John Wayne Gacy, the grim case of the killer clown

One of the most famous cases studied in forensic psychology subjects is that of John Wayne Gacy, an individual who in the face of others was adorable, but who committed several dozen crimes, torture and abuse.

Gacy made fun of young people after disguising himself as a clown, so many of them agreed to meet him. The coulrophobia It is an irrational fear of clowns, and although these characters tend to entertain the little ones, in this terrible case, the fear of clowns is totally justified. His story has inspired several movies due to his brutality.

Who is John Wayne Gacy?

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. he was one of America's most famous serial killers, and committed his crimes during the 1970s. In 1978 he was arrested and in 1994 executed for the deaths 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 garden, while entertaining the youngest, curiously where he had buried his victims. As an entertainment figure 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 male chauvinist that he always criticized her. He was also an alcoholic, so little Gacy did not have an easy childhood. At age 11 he had an accident hitting his head on a swing that caused a blood clot in his head that went unnoticed until he was 16 years old, when he began to have dizziness.

During his high school years, his family moved several times, causing him to have to go to different educational centers and become a strange person with little stability emotional. Even so and despite the difficulties, he graduated in Business Management from Northwestern Business College.

Following an internship position at the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company, in 1964 he was promoted and transferred to Springfield in Illinois. 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 acquired several Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) franchise locations, offered her a managerial position in Waterloo, Iowa. Gacy accepted the option of going off to work.

Living in Waterloo he had two children and was part of various charitable organizations in the area. And despite family stability, rumors of his homosexuality soon spread through his neighborhood. He was said to have made intimate propositions to various young people who worked in the restaurant. Despite these rumors, the Jaycess Club named him "honorable vice-president" of the Jaycees of Waterloo in 1967.

At that time his professional life was perfect, but his personal life was not, in which he quickly began to have serious problems. He was unfaithful to his wife several times 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 one of them.

Reported and jailed

But his love affair with the people of Waterloo would soon come to an end, for he received several complaints from the young men who came to his basement. Mark Miller was the first to go to the police claiming that he had been tied up and abused in one of the visits to the killer clown's house. John wayne gacy he was sentenced to 10 years in jail but his good behavior allowed him to be on the street at 18 months. His wife divorced him and she never saw his two sons again.

After leaving prison, Gacy returned to Illinois to live with his mother, and in 1971, thanks to the help his mother's money, he bought a house at 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, in an area of Chicago

His most ghoulish crimes

After his time in prison, Gacy was in charge of leaving his past behind 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 in his home and dressed up as a clown to entertain the younger ones 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 as he stated that they had no intimate relationships and had discovered that he indulged himself with gay adult magazines.

In this town, the murderous clown carried out dozens of murders, such as that of a young man named Darell Samson who went to the house on West Summerdale Avenue and was never seen alive again. During that decade, Gacy continued to abuse, torture, and murder multitudes of young people.. Some of his victims were Randall Reflett, Samuel Stapleton, William Carroll, Rick Johnston Gregory Godzik… so on to a total of 33 innocent youths. The youngest 14 years old and the oldest 21.

His arrest and execution

It was from 1977 when Gacy began to have a bad reputation, especially after the disappearance of a 19-year-old boy, a young man was arrested for driving his vehicle. The young man who was arrested claimed that the car had been sold to him by Gacy. Despite the fact that Gacy had already received several complaints previously that had not been taken into account, Everything changed in 1978, when 26-year-old Jeffrey Rignall accused him of attacking him with a damp cloth of chloroform. When he woke up, he was immobilized in the killer clown's basement where he was abused and tortured by Gacy.

After several hours of suffering, Rignall woke up in the middle of a field surrounded by snow, and was very physically damaged. Despite everything, he managed to leave the place. His ordeal would still last for a few months since, despite the fact that he identified his assailant in a photo, the police did not believe him. He then hired a lawyer who requested the arrest warrant, and even though Gacy was investigated, he was surprisingly free.

Now, he wasn't so lucky with Robert Piest, his latest victim. Since he left several clues and did not take into account that his parents were waiting for him at home and they knew that his son had gone to see Gacy. Since his son was slow to return, they began to look for him and contacted the police. Several officers went to his house and Gacy didn't have time to hide the corpse of the boy he just strangled.

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

Possible explanations for the killer clown case

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

Psychologists have contributed different opinions and explanations to the causes of this serial killer's personality. Some point out his 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 to the head and the consequent fainting spells that 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 young people was the unconscious expression of self-hatred for his own homosexuality, a condition that he never assumed.

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 coroner claimed that John Wayne Gacy did not meet the characteristic psychological profile of a serial killer and Dr. Morrison, who knew John himself and who studied different murderers such as Ed gein, is the role of him as a psychiatrist witness in the case, he affirmed that: "Gacy had the emotional structure of a child".