Ronnie Lee Gardner
While most men in his position might have chosen prayer or quiet reflection with a priest or family members, Utah-born Gardner asked for a little cinematic Tolkien. In 2010, prison officials confirmed he spent the day before his death reading David Baldacci’s Divine Justice and watching all three Lord of the Rings films back to back. It was his idea of peace – eleven hours of elves, orcs and volcanoes before meeting the firing squad at midnight. Anyone familiar with the films will know just how long they all last. If you were going to pick a trilogy of movies to watch to put off getting shot, you’d probably opt for Peter Jackson’s magnum opus too. (Picture: Utah Dept. of Corrections)
Gary Gilmore
Gary Gilmore had spent months demanding that the system get on with it and let him die, then – right at the last minute – he threw in a curveball. Before his 1977 firing squad execution in Utah, he asked for his organs to be donated to help others. Doctors granted the wish, giving his corneas to two blind patients and sending his remaining organs for research. It was a strangely generous offering from a man who had spent most of his adult life in and out of prison, doing people wrong. Was it something of an atonement? Perhaps. But only a slight one. He had, after all, murdered two people in cold blood. (Picture: AP)
Nelson Shelton
In a touching display of family loyalty, convicted killer Shelton tried to delay his execution by volunteering to donate a kidney to his mother. Tests proved he wasn’t a match, but his brother Steven – also sitting on death row – later donated one instead. It was a bitter pill for their mother to swallow, no doubt. Shelton was executed in Delaware in 1995, leaving behind something of a debate-led legacy. His and his brother’s requests opened up legal and moral arguments about whether condemned prisoners should be allowed to give life even as the state takes theirs. (Picture: Supplied)
David Mason
The final act of serial killer David Mason, who murdered four elderly people in the early eighties, was oddly considerate. He told California officials that he didn’t want his relatives in the witness room during his execution at San Quentin prison. He requested that their last image of him not be strapped to a gurney. When he was finally executed in 1993, they stayed away at his insistence. For a man convicted of multiple murders, the gesture felt surprisingly gentle. It suggested that even people capable of terrible things sometimes worry about the feelings of others. Or at least how they’ll be remembered, anyway. (Picture: CDCR)
Peter Kürten
Germany’s truly infamous and depraved ‘Vampire of Düsseldorf’ had one last disturbing question for his guards before being put to his death in Cologne’s Klingelpütz prison in 1931. And – we’ll be honest – it was a slightly strange one. He asked if it would be possible for him to somehow be able to hear the sound of his own blood dripping after his head was cut off. Saying it would be ‘the ultimate pleasure’. Officials wrote down the killer’s plea, perhaps too stunned to respond. Kürten’s speculative request sits somewhere between horror and curiosity, proof that his fascination with blood never left him. (Picture: Getty/Shutterstock)
Lawrence Russell Brewer
Racist killer Brewer’s protest came disguised as gluttony. Or wastefulness. In 2011, on the eve of his execution by the state of Texas, he ordered a meal that could have fed the entire prison. We’re talking chicken-fried steaks, burgers, fajitas, pizza, okra, barbecue, ice cream, fudge and root beers. When it arrived, he pushed it away untouched, saying he wasn’t hungry. Sure, there’s a chance he may have lost his appetite. More likely he was just being awkward and fancied working it up the jail staff one final time. Texas lawmakers were furious and swiftly ended the practice of granting special last meals. Brewer went down in history as the man whose refusal ruined it for everyone else due to be killed by officials working for The Lone Star State. (Picture: AP)
Ted Bundy
Instead of steak and fries, a tub of ice cream, a phone call to a family member or a screening of all three Hobbit films, infamous serial killer Ted Bundy had no requests whatsoever before settling into the final chair he’d ever sit in. He was given the prison standard breakfast and visited by a Methodist minister, with whom he read The Bible. Asked if he had any last words, he simply said, ‘I’d like you to give my love to my family and friends.’ It was a straightforward and almost peaceful exit for a man responsible for the violent carnage that comes with slaughtering at least 30 victims during a murder spree that spanned seven states and four years. (Picture: AP)
Aileen Wuornos
Our last pick, history’s most notorious female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, wanted no meal and no pity. Instead, she left detailed instructions for her final send-off: her ashes were to be scattered under a tree in Michigan and Natalie Merchant’s song Carnival was to be played at her memorial. Both requests were fulfilled by her friend Arlene Pralle. It was an oddly graceful ending for someone whose life had been defined by such unrelenting chaos and violence. Wuornos managed to turn her death into a posthumously directed closing scene in the movie of her life (and death). (Picture: Florida DOC/Getty Images)
