Last meal

The last meal is a customary part of a condemned prisoner's last day. The day before the appointed time of execution, the prisoner receives the meal, as well as religious rites, if they desire. As a general rule, inmates may not ask for an alcoholic drink, as it dulls the senses.

In many countries the prisoner may select what the last meal will be (within reason), and the authorities do their best to satisfy the request.

History

Although the history of this tradition is difficult to trace, most modern governments that execute prisoners subscribe to it.

The ancient Greeks, Chinese, and Romans all traditionally gave the condemned man a final meal. The Aztecs fed their human sacrifices for up to a year before killing them.[1]

In pre-modern Europe, granting the condemned a last meal has roots in superstition: a meal was a highly symbolic social act. Accepting freely offered food symbolized making peace with the host. The guest agreed tacitly to take an oath of truce and symbolically abjured all vengeance. Consequentially, in accepting the last meal the condemned was believed to forgive the executioner, the judge, and witnesses. The ritual was supposed to prevent the condemned from returning as a ghost or revenant to haunt those responsible for their killing. As a superstitious precaution, the better the food and drink, the safer the condemned's oath of truce. Last meals were often public, and all parties involved in the penal process took part.

There were practical side effects of a peaceful last meal as well. It was crucial for the authorities that a public execution was a successful spectacle. In the eyes of the contemporaries the violated law could only be restored by mirroring the crime via retaliative penalties (see lex talionis). However, if the mob believed something was wrong or the chief character of the show was reluctant to play their role, things could get out of hand and place the malefactor's guilt in doubt. Hence it was important for authorities that the condemned met their fate calmly. Apart from having been constantly coerced since the death sentence, the condemned's solemn last meal symbolized that they accepted the punishment. Additionally, prisoners were often served large quantities of alcoholic beverages to soothe them and bar them from execrating the authorities while ascending the scaffold. In Ancient Japan, Samurai warriors would sometimes commit Seppuku (Ritual suicide) for a variety of reasons. Before the suicide, the Samurai would be served their favorite foods.

Restrictions

In the United States of America most states give the meal a day or two prior to execution, and use the euphemism "special meal". Alcohol or tobacco is usually denied. An unorthodox or unavailable request will be replaced with a substitute. Some states place tight restrictions. For example, Texas limits last meals to food available within the prison system, though occasionally permitting food "from the free world". In Florida, the food for the last meal must be purchased locally and the cost is limited to $40.

Famous last meal requests

This represents the items reported requested but does not, in all cases, represent what the prisoner actually received.

