0:03

Pee Wee Gaskins had a lot of friends,

0:05

but if they crossed him, he wasn't

0:07

afraid to kill them. Eight

0:10

bodies were found in this burial field,

0:12

but those victims stories may

0:14

never have come to light had it

0:17

not been for the school teacher who

0:19

followed a missing person's report. It

0:22

all began with Kim Gilkins and

0:24

this story of that missing

0:26

girl. Kim

0:32

Gelkin was killed because she

0:34

was a threat to Peary's freedom.

0:38

She was always in danger of

0:41

something that other people were trying to

0:43

do to her. It's easy

0:45

to get caught up in someone's manipulations

0:47

that then you fall victim in the same way, Peeley

0:50

said, Mr Jim, you didn't have a thing to worry

0:53

about. I was right here with you. I

0:56

was petrified from

1:02

my heart, radio and doghouse pictures.

1:04

This is Peewee Gaskins was

1:07

not my friend. I'm Jeff

1:09

Keating m

1:17

H. Kim

1:25

Yakin lived at Calvert

1:27

Street in North Charleston, which

1:30

was across the street from where Pee

1:32

Wee live. Kim lived with her father

1:35

and her older sister. Peewee

1:38

befriended all kinds of people. Kim

1:42

Gilkins visited Peewee's home often

1:45

and became friends with Donna Gaskins,

1:47

his last wife. Donna

1:50

was only seven years older than Kim.

1:53

Kim's mother died a couple of months before

1:55

she met Peewee and Donna, and

1:57

it wouldn't be long before she would disappear.

2:00

Year From

2:02

his research and many conversations

2:04

with Peewee, Jim learned a

2:06

lot about the tragic life of

2:08

that missing girl. Kim

2:13

was thirteen years old when

2:15

she died. She was gracious,

2:18

she would love him, She was appreciative.

2:21

She very much loved Donna Gaskins,

2:23

and Nanna was often good to her. But

2:26

she was a gentle, slow baby

2:29

teenage girl. Kim

2:36

apparently struggled with academics.

2:39

A fifth grader at Shakoor Elementary

2:41

School, she was three years older

2:43

than her classmates, most of

2:45

whom were ten and eleven. That's

2:48

where she met her teacher, Mary Anne

2:50

Griffin, when she assigned

2:52

the students to write a paper on the

2:54

person they admired. Most. Kim

2:56

wrote about her neighbor Donna. Kim

3:01

often took weekend trips with Don and Peewee

3:03

to their home in Prospect, South Carolina.

3:06

The Charlotte Observer reported that

3:09

Kim's sister and father had warned

3:11

her not to be going to the Gaskins

3:13

home and cited Marianne Griffin,

3:16

who recognized quote that

3:18

she looked up to this nineteen year old girl because

3:21

her mother was dead end quote

3:25

here's Anita baby. I

3:29

cannot imagine how

3:32

lonely that child Kim Gilkin was,

3:36

and her teacher clearly loved

3:39

her and away and felt sorry for her

3:41

and protective of her, and

3:43

had a sense of all of the trials

3:46

that Kim must have gone through. The

3:50

teacher at Shikorra Elementary

3:53

School, Marianne Griffin was her name.

3:56

She filed a missing person's report after

3:59

a week and a half Kim being absent.

4:03

It doesn't appear her father filed

4:05

a missing person's reports. No

4:09

one on her street did this. Those

4:11

people under the radar didn't

4:13

report to the police missing

4:16

people. But this good teacher

4:18

did this. The Kim

4:20

Gilkin's story is what started

4:23

the whole investigation. Thank

4:25

goodness for that alert and

4:27

caring teacher. Without

4:30

that teacher, all the victims

4:32

may still just be in a missing person

4:34

style. Of course,

4:36

the law enforcement took it seriously

4:40

and the threads started to

4:42

unravel, and

4:47

this put the North Charleston Police

4:50

rufus Tony and Roy Green on

4:52

this case, and they just sent

4:54

an excellent team and excellent policeman

4:57

and they got on this case and they we

5:00

found that Peewee Gaskins

5:02

was tied to this missing girl. It

5:07

didn't take long to zero in on Gaskins

5:09

as a suspect. Investigators

5:12

were aggressive, pounding the

5:14

pavement looking for Leeds. That's

5:18

when they met the mother of Dennis Bellamy,

5:21

Diane Bellamy and Johnny Knight.

