Many know of John Wayne Gacy as the Killer Clown, or Pogo the Clown. His killings sparked a fear of clowns that will likely last forever, as the once happy face of children’s parties now invokes fear and even horror.
John Wayne Gacy: A profile / Picture Credit: Buzzfeed Unsolved Network on YouTube
Who was John Wayne Gacy?
John Wayne Gacy was a serial killer and rapist from America.
He killed around 33 young males in the Cook County area in Illinois. He buried many of the bodies under his house, in a small crawlspace.
Other bodies were found close by in the Des Plaines River.
Gacy was sometimes known as The Killer Clown, as he dressed up in clown attire and makeup.
He was said to have an abusive childhood (not a total surprise in these cases) and struggled with his sexuality.
Early years
Gacy was born on the 17th of March 1942 in Chicago, Illinois as the son of Danish and Polish parents.
Gacy and his siblings grew up with an alcoholic father, who would beat them with a razor strap of they were deemed to have misbehaved.
He also beat Gacy’s mother. Gacy’s sister Karen would say later on that they all learned to toughen up when it came to beatings – Gacy apparently did not cry.
Gacy experienced further alienation at school, as he could not play with other children due to a congenital heart condition, which his father somehow saw as yet another failure.
Young Gacy soon after realised he was attracted to men, and experienced great unrest over his sexuality.
Job and family
Gacy was a fast-food chain manager during the 1960s, he then became a self-made building contractor, and a Democratic precinct captain in the Chicago suburbs in the 1970s.
Gacy was rather well-liked in his community. He organised cultural gatherings and was active in political organisations, as well as the Jaycees civic group.
He was both married and divorced twice, and had two biological children in addition to two step-daughters.
The Clown
A member of the ‘Jolly Joker’ clown club based in Chicago, Gacy would often perform in clown attire and makeup at kids’ parties.
He also did charity fundraisers and other events as his alter-egos, ‘Pogo the Clown’ or ‘Patches the Clown’.
The ‘Killer Clown’ sometimes lured his victims with the promise of construction work (or some other lie). He then captured, sexually assaulted, tortured, and ultimately strangled them either with his own hands or some rope.
Years later during a conversation with detectives while under surveillance, Gacy talked about his work as clown and stated that “Clowns can get away with murder.”
Murders and sexual assaults
In 1968 Gacy was convicted of sexually assaulting two teen boys and was given 10 years in prison.
Despite this lengthy sentence, Gacy was released on parole in the summer of 1970 – only two years later.
He was then, however, arrested the following year after another teen had accused him of sexual assault. The charges were unfortunately dropped when the young boy did not show up to court for the trial.
In the mid-1970s, two more young men accused Gacy of rape. He was questioned by police in regard to the disappearances of other young men.
Gacy would refer to this time in his life as his “cruising years”, which was when he committed most of his murders.
On the 11th of December 1978, 15-year-old Robert Piest went missing.
It was reported to police that Piest was last seen by his mother at the drugstore he worked at, before leaving to meet Gacy to discuss a potential construction job.
10 days later, police searched Gacy’s home in Norwood Park, Illinois. They found evidence of his involvement in several crimes, which of course included murder.
It was later discovered that Gacy’s first known murder was in 1972, when he killed 16-year-old Timothy McCoy after luring him to his house.
After a prolonged surveillance investigation,, plus the finding of many trenches filled with human remains in a crawlspace beneath his house, Gacy confessed to killing around 30 people.
There has since been speculation that there are more victims that have not been found. When the bodies were discovered, eight of them could not be identified.
Trial and plea of insanity
Gacy’s trial began on the 6th of February 1980.
Since Gacy had confessed to his crimes, discussions were largely focused on whether he could be declared insane and remitted to a mental state facility.
Stating to police that the murders were committed by an alternate personality, Gacy’s mental state was debated among mental health professionals, who argued for both sides (insane and not insane).
The jury’s deliberation was short. They found Gacy guilty of committing 33 murders.
He was sentenced to serve 12 death sentences and 21 natural life sentences.
Execution and art
Gacy died by lethal injection on the 10th of May 1994 at Stateville Correctional Centre in Crest Hills, Illinois. This came after spending a decade and a half at the Menard Correctional Centre in Illinois.
During his incarceration, Gacy would appeal his sentence and offer conflicting statements on the murders and interviews.
Also while Gacy was in prison, he took up painting and was rather good at it.
Some of his paintings were shown to the public via an exhibition at a Chicago gallery. Many of the aforementioned paintings depicted him as ‘Pogo the Clown’.
In 2017, Mullock’s Auctions in the UK auctioned off several pieces of Gacy’s artwork, and even crime scene photos of the trial.
Believe it or not, three of Gacy’s paintings (Including ‘Pogo the Clown’ and ‘They call him Mr. Gacy’) sold for £4,000 and £325, respectively.
This case left many people terrified of clowns, who were once a staple of happiness among children. Gacy’s crimes seemed to lack remorse and despite his statements of innocence, nothing could clear him of what he’d done.
Written by Melissa, who you can follow on Twitter @melissajournal
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Tagged in Murder True Crime