There is something about the psyche of a serial killer that has always intrigued me. What is it that makes one desire to take the life of another human being? Is it truly evil? Is it a psychological problem? Is it a flaw in the chemical balances in the brain? One thing for sure, it is beyond the normality to commit murder over and over, and there is a darkness about it that even the innocent fear could be within them.

Many people will not even read a book about serial killers. There seems to be a fear that by reading about it, we may open up some desire to murder that is hidden deep within us. If you tell someone you have a book on Serial Killers, they will often look at you askew, as if wondering what darkness you are hiding. But there is something about Serial Killers that intrigues most of us, even if we will not admit to it. That is why so many will watch horror movies and read books about murders. It's almost as if reading about fictional killings is okay, but true Serial Killers is not.

Oct 29, 2010

John Wayne Gacy


Name: John Wayne Gacy

Born: May 17, 1942 (Chicago Illinois)

Died: May 10, 1994

Cause and Effect:
John Wayne Gacy was often beaten by his father, whom he was named after. At the age of 11, John was knocked unconscious by a vicious swing and through out his teen years would have black outs.

John Wayne Gacy left school without graduating and traveled to Las Vegas in hopes of making his fortunes. Instead, he ended up working in a mortuary where he showed an unhealthy interest in the bodies.

Model Citizen:
In 1964, John married Marlyn Myers, whose father owned a string of Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises. Soon after, Gacy joined the family business and became a restaurant manager. Soon the couple had a child and John became very active in local charities and community groups around their new home in Waterloo, Iowa. By all accounts, John Wayne Gacy was the model citizen, but underneath that image was a monster waiting to be let out. That monster first showed its face in May of 1968 when Gacy was charged with raping Mark Miller, a young employee. John Wayne Gacy was sentenced to 10 years for sodomy and his wife divorced him.

Released from prison after only 18 months for good behavior, his mother helped him get back on his feet. His father died while he was in prison. John bought a new house in the Chicago Suburbs and in June of 1972 he got married again, this time to a divorcee, Carole Hoff, who had two daughters of her own. John, Carole and her daughters became very popular in the neighborhood as they would throw parties with Western or Hawaiian themes and became active in Democratic politics.

The Monster begins to show again:
As time went on, rumors began to spread about Gacy's conduct with teenage boys he would hire. By 1975, his marriage began to deteriorate as Carole started finding homosexual pornography around the house. John refused to apologize and even told her he preferred men over women. They divorced in 1976.

The Killings:
Little did anyone know, while John was married to Carole, he had been picking up strangers in Chicago's gay bars and after killing them, would bury the bodies under their house. Even the neighbors had made complaints about the horrible smells coming from their house. With his marriage over, John's lust for killing was in full force.

Gacy would either pick up strangers, or lure men from his work force back to his home where he would offer them alcohol and marijuana. He would then offer to show them a magic trick where he would have them put on a pair of handcuffs. His victims, now subdued, were at his mercy as he tortured them then strangled them to death as he had sex with them.

The Clown:
Gacy continued to lure men to his home and kill them, burying them under the house. Though his neighbors still continued to complain about the smell, they never suspected what was happening. John continued to throw parties and dressing up as "Pogo the Clown" to visit sick kids in hospitals. He became such a valued member of the Democratic Party that he even had his picture taken shaking hands with the First Lady Roslyn Carter.

His Mistake:
In February of 1978, Gacy abducted Jeffrey Rignall. He chloroformed him, raped him and tortured him, but rather than killing him, Gacy dropped him off in a park. When Rignall went to the police, they showed little interest and the young man managed to act alone as he tracked Gacy down and made an official complaint.

On October 16th, Gacy still had not been charged with a crime when he killed 15 year old Robert Piest. When the young man turned up missing, his parents found that he was going to meet John Gacy to see about a job. When the police questioned Gacy, he played ignorant, but the officer was not satisfied and checked his house. Finding suspicious evidence like handcuffs, pornography and drugs, along with the smell coming from the house, they confronted Gacy who eventually confessed to a single murder.

When the police went back and started digging, they were shocked to find not one body, but dozens buried underneath his house. In all, there were 28 victims buried under the house. Gacy's 5 most recent victims had been dumped in nearby rivers as he had run out of space under the house.

The Sentence:
Gacy tried to plea insanity, however the jury decided that any man who would dig graves ahead of time for his victims was not the act of a man taken by uncontrollable sudden urges. Finding the murders to be in premeditation, John Wayne Gacy was sentenced to death.

Gacy obtained a sort of celebrity status as his admirers were able to call a premium rate number and listen to his refute of the charges against him. He gave frequent interviews and showed his fans his paintings. Toward the end of his time on Death Row, Gacy began to claim that he had never killed at all, but was the victim of an elaborate conspiracy.

On May 10, 1994, John Wayne Gacy was put to death by lethal injection.

Total Kills:
Confirmed - 33

15 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. Forgive me for removing a couple of posts. I will not allow my blogs become a board off subject about strange religions and others attacking those religions.

