Victor Harry Feguer (A single olive pit)

Feguer was executed in 1963 (Iowa) for kidnap-murder. His last meal: a single olive with the pit. What makes this request haunting is its minimalism and symbolism: by bringing the pit, he apparently hoped he would be buried with him so that an olive tree (symbol of peace) would grow from his grave. Here we see a very ascetic choice: not a feast, but something almost ritualistic. It contrasts sharply with the stereotypical “last big meal” pattern and invites reflection on regret, redemption, and finality.

Jamea Edwatd Smith (A lump of dirt)

Executed in 1990 in Texas, Smith’s original request: a lump of dirt. The prison declined, and he settled for yogurt. The request is bizarre as many people would see. Is it mockery, self-punishment, voodoo, or simply a way of choosing nothing? Some commentary suggests he may have been engaging in a ritual of sorts or expressing nihilism. This request stands out for refusing the usual “comfort food” idea of a last meal and instead choosing something non non-nourishing, even non-food.

Gerald Lee Mitchell (Jolly Ranchers)

Mitchell was executed in 2001 (Texas). His final meal: a bag of assorted Jolly Ranchers. Again, we see minimalism: sweets instead of a full meal. Some commentators interpret it as the last vestige of childhood or innocence in someone otherwise locked into violence. This juxtaposition; childlike candy vs adult crime, gives his request extra symbolic weight.

Timothy McVeigh (two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream)

The domestic terrorist behind the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, executed in 2001. His last meal was two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream. For someone responsible for immense violence, the choice of just a dessert is striking: neither grand feast nor symbolic minimalism, but a comforting indulgence. It invites questions: was tis merely a comfort request, or did he see his last “meal” as something fleeting and sweet before the end?

Lawrence Russel Brewer (A huge meal)

Executed in 2011 (Texas) for a brutal hate crime murder. Brewer requested a lavish spread: two chicken fried steaks with gravy and onions, a triple meat bacon cheeseburger, a cheese omelette with ground beef/tomatoes/onions/jalapenos, a bowl of fried okra, a pound of barbequed meat, half a loaf of white bread, three fajitas, a”Meat Lovers” pizza, three root beers, a slab or peanut butter fudge, Blue Bell vanilla ice cream. When the meal arrived, Brewer said he wasn’t hungry and didn’t eat any of it. The act (ordering a feast and refusing to eat) contributed to the state of Texas abolishing special last-meal requests. Here the “weirdness” lies not only in the size of request, but the refusal. It became a gesture of defiance rather than of comfort.

Peter J. Miniel (The largest requested meal)

Miniel (Texas, executed 2004) apparently requested one of the largest documented last meals: 20 beef tacos, 20 beef enchiladas, two double cheeseburgers, a jalapeno pizza, fried chicken, spaghetti with salt, half a chocolate cake, half a vanilla cake, cookies & cream ice cream, caramel pecan fudge ice cream, small fruit cake, two Cokes, two Pepsis, two root beers, two orange juices. This over the top, and the scale alone makes it weird: the extravagant feast on the eve of execution. It prompts questions: is the last meal about indulgence, defiance, or both? And if one can order such quantities, what does that say about the ritual?

Velma Barfield (Cheez Doodles and a CocaCola)

Barfield was executed in 1984 (North Carolina), the first woman executed in the US in the modern era. Her last meal: a bag of Cheez Doodles and a CocaCola. This choice is notable for its simplicity and the contrast of a grim life and a “junk-snak” final meal. Some commentary notes that the warden procured a Kit-Kat for her (not strictly counted as part of the official meal)because the prison didn’t have it. Here again the minimalism: no grand dish, no feast, just snack food.

Ricky Ray Rector (The odd last word)

Executed in 1992(Arkansas). His last meal: steak, fried chicken, cherry Kool-Aid, and pecan pie, but he left the slice of pecan pie untouched, saying he was “saving it for later.” The pecan pie twist elevated the request into something memorable: he orders a dessert but knowingly doesnt eat it, as if prolonging the moment or hinting at something beyond. This adds a layer of irony or psychological complexity: the last meal itself becomes a symbolic act of delay or denial.

