilmore is also the main character of artist Matthew Barney's Cremaster 2 (1999), the second part of The Cremaster Cycle.
- One of Gilmore's brothers, Mikal, wrote a memoir, Shot In The Heart, that chronicles his relationship with his brother, and their often troubled family history. In 2001, it was made into an HBO movie starring Giovanni Ribisi, Elias Koteas, and Sam Shepard.
See also
External links
- [Gary Gilmore] (on [Crime Library]).
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