5:24

She reported her three children were

5:26

also missing. Mrs

5:30

Knight brought the story

5:33

to head. Marian

5:35

Griffin began it

5:37

but missing Knight gave information that

5:39

people in the neighborhood are all missing. They

5:44

would also learn Jesse Judy and Johnny

5:46

Sellers were missing and

5:48

the common denominator in these missing

5:50

persons was Pee Wee Gaskins.

5:54

When they arrived at his home, Peewee

5:57

wasn't there, but the detectives

5:59

did me Sandy and Donna Gaskins.

6:02

It was the ex wife, Sandy who gave

6:05

the detectives the lead they were

6:07

looking for. Sandy

6:10

Snell Gaskins told

6:12

the police that Peewee and Kim

6:15

were offered in the prospect Knowing

6:19

Kim was last seen with Peewee Gaskins,

6:21

police quickly obtained a search warrant for

6:23

Peewee's trailer, ninety miles

6:26

away in Prospect. It

6:28

was there they found clothing that belonged

6:30

to Kim Gelkins. They

6:33

also found a stolen car on his lot,

6:35

and he was arrested that same day for auto

6:38

theft and contributing to

6:40

the delinquency of a minor. He

6:44

took her out across county lines. He

6:46

was a minor, charged as far as compared

6:48

to murder, when it was certainly serious enough

6:50

to put him back in jail. Still,

6:55

there was no sign of Kim Gelkins, who

6:58

had been missing for nearly sixty days.

7:02

Police detectives tracked down Walter Neely,

7:05

Peewee's close friend, and applied

7:07

pressure. Walter buckled,

7:10

but he had no idea where Kim was. He

7:13

didn't know pee Wee had taken her to stay with

7:15

his daughter, Shirley Anne Gaskins

7:17

and her husband, Howard Evans. Police

7:21

knew she wasn't there anymore. Surely,

7:24

Anne thought Kim had gone to Indiana, where

7:26

she had some family, so police

7:29

were in a bind. Walter

7:31

had taken them to Peewe's burial grounds

7:34

and they were knee deep in digging up bodies,

7:37

but still no word on Kim Gerkins,

7:40

dead or live. Kim

7:48

Galkin was abused rather boodily

7:50

by her father, and she loved

7:53

and adored pee Wee Gaskins

7:56

and his wife, Donna. Pee

7:59

Wee is directly across the street

8:01

from Kim. Kim is distraught

8:05

and wants to get away, so

8:07

she decides she's gonna go get help with

8:10

the person who helps everybody. And

8:13

she went over in tears, and

8:15

he said, what's the matter of him? Let's talk.

8:18

She says, I want to talk to you by ourselves,

8:20

and they step out into the back of a car

8:23

he's working on, and she tells

8:25

him I've got to get away. Can I

8:27

move in with you all across the street? And

8:30

he thought a minute. I said,

8:33

we can't do that, Kim, but I can get a place

8:35

for you. And he thought, immediately,

8:37

I'll take her to Shirley and

8:39

Evans, his daughter at Prospect

8:42

Ropus cross Roads. She can go

8:44

there because Howard and surely

8:46

Anna knew by what I tell her to do. So

8:49

he made arrangements to take Kim

8:51

to Prospect, which he did the following Friday

8:53

afternoon, honestly motivated

8:56

to help her and get her away from

8:58

her father. Her

9:01

mother had died six months before of cancer,

9:04

and she was absolutely distraught

9:07

with the behavior of her father and

9:10

went directly to pee Wee. She wanted results,

9:13

that's why she went to Peewee first rather

9:15

than anyone else. And

9:18

Peewee takes Kim Gelkin

9:20

to Prospect to live at his daughter's

9:23

house, knowing that there's a great risk

9:25

in doing this because he had

9:27

no business taking a teenage

9:29

girl anywhere for

9:31

anything, but he needed to help

9:33

her. There

9:37

was no evidence ever submitted that

9:39

her father abused her, and no charges

9:42

ever filed. Gaskins

9:44

would go on to explain to Jim,

9:46

as he had in his deposition, that

9:48

Kim stayed with his daughter and her

9:51

husband for a few months. This

9:53

meant she disappeared from her home for

9:55

more than a month before anybody

9:58

reported her missing. Just

10:00

prior to that report being filed, Kim

10:03

had an opportunity to speak with the owner

10:05

of a local country store and Prospect,

10:08

and what she revealed was shocking.

