In the spring of 1975, a dark chapter unfolded in the life of 25-year-old Diane Bellamy Neely, a woman from Georgetown, South Carolina. On April 10th of that year, her life was violently cut short, not by a random act of violence, but by a man she knew, a man who was a close friend and criminal associate of her estranged husband, Walter Neeley. Her killer was Donald Henry 'Pee Wee' Gaskins, a man who would later be known as one of South Carolina's most prolific serial killers.
Diane had
separated from her husband and had begun a new relationship with a man named Avery Leroy Howard. Her knowledge of Gaskins's illicit activities became a dangerous liability. She had threatened to expose Gaskins to the police for allowing underage teenagers to engage in sexual activities at his residence. This threat, a courageous whisper against a backdrop of criminality, ultimately sealed her fate. Gaskins, in a brutal act to silence her, stabbed her to death. On the same day, he also shot and killed her 34-year-old boyfriend, Avery Leroy Howard, motivated by Howard's request for money to cover legal expenses.
The investigation into their deaths and other disappearances in the area eventually led law enforcement to Gaskins's property in Prospect, South Carolina. In a gruesome discovery, authorities unearthed the shallow graves of eight of his victims. Gaskins's reign of terror, which included stabbings, shootings, drownings, and poisonings, had finally come to an end. Among his many victims were Diane's own brother, Dennis Bellamy, and half-brother, John Henry Knight, whom Gaskins had shot in the back of the head just months after her murder.
While Diane's estranged husband, Walter Neeley, was implicated and charged in connection with the murder of his brother-in-law, Dennis Bellamy, court records indicate that Donald Gaskins was solely responsible for Diane's death. Gaskins was eventually convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to death. His criminal history was extensive, with convictions for assault, burglary, and statutory rape. While incarcerated on death row, he committed yet another murder, killing a fellow inmate. For his multitude of heinous crimes, Donald Henry Gaskins was executed by electrocution on September 6, 1991, bringing a final, grim closure to the story of his victims, including Diane Bellamy Neely.
