The Last Supper: Charles Rumbaugh

Much of Charles Rumbaugh’s short life was spent in reform schools, jails, and mental institutions.  Rumbaugh committed his first robbery at the age of 6 when, with the help of his older brother, he broke into a building in San Angelo.  By age 12 Rumbaugh had graduated to armed robbery — he used a tire iron to rob a gas station and escaped from the scene on a stolen bicycle.  At 17 years old Rumbaugh shot and killed a jewellery store owner, Michael Fiorello, during a robbery.  In prison, Rumbaugh would claim that he was forced to shoot Fiorello.  “I would run in and stick a gun in someone's face and say give me your money and they'd give me their money,” he said. “Finally someone called my bluff.”  He made $54 from the robbery.

Rumbaugh was executed by lethal injection on September 11, 1985, despite protests from Amnesty International, who argued that the execution of someone who was a minor at the time of the crime would violate international agreements.

Rumbaugh spent his final hours on death row visiting with friends and relatives and was, by all accounts, in relatively good spirits.  His mother, who had planned to see Rumbaugh prior to his death, ultimately chose not to visit.  

Charles Rumbaugh’s final meal was a single flour tortilla.

Inspiration and Biographical Details

A friend of the murdered jewelry store owner, D.J. Day Stubben, took an interest in Rumbaugh and, after spending hours speaking to the condemned man, wrote his biography.  The book, entitled “#555 Death Row,” seems to be out of print, and there is rather little information about Rumbaugh in the public domain.  (Amazingly, Rumbaugh doesn’t even have his own Wikipedia page, although his name does appear on a list of juvenile offenders who have been executed in the United States since 1976.  That list contains a total of 22 names.)

I wasn’t able to find any information that might shed light on Rumbaugh’s motivations in choosing such a minimalistic final meal.  To me, the austerity of the choice echoes the request for “unleavened bread” that is so common amongst the condemned in America.  While I have no reason to believe that this interpretation accurately reflections Rumbaugh’s state of mind, I nevertheless let it guide my creative choices.  In this composition Rumbaugh’s single flour tortilla sits alone on a plate, tilted towards the viewer, in a kind of offering.  The dead flower and extinguished candle are reminders of mortality.  The wine goblets, which suggest the biblical last supper, are included to draw the thematic connection between the tortilla and Jesus’ unleavened bread.

After receiving two stays of execution in 1982 and 1983 Rumbaugh refused to authorize his lawyers to seek a third.  “I don’t care anymore,” he said.  “I’m bored.”  He tried to commit suicide twice while in jail.  During a court appearance in 1983 Rumbaugh lunged at a federal marshal with an improvised blade, asking to be shot.  He was badly wounded in the altercation and lost a part of one lung.  In his final statement Rumbaugh said: “D.J., Laurie, Dr. Wheat, about all I can say is goodbye, and for all the rest of you, although you don’t forgive me for my transgressions, I forgive yours against me. I am ready to begin my journey and that’s all I have to say.”