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.