John Wayne Gacy born on march 17 1942 in Chicago Illinois would later turn out to be one of America’s most brutal serial killers. For all appears to be a regular man, Gacy was in fact a monster who committed one of the most horrifying crimes that occurred in the United States.
Gacy’s early years were not very easy for him; a poor relationship with his father who would often verbally and even physically assault him. Still, Gacy never gave up on trying to get his father’s approval throughout the different phases of his life, although it was seldom granted. Of course, other abuses happened in Gacy’s childhood too, which formed the basis of his mind deficit as a person.
After moving out of his parents’ house young Gacy tried to live a regular life. He married, initiated the responsibility of child bearing and contributed in most community activities. He participated in the Jaycees, a civil society, and rose to leadership level and became a respectable member in the community. Gacy also owned several companies that were engaged in various economic activities such as a number of restaurants of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Waterloo Iowa among other businesses. But what cannot be known by those who saw Foley in his public capacity in Congress was a very sinister side to him.
In 1968 Gacy was found guilty of sexually assaulting a male teenager; a crime that he was charged and sentenced to ten years but only served 1 and a half years. On his release, he went back to Chicago to engage in other political activities as well as business. He was described as active in social activities following which he had the face paint and wore a costume of ‘Pogo the Clown’ and entertained kids during parties and in hospitals. This persona, however, was a different image from the junk he was perpetrating in his own little alcove.
Between 1972 and 1978, Gacy was able to sexually assault a number of young men and boys whom he enticed to his house for various reasons. These people whom most of them were vulnerable or in search of job would never be seen again. The total number of victims was 33 which made the crimes committed by Gacy one of the most catastrophic in U. S. history. His way of dealing with the victims consisted of burying most of them in the crawl space of his house and this factor only made the finding of the crimeseven scarier.
Gacy’s misconducts were revealed in December, 1978 after the disappearance of Robert Piest, 15 years, who visited Gacy to seek for a job. The investigation of the disapperance of Pesit soon led to Gacy. The authorities conducted a search in his home and found parts of many of his victims thus arresting him and extracting a confession.
In 1980 Gacy was put on the trial and sentenced to death for 33 counts of murder, which makes him one of the most famous serial killers of America. He got the death penalty and after that he waited in death row for 14 years before he was given death penalty through lethal injection on May 10 1994. Most of the times Gacy’s case is mentioned in many debates regarding evil, people who can mask themselves and the legal system that does not prevent criminals from continuing with their deeds.
John Wayne Gacy’s first brush with the law was in 1968 when he was charged with one count of sodomy after which he pleaded guilty and was imprisoned for this crime based on the testimonies of Donald Voorhees, a teenage boy. While acquitting him of other related charges Gacy was consequently sentenced to ten years imprisonment in Anamosa State Penitentiary. Later on the same day, his wife forwarded a divorce petition to him and seeing that this was granted in 1969 Gacy severed all links with his first wife and the kids permanently.
In prison Gacy adapted himself very well and became a model prisoner within a short period of time. He then promoted himself to the head chef, join and get more membership into, the prison’s Jaycee chapter. He also headed several other initiatives in a bid to tackle the conditions in the prison and in 1970 he was awarded a distinguished service award. While Gacy was in prison, he acts exactly to the book but unfortunately, he was rejected parole in 1969. Although he endeavored to seek early release by being enrolled in high school studies. Gacy lost his father in 1970 and this made a great impact to him, he was allowed to attend funeral but he was denied this chance.
In 1970 he had been released on parole after spending 18 months in prison due to which the conditions put were that he had to observe night and had to live with his mother in Chicago. ,however, began thinking of re-establishing himself in Waterloo; but he could not resist gaining a new home in Chicago. He started working as a short-order cook, however was quickly involved in other criminal activities. He was again charged with sexual assault in 1971 in two different occasions but the charges were withdrawn because of insufficient evidence or failure of the complainant to show up in court. These crimes were never reported to the Iowa Board of Parole thus allowing Gacy’s parole to expire 1971 and sealing his criminal record in that state.
Gacy bought a house in a Norwood Park Township in Illinois after his release and lived there till his arrest in 1978. With time, he transformed to be a responsible member of the community where he started hosting annual parties, and even got engaged in political activities. Gacy also got married again in 1972 to Carole Hoff, his second wife but they had a very horrible marriage mainly because of the behavior of Gacy which led to their divorce in 1976.
During this time, Gacy started the construction company referred to as PDM Contractors through which he was capable of doing well leading to the point of him not having to work as cook anymore. He hired many young men who were later involve in his heinous act. Gacy also entertained children at community functions such as circus, he was a clown, which later on would be his booking icon.
Politics brought him to the director’s position of Chicago’s yearly Polish Constitution Day Parade, as well as into the Democratic Party’s acclaim. But, in private, Gacy was serially killing and, in due course, be identified as among the most prolific serial killers in America.
