John Wayne Gacy

Gacy with Rosalynn Carter , 1978. The pin on his lapel indicates he has passed the Secret Service check .

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (born March 17, 1942 in Chicago , Illinois - † May 10, 1994 in Joliet , Illinois) was an American serial killer who was responsible for the rape and murder of 33 boys and young men in 1972 until 1978 was convicted. He received an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest sentence inflicted on a serial killer: he received 21 life and 12 death sentences, and was executed at the Stateville Correctional Center in 1994 .

He became known as a killer clown because he used to go to street parties in a self-made clown costume to entertain children as the clown's pogo ; however, he did not commit any offenses in this role.

biography

Gacy was born in Chicago and spent his childhood there, which was overshadowed by the difficult relationship with his strict, violent and alcoholic father. After dropping out of local high schools four times, he moved to Las Vegas to work there in 1959 , but returned to Chicago in the spring of 1960 due to a lack of income. He attended vocational school and in 1964 got a job with the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company in Springfield . During this time he also joined the Jaycees , a charity that promotes the advancement of young adults. In February of the same year he made friends with a reluctant accountant from the company, whom he married in September. After he retired as a manager candidate, he became manager of an outlet for a clothing company in Springfield. During this time he also joined various local organizations and became Vice President and "Man of the Year" for the Jaycees. However, active social life and severe weight gain began to affect his health to the point where multiple hospital stays were required.

In 1966, he moved to Waterloo, Iowa , with his wife and son Michael , where his father-in-law ran three Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. At the age of 24, Gacy started working as a manager in one of the restaurants. After sexually assaulting the 15-year-old son of one of his Jaycee friends, he was found guilty of child abuse by a court in May 1968 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. His wife then divorced him. Gacy was released early on June 18, 1970 after only 18 months in prison for good conduct and returned to Chicago, where he worked as a cook in a fast food restaurant. In June 1971 he left the company to start his own home improvement company: PDM Contracting (Painting, Decorating and Maintenance). At that time, a 19-year-old again testified that Gacy picked him up on the street and sexually assaulted him at home. Due to a lack of evidence and because Gacy denied the act, the lawsuit was dropped.

With his new girlfriend Carol Hofgren and their two daughters, Gacy moved to the Chicago suburb of Norwood Park . He was a noted local businessman, a member of the Jaycees, and a Democratic district chief . However, he could not hide his affection for boys and for this reason he was always on the lookout for victims. It was around this time that Gacy began abusing and murdering his victims. On July 1, 1972, he married Carol Hofgren.

Because of his social commitment and his support for the Democratic Party , Gacy met Rosalynn Carter , the wife of the US President, in May 1978 . She was invited to a large parade in Chicago, also organized by Gacy. By then he had already committed the majority of his deeds.

crime

On the evening of January 2, 1972, Carol, with whom he was already living, was visiting relatives with the daughters. Gacy used this time and drove through the suburbs by car. He met 16-year-old Timothy McCoy, who voluntarily followed him home and had sex with him there. Then Gacy stabbed the boy with a kitchen knife and buried the body under the crawl space .

On July 29, 1975, Gacy picked up 17-year-old John Butkovich in a pub where he had been beaten up and took him home. First Gacy tended his wounds, but then he handcuffed the boy and raped him. In the end, he put a noose around his neck and tightened it with a stick until Butkovich choked. Gacy buried the body in his garage.

His marriage ended in March 1976. The following month the series of murders began. In April 1976, 18-year-old Darrell Sampson disappeared and never reappeared. It is unknown what Gacy did to him before he killed him. On May 14 of the same year, 14-year-old Samuel Stapleton and 15-year-old Randall Raffett went missing. Also in 1976, on June 3, another youth disappeared: 17-year-old Michael Bonnin and a week later 16-year-old William Carroll. Both were also buried under the crawl space. In early August, 17-year-old Richard Johnston and 16-year-old James Haarkensen were reported missing. On December 11, 1976, Gregory J. Godzik also disappeared.

The following January, John Wayne Gacy abducted, raped, and killed 17-year-old John Szyc with a rope and a stick. On March 15, 1977, he murdered 20-year-old Jon Prestidge. Two more victims disappeared in July: 19-year-old Matthew H. Bowman and 18-year-old Robert Gilroy. Both were no longer seen alive. David Cram, also a teenager who worked for Gacy, became his victim. He managed to save himself, however, and left the city. However, like many other survivors, he did not go to the police. On October 17, 1977, 20-year-old Russell O. Nelson disappeared, and on November 10, 16-year-old Robert Winch was last seen alive. 19-year-old Marine David Paul Talsma was killed on December 9, 1977. On December 30th, 19-year-old Robert Donnelly disappeared. He was tortured and raped, but released by Gacy with the threat that if he went to the police he would find him. Despite this, Donnelly filed a complaint against his tormentor, but Gacy denied the allegations and the lawsuit was dropped to Donnelly's horror. William Kindred disappeared on February 16, 1978. On March 25, 1978, student Jeffrey D. Rignall appeared to the police and accused John Wayne Gacy of rape and torture. Rignall had burns to his face and bleeding. Against Gacy was not investigated due to a lack of evidence.