10:16

So she goes to the country store and

10:18

talks to the owner and asked for help and

10:21

somehow ward gets back to Shirley Anne

10:23

that Kim is talking about being

10:26

abused by her husband. Kim

10:30

told the store owner that pee Wee, his

10:32

son in law, Howard Evans, and his

10:34

brother Charles, we're all raping

10:37

her in the house. When

10:39

word got back to Shirley Anne, she

10:41

called her father Peewee to report

10:44

that Kim had been jowing. He

10:50

was about ninety days into the search

10:52

for Kim Gilkins. Police

10:54

were busy unearthing the eight bodies pee

10:56

Wee had murdered, but Kim

10:58

was not one of them.

11:00

North Charleston Police Chief Lynwood

11:03

Simmons stated that all leads

11:05

to find the girl had been exhausted, but

11:07

that the case was still active. Police

11:10

Detective Roy Green points

11:13

directly to pee Wee Gaskins as a prime

11:15

suspect, saying Kim was

11:17

last seen with him in a white pickup truck

11:20

at his trailer home in Prospect.

11:23

Roy suspects foul play

11:26

and then nothing,

11:31

absolutely nothing. The

11:34

case goes cold for almost a year

11:38

until pee Wee was

11:40

convicted of Dennis Bellamy's murder

11:43

and found himself on trial for

11:45

Barnwell yates Is murder. Pee

11:48

Wee gave up Barnwell's body in

11:50

exchange for a conjugal visit with Donna,

11:53

and for an additional conjugal visit, he

11:56

led investigators to Kim Gilkin's

11:59

body. Kim

12:02

Gilkin was killed with a Campbell

12:05

suit knife. Pee We waited

12:07

one hour for him to be

12:09

brought to him in

12:11

a shallow grave not very far from

12:14

his trailer there in Prospect, and

12:17

Kim was brought to Peewee

12:19

by two young women. Marie

12:22

Marlowe and Sherry Lee are their

12:24

names, and they were never ever

12:26

as far as I know, accused of anything.

12:31

Kim Gilkin was killed because

12:34

she was a threat to Peewee's

12:36

freedom.

12:40

There was no evidence to support Peewee's

12:42

allegation, and the two women

12:45

were never charged with anything. Kim's

12:48

jawing about being raped threatened

12:51

Peewee's freedom, and he tried

12:53

to save himself by sacrificing

12:56

her. He

12:59

shot in staff app to Kim Gilkins. There

13:02

was no evidence that confirmed rape or

13:04

sexual activity of any kind. The

13:07

body was too decomposed when recovered.

13:11

Identification was made matching

13:13

her teeth to her last known picture showing

13:16

her smile, but there were no

13:18

dental records for comparison. At

13:21

the time of his confession, Peewee

13:24

was in prison for life trying

13:26

to plea deal to avoid death.

13:29

He was never charged for Kim Gelkin's

13:31

murder, and police closed

13:34

the file to

13:40

believe she was being saved and

13:43

to wind up being killed not

13:45

because of anything she did, but because

13:47

of what two males reportedly

13:50

we're doing with her. So he wouldn't

13:53

have to go back to jail because she was going to

13:55

tell the police. She

13:58

was always in Dane. You're of something

14:01

that other people were trying to do to her, and

14:04

all she wanted was love and safety,

14:07

and that rings a bell with me.

14:11

I cannot ever imagine

14:13

not feeling safe.

14:32

For reasons unknown, Kim Gerkins

14:35

felt safe asking pee Wee and Donna

14:37

Gaskin's for help. She was

14:39

one of numerous people who felt this way around

14:41

pee Wee, but then found herself

14:44

on the wrong end of a knife and gun. Diane,

14:48

Dennis Janice, all

14:51

of the people pee Wee killed experiences

14:54

at one time or another. Jim

14:57

Batty sense that kinship as well. He

15:02

put it at risk when he failed to deliver

15:05

the radio to Peewee's son, and

15:07

he was anxious to restore that trust again.

15:10

As he sought to finish his book on

15:12

Peewee. Gaskins betrayal

15:17

probably the fiercest enemy

15:19

that he had. He did not ever

15:21

want to be betrayed. And then

15:24

when I was seen in

15:26

a tiny, tiny way of betraying

15:28

him by failing to take the

15:31

radio to his son, that

15:33

one thing letting me know that

15:35

I could be in danger, just as the people get

15:38

he murdered. Jim worked to repair

15:40

anything that put him in danger.

