Gary Eldon Alvord
Gary Eldon Alvord, 66, a former resident of Taylor, Michigan, died at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida, where he had been held for about 40 years on death row. The News-Herald reported that he died of a brain tumor and that he had spent longer on death row than any other inmate in the country after lawyers argued he was too mentally ill to be executed. Around 2002 he wrote in a pen-pal listing that he enjoyed reading, art and travel and missed people and real life, and a former neighbor described the abuse he suffered as a child. Florida Department of Corrections records list the manner of death as natural and the date as May 19, 2013, while the News-Herald gives May 26, 2013.
Cause of death, as reported: Died of illness. The Florida Department of Corrections recorded the death as natural, and a news report says he died of a brain tumor.
Reported by: Florida Department of Corrections (the agency that held him); news report on the death.