The Last Victim

Pee Wee Gaskins applies his prison ingenuity to kill an unsuspecting inmate.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pee Wee Gaskins was a master manipulator who befriended many
of his victims on the way to becoming South Carolina's
most notorious mass murderer. He stabbed, shot, drowned, and poisoned
more than a dozen people, and for his final act,
he used dynamite in a brazen murder for higher scheme.

(00:20):
While his victim was on death row, pee Wee conned
everyone around him and charmed one unwitting accessory to assist
in his final brutal deed. We plumped that shot of
the picture. Haven's learned nail. I probably no more than

(00:42):
a dozen people that he actually killed. He went back
inside and shot most shot gun, just out right murder.
I had always failed. There's there's something that makes these
people unlike you and me. From my heart radio and

(01:06):
doghouse pictures. This is pee Wee Gaskins was not my friend.
I'm Jeff Keating. M Bill and Murdy moon married in

(01:29):
nineteen fifty when they were both nineteen years old. Murdy
had a son from a previous relationship, Tony Simo. Bill
adopted Tony, and he and Murdy had two more daughters.
After twenty years in the air, Force, including several tours
in Vietnam. Master Sergeant Bill Moon retired from the military.

(01:54):
They moved to the quiet fishing town of Merle's Inlet,
South Carolina, and opened up a two pump gas station
and convenient store. The Moons catered to locals in search
of some groceries, gas for their cars and boats, or
a quick conversation. They were more than store owners in
a village. They were well known and well loved. They

(02:18):
convinced their brother Tony to join the rest of the
family in South Carolina's Low Country. He did, and three
generations of Moons lived within a half mile of each other.
They were at the intersection of everything. Tyner had entered

(02:40):
the Moon groceries several times in previous days. On his
last visit, he wielded a shotgun and demanded money. This
is Ira Parnell. He was an investigator with SLED South
Carolina State Law Enforcement Division. He testified at the trial
that Tyner took what money they were counting and left

(03:01):
the Moons in shock. What I know about it was
that Rudolph Tanner went in and robbed him little mom
and pop store. He had already gotten what money or
whatever he was gonna steal and it left. He was
at the door and then went back inside and shot
both of them with a shot. Guys, just that right, murder,

(03:29):
No reason for it whatsoever, doesn't just playing me? He
apparently plought better of leaving a witness, so he went
back and shot both them and killed him right there,
just rutally killed him, trying to rein outside to a
car driven by his lookouts Carlton Davis. The two drove

(03:51):
off into the South Carolina nights. Tony Siemo was in
his trailer watching television when Rudolph Tyner killed his parents.
He had finished his day as a brick mason and

(04:12):
he was watching Rio Lobo starring John Wayne. When his
pit bull barked outside. He glanced out the window, having
no idea that his parents killer could have just driven past.
He went back to his movie, and minutes later, two
teenagers walked into the store, thinking they were going to
get some snacks for the night, and instead discovered the

(04:36):
dead bodies behind the counter. They ran out, screaming and
called for help. Rudolph Tyner was eighteen years old when
he killed Bill and Murdy Moon. He was born in Harlem,
raised in community housing and caused considerable problems within his

(04:56):
own family. He had several run ins with the law
before he stole a car and drove south down Interstate
n The week before the killings, he showed up at
Carlton Davis's house unannounced and stayed with him for days
leading up to the tragic event. After the robbery turned murder,

(05:17):
Carlton Davis and Rudolph Tyner drove to Carlton's dad's house
one mile from the store. Mr Davis immediately became suspicious
that something bad had gone down. This was not Carlton's
first involvement with crime, and he knew his son had
been hanging out with Tyner. Within minutes, cops arrived and

(05:38):
questioned Carlton, who immediately told them about Tyner. They also
found a shotgun and a shotgun shell in Tyner's pocket
that matched one found at the crime scene. Tyner and
Carlton were arrested. Both men signed confessions. By the next morning.
Davis confessed to being an accomplished a murder, Tyiner confessed

