Carolina Stories; Pee Wee(cc)

The. Electricity was turned on to the electric chair at 104. It turned out that one of six. He was pronounced dead at 110. We have carried out this execution with as much humanity and dignity as possible. There are a lot of our dogs have been carried out in one hand. On September 6th 1991 the South Carolina Department of Corrections executed Donald Henry Gascons the murder and death row

inmate Rudolph Tiner Bye bye Jack again. Maybe I'm just trying to wrap my head in a lion's mouth. The jeering applause from spectators as his body was driven away seemed to end the saga that would forever leave its mark on the stage. But. Death didn't silence Gascons. Shortly after his execution the autobiography of the self-confessed murderer was published that would raise the level of horror beyond anyone's imagination. In final truth Gascons divulges his life story to writer Will general accounting for all his murders which he

claims to be over 110. Taunting biography quickly gained popularity indelibly tainting the region and leaving behind more questions than answers. Hello I'm Patty just we're taking this problem just outside the walls of s.c.i in Columbia to talk with

our guest author Wilton Earle. Mr. Al has written a number of works including his latest one entitled final truth not a biography of mass murderer or serial killer Donald P. Gaskins. I wrote the Gascons I receive all the permissions to have two interviews with him to discuss this idea. And when I met him I felt I was not interested in writing a book about him. I wanted to write. His perception of his life and we recorded all of our conversation was truly his story. His perception was nothing for me except probably as it turned out a one page preface and six pages of notes at the end. The rest of the words against any of my uncles or aunts didn't like they would take heed which are increased brail Rampal greeted by old goods which turned my back way up with the red stripes all over my body and laid it. My sister told them I had done it no matter what. If I had or had not they'd

be hell out of me. And that's the kind of treatment I got in a childhood. It's a pity Gasking say and with the publication of final truth Pee-Wee Gascons leave again in words and invoice the paperback version included this cassette recording which added texture to the books horrifying details. We do have many requests for. Feature stories. We Gascons. So I asked one of our authors to. Write up something on yes. And it turns out the only information that he was able to get at that time was from a book called The final truth. I started reading. The information story and was horrified at some of the things that he Gascons allegedly did. They were just. Cruel and. Inhuman.

Psychotic what seemed just a monster. And I thought to myself Can this person really have been so evil and Pee-Wee in that autobiography had posed himself as a serial killer. Serial killers are frequently psychopaths that aggrandize themselves all the time and. Lie continuously. I don't think Wilbur girl realized that it wasn't true. How would he know he is taping a person that had a very bad reputation in South Carolina as a killer. And so there was every reason for Wilton or to believe that this was true. There is the speculation by some of the family members that. Paisley was being given some money under the table. I don't know if this is true. He did say to one of the family members

that they wanted a juicy book and I'm going to give them a really juicy book. The autobiography is full of contradictions that start at the beginning with discrepancies that are simply a matter of public record. Gaskins was born with the name Junior Parad March 30 first 1933 in the small farming community of prospect of Florence County South Carolina. Like most of the residents there his family owned their own land but also worked on a more prosperous farm to make ends meet. His mother usually had him when I believe she was 26. He was one of Ultimately five children. She lived with her parents Louis and founding parents who were farmers. He grew up in this farm family. Decent people went to church good people. Worked very very long hours. All of them the women the man worked

very long hours and they were a close knit family. Then there was Pee-Wee's who believed that his father was a very prosperous well known and esteemed farmer an owner of a store named Henry Gascons who was married and had children. I don't know if that's true. Certainly he believe that it's possible that Henry Gascons believed that he was basically spoiled. He was so adorable and so precocious and so manipulative that they just loved him. So he may never have been spanked. Someone said that maybe you'll be spanked them once. So talks about abuse and stuff are baloney. He was disciplined and that was part of the problem is that he should have been disciplined and he wasn't and he got out of control because he

didn't have any boundaries set up for him. Now some things started to appear. By the time he went to kindergarten elementary school and I spoke to one of the women that taught in his school. And. By the time he went to kindergarten or first grade he. The abuse of animals was quite obvious. He would pull the leg off of the bullfrog and then you know see how it could jump. He would take a bird's nest and kill all the eggs. He would trap birds and murder them snap their heads off. Now this is an alarm bell. There was something wrong right from the beginning. As Gaskins grew up. So did his predisposition to violence crime. He was the leader of a small group of thugs who committed a number of break ins petty thefts in the community and even raped one of its members younger sister. A crime for which they

