Gary Mark Gilmore
Gary Mark Gilmore (December 4, 1940 – January 17, 1977) was a career criminal who was the first person legally executed in the United States after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Gilmore was convicted of killing a motel manager in Provo, Utah he had also been charged with murdering a gas station employee in Orem, Utah, the previous day, but that case never went to trial.
In 1972 the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Furman v. Georgia (1972), effectively invalidating almost all laws regarding capital punishment in the United States. In response to that decision, 35 states (including Utah) enacted revised death penalty statutes intended to eliminate arbitrariness in capital sentencing. After the Supreme Court validated those laws in 1976, the state of Utah was able to proceed
with the execution of Gilmore due to his refusal to contest his conviction and sentence.
Gilmore was shot by a firing squad after angrily telling his lawyers to drop the appeals they had filed in defiance of his wishes. Gilmore's last words were: " Let's do it." Gilmore had spent 18 of his last 21 years in jail and prison he wanted the justice process hurried along. During his wait, Gilmore attempted suicide twice. The execution was stayed three times. While incarcerated, Gilmore developed a deep dislike for two of his fellow inmates, convicted
murderers and rapists Dale Selby Pierre 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 uttered his final words to his fellow inmates, " I'll see you in Hell, Andrews and Pierre!"
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. 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.
Gilmore's story is documented in Norman Mailer's non-fictional novel The Executioner's Song (1979), which was adapted by Mailer for the 1982 television movie of the same name starring Tommy Lee Jones. Jones won an Emmy for his portrayal of Gilmore. Gilmore is also the main character of artist Matthew Barney's Cremaster
2 (1999), the 2nd part of The Cremaster Cycle.
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."
Gilmore's brother 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.
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 " [t]he state of Utah, apparently, had taken no chances on the morning that it put my brother to death" Source: Wikipedia Encyclopedia
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