SALT LAKE CITY — The gun that executed killer Gary Gilmore purportedly used to commit his crimes is being offered for sale on a murder collectibles auction site for $1 million.

Dennis Stilson, a Spanish Fork bail bondsman, says he wants to use money from the sale to open a youth center, but the state would likely confiscate the proceeds under a Utah law that prohibits profiting from crime.

The gun was put up for auction on the site murderauction.com Wednesday with a minimum bid of $1 million and a description reading: “The actual pistol used by Gary Gilmore for two murders. Absolute documentation.”

Gilmore was executed by a Utah firing squad in 1977 for the shooting death two years earlier of Provo motel clerk Bennie Bushnell. Gilmore also was charged with capital murder — but never tried — in the killing of Brigham Young University law student Max Jensen, a part-time Orem gas station attendant, the night before the Bushnell murder.

Gilmore was the first person in the country executed after a U.S. Supreme Court decision allowed states to restore the death penalty in 1976 after a 10-year moratorium. His story was the subject of the Norman Mailer book, “The Executioner’s Song,” which was later made into a movie of the same name starring Tommy Lee Jones as Gilmore.

After the Gilmore case was closed, authorities returned the gun to the owner of the Spanish Fork gun store from which Gilmore had stolen it. Stilson says he tried to sell the gun to the owner, Gordon Swan, but eventually bought the gun himself in 2002.

Stilson won’t say how much he paid for .22-caliber Browning pistol, but says he turned down an offer in 2002 of $500,000 through a different Internet auction.

The gun still has a law enforcement evidence tag attached, Stilson said. He also has the FBI evidence file for the gun and a 2004 letter from the John M. Browning Firearms Museum in Ogden, he said. The director of the museum wrote the letter saying the serial numbers on the gun don’t appear to have been altered.

Stilson, 50, said he wants to sell the gun to raise money to open a youth center. He said over the years he’s met a lot of troubled teens.

“I want to be the guy to help them. Just (give them) somewhere they can go to learn life skills, have art and music. Kids need to have something,” he said.

Dave Larsen, a salesman at a gun store, said the model of pistol Stilson has would sell for between $250 and $350 depending on its condition. Stilson suspects the amount is more like $1,000, but because of his gun’s historical value he can’t guess at the price it could fetch.

“There’s people out there, that if they’re aware this gun is out there they’ll pay that,” Stilson said of his $1 million minimum bid on the Web site.

If the gun sells, it’s unlikely that Stilson would be able to keep the money.

In 2004, Utah enacted a law prohibiting a person from profiting from the sale or transfer of memorabilia that is any tangible property of a person convicted of a first-degree felony or capital offense, said Sharel Reber, an assistant attorney general for Utah.

According to the law, the money from such a sale would have to go to the Utah Crime Victims Reparation Fund, she said. Anyone caught profiting from the sale of that kind of item could be assessed a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per item sold or up to three times the amount of the profit over fair market value, Reber said.

“It appears he’s on notice about the law,” said Cheryl Luke with the Utah Department of Public Safety and the attorney who would likely file any case for the crime victims fund. Luke said she would not file anything official unless the gun is sold for well over its fair market value.

Stilson said he first learned of the law when a newspaper reporter contacted him about the auction Wednesday.

“If that’s the case, I guess I’d move to a state that doesn’t have that law,” he said.

Stilson has tried to sell the gun before. Once at a Las Vegas gun show. A second time, he established an essay contest offering the gun as a prize for entrants willing to pay the $108 entry fee. He called off the contest after he didn’t get enough entries to merit awarding the gun, and returned the fees he had collected.

Stilson also has written a book about the gun called “The Gilmore Gun and I.” He said he has recently finished a second version, “The Gilmore Gun: My Side of the Story.” He is looking for a publisher.

On the Net:

Stilson’s Web site: www.gilmoregun.com/

Murder Auction: http://server2.steponline.co.uk/ 7/8murderau/index.phpfi

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D4.

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