Texas drops Web list of prisoners' last meals
Of all of the things I've wondered about, I can safely say that the last meals of killers about to be executed haven't been among them. Strangely enough, though, some people here in Texas used to enjoy that sort of thing.
Last meals on Texas' death row never were haute cuisine, but for many Web browsers, they held a morbid fascination.
For years, the details of executed killers' final repasts were the most popular feature of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's official Web site.
But now the menus -- posted for most of the 313 killers executed since 1982 -- are history, dropped from the newly redesigned Web site by an image-conscious agency stung by claims the site was tasteless and demeaning.
Where viewers once could learn that Houston killer Richard Head Williams, executed last winter, dined on two chili cheese dogs, two cheeseburgers, two orders of onion rings, french fries, chocolate cake, apple pie, butter pecan ice cream, egg rolls, one peach and three Dr Peppers, they now will see more features on prison workers and programs presented in a lively, user-friendly format.
Of course, if you really have a morbid curiosity about this sort of thing, you can go here:
If you did, you'd discover the Texas inmate Ivan Murphy was served this glorious repast before being dispatched to the Great Beyond on 12.4.03:
[F]our pieces of fried chicken (white meat), five pieces of deep fried fish, four deep fried breaded pork chops, extra-large order of french fries, large order of onion rings, ketchup, tarter sauce, one pint Blue Bell Moollennium Crunch ice cream, two quarts of chocolate milk. He probably got vanilla ice cream, a prison spokeswoman said.
Man, just reading that gives me a belly ache....
