Full disclosure: I am not now nor have I ever been a proponent of the death penalty. There are some very good reasons it should be abolished.. least of which is that there is no evidence it serves as a deterrent to anyone other than the person being executed (for obvious reasons). This is the story of killer Gary Gilmore. In the summer of 1976, he robbed two men and then shot them both execution style. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to death in the state of Utah. What made this case so controversial is the fact that Gilmore decided he did not want to wait and go through the endless appeals process. He wanted to be executed right away. Like most true crime books, this story takes you through the entire trial process and you get a behind the scenes look at how the criminal justice system of the United States works.. which isn't always logical and doesn't always seem fair. There are not many redeeming qualities to gary Gilmore's life. He was a career criminal who had been in and out of prison his entire life. As a matter of fact, he committed these crimes while on parole. At the same time, Mailer shows you how absolutely illogical this whole process can be.. not to mention the hypocrisy that was present in this case. Although Gilmore said he wanted to be executed right away and it would seem that the state would want to save the tax payers significant money by granting his wish, that is not what was done. The ACLU took up the case and began to fight appeals FOR him. Attorneys were concerned that perhaps Gilmore had a death wish and perhaps that made him insane so they proceeded to try to stop it for that reason.

Mailer's book went on for over 1,000 pages and truthfully he could have summed in up in far fewer pages. Having read other books by Mailer, I think this is just his style. Gilmore's story is very compelling and it also demonstrated the very mixed feelings of the people who are charged with carrying out these state sponsored murders. It also demonstrated how political this process really is and how the killer is often exploited by his own attorneys and other people in his life who want to use his story for profit and fame. All in all, a very sad but interesting story. Gary Gilmore was executed by the state of Utah on January 17, 1977.