After his release from Marion, Gary Gilmore sent his mother, Bessie Gilmore, chocolates and wrote that he was happy with Nicole. Soon, Bessie learns from Brenda Nicol that he was charged with two murders. She insists that he is “not a killer” (310) and is devastated by talk of the death penalty. Living alone in Portland after serious surgery, she relives earlier crises, including Gary’s 1972 arrest and long imprisonment. She remembers his discovery of a birth certificate listing different names, which unsettled him deeply. His institutional troubles, headaches, and his father Frank Gilmore’s death followed.

Bessie recalls Gary’s childhood fears of execution and beheading. Her memories turn further back to her Mormon upbringing in Provo, marriage to Frank, and his mother Fay, a spiritualist who claimed royal and theatrical ties, including to Houdini. Frank’s shifting identities and past shape the family history for Bessie. She thinks back to her memories of Houdini, who did not teach people in her family “how to escape” (324).

After Gary’s confinement, Nicole begins seeing other men. Cliff Bonnors meets her at the Silver Dollar and drives her to deliver a letter to Gary at the jail. They begin a casual relationship.