He was billed as "Lobster Boy." He was convicted of murder. He never spent a single day in prison. Grady Stiles Jr. was born in Pittsburgh in 1937 with ectrodactyly — a rare condition that fused his fingers and toes into claw-like extremities. He was the sixth generation of his family born with it. His father put him on a sideshow platform at seven years old. And in 1978 he shot his fifteen-year-old daughter's fiancé to death the night before their wedding, was convicted by a jury of his peers, and walked out of that courthouse a free man. But before we get anywhere near a murder, you need to understand the world that made him. This is the first of three episodes. Today we're going to Gibsonton, Florida — twelve miles south of Tampa on U.S. 41, across the Alafia River. For seventy years, "Gibtown" was the winter home of the entire American sideshow. It had zoning laws that let residents keep elephants in the front yard. A post office counter built low enough for little people to reach. A fire chief over eight feet tall, and a stretch where the police chief was a little person. I'll teach you to talk like a carny — ten-in-one, bally, talker, tip, single-O, first-of-May, with it. I'll introduce you to the neighbors: Percilla the Monkey Girl and Emmitt Bejano the Alligator-Skinned Man, who named their property after their adopted son. Al and Jeanie Tomaini, the Giant and the Half Woman, who ran a fishing camp on the highway. Sealo the Seal Boy. Ward Hall, the King of the Sideshow. And I'll tell you about the year Florida made it a crime for any of these people to earn a living — and about the man who fought it all the way to the Florida Supreme Court and won. That case was decided six years before a Pennsylvania judge decided the exact opposite thing about the exact same man's body. That's the whole series in two sentences. IN THIS EPISODE 00:00 — Gibsonton, Florida. November 29, 1992. 03:30 — Welcome in 05:30 — How to talk like a carny 16:00 — The town they built 25:00 — The neighbors 36:00 — The year it was illegal to be looked at 44:00 — Seven generations: the Stiles bloodline back to 1805 52:00 — The act, the money, and the woman who married it 62:00 — The Lobster Family 68:00 — The turn: Pittsburgh, 1978 70:00 — Time Killer Files 72:00 — Close WHAT YOU'LL LEARN What ectrodactyly actually is, how it's inherited, and how rare it is. How a traveling carnival sideshow was structured and what every part of it was called. How Gibsonton became Showtown, U.S.A. Why the 1921 Florida statute banning the paid exhibition of disabled people was struck down in 1972 — and who the named plaintiff was. And why Grady Stiles Jr., convicted of third-degree murder in February 1979, was sentenced to probation instead of prison. SOURCES Pittsburgh Post-Gazette archive reporting. Joe Nickell, "Secrets of the Sideshows" (University Press of Kentucky, 2005). William Lindsay Gresham, "Monster Midway" (1953). The International Independent Showmen's Museum. New York Times and Tampa Bay Times obituaries of Ward Hall. Associated Press. AMC's "Freakshow" interviews with Grady Stiles III. Where sources conflict, I say so on the record and tell you which way I lean and why. TIME KILLER FILES I need help on this one. If your family wintered in Gibtown, worked the carnival circuit, or was "with it" in any capacity — reach out. I'm after the ordinary version of that town, not the sensational one. What was Gibsonton like on a Tuesday? ABOUT Just Killing Time with Elizabeth Stanton covers true crime, conspiracies, and hidden history — researched properly and told straight. Hosted from Derby, Kansas. Follow the show so Episodes Two and Three arrive automatically. And if this one got under your skin, a rating and a review is the single biggest thing you can do to help other people find it. Content note: this episode discusses homicide and domestic violence.