were all brutally whipped in 1947 at the age of 14. He attacked a neighbor girl with a hatchet allegedly for resisting his sexual advances. After bludgeoning he left the girls for dead in a ditch by the side of the road. Some passers by discovered her and rushed her to the hospital. That episode landed Gascons in the boys reformatory in Florence County. In final truth Gaskins claims he was repeatedly gang raped by the other boys and tried to murder one of his attackers by stabbing him multiple times after placing Gascons in solitary confinement. State psychologists determined there wasn't anything wrong with the violent youth other than just being plain mean. Escape from reformatories several times and got a job as a carnival hand before being apprehended and returned to the reform school. Finally at age 17 after one such as Gabe Gaskins marry the daughter of a Qarni which kept him from being

admitted back into the reformatory having spent most of his adolescence incarcerated. Gascons was now legally an adult. Rumors of his life of crime began circulating farmers wanting to collect insurance money by burning down their tobacco barns. Often enlisted his services but his propensity for sexual violence overshadowed all other activities. In 1952 Gaskins was sentenced to six years in the state prison for assault and attempted rape during his incarceration. Gascons claims that he was raped by one of the bosses among the inmates hierarchy. He took revenge by stabbing the inmate to death in front of prisoners and guards alike. The murder garnered him an additional eight years in prison but more importantly to Gascons it gave him the respect and power within the penal system he needed to stay alive and be in control. He was paroled in 1961 only to be arrested shortly after the rape of a

13 year old girl. During his arraignment Gascons escaped from custody by jumping out of a second story window at the Florence County Courthouse injuring his leg in the process after stealing a car from the parking lot. He eluded police for days before he was apprehended. This time he only served seven years before being paroled after his release. He seemed to have reformed. Taking a job with a roofing company and Sumpter doing odd jobs around the community and staying on the right side of the law. In 1970. Gaskins niece Janice Kirby and her girlfriend Patricia Hasbrouck were reported missing. When asked if he knew of their whereabouts Gascons told his family that the two had been talking about running away. His family believed him. In 1971 law enforcement once again came knocking on Gascons door. He was picked up as one of some fifteen hundred suspects in a high profile kidnapping and murder case of state legislator James cut nose daughter

peg cut. No. The small community of Sumter and especially local law enforcement were determined to solve the crime involving the daughter of someone so prominent. Gaskins was questioned and released. Pee-Wee's employer was able to account for his whereabouts even though the girl was seen the day of her disappearance walking past where Gaskins was repairing a roof in downtown Sumter. After being asked if Gascons was indeed a suspect in the case a law enforcement official told reporters that Al peewees just a punk. He pretends to be a criminal in order to attract women but it wasn't the last time law enforcement would answer questions about Peewee's involvement in the cut. No case. Gaskins stayed out of the way of any investigations for several years. However that's not to say he halted his criminal enterprises. Peewee had graduated into grand larceny creating a small car theft ring where associates would steal cars out of North Charleston and bring them to his property in Florence County.

Although suspicious of Gascons authorities never actually closed in on any of his activities. By now the 70s were in full swing throughout the nation as well as the South a carefree attitude dominated everyone's outlook on life. We had been married several times by now had fathered two children. He floated between residences in Sumter Florence and North Charleston. He worked for a well drilling company and drove around a hearse a plastic skeleton hanging from the rearview mirror and a bumper sticker that read We haul anything living or dead. Rumors of his dark side surfaced from time to time but few took him seriously. Even when it seemed that numerous folks were missing from the area and Gaskins would brag about having a graveyard. Officials failed to make any connection. That is until 1975 when a teacher from North Charleston reported one of her students

missing. Kim Elkins was 13 and still in the fifth grade. She had only been in Miss Griffin's class at Chukwurah elementary school a few days when her sister told her teacher that Kim had failed to return from a trip to the country with a neighbor couple. After calling police and filing a missing persons report North Charleston police detectives armed with a search warrant went to a trailer in Williamsburg County for Gascons and his wife Donna had left. They found items of clothing belonging to the missing girl. But there was no sign of her or the trailers occupants. Their investigation led to a man by the name of Walter Nealy one of Gascons associates in the car theft ring. Well they came of course they had involved the sheriff's office because they were looking a large county along with SLED agents people from Williamsburg County North Charleston. A lot of people involved. WALTER. I really don't know why but he just decided to. Come clean. I don't know if he and we had a falling out or

