July 3, 2023 • 39 mins
During the early 20th century in the United States, there were traveling carnivals that included sideshows that showcased people with genetic abnormalities. One family who traveled with the carnival, and did quite well financially, was the Stiles family. Their claim to fame was that many members of the family had the genetic condition called ectrodactyly--commonly known as Lobster Claw Syndrome. Grady Stiles, Jr. was one of the members of the family who was part of the carnival, and during his life, he married and had children. He also was a raging and violent alcoholic. You know this doesn't end well, right?
Join us on Facebook and IG: @HARDCORETRUECRIME Web: www.crimesandconsequences.com--------------->Get ad-free early releases of each episode, plus over 170 exclusive Members Only episodes by going to Patreon.com/tntcrimes or joining our Apple Channel on the Apple Podcast App.
SOURCES:
1) Carnie Killers: The Murder Trial of Lobster Boy (the-line-up.com)
2) How "Lobster Boy" Grady Stiles Went From Circus Act To Murderer (allthatsinteresting.com)
3) Grady Stiles – the 'Lobster Boy' who killed his family member (mysteriesrunsolved.com)
4) The Tragic Death Of Lobster Boy (grunge.com)
5) Famous 'Freaks' And Creepy Carnival Acts From History (grunge.com)
6) Man found guilty in "Lobster Boy' death (tampabay.com)
7)Grady Stiles - The Evil Lobster Boy - Historic Mysteries Ectrodactyly polydactyly - About the Disease - Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center (nih.gov)
8) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Feb 23, 1979 Wife Gets 12 Years for Contract Killing of 'Lobster Boy' - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
9) TRUE CRIME STORIES: Lobster Boy Murder in Gibsonton FL (bailbondsnow.org)
10) Book: Lobster Boy: The Bizarre Life and Brutal Death of Grady Stiles Jr. Author: Fred Rosen
Join us on Facebook and IG: @HARDCORETRUECRIME Web: www.crimesandconsequences.com--------------->Get ad-free early releases of each episode, plus over 170 exclusive Members Only episodes by going to Patreon.com/tntcrimes or joining our Apple Channel on the Apple Podcast App.
SOURCES:
1) Carnie Killers: The Murder Trial of Lobster Boy (the-line-up.com)
2) How "Lobster Boy" Grady Stiles Went From Circus Act To Murderer (allthatsinteresting.com)
3) Grady Stiles – the 'Lobster Boy' who killed his family member (mysteriesrunsolved.com)
4) The Tragic Death Of Lobster Boy (grunge.com)
5) Famous 'Freaks' And Creepy Carnival Acts From History (grunge.com)
6) Man found guilty in "Lobster Boy' death (tampabay.com)
7)Grady Stiles - The Evil Lobster Boy - Historic Mysteries Ectrodactyly polydactyly - About the Disease - Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center (nih.gov)
8) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Feb 23, 1979 Wife Gets 12 Years for Contract Killing of 'Lobster Boy' - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
9) TRUE CRIME STORIES: Lobster Boy Murder in Gibsonton FL (bailbondsnow.org)
10) Book: Lobster Boy: The Bizarre Life and Brutal Death of Grady Stiles Jr. Author: Fred Rosen
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This episode may contain content of agraphic nature, including descriptions of physical and
sexual violence against adults, children,and animals. Listener discretion is advised.
Hi everyone, I'm Tanya and I'mTalia, and we are Crimes and Consequences,
a true crime podcast. Hi,Talia, Ky, Tania, how
(00:36):
you doing today? Okay, let'scome on and we just not Can we
just skip all that shit? Allright, let's skip it. Is this
a regular patron, This is aregular episode, So welcome back everyone.
I'm doing great. Thank you forasking. So welcome back to another exciting
episode of Rhymes and Consequences. Haveyou ever heard of Lobster Boy? I
(00:57):
have in the book that's probably completelyinappropriate, like in nineteen eighties called Freaks.
Oh okay, you're talking about Ialways got the little hands that,
yeah, that were like labster claws. Yes. Yes. His name was
Grady Styles Junior, and he wasborn in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, nineteen thirty
seven, and he would grow up, obviously to lead a very interesting life.
(01:19):
He was known as lobster Boy.I know. He had a rare
medical condition that ran and his familywas genetic and the condition is called ectrodactyle,
and it is commonly known as lobsterclaw syndrome. Like I said,
it's genetic. It's very rare.And what it is. It causes extremities
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your hands, your feet or bothto have malformation. They're like attached or
something. You know. It's funnythough the condition may not start in the
womb, and it could develop laterin someone's life. So how's that pass?
I know, it's just bizarre.But for Grady, his symptoms were
prenatal, so the middle parts ofhis hands and feet were missing. He
(02:02):
had it both in his hands andfeet. So what happens is like he
had like a thumb and a pinkywith like the rest of the fingers fused
together together. So he had likeit looked like a lobster claw, but
he had all his fingers right,No, they were all fused together.
It was like, well too big, you know, I get lobster claw.
And like I said, his feetwere exactly the same. So because
(02:23):
his feet were disformed, he couldn'twalk and he would use a wheelchair.
Ok. Okay, for many peoplein the thirties and forties, this condition
really hadn't been seen many times.Obviously, no internet no, even television.
I mean, where do you seesomeone. I've never seen anybody not
in person. It's rare. Yeah, it's rare. Grady was the sixth
(02:46):
generation in his family to have thiscondition. Wow, right, so family
members went back to like the eighteenhundreds, they still managed to find someone
to love them. Yeah, exactly, the sixth generation. That's true.
That's true. And Greedy was thefourth child of his father, Greedy Senior,
and his mom Edna, and everyoffspring that Greedy Senior and Edna had
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they had the same condition, withexception of one of his sisters. So
it's dominant. Yes. So ratherthan being ashamed or embarrassed about the family
deformities, the Styles family capitalized onit and they were a side show America.
I know, in a traveling carnivaland you know, like you mentioned,
you read a book called Freaks.They were commonly known as freak shows.
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But that's impropriate, that's inappropriate.Now. The family then continued to
grow and produce more and more childrenthat had this condition, like kind of
like to continue to fuel the sideshow. Right. Oh yeah. They
eventually developed a family circus known asthe Lobster Family, and they became a
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prime attraction in carnivals throughout the earlytwentieth century. They were really popular.
Lobster family, the Lobster family.Why not, Why not? Paula's going
to make money. They can't walk, they can these are hands at well
exactly his nineteen thirties. Yeah,it's nineteen thirties. And now even though
I mentioned like most of his brothersand sisters had the condition, not all
of them had them in both theirhands and feet. But Grady did.
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Like I said when I mentioned,he had this wheelchair, and when he
wasn't using the wheelchair, he woulduse his arms to pull himself across the
floor. So he developed a reallyincredible upper body strength just because that's how
he used to get around when hedidn't have the chair. So I'm telling
you, you know, his familyis touring this circuit, this carnival circuit,
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and they spent their off season ina place called Gibsonton, Florida that
was known as Showtown, USA,and it was the most popular hub for
circus and carnival performers throughout the wintermonths, so they all seemed to flock
there. I had no idea.I didn't either in case you're wondering,
like how much money could they reallymake? This family did really well,
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the Styles family, they made aboutsixty to eighty thousand dollars per season,
and the season would be only forabout half a year. I mean it's
a lot of money. What yearslike nineteen let's say it's nineteen forty and
it's one point seven million dollars intoday's money. So they did really when
they didn't need more full time,no half the year. The nice thing
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about all of the carnival workers goingto the city in Florida was because they
were all there, they kind ofgot away from people like staring at them.
It's kind of like they you know, they truly got to community that
they fit in. Yeah, exactly. During this time, while Grady grew
up, he learned to write andhe learned to shoot a gun. So
it's very important things. It's physical. His physical limitations did not stop him
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from doing those things. Eventually,at some point, young Grady fell madly
in love with another carnival worker namedMary Teresa. And I've seen it as
Mary, and I've seen it asMaria, so I'm just going to call
her Mary. She had run awayfrom her home to join the circus when
she was a teenager. She wasa product of incest and she was physically
abused by her parents. And eventhough she traveled with the carnival, Mary
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wasn't part of any act. Shewas just a staff member, so she
wasn't part of the fight show uniqueabout her, right right, She was
just a regular worker. So Maryand Grady hit it off really well and
they eventually got married. While married, Grady and Mary had two children,
two daughters named Kathy and Donna.Their daughter, Kathy wasn't born with this
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lobster claw syndrome, but Donna was. Both children would become part of the
carnival, joining the rest of thefamily. Since Donna wasn't born with a
genetic condition, Grady actually favored hera little bit over her sister. As
they grew up, Kathy was theapple of his eye. It's been said.
At some point Grady began to drinkheavily, and along with that he
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became abusive to his family. Yeah, he was an incredibly mean drunk and
would use his upper body strength tohis advantage while beating Mary and Donna.
