Some people say crazy things moments before they are executed. The most famous and bizarre last words of criminals who face their own appointment with the Grim Reaper.
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Ted Bundy
On the night before Ted Bundy was executed, he spent most of his time crying and praying. On January 24, 1989, at 7 a.m. Bundy was strapped into the electric chair at Starke State prison in Florida. If I may have your attention for a moment, I’d like to say a few things:
“Jim and Fred, I’d like you to give my love to my family and friends.”
He was speaking to his lawyer, Jim Coleman, and to Fred Lawrence, a Methodist minister who prayed with him that night. Serial killer Theodore Robert Bundy (born November 24, 1946. killed a confessed 30 women between 1974 and 1979 in Washington, Utah, Colorado, and Florida. Bundy’s victims were killed and it’s believed that he could have had more if not for the help of law enforcement. There are some estimates about the number of Bundy’s victims but it’s unclear.
John Wayne Gacy
Convicted serial rapist and murderer John Wayne Gacy was executed by lethal injection at the Stateville Penitentiary in Illinois. At midnight on May 10th, 1994, he breathed his last. I’d just like to say that my first and only real wish is that I can get a lot more people to learn about my case.
“Kiss my ass.”
John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942–May 10, 1994. killed 33 people during a 20-year period. His method of killing involved drugging the men and drowning them. People know him as the “Killer Clown,” thanks to his frequent appearances at social events where he donned a clown suit and full face makeup, and he’s even written a book about it called.
Timothy McVeigh
Convicted terrorist Timothy McVeigh had no final words prior to being executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001, in Indiana. After killing federal agents, Timothy McVeigh left a handwritten note that quoted a poem by British poet, William Ernest Henley. The poem ends with the lines:
“I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”
Timothy McVeigh is the Oklahoma City bomber. His motive was to get revenge for the US government’s failure to find the perpetrators of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building that took 168 lives, including 19 children. A jury found Timothy McVeigh guilty of executing the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history. He was sentenced to death and executed.
McVeigh admitted to investigators after his capture that he was angry at the federal government for its treatment of the white separatist Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho in 1992, and with David Koresh and the Branch Davidians at Waco, Texas, in 1993.
Gary Gilmore
Before he was shot and killed in Utah in 1977, convicted murderer Gary Gilmore had some last words. They were:
“Let’s do it!”
It would be easy for me to write that the most dangerous place in
“Dominus vobiscum.” (“The Lord be with you.”)
It would be easy for me to write that the most dangerous place in
“Et cum spiritu tuo.” (“And with your spirit.”)
Gary Mark Gilmore is arguably the first spree killer in United States history to go unpunished. He was also charged with the murder of a gas station employee the day before the motel murder. He was never convicted. When Gilmore died, the last execution to occur in the U.S. ended a 10 year gap. There are executions. Gilmour gave his organs away and shortly after he was executed, two people received his corneas.
John Spenkelink
On May 25, 1979, convicted murderer John Spenkelink’s final words before being executed in the electric chair in Florida were:
“Capital punishment—them without the capital get the punishment.”
This guy was a drifter. He killed a friend and then got away with it because he said he was a drifter. After he claimed self-defense, the jury saw it differently. He was the first man put to death in Florida after the U.S. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of capital punishment in 1976.
Aileen Wuornos
The convicted serial murderer Aileen Wuornos’ final words before she was executed by lethal injection in October 2002 in Florida were:
“I’d just like to say I’m sailing with the rock, and I’ll be back like Independence Day, with Jesus June 6. Like the movie, big mother ship and all, I’ll be back.”
Aileen Wuornos was born in Michigan and was left alone by her parents as a child. Her life wasn’t easy from childhood on. Before she was in her teens, she was working as a prostitute and robbing people to support herself.
In 1989 and 1990, Wuornos shot, killed, and robbed at least six men. She had been arrested in January of 1991 and was tried for her crimes. The death sentence for Sheree Denise Rone was never carried out because she died from breast cancer.
In the end, the woman dropped all appeals, and asked that her execution take place as soon as possible.