The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 45 - Lobster Boy - Smollop

Episode Date: December 31, 2014

Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds discuss the sordid life of Grady Stiles, aka, The Lobster Boy.SOURCESTOUR DATES REDBUBBLE MERCHPATREON

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. Hello! You listening to the dollop? I am Dave Anthony each week I read a story

from American history to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is about. Gary! Gareth. Do you want to look who to do? I'll do one bottle. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gareth. Dave okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not gonna come to tickly quad guys. Okay. You are queen faking of made-up town. All hail queen shit of Liesville! A bunch of religious virgins go to mingle and do what? Pray. Hi, Gary. No. I see Dad, my friend. No. The Styles family has been afflicted for over a century with ectrodactyly. Oh, so they have wings. A condition commonly known as lobster claw

syndrome. Oh shit. We're about to hear about a lobster family. Oh boy. I might know a little bit about lobster, man. Really? Yeah. It is a rare congenital deformity of the hand where the middle digit is missing and the hand is cleft where the metacarpal of the finger should be. And a lot of times people who don't have that disease but are around people who have that disease have a they don't eat lobster anymore. What? Yeah, they stop eating lobster because. Is that true? I would imagine this because if you've ever seen this I don't see how you could not pull out a lobster meat of a claw and be like hey that looks like

Daryl. Hey Jeff. That's Daryl's hand. Yum. The split often gives the hands the appearance of lobster claws but cases do vary in severity. The condition usually occurs in both the hands and feet. While it is inherited. More good news. Yeah, right. While it is inherited it can skip a generation. Oh Jesus. So you don't have it but your kids are lobster people. Oh god. It's good. If you have the lobster. Go ahead. William Stiles is the first in the family who was known to display the condition in 1805. He was followed by Jacob Stiles, Alicia Stiles and Grady Franklin Stiles Sr. Grady Franklin Stiles Sr. worked as a side show

attraction. He was billed as Lobster Man. I do. I will say yes. It was as horrible as it is. Yeah. Freak show time must have been a little fun. Like it's so objectifies people and it sounds like a terrible life but yeah there's party that you're like oh this is I saw a guy covered in targo and Ufti Gufti I'd be like okay I'm gonna take this tour a little bit further. I pay for that. Yeah. In the 1930s Carnival Goers would pay a nickel to step into his tent and see his performance. Grady Sr. and his wife Edna. What was his performance? I don't know. But for what I read he just gave a speech. He just hopped a pot. He would just be like I am a Lobster Man and then he would just talk

about it. Let me tell you about the ocean floor. Grady Sr. and his wife Edna had three children. Two had Lobster Claw Syndrome. One was Grady Franklin Stiles Jr. born in Pittsburgh on July 18th 1937. Okay. Grady had a severe case of Lobster Claw Syndrome. Both hands and claws sorry both hands were claws and his legs were stunted at the knees. Oh wow. The family moved to Gibsonton Florida where Grady Jr. was a boy. Definitely go to Florida. Now known as Gibb Town it was a famous sideshow wintering town. Many Carnival and Circus people would spend the off season in Gibb Town. It was home to Priscilla the Monkey Girl, the anatomical

wonder and Siamese twin sisters who ran a fruit stand. Give me the list one more time. Priscilla the Monkey Girl. I mean okay right there fantastic. The anatomical wonder. And that is a separate person. That's a separate person. So we don't even I mean we're just talking double genital no genitals. I hope it's yeah I hope it's Barbie genital junk. I hope it's just a giant. Maybe just a lobster claw down there. And Siamese twin sisters who ran a fruit stand. Look I'll tell you something. You need the fruit stand. No I get strawberries every day. You need the fruit stand element because otherwise I'm in but if they're hawking

fruit I'm lovin yeah this is where bearded ladies strippers clowns sword swallowers magicians and anyone else who spent time in carnivals lived they preferred to be called carnies instead of physically challenged at one time it was the only post office at one time it was the only post office with a counter for dwarfs I mean I don't even it's different time different time so we're dwarfs just expected to not mail fucking packages I don't know anywhere else in the US excuse me can you mail this well they you know there was no no one built stuff for people with disabilities so you can't get nobody had a fucking box

they can stand up yeah they probably did have a box you can stand at our chair if you're a dwarf but not here not in this town we spent money to lower the counter a little bit and the guy also loved the clown in the circus freak world yeah it's got to be nice to be the guy who can go home at night put a little like lotion on your face make up often be like hey alright I can go to a bar and be fine as opposed to a bearded woman or someone who's just double genitaled double genitaled aside from the agreeable winter climate Gibb Town offered unique circus zoning laws that allowed residents to keep elephants and

