Donald Gaskins had a dubious beginning in 1933, but so did many others who arrived during the grind of the Great Depression, and their lives never mirrored the wretched depths of that of “Pee Wee”, who started robbing local stores and homes at an early age. After a fifth escape from reformatory school, he joins a passing carnival and meets his first wife Mary, who was only thirteen. This was the most settled time in Gaskins’ life, and the couple have a baby while being supported by payments for the arson of tobacco barns for insurance money. Through a series of unfortunate events, and Pee Wee’s obsession with very young girls, including his own relatives, he earns a five-year prison sentence, and shortly thereafter helps his cellmate kill a rival. Over time, Gaskins admits to killing thirteen people, and alludes to even more. I found myself shaking my head as I read of the callousness of the killer, the total lack of remorse for any and all of his victims. This book will stay with you a long time after you have finished it, and rightly so.