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"Let's
do it."
On January 17, 1977,
Gary Mark Gilmore was put to death by firing squad at Draper State
Prison, Point of the Mountain, Utah. Gary Gilmore was the
first person to be executed in the United States since the
reinstatement in 1976 of the death penalty after a 10 year hiatus.
Gary's crime was
murder. Over a series of two nights, he systematically put to
death a gas station attendant named Max Jensen and a hotel desk
clerk named Bennie Bushnell, forcing each man to lie face down on
the floor as he put a gun to their heads and pulled the trigger.
Contrary to what is reported on some of the few websites that
actually have information on Gary, he was not a serial killer.
According to US Media Editors, a serial killer is one who kills on
three or more consecutive occasions (events) separated by intervals
of time. Gary was no John Wayne Gacy, Pee Wee Gaskins or Ted
Bundy. His victims were chosen at random as selfish acts to
try to get the attention of his estranged girlfriend, Nicole Baker.
In that respect, the murders accomplished what they were meant to
accomplish. The
World Watches
During the
summer of 1976 and the beginning of 1977, the United States and most
of the world were horrified when Gary Gilmore, a lifetime con from
Utah, was made an instant celebrity... Not for being sentenced to
the death penalty itself, but for demanding that it be carried out
immediately. When it wasn't, the country watched in
fascination as Gary Gilmore twice tried to commit suicide to do the
job the government was having such a hard time doing. This
situation was made even more sensational when Gary's girlfriend
Nicole also tried to take her own life at the same time as Gary.
Neither succeeded. Nicole was placed in a mental hospital and
was not allowed to see Gary again. The only contact between
them after the suicide attempts were letters.
All
over the world people were talking about Gary Gilmore. He
was on the covers of national magazines and his picture was
broadcast over television and plastered over the front pages of
newspapers. Every night brought another chapter to the story,
from the simultaneous suicide attempts by both Nicole Baker and Gary
to the adamant demands that the sentence be carried out. The
simple fact that Gary's was to be the first execution since the
reinstatement of the death penalty should have been enough to garner
the attention of the media, but the circumstances were so
extraordinary that they drew not only the attention of the United
States but the entire world as well.
The
Execution
At 8:07am on the
morning of January 17, 1977, the State of Utah carried out the death
sentence by firing squad. The execution was carried out in an
unused cannery on the prison property. Five executioners with
rifles (one rifle loaded with blanks so the executioners would not
know who had fired the fatal shots) took aim at Gary through a
canvas blind on the cannery's loading dock, firing simultaneously.
Nicole Baker was invited to witness the execution by Gary, but was
institutionalized and was not allowed to leave the
hospital.
It has
been widely reported that Gary Gilmore's last words were "Let's
do it." This is, in fact, erroneous. This was what
he said when asked if he had any last words. After this, Gary
spoke to Father Meersman, the priest performing last rites:
Gary:
Dominus vobiscum.
Meersman:
Et cum spiritu tuo.
Gary
(grinning): There'll always be a Meersman.
After the
execution, Gary's body was sent for autopsy and then cremated.
The ashes, which were placed in an old plastic bread sack, were
scattered from a six-seater airplane carrying Gary's uncle Vern
Damico, Father Meersman, Cline Campbell, Larry Schiller, and Ron
Stanger, Gary's lawyer. Ron spread the ashes over Spanish
Fork, Springville, and Provo Utah, in accordance with Gary's wishes.
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