Contrary to my title for this week’s post, I know very many people that are not fans of clowns, and are actually terrified of them. This has always been so funny to me since clowns were originally supposed to be, well, funny. I remember going to a haunted horror night at an amusement park with my cousins when I was younger, and there was this bloody clown following us around. My cousins were terrified but I kept hugging him(which I believe was insulting to the actor’s scariness). When I think of clowns now, I think of that mess in 2016 where people were going around in broad daylight dressed as killer clowns to terrify people…why did that happen? Anyway, this post is dedicated to the original killer clown.

John Wayne Gacy was a very sick man that was born in Chicago, Illinois, soon grew up to kill there as well. In the last post we talked a bit about a killer’s childhood. This time, let’s start with that. Gacy’s father was an alcoholic, and frequently abused Gacy himself as well as his mother and siblings. Along with that as well came the mental abuse of his father, always belittling Gacy and calling him “stupid and dumb”, or a “sissy” when he could not take the beatings. Though he still loved his father, Gacy felt that he would never be good enough. Maybe that is why he resorted to killing. Obviously, his father set him off on the right path.

Gacy was a performance clown. At least, that was his act that got him into places for his desirable victims. He often worked at children’s hospitals, and chose his victims from there. He would lead his victims back to his ranch house in Illinois, and would often find a way to handcuff them. He would probably claim that the handcuffs were for an elaborate magic trick. He then raped and tortured his victims before killing them. He usually ended up killing his victims by asphyxiation of by strangulation with a garrote, which is a type of chain or rope.

Gacy ended up killing 33 men and boys, that we know of. It is not that unlikely that there were more that he never admitted to, or bodies that were never found. He eventually was convicted for the 33 victims and died by lethal injection. Overall, this week was just another classic serial killer that was extremely messed up. However, maybe now I understand why people are afraid of clowns.

I don’t know if many of you are familiar with Katy Perry, (I hope you are), but in 2013, she released a song called “Dark Horse”, featuring rapper Juicy J, and in his verse he claims that Katy Perry will “eat your heart out like Jeffrey Dahmer”. So, let’s talk about Jeffrey Dahmer.

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer is a pretty well-known serial killer. However, if you don’t know him by name, maybe you will by his actions. He practiced cannibalism towards the end of his killings, or eating his victims’ body parts. He essentially killed between 1978 to 1991 before being caught, and men and boys were his type. He was not only a serial killer, but a sex offender as well, and he killed seventeen men and boys during his killing period, (that we know of).

Let’s talk a bit about Dahmer’s childhood. Although he was not physically abused that we know of, it is believed that he was neglected as a child, and his mother also attempted suicide. As a young child, he took an interest in dead animals and dissecting them (bit of a red flag if you ask me). He also discovered he was gay in high school, but kept it to himself, and got through most of the last few years drunk.

I won’t go into detail of all of his killings, but to show that he started young, I will describe his first one. Soon after Dahmer graduated high school, he picked up a 19 year old hitchhiker that was coming to town for a concert. Dahmer invited him back to his house to drink, and he accepted. Later, when the boy wanted to leave and Dahmer didn’t want him to, he beat him until he was unconscious and then strangled him to death, which he followed by masturbating.

It is extremely disturbing, but as his killing escalated so did his getting off on it. After later killings he started acts of cannibalism on his victims, as well as performing necrophilic acts on dead victims. If you don’t know what that means, look it up at your own risk, but don’t say I didn’t warn you that it was gross.

Overall, I believe mentally Dahmer was doomed to be a serial killer from childhood, when he started playing with dead animals. However, it makes me wonder if those signs were paid more attention to and he received help, if he would’ve turned out the way he did. I guess it is too late now, but he was famous enough to make it into a Katy Perry song.