John Wayne Gacy a serious mischievous killer

Ramona Ross

Georgia Gwinnett College

John Wayne Gacy a serious mischievous killer

Introduction

There are famous criminals in America who have been reported everywhere. John Wayne Gacy is an example of a criminal whereby words like a socialist, entertainer, businessman, murderer, psychotic sadistic individual are words one would use to describe him. John Gacy was considered as a nice man because he often would dress up as a clown and entertain kids. The image of him being a good person ended when he started to rape, torture and kill people. Perhaps one would say John did entertain kids to hide his real nature and obtain victims for his crimes.

Background Information

John Gacy had a rough past as his dad was an alcoholic. Also, at a young age Gacy was struck with an instrument that caused him to have a blood clot. His mother showed much care to John unlike his mother who was harsh and treated him like a grown up man. Unfortunately, his father warned his mother that John was going to be queer, but no one knew that he was going to be a serial killer clown (Carpozi, G., & Wheeler, P. 1972). Because of John’s fathers verbal abuse, he carried that energy with his victims. He didn’t have any compassion or sympathy because of his fathers’ harsh words. This can be linked to theories that describe how one is treated at an early age determines how one will treat others.

It is so ironical that as Gacy grew up he wanted to be a police officer yet ended up a big criminal. John was a good student at start but at teen age he begun to transfer schools and later dropped out while in Vegas. Years later while in prison he decided to finish high school and took college courses.

John Wayne Gacy was a contractor who was married at a young age. Criminal life started when he would help the employees of the businesses he did manage to steal. When his second born was born he was accused of harassing a 16-year-old boy sexually and was taken to prison. After his first time in jail, his wife divorced him and took the kids away from him as well. Afterwards, Gacy moved into a small apartment where he lured, tortured, and raped young men (Kozenczak, J. R., & Kozencz, K. M. 2003). Gacy was respected in his community because he was a successful business man who had his own company.

His spare time was the problem because while posing as “Pogo the Clown”, Gacy was really on the lookout for his next victim. He would lure his victims in by promising them that he had construction work for them. Once the victims were in his house, Gacy would torture them with utensils such as a rope. Gacy would kill his victims and bury them under his house and sometimes by the river close to his house. Gacy never did his torture or killings outside of his house but sometimes the bodies would come up outside of his house (Anderson, K. R., & Braun, B. R. 1994). Unfortunately, the police caught up to Gacy’s ways because even a serial killer can make mistakes.

Conviction

At Waterloo Iowa he was accused by a 15-year-old and another boy of sexually abusing them. Gacy denied the allegations but was indicted by a grand jury later that month. He paid another boy to beat up one of the accusers. He was not affected by his actions but went on harassing other people sexually. He was found competent to stand trial, fortunately he pled guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison but only served 21 months (Sullivan, & Maiken, 2013). John was said to have made 33 male killings and rape cases. Gacy convicted on March 13, 1980 of 33 counts of 1st degree murder. He was sentenced to 21 consecutive life sentences and 12 death sentences. Executed in 1994 when he died after a lethal injection (Anderson, K. R., & Braun, B. R. 1994). This was justice since all h deserved was to die.

Conclusion

John Wayne was a psychopath who would blame his actions on the victims and say that he was trying to defend himself. John’s actions begun at an early age for example during his childhood when he was 10, he buried his mother’s panties the same way he would busy the bodies when he got older and committed murder. Ones actions and future is always seen and can be judged at an early age as John’s father did.

References

Sullivan, T., & Maiken, P. T. (2013). Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders. Pinnacle Books.

Carpozi, G., & Wheeler, P. (1972). The John Wayne Story. Arlington House.

Anderson, K. R., & Braun, B. R. (1994). The Legal Legacy of John Wayne Gacy: The Irrebuttable Presumption That Juries Understand and Follow Jury Instructions. Marq. L. Rev., 78, 791.

Kozenczak, J. R., & Kozencz, K. M. (2003). The Chicago Killer: The Hunt for serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Xlibris Corporation.