An American murderer who killed two pensioners, strangling one with Christmas tree lights, didn't use his final words to apologise for his actions but instead to complain about a mistake in his last meal.
Thomas J Grasso, from West Babylon, New York, was executed by lethal injection by the state of Oklahoma on March 20,1995 at age 32 for the murder of 87-year-old Hilda Johnson.
His last meal was a large and varied menu. He requested two dozen mussels, two dozen clams, a double cheeseburger from Burger King, half a dozen spare ribs, two strawberry milkshakes, half a pumpkin pie, strawberries and a can of SpaghettiO's with meatballs.
While his request was granted, prison officials hadn't quite got everything right. He claimed to have been given spaghetti instead of SpaghettiO's.
Grasso even used his last words to complain about it. The day before his execution he released four statements to the press.
The first, at 3pm, read: "What we call the beginning is often the end, and to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from."
Hours later at 8.25pm he released a second statement, which said: "For most of us, there is only the unattended moment, the moment in and out of time. And right action is freedom from the past and future also" - the first part of the statement is a line from TS Eliot's 'The Dry Salvages'.
Three hours before his execution time, at just before 10pm, he issued a third statement. It was a light-hearted poem commemorating his forthcoming dispatch. It was entitled 'A Visit with Mystery'.
"Ready, willing, and waiting am I,
"Asked for death but could not die.
"Each sunrise is one day less,
"I'll endure this horrible mess.
"When the last sun does sink,
"Me E will serve a goodbye drink.
"On the day our paths do cross it won't take much to see it through,
"Just a ilttle toxic brew.
"The warden will read my last creed,
"And the deadly brew will flow.
"As the poison drips into my veins,
"And from my body life does drain,
"I'll know then once and for all
"What "last call" means when serving Toxahol."
Less than an hour before his death, Grasso issued his fourth and final statement. Choosing instead to focus on the missing part of his last meal request than the two lives he had taken.
"I did not get my SpaghettiO's," he said. "I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this."
Grasso had a lengthy rap sheet before going on to commit the two murders. He had moved to Tampa, Florida, with his family while still young where he built up a string of offenses, mostly theft, and stole from two of his employers.
In October 1990, he left Tampa with his girlfriend, Lana, t stay at her grandma's house in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Just two months later, in December 1990, he murdered 87-year-old Hilda Johnson, who lived next door to Lana's grandma and was her best friend.
He had strangled Hilda in her Tulsa home in December 24 1990 using Christmas tree lights. He stole a total of $12 (£9.60) from her - $8 from her purse and $4 in loose change, as well as her TV set which he went on to sell for $125 (£100).
Six months later, after moving to New York with Lana, who was now his wife, he murdered Leslie Holtz, an 81-year-old man from Staten Island, on July 4, 1991. He stole his Social Security cheque.
New York detectives investigating Leslie's murder arrested Grasso, and within two weeks he confessed to police. He told investigators about the Staten Island murder first, before confessing to the murder of Hilda Johnson.
Grasso pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years to life on April 1, 1992, from the murder of Holtz. On September 28, 1992, Grasso pleaded guilty to murdering Johnson and was sentenced to death in Oklahoma.
