Convicted killer Billie Wayne Coble chose very bizarre last words before he was put to death for murdering his wife's family.
Billie Wayne Coble was pronounced dead on Febraury 28 at 6.24pm CST (00.24 GMT) from lethal injection at the state death chamber in Huntsville, Texas.
The 70-year-old was convicted of murdering his estranged wife's parents and brother in 1989, and executed hours after the US Supreme Court denied a petition seeking a reprieve on grounds he received inadequate defence at his trial.
His last words, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, were: "That will be five dollars. Take care."
Coble's crime and executiion are featured in tonight's ITV documentary, Countdown To Execution, fronted by Susanna Reid.
Coble, a Vietnam War veteran and electrician, was convicted in 1990 of slaying his estranged wife's mother and father,
Robert and Zelda Vicha, and her brother, John "Bobby" Vicha, who was a police sergeant.
Coble's wife had sought a divorce at the time.
He ambushed the three victims and shot them at their home in Axtell, a small community 100 miles north of the state capital, Austin.
The killer then kidnapped his estranged wife and drove off with her.
He was chased by police and, while driving, stabbed her with a knife.
Coble eventually crashed into a parked car and was arrested. His wife survived.
His death marks was the third execution this year in the United States and the second in Texas, which has put more inmates to death than any other state since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.
Coble, who was 70 at the time of his execution, became the oldest person to be put to death in Texas.
"The public's interest is not advanced by staying Coble's execution to consider a procedurally defaulted and meritless
claim based on a decision handed down three decades after Coble terrorized and murdered his ex-wife's entire family," Texas Assistant Attorney General Gwendolyn Vindell wrote.
Coble was arrested and jailed in 1990.
He was sentenced to death row in the same year.
But then, in 2007, the death sentence was overturned and Coble was granted a new trial.
But the following year the jury once again sentenced him to death.
The Supreme Court denied Coble's application for a stay without comment on Thursday afternoon.
He never showed any remorse for the killings and has been described as having a "heart full of scorpions".
Just eight days before he was executed Coble was interviewed by Susanna Reid.
He said: "Death is a death. A person said one time 'that's a horrible way of dying'. I said 'what is a good way'.
"Who is not going to leave this world? Aren't we all? It depends on how long a person has already lived.
"The longer you've lived, the easier it is to accept death."
