The Executioner's Song (39 page)

On this hot July evening, Nielsen began by saying that story, unhappily, was full of holes. They were checking it out, did not add up. So he wanted to know if it would be all right talked. Gilmore said, “I’ve been charged with a capital offense, I’m innocent, and you’re all screwing up my life.”

“Gary, I know things are serious,” Nielsen said, “but I’m screwing with anybody’s life. You don’t have to talk to me if want to, you know that.”

Gary walked away and then came back a little later and don’t mind talking.”

Nielsen was with Gilmore about an hour and a half. There, Maximum Security cell, the two of them locked in together, spoke. Nielsen came on very light at first. “Have you seen ney?” he asked, and Gilmore said he had. Then Nielsen how he was feeling. “How’s the arm?” Gilmore said, “Hey, I’m hurting. They only give me one pain pill, and the doctor said I supposed to have two.”

“Well,” Nielsen said, “I’ll tell them I heard the doctor say

Nielsen tried to beas easygoing as he could. He inquired if liked to fish, and Gilmore answered that with the time he’d jail, there just hadn’t been much fishing. Nielsen began to little about fly casting and Gilmore showed interest at the idea

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you had to get good enough to guess under different circumstances, what a trout was likely to accept in the way of a fly. The detective told him of taking overnight camping trips with his family up in the canyons.

Gilmore, in turn, talked about a few of his experiences in prison. Told of the fat girl who died, and the time they gave him too much Prolixin, and he swelled up, and couldn’t move. Spoke of how prison demanded you be a man every step of the way. Then he asked a little more about Nielsen’s background. He seemed interested that Nielsen had a wife and five children.

Was his wife a good Mormon? Gilmore asked. Oh, yes. He had met her at BYU where she had gone to get away from Idaho. What did she major in? asked Gilmore, as if he were truly fascinated. Nielsen shrugged. “She majored in home economics,” he said. Then he grinned at Gilmore. “Her interest was to–you know, maybe, you know, kind of find a husband.” Now they both laughed. Yes, said Nielsen, they had met in freshman year and were married the next summer. Well, said Gilmore, that was interesting. How did Nielsen become a cop? He didn’t seem much like a cop. Well, actually, Gerald explained, he had planned on being a science and mathematics teacher when he went up to Brigham Young University from the family ranch at St. John’s, Arizona, but he was an active Mormon and in his church work he met a detective on the police force whom he liked and so got interested and took a job as a patrolman.

Now he was a lieutenant, Gilmore remarked. Yes, in a little more than ten years he’d risen to be a detective, then a sergeant, now a lieutenant. He didn’t say that he’d taken courses at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia.

Well, that was interesting, said Gilmore. His mother had been a Mormon, too. Then he paused and shook his head. “It’s going to kill my mother when she finds out.” Again, he shook his head. “You know, she’s crippled,” said Gilmore, “and I haven’t seen her for a long tme.”

“Gary,” said Nielsen, “why did you kill those guys?”

Gilmore looked him right back in the eye. Nielsen was used to seeing hatred in a suspect’s eyes, or remorse, or the kind of indifference that could lay a chill on your heart, but Gilmore had a way of

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looking into his eyes that made Nielsen shift inside. It was as if the man was staring all the way to the bottom of your worth. It was hard to keep the gaze.

“Hey,” said Gilmore, “I don’t know. I don’t have a reason.” was calm when he said it, and sad. Looked like he was close to ing. Nielsen felt the sorrow of the man; felt him fill with sorrow this moment.

“Gary,” said Nielsen, “I can understand a lot of things. I understand killing a guy who’s turned on you, or killing a guy hassles you. I can understand those kind of things, you know.” paused. He was trying to keep in command of his voice. They close, and he wanted to keep it just there. “But I just can’t stand, you know, killing these guys for almost no reason.”