15:45

Well, one day that I visited Peewee,

15:48

the visiting room was full, and

15:50

the guard believe his name was Joe, said,

15:53

do you mind if you all meet in

15:55

a room down the hall? I said not at all. So

15:58

he took us into a room

15:59

and he closed the door and it clicked,

16:03

and I said, pee wee? Is

16:05

that is that door locked? And

16:08

he said, Mr Jim, they locked every door I go into.

16:11

Jim was stressed after the radio incidents,

16:14

and there he was locked in a

16:16

room with Gaskins, and now

16:19

he was scared. So

16:24

we had our usual hour and

16:26

a half meeting. Two

16:28

hours came, two

16:31

hours and fifteen minutes came, three

16:34

o'clock came, and

16:37

I was beginning to get uneasy.

16:41

Finally, the guard I've

16:43

never seen before. He opens

16:45

the door and apologizes,

16:48

says, I'm sorry. Actually

16:50

we forgotten where we put you, and

16:53

pee We said, Mr Jim

16:55

is getting a little anxious, and

16:57

then pee We reached over and put his hand

17:00

on my arm and said, Mr

17:03

Jim, you didn't have a thing to worry about. I

17:06

was right here with you. I

17:10

was petrified. Jim

17:14

wanted to finish his book, which

17:17

would mean more interviews, and

17:19

even though he was petrified, Jim

17:22

did his best to stay on good terms with

17:24

Peewee anyway.

17:28

He said, you know, it's been almost a year now since

17:30

I've seen my mom, and I said, would you

17:32

like for me to bring her here to

17:34

visit you? He said, I would like

17:36

that, so we arranged

17:39

for me to take his mother

17:41

to the prison. Julie

17:44

Parrot was Peewee's mother, and

17:46

Anita Baby remembers her. Peewee's

17:50

mother a Parrot. I called her. That

17:52

was as kind and

17:54

upright and engaging

17:57

person. She's quiet, sort

17:59

of ignified. Small her

18:02

house. I was impressed. I've

18:04

never been so impressed in a home. It

18:07

was a little shock. It was like a shotgun

18:10

shack. And the

18:13

yard wasn't a yard. It was dirt around

18:15

the house. I know she swept

18:18

it. It was immaculate. That

18:20

house was absolutely could eat off

18:22

the floor. I'm sure his mother fed

18:25

him wonderful food, and

18:27

he knew she loved him, and he wanted her

18:29

to know he loved her. She

18:32

was quite special. I

18:34

think there were lots of stories that he wouldn't

18:36

tell until she was gone. But well,

18:40

his family life was of course

18:42

no family. He had an older

18:44

sister. He and his

18:46

older sister were born to Uley

18:49

Parrott out of wedlock, and

18:51

Uali worked in the fields with

18:53

them in to survive. She

18:56

was best I can tell, hard

18:59

working, honorable individual

19:01

who loved her children and cared

19:03

for them as well as she could. They were

19:05

passed around. Pee

19:09

Wee told me that there were

19:11

days he would wake up and not

19:13

know whose house he was in. He had been

19:15

taken there for them to care

19:17

for him. Then he spoke about the treatment

19:20

of his mother's brothers of

19:23

him from age four

19:26

on until the arrest at age

19:28

thirteen that Sunday afternoon

19:30

when he went to jail then to reform school,

19:33

he was brutally, brutally

19:37

tortured by his uncle's and

19:39

this was corroborated when I had dinner

19:42

with Carol Hannah

19:44

pee Wee's younger sister by seventeen

19:46

years of age. He was abused.

