A "MONSTER" MEAL...

The editor's of dme.com have yet to see the new theatrical release, "Monster". But, it is getting killer reviews and word-of-mouth is strong.

We are slated to see it next week, (on a non-"My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancee" night, of course) and a review will be forthcoming. Until then here are a few things to chew on...

Ms. Wuornos was No. 4 on our top ten list of last meals.

4. AILEEN WUORNOS, FLORIDA, 2002-- One from the softer side of death row. Wuornos didn't order a last meal and skipped the regular fare of barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes, apple crisp and tea but had a cup of coffee about 12:30 a.m. Instead, ate a hamburger and other snack food from the prison's canteen. Later, she drank a cup of coffee. Her story has been portrayed in two movies, three books and an opera.

And, from the dme archives...the skinny, as reported on October 10, 2002..

FLORIDA LAST MEAL
AILEEN WUORNOS
October 9, 2002

lesbian, prostitute and the confessed killer of seven men...

Last Meal: Wuornos didn't order a last meal and skipped the regular fare of barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes, apple crisp and tea but had a cup of coffee about 12:30 a.m. Instead Wuornos ate a hamburger and other snack food from the prison's canteen. Later, she drank a cup of coffee.

The skinny: One of the nation's few female serial killers was executed by lethal injection, Wuornos shot to death at least six middle-aged men along Florida highways. Using a roadside cafe near Daytona Beach she murdered six middle-aged businessmen who approached her for sex between 1989 and 1990, accompanying them into the woods and shooting them. Her story has been portrayed in two movies, three books and an opera.

She initially said the killings were in self-defense after she was assaulted by customers who picked her up. But she later said the self-defence claim was a lie and she intended to rob and kill the men.

"I'm one who seriously hates human life and would kill again," she wrote earlier this year. "I have hate crawling through my system." Keeping her alive, she added, would be "a waste of taxpayers' money".

Buzz was high: Three dozen reporters, two dozen television cameras and a dozen satellite trucks camped out in the cow pasture across the road from the Florida State Prison.

Attendance was low: Wuornos was the most famous Florida death row inmate to be executed since Ted Bundy, but her execution attracted only about a tenth of the crowd of supporters, opponents and curiosity-seekers that Bundy received in 1992.

"I thought it would be bigger," said Jennifer SantaLucia, a Clearwater bingo hall worker who described herself as someone who "loves serial killers." She unsuccessfully tried corresponding with Wuornos and has received letters from Danny Rolling, who is on death row for killing five Gainesville students.

Reporters outnumbered the 30 death penalty protesters who gathered in a semicircle with signs reading "Execution is not the solution" and "Time out on executions."

Final words: In her final statement, she referred to Jesus and a blockbuster movie. "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."

Final night:

Wuornos' last night was spent talking with a "friend: from Michigan, Dawn Botkins. The pair talked from 9 p.m. to midnight Tuesday, and prison officials said Botkins planned to claim the body. Botkins plans to scatter Wuornos' ashes in Michigan, their childhood home.

Prison logs show she had been increasingly agitated, sleeping restlessly and even shouting out in her sleep once.

Officials said she was calm Wednesday morning as she was placed on a steel gurney, her arms taped down to wooden paddles. Thick leather straps held her down from the chest to the feet. A white sheet hid the straps but revealed their outlines.

A clear tube wound its way from under the gurney and into a vein in her right arm, just at the soft spot where the inside of the elbow bends.

A female guard stood by her head; a male guard stood at her left side, in front of a curtained closet where an anonymous executioner waited for the warden's order to begin.

When the order was given, Wuornos blinked and swallowed hard.

At 9:32, Wuornos gasped, shut her eyes and opened her mouth as if to form a word.

She did not move again.

For the next 15 minutes, witnesses watched her lips turn an ever-darker blue and her skin a pallid white.

At 9:47, a doctor checked for a pulse and heartbeat. It was announced the death sentence had been carried out.

The curtains closed and the witnesses left.

Factoids: Wuornos, 46, became the 10th woman executed in the United States since capital punishment resumed in 1977. Oklahoma has put three women to death; Florida and Texas have executed two each.