circus trailers on their front lawns hey welcome to Florida as you drove down route 41 you had seen us see a sign that read Giants Camp that was because a giant man ran a combination trailer park restaurant in bait shop there's there's a lot there there is a lot yeah yum uh-huh I'm just gonna go get a meal from a circus freak and buy some bait you know what I want to eat some eggs right next to all that bait Al Tumani was an 8 foot 6 inch tall man who once toured in the world's fair freak show wow that's where he met his wife Jeannie don't build as the world's only living half girl what she was two and a half

feet tall she was born with the lower half of her body missing so so you have an 8 foot 6 inch man just plowing a torso on a wedding night I assume that she just had no legs so she just had like a vagina down there and that'll do he could just pick her up like an apple and fuck her yeah I mean he if you would fucking Apple I've well but different dollar but I I would imagine that he could like it's kind of perfect because he could just pick her up and put him put her on his dick and she doesn't have any legs to get in the way and he could just walk around I'm not gonna lie one of the first things I did think was sexually

it's probably pretty perfect because he's huge and she can but yeah when the sparks are flying around those two you're like if these two hook up that's gonna be fucking nuts that's gonna be crazy Grady senior forced Grady junior to quit school and join the carnival oh my god he was build those what a horrible sentence now don't go to school come work at the carnival yeah but how else is he gonna make money he's a lobster boy I believe that a lobster boy could a lot what's he's gonna be an accountant he might be a great he might be great with fucking numbers dip when it was claws in

the ink and then right like what's he get what's I'm not suggesting that he's using his finger as a feather in an ink well but I think what if he's like what if he's a great poet but what's he gonna write with was he gonna bang away on a typewriter like how's he they you know they'll have some anatomically incorrect person shut down his thoughts he was build this lobster boy and together they were called the lobster family oh joy grady juniors role was to just sit in a chair and smiled as spectators stared at him but as sad as it sounds grady junior actually liked the carnival life and he loved Gibtown as it was called by

locals there he was not considered a freak he could play with other kids he learned to read and he to write his own name and even out of fire a revolver oh good get as long as gunplay is an option I don't know how he could hold the gun and shoot it but you know their claws still unable to one of the weirder things you'll ever see is lobster boy fire a gun yeah I would pay for that I would definitely pay for that unable to walk he learned to use his hands and arms to move which led to grady junior having incredible upper body strength okay so he's just jacked up top his claws gave him a handshake that was

described as excruciating Jesus yeah he does have like yeah the claws they're taking really really smash people's hands Jesus go ahead shake it that boy that lobster boy's got a hell of a grip on him that's why you could shoot the gun he's got that grip sometimes he would slap people with his claw knocking them to the ground and then he would butt them with his head okay so here's for me where we're getting into a problematic area yeah because now he's sort of acting more like a sea lion than a yeah it's very sea lion just smacking people and just ramming them well here's a lobster boy I think maybe

school was the option to go with grady junior remained with the freak show through his through adulthood in 1959 a woman named Mary Teresa her son joined the carnival she was not disabled in any way but she would fuck any of the freaks well she just ran away from home where her stepfather was making unwanted sexual advances Jesus so I guess that's where people go to the carnival you're like what's better than having my stepdad try to fuck me carnival the carnival do you know sounds you know with freaks yep she was 18 had a nice body lobster boy was attracted to her but because he was a

star of the carnival and she was a lowly ticket taker he didn't make a move so there's what an amazing world what an amazing world the normal girl with the good body he the man who's ramming people with his lobster claws yeah can't talk to her because of status yeah he doesn't want to be taken down a notch by dating a normie really the bearded lady is single but I guess I have the ticket taker I guess so to each his own I'm not seeing it personally if you fuck her and make a normal baby you know that we have a woman here with a penis so there's a lady with a porpoise head so there's options he's slow as she's

slowly advanced working at first as a ballet girl ballet girls would stand in front of tents and ballet who the shows inside so they would like get people to go in next she became a blade box girl standing in a box through which swords were thrust okay she's moving up yeah that's a that's a definite increase and later she became the electrified girl who sat in electric chair and was seemingly electrified cool that's when Grady began courting her well that's when he felt like all right okay I've heard about you a little bit now what's up electric girl I've had my I knew since she was a ballet who or quote from

