The only thing
stranger than circus sideshow Grady Stiles Jr. a.k.a Lobster Boy is the
story behind his sordid life and death. Stiles had a deformity that caused his
hands to look like lobster claws, and for half a century he traveled with the
circus. Stiles recruited his sons and daughters, who had the same genetic
deformity, to the circus and was known for being an abusive alcoholic. It
wouldn't be long before his terrifying ways caused his family to turn on him.
Lobster Boy, Grady Stiles Jr.
Grady Stiles Jr. followed in the footsteps of his father, Grady Stiles
Sr., and became a circus performer showing off his strange deformity, which is
now known as ectrodactyly. The deformity causes the fingers and toes to fuse
together to create a claw-like extremity, and is what gave him the name Lobster
Boy. When Stiles had two children who also had the deformity, he recruited them
into the circus and they toured as The Lobster Family.