Donald 'Pee Wee' Gaskins: America's 'Meanest Man'
- Jun 16
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 25
Donald Henry 'Pee Wee' Gaskins was barely five feet tall, with a squeaky voice and an unremarkable build, and he is remembered as one of the most prolific and sadistic serial killers in South Carolina history. He kept what he called his own private graveyard, led investigators to a row of buried victims, and earned grim nicknames like 'the Meanest Man in America'. Out of respect for the victims, this account avoids graphic detail.
Gaskins was convicted in connection with around a dozen murders and confessed to fifteen, and in a later book he boasted of having killed many more — a claim authorities have always treated with deep scepticism.
Key Facts at a Glance
Full name: Donald Henry Gaskins
Born: 13 March 1933, Florence County, South Carolina
Known as: Pee Wee; “the Meanest Man in America”
Victims: Convicted in about a dozen murders; confessed to many more
Outcome: Executed in South Carolina, 6 September 1991
A brutal start
Born in 1933 in rural Florence County, South Carolina, Gaskins was, by his own account, bullied and called 'Pee Wee' from early childhood, dropping out of school at around eleven. He fell into crime young, and a spell in the state penitentiary as a teenager hardened him; he later said he survived prison violence by becoming more dangerous than the men around him. He spent much of the next two decades in and out of custody.
Two kinds of killing
Gaskins later drew a chilling distinction between what he called his 'coastal kills' — strangers, often hitchhikers, whom he tortured and murdered for his own gratification as he drove the highways of the Carolinas — and his 'serious murders', which were more targeted killings of people he knew or had a grudge against. The casualness of his violence, killing over perceived slights, is part of what made him so feared.
The private graveyard
Many of his victims were buried in shallow graves on rural land he used, a makeshift cemetery he kept to himself. Some of the dead were young people, and the crimes were marked by extreme cruelty. Because his victims were often transient or vulnerable, and because Gaskins was careful, the scale of the killing went undetected for years.
Caught
Gaskins's downfall came in 1975, after the disappearance of a teenage girl drew police attention. An associate eventually told investigators that Pee Wee had a private burial ground, and Gaskins led authorities to a number of graves, confessing to a string of killings. He was arrested, and in 1976 he was convicted of murder and initially sentenced to death.
A reprieve, then a final murder
When the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings on capital punishment led South Carolina's death sentences to be commuted, Gaskins's sentence became life imprisonment. But he did not stop killing. In 1982, while incarcerated, he murdered another death-row inmate, Rudolph Tyner, with a homemade explosive device — a contract killing he had been hired to carry out from outside the prison. That murder returned him to death row.
Execution
Gaskins was convicted of Tyner's murder and sentenced to death once more. He was executed in South Carolina's electric chair on 6 September 1991, at the age of fifty-eight. In the hours before his execution he attempted to harm himself with a razor blade. His remains were cremated and scattered in an undisclosed location.
In a posthumously published book, Gaskins claimed a death toll running into the dozens or even over a hundred, but investigators have long doubted these boasts, and his confirmed crimes — grave enough on their own — are what define the case. The 'Meanest Man in America' endures as a study in casual, remorseless violence, and his victims, many of them young and vulnerable people who crossed paths with him by chance, are the part of the story that should not be lost beneath the lurid legend.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people did Donald Gaskins kill?
He was convicted in connection with around a dozen murders and confessed to 15, while claiming in a later book to have killed many more — claims authorities have questioned.
Why was he called 'Pee Wee'?
The nickname came from his very small stature; he was barely five feet tall and slightly built.
What happened to Donald Gaskins?
He was executed in South Carolina's electric chair on 6 September 1991 for the murder of fellow inmate Rudolph Tyner.
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Sources & Further Reading
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