Your Last Meal?
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By Glenn Mueller
eDiets Senior Writer/Editor
OK, I admit it! I am fascinated by death row cuisine. Although it is difficult to determine exactly where the concept of giving a prisoner condemned to death a final meal request originally began, the ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Romans all practiced this tradition.
And, like it or not, last meals have become part of modern pop culture. In fact, artist Julie Green paints porcelain plates depicting the final meal requests of death row inmates in the
Now, here's an interesting piece of trivia: According to the best-selling book Eat This -- Not That, menu items from KFC are the most popularly requested entrees for the last meals of inmates on death row. For the life of me, I can't imagine why the Colonel hasn't promoted this in an advertising campaign yet. You know, maybe something like: "People are dying to try our new popcorn chicken."
Anyway, I couldn't help wondering if John Wayne Gacy started the whole trend. After all, the former serial killer from
Evidently, Timothy McVeigh skipped the main course and went right to dessert. His last meal consisted of two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream. I guess he didn't have to worry about working off that sugar rush.
Thomas Grasso of
A couple other interesting last meals reported on the Dead Man Eating Web site include:
-- Before his execution in Arizona in 1999, Walter Lagrand requested a last meal consisting of six fried eggs, 16 strips of bacon, one large serving of hash browns, a pint of pineapple sherbet, a breakfast steak, a cup of ice, 7-Up, Dr Pepper, Coke, hot sauce, coffee and two sugar packs. Not surprisingly, he followed this meal up with four Rolaids.
-- John Washington Hightower, who was executed in Georgia last year, consumed a final meal consisting of four fried pork chops, collard greens with boiled okra and "boiling meat," fried corn, fried fatback, fried green tomatoes, cornbread, lemonade, one pint of strawberry ice cream and three glazed donuts.
Now I certainly hope and pray that I will never end up on death row. But just for the record, my final meal would consist of broiled lobster, a baked potato, steamed vegetables… and beer (although I guess in prison, it would have to be contraband beer)!
What would you choose for your last meal? Let us know by posting a comment below. As we used to say at the tabloids, "Enquiring minds want to know."
Comment: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 3:50:00 PM - 
said...
Baked potato and steamed vegetables? No french fries? and how many pitchers of beer would that be, Glenn? :)
Raphael
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 6:12:00 AM - said...
My last meal would be an assortment of pies, chocolate, coconut creme, banana creme, and pumpkin with cool whip. Along with hash browns and ketchup. Fresh baked bread and butter.
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 6:47:00 AM - said...
Alaskin king crab legs with hot butter sauce, filet mignon,sweet potato fries & sauteed escarole w/cannolini beans,pint of Hagen Daz chocolate peanut butter ice-cream, Virgils Rootbeer
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 7:00:00 AM - said...
i would want my moms homeade spegetti and french bread a salad with ranch and 3 choc chip cookies and 4 cans of cherry coke and a piece of lemon pie and i would love to have some chocolate pieces and some choc milk and a pint of ice cream and some bannas and if i had room left , creme brulee
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 7:22:00 AM - said...
A PB&J on whole wheat bread, with reduced fat peanut butter and strawberry jelly, topped off with a side of coffee ice cream and a glass of water.
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 7:29:00 AM - said...
I've heard of Death Row inmates requesting low-cal, low-cholesterol meals ...
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 8:08:00 AM - said...
My last meal would be a Gotta Have It Cake batter ice cream cone with extra cookie dough and brownies from Coldstone.
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 8:27:00 AM - said...
That would be a tough decision, being that I love to cook and love food. I guess I would have to opt for a medium rare filet mignon w/ mushrooms, fried or baked fish w/ lemon, fried shrimp w/ cocktail sauce, baked potato (with butter, sour cream, cheese, bacon bits, salt, pepper and chives), fried okra, asparagus, brussel sprouts, an avacado/tomato/cucumber salad with a touch of roasted tomato dressing, and for dessert a piece or two of cheesecake with cherries, unsweet tea w/ lemon, and a glass or two of pinot noir. Other foods would be chips and salsa, a good crunchy taco, enchiladas, oysters on the half shell, peel and eat shrimp, liver and onions, a good grilled hamburger, german chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, hot pecan pie with vanilla ice cream, oh, I could just go on and on!!!! But I better stick with my first choices as I know I wouldn't even be able to eat all that, but a taste of it all would be great! jpw
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 8:31:00 AM - said...
