Executioner's Song, The - Norman Mailer [269]
DENNIS BOAZ Yes.
GERALDO RIVERA Why?
DENNIS BOAZ (long pause) Well, yesterday was a moment of truth for me and I had a remarkable emotional experience which I reflected upon. And . . .
GERALDO RIVERA Are you saying you came to the realization . . .
what, tell me . . .
DENNIS BOAZ Well, I see there's some possibility for . . . Nicole and Gary (his voice sounds shaky here) perhaps to be together, and as long as I can see that possibility, know it's there, I know Gary would want to live and Nicole also.
GERALDO RIVERA After the discussion we had yesterday, and we talked for a long time, you don't even strike me as a man who believes in capital punishment. I want to know why you've gone through this dreadful charade?
DENNIS BOAZ Well, I got into the case not because I was an advocate of capital punishment, but because . . . he needed support, and I did support his own wish to, in a sense, take more responsibility for his own life and death at that time. And he was attempting to take responsibility by accepting judgment.
GERALDO RIVERA But now you think because of what's happened the situation has changed?
DENNIS BOAZ Well, it certainly changed with me . . .
NEW VOICE Mr. Boaz, David Hartman in New York. Mr. Boaz, you said you had an emotional experience yesterday. How exactly has your mind changed in the last 24 hours?
DENNIS BOAZ Well, it's gotten in line with my heart.
DAVID HARTMAN Be more specific, Dennis.
DENNIS BOAZ I just can no longer be an effective advocate for this execution. I know we can't stop Gary from killing himself if he decides that's what he wants to do now. I can no longer be part of an official process that wants him to die.
GERALDO RIVERA Will you withdraw from the case if necessary?
DENNIS BOAZ I'll talk to Gary as soon as I can. We'll make a decision together.
GERALDO RIVERA He'll probably attempt suicide again.
DENNIS BOAZ I don't know.
DAVID HARTMAN Geraldo, we have a little less than a minute left.
What's the next step, and what do you see happening in the next 24 to 36 hours?
GERALDO RIVERA Well, the Parole Board hearing has to happen presumably, once Gilmore is in sufficiently recovered physical condition for that to happen. He has to be conscious. They can't execute a man who is comatose, David . . . I think that our story is going to be held in abeyance, at least while these two people recover.
DAVID HARTMAN Thank you, Geraldo, very much, and thank you, Mr. Boaz, very much for being with us this morning.
Later that morning, Greenberg drove out to Provo with Dennis and visited Vern Damico whom he rather liked, he told Dennis later, rather a strong man, something of the self-made small entrepreneur about him, a man who could move in his own neighborhood, so to speak.
They ate in a glorified hamburger joint near the shoe shop, hamburgers, milkshakes-the absence of liquor made the whole thing difficult-but still they had a good conversation and Stanley got insights he thought helpful, especially in the choreography of the crimes. He got to see Vern's home in its physical relation to the motel and the service station down the street. Wonderful details for TV. Gilmore knocking on his uncle's door in the afternoon to say he's dirty and wants to take a shower and the uncle turning him away. Then getting his gun and that night walking right past the open window where the uncle is sitting by the television set-didn't take a Freudian genius to figure this one out.
As soon as he got back, Greenberg called Susskind and said, "It's fascinating, it's ugly, and it's complicated." Susskind asked if it was a good idea to go out to Utah himself. Stanley replied, "Things are so hectic I would not advise it at the moment. The principals are being bombarded on all sides, and at the moment, we can't see Gilmore, we can't see the fiancee, you can't get to any of the principals other than Damico."
Susskind agreed. The story, after all, rested on Gilmore's past deeds, and Stanley was there to get the foundations for that. No necessity to become acquainted with Damico