John Wayne Gacy: The Killer Crown who Performed Magic Tricks and Killed People Brutally! Know Why!

What comes to your mind when you hear the name 'Killer Clown'? A clown killing people! Well, John Wayne Gacy from the USA was no different. Gacy was a serial killer and sex offender who is convicted of murdering and raping some 33 people.

The creepiest part about his crimes was that all of his victims were either young men or kids. But, this was not the reason why he was the Killer Clown. Read this article to find out about this maniac clown, why he was called the Killer Clown, and why he killed so many people.

Early Life

John Wayne Gacy was born on 17th March 1942 in the city of Chicago, Illinois, US. He was the only son with two sisters of a World War I veteran John Stanley Gacy who worked as a repair mechanic post-retirement.

His mother was a homemaker. During his childhood, he wasn't very athletic and quite overweight too. His father was an alcoholic and abusive towards his mother and him.

Gacy's father never liked him and often used to call him dumb and stupid. Although, Gacy never admitted hating his father. Gacy was regularly beaten and abused by his father using a leather belt. During childhood, he once attempted to steal a toy truck from his neighborhood store. His mother was against this attitude and made him apologize to the store owner.

Gacy had a congenital heart condition while he studied in elementary school. This limited his physical activities and made him gain weight. For his disease and being overweight, his other classmates bullied him.

He experienced continuous unexplained blackouts. He spent several months in hospital for treatment when he was 11. Previously doctors were unable to diagnose the cause, which made his father believe that the blackouts were fake.

He spent five long years visiting hospitals. Later, doctors found Gacy had a clot in his brain and treated him. Despite Gacy's delicate health conditions, his father did not stop his drinking. Moreover, his father continuously beat and tortured him.

Years passed by and Gacy learnt to control his emotions. He stopped crying when his father abused him, which provoked his father's anger.

After missing his school during his treatments, Gacy found difficulties in catching up with the lessons taught in his school and finally dropped out. This solidified his father's accusation that Gacy was no better than a fool.

He lived with his parents, even at the age of 18. He engaged himself with the Democratic Party and started working as an assistant captain. It was during these days he began to enjoy positive attention and received a prestigious position.

Gacy's father became jealous of his improvements and teased him, stating, "Party Patsy." But, these years of abuse wore Gacy down. After his father refused Gacy to use his own car, he fled to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Gacy's mother always protected him from his father. That made his father call him things like "Mama's Boy" and "sissy". His father often said that Gacy would grow up a queer. In 1949, Gacy and one of his friends were accused of fondling a young girl. Gacy was also molested by one of his family friends but never disclosed the incident.

Also Read: M Jaishankar: Serial Rapist and Killer who Picked up Women from Road and Raped Till Her Death

Killer Clown

In 1975, John Wayne Gacy joined a local Moose Club as a member and became aware of a clown club called "Jolly Joker". The main job of the Jolly Joker club was to perform for hospitalized kids to raise funds. Gacy created one of his characters called "Pogo the Clown".

He performed at various events as Pogo the Clown. He was known to design his costumes and do his makeup. This was the very reason why he was nicknamed as the "Killer Clown". By 1975, Gacy divorced his wife, claiming himself to be bisexual and saying he was more into men.

On 26th July 1976, Gacy handcuffed one of his drunk employees, David Cram, an 18-year-old boy, and tried to assault him. Although Cram saved himself from Gacy that night. He was abused again when Gacy once showed up on Cram's doorstep. Such similar events happened with a few of his more employees too.

The Murders

John Wayne Gacy's typical style of committing his crimes was abducting his victims from Chicago Greyhound Bus Station, Bughouse Square, or from the streets. His victims were either conned into believing that Gacy was a policeman or abducting them. Some of his victims were also conned for a job, a drink, drugs, or sometimes money for sex.

He used to handcuff his victims, claiming that he would show them a handcuff magic trick. He raped and abused his handcuffed victims by doing stuff like burning them with lit cigars or by sitting on their chests. Gacy committed his first murder on 2nd January 1972.

It was a 16-year-old boy named Timothy McCoy. Gacy abducted McCoy from the Greyhound Bus Station. He killed him by stabbing his chest several times with a knife. He went on to murder 33 young people.

Arrest, Confession, and Execution

On 22nd December 1978, John Wayne Gacy confessed to the police that he had committed around 25 to 30 murders and buried them in the crawl space of his house. He also claimed that most of his murders were either teenage runaways or male prostitutes. Upon investigation, police found 26 dead bodies buried under Gacy's crawl space.

On 6th February 1980, Gacy was convicted of committing 33 murders. It was also indicated that Gacy was aware of his actions. Upon David Cram's testimony, it was proved that John Wayne Gacy was a convicted murderer and sex offender. Gacy was transferred to Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois, where he served 14 years of imprisonment.

On 9th May 1994, Gacy was supposed to be executed. Before his execution, he was injected with some chemicals which solidified. This caused Gacy's IV tube to clog and complicate the process. On 10th May 1994, 12:58 am, Gacy was pronounced dead in the execution center.

Conclusion

Murder is the penultimate of humanity. But still, there are people out there who indulge in such activities, and John Wayne Gacy was one of the most treacherous ones.

Up Next: Auto Shankar Alias Gowri Shankar - Criminal "If he were alive today, he would have been a minister"

For such interesting Story about Serial Killers, Sign Up Now