PDF Shot in the Heart Mikal Gilmore 9780385478007 Books

Product details Paperback 416 pages Publisher Anchor; Reissue edition (August 1, 1995) Language English ISBN-10 9780385478007 ISBN-13 978-0385478007 ASIN 0385478003

Shot in the Heart Mikal Gilmore 9780385478007 Books Reviews

• I first read Mikal Gilmore's memoir, "Shot in the Heart", when it was originally published in the middle 1990's. It was before ordinary readers were reviewing books, so I never reviewed it. However, I have just reread the book in the form and I want to let others know just how brilliant the book truly is.
  
  Mikal Gilmore is the youngest brother of Gary Gilmore, a drifter and ne'er-do-well, who murdered in cold blood two young Mormon men in Salt Lake City, on two consecutive nights in the mid-1970's. Tried and convicted for his crimes, Gary Gilmore was sentenced to death by shooting. His was the first execution in the United States in many years, and Gilmore demanded to be executed. He wouldn't countenance any appeal to his sentence; he wanted to die. And die Gary Gilmore did; shot in the heart by five men with rifles.
  
  Gary and Mikal Gilmore were the second and fourth sons of Frank and Bessie Gilmore. Mismatched from the start, Frank and Bessie were the hell that made their four sons' lives disasters. Two of the four were criminals, the oldest son was damaged for life, and Mikal managed to escape, at least on the outside, from a wasted life. Mikal Gilmore drifted around in his adulthood, working as a journalist and maintaining a mostly normal existence. But the both the crimes and the ghosts of his past - beginning in infancy - plagued him. His book - now 20 or so years old - is his attempt to explain to others - and himself - just how those ghosts bedeviled his life and those of his parents and brothers.
  
  Don't let anyone tell you that the past isn't at least a bit indicative of the future. The Gilmore family is proof that terrible parenting - going back many generations - is the cause of bad futures. Mikal Gilmore's beautifully written memoir is a sad look at a family's past and a not particularly hopeful look at its future.
• This book is an effort by the youngest brother of Gary Gilmore to try to make sense of how two of his brothers ended up violent (and in the case of Gary notorious) criminals, while he and a quiet gentle older brother did not. Mikal tries to piece together his family's history, which is particularly difficult in the case of the father who used multiple aliases. What is not in doubt is that their father was a con man, a liar, and frequently violent (especially towards Gary and his wife). His mother had rebelled from the strictures of her Mormon upbringing by taking up with him, but their marriage was right out of Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf. It's hard to understand why she stayed with him, but it becomes evident to Mikal at the time of her father's death that she loved him, deeply enmeshed in an unhealthy co-dependency. Mikal comes across as an insightful person and a reliable narrator of his own and his family history. The only time I really doubted him was when he said he bore no ill will or anger towards either of his parents. Given the long litany of abuse and betrayals this either seems deeply unhealthy or almost Christ-like in his capacity to forgive. Well worth reading.
• I read this book in one day.
  
  Mikal Gilmore escaped most of the damage of his violent and dysfunctional family simply by being the youngest of four sons born to a father who took put whatever psychological demons he had by brutally beating his children and wife.
  
  As his wife was half his age, he was an old man by the time Mikal was born, and he was much more loving towards this youngest son and didn't beat him. However, Mikal believes that his father would have beat him if he had lived long enough for Mikal's teen years, because his father was a man who had to break and destroy his sons.
  
  Their mother had been a very young Mormon woman with an openly rebellious streak, who was determined to marry this swindler twice her age and with a past of marriages, children and divorces that she did not know of. She didn't even know that he traveled from town to town running frauds, then running away with the money.
  
  Her father advised her that this man was trouble and not to marry him - he sensed that Gilmore had been in prison before (which was true), but no one was going to tell her what to do.
  
  Her father's advice was not based only on the fact that Gilmore was Catholic instead of Mormon. I've heard over the decades of my life of so many cases of a father being right about a daughter not marrying a particular man that I wish I could shout from the roof tops to young women that fathers seem to have an instinct about potential son-in-laws.
  
  Even when the physical violence had mostly stopped in the family, this couple ruined countless days of life with hours of arguments over things serious to very petty. The psychological harm became more frequent than the physical abuse.
  
  Also, their mother developed signs of mental illness.
  
