SALT LAKE CITY -- A Utah jury heard a tape recording Wednesday in which convicted sex slayer Arthur Gary Bishop confessed he sexually molested and killed five boys and was capable of repeating the grisly crimes.
Bishop's tape recorded confession was played to the seven-woman, five-man jury that was told to return to the courtroom Thursday to hear final arguments before deciding whether Bishop should be executed for the murders.
Bishop, 32, of Hinckley, Utah, was convicted Monday of the murders of five Salt Lake City-area boys between 1979 and 1983. He was arrested July 24, 1983, after confessing and leading officers to the bodies.
'I'm glad you caught me because I couldn't stop and I would do it again,' said Bishop, who admitted he lured the boys to his home with promises of candy, ice cream, toys and money. 'I get around little kids and I start shaking. I get turned on.'
He said he sexually molested or took nude pictures of the boys, and then killed them.
Bishop's mother, Carol Bishop, tried to convince the jury to give her son a life prison sentence instead of death.
She testified her son was an honor student, an Eagle Scout and a missionary for the Mormon Church. She said she never suspected he had sexual problems until his arrest.
She said she and Bishop's father had talked to the convict on Tuesday and she had told her son she loved him.
'He cried and his father cried,' she said.
Bishop's older brother, Craig, testified his brother was the 'most dependable' of all of the nine Bishop children. He said the family knew Bishop had taken pictures of his nephew in the nude.
'We urged him to get psychiatric help and I believe he was seeing a psychiatrist,' Craig Bishop said.
Bishop, who did not testify in his own defense, appeared to be reading a transcript of the confession as his voice described the murders in gruesome detail.
'Actually, I feel glad about telling this,' Bishop said on the tape recording. 'But, at the same time, I know I'm damning myself to hell.'
He said nightmares had disturbed his sleep since the killings and he dreamed the parents of the ded boys were in his bedroom seeking revenge.
Relatives of some of the victims cried during the playing of the tape.
'I've lived in virtual hell ever since,' said Bishop, who was found guilty of the murders of Graeme Cunningham, 13, Troy Ward, 6, Kim Petersen, 11, Danny Davis, 4, and Alonzo Daniels, 4.
The jury must return an unanimous verdict of death or he will be sentenced to life in prison.
