Attorneys for Bible say his health problems make him unsuitable for lethal injection... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows death row inmate Danny Bible. Attorneys for Bible say his health problems make him unsuitable for lethal injection... (Associated Press) 
 
 HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas prisoner accused of four killings and at least nine rapes was executed Wednesday for a 1979 rape and murder in Houston that went unsolved for two decades until he confessed. Danny Paul Bible, 66, received lethal injection Wednesday evening after unsuccessful appeals contended his multiple health issues made it likely his execution would be botched and cause him unconstitutional pain. 'It hurts' 
 
 After receiving the lethal injection, Bible breathed heavily for about two minutes, shaking from Parkinson's tremors as he muttered "it hurts," a media witness said. Desel said Bible declined last words and he was pronounced dead at 6:32 pm (local time). "Danny Paul Bible is as vile and evil a person that has ever drawn breath," said Larry Lance, whose sister, Pam Hudgins, was among Bible's victims. "We are glad to have witnessed him draw his last breath. I know that he will burn in hell for eternity," Larry Lance, the brother of one of Bible's victims said in a statement following the execution. A judge for the Southern District of Texas in Houston and the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals had dismissed his appeal before the Supreme Court denied a stay of execution petition on Wednesday, court records show. At least five other states allow gas inhalation but only as an alternative to the lethal injection, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah also allow inmates to choose a firing squad for executions, though lethal injection is the primary method in those, according to the center. The four slaying victims included 20-year-old Inez Deaton, a friend of Bible's cousin who was found on the banks of a Houston bayou in 1979. The 'ice pick killer' 
 
 Bible was a serial rapist and murderer who stabbed at least two women to death with ice picks, officials said. Authorities say Bible also "left a trail of carnage" in 1983 when he killed two other women and the four-month-old son of one of them on the same day. Danny Bible 
 
 Bible was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of one of the women but was paroled in 1992. "Some criminals' actions are so heinous, they earn the label 'worst of the worst,'" Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg had said prior to Bible's execution.
– A serial rapist and murderer known as the "ice pick killer" received a lethal injection in Texas Wednesday evening after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal. Danny Bible, accused of at least four slayings and nine rapes, had sought to delay the execution by arguing that he was too sick with Parkinson's and other ailments for a lethal injection to work properly, reports CNN. Instead, the 66-year-old asked to be killed by gas or a firing squad, neither of which is offered in Texas and thus would have required action by state lawmakers, who aren't even in session, reports the AP. His appeal made it to the Supreme Court, which declined to stop the execution about an hour before it took place. Bible was pronounced dead 15 minutes after the injection began, with a public information officer for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice saying that he breathed heavily for about two minutes and muttered words that sounded like "burning" and "hurts." Authorities say Bible killed three women and the 4-month-old son of one of his victims and raped others, including young family members. The victims included 20-year-old Inez Denton, the cousin of Bible's friend, who was killed with an ice pick in 1979. The case went unsolved for decades until Bible confessed to it and others after being arrested in Florida in 1999 for a separate rape. "Danny Paul Bible is as vile and evil a person who has ever drawn breath," says the brother of one victim. "We are glad to have witnessed him draw his last breath."