Fake News: Cannibal’s Last Meal
The troubling news of a cannibal pedophile’s last meal circled Facebook a few years back in September 2014. Doug Stephener or Stephen K. Walker was sentenced to death in Texas for murder and cannibalism of little boys in his neighborhood and found it only fitting that his last meal is “a little boy.” Ideally, to Mr. Walker, this boy would be eight years of age and not of Asian descent. At first, thoughts or getting a body from the morgue to satisfy the inmate would be the game plan, but then talk of a child from a developing country suffering from a disease may somehow be more humane. It is understood by many that all requests submitted for the last meal are fulfilled no matter the price tag, so initially, many thought that the inmate would be receiving his dying wish after all.
Research Results
After a quick google search, it is quickly discovered that Texas abolished all special last meal requests in 2011 after a man named Lawrence Russell Brewer ruined the treat. The inmate was sentenced to death due to the murder of Byrd and was previously arrested for drug possession and burglary. Brewer is said to have ordered mounds of food and, after the food's arrival, leave it untouched. Brewer is said to have plainly stated that he was not hungry when the food remained. This act ruined the meal requests for everyone, including Walker. Even though all the requests were dismissed from 2011 on, the requests were merely that, requests, they did not have to be fulfilled.
If the fact that meal requests were abolished is not enough, how about the fact that Stephen K. Walker was never sentenced to death in the state of Texas. After a search through the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website, it is known that there is not nor has there ever been a Stephen K. Walker or Doug Stephener sentenced to death in the State of Texas. Through the website, you can navigate to a list of all the executed inmates and a list of all the inmates currently on death row. When doing a quick search through the lists, neither of the names occurred on either list. To confirm this quick search, I decided to scroll down to 2014 and look at all the names back to the first execution in 1982. Surprisingly, Walker remained unfound. The mug shot did not fit the story being told. That being said, the curiosity for who the man was only growing.
After completing a reverse image search on google to discover who this man is, nothing could be found other than countless articles on the cannibal man requesting his last meal. The man’s name could be Doug Stephener or Stephen K. Walker, but I could not confirm that or what the mug shot was taken for as it must have gotten buried in the fake news. Unfortunately, who this man is will remain unknown for now. However, I know that he is not the cannibalistic pedophile that everyone is painting him to be.
Social Media such as Facebook and Instagram can be such a great and easy tool to connect with friends and family. However, it is also an easy tool to slander someone's name or face such as this. It is too easy to scroll through social media and see an alerting article title and believe it due to knowing the bare minimum about the subject. In this case, the bare minimum would have been knowing that inmates can submit last meal requests. Without knowing inmate records, or the Texas Justice system, one could easily believe something with a fancy title and picture.
Works Cited
Mikkelson, David. “Cannibal Pedophile’s Last Meal.” Snopes.com, 23 Oct. 2016, www.snopes.com/fact-check/last-meal/. Accessed 04 Mar. 2021.
Death Row Information, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/dr_executed_offenders.html. Accessed 04, Mar. 2021.
