17 Dec 15th–Dec 21st, 2022 phoenixnewtimes.com phoenix new Times | cONTeNTs | feeDBacK | OPiNiON | NeWs | feaTuRe | NighT+Day | culTuRe | film | cafe | music | Comfort Food Some 62 percent of incarcerated people had never laid eyes on a fresh vegetable during their time in prison, according to a 2020 survey by Busansky of previously incarcerated people in the U.S. This was the most requested food item among people who have been executed in Arizona, followed by french fries, plain bread, fried eggs, and breakfast meats. The most sought-after fresh vegetables? Whole jalapeños. Other popular dinner items included potatoes, tacos, burritos, hamburgers, and fried seafood. Five people asked for the same dull sandwiches they’re served every day — peanut butter and jelly, or deli meat with mayonnaise and mustard. Ice cream was requested 17 times, making it the most common dessert. The most popular flavor was vanilla, followed by strawberry, rocky road, peppermint, and pineapple sherbet. Eight people asked for pie, with apple being the most common request, and five people wanted cake. Hooper was the first and only person on death row to ever ask for water to drink. The most common drink to accompany a last meal has been soda, which was requested 18 times. Pepsi was the most common ask, followed by Coke, then Dr. Pepper and cream soda. Plenty of others asked for milk, juice, coffee, and malts. At a glance, last meal requests have been uniquely American fare. People on death row wanted biscuits and gravy, cranberry sauce, cole slaw, clam chowder, and maca- roni and cheese. For many of them, the last meal is the last chance to reconnect with a dimming nostalgia from days before incar- ceration, Busansky said. It’s a comfort thing. “The comfort foods of our life are not lobsters and caviar,” Busansky said. “Lobsters and caviar — that’s the values of people on the outside. Not people on the inside.” The largest last meal request contained 13 different menu items. John Brewer, who strangled his girlfriend to death in the couple’s Flagstaff apartment in 1987 and was executed in 1993, received this final repast: grilled pork chops with gravy, a quarter-pound of bacon, six fried butterfly shrimp, beef Rice-a-Roni, three slices of French bread with butter, applesauce, two cans of Canada Dry Ginger Ale with ice, one slice of coconut cream pie, a pint of orange juice, a can of chicken noodle soup with crackers, one can of halved pears with syrup, and Maxwell House coffee with cream and sugar. That’s a total of 3,770 calories. The biggest request by calories, though, came from William Woratzeck, who stabbed and beat his young female tenant to death in Pinal County in 1980 and was executed in 1997. He consumed Ice cream was the most popular dessert item. Vanilla was the most requested flavor. Pepsi was the most requested soft drink. Brett Stevens / Image Source / Getty Images >> p 18
