It’s one of those stories that sticks to a city like a permanent stain. You’re sitting there in a velvet-tufted booth, surrounded by stained glass and dark wood, eating Mizithra cheese and browned butter, and someone leans over to whisper about the body in the basement. People call it the Old Spaghetti Factory murder mystery, and if you grew up anywhere near San Jose, California, you’ve heard the rumors. Most of them are wrong.
The reality isn't a ghost story. It's a grim piece of 1970s history that involved a cold-blooded execution and a manhunt that spanned years.
The Night Everything Changed at San Pedro Square
July 9, 1974. A Tuesday.
The San Jose location of The Old Spaghetti Factory on West Santa Clara Street was a local staple, even back then. It was housed in the historic Knickerbocker Building, a place that felt more like a museum than a pasta house. But after the doors locked and the last customers headed home, the atmosphere shifted from family-friendly to nightmarish.
Two employees, 20-year-old Robert "Bobby" Sasan and 18-year-old Thomas "Tom" Shaughnessy, were finishing their shifts. They were just kids, basically. Bobby was a cook; Tom was a busboy. They were doing the mundane closing tasks we’ve all done—wiping down counters, bagging trash, thinking about what they’d do with their tips. They never made it out of the building.
The robbery was brutal. It wasn't a "heist" like you see in movies with clever disguises and snappy dialogue. It was messy and violent. The perpetrators forced the young men into the basement, near the walk-in refrigerator. They didn't just take the money from the safe. They took two lives. Both Sasan and Shaughnessy were shot in the back of the head, execution-style.
The discovery the next morning sent shockwaves through the community. San Jose wasn't exactly a sleepy village in '74, but this level of calculated cruelty at a popular restaurant felt different. It felt personal.
The Investigation and the "Professional" Hit
Police were initially baffled. There wasn't a lot of physical evidence. No DNA testing back then, obviously. You had fingerprints if you were lucky and ballistics if you found the gun. The motive was clearly robbery—a few thousand dollars was missing—but the "why" of the killings haunted the investigators. Why kill two witnesses who likely couldn't have identified you anyway?
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The Old Spaghetti Factory murder mystery stayed cold for a frustrating amount of time. Locals started telling stories. Was it the mob? Was it a disgruntled former employee? The restaurant became a focal point for every urban legend in the South Bay. Some people started saying the basement was haunted, but the real horror was that the killers were still walking around.
Eventually, the break came. It wasn't a high-tech forensic breakthrough. It was old-fashioned snitching.
Enter the Killers: Reaves and Slatten
It turned out the killers weren't some high-level criminal syndicate. They were two men named Douglas Reaves and James Slatten.
Reaves was the trigger man. He was eventually caught and convicted in 1977, three years after the blood was scrubbed off the basement floor. Slatten was his accomplice. The trial revealed a chilling lack of remorse. They had planned the robbery, knowing the layout of the restaurant, and decided beforehand that there would be no survivors left to testify.
Reaves was sentenced to life in prison. But because California law and sentencing guidelines have shifted so much over the decades, the "life" sentence became a point of contention for the victims' families for almost 50 years.
Why the Story Never Dies
Honestly, the reason this case stays in the public consciousness isn't just because of the crime itself. It’s because of the location. The Old Spaghetti Factory brand relies on "shabby chic" Victorian aesthetics. They love old buildings with "character." In San Jose, that character happened to include a double homicide.
You’ve probably heard the ghost stories. Staff members over the years have claimed to see a "ghostly busboy" or heard footsteps in the basement when the building was empty. Paranormal investigators have crawled through that basement with EMF meters and digital recorders more times than anyone can count.
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But here is the nuance: conflating a tragedy with a "spooky attraction" is something the families of Sasan and Shaughnessy have had to live with for half a century. While diners are looking for a thrill, two families are remembering the brothers and sons who never came home.
The 2010s Parole Battles
The "mystery" part of the story shifted from "who did it" to "will he get out."
Douglas Reaves became one of the longest-serving inmates in the California system. Every few years, his name would pop up in the news because of a parole hearing. This is where the Old Spaghetti Factory murder mystery gets really heavy. Each hearing forced the Shaughnessy and Sasan families to fly to the prison, sit across from the man who murdered their loved ones, and argue why he should stay behind bars.
In 2015, the parole board actually recommended his release. The community was livid. Governor Jerry Brown eventually stepped in and overturned the decision, citing the "exceptional depravity" of the crimes.
Reaves eventually died in prison in 2017. He was 73. With his death, the legal chapter of the story finally closed, but the cultural obsession remained.
Fact-Checking the Common Myths
If you search for this case online, you’ll find a ton of misinformation. Let’s clear some of that up right now.
- Myth 1: It was a mob hit. No. It was a botched robbery by two opportunistic criminals who thought they could get away with it by killing the witnesses.
- Myth 2: The restaurant closed down. Nope. The San Jose location stayed open for decades after the murders. It only moved locations much later (to Almaden Expressway) due to development and lease issues in San Pedro Square, not because of the "curse."
- Myth 3: There were three victims. There were two. Bobby Sasan and Tom Shaughnessy. Sometimes people confuse this case with other restaurant robberies from the same era, but the OSF case was specifically two young men.
The Impact on San Jose's San Pedro Square
The Knickerbocker Building, where it all happened, is still there. It’s a beautiful piece of architecture. If you walk by it today, it’s hard to imagine the yellow police tape and the grief of 1974. San Pedro Square has transformed into a high-end dining and nightlife hub. The "murder mystery" has become a piece of local lore that tour guides mention in passing.
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But for the old-timers, the people who were in high school in San Jose in the mid-70s, it’s a marker of when the city lost a bit of its innocence. It was a reminder that even in a place where families go for celebratory dinners, the real world—and its darkest elements—can intrude.
How to Research the Case Further
If you’re someone who wants the raw data, you have to dig into the archives. The San Jose Mercury News covered the trial extensively from 1974 through 1977.
Look for the court records involving The People v. Douglas Reaves. You’ll see the clinical, cold descriptions of the ballistics and the safe’s contents. It’s a stark contrast to the "haunted restaurant" narratives found on TikTok or Reddit.
The nuance here is understanding that "true crime" isn't just entertainment. It’s a record of a community's trauma. When we talk about the Old Spaghetti Factory murder mystery, we are talking about two lives cut short for a couple of thousand dollars and a dark basement.
Actionable Steps for True Crime Researchers
If you're looking into cold cases or local history like this one, don't rely on ghost-hunting blogs. They often get names and dates wrong to fit a narrative. Instead, do this:
- Access Local Archives: Use the San Jose Public Library’s digital newspaper archive. Search specifically for "July 1974" and "Old Spaghetti Factory."
- Verify Parole Records: The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) often has public records regarding the status of high-profile inmates like Reaves, though older files may require a formal request.
- Respect the Families: If you find yourself in San Jose, remember that the "haunted" basement was a crime scene where real people suffered. Keep your research ethical.
- Cross-Reference: Always compare "paranormal" claims against the official police reports. You'll find that the "ghostly activity" often doesn't even happen in the same part of the building where the crime occurred.
The case is solved. The killers are dead. The "mystery" that remains is simply why some people are capable of such violence—and that’s a question no pasta house or ghost story can ever truly answer.