Donald Henry Gaskins, also known as Pee Wee, was born in Florence County SC on March 13, 1933 to Eulea Parrott, but his father is unknown. Donald got the name Pee Wee when he was younger. He was small and skinny and the kids teased an bullied him. (Just for a frame of reference, when he was an adult he was only 5’4” (or for our non-Americans 1.63 m) and weighted 130 lbs (59 kg). Because of his small stature, they called him Pee Wee. He fought in school daily and came home to where his step dad constantly beat him and his mother neglecting him.
His mother didn’t care about him so much so that when he was one, he drank a bottle of kerosene. This would cause him to have periodic seizures until he was 3 when they finally stopped.
All of the bullying and abuse prompted him to quit school at only 11 years old. Through all of this though, Pee Wee was described as funny, friendly, and the life of the party.
At the same age, he started working on cars at a garage near his house. Damn imagine an 11 year old getting a job working on cars. My 11 year old was spoiled with how many gaming systems, computers, and a mother as her personal maid. While working there he met two boys named Danny and Marsh who had both left school and was around the same age as him. They banded together and called themselves “The Trouble Trio” and decided to start going out and causing some mayhem. They would pick up prostitutes (11 year olds?!), robbed houses, and even raped little boys. WTF?! They would threaten the boys with death if they went to the police so the boys never told.
One day they, 11 YEAR OLD FREAKING BOYS, were caught gang raping Marsh’s little sister. Marsh’s parents beat the boys bloody as punishment. That’s how they did it back in the day; the village raised your kids. I bet if this happened now, someone would sue the parents EVEN THOUGH THEIR CHILD just participated in gang raping the other parent’s child.
Anyway, a little while after that, Danny and Marsh moved away.
That didn’t stop Pee Wee though, he kept robbing homes by himself.
In 1946, when he was 13, he was in the middle of robbing a house when a girl who lived there caught him in the act. She tried to stop him by hitting him with an ax, but instead of stopping, he turned and grabbed the ax from him. They fought, he got the ax from her, and hacked her in the head and arm with it. Then he ran from the scene of the crime. She ended up surviving and told the police who did this to her. Pee Wee was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and intent to kill. Remember I said his mom neglected him? Well let me give you another idea of just how much she didn’t pay attention to him. While in court, when the judge called his name “Donald Gaskins”, this was the first time in his life that he’d ever heard his name. So it was now, as far back as he could remember at least, that he learned his name wasn’t Pee Wee.
The judge sent him to the South Carolina Industrial School for White Boys in Florence, where he was sentenced to stay until he turned 18 – so that was 5 years.
When he arrived to the reform school, and because of his small size, he was almost immediately attacked and raped. When in the crap is wrong with people?! And where are the adults who are supposed to be watching all of these children. Anyway, he spent the majority of his time in the reform school trading sex for protection or trying to escape.
At some point, he finally escaped from the school and got involved with a traveling carnival. There he got married to a 13 year old girl, but after some time, decided to go back to the school and finish out his sentence. I wonder what changed his mind.
In 1951, when he was 18, he was released from the school. He then started working on a tobacco plantation and continued with his illegal activities. He and a partner would sell their services to local tobacco farmers. Their services was to burn their bars so that they could collect the insurance money – so basically insurance fraud. Eventually he was caught because there were too many times when a fire would happen and Pee Wee’s name was someone involved. So one day, the daughter of the guy he worked for decided to ask him about the barn fires. He had no answer so as a rebuttal, he bust her in the head with a hammer he had in his hand and split her skull.
Of course he was arrested. I mean, wouldn’t it have been easier just being POSSIBLY arrested for the fraud? Where was the logic in this? So he went to the South Carolina Penitentiary for 5 years for assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder – the second of the same charge in his life – and he’s only 18!