Nielsen knew he was taking a great many chances. If it came to it, he was cutting the corners on the Miranda close enou to send the whole thing up on appeal and he was also making take to keep talking about “those guys” or “why did you kill guys?” If any of this was going to be worth a nickel in court, should say, “Mr. Bushnell in Provo,” and “Why did you kill Max sen in Orem?” You couldn’t send a guy to trial for killing two men two separate nights in separate towns ff you put both cases phrase. Legally speaking, the killings had to be separated.

Nielsen, however, was sure it would be nonproductive to tion him in any more correct way. That would cut it off. So he “Was it because they were going to boar witness against you?” more said, “No, I really don’t know why.”

“Gary,” said Nielsen, “I have to think like a good

doing a good job. You know, if I can prevent these kinds of from happening, that makes me successful in my work. And like to understand — why would you hit those places? Why did hit the motel in Provo or the service station? Why those places?” “Well,” said Gilmore, “the motel just happened to be next my uncle Vern’s place. I just happened on it.”

“But the service station?” said Nielsen. “Why that service

in the middle of nowhere?”

“I don’t know,” said Gilmore. “It was there.” He looked

moment like he wished to help Nielsen. “Now you take the place where I hid that hing,” he said, “after the motel.” Nielsen realized he was speaking of the money tray lifted from Benny Bushnell’s counter. “Well, I put the thing in that particular bush,” he said, “because when I was a kid I used to mow the lawn right there for an old lady.”

Nielsen was trying to think of a few Court decisions that might apply to a situation like this. A confession obtained in an interview that was conducted without the express permission of the man’s attorney would not be legal. On the other hand, the suspect himself could initiate the confession. Nielsen was ready, to claim that Gilmore had done just this today. After all, he had asked Gary in their first interview at 5 A.M. this morning if he could come back and talk to him after the story was checked out. Gilmore had not said no. With the present Supreme Court, Nielsen had the idea a confession like this might hold up.

Nevertheless, Nielsen wasn’t forgetting the Supreme Court decision on the Williams case. A ten-year-old girl in Iowa had been raped and murdered by a mental patient named Williams, who had been picked up in Des Moines and taken back to the place where he was to be charged. Williams’s attorney in Des Moines told the detectives transporting him, “Don’t question him out of my presence,” then told his client, “Don’t make any statements to policemen,” All the same, on the way back, one of the detectives accompanying the suspect started playing Williams on his Christian side. The old boy was deeply religious and so the detective said: “Here we are, just a few days before Christmas, and the family of that little girl doesn’t know where the body is. It sure would be nice if we could find the body and give the little girl a good Christian burial before Christmas. The family could at least have that much peace.” He went on in such a low-key way that the old guy finally told them where the corpse could be found, and got convicted. The Supreme Court, however, had just overruled. They said once a guy has an attorney, the police could not interview him without permission.

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THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG

Yet here he was, talking to Gilmore while his attorneys were not aware of it. Still, a couple of technicalities could be argued. Gilmore had already, out on the road, in Nielsen’s presence, been read his Miranda rights. Also, the attorneys had been appointed for the Provo case, not for Orem. He might still be, therefore, on legal ground. Besides, the key thing was not to get a confession but a conviction.

“Would April know?” Nielsen asked.

“Don’t worry about April,” Gilmore said. “She didn’t see a thing.” He shook his head. “For al practical purposes, she wasn’t there.”

When Nielsen began to wonder whether April had any idea of the murder, Gary repeated, “Don’t worry, she didn’t see a thing. In her head, that little girl was never there.”

What would be good about a confession, even if they couldn’t, use it, was that it would produce information they could then employ to dig up further evidence against the guy, and get a good solid case. If they never used the confession in Court, they would have no trou˘ ble with the Miranda.

Besides, it would be good for morale. Once the police knew man was guilty, they could feel more incentive to on detail work. It would also avoid any power conflict with who wanted to work other leads. The confession would integrate case, make it a psychological success.

They went through the cycle again. Nielsen talked about Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints and what his contributed on family night each week. Gilmore was interested details, and mentioned again that not only was his mother a but all of her folks, and he talked about his father who had been Catholic and drank like hell, and they stayed off the real subject they had earned a rest. .

