Gary Mark Gilmore (December 4, 1940 – January 17, 1977) was an American criminal and spree killer who gained international notoriety for demanding that his death sentence be fulfilled following two murders he committed in Utah. He became the first person executed in the United States after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a new series of death penalty statutes in the 1976 decision Gregg v. Georgia (these new statutes avoiding the problems that had l...
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Gary Mark Gilmore (December 4, 1940 – January 17, 1977) was an American criminal and spree killer who gained international notoriety for demanding that his death sentence be fulfilled following two murders he committed in Utah. He became the first person executed in the United States after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a new series of death penalty statutes in the 1976 decision Gregg v. Georgia (these new statutes avoiding the problems that had led earlier death penalty statutes to be deemed unconstitutional in Furman v. Georgia).
Gilmore was born in Waco, Texas, the second of four sons born to Frank and Bessie Gilmore. His parents drifted around the western United States while he and his brothers grew up, his father earning a living selling advertising space in magazines. Gilmore was raised in a dysfunctional family, and had a horrible relationship with his father. Gary's brother Mikal described their father as a "cruel and unreasonable man." Frank Gilmore's mother claimed that he...
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