if he thought he was no catch. The pressure from all over the world. But he just finally broke down and started talking about a mass grave site and forge can we had gotten wind of Nealy talking to the police and was attempting to leave the area. Police tracked him down and surrounded his house on Manning Avenue and the town of Sumter. They were staked out around the address for directions. Whichever way you turn there was somebody to follow. As soon as he left in the cab he was let get away just a short distance from the dwelling and was stopped and arrested. They did surrender to my dad. Sheriff at the time in his possession in the cab was a cardboard box. Containing a 30 30 rifle. The stock had been removed from but was in the box. So it will be much shorter and much easier to conceal.

And also was a 32 caliber Beretta semiautomatic pistol on which we had taken an electric pencil. And written his own name and his own handwriting like a signature. On both sides of the gun as I recall about everybody in the lower part of town and was scared to death of it because he he drove a hearse. And he used to always tell people that you know he would hold people in all fairness. Most of the people nobody really worried about him because they drifted around from town to town and nobody had any reason to be concerned about them. No and we knew he was capable. A lot of things but you know I would I never pictured him just killing a bunch of people. For apparently no reason. Walter Neely eventually led authorities to the edge of a field in Prospect where he claimed a number of people were buried. Investigators from North Charleston from Florence County Williamsburg County and the State Law Enforcement Division began scouring the area.

What was unusual was. The way we discovered the first two bodies we were walking along as a group and a line and somebody I don't remember who pulled or Bush came the bottom of it had been cut off. That night we started looking around the various places where vegetation had been cut off at an angle with the night we all started pulling on bushes. And when we found a spot where more than one would come up. Then we started with the probes or started carefully slamming that area. Eventually. But he. Went. To her grave. At that point once we discovered the first bodies. It was dark at the time right. Right about dark times so we weren't able to do anything other

than put some deputies up to guard the site. This is area on the other side is feel all the way back on that tree line in the back corner this field. Is where what we referred to is a mass grave site because it will probably be recovered six bodies out of this area. One of the deputies told me that there was going to be a big case that was going to break. I didn't have a name at the time. But I was going through some arrest warrants and I saw his name on an arrest warrant. And I just tucked it away in the back of my mind to see if this was going to be a name that surfaced. With this big case that was going to break. And it was going to involve bodies that were buried in shallow graves. And I remember thinking as the story unfolded and. I was probably about 25 or 26 years old and. I thought to myself This is the biggest story that I've ever cover in my life.

And I thought gee you know my career is picked and I'm healthy 25 years old. And that was pretty much true. I didn't know where it was. I was working at a television station. They said prospect you need to go down there. They're digging up bodies. I said what. So you know I took off down that was a one man crew at that time and went down there by myself and I got there and Sheriff Billy Burridge said we we have some graves. We don't know how many people at this time. And we brought the path up from Charleston the next day and Slade forensics team the Sheriff's Office forensic team and we started digging up the graves and processing the graves and then the bodies on the scene. We had done Sexton and Dr. Bresee from the Medical University who were on site with us to help the examination and it took several hours to get those first two exam. And then we went located two more short distance away to the left and two more

short distance away the right front in each case to to the grave. Always in the space of probably 30 yards the investigators will go back and look at the missing missing person records and see if we could find out who is missing who are we looking for. By the end of the day the team had identified the remains of Dennis Bellamy and Johnny Knight the two half brothers had been stealing cars for Gascons and were last seen with him. They had been reported missing for a little over a month and a half. And another grave two more people. Diane Neely and Avery Howard were found buried together. The ex-wife of Walter Neely and her new boyfriend had been missing since April of 1975. Walter really was a person who was retarded and violent and he was somebody who willingly engaged in.

Pee-Wee's criminal enterprises at a very low level and he was someone he could control completely control. They met in prison. They had interest in the same thing. They roofed. They worked as roofers together. Peewee was a main guy. Walter Neely was ready willing and able to assist him once we decided upon a course of action in a third grave was another estranged wife of a close associate of Gascons and her boyfriend Jesse Ruth Judy and Johnny settler's had been missing since June of 1974. I had written a story saying that Pavey Gaskins was going to be charged in the editor's home for it that I'd made a mistake. But I hadn't. And then after that there were some other people arrested first and then and then Paveway was arrested and then we just became the centerpiece of the investigation.

