John Gacy The “Killer Clown”

Background Overweight and non-athletic as a child Difficult relationship with his father- alcoholic and physically abusive Tried to make his dad proud- didn’t succeed Verbally abused by family members, told he was worthless, gay and would never amount to anything. Molested at age nine by a family friend Had few friends and was bullied at school Didn’t graduate high school

First Offense In 1968, 12 years before his final conviction, he was convicted of one count of sodomy and sentenced to ten years in prison. He was released on parole after only 18 months. He was accused of other assaults in the years leading up to his conviction, but never was sentenced.

Final Conviction After being found guilty of 33 boy’s murders, sexual assault, indecent liberties with a child, Gacy was sentenced to death for 12 of the murders on March 13, He spent14 years on death row appealing his sentence, before he was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.

Evidence Last person seen with Robert Priest who then went missing. A receipt from where the two were last seen was found in Gacy’s house. His workers testified that they were told to dig ditches in his crawl space and yard, and also to spread lime in the crawl space of the house. Gacy admitted the crimes and then gave investigators a detailed map of his house showing where all of the boys were buried. When they dug up the places Gacy pointed out, they found bones and human remains. He admitted his crimes to the investigators.

Quotes by Gacy “A clown can get away with murder”

Theory that Explains his deviant behavior Labeling Theory His family, and father specifically, labeled him as worthless and gay. Even though Gacy tried at first to make his dad proud and not become those things, he eventually gave in to the labels. When he committed his first offense of assault on a boy, he was labeled a rapist. He would go on to rape and murder 33 other young boys, but still denied he was responsible. He showed denial of the victims and condemnation of the condemners. He maintained throughout most of his crimes that others were out to get him because of his “political status”