In a plain T-shirt with a bag over his head, Gilmore was strapped into a chair, waiting for a firing squad to execute him at Utah State Prison. It was the morning of Jan. 17, 1977, and Gilmore, convicted of murdering a gas station employee and motel manager in Utah the year before, was to become the first person in the United States to be executed in nearly a decade. The author Norman Mailer wrote in his 1979 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Executioner's Song" that shortly before his execution the 36-year-old Gilmore was asked if he had any last words.
'Just Do It': The surprising and morbid origin story of Nike's slogan