(06:01):
to the two murders, and Tony Simo raged. The small
coastal community mourned the brutal murders of Bill and Murdy Moon.
Tyner was spared no ill will by anyone who talked

(06:23):
about the crime. Reporters could find quotes about him from
anyone in the area. A public defender at the time
resigned to avoid having to defend Tiner. He was then
hired by the Simo family to ensure Tiner got the
maximum sentence. By August, five months after the robbery turned murder,

(06:47):
Rudolph Tyner was on trial. Prosecutors showed that Tyner had
cast a check at the store and made a small
purchase the day before the murders as evidence that he
had scouted the store. They also recounted how Tyner had
stayed in Davis's home for a few days before the crime.
The gun police found on Tyner was exhibited in the courtroom,

(07:12):
along with the shotgun shell he had in his pocket.
Prosecutors played the audio recording of Tyner's confession, and finally
they sought the death penalty. Court records revealed that defense
attorneys presented a brain scan taken when Tyner was six
years old that experts said showed developmental abnormalities. In effect,

(07:38):
they said he had the mental capacity of a seven
year old. His mother testified that he suffered brain damage
at age eight. She said that he was scared into
a murder confession by police who made him strip naked.
Tyner's attorney argued, quote, the capacity of the defendant to
appreciate the criminality of his conduct was substantially impaired end quote.

(08:04):
His abilities functioning and society were limited. The defense argued
for life in prison, since he had an i Q
of eighty and was fundamentally unable to understand the charges
leveled against him when he signed a confession. Tyner was
convicted of murder and sentenced to die in South Carolina's

(08:24):
electric chair. Tony Siemo told the press that he believed
justice would prevail with the death penalty sentence, but under
South Carolina law, Tyner was given an automatic appeal to
the state Supreme Court. The court found error in the

(08:45):
sentencing phase of the trial, and in nineteen seventy nine,
one year after the murders, ordered the sentencing phase be reheld.
As new hearings continued throughout the year, Siemo laid awake
at night thinking of ways to kill Rudolph Tyner. The

(09:09):
sentencing retrial ended abruptly and the court ordered the trial
to be moved to another county so they could try
to find an unbiased jury. Tony, inflamed by the ongoing process,
told the press, I dreamed constantly about him, laughing while
my mother begged for her life. I kept seeing my
mother and father laying in pools of blood. At the retrial,

(09:34):
Tony Simo had to relive the details of his parents
murder one more time. He was so overcome with raw
emotion that he left at Tiner in the court house
hallway and a struggle ensued. Simo later said, I got
Tyner once in that little courthouse, him smiling at me
and my sisters. I grabbed him by the handcuffs and

(09:56):
I got him one good between the legs before they
wrestled me to the ground. They finally calmed Semo down
and he was taken away. Some people thought he was
heroic in taking action. There was definitely public support for him.
The retrial brought a second conviction and death sentence. Tony

(10:19):
Seemo fumed while Rudolph Tyner was left breathing in prison.
Seemo spent its knights and bars retelling the story to
anyone who would listen. He lost all faith in the
legal system, all faith that the state would carry out
the execution and bring it into his family's suffering. He

(10:39):
was going to find a way to bring his own justice.
Siemo told reporters that Rudolph Tyner just point blank robbed
and shot my parents. I didn't see any end in
sight to the appeals. Jack Martin, a coworker, eventually put
him in touch with Gerald McCormick, who was serving time

(11:00):
in cell Block one at Central Correctional Institute. And Gerald
McCormick knew someone with the experience and motivation to pull
off a contract killing, and with that the hit on
Tyner was in motion. Rudolph Tyner was incarcerated near Columbia,

(11:37):
South Carolina, at the Central Corrections Institution known as c
c I. It had been the state's primary prison since
the Civil War. A massive stone structure, it housed more
than five hundred total prisoners. It also held all the
state's death row inmates. In the summer of Tiner was

(12:00):
awaiting a ruling on his third death sentence appeal when incredibly,
he was placed in the cell near South Carolina's most
notorious killer, Donald Henry Peewee Gaskets. Peewee Gaskins had been
in c c I since he was convicted of a
single murder in nineteen seventy six. He was also given

