John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994), also known as the Killer Clown, was an American serial killer and rapist who was convicted of the sexual assault and murder of a minimum of 33 teenage boys and young men in a series of killings committed between 1972 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.All of Gacy's known murders were committed inside his Norwood Park Township home; his victims would typically be lured to this address by force or deception and all but one victim were murdered by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a tourniquet (his first victim was stabbed to death). Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the crawl space of his home; three further victims were buried elsewhere on his property, while the bodies of his last four known victims were discarded in the Des Plaines River.Convicted of 33 murders, Gacy was sentenced to death for 12 of these killings on March 13, 1980. He spent 14 years on death row before he was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.Gacy became known as the "Killer Clown" due to his charitable services at fundraising events, parades and children's parties where he would dress as "Pogo the Clown", a character he devised himself.
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| 1 | The idea that I'm a homosexual thrill killer, that I stroll down the streets and stalk young boys and slaughter them... Hell, if you could see my schedule, my work schedule, you knew damn well that I was never out there. |
| 2 | Whether its [David] Berkowitz, whether its [Ted] Bundy, whether its Williams, Wayne Williams down in Atlanta or any of the others, or Charlie Manson-I don't comment about other cases for the simple fact is that I wasn't there. |
| 3 | GG Allin is an entertainer with a message to a sick society. He makes us look at it for what we really are. The human is just another animal who is able to speak out freely, to express himself clearly. Make no mistake about it, behind what he does is a brain. |
| 4 | That one mother [of victim] that gets on television all the time, who thinks I should get 33 injections, I think she ought to take 33 valiums and go lie down. |
| 5 | I would definitely not be homosexual. I have nothing against what they do and I don't deny that I've engaged in sex with males but that I'm bisexual. |
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| 1 | Had an IQ of 118, signifying near superior intelligence. |
| 2 | Was of Polish (on his father's side) and Danish (on his mother's side) descent. |
| 3 | Was active in the Democratic Party. |
| 4 | Was diagnosed with a non-specific heart ailment at 17 and suffered with the pain till his death but never had a heart attack |
| 5 | At age 11, he was hit in the back of the head so hard it caused a blood clot in his brain. This clot led to blackouts until it was discovered by doctors when he was 16. The blackouts went away shortly after taking medication to treat the clot. |
| 6 | Was raised as a Catholic |
| 7 | Had two sisters: Joanne (b.1940) and Karen (b.1944) |
| 8 | Children by first wife: son, Michael (b. March 1967); daughter, Christine (b. January 1969). Both were born in Waterloo, Iowa, where Gacy was managing a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant for his father-in-law. |
| 9 | Was stepfather to second wife, Carol Hoff's, two daughters |
| 10 | The prison where Gacy was held is being used for FOX's TV series "Prison Break" |
| 11 | Gacy dabbled in oil paintings while in prison. He would paint Disney characters like "the Seven Dwarves", Michelangelo's "Pieta" or even self-portraits as "Pogo the Clown". After his execution these paintings have become trendy collectors items. Film director John Waters and actor Johnny Depp are some celebrities who own his paintings. His art dealer was Rick Staton of Grindhouse Graphics. |
| 12 | Member of the Des Plaines, Illinois and the the Waterloo, Iowa Junior Chamber of Commerce. |
| 13 | Claimed that he was the victim of multiple personality disorder, and that his atrocities were actually the work of an evil alter ego named Jack. |
| 14 | Execution lasted 18 minutes after one of the IV lines clogged. |
| 15 | Sentenced to death on March 12, 1980. |
| 16 | Gacy's final meal was shrimp, Kentucky Fried Chicken and French fries. |
| 17 | In 1975, Gacy volunteered himself and his employees to clean up Norwood Park's (IL) Democratic Party headquarters, impressing the party's township committeeman, who, unaware of Gacy's past, nominated him to the town's street lighting commission. |
| 18 | On Friday, December 22, 1978, Gacy finally confessed to police that he killed at least thirty people and buried most of the remains of the victims beneath the crawl space of his house. Hist first killing took place in January, 1972. He further confessed that he would lure his victims into being handcuffed and then he would sexually assault them. To muffle the screams of his victims, he would stuff a sock or underwear into their mouths and kill them by pulling a rope or board against their throats, as he raped them. Gacy admitted to sometimes keeping the dead bodies under his bed or in the attic for several hours before eventually burying them in the crawl space. |
| 19 | In the spring of 1968, Gacy was indicted by a grand jury in Black Hawk County for allegedly committing the act of sodomy with a teenage boy named Mark Miller. This was his first known crime. |
| 20 | Soon after Gacy returned home to Chicago from Las Vegas in the early 1960s, he enrolled himself into a business college and eventually graduated. While at business college, he perfected his talent in salesmanship: Gacy was a born salesman who could talk his way in and out of almost anything. |
| 21 | After attending four high schools in his senior year and never graduating, Gacy dropped out of school and left home for Las Vegas. While in Vegas, he worked part time as a janitor in a funeral parlor performing odd jobs. |
| 22 | Serial killer of 33 young men and boys (ages 9 to 22) from 1974 to 1978. |
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