The most unusual final meal requests ever made by death row inmates
It's common knowledge that death row inmates are offered the chance to indulge in a final meal before being executed - and some have well and truly taken advantage of this small privilege in the last few decades.
The United States' controversial death row has been in the headlines this week thanks to the botched execution of Christa Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for the torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
Her legal team state that executioners at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville pushed two syringes of the state's lethal chemical mixture into Pike’s intravenous lines, yet failed to cause cardiac arrest, resulting in Pike surviving the execution attempt.
While Pike currently remains in hospital, reports have emerged that she refused to select an option for her final meal - though this is far from the case with previous death row inmates who have been executed.
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Here, we take a look at the most unusual final meal requests there have been:
Victor Feguer
Feguer kidnapped and killed Dr Edward Bartels in July 1960. The doctor's body was later found in an Illinois cornfield with a single gunshot to the head.
Feguer was convicted of federal kidnapping and murder and executed by hanging at the Iowa State Penitentiary on 15 March, 1963.
For his final meal, the 27-year-old murderer requested a single olive with the pit in it. Feguer apparently told guards that he hoped an olive tree would grow from his grave, 'as a sign of peace'.
John Wayne Gacy
One of America’s most notorious serial killers, Gacy was convicted in 1980 after murdering at least 33 boys and young men in the 1970s.
The 52-year-old was executed by lethal injection at the Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois on 10 May, 1994.
Gacy opted for a bucket of KFC's original recipe chicken, French fries, 12 deep-fried shrimp, and a pound of strawberries for his last supper. In an eerie full-circle moment, it’s said that he previously managed several KFC restaurants owned by his father-in-law.
James Edward Smith
Smith was found guilty of fatally shooting Larry Don Rohus while he was robbing an office building in Houston, Texas, in 1983.
He was put to death by lethal injection at Texas’ Huntsville Unit on 26 June, 1990.
The inmate asked for a lump of rhaeakunda dirt for his final meal, as part of a voodoo ritual, which he both practised and believed in, as he hoped that it would assist his journey into reincarnation.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, his bizarre request was denied, and the 37-year-old was given plain yoghurt instead.
Timothy McVeigh
McVeigh was convicted of conspiracy, using a weapon of mass destruction, and destruction by explosives resulting in death for carrying out the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people.
On 11 June, 2001, he was executed for his crimes via lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Indiana.
McVeigh, 33, chowed down on two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream for his final meal.
Lawrence Russell Brewer
Brewer was a white supremacist who, along with two other men, was convicted of murdering James Byrd Jr. in 1998.
Aged 44, he was executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit in Texas on 21 September, 2011.
For his last meal, the criminal infamously requested: two chicken fried steaks smothered in gravy with sliced onions; a triple bacon cheeseburger with fixings on the side; a cheese omelette with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, peppers and jalapeños; a large bowl of fried okra with ketchup; one pound of barbecue meat with half a loaf of white bread; three fajitas with all the trimmings; a Meat Lovers pizza; one pint of vanilla ice cream; a slab of peanut butter fudge; and three root beers.
However, when it arrived, Brewer refused to touch any of it - you can imagine how that went down.
His actions ultimately led to the state abolishing the long-standing tradition in Texas.
Emily Puckering