Sunday, August 14, 2005

Choices of last meals

The facinating site "Dead Man Eating", has a detailed breakdown of the menu's of condemned prisoners. It's a weird read, but it reveals insights about the favorite foods of murderers. This site even offers commemorative prison food trays, with a complete last meal.

It’s safe to assume that these prisoners are not concerned with nutrition, so here we see the last-meal preferences for killers:

MEAT CHOICES
Hamburgers/Cheeseburgers ......13
Fried Chicken ...........................12
Steak ...........................................7
Shrimp ........................................5
Chicken Fried Steak ....................5
Fried Fish ....................................5
Chili Cheese Dogs ......................4
Pork Chops .................................3
Beef Ribs ....................................1

Condemned killers also prefer Coke two-to-one over Pepsi for their last swig. I wonder if the Madison Avenue folks know about this? This preference is interesting because the data is largely from southern killers, where Coke products dominate. I’ll bet a list of last sodas from northern killers would show the opposite, with Pepsi taking the lead:

BEVERAGES
Coke ..........................................11
Iced Tea ......................................6
Dr. Pepper ...................................5
Pepsi............................................4
7Up .............................................3

Ice cream topped the killer last meal desert list 2-to-one with pie and cake.

Killers also prefer apple pie, and here we see that there may be a correlation here. As new data rolls in, a larger statistical sample might reveal “food preference profiles” that can be used to predict future homicides:

DESSERTS
Pie (Total) .................................11
Pie Breakdown
Apple ..........................................6
Pecan ...........................................4
Banana Cream.............................1
Cake (Total) ................................7
Cake Breakdown
Cherry Cheesecake .....................3
Chocolate ....................................3
Chocolate Fudge .........................1