Late last evening you were taken from your cell on death row to the “Death House,”
the room condemned prisoners stay in before they finally receive that ultimate punishment.
Your stay will be short, but at least you have your own bathroom.
A guard sits outside your cell at all times, because you are on what’s called death watch.
Nobody wants you to have the chance to take your own life and rob them of the spectacle
tomorrow.
You wake up on the big day, say your goodbyes to your loved ones, maybe phone some friends,
have a word with the chaplain perhaps, and then it’s just you alone with your thoughts.
There will be no “you” in a few hours, and the last real decision you’ll ever make
is what you want to eat for your final meal.
At this restaurant the final check is permanent, but at least you don’t have to pay.
But what are some of the craziest last meals prisoners have requested?
Before we get into the wildest last meal requests there’s some things you should know about
these very peculiar restaurants.
You might be thinking you can order what you want, so what about a $200 piece of Japanese
Kobe Beef and some caviar on the side?
Perhaps washed down with a bottle of Dom Perignon.
Unfortunately, the American prison system doesn’t show that kind of largesse.
There is a limit as to how much you can spend, and that varies wildly from state to state.
For instance, Florida is apparently quite kind, giving prisoners a $40 budget but in
tight-fisted Oklahoma you only get $15.
Worse still is Texas, which in 2011 got rid of the last meal all together and told the
condemned that regular prison food will have to do.
Come on Texas, where’s your heart?
Guess which state has the most executions, too?
Yep, it’s Texas.
Since 2012, 84 folks have met their maker with only a belly-full of standard issue prison
slop.
You get the picture; prisoners have to work with what they’ve got.
Historically speaking, though, the budgets have changed over time and sometimes there
not even a budget at all, but the request must be reasonable.
We’ll start with one of the most well known convicts to be executed, the killer clown
John Wayne Gacy.
This serial killer murdered scores of young people after he’d lured them into his house
where he kept them captive.
Gacy is relatively unusual for a serial killer because he was a successful businessman and
a pillar of the community, so trusted he often did his Pogo the Clown routine for the neighbourhood
kids.
And before his lethal injection in 1994 he certainly put on a show as well.
For his last meal he had 12 deep-fried shrimp, a whole bucket full of chicken from KFC, fries,
a pound of strawberries, and a bottle of diet Coke.
Maybe he was watching his weight…
You might not have heard of Marion Albert Pruett.
He went on a robbing rampage in the 80s that left five people dead.
This man was what you might call a fast food fan, and we wonder if he was even able to
finish his last meal.
He ordered a whole Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza, four Whoppers from Burger King, yes,
we said four.
But he also ordered a large fries, some eggplant, squash and okra, all washed down with three
two-liter bottles of Pepsi.
That wasn’t quite enough, so he had pecan pie for dessert.
And he’s far from the only one who got greedy with his last meal.
Robert Alton Harris, who was found guilty of murdering two teenagers in 1978, ordered
21-pieces of KFC chicken in a bucket, two large Domino's Pizzas with no anchovies, a
tub of ice cream, a bag of jellybeans, and a six-pack of Pepsi.
But what about the people who wanted something special rather than a massive mash-up of junk
food and sugary drinks?
Are there no refined condemned killers?
Actually there are, and one example is Robert Dale Conklin.
In the 2000s he stabbed his lover to death with a screwdriver and then chopped up the
body.
If he could stomach that, he could certainly get a meal down before death.
For his last meal he asked for a bacon-wrapped filet mignon steak.
He wanted sautéed shrimps, de-veined of course, in garlic butter with lemon on the side.
He wanted a baked potato filled with sour cream, chives, bacon bits, and hollandaise
sauce.
He also wanted bread, but it had to be a French baguette, buttered and filled with goat’s
cheese.
For dessert he asked for cantaloupe, apple pie and vanilla bean ice cream.
His drink of choice was iced tea.
You might be wondering which state would pay for all that, and the answer is Georgia.
So, if you’re gonna get the death sentence and you call yourself a foodie, make sure
you do it there.
Ronnie Lee Gardner was a death row rarity, as one of the few people in recent times to
be executed by firing squad.
In 2010, before he had to eat a bullet, he ordered surf and turf - lobster and steak.
