Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Killer Clown” - John Wayne Gacy

Episode Date: December 25, 2017

John Wayne Gacy, or the “Killer Clown,” was named the worst serial killer in the United States after he murdered 33 teenage boys in the 1970s. Gacy lived a contradicting life as a celebrated community member, who then used his reputation to pursue secret, violent interests. We look into Gacy’s crimes and how the abuse from his father and his own feelings of alienation created a killer.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Listener discretion is advised. This episode includes dramatizations and discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Clowns. Characters meant only to bring entertainment and laughter. Through their bumbling clumsiness and mimetic performances,

they aim to please in a way that is both deft and awkward. Their contradiction is their attraction. They represent the unpredictable. Yet for some reason, people have a natural tendency to fear clowns and make them into something evil, whether through pop culture with the Joker and Batman or Pennywise and Stephen King's It, or through real-life scares like the wave of creepy clowns that prowled the South in 2016. For whatever reason, our society has developed a fear of clowns. There's even a word for this fear,

coolrophobia or a specific fear of clowns. It is not officially a diagnosed mental disorder, but it affects many people who suffered a traumatic experience with clowns in childhood. And it doesn't help that the world keeps producing such grotesque versions of the once amiable figures. One person who embodied the persona of the evil clown in the most gruesome of ways was John Wayne Gacy, a man who raped and murdered 33 teenage boys over a six-year span in the 1970s. He buried the bodies in the crawl space of his house in Chicago, Illinois. Because of the number of victims, he was named the worst serial killer in the United States at the time of his arrest. And though the amount of bodies found buried underneath his house showed the mind of a sick and twisted serial killer,

his neighbors saw a very different, very sociable man. Gacy was a man of the community. He ran a contracting business, was heavily involved in politics, and through parties for the neighborhood. At these parties, he would dress up as Pogo the Clown to entertain the children. And that is why he became known as the Killer Clown, thought to be the inspiration behind Pennywise the clown in Stephen King's It. Gacy became a notorious symbol for a friendly neighbor with a deep, dark secret. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson, and this is serial killers. Today we're going to be taking a deep dive into the life of John Wayne Gacey and his terrible Chicago killings.

I'm here with my co-host Vanessa Richardson. Now, Vanessa's not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she's done a lot of research for the show. Hi, everyone. We'd like to ask a quick favor. Would you leave a five-star review of serial killers on your favorite podcast directory? It seems so simple, but it really helps us out.

And don't forget to subscribe while you're there because a new episode comes out every Monday. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and on Twitter at Parcast Network. John Wayne Gasey, named after his mother, his favorite movie star, was born on March 17, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, to a blue-collar family. His father, a World War I veteran, worked in a factory as a machinist, and his mother stayed home to care for Gacy and his two sisters.

Gacy's father was a troubled man who immediately went to the basement to drink after work. Each night, Gacy, his sister, and his mother, waited, terrified for Gacy's senior to emerge, unsure of what to expect. While John Sr. abused all his children and their mother, he focused his abuse on John Jr. A boy who could never quite fit in. Gacy Jr. had a heart condition that plagued him his whole life and referred to himself as a sickly kid. When John was 11, he was hit by a swing. A blood clot formed in his brain, and he started suffering from blackouts that went undiagnosed for five years.

John could never play with the other boys, though he desperately wanted to. And his father often thought he was faking his ailment to avoid doing physical activity. This type of alienation really stuck with John throughout his life. He never really felt like he was a part of the world around him, despite his desperate attempts to do things normally and to fit into society. But most of all, he yearned for acceptance from his father. Seeing in John a lack of masculinity, John Sr. often berated John in front of his family and friends.

John Sr. openly mocked the possibility that John was gay. He also physically abused Gacy Jr., whipping him with a racist drop or hitting him with his fists. And though John toughened up to the abuse of his father and moved away from home at a young age, he never admitted to hating his father or harboring resentment towards him. Instead, he only claimed to always want to impress his dad and mean something to him. This physical and mental abuse from his childhood meant it was very difficult for John to acknowledge his sexual identity. Because of his father and desire to please him, John never even came out as gay. This was partially due to the time period and their restrictive views on sexuality, but also because of Gacy's attitude towards his victims.

