John Wayne Gacy : A Serial Killer

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.

Serial killers are the byproduct of many different things: trauma, death of loved ones, abuse, neglect, adoption, and even witnessing abuse (Are Serial). Serial killers have had to endure a massive amount of something such as trauma or abuse to an unimaginable extent to become what they are; the extent of the abuse, the trauma, the psychological damage they endure is incomprehensible to many. The destruction of one’s innocence can occur at any given time in his or her life, but he or she is more impressionable in his or her youth by the negativism of someone else’s actions (Scott, Shirley L. What Makes Serial Killers Tick ~ Childhood Event). People are susceptible to what they endure in their adolescence, and cruel upbringings, such as

At the age of nine, John recalls being sexually molested on several occasion by a friend of his father; however he never disclosed this information until reaching adulthood. Signs of homosexuality appeared throughout John Wayne Gacy’s childhood, including the incidence of him being caught with his mother underwear, and continued throughout his adulthood, until finally disclosing his preference for men to his second wife, Carole. Upon his first arrest on charges of sodomy, John received a psychiatric evaluation which concluded that he, in fact, suffered from antisocial personality disorder. Subsequently, after sentenced to death for 12 of 33 known murders, Gacy received a secondary psychiatric evaluation which determined that John was a paranoid schizophrenic with multiple personality disorder. In conclusion, the psychological, biological and genetic factors of John Wayne Gacy are quite alarming. His ability to charm and manipulate many of those around him and his lack of remorse or the slightest bit of guilt for the gruesome crimes he committed, even in his last moments of life, made John Wayne Gacy one of the most dangerous sociopaths of our time (Haggerty,

On March 17, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois, John Wayne Gacy, a murderer to be, was born. He came from Danish and Polish parents, Marion Robinson and John Stanley Gacy, and had two sisters, Karen and Joanne Gacy. John, as an overweight child, tended to isolate himself from his peers; he did not participate in any athletic activities and had very few friends. John’s father would oftentimes come home in the early mornings intoxicated, waking up his family as he stumbled through the door. Most nights, he would hit his children with a razor strap or anything else he could get his hands on, and he would then proceed to physically beat his wife as well. After years of beatings, the children learned to toughen up against him, and Gacy would even continue

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

John Wayne Gacy was the son of Danish and Polish parents. Gacy and his two siblings grew up with a drunken father who would beat them with a razor strap if they misbehaved; the man physically assaulted Gacy's mother as well. Gacy's sister Karen would later say that the siblings learned to toughen up against the beatings. Because of this abuse, John Wayne Gacy became one of the most ruthless and notorious serial killers of this time period (“Biography,” 2016).

The Cook County Sheriff’s Department in Illinois said that the newly identified victim was James Byron Haakenson, a 16-year-old boy who ran away from his home in St. Paul in the summer of 1976. The police found his body and 26 others in the crawl space beneath Mr. Gacy’s home in December 1978. Mr. Gacy was among the most prolific serial killers in American history. From 1972 to 1978, he lured or forced 33 teenage boys and young men — some of whom he employed at his construction business — to his home in suburban Chicago, where he murdered them. He sexually assaulted most of his victims as he tortured them to death and buried all but six of them beneath his house. Neighbors in Norwood Park Township, Ill., knew Mr. Gacy for his appearances at children’s parties where he performed as Pogo the Clown, a character he later painted or sketched numerous times while in

On Friday, December 22, 1978, Gacy finally confessed to police that he killed at least thirty people and buried most of the remains of the victims beneath the crawl space of his house. According to the book Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders by Sullivan and Maiken, Gacy said that, "his first killing took place in January, 1972, and the second in January, 1974, about a year and a half after his marriage." He further confessed that he would lure his victims into being handcuffed and then he would sexually assault them. To muffle the screams of his victims, he would stuff a sock or underwear into their mouths and kill them by pulling a rope or board against their throats, as he raped them. Gacy admitted to sometimes keeping the dead bodies under his bed or in the attic for several hours before eventually burying them in the crawl space.

These are some of the most infamous names in the history of murder, but they hid in plain sight, and Manson did not even commit murder. He was so manipulative he could convince others to do his bidding for him. How is that even possible? Surely one would be able to recognize someone who is such a dangerous threat or would they? One of the reasons these killers can be so successful is their ability to blend into their surroundings and at times even be considered a stand up member of the communities they live in, but what is going on inside their brains?

John Wayne Gacy in his early years was shown to have a minor biological impairment. At the age of 11, Gacy was playing near a swing set and was hit in the head causing an accidental blood clot in the brain. The blood clot was not discovered until he was 16 years old and he suffered from blackouts from the clot from the ages of 11 until it was discovered. There was a brain blockage that medications were able to dissolve. Gacy also had a series of health problems that kept him hospitalized for a significant amount of his childhood. His health issues included a heart condition, an erupted appendix, and numerous blackouts and seizures. After Gacy was executed, there were many autopsies that were done on his brain to see if there were

John Wayne Gacy was convicted on the murder of 33 teenage boys between 1972 and 1978. These murders took place in Cook County, Illinois; all inside of John Gacy’s home. The city of Chicago, Illinois, during this time was very violent, with crimes happening regularly; this played out well for Gacy. Twenty victims have been identified, while thirteen victims still remain unidentified. All of John Gacy’s victims were teenage boys, all dying due to strangulation, except for his first victim who was stabbed to death.

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.

Throughout the years of 1972 and 1978 in Cook County, Illinois, there was an American serial killer. His name is John Wayne Gacy, A.K.A, “Killer Clown”, murdering 33 young men and boys. Gacy would first sexually assaulted these men, murder them and then dispose of their bodies. In a grotesque manner, he hid these bodies under his house in the crawlspace while throwing the last three victims in the Des Plaines River. Gacy was an ordinary family man who had a wife and two children, he owned a business and even dressed up as a clown to entertain the neighborhood children, but yet Gacy had a separate life with a disturbing secret. Human beings already have a compulsive want for information so they want to have an understanding for cold-blooded

In the 1970s, Gacy appeared at children's birthday parties as "Pogo the Clown" and also regularly painted pictures of clowns. When the authorities discovered that he had killed at least 33 people, burying most of them in the crawl space of his suburban Chicago home, the connection between clowns and dangerous psychopathic behavior became forever fixed in the collective unconscious of Americans. (Mcandrew)

One of the most horrendous serial killers in modern history would have to be John Wayne Gacy, Jr. He was the second of three children and born in 1942. He lived in Chicago and attended catholic schools, and wasn't a very popular boy in school. Gacy seemed to live a very normal childhood, with exception to his relationship with his father, and series of accidents that effected him. No one could have known what the future held for John, not even his father.