To drink he wanted 7-up and for dessert vanilla ice cream.
Gardner, who was accused of having shot a man in the face during a robbery, had one
more request.
He asked if while eating his last meal he could watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
A cunning plan to delay the execution but we can’t find any sources that reveal if
he made it through all three films.
Then we have the carnivores, the ones that just need their meat.
One such was Steven Michael Woods Jr. who was infamously executed in 2011, a controversial
case with many believing he was innocent.
He’s also famous for his last words, “You're not about to witness an execution, you are
about to witness a murder.”
We won’t dive into the details of his case in this episode and whether he may have been
innocent or not, but we do know for sure that he loved meat.
For his final meal he requested two pounds, yes pounds, of bacon.
With that he wanted four fried chicken breasts.
He wasn’t on a low-carb diet, though, because he also got a pizza.
What topping?
If you guessed more meat you’re right, four kinds to be precise.
He wasn’t done though.
He also ordered two hamburgers, French fries, 12 garlic bread sticks with dip, 2 pints of
ice-cream, and a selection of drinks including Mountain Dew, Pepsi, root beer and sweet tea.
Then you’ve got the people who know exactly what they want and don’t go for the smorgasbord
of treats.
The man behind the Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh only wanted a couple of pints of mint
chocolate chip ice cream.
Murderer Dobie Gillis Williams who was executed in 1999 also wanted to go out on a sugar high.
All he asked for were twelve chocolate bars with some ice cream and coconut pie.
Gerald Lee Mitchell, who was only 17 when the murder he was convicted of took place,
also wanted candy for his last meal, ordering only a bag Jolly Ranchers.
The murderer Victor Feguer who was hanged in 1963, and was the last person put to death
in Iowa, had one of the smallest orders of all time - one olive.
Yep, a single olive.
But he said he wanted it only on the condition that the pit was left in.
And surprisingly he isn’t the only one to make this order.
Robert Anthony Buell who was convicted of kidnapping and killing young girls in the
1980s asked for the same thing.
One olive, pit in of course.
But our vote for the most minimalistic order ever came from James Edward Smith who shot
and killed a man during a robbery, a crime for which he was executed in 2000.
For his last meal all he wanted was a pile of dirt.
Some have speculated that he wanted the dirt for a voodoo ritual which he would perform
in his cell to prevent himself from becoming a ghost.
But the ceremony never came to pass as the prison denied the request and instead of dirt
he was given a cup of yoghurt.
Odell Barnes, Jr. wanted a whole lot more, but also a whole lot less at the same time.
He was convicted of murder in 2000 and sentenced to death.
The evidence surrounding this crime was controversial his case became a focal point for the debate
over capital punishment.
This is another case we won’t explore in this episode but for his last meal he ordered:
"Justice, Equality, World Peace”
Other prisoners have also tried to do or say nice things with their final moments.
Philip Workman robbed a Wendy’s restaurant in 1982 and shot a policeman.
He was executed in 2007 and actually declined his last meal, but asked the prison to order
a vegetarian pizza and give it to a homeless person, any homeless person in fact.
The prison refused, but people heard about his request and all across the USA thousands
of pizzas were donated to homeless shelters.
The prison doesn’t always get the order right, either, as happened with murderer Thomas
J. Grasso who was executed in 1995.
His last meal was quite extravagant and it’s clear he was a fan of seafood.
He wanted two dozen steamed mussels and two dozen steamed clams.
On top of that he wanted a double cheeseburger from Burger King and some barbecued spareribs.
He went overboard for dessert, asking for half a pumpkin pie with whipped cream, diced
strawberries and two strawberry milkshakes.
They got all of that correct but managed to mess up maybe the most important thing.
He was given a plate of spaghetti when what he actually asked for was a can of Spaghetti-Os.
David Leon Woods had one of the strangest requests for a last meal before his execution
on May 4th, 2007 - a birthday cake.
His birthday had been a month earlier so maybe this was belated gift to himself.
He also ordered a pizza and shared his last meal with his family.
These are some of the craziest we found but if you know of any other good ones please
tell us in the comments so we can do a sequel to this video, we’re sure they’re plenty
of other crazy last requests.
Also, don’t forget to watch our other video What Are Last 24 Hours on Death Row Like.
Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time.