Famous Last Words
Patrick Coughlin
Salt Lake City, Utah
December 15, 1896
“You never killed a gamer man in all your life than you will today.”
[Gamer here being someone who is up for anything, like the phrase “I’m game.”]
Coughlin was executed at just 23, choosing firing squad over hanging. He earned the death sentence after killing two police officers he and a partner were fleeing from. The two young men had been on the run during a crime spree which began with stealing strawberries and the spree became known as the “strawberry incident.” Though Coughlin was given the death sentence, his partner Fred George was given a life sentence.
