Donald Henry Gaskins
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pee Wee Gaskins | |
|---|---|
 Mug shot of "Pee Wee" Gaskins |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name: | Donald Henry Parrott, Jr. |
| Alias(es): | Meanest Man in America, The Redneck Charles Manson, Junior Parrott |
| Born: | March 31, 1933 Florence County, South Carolina |
| Died: | September 6, 1991 |
| Cause of death: | Electric chair |
| Penalty: | Death |
| Killings | |
| Number of victims: | 9 - 100? |
| Span of killings: | 1953 through September 1982 |
| Country: | U.S. |
| State(s): | South Carolina |
| Date apprehended: | December 1975 |
Donald Henry "Pee Wee" Gaskins, Jr. (March 31, 1933 - September 6, 1991)[1] was an American serial killer, possibly connected to over 100 murders.
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[edit] Early life
Born in Manning, South Carolina, Gaskins spent most of his youth in and out of reform school, and later prison. Gaskins' small, slight build (5' 4" tall, hence his nickname) made him a target for physical and sexual abuse in prison. He eventually killed a highly regarded prisoner while the man was on the toilet, transforming him into a jailhouse legend for the rest of his stay.
As a youth, he hit a woman in the head with a hatchet and left her for dead; she survived.[2]
[edit] Murders
In 1969, after being released from prison, Gaskins continued killing.[citation needed] He made a distinction between people he found while driving around the roadways of the American South: people that he killed for pleasure, and familiar people that he killed for specific reasons. Gaskins also had a thriving business fencing stolen cars. He operated his fencing business out of several properties around The Carolinas, where he murdered most of his victims. His other favorite hunting grounds were the coastal highways, where every six weeks, he went hunting to quell his feelings of "bothersome-ness."
He confessed of 100 murders[3], but law enforcement sources found it impossible to verify all of his claims. In his autobiography, Final Truth (published posthumously), Gaskins wrote that he had "a special mind" that gave him "permission to kill."
Gaskins' first victims were his niece Janice Kirby and her friend Patricia Ann Alsobrook whom he beat to death in Sumter, South Carolina in 1970. When the police found a piece of Alsobrook's clothing in his rented trailer, Gaskins was asked why he killed her; he responded by saying, "...it was over an argument about their drug abuse". He was widely known for being a pedophile and rapist[4]
On December 4, 1975, Gaskins led police to land he owned in Prospect, where police dug up numerous[quantify] bodies of Gaskins' victims. Gaskins killed children and at least one baby. He crushed their necks, cut their throats, stabbed, poisoned, drowned them, beat them to death with his fists, and shot them execution style.[4]
[edit] Imprisonment
Before 1976, Gaskins was on death row, but his sentences were commuted to life in prison when the South Carolina General Assembly's 1974 death sentence ruling was changed to meet the United States Supreme Court guidelines for the death penalty in other states.[4]
In the early 1980s, Gaskins was named the "Meanest Man in America" for killing another inmate while in maximum security, a crime for which he was sentenced to death. While in prison, Gaskins was hired by Tony Cimo to kill Rudolph Tyner. Tyner was on death row for killing Bill and Myrtie Moon, Cimo's parents, with a 12-gauge shotgun in the store they owned in the Burgess community. Gaskins first attempts at killing Tyner involved sprinkling poison on his food which only made him sick. Then Gaskins rigged a device similar to a portable radio and told Tyner this would allow them to talk between cells. When Tyner followed Gaskins instructions to hold it to his ear and plug it in, it exploded and killed Tyner.[4] Gaskins later said, "The last thing he [Tyner] heard was me laughing."
Gaskins was tried for the murder of Rudolph Tyner and sentenced to death.
[edit] Death
Gaskins was executed on September 6, 1991 at 1:10 a.m. He was the fourth person to die in the electric chair after the death penalty was reinstated in South Carolina in 1977.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Donald "Pee Wee" Gaskins (1933 - 1991) - Find A Grave Memorial
- ^ Rhyne, Nancy (1990). More Murder in the Carolinas. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, 154. ISBN 0-89587-075-4.
- ^ Donald "Pee Wee" Gaskins - Part 3
- ^ a b c d e Shuler, Rita. 2006. Carolina Crimes: Case Files of a Forensic Photographer. The History Press: Charleston, SC.
