July 12, 2021 • 40 mins
The tragic story of Kim Ghelkins is explored. Pee Wee and Jim's relationship takes a dangerous turn.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Pee Wee Gaskins had a lot of friends, but if
they crossed him, he wasn't afraid to kill them. Eight
bodies were found in this burial field, but those victims
stories may never have come to light had it not
been for the school teacher who followed a missing person's report.
It all began with Kim Gilkins and this story of
(00:26):
that missing girl. Kim Gelkin was killed because she was
a threat to Peary's freedom. She was always in danger
of something that other people were trying to do to her.
It's easy to get caught up in someone's manipulations that
(00:47):
then you fall victim in the same way, Peeley said,
Mr Jim, you didn't have a thing to worry about.
I was right here with you. I was petrified from
my heart, radio and doghouse pictures. This is Peewee Gaskins
was not my friend. I'm Jeff Keating m H. Kim
(01:25):
Yakin lived at Calvert Street in North Charleston, which was
across the street from where Pee Wee live. Kim lived
with her father and her older sister. Peewee befriended all
kinds of people. Kim Gilkins visited Peewee's home often and
(01:45):
became friends with Donna Gaskins, his last wife. Donna was
only seven years older than Kim. Kim's mother died a
couple of months before she met Peewee and Donna, and
it wouldn't be long before she would disappear. Year From
his research and many conversations with Peewee, Jim learned a
(02:06):
lot about the tragic life of that missing girl. Kim
was thirteen years old when she died. She was gracious,
she would love him, She was appreciative. She very much
loved Donna Gaskins, and Nanna was often good to her.
But she was a gentle, slow baby teenage girl. Kim
(02:36):
apparently struggled with academics. A fifth grader at Shakoor Elementary School,
she was three years older than her classmates, most of
whom were ten and eleven. That's where she met her teacher,
Mary Anne Griffin, when she assigned the students to write
a paper on the person they admired. Most. Kim wrote
(02:57):
about her neighbor Donna. Kim often took weekend trips with
Don and Peewee to their home in Prospect, South Carolina.
The Charlotte Observer reported that Kim's sister and father had
warned her not to be going to the Gaskins home
and cited Marianne Griffin, who recognized quote that she looked
(03:19):
up to this nineteen year old girl because her mother
was dead end quote here's Anita baby. I cannot imagine
how lonely that child Kim Gilkin was, and her teacher
clearly loved her and away and felt sorry for her
(03:41):
and protective of her, and had a sense of all
of the trials that Kim must have gone through. The
teacher at Shikorra Elementary School, Marianne Griffin was her name.
She filed a missing person's report after a week and
a half Kim being absent. It doesn't appear her father
(04:05):
filed a missing person's reports. No one on her street
did this. Those people under the radar didn't report to
the police missing people. But this good teacher did this.
The Kim Gilkin's story is what started the whole investigation.
Thank goodness for that alert and caring teacher. Without that teacher,
(04:31):
all the victims may still just be in a missing
person style. Of course, the law enforcement took it seriously
and the threads started to unravel, and this put the
North Charleston Police rufus Tony and Roy Green on this case,
(04:54):
and they just sent an excellent team and excellent policeman
and they got on this case and they we found
that Peewee Gaskins was tied to this missing girl. It
didn't take long to zero in on Gaskins as a suspect.
Investigators were aggressive, pounding the pavement looking for Leeds. That's
(05:18):
when they met the mother of Dennis Bellamy, Diane Bellamy
and Johnny Knight. She reported her three children were also missing.
Mrs Knight brought the story to head. Marian Griffin began
it but missing Knight gave information that people in the
(05:40):
neighborhood are all missing. They would also learn Jesse Judy
and Johnny Sellers were missing and the common denominator in
these missing persons was Pee Wee Gaskins. When they arrived
at his home, Peewee wasn't there, but the detectives did
me Sandy and Donna Gaskins. It was the ex wife,
(06:03):
Sandy who gave the detectives the lead they were looking for.
Sandy Snell Gaskins told the police that Peewee and Kim
were offered in the prospect Knowing Kim was last seen
with Peewee Gaskins, police quickly obtained a search warrant for
(06:23):
Peewee's trailer, ninety miles away in Prospect. It was there
they found clothing that belonged to Kim Gelkins. They also
found a stolen car on his lot, and he was
arrested that same day for auto theft and contributing to
the delinquency of a minor. He took her out across
(06:45):
county lines. He was a minor, charged as far as
compared to murder, when it was certainly serious enough to
put him back in jail. Still, there was no sign
of Kim Gelkins, who had been missing for nearly sixty days.
Police detectives tracked down Walter Neely, Peewee's close friend, and
(07:06):
applied pressure. Walter buckled, but he had no idea where
Kim was. He didn't know pee Wee had taken her
to stay with his daughter, Shirley Anne Gaskins and her husband,
Howard Evans. Police knew she wasn't there anymore. Surely, Anne
thought Kim had gone to Indiana, where she had some family,
(07:28):
so police were in a bind. Walter had taken them
to Peewe's burial grounds and they were knee deep in
digging up bodies, but still no word on Kim Gerkins,
dead or live. Kim Galkin was abused rather boodily by
(07:51):
her father, and she loved and adored pee Wee Gaskins
and his wife, Donna. Pee Wee is directly across the
street from Kim. Kim is distraught and wants to get away,
so she decides she's gonna go get help with the
person who helps everybody. And she went over in tears,
(08:15):
and he said, what's the matter of him? Let's talk.
She says, I want to talk to you by ourselves,
and they step out into the back of a car
he's working on, and she tells him I've got to
get away. Can I move in with you all across
the street? And he thought a minute. I said, we
can't do that, Kim, but I can get a place
for you. And he thought, immediately, I'll take her to
(08:38):
Shirley and Evans, his daughter at Prospect Ropus cross Roads.
She can go there because Howard and surely Anna knew
by what I tell her to do. So he made
arrangements to take Kim to Prospect, which he did the
following Friday afternoon, honestly motivated to help her and get
her away from her father. Her mother had died six
(09:02):
months before of cancer, and she was absolutely distraught with
the behavior of her father and went directly to pee Wee.
She wanted results, that's why she went to Peewee first
rather than anyone else. And Peewee takes Kim Gelkin to
Prospect to live at his daughter's house, knowing that there's
(09:24):
a great risk in doing this because he had no
business taking a teenage girl anywhere for anything, but he
needed to help her. There was no evidence ever submitted
that her father abused her, and no charges ever filed.