Where he would later berate their sexuality and call them derogatory terms, psychologists believe Gacy's father contributed to his son's hatred and fear of his own sexuality. While John had a terrible relationship with his father, he developed a close bond with his mother. He often helped her in the garden and with various tasks around the house. This, however, only made his relationship with his father worse. His father felt like Gacy was a mama's boy and that he was losing control of the household. This strain forced Gacy to keep things bottled up, as his father's reactions were brutal and uncompromising. Gacy even claimed to have been repeatedly molested by a family friend who owned a contracting business,

but never spoke about it out of fear of repercussions from his father. This constant barrage of ridicule and shame perhaps made John create a thick exterior which did not allow for weakness. His desire to be someone else, to be someone his father could be proud of, might be what attracted him to the clown persona. So you're saying that by hiding behind the makeup and goofy attitude, John could have been more comfortable approaching the world? Right. The clown costume allowed him to take on a different identity, something that wasn't, but also was John Wayne Gacy. and this helped to solidify the barrier between him and the world, because one thing that remains clear is that John often wondered what it was like to be someone else. John's father clearly made it an impossibility for John to be who he truly was.

The abuse he suffered and his ongoing identity crisis began to feed and nurture John's darker urges. And that came back to haunt the world many years later. Regardless, after a tumultuous senior year of high school, where this trained relationship with his father reached a boiling point, John Gacy finally escaped his family home and found himself working in a mortuary in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was here that Gacy first experienced death firsthand. As a custodian, Gacy slept in the mortuary

and observed the embalming of dead bodies, becoming increasingly fascinated by them. He even admitted to climbing into a coffin with one of the dead bodies after the mortuary was closed. This interest in dead bodies would emerge again later, as he liked to bury his victims in his own home. By showing a curiosity that pushed him to be intimate with bodies, going so far as to sleep next to them, Gacy reveals a sinister desire that may have been in him all along, a desire to commit what is known as lust murder, or a murder that is committed with the intent of finding sexual gratification.

And while it would be years before his desire fully emerged and ultimately consumed Gage, We see the seeds planted here in his interest in the dead bodies he worked with. After the incident with the coffin, Gacy returned home to his mother in Chicago. He enrolled in Northwestern Business College and graduated in 1963. Gacy got a job with the shoe company and was transferred to the Illinois capital of Springfield. He was quickly promoted to manager and found a fiancé in co-worker Marilyn Myers. This was a continuing theme in Gacy's life. He seemed adept enough to find success in...

any of his pursuits. Gacy was amicable, social, and fast to claim opportunity. Many serial killers blend into society, making them especially dangerous. Ted Bundy, H.H. Holmes, Jeffrey Dahmer, these were all men who appeared normal and neighborly, but were really hiding a murderous nature. What strikes me as fascinating with Gacy is that he was able to reestablish himself repeatedly, even after some sinister truths about him, came to light. Because while Gacey was molding a prototypical American family and future, his true desires slowly started to emerge. Our story will continue in a moment after a brief message. When you think like an athlete, setbacks don't stop you.

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Now the story continues. In the fall of 1964, John Wayne Gacy was on his way to becoming a model family man. In Springfield, Illinois, he had a steady job, a wife, and all the reason to be excited about the future. Gacy joined the Junior Chamber of Commerce, a nationwide organization dedicated to building leadership and business skills amongst its members.

More casually known as the JCs, Gacy took to the organization quickly. rising in its ranks. Other members often lauded Gacy for his dedication and passion for the organization. It was through the JCs that Gacy had his first gay experience when he got drunk with a male co-worker, and the co-worker convinced Gacy to perform oral sex on him. This experience seemed to awaken a long-dormant sexual desire within Gacy. However, his lust could not be satiated by normal sex. He wanted more. He wanted power and control, where he could use people the way he wanted to, where his sexual desires could only be fulfilled through the killing of his victims.