19:49

He was abused as a little boy. He

19:51

was abused by the uncle's. Yet

19:55

Jim knew that a mother wanted to be with

19:58

her child, and a filed

20:00

with his mother. I

20:03

picked her up, took her to the prison. She

20:07

would not talk. I could not get

20:09

her to talk about anything. Quiet,

20:12

gentle, old, frail

20:16

but strong. And the room

20:18

was relatively empty that day, and

20:21

I sat over in the corner as far

20:23

as I could get from them, But

20:25

I was taking notes and observing

20:27

what I saw them do. And

20:30

I noticed it from time to time pee

20:33

would just move his hand over and

20:35

put it on top of her hand, which

20:39

it was very poignant in my thinking. I

20:44

hear man, I didn't dream, had any kind

20:46

of feeling for anything or anybody. Was

20:48

clearly enthralled with his mother, and

20:50

I was happy to be with her. And

20:53

they chatted and talked. An

20:55

hour ten minutes came the

20:58

end of our visit, and

21:00

they stood and embraced. And

21:04

the only time that I ever saw Peoul

21:06

smile was when he

21:08

closed his eyes and hugged

21:10

his mother, and

21:13

here's this man who's taken

21:16

life after life embracing

21:20

the woman who gave him

21:22

his life. And I thought

21:24

that that was a powerful picture

21:27

of seeing that there. And I

21:29

thought people

21:32

asked me often, what drew

21:34

you to this man? How could

21:36

you possibly keep going back there? To

21:39

that creature? The

21:41

irony of this taker of

21:43

lives and this giver

21:46

of his life embracing

21:48

each other. And he smiles

21:52

the only time I ever saw him spy Here

21:58

Solicitor Dick Harp Lute Lean talking

22:01

about Peewee's intelligence and childhood.

22:05

If you took Charles Manson knocked

22:07

about fifty points off his I q have

22:10

him grow up in a swamp in South

22:12

Carolina where he's abused

22:15

sexually by men. And

22:18

I think he dropped out of school in the seventh grade, never

22:20

had any education. But most of the people

22:22

he hung out with were criminals. He spent

22:24

some time with the carnival. I mean,

22:26

he's just sort of a redneck Charlie

22:29

Manson and charismatic extent

22:31

that he attracted people to him, manipulated

22:34

people. Pee

22:36

Wee, prayed on the vulnerability of his

22:39

victims and forced many of

22:41

them to be complicit in his crimes.

22:44

He manipulated everyone around him,

22:47

and he got everyone around him to

22:49

do what he wanted, including

22:52

the babies, because

22:55

anything pee Wee asked him to do, he

22:58

did. I mean, he wanted

23:00

him to visit his mother. We did,

23:02

took to the beach, you know, took

23:04

his sister and little Donnie

23:07

Peewee son. So I mean, anything

23:10

that pee Wee needed Jim

23:12

wanted to help him with. He was just

23:15

the babies also met with Peewee's

23:17

sister. His sister looked

23:20

like a different kind of person from

23:22

Peewee. She was attractive,

23:25

she was polite, well mannered,

23:27

just a different ilk almost,

23:31

And it must have been hell for her

23:33

to be the victim of a brother

23:36

who was the most notorious mass

23:39

murder in South Carolina history. And she's growing

23:41

up, going to high school, going to school. Thank

23:44

god, she didn't share his last name, and

23:47

so that may have protected

23:49

her some. But Jim went out

23:52

took her to lunch I think one time, and

23:54

and I'm sure she shared stories with him about

23:56

the pain and the anger

23:59

she felt to at him, not

24:01

just for what he did that was bad enough,

24:03

but for the fact that she shared his

24:06

blood. Somehow, and had

24:08

to accept some of the fallout

24:10

from the publicity and the notoriety

24:13

in the horror of this man and

24:15

his son. He didn't stand

24:18

a chance because he was Donald Henry

24:20

Gas against the third Here's

24:22

Jennifer Hawes talking about

24:25

one characteristic of a killer.

24:28

I think it goes back to control. They're like master

24:30

manipulators that do you think they're

24:33

helping you or you're helping them.

24:36

It's easy to get caught up in someone's manipulations

24:39

and you alone understand them in a way that nobody

24:41

else does, and then you fall victim in the same

24:43

way. This

24:46

is how Gaskins made himself appear as

24:49

a protector, seeming

24:51

to be generous and selfless at

24:53

times. This is how

24:55

he convinced Johnny Knight to walk

24:57

into the woods to meet his brother the

25:00

for being murdered himself. This

25:02

is how he was able to kill Kim Gelkins,

25:06

and how he got one to smell and Walter

25:08

Neely to go along with outrageous

25:11

stories and cover up his crimes.

25:14

By now, Jim was hopeful

25:17

that Pee Wee posed no threat to him

25:19

or his family. He genuinely

25:22

looked for the good and human beings. He

25:24

always wanted to help others, and

25:27

this extended to pee Wee as well.