(12:22):
the death penalty. Legends about Peewee bordered on absurd. Peewee
claimed to have killed a hundred ten people hitchhikers by
the dozens on a killing spree through Florida. Most of
the stories about him didn't bring indictments, charges or convictions.
There are, however, some verified facts about him. This is

(12:44):
Cecil Chandler, who covered the Peewee Gaskins story in nineteen
seventy five for TV thirteen in Florence, South Carolina. You know,
when I first started doing the stories, I used to
have people call me all the time. I want to
know more information about Pee week askings, and you know,
I can only tell him what I knew about him
and the stories that we did on him. They were

(13:04):
just so intrigued with it. I did this thing for
public television. We did something, and then another station out
of another company from down under wanted to do something
about him being a mass murderer and wanted to say
he killed hundreds of people. And I told them. They
kept trying to make me say that, and I wouldn't
say it. I said, I only know more than a
dozen people that he actually killed. A year after Peewee

(13:26):
was sentenced to die in South Carolina's electric chair, legal
technicalities sent the case to the South Carolina Supreme Court.
His death sentence was revoked and sent back to court
for resentencing trial. Here's a reporter from one of the
local news stations covering the story. The impact of today's

(13:47):
ruling may not be immediately known. However, warden Strickland says
that he feels the cases will have to be reviewed
by the judiciary system for resentencing, and the public opinion
maybe are divided on this issue was indicated by the
Supreme courts five to four split decision. Some people are
likely to say that the decision came too late, while

(14:09):
others will say it is still too soon. Hal Boykin,
Channel ten News. Public and political outcry erupted at the ruling.
People thought justice was subverted. Before he could get back
on death row by another sentencing trial, pee Wee cut
a deal with prosecutors. He pled guilty to nine other

(14:30):
murders to avoid the electric chair. The outcryst shifted to
the prosecutors who made the deal. Solicitor Ken Somerford told
local press that trying the remaining cases would have been
too expensive. He and the other prosecutors worried that future
trials might not result in the death sentence. This is

(14:52):
Margaret O'Shea. She was a reporter for the Post and
Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, and covered Pewee gasking story
for years. Here she is describing intriguing aspects of Peewee story.
Every time in my career when I have dealt with

(15:13):
people who have committed horrible crimes, or or people who
are caught up in in the justice system, rightly or wrongly,
families of victims. From early early on, I felt a
great need to try to tell the whole story. As

(15:38):
the years went on and I worked on these stories
about Peewee, I would like very much to have been
able to know more about his life from birth on,
because I've have always felt there's something that makes these
people unlike you and me. There's just something there. And

(15:58):
I've learned over the years that many times, if you
did for it, you see things that somebody maybe could
have done something about or made a change. When you
think about pee Wee Gaskin, do you think about, how
can he kill an infant kid? That's what really bothers me.
And then the younger people are fifteen year old that

(16:21):
he killed. I mean, this is something you never know
what's going through somebody's mind, but in his mind, what
was going through his mind. He just killed whoever he
wanted to that did wrong to him, or you know,
didn't like him or said something bad to him. You know,
he would kill him. I don't know if they are

(16:41):
good ways to go, but some of the details of
some of the murders were bothersome to me. They seemed torturous,
unduly cruel. You know. It wasn't like he said out
to kill somebody and he just shot him once, or
he you know, hit him once or stabbed him once.

(17:04):
You know, it feels like he took his time with
some of these people. And I always find that troublesome
when I read it or hear it. Ultimately, authorities connected
fourteen murders to Peewee Gaskins. The press labeled him the
meanest man in America. They used monikers such as Redneck

(17:24):
Charles Manson because of the dominance and control he had
over other people in his circle. In North Charleston. He
wielded the same power around Prospects, South Carolina as well,
where he owned a few trailers and a large plot
of land. He manipulated the police, his lawyers, and people

(17:45):
in c C. I here's cecil Chandler. He really could
con people. I'm gonna use that word. I think Peewee
Gaskins could conn people, and he would get them to
like him. And you know, if you sit on it
with him and didn't know anything about his background of
the murders or anything, you would kind of thinking he's
just wellly, just a normal guy. And uh, I think

