When asked if he had any last words before his execution, French replied:
"How about this for a headline for tomorrow's paper? French fries."
While lacking the terse authority of Gary Gilmore's "Let's do it", it's still pretty memorable.
Here are some other last words uttered by American death penalty recipients
"I'd rather be fishing." -Jimmy Glass, who unsuccessfully petitioned the US Supreme Court in Glass v. Louisiana, claiming that death by electrocution was unconstitutional.
"Well gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel." -George Appel, executed in 1928 for murdering a police officer.
"I'm going home, babe." -James Allen Red Dog, who killed one victim by slashing his throat just short of decapitation, then kidnapped and raped a woman. He later claimed to have been too drunk to remember anything.
Here's one last piece of trivia. At least 12 states have, at some time, had an electric chair nicknamed "Old Sparky": Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Oklahoma, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
Source:chicagonow.com