Gaskins would go on to explain to Jim, as he
(09:47):
had in his deposition, that Kim stayed with his daughter
and her husband for a few months. This meant she
disappeared from her home for more than a month before
anybody reported her missing. Just prior to that report being filed,
Kim had an opportunity to speak with the owner of
a local country store and Prospect, and what she revealed
(10:10):
was shocking. So she goes to the country store and
talks to the owner and asked for help and somehow
ward gets back to Shirley Anne that Kim is talking
about being abused by her husband. Kim told the store
(10:30):
owner that pee Wee, his son in law, Howard Evans,
and his brother Charles, we're all raping her in the house.
When word got back to Shirley Anne, she called her
father Peewee to report that Kim had been jowing. He
was about ninety days into the search for Kim Gilkins.
(10:54):
Police were busy unearthing the eight bodies pee Wee had murdered,
but Kim was not one of them. North Charleston Police
Chief Lynwood Simmons stated that all leads to find the
girl had been exhausted, but that the case was still active.
Police Detective Roy Green points directly to pee Wee Gaskins
(11:14):
as a prime suspect, saying Kim was last seen with
him in a white pickup truck at his trailer home
in Prospect. Roy suspects foul play and then nothing, absolutely nothing.
The case goes cold for almost a year until pee
(11:40):
Wee was convicted of Dennis Bellamy's murder and found himself
on trial for Barnwell yates Is murder. Pee Wee gave
up Barnwell's body in exchange for a conjugal visit with Donna,
and for an additional conjugal visit, he led investigators to
Kim Gilkin's body. Kim Gilkin was killed with a Campbell
(12:05):
suit knife. Pee We waited one hour for him to
be brought to him in a shallow grave not very
far from his trailer there in Prospect, and Kim was
brought to Peewee by two young women. Marie Marlowe and
Sherry Lee are their names, and they were never ever
(12:26):
as far as I know, accused of anything. Kim Gilkin
was killed because she was a threat to Peewee's freedom.
There was no evidence to support Peewee's allegation, and the
two women were never charged with anything. Kim's jawing about
(12:49):
being raped threatened Peewee's freedom, and he tried to save
himself by sacrificing her. He shot in staff app to
Kim Gilkins. There was no evidence that confirmed rape or
sexual activity of any kind. The body was too decomposed
when recovered. Identification was made matching her teeth to her
(13:14):
last known picture showing her smile, but there were no
dental records for comparison. At the time of his confession,
Peewee was in prison for life trying to plea deal
to avoid death. He was never charged for Kim Gelkin's murder,
and police closed the file to believe she was being
(13:41):
saved and to wind up being killed not because of
anything she did, but because of what two males reportedly
we're doing with her. So he wouldn't have to go
back to jail because she was going to tell the police.
She was always in Dane. You're of something that other
people were trying to do to her, and all she
(14:04):
wanted was love and safety, and that rings a bell
with me. I cannot ever imagine not feeling safe. For
(14:32):
reasons unknown, Kim Gerkins felt safe asking pee Wee and
Donna Gaskin's for help. She was one of numerous people
who felt this way around pee Wee, but then found
herself on the wrong end of a knife and gun. Diane,
Dennis Janice, all of the people pee Wee killed experiences
(14:54):
at one time or another. Jim Batty sense that kinship
as well. He put it at risk when he failed
to deliver the radio to Peewee's son, and he was
anxious to restore that trust again. As he sought to
finish his book on Peewee. Gaskins betrayal probably the fiercest
(15:19):
enemy that he had. He did not ever want to
be betrayed. And then when I was seen in a tiny,
tiny way of betraying him by failing to take the
radio to his son, that one thing letting me know
that I could be in danger, just as the people
get he murdered. Jim worked to repair anything that put
(15:41):
him in danger. Well, one day that I visited Peewee,
the visiting room was full, and the guard believe his
name was Joe, said, do you mind if you all
meet in a room down the hall? I said not
at all. So he took us into a room and
he closed the door and it clicked, and I said,
(16:03):
pee wee? Is that is that door locked? And he said,
Mr Jim, they locked every door I go into. Jim
was stressed after the radio incidents, and there he was
locked in a room with Gaskins, and now he was scared.
(16:23):
So we had our usual hour and a half meeting.
Two hours came, two hours and fifteen minutes came, three
o'clock came, and I was beginning to get uneasy. Finally,
the guard I've never seen before. He opens the door
(16:46):
and apologizes, says, I'm sorry. Actually we forgotten where we
put you, and pee We said, Mr Jim is getting
a little anxious, and then pee We reached over and
put his hand on my arm and said, Mr Jim,
you didn't have a thing to worry about. I was
(17:06):
right here with you. I was petrified. Jim wanted to
finish his book, which would mean more interviews, and even
though he was petrified, Jim did his best to stay
on good terms with Peewee anyway. He said, you know,
(17:28):
it's been almost a year now since I've seen my mom,
and I said, would you like for me to bring
her here to visit you? He said, I would like that,
so we arranged for me to take his mother to
the prison. Julie Parrot was Peewee's mother, and Anita Baby
remembers her. Peewee's mother a Parrot. I called her. That
(17:52):
was as kind and upright and engaging person. She's quiet,
sort of ignified. Small her house. I was impressed. I've
never been so impressed in a home. It was a
little shock. It was like a shotgun shack. And the
(18:13):
yard wasn't a yard. It was dirt around the house.
I know she swept it. It was immaculate. That house
was absolutely could eat off the floor. I'm sure his
mother fed him wonderful food, and he knew she loved him,
and he wanted her to know he loved her. She
was quite special. I think there were lots of stories
(18:36):
that he wouldn't tell until she was gone. But well,
his family life was of course no family. He had
an older sister. He and his older sister were born
to Uley Parrott out of wedlock, and Uali worked in
the fields with them in to survive. She was best
(18:57):
I can tell, hard working, honorable individual who loved her
children and cared for them as well as she could.
They were passed around. Pee Wee told me that there
were days he would wake up and not know whose
house he was in. He had been taken there for
them to care for him. Then he spoke about the
(19:19):
treatment of his mother's brothers of him from age four
on until the arrest at age thirteen that Sunday afternoon
when he went to jail then to reform school, he
was brutally, brutally tortured by his uncle's and this was
(19:40):
corroborated when I had dinner with Carol Hannah pee Wee's
younger sister by seventeen years of age. He was abused.
He was abused as a little boy. He was abused
by the uncle's. Yet Jim knew that a mother wanted
to be with her child, and a filed with his mother.
