Death row inmate had bizarre complaint after pushing the limit with his final meal
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: Oklahoma Department of Corrections / Mike Simons/Getty Images
If you ever feel anxious about complaining in a restaurant, you should remember the death row inmate who complained about his last meal.
Thomas J Grasso from New York was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the two separate murders.
Grasso had strangled the 87-year-old with her own Christmas tree lights before stealing her television and $10.
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He and his girlfriend Lana had been living with her grandmother, whose house was next door to Hilda's.
After the murder, Grasso managed to avoid being apprehended and moved to New York with Lana, where the pair would marry.
On July 4 1991, Grasso would go on to murder 81-year-old man Leslie Holtz on Staten Island and steal a social security cheque.
Police in New York arrested Grasso following Leslie's murder, and he would go onto confess to the murder of Hilda as well.
After being charged, Grasso pleaded guilty to both murders and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison in 1992.
Grasso would later be moved on to death row in Oklahoma for his murder of Hilda.
Prisoners on death row are entitled to a last meal before being taken out to be killed.
While there are stories of lavish and indulgent last meals, in reality, there are rules in place for what prisoners can request.
For example, alcohol and tobacco are mostly denied, though not always, and in the US states also have spending limits.
As for Grasso, he had quite the appetite for his order, tucking in to two dozen clams and mussels, half a dozen spare ribs, and a double cheeseburger from Burger King.
This was washed down with two strawberry milkshakes, with half a pumpkin pie with strawberries for pudding.
Then came the grand finale - a tin of SpaghettiOs with meatballs.
But Grasso had one complaint about his last meal - his SpaghettiOs were substituted for regular spaghetti.
This clearly meant something to the convicted killer, who gave four statements to the media.
The first was rather cryptic, with the killer saying: "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."
He then went on to quote TS Eliot, and recite a poem he had written about his impending fate.
Finally, in the fourth release, he revealed what had been troubling him, saying: "I did not get my SpaghettiOs. I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this."
Sheriff Stanley Glanz of Tulsa County described Grasso's death by lethal injection as 'very peaceful', taking around seven minutes.