(18:08):
he just kind of canned people and they got to
like him, and they'd give him a job, and you know,
and he would go on about his life. I think
what strikes me about his victims was that most of them,
however long or however briefly they knew him, didn't have
a whole lot of reason to be afraid of him

(18:29):
that they knew of. They were not aware of his
activities outside the sphere that they shared with him, But
it didn't take much to find out the truth about him,
and then they were gone. Pe we killed friends, work associates,

(18:54):
family members, and people who crossed him. Some people around
North Charleston and expect South Carolina knew about his murders.
Some of them died for talking about them. He killed
people who portrayed or failed him in some way, And
after his arrest and trial, everyone in South Carolina, whether

(19:15):
they knew him or not, had opinions about his story.
It wasn't difficult to get locals to talk on camera.
And I did find out that a lot of these
people kind of pumped it up a little bit to
make it more exciting, you know, for the story to
to get on television. And you couldn't believe all of it,

(19:35):
but you took what you could and you worked with it.
But sometimes it was a little more than you could
really actually put on TV. And I found out a
lot of things about Pee Wee Gaskins. Found out he
drove a hearst, and he wrote around all the time,
and he hung out at this little small grocery store.
I learned more about him at that grocery store, I think,
that little small place than I did anywhere else. He

(20:00):
was the nineteen seventies, Southern rock filled the airwaves and
sulfur wafted in the breeze around South Carolina low country.
Peewee Gaskins drove his black hearse around the dirt roads
lined with oaks, waited by Spanish moss, and Doom followed him.
Here's Cecil Chandler reflecting on the lives Peewee snuffed out.

(20:26):
I did not actually know any of the victims. I
knew of the cutting, no girl from Sumter whose father
was in the legislature, and when they found her body
and connected it with Peter Wee Gaskins. But a lot
of times the victims are not talked about a lot.
We mentioned it in our story. He's talking about him some,
but we didn't go into detail us at who they were.

(20:46):
And that's the sad part about reporting. When you're doing television.
It's such a short time period that you have to
deal with, and you really just go into the murdering
and uh, you actually just mentioned the victim's name. And
that's a sad part about reporting. But let me tell
you when I finally got into beating him after he
was captured and everything, he was just a short guy,

(21:07):
a little squeaky voice, and uh, you know, he didn't
look like he could be what they called a serial
killer ever chance. I can remember. My mother lived with
her mother and daddy. There was thirteen in the family,

(21:29):
a boys, five girls that my mother had, this little
boy named Ernis who died, then Marvin, myself and pearlein
Is uh, and we all lived there also. So that
was my sixteen that were living there in one hold.
This is Peewee Gaskins speaking. But I was the one

(21:53):
who the older ones picked on, and I was kicked
around all the time too, and made uh. At nights uh,
they would make me take a big old wooden boot
the billet water and I had to wash everybody's beat
burn And if I did anything that any of my
uncles or ants didn't like, they would take a hedge

(22:14):
boost witch or Peara crease broun or ample crease broun
as long it's a good switching did chear my back,
legs up and be rid all over my body? Pee was?
I think in most five ft slightly built. I think
you're worried about a hundred and forty maybe a hundred

(22:34):
forty jet black hair. This is Dr Jim Batty, professor
and writer, describing a visit he had with Peewee Gaskins
in two on Cell Block two at Central Correctional Institution.
He was not great, headed, wiry, strong, closer, clean and immaculate,

(22:56):
and the smallest hands adult hands that I had ever
shaking her felt ah and you could feel his um
the karate chop hand, the right hand where he had
hit the bed every night a hundred times to build
up his karate shop a monetier, and he loved to

(23:18):
brag about the boards he could break. Dr Beatty also
knew Bill and Murdy Moon before they were killed by
Rudolph Tyner. Dr Beatty really liked Bill Moon and asked
him on two occasions to take a class with him
at Coastal Carolina. I taught at Coastal Carolina University, and

(23:41):
back in those days we had old fashioned registrations where
people stand in line and sign up with faculty members.
I had the good occasion at least two semesters of
registering Bill Moon. And I liked this guy so much
because he was so outgoing and very articulate, and just

(24:05):
as affable and gracious, um and effusive as he possibly
could be. And I was attracted to him, and I
asked him to sign up for one of my English
classes and he said, oh, no, no, no, he said,
I've heard about you. He said, you won't let me
say I seen him when he had done it, will you?