25:33

He's like, continue me a big favor. I said,

25:35

sure, what is it? If I can, I will. He

25:38

presented his case, and then if they

25:40

had fifty ft of TV cable and

25:42

flat wire a copper on either side,

25:45

he could hook a TV set and

25:47

it would enable fifty people to

25:49

be able to watch TV rather than

25:52

the five or six. And I thought, well, how nice. I

25:54

would love to help that many people

25:56

be able to watch Sunday afternoon football

25:58

as I do. Peewee was

26:00

a cellblock trustee and this

26:02

gave him certain responsibilities. Here's

26:05

Dick carput Lean well,

26:08

a trustee in Department of Corrections

26:10

are at c C I back then, specifically

26:13

would be somebody that would be given

26:15

supervisory duties over

26:17

the other inmates. Peewee had

26:20

been in and out of the Department of Correction with

26:22

most of his wife and so he knew the institution.

26:25

And once he had these life sentences,

26:27

they knew he was going to be there for a while. Stability,

26:30

he had skills. They trusted

26:32

him to do the work that they didn't

26:35

have to pay somebody else to fix the plumbing, fix

26:37

the electrical work and to give

26:39

task to the other inmates. He was the guy

26:41

that controlled the lives in terms

26:43

of who got to work in the library, who had to work

26:45

in the laundry, different jobs, different

26:50

jobs like wiring TVs for

26:52

his fellow inmates. Jim

26:56

baeties currency, his altruism,

26:59

works war and support others.

27:02

People can be redeemed. Pee

27:05

Wee Gaskins knew this and

27:07

was ready to leverage Jim's behavior

27:09

for a scheme involving the wire.

27:14

And I said, sure, I mean is that okay

27:16

to do? Can I mail that here

27:19

to you? He said, oh yeah, I get packages

27:21

all the time. They investigate everything.

27:23

They opened it, they checked to see

27:25

if there's anything illegal. And

27:27

I said, well, tell me again, what am

27:29

I buying and how do I do this? Just

27:32

go to any hardware store and

27:34

asked for fifty feet of

27:37

television cable wire. And

27:39

I went to his hardware somewhere

27:42

there in Murder Beach. I mailed

27:44

it to Peewee, wondering how

27:46

long it would take him to get the TV connect

27:49

if so many people could watch. I

27:52

didn't ultimate favor of

27:55

mailing him television wire

27:59

fifty feet of TV cable

28:03

I learned later, then fifty

28:05

was within the distance

28:08

of his cell to Rudolph Kiner's in

28:23

the spring of nine. Rudolph

28:25

Tyner was eighteen years old when he

28:28

left New York City after several

28:30

run ins with the police. He

28:32

ended up in Coastal South Carolina and

28:35

stayed with Carlton Davis. He

28:38

frequented Moon's Grocery for snacks

28:40

and drinks. Bill

28:43

and Murdy Moon owned the store and

28:45

lived down the street. Their

28:47

son and daughters also lived nearby with their

28:50

families. Bill was retired

28:52

military and took classes at

28:54

nearby Coastal Carolina University.

28:57

Dr Jim Batty new Bill I

29:02

taught at Coastal Carolina

29:04

University. I had

29:07

the good occasion at least two

29:09

semesters of registering Bill Moon,

29:12

and I like this guy so much, and

29:15

I asked him to sign up for one of my English

29:17

classes. And he said, oh, no, no, no,

29:19

So I've heard about you, he said,

29:22

I'm not going to Jim's disappointment,

29:24

Bill didn't sign up for his literature classes

29:27

those semesters. Jim

29:29

thought Bill would have enjoyed the poems, stories,

29:32

and tales he taught from the medieval

29:34

period into the twentieth century. Those

29:37

poems and stories framed Jim's

29:39

encounter with the world. One

29:42

of those stories, the Strange Case

29:44

of Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde, provides

29:47

a clear arena to engage the

29:49

contradictions of the inner self, the

29:51

hero versus evil, true

29:53

love, finding a home, and the duality

29:56

of the human condition. Hefty

29:59

topics for authors across the ages

30:02

that became guiding themes in Dr Jim

30:04

Batty's life.