But his co-worker, at least, was safe. Soon after that incident, Gacy and his wife moved from Illinois to Iowa. His father-in-law owned three Kentucky-fried chicken locations in Waterloo, Iowa, and he offered Gacy a management position. In February of 1966, Gacy's wife gave birth to their first son, and his daughter was born a year later. Gacy would later claim that he treated his children better than his father treated him. He said, quote, a lot of things that my dad did, I refused to do.

I don't believe in hitting, hitting children. Gacy was trying to make a life that he believed to be a good one, and on the outside, it looked like he was succeeding. He had a good job, a wife, children, and a blueprint

for a steady and bright future. Even Gacy's father finally admitted that his son was doing well. He went so far as to say he was proud of him and wrong about him as a boy. Gacy describes these years, from 1966 to 1967, as the happiest of his life. Whether he really felt this way or not, it was not a happy enough life for him to suppress his dark desires.

Gacy also got involved with the J.C. chapter in Waterloo, and once again, quickly rose through its ranks to become a prominent member of the group. Though this chapter of the JCs had something to hide. The Waterloo JCs were quite promiscuous. As a recruitment town, they threw parties with prostitutes and hotels. And as a leading member of the JCs, Gacy himself hosted these parties. It is said that his parties were so raucous, he recruited 20 new members in one night.

And while their recruitment parties were one thing, membership in the JCs had similar types of perks. The JCs made stag videos of their prostitute parties and participated in swinging or swapping their husbands and wives in the bedroom. Here, Gacey'sies, He said to operate in the shadows and lead a double life. Gacy strung together lies and built secrets that he kept from his wife and children. He began to work behind his family's back and learned that he could live in two different worlds.

In his public world at the KFC restaurants, Gacy flourished in his management position. He insisted that everyone called him colonel, and he reveled in the power of the position afforded him. Serial killers often desire power and control, so it makes sense that Gacy continually sought to be a boss, or at least a leader in as many places as he could. But it wasn't long before these relentless pursuits of power and sex caught up to Gacy and ruined this seemingly pristine life he had built in Waterloo, Iowa. In August of 1967, John Wayne Gacy committed his first known act of sexual assault when he lured 15-year-old Donald Voorhees, the son of a fellow JC member, into his basement,

where Gacy kept a cache of liquor. After showing the boy some of the pornographic films and getting him drunk, Gacy forced the boy to perform oral sex on him. Gacy threatened the boy into silence, with violence and defamation, and Vohes obeyed tentatively, holding the secret for months out of fear and embarrassment. In the meantime, Gacy continued to pursue teenage boys, often the ones he employed at KFC.

He'd get them drunk and convince them to participate in sexual acts through blackmail, and in the name of scientific research. This type of sexual assault ultimately proved not to be enough for Gacy, as he would later need to satisfy his lust with murder. But this series of assaults and rapes brought him ever closer to acting on his murderous desires. This type of uncapped sexual desire seems to emerge often in serial killers. It does. We might call it an extreme form of sexual sadism,

a condition in which a person finds arousal in the humiliation, pain or suffering of themselves. or another person. And often, these killers feel the need to go to great lengths to satisfy these desires. They do. Serial killers often find victims who remind them of what they hate about themselves. Gacy abused gay teenagers as a way of coping with his own self-loathing. In the FBI interview after his arrest, Gacy categorized his victims as, quote, worthless little queers and punks, end quote.

When the FBI interviewer questioned Gacy's own sexuality, he said, cited how successful he was in the neighborhood. It shows that Gacy was working hard to disassociate himself from his own sexuality. His teenage years haunted him so much that he wanted to assuage his pain by hurting teenage boys. In fact, psychiatrist Helen Morrison, who interviewed and evaluated Gacy for 600 hours during his trial, claimed that Gacy was trying to kill the parts of himself that he hated. Gacy's abusive, lonely, and troubling childhood terribly affected him. him. It is quite common for serial killers to lash out at people who represent problems from their

youth, whether that be parents, a love interest, or an internal struggle that is never solved. Nevertheless, Gacy's assaults finally caught up to him when months after the attack in March 1968, Donald Vohaise finally broke down and told his father that Gacy had sexually abused him. Vohiez's father quickly told the police, and Gacy was arrested and charged with sodomy. Gacy vehemently denied the charges demanding a polygraph. Which he failed. He claimed that Voorhees' father was out to get him for political reasons. A fabrication to deface the accuser's reputation.

