Donald Gaskins

(a.k.a. “Junior Parrott” or “Pee Wee”)

“I HAVE WALKED THE SAME PATH AS GOD, BY TAKING LIVES AND MAKING OTHERS AFRAID, I BECAME GOD'S EQUAL. THROUGH KILLING OTHERS, I BECAME MY OWN MASTER. THROUGH MY OWN POWER I COME TO MY OWN REDEMPTION.” -GASKINS

Background: Born March 13, 1933 in Florence County, South Carolina.

He never knew his father.

His mother lived on and off with many different men. Many of whom beat and abused him without any interference from his mother.

He was left to raise himself through most of his childhood.

His mother remarried and his step father beat him and his four siblings.

He got his nicknames “Pee Wee” and “Junior Parrott” from his small stature and short height.

He was bullied in school and was constantly punished by teachers.

He dropped out of school at the age of eleven.

He worked on cars at his family farm and his hatred for people, especially women, began to form.

He met two other boys at work and their crime spree began. They called themselves the “Trouble Trio”

He and the two boys were caught gang-raping the one boy’s younger sister and their parents tied them up and beat them.

The two boys left and Gaskins continued on his own.

Background:

He and the two boys were caught gang-raping the one boy’s younger sister and their parents tied them up and beat them. In 1955 his wife divorces him and he breaks out of prison and marries another woman but it only lasts two weeks. He is arrested and sent back to prison again. He was released from prison in August of 1961 and restarted his crime spree. He married a third time in 1962 but he was then arrested for the rape of a 12 year old girl but escaped. He met and married a third time to a seventeen year-old but she turned him into the police and he was arrested for

statutory rape. From there he committed more and more murders. For the rest of the crimes he was convicted of see the crime chart and

the slides on his most significant crimes. He was sent to reform school where he was raped by other boys and got protection from one of the boys there in exchange

for sex with him. He was often beaten for trying to escape and fought with the guards so he was sent to a state mental hospital. He was sent back to reform school but ran away and joined a circus where he married a 13 year old girl and. He then wet back to reform school again until he was released in 1951 on his 18th birthday. He went to work on a tobacco farm and started committing insurance fraud for a fee by burning down farms to get the

money. He attacked a girl who accused him of this and he was sent to prison where he was once again taken advantage of

sexually in exchange for protection.

Crimes Accused of Committingcrime date victims punishment

He was interrupted burglarizing the home of a girl he knew.

1946Gaskin’s age- 13

He hit the young girl with an ax in the head and arm.

Found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and intent to kill. Sent to South Carolina Industrial School for Boys until he was 18.

Cracked a girl’s head open with a hammer.

1953 His employer’s daughter who questioned him about a crime she suspected him of committing.

Found guilty and given a five year sentence for assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder at the Central Correctional Institution.

Manslaughter. *Not Provided Slit the throat of fellow inmate Hazel Brazell to gain a reputation in the prison.

Six months of solitary confinement added to his sentence.

Aiding in the escape of another prisoner and knifing another prisoner.

*Not Provided Husband of Bettie Gates. Nine months added to his initial sentence once he was returned to prison after his escape.

Driving a stolen cars across state lines.

*Not Provided *No Victim Three years in federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia.

Statutory rape. Paroled November, 1968

His seventeen-year-old wife. Six years at Columbia Penitentiary.

Murder and burgalry. Charged-April 27, 1976

Diane Neeley, Avery Howard, Jessie Ruth Judy, Johnny Sellers, John H. Knight, Doreen Dempsey Geddings and her two-year-old daughter Robin Michelle Dempsey

Life sentence for the murder of Dennis Bellamy.Second life sentence for the murder of Silas Barnwell Yates.Additional eight life sentences, seven for murder and one for burglary.Death sentence for the murder of Rudolph Tyner.

Criminal Terms Definitions

Assault- to make a physical assault on.

Manslaughter- legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder.

