John Wayne Gacy
John Wayne Gacy was an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured and murdered at least thirty-three young men and boys between 1972 and 1978 in Norwood Park Township, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. He became known as the "Killer Clown" due to his public performances as a clown prior to the discovery of his crimes.
Gacy committed all of his known murders inside his ranch-style house. Typically, he would lure a victim to his home and dupe them into donning handcuffs on the pretext of demonstrating a magic trick. He would then rape and torture his captive before killing his victim by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a garrote. Twenty-six victims were buried in the crawl space of his home, and three were buried elsewhere on his property; four were discarded in the Des Plaines River.
Gacy had previously been convicted in 1968 of the sodomy of a teenage boy in Waterloo, Iowa, and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, but served eighteen months. He murdered his first victim in 1972, had murdered twice more by the end of 1975, and murdered at least thirty victims after his divorce from his second wife in 1976. The investigation into the disappearance of Des Plaines teenager Robert Piest led to Gacy's arrest on December 21, 1978.
Gacy's conviction for thirty-three murders then covered the most homicides in United States legal history. Gacy was sentenced to death on March 13, 1980. He was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.
Early life
Childhood
John Wayne Gacy was born at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on March 17, 1942, the second of three children and only son of John Stanley Gacy and Marion Elaine Robison. His father was an auto repair machinist and World War I veteran, and his mother was a homemaker. Gacy was of Polish and Danish ancestry, and his family was Catholic.Gacy was close to his mother and two sisters but had a difficult relationship with his alcoholic father, who was verbally and physically abusive to his family. The elder Gacy frequently belittled his son, calling him "dumb and stupid" and comparing him unfavorably with his sisters. One of Gacy's earliest childhood memories was of his father beating him at age four for accidentally disarranging car engine components. His mother tried to shield her son from his father's abuse, which resulted in accusations that he was a "sissy" and a "mama's boy" who would "probably grow up queer".
In 1949, Gacy's father whipped him after he and another boy were caught sexually fondling a young girl. The same year, a family friend began to occasionally molest Gacy. Gacy never told his father, afraid that his father would blame him. Despite their challenging relationship, Gacy loved his father, but felt he was "never good enough" in his father's eyes.
Gacy was an overweight and unathletic child. Because of a heart condition, he was told to avoid sports. In the fourth grade, Gacy began to experience blackouts. He was hospitalized on occasion because of these episodes and also, in 1957, for a burst appendix. Gacy later estimated that between the ages of 14 and 18, he had spent almost a year in hospital; he attributed the decline of his grades to missing school. Gacy's medical condition was never conclusively diagnosed; his father suspected he was malingering. On one occasion, he openly accused his son of faking as he lay in a hospital bed.
Career origins
In 1960, at age 18, Gacy became involved in politics, working as an assistant precinct captain for a local Democratic Party candidate. This led to more criticism from his father, who called him a "patsy". The same year, Gacy's father bought him a car. He kept the vehicle's title in his own name until Gacy had paid for it, which took several years. His father would confiscate the keys if Gacy did not do as he said. In April 1962, Gacy purchased an extra set of keys; in response, his father removed the distributor cap, keeping the component for three days. Hours after his father replaced the cap, Gacy left home and drove to Las Vegas, Nevada, with $136 to his name in the hope of residing with a cousin.Gacy worked in the Las Vegas ambulance service before being transferred to Palm Mortuary. He worked as a mortuary attendant for three months, observing morticians embalming bodies and occasionally serving as a pallbearer. He slept on a cot behind the embalming room and later confessed that one evening, while alone, he clambered into the coffin of a teenage male, embracing and caressing the body before experiencing a sense of shock. This experience prompted Gacy to return home.
Shortly thereafter, Gacy enrolled at Northwestern Business College, despite having failed to complete high school. He graduated in 1963 and took a management trainee position with the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company. In 1964, the company transferred him to Springfield, Illinois, to work as a salesman, and eventually promoted him to department manager. In March of that year, he became engaged to Marlynn Myers, a co-worker.
During their courtship, Gacy joined the local chapter of the Jaycees, to whom he frequently devoted time and effort to community and fundraising projects. That same year, he had his second homosexual experience. According to Gacy, a colleague in the Jaycees plied him with drinks and invited him to spend the evening on his sofa; the colleague then performed oral sex on him while he was drunk. By 1965, Gacy had risen to the position of vice-president of the Springfield Jaycees and was named the third-most outstanding Jaycee in Illinois.
