Executioner's Song, The - Norman Mailer [278]
"Is Schiller still in the bidding?" Farrell wanted to know.
"Schiller," said Boaz, "went around me and sent a telegram.
Now Gary feels I'm not telling him about all the offers. I don't have to wonder where some bad vibrations are coming from."
"Dennis," said another reporter, "you were fighting for Gary's right to be executed, and now you are trying to save his life. Square that realistically, will you?"
"The Declaration of Independence guarantees the right to life, but only if you haven't been brutalized by the system. Gary was, Gary wants to die. But only because he can't have Nicole. Gary would love it," said Boaz, "if he could be with her. Get him into a place where they could be together, right?"
"Name one American prison with connubial rights."
"Since their story has become international," said Dennis, "transfer them to Mexico. The real obstacle is to convince Gary to live. He's depressed right now. But if I can keep going on Geraldo Rivera and Tom Snyder and get people thinking in a new way, they might start demanding that Gary live. Legislators will have to listen."
"Will Gilmore listen?"
"If he knows that he's going to be with Nicole eventually, he'll do it. We're winning people's hearts with this case. When you get into their emotions, you've got them. Definitely, definitely. It's heavy."
"Are you saying that Gary will be living with Nicole in Minimum Security?"
"Or Medium Security," said Dennis. "A year at the outside. With the profits from the story, he'll be able to pay his own way, too. That will please the taxpayers. You see, it's not as preposterous as you think. Look at today's news. Patty Hearst's father has bought her a private prison on Nob Hill. Give Gary a little space, like that."
"You're tooting, Dennis," said Barry Farrell.
"You watch."
"I'll watch," said Farrell.
"What do you really think of Schiller?" Farrell now asked. It was a bad question for Dennis to answer-he had nothing to gain by the reply. He didn't like, however, to disappoint Barry Farrell. Boaz was impressed with him. Farrell was very Scotch in appearance for a man with an Irish name. Tall, good looking. Tall enough so Dennis could talk to him comfortably. Wore tweeds. Nearest thing to a British gentleman among the press corps. Well-trimmed pepper and salt beard, and those old Life credentials. Dennis vaguely remembered reading Barry Farrell's column in Life on alternate weeks with Joan Didion.
Life must have been trying to bring some literary class to the people.
He decided to use Farrell as a superpipeline. So he said, "Schiller is a scavenger, a snake."
Susskind had just gotten a phone call from Stanley Greenberg telling him that he had decided to leave Salt Lake City.
"It's getting to be a terrible mess," said Stanley.
Then Boaz called. "Listen," he said to David Susskind, "I'm being wooed by a lot of people, and I think I was too easy with you. Monetarily, I can do much better with somebody else. Do you wish to revise your bid?" Susskind said, "No, I don't, but who are you dealing with?" Boaz said, "A guy named Larry Schiller." "Well," said Susskind, "I know Mr. Schiller as an entrepreneur who put together a project that became a book about Marilyn Monroe, that's the only way I know him. I don't know him as a producer of films and television, but if he looks better than me, do it with him. I'm not raising the price." The story was getting to be, in Susskind's view, a very sensational, malodorous, exploitative mess.
Nonetheless, he called Schiller. Susskind was not in love with the idea of working with the man, but he called anyway and said, "You're throwing money and figures around, and that poor guy, Boaz, is dazzled. I don't understand it. Are you now in the film business?"
"Yes," said Schiller, "I am."
"Look," said Susskind, "you're not a producer. Somebody, some day, is going to have to make this film. That's not your cup of tea."
"I am a producer," said Schiller. "I don't consider myself in your league, but I've produced some movies you don't