Last Meals of Death Row Inmates

The last meals of convicts, what would you choose if you were facing execution?Woody Overton and Jim Chapman bring you another episode of Bloody Angola: A Prison Podcast by Woody Overton and Jim Chapman where the topic is some of the most infamous of those executed and what they choose to eat just before they ride the lightning or get the needle!#deathrow #podcast #applepodcast #spotify #lastmeals #podcastsBloody Angola is produced by Envision Podcast StudiosWebsitewww.bloodyangolapodcast.comFULL TRANSCRIPTBloody Angola:A Podcast by Woody Overton and Jim Chapman (LAST MEALS)
Jim: Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another edition of Bloody-
Woody: -Angola.
Jim: A podcast 142 years in the making.
Woody: The complete story of America's Bloodiest Prison.
Jim: I'm Jim Chapman.
Woody: I'm Woody Overton.
Jim: And last meals, Woody Overton, are on our mind today.
Woody: I've always just been totally fascinated by the condemned and what they ask for their last meals.
Jim: That's a big decision. I mean, people don't really think about it, but this is the last meal you'll ever eat and I'm sure these death row inmates, like all of us-- people ask y'all the time, "What is your favorite food?" And sometimes people can't decide on that.
Woody: I know Angola, back in my time, during corrections, they actually had an inmate that all he did was prepare the last meals for the condemned.
Jim: Yeah. And I'm sure considered it like quite an honor.
Woody: I think they even did a cookbook of it. I'm going to have to look that up. We have to do an episode on that cookbook.
Jim: We might have to do a cookbook.
[laughter]
Jim: The Bloody Angola-- look, and I guarantee you some people going to message us down and say, "I'm a buyer, I want a cookbook."
Woody: We told y'all it would always be different. Today, we're not going to talk about Angola, we're going to talk about some really fascinating last meals from across the country.
Jim: Yeah. And last meals of death row inmates, they've been around a long time. Actually, they date back to the 20s in the United States, but in the UK, Europe, they were prevalent even in the 1800s.
Woody: Yeah, but they were killing a lot more people back then.
Jim: [laughs]
Woody: "Off with your head," and shit.
Jim: Yeah. I don't know how many people actually got to this side.
Woody: I think the [crosstalk] the public executions in England [unintelligible [00:03:20] were used until the early 20th century.
Jim: Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me. And last meals of any sort-- and we're going to stick to the United States here, especially in the United States, when they were first invented or became in vogue or whatever, they were looked at as an act of mercy on the prisoners, kind of humanize them in the eyes of the general public.
Woody: "We'll feed you before we kill you."
Jim: Yeah. "He likes pizza and I like pizza. We got something in common," that kind of thing, I'm sure. It has become in vogue since the 20s. Usually, there's a certain time period in which these inmates have, it's not necessarily their last meal, it might be two days earlier that they get that special meal.
Woody: Yeah. In Louisiana, it is on the day of execution, but it varies by state to state.
Jim: Is every inmate entitled to a last meal?
Woody: No, they're not. Like I said, it varies state to state, including some states, you don't get your request for a last meal.
Jim: No last meal at all. You just eat whatever they got.
Woody: Texas was the first state to introduce last meals to death throw inmates in 1924. It was quickly shared among other states. And after death row inmates, Lawrence R. Brewer's extravagant large and expensive last meal that he did not eat. Texas said, "We're not doing this shit anymore," but this dude didn't even eat, like, his last FU to the state of Texas. "You spent that money on me, and I'm not even going to eat it."
Jim: In Arizona, state procedures on executions state that an inmate can request the last meal by completing a form 14 days before their execution. So, they can't wait till the last minute. They got to give them at least two weeks' notice just like when you're hired and fired from a job or whatever.
Woody: I can see that wouldn't be unreasonable to think that if you've been on death row probably for 20 years, you probably already know what you want probably way ahead of time. We're the state, right? We got red tape. Give us a form to sign.
Jim: That's right. Florida, just another reason for me to like Florida, other than the sunshine and the sand and all that sort of thing, Florida believes in local, and so when you have a last meal, it's got to be local.
Woody: And it's a $40 budget. Hey, it could be local, but you better not order a grass fed.
Jim: If you order a T-bone, you ain't getting a potato.