Waterloo, Iowa
KFC manager
Gacy and Myers married in September 1964. Marlynn's father subsequently purchased three Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Waterloo, Iowa. The couple relocated there so Gacy could manage the restaurants, with the understanding that they would move into Marlynn's parents' former home. The offer was lucrative: Gacy would receive $15,000 per year, plus a share of the restaurant's profits.Gacy opened a "club" in his basement where his employees could drink alcohol and play pool. Although Gacy employed teenagers of both sexes, he socialized only with the males. Gacy gave many of them alcohol before he made sexual advances; if they rebuffed him, he would claim his advances were jokes or a test of morals.
In February 1966, Gacy's wife gave birth to a son; a daughter was born in March 1967. Gacy later described this period of his life as "perfect"—he had finally earned his father's approval. When Gacy's parents visited in July 1966, his father privately apologized for the abuse he had inflicted before happily saying, "Son, I was wrong about you", as he shook Gacy's hand.
Waterloo Jaycees
In Waterloo, Gacy joined the local Jaycees chapter, regularly offering extended hours to the organization in addition to the twelve- and fourteen-hour days he worked managing the restaurants. At meetings, Gacy often provided fried chicken and insisted on being called "Colonel". He and other Waterloo Jaycees were also deeply involved in drug abuse, pornography, prostitution and wife swapping. Although Gacy was considered ambitious and a braggart, the Jaycees held him in high regard for his fundraising work: in 1967 he was named "outstanding vice-president" of the Waterloo Jaycees and served on the board of directors.Assault of Donald Voorhees
In August 1967, Gacy sexually assaulted 15-year-old Donald Voorhees Jr., the son of Donald Edwin Voorhees, a local politician and fellow Jaycee. Gacy lured Voorhees to his house with the promise of showing him heterosexual stag films regularly played at Jaycee events. Gacy plied Voorhees with alcohol, allowed him to watch a stag movie, then persuaded him to engage in mutual oral sex, adding, "You have to have sex with a man before you start having sex with women."Over the following months, Gacy abused several other youths, including one whom he encouraged to have sex with his own wife before blackmailing him into performing oral sex on him. Gacy also tricked several teenagers into believing he was commissioned to conduct homosexual experiments for scientific research and paid them up to $50 each.
In March 1968, Voorhees told his father that Gacy had sexually assaulted him. Voorhees Sr. immediately informed the police, who arrested Gacy and charged him with performing oral sodomy on Voorhees and the attempted assault of 16-year-old Edward Lynch. Gacy vehemently denied the charges and demanded to take a polygraph test. The results of these tests were "indicative of deception". Gacy publicly denied any wrongdoing and insisted the charges were politically motivated—Voorhees Sr. had opposed Gacy's nomination for appointment as president of the Iowa Jaycees. Several fellow Jaycees found Gacy's story credible and rallied to his support. However, on May 10, 1968, Gacy was indicted on the sodomy charge.
On August 30, Gacy promised one of his employees, 18-year-old Russell Schroeder, $300 if he physically assaulted Voorhees in an effort to discourage the boy from testifying in court. Schroeder lured Voorhees to an isolated park, sprayed Mace in his eyes, then beat him.
Voorhees escaped and reported Schroeder's actions to police. Schroeder was arrested the next day; initially denying involvement, he soon confessed to assaulting Voorhees, indicating he had done so at Gacy's request. Police arrested Gacy and charged him with hiring Schroeder to assault and intimidate Voorhees.
On September 12, Gacy was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Iowa. Two doctors concluded he had an antisocial personality disorder, was unlikely to benefit from treatment, and that his behavior pattern was likely to bring him into repeated conflict with society. The doctors concluded Gacy was mentally competent to stand trial.
First conviction and imprisonment
On November 7, 1968, Gacy pleaded guilty to one count of sodomy in relation to Voorhees, but not guilty to the charges related to other youths. He claimed Voorhees had offered himself to him and that he had acted out of curiosity. His story was not believed. Gacy was convicted of sodomy on December 3 and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, to be served at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. That same day, Gacy's wife petitioned for divorce, requesting she be awarded the couple's home and property, sole custody of their two children, and alimony. The court ruled in her favor, and the divorce was finalized on September 18, 1969. Gacy never saw his first wife or children again.During his incarceration, Gacy rapidly acquired a reputation as a model prisoner. Within months of his arrival, he had risen to the position of head cook. He also joined the inmate Jaycee chapter and increased its membership from 50 to 650 men in less than eighteen months. Gacy secured an increase in the inmates' daily pay in the prison mess hall and supervised several projects to improve conditions for inmates, including the installation of a miniature golf course; he was presented with a distinguished service award for his efforts within the inmate Jaycee chapter in February 1970.
In June 1969, Gacy was denied parole. To prepare for a second scheduled parole hearing in May 1970, he completed sixteen high school courses, obtaining his diploma in November 1969. On Christmas Day 1969, Gacy's father died from cirrhosis. When informed of his father's death, Gacy collapsed to the floor, sobbing. His request for supervised compassionate leave to attend the funeral was denied.