{{Short description|American entertainer (1937–1992)}} {{infobox person | name = Grady Stiles | birth_name = Grady Franklin Stiles Jr. | other_names = Lobster Boy (stage name)| | birth_date = June 26, 1937 | birth_place = United States | death_date = {{Death date and age|1992|11|29|1937|06|26}} | death_place = Gibsonton, Florida, U.S. | occupation = Freak show, sideshow performer, killer }}
'''Grady Franklin Stiles Jr.''' (June 26, 1937 – November 29, 1992) was an American freak show performer and murderer. He had 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'''."<ref name=L>{{cite web|title=Murder on the Midway: Sordid Life and Death of Lobster Boy|author=Martinez, James|date=November 6, 1994|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-11-06-mn-59142-story.html}}</ref>
==Family history== According to Grady's father, the Stiles family had a long history of ectrodactyly, dating back to 1840. Grady Stiles Jr. was the fourth child of Grady F. Stiles Sr. and his wife Edna. Capitalizing on his deformity, Grady Stiles Sr. was a sideshow attraction in a traveling carnival. After Grady Jr. was born he was folded into his father's sideshow act at the age of seven.<ref name="thehumanmarvels.com">{{cite web |url=http://thehumanmarvels.com/?p=66|title=Grady Stiles Jr. – The Murderous Lobster Man |last=Pednaud |first=J. Tithonus |work=The Human Marvels |access-date=26 February 2011|date=2006-08-09 }}</ref> Stiles married twice and had four children, two of whom also had ectrodactyly. Stiles and his two children toured together as The Lobster Family. When not traveling with the carnival, the Stiles family lived in Gibsonton, Florida,<ref name="nickell">{{Cite book |last=Nickell |first=Joe |title=Secrets of the sideshows |date=2005 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=0-8131-7179-2 |location=Lexington, Ky. |oclc=65377460|author-link=Joe Nickell}}</ref>{{rp|148}} where many other carnival performers lived during the winter season.
Stiles was an alcoholic and was abusive to his family.<ref name="thehumanmarvels.com"/><ref name="nickell" />{{rp|149}} Due to his ectrodactyly, he was unable to walk. While he sometimes used a wheelchair, he most commonly used his hands and arms for locomotion. He developed substantial upper body strength that, when combined with his bad temper and alcoholism, made him dangerous to others. Grady's first wife, Mary Teresa, left him to marry Harry Glenn Newman, a little person who was billed as the "Smallest Man in the World".<ref name="nickell" />{{rp|149}}
==Murder and conviction== On September 28, 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.<ref name="nickell" />{{rp|149}} He was brought to trial, where he openly confessed to killing the man and was convicted of third-degree murder.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rosen |first=Fred |year=1995 |title=Lobster Boy |publisher=Pinnacle Books |page=134 |isbn=0-7860-0133-X}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LkwNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OG0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5039,2908086&dq=stiles+murder&hl=en |title='Lobster Man' Guilty In Kin's Fiance Death |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |first=Gabriel |last=Ireton |date=February 23, 1979 |access-date=October 2, 2013}}</ref> 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.
==Later life and death== Stiles stopped drinking thereafter, and during this period remarried his first wife, Mary Teresa. However, he soon began drinking again and his family claimed that he became even more abusive.
In 1992, 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 $1,500 ({{Inflation|US|1500|1992|fmt=eq}}).<ref>Rosen, pp. 166–7</ref> As Stiles smoked a cigarette on the sofa while watching the video Monkey Boy,<ref>"Lobster Boy's wife tells of his rage" https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1994/07/13/lobster-boy-s-wife-tells-of-his-rage/</ref> Wyant entered his home with a semi-automatic pistol and shot him in the head twice, killing him. 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.<ref name=Huffington>{{cite web|last1=Moye|first1=David|title=Son Of Lobster Boy Discusses Dad's Grisly Murder On 'Freakshow'|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/17/lobster-boy-_n_5340346.html|website=Huffington Post|access-date=4 February 2015|date=2014-05-17}}</ref>
Stiles' son, Grady Stiles III, disputes the claim that Mary Teresa had him murdered. According to him, his mother, Mary Teresa, and father were arguing. Mary Teresa had said 'Something needs to be done.' Teresa's son overheard this, and went to a neighbor and repeated those words. Mary Teresa was convicted of manslaughter; Harry Newman Jr. was convicted of first degree murder and received a life sentence, and Wyant was convicted of second degree murder and received a 27-year sentence.<ref name="nickell" />{{rp|150}}
==Media and popular culture== {{in popular culture|date=February 2023}} Fred Rosen wrote a book on the case called ''Lobster Boy: The Bizarre Life and Brutal Death of Grady Stiles Jr.'', and E! made a ''True Hollywood Story'' episode based on the case titled "The Murder of Lobster Boy". A&E Network also made a ''City Confidential'' episode based on the case called "Gibsonton: The Last Side Show".
