The Killer ClownJohn Wayne Gacy

By: Julie McDonald

Childhood

• Born in Chicago Illinois on March 17, 1942• Troubled relationship with his father– Physically abusive– Alcoholic

• Age 11 he was hit in the head with a swing and he had severe head trauma what would go unnoticed until he was 16 when they found a blood clot that had been forming in his brain– He was put on medication to dissolve the clot

Teenage Years and Older

• Attended 4 high schools– Never finished his senior year– Dropped out and ran away from family and home

• Returned when he ran out of money• Never went back to high school, but enrolled

and graduated from Northwestern Business College

1st Marriage• Married Marlynn Myers

– Parents owned franchises of KFC, Gacy was offered a manager position

– Had 2 children: son and daughter • Rumors began about his homosexuality • Gacy cheated on his wife regularly• “Gacy’s Club”

– A place where teenage boys could come and drink, Gacy would try and make sexual advances towards them

– 2 boys accused him of sexual assault- he paid another boy to beat up his accusers.

• Sentenced to 10 years

While in Prison/ Starting Over

• Wife filed for divorce shortly after he was convicted• Never saw his children again• Father died• Paroled after 18 months– Lived with his mother– Hide his criminal records

• New job– Chief at a Chicago restaurant

• Bought a new house

• February 12, 1971- A teenage boy claims Gacy forced him into his car and forced him to have sex with him. Charges where dropped when the boy never came to court.

• Chicago police didn’t follow up on the case

• June 22, 1972- A teenage boy accused Gacy of flashing a police badge and forcing him to have sex. Charges were Dropped.

2nd Marriage

• Married Carole Hoff- who already had 2 daughters– Hide his past from his new family

• Gacy started his own business– PDM Contractors

• New trouble– Gacy would stay out all night – Carole found disturbing items

• IDs from young men, items of clothing..

• Divorced in March 1976

Disappearing Employees

• John Butkovich- went missing and was never found

• Gregory Godzik- parents urged police to talk to Gacy, nothing happened

• John Szyc- a man who knew all the victims disappeared

• Lead to clues from other attacks on young boys

Gacy’s Downfall

• He killed a boy in his neighborhood • Robert Piest– 15 years old– Old a friend he was going to a house to talk to a man

about a construction job• Police searched Gacy’s house and found

suspicious items– Class rings, small clothing, handcuffs, drivers licenses

• An odor was coming from under the house

Gacy’s Downfall cont.

• He confessed to an employee to over 30 killings

• Police searched his house and found human bones in the crawl space

• Confessed to the police to over 30 killings that were mostly buried under his house– Drew the police a diagram to how he buried them

Confessing All• Told police– He would pick up teenage males or

male prostitutes– Handcuff them at his house and

muffle their screams with stuffing clothing in their mouths

– He would kill them by strangling them with a rope

– He would keep the bodies with him for as long as possible- until they decomposition started taking place

• Sentenced to death on march 13 1980• Spent 14 years on death row • Executed on May 10, 1994

• He was know as “the killer clown” because he would dress up in a Pogo the clown costume when he would throw block parties in his neighborhood.

References

• http://crime.about.com/od/serial/p/gacy.htm• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

John_Wayne_Gacy• www.carpenoctem.tv/killers/gacy.htm