(20:03):
I picked her up, took her to the prison. She
would not talk. I could not get her to talk
about anything. Quiet, gentle, old, frail but strong. And the
room was relatively empty that day, and I sat over
in the corner as far as I could get from them,
(20:25):
But I was taking notes and observing what I saw
them do. And I noticed it from time to time
pee would just move his hand over and put it
on top of her hand, which it was very poignant
in my thinking. I hear man, I didn't dream, had
(20:45):
any kind of feeling for anything or anybody. Was clearly
enthralled with his mother, and I was happy to be
with her. And they chatted and talked. An hour ten
minutes came the end of our visit, and they stood
and embraced. And the only time that I ever saw
Peoul smile was when he closed his eyes and hugged
(21:10):
his mother, and here's this man who's taken life after
life embracing the woman who gave him his life. And
I thought that that was a powerful picture of seeing
that there. And I thought people asked me often, what
(21:33):
drew you to this man? How could you possibly keep
going back there? To that creature? The irony of this
taker of lives and this giver of his life embracing
each other. And he smiles the only time I ever
saw him spy Here Solicitor Dick Harp Lute Lean talking
(22:01):
about Peewee's intelligence and childhood. If you took Charles Manson
knocked about fifty points off his I q have him
grow up in a swamp in South Carolina where he's
abused sexually by men. And I think he dropped out
of school in the seventh grade, never had any education.
(22:21):
But most of the people he hung out with were criminals.
He spent some time with the carnival. I mean, he's
just sort of a redneck Charlie Manson and charismatic extent
that he attracted people to him, manipulated people. Pee Wee,
prayed on the vulnerability of his victims and forced many
of them to be complicit in his crimes. He manipulated
(22:45):
everyone around him, and he got everyone around him to
do what he wanted, including the babies, because anything pee
Wee asked him to do, he did. I mean, he
wanted him to visit his mother. We did, took to
the beach, you know, took his sister and little Donnie
(23:07):
Peewee son. So I mean, anything that pee Wee needed
Jim wanted to help him with. He was just the
babies also met with Peewee's sister. His sister looked like
a different kind of person from Peewee. She was attractive,
she was polite, well mannered, just a different ilk almost,
(23:31):
And it must have been hell for her to be
the victim of a brother who was the most notorious
mass murder in South Carolina history. And she's growing up,
going to high school, going to school. Thank god, she
didn't share his last name, and so that may have
protected her some. But Jim went out took her to
(23:52):
lunch I think one time, and and I'm sure she
shared stories with him about the pain and the anger
she felt to at him, not just for what he
did that was bad enough, but for the fact that
she shared his blood. Somehow, and had to accept some
of the fallout from the publicity and the notoriety in
(24:13):
the horror of this man and his son. He didn't
stand a chance because he was Donald Henry Gas against
the third Here's Jennifer Hawes talking about one characteristic of
a killer. I think it goes back to control. They're
like master manipulators that do you think they're helping you
(24:33):
or you're helping them. It's easy to get caught up
in someone's manipulations and you alone understand them in a
way that nobody else does, and then you fall victim
in the same way. This is how Gaskins made himself
appear as a protector, seeming to be generous and selfless
at times. This is how he convinced Johnny Knight to
(24:57):
walk into the woods to meet his brother the for
being murdered himself. This is how he was able to
kill Kim Gelkins, and how he got one to smell
and Walter Neely to go along with outrageous stories and
cover up his crimes. By now, Jim was hopeful that
Pee Wee posed no threat to him or his family.
(25:21):
He genuinely looked for the good and human beings. He
always wanted to help others, and this extended to pee
Wee as well. He's like, continue me a big favor.
I said, sure, what is it? If I can, I will.
He presented his case, and then if they had fifty
ft of TV cable and flat wire a copper on
(25:44):
either side, he could hook a TV set and it
would enable fifty people to be able to watch TV
rather than the five or six. And I thought, well,
how nice. I would love to help that many people
be able to watch Sunday afternoon football as I do.
Peewee was a cellblock trustee and this gave him certain responsibilities.
(26:05):
Here's Dick carput Lean well, a trustee in Department of
Corrections are at c C I back then, specifically would
be somebody that would be given supervisory duties over the
other inmates. Peewee had been in and out of the
Department of Correction with most of his wife and so
he knew the institution. And once he had these life sentences,
(26:27):
they knew he was going to be there for a while. Stability,
he had skills. They trusted him to do the work
that they didn't have to pay somebody else to fix
the plumbing, fix the electrical work and to give task
to the other inmates. He was the guy that controlled
the lives in terms of who got to work in
the library, who had to work in the laundry, different jobs,
(26:50):
different jobs like wiring TVs for his fellow inmates. Jim
baeties currency, his altruism, works war and support others. People
can be redeemed. Pee Wee Gaskins knew this and was
ready to leverage Jim's behavior for a scheme involving the wire.
(27:14):
And I said, sure, I mean is that okay to do?
Can I mail that here to you? He said, oh yeah,
I get packages all the time. They investigate everything. They
opened it, they checked to see if there's anything illegal.
And I said, well, tell me again, what am I
buying and how do I do this? Just go to
any hardware store and asked for fifty feet of television
(27:37):
cable wire. And I went to his hardware somewhere there
in Murder Beach. I mailed it to Peewee, wondering how
long it would take him to get the TV connect
if so many people could watch. I didn't ultimate favor
of mailing him television wire fifty feet of TV cable
(28:03):
I learned later, then fifty was within the distance of
his cell to Rudolph Kiner's in the spring of nine.
(28:25):
Rudolph Tyner was eighteen years old when he left New
York City after several run ins with the police. He
ended up in Coastal South Carolina and stayed with Carlton Davis.
He frequented Moon's Grocery for snacks and drinks. Bill and
Murdy Moon owned the store and lived down the street.
(28:47):
Their son and daughters also lived nearby with their families.
Bill was retired military and took classes at nearby Coastal
Carolina University. Dr Jim Batty new Bill I taught at
Coastal Carolina University. I had the good occasion at least
(29:08):
two semesters of registering Bill Moon, and I like this
guy so much, and I asked him to sign up
for one of my English classes. And he said, oh, no, no, no,
So I've heard about you, he said, I'm not going
to Jim's disappointment, Bill didn't sign up for his literature
classes those semesters. Jim thought Bill would have enjoyed the poems, stories,
(29:32):
and tales he taught from the medieval period into the
twentieth century. Those poems and stories framed Jim's encounter with
the world. One of those stories, the Strange Case of
Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde, provides a clear arena to
engage the contradictions of the inner self, the hero versus evil,
(29:53):
true love, finding a home, and the duality of the
human condition. Hefty topics for authors across the ages that
became guiding themes in Dr Jim Batty's life. But Bill
Moon never took Jim's class, and on March eighteenth, he
(30:16):
and his wife Murdy worked there last night together. They
were closing up their store just before ten pm when
Rudolph Tyner walked in. He had been in the store
several times in the previous weeks, and this time he
wielded a shotgun. Tyner took their money and fled out
(30:40):
the screen door. For unknown reasons, he re entered the
store and shot Bill Moon in the chest, and then
shot Murdy, who fell to the floor facing her dying husband.
