John Wayne Gacy Research Paper

All serial killers usually share one dark life experience with each other. This life experience happens during childhood and involves abuse and a poor upbringing. These life experiences correlate perfectly with notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy, also known as “The Killer Clown”. These life experiences helped shape John Wane Gacy and other serial killers into the stuff of nightmares that still haunt people today. To learn about John Wayne Gacy we must look at his early life, crimes, and his sentence.
John Wayne Gacy had a tough childhood like many other serial killers. John Wayne Gacy came into the world on March 17, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents, John Wayne Gacy and Marion Elaine Robinson came from Danish and Polish decent. He had an abusive and terrible childhood. Gacy and his sister Karen suffered beatings with a razor strop whenever their father thought that they had misbehaved. Gacy’s alcoholic father would also beat his mother in a drunken rage in front of the children. Gacy later said that the beatings he received toughened him up as a kid. Gacy did not enjoy school either and suffered from alienation by his peers. He also lied compulsively and couldn’t gain trust from his peers. Later
Police found a two-foot long dildo Gacy used in torture, and 18 inches of the dildo was covered in blood and feces. Neighbors would complain about smells coming from Gacy’s houses, he would lie saying a sewer pipe broke. It became determined that Gacy killed 33 boys and young men. He would bury his victims under the house, garage and more victims’ bodies by the Des Plaines River. Gacy lured his victims to his house with the promise of construction work. He then captured his victims, sexually assaulted them, and then strangled them with rope. Sometimes he even dressed as “Pogo the Clown” when he killed his victims (Philbin & Philbin