30:09

But Bill Moon never took Jim's class,

30:12

and on March eighteenth, he

30:16

and his wife Murdy worked there last

30:18

night together. They were closing

30:20

up their store just before ten pm

30:23

when Rudolph Tyner walked in. He

30:30

had been in the store several times in the previous

30:32

weeks, and this time he

30:35

wielded a shotgun. Tyner

30:38

took their money and fled out the screen

30:41

door. For unknown reasons,

30:43

he re entered the store and shot

30:45

Bill Moon in the chest, and then

30:47

shot Murdy, who fell to the floor

30:50

facing her dying husband. Tyner

30:57

left the store and got into a car

30:59

driven by carl To Davis. They

31:03

were arrested hours later when

31:05

Carlton's father called the police

31:08

after becoming suspicious. Both

31:11

signed confessions the next morning. All

31:14

of coastal South Carolina mourned the Moons

31:17

and voiced their anger at Tiner. Jim

31:20

Batty read about the tragic murders,

31:28

crushed, crushed, and hear

31:30

his devotion to his stepson

31:33

Tody Simo and to his wife.

31:35

Bill Moon was a marvelous man, marvelous

31:38

individual, and have been taken

31:40

down like that. It was absolutely

31:43

outrageous. Within

31:46

the year, Tyner was on trial

31:49

and convicted of the murders. The

31:52

jury took under an hour to sentence

31:54

him to death in the state's electric chair.

32:00

Tinner was housed in Central Correctional

32:02

Institute. Over

32:05

the four prior years, he had been

32:07

moved on and off death row depending

32:10

on the status of his many legal appeals

32:13

and State Supreme Court rulings. He

32:16

was housed in Cell Block two at c c I,

32:19

which was run by prison trustee pee

32:21

Wee Gaskins. Jim

32:24

was well into fifty interviews with Peewee

32:27

writing a book about the murderer's life.

32:30

During one such meeting in the cell

32:32

blocks common area, Jim

32:34

mentioned to pee Wee that he knew Bill

32:36

Moon before Tyner murdered

32:39

him.

32:41

The first time that I ever encountered Rudolph

32:43

Tiner in conversation with Peelee, he

32:46

said, that's Rudolph Diiner. That's Rudolph

32:48

Tiner. He's a man. Get

32:50

killed your friend. Bill

32:52

Moon might not have been Jim's personal friend,

32:55

but he did have admiration for him.

32:58

He told Pee Wee as much Peewee

33:01

seemed to sympathize with Jim,

33:04

he thought it was terrible. He thought it should

33:06

have been redeemed may right. And

33:09

then he said, I can blow

33:12

him away if I had my thirty thirty

33:14

right here. Tony

33:17

Simo, bill Moon's son, wanted

33:19

tin Or dead. Tony

33:22

did everything in his power to assure

33:24

justice was served. Here's

33:27

Dick harpoot Lean Well.

33:30

I think Tony was somebody who

33:32

was traumatized by their violent

33:34

death and wanted

33:36

justice, wanted revenge. And when he was

33:38

sentenced to death the second time,

33:41

the story isn't Simo tried to attack

33:43

him physically and he became obsessed

33:45

with it. There's rumors that he hit

33:47

on the roof of a building across the courthouse

33:50

at the second trial with the high powered rifle to

33:52

kill Tinner, but they brought Tinner in the door

33:54

on the opposite side. I prosecuted

33:57

him. My Deubt with him. He seemed like the

33:59

most noise mold all American

34:01

guy in the world, just had this obsession

34:04

with avenging the death of his parents. Jim

34:08

Batty knew about Tyner and his case.

34:11

There's no way, though that he knew Tony

34:13

Siemo was plotting his own form

34:16

of justice after the courts couldn't

34:18

get his parents killer into the electric

34:20

chair. Jim didn't

34:22

know about the possible sniper attempt, nor

34:25

was he aware that Tony Siemo

34:28

contacted Peewee in. Someone

34:33

had referred him to Gaskins, and

34:35

he and Gaskons began telephone conversations

34:37

and they never said Tyner's name, and he never

34:39

said Simo's name, but he touched tone phones.

34:42

You can figure out the phone number of the FBI

34:45

could from the tones, and it came back to

34:47

Tony Simo and it was done from the pay phone

34:49

in the cell block. And on

34:51

those calls, Gaskins

34:54

is arranging to get something

34:56

smuggled in and it turns out he

34:58

talks about poison. Tony

35:01

here, General want me to call this. We

35:03

give that son of a bitch all of one

35:06

dogs and all this are doing, making that son of

35:08

a bit sick, were putting

35:10

in some bug for him and drank the other night and

35:12

all it was made up sick as hell

35:15

and make it

35:17

thick as hell. He was tailed as hell

35:20

for a day or two and that's it. Forgot

35:22

about one more. Does someone give me his eggs in the

35:24

morning. That's

35:27

don't make you about run me crazy or a fair

35:29

mead? Great shot? Hear not word,

35:32

that's perfect he's got for him.

