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Souls and Devils. Asked what his last thoughts would be just before the firing squad shoots, Gilmore said, "Nicole. Just Nicole." As for death itself: "It will be familiar, whatever it is. There will be a few rough seconds, a period of adjustment. There will be souls grasping and calling to me. I must keep my mind singular and strong. I know what I want, and in death you can choose in a way that you can't choose in life." Gilmore said he believes that he has had previous lives, and devils, but this time "I don't want to come back."
All around the prison, 20 miles south of Salt Lake City, security was tight. Religious groups announced plans to hold a vigil outside the prison, and the war den was worried about the possibility that demonstrators might try to storm the prison in order to stop the execution. Several helicopters were reserved by reporters and cameramen, but the Federal Aviation Administration banned all aircraft from the area. The execution site is a closely guarded secret. Even the five-man firing squad will not know the location until shortly before the event. Afterward, according to the plan, a hearse will transport Gilmore's bullet-ridden body to a Salt Lake City medical center; he requested that his vital organs be donated to science.
In the meantime. Gilmore sat in his solitary cell, guarded round the clock, answering a foot-high pile of fan mail. "His mind hasn't changed," said his uncle, Damico. "I think Gary will get what he wants." And it still appeared that all Gary wanted was to finish up his last meal and face a firing squad. He was not without supporters: a Harris poll reported last week that 71% of the country believed that after the nation's decade-long moratorium on capital punishment, Gilmore should be executed.