BACK WITH A BANG
The Furman decision highlighted deficiencies in death penalty legislation, resulting in a ten-year hiatus during which no one was put to death. The Gregg decision showed that states could eliminate those deficiencies and resume capital punishment. This, many of them did. The first man to face execution after the moratorium was Gary Gilmore.
Gary Mark Gilmore was born in McCamey, Texas, in 1940. He believed that he was the illegitimate grandson of famous magician Harry Houdini, but this was almost certainly not true. His father was physically abusive and emotionally distant, and the family relocated a lot during his childhood. By his teens, Gary had drifted into petty crime. It began with him setting up a car theft ring at the tender age of fourteen. By twenty-two, he had progressed to armed robbery and assault and was jailed for eight years in 1964. From then on he was in and out of prison.
On the evening of July 19, 1976, he carried out another armed robbery, this time of a gas station in Orem, Utah. The following evening he robbed a motel manager in Provo. In both cases he ordered the employees to do as he said, but despite their compliance, he shot and killed both men—Max Jensen and Bennie Bushnell. After shooting Bushnell, Gilmore tried to dispose of the pistol but accidentally shot himself in the hand, leaving a trail of blood for investigators to follow. He was also seen throwing the gun into bushes near the service garage where his truck was parked. It did not take long for authorities to track him down.
Gilmore was charged with just one murder, that of Bushnell. He was convicted on October 7, 1976. The jury then sat again to consider sentencing and recommended the death penalty due to the special circumstances of the murder. This was all carried out in compliance with the Furman requirements set out by the Supreme Court. Gilmore was given the choice of being hanged or facing a firing squad, the two methods of execution available in Utah. He chose the firing squad, afraid that the hanging might be botched. Execution was scheduled for November 15th of that year. Gilmore announced publicly that he would not be appealing, but there were still inevitable appeals on his behalf, none of which he supported. The execution was put back and he tried to kill himself. Against his wishes, there were a number of stays of execution through the efforts of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). But the final stay was overturned at seven thirty in the morning on January 17, and he was due to face the firing squad later that morning.
Gilmore had made his feelings plain at a Board of Pardons hearing in November 1976, saying of the ACLU, “They always want to get in on the act. I don’t think they have ever really done anything effective in their lives. I would like them all—including that group of reverends and rabbis from Salt Lake City—to butt out. This is my life and this is my death. It’s been sanctioned by the courts that I die and I accept that.”
The night before the execution, Gilmore had requested an all-night gathering of friends and family at the prison mess hall. That evening he was served the traditional last meal of steak and potatoes but was only able to face a glass of milk and a mug of coffee. But Gilmore’s uncle had smuggled three miniature bottles of Jack Daniel’s whiskey into the prison, which Gilmore did knock back.
The next morning, once news was received that the stay of execution was overturned, Gilmore was led to an abandoned cannery behind the prison, which served as the death chamber. He sat on a chair and was strapped to it. Behind the chair, a wall of sandbags had been set up to catch any stray bullets. He could not see the firing squad. They were behind a black curtain with five small holes in it. The five marksmen, all local police officers, would shoot through the holes. Gilmore was asked had he any final words, to which he replied, “Let’s do it.”
The local Catholic chaplain administered the last rites, the order was given, and five bullets thudded into the convict’s chest, killing him instantly. He was an organ donor, and after his execution his corneas were donated to two people. His body was then cremated.
Gary Gilmore had shown the world that execution was back on in America. His death was immortalized by British punk band, The Adverts, in their song “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” in 1977, and then by an inevitable television Movie of the Week, The Executioner’s Song, in 1982. This starred Tommy Lee Jones and was based on a popular factual book by Norman Mailer.