The Executioner's Song (40 page)

July 2i, I976

NIELSEN What time did he get gas?

APRIL When we were at the service station in Pleasant Grove. NIELSEN Was it after dark?

APRIL It was dark, it was past sundown.

NIELSEN After that did you drive around for a while?

APRIL He said he was taking me home and he wasn’t going to put up with any of my smart-ass crap telling him where to go and he said he wanted a classy place like the Holiday Inn, so we went there and I was going to go to sleep because I was really tired. I didn’t really know why, I felt like I was running from somebody-ever since somebody broke the windows in our bathroom at home, and I can’t really sleep well since then.

NIELSEN And then you stayed there for that night until what time the next morning?

APRIL About 8:3o or 9:oo.

NIELSEN I don’t mean to imply anything or to pry into your personal life, but did you sleep with him that night?

APRIL I almost did, but I changed my mind.

NIELSEN Did he get mad at you then?

APRIL He was mad at me for acting like a kid haft the time, but I

just lost my love for him, only I never did sleep with him or anything.

NIELSEN Did you tell your morn that?

APRIL She didn’t ask me because she knows I have my private life

and if I wanted to blow it, I could …

NIELSEN April, Gary is in very serious ta’ouble. I know that, I have

talked to him about it and there is no question about it. He already

294
THE EXECUTIONER’S SONGp>

told me you were with him at the time and so I know that you about it. I am not interested in you telling me so that I can you. I don’t intend to charge you with it, but I do intend to see you tell the truth.

APRIL I am a split personality. I am controlling it pretty good

A lot of time I like to just let go and let the other person creep out …

NIELSEN Where did you go last night, when you left home? APRIL I went riding around with a couple of friends.

NIELSEN Did they know him?

APRIL No.

NIELSEN Do you mind telling me who they were?

APRIL One is Grant and one is Joe.

NIELSEN Where did you stay last night?

APRIL I didn’t sleep all night, rode to Wyoming, and just went in mountains and down this road and came home.

NIELSEN What time did you get home?

APRIL 4:30 or 5:oo.

NIELSEN Don’t you worry about your room worrying about you? APRIL I don’t think she worries about me. I’m not afraid of no and I am not afraid of no dudes with knives. They don’t scare have learned self-defense.

NIELSEN I want to ask you one more time about the service April, I think it would be best if you tell me what you know. APRIL I don’t remember the service station in Orem.

NIELSEN Do you remember seeing him pull a gun at the service tion?

APRIL We went into a service station right before we went to Holiday Inn and I am sure there were no guns attached. They have been carrying them, but that’s all.

NIELSEN Who are “they”?

APRIL Any of the dudes that were around.

NIELSEN DO you know any of them?

APRIL I recognize all of them, but I don’t know some

One of them works with him at the insulation place.

cAzruPED
295p>

NIELSEN Insulation?

APRIL Where he works at the Ideal Insulation. I am pretty sure it was the friend we visited.

NIELSEN At the care?

APRIL It may not have been.

NIELSEN Are you about ready to go back home?

APRIL Yes. I am wondering why I am here.

NIELSEN I will be glad to help you ff I can.

When April came out of the interview, she said, “Mama, they told me Gary killed two men. Do you believe that?” .

Kathryne said, “Well, April, I guess he must have.”

“Gary couldn’t kill someone, Mama.”

“Well, April,” Kathryne said, “I think Gary told them he did.”

2

AN ACT OF CONTRITION

Next morning, Gilmore was brought from Provo to Orem, and Niel sen saw him in his office, and apologized about the crowd outside. There were TV lights and a lot of reporters and city employees in the hall, but what really embarrassed Nielsen was that half the force including off-duty officers had also come out. People were even standing on chairs to get a look.

Nielsen had his secretary bring a cup of coffee. Then he “Lieutenant Skinner is going to sign a complaint charging you the homicide of Max Jensen.” After a short pause, Gary said, really feel bad about those two guys. I read one of their obituaries the paper last night. He was a young man and had a kid and he was missionary. Makes me really feel bad.”

“Gary, I feel bad too. I can’t understand taking a life for amount of money you got.”

