The true story of the gun that brought back capital punishment.
On the evening of July 19, 1976, Gary Mark Gilmore began his murder spree. He robbed and murdered Max Jensen, a gas station employee in Orem, Utah. The next evening, he robbed and murdered Bennie Bushnell, a motel manager in Provo, Utah. Although, by his own account, both men had complied with his demands.
Gilmore was apprehended the evening of July 20, 1976, in a road block.
A few days prior to Gilmore’s murders he had burglarized Swans market in Spanish Fork, Utah stealing eleven handguns. 
He used the same pistol for both murders. Shown below with the Provo, Utah police department evidence tag still attached. The firearm is Browning Challenger II .22 long rifle.
Gilmore denied his guilt at the beginning of his interrogation but soon admitted his culpability. There had been no executions in America since 1966. On June 1972 – Furman v. Georgia Supreme Court effectively voids 40 death penalty statutes and suspends the death penalty.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furman_v._Georgia
This bizarre case only lasted six months while including an attempted suicide pack with his girl friend while incarcerated in Utah State prison, a hunger strike, and denial for appeals. His wish to die repeatedly made world news. After rescheduling his execution he finally got his wish choosing the firing squad over hanging.
This period of no executions combined with the federal moratorium resulted in ten years of no executions in America. Only two weeks prior to Gilmore’s execution capital punishment had been reinstituted but still required the test case to complete the process. The Gary Mark Gilmore execution is the case that completed the process.
This tragedy has an inimitable place in American history for multiple reasons. Gilmore refused all appeals for the murders he committed insisting on the death penalty which he received by firing squad, his choice over hanging, within six months of his trial making him the test case to bring back the death penalty the only time it had been halted nation wide in American history.
Norman Mailers book about this case titled “The Executioners Song” won the Pulitzer Prize. A 1982 movie by same title starred Tommy Lee Jones winning his first Emmy award. The movie also starred Eli Wallach, Pat Corley, Christine Lahti, and Rosanna Arquette, and was directed by Lawrence Schiller. 
After the case and execution the court returned the the murder weapon to the store owner, Gordon Swan, Gilmore had burglarized.
Which in most rational peoples opinion seems fair and logical, but has seldom happened throughout our history.
The store owner hid the pistol away for 25 years before asking a local gun dealer and long time friend to sell the gun for him. The gun dealer, Dennis Stilson later purchased the pistol from the original owner. After some research the pistol was placed on a popular internet gun auction receiving a bid for $500,000.00 but did not meet the reserve.
A few months later the gun was first shown at a Las Vegas gun show. Making top story on TV news and front page of the Las Vegas Review newspaper.
Later the pistol was again listed on an internet auction reaching $780,000.00 but was still insufficient to reach the asking price.
Stilson had numerous personal and professional ties with Gilmore’s family and others involved with the Gilmore’s
case. He wrote a book titled “The Gilmore Gun and I” More interviews and information led to another book titled “The Gilmore Gun – Echo of murder.” Shown on the next page.
Articles depicting the Gilmore account covered the world in such magazines as Time, New times, Criminal Mind, Playboy, Rolling Stone, People and many more. Also numerous sundry and documentaries were produced. There were also the books and movies solidifying both the unique and bizarre aspects of this memorable case.
The case that reinstated capital punishment in America should be remembered. It is a shame that this historically rare and important story is not part of our general educational history books and makes a statement of our lack of the pursuit of truth. The fact remains no other gun has been involved in any case that legally affected so many at such a legitimate level affecting laws that we still live by today. Committing the most horrendous crime resulting in the most severe punishment. Other guns have certainly been used to murder more prominent historical or recognized victims but that is a bit of a different niche, this pistol reflects more of the legal or law affecting and social-political ramifications making it a very rare firearm indeed.
Beginning over fifty years ago, Dennis R. Stilson’s personal ties with one of America’s key historical murder cases began. In The Gilmore Gun he gives a unique and qualified perspective of the epilogue of a murder weapon. As an experienced firearm dealer, bail bondsman, and bounty hunter his background adds to this rare view of the execution that brought back capital punishment to America and the events which surround one of America’s rarest collectible firearms. Articles, documents, and court records all solidify the extraordinary tale of the Gary Gilmore murders and the Gilmore Gun.
Gilmore’s gun goes on sale for $1m Saturday 15 July 2006
Scholars and supporters of capital punishment in the United States are being given the chance to purchase at auction what may be the rarest of all death-penalty souvenirs – the handgun purportedly used by Gary Gilmore to murder a motel clerk in Utah almost 30 years ago.https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/gilmore-s-gun-goes-on-sale-for-1m-6095322.html
Gary Gilmore’s gun for sale on auction Web site By Debbie Hummel –
The Associated Press – Jul 13, 2006
SALT LAKE CITY — The gun that executed killer Gary Gilmore purportedly used to commit his crimes is being offered for sale on a murder collectibles auction site for $1 million. Dennis Stilson, a Spanish Fork bail bondsman, says he wants to use money from the sale to open a youth center, but the state would likely confiscate the proceeds under a Utah law that prohibits profiting from crime.
https://www.heraldextra.com/news/2006/jul/13/gary-gilmores-gun-for-sale-on-auction-web-site/
