This week in 1997

“Sweet Jesus, here I come. Take me home. I am going your way.”

— Kenneth Gentry, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Texas.
Executed April 16, 1997

Gentry, an escapee from a Georgia prison, shot hitchhiker Jimmy Don Ham in an attempt to steal and assume his identity. During his stay in Denton County Jail, he made another escape attempt, having convinced his mother to smuggle him a pistol.

A year later, Gentry tried yet again to escape, this time combining his efforts with those of another death row inmate. They were restrained and recaptured at the front gate.