• Adolf Eichmann declined a special meal, preferring a bottle of Carmel, a dry red Israeli wine. He drank about half of it.
• Aileen Wuornos declined a special meal, but had a hamburger and other snack food from the prison's canteen. Later, she drank a cup of coffee.
• Allen Lee Davis—350-pound "Tiny" Davis had one lobster tail, fried potatoes, a half-pound of fried shrimp, six ounces of fried clams, half a loaf of garlic bread, and 32 ounces of A&W root beer.
• Ángel Nieves Díaz declined a special meal. He was served the regular prison meal for that day, but declined that as well.
• Bruno Richard Hauptmann: Celery, olives, chicken, French fries, buttered peas, cherries, and a slice of cake.
• Dennis Wayne Bagwell: Medium rare steak with A1 Steak Sauce, fried chicken breasts and thighs, BBQ ribs, French fries, onion rings, bacon, scrambled eggs with onions, fried potatoes with onions, sliced tomatoes, salad with ranch dressing, two hamburgers, peach pie, milk, coffee, and iced tea with real sugar.
• Desmond Keith Carter declined a special meal, but had two cheeseburgers, a steak sub, and two Cokes from the prison canteen, for which he paid $4.20 from his prison account.
• Dobie Gillis Williams: Twelve candy bars and some ice cream.
• Edward Hartman: A Greek salad, linguini with white clam sauce, cheese cake with cherry topping, garlic bread, and a Coke.
• Gary Gilmore: A hamburger, hard-boiled eggs, a baked potato, a few cups of coffee, and three shots of whiskey.
• Gary M. Heidnik had two slices of a cheese pizza and two cups of black coffee.
• Henry Martinez Porter: Flour tortillas, T-bone steak, refried beans, tossed salad, jalapeño peppers, ice cream, and chocolate cake.
• James Edward Smith requested a lump of dirt, which was denied. He settled for a small cup of yogurt.
• John Wayne Gacy: A dozen deep-fried shrimps, a bucket of original recipe chicken from KFC, French fries, and a pound of strawberries.
• Karl Eugene Chamberlain: A variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, cheese, lunch meat, deviled eggs, six fried cheese-stuffed jalapenos, a chef salad with ranch dressing, onion rings, french fries, a cheeseburger, two fried chicken breasts, barbecue pork rolls, an omelet, milk, and orange juice. [2]
• Karla Faye Tucker: Banana, peach, and garden salad with ranch dressing.
• Mark Dean Schwabhad fried eggs, bacon, sausage links, hash browns, buttered toast, and a quart of chocolate milk
• Perry Smith and Richard Hickock: Shrimp, French fries, garlic bread, ice cream, and strawberries with whipped cream.
• Odell Barnes: Justice, Equality, World Peace.
• Philip Workman: He declined a special meal for himself, but he asked for a large vegetarian pizza to be given to a homeless person in Nashville, Tennessee. This request was denied.
• Rainey Bethea: Fried chicken, pork chops, mashed potatoes, pickled cucumbers, cornbread, lemon pie, and ice cream.
• Ringer Edwards requested chicken and beer. He escaped execution as a Japanese prisoner of war when his meal request could not be obtained.
• Robert Alton Harris: A 21-piece bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, two large Domino's pizzas (no anchovies), ice cream, a bag of jelly beans, a six-pack of Pepsi, and a pack of Camel cigarettes.
• Ted Bundy declined a special meal, so he was given the traditional steak (medium-rare), eggs (over-easy), hash browns, toast, milk, coffee, juice, butter, and jelly.
• Timothy McVeigh: Two pints of mint chocolate-chip ice cream.
• Velma Barfield declined a special meal, having a bag of Cheez Doodles and a can of Coca-Cola instead.
• Victor Feguer requested a single olive with the pit still in.
• Wesley Baker: Breaded fish, pasta marinara, green beans, orange fruit punch, bread, and milk (Maryland execution: this was what was on the prison menu that day).
• William Bonin: Two pepperoni and sausage pizzas, three servings of chocolate ice cream, and fifteen cans of Coca-Cola.
• Saddam Hussein: The Times (UK) states that "he refused their offers of cigarettes and a last meal of chicken." Other sources state a variety of meal options.

Famous fictional last meals

These last meals were featured in various forms of media, including film, books, and television.

• David Gale in The Life of David Gale ate pancakes, strawberries, whipped cream, and chocolate shavings.
• Lincoln Burrows in Prison Break had blueberry pancakes.
• John Coffey in The Green Mile dined on cornbread, meat loaf, mashed potatoes with gravy, okra, and peach cobbler.
• Eduard Delacroix in The Green Mile had chili (requesting that the kitchen staff "lay on that hot stuff").
• Matthew Poncelet in Dead Man Walking had fried shrimp
• Sam Cayhall in The Chamber asked for a bowl of eskimo pies and a pot of French Market coffee.
• Cindy Ligget in Last Dance ate Filet mignon.
• Frank Beachum in True Crime (both novel and film) had steak, French fries, and a beer.
• Cyril O'Reily in Oz ate Fluffernutters (peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwiches).
• Shirley Bellinger in Oz enjoyed A Slim-Fast milkshake.
• Ray Kaspo in the Monk episode "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail": Chili and ribs, which, unknown to Kaspo, happened to be poisoned.
• Dale Gribble in King of the Hill said he would request the world's rarest truffle so that when it was being searched for, he would use the time to tunnel out of prison.
• Ken Kramer in the CSI: Miami episode "Whacked" asked for and ate a single peanut butter and jelly sandwich. (No one at the prison knew he had a fatal allergy to peanuts—he chose this to commit suicide).
• Homer Simpson in The Simpsons episode "The Frying Game" demands a virtually limitless buffet of food including hot dogs, pizza, beer, donuts, and fried chicken. When asked how he could have such an appetite, he responded, "This baby's gonna be full when the cannon goes off!" indicating he wanted his stomach to explode during the electrocution.
• In another episode, Homer Simpson eats the last meal of fellow-prisoner Hans Moleman (lobster and raspberry torte), who is then led off to execution while Homer is freed.
• Marv in Sin City asks for a "pretty decent" steak and a beer.
• Louis Mazzini in Kind Hearts and Coronets requests two grapes.

