Views From The Cannery

The Cannery on the morning of January 17, 1977.  The "death chamber" setup was makeshift, to say the least.  The chair in which Gary Gilmore was shot was an old office chair, with restraints made from  nylon webbing.  Behind the chair was a mattress, apparently added at the last minute to help stop any ricochets that may occur.  Behind the mattress sandbags to absorb the shots are clearly visible.  During the execution, Gary wore white prison pants and a black t-shirt with a white circle pinned to the breast as a target by the doctor in charge.  The executioners, not shown, were inside a dark blue canvas enclosure built on the cannery's loading dock, which, in contrast to the podium hastily erected for Gary, was neatly put together and included stitched and hemmed holes for the gun barrels.  Only four guns held live ammunition, one being loaded with blanks so the executioners would never know exactly who had fired the fatal shots.  Gary never saw his executioners, one of which bragged later at a bar that he had the hood that had covered Gary's head in his possession.  The shapes beside the chair are unidentified press, prison officials, or witnesses.

It has been widely reported that Gary Gilmore's last words were "Let's do it."  This is, in fact, inaccurate.  When asked if he had any last words, this is officially what he said.  But his real last words were uttered to Father Meersman, the cleric who gave Gary last rites, after his "last words".

Gary: "Dominus vobiscum."

Father Meersman: "Et cum spiritu tuo."

Gary: "There'll always be a Meersman."

After this exchange, the hood was placed over Gary's head and no more words were heard.

From the David Rose collection of courtroom art:

 Gary Gilmore Execution -- January 17, 1977
Gary Mark Gilmore is executed by a firing squad at Utah State Prison on January 17, 1977. The press
was barred from the actual execution, hence the inaccuracies in the sketch. David Rose's sketch was reconstructed from descriptions at the warden's briefing. Note the erroneous depiction of Gary's clothing, the chair itself, and the blind.  Done in ink, colored markers and colored pencils.   From the David Rose catalog.

The chair.

Larry Schiller, one of the witnesses invited to the execution by Gary, in a post-execution interview, referred to the chair as being black, as it appears in this photo.  On later inspection, he realized the chair was a deep green in color.  Note the fact that this is a simple office chair, with no built-in restraints.  A bullet hole in the upper right-hand corner of the backrest is clearly visible.
 
 

Close-up of the bullet hole.  Note the bloodstains. The light colored object to the upper left of the picture is the dangling head restraint, which had been affixed behind the chair.