Executioner's Song, The - Norman Mailer [200]
Gilmore chose this moment to speak to Noall Wootton. This was the first time he had addressed him in weeks. Gary looked over calmly, and said, "Wootton, everybody around here looks like they're crazy. Everybody but me." Wootton looked back and thought, "Yes, at this moment, everybody could be crazy, except Gary."
Noall had this bothersome feeling now. It was in the impression he had had all the way that Gilmore was more intelligent than himself. Wootton knew damned well that Gilmore was more educated.
Self-educated, but better educated. "Jesus Almighty," Wootton said to himself, "the system has really failed with this man, just miserably failed."
After that, people were going out and Nicole was crying in the corridor, and Nicole and Ida met, and they embraced, and broke down, and Nicole said, "Don't worry, everything is going to be all right." Vern was walking around in a state of shock. He had expected it all, but he was shocked.
A girl, a young reporter, came up to Gary and asked, "Do you have any comments?" He said, "No, not particularly." She said, "Do you think everything was fair? Is there anything you'd like to say?"
Gary said, "Well, I'd like to ask you a question." She said, "What's that?" He said, "Who the hell won the World Series?"
The State Patrolman who would escort Gary back to jail and then take him up to the prison was named Jerry Scott, and he was a big, good-looking man. He had a personality clash with Gary right from the start.
When he went into the courtroom to pick him up, Gilmore didn't have leg shackles on, or handcuffs, so Scott knelt and attached the stuff, and asked him to stand so the restraining belt could be locked.
Scott thought it was easier and more comfortable for the prisoner if you could put on a restraining belt and hook the handcuffs through the hole in front rather than pinion a man with his arms behind his back. But when Gary stood up, he said, "You've got the leg irons too tight. I'm not going anywhere."
Jerry Scott reached down. He could move the irons back and forth a little, so he knew they were not binding. "Gary," he said, "they're okay." At which point, Gilmore replied, "Either get those shackles off me, or you're going to carry me out."
Scott said, "I'm not carrying you anywhere. I'll drag you out."
Scott was disgusted. Everybody around Gilmore had been saying Yes, Sir, and No, Sir, as if committing the murder made him a special person.
You had to be firm with prisoners was one thing Scott had decided a long time ago, and here was everybody hovering over backwards to be extra nice to this fellow. Maybe it was because he was always staring you right in the eye like he was innocent or something.
Gilmore was really starting to act up now and using profanities in the courtroom. Scott didn't want to fight him all the way down the stairs and into the elevator with everybody watching, so he loosened the cuffs and shackles after all. Gilmore complained again, and now Scott had them really loose, and Gilmore was still complaining. Scott got suspicious, especially when Gilmore repeated, "You're going to have to carry me out of here."
"I'm not loosening them any further," Scott said. "Just get your ass in gear. We're going down whether you like it or not, and if you don't, I'll drag you, but I won't carry you. The decision," Scott said, "is up to you."
At this point, Gilmore started walking out with him. They had to go real slow, because he only had about ten inches of movement with the leg shackles on, and Gilmore was mad all the way down to the car, and all the way across Center Street to the jail. Scott put Gary in the front seat next to himself and had two deputies in the back. After they arrived, they took off the leg shackles, and the handcuffs, and brought Gilmore to his cell and listened to him talk to his cellmate while he gathered his personal items for transport up to Utah State Prison.
Well, they gave me the death penalty, Gilmore said to his cellmate. He shook his head, and added, "You know, I'm going