Because Kathy was his favorite, sohe did not abuse her. And you
know this is really kind of graphics. I'm just warning everybody. So Mary
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used an IUD. It's her formof birth control. I don't want to
know this. During a fight,Grady used his claws. Stop, hands
up. You know what I'm gonnasay? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
go ahead. He literally ripped thecud out of Mary's body. Oh my
god, yeah, I don't.I don't understand it. I don't want
to know. I just can't.I don't want to picture it. Just
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can you move forward? Oh?Absolutely? That was That was all I
was going to tell you about that. My god, I'm just trying to
give you, like the level ofabuse this poor woman suffering. I can
handle ahead being tapped off. Ican't handle things like that. I know.
He would choke her when they fought, and his hands were perfect for
him to be able to just wraparound her knock and you know, do
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that. His hands weren't functionable enoughto do much else. He became extremely
dangerous to everyone around him due tohis alcoholism. Takeaway his reel chair,
then he's got a crawl. I'mnot trying to be me, I know.
And two things that I mentioned,the choking and the other thing that
we won't get into that wasn't eventhe worst. Yeah, it wasn't even
(08:16):
the worst of what he's done whathe will go on to do his daughter
Donna, And Donna was the onethat was born with the syndrome. She
fell madly in love with a youngman named Jake Lane who was eighteen and
she was sixteen. And Grady hatedthis kid from the beginning. Was he
like your average Yeah, I believeso. I believe so. Like I
(08:39):
didn't find anything that said that hehad any sort of or anything right,
Oh, she was actually fifteen yearsold. Excuse me. When she became
engaged to Jack, they were planningtheir wedding and Grady felt the need to
put a stop to this relationship altogether. He was like, nope. He
asked Donna to break off the engagement, but she said, you know,
(09:00):
she loved Jack so much and sherefused to do what her father told her
to do. So the reason whyGrady despised him is because Donna was underaged.
But on the day before his daughter'swedding, Grady met up with Jack.
And there's two different versions of thestory. One said that Grady invited
Jack over under the ruse he wasgoing to bless the marriage between Jack and
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Donna, And the other theory isthat Grady went to Jack's home to give
him the blessing. So I'm notsure exactly Okay, where this incident happened.
Well, if anybody tries to marrymy fifteen year old daughter, yeah
there's gonna be a big problem.That means a different time. Yeah,
it was a different time. Themeeting happened in September of nineteen seventy eight,
and before he even spoke to Jack, like when the two met up,
(09:45):
Grady fatally shot Jack twice with hisshotgun and it killed him instantly.
Yeah, and the poor guy wasloving her, loving his daughter, all
her just the way she is asGrady, he figured if Dinna got married,
she would leave and he'd no longerbe able to control her. Or
maybe she'd have babies and they'd havemore little baby right. I don't know
(10:09):
family, but he had issues likecontrol of his family was his number one
priority. When Dinna found out aboutthe murder of her poor fiance, Jack,
Grady gave her a devilish smile whilesaying, I told you I would
kill him, Okay, like whatI'd be scared of death of my dad.
I hope someone went to the place. Well. Grady was arrested for
(10:31):
Jack's murder and a child date wasset with the jury consisting of six men
and six women. Grady really didn'tgive a shit about the consequences, and
he showed absolutely no remorse for whathe did. The defense claimed that Jack
Lane was shot twice in self defense. Grady said he feared for his life.
He's disabled. He's disabled. He'sdisabled. How can I even choot
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a gun? Right? The defensewent on to say that everyone involved,
his family and the police got togetherto completely dramatize their stories since the shooting.
Donna, the farmer bride to be. She was out of town,
but somehow she was able to bein cahoots with the police to go against
Grady, like we're all conspiring right. The prosecution told a jury that Grady
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had threatened to kill Jack on multipleoccasions and that he went out to purchase
the gun in order to follow throughwith the threat. He just really didn't
want Donna to marry Jack. Donnatestified against her dad, and she said
that she was going to live withJack, even though her father was against
the underage marriage like she was goingto probably run away. Says she didn't
(11:41):
care about getting his blessing, sothat's why this whole story is kind of
jacked up. She was happy withJack and she wanted to start her life
with him as soon as possible.She also testified that after her father killed
Jack, she said to Grady,I'll see you at your grave. Oh,
and that's why she got out oftown. Yeah. The defense claims
that Anna should be ashamed of hertestimony and then it caused the greatest hurt
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and shame for the Style's family.The defense attorney, his name was Anthony
to Cello, told the jury tovisualize all the love and compassion that this
poor soul has for his children.It's really trying to play what was his
self defense? What was Jack goingto do? Well? He said he
was in fear for his life andthat it was Jack and Jack was going
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to attack him. I don't knowall you just haven't have a gun,
yeah, exactly. The attorney toCello wanted the jury to feel sorry for
Grady since all he really had washis family, even though he abused them
and beat them at every chance hegot and got drunk and blah blah blah.
But before the trial began, Gradyobtained a court order from the state
(12:45):
of Florida to get custody of hischildren. What yeah, what I know.
How did he get custody? Idon't think he did. Oh he
tried, Yeah, he tried.During the closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney
Robert Paul Vinsler told the that thedetectives thought that Grady would be found not
guilty out of sympathy for his disabilities. One of the last statements said by
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the DA was that Grady has notled a happy life up to this point.
It's not his fault all, yeah, he said, a really miserable
life. The jury felt that themurder was premeditated, even though the defense
said that the murder was due tolove and compassion for his daughter. So
Grady attended the verdict reading in hiswheelchair, and he quietly cried as the
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jury foreman read that he was foundguilty of third degree murder. That's amazing.
The jury heard both sides and convictedGrady after deliberating for three whole hours.
Three hours. Judge Thomas Harper postponedsentencing, which could have been between
ten to twenty years in prison.But yeah, but Judge Harper did set
Grady's bound to ten grand which isso he got out, yeah, about
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fifty thousand today because this was nineteenseventy nine. Before sentencing, Grady pleaded
with the judge that there was noway that he could ever be in prison.
There was not a single jail orprison at the time that was equipped
to handle his disability and doing so, like putting him into prison, would
be cruel, unjust, and unusualpunishment. Okay, whatever. Yeah,
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Grady failed to mention at the timethat he also hit cirrhosis of the liver
from his kind of drinking, alongwith emphasima from years and years of smoking
cigarettes. Oh and how old ishe about this time? He's about fifty
because he's born in nineteen thirty seven, so yeah, he's like maybe like
fifty two. Okay. The courtrecognized a Grady's argument and they didn't have
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anything really to say, so theprosecution really didn't say much in rebuttal,
there's lots of people that are disabledin prison. I know. But guess
what, I don't want to hearit, do I? No, No,
The judge didn't sentence Grady to prisontime and What's Good gave him fifteen
years probation. So he walked outa freeman and went home. Yeah,
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he shot and killed a man andhe got to walk out a team.
Yeah, an eighteen year old guy. So not long after the murder,
his wife divorced him. Mary finallygot out of abusive relationship, but this
didn't stop Grady from marrying his secondlife and having two more children. What
I know, how's this guy gettingwomen? He's super sexy. I guess
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his drunken rage and abuse kept goingand this caused his second wife to divorce
him. Mary, his first wife, didn't mourn this divorce from Grady.
She moved on quickly and she gotremarried to a man named Harry Glenn Newman
Senior. He also worked for thecarnival. Oh, he was known as
the world's smallest man. What stopit? What? Yeah, she married
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the world's smallest man. She marriedthe world's smallest man. And well,
he can't hurt her. I'm guessing, yeah, right, he's small.
Yeah, he's probably small. Andtogether they had two sons. One was
Harry Glenn Junior, and he wouldgo by Glenn Harry. Like I mentioned,
he was a little person. Hedidn't have any physical deformities, which
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is okay. Yeah, his actin the side show was he was known
to hammer nails and drive ice picksup his own nose with the hand.
Oh my goodness, the ship andhe did really well financially. Oh,
I know I am in the wrongjob being a lawyer. I know I
needn't start figuring out how to putnails up a breeze fire or something.
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Right after the divorce of his secondwife, Grady persuaded his first wife,
Mary, who was married to Harry. She remarried him in nineteen eighty nine.
Yeah. Why what was wrong withHarry? Don't know. I don't
know if Harry passed away, I'mnot sure. Okay, but she remarried
Grady. Wow. No one inMary's family or the Style's family knows how
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the hell he got hurt to marryhim a second time. So Mary,
along with Donna and Cathy, whowere now adults, they all were one
big, happy family. And oneoccasion, Grady's daughter Kathy was pregnant and
she tried to intervene between a badargument that was going on between her parents.
She put Grady's wheelchair in between thetwo of them in an attempt like
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to calm things down, like separatethem. But Grady got so enraged by
this that he turned to Kathy andbeat her so badly to the point she
went into early labor. Thankfully,the baby survived and was born with lobster
claw syndrome. Graedy became especially cockyafter evading prison for killing a man and
beating yeah his daughter. He knewhe could literally get away with murder,
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and with this mindset, the beatingstoward his wife and kids became much more
severe. And this is when Maryfinally finally had enough. She's like,
fuck this, she was done,and she put a hit out on Greedy.
