JOHN WAYNE GACY
“THE CLOWN KILLER”
WHO IS JOHN WAYNE GACY?
John Wayne Gacy was born on March 17, 1942 in Chicago, IL. As a child, John
was overweight and not athletic. He was close with his family, but was not close
to his father due to him being an alcoholic and because he physical abused his
wife and children. John strived to get his fathers approval. At the age of 4, one
of Johns first memories were being beaten by a leather belt by his father.
Another memory was being hit in the head by a broom handle knocking him
unconscious.
WHAT HAPPENED TO GACY?
• When he was 6 years old, John 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. His mother told his father, who beat Gacy with a belt as
punishment. After this incident, Gacy's mother attempted to shield her son from
his father's verbal and physical abuse, yet this only lead his father to calling
him a "sissy" and a "Mama's boy“ who would "probably grow up queer."
LATER IN LIFE:
• John got married twice.
• First marriage to: Carole Hoff (1 June 1972 - 2 March 1976) (divorced)
• Second marriage to: Marlynn Myers (9 April 1964 - 9 November 1968) (divorced) (2
children)
• With in his second marriage John had two kids, a son and daughter: Michael
Gacy and Christine Gacy.
Pictured here is Gacy, his
wife and children
LATER IN LIFE CONT. :
• Gacy was a very liked man. He was also well known in his community. Within
his community, Gacy owned his own business. With in is store, he would hire
young men. He was also big in to politics in his town. He was big with in the
democratic party. Gacy was voted the Man of the year. In Gacy’s spare time,
he dressed as a clown and worked at children parties. (the clown killer)
Pictured to the left is Gacy and First
lady, Rosalyn Carter.
Pictured to the right, is Gacy in his
clown outfit he would wear at parties.
KILLING BACKGROUND:
•
Gacy most notorious for killing young men from ages 15-21. He made it clear
throughout the time he was killing that he was not gay. He stated, “I am NOT gay! I
am bisexual”. Gacy killed 33 young men in his own home. He buried 29 of his victims
in the crawl spaces in his home. Gacy said he would lore the young men in to his
home by promising them pornographic pictures, pot and alcohol. Also, he would use
the “handcuff trick”. He would place fake handcuffs on his victims and them remove
them. While the boy wasn’t looking he would place real handcuffs on them and
torture them until they were almost dead. When the victim was at there weakest that
is when Gacy would kill them.
Pictured: victims of John Wayne
Gacy. Not all Victims are
pictured
WHEN IT ALL STARTED:
• In August 1967, John committed to his first account of sexual assault to a
teenage boy. The first victim was Donald Voorhees (age 15). It was said that
Gacy got Voorhees to his house by promising him pornographic films. While
Voorhees was at his house, Gacy gave him alcohol and got the boy to
preform oral sex on him. Gacy let Voorhees go. When Voorhees was home, he
told his family about the account. Gacy was put in jail, but when he was let
out he still sexually assaulted young men but never was caught.
WHEN THE KILLING ACTUALLY STARTED:
In 1975, Gacy turned to killing. It was said that Gacy focused on victims that
would be the “less dead”; People who wouldn’t be missed. Within the amount of
time gacy turned to killing, he killed a total of 33 young men. All in the ages of
15-21.
CONTINUED:
• All that Gacy killed, he would burry in his crawl space of his own home. When
people came over to his house, he would blame the smell of bodies on “sewer
problems”.
• After his second marriage fell apart, between April 6 and June 13, 1976, at
least 5 young men were murdered in Gacys’ home.
CONTINUED:
• Not all Gacy's victims were murdered. Some were just rapped and set free.
• Even though gacy had a record, none of the cops believed what gacys victims
were telling the truth.
VICTIMS:
• Greg Godzik, 17
• John Szyc, 19
• Robert Piest, 15
• John Butkovich, 17
• Tom Boling
• David Talsma
• Robert Winch
• Russell Nelson
• John Mowery
• Robert Gilroy, 18
• Matthew Bowman
• John Prestige
• Rick Johnson
• William Carroll, 16
• Samuel Stapleton
• Randall Reffelt
• Darrell Simpson
• Billy Kindred
• Frank Landingin
• James Mazzara
• + 13 unidentified males
THE NIGHT OF FINDINGS:
• On October 12, 1978 a 14 year old boy went missing from his job. When the
police showed up at Gacy's home to question him about it, they noticed a
smell coming from the crawl spaces and knew that it wasn’t sewer problems.
• The cops then got a search warrant and began to search his home. When
searching his home they found 28 bodies in the crawl space of his home. They
also found 5 more bodies in rivers nearby his home.
WHEN IN CUSTODY:
• When in custody, gacy tried to blame his acts on “Jack” (his alter ego).
• Gacy was convicted on 33 counts of first-degree murder in march 1980. life
sentences were listed down in 21 of the cases covering deaths that occurred
before June 21 1977. 12 More death sentences were made in the cases of
victims murdered between July 1977 and December 1978.
TESTIMONIES:
• Three psychiatric experts appeared for the defense at Gacy’s trail had
testified him to be a paranoid schizophrenic suffering from a multiple
personality disorder. When tested they found this wasn’t true. (going back to
his alter ego “Jack”)
WHEN IN TRIAL:
• During the third week of the trial Gacy’s defense team tried to raise the
possibility that all 33 murders were accidental erotic asphyxia deaths. The
Cook County Coroner countered this with evidence that Gacy’s claim was
impossible.
WHEN IN JAIL:
• The next 14 years gacy remained a inmate of death row.
While in jail he considered him self the 34 victim of
a insidious murder plot, with the killer still at large.
• Being a clown as a job, while in jail he painted
himself as a clown and hung them all around his jail cell.
QUOTES FROM GACY:
• “You know clowns get away with murder”
• “the only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a
license.”
MOVIE TRAILER:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW5Ed113rUU
WHAT WAS CONTRADICTORY ABOUT GACY
• He was said to be crazy; to have a multi-personality disorder. When in trial,
his attorney said that this is the reason on why he committed the murders.
When tested at the hospital, he was found not to have anything wrong with
him.
• People said he was a well liked man, and he would not cause any harm to
anyone; but yet he killed 33 young men.
SOURCES:
• https://www.google.com/search?q=john+wayne+gacys+and+Carole+Hoff&espv=210&es_sm=122&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei
=EbchU8PjDMaLkAfEjoHwCg&ved=0CCUQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=667#q=john+wayne+gacys+and+marlynn+myers&tbm=isch&imgdii=_
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy#Early_life
• The encyclopedia of serial killers second edition
• Killers among us- movie
• http://www.biography.com/people/john-wayne-gacy-10367544
• http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0300475/bio
• http://criminalminds.wikia.com/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy
•
http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/john-wayne-gacy-executed-lethal-injection-21275314
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy#Early_life