The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
**The Executioner's Song** is a nonfiction novel by Norman Mailer that chronicles the life and crimes of Gary Gilmore, a man who spent most of his life in various penal institutions. Released early from a federal maximum-security prison, Gilmore struggles to adapt to life outside, living with family in Utah and working low-wage jobs while grappling with emotional instability and a penchant for violence. His descent into criminality escalates when he commits two murders during robberies, leading to his capture and a highly publicized trial. Mailer delves into Gilmore’s psyche, highlighting his complex character, artistic inclinations, and turbulent relationships, particularly with his girlfriend and family. As he faces conviction and a death sentence, Gilmore becomes a focal point for media attention due to his unorthodox decision to forgo appeals. The narrative culminates in his execution by firing squad, raising questions about capital punishment, mental health, and the human condition. The novel provides an in-depth exploration of Gilmore’s life, the societal impacts of his actions, and the emotional aftermath for those around him.
On this Page
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
First published: 1979
Type of work: New Journalism
Type of plot: Narrative
Time of plot: April, 1976, to January, 1977
Locale: Marion, Illinois; Orem, Salt Lake City, and Provo, Utah
Principal characters
Gary Gilmore , a career criminal and murdererBrenda Nicol , his cousinRikki Baker , Gary’s sometime drinking buddyNicole Baker , Rikki’s sister, who becomes Gary’s girlfriendMont Court , Gary’s parole officer
The Story:
Long-time felon Gary Gilmore, an intelligent man with artistic talents, a sense of pride, and little common sense, has spent nearly two-thirds of his thirty-five years of life in various penal institutions. He is being released early from the federal maximum-security penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, after a term for robbery in Oregon. He writes his cousin Brenda Nicol, with whom he has maintained a sporadic correspondence since they grew up together, to ask if she would serve as his sponsor once he regains his freedom. Brenda, who is in Utah, agrees.
Soon after Gary arrives in Provo, Utah, he moves in with his aunt and uncle, Vern and Ida Damico. Gary begins working at low pay as a shoe repairman in Vern’s shoe store and tries to become acclimated to his freedom. He clumsily dates a few women, plays cards with new acquaintances who quickly take a disliking to him, drops in without warning on area relatives and their families, and often drinks too much. He is a restless loner, is awkward with other people—his quick temper and talk of prison and violence makes others nervous—and has difficulty adjusting to life out of prison.
Gary violates his parole by hitchhiking to Idaho, and he is arrested there for driving without a license and for beating up a man; the charges, however, are dropped. Gary’s parole officer, Mont Court, a devout Mormon, does not report Gary to prison authorities in Oregon, where Gary’s parole originated. Though he takes a better paying but menial job at a thriving insulation shop, Gary’s frustration escalates. He performs acts of vandalism and petty theft, and stays inebriated much of the time. He invites new drinking buddy Rikki Baker to help him rob a bank, but Rikki refuses. Gary becomes more confrontational with those around him, and more out of control.
Despite his antisocial behavior, Gary acquires a car and a beautiful, sexually adventurous young girlfriend, Nicole Baker, Rikki’s nineteen-year-old, several-times-married-and-divorced sister. Nicole, her young children Sunny and Jeremy, and Gary move in together. Their relationship becomes uneasy, fraught with tension because of money worries, Nicole’s infidelity, and Gary’s drinking and emotional instability. Gary obtains a cache of guns through theft and leaves Nicole, who is afraid of him because of his wild mood swings.
Gary trades his Ford Mustang for a pickup truck. One night, with nothing better to do and no real plan in mind, he holds up a gas station in Orem, Utah. Though the attendant cooperates fully, Gary kills him, execution-style. The following night, Gary robs a motel in Provo and murders the front-desk clerk without remorse. Gary is particularly sloppy with the second killing, almost as though he has an unspoken wish to be caught. A passerby witnesses the crime. Gary accidentally shoots himself in the hand while attempting to hide the murder weapon and leaves a bloody trail. He sets himself up for betrayal (by cousin Brenda, who tells the police where to find him), and shortly afterward is captured without incident. He is held in jail and later confined to a psychiatric institution for examination.
Gary reestablishes contact with Nicole, and the two pledge undying love for one another through torrid correspondence and brief face-to-face visits. With no hope for mitigation because he is considered legally sane, Gary is finally put on trial, and with no defense for his crimes, he is quickly convicted and sentenced to death. He stoically accepts the verdict and asks for the sentence to be carried out on schedule.
A media frenzy erupts after Gary insists on being allowed to die without appeal, an action contrary to that of most persons on death row. Several judicial delays follow. Gary is executed by firing squad on January 17, 1977, just two months after the original date of his scheduled demise and only nine months following his parole from the prison in Illinois. Before his execution, he had requested that his corneas and other viable body parts be donated for transplantation; donors are soon found. After a graphically described autopsy, his remains are cremated and scattered in Utah. The survivors return to interrupted lives, sadder but no wiser for their experiences with Gary.
Bibliography
Algeo, Ann M. The Courtroom as Forum: Homicide Trials by Dreiser, Wright, Capote, and Mailer. New York: Peter Lang, 1996. A comparative study of the fictional works of four twentieth century American novelists whose books present actual crimes and punishments while addressing important social issues of the times in which they were written.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Norman Mailer. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2003. This collection features essays by many of Mailer’s most perceptive critics. Includes an informative editor’s introduction, bibliographic references, and an index.
Cotkin, George. Existential America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. An examination of the European philosophical movement—characterized by a sense of alienation and the absurd—as expressed in the works of such writers as Mailer, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, William James, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison.
Dearborn, Mary. Mailer: A Biography. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. An astute, full-scale biography that presents penetrating discussion of Mailer’s life and work as well as important interviews with his family and friends.
Leeds, Barry H. The Enduring Vision of Norman Mailer. Bainbridge Island, Wash.: Pleasure Boat Studio, 2002. This overview focuses on several themes—particularly women, politics, and violence—that run through much of Mailer’s work, showing how such threads bind large ideas to the story lines and give them substance.
Lehtimäki, Markku. The Poetics of Norman Mailer’s Nonfiction: Self-Reflexivity, Literary Form, and the Rhetoric of Narrative. Tampere, Finland: Tampere University Press, 2005. Originally written as a dissertation, this English-language study explores the literary style and rhetorical techniques found in Mailer’s nonfiction works, with particular attention to The Executioner’s Song.
Lennon, J. Michael. Critical Essays on Norman Mailer. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1986. Lennon, Mailer’s friend and authorized biographer, presents his essays on the two-time Pulitzer-Prize winner that were first published in The New Yorker, Paris Review, Playboy, and other periodicals.