25 Craziest Last Meal Requests From Death Row

The last meal request of inmate Marion Albert Pruett starts off our list with enough food to feed a marauding army. Originally, Pruett said he was intending to share the meal with another inmate who would be executed the same day. He requested a Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza; four Burger King Whoppers; a large order of French fries; three two-liter Pepsi bottles; fried eggplant; fried squash; fried okra; and a whole pecan pie. He wanted to request roast duck but didn’t believe the prison would cook it for him.

Philip Workman’s last meal request is one of the most bizarre on this list. Workman, who was executed by the state of Tennessee in 2007, asked the prison to give a large vegetarian pizza to a homeless person in Nashville, declining his own meal. Though the prison refused, many other people across Tennessee fulfilled his wish and brought hundreds of pizzas to homeless shelters on his execution day.

Well-known American serial killer Ted Bundy didn’t have an unusual last meal request – but we thought you might like to know what he asked for and what is standard if a prisoner declines a special meal. Bundy was thus given the standard last meal: a medium-rare steak, eggs over-easy, hash browns, toast with butter and jelly, milk, and juice. It’s said he did not eat it.

Joseph Mitchell Parsons was executed by the state of Utah in 1999 but not before he ate his requested last meal of three Burger King Whoppers, two large orders of fries, a chocolate shake, chocolate chip ice cream, and a pack of grape Hubba Bubba bubble gum. He requested to share the meal with his brother and cousin.

Executed by the state of Oklahoma in 1995, Thomas J. Grasso also ordered a hefty menu. His last meal request included: two dozen steamed mussels; two dozen steamed clams; half-a-dozen barbecued spare ribs; a Burger King double cheeseburger; two strawberry milkshakes; half a pumpkin pie with whipped cream; and diced strawberries. Grasso also ordered a 16-ounce can of spaghetti and meatballs, later complaining that he asked for Spaghetti-Os, not just spaghetti.

Here is one of the strangest last meal requests on our list; inmate James Edward Smith asked for a pile of dirt. The prison denied his request, and he ended up settling on a cup of yogurt.

Though not a last meal request as Hitler was not captured alive, we thought you might like to know what his final meal was. On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler realized the war was lost and his Third Reich was over. Hitler ate some sort of pasta (spaghetti or lasagna) with a light sauce before he and his new wife, Eva Braun, took their cyanide pills.

Executed in 1958, Barton Kay Kirkham asked for his last meal to be pizzas and ice cream, “Because you get cheese, meat, and everything else in one meal. Not so much fuss.”

Following the ice cream theme, Louisianian Dobie Gillis Williams asked for a sugar rush of ice cream and twelve chocolate bars.

One of the most deadly domestic terrorists in United States history, Timothy McVeigh was executed by the state of Indiana in 2001. For his last meal, McVeigh asked for two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

One of the better-known last meal requests by an inmate, Victor Feguer ordered a single olive which had not been pitted. After his execution, the olive pit was found in his suit pocket and was allegedly buried with him.

Executed by the state of Texas in 2011, Gerald Lee Mitchell didn’t ask for a full meal as some others have; rather, he asked for an assorted bag of Jolly Ranchers candy.

Executed by the state of New Jersey in 1936 for the murder of the Lindbergh baby, Bruno Richard Hauptmann asked for his final meal to be celery, olives, a salmon salad, corn fritters, sliced cheese, a fruit salad, and slice of cake for dessert…served with coffee and milk.

Another man executed by the state of Texas, Odell Barnes declined his last meal request, asking instead for “Justice, Equality, World Peace.”

Inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner’s last meal came with a twist. Gardner ordered a steak, lobster tail, apple pie with vanilla ice cream, and a 7-Up. Totally normal, right? He also asked for “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy which he watched while reading “Divine Justice” over a 48-hour fast before his execution.

Not as difficult as some of the other strange last meal requests on our list, David Leon Woods ordered a pizza and birthday cake.

The two ringleaders of the famous Bali Nine heroin smugglers were executed in Indonesia in April 2015. Before their death, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran ate Kentucky Fried Chicken, a popular food in Indonesia.

Another death row inmate who ordered more than he could realistically eat, Gary Carl Simmons, Jr. ordered a smorgasbord of: one Pizza Hut Supreme Deep Dish pizza with double mushrooms, double onions, double jalapeño peppers, and double pepperoni; a second pizza with three cheeses, olives, bell peppers, tomatoes, garlic, and Italian sausage; 10 eight-ounce packs each of Parmesan cheese (that’s 5 pounds of cheese!) and ranch dressing (10 cups of dressing!); 8 ounces of jalapeño nacho cheese; 4 ounces of sliced jalapeños; 2 twenty-ounce Cherry Cokes; 2 large strawberry shakes; two pints of strawberry ice cream; and one family sized bag of Doritos nacho cheese flavor. The calorie count of the meal? 29,000 calories.

Executed by the state of California at 49-years-old, Stephen Anderson requested his last meal to include two grilled cheese sandwiches, a pint of cottage cheese, a Hominy/corn mixture, a slice of peach pie, chocolate chip ice cream, and, oddest of them all, radishes to finish it off.

In the most ominous last meal request of a death row inmate on our list, Troy Davis refused a special last meal, claiming, “This meal will not be my last.”

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging in 2006. There is a fair bit of dispute as to what Hussein’s last meal was – some sources claim it was mostly Western food (even eating a hamburger and fries before the execution), while others say he was offered chicken and schwarma rice right before the execution but declined.

Holocaust organizer and senior ranking Nazi officer, Adolf Eichmann was hung in Israel in 1962. Eichmann declined a special meal, instead asking for a bottle of Carmel – a dry, red Israeli wine – which he drank half of.

Ricky Ray Rector’s last meal doesn’t seem out of the ordinary; he asked for a steak, fried chicken, cherry Kool-Aid, and a slice of pecan pie. The strange part comes at the end of his meal – Rector left the pecan pie, telling the guard he was “saving it for later.”

One of the largest death row inmate meals in history was requested by Peter J. Miniel. The 42-year-old asked for: 20 beef tacos; 20 beef enchiladas; 2 double cheeseburgers; a jalapeño pizza; fried chicken; spaghetti; fruit cake; half of a chocolate cake and half of a vanilla cake; cookies-n-cream and caramel pecan fudge ice cream; 2 Cokes; 2 Pepsis; 2 root beers; and 2 glasses of orange juice.

By far the strangest death row inmate’s last meal request, Lawrence Russell Brewer asked for a massive helping of food: two chicken fried steaks and sliced onions dripping in gravy; a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger with everything on the side; one cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and jalapeños; a big bowl of fried okra with ketchup; one pound of barbecued meat and half a loaf of white bread; three fajitas with all the toppings; a Pizza Hut Meat Lovers pizza; a pint of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream; a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts on top; and three root beers. Though most prison systems might not grant such a large request, the Texas prison system did (at the time, which has since changed). When the food arrived, Brewer refused to eat, saying he wasn’t hungry.