Murder of Timothy McCoy On 03/01/1972
Incident: John Wayne Gacy tricked a 16-year-old boy –Timothy McCoy, from the Greyhound Bus Terminal with his words that he was going to give him a ride to some place and offer him a shelter.
-Events: Before that, Gacy took McCoy on a trip around Chicago before taking him to the latter’s house which was in the vicinity of Gacy’s property. The following morning McCoy was in his bedroom when Gacy found him holding a knife. During the fight McCoy was wrestled down and stabbed several times with the knife before the struggle was over Gacy eventually got the upper hand and McCoy fell down being stabbed in the chest and abdomen.
– Aftermath: McCoy died and was buried in the crawl space of the house and Gacy even went further to cover the grave using concrete. From the case of Gacy, he was quoted saying that he used to get a ”mind-numbing orgasm” when killing.
Second Murder is said to have taken place around January 1974.
– Details: The first murder was made by strangulation of an unknown man, whose body was first hidden in the killer’s closet. The body of the victim suffered from leakage and so the killer, Gacy, resorted to the use of rags or socks to plug leakage in his other killings. Now the body was buried in the crawl space of the house.
Death of John Butkovich At 01:15 am, July 31, 1975, John Butkovich was shot dead, and his body was found by the police near the Mulholland drive.§:
– Incident: In PDM, an 18 year old known as John Butkovich was an employee who went missing after confronting Gacy over his unpaid wages.
– Events: Gacy proceeded with the plans to kill Butkovich and lured him over to his home then handcuffed him before he strangled him. The body was first kept in Gacy’s garage and then the ladys body was buried in the concrete of a toolshed floor.
Cruising Years (1975-1978)
Activity: John Wayne Gacy stepped up his operation of cruising for young males which was in 1975, he escalated on murders in between 1976 to 1978. Authorities received complaints of odd conduct from Gacy’s spouses as well as sounds of terrifying nature coming from his house.
– Victims: These were Darrell Samson on 6 April 1976, Randall Reffett and Samuel Stapleton on 14 May 1976, Michael Bonnin on 3 June 1976, James Haakenson and Rick Johnston on 5 August and 6 August 1976 respectively, Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino on 24 October 1976 and William Bundy on 26 October 1976. Some of the human bodies were hidden in the crawl space while other corpses were dumped into Des Plaines River.
Murder of Robert Piest took place on December 11, 1978.
– Incident: Robert Piest, a 15-year-old, who worked for a pharmacy, vanished after Gacy expressed interest in offering him a job.
– Events: Gacy wanted to kill Piest so he invited him to his housethen handcuffed him and killed him. According to piest’s family, they reported him missing, thus initiating an investigation on gacy.
Investigation and Arrest
– Initial Investigation: The police started searching for Gacy after Piest’s disappearance only to find some incriminating materials in Gacy’s residence. Based on surveillance, one was able to see that Gacy was an erratic offender in his behavior and was always attempting to avoid arrest.
– Confession: On December 20, 1978 Gacy confessed to his lawyers that he had killed about 30 victims most of which were found buried in his crawl space while others were chucked in the river. This implicating especially came because he had taken some alcohol to mouth and later he was subjected to a psychiatric check after so doing.
Test and Penalty of John Wayne Gacy
– Trial: The trial started on 06 February 1980 in the Cook County of Illinois but the jury was from Rockford in consideration of the rampant media coverage. His defence had leading insanity and they portrayed Gacy as a man having different personalities and among them was a sinister one. Thus, the prosecution presented pieces of evidence of premeditation and exclusiveness of control as belonging to Gacy.
– Key Testimonies: At the trial the forensic experts took the stand and spoke of the condition that the bodies were in and how the murders were carried out. Jeffrey Rignall and Donald Voorhees shared their experiences of sexual assault at the hands of Gacy and the defense attorneys presented the latter as a lunatic.
– Closing Arguments: prosecution characterised Gacy as the ‘worst kind of murderers’ because he planned his acts and his victims suffered. The defence tried to bring up the issue of Gacy’s insanity and asked the Court to spare him as he can be of use to science if he continued his studying.
– Verdict: On March 13, 1980 Gacy was convicted of 33 murders which made it as the record of most number of murders in united state up to that year. He received a death penalty for every murder that was done after June 1977.
– Death Row: Gacy received a death sentence and was confined at Menard Correctional Center for 14 years during which he painted, and tried to appeal the conviction arguing that his lawyers did not adequately represent him and that some of the murders were committed by him.
– Execution: Gacy was executed on the tenth of May in 1994. His last supper include Kentucky Fried Chicken and other products. Due to some issues arising as to the position of the IV tube it was done in twenty two minutes though the process of execution. This man’s final words were, “Kiss my ass” and he did not show any signs of regret.
– Legacy: One might note that Gacy’s case contributed to the change in the procedures related to the missing children, and the Amber Alert system. Among 33 persons who had been killed by Gacy, only 28 have been positively identified yet.