Now the last two went missing that were associated with him were the first human beings. And especially John Henry Knight took the sled airplane and flew to Charleston to attend the autopsies with these two young men. That section did the autopsies. He was he did his autopsy. You know of course at the top of the head off to examine the brain they were shot in the head as he recovered the bullets from the brain material. He put them in my hand rinsed and put them in a container. Sealed and came straight back here to slit examine the bullets and determined they were 32 auto caliber. The test fired the gun that had the signature and name of Donald H. Gascons written on it. And. Was. Immediately able to make an identification. Both bullets from the head of both victims as I recall allegedly the reason that he shot two young half brothers was that they were. Involved in a car

theft ring with him. And he was getting a little scared that they were going to fold and then for him only. Eliminate them as witnesses appeared right near a large tree that he was allegedly. Looking at to put a chain hoist into pulling out a car. What do you think about that everything going in and when they look at the bag that he had dropped them right there. And did it it did them not together. Separately. Doug behove one time buried one back kill another and put to work once we found the victims and were able to identify the victims. Then things started snowballing. We found more victims. And as the victims were found they all tied back to a common reference point and that was the Gaskins.

Had been with a television station about four years and had covered a lot of stories. But this was the biggest story you know network news. I mean this was amazing to me as a young reporter and it was probably the most exciting story that I had ever covered up until that time. The people that actually knew Pee-Wee were telling me that you know well he's not a bad guy. I said he's not a bad guy. They connect him with the bodies you're taking a bad day. Well he's always been nice to me. But then later on as the story continues. I go back to this place that they dug up four or five graves and then the ladies start telling me oh yeah he used to come in here all the time and tell us about all the people he's killed. You know I think the. Story. Got a little bit bigger. The people added a little more to it that lived in that community because they could say I know Peewee and this is the story up to. There's no question that in my career in law enforcement Paley is the biggest thing I've ever experienced. It was the biggest saying stay

South Carolina. And it all happened over 30 years ago and we even had the national networks CBS and ABC I believe sent live trucks down and they were doing live shots on the 6 o'clock news and in the swamp at Prospect. And you know in small places like Vonage can it's almost unheard of. So it was it was a major happening and still is a major happening for this area. I don't like the vetting thing. I like it here in the state. But despite the shock and horror of the mass grave site those discoveries were only the beginning of a long and drawn out series of searches and recoveries. Walter nearly led authorities to another location not far from the original crime scene and prospect called Alligator landing a low lying area that would frequently flood the discovery elevated the degree of Gascons crimes. This is the area where Dorien Dempsey was found buried in a Sotos Powell.

She was covered up with sheet of plastic and sold off Stonecrop or her small chow. Robin Dempsey was buried on a tree stump in the same area during had been a friend of a friend of one of. Peewee's wives. And had lived with them for a while. And. Had. Had relationships with various African-American men which he did not approve of. And so Robin was an express child and. This. Anger really quite a bit. And and then she was carrying another strange child which made him even angrier. Gaskins had murdered the mother and child a few steps from the back door of his house at the intersection known as Prospekt crossroads. He drowned them in his pond and then drove their bodies to aligator landing.

Everybody in the prospect community know him knew his family knew all the people who were missing and and who later it turned out will murder victims. And there was a lot of I would say failure in the community. But then I think people were relieved to know that he was in custody and that he would probably never get out of jail for the rest of his life. The murders had become a sensational national news story and people began to ask about other missing persons in the area. Where were Peewee's nice. Janice Kirby and her friend Patricia on Hasbrook. Where was Kim Jenkins from North Charleston. And there were others missing from the area all last seen with Peewee. In May of 1976. Donald Gaskins went on trial for the murder of Dennis Bellamy. The trial lasted less than five days. Well it was as much public interest as you could find. Eight people

found buried and more suspected killed but not found. All at the hands of. This little short guy peewee. The evidence we were able to present in court started with Peewee himself and his family. There was substantiated rumor that he had bragged about his graveyard in his part of the woods. He had no witnesses other than himself that I recall he had to combat the fact that we had his own family connecting him with the boys. His history of having the graveyard the ballistics. Tools the digging graves found in his possession. So he he took the stand in this very courtroom and in a very cool and collected manner had a response a seemingly logical answer to everything that implicated him. And yet during the testimony one of the most telling members of the trial

