John Wayne Gacy Killer Clown

John Wayne Gacy Killer Clown

Angel Marie Fiore

Remington College

Criminology/Victimology

October 7, 2010

Abstract

This paper explores the many complex sides to John Wayne Gacy. Who was Gacy one might ask? Gacy was the sensitive cross dressing young boy that was always by his mother’s side, the Boy Scout who was looking for his overly critical father’s approval. As an adult his neighbors knew him as the Jaycees Son of the Year and Pogo the Clown that everyone depended on and loved. However, Gacy hid a deep dark secret that no one could have dreamed of. He was a cold hearted sadistic rapist killer, later to be diagnosed as bipolar. How did this come to be one might ask? The horrific details that began with one small sick child and ended with at least 33 dead young men. This paper will explore what was behind the smile of this killer clown and how, despite being determined to be mentally ill, he was still found guilty and put to death.

John Wayne Gacy was born in March 17, 1942 at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago. Gacy seemed to live what everyone would consider a normal middle class childhood for that time period. His mom was a stay at home mom. John’s father was a hard millworker, but an alcoholic expected a lot from his only son. Gacy had a very close connection with his mother and older and younger sister, while his relationship with his father was verbally abusive. John Sr. would call Gacy a “sissy”, telling him John would not amount to nothing. (Philbin & Philbin, 2007)

Homosexuality is defined as a person romantically and erotically attracted to same-sex persons. (Coon & Mitterer, 2008). Gacy did not consider himself a homosexual. He claimed at the age of five he was molested by a teenage girl and by the age of eight he was repeatedly molested by a construction worker. When Gacy was eleven he was struck in the head by a swing causing blood clots in his brain which required medical treatment for a few years. As a teenager he...