They put a hit on someone Idon't know. Mary put a hit
out. I'm gonna tell you allabout it. Okay, yeah, okay,
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this is questions. She paid herseventeen year old neighbor and fellow carnival
worker. His name was Chris Wyant. She paid him a whopping fifteen hundred
dollars to murder Grady. Mary shesaid, I hit my breaking point.
I couldn't find a way out ofliving. So her son, Glenn,
which was the world's smallest man's son, remember Harry. So her son,
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Glenn helped his mother come up witha plan that would get rid of Grady
once and for all. The storyis so fucked up. I know,
I know, Okay, I didn'tknow all of this. Okay, Glenn
would plan and help carry out themurder. So the young neighbor, Chris,
the seventeen year old, he hada friend to buy him a thirty
two caliber cult automatic pistol and thiswould be the weapon that Chris would use
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to shoot Grady. Everyone around theStyles family knew that Grady was a dangerous
man who needed to be stopped.I'm not saying like you should murder someone,
but he was pretty hated. Andbefore I tell you more and what
happened next, I can't wait.We're going to take a break. On
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the night of the shooting, whichwas to take place in November of nineteen
ninety two, neighbor Chris peered intothe window and he saw Grady watching TV
in his underwear. Oh that's nice. Chris entered the Styles family trailer with
his thirty two caliber gun and heshot Grady at point blank range, killing
(19:30):
him instantly. Grady was fifty fiveyears old. The police had a very
long list of suspects to work throughand ahole. Yeah, everybody hated him
and they eliminated each suspect one byone. They knew he had lots of
enemies. He was hard to getalong with because he was just such an
angry alcoholic. He'd get drunk andbe pissed. He's a dad, Yeah,
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and he knew he could get awaywith so much shit, Like I
mean, he could literally kill someone. He just had a terrible reputation.
Up until his death. He wasstill making money from the circus in the
carnival, which I'm surprised because thisnineteen ninety two, did they still have
these sights that's so politically not correct. No, it's not. Maybe I
know it doesn't seem right, buthe did. The medical examiner noted in
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Grady's autopsy that he was shot inthe back of the head. Surprise,
with the police using their process ofelimination, the suspects came down to Grady's
family. Had to be someone inthe family. When the surviving members of
the Styles family were questioned by policeabout Grady's murder, not a single one
of them denied that they really wantedto murder Grady. They knew that he
(20:37):
would need to die in order forthem to be free. Yeah, in
order for them to be free.And you know that way, he couldn't
hurt anyone else. They had tokill him. It seems like they could
have found a different way. No, less obvious. I'm just saying,
I don't know. Never mind,you're not gonna plan a murder. Mary
said to the detectives that Grady wasgoing to kill her and her family,
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and she believed that like wholehearted.I'm sure she knew they would be safe
now that Grady was dead, andshe thanked God that her family was alive
and okay, and back then theywere like with domestic violence and all that
bettered wife syndrome that was still kindof new. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's going to come into this story. Oh, I know, spoiler
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alert. Despite how true Mary's statementwas to the police, when police questioned
Glenn, he was forced to takea polygraph test, which he failed miserably.
He was forced Yeah, apparently Ididn't think they could. They can't
know, but it took one.Okay, Well, after that, he
was taken into an interrogation room andthe pressure was applied, which he cracked
(21:47):
some yeah, and he spilled thebeans, confessing to the entire plan.
During the confession, Glenn told investigatorsevery step of the plan between him,
his mother, Mary, and theneighbor Chris. He just spilled the scuts.
After the confession, detectives drove backto Gibsonton to pick up Mary at
her home. The police said thatthey spoke with Glenn and they needed her
(22:08):
to come down to the police stationto straighten out some facts. Oh shit,
you know I need you to come. You know what, I'm sorry,
I'm gonna need a warrant. Yes, Flora, go there. The
informed her that Glenn made some statementsthat weren't really in her fever, and
you know, they really needed herside of the story. But they also
(22:29):
made sure that obviously Mary knew herconstitutional rights. They read her her Miranda
rights. Mary was visibly upset byall that was happening. On November thirtieth,
nineteen ninety two, at ten thirtypm, Mary signed a consent for
him, giving the police permission tointerrogate her. The detectives then asked Mary
to tell them what happened. Soshe told investigators that her husband was abusive
(22:51):
to both her and her children.She told them Grady was an uncontrollable monster
and would beat them with his clausewhat she called them. She said he
would make her bleed by headbutting her. She proceeded to tell investigators that she
had told her daughter Cathy about wantingto kill Gradies several months before it actually
happened, and then when Glenn becameaware, he knew someone that could help
(23:15):
carry it out the neighbor. Marysaid, did she wanted to make one
thing clear there and then that shewanted to accept all the blame for the
murder. She wanted her family tobe left out of it. She told
detectives that she gave Glenn the fifteenhundred dollars as payment to Chris for the
murder of Grady. The detectives askedMary if she had ever met Chris,
(23:36):
and she told him, yeah,I have, but they never discussed the
murder that she wanted done. Thearrangement was between her and Glenn, so
Glenn was the one that gave Christhe money to carry out the hit on
Grady. About two weeks prior tothe killing, Mary had told her daughter
Cathy that the contract was off andthat no murder was going to happen.
Can you imagine these conversations. Icalled off the hit. Hey kids,
(24:00):
what good news? Good news,We're not going to kill Mary was adamant
with the detectives that Grady was supposedto be alive. It wasn't supposed to
happen this way. Well wait,I thought she was taking the fall for
it. But now she's seeing She'slike, well, it wasn't supposed to
happen. I mean, I agreedin the beginning, but then I now
she's backing down. Yeah, butthen throwing them under the bus. The
(24:21):
police were like, well, youleft the trailer just moments before Grady was
murdered, so she happened to stepout, and yeah, coincidentally he's alone.
The detectives then asked Mary where shegot the fifteen hundred dollars to have
her husband killed, and she tolddetectives she made her own money by being
a show girl and that she hadher own finances show girl. I don't
(24:42):
know, but Grady was fifty five, so she can't be that young.
Well, whatever, whatever is goodfor her. Somebody spoke, you know,
everybody likes different flavors to leave.That's what are you trying to say
old ladies can't know they're sexy.I mean, yeah, absolutely, any
(25:02):
as an old lady. Right.The detectives asked her, why didn't you
just divorce Grady like she previously did? Well, why did you divorce him
and remarry Grade? Yeah? Right. Mary said that he threatened to kill
her if she did and the abusewas much worse than ever had been in
the past. I believe it.Yeah, me too. That same day,
Mary was charged with first degree murderand she was also charged with conspiracy
(25:25):
to commit first degree murder. Herson, Glenn, was indicted with the
same exact charges, so she wasn'tgoing to get away with taking all the
blame. Chris, the neighbor.He was taken into custody on December first.
He was advised of his rights,and then he declined to make any
statements and requested an attorney's hard yes. The detectives then went on the search
(25:45):
for the murder weapon. They founda trailer that belonged to the guy who
gave Chris the thirty two caliber cultgun, and they found the gun in
the middle of a swamp like woodsnext to a palm tree. The gun
was still loaded when it was takeninto evidence. Chris was arrested and charged
with first to re murder and conspiracyto commit murder. So all three of
(26:07):
them were Yep, all three ofthem do the nature of the cold blooded
crimes. All of them were heldwithout bland. None of the three defendants
took any sort of plea deal,and they all chose trial by jury.
The state of Florida decided not toseek the death penalty in all three cases.
The cases were assigned to Judge BarbaraFleischer, and she had a reputation
(26:27):
of being sympathetic to abused women.Maria and Glenn were represented by a young
criminal attorney named Peter Catania. Heoriginally was only going to represent Mary,
and he later took Glenn's case probonn He soon realized that the case was
too large for one attorney. Wehave two mass Yeah, maybe these are
(26:48):
murder you know charges here? Yeah, so we brought on another attorney.
Would be kind of a conflict ofinterest like that to represent both of them.
Yeah, I think they had separatetrials. I don't know, I
guess. He brought in another attorneynamed Arnold Levine to help. Levine was
a well known attorney and the medialoved him because he always represented like high
(27:10):
profile cases and he won them alot. He won the publicity. Yeah,
he knew that this case was goingto cost a lot of money for
Mary, so he also took thecase pro bono because a lot. Oh
yeah, a lot often, sohe didn't care. He got like free
advertise it too. Mary and Glennfiled for battered spouse and child syndrome defenses.
(27:33):
The battered wife syndrome had never beentried as a defense and a murder
for higher case in Florida before,so Levine he had to prove that Mary
feared for her life and was sointimidated by Grady that killing him was her
only way out. He felt theycould win the case without a doubt.
