Donald Henry Gaskins was born on March 13, 1933, in Florence County, South Carolina. His mother took little interest in him, and when he was just a year old, he accidentally drank some kerosene, from which he suffered intermittent convulsions for years thereafter. Later, he would reportedly try to blame his crimes on this unfortunate incident. As such, the bodies piled up. Gaskins then befriended ex-con Walter Neely, who readily assisted him in burying corpses, destroying evidence, and fencing stolen goods. At one point, Gaskins came to trust Neely enough to murder Dennis Bellamy, 28, and Johnny Knight, 15, right while his pal watched. That would later backfire on the killer. Soon after Donald Henry “Pee Wee” Gaskins’s execution on September 6, 1991, the author Wilton Earle published an autobiographical account of Gaskins’s life, The Final Truth, which Gaskins had dictated through tape-recorded conversations with Earle in the last fifteen months of his life.[xvii] The autobiography complicated the already ...
Soon after Donald Henry “Pee Wee” Gaskins’s execution on September 6, 1991, the author Wilton Earle published an autobiographical account of Gaskins’s life, The Final Truth, which Gaskins had dictated through tape-recorded conversations with Earle in the last fifteen months of his life.[xvii] The autobiography complicated the already ... Infamous killer “Pee Wee” Gaskins was the definition of a human paradox. At first glance, Donald Henry Gaskins was less than menacing. But his barely 5-foot-5, 130-pound frame packed a lot of meanness. He confessed in 1978 to murdering 15 people and burying their corpses in three Pee Dee counties. At least four of his victims were 15 or ... On September 12, 1982, while a prisoner working on death row, Gaskins was charged with murdering inmate Rudolph Tyner, who was awaiting execution for an Horry County murder. On March 24, 1983, Gaskins was convicted of Tyner’s murder and sentenced to death. Gaskins was executed in South Carolina’s electric chair on September 6, 1991.
On September 12, 1982, while a prisoner working on death row, Gaskins was charged with murdering inmate Rudolph Tyner, who was awaiting execution for an Horry County murder. On March 24, 1983, Gaskins was convicted of Tyner’s murder and sentenced to death. Gaskins was executed in South Carolina’s electric chair on September 6, 1991.