Deadly Killer “Pee Wee” Gaskins
By James Donahue
If ever there was a child that should never have been brought into this world it was Donald Henry “Pee Wee” Gaskins, Jr.
Gaskins was one of a string of illegitimate and neglected children born to Eulea Parrott in Florence County, South Carolina, in 1933. When a year old he drank a bottle of kerosene that caused brain damage. He suffered from convulsions and night terrors during his childhood years.
Because he was small for his age, Gaskins earned the nick-name “Pee Wee.” It was said he never heard his real first name, Donald, until his first court appearance. This was after he and some other boys gang-raped a young girl and committed a string of robberies.
Gaskins was sent to reform school where he was raped by the other inmates. He was arrested again in 1953 after attacking a teenage girl with a hammer and sentenced to six years in prison. When an inmate attempted to rape him Gaskins was prepared. He cut the throat of his attacker. Consequently he was sentenced to serve an additional three years behind bars.
He escaped from prison in 1955 by hiding in the back of a garbage truck. He fled to Florida and took a job with a traveling carnival. Authorities caught up with him, however, and Gaskins went back to prison.
After his release this time, Pee Wee began a period of serious crime. He began committing burglaries then was arrested again for raping a 12-year-old girl. After his parole in 1968 Gaskins began his killing spree. He tortured and killed a female hitch hiker in 1969. After this he began driving around in the southern states, picking up hitch hikers and killing them. He later confessed to using a variety of ways to kill his victims that included stabbing, shooting, suffocation, mutilation. He even cannibalized some of them.
He claimed to have killed between 80 and 90 victims during this period. The numbers have never been confirmed.
Gaskins’ victims included his niece, Janice Kirby, when she was just 15 and her friend, Patricia Ann Alsbrook, 17. He beat the girls to death after trying to sexually assault them.
Police finally caught up with Gaskins after he boasted to an associate, Walter Neeley, about the killings and then committed two murders in Neeley’s presence. Gaskins was convicted of eight murders in South Carolina and sentenced to life in prison. But then he murdered a death row inmate named Rudolph Tyner and was sentenced to death.
Gaskins established two unique records by killing Tyner. He became the only person to ever murder a prisoner on death row. And he earned a reputation among other prison inmates as being “the meanest man in America.”
He was executed in the electric chair in 1991.
By James Donahue
If ever there was a child that should never have been brought into this world it was Donald Henry “Pee Wee” Gaskins, Jr.
Gaskins was one of a string of illegitimate and neglected children born to Eulea Parrott in Florence County, South Carolina, in 1933. When a year old he drank a bottle of kerosene that caused brain damage. He suffered from convulsions and night terrors during his childhood years.
Because he was small for his age, Gaskins earned the nick-name “Pee Wee.” It was said he never heard his real first name, Donald, until his first court appearance. This was after he and some other boys gang-raped a young girl and committed a string of robberies.
Gaskins was sent to reform school where he was raped by the other inmates. He was arrested again in 1953 after attacking a teenage girl with a hammer and sentenced to six years in prison. When an inmate attempted to rape him Gaskins was prepared. He cut the throat of his attacker. Consequently he was sentenced to serve an additional three years behind bars.
He escaped from prison in 1955 by hiding in the back of a garbage truck. He fled to Florida and took a job with a traveling carnival. Authorities caught up with him, however, and Gaskins went back to prison.
After his release this time, Pee Wee began a period of serious crime. He began committing burglaries then was arrested again for raping a 12-year-old girl. After his parole in 1968 Gaskins began his killing spree. He tortured and killed a female hitch hiker in 1969. After this he began driving around in the southern states, picking up hitch hikers and killing them. He later confessed to using a variety of ways to kill his victims that included stabbing, shooting, suffocation, mutilation. He even cannibalized some of them.
He claimed to have killed between 80 and 90 victims during this period. The numbers have never been confirmed.
Gaskins’ victims included his niece, Janice Kirby, when she was just 15 and her friend, Patricia Ann Alsbrook, 17. He beat the girls to death after trying to sexually assault them.
Police finally caught up with Gaskins after he boasted to an associate, Walter Neeley, about the killings and then committed two murders in Neeley’s presence. Gaskins was convicted of eight murders in South Carolina and sentenced to life in prison. But then he murdered a death row inmate named Rudolph Tyner and was sentenced to death.
Gaskins established two unique records by killing Tyner. He became the only person to ever murder a prisoner on death row. And he earned a reputation among other prison inmates as being “the meanest man in America.”
He was executed in the electric chair in 1991.