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‘Pog mo thoin’-- executed Boston murderer gives his last words in Gaelic

Three-time killer also said ‘Call my Irish buddies’ as he waited to die

RACHAEL LAIRD,

IrishCentral Intern

Published Friday, January 18, 2013, 7:17 AM

Updated Friday, January 18, 2013, 9:33 AM

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Convicted murderer Robert Gleason Jr

Photo by David Crigger/Bristol Herald Courier/AP

While awaiting sentencing for this murder at a high-security prison in the mountains, home to the state's worst inmates, Gleason strangled 26-year-old Aaron A. Cooper through the wire fencing that separated their individual cages on the recreation yard.

Gleason said he asked fellow inmate Aaron A. Cooper to try on a 'religious necklace,' which Gleason threaded through a wire fence separating the two while they were in solitary recreation pens.

During court proceedings, Gleason indicated he intended to keep killing unless he was given the death penalty, according to the state Attorney General's Office. Gleason told a federal judge earlier this month he did not want a lawyer and called for his execution to proceed.

His former lawyers said Gleason suffered from mental illness and had made several suicide attempts. Their final effort to halt the execution to allow for an evaluation of his mental competency was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.

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chuck | Apr 26, 2013, 02:06 PM EDT

Utah used to give the option of death by hanging or being shot. Great to have options. One guy took hanging because he wanted to make the State pay for building a scaffold. To all those weeping and wailing about the death penalty being a revenge killing, you don't have a clue. Try going back in your childhood. Remember seeing the pictures of some colonist in the "stocks?" That is what all punishment is about. It is a warning to others. This guy was a worthless punk, but at least he took the advice John Brown is said to have given his son: "If you can't live like a man, at least you can die like one."

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hammerclaw | Apr 24, 2013, 09:40 PM EDT

He lived like a dog but he died like a man, and THAT was the Irish in him. I'll weep for his passing but toast his courage in the face of death. I should hope I make half as good a show. Any that think the death penalty is "uncivilised" are right. The easiest way to "civilise" a population is to teach them cowardness. It takes a brave people to mete out death in punishment to they who deserve it, and it's not for the faint-hearted.

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cartersmate35 | Jan 25, 2013, 12:29 PM EST

I think Gleason was a person without any direction. His upbringing may have contributed to his way of life, but in the end, it is up to us to choose a better path. He has done that, and God Rest his soul.

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TisEyerish | Jan 19, 2013, 02:08 AM EST

Why even publish this? Claiming him as an Irish-American isn't exactly something to be proud of.

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Joe Glackin | Jan 18, 2013, 10:23 PM EST

Vengeance comes from the individual and punishment from God. To kill someone by the death penalty is revenge and uncivilized. Justice is lowered to that of the murderers act The death penalty is an emotional reaction endorsing revenge.It does not bring back the victim but dishonors their life. Killing the murderer is doing so in their victims name. The victim life is then equal to their murderers. "I do not now believe that any one of the hundreds of executions I carried out has in any way acted as a deterrent against future murder. Capital punishment, in my view, achieved nothing except revenge." Albert Pierrepoint (Brit hangman) "The flames of the capital punishment solution are fanned by misleading political rhetoric and journalistic sensationalism." Donald Cabana, former warden of Parchman. Another Irish saying "Tagann naomh on am ata caite ag taisteal an peacach ina dtodhchai " translates to "A saint comes from the past as the sinner travels into their future" Every Saint has a past as each sinner a future. We cannot judge

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tombegs | Jan 18, 2013, 07:20 PM EST

An ancient (?) Irish Proverb: He who exits on his own terms has a happy death.

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companion | Jan 18, 2013, 04:39 PM EST

No guns will be taken away from LAW ABIDING PEOPLE. Quit drinking the kool-aid the right wing fringe is feeding you.

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Scrivner | Jan 18, 2013, 03:29 PM EST

But at least he did not use a gun. Will the current Administration please keep that in mind as they craft a byzentine bureacracy to disarm citizens.

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Proud Canadian2 | Jan 18, 2013, 02:28 PM EST

Another example of why the death penalty shoud be abolshed. These guys want to die but don't have the guts to do it themselves. This creep should have been locked in a cage no bigger than a bathroom for ever, that would have been more punishment then a quick death, but like dallas75216 said his punishment has only begun so I guess if you look at it that way, I guess I can agree with it.

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dallas75216 | Jan 18, 2013, 01:24 PM EST

what really sucks for him is there aint no way he will get out his homemade prison in eternity.

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liammurf | Jan 18, 2013, 12:45 PM EST

He's a good man in my eyes, a "Dead Criminal". He sucked it up and tood his punishment

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merefalow | Jan 18, 2013, 12:09 PM EST

apart from going out with out mewling kicking screaming and crying,which takes an amount of courage,he led a life of criminality,seemed to accept his fate and met it,he said he only killed fellow crims,so thats okay then?glad i wern,t in the same cell though.

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handsome68 | Jan 18, 2013, 09:25 AM EST

Another fine example of "All the Irish or Irish-American news that fits, we print".

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