Famous Last Words, Jester Unit Style
Perhaps the most famous last words spoke by a prisoner executed in the U.S. were those uttered by Utah's Gary Gilmore in 1977, the first man to be put down when capital punishment was re-instututed in 1976. His words were short, sweet, direct: "Let's do it."
Let's do it, Gary.
But, until now, we've never known if Texas's executees were as sharp as Gilmore: TDCJ has made available the last words of folks it's helped shuffle off this mortal coil since 1982. They range from the mundane to the poetic to the absurd. See if you can tell the real ones from the red herrings. (These are excerpted from their full statements.)
1) "Ironic, isn't it? I'm a cross."
2) "As the ocean always returns to itself, love always returns to itself."
3) "I just love everybody, and that's it."
4) "Oy vey, that's a big needle!"
5) "I'm still warm from the pepper gas."
6) "Wait -- so it turns out St. Elsewhere was just some retarded kid's fantasy? You're shitting me."
7) "If it matters to anyone, I did not kill Olga."
8) "I already gave my statement."
9) "King Kong ain't got nothin' on me!"
10) "Let's do it, man. Lock and load. Ain't life a [expletive deleted]?"
**answers: 4, 6, and 9 are the fakes. As if you didn't know.
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