Book 1, Part 4 Summary

In this critical part of The Executioner's Song, the real Gary Gilmore finally stands up and steps into character as a remorseless, cold-blooded killer, driven by pubescent impulses and child-like emotional and social development. An insatiable longing for a white pickup truck he can't afford triggers his actions. The truck is on the same lot - V.J. Motors on State Street - where he got the Mustang he grows to hate because it keeps breaking. Thwarted in his efforts to beg or borrow the money he needs to make a payment that is due on the truck, he robs an all-night gas station in Orem, killing the young attendant, Max Jensen, and leaving his wife, Colleen, a widow. Max does not resist during the robbery, but Gilmore murders him methodically, execution-style, nonetheless. His target for the following night is an...