Richard “Dick” Harpootlian, the prosecutor who brought Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins to justice, will launch his book tour for Dig Me a Grave: The Inside Story of the Serial Killer Who Seduced the South on Dec. 16, 2025, in Columbia.
The launch event — held on the official release date of this true-crime story and personal reflection on the death penalty — begins a multi-city tour that will take Harpootlian across South Carolina, with additional stops in New Orleans and Washington, D.C.
Book Tour Schedule
- Dec. 16, 6:30 p.m. — Launch Event, 701 Whaley Street, Columbia (Includes a moderated conversation featuring a special guest.)
- Dec. 17, 6 p.m. — Buxton Books, Charleston
- Dec. 18, 11 a.m. — Jack’s Books, Florence
- Dec. 19, 5 p.m. — The Garden District Book Shop, New Orleans, La (Includes a moderated conversation featuring Jonathan Martin, Politico political bureau chief.)
- Dec. 22, 10 a.m. — All Good Books, Columbia
- Jan. 23, 7 p.m. — Politics and Prose Bookstore at the Wharf, Washington, D.C. (Includes a moderated conversation with Josh Dawsey, Wall Street Journal political investigations reporter.)
- Feb. 20, 10:30 a.m. — Litchfield Books, Pawleys Island
About the Book
Published by Kensington Books, Dig Me a Grave is earning praise from industry insiders and bestselling authors alike.
Publisher’s Weekly calls it “a fascinating firsthand account of tangling with a monster.” Jonathan Martin of Politico describes it as “a gothic crime tale” about “murder, corruption, and the underbelly of Southern justice.” Caitlin Rother, New York Times bestselling author of Down to the Bone, says the book is “lively, personal, insightful and compelling.”
Dig Me a Grave tells the chilling story of serial killer Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins — a charismatic con man who rose from the swamps of the Carolinas to lead a cult of runaways, drifters, and misfits. When authorities discovered that Gaskins murdered his followers and buried them in a private graveyard, the case captured national attention in the mid-1970s.
As a young prosecutor, Harpootlian confronted the reality that even a life sentence in a maximum-security prison couldn’t stop Gaskins from killing again. Ultimately, the two men were set on a collision course that led to a death penalty trial raising haunting questions of ethics and morality.
For the first time, Harpootlian recounts his campaign to put one of the South’s most notorious killers in the electric chair — and the chilling realization that he didn’t feel safe until the final switch was thrown.