John Wayne Gacy – a Man Full of Evil

Something sad and dark lies behind the smile of some clowns. These characters, which were thought to express joy, are often the nightmare of many children. Above all, for those who grew up reading Stephen King and his classic, 'It.' But the worst part is that this clown is not just a fiction: it existed, and his name was John Wayne Gacy. On March 17, 1942, John Wayne Gacy was born in Chicago, the serial killer who shocked American public opinion in the 1970s for moving from being an exemplary citizen to a terrible homicidal psycho. John Wayne Gacy was a true predator, a serial killer who fed his fantasies and sexual appetites between 1972 and 1978.

Many say that, because he was the son of an alcoholic who discharged all his fury on his wife and son, Gacy's head began to rot very soon. Wayne's father never imagined that the humiliations his son was going through with constant allusions to his obesity and sexual ambiguity would mark the mind of a potential psychopath. Living in an emotionally unstructured family environment was decisive for the mental state of this murderer, who developed an insecure profile and a tendency to feel guilty. Which led him to commit thirty-three murders with sexual connotations, being victims of these heinous crimes, young boys. But despite a conflict-filled childhood, he managed to create the stable family environment he never had and occupy a relevant position in the workplace, standing out as a great commercial and entrepreneur. Apart from this, he was also known as the perfect neighbor. He was a hardworking man, as well as committed to the community. It is said that he collaborated with different social works in parades and parties for children dressed as a clown, without anyone being able to imagine the real monster that was hiding behind the grotesque painting on his face. I think that his desire to be relevant and gain recognition from society dominated him above good and evil.

The modus operandi of the killer clown was based on deception. Either he offered to take his victims in his car or invited them to his house with the excuse of offering them a job. Once there, he drugged them with chloroform, took them to his terror room, where he tortured them, and delighted in putting his sodomy into practice. Finally, he strangled them and buried the lifeless bodies in the garden or in the basement. In my opinion, the figure of a clown seems to be due to identification with his traumatic childhood. Situation that caused him to suffer from serious sexual dysfunctions and motivated him to seek in sodomy and murder an antidote against the impotence he felt. On the other hand, his victims were male, thus calming another of the traumas inflicted by his father: guilt. Especially, when he tortured and killed his victims, he ended his own childhood image by way of atonement for his guilt or false sins. With a highly antisocial personality, but with incredible cynicism, he used to organize meetings in his house without caring to raise suspicions. He seemed not to be aware of the seriousness of his criminal actions. Apparently, he suffered a lack of connection with reality. It was as if he were able to separate his life as a murderer with that of an exemplary man. Other of its most relevant features are egocentrism and the desire for domination. It was not enough to kill his victims, he needed to feel that his victims suffered and begged, just as Wayne did with his father. He needed to punish his youthful image and acquired the dominant figure of his father.

His criminal acts came to an end in December 1978 when the police opened an investigation and discovered that John Wayne already had a criminal record and had been imprisoned twice for harassment, assault and rape of teenagers. The police obtained a search warrant for Wayne’s house and found extensive torture instruments. Wayne confessed his crimes, facilitating the task of locating victims inside his home. Some of the victims could never be identified; Other victims' remains were found distributed in different places in Illinois. Also, a conclusive statement for the future of this murderer was, the story of Jeffrey Regnall. One of the lucky ones who survived this terror, recounted how this man after picking him up in the street with his car, pounced on him with a handkerchief impregnated with chloroform, later remembering only the image of a naked clown torturing him. Wayne was sentenced to capital punishment, being executed by lethal injection in 1994. Without a doubt he will be remembered, but as a man full of evil, miserable, sadistic and cynical.