Donald Henry Gaskins (sometimes called “Pee Wee”) managed the neat trick of being a horrifying human being with the most hilariously anodyne serial killer nickname: The Meanest Man in America.
Look, with a handle like that, you sort of expect a guy who kicks the occasional puppy and is a lousy tipper. But Pee Wee Gaskins was a prolific, long-lived serial killer and rapist, who murdered more than a dozen people and also, just for variety, enjoyed many prison sentences for a prolific string of crimes including assault and rape.
His decades-long criminal activities were finally put to a stop when the police picked him up in connection with the disappearance of a 13-year-old girl. Their search led them to multiple graves near Pee Wee’s home.
Oops.
A jury found him guilty in record time and he was sentenced to death. He got lucky and his sentence was overturned and he ended up with a mere 10 life sentences. But then, in prison, he murdered a fellow inmate and got a second death sentence for his troubles!
The second one stuck — South Carolina could only execute him once, but execute him it did, on September 6, 1991.
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