The Executioner's Song

“The Executioner's Song is a Pulitzer Prize-winning true-crime novel by Norman Mailer, published in 1979, that chronicles the life and crimes of Gary Gilmore, the first person executed in the U.S. after the reinstatement of the death penalty. The book details Gilmore's violent life, his double murder in Utah, and his subsequent demand to be executed, which sparked a national debate on capital punishment. Mailer uses extensive interviews with those connected to the case to create a detailed, compassionate, and unflinching portrait of Gilmore and the people in his orbit.”