Teresa Grady was such a charming man everyone enjoyed being in his company they moved in together and lived together for nine years before Grady married her then Grady began drinking heavily saltwater right yeah that's normal for him those benches often ended in beatings of Teresa Jesus Christ wait okay yeah now I think I've heard some of this but this is news to me okay so he would just get chip face and if claw and a claw claw the shit out of her I'll tell you if he had just gone to school for a little bit yep maybe he would have learned yep or or if he didn't have the anger from being put in a chair and

people staring at him and gawking or be rewarded for smacking people with his claw and budding headbutting yeah they had two children both who died of pneumonia within a month of being bored they had two more children who lived one without lobster claw syndrome and one with Kathy was the girl with lobster claws Grady continued his drunken beatings now going after the kids Donna the girl without the lobster claws received the worst of it oh god they beat up the normal one yeah one night you're just like your ticket takin mother well you're goddamn fingers you fucking tenner quit rubbing your thumb

in my face one night Grady threw Teresa and the kids out she thought she sought refuge with the world's smallest man oh boy that's tasty right there so also known as midget man oh boy who was just over three feet tall so what is why don't you go to the fucking giant who's fucking a torso he took the family to live the bearded lady he took the family to live with his mother in Ohio four months later word came that Grady had filed for divorce since Teresa did not know about the hearing she was not represented in court the judge therefore granted full custody of the children to lobster boy when they returned to Gabtown they

discovered Grady had remarried Grady and his new wife had a child Grady the third he was also a lobster boy with truncated legs we already know where Grady the third's life is headed yeah he'll be sitting on a chair next to his dad of course Grady junior then moved his family back to Pittsburgh Donna met a boy named Jack Lane and the two fell in love Donna started missing time from school so one of his teachers made a home visit Grady junior swooped in quote from Grady junior oh this is gonna be violent this teacher she really liked my claws so he had sex right in the house and she kept coming back and back

because of this everyone I had sex with wants to have sex with my claws they love it when I use my claws oh my god getting finger bang my claws oh my no you're getting claw banged oh my god sorry that is the kid no that's that's the that's regular Grady that's Grady that's the dad kid still a boy okay I didn't know if we time jumped but that's so vulgar and strange but he can also he can he can he can double hole that was just I saw it I saw that yeah created and coming out of you yeah I'm sorry Donna soon ran away from her abusive father and moved in with Jack sister her boyfriend sister uh-huh Grady junior

demanded that she return and threatened to hire detectives Donna called her father and told him she was pregnant and wanted to get married but she wasn't pregnant she returned home and Grady agreed to the marriage a wedding date was set September 28th 1978 the day before the wedding Jack and Donna went to Zara's department store to buy her a wedding dress Grady junior went to a bar and drank 12 whiskeys oh boy when Donna came home she noticed Grady's wheelchair was missing so she went out to look for him no then she heard a bang come from the house and she ran back the lobster boy had shot Jack in the chest

with a shotgun what the fuck he died when police arrived Grady just said take me I'm ready what yeah he didn't want his daughter getting married lobster boys terrible I know he's tear that and what I remember is that lobster boy drank a lot and was violent okay well you're getting that yeah I didn't realize he was shooting people in the chest Grady was charged with first-degree murder his deformity created a strong sympathy for him at the trial his character witnesses were a bearded lady a carnival midget and Paul fishbaw aka the fat man so I when I told you my jury duty story once where I pretended to be

racist to get thrown off of the jury uh-huh this is the trial you want to be this is the one where you're pitching why you get you get jury duty for this job this is a miracle because you are like to be honest the more morbid the better when it comes to a trial the idea that you get to see bearded the state calls the bearded lady world's tiniest man do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth of nothing but the truth half lady what do you say and the giant who works with worms the the fat man weighed 600 pounds it could not fit in the witness chair so he had to sit on the ground in front of the on the ground

was the other option stand where else was he gonna sit I don't get a fucking big chair couldn't fit in there so chair the chair only barely stand there I guess he could stand but he's so fat he might need to do a little more standing but lobster boy was the best witness of all having been a showman his whole life he gave the performance of his life the jury only found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter wow but jailing him proved to be a problem oh Christ a state penitentiary official wrote to the judge to say they didn't want lobster boy in the prison system because they would have to put a guard on him all day long to

care for him and that wasn't possible so Grady was given a sentence of 15 years probation 50 he's a lobster boy he's like magical yeah I will say he's a real loop-holer Grady immediately left town to avoid paying his attorney and started after all this after murdering a man and getting away with it I'm not gonna pay for that shit and he started his own side show with ten acts Grady then divorced his second wife and moved back to Gibtown meanwhile Teresa had grown bored of her tiny husband and she divorced him she then moved back in with the man who beat her repeatedly lobster boy in 1989 they remarried if you're the

her parents you've got to be like well we did not do a good job she brought her son with her from her relationship with the smallest man his her son's name was Glenn he was six feet four inches tall and weighed 240 pounds oh snap and he had Down syndrome oh my god what is it is just is anything right it's oh my god Grady junior appeared to have changed for the better he was kinder and gentler he kept his drinking at a minimum at first oh god then he started drinking more and more and even more so when he went to the local Carney bar called sideshow USA the beating started again Grady felt invincible when he resumed beating his

