Gary Gilmore
Gary Gilmore was a notorious American criminal whose life was marked by early family turmoil and a series of violent offenses. Born to an abusive father and subjected to a chaotic upbringing, he became involved in crime at a young age, which eventually led to multiple imprisonments. By the age of thirty-five, he had spent a significant portion of his life behind bars, with his criminal behavior persisting even after attempts at rehabilitation. In 1976, after a series of impulsive actions, Gilmore committed two murders during gas station and motel robberies in Utah, which resulted in his swift apprehension and conviction.
His trial was notably brief, concluding with a death sentence imposed due to the brutality of his crimes and his lack of remorse. Gilmore's execution on January 17, 1977, made headlines as it marked the first use of the death penalty in the U.S. following a Supreme Court moratorium on capital punishment. His case is often cited as pivotal in the reinstatement of capital punishment in America, reflecting broader societal and legal shifts regarding the death penalty during that era.
Subject Terms
Gary Gilmore
American murderer
- Born: December 4, 1940
- Birthplace: McCamey, Texas
- Died: January 17, 1977
- Place of death: Salt Lake City, Utah
Major offenses: Robbery and murder
Active: July, 1976
Locale: Provo, Utah
Sentence: Death
Early Life
When one considers the childhood of Gary Gilmore (GIHL-mohr), it is not surprising that he was to become a career criminal and a remorseless, violent murderer. His father, Frank Gilmore, Sr., was an alcoholic and petty con man who routinely abused young Gary and his siblings and ran from the law for most of their childhood. He forced the family to live under a fabricated surname, Coffman, and routinely shuffled them from town to town throughout the American West, often only a step ahead of the authorities.
By the time he was fifteen, family turmoil had taken its toll on Gilmore. He dropped out of school and within a year was an experienced car thief. His rowdiness and lack of respect for authority eventually landed him in Oregon’s MacLaren Reform School for Boys. A second robbery charge shortly thereafter resulted in a conviction and imprisonment in the Oregon State Penitentiary.
Criminal Career
By age thirty-five, Gilmore had spent more than half of his life behind bars. Released from his first prison stay in 1962, he promptly committed another robbery and returned to prison. Notoriously uncooperative with staff and belligerent toward other inmates, Gilmore spent much of the next ten years in solitary confinement. He was even treated with Prolixin, a strong antipsychotic drug intended to curb his antisocial tendencies. However, Gilmore claimed that the drug caused him to be depressed and suicidal, and treatment was halted. His time in solitary confinement, however, allowed him ample opportunity to develop his high IQ and cultivate a talent for art. These steps toward rehabilitation earned him early release in 1972 on the provision that he enroll in community college and live in a halfway house in Provo, Utah. Gilmore obtained work in an uncle’s shoe shop and a few occasional construction jobs. His family thought this would keep Gilmore out of trouble, but he remained unusually agitated and compulsive.
Despite his family’s efforts to help Gilmore readjust to life outside prison, his inherent restlessness and disdain for the law led to tragic consequences in the summer of 1976. Gilmore bought an expensive pickup truck on an impulse, but he could not afford the payments. Then, after his breakup with girlfriend Nicole Barrett, an emotionally distraught Gilmore proceeded to rob a Provo gas station in a convoluted attempt to get the money both to pay off his truck and to lash out at Barrett. The robbery resulted in the point-blank shooting and murder of attendant Max Jensen.
The next morning, Gilmore was still on the run but was having mechanical problems with his truck, which he dropped off at a garage. He robbed the nearby City Center Motel while waiting for the repairs to be finished. During the robbery, he shot and killed motel manager Ben Bushnell and accidentally shot himself in the hand while fleeing. He returned to the garage for his truck, and the mechanic, noticing his suspicious wound, reported Gilmore’s license number to local police. Gilmore was quickly apprehended and charged with both murders.
Legal Action and Outcome
Gilmore’s trial lasted only two days. A mountain of physical evidence and the testimony of witnesses linking him directly to the killings prompted jurors to convict Gilmore of first-degree murder after only an hour and a half of deliberation. During the penalty phase of the trial, state prosecutor Noall Wootton sought the death penalty, claiming that the gruesome and arbitrary nature of the killings, combined with Gilmore’s extensive criminal record, rendered him incapable of rehabilitation. Gilmore refused to testify on his own behalf during the trial or demonstrate remorse for the crimes during the penalty phase. He was sentenced to death.
Utah had not executed anyone since 1958. In fact, the state’s laws regarding the practice remained unusually archaic. One particularly outmoded provision allowed the condemned a choice of execution method—hanging or firing squad. However, Utah had disassembled its gallows and possessed no facility in which an execution by firing squad could officially be conducted. Since Gilmore chose the firing squad, his original execution date of November 15, 1976, was postponed. In the interim, a number of entities, including the American Civil Liberties Union, offered to appeal on his behalf. Gilmore adamantly refused all attempts to prolong his ordeal and was shot to death in a converted cannery at the Utah State Prison on January 17, 1977.
Impact
Gilmore’s execution—the first death sentence to be carried out after the Supreme Court’s four-year moratorium on capital punishment—is generally regarded to have ushered in a return to the legitimization of capital punishment in the United States. In 1972’s landmark case Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional capital punishment as then administered in the United States. A series of later revisions to state laws related to execution, however, paved the way for a lift on the ban in 1976. Gilmore made worldwide headlines by refusing all appeals and demanding that his sentence be carried out as soon as possible.
Bibliography
Gilmore, Mikal. Shot in the Heart. New York: Doubleday, 1994. Written by Gilmore’s younger brother, this nonfiction work not only focuses on many of the same events as Mailer’s book but also seeks to probe into the psychological legacy that contributed to the misfortunes of Gilmore and other family members.
Mailer, Norman. The Executioner’s Song. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979. A “nonfiction novel” recounting of the events leading up to Gilmore’s conviction and execution for capital murder, constructed from interviews and documents relevant to the case. Won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Philips, Tom. “The Revival of the American Death Penalty.” In Death Penalty, edited by Hayley R. Mitchell. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2001. Discusses the influence of Gilmore’s execution in fostering the growing use of capital punishment in the United States.