The first of the trial, though, would be Glenn's detectives testified that Glenn
(27:56):
failed the lie detector test. Idon't think they could do that. It's
not amissible. Oh and because theydid it, because polygraph results can't be
admitted as evidence, Judge Fleischer ruleda mistrial. Absolutely, that was really
stupid of them. I know whatthey fucked that whole case. I mean,
that's like law school first year.Yeah, hello, Chris the neighbor
(28:19):
Chris Wyant. His trial date wasset to begin in January of nineteen ninety
four. His lawyer was court appointedand was not known to be the best
like what marrying Glenn had. Andhe can't use that defense, No,
he can't. Chris's mother, Janice, was present for her son's trial,
along with Chris's six year old sister. I don't think that's quite a program.
Why are you bringing a six yearolds? Anyway? The prosecution touched
(28:42):
on the fact that Chris didn't justshoot Grady once. He instead kept shooting
and shooting and shooting. While sittingon the defense side of the courtroom.
Chris showed no emotion or remarse forwhat he did. He felt that what
he did was right in order tosave the surviving members of the Stiles family.
Assistant State Attorney Ron Haynes had avery strong case against Chris and portrayed
(29:04):
him to the jury as a hiredassassin and a person who was born to
kill. Okay, the theatrics,Well, he's a hired assassin, though
that's true. He related that therewere two plans. Originally, one was
to shoot Grady outside of a loungein Gibsonton, but that didn't happen since
Grady only went there during the daytime. The other was to make the murder
(29:26):
look like a home invasion gone awry. That would have been a better idea.
That would have been a better idea. Whitnesses were called by the prosecution,
and one person in particular was Grady'sneighbor, Marco Eno, who was
the first person Mary went to withher murder for higher plot, but he
declined, oh yeah, She's like, hey, you want to kill Grady.
(29:47):
He's like, hey, can Iget a cup of sugar? And
then I have a question for youreal quick. I gotta I gotta find
out would you be interested in something? I got a business enterprise for you
with the hell you want to makea few extra bucks. Eno was asked
about the night of the murder.He lived nearby and heard everything that happened
when the murder occurred. He saidthat around eleven PM he heard someone yelling
(30:07):
and that Grady kept saying, getthe fuck out, you son of a
bitch. Then came four shots.He was the person who discovered Grady's body
and he saw Chris leave the trailerafter the shots were heard. During the
witness testimony. Chris was described asseeming to be bored with the whole ordeal.
I've been in court, yeah,and I've been bored too, but
(30:30):
not with my own murder trial.Yeah. Medical examiner was called to testify
and said that Grady was shot threetimes. Two shots were fatal. Either
one of them could have been thekill shot. One of the bullets went
straight through the brainstem and hid thebase of his skull. The third bullet
entered and chipped the skull and exited. Testimony throughout the trial only took about
a day and a half. Thejury hung on to every word from the
(30:52):
prosecution's mouth, throwing closing arguments,and they deliberated for six hours. That's
not good for Chris. On Januarytwentieth, think ninety four, Chris,
who was originally charged with first degreemurder, was found guilty of second degree
murder with a firearm in conspiracy tocommit first degree murder. He was sentenced
to twenty seven years in prison forhis crime. Next trial was the main
(31:14):
event the trial for Mary. Mary'sattorney filed for a speedy trial, but
what he didn't know was that JudgeFleischer her schedule was full for the next
ninety dies, and she was supposedlythe judge that was sympathetic to a speedy
trial. They got a different judge, didn't they. Yep, they got
a different judge. It was Judgem William Grayville, and he was known
(31:37):
to be a real hard ass.During her trial, Mary cried quietly at
the defense table. The prosecutor wasRon Haines. He presented a very similar
case as he did with Chris,and Chris was called to the stand to
testify against Mary. Oh wow,I know, he told why he only
got twenty seven? He told thejury he was brought into the plan that
(32:00):
Mary and Glenn had already cooked up. He went through with the murder while
being high. This was a newdetail in Mary's defense. Team did everything
they possibly could to poke holes inthe new alleged story. The state rested
and it was time for the defenseto make their case. Since the matter
if you're high or not, Inot diminished capacity. Of course, you
(32:21):
know what you're doing. People arehigh out there, not mean Yeah,
maybe he had to get high inorder to do it. I don't know.
Since Judge Fleischer had allowed the batteredwife's defense that didn't mean that Judge
Graybill was going to Mary first hadto testify. For that to be admitted
as a defense, she had tofirst admit that she arranged the killing and
(32:45):
feared for her life. Mary saidshe couldn't fully recall specifics of what happened
leading up to the murder. Thiswas a problem because an order for the
judge to rule the self defense,you know this battered wife syndrome, she
had to describe in detail when shewent through. Her attorney mentioned in a
statement to the media that Mary's memoryit had returned. Yeah, it's back,
(33:06):
but it was because of trauma thatshe failed to recall that. The
following day, Judge Graybell stated batteredwife syndrome could not be used. Arnold
Levine, her lawyer, now hadto prove that Mary was in imminent danger.
The defense called Harry Newman Senior,which was Glenn's dad, which was
(33:28):
the smallest man, the world's smallestman. Yes. He told a jury
that he had known Grady for overthirty years during their time working together in
the carnival shows. He went onto say that Mary called him after Grady
had thrown her out of the houseone night and when he picked her up,
she was covered in black and bluebruises from head to toe. He
talked about how he and Mary wedafter Grady and her got divorced. While
(33:52):
the two of them were married,Mary's children with Grady lived with their father,
and when she would try to sendthem stuff, he would send everything
back. But you just said theword imminent, right, Yeah, and
we know what that means as lawyers. Yes, immediate, immediate, instant,
Yeah, when the murder happened,Yeah, she had been in immediate
(34:12):
danger. Lastly, Newman told ajury about the time that Grady pulled out
a sowd off shotgun and put itto Mary's head. Not only did he
put the gun to her head,but he also hit her with the gun
and tried to sexually assault her withthe shotgun. Neighbors testified were Mary during
her trial and said they would hearblood curdling screams coming from the Style's home
on occasion. It was no secretthat Greedy was a very abusive alcoholic,
(34:37):
and he mistreated his family on aregular basis. He used his upper body
strength to throw himself on the floorand would use his claw like fingers as
weapons to choke slam and beat hisfamily. He would target skin and eyes
since his claws would tear right throughthem. Oh Man. Mary took the
stand to testify on her own behalf. She has to yeah. She spoke
(34:58):
about her previous home life before sheran away to join the carnival. She
then spoke about how badly she wasassaulted by Grady when they were first married.
He hit her in the face sobadly that oliver teeth broke. He
would pour I know, he wouldpour steaming hot coffee on her. He
walked from the Yeah, she should. He walked her around with a knife
(35:20):
in her back, and he knockedher down the stairs while she was pregnant
with one of their children. Shetalked about how badly Grady beat their children.
She told the jury about how heripped out her audd and that she
was bleeding heaven when he threw herout of the house. Mary was questioned
about if she had ever called thepolice when she and the children were abused,
and she told a jury that whenshe called the police, they said,
(35:42):
this is a domestic problem. I'msure if you talk it over everything'll
be fine, okay, and theyleft. Grady used to tell her I
got away with murder once before.Yeah, I mean that in and of
itself. It's scary. It's likeI could get away with it again,
not if I kill you first.Mary said she had a handwritten will because
she thought that Grady was going todefinitely kill her. She wanted everything to
(36:06):
be in order for when she wasfinally murdered at his hands. Her daughter
Cathy held the will for her justin case. The prosecution cross examined Mary
and grilled her about her money,previous marriages, and the murder. Kathy
was called to the stand to testifyfor her mother. The defense put up
a great defense, but when allwas said and done, Mary was convicted
and knew it. Yeah, shehad to be right right of manslaughter and
(36:30):
conspiracy to commit murder, and shewas sentenced to twelve years in prison.
Glenn, it's not too bad.No. Glenn was convicted of first degree
murder along with conspiracy to commit murder. I remember, and Chris the shooter
was only convicted of a second degreehe was sentenced. Glenn, her son
was sentenced to life in prison withan extra twelve years added to his term.
(36:53):
Oh if I was Mary Man WhenGrady died, the little tidbit about
Grady before I'm done with the story. When he died, he was so
disliked the funeral home couldn't find oneperson willing to be a pall bearer.
Wow, I mean not one person. They're like, fuck you. Nope.
(37:15):
Mary was released from prison in theyear two thousand and she went back
to her life in Gibsonton, Florida. Since her release, she wanted to
stay out of the public eye,and her current whereabouts are unknown. Chris
was released in two thousand and nine, and he also has been living off
the radar. I'm not sure wherehe's at. His whereabouts are unknown.
(37:35):
And unfortunately, Glenn died while inprison in twenty fourteen. Yeah, could
have been that old. Couldn't havebeen that old? Wow, my sad,
sad story. I don't even knowwhat the fuck to say about this
crazy stuff? Wild? Right thehell? What lots of twists and turns
in that story? Hell, hethought it was just gonna be about one
(37:57):
murder. Nope, it's about murder. I'm the murderer. I don't even
know. I don't even know tosay about the crazy twists and turns.
