Donald Henry Gaskins: The Hitchhikers Killer

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Donald Henry Gaskins (The hitchhikers killer) was born on March 13, 1933 in Florence County, South Carolina, SC and died at age 58 on September 6, 1991. At age 11, Gaskins quit school and started working on cars at a local garage. While working in the garage, he met two boys the same age. They’re both out of school too. When they met, they started calling themselves “The Trouble Trio”. They were caught gang banging one of the members little sisters and the Trio broke. He then started working on a tobacco farm and got involved in insurance fraud. While Gaskins was in prison, he committed his first murder in an attempt to become a “power man”. In 1955 his wife filed a divorce and Gaskins flipped and escaped prison. Shortly after he escaped, he remarried to a second wife but it only lasted two weeks. Gaskins got involved with Betty and the two of them went to Tennessee to bail out Gaskins brother. …show more content…

When he got to North Carolina, he met a 17-year-old girl who he married. Eventually, she turned him into the police for statutory raoe and recieved 6 years in Columbia Penitentiary. In 1975 Gaskins was 42 when he started steadily killing for the next 6 years. During his killing spree, he mostly worked by himself to avoid being caught. He eventually killed three people when there van was broken down on the highway. He needed some help so he called up an ex-con Walter Needly to drive the victims van to his garage so he can paint it and sell it. That same year, Gaskins was hired a hitman. Suzanne Kipper paid him $1500 to kill her ex-boyfriend, Silas