Gacy even hired someone to physically intimidate an assault for Hiz in an attempt to prevent him from appearing and testifying. Which Gacy was caught, arrested, and charged for as well. The lengths Gacy went to an order to prevent his convictions seem pretty intense. I think they highlight the desperation Gasey. Gacy felt to protect his image as an upstanding citizen. The judge ordered Gacy to take a psychiatric evaluation that lasted for 17 days, during which two doctors concluded that Gacy had antisocial personality disorder. Aren't serial killers frequently diagnosed with this disorder?

Not just serial killers, criminals in general. Anti-social personality disorder is, among other things, a disregard for what is right and what is wrong. There is a general, often cruel, indifference to their behavior, not caring who or what they affect in their actions. This type of morality filter causes a man like Gacy to pursue and take the things that he wants without a sense of empathy for his victims. It meant that as he continued to unlock the things that made him feel good, he would stop at nothing to get them. That's a pretty horrifying combination. And if you add in his desire to commit lust murder, it means Gacy, a man who had an innate, disregard for others was on a path of self-discovery that would leave many boys tortured and dead

in its wake. However, it would be several years before this would happen. Gacy finally admitted to having sex with Four Hees, though he insisted it was consensual. The jury did not believe him, and on December 3, 1968, John Wayne Gacey was sentenced to 10 years in prison. His wife soon divorced him, and John never saw her or his children again. In the winter, of 1969, at Anamosa State Penitentiary, Gacy quickly developed a reputation as a model prisoner. He became the head cook, joined and recruited for the prisons of J.C. organization, and even formed friendships with the guards and the prison warden. Once again, we see Gacy using his social skills to put himself in a position of authority. It makes sense why he was so good at blending in.

Soon after Gacy's prison interview, Gacy's father died of heart failure. Gacy heard the news two days after the death, and he did not take it well. He insisted on believing his father died of shame after Gacy went to prison. It's clear how much Gacy's father continued to influence him. Even after his father's death, Gacy felt like a disappointment. Gacy's tenure in prison was short-lived. After two parole hearings, Gacy was released after serving 18 months of his 10-year sentence. He returned home to live with his mother, though his progress was to be reported to the Iowa Board of Parole. This is important, because if not for a significant oversight, we might not be talking about the brutal killings of John Wayne Gacey. An oversight?

An incident that somehow flew under the radar. In February of 1971, Gacy was charged with sexual assault of a teenage boy. The boy claimed Gacy picked him up at a Greyhound bus stop in Chicago and tried to rape him. The charges were dropped when the victim did not appear in court. Remember, Gacy had a history of threat. threatening witnesses. Somehow, the Iowa Board of Parole was never notified about the incident, even though charges such as these clearly violated his parole. That is a major oversight. Major. And if we want to play the what-if game, this is the biggest one that the Gacy case has to

offer. And nobody knows what happened? Only that John Wayne Gacey avoided what surely would have been a second prison sentence, and perhaps would have been enough to prevent the brutal killings that were to come. Instead, in October of 1971, Gacy's parole ended, and its crimes in Iowa were lost to a filing cabinet. And now, with a clean slate and a continuing history of assault, a violent, unremorseful John Wayne Gacy was about to emerge. In the second half of 1971, John Wayne Gacy bought the house in Chicago that would play host to all his murders in the years to come. Shortly thereafter, he got engaged to a one-time time. childhood friend, Carol Hoff, and she and her two daughters moved into Gacy's new residence. He was transparent with her about his jail sentence, and although this concerned her,

she was tolerant of the man she considered hardworking. Although we don't know for sure, Gacy seemed to be using Carol as a way to uphold his model exterior. Though his honesty with her might suggest that he actually cared about her, it could be that he confessed only out of fear that she would discover the truth on her own. An interesting thing about this is Gacy always seemed to flip-flop with his honesty, sometimes admitting to his crimes, other times denying them adamantly, almost as if his memory changed with his moods.

