John Wayne Gacy: Biography, Serial Killer, Killer Clown

Table Of Content

• John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer: Comparing Infamous Serial Killers
• December 11, 1978: Gacy's final murder victim puts police on his trail
• The Brutal Murders That Unfolded Inside John Wayne Gacy’s House
• 68: Gacy is accused of sexual assault
• John Wayne Gacy House: Inside The Killer Clown’s Chicago Home
• January 3, 1972: Gacy kills his first victim
• July 31, 1975: A young associate of Gacy's goes missing

John Wayne Gacy was a serial killer and rapist who murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men in Cook County, Illinois, burying most under his house. Sometimes known as the “Killer Clown” for his habit of dressing in a clown costume and makeup, Gacy had an abusive childhood and struggled with his homosexuality. Gacy committed all the murders in his Norwood Park home, luring his victims there with the promise of construction work or some other ruse, then sexually assaulting and torturing them before killing them, usually by strangulation. Gacy was arrested in 1979, and the following year, he was convicted of 33 murders.

John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer: Comparing Infamous Serial Killers

Gacy, a convicted serial killer and rapist, had drawn the attention of law enforcement due to his involvement in the disappearance of 15-year-old Robert Piest. Little did they know, this case would lead them to uncovering one of the most gruesome crime scenes in American history. Though John Wayne Gacy is long gone — and his house has since been demolished — his legacy lives on. Most of John Wayne Gacy’s victims that were retrieved from his crawlspace were identified and released to their families for burial. However, 23 years after his death, authorities are still trying to identify the rest.

December 11, 1978: Gacy's final murder victim puts police on his trail

Before the murders, Gacy had been arrested for sodomy and sexual assault, and was sentenced to 10 years in Iowa State. On March 12, 1980, after a short jury deliberation, Gacy was found guilty of committing 33 murders, and he became known as one of the most ruthless serial killers in American history. Gacy committed his first known murder in January 1972, after luring the 16-year-old Timothy McCoy to his house for sex. Nevertheless, Gacy discovered he received sexual gratification from killing McCoy, and later said, “That’s when I realized that death was the ultimate thrill,” according to Buried Dreams.

John Wayne Gacy: A Timeline of the 'Killer Clown' Murders, Trial and Execution - Biography.com

John Wayne Gacy: A Timeline of the 'Killer Clown' Murders, Trial and Execution.

Posted: Tue, 10 Aug 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The Brutal Murders That Unfolded Inside John Wayne Gacy’s House

An autopsy was unable to rule out strangulation as the cause of death.[56][249] This victim was numbered 31. Following Gacy's arrest, investigators discovered he was a further victim. His conviction for thirty-three murders (by one individual) then covered the most homicides in United States legal history. He was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.

68: Gacy is accused of sexual assault

He joined the Waterloo Jaycees, a group of businessmen who participated in wife swapping, prostitution, pornography, and drug abuse. He even opened a “club” in his own basement targeted at teenagers, where they could drink and play pool without getting in trouble. The event shocked him so much that he returned home and enrolled in business school, after just a few months in Vegas.

Conversations With a Killer – What happened to John Wayne Gacy's house - Digital Spy

Conversations With a Killer – What happened to John Wayne Gacy's house.

Posted: Fri, 22 Apr 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Upon further investigation, officers discovered that the ring belonged to a teenage boy who was missing, and they found a witness who claimed Gacy had admitted to killing up to 30 people. John Wayne Gacy was an infamous American serial killer and sexual predator that was responsible for the murders of over 30 young men and boys. According to Gacy himself, the deranged killer committed all the murders in his ranch house in Illinois. Given the terrifying brutality of his crimes and the sheer number of victims he had amassed in his active years, John Wayne Gacy is considered one of the worst serial killers in U.S. history.

For most of his life, he worked in customer service, first managing three of his father-in-law’s KFC franchises, then starting his own construction business. In the northeast corner of the crawl space under John Gacy’s house, the officers found more puddles, all swarming with thin red worms. There, two feet from the north wall, they uncovered what appeared to be a knee bone. The flesh was so desiccated that at first they thought it was blue-jean material. As a young boy, he was molested by a family friend, an incident he kept secret for years for fear that he would be blamed for the abuse and subjected to further beatings by his father. His school years were friendless, thanks in part to his inability to play sports due to a heart condition.

