Disturbing reason death row prisoner ordered a single olive as his final meal on Earth

Do you reckon there's some kind of running competition between death row prisoners to request the wackiest final meal they can think of?

Because it certainly seems as though inmates who are slapped with the ultimate punishment are trying to outdo each other with their weird orders, rather than tantalising their tastebuds for one last time.

There's those who order decadent feasts, some who ask for a lump of soil and others who just want to use the food to stick two fingers up to the US justice system before they leave this world, like killer Lawrence Russell Brewer did.

And there's also the likes of Victor Harry Feguer, who opted to get put to death with just a single olive in his stomach.

Obviously, this wasn't because he was watching his waist line, but he did have a method behind his madness.

Feguer was only 28 years old when he was executed by hanging in 1963 for the murder of Dr Edward Bartels.

Three years earlier, he had been flicking through the Yellow Pages when he began to phone up local physicians in Iowa alphabetically before landing on the medic.

The Michigan-born killer told the doctor there was a woman who needed medical attention, so Dr Bartels rushed to him.

But when he arrived, there was no woman.

Feguer kidnapped the physician, 34, and killed him in Illinois, with Dr Bartels' body later being found dumped in a cornfield with a single gunshot to the head.

Victor Harry Feguer, 28, only had a single olive for his last meal (Iowa Police)

Authorities arrested Feguer in Alabama a few days later after the FBI received a tip off from a bloke who became suspicious when the killer tried to sell him the doctor's car without any paperwork.

It is believed that his motivation for the murder was to get his hands on drugs which Dr Bartels might have been carrying on him to treat patients.

Feguer protested his innocence and insisted someone else had been responsible for the murder in July 1960, but the 28-year-old was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death.

He lodged an appeal, which was denied, meaning only the President had the power to do anything about his fate.

But even after being contacted by Iowa's governor Harold Hughes and Feguer's attorney, John F. Kennedy didn't budge - and is said to have turned down their pleas because he 'thought the crime was so brutal'.

Anyways, the inmate - who was described as a 'model prisoner' by guards in his final days - was left to face up to the fact he was going to meet his maker, with the only comfort being he got a nice meal beforehand.

There was a reason behind his strange request (Getty Stock Image)

But bizarrely, Feguer only asked for a single olive with the pit still in.

As we mentioned earlier, there was a reason he only wanted a small snack before he was executed in Iowa.

Feguer apparently told guards that he hoped an olive tree would grow from his grave, 'as a sign of peace'.

After staying up all night with a priest, he was given a new suit for his execution on 15 March, 1963.

Some reports claim that after Feguer was pronounced dead, officials later found the pit from the olive in one of his suit pockets.

Photographer Henry Hargreaves brought the unusual last meal to life with his collection titled No Seconds.

The snapper recreated a few of the most infamous orders from death row prisoners - and Feguer's was his favourite.

He told CBS News: "It's just such a polarising image.

"We think about last meals, and is it something that's going to be totally gluttonous, and then he just has a single olive.

"You know, it's so simple, beautiful and kind of final. It's like a full stop at the end of his life."

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