Biography for
John Wayne Gacy More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

17 March 1942, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Date of Death

10 May 1994, Joliet, Illinois, USA (executed by lethal injection)

Birth Name

John Wayne Gacy Jr.

Nickname

The Killer Clown
Pogo the Clown

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Mini Biography

John Wayne Gacy was born in 1942 and grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. His father, John S. Gacy, Sr. (1915-1969), was an alcoholic and beat him frequently during his violent rages. As Gacy grew up, he began to develop a identity crisis - doubting his own masculinity. At the age of 11, he suffered a blow to the head from a swing. Over the next 5 years, he had frequent blackouts until doctors found a clot in his brain that was removed with medications. Following that, he would feign 'heart problems' for attention.

He graduated from business college and started to work as a shoe salesman. Gacy married a coworker worker, whose family owned a KFC in Waterloo, Iowa and began to work there as Manager. He gradually earned the respect of the local Jaycees. In May 1968 he was arrested for sexual misconduct with a young male employee. Gacy actually hired a thug to beat the witness, which failed, and only increased the charges against him. He pled guilty to sodomy and was sentenced to 10 years. Gacy was a model prisoner and was paroled in 1970 after serving only 18 months.

He then moved to Chicago where he began his life anew as a building constructor. Gacy became popular with his new neighbors and colleagues. He would throw theme parties and often dress up as 'Pogo the Clown' for children's parties and charity shows. Gacy was also involved with the Democratic party and even had his picture taken with then First Lady Rosalynn Carter (wife of former President Jimmy Carter).

On February 12, 1971 he was once again charged with sexual misconduct towards a young man. The witness did not show up in court and the charges were dropped. He finished his parole on October 18, 1971. Gacy committed his first murder on January 3, 1972. His modus operandi would be to drive around town looking for young male runaways, ex-jailbirds or even male prostitutes. Gacy's victims ranged in age from 9 to 20 years. He would flash them a 'badge' or a 'gun' pretending to be an officer of the law and 'arrest' them. Gacy would then befriend them and take take them home where he showed them tricks with 'magic handcuffs'. Once he had sudbued his victim he would torture, sodomize and garotte them. Then he would bury them in a crawl space beneath his house. When he ran out of space he began to dump bodies in neighbouring rivers. After he divorced his second wife in 1976 the killings escalated as he had the house to himself. On October 25, 1976 he committed a double homicide! In December 1977 he actually let one of his victims leave after he had 'done' with him.

On December 12, 1978 he killed his 33rd and last victim; a 15-year-old boy from his neighborhood. That was Gacy's one big mistake. The victim had told someone he was going to see his 'contractor' about a job and was never seen again. The 'contractor' turned out to be Gacy. When the police dropped by his house they noticed the smell from the decomposing corpses underneath. When they saw his police record, it wasn't hard for them to get a search warrant of his house. A total of 29 bodies were extracted from the crawlspace and five more from the nearby river, of which 9 remain unidentified. Gacy was judged sane by the court psychiatrists and in 1980 was charged with 21 counts of life for murders committed before June 21, 1977 when Illinois reinstated the death sentence. For the 12 committed since then he got the death sentence.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Sujit R. Varma

Spouse

Carole Hoff	(1 June 1972 - 2 March 1976) (divorced) 2 children
Marlynn Myers	(April 1964 - November 1968) (divorced) 2 children

Trivia

Serial killer of 33 young men and boys (ages 9 to 22) from 1974 to 1978.

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.

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.

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.

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.

As a free service to the community, Gacy and his employees volunteered to clean-up Democratic Party headquarters. Gacy further impressed Matwick when the contractor dressed up as "Pogo the Clown" and entertained children at parties and hospitals.

Gacy's final meal was shrimp, Kentucky Fried Chicken and French fries.

Sentenced to death on March 12, 1980.

Execution lasted 18 minutes after one of the IV lines clogged.

Gacy 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'.

He was a respected member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, and the successful manager of a Kentucky Friec Chicken outlet in Waterloo, Iowa.

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.

The prison where Gacy was held is being used for FOX's TV series "Prison Break"

Was stepfather to second wife, Carol Hoff's, two daughters

Had a son and daughter with first wife, Marylynn Myers

Had two sisters: Joanne (b.1940) and Karen (b.1944)

Was raised as a Catholic

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.

Was of Irish descent

Was diagnosed with a non-specific heart ailment at 17 and suffered with the pain till his death but never had a heart attack

Was active in the Democratic Party.

The book "Buried Dreams" confirms that Gacy's IQ was measured at 118, which signifies above average intelligence, borderline to superior intelligence. However, analysts who studied a writing by Gacy estimated his IQ to have been around 110; signifying slightly above average intelligence. According to one source Gacy's intelligence should have been tested by WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale), where he scored well above average; with a verbal IQ of 119 and a non verbal IQ of 129. However, all these IQ scores indicates that John Wayne Gacy's intelligence was well above the population's average.

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