Annie Walton Doyle
A death row inmate used his final words to send a hidden message.
Many of America’s death row convicts use their final moments to communicate to the world.
It can be through their last meal, actions, or, most prevalently, the words they choose to utter.
Death row’s Robert Charles Towery was one inmate who used his final words to command attention and send an important message.
Towery was handed the death sentence after being found guilty of the robbery and murder of 68-year-old Mark Jones in 1991.
Chillingly, the killer was known to his victim, who had previously hired him as a mechanic.
On the day of the crime, Towery and his accomplice, Randy Barker, entered Jones’ home claiming their car had broken down, and they needed to use his phone.
Once inside the property, the pair robbed Jones at gunpoint, taking money, jewelry, electrical items, and other valuables.
Following the robbery, Towery injected Jones’ arm with battery acid in an attempt to kill him.
When this didn’t work, he strangled Jones to death.
After the victim’s body was discovered, police traced the crime back to Towery and Barker through a security guard, who had seen them dumping Jones’ car.
Barker testified against Towery for a plea deal and was released from prison in 2001.
Towery, however, was sentenced to death row, and executed by lethal injection in March 2012.
The 47-year-old broke down in tears before his execution and even made apologies for his crimes, according to the Daily Star.
He reportedly said: “I would like to apologize to Mark’s family and friends for what I did to them. I would like to apologize to my family.
“So many times in my life I went left when I should have gone right and I went right when I should have gone left. It was mistake after mistake.”
Towery then looked at his family and began crying, adding: “I love my family. Potato, potato, potato.”
The inmate reportedly took a few deep breaths and began sleeping. His execution took nine minutes, per Reuters.
Towery’s lawyer, Dale Baich, claimed it was a way to tell his nephew ‘everything was okay.’
The Arizona Mirror reports that the sound you make when you say ‘potato’ is similar to the noise a Harley Davidson engine makes.
The carb was featured in Towery’s final meal too.
He reportedly had porterhouse steak, sautéed mushrooms, baked potato with butter and sour cream, steamed asparagus, clam chowder, Pepsi, milk, and apple pie with vanilla ice cream.
Related Article: Death Row Inmate Who Survived 18 Lethal Injections Ended Up Dying Of Something Completely Different
Related Article: Death Row Inmate Confessed To Horrific Crime In Chilling Letter Days After His Execution
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