Pee Wee Gaskins: The Serial Killer Who Drove a Hearse

Pee Wee Gaskins Background

Donald Henry Gaskins was born on March 13, 1933, in Florence County, South Carolina, one of many illegitimate children born to his mother Eulea Parrott. Due to his small size, Donald was called Pee Wee, a name that stuck with him.

Abusive Childhood

Pee Wee came from an abusive childhood. Filled with neglect and physical abuse, he never knew anything else. At the age of one, he drank a bottle of kerosene and reportedly experienced convulsions until he was around age three.

In an interview, he claimed that he was picked on not only at school but at home, where the older children took advantage of him. He said that he had to wash the other family members' feet at night. According to Gaskins, he had a younger sibling who would accuse him of things and he was always beaten for it.

Gaskins Didn't Even Know His Real Name

Gaskins didn't know his name was Donald until he landed himself in court due to a crime spree with other young boys. They had committed robberies, assaults, and gang activity. He was convicted of those crimes and sent to a reform school, where he claimed he was assaulted repeatedly by fellow inmates. He escaped and ended up getting married, eventually returning to the reform school to complete his sentence.

Pee Wee Gaskins was released from the reform school in 1951 when he was 18 years old, but he was in and out of prison most of his life.

A Young Girl Insulted Him

In 1953, he was working at a tobacco plantation. But it was not long until he was arrested again, this time for attacking a young girl with a hammer for the transgression of insulting him. Pee Wee had violent reactions to insults throughout his entire life.

For that crime, he was sentenced to six years.

Stood Up Against the Prison's Toughest Inmate

In prison, he was assaulted many times by gangs of fellow inmates. Knowing that it would only continue if he did nothing, he chose to stand up to the most feared inmate of all: Hazel Brazell. Pee Wee got three more years tacked onto his sentence, but he now had a name for himself. No longer were attacks directed at him; now he would be the one assaulting others.

In 1955, he escaped again. He hid in the back of a garbage truck and soon fled to Florida, where he joined a traveling circus. Somewhere along the line he got into trouble again and found himself back in prison. He was paroled in August 1961.

Pee Wee Gaskins' Hearse

An odd fact about Pee Wee Gaskins was that he owned a hearse and drove it everywhere. He told all the locals that he carried dead bodies and yet, no one really believed him.

However, the locals were scared to death of the diminutive man.

Assault of a 12-Year-Old Girl

Two years after his parole, he was arrested again. This time it was due to his boarding school attack on the young girl. But before he could be sentenced, he escaped again.

It seemed the law was constantly hunting down Gaskins because they caught him again and sent him to prison, this time for eight years. He did his sentence and was paroled again in 1968.

One Year Later

Moving to Sumter, he worked for a roofing company. But with a taste for crime, he began a killing spree. He found out that he could pick up hitchhikers. With plenty of wayfaring people out on the highways, he made a grisly habit of picking them up, torturing them, and killing them.

It is unknown how many he killed, but his killing spree would last a very long time. He would murder people and dump them in local swampy areas. He drove the highways searching for his "coastal kills."

Pee Wee put his kills in two categories: "coastal kills" and "personal kills"—the ones that he said did him wrong. Coastal kills were for his pleasure. Gaskins claimed that he knew when it was time to kill by the "bothersome feelings": stomach pains, headaches, and pains in the groin.

When he started his coastal drives, he wasn't even sure what he was doing out on the road. But it didn't take long for him to figure it out.

September 1969

A young blonde hitchhiker met her doom as she was headed for Charleston. Gaskins claimed he asked for sex and she made the fatal mistake of laughing at him. No one laughed at Pee Wee.

He beat her unconscious and pulled off the highway onto a dirt road. There he tortured and assaulted her. He went on to mutilate and bury her in a swamp.

His memory of this kill? "I felt truly the best I ever remembered feeling in my whole life."

Less than a year later, eleven more died at his hands. "When it was time, I went and killed," he said.

Mistook Two Boys for Girls

Accidental kills were not something that applied to Gaskins, but one time he thought he had found two girls when they were longhaired boys. Choosing to not care about the gender, he picked them up, assaulted them both, cooked them, and ate some body parts while they were still alive.

A Soft Spot for a Coastal Kill

Being fond of a particular victim still got them nowhere. Gaskins didn't remember the names of most of his victims. But, he did remember one victim's name. Sixteen-year-old Anne Colberson came into his view while he wasn't on the hunt. In an interview, he said that "since she was so nice to me," he stunned her with a hammer before slicing her throat and dumping her in quicksand.

His Own Niece Meant Nothing

His 15-year-old niece Janice Kirby was nothing but another young girl to fantasize about. This went on in his mind for a time. It got the best of him when an opportunity arose.

Needing a ride home after a night of drinking, Janice and a friend hopped in his car. He took them to an abandoned house and tried to assault them. Fighting for their lives, they hit him with a board. But Gaskins came back at them with a gun and beat them unconscious. He assaulted them both and then drowned them.

It was reported that his "coastal kills" were many. He killed one about every six weeks. I have seen reports that said it was more like one per month. That's just the kills for his pleasure.

Gaskins said that every time he felt uneasy, unsettled, or edgy, he would make a pleasure hit—those to whom he didn't show any mercy. He confessed to using several different methods of killing—stabbing, suffocation, mutilation, and even cannibalism.

The "personal kills" had it a little easier. He just shot them.

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Gaskins' "Personal Kills"

Other unfortunate people who ended up on Gaskins' "personal kills" list were those who mocked him, attempted to blackmail him, or owed him money.

In 1973, he murdered two neighbors: Doreen Dempsey, 23, and her two-year-old daughter. Dempsey was also eight months pregnant. This might have been a personal kill. One report was that he was angry because she was involved with an African-American and to Pee Wee, that was wrong.

Another report I came across stated that she had been involved with Pee Wee and that the baby she was carrying was his. This has not been proven.

Hit Man Gaskins

In February 1975, Gaskins was hired to kill the boyfriend of Suzanne Kipper Owens. Silas Barnwell Yates met his fate at Gaskins' hand and lost his life. Something went wrong with that kill and he ended up having to kill four more people, allowing him to cover up the "hit" kill of Yates.

Gaskins had many others who were involved with him in his various crimes, but if they went against him, there would be a high price to pay. By his confessions, he killed many more people than the body count would indicate. But one man decided that he had had enough and he turned witness against Gaskins.

Walter Neeley, an associate of Gaskins, confessed to police that he had witnessed Gaskins' killing of (other associates) Dennis Bellamy and Johnny Knight, who was only 15 years old.

Neeley must have felt that he would be safer confessing to the police than facing Gaskins' wrath. During their relationship, Gaskins had told Neeley about many other killings and missing persons around the area over the previous five years.

Gaskins was arrested in November 1975 due to Neeley's betrayal.

The next month, Gaskins led officers to some land that he owned in Prospect, where they discovered eight bodies. This would be the end of Gaskins' freedom, but believe it or not ... it would not end his killings.