Philip Worman (vegetarian pizzas for homeless people)

Executed in 2007(Tennessee). His last meal request was unusual. He asked for vegetarian pizzas for homeless people. The prison denied this and therefore his request for a special last meal was refused; he ended up eating nothing. Instead of self indulgence, his request had a socially oriented logic (helping the homeless). The refusal turned his meal into a statement. It hows how the ritual of “last meal” could be used for meaning beyond food: charity, protest, or commentary.

Ronnie Lee Gardner (The longest last meal)

Executed in 2010 (Utah) by firing squad. His last meal: steak, lobstertail, apple pie, vanilla icecream, and 7-up. He asked to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring/trilogy while eating. Here we find a combination of food ritual with media ritual. This turns the last meal into an extended sensory experience: surf-and-turf + dessert + cinematic immersion. It’s odd because the request goes beyond what is typically allowed/imagined and  instead becomes a minor event.

From these then last-meal requests, a number of striking themes emerge that reveal how people confront death, express identity, and seek control in their final moments.  One of the clearest contrasts is between minimalism and excess. Some inmates, like Victor Feguer with his single olive or Gerald Lee Mitchell with his bag of Jolly Ranchers, chose quiet, almost symbolic simplicity. Their choices seem to reject indulgence, reflecting resignation or contemplation rather than desire. Others, such as Peter Miniel and Lawrence Brewer, went to the opposite extreme, ordering enormous feasts that no one person could ever finish. Brewer’s case is especially ironic—after demanding a mountain of food, he refused to eat any of it. These extremes show how the last meal becomes a mirror for emotion: calm acceptance, self-control, defiance, or even mockery of the system itself.

Symbolism plays a central role in many of these choices. Feguer’s olive represented peace and rebirth, while James Edward Smith’s strange request for dirt might have expressed nihilism, ritual, or a final rejection of comfort. Ricky Ray Rector’s decision to leave his pecan pie “for later” carried tragic weight—an almost childlike denial of the end that was minutes away. Phillip Workman’s request to donate pizzas to the homeless transformed the tradition into a moral statement, attempting to turn an act of personal indulgence into one of compassion. Ronnie Lee Gardner’s desire to eat steak and lobster while watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy added another layer of symbolism, blending food with narrative, suggesting that he wanted to spend his final hours inside a story rather than inside his own reality. Each of these meals tells a different story about the human need to find meaning, even in death.

The emotional tone behind these requests varies widely—some seek comfort, others defiance. Timothy McVeigh’s two pints of mint-chocolate-chip ice cream might have reminded him of normal life, an almost nostalgic return to innocence. Brewer’s gluttonous but untouched feast, by contrast, mocked the very idea of the ritual, showing how an inmate could turn a gesture of mercy into an act of rebellion. Even Smith’s request for dirt challenged the system’s expectations, denying prison officials the satisfaction of fulfilling a normal “meal.” In this way, the final meal becomes a battlefield of control—one of the few remaining decisions left to those stripped of all other choices.

Ultimately, these last meals reveal the uneasy coexistence of humanity and dehumanization within capital punishment. To eat is one of the most basic acts of living, and to choose what to eat is an expression of individuality. Even in the moments before death, the condemned assert a final fragment of identity, whether through a single olive, a mountain of tacos, or a quiet act of charity. As artist Henry Hargreaves noted, a last meal is “a full stop at the end of a life”—a symbol of how even the smallest choices can carry immense meaning. In the end, these meals remind us that food, choice, and mortality are deeply intertwined, and that even the strangest final requests are ultimately human expressions of fear, defiance, and the search for peace.

In this survey of ten of the weirdest last meal requests, we see the complexity of what might first appear trivial or odd. These meals are more than food; they are final statements, performances, gestures of control, or sometimes of surrender. They force us to ask what a “last meal” really means: is it comfort, punishment, symbolism, or simply the final indulgence?

The sheer variety highlights how death row inmates, faced with the ultimate penalty, use food to assert something — about themselves, about mortality, or about the system.

While we may recoil at the crimes of these individuals, examining their final request invites reflection on ritual, humanity, power, and the strange space between living and dying. In that sense, the “weirdness” of the meals may mirror the weirdness of the moment itself: the point at which life ends, appetite lingers, and meaning is still somehow sought.

By: Hannah Cho

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