Medium Rare Porterhouse Steak, baked potatoe with lots of butter and sour cream and broccoli. Two glasses of white zinfendel, and a Pepsi. Chocolate Cake and Earl Grey tea with cream and sugar. Ahh, heaven. Hope to get there.
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 8:36:00 AM - said...
Meatloaf (lots of ketchup), mac & cheese, green beans, sweet potato pie, caramel ice cream, sweet tea
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 8:57:00 AM - 
mommy noodle said...
my last meal would consist of walts favorite fried, bake potato extra butter, caesar salad with extra dressing and a biscuit. with a cold root beer from Red Lobster.
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 9:06:00 AM - said...
Langoustines with garlic butter, roast chicken with sage and onion stuffing, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, spring cabbage, bread sauce, cranberry sauce and chicken gravy followed by chocolate cake with cream and liquer coffee.
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 10:19:00 AM - said...
mine would be- a number 2 from whataburger with cheese and mayo. with a coke (i love that place) 4 party burritos from taco bueno (<3) hmm.. lots of hot sauce from tb too. some spinach dip and chips from cheddars! and maybe a double cheese burger and mcChicken from mcdonalds.... if i can still force myself to eat.. maybe some potato salad and cookies and cream ice cream.... lol.. i would probably only eat the whataburger and taco bueno.. those are my fav things to eat, but i cant have them much now bc my diet : ( oh well.. hahaha
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 10:39:00 AM - FTD said...
My last meal would be Grilled chicken Fettucinne with sun-dried tomatoes with french sourdough garlic bread and a nice caesar salad with a ice cold glass of ice tea with a twist of lemon.. Lemon cheesecake for dessert with white chocolate drizzle over the top. Oh Yeah! Heaven here I come.
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 11:33:00 AM - said...
I think my last meal would be a whopper extra mayo and onions McDonalds fries (super size) a strawberry shake (lactose intolerant)dessert would be a pecan pie and a piece of caramel cake with glass of cold milk and before I walk out the cell I would like a 20 oz regular pepsi since all I drink now is diet soda.
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 12:28:00 PM - said...
I would like a 500 pound lobster, a boat full of oysters,600 gallons of Corona light. 100 loaves of fresh baked whole wheat bread. Rhubarb pie, and a dilly bar.
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 1:34:00 PM - said...
I think I would like to have fried catfish, a baked potato with lots of sour cream, green beans with onions & my mothers lemon pie, but would have to wait till I get to Heaven to get that since she is there waiting for me. jwm
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 2:07:00 PM - said...
My last meal would be anything not chicken ( i eat to much chicken)It would be a T-bone med./rare steak with button mushrooms and roasted red peppers with Mcdonolds super sized french fries (yummy) and a Bok choy,grape tomatoes with avocados,all mixed with olive oil and seasonings,hot french bread with lots of butter and fresh homemade strawberry jam, now dessert would be cheescake topped with fresh rasberries and to chase it all down four(4) dirty vodka martinis.Now i can go home!
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 3:03:00 PM - said...
I will pass on the food please hand me a glass of water.
Comment: Thursday, April 17, 2008 3:43:00 PM - said...
I think if I was REALLY on Death Row & facing my death, I wouldn't be able to eat ANYTHING because I would be so terrified & sick to my stomach. But, that's just me.
Comment: Friday, April 18, 2008 7:51:00 AM - said...
I would have a burger with LOTS of fries; a huge pile of rice & beans and fried plantains with garlic sauce. For dessert, Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream! It feels good just to say it!
Comment: Sunday, April 20, 2008 4:14:00 AM - LiLaC said...
first, i would like to say, what an interesting subject!
i guess for my last meal i would like to have a little bit of my favorites, though they don't necessarily go well with each other. green mango & okra ensalada for starters. main meal would be marinated & fried milkfish from zamboanga, manang terry's chicken inato or bacolod chicken inasal (with some achara on the side), buttered shrimps from sharmila's, and a serving of my dad's kilawing tanguige. for dessert, i'd want a scoop of iceberg's chocolate ice cream and a small slice of red ribbon's chocolate mousse.
