Last Words Trivia Quiz

Answer: George Appel

Before being executed in the electric chair in New York in 1928, convicted murderer George Appel said, "Well, gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel."

Answer: Karla Faye Tucker Brown

Tucker was sentenced to death in 1984. While on death row, Tucker became a born-again Christian and married by proxy the prison chaplain, Dana Lane Brown, whom she was allowed to see during the marriage ceremony only through a acrylic glass barrier. The Governor of Texas was asked for clemency, and a great number of the religious right recommended this option.

However, on February 3, 1998, Karla Faye Tucker was executed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 6:45, the first woman to be executed in Texas since the Civil War.

Answer: Bennie Demps

It took execution technicians 33 minutes to find suitable veins for the execution. The executioners had no unusual problems finding one vein, but because Florida protocol requires a second alternate intravenous drip, they continued to work to insert another needle, finally abandoning the effort after their prolonged failures.

Answer: Robert Alton Harris

Robert Alton Harris was the first person executed in California in 25 years. The execution was filmed by court order, but the tapes were later destroyed.

Answer: Ned Kelly

Ask a group of Australians what they think of Ned Kelly and you will soon discover that there is very little grey area. In general terms, the masses see Ned as either a merciless killer who unforgivably chose to take up arms against society, or as a national hero who was the embodiment of the Australian spirit.

Answer: Gary Gilmour

Gary Gilmour was a small time career criminal, who was convicted of killing Ben Bushnell, a motel manager, in Provo, Utah, on July 20, 1976. His main claim to fame is that he was the first person to be executed after the death penalty was reinstated. Norman Mailer wrote a book about the execution titled "The Executioner's Song".

Answer: John Spenkelink

John Arthur Spenkelink (born March 29, 1949, San Diego, California - died May 25, 1979, Raiford, Florida) was the first man to be executed in the electric chair, after the reintroduction of the death penalty in the United States in 1976 (the last before that was carried out in 1966 in Oklahoma). He struggled violently as he was being brought to his death. He was also the first man executed involuntary after 1976.

After serving in a California prison for petty crimes he travelled to Florida with another prison inmate. He was condemned to death in 1973 for murdering a travelling companion, whom Spenkelink alleged had offered him homosexual relations, and forced him to play Russian Roulette in a Tallahassee motel in Florida.

Answer: Robert Drew

On February 21, 1983, Jeffrey Mays was stabbed to death. He had been traveling with a friend and three hitchhikers they had picked up. Two of the hitchhikers, Robert Drew and Ernest Puralewski, were arrested, charged, and convicted of capital murder.

Robert Drew was tried and convicted largely on the testimony of one man, Bee Landrum, who claimed to be an eyewitness to the murder. Landrum's testimony was extremely shocking, powerful, and graphic. He claimed he could see all the people at the crime scene and that he saw Drew pull the victim's head back and slash his throat. He even re-enacted the killing for the jury. A tape-recorded interview with Landrum, made several hours after the murder in which he admitted that he had not seen the killing, was not offered into evidence at trial. Drew's co-defendant, Ernest Puralewski, who was awaiting his own trial for capital murder, refused to testify at Drew's trial. Drew was sentenced to death.

Answer: Erskine Childers

Robert Erskine Childers DSO (June 25, 1870 - November 24, 1922) was an author and Irish nationalist, who was executed by the authorities of the newly independent Irish Free State during the Irish Civil War. With the start of war, Childers joined the Royal Navy as an Intelligence Officer and was active in the North Sea and the Dardanelles. He was awarded the DSO and promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 1916.

However the violent suppression of the Easter Rising had angered Childers, and after the war he moved to Dublin to become fully involved in the struggle against British rule. He joined Sinn Féin, forming a close association with Éamon de Valera and Michael Collins.
Said to be the inspiration behind the Irregulars' propaganda, Childers was hunted by Free State soldiers and had to travel secretly. In November 1922, he was arrested by Free State forces at his home, Glendalough, in County Wicklow, while travelling to meet De Valera. He was court-martialled because he was carrying an automatic pistol, which, ironically, had been a gift from Michael Collins, and was one of the first to be sentenced to death under the Free State's Emergency Powers legislation.

Answer: Steven Judy

Terry Chasteen W/F/21, Misty Zollers W/F/5, Stephen Chasteen W/M/4, Mark Chasteen W/M/2. These are the names, sex and age of the children Steven Judy murdered, it is a sad case.

The evidence established that Terry Chasteen had been raped and that she died of strangulation, while the children died of asphyxia due to drowning. At trial, Judy presented an insanity defense and testified at length concerning his commission of the rape and murders. Judy stated that he was driving on Interstate 465 in Marion County, when he passed Terry Chasteen's car. He testified that he motioned for her to pull over to the shoulder of the road, indicating that something was wrong with the rear of her car. The two vehicles pulled to the shoulder and stopped, and Judy purported to assist the victims. In the process, he removed the coil wire, thereby rendering Terry Chasteen's car inoperable. When her car would not start, Judy offered her and the children a ride, and she accepted. Judy then drove the victims to the location of the killings and pulled his truck off the road. He testified that he directed them on foot toward the creek, and that he sent the children down the path ahead of Terry and him. Judy testified that he then raped Terry Chasteen and bound her hands and feet and gagged her. When Terry cried out, the children ran back up the path to them. Judy stated that the children stood around him and yelled. At that point, he strangled Terry Chasteen and threw her body into the creek. Judy testified that he then threw each of the children as far as he could into the water. He stated that he remembered seeing one of the children standing in the creek.
Judy stated to the jury in open court at the sentencing hearing that he would advise them to give him the death sentence, because he had no doubt that he would kill again if he had an opportunity, and some of the people he might kill in the future might be members of the jury. He also directed a similar comment to the trial judge. (insanity defense)