Cannibal on Death Row Requests Boy for Last Meal – Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
An inmate on death row in Abilene, Texas, for murder and cannibalism has requested “a little boy” for a last meal.
The Truth:
This is a hoax.
Texas stopped allowing death row inmates to choose their last meal before execution in 2011. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice now feeds death row inmates whatever is on the prison menu before they’re executed, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The eRumor started with a fake news report published by the website HipHopHangover.com and was quickly shared 200,000 times on Facebook. The website’s disclaimer states that information is presented “as is” without warranties of any kind.
The report claimed that a convicted murderer and cannibal named Stephen K. Walker requested a little boy for his last meal. Then, because the Department of Corrections is “supposed to accept all demands of any kind,” it tried to purchase a toddler from a third-world country for $25,000.
That wasn’t the first version of the “cannibal’s last meal” story, either. Belgian website Norde Presse reported a very similar version of the fake story on October 11, 2014. In that account, the cannibal’s name is Doug Sphener and he requested a boy who was no more than eight years old for his last meal. That story was also shared more than 200,000 times on Facebook.
Posted 11/03/14