Tyner left the store and got into a car driven
by carl To Davis. They were arrested hours later when
(31:05):
Carlton's father called the police after becoming suspicious. Both signed
confessions the next morning. All of coastal South Carolina mourned
the Moons and voiced their anger at Tiner. Jim Batty
read about the tragic murders, crushed, crushed, and hear his
(31:30):
devotion to his stepson Tody Simo and to his wife.
Bill Moon was a marvelous man, marvelous individual, and have
been taken down like that. It was absolutely outrageous. Within
the year, Tyner was on trial and convicted of the murders.
(31:52):
The jury took under an hour to sentence him to
death in the state's electric chair. Tinner was housed in
Central Correctional Institute. Over the four prior years, he had
been moved on and off death row depending on the
status of his many legal appeals and State Supreme Court rulings.
(32:16):
He was housed in Cell Block two at c c I,
which was run by prison trustee pee Wee Gaskins. Jim
was well into fifty interviews with Peewee writing a book
about the murderer's life. During one such meeting in the
cell blocks common area, Jim mentioned to pee Wee that
he knew Bill Moon before Tyner murdered him. The first
(32:41):
time that I ever encountered Rudolph Tiner in conversation with Peelee,
he said, that's Rudolph Diiner. That's Rudolph Tiner. He's a man.
Get killed your friend. Bill Moon might not have been
Jim's personal friend, but he did have admiration for him.
He told Pee Wee as much Peewee seemed to sympathize
(33:02):
with Jim, he thought it was terrible. He thought it
should have been redeemed may right. And then he said,
I can blow him away if I had my thirty
thirty right here. Tony Simo, bill Moon's son, wanted tin
Or dead. Tony did everything in his power to assure
(33:24):
justice was served. Here's Dick harpoot Lean Well. I think
Tony was somebody who was traumatized by their violent death
and wanted justice, wanted revenge. And when he was sentenced
to death the second time, the story isn't Simo tried
to attack him physically and he became obsessed with it.
(33:46):
There's rumors that he hit on the roof of a
building across the courthouse at the second trial with the
high powered rifle to kill Tinner, but they brought Tinner
in the door on the opposite side. I prosecuted him.
My Deubt with him. He seemed like the most noise
mold all American guy in the world, just had this
obsession with avenging the death of his parents. Jim Batty
(34:08):
knew about Tyner and his case. There's no way, though
that he knew Tony Siemo was plotting his own form
of justice after the courts couldn't get his parents killer
into the electric chair. Jim didn't know about the possible
sniper attempt, nor was he aware that Tony Siemo contacted
Peewee in. Someone had referred him to Gaskins, and he
(34:35):
and Gaskons began telephone conversations and they never said Tyner's name,
and he never said Simo's name, but he touched tone phones.
You can figure out the phone number of the FBI
could from the tones, and it came back to Tony
Simo and it was done from the pay phone in
the cell block. And on those calls, Gaskins is arranging
to get something smuggled in and it turns out he
(34:58):
talks about poison. Tony here, General want me to call this.
We give that son of a bitch all of one
dogs and all this are doing, making that son of
a bit sick, were putting in some bug for him
and drank the other night and all it was made
up sick as hell and make it thick as hell.
(35:18):
He was tailed as hell for a day or two
and that's it. Forgot about one more. Does someone give
me his eggs in the morning. That's don't make you
about run me crazy or a fair mead? Great shot?
Hear not word, that's perfect he's got for him. It's kirk,
pretty story man, that's pretty little. Were all right, Uh,
we got a little bit of that left and give
(35:40):
it to him. And it's food and other thing else
like David net for her for pro gerry. He's got
to get that breakfast. He's well wives on that. He
done it up and he's going to He snored it alive,
so he would know what he is. If a coach snort,
if you're telling a difference in it now, I'll give
you the rest to that in the morning, I right
stir for little proud. I'll want em. I'll get doomed
(36:01):
done my score in the morning player, I'm go ahead,
makes not end. Investigators learned that Semo and a friend
had tested the poison on a dog and the dog died.
So now two people had designs on killing Tyner, Pee
Wee and Semo, and they conspired together to finish the job.
(36:25):
The poison couldn't do. China would eventually have died an
electric chair but for Tony Semo, and it was not
fast enough. So Pete we again took the law into
his own hands. As Pee Wee told me several times,
lots of people don't deserve to live, and Rudolph Tyna
(36:49):
was one of those. So I come up with something
and he won elected camp and pick a damn dynamite.
As again, I'll pick a damn radio and duet inside
of a bit of damn coming back on ban. Pee
(37:13):
we recorded this call on one of the many audio
cassettes he had in his cell. His status as the
prison trustee gave him the confidence to ask Simo for
some explosives. If he got the materials into his cell,
he could pretty much do whatever he wanted with them.
He had access to everywhere in the cell block. Here's
(37:36):
Dick harpoot Lean. First of all, on the ground floor,
you've got fifteen cells on each side of this island
that rises out of the middle of the cell block.
If you've seen any Humphrey Bogarder James Cagney movie, you
understand exactly what I'm talking about. These are cellblocks built
in the thirties and forties, and between the backs of
those two cells on either side is what they called
(37:58):
the trace, which is a gap of about two and
a half to three ft in which all the plumbing
and electrical wires run and gascons is The building man
had access to that area, and none of these places
were air conditioned, so they had vents in the back
of the cell into the trace to give some circulation
of air, just a great probably a foot square. So
(38:20):
Gascon's befriended Tiner and his cell backed up to the
trace as Peewee's did, except it was offset by a
two cells, and those great were at the top of
the cell, so you could stand on a chair and
talk to somebody through the grate on the other side
of the cell block. Tony used jim Babies Home and
(38:41):
Myrtle Beach as the return address on the package. He
said Peewee Jim had been a trusted visitor at the
prison for some time. It was going to take something
much stronger than poison to kill Tyner, like some C
four explosives and a long wire. That wire would spark
(39:01):
the detonation. That wire would deliver the charge for the
murder for hire. That wire was not going to bring
Sunday afternoon football to prisoners. Like Jim imagined, he never
thought to be worried about something. He would send team
(39:23):
or God forbid, that pee we would use to implicate him.
Pee Gaskins was not my friend. It's a joint production
from My Heart Radio and Doghouse Pictures, produced and hosted
(39:46):
by Jeff Keeping. Executive producers are Courtney DeFries and Noel Brown.
Written by Jim Roberts, Courtney Defriez and Terry James. Edit,
mix and sound designed by Jeremiah Kolani Prescott. Music composed
by Diamond Street Productions, Spencer garn and Ian Newberry. Special
thanks to Jim and Anita Baby. Additional thanks to the
University of South Carolina, Moving Image Research Collections and the
(40:08):
University of South Carolina.