  At the time this book was written in the early 1990's, I don't think Mikal Gilmore had explored what psychopathy is and how early in life it develops. He realized before his brother's execution time his brother was a murderer who could never be safely released into society, that he would kill again. I don't think that he understood that his brother's lack of a conscience would have been set by age 6, that nothing could have turned him around or saved him by the time Mikal was born. Gary Gilmore was simply a person unwilling to live by the rules of any society, because he believed he was above the rules and responsibilities that apply to others and too narcissistic to put much value into any other human's life.
  
  Twice, Gary Gilmore tried to take the person he was closest to with him in mutual suicide - he tried to convince his best friend, and probable lover, in prison that they should kill themselves, and he did convince his girlfriend, and mother of two kids, that they should die together - although both were saved.
  
  Life without the possibility of parole did not exist back then. Almost all murderers would be parolled, most in about a decade. Gary Gilmore was a danger to others even in prison. He regularly attacked other inmates, sometimes using a hammer to hit them about the head/face, he threatened murder, his repeatedly attempted suicide (though no one could fail so many times unless he had no intention of dying), causing awful scenes and endless problems for prison staff and other inmates.
  
  I think all his suicide attempts were part of him causing trouble and declaring that he was above all rules.
  
  Mikal Gilmore, influenced by his mother's views, believed that his brother wanted to make some form of atonement by accepting his death sentence, along with using his refusal to cooperate with the appeals as a form of rebellion against the system.
  
  I don't believe at all that Gary Gilmore had any desire for atonement. He lacked the conscience, and the whole thing allowed him to put on a narcissistic show in which he was the center of attention.
  
  He simply wasn't going to accept the punishment of years in prison being forced to live by rules. His execution was his way of not allowing society to force him to comply with any rules.
  
  Now, psychopathy is believed to be caused by the interaction of genetics and environment, and I don't believe Gary would have been a violent psychopath without his family dynamics. You see in this heartbreaking story how each of the three older sons differred in how they turned out.
  
  Late, in the book, you discover that the oldest and most responsible son did not have the same father. Weirdly, his father was the his adult half brother!
  
  Gilmore senior had grown children from his numerous prior marriages prior to meeting his last and much younger wife. One of his adult sons lived with his grandmother. Gilmore senior left his young wife for stretches at a time with his mother while he traveled to cheat people out of money. She got along very well with his adult son, who had not been raised by his violent father, and they had an affair. She knew she was pregnant before her husband returned from one of his trips, and must have felt great guilt given her Mormon beliefs.
  
  There is such a thing as a criminal gene, and there are too many cases of children adopted at birth into loving families that became criminals to pretend that genetics don't play a role. However, most psychopaths, especially violent ones, have abusive childhoods.
  
  Gilmore senior had a long history of antisocial behavior. His con jobs and frequent marriages with subsequent abandonment of family after family are clearly antisocial and abnormal.
  
  Mrs. Gilmore had a stubborn and self-destructive rebelliousness that shows up in her sons' personalities.
  
  It's hard to say what caused this marriage to last for the rest of Gilmore senior's life, other than his wife's determination to remain married to him. She did have to go live with family a few times, once while her husband was in prison for one of his scams.
  
  Divorce was not as uncommon back then as some have claimed. She didn't have skills, but she had a large, extended family. I think some dark force brought this couple together. Throughout the book, there are accounts of hauntings in homes where these family members lived, beginning with strange events following two of the mother's sister's playing with a Ouija board prior to their deaths in a freak accident.
  
  Although, Mikal adamantly claims to not believe in ghosts, I can't dismiss the psychic phenomena reported by multiple family members throughout their family years.
  
  Children inherit half of their DNA from each parent. The adult son would have had 50% of Gilmore senior's DNA and passed down 25% to the eldest Gilmore brother, Frank. Frank was subjected to all the beatings and witnessed everything. He did not become a criminal, but there was grew sadness throughout his life, and he did not live up to his potential.
  
  The next two sons were fathered by Gilmore senior and subjected to the beatings and the witnessing of the mother's beatings, and the grossly dysfunctional verbal arguments of their parents. Their lives were criminal and tragic.
  
  Mikal, the youngest, was spared the violence. He became a successful writer, and this book is testament to his talent, but he was unable to form a successful marriage or have children.
  Without the emotional damage, I think he would have been extremely successful.
  
  I'm struck by a comment Gary made about death not seeming scary, that he believed he had died before, a reference to reincarnation. There may have been all sorts of karma and fate tied into the lives of his family.