Roxanne Kelly
Professor Johnson
CJS 101
April 4, 2018
John Wayne Gacy: American Serial Killer
John Wayne Gacy was an American serial killer and rapist who took the lives of at least
thirty three young males in Cook County, Illinois, during the 1970s. Gacy, also known as the
“Serial Killer Clown,” buried his victims underneath his house and also along the Des Plaines
River. Gacy would perform as his alter ego, “Pogo the Clown” at children’s parties. No one
would have ever guessed that this friendly clown performer was doubling as a sadistic, evil
killer. He would often lure his young victims with the promise of construction work, but once
they showed up for the job, he would capture, sexual assault and eventually strangle them,
usually with a rope.
John Wayne Gacy was born in Chicago, Illionois on March 17, 1942. His father was an
abusive alcoholic and John had a hard time forming a relationship with him. Gacy’s father
would beat him so brutally that he would sometimes become unconscious. Although his mother
tried to protect him from this abuse it proved to no avail. He was later sexually molested by a
family friend while he was still only a boy. Gacy also suffered from a heart condition that
limited him from working out and he was often bullied for being overweight. His father’s abuse
continued and it pushed Gacy to move out of the family home. He moved away to Las Vegas,
Nevada in 1962 where he found work as a mortuary attendant. One day while working the job
he hugged and caressed one of the dead bodies in the mortuary. Shocked and appalled by his
own behavior, he ran back home to his parents, not sure what to make of the feeling he felt while
caressing the dead body. When Gacy moved back home he enrolled and graduated from the
Northwestern Business College. He found management work at a shoe store and ended up
marrying a co-worker and settling into middle class life. In the 1960’s he joined a group called
the Jaycees, “The United States Junior Chamber,” where he became a tireless worker for non–
profit organization that focused on developing personal and leadership skills for young men.
The dark side of Gacy still remained though, and he committed his first known sexual
assault on a teenage boy in 1967. The boy was a member and fellow Jaycee whom he lured to
his house and assaulted. Over the next few months he molested and raped many other boys.
