John Wayne Gacy Essay

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.

Wayne Williams was charged with murdering two people in Atlanta, Georgia. Shockingly enough, he was also linked to the killing of ten other boys. The way the evidence effected this trial is what makes the case so well known. There were 28 different types of fibers linking Williams to the murder victims. That can be an overwhelming amount of evidence. This case happened in the 1980s and the evidence presented in the case was crucial to proving Williams guilt.

On March 17, 1942, John Wayne Gacy was born into an Irish middle-class family. His parents were Marion Gacy and John Gacy Sr. Gacy Jr. had enjoyed a uninteresting childhood until he suffered a head injury at a playground when he was 11. Up until age 16, Gacy had suffered blackouts due to the injury. After all he was put through, he worshipped his father like a hero, despite the fact that his father was an abusive alcoholic with a bad temper and an intense hate for homosexuals. Gacy was often accused and beaten by his father for being sickly.

Biological factors in John Wayne Gacy was that he had the ‘Criminal Gene’ which was an extra Y chromosomes even though they have no solid evidence to predict that every person that has an extra Y chromosome would become overly aggressive and lacking empathy. Growing up in the Gacy household was no typical day; Gacy father was an alcoholic and was an abuser. Gacy father beat his children with a razor strap if he thought they misbehaved or thought they where lying to him. Gacy father also abused his mother right in front of the children to prove a point that no one is better than him. John Wayne Gacy was so used to beating that he toughens up and he wouldn’t cry anymore.

John Wayne Gacy was born on May 17 (St. Patrick’s Day), 1942 to Marion Elaine Robinson Gacy and John Wayne Gacy, Sr. at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago. He was the second of three children. His older sister Joanne had preceded him by two years and two years after his birth came his sister Karen. The Gacy children were raised as Catholics and attended Catholic School (Taylor 2003).

“Dear John Wayne” by Louise Erdrich is about the stereotype of the Native American, being a savage race on film and how the Native Americans watching the film react to those stereotypes.

On June 22nd 1903 John Herbert Dillinger was born to John and Mollie Dillinger . His parents ran and owned a grocery store in Indianapolis, Indiana, and at the age of three his mother died . John Dillinger’s father described his son as a “restless and aggressive” child . Beginning from a young age, the dark side of Dillinger became evident, as he created and led a gang called ‘The Dirty Dozen’ . The worst criminal act the ‘Dirty Dozen’ participated in consisted of stealing coal from the nearby railroad . As Dillinger grew older, so did the intensity of his crimes. In his teenage years Dillinger stole a car to impress a girl, and when caught he fled to the navy. According to John he was “discharged” from the navy, but records say he

Serial murder crime though rare, is not a a new phenomenon. This crime has been committed for centuries and will continue to be a crime that is committed throughout the world. It is unfortunate and scary that this is probably one of the most serious of crimes that cannot be prevented. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, serial murderers commit their crimes because they want to. Rehabilitation is not obtainable for serial killers due to their inability for remorse and empathy, or to see people as people and not objects(Knight 2006). This research paper will focus primarily on serial murder within the U.S. First and foremost, a legal definition provided by the U.S. Department of Justice will be presented to set forth the discussion of this research paper. As follows will be a detailed discussion explaining serial killer typologies with the use of examples of known serial killers in the U.S. Types of serial killers are: power oriented, mission oriented, visionary, and hedonistic, each typology will be clearly defined and explained. Some serial killers can have a mixture of each typology’s characteristic. Serial killers that will be discussed and used as examples to represent the content of this research paper will be, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, Robert Berdella, Jeffery Dahmer, and lastly the most prolific serial killer in American history, Gary Ridgeway. Problems with studying serial killing, are that because of rarity and access. Most of what we think

A serial killer is traditional defined as the separate killings of three or more people by an individual over a certain period of time, usually with breaks between the murders. (Angela Pilson, p. 2, 2011) This definition has been accepted by both the police and academics and therefore provides a useful frame of reference (Kevin Haggerty, p.1, 2009). The paper will seek to provide the readers with an explanation of how serial killers came to be and how they are portrayed in the media.

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 as a sadistic rapist. This type of sex offender can torture their victim, get excited over causing them pain and humiliation, are exceptionally abusive, and dangerous. They will most likely mutilate and kill their victims when they are finished raping them. Mr. Gacy falls into the subtype of pervasively angry since he has a history of antisocial behavior, low social confidence, driven by anger, and use excessive force which will result in physical harm to their victims (CSOM, 2016). Mr. Gacy did not have a good relationship with his father and had trouble making friends. After raping his young victims, Mr. Gacy would mutilate and kill them (Bio.com Editors, 2015). He also falls slightly into the category of approach–explicit (CSOM, 2016) because he did plan to carry out the crime with premeditation, did not want to get caught, but he did not groom his victims (Bio.com Editors,

Throughout time many have had a fascination with serial killers and with help from the media they have become celebrities within our culture. There are many books, movies, television shows, and news coverage to introduce viewers to their lives. With all the interest behind serial killers, many wonder how they come to be this violent. The question is often asked, are serial killers born or made?

John Wayne Gacy was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 17 1942. Gacy had an uneventful childhood up until the age of eleven. While out playing he had been struck on the head by a swing. Subsequently he suffered fainting fits for many years.

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

A serial killer could be dining, sitting, or even living next to you at this very moment. Most killers offer little to no obvious clues that will lead anyone to detect their often secretive, undercover actions. I ask myself, “How can we be so naive to these types of people?” Serial killers amongst us are often well educated, portray an All-American image, yet have a psychotic side to them.