Shot in the Heart - Mikal Gilmore [222]
Karen Essex organized, read through, and annotated my interviews with my brother Frank. Her comments and observations were always insightful and helped me think about Frank’s stories in new and substantial ways. Karen also helped with many other acts of love and kindness as well.
In addition to my brother Frank, the following people were willing to sit with me and share their remembrances of various people and events in my family’s history: Steve Bekins, Craig Esplin, Duane Fulmer, Tom Lyden, Grace McGinnis, Robert Moody, Larry Olstad, Rich Parker, Norm Rieter, and Roger Shirley. There were others who also gave interviews, but for various reasons, they cannot be identified here. My thanks to all these people for sharing their time and memories.
EARLY ON, WHEN I WAS STILL DEBATING WITH MYSELF about writing this book, several folks offered kind and crucial encouragement and guidance. Among them were: Nancy Clark, James Ellroy, Karen Hall, and Victoria Williams. A dear friend, Helen Knode, suggested this book’s tide. The moment she did, I realized I had found something valuable. For two years now, knowing that tide has helped me draw a center on this story.
SEVERAL YEARS AGO, I WROTE about the events surrounding my brother’s execution, and the later film version of his life, for Rolling Stone. Portions of those articles appear in revised form in the fifth section of this book, “Blood History.” I would like to thank the following current and former Rolling Stone staffers who helped me in crucial ways with those articles: Barbara Downey, Ben Fong-Torres, James Henke, Sarah Lazin, Terry McDonnell, Susan Murcko, Steve Pond, Bob Wallace, and Jann Wenner.
Rolling Stone helped me keep writing at a time in my life when all I really wanted to do was disappear. My thanks to the folks I have worked with at the magazine for their long-standing patience and support.
I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO GIVE THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING: Lee Youngman, for her tour of MacLaren’s School for Boys and her edifying comments about youth violence; Charles Crookham and Jeff Van Valken-burgh at the Oregon State Attorney General’s office, and Robey D. Eldridge at the Oregon Department of Corrections, for their help in obtaining my brother Gary’s prison and medical and psychiatric records; William Drucker, M.D., for sharing with me his knowledge about the complex subject of antipsychotic drug treatment; David Copperfield and Kreskin, for helping me sort out the truth behind the Houdini rumor; L. Kay Gillespie, at Weber State University in Utah, for helping me to understand Mormon Utah’s history of capital punishment (Gillespie is the author of a much recommended volume, The Unforgiven: Utah’s Executed Men); Harry Crews, for his terrific story, “Fathers, Sons, Blood” (in classic crews: a Harry Crews Reader), from which I lifted the tide for this volume’s fifth section, as well as a Goethe quote that I probably would not have found otherwise; and Virginia Campbell, Katherine Dunn, Steve Erickson, Neil Gaiman, Dr. Leonard Lewenstein, Bernadette Megowan, Shannon Riske, Dr. Larry Ryan, and Michael Sugg, for many invaluable hours of conversation, counseling, and perspective. I would also like to thank Alan Pakula, for his early faith and support in this venture.
SEVERAL OTHERS GAVE ME INVALUABLE PERSONAL HELP: my New York cousins, Peter Lancton and his late father, Clarence Lancton, for filling in parts of my grandmother Fay’s history; and in Utah, my uncle Vernon Damico and his daughters (and my cousins) Brenda Wagstaff and Toni Gurney. Vern, Brenda, and Toni gave freely of their time and their memories—memories that still held much real pain for them—and they also made me feel love in a land that my legacy had taught me to hate. I would also like to give special thanks to Nicole Barrett. She gave me a tremendous amount of help and understanding during a difficult