Opponents of the death penalty say the execution was timed to boost the popularity of Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida and the president's brother, just weeks before he stands for re-election.

Wuornos is the 10th woman executed in the US since 1976, when the death penalty for women was reinstated after a brief moratorium. The previous woman executed in Florida was Judy Buenoano, the "Black Widow", electrocuted in 1998 for killing her husband and drowning her paraplegic son.

Wuornos was one of 52 women on Death Rows throughout the U.S. and one of three in Florida.

In the past 100 years, 48 women have been executed in the United States.

TEXAS LAST MEAL
KEVIN LEE ZIMMERMAN
January 21, 2004

Disappointed no more...

Last Meal: Double Meat cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, onions, salad dressing and ketchup, half a plate of french fries--almost burnt--with ketchup, four half pints of milk, 1 piece of chocolate cake--lots of frosting.

The skinny: Zimmerman, 42, was executed for murdering an oilfield worker in a 1987 robbery. He confessed to stabbing the man 31 times so he could get his wallet.

Fairs can be foul: Zimmerman and two friends arrived at a Motel 6 in Beaumont, Texas. While at the motel, they met the victim who was also staying at the motel. After having drinks with the group, the victim suggested that they all go to the fair. All four people returned to the motel after going to the fair.

After some time, one freind went to the bathroom in Zimmerman's motel room and heard a struggle ensuing in the nearby bedroom. In that bedroom, Zimmerman and the other friend, armed with knives, had attacked the man. The two men stabbed him 31 times. Then Zimmerman went to a hospital, where he received treatment for a knife wound.

Zimmerman was subsequently arrested and placed in jail. While in jail, Zimmerman wrote numerous letters to Weber and to the district attorney. In one of these letters to the district attorney, Zimmerman wrote that he had decided to kill the man for his money. Zimmerman also stated in the letter that he was accidentally stabbed in the arm while killing Hooks.

The contents of this letter were corroborated by the testimony of the friend. According to her, Zimmerman and the main were arguing about an incident that had occurred at the fair.

Actually, only six more weeks of "this crap": Zimmerman was scheduled to be executed Dec. 10, 200. That day, his final meal request of fried chicken and pork chops, french fries, scrambled eggs, a bottle of ketchup, lemon meringue pie or chocolate cake and a half-pint of milk was prepared. Twenty minutes before he was scheduled to die, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in, issuing a stay of execution in light of a lawsuit that challenged the use of a drug used to execute Texas prisoners.

Zimmerman heard the news as he waited in a holding cell and told a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman that he was “disappointed.” “I was ready to go. The stay only means 18 more months of this crap.”

Last words and such: A sobbing Kevin Zimmerman apologized for the crime as he received a lethal injection while strapped to a gurney in the Texas death chamber. "In the name of Jesus, I'm so sorry for the pain I caused y'all. Gilbert didn't deserve to die. I want you to know. I'm sorry. I pray the good Lord will give y'all peace."

In a prepared statement, Zimmerman said his December ordeal "was a spiritual and emotional drain" and asked that "those who have the power to act" pass a law that bars setting execution dates until all appeals have been exhausted. "It is not fair for an inmate's life to be toyed with by the justice system," he said. "It is not fair nor is it responsible for the states to allow victim's families to be put through the same cruel stress again and again." He described himself as a born-again Christian who confessed his sins and repented.

Factoids:

Five times this month, the vote of one U.S. Supreme Court justice would have stopped the execution of a convicted killer by lethal injection.

The executions went forward, even though four of the nine high court justices wanted to grant at least a temporary reprieve.

Zimmerman is the...

7th murderer executed in U.S. in 2004
892nd murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
3rd murderer executed in Texas in 2004
316th murderer executed in Texas since 1976

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The final meal request of Kevin Lee Zimmerman, Texas, January 21, 2004.

Double Meat cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, onions, salad dressing and ketchup, half a plate of french fries--almost burnt--with ketchup, four half pints of milk, 1 piece of chocolate cake--lots of frosting.

A complete summary will follow shortly.