Thomas Grasso was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of Hilda Johnson
According to court documents Thomas Grasso would break into the home of 87 year old Hilda Johnson. Grasso would strangle the woman with Christmas lights before robbing the home
Thomas Grasso would also be convicted of the murder of 80 year old Leslie Holtz in New York
Thomas Grasso would be convicted and sentenced to death
Thomas Grasso would be executed by lethal injection on March 20 1995
Thomas Grasso Photos
Thomas Grasso Case
Thomas Joseph Grasso, the twice-convicted killer whose death wish drew national attention and led to the downfall of a governor, was executed early today.
Grasso, 32, was pronounced dead at 12:22 a.m., moments after receiving a lethal injection at Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
Grasso did not make a final statement.
Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz said: “It was very peaceful.
He gave no last words. He just went to sleep. … It was very quick. ” Glanz estimated the process took 5 to 7 minutes, and he said Grasso gasped four times before he died
Glanz said there were five people in the execution chamber, two were holding Bibles.
“When they opened the curtain the warden simply said, ‘Mr. Grasso is not going to make any last statements, so we will begin the execution. ‘ ” “The laws of the state of Oklahoma have been satisfied,” Gov. Frank Keating said in a prepared release. “My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Hilda Johnson, Grasso’s victim. ” There was no last-minute flurry of action by attorneys, no anticipation of a possible reprieve
The condemned man didn’t want one.
Grasso spent his last few hours doing what he had done the most at Oklahoma State Penitentiary – watching television.
Grasso talked to his attorney Johnie O’Neal by telephone shortly after their last visit in person
I gave him the TV listing for tonight. I think he was going to watch that John Goodman movie on TNT, ‘Kingfish,’ ” O’Neal said.
“We kind of looked at what was available and decided that was probably best. ” Their goodbye at 5 p.m. was “very emotional,” O’Neal said.
“I spent about five minutes very specifically saying goodbye to him” and thanking Grasso for the chance to represent him, he said
Grasso told him he would miss their conversations, O’Neal said.
The attorney wanted to return between 6 and 8 p.m., “but Thomas had prepared himself to say goodbye at that point. He asked us not to come back, so we didn’t,” O’Neal said.
Grasso again expressed remorse for his crimes, O’Neal said.
“I think he has redeemed himself as much as he can,” O’Neal said.
“He did express great sympathy for the victims’ families and stated that he wished he could go back and change things, not only because it would change his situation, but because it would change other people’s lives,” O’Neal said.
At midafternoon, Grasso released a prepared statement: “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. ” In response to media questions about how his day was going, Grasso said, “It is irrelevant. ” Then, at 8:25 p.m., Grasso said in another statement: “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. ” And at 10:05 p.m., the Corrections Department gave the media a poem Grasso had written, titled “A Visit With Mystery. ” Attorney General Drew Edmondson met late in the afternoon with the Warden Ron Ward and corrections Director Larry Fields
He said the only legal challenge came from a New York man.
Dismissed Friday by a federal judge, it was “a rather bizarre pleading and was not a realistic threat to the execution,” Edmondson said.
Outside the main gate at the penitentiary and at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City, death penalty opponents held candlelight vigils to protest the execution.
Edmondson said he understood why death penalty opponents might hold candlelight vigils.
“That’s altogether appropriate. But I think it’s also appropriate that candles be burned and that thoughts be held and prayers be said for the victims of this crime and others. ” Since 1992, Grasso has sought his own execution for the Christmas Eve 1990 slaying of Hilda Johnson, 87, of Tulsa.
Grasso spoke by telephone with his parents. They haven’t seen their son in years, and he has said he didn’t want them to see him in prison
Thomas Grasso was the first inmate executed for a Tulsa County crime in 35 years. Edward Williams was electrocuted in 1960 for a kidnapping.
It was the state’s fourth execution in five years. The others were Charles Troy Coleman on Sept. 10, 1990, Robyn Leroy Parks on March 10, 1992, and Olan Randle Robison on March 13, 1992.
Thomas Grasso was the 268th person executed in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
He was only the third white inmate executed for killing a black person during that period, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund reported.
Grasso’s confession to Johnson’s death came after his arrest in Staten Island, N.Y., for a similar murder in that state.
He said he strangled and bludgeoned Johnson during a robbery after knocking on her door and offering a Christmas present.
In his confession, Thomas Grasso said he didn’t originally intend to kill her, but he realized inside her home that she might recognize him and tell police.
Grasso’s wife, Lana Grooms, implicated him in Johnson’s death and in the July 3, 1991, murder of Leslie Holtz, 81, who lived in the same Staten Island apartment building as Grasso.
Tulsa County District Attorney David Moss, who was a witness at the execution, was asked what message Grasso’s death might send.
“Not much because this is a fella who has asked to be executed.
If it was one who was contesting it, and we had been able to move it through in a rapid manner, then I think he would have been more of a message. ” Asked if Thomas Grasso were getting the last laugh on the judicial system, Moss answered: “That depends on whether he’s made his peace with God or not. ” A New York judge gave Grasso a sentence of 20 years to life, prompting the killer to seek the death penalty for Johnson’s murder.
His death wish played a role in the November defeat of longtime New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.
Cuomo, a staunch death penalty opponent, demanded that Oklahoma officials return the killer.
Republican challenger George Pataki questioned why New York taxpayers should have to foot Grasso’s $25,000-a-year incarceration bill. After narrowly beating Cuomo, Pataki made good on a promise to return Grasso to death row.
Normally, condemned inmates are placed in a holding cell next to the execution chamber the morning before the execution. That cell has been home for Thomas Grasso since his return from Attica state prison in New York.
Thomas Grasso didn’t eat breakfast or lunch, apparently saving his appetite for the huge last meal he requested. The meal was served at 5:58 p.m. He had scaled down his original request and settled on a dozen steamed mussels; a double cheeseburger, with lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions; one strawberry milk shake; a lemon cut into wedges; half a pumpkin pie with whipped cream; and a mango. He had requested Spaghetti-Os but complained that he received spaghetti and meatballs instead