The Executioner's Song (135 page)

CAMPBELL Thank you, Bob. BrotherDick Gray would now like to

present a special message.

DICK GRAY I feel a great loss. I will read these messages that were sent from his brothers. “There are many stories circulating about Gary Gilmore now, and some are good and some are bad, some are true and some are not, but the Gary Gilmore that I knew, was both good and bad, like everyone else. That is what I remember most

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about Gary Gilmore, that he was exactly like everyone else, when he was young before the law reformed Gary Gilmore, yes, before the law reformed Gary Gilmore, he was like everyone else. To make a long story short, we are gathered here today, because the law reformed Gary Gilmore.” His brother Frank. The next is from his brother Mikal. “Gary, I pray you have found a better and more merciful world, I pray that your legacy will be one that will remind us of the value of life, not the glorification or the marketing of death in any form. I pray for our families as I pray for the families of those who have already suffered, and I pray . . • that no man, who claims to represent our interest, forgets the debt to those families. I wish, Gary, that we could have had more time. My love and remorse, Mikal.”

CAMPBELL Thank you, Dick. Thomas R. Meersman, Father at the

Utah State Prison, would like at this time, to share with you, Gary, from inside.

Now, nearly everyone present listened with great interest, for most of them, being Mormons, had never heard a real address from a Catholic priest before.

MEERSMAN SO yOU know my name is Father Meersman, and I’m the

Catholic Chaplain at the Utah State Prison, ah, my relationship with Gary Gilmore was perhaps different than any of yours. I came into his life because of a very unusual statement I heard a man make when he was condemned to death. I told him that when I met him the first time. I said it’s quite an unusual statement and ff you mean it, why I will offer you all that I can to bring it about. And the statement that he made is one I imagine that you’ve all heard: I wish to die with dignity. And so, we began our relationship, we would meet, especially at night, ‘cause during the day he was very busy about many things. People coming to see him and to visit him ah… his name became more and more famous and he gained world and international recog nition at least of his name and of what he was doing and things like that …. We kept it going like this, and when it looked like the end was, of course, very near, well, you have to get serious. There’s a time and a place for all things, and so, the night before his deathwatch, we gathered together and it was just about midnight, and the church was in the kitchen, and one of the guards happened to be a Catholic, and he’s the one, in our terminology, who served the Mass, and as sisted the priest, who happened to be myself, and during two parts of the Mass, we used Bible readings, and when the question was asked,

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“What Gospel should we read?” in his own inimitable way, he said, “My name is Gary Mark. Read something from Saint Mark.” After wards, well, the guards were moved to a certain extent, and they noticed, of course, that he was extremely reflective, especially after wards he didn’t move, he just sat there on the table. And ah, we said to him very simply, We came into your life when you said I want to die with dignity. And we’ll sta3’ into your life, we’ll stay within your ]fie till that’s accomplished. But we want you to know this, that every day of my life as a Catholic priest, when I stand at an altar, wherever it may be, in the Utah State Prison, in a hospital, at Saint Peter’s in Rome, that every day of my life you will be prayed for. And so, I don’t know, these are some of my thoughts. There probably are many more, but I didn’t have too much time to jot too much down but I hope that they will help you who loved him so much. And wi]i miss him, of course. That will help you to know him, perhaps, that we said these words, at this time. And I can say nothing better to you than his last words… Dominus vobiscum. May the Lord be with you all. Thank you.

CAMPBELL Thank you, Father. I’m deeply moved as all of you are, as we begin to expose the real Gary Mark Gilmore. Another person who has come to respect him, Ron Stanger.

STANGER I think Bob and I were a part of his adopted family. I think with the exception of maybe three or four days, we were with him every day, and ff you don’t believe us, ask our wives. Ah, they knew that very well. There I was on Christmas Day, and the family was together, and ‘Ml the merriment that you always have on Christmas, and guess where Moody and Stanger went? But indeed, it seemed to me to be very appropriate that for the first and maybe the only time in my Lifetime that I consider myself to be a good and true Christian, because I did what the Savior said, and that is to go into prisons and to try and help those people in need.

