You either love Norman Mailer’s writing or you hate it. When he wrote “The Fight,” about Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa in 1974, it was marred by his own presence in the book. Writing about himself in the third person felt pompous. But when he writes like he does in “The Executioner’s Song,” you love him. The book is a voluminous tome; a hybrid of sorts — part crime novel and part journalism — which, despite its size, is always a page turner. The story is a dissection of the twisted Gary Gilmore, an unsympathetic ex-con, who commits senseless murders. He only redeems himself by finding a sort of peace in wanting to be executed and coming to terms with his own extinction — something few of us do. It is a profound rumination in this regard.
But more than that, “The Executioner’s Song” is an argument for really good investigative journalism. Mailer interviews countless family members and associates to paint a deep picture of Gilmore. It is true that sometimes you feel it could do with an edit, but the picture is so vivid you forgive it. As an investigator, you can’t but admire the amount of legwork that Mailer had to put in. Remember those were the days when open source investigations (OSINT) were not even a thing. When you read the book, it is a reminder that profound stories like these come about from human contact, rummaging through archives and visiting the scene and not from using open source tools in the bedroom. Good journalism depends on engaging with the wider world. Mailer brings to life society, court records, the lawyers, girlfriends, employers and others so well that he teaches you something about the dark and indeed the light heart of Americana. No wonder the book won the Pulitzer. Journalists, investigators and students should revisit this book
For those reading this as a forward, my name is Tam Hussein an award winning investigative journalist with a particular focus on conflict. The Blood Rep is my newsletter that covers conflict, security, jihadism, militancy, criminal networks and journalism. Do read my latest book The Darkness Inside.