Grady Stiles was known as "Lobster Boy" for his deformed hands that looked like claws. Lobster Boy was a freak show performer. This genetic condition was one in which the fingers and toes are fused together to form claw-like extremities. He was buried in a showman’s cemetery. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. The Life & Death of Lobster Boy is a stop motion film inspired by the true story of Grady Stiles, a sixth generation carnival freak born with ectodactyly, a deformity that causes the hands and feet to form into claw-like extremities. Watercolor portraits by Donna Stiles - telling the story behind the eyes. A space for me to share with you my latest creations as they appear on the paper. Infamous freak show attraction 'Lobster Boy' was a 'drunk' who was killed after he and his wife got into a fight, son says. One of the best known circus and carnival performers of the 20th century was Grady Stiles, aka Lobster Boy. Born in 1937, a sixth generation Ectrodactyly (also known as Crab or Lobster Claw Syndrome) sufferer, a rare condition where the legs shorten and the hands or feet, (or both) fuse producing malformed claw-like digits. He had an IQ of 79. This is a story that is very close to my own heart. TAMPA, Fla. (AP) _ Born with the same claw hands and stump legs as their father, two children of a sideshow performer known as the Lobster Boy hoisted themselves to the witness stand Thursday and described him as a brutal drunk. The sixth generation. For nearly half a century, he traveled from town to town on the carnival circuit, hoisting himself atop a cushioned platform in a sweltering tent. In 1978, his oldest daughter, Donna, then 17, ran away with a boyfriend and announced they had to get married because she was pregnant. Apparently he once become violent when a restaurant owner remarked he could cook Grady's hands in a lobster dinner. Donna told him, ... Cathy is married and has a lobster-clawed daughter named Misty. “ ‘One of these days I’m going to kill you and your family,’ ” she quoted him as saying. Allegedly, Stiles was an abusive alcoholic. Sharp disagreement surfaces. Another depicted his mother’s horrified reaction to his birth. “Hurry back,” Stiles called to her, sitting there in his underwear, drinking a glass of iced tea. 17 July 1994 Lobster Boy … How a Circus Performer Grady Stiles Jr. went from performing a simple act of Circus the committing a murder: The Killer Lobster Boy. Eventually, his wife snapped. Don't remember exactly where this fair was when I caught it, but did meet Grady Stiles Jr, "Lobster Boy", who apparently quite a dick in real life, or at least that's what his wife and stepson claimed after they killed him a few years later (his life story, the book "Lobster Boy", has 18 used copies for 1 cent each on Amazon if you're interested). Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1937, Grady Stiles Jr., also known as Lobster Boy, led an interesting life and suffered a death that was just as intriguing. Grady was a mean, cruel man. On Oct. 14 he was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for at least 25 years. The shocking exposé of a carny’s murder arranged by his wife—and the daughter who threatened the author to keep the truth from getting out. Cathy said that a few years ago, when she was seven months pregnant, her drunken father knocked her out of her wheelchair when she tried to stop him from swatting her mother. It runs in the family.”. Back Pack Universe Wife On Trial In Slaying Of Lobster Boy. You can find out more about me here. For more than a century, a strange physical condition known as ectrodactyly has cursed the Stiles family. Grady and Maria’s other daughter, Donna, was getting ready for her wedding. He was sentenced to 15 years’ probation, partly because of his deformities and because he had cirrhosis from heavy drinking and emphysema from smoking three packs of cigarettes a day. Grady Stiles, aka Lobster Boy, became a murder victim. This was a lie. Born in 1937, a sixth generation Ectrodactyly (also known as Crab or Lobster Claw Syndrome) sufferer, a rare condition where the legs shorten and the hands or feet, (or both) fuse producing … ″Then he started hitting on me ... with his fist. ″I heard a bang and then I heard another one,″ she testified, saying Stiles had shot her boyfriend. She said her father poked his head out a window, smiled and said ″Better him than me.‴. The “Lobster Boy” Stiles was born in 1937 with a deformity called ectrodactyly. Might not be correct - I heard that from Karl Pilkington, the perveyor of freaks. They remarried in 1989 after he divorced his second wife and assured her his drinking days were over. Grady Stiles Jr., who would become known as Lobster Boy, was born in Pittsburgh in 1937. “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, I am the Lobster Boy,” he would say. After narrowly avoiding a murder sentence, Grady became even more abusive to his family. To find anyone who supports Mary Stiles, you have to go to the trailer where the slaying took place. The Stiles family was suffering for a peculiar physical condition known as Ectrodactyly, which is a rare congenital deformity that makes the hand look like lobster claws as the middle fingers are either missing or seemingly fused to the … Some experts take a different view. The shocking exposé of a carny’s murder arranged by his wife—and the daughter who threatened the author to keep the truth from getting out. He had 4 children, 1 boy and 1 girl had the same deformity that he had. 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