I know it's wild. Thank you, to Lea for listening, and thank
you everyone for joining us this week. Yes, if you haven't already subscribe,
please hit that subscribe, follow andlike us whatever, yeah, whatever
it is, we don't know,do it all, just do it.
(38:20):
Just do it. It's you know, it takes you like a millisecond.
Yeah, and you can write anice review somewhere too, not a bad
one, yeah, because we'll fuckwith you. We'll do a review,
the fucking review, I know,right, we haven't done one in a
while. We have to dig throughthem and see what we can come up
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(38:45):
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yep, what else And if yousubscribe, not only do you get extra
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(39:08):
So check it out. Yeah,we have a website, crumbs consequence
dot com. Yeah, take agander, at that. Take a gander
at who the fuck says I don'tknow my grandma. I don't know.
I'm like god, I'm getting takea gander at that, so I don't
know. This is all poppy cockgetting old. So until our next episode,
(39:30):
don't kill each other. Bye Bye,
This episode may contain content of agraphic nature, including descriptions of physical and
sexual violence against adults, children,and animals. Listener discretion is advised.
Hi everyone, I'm Tanya and I'mTalia, and we are Crimes and Consequences,
a true crime podcast. Hi,Talia, Ky, Tania, how
(00:36):
you doing today? Okay, let'scome on and we just not Can we
just skip all that shit? Allright, let's skip it. Is this
a regular patron, This is aregular episode, So welcome back everyone.
I'm doing great. Thank you forasking. So welcome back to another exciting
episode of Rhymes and Consequences. Haveyou ever heard of Lobster Boy? I
(00:57):
have in the book that's probably completelyinappropriate, like in nineteen eighties called Freaks.
Oh okay, you're talking about Ialways got the little hands that,
yeah, that were like labster claws. Yes. Yes. His name was
Grady Styles Junior, and he wasborn in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, nineteen thirty
seven, and he would grow up, obviously to lead a very interesting life.
(01:19):
He was known as lobster Boy.I know. He had a rare
medical condition that ran and his familywas genetic and the condition is called ectrodactyle,
and it is commonly known as lobsterclaw syndrome. Like I said,
it's genetic. It's very rare.And what it is. It causes extremities
(01:40):
your hands, your feet or bothto have malformation. They're like attached or
something. You know. It's funnythough the condition may not start in the
womb, and it could develop laterin someone's life. So how's that pass?
I know, it's just bizarre.But for Grady, his symptoms were
prenatal, so the middle parts ofhis hands and feet were missing. He
(02:02):
had it both in his hands andfeet. So what happens is like he
had like a thumb and a pinkywith like the rest of the fingers fused
together together. So he had likeit looked like a lobster claw, but
he had all his fingers right,No, they were all fused together.
It was like, well too big, you know, I get lobster claw.
And like I said, his feetwere exactly the same. So because
(02:23):
his feet were disformed, he couldn'twalk and he would use a wheelchair.
Ok. Okay, for many peoplein the thirties and forties, this condition
really hadn't been seen many times.Obviously, no internet no, even television.
I mean, where do you seesomeone. I've never seen anybody not
in person. It's rare. Yeah, it's rare. Grady was the sixth
(02:46):
generation in his family to have thiscondition. Wow, right, so family
members went back to like the eighteenhundreds, they still managed to find someone
to love them. Yeah, exactly, the sixth generation. That's true.
That's true. And Greedy was thefourth child of his father, Greedy Senior,
and his mom Edna, and everyoffspring that Greedy Senior and Edna had
(03:07):
they had the same condition, withexception of one of his sisters. So
it's dominant. Yes. So ratherthan being ashamed or embarrassed about the family
deformities, the Styles family capitalized onit and they were a side show America.
I know, in a traveling carnivaland you know, like you mentioned,
you read a book called Freaks.They were commonly known as freak shows.
(03:29):
But that's impropriate, that's inappropriate.Now. The family then continued to
grow and produce more and more childrenthat had this condition, like kind of
like to continue to fuel the sideshow. Right. Oh yeah. They
eventually developed a family circus known asthe Lobster Family, and they became a
(03:50):
prime attraction in carnivals throughout the earlytwentieth century. They were really popular.
Lobster family, the Lobster family.Why not, Why not? Paula's going
to make money. They can't walk, they can these are hands at well
exactly his nineteen thirties. Yeah,it's nineteen thirties. And now even though
I mentioned like most of his brothersand sisters had the condition, not all
of them had them in both theirhands and feet. But Grady did.
(04:11):
Like I said when I mentioned,he had this wheelchair, and when he
wasn't using the wheelchair, he woulduse his arms to pull himself across the
floor. So he developed a reallyincredible upper body strength just because that's how
he used to get around when hedidn't have the chair. So I'm telling
you, you know, his familyis touring this circuit, this carnival circuit,
(04:32):
and they spent their off season ina place called Gibsonton, Florida that
was known as Showtown, USA,and it was the most popular hub for
circus and carnival performers throughout the wintermonths, so they all seemed to flock
there. I had no idea.I didn't either in case you're wondering,
like how much money could they reallymake? This family did really well,
(04:54):
the Styles family, they made aboutsixty to eighty thousand dollars per season,
and the season would be only forabout half a year. I mean it's
a lot of money. What yearslike nineteen let's say it's nineteen forty and
it's one point seven million dollars intoday's money. So they did really when
they didn't need more full time,no half the year. The nice thing
(05:15):
about all of the carnival workers goingto the city in Florida was because they
were all there, they kind ofgot away from people like staring at them.
It's kind of like they you know, they truly got to community that
they fit in. Yeah, exactly. During this time, while Grady grew
up, he learned to write andhe learned to shoot a gun. So
it's very important things. It's physical. His physical limitations did not stop him
(05:40):
from doing those things. Eventually,at some point, young Grady fell madly
in love with another carnival worker namedMary Teresa. And I've seen it as
Mary, and I've seen it asMaria, so I'm just going to call
her Mary. She had run awayfrom her home to join the circus when
she was a teenager. She wasa product of incest and she was physically
abused by her parents. And eventhough she traveled with the carnival, Mary
(06:02):
wasn't part of any act. Shewas just a staff member, so she
wasn't part of the fight show uniqueabout her, right right, She was
just a regular worker. So Maryand Grady hit it off really well and
they eventually got married. While married, Grady and Mary had two children,
two daughters named Kathy and Donna.Their daughter, Kathy wasn't born with this
(06:27):
lobster claw syndrome, but Donna was. Both children would become part of the
carnival, joining the rest of thefamily. Since Donna wasn't born with a
genetic condition, Grady actually favored hera little bit over her sister. As
they grew up, Kathy was theapple of his eye. It's been said.
At some point Grady began to drinkheavily, and along with that he
(06:50):
became abusive to his family. Yeah, he was an incredibly mean drunk and
would use his upper body strength tohis advantage while beating Mary and Donna.
Because Kathy was his favorite, sohe did not abuse her. And you
know this is really kind of graphics. I'm just warning everybody. So Mary
(07:12):
used an IUD. It's her formof birth control. I don't want to
know this. During a fight,Grady used his claws. Stop, hands
up. You know what I'm gonnasay? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
go ahead. He literally ripped thecud out of Mary's body. Oh my
god, yeah, I don't.I don't understand it. I don't want
to know. I just can't.I don't want to picture it. Just
(07:34):
can you move forward? Oh?Absolutely? That was That was all I
was going to tell you about that. My god, I'm just trying to
give you, like the level ofabuse this poor woman suffering. I can
handle ahead being tapped off. Ican't handle things like that. I know.
He would choke her when they fought, and his hands were perfect for
him to be able to just wraparound her knock and you know, do
(07:56):
that. His hands weren't functionable enoughto do much else. He became extremely
dangerous to everyone around him due tohis alcoholism. Takeaway his reel chair,
then he's got a crawl. I'mnot trying to be me, I know.
And two things that I mentioned,the choking and the other thing that
we won't get into that wasn't eventhe worst. Yeah, it wasn't even
(08:16):
the worst of what he's done whathe will go on to do his daughter
Donna, And Donna was the onethat was born with the syndrome. She
fell madly in love with a youngman named Jake Lane who was eighteen and
she was sixteen. And Grady hatedthis kid from the beginning. Was he
like your average Yeah, I believeso. I believe so. Like I
(08:39):
didn't find anything that said that hehad any sort of or anything right,
Oh, she was actually fifteen yearsold. Excuse me. When she became
engaged to Jack, they were planningtheir wedding and Grady felt the need to
put a stop to this relationship altogether. He was like, nope. He
asked Donna to break off the engagement, but she said, you know,
(09:00):
she loved Jack so much and sherefused to do what her father told her
to do. So the reason whyGrady despised him is because Donna was underaged.
