Donald Henry Gaskins Jnr

Giving Up the Dead

Following a Florence County coroners inquest on April 27, 1976, Gaskins and Walter Neely were each charged with eight counts of first-degree murder. Police also detained James Judy, husband of the murdered Jessie, on one count of murder and an accessory charge. Prosecutor T. Kenneth Summerford arranged for Gaskins to be tried alone in the Bellamy case, since bullets from the victims body matched a pistol Gaskins had been carrying at his arrest in December 1975.

Coroner Eaddy, Sheriff Barnes & Agent Springs

At trial, convened on May 24, 1976, Gaskins feigned innocent, blaming Bellamys murder on Walter Neely. Bellamy and Johnny Knight were both alive the last time he saw them, Gaskins testified, leaving his garage with Neely. For all he knew, Walter had stolen his pistol to murder the men, then replaced it without Pee Wees knowledge. Jurors dismissed the fable and convicted him on May 28, whereupon Judge Dan McEachin sentenced Gaskins to die.

That verdict frightened James Judy, wholly innocent of his wifes murder, into angling for a plea bargain. Police thought he had hired Gaskins to kill his wife and Johnny Sellars out of jealousy, and if a jury felt likewise he might be sent to the electric chair. Panicked, Judy pled guilty in return for a life sentence and went off to serve his time.

Walter Neely was next, tried on eight counts of murder, his attorneys calling him a mentally retarded dupe who bowed to Pee Wee Gaskinss every whim. In a way, Gaskins later wrote, I reckon that was true, too. Walter surely werent real bright, and he did pretty much anything I asked him, up until he got borned-again and forgot all about what loyalty and friendship meant. Convicted on all counts, Neely still evoked sufficient pathos to escape with a single life sentence.

Pee Wees attorney urged him to cut a deal with prosecutors to avoid another death sentence on his seven pending murder charges. Gaskins agreed, confessing to the crimes and adding details under influence of truth serum, but he could have saved the effort. In November 1976 the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated South Carolinas death penalty statute and his capital sentence was commuted to life, with seven more consecutive life terms tacked on for good measure. The attendant publicity made Gaskins downright famous in prison, where even the guards dubbed him the boss hog.

Still unsatisfied, the law came after Gaskins next for Silas Yatess murder, indicting him with John Owens, John Powell, and Suzanne Kipper (now married to John). At trial, in April 1977, Gaskins claimed he was the decoy who lured Yates from home in 1975, while Powell and Owens did the killing, but all four defendants were sentenced to life. (Powell and Owens were paroled in the late 1980s, prompting Gaskins to remark that some life sentences dont last as long as others. Kipper escaped in October 1990 and remained at large until February 1993, when she was recaptured in Michigan.)

South Carolina passed a new death penalty statute in 1978 and prosecutor Ken Summerford filed new charges against Gaskins for Johnny Knights murder, declaring his intent to put Pee Wee on Death Row. Gaskins may have been the only player in the game who didnt realize such retroactive prosecutions are forbidden. Bargaining for life imprisonment, he confessed still more murders, giving lawmen a hitchhikers corpse in place of Janice Kirbys since he feared discovery of other victims buried near her grave site, yet unnamed.

The last round of confessions made Gaskins South Carolinas most prolific serial killer to date. Between that reputation and his mechanical skills, it was easy to become a maintenance trusty.

Easy to kill Rudolph Tyner in September 1982.