Pee Wee Gaskins had a lot of friends, but if
they crossed him, he wasn't afraid to kill them. Eight
bodies were found in this burial field, but those victims
stories may never have come to light had it not
been for the school teacher who followed a missing person's report.
It all began with Kim Gilkins and this story of
(00:26):
that missing girl. Kim Gelkin was killed because she was
a threat to Peary's freedom. She was always in danger
of something that other people were trying to do to her.
It's easy to get caught up in someone's manipulations that
(00:47):
then you fall victim in the same way, Peeley said,
Mr Jim, you didn't have a thing to worry about.
I was right here with you. I was petrified from
my heart, radio and doghouse pictures. This is Peewee Gaskins
was not my friend. I'm Jeff Keating m H. Kim
(01:25):
Yakin lived at Calvert Street in North Charleston, which was
across the street from where Pee Wee live. Kim lived
with her father and her older sister. Peewee befriended all
kinds of people. Kim Gilkins visited Peewee's home often and
(01:45):
became friends with Donna Gaskins, his last wife. Donna was
only seven years older than Kim. Kim's mother died a
couple of months before she met Peewee and Donna, and
it wouldn't be long before she would disappear. Year From
his research and many conversations with Peewee, Jim learned a
(02:06):
lot about the tragic life of that missing girl. Kim
was thirteen years old when she died. She was gracious,
she would love him, She was appreciative. She very much
loved Donna Gaskins, and Nanna was often good to her.
But she was a gentle, slow baby teenage girl. Kim
(02:36):
apparently struggled with academics. A fifth grader at Shakoor Elementary School,
she was three years older than her classmates, most of
whom were ten and eleven. That's where she met her teacher,
Mary Anne Griffin, when she assigned the students to write
a paper on the person they admired. Most. Kim wrote
(02:57):
about her neighbor Donna. Kim often took weekend trips with
Don and Peewee to their home in Prospect, South Carolina.
The Charlotte Observer reported that Kim's sister and father had
warned her not to be going to the Gaskins home
and cited Marianne Griffin, who recognized quote that she looked
(03:19):
up to this nineteen year old girl because her mother
was dead end quote here's Anita baby. I cannot imagine
how lonely that child Kim Gilkin was, and her teacher
clearly loved her and away and felt sorry for her
(03:41):
and protective of her, and had a sense of all
of the trials that Kim must have gone through. The
teacher at Shikorra Elementary School, Marianne Griffin was her name.
She filed a missing person's report after a week and
a half Kim being absent. It doesn't appear her father
(04:05):
filed a missing person's reports. No one on her street
did this. Those people under the radar didn't report to
the police missing people. But this good teacher did this.
The Kim Gilkin's story is what started the whole investigation.
Thank goodness for that alert and caring teacher. Without that teacher,
(04:31):
all the victims may still just be in a missing
person style. Of course, the law enforcement took it seriously
and the threads started to unravel, and this put the
North Charleston Police rufus Tony and Roy Green on this case,
(04:54):
and they just sent an excellent team and excellent policeman
and they got on this case and they we found
that Peewee Gaskins was tied to this missing girl. It
didn't take long to zero in on Gaskins as a suspect.
Investigators were aggressive, pounding the pavement looking for Leeds. That's
(05:18):
when they met the mother of Dennis Bellamy, Diane Bellamy
and Johnny Knight. She reported her three children were also missing.
Mrs Knight brought the story to head. Marian Griffin began
it but missing Knight gave information that people in the
(05:40):
neighborhood are all missing. They would also learn Jesse Judy
and Johnny Sellers were missing and the common denominator in
these missing persons was Pee Wee Gaskins. When they arrived
at his home, Peewee wasn't there, but the detectives did
me Sandy and Donna Gaskins. It was the ex wife,
(06:03):
Sandy who gave the detectives the lead they were looking for.
Sandy Snell Gaskins told the police that Peewee and Kim
were offered in the prospect Knowing Kim was last seen
with Peewee Gaskins, police quickly obtained a search warrant for
(06:23):
Peewee's trailer, ninety miles away in Prospect. It was there
they found clothing that belonged to Kim Gelkins. They also
found a stolen car on his lot, and he was
arrested that same day for auto theft and contributing to
the delinquency of a minor. He took her out across
(06:45):
county lines. He was a minor, charged as far as
compared to murder, when it was certainly serious enough to
put him back in jail. Still, there was no sign
of Kim Gelkins, who had been missing for nearly sixty days.
Police detectives tracked down Walter Neely, Peewee's close friend, and
(07:06):
applied pressure. Walter buckled, but he had no idea where
Kim was. He didn't know pee Wee had taken her
to stay with his daughter, Shirley Anne Gaskins and her husband,
Howard Evans. Police knew she wasn't there anymore. Surely, Anne
thought Kim had gone to Indiana, where she had some family,
(07:28):
so police were in a bind. Walter had taken them
to Peewe's burial grounds and they were knee deep in
digging up bodies, but still no word on Kim Gerkins,
dead or live. Kim Galkin was abused rather boodily by
(07:51):
her father, and she loved and adored pee Wee Gaskins
and his wife, Donna. Pee Wee is directly across the
street from Kim. Kim is distraught and wants to get away,
so she decides she's gonna go get help with the
person who helps everybody. And she went over in tears,
(08:15):
and he said, what's the matter of him? Let's talk.
She says, I want to talk to you by ourselves,
and they step out into the back of a car
he's working on, and she tells him I've got to
get away. Can I move in with you all across
the street? And he thought a minute. I said, we
can't do that, Kim, but I can get a place
for you. And he thought, immediately, I'll take her to
(08:38):
Shirley and Evans, his daughter at Prospect Ropus cross Roads.
She can go there because Howard and surely Anna knew
by what I tell her to do. So he made
arrangements to take Kim to Prospect, which he did the
following Friday afternoon, honestly motivated to help her and get
her away from her father. Her mother had died six
(09:02):
months before of cancer, and she was absolutely distraught with
the behavior of her father and went directly to pee Wee.
She wanted results, that's why she went to Peewee first
rather than anyone else. And Peewee takes Kim Gelkin to
Prospect to live at his daughter's house, knowing that there's
(09:24):
a great risk in doing this because he had no
business taking a teenage girl anywhere for anything, but he
needed to help her. There was no evidence ever submitted
that her father abused her, and no charges ever filed.