While he was in prison, he committed his first murder, while also gaining the respect of his fellow inmates, by killing the most feared man in the prison. You know what they say in the movies find the biggest, scariest, craziest man in prison and take him out so that you would be considered the most feared, biggest, scariest, craziest person in prison. I guess it’s true? When he was asked why he did it, he said it was in self-defense, but he still got an extra 3 years added on to his sentence for involuntary manslaughter.
In 1955, his wife filed for divorce. What, you forgot he’d been married to a 13 year old since he was 13? By this time they were both 22. Anyway, Pee Wee wasn’t having it. He hid in the back of a garbage truck, broke out of prison, and headed to Florida. Once in FL, he went back to work for a traveling carnival. What’s it with him and these carnivals? I guess maybe it’s easy to get that job and probably paid him under the table.
Shortly after this he remarried, but that lasted only 2 weeks. Then he got into a relationship with a woman named Betty Gates. Betty told Pee Wee that she had a brother she needed to bail out of jail and if he would come with her. Pee Wee said sure and they headed up to TN, got her brother out, and headed back to FL. Once back in FL, it became clear that this guy wasn’t actually Betty’s brother, instead it was her husband. AND surprise surprise, not only that, but he’d broken out of jail and they’d just helped him do it.
After a short time, they were both rearrested and Pee Wee received an extra 9 month sentence for aiding the escape of a prisoner. I don’t know why that’s funny to me, but it’s hilarious. He didn’t even know he was helping someone escape but he gets in trouble for it anyway.
In August 1961, he was paroled and went back to SC. Right after he got out he said “back to work” and went right back to committing burglaries and selling stolen property. He stayed out of jail by working with a traveling minister as his driver and assistant. This actually helped him stealthily go from town to town robbing homes.
In 1962, a year after he was released from prison, he was arrested again for – you’ll never believe this – or maybe you will based on his track record he was arrested for the statutory rape of a 12 year old girl. While awaiting sentencing, Pee Wee left the state and fled to NC in a stolen car. My question is, why was known felon out of jail while awaiting sentencing? In NC, he met and married a 17 year old. They moved to GA and at some point she decided that she wanted to turn him in for statutory rape. He was arrested and went to Columbia Penitentiary for 8 years.
He was released in November 1968 and vowed that he would never return to prison again.
After he got out, he moved to Sumter, South Carolina, and started working for a roofing company.
Almost one year after he was released from prison, in September 1969, he picked up a blonde, female hitchhicker in NC and propositioned her for sex. According to him, she laughed at him, which made him angry so he pulled over and beat her unconscious. Then he raped her, sodomized, tortured her, and then took her to a swamp. At the swamp, he weighted her body down so that it would sink. Mind you, she was still alive so she drowned.
“All I could think about is how I could do anything I wanted to her.” He would later state in his memoirs.
In November 1970, In Sumter, Pee Wee killed his own niece, Janice Kirby, who was 15 at the time, and her 17 year old friend Patricia Ann Alsbrook. According to him, he was pissed off at them for using drugs so he decided the best course was not to talk to them and educate them, but to beat them to death. Others said that the reason he killed them was because he was trying to sexually assult them. I don’t know what it is, but I more believe that.
In March 1971, Pee Wee poisoned a 20 year old woman named Martha Ann Dicks. He says it was because she was a drug dealer who supplied his neice and her friend with drugs, but others would allege that it was because she’d told Pee Wee that he was the father of her unborn child. Yes, you heard that correctly – he POISONED a pregnant woman who said the child was his.
In June 1973 Pee Wee’s friend Ddoreen Dempsey had been living with his other friend, Johnny Sellers and his brothers Carl Sellers in North Charleston, SC. They decided to bring her to Pee Wee’s house in Prospect and leave her there to talk to him about staying for a shot time while she was pregnant. However, known overt racist Pee Wee became enranged when he found out she was preganant with her second child for a black man. He decided to rape her and then take her and her 2 year old daughter to his backyard where he drowned them both in his pond. Oh wait, did I say both? I meant to say he drowned all 3 of them, the mother, the 2 year old, and the unborn baby. I blame him and his friends for this. If you know your friend is a racist, why would you leave this woman on his doorstep?
