State executes five-time killer

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) -- Five-time killer Gary Alan Walker died this morning asking for forgiveness but saying he understood if those he had hurt could not give it. Walker apologized several times in

Thursday, January 13th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) -- Five-time killer Gary Alan Walker died this morning asking for forgiveness but saying he understood if those he had hurt could not give it. Walker apologized several times in his two-minute last statement before being executed for the killing of his first victim, Eddie Cash of Broken Arrow. "I can only ask for your forgiveness," he said. "... I hope when I go that the hate you have, and it's natural for you to hate me, that you would let it go with me."

Upon the pronouncement of Walker's death at 12:20 a.m., what sounded like clapping came from the chamber where family members of Walker's victims witnessed the execution. Thirty-one people with ties to the five victims came to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary to see Walker die. "After the death and burial of Gary Walker, there will be one less person we have to pay taxes on," Al Cash said of his father's killer. "The injection was good money spent but an easy way for Walker to die."

Cash, a 63-year-old widower, was beaten with a brick and strangled with a vacuum cleaner cord after picking up the hitchhiker May 6, 1984. By the end of that month, Walker had murdered Jayne Hilburn of Vinita and kidnapped, raped and strangled Margaret Bell Lydick of Poteau, Janet Jewell of Beggs and Tulsa radio newswoman Valerie Shaw-Hartzell.

Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz headed the Tulsa Police Department's detective unit when Walker confessed and led him to two bodies. "I think he wanted to tell us," said Glanz, who witnessed the execution. "He had spent three or four days on the run and he was just wanting to get it off his shoulders."

For his last meal, Walker asked for three cheeseburgers with extra salt, three sliced tomatoes, french fries and a strawberry malt. His final hours included visits with two sisters, a niece and two cousins, officials said. One cousin witnessed the execution.

Inside the death chamber where he was strapped to a gurney, Walker turned to his cousin and mouthed the words "I love you" twice. In his last statement, Walker also spoke of God, saying "you don't have to do anything but talk to God. I believe that." In a recent interview, Walker had said he had no spiritual beliefs but admired those who did. "At this time, I leave this world, but believe me people," he said, "I leave this world with nothing but love in my heart."

The lethal flow of drugs began at 12:16 a.m. Walker's body convulsed several times and appeared to pulse over the next three minutes before he was pronounced dead. The families of his victims spoke of lives shattered by Walker's actions. "We wonder how different our lives would be today if not for the violent act against her," a statement from Ms. Hilburn's brothers and sisters said.

Several family members of victims wanted to watch the execution to see if Walker would express remorse and see if it would bring an end to their own suffering. "I am disappointed at how long it has taken for justice in my sister's death to be served," Vicki Chiavetta, Mrs. Shaw-Hartzell's sister, said before the execution. "Tonight, it finally will. I don't know if it will bring any peace to my heart, but I pray that it does."