(24:30):
When he learned about the Moon murders in he was heartbroken, crushed, crushed,
and to hear about his devotion to his stepson's Tony
Simo and to his wife Bill Moon was a marvelous man, marvelous,

(24:50):
marvelous individual and have been taken down like that, it
was absolutely outrageous. In ten eight two, when Dr Batty
was interviewing pee Wee, Tyner walked by in the common
area of cell Block two, the first time that I
ever encountered Rudolph Tyner in conversation with Peewee. And he

(25:15):
put his hand over my arm and said, look, look,
miss Jim, look look And I said, what what He said,
that's Rudolph Diiner, That's Rudolph Tainer. He didn't curse. He said,
he's the man get killed your friend. And I got
a look at the back of this young African American
moving down the hall, actually towards the drink machine, I believe,

(25:36):
And he says, watch who are be coming back in
just a minute, And surely enough he points him out again,
and then he said, I can blow him away if
I had my thirty thirty right here. So he's uh.
True feelings came out at the site of Rudolph Tyner.

(25:58):
Rudolph violated every single tenant of Peewee's code. He was
a teenager out of line, he's black, he's born wrong.
He murdered two white people, which is the ultimate violation

(26:20):
of the Peewee Code. Tony Simo hated Rudolph Tyner, and
he had the public support. He received a hero's welcome

(26:41):
after he kicked Tyner and the crotch as they walked
into one of the murderer's hearings, But that was nothing
compared to what he ultimately had in store for Tyner.
He found the connection he needed to execute his plan
at the Central Corrections Institute. Gerald McCormick was Sir R
time in Cell Block one at c c I and

(27:03):
knew the infamy of the trustee of Cell Block two,
Peewee Gaskins. Here's Dr Jim Batty talking about Peewee's role
as the prison trustee. He was a trust and he
had the run of the place. And this came about
as a result of the fact that He was a
car artist, as polished a car artist as you've ever seen.

(27:26):
Was my experience. Peewee was reliable, He did what he
said he would do, trustworthy, which is as ironic as
it possibly can be. Holly Gatlin interviewed Peewee on several
occasions when she was working as a police reporter for
the Morning News in Florence, South Carolina, in the nineteen eighties.

(27:46):
Here she is talking about Peewee being the trustee of
cell Block two. Peewee was the building man. You know.
Pee Wee was very good at doing things. I mean
he knew what he was doing. He could fix things,
So there was some degree of trust among the security officers,

(28:10):
the prison officers. You know, the prisons to a certain extent,
are run the institution is run by the inmates. Pee
Wee Gaskins was serving nine consecutive life sentences and became
a prison trustee. In the six years he'd been at
c c I, he moved between different areas of the

(28:31):
cell block, including death Row, which was directly behind his
own cell. He performed repairs, made deliveries, and made himself useful.
People sought Pee Wee out for his mobility. He had
the run of the cell block. Everyone knew him and
he knew everyone. This included Rudolph Tyner, who cell on

(28:51):
death row was close behind the meanest man in America.
That proximity allowed them to communicate from their cells by
yelling through the But Peewee's generosity was all a part
of a ruse to get close to Tyner. Pee Wee
had a knack for befriending people and then punishing them.
As Dr Batty said, pee Wee Gaskins did not like

(29:13):
Tyner at all. Here's Pewee talking about Rudolph Tyner, who
was on death row. He's trying the things to the
vs you to do anything he's supposed to do. I'm
one that I don't let nobody tell me what I
can do. And what I changed is And he's the
one that used to come by my sale and talk about,
you know, kill itself and all that to who wanted
to die to band they had to stay in his sale. Third,

