Gary Gilmore & Barbara Amiel, Baroness Black of Crossharbour : Whodathunkit?

What to write about... what to write about? Well...tomorrow, 17 January, in 1977 was the day on which murderer Gary Gilmore was executed.

U.S. 1977 U.S.A. Gary Gilmore 17th January, 1977 : Gary Gilmore, convicted in the double murder of an elderly couple, is shot to death by a firing squad in Utah. (See here)

Wikipedia

Gilmore was the first person in the United States executed since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, his story had immense cultural resonance at the time. It continues to influence the works of writers, artists and advertisers in the early 21st century.

Hat-tip Daily Mail

Could I find an angle that nobody else has approached on this?

I've mentioned the TV drama The Executioner's Song, based on Gilmore's story, in a post comparing Tommy Lee Jones (who played the part of Gilmore) and Oliver Stone (who wasn't involved)- that post is HERE.

In Rachel Monroe's interesting article about Norman Mailer's book upon which the TV drama was based she mentions that during her researches she discovered that "in folder 192.6 of the Mailer archive, I found something unexpected: A 20+ page horoscope analysis of Gilmore from astrologer/numerologist Daniel Wexler, along with Wexler's bill for $250. (That's nearly $1000 in 2015 dollars; for comparison purposes...)." Astrologers have already referenced Ms Monroe's article and, unsurprisingly, offered their own interpretations of Gilmore's natal chart.

From Rachel Monroe's article:

Gary grew up to be a leather jacketed reform school kid with a disdain for authority and a strong anti-authoritarian streak. He chugged cough syrup and took hot-wired 57 Chevys for joyrides, abandoning them when they ran out of gas. He robbed pawnshops, grocery stores, and his friends' houses. He went to prison for the first time at age 16, and didn't spend more than two years free for the rest of his life. In prison, he was trouble, too. He spat on guards and flung his food on the floor when it wasn't to his taste. He displayed a visceral, undiscriminating hatred for anyone in uniform.

Despite his rage and selfishness, though, there was something about Gary that made people want to give him another chance. The flip side of his cruelty was his sensitivity; he was a man who'd been deeply wounded by the world, and it showed. Despite his long history of criminal behavior, Gary could seem almost innocent at times. He was a talented artist, and he produced dozens of sketches of his favorite subject: sad-eyed children, "round faces with a bewildered, inviolable innocence," Mikal Gilmore writes. But then again, he drew a lot of porno scenes, too.

Scratches head.

Glancing at Gilmore's natal chart (see below), it looks seriously uncomfortable. Look at those oppositions between Scorpio and Taurus, and the slightly listing Grand Square (the red lines). We know that Gilmore's youth and family background wasn't pleasant, that has to factor in.

Hmmm. Different angle?

Another person whose life story we know, who was born on the same date, same year as Gary Gilmore? Moon and rising sign would be different, but maybe a similarity of some kind would show through - not that I'd be expecting to find another murderer you understand - astrology ain't that good!

There is another person who shares Gilmore's date of birth and, importantly, whose life is documented online: Barbara Amiel. She was born across the Atlantic, in England. She's still around: "Barbara Joan Estelle Amiel, Baroness Black of Crossharbour (born 4 December 1940) is a British journalist, writer, and socialite. She is the wife of former media baron Conrad Black". Her marriage to Black was her fifth (some sources say 4th).

From a Guardian profile: She was the scourge of the left and the darling of the right - a powerful woman lusted after by powerful men - and she snared one of the most powerful when she married Conrad Black, the Canadian media tycoon and then owner of the Telegraph group, in July 1992.

Gilmore and Amiel - there could hardly be two more dissimilar people. He an impoverished youth, no stranger to violence and petty crime, family often "on the run" from the law; in adulthood he added the murder of two people to his resumé - and for no apparent reason. She from a disrupted family background, her father committed suicide in 1956. As life progressed she educated herself, used feminine beauty and seductive sexiness to drive her life in what she saw as better directions. She became a journalist. There were multiple marriages, her last to wealthy, powerful former media baron Conrad Black. In spite of her eventual obscene wealth, as described in newspaper and magazine articles, her life was not all plain sailing. Conrad Black was disgraced and jailed for several white collar crimes. Details at this NPR website. He served prison time: sentenced to six and a half years' imprisonment. In 2011, two of the charges were overturned on appeal and he was re-sentenced to 42 months in prison on one count of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. He was released on 4 May 2012 (Wikipedia) Barbara Amiel, his wife, stood by him initially, but according to this 2004 piece from The Herald Scotland

"I HAVE an extravagance that knows no bounds." Journalist, author and society queen Barbara Amiel's words have returned to haunt her. Akin to Marie Antoinette's let them eat cake, they will go down in history as a memorable show of arrogance made by a powerful woman before her cut-glass world cracked around her.