But on the day before his daughter'swedding, Grady met up with Jack.
And there's two different versions of thestory. One said that Grady invited
Jack over under the ruse he wasgoing to bless the marriage between Jack and
(09:22):
Donna, And the other theory isthat Grady went to Jack's home to give
him the blessing. So I'm notsure exactly Okay, where this incident happened.
Well, if anybody tries to marrymy fifteen year old daughter, yeah
there's gonna be a big problem.That means a different time. Yeah,
it was a different time. Themeeting happened in September of nineteen seventy eight,
and before he even spoke to Jack, like when the two met up,
(09:45):
Grady fatally shot Jack twice with hisshotgun and it killed him instantly.
Yeah, and the poor guy wasloving her, loving his daughter, all
her just the way she is asGrady, he figured if Dinna got married,
she would leave and he'd no longerbe able to control her. Or
maybe she'd have babies and they'd havemore little baby right. I don't know
(10:09):
family, but he had issues likecontrol of his family was his number one
priority. When Dinna found out aboutthe murder of her poor fiance, Jack,
Grady gave her a devilish smile whilesaying, I told you I would
kill him, Okay, like whatI'd be scared of death of my dad.
I hope someone went to the place. Well. Grady was arrested for
(10:31):
Jack's murder and a child date wasset with the jury consisting of six men
and six women. Grady really didn'tgive a shit about the consequences, and
he showed absolutely no remorse for whathe did. The defense claimed that Jack
Lane was shot twice in self defense. Grady said he feared for his life.
He's disabled. He's disabled. He'sdisabled. How can I even choot
(10:54):
a gun? Right? The defensewent on to say that everyone involved,
his family and the police got togetherto completely dramatize their stories since the shooting.
Donna, the farmer bride to be. She was out of town,
but somehow she was able to bein cahoots with the police to go against
Grady, like we're all conspiring right. The prosecution told a jury that Grady
(11:18):
had threatened to kill Jack on multipleoccasions and that he went out to purchase
the gun in order to follow throughwith the threat. He just really didn't
want Donna to marry Jack. Donnatestified against her dad, and she said
that she was going to live withJack, even though her father was against
the underage marriage like she was goingto probably run away. Says she didn't
(11:41):
care about getting his blessing, sothat's why this whole story is kind of
jacked up. She was happy withJack and she wanted to start her life
with him as soon as possible.She also testified that after her father killed
Jack, she said to Grady,I'll see you at your grave. Oh,
and that's why she got out oftown. Yeah. The defense claims
that Anna should be ashamed of hertestimony and then it caused the greatest hurt
(12:03):
and shame for the Style's family.The defense attorney, his name was Anthony
to Cello, told the jury tovisualize all the love and compassion that this
poor soul has for his children.It's really trying to play what was his
self defense? What was Jack goingto do? Well? He said he
was in fear for his life andthat it was Jack and Jack was going
(12:24):
to attack him. I don't knowall you just haven't have a gun,
yeah, exactly. The attorney toCello wanted the jury to feel sorry for
Grady since all he really had washis family, even though he abused them
and beat them at every chance hegot and got drunk and blah blah blah.
But before the trial began, Gradyobtained a court order from the state
(12:45):
of Florida to get custody of hischildren. What yeah, what I know.
How did he get custody? Idon't think he did. Oh he
tried, Yeah, he tried.During the closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney
Robert Paul Vinsler told the that thedetectives thought that Grady would be found not
guilty out of sympathy for his disabilities. One of the last statements said by
(13:07):
the DA was that Grady has notled a happy life up to this point.
It's not his fault all, yeah, he said, a really miserable
life. The jury felt that themurder was premeditated, even though the defense
said that the murder was due tolove and compassion for his daughter. So
Grady attended the verdict reading in hiswheelchair, and he quietly cried as the
(13:28):
jury foreman read that he was foundguilty of third degree murder. That's amazing.
The jury heard both sides and convictedGrady after deliberating for three whole hours.
Three hours. Judge Thomas Harper postponedsentencing, which could have been between
ten to twenty years in prison.But yeah, but Judge Harper did set
Grady's bound to ten grand which isso he got out, yeah, about
(13:52):
fifty thousand today because this was nineteenseventy nine. Before sentencing, Grady pleaded
with the judge that there was noway that he could ever be in prison.
There was not a single jail orprison at the time that was equipped
to handle his disability and doing so, like putting him into prison, would
be cruel, unjust, and unusualpunishment. Okay, whatever. Yeah,
(14:13):
Grady failed to mention at the timethat he also hit cirrhosis of the liver
from his kind of drinking, alongwith emphasima from years and years of smoking
cigarettes. Oh and how old ishe about this time? He's about fifty
because he's born in nineteen thirty seven, so yeah, he's like maybe like
fifty two. Okay. The courtrecognized a Grady's argument and they didn't have
(14:35):
anything really to say, so theprosecution really didn't say much in rebuttal,
there's lots of people that are disabledin prison. I know. But guess
what, I don't want to hearit, do I? No, No,
The judge didn't sentence Grady to prisontime and What's Good gave him fifteen
years probation. So he walked outa freeman and went home. Yeah,
(14:56):
he shot and killed a man andhe got to walk out a team.
Yeah, an eighteen year old guy. So not long after the murder,
his wife divorced him. Mary finallygot out of abusive relationship, but this
didn't stop Grady from marrying his secondlife and having two more children. What
I know, how's this guy gettingwomen? He's super sexy. I guess
(15:20):
his drunken rage and abuse kept goingand this caused his second wife to divorce
him. Mary, his first wife, didn't mourn this divorce from Grady.
She moved on quickly and she gotremarried to a man named Harry Glenn Newman
Senior. He also worked for thecarnival. Oh, he was known as
the world's smallest man. What stopit? What? Yeah, she married
(15:43):
the world's smallest man. She marriedthe world's smallest man. And well,
he can't hurt her. I'm guessing, yeah, right, he's small.
Yeah, he's probably small. Andtogether they had two sons. One was
Harry Glenn Junior, and he wouldgo by Glenn Harry. Like I mentioned,
he was a little person. Hedidn't have any physical deformities, which
(16:03):
is okay. Yeah, his actin the side show was he was known
to hammer nails and drive ice picksup his own nose with the hand.
Oh my goodness, the ship andhe did really well financially. Oh,
I know I am in the wrongjob being a lawyer. I know I
needn't start figuring out how to putnails up a breeze fire or something.
(16:27):
Right after the divorce of his secondwife, Grady persuaded his first wife,
Mary, who was married to Harry. She remarried him in nineteen eighty nine.
Yeah. Why what was wrong withHarry? Don't know. I don't
know if Harry passed away, I'mnot sure. Okay, but she remarried
Grady. Wow. No one inMary's family or the Style's family knows how
(16:52):
the hell he got hurt to marryhim a second time. So Mary,
along with Donna and Cathy, whowere now adults, they all were one
big, happy family. And oneoccasion, Grady's daughter Kathy was pregnant and
she tried to intervene between a badargument that was going on between her parents.
She put Grady's wheelchair in between thetwo of them in an attempt like
(17:15):
to calm things down, like separatethem. But Grady got so enraged by
this that he turned to Kathy andbeat her so badly to the point she
went into early labor. Thankfully,the baby survived and was born with lobster
claw syndrome. Graedy became especially cockyafter evading prison for killing a man and
beating yeah his daughter. He knewhe could literally get away with murder,
(17:38):
and with this mindset, the beatingstoward his wife and kids became much more
severe. And this is when Maryfinally finally had enough. She's like,
fuck this, she was done,and she put a hit out on Greedy.
They put a hit on someone Idon't know. Mary put a hit
out. I'm gonna tell you allabout it. Okay, yeah, okay,
(18:02):
this is questions. She paid herseventeen year old neighbor and fellow carnival
worker. His name was Chris Wyant. She paid him a whopping fifteen hundred
dollars to murder Grady. Mary shesaid, I hit my breaking point.
I couldn't find a way out ofliving. So her son, Glenn,
which was the world's smallest man's son, remember Harry. So her son,
(18:26):
Glenn helped his mother come up witha plan that would get rid of Grady
once and for all. The storyis so fucked up. I know,
I know, Okay, I didn'tknow all of this. Okay, Glenn
would plan and help carry out themurder. So the young neighbor, Chris,
the seventeen year old, he hada friend to buy him a thirty
two caliber cult automatic pistol and thiswould be the weapon that Chris would use
(18:49):
to shoot Grady. Everyone around theStyles family knew that Grady was a dangerous
man who needed to be stopped.I'm not saying like you should murder someone,
but he was pretty hated. Andbefore I tell you more and what
happened next, I can't wait.We're going to take a break. On
(19:10):
the night of the shooting, whichwas to take place in November of nineteen
ninety two, neighbor Chris peered intothe window and he saw Grady watching TV
in his underwear. Oh that's nice. Chris entered the Styles family trailer with
his thirty two caliber gun and heshot Grady at point blank range, killing
(19:30):
him instantly. Grady was fifty fiveyears old. The police had a very
long list of suspects to work throughand ahole. Yeah, everybody hated him
and they eliminated each suspect one byone. They knew he had lots of
enemies. He was hard to getalong with because he was just such an
angry alcoholic. He'd get drunk andbe pissed. He's a dad, Yeah,
(19:52):
and he knew he could get awaywith so much shit, Like I
mean, he could literally kill someone. He just had a terrible reputation.
