The Sick Sadistic: John Wayne Gacy

Killer clowns are terrifying to the population worldwide. Clowns are scary in general. It is said that some blame “It”, a novel written by the king of horror Stephen King for making the idea of clowns horrific. At the same time, others blame clown-turned-serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

Gacy was born on March 17th, 1942, in Chicago. His father was a World War I veteran and struggled with alcoholism and beat on Gacy and his sisters with a razor strap whenever they misbehaved. Gacy’s father always made fun of him because he was overweight. He didn’t make many friends in school because of his weight and condition. He experienced seizures and blackouts and was frequently hospitalized. His father accused Gacy of only doing it for attention.

Favouritism was in Gacy’s family, and he was the least.

john wayne gacy as “pogo the clown”

Gacy’s psychosexual past began between the ages of 6 and 10, when the daughters of his mother’s friends said that they undress and play with Gacy, in Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders by Terry Sullivan. It is also said that Gacy was molested very young by family friends and a contractor. According to Sullivan, Gacy and his friend were accused of sexually assaulting a young girl.

Gacy’s first sexual assault and arrest was in 1968 when he was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy and wanted to assault another. Gacy denied the accusations and others believed him over the victim. Gacy managed 3 KFC restaurants in Waterloo, Iowa and had persuaded one of his employees to assault the victim to avoid testifying in court. He was then convicted and received a 10-year prison sentence. His wife, Marylynn Myers was stunned, she divorced Gacy and gained custody of their two children Michael and Christine.

After serving 18 months of his sentence, he was released on parole in 1970. Not long after, he was arrested again when another teenage boy claimed Gacy for luring him into his car and driving him back to Gacy’s house, where Gacy tried to force himself onto the boy. The boy did not appear in court, therefore, Gacy got away with it.

Gacy bought a house in Norwood Park, Illinois where the murders took place.

20 images of JWG's victims

the victims

His first known murder was in January of 1972 when he lured 16-year-old Timothy to his house for sexual activities. Gacy woke up the next morning to find McCoy standing by the bedroom doorway with a knife in his hand and Gacy jumped out of his bed and rushed to attack McCoy, stabbing him to death. Only to realize that McCoy was standing with a knife because he had made them breakfast.

“That’s when I realized that death was the ultimate thrill,” Gacy said after receiving sexual gratification from killing Timothy McCoy, according to the book by Tim Cahill, Buried Dreams: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer.

The stories go on and on.

John Wayne Gacy, the “Killer Clown” murdered AT LEAST 33 teenage boys and young men.

His most gut-wrenching quote is, “I should have never been convicted of anything more serious than running a cemetery without a license.” 26 victims were found buried in the crawl space of his home, 3 were buried around the property and 4 were discarded in the Des Plaines River.

Netflix released a show called Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes on April 20th, 2022, where over 60 hours of conversations were recorded. The show states that the tapes were kept from the public until the show was released.

Fortunately, Gary died from lethal injection at 52 on May 10th, 1994.

The world is happy without sick sadists like John Wayne Gacy.


Greetings! my name is Emily-Ann Petawabano. I am twenty years old, and this is currently my second year of college. I am a 9 hour drive from my homelands, and I miss it but I love it here. I absolutely love drinking coffee and eating ramen. I also love being in the comfort of my own home with my roommate who is also my first cousin. Going to the gym is also something I enjoy doing very much, late night workouts are my favourite.