Ted Bundy
Bundy’s death in Florida’s electric chair in 1989 drew huge public attention, not least because of the extent of the serial killer’s infamy. Charming, educated and deeply disturbed, he murdered and assaulted young women across multiple states before his capture. Unlike his theatrical trial behaviour, his final moments were oddly subdued. There was no last-minute outburst or confession from Ted Bundy. Just a short, polite message passed to those he’d once known and loved (Picture: Bettmann/Corbis/Getty Images)
Clarence Ray Allen
At 76, Clarence Ray Allen was one of the oldest men ever to be executed in the United States. Put to death by lethal injection at San Quentin in 2006, he’d already been serving a life sentence for murder when he ordered the killing of three witnesses from behind bars. The former businessman showed little remorse and faced the end with a strange calm. His choice of words summed up his stoicism – a Native American battle cry that meant he wasn’t afraid to meet his maker (Picture: REUTERS)
William Bonin
The so-called ‘Freeway Killer’ was convicted of murdering and sexually assaulting at least 14 teenage boys and young men during a crime spree in California which lasted from 1968 to 1980. A Vietnam veteran and former truck driver, Bonin’s crimes were marked by their brutality. He died by lethal injection in 1996, leaving behind a strangely moralistic lecture that suggested he saw himself as a man in a unique position to offer up a little advice to any would-be attackers out there listening (Picture: UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
George Bernard Harris
Executed in Missouri in 2000, Harris went out angry. And with a real axe to grind. Convicted of robbery and murder, he’d spent years claiming his defence lawyer had failed him. His final words weren’t for victims or family but aimed squarely at the man who’d represented him. Poorly, in his eyes. Even in his last moments, he seemed determined to assign blame rather than accept any (Picture: Clark County Prosecutors Office)
Aileen Wuornos
Aileen Wuornos, a rare female serial killer, was executed in Florida in 2002 for murdering seven men she claimed tried to assault her while she worked as a sex worker. Her last statement was rambling and apocalyptic, full of odd religious and science fiction references. It captured her mental state in those final years – defiant, delusional and oddly theatrical. Almost two and a half decades later and Wuornos has not been back. And nor has the mothership (Picture:: Lantern Lane/Everett/Shutterstock)
Gary Gilmore
In 1977, Gilmore became the first person executed in the US for a decade after the reinstatement of the death penalty. A drifter who murdered two men in Utah in 1976, he insisted on dying rather than sitting out decades of appeals. When asked for final words before the firing squad, he cut straight to the point. His blunt reply became famous, later echoed by an advertising slogan that turned his grim resolve into cultural shorthand for action. We’re not joking about that, either. Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ slogan – perhaps the most famous commercial tagline ever created – was inspired by the last three words of a convicted killer before he was shot in the head by four volunteer police officers (Picture: AP)
John Spenkelink
The curiously-named Spenkelink was the first man executed in Florida after the death penalty was reinstated. Convicted of murdering a travelling companion in 1973, he refused to plead for clemency. His parting comment was sharp and bitter, summing up what he saw as a system tilted against the poor. It’s a line that outlived him, repeated ever since as a cynical truth about justice, money, corruption and privilege (Picture: UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
Jimmy Glass
Glass was sentenced to die for the murder of an elderly couple during a burglary committed after escaping from jail in Louisiana. He met the electric chair in 1987 at just 25 years old. His final remark, casual and offhand, felt almost absurd. There was no apology, no reflection – just a shrug at fate, as if he were thinking of something better to do on a Friday afternoon (Picture: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
John Wayne Gacy
Illinois’ most notorious ever resident and the killer of at least 33 young men and boys, John Wayne Gacy, appeared – to those he met in his community – really rather nice. A politically engaged Democrat, well-loved local builder and children’s entertainer (he moonlit as ‘Pogo the Clown’ at weekends), friends, family, neighbours and clients couldn’t quite believe that the man was responsible for the scale of sociopathic carnage he left buried in his house. Known to have joked with police once arrested that ‘the only crime he was truly guilty of’ was ‘operating a cemetery without a license,’ his last words were notably less sardonic and clever (Picture: Des Plaines Police Department/Getty Images)
George Appel
Cop killer Appel clearly fancied himself as something of a comedian. When he was sent to the chair in New York City back in 1928, he had no designs on begging for his life, insulting anyone in the penal system or going off with a philosophical statement. He had a gag lined up. A pun on his name which is obviously mildly funny. But the witty murderer wasn’t happy with that, so he snuck in a cheeky follow-up gag before they sent the volts through him. What an encore, eh? (Picture: Queensland State Library/Wikimedia Commons)
Carl Panzram
We end with one of the more unsettling and infamous final last words delivered by a convicted killer, those of the infamously unrepentant and savagely violent serial killer, rapist, burglar and all-round psychopath, Carl Panzram. His biography is one full of such hardship, violence and cruelty that it makes for quite disturbing bedtime reading. Authorities at the time believed Panzram to be responsible for the rapes of thousands of young men and boys and perhaps hundreds of murders. Committed over three decades across 13 states. His final arrest was in 1928. He was hanged in 1930. And those last words? Knowing his penchant for brutality, you don’t doubt what he said before the noose shut him up for good (Picture: Bettmann Archive)
