Austin Clevenger
Mr. Millskie
Honors Psychology
25 October 2010
John Wayne Gacy
John Wayne Gacy was one of the most established serial killers in American culture. His
killings occurred from 1972 – 1978. He seemed like a normal American man; he owned his
own contracting business, he was a joker at kid’s parties, was a respected member of the
Junior Chamber of Commerce, and was a precinct captain in the local Democratic Party. The
way he killed his victims was cruel and unusual. He lured people into handcuffs by showing
them fake ones that he could slip out of and tell them to try and get out. Once the boys
were handcuffed he would use a rope/ board and hold it across their throats while he raped
them.
As a child John seemed like the average American kid. He was raised as a catholic by his
family and went to 3 different catholic schools. He worked multiple jobs which included
delivering newspapers and bagging groceries; he was also a boy scout. He wasn’t the most
popular child in his community but was liked by almost everyone he was around. Things
took a different turn when he was 11 and he was playing on a swing set. He happened to be
hit by one of the swings in the head which caused a blood clot that wasn’t discovered until
he was 16. The accident caused John to have blackouts throughout his childhood which
could never be explained until the clot got diagnosed when he was 17. The doctor gave
John medicine to treat the clot and it cleared up shortly after. Later this same year, John
was diagnosed with a heart problem that put him in the hospital many times throughout his
life. Nearing the end of his childhood, his relationship with his father began to crumble
because of his father’s repeated alcoholism and his physical and verbal abuse on his wife
and children. While John was in his senior year in high school he attended four different
establishments and ended up choosing not to graduate and drop out. After this he dropped
everything he had and ran off to Vegas. After 3 months of working in Las Vegas as a janitor
for a funeral home he raised enough money to fly back home and see his family once again.
After John returned home from Vegas he enlisted in a local business college, and unlike high
school, he graduated. He grew aware of his skills as a salesman while he was in school and
worked for a shoe company. Another company recognized his ability to sell things and
transferred to a clothing company in Illinois. After moving here his health declined quickly
including back problems and heart ailments. John was a seemingly normal person
throughout his childhood into his adulthood, which is one of the reasons why this created
such a stir.
John Wayne Gacy started committing crimes way before his murders started. His frist
offences were sexual assault, physical assault, and sodomy. This got him sentenced to 10
years in jail. John, being the snake he is, got released on parole 10 months after starting to
serve his sentence all because of good behavior. This would lead to one of the biggest
mistakes in the United States penitentiary systems. Once released, the mayhem began. His
first murder was committed on January 2nd, 1972. John and his wife picked up a 15-year-old
boy by the name of Timothy McCoy; the boy was promised a ride back to the station in the
morning to catch the bus. Only the boy never caught the bus, he got caught in one of John’s
many tricks. The boy was stabbed and killed and then buried under John’s crawl space in his
home. This was the first of many killings to come. John would grab attention of his soon to
be victims by talking to teenage boys about a job where John was the contractor. He would
then start his devious plan to rape and kill them. When John’s second wife divorced him in
1976 the frequency of the killings only got worse. The more depressed he became with his
life the more he killed.
John had happened to slip by the law a time or two, this time he wouldn’t be so lucky.
While in a pharmacy discussing remodeling plans with the owner John had mentioned that
he hired teenage boys to work for him, it just so happened that a 15-year-old boy was
standing within hearing range of Mr. Gacy. John asked the boy to step outside and talk, the
boy told him mother he would be back in a few minutes; he never returned. The owner
then mentioned Gacy to police while at the store because of the missing persons report filed
by the boys mother earlier that day. John denied any interaction with the boy and said he
never offered anyone a job. Once police had enough information to be able to search John’s
home, they happened to find a 1975 high school class ring, other drivers licenses, handcuffs,
books on homosexuality, 2 by 4’s with holes in them, clothes too small for John, and a
syringe. This led police to think he had a connection and placed a 2 man surveillance team
on him. Police later searched his home and distinguished the smell of corpses coming from
the vents. They found bones and could then place murder charges on him. After finding all
of this Gacy realized he was done for. He said he wanted to “clear the air” and confessed
about all of the murders, which is around 25-30.
Psychology plays a role in this case because of the complexity of every different serial
killer case. Each case has multiple different beginnings, middles, and ends. Most serial
killers have a totally normal childhood, which would not make sense to most people. If you
look at most cased, serial killers have a completely normal life and on the side you would
never know what they do. Someone would have to do a full mental evaluation on a serial
killer to see what makes him or her tick. It is different with each person which is why its so
difficult for psychologists to classify this.
I feel that John Wayne Gacy was a very sick, demonistic man. He did things that nobody
should ever do. It is perplexing to think that people are that messed up in the head to
where that can go on killing sprees, store people in their crawl space, and go along with life
as nothing ever happened. There are many sick people in this world but John Wayne Gacy
tops the list.
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5 Serial Killers
1.
Edward “Ed” Gein
Ed Gein was a highly inspirational killer who did his most prominent work between 1947
and 1957. He was a very gruesome character; when he killed he skinned his victims,
exhumed corpses, and decorated his home with an assortment of the victims body parts.
He also used some of these body parts to make household items such as furniture and
clothes. Edward’s killings were inspirational enough so that people wanted to make movies
about them. Some of these movies include Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and the character of
Buffalo Bill in the movie Silence of the Lambs.
2. Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy was one of the most deranged serial killers to walk this planet. His killings
happened from 1974 – 1978. He started killing as early as 14 and didn’t stop until he was
executed in 1989 after confessing to 40 murders. The way he got to kill this many victims
was because of his charismatic charm. He would fake to be injured so the women would
come closer to his car and would then abruptly hit them over the head with a crowbar. He
would sexually assault, rape, strangle, and mutilate his victims.
3. David Berkowitz
- David Berkowitz was an infamous serial killer because of how he wrote letters to the media
and the police, but also because of the motive he had to commit these crimes. His work was
established between 1976 – 1977. Although Berkowitz only killed 6 people, the reason he
was so interesting was because of why he committed these crimes. David said that in order
to keep the demons quiet he had to do what they wanted. David believed that when dogs
howled that the dogs were asking him to kill women.
4. John Wayne Gacy
John Wayne Gacy was one of the most established serial killers in American culture. His
killings occurred from 1972 – 1978. He seemed like a normal American man; he owned his
own contracting business, he was a joker at kid’s parties, was a respected member of the
Junior Chamber of Commerce, and was a precinct captain in the local Democratic party. The
way he killed people was that he lured people into handcuffs, while showing them fake
handcuffs right before and would tell them to try and get out. Once the boys were
handcuffed he would use a rope/ board and hold it across their throats while he raped
them.
5. Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer was one of the most gruesome serial killers known to man. His killings
occurred from 1978 – 1991. He only killed boys of Asian and African descent. The way he
killed his victims was with torture, forced sodomy, dismemberment, necrophilia, and
cannibalism. Jeffrey was first seen fondling a 13 year old boy and sentenced to one year of
work at a release camp. After getting released for good behavior 10 months later, the killing
spree began.
Hasan, Initials. (2007). Americas famous serial killers!. Dir
Journal, Retrieved from
h t t p : / / w w w. d i r j o u r n a l . c o m / i n f o / a m e r i c a s - f a m o u s - s e r i a l killers/