Solitary Confinement- form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner and has been cited as an additional measure of protection for the inmate. This form of punishment is also given for violations of prison regulations.

Most Recent Crimes That Led to His Final Sentence

Gaskins claimed to have killed over one hundred people in his memoirs but few of those were ever proven.

Gaskins tortured and killed a 13 year-old girl named Kim Ghelkins. Police had enough evidence to link Gaskins to her disappearance and he was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

A man named Walter Neely was pressured by police and he broke down and took them to Gaskins personal grave yard.

Neely was an ex-con who had previously helped Gaskins dispose of bodies and Gaskins trusted him as a friend.

The bodies of Sellars, Judy, Avery Howard, Diane Neely, Johnny Knight, Dennis Bellamy, Doreen Dempsey and her child were found in the graves. On April 27, 1976, Gaskins and Walter Neely were charged with eight counts of murder. May 24, 1976, a jury found him guilty of murdering Dennis Bellamy, he got the death sentence. He later confessed to the additional seven murders to avoid additional death sentences.

Convictions and Sentences

Between 1969 and 1975,Gaskins killed thirteen people, including seven women, five men and a two-year-old girl. These were only ones he was convicted of but he claimed there were many more.

Gaskins’s first murder trial resulted in the death sentence for the murder of Dennis Bellamy. The U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional and therefore Gaskins now just had a lifelong sentence.

Gaskins was also found guilty in the trial of the murder of Silas Barnwell Yates and got a second life sentence.

During his third murder trial, in exchange for a written confession of the thirteen murders he was known to have committed, Gaskins was given an additional eight life sentences, seven for murder and one for burglary.

In this trial, he plead guilty to the murders of Diane Neeley, Avery Howard, Jessie Ruth Judy, Johnny Sellers, John H. Knight, Doreen Dempsey Geddings and her two-year-old daughter Robin Michelle Dempsey. He also confessed to the murders of Kim Ghelkins, Patricia Alsbrook, Janice Kirby and Martha “Clyde” Dicks, but he was not indicted for these murders.

Final Crime That Sealed His Fate

Gaskins killed one last time in 1982.  Tony Cimo of Murell’s Inlet hired Gaskins to assassinate the death row inmate Rudolph Tyner, who was on death row for the murder of Tony Cimo’s parents, Bill and Myrtle Moon. Tyner was killed instantly when, at Gaskins’s request, he placed a bomb disguised as an intercom to his ear and Gaskins detonated it.

He was given the death sentence.

During the last months of his life, Gaskins spent time working with author Wilton Earl on his book, Final Truth which was published in 1993. In the book, Gaskins spent a lot of his time talking about his murders and his feeling of something "bothersome" inside of him throughout his life.

On the day of his execution, Gaskins slashed his wrists in an effort to postpone his execution. With stitched arms, he was placed in the electric chair and was pronounced dead by electrocution, at 1:05 a.m. on Sept. 6, 1991.

Sociological Theory

Differential association theory is what I believe Gaskins falls under. In this theory criminal behavior is learned through the people around them such as family members or friends. They learn the same values as these people and they become their own. Gaskins grew up in an abusive environment with many men who would beat him. He was left behind by society so he had to make his own way. Teachers didn’t like him and he was bullied so he dropped out of school at the age of eleven. This is when he really fell into crime.

He made friends with other boys his age who got him into burglarizing homes and sexually assaulting young boys and the ones younger sister. He grew up committing crime because that’s what the people around him did. He was put into reform school at a very young age and was raped and beaten by other boys and this just made him even worse. He was also in and out of prison throughout most of his adult life. He was very mentally unstable and trusted few people because of this. He hated women and he got joy out of kidnapping, torturing and sodomizing the bodies of his victims.

Cultural References

Books: He has an autobiography called The Final Truth.

There is also a video on him called Hunting Humans.

Television: His story was shown on Crime TV.