family one of his favorite taunts was I killed before and got away with it I can do it again in 1992 lobster boy hit the road again it was his 42nd year in show business by this time he had pushed most of his family into the business his daughter Kathy and her husband ran the animal animal oddities exhibition which included a two-headed raccoon Donna ran an illusion in which she turned into a gorilla Glenn was there he was called the human blockhead oh boy and he drove nails up his nose oh my god oh my god I mean nobody is safe this is an outbreak Grady the third was there as the new lobster boy together he and his father

were the lobster family yeah for sure the 1992 this is 1992 you wondering what was going on grunge was about to start this is actually the 30s it's 1992 we hear my bond is about to put out their album yeah yeah the 1992 tour was full of family fights and squabbles Teresa said she wanted Grady junior dead and Kathy agreed in the fall Teresa asked Glenn the human blockhead to find someone to kill Grady for $1,500 Glenn contacted Chris Wyant a site show performer who was known to brag that he killed people and drive by shootings always like ability always believe a carney when he says he killed

people and drive by shooting I love to drive by and shoot people well you're probably our guy what I'm not a clown your resume seems pretty tight Chris agreed to do the deed Chris then asked his friend Dennis Cowell to drive him somewhere he took Dennis to a store and bought him a pair of black pants Nike shoes a black and white shirt and a Raiders cap Dennis was thrilled Chris then asked Dennis to drive him five miles away to buy a gun he asked Dennis to fill out the paperwork for the gun which Dennis did what are you getting a weird feeling yeah very weird feeling that this guy is implicated in a drive by

he doesn't know is happening under his watch a couple days later Teresa and Kathy ducked out of their mobile home and left lobster boy watching TV just after 11 Chris entered wearing black pants Nike shoes a black and white t-shirt and a Raiders cap I mean I hope he bought to it's full proof it's full proof he just completely set up his friend yeah it's amazing yeah get the fuck out of my house get the fuck out of my house you lobster boy right before he was shot in the head oh my god the the plan did not work though cops immediately suspected Teresa and Kathy because they had left the house right

before lobster boy was shot hey we're going outside to do what outside did not be implicated plus they showed absolutely zero emotion at the murder scene they're like oh yeah he's dead oh good or damn oh I feel bad oh and he had so much beating left to do and a big strike against the two was that Teresa had hired her summit down syndromes to find the killer so probably hard to so that was I mean let's be honest that's probably pretty easy to crack hey did you kill him no did you hire somebody kill him yeah okay thank you he's got nails in his face nails just this one doesn't come out okay we're good here blockhead

Teresa Chris and Glenn went on trial separately Chris was convicted and received a sentence of 27 years Teresa tried a battered spouse defense but it didn't fly because she hired a killer you can't look he beat me up so much that I went on hired someone to kill that I calculatedly murdered him at the trial her attorney played a horrible video of Grady Jr. putting Grady the third in a headlock and choking him Grady the third testified he couldn't breathe and this kind of thing happened often suddenly the judge took ill and a new judge was brought in the new judge asked the tape to be played with sound not was different

story on the tape father and son could be heard giggling oh Jesus Christ there's a volume on this interesting you ask there is completely changes volume huh damn it the volume defense almost worked Teresa was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison Glenn the human blockhead was up for trial next the day offered him the same sentence as his mom if he pled guilty Glenn's lawyer recommended he take the deal Teresa however convinced him otherwise she said to fight it Glenn was convicted and sentenced to life in prison oh Jesus Christ is there anybody who's not horrible no nobody no Grady Jr. was

buried in international independent showman garden of memorials the graveyard of carnies what the family is carried on Grady third has a daughter Sarah who does not have lobster claw syndrome Kathy is married and has a lobster claw daughter named Misty the three of them still perform on occasion Kathy has taken up acting and has appeared in the series Carnival and in Tim Burton's film Big Fish Jesus Christ it's so dark it's super dark right it's so dark I'm surprised it's never made into a movie I can tell you why it has oh shit he should have stayed in school there's a lot of women right now

wondering oh god not in a good way what it's like to get banged by a claw claw banged it might be great it might be great what if it's the best sex you ever had then don't have it I mean it's like hearing heroin's amazing I'm not gonna do it just you know yeah if you fall in love with a man based on his personality and he has lobster claws right by all means but we don't I think we've learned let's steer clear of this gene pool for a little while I don't know not just because of the claws but because of the violence they might turn it around I don't think they're going to they might turn it around I don't believe it I'm

telling you no you're not telling me all right