Woody: Yeah. $40.
Jim: So, that's interesting. Now in Louisiana, right here at home, the warden will join you.
Woody: Yes. Burl Kane was very instrumental in that, and I think he tried to show compassions to the inmates and that the state is really not their enemy. We're going to sit down. Actually, Warden Kane would eat the meals with him. Whatever they're eating, he would sit down and break bread with them right before he killed him.
[laughter]
Jim: Seems kind of bizarre, doesn't it? I'll tell you what, it's a show of respect, I think, more than anything else. Warden Kane actually started that program at Angola, and it continues today.
Woody: Remember, the Department of Corrections' job is not to punish the inmates, don't beat them every day for the murders they committed or whatever. You're simply to house them and stop them from escaping and hurting other people. So, even though you're going to kill them in a couple of hours, you can sit down and with their family members, usually, and break bread with them.
Jim: Yeah, right. If you thought $40 was wow, how can I make that stretch? I know what y'all are doing right now. You're sitting there and you're thinking, "For $40, could I get my favorite last meal?" Well, guess what? Be glad you don't live in Oklahoma, if you're not an Oklahoma listener right now, because in Oklahoma, you only get $25.
Woody: They say that a reasonable effort shall be made to accommodate the request, but the budget shall not be exceeded. [crosstalk]
Jim: You can't get a Happy Meal for $25.
Woody: Right. But in Maryland, they don't even offer a final meal selection. They say the death row inmate will eat the same as any other inmate in the prison.
Jim: That's right. States that maybe don't have the amount, I think of Vermont right off the top of my head, don't have the amount of executions. They'll let you go a little bit more crazy. They'll give you more personal choices of meal and things like that. That's just because their budget, it allows for that. They don't put a whole lot of people to death. Maybe they're just a small state, like a Vermont.
Woody: Right. Well, it's typically assumed that inmates sentenced to death can ask for anything they want for the last meal. It does, like we told y'all vary from state to state. Some states have budgets, and some have rules on locations of where the meals can come from, like Florida being local but some states don't allow last meals at all.
Jim: Yeah. Not only that, this is going to surprise y'all, no state allows cigarettes.
Woody: That's crazy. Back in the day, cigarettes were everything in the prison. According to the Department of Corrections, no states allow cigarettes. Under an order by former Texas Governor George W. Bush, who would become the president later on, cigarettes were banned for health reasons.
[laughter]
[crosstalk]
Woody: We won't let you have that last cigarette before we let you ride Ol' Sparky, right?
Jim: That's actually pretty good. Now, in 1997, there was an inmate by the name of Larry Wayne White. He requested a meal of liver fried onions, tomatoes, cottage cheese, and a cigarette. He got everything but his final smoke. How about that? I don't know if I'm picking liver as my last meal number one.
Woody: [crosstalk] -cottage cheese, livers, fried onions, maybe. Yeah, I probably like to have that cigarette but he didn't get it.
Jim: Now, you may wonder, well, they can't smoke, but can they drink? Actually, alcohol is not allowed.
Woody: But it's frequently requested. In the earlier years, alcohol was allowed, and it sometimes still is, but it depends on who it is and where it's being requested.
Jim: Now, they've even had inmates, and I could see some out there doing it. They have actually requested Dom Pérignon.
Woody: Dom Pérignon.
Jim: One death row inmate actually requested but they denied him.
Woody: Denied.
Jim: [crosstalk]
Woody: He didn’t even get a pink champagne either.
Jim: MD 20/20, baby. [chuckles]
Woody: But unorthodox or unavailable requests are replaced with similar substitutes, and it was not unusual for an inmate's final choices to reveal something about them.
Jim: That's what I find so interesting about this, and we're going to get into specific inmates and what they requested, and it does. It kind of reveals something about the inmate that you may pick up on by what they request for the last meal. Now, some decline a last meal in order to basically demonstrate contempt for the prison authorities. "I'm not going to give you the pleasure of giving me a last meal," or they're just so dadgum scared of going to the electric chair or getting a dose of the good ol' shot that they are unable to eat. Stomach's just in knots. They're not hungry. They're about to get the chair or get the needle, one of the two.
Woody: They might have a little upset tummy from