was when there was a pause he reached in his pocket and pulled out what appeared to be notes as if during his time awaiting trial in jail. He had come up with what would be the most plausible explanation other than his guilt. This particular murder that charge of murder carried the punishment of the death penalty. You were tried for murder and found guilty of murder. Then you got them in the trial Gaskins blamed Walter nearly entirely for the killings. Really implicated himself only in the night in Bellamy case and received a life sentence. His defense claimed Neely was mentally retarded and acted under the control of Peewee. After Gaskins was sentenced James. Judy entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors as accessory in the deaths of Jessie Ruth Judy and Johnny sellers and received a shorter sentence of 10 years. As it went on overtime. He you know began to really brag about it than.

You have to know. You don't understand it. He was just one of those fellows that. He wanted to be probably the biggest baddest that's ever been in South Carolina. And once we get started talking you know. You couldn't order show up. We kept getting information about. Some seamounts labs. From P-wave through his attorney. So we went there and it was actually the cover over septic tank this is a big seamounts lab. We took a large wrecking ball or. Lifted that slab the way. It was skeleton laying in the bottom that. The remains were those of Patricia Brooke who had disappeared along with Peewee's niece Janice Kirby six years prior. But he had not told police he knew anything about her whereabouts. Yet. There were obviously other homicides that need to

be dealt with. While those were pending the United States Supreme Court. Changed the law as it applied to the death penalty to require states not to impose it automatically firm versus Georgia dictated that you had to have individual consideration for any body first found guilty of murder. So that conviction got returned for resentencing. There was an interest in providing closure to the families of the victims of the homicides and for that reason he was allowed to enter a plea to those other homicides and receive a sentence of life imprisonment. A plea bargain arrangement between the solicitor and the attorneys for Donald Gaskins is an incorrect resolution of this particular case. I'm totally defend bad and dismayed with this kind of arrangement where a mass murderer who has pled

guilty to a crucial and vicious crimes is now escaping the death penalty. The efficacy of the death penalty law and statute in this case is simply negated by this particular arrangement and handling of this case by the solicitor or frankly it sets a dangerous precedent because how can anyone who is charged with an individual murder be given the death penalty when a mass murderer such as Donald P. Gaskins has used a legal arrangement such as plea bargaining to escape the death penalty. By now the entire nation was focused on this little town in South Carolina where some suspected a serial killer had been operating undetected for years and the estimated death toll began to climb. After the body was found in the prostate area last year. For those searching was hampered by bad weather and eventually the search for bodies was called on TV 13 at that time indicated in his coverage of the story that some law enforcement officials felt more bodies would be

found. However we were unsuccessful in our attempts to get an official statement to that effect. Today a story in the state newspaper quotes a reliable sources saying as many as 31 additional bodies are still undiscovered solicitor killed his son a photo TV 13 today. There have been a number of rumors about additional bodies and that those rumors would be checked out. One can only speculate as to whether additional bodies will be found him but it appears the recent conviction of three men may not be the last chapter in the state's worst mass murder case. Cecil Channer reporting for TV 13 news several times I got a chance when they would try to go down in the room were slowly adding you know he seemed like a nice guy. But the back in your mind you're thinking this guy. I just heard him you know admit to these people that he killed. When he was in court. And it's hard to judge a person by looking at him. It was hard to judge. Authorities began combing through the unsolved missing person cases in the area and eventually your investigation led to a parcel of land near the trailer. He and his wife at once

lived across the Florance county line were in a remote area. And Williamsburg can write out of a place of rope or crawl for others on this side of the road where we found the body of a 14 year old girl who had run away from Charleston with Peewee at the time she was living on a trail about a half mile from here with Peewee. And he told his family one night that he was going to take her to the bus station and put her on a bus back to Charleston. But instead he brought her to this deserted road killed her and buried her right there in locating the body of Kim Jenkins the little girl whose disappearance ultimately led to the discovery of the carnage in prospect. Authorities had unearthed the body of a turbojet man as well. And over in the field on this side of the road where a barn where his body was found Manuel was lured out of his trailer picked up by aliens. Couple other people put it in the trunk of a car right out of this field where he was killed and buried. Silas Barnwell Yates was a prosperous farmer who had been missing since the year before.