In June 1974, Pee Wee’s friend Johnny Sellers (remember him from 1973?) asked Pee Wee to pay him some money he owed him for the sale of a stolen boat. Instead, Pee Wee desided to kill him by shooting him in the back of the head. After this, he stabbed Johnny’s girlfriend, 22 year old Jessie Ruth Judy to death because he thought that she would have told the police about their criminal activities and the fact that he murdered Johnny. Honestly, I can’t say that I feel sorry for Johnny.
In February 1975, Pee Wee was paid $1500 by Suzanne Kipper Owens and john Owns to murder 45 year old Silas Barnwell Yates. They wanted him dead because of some kind of dispute. Now forensics showed that he had been killed by a slit throat, but Pee Wee said he killed him with a “karate chop” to the neck. Yeeaaa I’m pretty sure forensics could tell the difference between a slith thoat and one that simply had a karate chop to it.
On April 10, 1975 Pee Wee stabbed Dianne Bellamy to death and shot her boyfriend Avery Leroy Howard. She was the estranged wife of Walter Neeley who was one of Pee Wee’s clostest friends and someone who worked with him in the crime world. She was killed because she’d threateened to go to police and tell them that Pee Wee was allowing teenagers to have sex in his house. Avery was killed because he’d asked for money to help pay his attorneys and legal fees after he was arrested for fruad and auto theft.
At some point between April and October, Pee Wee murdered 13 year old Kim Ghelkins by stabbing her to death. He said he’d done this to stop her from telling police that he’d moved her from North Charleston and had been basically pimped out for sex by Pee Wee. Not to mention he was sexually assaulting her as well.
On October 10, 1975 Pee Wee murdered both of Dianne Bellamy’s bothers – 27 year old Dennis Bellamy and 15 year old John Henry Knight – by shooting them back to back in the back of their heads. Pee Wee had promised to pay Dennis for stolen guns and when Dennis asked for his money, Pee Wee said he would just return the guns. He told Dennis the guns were in the woods behind his house and “just follow me” and was murdered.
On November 14, 1975 Pee Wee was finally arrested. After Kim Ghelkins went missing, investigators started looking at Pee Wee and, after searching his home, found some of Kim’s clothes. Pee Wee was indicted for “contributing tot he delinquency of a minor.” His friend and associate, Walter Neeley (remember him) got picked up for questioning. During questioning, Walter got nervous and sang like a bird. Wow the criminal steel ones on this one. He confessed to police that he knew of Pee Wee kiling Dennis Bellamy and Johnny Knight. He also told them that Pee Wee told him that he’d killed a bunch more people – and even ones listed as missing persons – during the last 5 years. He even sort of knew where some of them were buried. On December 4, 1975, Walter took police to some land near Pee Wee’s house where they discovered the bodies of 8 of his victims – Johnny Sellars, Jessie Ruth Judy, Avery Leroy Howard, Diane Bellamy Neely, John Henry Knight, Dennis Bellamy, Doreen Hope Dempsey and her child.
On April 27, 1976, both Pee Wee and Walter were charged with 8 counts of murder.
On May 24, 1976, Pee Wee was tried for one charge of murder (for Dennis Bellamy) and found guilty.
On May 28, 1976 he was sentenced to death and he confessed to the other seven murders to avoid additional death sentences. He was committed to the high security block at South Carolina Correctional Institution – the same prison he’d vowed never to go back to.