35:34

It's kirk, pretty story man, that's pretty

35:36

little. Were all right, Uh, we got

35:38

a little bit of that left and give it to him. And it's food

35:40

and other thing else like David net

35:43

for her for pro gerry. He's got to get that breakfast.

35:46

He's well wives on that. He done

35:49

it up and he's going to He snored it alive, so

35:51

he would know what he is. If a coach snort, if you're telling

35:53

a difference in it now, I'll give you

35:55

the rest to that in the morning, I

35:58

right stir for little proud. I'll want em.

36:01

I'll get doomed done my score in the morning player,

36:03

I'm go ahead, makes not end. Investigators

36:09

learned that Semo and a friend had

36:12

tested the poison on a dog and

36:14

the dog died. So

36:16

now two people had designs

36:18

on killing Tyner, Pee Wee

36:21

and Semo, and they conspired

36:23

together to finish the job. The

36:26

poison couldn't do. China

36:31

would eventually have died an electric

36:34

chair but for Tony Semo, and

36:37

it was not fast enough. So Pete

36:39

we again took the law into his own

36:41

hands. As Pee

36:43

Wee told me several times, lots

36:46

of people don't deserve to live, and

36:48

Rudolph Tyna was one of those. So

36:54

I come up with something and he

36:56

won elected camp and

37:00

pick a damn dynamite. As again, I'll

37:02

pick a damn radio and

37:04

duet inside

37:07

of a bit of damn

37:09

coming back on ban. Pee

37:13

we recorded this call on one

37:15

of the many audio cassettes he had in his cell.

37:19

His status as the prison trustee gave

37:22

him the confidence to ask Simo

37:24

for some explosives. If

37:27

he got the materials into his cell, he

37:29

could pretty much do whatever he

37:31

wanted with them. He had

37:33

access to everywhere in the cell block. Here's

37:36

Dick harpoot Lean. First

37:39

of all, on the ground floor, you've got fifteen

37:41

cells on each side of this island

37:43

that rises out of the middle of the cell block. If you've

37:45

seen any Humphrey Bogarder

37:48

James Cagney movie, you understand exactly what

37:50

I'm talking about. These are cellblocks built in the thirties

37:52

and forties, and between

37:54

the backs of those two cells

37:56

on either side is what they called the trace,

37:59

which is a gap of about

38:02

two and a half to three ft in which all the plumbing

38:04

and electrical wires run and

38:06

gascons is The building man had access

38:09

to that area, and none of these places were

38:11

air conditioned, so they had vents in the back of

38:13

the cell into the trace to give some circulation

38:16

of air, just a great probably a

38:18

foot square. So Gascon's

38:21

befriended Tiner and

38:24

his cell backed up to the trace

38:26

as Peewee's did, except it was offset

38:28

by a two cells, and those great were

38:31

at the top of the cell, so you

38:33

could stand on a chair and talk to somebody

38:35

through the grate on the other side of the cell

38:37

block. Tony

38:39

used jim Babies Home and Myrtle Beach as

38:42

the return address on the package. He said

38:44

Peewee Jim had

38:46

been a trusted visitor at the prison for

38:48

some time. It was going

38:50

to take something much stronger than poison

38:53

to kill Tyner, like some

38:55

C four explosives and

38:57

a long wire. That

39:00

wire would spark the detonation. That

39:04

wire would deliver the charge for

39:06

the murder for hire. That

39:08

wire was not going to bring Sunday

39:11

afternoon football to prisoners. Like

39:14

Jim imagined, he

39:18

never thought to

39:20

be worried about something. He

39:22

would send team or God

39:25

forbid, that pee we would use to implicate

39:27

him.

39:40

Pee Gaskins was not my friend. It's a joint

39:42

production from My Heart Radio and Doghouse

39:44

Pictures, produced and hosted by Jeff Keeping.

39:47

Executive producers are Courtney DeFries and

39:49

Noel Brown. Written by Jim Roberts,

39:51

Courtney Defriez and Terry James. Edit,

39:54

mix and sound designed by Jeremiah Kolani

39:56

Prescott. Music composed by Diamond

39:59

Street Productions, Spencer garn and Ian

40:01

Newberry. Special thanks to Jim and

40:03

Anita Baby. Additional thanks to the

40:05

University of South Carolina, Moving Image Research

40:07

Collections and the University of South Carolina.