To Amiel's horror, she and husband Conrad Black, former chairman of the Telegraph Group, are accused of using the New York-based publishing company Hollinger International, which he built from scratch, as a "piggy bank" to fund their lifestyles.

Such is Lady Black's upset over her fall from grace that she has abandoned Lord Black in the US and remains 3000 miles away in their palatial Kensington home with only two butlers, three maids, domestic staff, chef and chauffeur for company.

From the same piece:

Amiel took journalists from American Vogue through her London mansion and couldn't resist showing them her eye-popping collection of designer belongings. Furs, evening gowns, casuals, gloves, belts and shoes spilled out of two rooms and an area in her private gym.

One closet contained 12 Hermes crocodile bags, with a value of more than (pounds) 50,000 and an even more valuable collection of 40 Pellegrino jewel-handled evening bags. Other shelves groaned under the weight of more than 100 pairs of Manolo Blahnik shoes costing from (pounds) 250 to (pounds) 800 a pair. She was quoted as saying she thought nothing of spending (pounds) 35,000 on a cocktail dress and showed the Vogue team a necklace worth (pounds) 100,000.

And

Her [earlier] private life remained eventful. In her autobiography, Confessions, she admitted having been addicted to anti-depressants and painkillers. There was also a back-street abortion aged 24, which left her unable to have children. This fact has often been used by commentators to explain her need for material objects to fill her life.

 Conrad Black and Wife Barbara Amiel -"it's Fashion" Macmillan Cancer Relief Charity Hosted by Vogue Magazine at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire. ( Dave Benett 2001)

Their natal charts:


Gary Gilmore, born 4 December 1940, McGamey, Texas at 6.30 AM (Astrodienst, AA rating)

Barbara Amiel, born 4 December 1940, Watford, UK, time unknown, chart set for 12 noon.

Reconciling these two, astrologically, entails standing well back. Crucial data is missing for Amiel - her exact Moon placement, rising sign/degree, and house positions. Her Moon though, amazingly enough, is going to be somewhere in Aquarius, to match Gilmore's. Standing back, subtle and not so subtle correspondences could be discernible in spite of these two characters' only too obvious real life differences.

Those Scorpio-Taurus oppositions, and many square aspects are common to both. In Gilmore's case Scorpio translated more as darkness and death, but for Amiel Scorpio's other attribute, sexiness, dominates. Venus-ruled Taurus in Gilmore's case is reflected in his latent artistic ability - he is said to have been keen on drawing while in prison. In Amiel's case Taurus, in its other guise manifested in her acquisitive tendencies to own luxurious clothes, jewels, homes, etc.

Those uncomfortable square aspects common to both charts manifested with extreme intensity for Gilmore, both in his youth and his adulthood. They manifested to a lesser degree for Amiel in her youth, but mainly probably related to her husband's disgrace in her adult years.

I notice that Uranus at 23.24 Taurus was a couple of degrees from "demon fixed star" Algol, so could (just) be counted as a conjunction. Uranus is a generational planet though, only of interest natally if linked to personal planet(s). Gilmore and Amiel had Algol opposing their natal Mercury, with both Uranus and Mercury squaring natal Moon (not certain in Amiel's case) forming a T-square. I'm not sure whether a Uranus/Algol conjunction in aspect to a personal planet "counts" in astrology, but if it does, then Algol's more traditional attributes manifested for Gilmore, in Amiel's case the "female passion and power" side of Algol surfaced.

Here, and always, we're dealing with astrological potential versus real-world opportunity, and the way similar charts of near astrological twins can manifest in very different ways, but with subtle resonance.