Gary Mark Gilmore

Convicted Murderer. First person to be executed in the United States when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 after a ten year hiatus. Gary Gilmore dropped out of school at age fourteen and was a career criminal. He was on parole in the summer of 1976 when he murdered a motel clerk and a gas station attendant in two separate crimes which were committed a day apart. He was turned in to the police by his own cousin, who didn't want him to commit a third murder the following day. Gilmore wanted a speedy trial and was sentenced to death after his conviction for capital murder. He was one of the few people who fought the justice system to ensure that he would be executed quickly. His wish was carried out six months after the crimes on January 17, 1977, when he was executed by a firing squad in Utah. Norman Mailer wrote "The Executioner's Song," which detailed the life of Gary Gilmore. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for 1980. Mailer's book was later produced into a made for TV movie. Gary Gilmore's last words were, "Let's do it."