Executioner's Song, The - Norman Mailer [243]
Marie was a groovy lady and loved Sunny and Jeremy. Nicole said she would have always gotten along great with her, if Marie hadn't been such a super housekeeper. Nicole liked to keep the house clean, but her motherin-law had to do it her way. Other than that, she was terrific. Nicole had about decided Sunny and Jeremy ought to grow up with Marie after she was gone.
Then she told Tamera about the last time she saw Marie. It was just after Kip had been killed.
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"Now, it will happen to Gary soon," Nicole had said to Marie Barrett, "I don't know what there is about me."
She had been feeling miserable all over. Marie said, "Nicole, maybe next time, you'll find a fellow you can have a good relationship with. Just be more careful. Check him out a little more before you get married."
Nicole said, "There won't be another time."
"You're through with men?" Marie asked.
Nicole said, "I don't know what I mean, but there won't be another time." She almost gave it away. "If something happens to me," Nicole said, "would you take the kids?"
"Sure, I would," Marie said, "you know I would. Only nothing's going to happen to you."
"Then, that afternoon," Nicole said to Tamera, "the cops came around to Springville and knocked on the door and kind of looked me over." Just made polite conversation at the door, but she knew Marie had sent them. Nicole would still trust her with the children, only she didn't know about confiding in her personally. Tamera took it as a message.
Soon as she dropped her at the prison, Tamera returned to Nicole's apartment, picked up the letters, put them in a grocery sack, and searched the place for a gun or sleeping pills. Didn't know what she would do if she did find something, but made the search.
PROVO HERALD
Nov. 11, 1976. Salt Lake City (UPI)-Utah Governor Calvin L. Rampton asked the Utah Board of Pardons to review Gilmore's conviction at their next meeting on Wednesday, November 17, and decide if the death penalty is justified.
Gilmore said he was "disappointed and angered" by the governor's action. "The governor is apparently bowing to pressure from various groups who are motivated by publicity and their own egotistical concerns rather than concern for my 'welfare.' "
Chapter 4
PRESS CONFERENCES
Out in Phoenix, Earl Dorius was bombarded with the news. Everybody was stopping him in the lobby to ask, "What's going on in Utah?" Earl felt as if the conference were totally destroyed for him.
He couldn't listen to anything. Kept racing back to his room to catch the news. If he wasn't on the phone, he was flipping stations on the TV set. "What do you think of the Governor's action?" everyone asked him. "I haven't had a chance to research it," he would say, "but it's my impression the Stay was improper because it was granted at the request of outside parties."
He realized he was closer to the office at this point than to the conference, and decided to check out of Phoenix and get back to work.
SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Nov. 12, 1976-Boaz signed an agreement with Utah State Prison Warden Samuel W. Smith that he would serve only as an attorney for Gilmore, then talked freely about his intentions to "serve as a writer first, a lawyer second."
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"We have no power to censure him. He is not a member of the Utah bar," a member of the Utah State Bar's executive committee explained.
PROVO HERALD
Provo, Nov. 13, 1976-Boaz said he plans to "make some money" from Gilmore's story and split it 50-50 with the condemned man's family and any charities he may choose.
Just as Dennis was coming into the prison, Sam Smith called him over and said, "I heard Gilmore had an interview with a London newspaper this morning. Do you know anything about that?"
Dennis was in a real state of excitement. David Susskind had just called from New York. He was interested in doing a movie on Gary's life. There could be large money at the other end. Dennis's mind was racing.
"The London newspaper?" he said to Sam Smith. "Oh, sure, I set it up."
The Warden's face got red, unusual color for a pale man. Then he shouted.