May I challenge all of us, however, to do the thing that I also learned from Gary as he would talk with me about family and we all know that he loved children. He would ask us how we were getting along with our children and he’d always say, Ron, raise your family, be close to them, be strict with them, let them know that if they make little mistakes they’ll grow into bigger ones. He said one time, when he had that smile he would get on his face, he said, “They might, ff they keep doing things wrong, they might end up being another Gary Gilmore.”

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CAMPBELL Thank you, Ron. Gary has done for me a great favor.

pushed me over the hump. I’m going to quit the prison in months. Gary has convinced me that an ounce of prevention is a pound of cure, that the two words juvenile and justice don’t together. My plans are to move into southern Utah where I some property and build a boys’ ranch and take those up to of fourteen who find themselves in difficulty with the law and them. You’ve gathered from those that have spoken, that the that Gary wanted to leave was love. He probably had more. love than anybody at that place. He gave to me a deep love want you to know that I have in me a portion of Gary Mark that will never leave.

He asked that a special song be sung at his memorial, and told me about it, he said this is me as I leave this earth. The son great Christian hymn, called “Amazing Grace,” to be delivered by Mrs. Robert Moody.

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love with him. And the problems that they had themselves was probably the same problems that some of us have. But Gary just couldn’t handle them. He had to strike out at something, somebody, and unfortunately, he did. Gary has gone to his death hoping that this will atone for what he has done. He’s done this thing to two fine families, but he tells me he has only one Life to give, and he wished he had more. And he would give more. He has given special parts of his body to people and to science, hoping that it will help some unfortunate person to be healthy again. I’ve learned to know Gary… the last few months, more than I ever had since I’d known him, I’ve seen the inner side of Gary, and he is human, tender, and yes, understanding, very capable of love. Gary is on his way to a new life with GOd, and so, as Gary would say, “You people be cool.” In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

MRS. ROIrRT MOODY (sings)

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost but now I’m found,

Was blind, and now I see.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares

I have already come

Tis Grace has brought me safe thus far

And Grace will lead me home.

CAMPBELl, Thank you very much. That was beautiful. I know true that Gary loved all of you. But one, in particular, where I love came from both sides in tremendous and great abundance his Uncle Vern …. And Vern will now deliver the final

VEP, N Brothers and sisters, friends, on this day, the eighteenth January I977, I stand before you because Gary asked me to. is all very strange to me, I’ve never done this before …. But I ised him and I would try to say a few words for him. Not to him for what he did, but to try to explain why he did it. sure this is going to be difficult for me. The best way that explain is that Gary was deeply in love with a girl that was

After the service, Stanger asked Larry Schiller into the side room where the urn was standing. There Larry learned that Gary had requested that his ashes be spread over Spanish Fork because that was where his loving memories were. Veto felt Gary didn’t want to be in an enclosed place again. He had been enclosed all his life. Now he wanted to be on top of the earth and free to roam as the wind blew.

They were going to do it from an airplane and Ron told Larry that Gary desired him on the flight. It was his request. Schiller said he didn’t want to go. Didn’t feel that that was the place for him. They said Vern had been asked, Father Meersman and Cline Campbell, and then there would be Ron Stanger and himself. Finally, he had to agree. But, he still felt it was wrong. All through the memorial service, he had not felt near to Gilmore nor close to all the emotions the guests had obviously been feeling. The airplane ride would be more of that. Still, it was arranged that next morning, they would all go up in the plane. Schiller spent the rest of the day packing.

On Wednesday, the I9th, there he was out at Provo Airport and they all got into this six-seater, the pilot and Stanger in the front two seats, Vern and Campbell behind, Meersman and himself in the rear.

