Draper » Five shots.

Four bullets.

With two loud bangs in quick succession, Ronnie Lee Gardner's quarter century on Utah's death row ended.

At 17 minutes past midnight Friday, Utah Department of Corrections officials confirmed the death of a man whose life was defined by sex abuse, drug addiction, poverty, criminality and murder.

But in the final hours of his life, friends and family members said, Gardner was at peace.

And in his final minutes, witnesses said, the calm, condemned man exchanged private words with Utah's prison chief before being strapped to the execution chair and asked if he had any final words.

"I do not. No," he said.

A hood was pulled over his head. An executioner counted back from five. The shots rang out.

Journey to death row » If the man known as one of Utah's most notorious criminals was a monster, family members said, it was only as a result of his abusive upbringing. And Gardner's appellate attorneys long had argued that if his jurors had known more about his childhood, they would have sentenced him to life in prison, instead of death.

Born in Salt Lake City in 1961, Gardner was 6 when his siblings taught him to huff gas and glue. By age 9, he had landed in state custody for theft. When he was 10, police investigated a report that Gardner had traded a BB gun for marijuana. A stepfather used a teenage Gardner as a lookout while he burglarized homes. A foster father paid Gardner for sex.

In 1980, Gardner was convicted of his first adult crime -- a robbery. In 1985, while serving time for a subsequent robbery, he attacked an officer at Salt Lake City's University Hospital, stole his gun, and forced a medical student to help him escape. Two months later, Gardner shot and killed Melvyn Otterstrom, a bartender at Cheers Tavern in Salt Lake City.

Arrested and charged with murder for Otterstrom's death, Gardner escaped from custody when a female accomplice slipped him a gun at a Salt Lake City courthouse. During his escape, Gardner wounded bailiff Nick Kirk and killed attorney Michael Burdell. A jury sentenced him to death.

The intervening 25 years were punctuated by attacks on other Utah State Prison inmates and a standoff in a visiting room during which he broke a glass partition, barricaded the door and had sex with his half-brother's wife as officers looked on helplessly.

At peace with his fate » In a final appeal to the parole board last week though, Gardner described himself as a changed man. His daughter, Brandie Gardner, said she believes that to be true.

"Up until 10 years ago, I would have told you he was a bad person," she said. "But something changed in him."

The convicted killer said he wanted to help sponsor a farm for troubled youth, "so that they don't end up like he did," Brandie Gardner explained.

His appeals exhausted, Gardner spent the final hours of his life in an observation cell about 90 feet from the execution chamber. There, prison officials said, he read a spy novel called "Divine Justice," watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy, consulted with a bishop from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and visited with his attorneys.

"He was at peace," attorney Tyler Ayres said. "He even laughed a few times during our conversation, and that helped put me at ease."

As Ayres turned to leave, Gardner called out after him, "don't get into any trouble."

"You either," Ayres said, turning back to a man he had come to see as a friend.

Mourning a killer » Under prison policy and state law, Gardner had the right to invite as many as five witnesses to his execution. But in the weeks before he was killed, the 49-year-old prisoner told his loved ones he did not want them to watch him die.

Saying they wanted to respect the condemned man's wishes, while being as close to him as possible in his final hours, more than 20 members of Gardner's family gathered in a parking lot, across the interstate, overlooking the prison where he was to be killed.

"He believes he needs to pay for what he's done," Brandie Gardner said. "He absolutely believes that. But at the same time, people should know that what they're doing is murder."

As the sun set, dozens of death penalty protesters joined family members in a candlelight vigil. One held a sign that read: "Who Would Jesus Execute?" Another implored media onlookers to "tell the world of the barbarity of this act."

Moments after midnight, family members cranked up a car stereo, which played a concert recording of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird." They leaned against each other in a tight cluster, sobbing and shouting as they awaited confirmation of Gardner's death.

A sudden, violent death » Gardner was already locked into the chair with six thick straps, including one that held his head upright against the chair, when a curtain opened to reveal the death chamber to nine media witnesses.

"I could see him moving his eyes," television reporter Sandra Yi said.

"He didn't look scared," radio talk show host Doug Fabrizio said.

The prison warden draped the black hood over Gardner's head. A small target was affixed by Velcro over his left breast.

The five executioners readied their weapons, only four of which were loaded with live ammunition.

At 12:15 a.m., the shots rang out.

"It was so sudden, so quick -- boom boom -- just like that," television news reporter Marcos Ortiz said.

Several of the witnesses described watching as Gardner's hand and arm continued to move after he was shot.

"He clenched his fist and then let go," Fabrizio said. "And then he clenched it again."

Two minutes after the shots, the medical examiner lifted Gardner's hood to reveal his ashen face, mouth agape.

The killer was dead.

Calls for reform » For the nation, Gardner's death marked what could be the final execution of its kind in the country. Utah is the only state still using a firing squad, and only four men on death row could still choose it. The state switched to lethal injection in 2004.

Some hope the attention will highlight problems meting out capital punishment in Utah. Both death penalty opponents and believers decry the nearly 25 years Gardner spent between his conviction for Burdell's murder and the execution.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who has pushed to streamline death row appeals, said the run up to today's execution may have generated legislative momentum to remake state law.

"I'm hearing from a lot of people, 25 years is just too long," Shurtleff said. "It's ridiculous."

Ralph Dellapiana, an attorney affiliated with Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said he hopes Gardner's death will spark discussion "that this arbitrary process be changed to something else."

Members of the victims' families argued both for and against Gardner's death. All said they wanted to end a long nightmare.

"This story must be allowed to slip into history," Jason Otterstrom said during the commutation hearing. "Our families need peace."

Barb Webb, daughter of victim Nick Kirk, sobbed when news of the execution came.

"I'm so relieved it's all over," she said, hugging her daughter, Mandi Hull. "I just hope my sister, who just passed away, and my father and all of the other victims are waiting for his sorry ass. I hope they get to go down after him."

Tribune reporters Erin Alberty, Nate Carlisle, Matthew D. LaPlante, Pamela Manson, Sheena McFarland and Christopher Smart contributed to this report.