Thomas J. Grasso was convicted and sentenced to death for the separate 1990 strangulation murders of an 87-year-old woman in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a 81-year-old man in New York. Grasso targeted his elderly victims inside their residences during robbery sweeps, securing minimal amounts of cash and household electronics.

Grasso spent his final appellate cycle at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. His execution on March 20, 1995, achieved significant media attention because of a highly unusual public final statement focusing explicitly on a minor culinary mistake made by the prison kitchen team.

Grasso submitted a texturally varied, complex menu layout combining premium fresh seafood elements with processed canned items:

The Oklahoma State Penitentiary kitchen successfully prepared and delivered almost the entire elaborate spread, but struggled to locate the requested canned brand. Intending to fulfill the order structurally, kitchen staff prepared a fresh bowl of standard spaghetti and meatballs instead.

Grasso utilized his official final statement to the press to air this grievance, stating clearly: **”I did not get my SpaghettiOs, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this.”** Behavioral analysts highlight this statement as a profound example of extreme psychological entitlement, where an offender uses their last public moments to fixate entirely on a minor childhood comfort food detail rather than addressing their victims.