    I myself am a Christian and that is the ONLY belief structure I will condone. Yet I will not even allow my blogs to be used for preaching my own beliefs.

    Please keep comments to the subject.

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  3. omg i seen the movie is it live not planning the movie>?

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  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  5. gacy got what he deserved he was a cold hearted asshole. people lost their sons because of him there was something really wrong with him. he deserved to die!!

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  6. Psychopaths may have uncontrollable, compulsive, violent and/or sexual urges, but they still understand that what they are doing is wrong. Fantasizing is not wrong at all, it is part of human nature, and we all experience sexual and/or murderous fantasies. Acting out on them and knowing that it's wrong, however, is not okay. John Wayne Gacy Jr. was a Psychopath, and a such, he was able to dehumanize his victims in the worst ways possible because he couldn't feel any empathy for them or remorse for his actions. He was literally incapable of doing so, just like all Psychopaths. Just remember how a serial killer is born folks:Pre-existing psychopathy loads the gun, psychological deviance aims it, and bad enviornment(such as abuse and/or neglect)pulls the trigger, and all of these factors applied to John Wayne Gacy Jr.,the Killer Clown.

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    1. For every psychopathic killer out there, there are a hundred more who have not taken that first step. I have to disagree with you about fantasizing. The more one fantasizes about a subject, the more you are in fact training your brain to do something. Do you think these killers first kills are easy and nothing to them? There is a reason they often start with small animals and work their way up. Before even that small animal, they are fantasizing about it and continue to do so until that first one happens.

      If you think about killing someone, and you actually dwell on that fantasy? That is the time to start looking for help. Not after the first one happens.

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  7. I believe that Gacy was a tortured soul who never received the help he desperately needed. Who's to say his violent outburst weren't a direct complication from a damaged brain due to his father beating him? I say that not to dismiss what he did. I view serial killing as a mental illness since evidence has shown that their brains are different from others. Why execute or lock them up? Why not get them the help they need after all some of these people actually have families? By help I mean medication and a mentor (trusting person) to check on them. I believe with medication, support, and dedication people can change.

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    1. Gacy was definitely a tortured soul and I do believe he had head injuries that pushed him over that edge. But no matter how much help and medicine someone like this ever gets on, I would not want to trust them to be out in public, living down the street from a family member. Remember, there are many stories out there where people have killed family members because they stopped taking their medicine. You simply couldnt trust someone like this to take their medicine much less not kill again.

      The family dog can be a great pet and you can love it to death, but if it attacks and kills a child, it has to be put down. It just cant be trusted to never do it again. It sucks. It would be wonderful if you can fix people like this. But there isnt a perfect fix and if you can never trust them to be out in public again, I think you just have to put them down.

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  8. Hi,
    Years go there was a dreadful smell in one of the bedrooms of my house, We looked & found the decaying body of a dead cat. The smell of this one cat was unbearable.
    Gacy killed at leasr 33 young men between 1972-1978, 26 victims were buried in the crawl space of his home. (?)
    Cheers
    Mira

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  9. How do you kill someone & bury them under a house.
    You dig the grave first.
    How do you hide it - being covered in dirt / dirty clothes / loose dirt surrounding the entrancre to the crawl space & yard - from your wife & daughters - then there is the smell - maybe blood in the house, some chest wounds bleed internally only.
    Gacy planned the snatch & kill meticulously before hand - he wanted a successful kill & it was the kill & not the sex that drove him.
    He may have met the boys before - a young man & especially those who had grown up as wards of the state are incredibly street savvy - they can smell 'IT' on you.
    So how did he connect with the boys, to have developed even a slight element of trust with them
    If he was bi-sexual & he was he engaged in normal male on male sex regularily.
    I suggest to you that the women he lived with knew - at least.
    His sister seemed to know him very well & she knew nothing .... /?
    Either she knew & is not telling, or she was an outsider in his life & is fabricating the knowledgeabel relationship.
    David Cram is a puzzel to me - he dug trenches under the house - he was cuffed & menaced & all this was not strange -
    PLANNED is the opperative word for me here - so as to make sure it was a successful venture.
    Can you see I am a who dun it fan ?
    Cheers
    Mira

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  10. p.s.
    and 4 bodies were found floating in the river
    what was that all about
    spontaneity .../?
    1: they were not his kills
    2: he did them with someone else - looking for a companion = male to sahre & care with - in the proccess lost control of the adventure to someone else - where exactly were the river 4 bodies killed so as to look for another killing site & maybe more victims.
    Over to you Sherlock.
    Mira

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  11. I think the scary thing which everyone realized when Gacy was discovered is that Gacy was a model(ish) citizen that did a damn well job to hide all his flaws.
    So that fact that he was able to cover almost all his kills and walk the streets with a persona of a regular man just makes people paranoid of the possibilities strangers can do since we never truly know others true stories or what they've done >-<

    However, this definitely makes me question peoples sanity and psychological behavior. Like , how was he able to handle that big of a burden? How did pretend he was sane?How can it be so satisfying to snatch away another person's life? someones son? Brother? Why, what was the purpose?
    Too much question that probably cannot be answered.

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