Gary replied, “I don’t know how much I got. What was Nielsen said, “It was $I 95, and in Provo, approximately the amount.” Gary began to cry. He didn’t weep with any noise but were tears in his eyes. He said, “I hope they execute me for it. I ou to die for what I did.”

“Gary, are you ready to?” Nielsen asked. “It doesn’t scare “Would you like to die?” “Criminy,” said Nielsen, “no.”

“Me, neither,” said Gilmore, “but I ought to be executed

“I don’t know,” said Nielsen; “there’s got to be forgiveness where along the line.”

AN ACT OF CONTRITION

297p>

A tittle later, Gary made a private call to Brenda.

“How,” he asked her, “did the cops know I was at Craig Taylor’s house?”

“Gary, you might as well know, I don’t want you hearing it from

somebody else. I called the police.”

“I see.”

Brenda said, “You’re probably going to be bent real out of shape with me. But, Gary, it had to stop. You commit a murder Monday, and commit a murder Tuesday. I wasn’t waiting for Wednesday to roll around.”

“Hey, cousin,” said Gary, “don’t worry about it.”

Brenda said, “Gary, you’re going to go down hard this time. You’re going to ride this one clear to the bottom.”

He said, “Man, how do you know I’m not innocent?”

“Gary, what’s the matter with your head?”

“I don’t know,” Gary said, “I must have been insane.”

Brenda asked, “What about your mother? What do you want me to tell her?”

He was quiet for a while. Then he said, “Tell her it’s true.” Brenda said, “Okay. Anything else?” “Just tell her I love her.”

Craig Snyder, Gary’s other lawyer, was shorter than Esplin, about five-seven, with broad shoulders, blond hair, and pale eyes. He had eyeglasses with pale frames. Today, he was wearing a blond-colored suit with a tie that had several shades of yellow, green, and orange, and a yellow shirt.

On this morning in Orem, Snyder and Esplm didn’t even know Gary was being interviewed by Gerald Nielsen until he was brought up to be arraigned. Afterward, they sat down with him, and he said he had committed both murders, and had told Nielsen.

They were certainly upset. Gilmore had been informed, of his Miranda rights when arrested, but he had not been given full Miranda down at the jail. Any confession Gilmore offered had to be worthless,

298
THE EXECUTIONER’S SONGp>

the lawyers decided, It was infuriating. They had been kept waiting forty-five minutes while a Lieutenant of Detectives was grilling him.

In reply, Gary seemed more interested in the fact that Nielsen. had promised he could see Nicole at the jail. He wanted his lawyers to make sure Nielsen kept his word.

Nicole was in Springville with Barrett when the police came. didn’t phone or anything. Just a cop to ask her to get ready. A tittle later, Lieutenant Nielsen was there in a car. He would drive her to see Gary.

She didn’t know how she felt, and she didn’t know if she how she felt. It had been a real hang-up listening to Barrett. The couple of days he had been coming on as the wise man. Her ment, he kept saying, was so goofy. Like she had murderer for herself.

On the way, Lieutenant Nielsen was nice and polite, and he it out. They were going to let Nicole talk to Gary, but she had to ask i he had done the murders. Nicole was about to get mad at the su tion, except she figured out Nielsen needed a reason to justify ing her over. She was sure he wasn’t so dumb as to think Gary going to answer her question while a bunch of cops was listening.

That was how it turned out. Nicole walked into this funky story jail, went down a couple of short corridors, passed a bunch inmates who looked like beer burns, then a couple of dudes whistled as she went by, twirled their mustaches, showed a generally acted like the cat’s ass. Two cops and Detective were right behind her, and she came to a big cell with a table in middle of it, four bunks she could see, and thick prison bars in of her.

Then she saw Gary come toward her from the back of the His left hand was in a cast. It was only three days from the

had seen him arrested and lying on the ground, but she could feel the difference. He said, “Hello, baby,” and, at first, she didn’t even want to look at him.

With her head down, she muttered, “Did you do this?”

She was really whispering as if, should he say yes, maybe the cops wouldn’t hear the question. He said, “Nicole, don’t ask me that.”

