Recently I posted on death row homilies, aka
the last words of some
death row prisoners. In response to this, the most prolific commenter on this blog, wondered if women prisoners last words were different. I said I would post some women's last words from death row.
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| Amelia Dyer ~ "Ogress of Reading" |
Amelia Dyer earned her living by taking in orphaned infants from the state for a fee, and then selling them to would be
'parents', a practise which was known as
'baby farming'. But instead, she just killed them, discarding their bodies in the Thames River. Famously she even killed one on her way back by train from the state orphanage. When caught in 1896, Dyer didn't deny the killings, saying to authorities when they arrested her,
"You'll know all mine by the tape around their necks." Her last words were
"I have nothing to say."
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| Aileen Wuornos ~ "Monster" |
Aileen Wuornos confessed to killing six men in northern and central Florida between December 1989 and September 1990. Made infamous by the film
'Monster' ....
Her last words were
"I'd just like to say I'm sailing with the rock, and I'll be back like Independence Day with Jesus June 6. Like the movie, big mother ship and all. I'll be back."
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| Mary Bland ~ "Poisoner" |
Mary Blandy was executed in 18th-century England for poisoning her father, Francis Blandy, with a solution laced with arsenic. He disapproved of her affair with a married man.
Her final words on the gallows were
"For the sake of decency, gentlemen, don't hang me high."
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| Barbara Graham ~ "Bloody Babs" |
Barbara Graham was executed in California in 1955 for the murder of Mabel Monohan, a rich older woman, during an attempt to rob Monohan's home with accomplices. They missed the valuables in a cupboard and left empty handed. Made infamous in the film
'I Want to Live!' ... Graham went to the gas chamber on June 3, 1955, and held her breath for a full 60 seconds in a last effort to avoid death.
Her last words were:
"Good people are always so sure they're right."
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| Kelly Gissendaner ~ "Murderess" |
Kelly Renee Gissendaner was convicted of murder in February 1997. Killing her husband after she conspired with her lover, who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death.
Her last words were
“I just want to say God bless you all and I love you, Susan. You let my kids know I went out singing ‘Amazing Grace.'" .... which she promptly did.
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| Betty Lou Beets ~ "Black Widow" |
Betty Beets was convicted in the August 1983 shooting death of her fifth husband, Jimmy Don Beets, at the couple’s home near Gun Barrel City in East Texas. The remains of husband number four were also found in the house.
Her last words were
“This offender declined to make a last statement.”
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| Christina Marie Riggs ~ "Child Killer" |
Christina Marie Riggs was convicted in 1997 of killing her two young children, Justin Dalton Thomas and Shelby Alexis Riggs. She was the first woman executed in Arkansas since 1845.
Her last words were
“There is no way words can express how sorry I am for taking the lives of my babies. Now I can be with my babies, as I always intended”.
Very interesting. On the whole the victims were much closer to them than the men's victims - with a couple of exceptions they are all more or less family, and the last words are very different too.
ReplyDeleteYou opened with a bang! Amelia Dyer was one cold and well labelled ogress.
"Good people are always so sure they're right." I need some time to think about that one!
Maybe it's indicative of a murderer's thinking that Christina Marie Riggs thinks that her "babies" would want to be with her!
DeleteJeffrey Dahmer the 'Milwaukee Cannibal' described the descent into killing ... "It's a process, it doesn't happen overnight, when you depersonalize another person and view them as just an object. An object for pleasure and not a living breathing human being. It seems to make it easier to do things you shouldn't do.
DeleteTo this day I don't know what started it [the killings]. The person to blame is sitting right across from you. It's the only person. Not parents, not society, not pornography. I mean, those are just excuses." ... but at least he was honest about trying to claim someone else is to blame.
When John Wayne Gacy, another notorious serial killer and a man who has featured on this blog, was asked about Jeffrey Dahmer, he replied "What do I think of Jeffrey Dahmer? I don't know the man personally, but I'll tell ya this, that's a good example as to why insanity doesn't belong in the courtroom.
Because if Jeffrey Dahmer doesn't meet the requirements for insanity, then I'd hate like hell to run into the guy that does. Beyond that, I have no comment on Jeffrey Dahmer because I'm not Jeffrey Dahmer." ... what can you say. Oh by the way, Gacy's last words were "Kiss my ass."