John Wayne Gacy is a name that lives in infamy in the study of American serial killers. His fiendish means of murder and his countless victims make Gacy a fascinating subject when attempting to understand the pathology of a serial killer. This chapter will examine contextual factors encompassing Gacy's murders and the psychological factors that may have contributed to his offending, including paraphilia. Certain theoretical principles of homicide will be used to analyze John Wayne Gacy's murder motivations such as the frustration-aggression theory, psychosexual aggression, and the social control theory. This chapter will also include information from the media, courts, character involvement, and general case notes. Media analysis is important because many serial killers reach out to the media and want that recognition and the attention they so crave. Although the media attention can also cause more problems by creating broadcasts and giving away secrets about the investigation, putting it in the hands of the killer.
TopGacy Profile
Gacy was born to parents of Danish and Polish heritage in 1942 in Chicago, IL. He was the second child of his parents with two sisters. The children had a strict Catholic background, having attended Catholic school in North Chicago (Bell & Bardsley, 2001). While his childhood was normal, there were a few accidents and health problems that Gacy suffered from. Those include a severe blow to his head as a child while playing on a swing set that also had a probable effect on his physical and mental health in later years (Taylor, 2003). His father was a highly abusive alcoholic and often ended up beating his wife and children for trivial reasons (Sullivan & Maiken, 2012).
Gacy’s first minor crime occurred when he stole a toy truck from a store for which his father ended up beating him with a belt and called him a ‘queer’ (Cahill, 2011, p.26). As he grew up, he worked various odd jobs, including that of a mortuary attendant, and subsequently completed a business degree from Northwestern Business College. This helped him land a job in sales. His first marriage failed after he was convicted by a grand jury and ended up serving time for an act of sodomy with a teenage boy (Taylor, 2003). After release, he remarried and tried to lead a normal life by getting into politics and community affairs, but went back to his old ways by committing assault on a teenage boy and later graduating to murder.
Crimes Committed
After his release on the sodomy charge, Gacy started a new crime spree. Even before this new crime pattern, Gacy had already been convicted and imprisoned for sexual assault on a boy. He lured some into his car by impersonating an officer, or to his house with the offer of a job, a place to party, or even money. Once he had his victim in his space, Gacy coaxed them with drugs or alcohol or a sick magic trick, during which he’d handcuff them and dangle the key in front of their face. On January 2, 1972, he met 15-year-old, Timothy Jack McCoy, at the Chicago Greyhound bus terminal. He convinced the boy to spend the night at his home and ended up murdering him. Gacy, then, disposed of the body by burying it in the crawl space and covering the grave with concrete. (Cahill, 2011, p.101) In an interview in 1980, Gacy mentioned his thoughts on his first killing, “That's when I realized that death was the ultimate thrill.” (p.349) Soon after this killing, Gacy took a short break and commenced killing around January 1974 and continued this pattern on a sustained basis until he was caught in 1978 after the disappearance of 15-year-old Robert Piest. (OCPA) In this instance, Gacy might have never been caught had Piest's mother not alerted the police about his disappearance and about the fact that he had left home to meet Gacy for a job. Robert Piest’s body was found in the Des Plaines River on April 9, 1979, and identified by his dental records with an autopsy revealing torture before death. (Sullivan & Maiken, 2012, p.362) The only survivors of Gacy’s elaborate killing spree were Donald Vorhees and Robert Donnelly, who experienced severe torture and sexual assault but managed to survive the ordeal.
The worst part of this series of murders was that most of the young boys who lost their lives did so after sustained brutal torture and sexual assault from Gacy. He performed at parties and hospitals as “Pogo the Clown,” but his penchant for murder was no joke. By the time he was caught, Gacy the “Killer Clown” had amassed at least 33 victims. In order to dispose of the bodies, Gacy buried them in the crawl space under the house and later in the Des Plaines River when he discovered that he could not accommodate any more bodies in the crawl space. (Cahill, 2011, p.219) Most of the boys who disappeared were from his contracting company (PDM), although the police could never ascertain the identity of a few victims. (Amirante and Broderick, 2015, p.104)