Comment: Sunday, April 20, 2008 8:43:00 PM - said...
ok to start i would have to go with lobster must be already to eat i mean in hot garlick butter already peeled because it gets cold fast i think i would like 2 of them ya that sounds good the scond thing would be escargo about 20 of them in hot garlic butter o and i would like about 4 the the bicskets you get from red lobester. to drink with that i would go with A&W rootbeer with a shoot of triple distilled on the side after that i would go with a tall glass of rasberrys all squashed up mmm mmm o and a bowle of them with sugar sprinkled on top o and a good lemone merang pie there is so much more i would like but i wouldeven be able to finish all that .if im geting the chair i would like to get drunk
Comment: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 9:29:00 AM - said...
my last meal would be chicken &
dumplings, mashed potatoes, peas,
lots of rolls with real butter,
hot fudge cake with extra whipped cream and tons of frech fries with ketchup and mustard.
Comment: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 10:49:00 AM - said...
I would savor and enjoy a plate of hot white rice with curry chicken, curry beef and curry shrimp with fried plantains on the side. A loving making session with the warden and a pina-colada, however, since I know that I will "NEVER" end up on death row, I will now go into the kitchen and start my curry dishes and have sex with the neighbor before my husband comes home.
Comment: Thursday, April 24, 2008 9:59:00 PM - said...
prime rib and shrimp, sweet potato casserole, chocolate
Comment: Friday, April 25, 2008 12:32:00 PM - said...
My last meal would be a lamb roast, with lots of gravy (made with mum's special ingredient - Promite) roast potatoes, roast pumpkin (butternut squash in the US), broccoli with mum's cheese sauce and my own chocolate souffle with Connoisseur Cookie Cream Commotion ice cream.
Wine would be a 1998 Grange Hermitage and finish off with a Botrytis. All shared with George Clooney, of course. :-)
Comment: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 12:15:00 PM - said...
I would want Fettucinne Alfedo with chicken & shrimp (haven't had it in years), caeser salad. a bottle of wine and a smoke to end it. I haven't smoked in 4 1/2 years so I might as well have one:)
Comment: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 4:00:00 PM - said...
Yikes-where to begin...I would have to have a couple bites of all of this--prime rib done just right, any kind of taco on the planet, jalapeno poppers (cheddar), a ton of king crab legs with lots of melted butter, mac n' cheese, twice baked potatoes, my mom's roasted turkey, stuffed mushrooms, Olive Garden's ravioli, LOTS and LOTS of vodka and Red Bull. Maybe I'd never go to sleep strapped down on that table with all that in me.:)
Comment: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 4:27:00 PM - said...
Hmmm... doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out why KFC would be the most popular meal for death row inmates.
Comment: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 4:34:00 PM - said...
1 Southern fried catfish, fried potatoes, green onions & lettuce.. salt & pepper.. bacon grease, cornbread, corn on cob, 2 slices lemon meringe pie.. vanilla ice cream.. caramel on top, 2 diet cokes, 2 cups coffee with cream, that should do it. : ) Oh, and a pack of cigerattes.
Comment: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 5:37:00 PM - said...
I think my last meal would consist of so-o-o-o-o many items it would take me years to eat it all!! Get it? Years?? :O)
Comment: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 6:00:00 PM - said...
I would have refried beans with cheese, a bean burrito with cheese, a bean taco with cheese, a bean enchilada with cheese, and bean Quesadilla with cheese, and maybe a bean tamale with maybe some more cheese. Watch what happens when the injection is done. Ha!
Comment: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 7:19:00 PM - said...
Vanilla, banana, peanut butter, and red velvet cakes
Comment: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 7:21:00 PM - said...
My hubby said he'll have one of everything. *chuckle*
Me, I would have one of my mother in law's big holiday meals - Prime rib with horseradish sauce, whipped potatoes, sweet corn, shrimp salad, green bean bacon wraps, twice baked potatoes, buttered asparagus, white bread (EVERYTHING homemade, of course). For desert it would be all pies - pecan, pumpkin, apple, cherry, and peach, with lots of sweet whipped cream. Also all homemade. Top it off with 3 or 4 glasses of whole milk, and I'd be set. Mmmm.....
Comment: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 8:24:00 PM - said...
Well... since I'm dying anyway... it would have to be something smothered in butter and that's totally unhealthy but really tasty. Lobster for sure... sachertorte... loads of whipped cream... pasta drowned in good slow cooked tomato sauce.... and OMG ice-cream... along with a latte and some Champagne. Along with shrimp and baked potatoes for sure.
Danni
Comment: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 8:35:00 PM - said...
