A Brief Biography of John Wayne Gacy

Marion Michael Morrison was born on May 26, 1907, in Winterest, Iowa. His father, Clyde, worked as a pharmacist, and John Wayne thought of his father as the “kindest, most patient man I ever knew.” Later on in life, John Wayne’s father developed a critical lung disease. Wayne said that his mother, Mary was “a tiny, vivacious redheaded bundle of energy.” John Wayne was nicknamed “The Duke” after his pet as a child that was named Airedale. Early in his life,

Gacy was a well respected man who wouldn’t be suspected of committing multiple murders. “His first known killing was in 1972, taking the life of Timothy McCoy after luring the teen to his home” (Biography 1). Gacy’s strategy into luring kids (mostly boys) into his home was to roam the streets in search for these young kids and force them to go with him. In 1978 Robert Piest who was 15 years old went missing. His mother said Robert had went to Gacy’s home in search of a job but Robert never came back. “This time the Des Plaines police got involved and searched Gacy’s home” (Crime museum 1). When the police got involved they found things that weren’t his and items that were suspicious. Later on, “On December 22, 1978, facing mounting physical evidence against him from subsequent searches of his home, Gacy confessed that he had killed thirty-three young men and boys and buried most on his property” (Luongo 1). Gacy would torture, strangle, and rape these young men. Gacy was found guilty on all of the murders he committed and he was sentenced to the lethal injection.

This essay aims to examine weather serial killers are born a certain way and their genetics define their psychotic tendencies or whether they're a product of a bad environment that they grew up. This essay looks at recent killings in the late 20th century as there is more information on the killers from this period and it's easier to gain details about their childhoods. Whilst I will look at various different killers to reach more rounded conclusions (see appendix for comparison table), this essay will focus on four in detail to examine the debate; Ted Bundy (1946-89), Jeffery Dahmer (1960-1994), John Wayne Gacy (1942-1994) and Gary Ridgway (1949-present).

Marion Elaine Robinson, a pharmacist, and John Stanley Gacy, a mechanic and World War I veteran, were married on January 7, 1939. On March 17, 1942, the couple gave birth to their second child, and only son, John Wayne Gacy in Edgewater Hospital, Chicago Illinois. Gacy was reportedly born with a congenital heart defect, an enlarged heart. John Sr. suffered with severe alcoholism, believed to stem from his military service in World War I. As a toddler, Gacy watched his father physically abuse his mother, including observing his father knock out Marion’s dental crowns. While at the age of four, John Wayne Gacy recalls being physically abused by his father for the first time after he was found “playing house” with a mentally disabled girl from the neighborhood. During his very young and impressionable years, Gacy recollects being beaten by his father on a second occasion for messing with car parts, beginning the physical and emotional abuse than continued throughout Gacy’s childhood. By five years of age, John began having seizures that were treated with strong anti-seizure medication.

When you first think of a serial killer or you think of a psychopath you realize that they both have something in common even though they have different words to describe similar characteristics of a “monster”. John Wayne Gacy had an abusive childhood and struggled with his sexuality at a very young age, which these factors helped him become the person he did.

According to the literature and social learning theory, the family is an important institution that can be used to explain John Wayne Gacy’s criminality. Statistics stated that witnessing violence and being the subject of physical abuse were strongly correlated with psychological, emotional and behavioural problems. Additionally, criminality and aggression were two well researched long term affects of exposure to violence. John Wayne Gacy witnessed and was the subject of physical abuse by his father and I believe that these events lead to his serial killing criminality.

John Wayne Gacy Jr. was a man of rare form. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois, raised by his mother and father. John and his mother were very close. However, his dad was not a good person. His dad would frequently drink and would beat him. His mother knew that this kind of activity went on but she never did anything because she herself was afraid of her husband and what he was capable of during his rages under the influence of alcohol.John Wayne Gacy Jr. was a brilliant man by the score of his IQ test, but you wouldn’t

John's life seemed to be one major drama after another; he didn't have a good male role model as a kid, and it seems he never was able to get on track. What was amazing about his life was the number of problems that he seemed to get into and how he wriggled out of them (with the help of a friendly person who just happened to meet him) only to run into more problems.