July 31, 1975: A young associate of Gacy's goes missing

He also picks up the pace on his murderous spree, claiming another two dozen victims from April 1976 through the end of 1977. The complaints beginning to pile up, police camp out at 8213 West Summerdale Avenue after a 9-year-old boy prostitute is reported missing. Attempts to question the young men coming and going from the house fail to uncover any relevant evidence. Needing a larger space to operate his new construction business, PDM Contractors, Gacy and his mother move into a house at 8213 West Summerdale Avenue in Norwood Park Township. The wooden entranceway to the crawlspace where John Wayne Gacy hid victims’ bodies was stored along with other trial evidence.

PDM Contractors

It wasn’t until December 22, 1978 — almost exactly 10 years after his first sodomy conviction — that Gacy the “Killer Clown” confessed to murdering dozens of young men and boys. Investigators swarmed his house and uncovered 29 bodies in the crawlspace. Many had decomposed beyond recognition, and dental experts were brought in to identify John Wayne Gacy’s victims by their teeth. Carol Hoff, his high school sweetheart and second wife who he married in 1972, questioned his sexuality. When Gacy told her he was bisexual in 1975, Hoff divorced him and left him alone in their house. His customers remembered him as kind, generous, and willing to help people out.

On December 13, 1978, police obtained a search warrant for Gacy's home following the disappearance of 15-year-old Robert Piest. There, they found several suspicious items including police badges, guns, several driver's licenses belonging to other men, and a collection of gay porn magazines. I woke up to him — I opened my eyes, I woke up and he was sexually assaulting me,” Bell said. “I froze and was in complete shock and had no idea what to do or how to react, and I have no idea how to get out of this situation,” Bell says. Schneider was let go after two ViacomCBS investigations, in 2017 and 2018, that found he had committed no sexual misconduct but had been verbally abusive on set.

Inside his home, he would often show them a “magic trick” with handcuffs and would encourage the boys to put the handcuffs on themselves so he could show them how it was done. If you’ve ever seen a film about a psychopath that dresses like a clown and kills people, chances are the writers took direct inspiration from the John Wayne Gacy case. Photos of police excavation in this crawlspace paint a gruesome picture of unending horrors. Every numbered flag in the picture below shows where remains were found.

Downstairs, the John Wayne Gacy basement housed a recreation space with a Tiki-style bar where Gacy often hosted themed parties for neighbors and friends. Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Gacy was imprisoned at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester for 14 years, appealing the sentence and offering contradictory statements on the murders in interviews. Although he had previously confessed, Gacy later denied being guilty of the charges and had a 900 telephone number set up with a 12-minute recorded statement declaring his innocence. Gacy pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and he went to trial on 33 murder charges. The prosecution argued Gacy was sane and in control of his actions, pointing to the elaborate steps Gacy took to both prepare for and conceal his murders. Mental health professionals testified for both sides about Gacy’s mental state. Thankfully, and unsurprisingly, the original John Wayne Gacy house on Summerdale Ave is no longer standing.

John Wayne Gacy was a notorious American serial killer and rapist who claimed the lives of at least 33 young males between 1972 and 1978. The house where he committed many of these heinous crimes has piqued the interest of true crime enthusiasts and others alike. It didn’t seem possible that all these boys had just happened to leave their clothes, their jewelry, and their wallets at John Gacy’s house. His parent’s pleaded with Chicago police officers to investigate Gacy, but they never did. This would not be the last time worried parents asked officials to review Gacy as a suspect, but the pleas fell on deaf ears.

As an adult, Bell has also shown concerning behavior, including an arrest for a DUI. Though former child star Bryan Hearne says in “Quiet on Set” that he was devastated at being let go from “All That,” he hasn’t suffered the same fates as one-time teen superstars Bynes and Bell, both now 37. Peck is a longtime friend of controversial film director Bryan Singer, who was once accused of assaulting four minors, and had an uncredited cameo in Singer’s first “X-Men” film.

Following his confession to the murders and the unearthing of the brutal crime scene at his home, John Wayne Gacy was convicted of 33 counts of murder in 1980. John Wayne Gacy took the lives of 33 young men and boys – six of which have never been identified. Gacy would lure these boys back to his home sometimes under the pretense that they would discuss a job at his successful contractor business (or they were already working for him). The John Wayne Gacy house was located near Norridge – a village in the unincorporated Norwood Park Township of metropolitan Chicago, Illinois.