Then they would get back to it. Nielsen would ask one

then a couple of questions. So soon as Gilmore began to assume a that said, “No more questions,” Nielsen would talk of other thin

He gave a turn to his mouth that was almost a smile. “You know,” he said, “If I’d been thinking as straight the last couple of nights as I am today, you guys would not have caught me. When I was a kid I used to pull off robberies…” He had a look on his face like a pimp bragging of the number of women who worked for him over the years. “I guess,” he said, “I must have pulled off fifty or seventy, maybe even a hundred successful robberies. I knew how to plan something and do it right.”

Nielsen then asked him if he would have gone on killing, if he hadn’t been caught. Gilmore nodded. He thought he probably would have. He sat there for a minute and looked amazed. Not amazed, but certainly surprised, and said, “God, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I’ve never confessed to a cop before.” Nielsen thought he probably hadn’t. His record was certainly hardcore all the way. Egotistically speaking, Nielsen felt bolstered. He had gotten a confession out of a hardcore criminal.

“How many guns did you steal?” Nielsen asked. “Nine,” Gilmore told him. “Where did they come from?” “Spanish Fork.” “Then we’ve recovered MI but three.” That left three unaccounted for. Where might they be? “They’re gone,” said Gilmore. Nielsen didn’t bother to follow up. The way Gilmore said that made it obvious they had been sold, and he would never tell who he sold them to, “I’m responsible,” said Gilmore. “Don’t blame other people.”

Jensen’s coin changer had been missing from the service and the police had spent much of yesterday going through the Holiday Inn with no results. Casually, Nielsen now asked that. Gilmore stared at him for a long time, as ff to say, “I don’t whether to answer you or not. I don’t know if I can trust you.” he muttered, “I really don’t remember. I threw it out the the truck, but I can’t recollect if it was in the drive-in or on the He paused as if searching into his recollection of a movie and he “I honestly don’t remember. It could have been at the drive-in.”

Then he asked, “Did Nicole tell you about her gun?” “No,” Nielsen said, “I asked her.” Gary said, “I don’t want her to get in any trouble about those guns.” Nielsen assured him.

Nielsen tried to get a few more facts about the homicides themselves. Gilmore would give details up to the point where he entered the service station and then he would talk of everything after he left. But he did not wish to describe the crime itself..

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Nielsen was trying to determine what went on during the act. Gilmore had asked Jensen to lie on the floor. He must then have told him to put his arms beneath his body. No one would ever be found lying face down in such an uncomfortable position of their choice. Next Gilmore had fired the shots right into Jensen’s

First with the pistol two inches away, then with the pistol touching. It was the surest way to kill a man and cause him no suffering. On the other hand, ordering those arms to stay under the body was surest way to be certain the victim didn’t grah your leg as you putting the muzzle to his head. He could not, however, get to talk about this.

“Why’d you do it, Gary?” Nielsen asked again quietly. “I don’t know,” Gary said. “Are you sure?”

“I’m not going to talk about that,” Gilmore said. He shook head delicately, and looked at Nielsen, and said, “I can’t keep

Then he asked, “What do you think they’ll do to me?” Nielsen said, “I don’t know. It is very serious.”

“I’d like to be able to talk to Nicole,” Gilmore said. “I’ve looking for her and I’d really like to talk to her.”

“Hey,” Nielsen said, “Iql do anything I can to get her They shook hands.

About five o’clock that afternoon, while Nielsen was talking to April came home. She had heard about the murders on the radio said it wasn’t true. Gary hadn’t done it. She ALSO said she wasn’t to no police station.

Charley Baker had come in from Toelle when Kathryne to say April was missing. Now, so soon as April saw them to she got hostile and began shouting that if they tried to take her

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police station by force she would call on her protection to stop them. Then, all of a sudden, she seemed to give in. Said she would go.

Now, Kathryne did not want to bring April over on her own. Didn’t know if the child would open the door of the car and jump out. So she begged Charley to come along, but he was hesitant. Said, “If she changes her mind even haffway over, then to hell with them. Turn around and bring her back.” No way did he want to go.