Up until his death. He wasstill making money from the circus in the
carnival, which I'm surprised because thisnineteen ninety two, did they still have
these sights that's so politically not correct. No, it's not. Maybe I
know it doesn't seem right, buthe did. The medical examiner noted in
(20:15):
Grady's autopsy that he was shot inthe back of the head. Surprise,
with the police using their process ofelimination, the suspects came down to Grady's
family. Had to be someone inthe family. When the surviving members of
the Styles family were questioned by policeabout Grady's murder, not a single one
of them denied that they really wantedto murder Grady. They knew that he
(20:37):
would need to die in order forthem to be free. Yeah, in
order for them to be free.And you know that way, he couldn't
hurt anyone else. They had tokill him. It seems like they could
have found a different way. No, less obvious. I'm just saying,
I don't know. Never mind,you're not gonna plan a murder. Mary
said to the detectives that Grady wasgoing to kill her and her family,
(21:00):
and she believed that like wholehearted.I'm sure she knew they would be safe
now that Grady was dead, andshe thanked God that her family was alive
and okay, and back then theywere like with domestic violence and all that
bettered wife syndrome that was still kindof new. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's going to come into this story. Oh, I know, spoiler
(21:22):
alert. Despite how true Mary's statementwas to the police, when police questioned
Glenn, he was forced to takea polygraph test, which he failed miserably.
He was forced Yeah, apparently Ididn't think they could. They can't
know, but it took one.Okay, Well, after that, he
was taken into an interrogation room andthe pressure was applied, which he cracked
(21:47):
some yeah, and he spilled thebeans, confessing to the entire plan.
During the confession, Glenn told investigatorsevery step of the plan between him,
his mother, Mary, and theneighbor Chris. He just spilled the scuts.
After the confession, detectives drove backto Gibsonton to pick up Mary at
her home. The police said thatthey spoke with Glenn and they needed her
(22:08):
to come down to the police stationto straighten out some facts. Oh shit,
you know I need you to come. You know what, I'm sorry,
I'm gonna need a warrant. Yes, Flora, go there. The
informed her that Glenn made some statementsthat weren't really in her fever, and
you know, they really needed herside of the story. But they also
(22:29):
made sure that obviously Mary knew herconstitutional rights. They read her her Miranda
rights. Mary was visibly upset byall that was happening. On November thirtieth,
nineteen ninety two, at ten thirtypm, Mary signed a consent for
him, giving the police permission tointerrogate her. The detectives then asked Mary
to tell them what happened. Soshe told investigators that her husband was abusive
(22:51):
to both her and her children.She told them Grady was an uncontrollable monster
and would beat them with his clausewhat she called them. She said he
would make her bleed by headbutting her. She proceeded to tell investigators that she
had told her daughter Cathy about wantingto kill Gradies several months before it actually
happened, and then when Glenn becameaware, he knew someone that could help
(23:15):
carry it out the neighbor. Marysaid, did she wanted to make one
thing clear there and then that shewanted to accept all the blame for the
murder. She wanted her family tobe left out of it. She told
detectives that she gave Glenn the fifteenhundred dollars as payment to Chris for the
murder of Grady. The detectives askedMary if she had ever met Chris,
(23:36):
and she told him, yeah,I have, but they never discussed the
murder that she wanted done. Thearrangement was between her and Glenn, so
Glenn was the one that gave Christhe money to carry out the hit on
Grady. About two weeks prior tothe killing, Mary had told her daughter
Cathy that the contract was off andthat no murder was going to happen.
Can you imagine these conversations. Icalled off the hit. Hey kids,
(24:00):
what good news? Good news,We're not going to kill Mary was adamant
with the detectives that Grady was supposedto be alive. It wasn't supposed to
happen this way. Well wait,I thought she was taking the fall for
it. But now she's seeing She'slike, well, it wasn't supposed to
happen. I mean, I agreedin the beginning, but then I now
she's backing down. Yeah, butthen throwing them under the bus. The
(24:21):
police were like, well, youleft the trailer just moments before Grady was
murdered, so she happened to stepout, and yeah, coincidentally he's alone.
The detectives then asked Mary where shegot the fifteen hundred dollars to have
her husband killed, and she tolddetectives she made her own money by being
a show girl and that she hadher own finances show girl. I don't
(24:42):
know, but Grady was fifty five, so she can't be that young.
Well, whatever, whatever is goodfor her. Somebody spoke, you know,
everybody likes different flavors to leave.That's what are you trying to say
old ladies can't know they're sexy.I mean, yeah, absolutely, any
(25:02):
as an old lady. Right.The detectives asked her, why didn't you
just divorce Grady like she previously did? Well, why did you divorce him
and remarry Grade? Yeah? Right. Mary said that he threatened to kill
her if she did and the abusewas much worse than ever had been in
the past. I believe it.Yeah, me too. That same day,
Mary was charged with first degree murderand she was also charged with conspiracy
(25:25):
to commit first degree murder. Herson, Glenn, was indicted with the
same exact charges, so she wasn'tgoing to get away with taking all the
blame. Chris, the neighbor.He was taken into custody on December first.
He was advised of his rights,and then he declined to make any
statements and requested an attorney's hard yes. The detectives then went on the search
(25:45):
for the murder weapon. They founda trailer that belonged to the guy who
gave Chris the thirty two caliber cultgun, and they found the gun in
the middle of a swamp like woodsnext to a palm tree. The gun
was still loaded when it was takeninto evidence. Chris was arrested and charged
with first to re murder and conspiracyto commit murder. So all three of
(26:07):
them were Yep, all three ofthem do the nature of the cold blooded
crimes. All of them were heldwithout bland. None of the three defendants
took any sort of plea deal,and they all chose trial by jury.
The state of Florida decided not toseek the death penalty in all three cases.
The cases were assigned to Judge BarbaraFleischer, and she had a reputation
(26:27):
of being sympathetic to abused women.Maria and Glenn were represented by a young
criminal attorney named Peter Catania. Heoriginally was only going to represent Mary,
and he later took Glenn's case probonn He soon realized that the case was
too large for one attorney. Wehave two mass Yeah, maybe these are
(26:48):
murder you know charges here? Yeah, so we brought on another attorney.
Would be kind of a conflict ofinterest like that to represent both of them.
Yeah, I think they had separatetrials. I don't know, I
guess. He brought in another attorneynamed Arnold Levine to help. Levine was
a well known attorney and the medialoved him because he always represented like high
(27:10):
profile cases and he won them alot. He won the publicity. Yeah,
he knew that this case was goingto cost a lot of money for
Mary, so he also took thecase pro bono because a lot. Oh
yeah, a lot often, sohe didn't care. He got like free
advertise it too. Mary and Glennfiled for battered spouse and child syndrome defenses.
(27:33):
The battered wife syndrome had never beentried as a defense and a murder
for higher case in Florida before,so Levine he had to prove that Mary
feared for her life and was sointimidated by Grady that killing him was her
only way out. He felt theycould win the case without a doubt.
The first of the trial, though, would be Glenn's detectives testified that Glenn
(27:56):
failed the lie detector test. Idon't think they could do that. It's
not amissible. Oh and because theydid it, because polygraph results can't be
admitted as evidence, Judge Fleischer ruleda mistrial. Absolutely, that was really
stupid of them. I know whatthey fucked that whole case. I mean,
that's like law school first year.Yeah, hello, Chris the neighbor
(28:19):
Chris Wyant. His trial date wasset to begin in January of nineteen ninety
four. His lawyer was court appointedand was not known to be the best
like what marrying Glenn had. Andhe can't use that defense, No,
he can't. Chris's mother, Janice, was present for her son's trial,
along with Chris's six year old sister. I don't think that's quite a program.
Why are you bringing a six yearolds? Anyway? The prosecution touched
(28:42):
on the fact that Chris didn't justshoot Grady once. He instead kept shooting
and shooting and shooting. While sittingon the defense side of the courtroom.
Chris showed no emotion or remarse forwhat he did. He felt that what
he did was right in order tosave the surviving members of the Stiles family.
Assistant State Attorney Ron Haynes had avery strong case against Chris and portrayed
(29:04):
him to the jury as a hiredassassin and a person who was born to
kill. Okay, the theatrics,Well, he's a hired assassin, though
that's true. He related that therewere two plans. Originally, one was
to shoot Grady outside of a loungein Gibsonton, but that didn't happen since
Grady only went there during the daytime. The other was to make the murder
(29:26):
look like a home invasion gone awry. That would have been a better idea.
