John Wayne Gacy
Childhood
Gacy was born to strict Danish and Polish parents. His family was very good at presenting a nice and happy family picture, but behind closed doors, the father was abusive and an alcoholic father. John was the only girl out of four children. John Wayne Gacy knew his father for beating the children with a razor strap whenever he thought the kids misbehave. His father would also destroy the mother in front of the kids. His father had a raging alcoholic problem and also was a rageaholic. Gacy was super close with his mother. Gacy's earliest memories of his father were when his father would beat him with a belt and a broom unconscious. Gacy's older sister Karen said that as time went on, the kids learned to toughen up, and eventually, Gacy would stop crying. Gacy’s life didn’t ease up after this. During school, he could not hang out with other kids because he had a life-threatening heart condition. His father felt as if Gacy’s heart condition was another failure on his part. When he was in high school, he later discovered his sexuality and found out he was attracted to men, and this caused a tremendous internal battle for him that would take years to overcome. When he was a young child, he had major health problems and had to be hospitalized for quite a while due to him experiencing blackouts and seizures (Jenkins).
Early twenties
When John was a teenager he was molested by his father’s friend throughout high school. Once he graduated high school, he became a fast-food restaurant manager in the early 1960s and then created his own contracting company. He also became a Democratic precinct Captain. This meant that he would help in local council and elections. Gacy also played a big part in planning community events and organizations. He also graduated from Northwestern Business College. That is how Gacy was able to find his first wife. John and his wife had two kids. John was cheating on his wife with local prostitutes, and he loved higher younger boys even as young as 16. John would invite these boys over to his house and try to make sexual advances with him (Rodriguez).
Killer Clown
Gacy, during this time, also became a member of the local clown club called “Jolly Joke,” and he frequently had gigs and charity events. His clown name was Pogo the clown or Patches the Clown. Pogo the clown was able to lure his victims because made promises of construction work or promised other work. He would capture the men then sexually assault, torture them, and he would even go on to strangle the men with rope or even as gruesome as his own hands(Rodriguez).
Killings
John’s father called the police when he found out his son was targeting young boys and the police arrested John. Gacy was convicted of sexually assaulting two teenage boys in 1968 and was sentenced to 10 years of prison time. He was let out on parole in the late summer of 1970, then he was arrested once more the next year after a teenage boy came forward and accused him of sexual assault. The charges were dropped due to the fact the accuser never showed up to testify during the trial. Two more teenagers would accuse Gary of rape and he would be questioned by police for these accusations and the missing of other boys. In the middle of the 1970s, Gacy would call this time his “cruising years,” where he could commit most of his murders. One of the first known victims was 15-year old Robert Piest who went missing on December 11, 1978. The police had reported that his mother last saw Robert at a drugstore where he would have a meeting with Gacy to talk about a construction job opportunity. Ten days later, the police did a sweep of Gacy’s house and found numerous pieces of evidence that connected him to several crimes, including several murders and rapes. Police would later discover that Gacy would have committed his first crime in 1972 by taking the life of 16-year-old Timothy McCoy after luring him to his home with a fake construction job opportunity (Rodriguez).
When John was found guilty of his first sexual conviction his first wife Marilynn Myers left him and took the kids and John never saw his kids again. While John was on his parole he was accused of assault once more by a teenager and he paid another teenager to beat up his accuser. John created a construction company called PBM construction Company once he was officially on parole. John would get married once again to Carol Hoff. She is a divorced single mother with two girls. Carol and her children moved into John’s house. John used this company once again as a way to lure young boys with jobs. John would later come out to Carol as bisexual and immediately become distant from the family. John’s wife and his sister-in-law would catch him sneaking out, bringing home young boys, and having weird hidden spots in the home. The wife got suspicious and decided to divorce him and talk to the kids. Then John and Carol would get divorced due to her messing up the company checkbook and made the company lose hundreds of dollars. After this John was able to focus on his killings. Due to the nationwide project of renovating Pharmacies John was able to move around and country and continue the killings. The police put John under surveillance after a mother was suspicious that John was the last person to his son after he disappeared (Jenkins).
Investigation
While the police were doing surveillance of his house one of the police officers asked to use the bathroom and the officer could smell death. He couldn't do anything due to the fact this was no physical evidence. John knew that the police finding this smell meant the police were onto him and he went to a local office of a lawyer and spilled the beans. John got so tired while he was confessing that he fell asleep while confessing. Jacy went back to go visit his escaped victims and confessed to them that he killed so many people. The victims called the police and let them know what he had confessed to. Then the police got a search warrant for his house and found all the bodies buried in the backyard, crawl space, and even in the kitchen. He would later confess to killing 30 people. Gacy's trial began on February 6, 1980. Knowing that Gacy had admitted to the crimes the main purpose of the problem was to focus on if he would be declared insane and be put into a state mental facility or state prison.
Gacy told the police that he had committed these murders via his alter ego. Gacy had brought mental health professionals to testify that this was a possibility about Gacy’s mental health. The jury only deliberated for only a couple of hours, he was found guilty for all 33 murders. He was sentenced to death sentences and 21 natural life sentences. He was imprisoned at the Menard Correctional Center in Illinois for at least two decades. He appealed his sentences several times and offered proof of insanity. In prison, he set up a telephone call to be recorded of him confessing to his innocence. He died of lethal injection on May 10th at the Stateville Correctional Center. During the investigation, the police had to demolish Gacy’s house to find more evidence and where the other bodies were buried. During the demolition of the house, the workers said, “ If the devil’s alive, he lived here.” (Jenkins)
Death Row
While Gacy was in jail, his house was demolished in an effort to try and find other victims and evidence. While Gacy was in prison he had taken up the hobby of visual arts and he particularly liked painting. His paintings were shown in a public exhibit at a Chicago gallery. In 2017 in a Mullock Auction in the United Kingdom, one of Gacy’s paintings was auctioned off for 4.000 euros, and the painting was called “They Call Him Mr. Gacy .” Gacy had eight other pictures, but they went unsold (Rodruiguez) .
John Wayne Gacy's Last Words were "Kiss My Ass"