Gaskins would go on to explain to Jim, as he
(09:47):
had in his deposition, that Kim stayed with his daughter
and her husband for a few months. This meant she
disappeared from her home for more than a month before
anybody reported her missing. Just prior to that report being filed,
Kim had an opportunity to speak with the owner of
a local country store and Prospect, and what she revealed
(10:10):
was shocking. So she goes to the country store and
talks to the owner and asked for help and somehow
ward gets back to Shirley Anne that Kim is talking
about being abused by her husband. Kim told the store
(10:30):
owner that pee Wee, his son in law, Howard Evans,
and his brother Charles, we're all raping her in the house.
When word got back to Shirley Anne, she called her
father Peewee to report that Kim had been jowing. He
was about ninety days into the search for Kim Gilkins.
(10:54):
Police were busy unearthing the eight bodies pee Wee had murdered,
but Kim was not one of them. North Charleston Police
Chief Lynwood Simmons stated that all leads to find the
girl had been exhausted, but that the case was still active.
Police Detective Roy Green points directly to pee Wee Gaskins
(11:14):
as a prime suspect, saying Kim was last seen with
him in a white pickup truck at his trailer home
in Prospect. Roy suspects foul play and then nothing, absolutely nothing.
The case goes cold for almost a year until pee
(11:40):
Wee was convicted of Dennis Bellamy's murder and found himself
on trial for Barnwell yates Is murder. Pee Wee gave
up Barnwell's body in exchange for a conjugal visit with Donna,
and for an additional conjugal visit, he led investigators to
Kim Gilkin's body. Kim Gilkin was killed with a Campbell
(12:05):
suit knife. Pee We waited one hour for him to
be brought to him in a shallow grave not very
far from his trailer there in Prospect, and Kim was
brought to Peewee by two young women. Marie Marlowe and
Sherry Lee are their names, and they were never ever
(12:26):
as far as I know, accused of anything. Kim Gilkin
was killed because she was a threat to Peewee's freedom.
There was no evidence to support Peewee's allegation, and the
two women were never charged with anything. Kim's jawing about
(12:49):
being raped threatened Peewee's freedom, and he tried to save
himself by sacrificing her. He shot in staff app to
Kim Gilkins. There was no evidence that confirmed rape or
sexual activity of any kind. The body was too decomposed
when recovered. Identification was made matching her teeth to her
(13:14):
last known picture showing her smile, but there were no
dental records for comparison. At the time of his confession,
Peewee was in prison for life trying to plea deal
to avoid death. He was never charged for Kim Gelkin's murder,
and police closed the file to believe she was being
(13:41):
saved and to wind up being killed not because of
anything she did, but because of what two males reportedly
we're doing with her. So he wouldn't have to go
back to jail because she was going to tell the police.
She was always in Dane. You're of something that other
people were trying to do to her, and all she
(14:04):
wanted was love and safety, and that rings a bell
with me. I cannot ever imagine not feeling safe. For
(14:32):
reasons unknown, Kim Gerkins felt safe asking pee Wee and
Donna Gaskin's for help. She was one of numerous people
who felt this way around pee Wee, but then found
herself on the wrong end of a knife and gun. Diane,
Dennis Janice, all of the people pee Wee killed experiences
(14:54):
at one time or another. Jim Batty sense that kinship
as well. He put it at risk when he failed
to deliver the radio to Peewee's son, and he was
anxious to restore that trust again. As he sought to
finish his book on Peewee. Gaskins betrayal probably the fiercest
(15:19):
enemy that he had. He did not ever want to
be betrayed. And then when I was seen in a tiny,
tiny way of betraying him by failing to take the
radio to his son, that one thing letting me know
that I could be in danger, just as the people
get he murdered. Jim worked to repair anything that put
(15:41):
him in danger. Well, one day that I visited Peewee,
the visiting room was full, and the guard believe his
name was Joe, said, do you mind if you all
meet in a room down the hall? I said not
at all. So he took us into a room and
he closed the door and it clicked, and I said,
(16:03):
pee wee? Is that is that door locked? And he said,
Mr Jim, they locked every door I go into. Jim
was stressed after the radio incidents, and there he was
locked in a room with Gaskins, and now he was scared.
(16:23):
So we had our usual hour and a half meeting.
Two hours came, two hours and fifteen minutes came, three
o'clock came, and I was beginning to get uneasy. Finally,
the guard I've never seen before. He opens the door
(16:46):
and apologizes, says, I'm sorry. Actually we forgotten where we
put you, and pee We said, Mr Jim is getting
a little anxious, and then pee We reached over and
put his hand on my arm and said, Mr Jim,
you didn't have a thing to worry about. I was
(17:06):
right here with you. I was petrified. Jim wanted to
finish his book, which would mean more interviews, and even
though he was petrified, Jim did his best to stay
on good terms with Peewee anyway. He said, you know,
(17:28):
it's been almost a year now since I've seen my mom,
and I said, would you like for me to bring
her here to visit you? He said, I would like that,
so we arranged for me to take his mother to
the prison. Julie Parrot was Peewee's mother, and Anita Baby
remembers her. Peewee's mother a Parrot. I called her. That
(17:52):
was as kind and upright and engaging person. She's quiet,
sort of ignified. Small her house. I was impressed. I've
never been so impressed in a home. It was a
little shock. It was like a shotgun shack. And the
(18:13):
yard wasn't a yard. It was dirt around the house.
I know she swept it. It was immaculate. That house
was absolutely could eat off the floor. I'm sure his
mother fed him wonderful food, and he knew she loved him,
and he wanted her to know he loved her. She
was quite special. I think there were lots of stories
(18:36):
that he wouldn't tell until she was gone. But well,
his family life was of course no family. He had
an older sister. He and his older sister were born
to Uley Parrott out of wedlock, and Uali worked in
the fields with them in to survive. She was best
(18:57):
I can tell, hard working, honorable individual who loved her
children and cared for them as well as she could.
They were passed around. Pee Wee told me that there
were days he would wake up and not know whose
house he was in. He had been taken there for
them to care for him. Then he spoke about the
(19:19):
treatment of his mother's brothers of him from age four
on until the arrest at age thirteen that Sunday afternoon
when he went to jail then to reform school, he
was brutally, brutally tortured by his uncle's and this was
(19:40):
corroborated when I had dinner with Carol Hannah pee Wee's
younger sister by seventeen years of age. He was abused.
He was abused as a little boy. He was abused
by the uncle's. Yet Jim knew that a mother wanted
to be with her child, and a filed with his mother.