Now, she looked up. She couldn’t get over how clear his eyes were. There was a minute where they didn’t say any more. Then he put one ann through the bars. She wanted to touch him, but didn’t. However, she kept feeling the impulse. More and more she had this desire to touch him.

It was close to a spooky experience. Nicole didn’t know what she was feeling. She certainly wasn’t feeling sorry for him. She wasn’t feeling sorry for herself. Rather, she couldn’t breathe. She could hardly believe it, but she was ready to faint. That was the moment when she knew that it didn’t matter what she had said about him these last couple of weeks. She had been in love with him from the moment she met him and she would love him forever.

It wasn’t an emotion so much as a physical sensation. A magnet could have been pulling her to the bars. She reached out to put a hand on the arm he extended through, and one of the officers stepped forward and said, “No physical contact.”

She stepped back, and Gary looked good. He looked surprisingly good. His eyes were more blue than they had ever been. All that fog from the Fiorinal was gone. His eyes looked into her as if he was returning from all the way back and something ugly had passed through completely and was gone. All through these last couple of bad weeks, it was like he had been looking a year older every day. Now he looked fine. “I love you,” he said as they said goodbye. “I love you,” she said.

In the same hour that Nicole was going to and from the jail, April went berserk. She began to scream that someone was trying to blow her head off. Kathryne could do nothing. First she had to call the police and then she decided to commit her to the hospital. It was

300
p>

THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG

horrible. April had flipped out completely. Kathryne even had to keep the children out of the house all those hours while it was being decided.

The Sheriff, Ken Cahoon, was a tall man with an easygoing and white hair. He wore metal-rimmed glasses, had a large nose, small mouth, a small chin, and a little potbelly. He liked to believe ran a reasonably good jail. His main tank had bunks for thirty but he never went over twenty if he could help it. That kept fights down. The trustees who worked in the kitchen were given cell to themselves, and there was also Maximum Detention, room for six. That was the tank where Gary now sat by himself. another cell for six down the same hall to hold prisoners on release. Altogether, Cahoon’s jail could carry forty people busting the seams of anyone’s patience.

A while after Nicole left, Cahoon decided to look back in on

more.

“I have blisters on my feet,” Gilmore told him.

“From doing what?” asked Cahoon.

“Why,” said Gilmore, “I’ve been jogging in place.”

“Well, dummy, quit jogging in place.”

“No,” said Gilmore, “give me some Band-Aids. I’ll put them and I can jog some more.”

Next day, he asked the same thing. Said he wanted because his feet were sore. “Why, let’s see,” said Cahoon, “if an infection.”

Gilmore said, “Just give me some Band-Aids. It’s not that badi “No,” said Cahoon, “if you got blisters, I want to see them.” “Oh, hell,” said Gilmore, “forget it.”

Cahoon decided he was pulling a bluff. There was no what he might use the Band-Aids for, unless it was to tape traband to the bottom of the bedsprings or something.

Next morning, Gilmore said to a guard, “I want out of here I’ve got a Writ of Habeas Corpus. Let me see the head man of jail.”

Cahoon decided Gilmore must have the opinion they were back-woodsy in this little old humble place. Now Gary said to Cahoon in a nice confidential voice, “Look, I’m in for five days. I’m not being held for nothing but a traffic violation. So I would like out of here right now. You see,” he said, “I’ve got to be under a doctor’s care. As you may know, I came in with this cast on, and things of this nature want attention. I’d like to be taken to the hospital. The hand has to have its medication, and if you can’t get me out, you see, there could be complications.”

Cahoon thought Gilmore was a pretty good Con man, considering the odds, and he didn’t exactly laugh at the idea that Gilmore might get loose in some simple but crazy way. A while back, they’d had a man in the tank named Dennis Howell, and another prisoner hap pened to come in also named Dennis Howell. The same day, word came to release the first Dennis. So the jailer on duty who was new on the job went down the list, went back and said to the new arrival, “Howell, your wife is outside, you can go now.” The wrong Dennis walked out the door, trotted right past the woman, took off like a whistle.