Serial killers are a prominent part of everyday life in the United States for most people, as a result of having so many prominent ones in the country’s history. However, one man has kept his title as one of the most horrific killers in American history, decades after his crimes: John Wayne Gacy.
Gacy’s childhood was no more extraordinary than any other at the time. As Sid Smith from the Chicago Tribune summed up, “Gacy was born into a blue-collar family and seems to have had a fairly ordinary childhood.” (1) He was born in 1942, and grew up in the northern side of Chicago. His parents, Marion Gacy and John Wayne Gacy, Sr, were married, and he had one older sister, Joanne, and one younger sister, Karen. All three siblings attended a Catholic school, where the young Gacy was well-liked by his peers. When he was eleven, a swing hit him in the head, resulting in a blood clot that wasn’t
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His staff consisted of young male teenagers. When asked by friends why he only hired young men, he explained it was to ‘keep the costs low’. But his true reason was much more sinister. In 1975, he made advances on a sixteen-year-old named Tony Antonucci. After Antonucci managed to get Gacy’s promise he would never try something again, Gacy left him alone. Another teenager, Johnny Butkovich, wasn’t as lucky. After confronting Gacy about withholding pay with a couple of friends, “… Johnny dropped off his friends at their house and drove away, never to be seen alive again.” (2). Several more young boys would vanish without a trace before one victim's mother informed the police of the name of the contractor that had offered her fifteen-year-old son a job- John Wayne Gacy, Jr. When they obtained a search warrant to investigate Gacy’s house, they made a gruesome discovery; “... police discovered the bodies of 29 boys and young men in a crawl space beneath Gacy’s house.”
John wayne Gacy was nicknamed the killer clown he was a american serial killer and rapist he murdered at least 33 teenage boys and a lot of young men between the years of 1972-1978 he committed most of his crimes in his Norwood park home most of his victims were lured in and John would smother them by using a tourniquet his very first victim was stabbed to death. Gacy had buried 22 victims in the crawl space of his Norwood park home the last 4 known victims were threw in the Des Plaines River convicted of the 33 murders Gacy was sentenced to Death for 12 of these killings he had spent 14 years on death row he was executed by lethal injection. John got his nickname the “killer clown” because he would dress as a clown called pogo he would dress
Gacy buried McCoy's body in the crawl space and later covered the youth's grave with
In which he got convicted of of and later released after serving 18 months of his 10 year conviction, due to good behavior. After finding this out his first wife then filed for divorce against Gacy. Then in 1975 Gacy continued with his offenses, after working long hours, then driving around to look for male prostitutes, and as well as runaway male teenagers. Of which he would then hide the bodies in the floorboards of his house, or when he ran out of room in his floorboards he would then throw them in the river down the street. With the stress of the murders the murders, Gacy got careless by offering a teenage boy (15 yrs old, Robert Piest) a better job than what he was working for.
He ordered a background check on Gacy and was astonished by his findings. On December 13, 1978 the detective got a search warrant and searched Gacy’s home while he was away. Inside the home they found plenty of evidence that shed some light on Gacy’s dark side. Such items included: books with homosexual and pornographic themes, marijuana, a high school ring with the initials J.A.S, a stained section of rug, nylon rope, handcuffs and clothes that were too small for Gacy. Although the
John Wayne Gacy Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois in March 1942, where he was beaten down by his alcoholic abusive father. Although he had close relations with his sisters and mother, Gacy yet sought for the acceptance of his father. At the ages of 5, 7, and 8, he was sexually abused by a family friend of his father’s. By the third grade, Gacy had suffered from blackouts, which resulted in retaining him from school. With that, his grades started to decline.
Although it seems as if John’s life then was normal, he could not escape his harsh past. John was convicted of sexual assault in 1968 of two boys and sentenced to 10 years in prison. After his release, John was accused by a teen of sexual assault by when the court date arrived the victim never showed up. Years later two more young males accused John of rape, and the police started to question John about the disappearances of the others. Later on it was discovered that John Gacy had committed his first known killing in 1972, taking the innocent life of Timothy McCoy after luring the teen to his
Gacy drew a diagram of his basement to show where the bodies were buried under his home. Gacy was brought to trial on February 6, 1980 and charged with thirty three
Not soon after these rumors became reality when Gacy was charged for sodomy against a teen named Mark in 1968. Mark said Gacy had raped him, in the past year. Gacy contradicted his statements, telling the courts that the sex they had, was very much consensual. A mere four months later Gacy was charged for hiring, and paying three-hundred dollars to Andersson to attack Mark, but luckily he was able to escape the torture (Bell 25). After a long waiting period, Gacy was sentenced 10 years in a reformatory, and soon after, Marlynn divorced him while in the reformatory, but this was not the only pain Gacy had during his stay.
After all this, Gacy was called to headquarters and was told about all the evidence they found with the search warrant at his house. John Wayne Gacy called his attorney, who told him not to sign the Miranda waiver, so Gacy was released. The police moved on with their investigation by interviewing Gacy’s friends. They told police nothing of interest, so the police just decided to book Gacy on possession of marijuana. The police were charging Gacy when the police lab and investigators confirmed the ring belonged to John Szyc, who disappeared on January 20, 1977 (John Wayne Gacy--
The police went to search Gacy's house and notices a really bad smell coming from a crawl space. They originally thought it was from a damaged sewer pipe, but soon found out that there were 29 bodies buried on his property as well as four more that he dumped in rivers near his house. Gacy was convicted and spent 14 years on Death Row. During that time he made creepy paintings of clowns that sold for thousands of dollars. On May 10, 1994, John Wayne Gacy at 52 years old was executed at the Stateville Penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois.
) When he was 7 years old, he and a childhood friend were accused of molesting a girl, not knowing if it was true or not, his father beat him very badly. (“John Wayne Gacy: The Real Life Serial Killer Clown.”) There were also two incidences where Gacy almost lost his life due to appendicitis, but his father thought he was faking so he neglected him.
Many people have minor qualities but do not have the label of serial killer. John Wayne Gacy is an excellent example of a human monster because of his actions of murder and rape while demonstrating that nurture can shape a person's personality proving human monsters are more terrifying than those we read about in fiction. The life of Gacy began in Chicago, Illinois where he and his family lived. He was born on the 17th day of march in 1942. He grew up with
John Wayne Gacy is a serial killer who killed 33 people in total. He was born on May 17th 1942 in Chicago where he was physically and verbally abused by his father. Since this age he showed unusual behaviours and avoiding society, but then was determined that he has a psychological disorder. He moved to Los Angeles and was living a normal life however he started showing his real face in 1968 where he raped a young, male employee.
Around 1977 is when Gacy’s “web of secrets “ began to unravel after Robert Piest vanished. Gacy’s mother was picking him up at the Pharmacy where he worked and he told her that he would be a minute because he had to talk to the contractor, but never returned. She called the Des Plaines police and Kozenczak led the investigation. Kozenczak went to Gacy’s home and when he asked Gacy to come to the station he refused saying that someone in his family died and he had to make some call. He came into the station later and gave his statement saying that he knew nothing and was allowed to leave, but Kozenczak had other feelings about
Gary Ridgway was born on November 30, 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was raised in the McMicken Heights neighborhood of SeaTac, Washington, which was known to have a large population of prostitutes and runaways girls (Harthorne, 2013). Ridgway was recognized to be an awfully shy and quiet boy. Some would say he was in the shadows of his siblings. He had a hard upbringing, which people believe to have caused him to start these appalling killings.