FORSYTH, Ga. -- Prison officials have announced the last meal for the alleged serial killer scheduled for execution later this week.
Carlton Michael Gary is slated to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Ga.
After declining to request a final meal, Gary will be receiving the institutional tray consisting of grilled hamburger, hot dog, white beans, coleslaw and a grape drink, according to Georgia Department of Corrections.
Gary, known as the infamous “Stocking Strangler,” was sentenced to death in 1986 for the rapes and murders of Florence Scheible, Martha Thurmond and Kathleen Woodruff. His attorney, John Martin, says there is far too much doubt to conclude guilt to the point of a death sentence for his client.
Over the course of six months, between 1977-78, evil had a stranglehold on the affluent Wynnton neighborhood in Columbus, Ga.
Women between the ages of 55 and 89 became the target of nine rapes and seven strangulation deaths—sparking fear and sense of terror in the prosperous suburb.
Known as the “Steakhouse Bandit” for several robberies in South Carolina, Gary was arrested in 1984, when a pistol that was stolen from a home in the Wynnton area in October 1977 was linked to him. Prints from the crime scenes also connected him to the murders.
He was convicted and sentenced to death for three of the murders, rapes and burglaries. No one was ever convicted in the other rapes or stranglings that occurred in the same timeframe.
PHOTOS | On death row: Carlton Gary, the 'Stocking Strangler'
There have been 69 men and one woman executed in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. If executed, Gary will be the 48th inmate put to death by lethal injection. There are presently 54 men under death sentence in Georgia, according to the Department of Corrections.