On September 12, 1982 Pee Wee killed again. 23 year old Rudolph Tyner was on death row because he’d been convited of robbing a convenience store and killing the store owners who were husband and wife. Rudolph was in the process of appealing his death sentence. Well the store owners’ son, Tony Cimo, hired Pee Wee for $2000 to kill Rudolph because “the appeals process was taking too long.” Pee Wee was able to secure plastic explosives with a blasting cap, a long wire, and a radio speaker so that he could design a fake intercom speaker. He gave it to Rudolph and asked him to put it to his ear to see if the intercom would work. When Rudolph put it to his ear, Pee Wee detonated the bomb. Pee Wee had tried to kill Rudolph several times before by putting poison in his food and drink, but he would be come sick instead of dying. This is why he opted for the explosive. After this, Pee Wee was named the “Meanest Man in America.”
Pee Wee later said that “The last thing he [Tyner] heard was me laughing.” Pee Wee was tried for Rudolph’s murder and sentenced to death. This was the first time in SC’s history that a white man was sentened to death for the murder of a black man.
Tony Cimo was arrested and charged with murder, but he pleaded guilty and down to a lesser charge. He was sentenced to 8 years in prison and was paroled in 1986. (So he only served 4 years)
Now, you thought this was the end? No. While on death row, Pee Wee claimed to have committed between 100 to 110 murders. He said that he murdered a 13 year old named Margaret Cuttino who was the daughter of SC State Senator james Cuttion Jr. This was disputed as there was no evidence to support these claims.
He also stated that throughout his life he had feeling that forced him to do bad things; to break the law and murder. He called them “them aggravated and bothersome feelings.”
Between 1969 and 1975 investigators had discovered the remains of girls and boys along the Carolina highways. Pee Wee said that he was the one who committed these murders and called them his “weekend recreation”
Although he claimed these murders – what are being called the “coastal kills” none of this has ever been confirmed. Later on, in his memoirs, Pee Wee claimed to have committed these coastal kills every six weeks, but then contradicts his claim in a later book by saying that he “felt the overpowering need to seek out and commit a coastal kill by the tenth date of each calendar month.”
He also named three other murders that he classified to be among his “serious murders”: a black couple he said was named “Eddie and Bertie Brown” (aged 24 and 20 years old). He claimed to have murdered them in 1972 and buried them “behind the Tenant House” (however this house was never precisely pinpointed). The third person was a 40 year old man named Horace Jones who he claimed he murdered in 1974.
He also claimed to have murdered 3 people on the highway when their van broke down on the highway. He called Walter to drive the victim’s van to his garage, repaint it, and sell it.
Pee Wee stated, in his memoirs, that his “process” of rape, torture, and murder was a “vision” into the “bothersome feelings” he’d been experiencing throughout his life. He felt that he needed to satisfy these feelings and that’s why he turned to murder. He stated that he would keep his injured victims alive for days. There would be times that he would cannibalize their severed body parts and make them watch him eat the parts or join in the eating under threat of death.
He claimed that he tried to keep them alive for as long as possible. He also confessed to killing his victims using different varieties of methods including stabbing, strangling, suffocation, shooting and mutilation. Also, whenever he killed men, he usually castrated them too.
The issue with all of this is that there is no evidence to support any of the claims. The only murders that have hard evidence are 15 victims as their bodies had been found and identified.
In November 1976, the Supreme Court overturned the death pentaly and Pee Wee’s sentence was commuted to life in prison with seven consecutive life sentences.
However, in 1978, the death penalty was restored – which wouldn’t have affected Pee Wee if he hadn’t carried out that hit in 1982.
During the last months of his life, Pee Wee worked with an author named Wilton Earl on a book entitled Final Truth that talked about the “bothersome” feelings he had and the murders he commited. The book was published in 1993.
On September 6, 1991, the day of his execution, Pee Wee slit his wrists in a bid to commit suicide. However, it didn’t work. The guards caught him, sent him to the medical wing, bandgaged him up, and took him right on to the electric chair.
His last words were “I’ll let my lawyers talk for me. I’m ready to go” and he was electrocuted and died at 1:10am.
And that is the horrible life of Donald Henry Gaskins.
What did you think about this case? Do you think drinking the kerosene at 1 years old turned Pee Wee into this person or do you think it was the neglect and abuse?
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