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It all proved very simple. They had this cardboard container the size of a shoebox, and once they were in the air, Stanger opened it. Gary’s ashes had been put into a plastic bag of the sort you sell bread in, a cellophane bag with the printing from the bread company clearly on it. That freaked Schiller out. Here, Stanger was holding this bag up next to the window, and it had colored printing all over it, not festive, but cheap, a 59˘ loaf of bread. Schiller imagined that the ashes would be black and somber and kind of dignified, but they were gray and white and had bits of bone in them, a seedy, used-up color.

would inform Time. In turn, he told Time that if they didn’t agree to the idea of a balanced portrait, he would inform Newsweek how Time had slipped him a Minox to give to an associate on execution night for taking photographs of Gary. Thereby, he had magazines giving him fair and decent treatment. Not preferred treatment, just fair and decent — that was all he ever asked for.

Gary had specified how he wanted those ashes deposited. He had picked a number of places in Spanish Fork and Springville and Provo, and so Stanger had to strew the ashes in four or five takes. He never even put his hand out the window, however, just tucked the opening of the bag next to where he cracked the vent. The pilot would bank to put Stanger on the down side, and the air would suck out the ashes. A slow business, not very dramatic. In the back seat Meersman started to talk to Schiller about the memorial service. It was obvious to Schiller that Meersman wanted to suggest that Gary had returned to the Catholic Church on his dying day, but it didn’t ring right to Schiller. Gary had hated the name Mark, even crossed it out in his contracts. Of course, he could have been AC-DC about his middle name, but Schiller was only buying Meersman’s story with a bag of salt.

After they spread the ashes and came down, Barry Farrell was waiting at the airport. With him was a girl from the New York Times whom Schiller certainly did not want to be interviewed by. He had, however, neglected to inform Farrell of that little fact. So, right after dsembarking, he had to face the Times girl. By the look on her face, it was obvious Barry had told her what they were all doing in the plane. Schiller was pinned against the wall, and did a horrible inter view. The story got out. No longer a secret where Gilmore’s ashes ended.

Later that day, he also did an interview for Time, and one for Newsweek, and took a jet to L.A. Both magazines had agreed to his conditions, but then, he had a grip on both. In November, Newsweek had been in collaboration with Schiller for a day or two, so he told them now that if they didn’t mention that little fact in their article, he

IN THE EBB OF THE NEWS
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“I could not gauge the depth of callousness and human depravity that brought about this spectacle.”

Mr. Schwarzschild said his words were harsh, but added the situation called for a strident tone. “Let Mr. Hansen make of them what he will.”

IN THE EBB OF THE NEWS

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TIME

What the warden called “the event” took just i8 minutes. Hearing the fusillade, prisoners in, three nearby cellblocks screamed obscenities.

SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

ACLU Calls Hansen Murder.Accomplice

January 18, I 977 — Henry Schwarzschfld, New York Coordinator of the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty and director of the Capital Punishment Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, had only harsh words about the execution and Utah officials.

‘rhis was not a suicide of Mr. Gilmore but a judicial homicide with Mr. Hansen as an accomplice,” Mr. Schwarzschfld said at a Salt Lake Hilton Hotel press conference.

The speed with which “the state attorney general raced to the i oth Circuit bespeaks nothing but bloodlust,” Mr. Schwarzschfld added.

“I am appalled at such a performance in this soci-et which calls itself civilized,” the capital punishment opponent said.

SALT LAKE TPdBUNE

Justice Has Been Ser,ed, Hansen Says of Execution

By Dave Jonsson

Tribune Staff Writer

January I7, 1977 — Utah Atty. Gen. Robert B. Hansen, who personally argued in court against stays of execution of Gary Mark Gilmore, said Monday after the convict’s death, “Justice has been served.”

“Capital punishment is symbolic of society’s deter-ruination to enforce all of its laws. If we don’t enforce the severest of our laws, the criminal mind might conclude (punishments of) other laws won’t be imposed against them,” Mr. Hansen said.