Jonh Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy
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John Wayne Gacy |

Mug shot of John Wayne Gacy |
Background information |
Birth name | John Wayne Gacy, Jr. |
Born | (1942-03-17)March 17, 1942
Chicago, Illinois, USA |
Died | May 10, 1994(1994-05-10) (aged 52)
Crest Hill, Illinois, USA |
Cause of death | Lethal injection|
Conviction | * Murder * Sexual assault * Indecent liberties with a child |
Sentence | Death |
Killings |
Number of victims | 33-34 |
Country | United States |
State(s) | Illinois |
Date apprehended | December 21, 1978 |
John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer and rapist who sexually assaulted and murdered at least 33 teenage boysand young men between 1972 and 1978. Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the crawl space of his home, buried three others elsewhere on his property, and discarded the remains of his last four known victims in a nearby river. He was convicted of 33 murders and sentenced to death for 12 of these killings. He was executed in May 1994.
Gacy later became known as the "Killer Clown" due to his charitableservices at fundraising events, parades and children's parties where he would dress as "Pogo the Clown", a character he devised himself.
Contents[hide] * 1 Early life * 2 Move to Iowa * 2.1 First offenses * 3 Conviction and imprisonment * 4 Parole * 5 Businessman and community volunteer * 6 Murders * 7 Investigation * 8 Arrest and confession * 8.1 Search for victims* 9 Trial * 10 Death row * 10.1 Execution * 11 Artwork * 12 Victims * 12.1 Identified victims (age in parentheses) * 12.2 Unidentified victims * 12.3 Possible additional victims * 13 Inspiration for the formation of Missing Child Recovery Act of 1984 * 14 Potential accomplices * 15 Media * 15.1 Film * 15.2 Books * 15.3 Television * 16 References *17 Cited works and further reading * 18 External links |
[edit] Early life
John Wayne Gacy was born in Chicago, Illinois, the second of three children born to John Stanley Gacy (June 20, 1900 – December 25, 1969) and Marion Elaine Robinson (May 4, 1908 – December 14, 1989).[1][2][3] Gacy was of Polish and Danish heritage. (His paternal grandparents had been born in Poland.)[4][1] As a child,he was both overweight and nonathletic. He was close to his two sisters and mother, but endured a difficult relationship with his father, an alcoholic who was physically abusive toward both his wife and children.[5][6]
Throughout his childhood, Gacy strove to make his father proud of him, but seldom received his approval: one of Gacy's earliest childhood memories was of being beaten with aleather belt by his father at the age of 4 for accidentally disarranging car engine components his father had assembled.[7] He was regularly belittled by his father and often compared unfavorably with his sisters, enduring disdainful accusations of being "dumb and stupid". The friction between father and son was constant throughout his childhood and adolescence, yet in interviews after his arrest, Gacyalways vehemently denied he hated him.[8] On one occasion when he was six years old, Gacy stole a toy truck from a neighborhood store: his mother made him walk back to the store, return the toy and apologize to the owners. When his mother told his father, Gacy was beaten with a belt. After this incident, Gacy's mother attempted to shield her son from his father's verbal and physical abuse,[9] yetthis only succeeded in Gacy earning accusations from his father that he was a "sissy" and a "Mama's boy"[6] who would "probably grow up queer".
At the age of nine, Gacy was molested by a family friend,[6] a contractor who would take Gacy for rides in his truck, then fondle him. Gacy never told his father about these incidents as he was afraid he would bear the blame in his father's eyes.
At...