The most interesting story I’ve ever heard about a last meal involved a symphony conductor who, in a fit of rage, threw his baton at a lousy second-chair violinist, impaling her through the throat and killing her. He was tried and convicted for murder and sentenced to the electric chair.
For his final meal, he requested nine pounds of bananas, and he ate them all. Then the guards came for him, hooked him up to the electric chair, and threw the switch.
Nothing happened. They checked all the connections, jiggled the switch, called in an electrician – nothing doing. The murderer just sat there calmly.
According to the laws of the state, the attempt at execution constituted punishment for his crime, and he was set free. And before too long, he’d gotten a job at a smaller orchestra. After a couple of weeks of working with them, a tuba player came in drunk, and this so angered the man that he grabbed the tuba and slammed it down on the player’s head, killing him.
Once more he was tried and sentenced to the electric chair. Once more he requested nine pounds of bananas for his final meal and ate them all. Once more they led him to the chair, strapped him in, and threw the switch.
And once more, despite their best efforts, nothing happened: he just sat there smiling calmly until they unstrapped him and told him he was free to go.
Destiny will not be denied: he’d gotten a job conducting an amateur swing band within the month, and it was only a matter of time before the bassist started flirting with the drummer, and when the conductor saw this, he flew into a fit of rage, snatched the drummer’s sticks from his hands, and beat the bassist to death.
Again, murder conviction. Sentenced to the chair again. Another final meal of nine pounds of bananas, and once more he was strapped into the chair.
After the executioner tried everything he could think of to set the murderer to fry – after spending hours in vain at this task – he gave up. As he unstrapped the murderer, he asked, “So what is it about the bananas that keeps protecting you?”
“The bananas? Oh, they have nothing to do with it,” the man answered. “I’m just a lousy conductor.”
Daniel