This week in 1995

“Please tell the media I did not get my SpaghettiOs, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this.”

— Thomas Grasso, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Oklahoma.
Executed March 20, 1995

Grasso did not receive his SpaghettiOs, but it was reported that his last meal did include steamed mussels, a cheeseburger, spaghetti, a strawberry milkshake, and pumpkin pie. Grasso had been convicted for the murder of two elderly women—one in New York and one in Oklahoma. His convictions were highly publicized, as the two states fought over how and where he should be punished. Grasso himself asked for the death penalty. His case heated up the 1994 New York gubernatorial race between pro–death penalty George Pataki and Mario Cuomo, who opposed capital punishment.

The New York Times wrote: “Mr. Pataki campaigned strongly on the issue of restoring the death penalty, and one of his first acts on taking office was to send Mr. Grasso back to Oklahoma to be executed.”