Column Chronicles: More last words of the lethally injected

More last words of the lethally injected

Frank Cotolo
September 7, 2017

In states of America where capital punishment is legal, the preferred method of death is an injection of a lethal substance. This became the precedent in the 1970s when it was discovered that certain chemicals killed death penalty prisoners more quickly than a large bag of Famous Amos cookies.

Journalist and author Albert Swing recorded the last words of every person being executed since the injection method began. Once again we preview some last words from his book to be published sooner or later.

Swing's book includes some information about the people being executed by lethal injection, with drugs like pentobarbital and midazolam hypochloride. They give the victim a few cogent moments before going into a deadly coma. That's when people on death row say the craziest things."

For instance, there is Louis Kant, executed for the murder of his wife on their honeymoon. While driving around in San Francisco, Louis went into a rage when the tune his wife was humming went out of sync with the timing of the car's turn signal. He claimed he was innocent, saying someone else shot her point blank in the temple while in the passenger seat as he drove.

When Kant was administered his lethal dose, Swing documented he said, "Oh well, on a scale of one to two, this feeling is a fifty seven."

Sam "Skimpy" Wildorf was convicted of six murders, having pushed people off cliffs while they were biking on a mountain. He was laughing shortly after he was given his death drug. The last thing he said was, "They were all just rusty spokes in the wheel of humanity."

Tessie Scardoll was found guilty of suffocating her grandfather, who she testified was making her clean his false teeth with her tongue. Moments after her execution injection, Tessie stood up and for a moment tried to twist her head around a full three-sixty, shouting, "Bite me!" over and over until she collapsed.

Bella Bolla pleaded guilty to shooting a policeman who she originally wounded and then visited in the hospital and shot dead. While she was fading from the death drug she said, "If you're gonna start something, finish it."

Stint and Pen Baldy conspired to kill twelve men from their bowling league because they refused to cheat on their scores in order to win the league championship, which included an all expenses paid round trip to a popular dude ranch in Wyoming along with ten gallon hats that the men would be able to own after the trip.

Injected with the deadly dose in different rooms at different times, Stint cried out for a rare roast beef sandwich from a Jewish deli on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles and Baldy, as he was slowly fading into unconsciousness said, "I am slowly fading into unconsciousness. Sadly, it is the last time I will ever do this."

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.