From Ted Bundy to John Gacy, inmates have said some chilling last words before their execution. Death row inmates, who have all been found guilty of the most gruesome and horrible acts known to man, are asked if they have any last words before being put to death. While many murderers have taken advantage of the occasion to express regret to the families of their victims, others have been known to make absurd claims or express unsettling feelings, which appear to be references to their distorted mentality.
Millions of true crime aficionados worldwide are fascinated by the relatively medieval practice of the death penalty, which is still in use in 23 of the 50 states in the United States today despite a continuing social debate about its morality.
Death row is where some of the most infamous serial killers in history, including Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy (also known as “the killer clown”), and Aileen Wuornos, passed away.
Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Aileen Wuornos’s last words
Faced with death, r—pist, multiple-murderer, and necrophiliac Bundy in his 1989 execution told witnesses: “I’d like you to give my love to my family and friends.” Gacy, meanwhile, uttered, ‘Kiss my a—s’ before receiving a lethal injection.
Wuornos, who is frequently regarded as America’s most infamous female serial murderer, threatened to return before she passed away, telling guests, “I’d just like to say, I’m sailing with the rock, and I’ll be back, like Independence Day, with Jesus, June 6th.”Like the film, complete with gigantic mothership. I’ll be back.
There are still recordings of even more strange last words being spoken in the death chamber, even if not every person put to death by the US federal government was as well-known—or, maybe more accurately, as notorious—as the three evildoers.
Convicted murderer James French’s last words in the electric chair were “How’s this for your headline? French Fries.” pic.twitter.com/wnDBUEP1nE
— History In Facts (@HistoryInFacts) January 20, 2015
James ‘French fries’
In 1966, French was the last person to be executed in Oklahoma. He had ruthlessly killed Eddie Lee Shenton, his prison cellmate, five years prior by strangling him to death with a pair of shoelaces. For the 1958 murder of driver Frank Boon, who had offered to give him a ride that fateful day, French was already serving a life sentence at the time.
Minutes before his death, French is reported to have made an unexpected and unsettling joke after pleading for the electric chair. According to the Mail, he jibed with his unique surname: “How about this for a headline for tomorrow’s paper? French fries.”
Robert Alton Harris was executed 25 years ago today, after he murdered Mira Mesa teenagers John Mayeski and Michael Baker. pic.twitter.com/QUUbS9owR0
— The San Diego Union-Tribune (@sdut) April 21, 2017
Robert Alton Harris aka Grim Reaper
Robert Alton Harris, a California murderer, was executed in 1992 at San Quentin State Prison after being convicted of kidnapping and killing two adolescent boys, John Mayeski and Michael Bake, 14 years prior with the assistance of his younger brother.
Although his brother Daniel only served six years in prison, he was condemned to death by gas chamber, a rather uncommon form of punishment in the “Golden State,” due to his prior history of bank robberies and auto thefts.
Before his execution, Harris apparently uttered a chilling rhyme: “You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everyone dances with the Grim Reaper.”
EPISODE 882 : Freddie Owens
https://t.co/VTENjzKT74 pic.twitter.com/76zvt3G1EY— Quenel+ (@PlusQuenel) October 10, 2024
Freddie Owens’s one-word statement before death
Freddie Owens, a native of South Carolina, made what was arguably the most unsettling parting speech last September. At the age of 19, Owens killed convenience store employee Irene Grainger Graves in 1997 after a failed heist.
In 1999, he was given the death penalty after entering a guilty plea; that same year, he also killed fellow prisoner Christopher Lee. Owens simply said “Bye” to his lawyer before being executed by lethal injection, refusing to make a formal final statement.