Stiles' likeness appears on the album cover for Silverchair's ''Freak Show''.
A person like Grady, going by the name of "Lobster Boy", appears in a Deadpool comic. Deadpool was hired to assassinate him, but fails when he figures out he is possessed by Xaphan, a fallen angel, and starts possessing the souls. He was later saved by the two Ghost Riders, but at the end is shot again in the head by Deadpool for being cruel to other freaks.<ref>Deadpool Team-Up#897</ref>
On HBO's ''Carnivàle'', set on a traveling carnival during the Great Depression, the central character, Ben Hawkins, is sent out by his employers to investigate rumors of a "Scorpion Boy" in a nearby town in the episode "Lonnigan, Texas".
''American Freakshow: The Terrible Tale of Sloth Boy,'' a graphic novel published by IDW Publishing, tells the tale of Dante Browning, a carnival sideshow performer with clawed hands who, because of his abuse and cruelty to his family, is shot to death by a hit man hired by his wife and stepson while in his home in Gibsonton, Florida.<ref name="idwpublishing">{{Cite web |url=http://www.idwpublishing.com/catalog/series/321 |title=IDW Publishing | the home of 30 Days of Night, Star Trek, Terminator, Transformers, G.I. Joe. |access-date=2010-09-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100817085312/http://www.idwpublishing.com/catalog/series/321 |archive-date=2010-08-17 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
''American Horror Story: Freak Show'' has a Lobster Boy character. It also includes a small statue in the likeness of Stiles in the opening credits. In addition, a snapshot of Stiles is briefly seen at the American Morbidity Museum in the third episode ("Edward Mordrake, Part I").
John Strohm wrote "Ballad of Lobster Boy," inspired by Grady Stiles and recorded the song for his 1999 album ''Vestavia''.<ref name="AllMusic Review of Vestavia">{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/vestavia-mw0000048384|title=Vestavia – John P. Strohm | Songs, Reviews, Credits|website=AllMusic}}</ref>
In his memoir ''Tibetan Peach Pie'', author Tom Robbins refers to Stiles' life and death.
American History comedy Podcast, The Dollop, did an episode in 2014 discussing Grady Stiles.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://allthingscomedy.com/podcasts/45---smollop---lobster-boy|title=45 – Smollop – Lobster Boy|last=Comedy|first=All Things|date=2020-01-02|website=All Things Comedy|language=en|access-date=2020-04-10}}</ref> Killer Carnies TV show on the Discovery Plus app Season 1 episode 1 titled The Sideshow Murders tells the story of the murder of Grady Stiles Jr. AKA Lobster Boy.
British progressive rock band Circu5 created a fictional narrative centred on a high-functioning psychopath assigned the codename “Grady”, a reference to Grady Stiles.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rowland |first=Kev |title=The Progressive Underground Volume 5 |publisher=Gonzo Multimedia |year=2023 |isbn=9781908728197 |pages=53–54}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2004/05/book_shelf/index.html Interview with Fred Rosen] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20061022202317/http://www.sideshowworld.com/viewOWT.html Sideshow World Article] * [http://thehumanmarvels.com/?p=66 Grady Stiles – Murderous Lobster Boy] * {{Find a Grave|8301721}} * [https://books.google.com/books?id=rIzFh7AeAI8C&dq=%22grady+stiles%22+Gibsonton&pg=PA48 Murder in the Tropics]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stiles, Grady}} Category:1937 births Category:1992 deaths Category:20th-century American murderers Category:People murdered in 1992 Category:American people convicted of murder Category:American entertainers with disabilities Category:Deaths by firearm in Florida Category:Murdered American criminals Category:People convicted of murder by Pennsylvania Category:People murdered in Florida Category:Sideshow performers Category:People from Gibsonton, Florida Category:Entertainers from Pittsburgh