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Kenneth Edward GENTRY
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Fugitive
- To assume victim's identity
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder:
September 10,
1983
Date of arrest: 5 days after
Date of birth: January 28,
1961
Victim profile: Jimmy Don Ham,
23 (hitchhiker)
Method of murder:
Shooting
Location: Denton County, Texas, USA
Status: Executed
by lethal injection in Texas on April 16,
1997
Date of
Execution:
April 16, 1997
Offender:
Kenneth Gentry
#760
Last
Statement:
Thank the Lord for the past 14 years
that have allowed me to grow as a man –
To J.D.’s family, I am sorry for
the suffering you have gone through the past 14 years. I
hope you can get some peace tonight.
To my family, I am happy to be
going home to Jesus.
Sweet Jesus, here I come. Take me
home. I am going your way.
Kenneth Gentry,
executed April 16, 1997
Last meal request:
A bowl of butter beans, mashed potatoes, onions,
tomatoes, biscuits, chocolate cake and Dr Pepper with ice.
Texas Executes Killer of a
Hitchhiker
The New York Times
April 17, 1997
A prison escapee who killed a hitchhiker nearly
14 years ago was executed by injection tonight.
The inmate, Kenneth Gentry, 36, had exhausted
his appeals and no 11th-hour efforts were made to save his life.
Mr. Gentry was condemned for the 1983 murder of
Jimmy Don Ham, 23, a hitchhiker he picked up and befriended with
the hope of assuming his identity. He was trying to shake the
authorities from his native Georgia, where he had escaped from
prison in July 1982 by driving a prison car through a fence.