(20:03):
I picked her up, took her to the prison. She
would not talk. I could not get her to talk
about anything. Quiet, gentle, old, frail but strong. And the
room was relatively empty that day, and I sat over
in the corner as far as I could get from them,
(20:25):
But I was taking notes and observing what I saw
them do. And I noticed it from time to time
pee would just move his hand over and put it
on top of her hand, which it was very poignant
in my thinking. I hear man, I didn't dream, had
(20:45):
any kind of feeling for anything or anybody. Was clearly
enthralled with his mother, and I was happy to be
with her. And they chatted and talked. An hour ten
minutes came the end of our visit, and they stood
and embraced. And the only time that I ever saw
Peoul smile was when he closed his eyes and hugged
(21:10):
his mother, and here's this man who's taken life after
life embracing the woman who gave him his life. And
I thought that that was a powerful picture of seeing
that there. And I thought people asked me often, what
(21:33):
drew you to this man? How could you possibly keep
going back there? To that creature? The irony of this
taker of lives and this giver of his life embracing
each other. And he smiles the only time I ever
saw him spy Here Solicitor Dick Harp Lute Lean talking
(22:01):
about Peewee's intelligence and childhood. If you took Charles Manson
knocked about fifty points off his I q have him
grow up in a swamp in South Carolina where he's
abused sexually by men. And I think he dropped out
of school in the seventh grade, never had any education.
(22:21):
But most of the people he hung out with were criminals.
He spent some time with the carnival. I mean, he's
just sort of a redneck Charlie Manson and charismatic extent
that he attracted people to him, manipulated people. Pee Wee,
prayed on the vulnerability of his victims and forced many
of them to be complicit in his crimes. He manipulated
(22:45):
everyone around him, and he got everyone around him to
do what he wanted, including the babies, because anything pee
Wee asked him to do, he did. I mean, he
wanted him to visit his mother. We did, took to
the beach, you know, took his sister and little Donnie
(23:07):
Peewee son. So I mean, anything that pee Wee needed
Jim wanted to help him with. He was just the
babies also met with Peewee's sister. His sister looked like
a different kind of person from Peewee. She was attractive,
she was polite, well mannered, just a different ilk almost,
(23:31):
And it must have been hell for her to be
the victim of a brother who was the most notorious
mass murder in South Carolina history. And she's growing up,
going to high school, going to school. Thank god, she
didn't share his last name, and so that may have
protected her some. But Jim went out took her to
(23:52):
lunch I think one time, and and I'm sure she
shared stories with him about the pain and the anger
she felt to at him, not just for what he
did that was bad enough, but for the fact that
she shared his blood. Somehow, and had to accept some
of the fallout from the publicity and the notoriety in
(24:13):
the horror of this man and his son. He didn't
stand a chance because he was Donald Henry Gas against
the third Here's Jennifer Hawes talking about one characteristic of
a killer. I think it goes back to control. They're
like master manipulators that do you think they're helping you
(24:33):
or you're helping them. It's easy to get caught up
in someone's manipulations and you alone understand them in a
way that nobody else does, and then you fall victim
in the same way. This is how Gaskins made himself
appear as a protector, seeming to be generous and selfless
at times. This is how he convinced Johnny Knight to
(24:57):
walk into the woods to meet his brother the for
being murdered himself. This is how he was able to
kill Kim Gelkins, and how he got one to smell
and Walter Neely to go along with outrageous stories and
cover up his crimes. By now, Jim was hopeful that
Pee Wee posed no threat to him or his family.
(25:21):
He genuinely looked for the good and human beings. He
always wanted to help others, and this extended to pee
Wee as well. He's like, continue me a big favor.
I said, sure, what is it? If I can, I will.
He presented his case, and then if they had fifty
ft of TV cable and flat wire a copper on
(25:44):
either side, he could hook a TV set and it
would enable fifty people to be able to watch TV
rather than the five or six. And I thought, well,
how nice. I would love to help that many people
be able to watch Sunday afternoon football as I do.
Peewee was a cellblock trustee and this gave him certain responsibilities.
(26:05):
Here's Dick carput Lean well, a trustee in Department of
Corrections are at c C I back then, specifically would
be somebody that would be given supervisory duties over the
other inmates. Peewee had been in and out of the
Department of Correction with most of his wife and so
he knew the institution. And once he had these life sentences,
(26:27):
they knew he was going to be there for a while. Stability,
he had skills. They trusted him to do the work
that they didn't have to pay somebody else to fix
the plumbing, fix the electrical work and to give task
to the other inmates. He was the guy that controlled
the lives in terms of who got to work in
the library, who had to work in the laundry, different jobs,
(26:50):
different jobs like wiring TVs for his fellow inmates. Jim
baeties currency, his altruism, works war and support others. People
can be redeemed. Pee Wee Gaskins knew this and was
ready to leverage Jim's behavior for a scheme involving the wire.
(27:14):
And I said, sure, I mean is that okay to do?
Can I mail that here to you? He said, oh yeah,
I get packages all the time. They investigate everything. They
opened it, they checked to see if there's anything illegal.
And I said, well, tell me again, what am I
buying and how do I do this? Just go to
any hardware store and asked for fifty feet of television
(27:37):
cable wire. And I went to his hardware somewhere there
in Murder Beach. I mailed it to Peewee, wondering how
long it would take him to get the TV connect
if so many people could watch. I didn't ultimate favor
of mailing him television wire fifty feet of TV cable
(28:03):
I learned later, then fifty was within the distance of
his cell to Rudolph Kiner's in the spring of nine.
(28:25):
Rudolph Tyner was eighteen years old when he left New
York City after several run ins with the police. He
ended up in Coastal South Carolina and stayed with Carlton Davis.
He frequented Moon's Grocery for snacks and drinks. Bill and
Murdy Moon owned the store and lived down the street.
(28:47):
Their son and daughters also lived nearby with their families.
Bill was retired military and took classes at nearby Coastal
Carolina University. Dr Jim Batty new Bill I taught at
Coastal Carolina University. I had the good occasion at least
(29:08):
two semesters of registering Bill Moon, and I like this
guy so much, and I asked him to sign up
for one of my English classes. And he said, oh, no, no, no,
So I've heard about you, he said, I'm not going
to Jim's disappointment, Bill didn't sign up for his literature
classes those semesters. Jim thought Bill would have enjoyed the poems, stories,
(29:32):
and tales he taught from the medieval period into the
twentieth century. Those poems and stories framed Jim's encounter with
the world. One of those stories, the Strange Case of
Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde, provides a clear arena to
engage the contradictions of the inner self, the hero versus evil,
(29:53):
true love, finding a home, and the duality of the
human condition. Hefty topics for authors across the ages that
became guiding themes in Dr Jim Batty's life. But Bill
Moon never took Jim's class, and on March eighteenth, he
(30:16):
and his wife Murdy worked there last night together. They
were closing up their store just before ten pm when
Rudolph Tyner walked in. He had been in the store
several times in the previous weeks, and this time he
wielded a shotgun. Tyner took their money and fled out
(30:40):
the screen door. For unknown reasons, he re entered the
store and shot Bill Moon in the chest, and then
shot Murdy, who fell to the floor facing her dying husband.
