10 Notorious Death Row Prisoners’ Last Meals Revealed

6 /10 Stephen Anderson

On May 26, 1980, Stephen Anderson burglarized the home of Elizabeth Lyman, an 80 years old retired piano teacher in Bloomington, California.

He removed a glass pane from French doors and checked the house for occupants.

When Anderson found Lyman’s awake and screaming in the bedroom, he shot her in the face with a .45 caliber magnum.

He then covered her body with a blanket, recovered the casing from the hollow-point bullet that killed her, and ransacked the home.

He found less than $100. Anderson then prepared himself a meal in the kitchen.

A suspicious neighbor called the sheriff’s department; when sheriff’s deputies arrived at Lyman’s home, Anderson was eating while watching TV.

He was sentenced to death in July 1981.

For his last meal before execution day on January 29, 2002, he asked for two grilled cheesed sandwiches, a pint of cottage cheese, a hominy/corn mixture, peach pie, chocolate chip ice cream, and radishes.

5 /10 Ronnie Lee Gardner

In 1980, Ronnie Lee Gardner served time in prison for robbery and escaped in 1981.

While out, Gardner went out and confronted a man he believed had raped his girlfriend.

During the confrontation, he was shot in the neck and eventually sent back to prison, from which he managed to escape again in August 1984.

About two months later, in October 1984, while under the influence of cocaine, he robbed a tavern in Salt Lake City and killed the bartender Melvyn John Otterstrom.

Gardner was apprehended three weeks later.

In April 1985, he unsuccessfully tried to escape from custody during a trial proceeding for the Otterstrom murder and killed an attorney Michael Burdell in the process.

Ultimately sentenced to death by firing squad and executed on June 18, 2010, Gardner’s request for a last meal consisted of a steak, a lobster tail, apple pie, vanilla ice cream, and 7-Up before starting a 48-hour fast while watching The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and reading Divine Justice crime novel.

4 /10 Ted Bundy

Over four years between February 1974 and February 1978, Ted Bundy claimed to have committed 30 homicides in seven states, although the actual number of victims is most likely higher.

He was arrested for the last time (after multiple successful escapes) on February 15, 1978. He was convicted on numerous counts of aggravated kidnapping, attempted murder, burglary, and murder.

About three years later, in 1980, Bundy was sentenced for the third time. This third death sentence would be carried out nine years later.

Bundy did not ask for a special meal, so he was given the “traditional” last meal consisting of steak, eggs, hash browns, toast with butter, jelly, juice, coffee, and milk.

3 /10 Allen Lee Tiny Davis

Sentenced to death by electric chair for three counts of first-degree murder, Allen Lee Davis was a cruel criminal who killed Nancy Weiler and her two daughters in 1982.

Mrs. Weiler was three months pregnant when he killed her. She was beaten almost beyond recognition with .357 magnum as she was hit more than 25 times in the face and head.

Her daughter Kristina (age 10) was shot twice in the face, and Katherine (age 5) was shot while trying to run and beaten in the skull with the gun. Davis was executed on July 8, 1999.

He requested a last meal that consisted of lobster tail, fried potatoes, half a pound of fried shrimp, ounces of fried clams, half a loaf of garlic bread, and 32 ounces of A&W root beer.

2 /10 Teresa Lewis

The only woman on death row in Virginia before her execution, Teresa Lewis was sentenced to death for the murders of her husband Julian Lewis and her step-son Charles Lewis to collect insurance money.

She did not pull the trigger but asked other people to kill the victims. Lewis gave some money to Matthew Jessee Shallenberger (age 21) and Rodney Lamont Fuller (19) to buy guns and ammunition to do the killings. Lewis had a sexual relationship with both Shallenberger and Fuller.

She was executed on September 23, 2010, by lethal injection. Her coconspirators were sentenced to life imprisonment. For her last meal, Lewis had fried chicken, peas with butter, apple pie, and a Dr. Pepper.

1 /10 Ronnie Threadgill

Three young men named Christopher Lane, Kevin Williams, and Dexter McDonald walked out of a nightclub in Navarro County, Texas, and got into a car. The car owner, Lane, got back out to talk to someone.

Then suddenly, Ronnie Threadgill approaches the vehicle and fired two shots. Williams got out. One of the bullets hit McDonald. The shooter got into the driver’s seat and drove away with McDonald still in the car and injured.

Threadgill stopped at a nearby stop sign, pulled McDonald out, left him on the ground, and then continued driving away.

He was finally arrested after crashing the car into a ditch. Threadgill was sentenced to death for his crimes in July 2002 and executed by lethal injection on April 16, 2013.

He didn’t have the chance to ask for the last meal because the state of Texas had already revoked the last meal option two years earlier.