Jeffrey Dahmer killed and committed acts of necrophilia on 17 males between 1978 and 1991. In the article “Jeffrey Dahmer Biography”, it states that “Dahmer initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, despite having confessed to the killings during police interrogation, but he eventually changed his plea to guilty by virtue of insanity” (Biography.com). His defense then described all the gorey details of his behavior and murders, trying to prove that only someone who had psychopathic tendencies could commit such horrendous acts, but the jury decided to believe the prosecution's statement that Dahmer was fully aware that his acts were evil and chose to commit them anyway. The trial was so complicated that “on February 15, 1992, they returned after approximately 10 hours' deliberation to find him guilty, but sane, on all counts” (Biography.com). He was then sentenced to 15 life sentences in prison, which were going to be run consecutively, with a 16th term added on in May. Another well known serial killer was John Wayne Gacy. Gacy would dress up as “Pogo the Clown” and perform for children’s birthday parties, but no one knew that he would eventually murder and rape 33 boys. He would then hide the bodies in a crawl space in his house and kept them there for years until he was caught. The article states that “the discovery of his murders and subsequent arrest shook the community as he

Gacy grew up in Chicago Illinois and was the middle child of three children. His relationship with his father was northing short of complicated in that his father was a raging alcoholic, abusive to his spouse and children and a constant antagonist throughout Gacy's more impressionable years. Gacy would constantly seek the approval of his father but no matter how hard he tried, he would come up short, which only added to his father's frustration. Much of this was due to the fact that as a child and teenager, Gacy was overweight, unathletic and somewhat feminine. His father would constantly administer verbal and physical abuse because in his eyes, these qualities were not that of a true man and were not up to his alpha male standards. These physical characteristics also caused Gacy to be the target of bullying at school and because of his lack of support from his father, the mental torment only dug deeper into his already fragile mental state which made him more socially awkward and insecure. The strained relationship that Gacy had with his father also caused Gacy to become closer to his mother and sisters which (in his father's eyes) only solidified the point further that John Wayne Gacy was a mentally weak “mommas boy” who could not live up to his standards. When Gacy

Gary Ridgway grew up like any other ordinary suburban kid. He had a problem of wetting the bed which his mother would make fun of him and embarrass him in front of family and friends. As a young teen, he was always getting into trouble such as stabbing a six year-old boy in the ribs when he was a young teen. In high school Gary continued to go down hill and get bad grades. Gary graduated high school and joined the Navy. While he was in Vietnam, he discovered prostitutes and ended up getting sexually transmitted diseases. Soon after being home from Vietnam, Gary was killing and raping prostitutes on the streets of Seattle, Washington. Gary would go on to murder about 71 young women who he targeted because they were either prostitutes or runaways.

Serial killers have fascinated the imaginations of people for a long time. One of the most notorious serial killers is Jeffrey Dahmer whose gruesome murders shocked the nation. Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer also known as Milwaukee monster was a notorious American serial killer and sexual offender in the 1980s and early 1990s. Between 1978 and 1991 Dahmer had murdered 17 men. His victims were usually raped, tortured, dismembered, and cannibalism was also involved. Jeffrey was a troubled child psychologically and his social skills had a lot to be desired. All the way through his childhood he was ignored and had queer fantasies of cadavers. In his adulthood this psychosocial status quo didn 't change and was in fact aggravated.

RACISM AS A CAUSE FOR CRIME AND VIOLENCE: CINEMATIC ANALYSIS OF “BOYZ N’ THE HOOD”

The first time Artemis had met Marshall Garett it had been his voice that had struck her. If every other voice she had ever come across until that moment was the burning taste of the cheap liquor that sat in her stomach, his was the smoothest, richest brew. It was enough to make even her stubborn ass listen and follow, even back in those early days, where she had gone from being one fighter pilot with only her craft and the comms, to a fully fledged ranger, with the entirety of LOCCENT in her ears, and the whole of Alpha Team in her brain, controlling a jaeger with a brother she was struggling to maintain a successful drift with. But it had been Marshall, with his stupid cowboy hat and southern drawl, reminding her to level out, to trust her brother, her teammates, always there with his hands on the control deck, waiting, poised and ready to have her back at the drop of a hat.

After developing a fascination for the mindset of criminals at an early age, two cases that I personally found most gripping were those of the infamous Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen. Like most people in the UK, I too am familiar with the crimes of Nilsen, the Scottish serial killer well known for forming sexual relationships with his victims. Albeit the second serial killer is less well known in Britain, Jeffrey Dahmer is a household name in USA and became particularly famous for cannibalising and sodomising his latter victims.