Serial killer Carlton Gary, known as the Columbus “Stocking Strangler,” said he wants his final meal to be whatever everyone else at the prison has for dinner that evening.
Gary, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Thursday, turned down the chance to have something special, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
Credit: Georgia Department of Correction
Credit: Georgia Department of Correction
That means his last meal will be “the institutional tray” consisting of a grilled hamburger, a hot dog, white beans, coleslaw and grape beverage.
Gary, now 67, was sentenced to die for murdering three elderly women — Florence Scheible, 89; Martha Thurmond, 70; and Kathleen Woodruff, 74 — by strangling them with their own stockings in 1977 and 1978.
He was also accused of killing four other women between the ages of 59 and 74 who lived alone in the same Wynnton neighborhood and were strangled with their own stockings over a seven-month period in the late 1970s. While he was not charged with killing those women, prosecutors used them, as well as similar murders carried out in New York, to show a pattern.
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Gary's lawyers have appeals pending, asking the courts to stop his execution so evidence that wasn't available when he was tried in 1986 can be considered. They say Gary is not the Stocking Strangler, someone else is responsible.
Gary’s lawyers and family will meet with the State Board of Pardons and Paroles on Wednesday, where they will make a case for mercy and the Columbus-Muscogee County authorities will make a case for carrying out the execution.
If Gary is executed as scheduled, he will be the first person Georgia puts to death this year.
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