9 x last meals – and an olive: what’s cookin’ on death row?
Eat until you drop. Pretty morbid, in America death-row inmates are allowed to choose what they want to eat as their last meal. (Also morbid: I find that interesting.) Can they still swallow a bite at the last moment? And if so: what is that last bite?
One more delicious meal and then death—it’s an age-old tradition. Aztecs, Romans and Greeks considered a last meal for people who were about to die important, and it didn’t matter whether the end came by executioner, a fatal illness or a sacrifice to the gods. During the French Revolution, condemned prisoners were given a glass of rum before the guillotine did its work; in sixteenth-century England, executioner and prisoner ate a meal together.
In America, that tradition of last meals for death-row inmates is still alive and kicking. In most states, prisoners can fill in whatever they want on their final meal request form.
Horror clown eats strawberries
IT read it? About that creepy clown who hunts innocent children? Stephen King was inspired by John Wayne Gacy, a serial killer who sometimes dressed up as Pogo the Clown and murdered at least twenty-five boys. Brrr. On May 10, 1994, he was given a lethal injection—but not before polishing off a whole bucket of KFC chicken and an order of fried shrimp, with fries on the side. Dessert: a pound of strawberries.
Plain old breakfast
The extremely charming serial killer Ted Bundy (according to him, at least eighty victims) didn’t feel like having a special last meal. So on January 24, 1989, the prison served the standard breakfast for people on death row: fried eggs, toast with jam, hash browns and a medium-rare steak. And because Ted couldn’t choose what he wanted to drink, the entire selection was poured for him: milk, orange juice and coffee.
Mint condition
Two tubs of ice cream, nothing more. Mint ice cream with chocolate chips in it, to be precise. That was the last meal of Timothy Mc Veigh, responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma bombing, which claimed 168 lives and injured 680 people. On June 11, 2001, he was given a lethal injection.
Deadly pasta
Ruth Snyder murdered her husband because he couldn’t forget his former fiancée: he had named his boat after his ex and hung her portrait in their house. The eighth attempt at murder finally succeeded. In Sing Sing Prison in New York, Ruth made history in 1928 as the first woman ever to be executed in the electric chair. Her last meal? Chicken Parmesan with pasta Alfredo, two milkshakes and an ice cream.
Tiny eats garlic bread
Allen Lee Davis’s nickname was ‘Tiny’. Ironic, because Allen was anything but tiny: he weighed 160 kilos. His last meal was anything but modest, either. Before his execution in 1999, the triple murderer ate a whole lobster, fried shrimp, fried clams, potatoes and garlic bread.
Light and easy
Murderer Karla Faye Tucker asked the pope for forgiveness: she may have beaten two people to death, but she had become deeply religious in prison. It didn’t help; she was given a lethal injection on February 3, 1998. Her last meal was nice and light: a banana, a peach and a green salad.
A party in the death chamber
The list of Gary Carl Simmons’s last meal, nicknamed ‘The Butcher’, sounds more like a shopping list for a party. Delivered to his death chamber: a pizza with mushrooms, onion, jalapeño peppers and pepperoni; another pizza with three kinds of cheese, olives, bell pepper, tomato, garlic and sausage; ten packets of Parmesan cheese; ten sachets of ranch dressing; a family-size bag of Doritos; a large piece of jalapeño nacho cheese; two large strawberry milkshakes; two large cups of Cherry Coke; an extra-large order of fries from McDonald’s with extra ketchup and extra mayo; and two cups of strawberry ice cream. He didn’t finish everything: halfway through, he was full.
No big wishes
Multiple murderer Gerald Lee Mitchell kept it simple: his last meal in 2001 was a bag of assorted sour candies. It can be even simpler: in 1963, Victor Harry Feguer ordered a single olive, pit and all. Why? He hoped an olive tree would grow on his grave as a sign of reconciliation.
Enough is enough
It can get even stranger: before his execution in June 1998, murderer Lawrence Russell Brewer ordered two fried chicken breasts, a pound of barbecue meat, a triple bacon cheeseburger, a meat-lovers pizza, three fajitas, an omelet, okra, a cup of ice cream, peanut fudge and three root beers. He got what he ordered, but didn’t eat a single bite. That was the last straw for the state of Texas. From that point on, no last meals have been served there; condemned prisoners now simply get whatever is on the menu.
Cook it yourself?
Want to eat like they do in an American prison? Brian Price spent fourteen years in a Texas prison, where he cooked with a team of inmate chefs for all the prisoners. His cookbook, Meals To Die For, includes recipes such as Rigor Mortis Rice and Convict Chili.
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