Gacy's last victim was 15-year-old Robert J. Piest, who disappeared on December 11, 1978. Gacy first brought his victim to the attic before attempting to bury it. After Piest's disappearance, Gacy's house was searched because the youngster had previously mentioned a meeting with him. Incriminating evidence was secured. He admitted his deeds late: 33 murders, 28 of which are believed to be buried beneath his home in Des Plaines , a suburb of Chicago. The other five bodies were thrown by him in the Des Plaines River . Most of the victims were young male prostitutes . Some of the victims were teenagers Gacy employed at his company. The victims were between 14 and 21 years old.

Initially, nine of his victims could not be identified. It wasn't until 2007 that one of them was identified as Timothy McCoy from Nebraska. It is believed that he was Gacy's first victim (see above). The identity of the remaining eight victims is still unclear. It is believed that the actual number of victims may have been higher.

On December 21, 1978, Gacy was arrested on suspicion of murder. Although Gacy had freely confessed to the murders, he also accused some of his employees of being accomplices. At the time of Gacy's arrest, the allegations were not investigated further, but in 1982 Robin Gecht, a former Gacy employee, was arrested as the leader of a group of men who had raped and murdered several women over the past few years.

Trial, verdict and execution

On February 6, 1980, Gacy's trial in Chicago began. During the trial, the defense's request to be "innocent due to insanity " (so-called insanity defense ) was rejected. The defense's argument that the murders were "accidents during sexual asphyxia " was immediately dismissed by the court. During the trial, Gacy macabre joked that his only crime was "running an unlicensed cemetery."

The proceedings took into account the poor relationship with his alcoholic father and a head injury with repeated loss of consciousness from his youth.

Gacy was found guilty on March 13th and sentenced to death . He was on death row for 14 years before he was executed. In October 1993, his last pardon was denied by the American Supreme Court. The date of execution was set for May 10, 1994.

On May 10, 1994, he was transferred from the Menard Correctional Center in Chester , Illinois to the Stateville Correctional Center and executed by lethal injection . Before that, he had the opportunity to have a picnic with his family and to meet with a Catholic priest. His last words are said to have been “ Kiss my ass !” (Synonymous with “lick my ass!”). The impending execution had caused quite a stir in the media and attracted large crowds (around 1,000) of onlookers to the grounds of the prison where the sentence was being carried out. The majority are said to have been in support of the execution, while a minority protested against the execution with a string of lights. Vendors sold Gacy t-shirts and other Gacy items to an extent that was later described as utterly bad taste . There were problems with the injection during the execution and it had to be canceled. The second time there were no problems and after 18 minutes the execution was over. This led to the installation of a new injection killing method in Illinois. The chief prosecutor in the Gacy Trial, William Kunkle, said the perpetrator "still had a much easier death than any of his victims". Most of the crowd waiting on the premises cheered the moment Gacy was officially declared dead.

After the execution, his brain was removed from the skull and examined. However, it had no special features.

Movies

• 1992: To Catch a Killer (To Catch a Killer) , TV miniseries, Brian Dennehy as Gacy.
• 2003: Gacy
• 2010: Dahmer vs. Gacy
• 2010: Dear Mr. Gacy
• 2010: Horror House: The Sinister Tale of John Wayne Gacy (8123: Gacy House)

literature

• Sam L. Amirante, Danny Broderick: John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster. Skyhorse Publishing, New York, NY 2012, ISBN 978-1-62087-071-6 .

Web links

Commons : John Wayne Gacy  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Christoph Gunkel: mass murderer behind the clown mask . In: Spiegel Online , March 12, 2010
• The killer clown who made it into the Guinness Book

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Clifford L. Line Decker: The Man Who Killed Boys: A True Story of Mass Murder in a Chicago Suburb . Ed .: St. Martin's Press. 1986, ISBN 0-312-95228-7 , pp. 142-143 .
2. ^ Christoph Gunkel: Historical criminal cases: mass murderers behind the clown mask. SPIEGEL online, March 12, 2010, archived from the original on April 28, 2014 ; accessed on March 16, 2017 .  
3. ^ Another John Wayne Gacy victim ID'd, ending family's 40-year agony . CNN, July 19, 2017
4. ^ Long-delayed Execution Set For John Wayne Gacy . Orlando Sentinel. December 18, 1993. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
5. ↑ Susan Kuczka, Rob Karwath: "All Appeals Fail: Gacy is Executed. Serial Killer Dies of Lethal Injection ( June 12, 2007 memento on the Internet Archive ), Chicago Tribune , May 10, 1994.
6. ^ Poster Child . In: Economist . 331, No. 7863, May 14, 1994.
7. ↑ David Seideman: A Twist Before Dying . In: Time , May 23, 1994. Retrieved January 14, 2010. 
8. ↑ Georgie Ann Weatherby, Danielle M. Buller, Katelyn McGinnis: The Buller-McGinnis Model of Serial Homicidal Behavior: An Integrated Approach Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. (PDF) In: Criminology and Criminal Justice Research & Education . 3, No. 1, 2009, p. 12. Retrieved January 27, 2012.