10 Facts That Prove Florida Is America's Craziest State
9. Sideshow Freakout - Gibsonton
Way over in Hillsborough County is an unincorporated census designated place called Gibsonton. A famous sideshow wintering town and retirement community for traveling carnival folks, the town was home to Percilla The Monkey Girl, The Bearded Lady, Grace McDaniels The Mule-Faced Woman and Lobster Boy. Where most towns would reject humans with such oddities they were embraced in Gibsonton. Siamese twins ran a fruit stand in the little enclave, the police chief was a giant and there were special zoning laws allowing residents to keep elephants and other circus animals in their yards. All was well in Gibtown until 1992 when Lobster Boy was brutally murdered. Grady Stiles was Lobster Boys real name and he had a form of ectrodactyly, which cause his fingers to fuse together like lobster claws and his legs to be flipper-like. His family had a long history of ectrodactyly and he even travelled with his children under the moniker of The Lobster Family. His family claimed that he was abusive and an alcoholic; in fact, he did murder his daughters fiancé 16 years earlier. His wife and son hired a seventeen-year-old circus performer to shoot him to death. When discovered, all three were convicted and sent to prison. Now, most of the freaks are gone, the circus doesnt come through so often and theyre making that TV show about a Florida carnival. Too bad they didnt think about Gibsonton and its dark nostalgia first.