Miscellaneous

• Artist Julie Green paints a series called "The Last Supper". This is an on-going series of painted porcelain plates illustrating final meals of United States death row inmates [3]
• In the episode "Reborn to be Wild" of the Fox animated series King of the Hill, Dale, Bill, Boomhauer and Kahn briefly created a "last meal club" in the realization that a condemned prisoner ate better than they did. They were eventually frightened away by the morbid nature of the meal and a feeling that they were tempting fate.
• An episode of the 1972 series The ABC Comedy Hour featured a sketch with Frank Gorshin imitating James Cagney as a condemned prisoner and Rich Little imitating James Stewart as a prison warden. When Little (as Stewart) told Gorshin he could have anything he wanted for his last meal, Gorshin (as Cagney) ordered "about a thousand" hummingbird tongues.
• George Carlin poked fun at the idea of the last meal in his stand-up act. He suggests that prisoners have fun at the expense of the people providing the meal by either asking for ridiculous meals to eat (Among his suggestions are to ask to go eat on the patio at a Hooters or to tell the warden you've converted to a religion that embraces cannibalism and want to eat a baby.) or acting indecisive as a ploy to stall the execution.
• With the advent of the Internet, more people seem interested in what typically requested last meals are. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice used to provide a list of the requested last meal of recent inmates, and whether the request was fulfilled. The list has since been terminated but most of the entries can still be accessed through archives.
• In the movie Frankie and Johnny, Al Pacino plays an ex-prisoner/chef who used to make prison dinners and last meals for death row inmates.
• In an episode of Da Ali G Show, Ali G asked Dick Thornburgh if a prisoner can order an all-you-can-eat buffet as his last meal to keep eating and never get executed.
• Similarly, in the November 12, 2008 episode of Chocolate News, David Alan Grier plays an inmate on death row who has avoided his execution for years by ordering an all-you-can-eat buffet, continuously eating, and napping between each bite.
• In an episode of Get Smart, secret agent Maxwell Smart is captured by the enemy organization KAOS who decides to execute the spy. Before they carry out the execution, Agent Smart requests an enormous last meal to stall for time in the hopes that a rescue will be mounted. Once finished, many hours later, Smart can barely stand from his seat.
• In the episode "Prom Queen" of HBO's Big Love, Lois feeds Kentucky Fried Chicken to Frank before suffocating him with a plastic bag.

See also

• The Last Supper

Further reading

• Richard van Dülmen (1990). Theatre of Horror : Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Germany. Cambridge. ISBN 0-745-60616-4.
• Michel Foucault (1977). Discipline & Punish : The Birth of the Prison. ISBN 0-679-75255-2.
• Hans von Hentig (1973). Punishment - Its Origin, Purpose, and Psychology. ISBN 0-87585-147-9.
• Osler, Mark (February 2009). "Ch. 7: Last Meal / Last Supper". Jesus on Death Row: The Trial of Jesus and American Capital Punishment. Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press. pp. 63–67. ISBN 978-0687647569.

External links

• Bob Greene. They didn't get to choose their last meals. Jewish World Review (2001-06-12). Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
• Tony Karon. Why We're Fascinated by Death Row Cuisine. TIME Magazine (2000-08-10). Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
• Joel Stein. You Eat What You Are. TIME Magazine (2007-10-18). Retrieved on 2007-11-11.
• Final Meal Requests. Texas Department of Criminal Justice (2003-09-12). Archived from the original on 2003-12-02. Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
• Last Meals on Death Row (since 2002). Dead Man Eating. Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
• Last Meals. rotten dot com. Retrieved on 2007-08-17.