Tyner left the store and got into a car driven
by carl To Davis. They were arrested hours later when
(31:05):
Carlton's father called the police after becoming suspicious. Both signed
confessions the next morning. All of coastal South Carolina mourned
the Moons and voiced their anger at Tiner. Jim Batty
read about the tragic murders, crushed, crushed, and hear his
(31:30):
devotion to his stepson Tody Simo and to his wife.
Bill Moon was a marvelous man, marvelous individual, and have
been taken down like that. It was absolutely outrageous. Within
the year, Tyner was on trial and convicted of the murders.
(31:52):
The jury took under an hour to sentence him to
death in the state's electric chair. Tinner was housed in
Central Correctional Institute. Over the four prior years, he had
been moved on and off death row depending on the
status of his many legal appeals and State Supreme Court rulings.
(32:16):
He was housed in Cell Block two at c c I,
which was run by prison trustee pee Wee Gaskins. Jim
was well into fifty interviews with Peewee writing a book
about the murderer's life. During one such meeting in the
cell blocks common area, Jim mentioned to pee Wee that
he knew Bill Moon before Tyner murdered him. The first
(32:41):
time that I ever encountered Rudolph Tiner in conversation with Peelee,
he said, that's Rudolph Diiner. That's Rudolph Tiner. He's a man.
Get killed your friend. Bill Moon might not have been
Jim's personal friend, but he did have admiration for him.
He told Pee Wee as much Peewee seemed to sympathize
(33:02):
with Jim, he thought it was terrible. He thought it
should have been redeemed may right. And then he said,
I can blow him away if I had my thirty
thirty right here. Tony Simo, bill Moon's son, wanted tin
Or dead. Tony did everything in his power to assure
(33:24):
justice was served. Here's Dick harpoot Lean Well. I think
Tony was somebody who was traumatized by their violent death
and wanted justice, wanted revenge. And when he was sentenced
to death the second time, the story isn't Simo tried
to attack him physically and he became obsessed with it.
(33:46):
There's rumors that he hit on the roof of a
building across the courthouse at the second trial with the
high powered rifle to kill Tinner, but they brought Tinner
in the door on the opposite side. I prosecuted him.
My Deubt with him. He seemed like the most noise
mold all American guy in the world, just had this
obsession with avenging the death of his parents. Jim Batty
(34:08):
knew about Tyner and his case. There's no way, though
that he knew Tony Siemo was plotting his own form
of justice after the courts couldn't get his parents killer
into the electric chair. Jim didn't know about the possible
sniper attempt, nor was he aware that Tony Siemo contacted
Peewee in. Someone had referred him to Gaskins, and he
(34:35):
and Gaskons began telephone conversations and they never said Tyner's name,
and he never said Simo's name, but he touched tone phones.
You can figure out the phone number of the FBI
could from the tones, and it came back to Tony
Simo and it was done from the pay phone in
the cell block. And on those calls, Gaskins is arranging
to get something smuggled in and it turns out he
(34:58):
talks about poison. Tony here, General want me to call this.
We give that son of a bitch all of one
dogs and all this are doing, making that son of
a bit sick, were putting in some bug for him
and drank the other night and all it was made
up sick as hell and make it thick as hell.
(35:18):
He was tailed as hell for a day or two
and that's it. Forgot about one more. Does someone give
me his eggs in the morning. That's don't make you
about run me crazy or a fair mead? Great shot?
Hear not word, that's perfect he's got for him. It's kirk,
pretty story man, that's pretty little. Were all right, Uh,
we got a little bit of that left and give
(35:40):
it to him. And it's food and other thing else
like David net for her for pro gerry. He's got
to get that breakfast. He's well wives on that. He
done it up and he's going to He snored it alive,
so he would know what he is. If a coach snort,
if you're telling a difference in it now, I'll give
you the rest to that in the morning, I right
stir for little proud. I'll want em. I'll get doomed
(36:01):
done my score in the morning player, I'm go ahead,
makes not end. Investigators learned that Semo and a friend
had tested the poison on a dog and the dog died.
So now two people had designs on killing Tyner, Pee
Wee and Semo, and they conspired together to finish the job.
(36:25):
The poison couldn't do. China would eventually have died an
electric chair but for Tony Semo, and it was not
fast enough. So Pete we again took the law into
his own hands. As Pee Wee told me several times,
lots of people don't deserve to live, and Rudolph Tyna
(36:49):
was one of those. So I come up with something
and he won elected camp and pick a damn dynamite.
As again, I'll pick a damn radio and duet inside
of a bit of damn coming back on ban. Pee
(37:13):
we recorded this call on one of the many audio
cassettes he had in his cell. His status as the
prison trustee gave him the confidence to ask Simo for
some explosives. If he got the materials into his cell,
he could pretty much do whatever he wanted with them.
He had access to everywhere in the cell block. Here's
(37:36):
Dick harpoot Lean. First of all, on the ground floor,
you've got fifteen cells on each side of this island
that rises out of the middle of the cell block.
If you've seen any Humphrey Bogarder James Cagney movie, you
understand exactly what I'm talking about. These are cellblocks built
in the thirties and forties, and between the backs of
those two cells on either side is what they called
(37:58):
the trace, which is a gap of about two and
a half to three ft in which all the plumbing
and electrical wires run and gascons is The building man
had access to that area, and none of these places
were air conditioned, so they had vents in the back
of the cell into the trace to give some circulation
of air, just a great probably a foot square. So
(38:20):
Gascon's befriended Tiner and his cell backed up to the
trace as Peewee's did, except it was offset by a
two cells, and those great were at the top of
the cell, so you could stand on a chair and
talk to somebody through the grate on the other side
of the cell block. Tony used jim Babies Home and
(38:41):
Myrtle Beach as the return address on the package. He
said Peewee Jim had been a trusted visitor at the
prison for some time. It was going to take something
much stronger than poison to kill Tyner, like some C
four explosives and a long wire. That wire would spark
(39:01):
the detonation. That wire would deliver the charge for the
murder for hire. That wire was not going to bring
Sunday afternoon football to prisoners. Like Jim imagined, he never
thought to be worried about something. He would send team
(39:23):
or God forbid, that pee we would use to implicate him.
Pee Gaskins was not my friend. It's a joint production
from My Heart Radio and Doghouse Pictures, produced and hosted
(39:46):
by Jeff Keeping. Executive producers are Courtney DeFries and Noel Brown.
Written by Jim Roberts, Courtney Defriez and Terry James. Edit,
mix and sound designed by Jeremiah Kolani Prescott. Music composed
by Diamond Street Productions, Spencer garn and Ian Newberry. Special
thanks to Jim and Anita Baby. Additional thanks to the
University of South Carolina, Moving Image Research Collections and the
(40:08):
University of South Carolina.
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