Police would quickly learn that this murder had been for hire. Here we go tell us anything until we have some goods on him and he he didn't want to give up anything without something in return. It was like a bargaining chip. Police began focusing on the final days of Yates and who his associates were. They learned that in 1973 Yates left his family and began to sell off various pieces of farm equipment and land to purchase gifts for his new girlfriend Lake City woman named Suzanne kipper. When the relationship went sour Yates demanded the gifts be returned Kipper and her new boyfriend John Phillip Owens enlisted the help of a man named John Powell who knew Gascons. Police arrested all four for peewee claimed he had not committed the murder but suddenly in the middle of his testimony he started admitting to other murders askings claimed he had been hired to murder several people including a sheriff's deputy and an

African-American prostitute in Sumter. He confessed to murdering two men in Conway. And. He confessed to the murder of Pegge cut no the confessions caused an uproar. A man by the name of junior Pierce had been serving a life sentence in a Georgia prison for the murder of pay cut. No. And John McDowell who had been serving in the same penitentiary as Gascons had confessed to the Conway murders in exchange for a life sentence. Gascons pled guilty to the Yates murder and agreed to lead authorities to more victims. If there really were any more good information there was another victim. And as we were walking and live as they were cutting cutting bushes at the way to see if you see anything because of the garbage. I remember standing there. My dad just actually watching his work and waiting to go we could start sifting or digging.

They just did it right. And it appeared to be a shape up. You with a brush and leaves back and just go. I mean we Gascons told authorities they would find a body in the creek near this pine tree. Sled in Suffolk County sheriff's investigators began looking at the creek this morning but they didn't find a body in the creek on the bank though 100 feet away. They found skeletal remains. Convicted murderer Donald Gaskin said a body authorities would find here was the victim of his assassination. Gaskins said it was a black woman 20 years old. Klein said he killed her with a poisoned soft drink. Gaskins also said he murdered Margaret. Peg Covenant A 13 year old daughter of a former legislator is under-sheriff Byrd Parnell's says that is not true. You're not right about that. God no. No way. Given all that you were saying earlier that you just told you

what he wants you to know one wouldn't get in the fight. Martha makes some money or maybe to get some things from me. We agreed to be part of this threesome with one of his wives. Was with me and the belief was that she became pregnant because he was. A total racist racist. When you start to tell people about that again she posed a strategic threat to his reputation. And that sealed her do. This is the spot where we found the body of James Kirby who was Peewee's niece. She was actually killed in Sumpter can ambush was brought over and buried in this spot right here.

And the Koreans were very very religious people who are decent honest hardworking people who have a number of young children. And Janice was one of them. Beautiful. 13 year old girl it was initially treated as a runaway case. There were these problems you know internally with the family and so forth. By 1978 it appeared police had all the bodies accounted for and prospect in Sumter County. Peewee was not charged with all 13 murders but he received multiple life sentences assuring citizens that the world had seen the last of Gascons on the outside. Regardless of the fact that he managed to elude the death penalty after being sentenced. Residents in South Florence and throughout the state felt that pint size murderer would never kill again. But in 1982 the unimaginable took place. Well we got a call from the Department of Corrections

that an inmate named Tiner who was on death row tried to blow his way out of death row. Rudolph Tiner was a death row inmate who had been convicted of robbing and killing the owners of emeralds and lit bar. They removed a speaker from his head a speaker like he take out of a. A radio about that big it had gone in the side of his head and in bed it almost on the other side and he was missing almost all the fingers on one hand the hand was literally blown off which would indicate he was holding whatever it was up to his head not calculated to blow anybody's way out of anything. But to kill him. And of course around the corner the building man for that cell block the building that would be the head trustee was a guy named Donald. He would Gascons. So that was a pretty good pretty good indication that he was involved. And

then they found this guy Martin who was from the beach who was friends with Tony SIMO. Simo was the son of the people that Rudolph Tiner had murdered and Simo had gone through Martin and arranged to hire Gascons for a hundred hours to his time in the prison in March of 1983. The state had another chance to convict Gascons and another chance to sentence him to death. But finding a fair and impartial jury was difficult over 300 potential jurors were excused before the final 12 were selected. During the trial. Jurors heard testimony that the bombing of Tiner was not the first attempt on his life after befriending him Gaskins began providing snacks and drugs laced with poisons. Although Tiner went to the infirmary several times the death row inmate never caught on. Gascons and Tiner could yell between each other between the Vange. You know

