JUST IN: Tennessee Executes Serial Rapist | Harold Nichols – Last Meal & Final Words

On December 11th, 2025, after more than 35 years on death row, Harold Wayne Nichols was executed by lethal injection at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee. His name became tied to a long series of sexual attacks that ultimately escalated into a crime as brutal as it was tragic.

In this video, I’m going to tell you what happened that day, what his last meal was, and what his final words were before he died.

The Escalation of a Predator

On August 30th, 1984, Harold Nichols, a 23-year-old man with a long history of sexual impulses he had spent years trying to suppress, finally stopped fighting his darkest urges. That night, during one of his usual late-night walks through Tennessee, he broke into an apartment shared by two women in Chattanooga. Although he initially claimed he only intended to steal, when he encountered one of the residents, he attempted to sexually assault her. The victim managed to escape, and Nichols fled the scene.

Despite the severity of the attack, he served only 18 months at the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. He was released on parole after a psychological evaluation that surprisingly concluded there was nothing unusual about him. After his release, Harold got married, a step that seemed, at least temporarily, to contain his darker impulses.

But that calm was only superficial. With time, the urges returned even stronger. Nichols began taking more frequent nighttime walks, wandering through the streets, and silently watching women.

The Murder of Karen Pulley

But something happened on the night of September 30th, 1988. Nichols was walking through residential neighborhoods when, according to him, he felt a strange energy. He was in the Brainerd area of Chattanooga when he stopped outside the house where Karen lived with several roommates. From the darkness, he watched the household’s routine. He saw one of the young women leave and immediately understood that Karen would be alone. That was the breaking point. He had found a vulnerable victim.

When the house finally fell silent, Nichols looked for a way inside. He found an unprotected bathroom window, climbed through it, and got in. Once inside, he grabbed an improvised weapon, a piece of construction wood, a heavy solid 2×4. With the board in hand, he moved quietly toward the second-floor bedroom where Karen was sleeping.

What happened next was brutal. Nichols attacked her immediately. The first blow from the wooden board struck Karen’s head, leaving her dazed and defenseless. He then tore off her underwear and raped her violently, taking advantage of her weakened state. Karen tried to resist, even while injured, but that resistance only made Nichols raise the 2×4 again.

He hit her multiple more times with great force. According to the autopsy, there were at least four severe impacts that crushed her skull and caused irreparable brain damage. Once he felt satisfied and believed she couldn’t call for help, Nichols fled.

The most devastating detail of this case is that Karen didn’t die immediately. She lay on the floor of her bedroom, unconscious, surrounded by blood, but still breathing. She spent hours agonizing alone until one of her roommates returned to the house the morning of October 1st and found her in that state. Karen was still alive when paramedics arrived, but her injuries were beyond recovery. She was taken to the hospital where she died later that day.

A Reign of Terror and a Double Life

Karen Pulley was an extraordinary 21-year-old young woman studying to become a paralegal. She was a devoted Christian, and her family always emphasized that her faith was a central part of her life. Those who knew her described her as kind, sweet, and innocent—someone remembered for her gentle nature and genuinely caring spirit.

That crime marked the visible beginning of a wave of sexual attacks that spread fear throughout Chattanooga in late 1988. For roughly three months, between September 1988 and the early days of 1989, Harold Nichols sexually assaulted at least a dozen women. His victims were almost always alone at home or in situations of complete vulnerability.

On January 3rd, 1989, his violence escalated to a new level. In just 4 hours, he assaulted three women, including two single mothers whom he threatened by saying he would harm their children.

During all of this, Nichols was living a double life. By day, he worked as an assistant manager at a Godfather’s Pizza and presented himself as a loving husband. His wife later said she was smitten with him and initially assumed his constant nighttime outings meant he was having an affair.

Arrest and Sentencing

His downfall came in early 1989 when he was arrested for a series of rapes and burglaries not directly connected to the Pulley case. During interrogation, he ended up confessing not only to those crimes but also to the rape and murder of Karen, along with other attacks in the Chattanooga area. He admitted he felt a strange surge of energy whenever he assaulted women and said that if he hadn’t been caught, he would have continued going out at night.

He was charged with murder, rape, attempted rape, burglary, and assault. In 1990, a Hamilton County jury sentenced him to death for the murder of Karen Pulley. He also received additional sentences totaling more than 200 years in prison for at least a dozen other attacks committed during that period of terror.

35 Years on Death Row

For decades, the case moved through appeals and requests for clemency. His defense argued that Nichols had grown up in an environment of severe abuse, likely suffered brain damage, had mental disorders and serious addictions, and that his sentence should be commuted to life in prison. In their clemency petition, they emphasized that he had pleaded guilty and taken responsibility for his crimes.

If carried out, he would become the first person in Tennessee to be executed for a case in which he had pleaded guilty since the state reinstated executions in 1978. His execution was first scheduled for August 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic.

Finally, in March 2025, Tennessee rescheduled Harold Wayne Nichols’ execution for December 11th, 2025. At 64 years old, he had spent more than 35 years on death row. In the days leading up to the execution, his legal team attempted one final appeal, but Governor Bill Lee announced he would not intervene.

The Execution

On December 11th, 2025, Tennessee carried out the execution of Harold Wayne Nichols by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. He was 64 years old.

That day, Nichols woke up at 4:00 a.m. He showered, received visitors, and waited for the end. Twelve hours earlier, he had been given his last meal as protocol requires. He chose beef brisket, coleslaw, a baked potato, onion rings, deviled eggs, cheese biscuits, and fruit tea.

At 9:30 a.m., he was taken to the execution chamber. At 10:00 a.m., officials began attempting to insert the IV line. After several minutes, they were able to establish it, and the drug began to flow. The process lasted about 6 minutes. There were no reports of movement or signs of distress from Nichols. When asked if he had any final words, he said something, but it could not be clearly heard by the reporters present.

And that is how the execution of Harold Wayne Nichols was carried out—one of the most dangerous offenders Tennessee has faced in recent history.