Grady Stiles’ life was scarred by tragedy, abuse and led to brutal murders.
His ghastly defining moments were killing his daughter’s fiancé the night before their wedding – then his own family members hired a teenage boy to kill the dad himself.
Stiles' journey from circus performer to evil killer even inspired season four of American Horror Story. It starred Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters and told the eerie story of a struggling freak show.
The real Stiles was born in 1937 and he was different from the moment he was conceived.
That’s because he had a deformity called ectrodactyly – meaning his hands and feet were fused together like claws.
The condition was said to be in his family for 130 years and Stiles could only move around by crawling or using a wheelchair.
Because of the deformity, Stiles became a circus sideshow performer and was known as “Lobster Boy”.
His dad had the same condition – and he made Stiles act in sideshow attractions with him from the age of seven.
Stiles developed phenomenal upper body strength but grew up to be a nasty drunk.
According to reports, his anger issues were so extreme that he choked people with his claw hands and sometimes even headbutted them.
Despite this, he got married to a woman called Mary and the pair had two kids together – one of which had ectrodactyly.
But according to reports, Stiles was often abusive towards his loved ones.
He made his children perform with him in carnivals – just as his own dad with him did when he was little.
They became known as the “Lobster Family” and toured the country together.
Plagued by alcoholism, he eventually ditched his wife and kids and found a new lover who he married and a child with.
Again, the child was born with the same condition.
But Stiles’ life took an even darker turn when his daughter was on the verge of getting married.
The night before the wedding he shot her lover in cold blood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1978.
He is rumoured to have smiled and said “I told you I would kill him” while his daughter held on to her fiancé as he took his final breath.
Stiles pleaded guilty to murder but no prison was equipped to handle somebody with ectrodactyly.
He was sentenced to 15 years probation and was allowed home.
And in a weird twist, his ex wife, Mary, decided to give him another chance and moved back in with him.
Despite promises to his partner, Stiles once again turned to the bottle and became abusive.
Mary and her son from a previous marriage, Garry Glenn Newman Jr, allegedly then paid a teenager, Chris Wyant, 17, to murder Stiles.
Chris was reportedly paid $1,500 for the hit, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Sitting in his underwear in his trailer, Stiles was shot in the back of the head aged 55 in 1992.
Mary’s son eventually admitted the truth and he was given a life sentence for murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Meanwhile Mary was given a manslaughter charge while Wyant was sentenced to 27 years for pulling the trigger.
The Lobster Boy reportedly had a pitiful sendoff with nobody stepping up to be a pallbearer.
His son, Grady Stiles III, later spoke about his father for an AMC program called Freakshow.
Grady, who was born with ectrodactyly too, said: "I'm not a fan of my dad as a person.
"My father was racist [and] abusive. When I cried, [he was like] "I'll give you a reason a to cry."'
He also claimed his brother never conspired to kill their father and instead thought he was going to be scared or beat up rather than shot dead.
Source: Read Full Article