kind of yell. Hey we come see me or I need some food or whatever and we go get and run around. So finally Pee wee said you know we need to hook up an intercom you have to yell at me. He ran a wire from his cell through that van through Tyner's van with a male plug on the end of it told her to plug it out and then he yelled through the van. See if you can hear me. Well when Tiner did that he pulled his into the 110. In his cell which put 110 bolts in that blasting cap which said it that's bigger. Right through entire skull. It's always nice to believe that your client is innocent but that is not the criteria for giving effective representation many times. Guilt or innocence is really just not a concern it's a question of making sure the system works. Even for people like be Gascons because if it works for people Gascons it works for everyone. Well I mean you know that if if not Peewee who. I mean if you going to have a death penalty if Peewee Gaskins doesn't get put to death who should.

Almost a decade after the original bodies were discovered the state managed to do what the Supreme Court had overturned in previous sentencing. Donald Henry Gascons was sentenced to die in the electric chair. He knew this was it. He told me he'd only on the phone he says this is it. This is it. They're gonna get me this tumor or something like that. Every. Several months or every year or so he would he would send word that he would take us to another body. And. Then we'd have to go. And Assisi old. Prison. There was search. Checking that. Him in wherever it was we carried him back to the prospect area. There were about 10 OVAs too. And the detail he kept wanting to go. In a certain direction. He said just turn me loose. I'll go through these briars and I'll show you where the body is. With.

Fall. For. That. And we spread ourselves out about 100 yards. Long. So that. Gip a good ab behind a good ab in front and a good at each side. So. The same little small pickup truck. And. Two different location. Went by. Hurn. Way you came back back turned. That same blue. But you know they never made any overt act toward a. Later found out that they were in fact. Going to try to take it from. There was at least 10 OVAs. Like I said and we were not bunched we were spread out. And. That was. At least one attempt that was planned. To try and break him loose from a. P-wave Songhai and got my private number into sheriff's office while he was in the penitentiary. And he would call me periodically.

And if he had something he wanted me to look at he would tell me I got some money to look at. But he kept always trying to tell us about. 60 something people eat. He would walk with a very very distinct Olympe. Like he couldn't hardly walk. But if you aren't watching him. He could run like a rebel. And that's what he was trying to do when he you know get us to take him out in the woods to shore so another large body spot where somebody was buried. He was just looking for a chance to get away. We never found animal bodies after we got the original bodies. He would always say well it's been so long and things have changed so much. But it was just an excuse to get out of current change and hope that he could get a chance to break away from his time away on death row. Gaskins was unable to produce any more bodies or evidence to make another deal to prevent his date with the electric chair. Although Gascons prison liberties were severely reduced he still managed to keep up a rapport with the news

media and stay in contact with family and friends. Andrew writer Wilson Earl Rowe convinced Gascons to allow him to document his life story for over 15 months. Earle managed to record 120 hours of Gascons spoken words promising not to alter them and not publish them until after his execution. It seemed Gascons was fulfilling a dream by immortalizing himself in an autobiography. But there was more to the story. I tell you Gascons is just sort of faded from my memory to be frank with you. I was involved in prosecuting. A number of very high profile case fairly quickly. Got a call on my cell phone from Robert Stewart that Aswad and said Do you know where your daughter is with my 4 year old daughter. Should have been in preschool. I tried to Merode Methodist Church assume she's in preschool. He said Are you sure. Well I received information from an informant. That Donald Jr.. And another individual were planning on kidnapping some of to harpooning

and family and they were going to change a family member for Peewee's release. And if they did not release Pieri and they put him in the electric chair they were planning on killing his family member. You know back in those days if the solicitor picked up the phone and said I need this inmate brought up no one's going to question it and if I had him brought into my office no one would question that because a solicitor was not going to do anything. To help the inmate. Now Gascons I had a back door. Nobody knew about. It except Gascons did. And he wanted to be brought into my office. He blocked the back door. A lot of people felt like this was another effort on his part to try at the very last try and get some better deal. Unfortunately you know he did it at the expense of carpooling that his child even though it looked like that was for for. Who else had Gascons talk to him. He had access to a phone. I mean he could have talked to 15 people and ask him to do the same thing and would not have been unlike him to have a backup plan.