That would have been a better idea. Whitnesses were called by the prosecution,
and one person in particular was Grady'sneighbor, Marco Eno, who was
the first person Mary went to withher murder for higher plot, but he
declined, oh yeah, She's like, hey, you want to kill Grady.
(29:47):
He's like, hey, can Iget a cup of sugar? And
then I have a question for youreal quick. I gotta I gotta find
out would you be interested in something? I got a business enterprise for you
with the hell you want to makea few extra bucks. Eno was asked
about the night of the murder.He lived nearby and heard everything that happened
when the murder occurred. He saidthat around eleven PM he heard someone yelling
(30:07):
and that Grady kept saying, getthe fuck out, you son of a
bitch. Then came four shots.He was the person who discovered Grady's body
and he saw Chris leave the trailerafter the shots were heard. During the
witness testimony. Chris was described asseeming to be bored with the whole ordeal.
I've been in court, yeah,and I've been bored too, but
(30:30):
not with my own murder trial.Yeah. Medical examiner was called to testify
and said that Grady was shot threetimes. Two shots were fatal. Either
one of them could have been thekill shot. One of the bullets went
straight through the brainstem and hid thebase of his skull. The third bullet
entered and chipped the skull and exited. Testimony throughout the trial only took about
a day and a half. Thejury hung on to every word from the
(30:52):
prosecution's mouth, throwing closing arguments,and they deliberated for six hours. That's
not good for Chris. On Januarytwentieth, think ninety four, Chris,
who was originally charged with first degreemurder, was found guilty of second degree
murder with a firearm in conspiracy tocommit first degree murder. He was sentenced
to twenty seven years in prison forhis crime. Next trial was the main
(31:14):
event the trial for Mary. Mary'sattorney filed for a speedy trial, but
what he didn't know was that JudgeFleischer her schedule was full for the next
ninety dies, and she was supposedlythe judge that was sympathetic to a speedy
trial. They got a different judge, didn't they. Yep, they got
a different judge. It was Judgem William Grayville, and he was known
(31:37):
to be a real hard ass.During her trial, Mary cried quietly at
the defense table. The prosecutor wasRon Haines. He presented a very similar
case as he did with Chris,and Chris was called to the stand to
testify against Mary. Oh wow,I know, he told why he only
got twenty seven? He told thejury he was brought into the plan that
(32:00):
Mary and Glenn had already cooked up. He went through with the murder while
being high. This was a newdetail in Mary's defense. Team did everything
they possibly could to poke holes inthe new alleged story. The state rested
and it was time for the defenseto make their case. Since the matter
if you're high or not, Inot diminished capacity. Of course, you
(32:21):
know what you're doing. People arehigh out there, not mean Yeah,
maybe he had to get high inorder to do it. I don't know.
Since Judge Fleischer had allowed the batteredwife's defense that didn't mean that Judge
Graybill was going to Mary first hadto testify. For that to be admitted
as a defense, she had tofirst admit that she arranged the killing and
(32:45):
feared for her life. Mary saidshe couldn't fully recall specifics of what happened
leading up to the murder. Thiswas a problem because an order for the
judge to rule the self defense,you know this battered wife syndrome, she
had to describe in detail when shewent through. Her attorney mentioned in a
statement to the media that Mary's memoryit had returned. Yeah, it's back,
(33:06):
but it was because of trauma thatshe failed to recall that. The
following day, Judge Graybell stated batteredwife syndrome could not be used. Arnold
Levine, her lawyer, now hadto prove that Mary was in imminent danger.
The defense called Harry Newman Senior,which was Glenn's dad, which was
(33:28):
the smallest man, the world's smallestman. Yes. He told a jury
that he had known Grady for overthirty years during their time working together in
the carnival shows. He went onto say that Mary called him after Grady
had thrown her out of the houseone night and when he picked her up,
she was covered in black and bluebruises from head to toe. He
talked about how he and Mary wedafter Grady and her got divorced. While
(33:52):
the two of them were married,Mary's children with Grady lived with their father,
and when she would try to sendthem stuff, he would send everything
back. But you just said theword imminent, right, Yeah, and
we know what that means as lawyers. Yes, immediate, immediate, instant,
Yeah, when the murder happened,Yeah, she had been in immediate
(34:12):
danger. Lastly, Newman told ajury about the time that Grady pulled out
a sowd off shotgun and put itto Mary's head. Not only did he
put the gun to her head,but he also hit her with the gun
and tried to sexually assault her withthe shotgun. Neighbors testified were Mary during
her trial and said they would hearblood curdling screams coming from the Style's home
on occasion. It was no secretthat Greedy was a very abusive alcoholic,
(34:37):
and he mistreated his family on aregular basis. He used his upper body
strength to throw himself on the floorand would use his claw like fingers as
weapons to choke slam and beat hisfamily. He would target skin and eyes
since his claws would tear right throughthem. Oh Man. Mary took the
stand to testify on her own behalf. She has to yeah. She spoke
(34:58):
about her previous home life before sheran away to join the carnival. She
then spoke about how badly she wasassaulted by Grady when they were first married.
He hit her in the face sobadly that oliver teeth broke. He
would pour I know, he wouldpour steaming hot coffee on her. He
walked from the Yeah, she should. He walked her around with a knife
(35:20):
in her back, and he knockedher down the stairs while she was pregnant
with one of their children. Shetalked about how badly Grady beat their children.
She told the jury about how heripped out her audd and that she
was bleeding heaven when he threw herout of the house. Mary was questioned
about if she had ever called thepolice when she and the children were abused,
and she told a jury that whenshe called the police, they said,
(35:42):
this is a domestic problem. I'msure if you talk it over everything'll
be fine, okay, and theyleft. Grady used to tell her I
got away with murder once before.Yeah, I mean that in and of
itself. It's scary. It's likeI could get away with it again,
not if I kill you first.Mary said she had a handwritten will because
she thought that Grady was going todefinitely kill her. She wanted everything to
(36:06):
be in order for when she wasfinally murdered at his hands. Her daughter
Cathy held the will for her justin case. The prosecution cross examined Mary
and grilled her about her money,previous marriages, and the murder. Kathy
was called to the stand to testifyfor her mother. The defense put up
a great defense, but when allwas said and done, Mary was convicted
and knew it. Yeah, shehad to be right right of manslaughter and
(36:30):
conspiracy to commit murder, and shewas sentenced to twelve years in prison.
Glenn, it's not too bad.No. Glenn was convicted of first degree
murder along with conspiracy to commit murder. I remember, and Chris the shooter
was only convicted of a second degreehe was sentenced. Glenn, her son
was sentenced to life in prison withan extra twelve years added to his term.
(36:53):
Oh if I was Mary Man WhenGrady died, the little tidbit about
Grady before I'm done with the story. When he died, he was so
disliked the funeral home couldn't find oneperson willing to be a pall bearer.
Wow, I mean not one person. They're like, fuck you. Nope.
(37:15):
Mary was released from prison in theyear two thousand and she went back
to her life in Gibsonton, Florida. Since her release, she wanted to
stay out of the public eye,and her current whereabouts are unknown. Chris
was released in two thousand and nine, and he also has been living off
the radar. I'm not sure wherehe's at. His whereabouts are unknown.
(37:35):
And unfortunately, Glenn died while inprison in twenty fourteen. Yeah, could
have been that old. Couldn't havebeen that old? Wow, my sad,
sad story. I don't even knowwhat the fuck to say about this
crazy stuff? Wild? Right thehell? What lots of twists and turns
in that story? Hell, hethought it was just gonna be about one
(37:57):
murder. Nope, it's about murder. I'm the murderer. I don't even
know. I don't even know tosay about the crazy twists and turns.
I know it's wild. Thank you, to Lea for listening, and thank
you everyone for joining us this week. Yes, if you haven't already subscribe,
please hit that subscribe, follow andlike us whatever, yeah, whatever
it is, we don't know,do it all, just do it.
(38:20):
Just do it. It's you know, it takes you like a millisecond.
Yeah, and you can write anice review somewhere too, not a bad
one, yeah, because we'll fuckwith you. We'll do a review,
the fucking review, I know,right, we haven't done one in a
while. We have to dig throughthem and see what we can come up
with. We are on social mediaat Hardcore True Crime on Facebook and Instagram.
And if you would like even moremore stories from us, you can
(38:45):
join our Patreon yep, it ispatreon dot com, slash t NT crimes
like Dynamite like Dynamite t NT.Or you can go to Apple Podcasts if
that's where you listen, and youcan subscribe there. It's the same episode
yep, what else And if yousubscribe, not only do you get extra
episodes, but you get the weeklyones early at lease and ad free free.
(39:08):
So check it out. Yeah,we have a website, crumbs consequence
dot com. Yeah, take agander, at that. Take a gander
at who the fuck says I don'tknow my grandma. I don't know.
I'm like god, I'm getting takea gander at that, so I don't
know. This is all poppy cockgetting old. So until our next episode,
(39:30):
don't kill each other. Bye Bye,
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