‘Final meals’ is weird territory. Not just the final meals of law abiding citizens, but for those on death row. I’m talking about the conscious decision – your last ever – to choose the remnants of grub you wanna be picking out of your molars with your tongue, while being belted to the chair.
For what it’s worth, I don’t have a final meal as I’m certain no normie (non death-sentenced inmate) would be able to even look at a plate of salmon linguine while waiting for their execution.
Suppose I was sat there, in tears, unable to think about eating for the last time, and a guard said, ‘Look dude, if you eat something, anything, just so I can report back to the fellas I’ll bust you outta here,’ then, off the top of my head, I’d request a large doner kebab from La Rosa on Great Ancoats Street – even if I was being held up in Siberia.
I have no idea how the scenario works, to be perfectly honest with you. I don’t know whether final meals are ‘reported back’ to anybody nor do I wish to imply prison guards feel an urge to free prisoners who cry.
Check out the final meal of Keith Tharpe.
Tharpe was found guilty of murder in 1991, and will chow down his chosen meal prior to his execution tomorrow (Tuesday July 10), as per the New York Post.
He’s chosen: three spicy chicken breasts, a roast beef sandwich with sauce, a fish sandwich, tater logs, onion rings, apple pie and a vanilla milkshake.
Holy moly. Imagine getting past the majority of that, being passed the apple pie and going ‘Hoo boy! Here we go again!’
I guess we’ll never understand the minds of murderers?
John Wayne Gacy, known as the ‘Killer Clown’, ordered a dozen deep-friend shrimp, a bucket of KFC chicken, fries and a pound of strawberries prior to his lethal injection on May 10, 1984, in Illinois.
Like Gacy, mass murderer Timothy McVeigh was put to death by lethal injection. Prior to his execution in Indiana, on June 11, 2001, he requested two pints of Ben & Jerry’s mint choc-chip ice cream as his final dish.
McVeigh had been responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which left 168 people dead and hundreds more injured.
One of the most notorious serial killers to have ever lived, Ted Bundy, rejected a last meal prior to his execution by electric chair on January 24, 1989.
He was offered, as a default option, the classic plate of steak, eggs, hash browns and coffee but refused to eat any of it. The former lawyer had been on death row for the murder of 30 women.
Perhaps the most gargantuan final meal came with Lawrence Russell Brewer’s request in September 2010.
The order was so OTT, Texan inmates actually lost the privilege of choosing their final meal.
Brower had asked for two fried chickens, steaks with gravy and sliced onions, a triple-patty bacon cheeseburger, a cheese omelette with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapeños, a bowl of fried okra with ketchup, one pound of barbecued meat with half a loaf of white bread, three fajitas, a meat-feast pizza, one pint of Blue Bell ice cream, a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts and, last but not at all least, three root beers to wash it all down.
Wow!
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