Chefs play this game a lot, " What would be your last meal if you on;y had a few hours to live?" I saw a book on it too. I would have dried beef on hot buttered wheat toast, and beef bacon from my dads cows.. Probably cheesecake ice cream for dessert.
P.S. Thank you for the rocket scientist comment ;)
Comment: Thursday, May 08, 2008 1:58:00 AM - said...
Well, lets see, if they said i could have "anything" i wanted, i'd have to ask for a notebook and a pen cause the only thing i have eaten that i didn't like was asparagus....yuk!!!
I would start off with a meal that was mine and my grannys favorite, and since i would be on my way to see her after finishing my meal, i could brag that i had our meal before dying.
And, that would be, Ladies and Gentleman....
1. her famous fried chicken with a fresh bottle of Frank's XtraHot Hot sauce(that only she, i can make).
2. a bakers dozen of her Homemade biscuits, sorghum molasses(from Benton Co.Tennessee)/butter.
3. skillet fried sliced potatoes with onions.
3a. baked pinto beans with bacon onions,jalapeno's and a skillet of mex.cornbread w/cheese, onions, jalapeno's,corn.
4. One pot of Maxwell House coffee w/ cream and art.sweetner made so strong that you could break the cup and it would just stand there and look at you.
5. 3 Large homegrown banana peppers
6. 2 sliced homegrown tomato's.
After that i would have my other favorites which are....
7. Neely's BBQ babyback ribs and spicy fried wings with their potatoe salad.
8. 5lbs.of crawfish, 2lbs. of Xtra JUMBO shrimp from La. made into a "SPICY" low country boil with corn on the cob, boudin, small red potatoes.
9. Popeyes dirty rice.
10. 2 BK double whopper w/cheese, mustard, pickles and onions and 2 king size fries.
11. One 2 ltr of Pepsi Max.
12. a fried, crunchy p-nut butter and banana sandwich with half a gallon of whole milk.
13. a tomato, Krafts mayo and cheddar cheese sandwich.
14. 1 gallon sweet tea.
Then for dessert i want....
15. 1 southern pecan pie with ice cream.
16. Paula Deen's "Ooey Gooey chocolate butter cake".
Lastly but most importantly, i forgot to mention that the Neely's and Paula Deen would have to come to the prison to cook it, cause cooked food normally isn't good cold, except for fried chicken which in my opinion is better hot.
Since i been a cook for 40 years this year, there's no way i would pass up a chance to cook with these three(Paula,Pat,Gina)GREAT!!cooks so the Warden would have to
let me help since i'm the only one that knows how to do my Granny's food.
Then i would insist that they be allowed to share it with me since they cooked it.
When i got finished with all that they wouldn't have to worry about killing me, i'd be dead from sheer delight, but not before i finished every single morsel.
OH, BUT WHAT A WAY TO GO!!!!
Comment: Thursday, May 08, 2008 6:04:00 AM - Phoebe said...
as much new york style cheesecake as I could possibly eat and then a bit more!!!
Comment: Thursday, May 08, 2008 1:17:00 PM - said...
Mine would definitely be KFC original and spicy chicken with a biscuit and cole slaw. As much Coca Cola and Mountain Dew I can handle, chocolate chip cookies from subway. Some rotisserre chicken, callaloo, macaroni pie, bbq chicken, potato salad, potato chips and some 3 muskeeteer bars. Oh and for dessert a pint of Haagen Daz caramel ice cream.
Comment: Thursday, May 08, 2008 11:56:00 PM - chelsie said...
My last meal would be one of these
1. pizza with extra extra cheese, bbq sauce & egg
2. a huge bowl of tortollini with lots of cheese & sundried tomatoes
3. a huge platter of seafood
for dessert
1. a jar of nutella or peanut butter & honey
2. caramel cheesecake or bavarian dessert
3. peanut butter reaces peieces or creamy nuogat centred chocolates
To wash it all down and drown my sorrows i would have 2 bottles of champagne
Comment: Monday, May 12, 2008 9:51:00 AM - said...
My last meal (god forbid I end up on deathrow) would consist of loaded Nachos w/Carnitas, a six pack of New Castle or Corona beer (with lime slices), a nice plate of assorted steamed vegetables with a lemon butter sauce. Dessert would have to be a variety of different Cheese Cake slices from the Cheescake Factory. YUM!
Comment: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 6:59:00 AM - said...
My last meal would be green bean casserole, arby's curly fries, skirt steak, mashed potatoes from wild fire, a strawberry milk shake and pineapple
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