John Wayne Gacy, known as the “Killer Clown”, was an infamous serial killer and sex offender who tortured, raped, and murdered at least 33 young men and boys from 1972-1978.
Gacy never had a healthy relationship with his father, John Stanley. Stanley drank excessively and took his drunken anger out on Gacy – often calling him a “sissy”, beating him, and sexually assaulting him in the basement of their Chicago home.
Many serial killers in their youth fall under the “Macdonald Triad”, which are warning signs of violence and sadism. This includes starting fires, bed-wetting, and torturing animals. Gacy, strangely, exhibited none of these behaviors as a child.
To many, Gacy seemed to be an average man. He owned a successful construction business – PDM Contractors – was involved in local politics, and entertained children at parades and hospitals as Pogo the clown.
In 1967, Gacy was accused of sexually assaulting two teen boys. They said he had illegally served them alcohol, forced them to watch pornographic films, and initiated sexual contact. One of the boys also claimed that Gacy tried to strangle him.
Gacy pleaded guilty to sodomy – sexual intercourse involving anal or oral copulation – and was sentenced to prison for ten years.
After only 18 months in prison, Gacy was let out on parole. Since then, his abusive father had passed, he divorced his wife he’d had at the time, and moved back to Chicago to live with his mother.
Gacy, again, drew the attention of authorities when a young boy claimed Gacy had picked him up from a bus stop and tried to force him into having sex, but no charges were made when the boy failed to show up for court.
Gacy and his mother settled into a larger home in 1971.
In Jan of 1972, Timothy McCoy would become Gacy’s first official victim. McCoy was willingly picked up from a bus stop by Gacy and brought back to Gacy’s residence where they drank alcohol, and engaged in sexual acts, ending in Gacy stabbing him to death and burying him in the crawl space of the home.
From then until 1978, Gacy murdered many young men and boys and remained under the authorities’ radar. However, on Dec 11, 1978, 15-year-old Robert Piest went missing after telling his mother he intended to meet someone about a high-paying job.
Gacy was reported to be the last one seen with Piest.
Officers obtained a search warrant for Gacy’s home, and after finding a receipt linked to Piest, Gacy was put on around-the-clock surveillance.
After being followed by police for a week, Gacy revealed to his lawyer, Sam Amirante, that he had raped, tortured, and killed at least 30 young men.
Gacy was caught handing marijuana to a gas station clerk, which prompted another search of his home, where they discovered the remains of 29 young men and boys. The remaining four were found in the Des Plaines River.
Gacy was charged with seven murders in January of 1979, but later indicted for another 26 by a grand jury.
He would endure a five-week trial, featuring one of his survivors who reportedly vomited while recounting the horrible things that had been done to him. Gacy originally pleaded insanity but was later found to be fully aware of what he had done.
On March 12, 1980, the jury took just an hour and 50 minutes to determine Gacy guilty of all murders, and the following day, the same jury took two hours and 15 minutes to impose the death penalty.
In June of 1981, five of the unidentified victims from Gacy’s basement were buried with the words “we are remembered” on their headstones.
At 52 years old, Gacy was executed by lethal injection at the Illinois Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994, after enjoying his last meal of fried chicken, strawberries, shrimp, and french fries.
