Grady Franklin Stiles Jr. was an American freak show performer and murderer.



Grady Franklin Stiles Jr. was an American freak show performer and murderer. 

His deformity was the genetic condition ectrodactyly, in which the fingers and toes are fused together to form claw-like extremities. 

Because of this, Stiles performed under the stage name "Lobster Boy".

In 1978 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Stiles shot and killed his oldest daughter's fiancé on the eve of their wedding, as Stiles did not approve of him.

He was brought to trial, where he openly confessed to killing the man and was convicted of third-degree murder.

He was not sent to prison as no state institution was equipped to care for an inmate with ectrodactyly. Stiles was instead sentenced to house arrest and fifteen years probation.

In 1992, his wife, Teresa, together with her son from a previous marriage, Harry Glenn Newman Jr., hired a seventeen-year-old sideshow performer named Chris Wyant to kill Stiles for $1500.

Mary was convicted of manslaughter; Harry was convicted of first-degree murder and received a life sentence; and Christopher was convicted of second-degree murder and received a 27-year sentence.

Stiles was reportedly widely disliked in his community, so much so that only 10 people came to his funeral, and nobody volunteered as a pallbearer to carry his coffin.

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