As the day drew near the entire nation watched as news agencies tallied Gascons crimes. He gascón says he killed 14 people in his life. Court testimony and his confessions show that it's the first week of September Gaskins was transferred to the capital punishment facility to a new correction's complex on Broad River Road in Columbia. Even then we did not relinquish any control. Shortly after being transferred to the death house Gaskins tried to take his own life by slashing his wrists. Zimmerman says two officers were watching this show all night. She says they didn't see anything unusual. Investigators do not know what Gascons used but the wounds were said to be clean as opposed to jagged cuts. Officers last week did find razor blades hidden in an address book in Gascons cell on death row. There is no doubt that she is fighting this to the end that she does not want to go to the chair.

On September 6th 1991 crowds gathered as the state of South Carolina prepare to do what had been thwarted. Back in 1976. A rowdy crowd of about 400 people in favor of the death penalty came to the Broad River Correctional Institution to cheer Peewee Gascons death. But some had personal reasons to come like family members of some of Gascons murder victims. Dennis Bellamy Johnny knights and Dion Neely my sister and brothers and they I killed a long time ago and I to believe it. But now they do. And that's why we got them. They shed a Elm street fighting and bring them back. I my opinion about how things have been done a long time ago. A much smaller crowd gathered outside the governor's mansion for a candlelight vigil against the death penalty. We assume somehow that if we just punish someone else if we kill someone else that makes up for the first killing that doesn't just pittances another dead body but no last minute stays came through and Peewee Gaskins was strapped into the electric chair.

I was a witness to the execution. And I'll have to say that Pili if he was scared he never exhibited. He didn't show any signs of fear. He walked in on his own. The chair was so big and he was a small fellow he had to crawl up into the chair and stay strapped the man. Ask him if he had any last words and he just clenched his fists and said let's go. After his execution writer will General kept his promise to Gascons and published the autobiography in it Gaskins claimed he would come clean about all of his crimes with this final truth. He gave detailed descriptions of the 14 murders he'd been accused and convicted of. But he also gave shocking accounts of scores of other murders. He categorized as killings as two kinds those he had been apprehended for in 1975 that he

referred to as serious murders. And lust murders which he referred to as coastal killers that were primarily hitchhikers and runaways that he abducted raped tortured and murdered. In the book his total number of victims was not 40 or 30 as he previously estimated but one hundred ten. I think it's logical to assume that the graves of more Gascons are out there waiting to be found. If that were so where were the bodies. Where were the missing persons reports of so many vanishing along the countryside. He saw himself as a serial killer. Referred in his final book to a number of cases where he would pick up girls who were hitchhiking and unhappily in the 70s girls hitchhiked. It was a difficult time in American history. There was a sexual revolution going on a lot of girls kind of taking

off on their own doing crazy things like hitchhiking didn't kill girls under those circumstances. It's possible he shot you when you weren't looking or you hit some big fellow wouldn't you want to call the final truth the only truth in that book that may have been 10 percent true the rest of his own people just trying to make a beginning. One thing became clear from Gascons book. The victims were more numerous than ever suspected. Included the victims families. Gascons family his friends and neighbors. I don't know about the other people. I'm not really ashamed of it. He was always polite to me. A lot of people he would like to. Just. Say. Just

like. It surprised me that we had to know that we had a person working here that was that close to us. And there always are sectors that would be capable of murder. Well my dad won't talk much me my dad was scared of me for some reason. I guess he knew what we did. We got to the line. Watch out for the young. You know we weren't like that. But his son. His son was a big thing. He just got teased and taunted. You know nobody wanted to have much to do with him and. Stuff like that. I mean he was a really good kid. Bad bad. I remember make my. I can do. I think this was sort of his feeling of creating his own legacy. He did it at the expense of his family.

But they call him a serial killer. I don't think that was what was your psyche. Killed people because. He didn't like what they did. Paveway Gaskins. Represents. Everything. That is wrong and evil with this world. And I just. Encourage people to be the best person that you can be in and. Follow the golden rule. If everybody would do that we wouldn't have any pain we Gascons. And.

By. About the hill and. Then. It's. Got