TEXAS LAST MEAL
CHRISTOPHER BLACK, SR.
July 9, 2003

....""I ran out of bullets."....

Last Meal: Steak (medium well), fried chicken (wings and thighs), french fries with mushroom gravy, mixed steamed vegetables, chocolate fudge cake, peach cobbler, sweet tea, bread, chef salad with Italian dressing.

The skinny: Black was executed for killing his 17-month-old step-granddaughter. He also killed his wife and his 5-month-old daughter. Black was convicted of killing the child at the Killeen home of his estranged wife, the toddler's grandmother. She was found slumped in a high chair. She had been shot five times in the chest. Her grandmother was shot 10 times. Black's daughter was shot once. "I ran out of bullets," Black told a 911 operator he called after the attack. Black was charged, but never tried, in the slayings of his wife and daughter.

Black bought a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol the day before the shooting. He mailed cassette tapes to relatives explaining plans to kill his 36-year-old wife and anyone else in the house. The tapes were timed to arrive after the shooting. The couple had married just over three years earlier but relatives said the wife was seeking a divorce.

Final words and such: Asked by the warden if he wanted to make a final statement, Black Sr., said no.

Factoids: Black is the 18th Texas inmate to receive lethal injection this year and the second in as many weeks. Two more are set to die later this month.

Black has no previous criminal record.

This summary was compiled from various news accounts.