In the autumn of 1975, a dark secret lay buried in the soil of Florence County, South Carolina. The life of 28-year-old Dennis Bellamy had been violently extinguished on October 10th of that year, a fact that would only come to light through the confession of a criminal associate. Bellamy, along with his 15-year-old half-brother Johnny Knight, was lured from North Charleston with the promise of payment for stolen guns. Instead of receiving money, Bellamy was led into a wooded area behind a trailer in the Prospect community where he was shot in the back of the head. His half-brother was subsequently led to the same location and met the same fate, a measure taken to ensure his silence.
The discovery of their bodies, buried in a shallow grave, was a direct result of a confession by Walter Neeley in November 1975. Neeley, an associate of the man responsible for the murders, admitted his knowledge of not only the killings of Bellamy and Knight but also several other missing persons. He revealed that the killer had confided in him about these crimes and the locations of the graves. On December 4, 1975, Neeley led law enforcement to the grim burial site on land near the perpetrator's home, where the remains of eight victims were ultimately unearthed.
The man behind these heinous acts was identified as Donald Henry 'Pee Wee' Gaskins, one of South Carolina's most notorious serial killers. Gaskins's criminal history was extensive, but the unearthing of his personal cemetery exposed the true depth of his depravity. Neeley was also implicated in the crimes and faced charges of premeditated murder and being an accessory to murder in connection with Bellamy's death. The investigation revealed that Gaskins had murdered Bellamy's sister, Dianne Bellamy Neeley, earlier that same year.
In May of 1976, a Florence County jury took a mere 47 minutes to find Donald Gaskins guilty of the murder of Dennis Bellamy. He was subsequently sentenced to death by electrocution. Though this initial death sentence was overturned by the South Carolina Supreme Court in February 1978, Gaskins chose to plead guilty to the murders of Bellamy and eight others rather than face a new trial. This plea resulted in ten concurrent life sentences. Walter Leroy Neeley was also convicted for his role in Bellamy's death and was sentenced to death. Gaskins's reign of terror did not end with his imprisonment; he would go on to commit another murder while incarcerated before he was finally executed in 1991 for that later crime.
