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Ronnie Lee Gardner

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Murderer

The Resume

    (January 16, 1961-June 18, 2010)
    Born in Salt Lake City, Utah
    Murdered bartender Melvyn Otterstrom during a botched robbery attempt of a Salt Lake City tavern (Oct. 9, 1984)
    Murdered lawyer Michael Burdell and critically wounded bailiff Nick Kirk during a courtroom escape attempt (April 2, 1985)
    Exhausted all appeals and executed by the state of Utah via firing squad at age 49
    Only the third person executed by means of a firing squad since the U.S. lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976 (the prevoius two being Gary Gilmore in 1977 and John Albert Taylor in 1996)

Why he might be annoying:

    As a child, he acted as lookout while his stepdad burglarized property.
    His stepdad also stole mercury from gas meters, which he frequently played with.
    At age 14, he ran away from home to live with a pedophile, and turned to street hustling to make money.
    After escaping prison, he went looking for the man who slept with his wife in 1980, but the man shot him in the neck and he was recaptured.
    He had a history of prison escapes and once faked an illness so he could be taken to a hospital, then punched a guard (shattering an eye socket and breaking his nose in 16 places), stealing his gun and fleeing (Aug. 6, 1984) .
    Robbing a tavern while high on cocaine, he ordered Otterstrom to the floor, stuck the barrel of the gun in his nostril, and pulled the trigger, executing the helpless victim.
    Knowing he would never be freed, his last escape attempt with a smuggled gun ended after he was shot in the chest, yet he managed to shoot Burdell in the eye and flee the courthouse before being surrounded and surrendering.
    He broke a partition between inmates and visitors and had sex with a female visitor while other inmates barricaded the doors and cheered (Oct. 28, 1987).
    Two months after a white supremacist stabbed an inmate to death, he fashioned a shank from a pair of sunglasses and stabbed a black inmate, wanting his own spotlight (Sept. 25, 1994).
    His murder victim's families were divided about his fate - Burdell's family wanted him to serve life and Otterstrom's family wanted the death sentence carried out.
    Living it up before his execution, he got steak, lobster tail, apple pie, vanilla ice cream and 7-Up for his last meal, and was allowed to watch the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy.

Why he might not be annoying:

    His mother drank while pregnant with him and was always out partying, leaving his upbringing in the hands of an older sister.
    His birth father beat him and told him repeatedly he was not his son before splitting for good.
    He contracted meningitis when he was four years old.
    His older brother molested him on several occasions.
    He claimed that though the pedophile he lived with performed sex acts on him, he was a good man who tried to help him out and gave him 'stability' in his life.
    He envisioned opening an organic farm for troubled kids where he could lecture them on not squandering away their lives like he did.
    Per his request he had no family or friends witness his execution, and asked if he had any last words he simple stated, 'I do not, no.'

Credit: Scar Tactics


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 12 Votes: 91.67% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 33 Votes: 45.45% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 8 Votes: 37.50% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 19 Votes: 47.37% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 18 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 25 Votes: 52.00% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 24 Votes: 54.17% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 32 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 30 Votes: 46.67% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 92 Votes: 68.48% Annoying