From the Publisher
I have a story to tell. It is a story of murders: murders of the flesh, and of the spirit; murders born of heartbreak, of hatred, of retribution. It is the story of where those murders begin, of how they take form and enter our actions, how they transform our lives, how their legacies spill into the world and the history around us. And it is a story of how the claims of violence and murder end - if, indeed, they ever end... Let me begin to tell you a bit about the story. I am the brother of a man who murdered innocent men. His name was Gary Gilmore. After his murders, he campaigned to end his own life, and in January 1977, he was shot to death by a firing squad in Draper, Utah. Many people, of course, already know this part of the story. It was major international news for several months in 1976 and 1977, and it was later the subject of a popular novel and television film, Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song. What is less generally known, and what has never been much documented, are the origins of Gary's violence - the true history of my family. These parts of the story remained unknown, until now, because no one would talk about them. Gary flatly refused to discuss the secrets of his childhood, and when his mother, Bessie, was asked about the family's past, she answered in maddening and evasive riddles. For many years Mikal, too, avoided his past, distancing himself from it, hoping that whatever had turned his family's hopes to wreckage would not destroy his own life. He was different from them, he thought. He could pursue his own family dream. Then, one day, that dream dissolved into nightmare. Mikal realized he had not escaped his family's ruin after all, and that the only way to do so, to bring an end to the horrible legacy, would be to go back into the family history and, finally, crack open its god-awful secrets. And so he did.
Reading Group GuideThese questions and discussion topics are offered to enhance your discussion of this book.
- Families often share private legacies and myths. The Gilmore children grew up hearing family secrets and stories, from the abandonment of their father by Houdini to the dramatic tale of a public hanging witnessed by their mother as a young girl. Discuss the impact of these stories on the life of each parent, and on the life of each of the four boys: Frank, Gary, Gaylen, and Mikal.
- How did the Gilmore family deal with feelings of anger and pain? What avenues of escape did individual members of the Gilmore family develop as a means of coping?
- Was this story fated? If so, why? What do you see as the various key turning points in Gary's development from innocent child to cold-blooded murderer? What were some possible actions or developments--or turns of fate--that could have saved this family from its violent and tragic course?
- Children often act out the unexpressed fears and desires of their parents. Give examples of this from Shot in the Heart or from your own experience.
- What was the most significant difference between the family Mikal grew up with and the one his brothers experienced?
- Mormonism is the predominant religion originating in America, and is among the fastest growing religions in the world. Is the Mormon religion quintessentially American? If so, why?
- As a system of beliefs, religion can have the dramatic ability to shape our perceptions of the world. What impact can religious differences have on a marriage? How were these differences handled between Mikal's Catholic father and his Mormon mother?
- Gary Gilmore was first incarcerated at age fourteen. What was the impact of reform school on Gary? On Gaylen?Are reform schools substantially different today than they were in the 1950s? Discuss the advisabililty of incarcerating youthful offenders. Is getting tough on young criminals a deterrent to crime or a further conditioning agent to crime?
- Frank and Gary Gilmore were only a year apart in age yet Gary spent most of his life in prison and became a vicious murderer, while Frank went to prison as a conscientious objector who refused to even pick up a gun. Why do you think this was so?
- How has juvenile deliquency evolved in our society since the 1950s? How has the criminal justice system adjusted to this evolution?
- Is there a difference between rural violence and urban violence? Which one would you expect to be more violent, and why?
- We traditionally think of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime. Is it possible that capital punishment was an incentive for Gary Gilmore to murder?
- What impact does the media coverage of crime have on society?
- What rights of privacy do families possess when it comes to child rearing methods? What forms of abuse require intervention, and at what point is intervention by outsiders (teachers, neighbors, counselors) acceptable and even necessary?
- What are acceptable methods of punishing children? What do you know about child-rearing practices in other cultures?
- Who is to blame when an individual commits an act of violence? The individual? The family? Society? How do we allocate responsibility?
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