(29:35):
and when we go to church, not combined cutty Dan's
rootberg and he said you would would You said you
damn right? And he never said nothing about one of
dinal More to mate, pee Wee didn't take too well
to people trying to tell him what to do. He
knifed and shot people for the smallest insult or tone.
He took the wrong way, and Tyner was trying to
do it in prison, a guy pee Wee already hated

(29:56):
because he was a black man who killed two white people.
And when he started talking about wanting to kill himself,
Peewee was all too happy to oblige. In fact, he
offered to do it while the other inmates were at
a Thursday church service. I think Peewee was addicted to killing,

(30:17):
and when he found another opportunity to kill somebody, he
was very willing to take it. I'll tell you what
he told me one time. You know that some of
his phrases stick in my mind. He said, I never
killed nobody that didn't need killing. Tony Siemo thought Rudolph

(30:42):
Tyner needed killing. For years, he sought revenge and then
got in touch with someone inside c c I to
help him deliver his own brand of justice. Through Gerald McCormick,
SEEMO hired Peewee Gaskins to kill Rudolph Tyner. The Cormick
made several collect calls to Seemo to arrange details and payment.

(31:05):
Then one day in two pee Wee called Semos house
directly a collect call from cellblock to at C C I.
The telephone operator identified the caller as Gerald McCormick, but
it was Peewee who was on the line and said, quote,
this is the doctor calling you end quote. I have

(31:28):
a kind thank you general calling h So I've come
up with something calling call you if you wanted me
and day it can't be no damn making chick on
the end. I need I need one elected camp and

(31:52):
as much of the stick of damn dynamite as you
can get. I'll pick a damn radio and end up
bomb they budget. That's of a bitch, You go off
and it won't be no damn coming back on bad
p We requested as much dynamite as Semo could deliver him,
and he would take care of Tyner once and for all.

(32:12):
He was going to rig it into a radio. Here's
how Tony Siemo was to get explosives into the prison.
Uh yeah, we can get let the radio. You know,
just got a pretty good sast pig ret just can't
see in. Or just take that damn bang and tape
it up into something, put it in front of the
speaking up against and take it well, it won't shake,

(32:33):
or and just putting all electric radio. Just got a
pretty good sast peak plan it and may look at me,
or it may look down, but just make sure you
know that looks at it ain't been Tampa Brown up
in bad and get it up to him, and damned
if I don't give it to him. And when he
plugs that side of a bitch, happen to blow him
in the hail pe. We wanted a radio with dynamite

(32:57):
taped inside the speaker. He would and rigged the radio
with a wire to detonate when Tyner plugged it in.
But one elect the camp and there's much of a
stick to get in, and he don't me to call.
You may be able to weaken and find one stick
somewhere and get it. Tell him dam if I can't

(33:18):
pitch him up, are probably getting well. I'll be good.
I can have as long as I got to let
the camp'll go out. He plugged it in the roll,
all the troubles will be over with. It was September
and they were talking about getting dynamite into a prison.

(33:41):
It sounds crazy to even say it. I mean prison
a radio a wire and some dynamite. A fellow inmate
later testified that on September twelve, pee Wee instructed him
to deliver to Rudolph Tyner what appeared to be a
radio types speaker built into a plastic cup. He delivered

(34:03):
the cup and a message Tyners should connect that cup
to the wire Peewee had run to a cell through
the ventilation system. The two of them would be able
to talk directly instead of having to yell through the vent.
Prison house ingenuity. So Tyner got the cup connected that

(34:24):
wire that extended through the vent to pee Wee sell
as he was told. He yelled through the vent when
it was connected, and then he held the cup up
to his right ear. Peee Gaskins was Not My Friend

(34:47):
as a joint production from My Heart Radio and Doghouse Pictures,
produced and hosted by Jeff Keeney. Executive producers are Courtney
DeFries and Noel Brown. Written by Jim Roberts, Courtney Defriez
and Terry James, Edit, mix and sound design by Jeremiah
Kolani Prescott. Music composed by Diamond Street Productions, Spencer garn
and Ian Newberry. Special thanks to Jim and Anita baby