Baroque still life arrangements, inspired by the final meals of death row convicts.
On June 4, 1985, Gerald Lee Mitchell met two young men at a Houston park, under the pretence that he was going to sell them some marijuana. Instead of completing the drug deal, the men were brought to a nearby vacant house, robbed, and shot. That same day Mitchell shot a third young man, during an altercation over a necklace.
Mitchell was only 17 years old at the time of the murders. "I was young, I didn't care about living. I was full of hate, full of rage,” he said in a death row interview. “I really can't explain why. I was attracted to the wild side, the street life where you're trying to make a name for yourself."
Mitchell was executed by lethal injection on Oct 22, 2001.
His final meal was assorted Jolly Ranchers candy.
In 1979, Marion Albert Pruett was released early from a 23-year sentence for bank robbery and placed in witness protection, in exchange for his testimony implicating a prominent underworld figure.
Pruett was given $800 and new name. Under this alias he embarked in a year-long crime spree that would result in the deaths of 5 people, including his wife.
Pruett was executed by lethal injection on April 13, 1999.
Pruett’s final meal consisted of a stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut, 4 Whoppers from Burger King, french fries, fried eggplant, fried squash, fried okra, a bottle of Pepsi, a bucket of ice, a bottle of ketchup, and a pecan pie. In an interview Pruett claimed that he intended to share this substantial meal with another inmate, who was scheduled to be executed on the same day.
Pruett added that he would have preferred a roast duck, but didn’t think the prison would provide that meal.
Born Maznah Ismail, she took the stage name Mona Fandey in service of a middling career as a pop music singer. Not long after leaving the music industry, Fandey became heavily involved in the practice of traditional Malay medicine. She worked as a bomoh — a kind of shaman, often mistranslated into English as “witch doctor” — offering her services to a cliental mostly consisting of upper-crust of politicians and wealthy elites.
In this role, Fandey was hired to provide a kind of magic talisman to a local politician — she assured him that this item would make him invincible and bolster his career. Having secured an enormous deposit from the politician, Fandey beheaded the man with an axe during a magical cleansing ritual, and set off on a lavish shopping spree. The politician’s body would later be found in 18 different pieces, buried in a storeroom.
Mona Fandey was hanged for her crimes. She reportedly remained calm in the hours leading up to her execution, smiling and uttering the words: aku takkan mati. “I will never die.”
Mona Fandey’s final meal was Kentucky Fried Chicken.
In 1992 Moore murdered two people — Thomas Lauri and Barbara Cunningham — out of fear that they would move to Las Vegas with his estranged wife and child, exposing them to the moral corruption Moore associated with that city.
Moore was executed by lethal injection on May 16, 1997.
His last word was the name of his daughter, Jennifer.
His requested final meal was 2 green apples, 2 red apples, a tray of fresh fruit, and a 2 litre bottle of cola.
Ted Bundy kidnapped, raped, and murdered scores of women during the 1970s, often revisiting the crime scenes to groom, mutilate and perform sexual acts on the decomposing bodies. To this day Bundy’s total victim count remains unknown; he confessed to some 30 murders shortly before his execution, but it remains likely that the true number is significantly higher. From death row Bundy gave a number of interviews, ostensibly to provide some explanation for his crimes and the forces that had driven him to become a serial killer. These accounts were often contradictory and the true roots of his pathology remain obscure.
Ted Bundy was executed by electrocution on January 24, 1989.
He declined a special final meal request and was given a traditional meal including steak, eggs, hash browns, and toast.
Bundy reportedly did not eat any of his last meal.
On July 17, 1982, Robert Anthony Buell forced an eleven year old girl, Krista Harrison, into his van. Her corpse was found six days later, tossed into the weeds alongside of a country road. The girl had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
Buell was executed by lethal injection on Sept 24, 2002.
Buell’s requested final meal was a single olive.
On January 2, 2001, Robert Finch was shot three times in the head, chest, and back. His girlfriend, Dana Thrall, was pistol whipped and shot three times in the head.
Two children, ages 4 and 6, were upstairs in the townhouse while the murders took place.
Larry Bill Elliott was convicted for the murders and executed by electrocution on November 17, 2009.
Elliott consumed a final meal, he asked that his choice not be revealed to the public.
James Smith was executed by lethal injection for his role in the shooting death of Larry Don Rohus during a robbery. In his final statement, Smith said: “I myself did not kill anyone, but I go to my death without begging for my life. I will not humiliate myself. I will let no man break me.”
Smith’s requested final meal was a lump of dirt.
The request was denied.
He was given yogourt instead.