Today in History - November 29: Circus performer 'Lobster Boy' killed by teenage hitman
Grady Stiles and two of his children who also had ectrodactyly. Nine Archives
One of the world's most notorious circus performers was murdered by a hitman on November 29, 1992.
On the carnival circuit, Grady Stiles Jr was known as "Lobster Boy" because of a rare condition that made his hands and feet look like claws.
At home, Stiles was a violent abuser who would drink a bottle of whiskey every day.
Grady Stiles appeared in circus 'freak shows' because of his abnormality. Supplied
Stiles had ectrodactyly, a genetic condition that fused his fingers and toes together.
As a star on the "freak show" circuit, Stiles would show off his abnormalities, which he had inherited and passed on to his children.
When not on the road, he lived in a trailer in Gibsontown, Florida, a town known as a winter home for countless circus performers.
It was there that he would bully his family, who lived in terror of him.
In 1978, he murdered his daughter's fiance on the eve of the wedding.
He was found guilty of third-degree murder, but he wasn't sent to jail because no facility could care for a man with his condition.
Instead, he was sentenced to house arrest.
Terrified of his death threats and constant abuse, his wife, Mary Theresa Stiles, decided he needed to die.
She asked her oldest son, Henry Glenn Newman III, to find a hitman to kill him.
Newman, a child from a previous marriage, specialised in driving nails into his nostrils in the family circus sideshow act.
Mary Theresa Stiles, Henry Glenn Newman III and Christopher Wyant was all jailed over the murder. Supplied
He hired 19-year-old classmate Christopher Wyant to kill Stiles.
Wyant shot Stiles three times as he watched TV on the sofa in his trailer.
He was paid $1500 for the murder.
It did not take police long to connect the dots and arrest all those responsible.
Stiles' wife, Mary, spent six years in jail on a manslaughter conviction.
Wyant was jailed for 15 years before being released on probation.
Newman was given a life sentence and died behind bars in 2014.
Four years after his murder, Stiles' face was used as the cover for Australian band Silverchair's album 'Freak Show'.
Silverchair used Grady Stiles as the face of their album Freak Show. Murmur
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