John Wayne Gacy, the gloomy case of the killer clown

A serial killer who used to disguise himself as a clown to commit his crimes.

One of the most famous cases studied in forensic psychology courses is that of John Wayne Gacy, an individual who was adorable to others, but who committed dozens of crimes, tortures and abuses.

Gacy used to lure young people by disguising himself as a clown, so many of them agreed to meet with him. Coulrophobia is an irrational fear of clowns, and although these characters usually entertain children, in this terrible case, the fear of clowns is totally justified. His story has inspired several movies due to its brutality.

Who is John Wayne Gacy?

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. was one of America's most famous serial killers.He committed his crimes during the 1970s. In 1978 he was arrested and in 1994 executed for the death of 33 young men who were buried in his home or thrown into the Des Plaines River (the rest) in Illinois.

He was popularly called "the killer clown" because he organized neighborhood parties and invited neighbors to his barbecues in his backyard, while entertaining the younger ones, curiously where he had his victims buried. As a figure of entertainment he was known as "Pogo the clown".

The Birth of a Monster

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois, and was the second of three children. His father was a macho man who always criticized him. He was also an alcoholic, so little Gacy did not have an easy childhood. At the age of 11 he had an accident when he hit his head on a swing that caused a Blood clot in his head that went unnoticed until he was 16, when he started having dizziness.

During her high school years, her family moved several times, which caused her to attend different schools and become an outsider with little emotional stability. Still, despite the difficulties, she graduated from Northwestern Business College with a degree in Business Management.

After an internship at Nunn-Bush Shoe Company, in 1964 he was promoted and transferred to Springfield, Illinois. While working there he met a worker who would become his wife, Marlynn Myers, and they consummated their marriage the following year in 1065. Her parents, who purchased several Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) franchise locations, offered him a management position in Waterloo, Iowa. Gacy accepted the option to go to work outside.

Living in Waterloo, she had two children and was involved in several charitable organizations in the area. And despite family stability, rumors of his homosexuality soon spread in his neighborhood.. He was said to have made intimate advances to several young men who worked at the restaurant. Despite these rumors, the Jaycess Club made him "honorable vice-president" of the Waterloo Jaycees in 1967.

At that time his professional life was perfect, but not his personal life, in which he quickly began to have serious problems. He was unfaithful several times to his wife and started taking drugs. In addition, he built a room in his basement where he invited young people to drink and tried to have sex with some of them.

Denounced and imprisoned

But his idyll with the inhabitants of Waterloo would soon come to an end, as he received several complaints from the young people who came to his basement. Mark Miller was the first to go to the police claiming that he had been tied up and abused on one of the visits to the killer clown's house. John Wayne Gacy was sentenced to 10 years in prison but his good behavior allowed him to be out on the street after 18 months.. His wife divorced him and he never saw his two children again.

After his release from prison, Gacy returned to Illinois to live with his mother, and in 1971, thanks to the financial help of his progenitor, he bought a house at 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, in an area of Chicago.

His most macabre crimes

After his time in prison, Gacy took care to put his past behind him and was well received by the inhabitants of the new town where he lived. In fact, he was a kind and beloved person because he organized barbecues at his home and dressed up as a clown to entertain the youngest and the children who were sick. Few neighbors could imagine the kind of person he was.

In 1972 he married Carole Hoff, but their marriage ended in 1976 because he claimed they did not have intimate relations and he had discovered that he was pleasuring himself with adult magazines with homosexual content.

At this location, the killer clown carried out dozens of murders, such as that of a young man named Darell Samson who came to the West Summerdale Avenue house and was never seen alive again. During that decade, Gacy continued to abuse, torture, and murder a multitude of young people.. Some of his victims included Randall Reflett, Samuel Stapleton, William Carroll, Rick Johnston Gregory Godzik...for a total of 33 innocent young men. The youngest was 14 years old and the oldest 21.

Their arrest and execution

It was from 1977 onwards that Gacy started to get a bad reputation, especially after a 19 year old boy was arrested for driving his vehicle. The young man who was arrested claimed that the car had been sold to him by Gacy. Although Gacy had previously received several complaints that had been ignored, everything changed in 1978, when 26-year-old Jeffrey Rignall accused him of attacking him with a chloroform-wet rag. When he woke up, he was pinned down in the basement of the killer clown where he was abused and tortured by Gacy..

After several hours of suffering, Rignall awoke in the middle of a field surrounded by snow, and was badly physically damaged. In spite of everything, he managed to get out of the place. His ordeal would still last a few months because, although he identified his assailant in a photo, the police did not believe him. He then hired a lawyer who applied for the arrest warrant, and although Gacy was investigated, he was surprisingly released.

Now, he was not so lucky with Robert Piest, his latest victim. For he left several clues and failed to take into account that his parents were waiting for him at home and knew that their son had gone to see Gacy. As their son was late in returning they began searching for him and contacted the police. Several officers went to his home and Gacy did not have time to hide the body of the boy he had just strangled..

The police found the bodies in his house and Gacy himself eventually confessed that he had thrown the rest into the river. He was convicted and executed in May 1994.

Possible explanations for the case of the killer clown

This terrifying case became popular in the United States and is currently studied in forensic psychology courses and subjects, along with other cases such as Petiso Orejudo or Beth.

Psychologists have contributed different opinions and explanations to the causes of this serial killer's personality. Some point to the poor relationship with his father who, in addition to being an alcoholic, treated him very badly during his childhood.. Others think that the blow he received in the head and the consequent fainting spells he suffered from the age of 16 had something to do with his macabre behavior. Some psychoanalysts have even suggested that the murder of these youngsters was the unconscious expression of self-hatred for his own homosexuality, a condition he never came to terms with.

After his death, Gacy's brain was removed. But the forensic psychiatrist who examined him, and despite the speculation of many professionals, found no abnormalities that could explain Gacy's violent behavior. This same forensic psychiatrist stated that John Wayne Gacy did not fit the psychological profile characteristic of a serial killer and Dr. Morrison, who knew John himself and who studied various killers such as Ed Gein, in her role as a psychiatric witness in the case, stated that: "Gacy had the emotional structure of a child".