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Shot in the Heart
Shot in the Heart
Author: Mikal Gilmore
The most powerful and haunting book of our time. Destined to be an American classic, this book tells more than the story of a troubled American family--it tells the story of a troubled America.
ISBN-13: 9780385422932
ISBN-10: 0385422938
Publication Date: 5/1/1994
Pages: 403
Rating:
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
 13

3.7 stars, based on 13 ratings
Publisher: Doubleday
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Shot in the Heart on + 3 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I read this book several years ago. I found it to be interesting. I learned several facts from the book, one being the meaning and origin of atonement. Very interesting. It now sets on my "keeper shelf".
jazzysmom avatar reviewed Shot in the Heart on + 907 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Really liked this book. Has lots and lots of info in here. All true. Mikal lived a scary and ahrd life and his mother--well i could never really figure her out. Most of the time i was wondering through out the read--"what in the heck is the matter with these people that violence runs rampet in there home? Man don't they get tired of violence??" I see now why things happened the way they did. This is a sad and interesting read. Lots of pictures.
pipi avatar reviewed Shot in the Heart on + 43 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This is the most depressing book I have ever read. I know that there are families like this one. I know that this is a true book and I know that these were all living people. Even knowing this I have difficulty believing they multiplied, raised children and moved around in the world just like ordinary people when they were little better than animals. Actually, animals make better parents than these people. They make a great case for automatic sterility. It is a miracle that only one of them became a murderer.

The mother is the most selfish human I have heard about and the father is no better. The sons grew up confused and never had a chance at any other kind of life. They had to learn treachery and meanness in order to survive at all in that kind of family life

The son who wrote the book is the only one who had anything close to a normal childhood and that was due mostly to neglect. The fact that he could gather the facts and put them together into a coherent book amazes me. I will never be able to put it out of my mind and wish that it had been fiction. But no one could ever make up a story like this.
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noisynora avatar reviewed Shot in the Heart on + 130 more book reviews
This book was fantastic - no holds-barred truth from a family member. Very emotional - my heart went out to this whole family on so many levels. An intimate and revealing look into a tragedy all the way around.
reviewed Shot in the Heart on
Once upon a time, there was a family named Gilmore. This family had four children: Frank, Jr.; Gaylen; Gary; and Mikal, the youngest. Gary became famous in 1977 when he challenged the federal and state capital punishment machinery and forced them to carry out the death sentence imposed upon him for the murders of two young Mormon men in Utah. The Gilmore family was not a fairy-tale family: rather, it defined the word
"disfunctional". The father, Frank, Sr., beat the mother, Bessie, in front of the children on more than one occasion. He beat the boys, too, reserving the worst of the white-hot heat of his inner anger for Gary. Gary's violent acts, and the fate he suffered, prove once more that it is the children who often pay for the sins of the parents. In Shot In The Heart, Gary's brother, Mikal, a well-known writer for Rolling Stone magazine, breaks the silence and tells the story of the family's violent, abnormal history. A rivoting book that will keep you thinking about it for months after.
reviewed Shot in the Heart on + 34 more book reviews
an amazing true story about the author's brother's execution.


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