Do we think of these inconsistencies as relevant, or can we just chalk it up to Gacy's personality? Well, these inconsistencies always struck me as odd, but the significance of them doesn't come into play until later. Late in his jail sentence, Gacy claimed to have multiple personality disorder, but the psychiatrist who tested him all denied that possibility. In 1971, Gacy soon started a construction business, PDM contractors, that was instantly successful and quickly expanded into a staple of the community.

Yet again, Gacy found a way to establish himself and act like a friendly, outgoing neighbor, and by founding his own company, he was able to claim a position of power that no one could take from him. Gacy primarily hired teenage boys for his workforce. under the pretense that they came cheaper. He even went as far as luring boys from other positions with the promise of paying them more. Though we now know he had much darker motives behind choosing who to hire. Over the first year of his business, several teens came forward to accuse Gacy of sexual assault. In one case, a teenager beat up Gacy on his own lawn.

Gacey was able to duck these accusations by manipulating these boys and threatening them. Or he would claim that they were only upset because, because Gacy did not pay them for their poor work. As he dodged the barrage of accusations, Gacy solidified his position in the neighborhood. He became involved in politics with the Democratic Party, volunteered for many different local organizations, and hosted street parties for everyone in the community.

But once again, this front of an upstanding family man came crashing down. Unable to resist his desire to assault children, John found another teenage boy, but something happened that changed everything. Instead of assaulting this boy in threatening him into silence, Gacy killed him and awakened a beast that stayed dormant for years. That's right. Gacy finally found the sexual gratification he was looking for,

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Marvel Television's Wonder Man All eight episodes now streaming Only on Disney Plus And now back to serial killers On January 2nd, 1972, 16-year-old Timothy McCoy missed his bus transfer at a Greyhound station in Chicago. The next bus would take over 10 hours. As the stranded boy hunkered down to wait for the bus, a car pulled up. The driver offered to show Tim the sights of Chicago instead of waiting at the station.

With nothing else to do, Timothy took up the offer and got in the waiting car with John Wayne Gacey. Gacy took Timothy around the city, then... then offered him a bed to sleep in at his house. Gacy's wife Carol and her children were out of town. Timothy accepted the invitation, and he brought him home, where Gacy made him dinner. And the two went to bed. According to Gacy, the next morning he awoke to Tim

standing at his bedroom brandishing a knife. Gacy leapt to his defense, and the confused Timothy swung his hands up in the air, cutting Gacy's arm. Thinking he was under attack, Gacy tackled Timothy, and the two got into a rest of him, match, where Gacy gained control of the knife. He straddled Timothy and stabbed him multiple

times in the chest. Gacy went downstairs to the kitchen where he found breakfast supplies and a table for two. Tim was planning on making breakfast for both of them as a way of thanks, and he forgot that he had carried the kitchen knife with him. Gacy later buried the body in the crawl space of his house. Now, it's important to remember that this is Gacy's account and must be taken with a grain of assault. Forensics tells us Timothy was in fact stabbed, but what happened before and after is only available to us through Gacy's story. So you think he could be lying about this murder? Well, it seems pretty likely, especially because of the outlandish and accidental nature of it. It seems like Gacy is trying to portray himself as a type of victim when the real victim is the boy he murdered.

Well, assuming he did lie, why would he do so? This was a man convicted of 33 murders when he told this story. What did he have to gain by claiming a type of innocence on the first one? It's difficult to be positive about anything because of the source, but perhaps Gacy felt himself a victim to his own lust. Like he knew the path to killing was inevitable and too big a desire for him to control. Thus, he told a story that made the whole thing seem accidental, which could be how he felt. However, we know that this desire to commit lust murder existed in Gacy all along, and he finally satiated this desire with Timothy McCoy. And though he almost sounds regretful in his account, we'll never know what truly happened

because Gacy buried the only other witness to the crime. Right. This is a story we will never know. But the strange and inconsistent recollection of Gacy's account brings up some interesting insights. At the end of the day, what matters is that this murder awakened the most sinister of feelings in John Wayne Gacey. He later described the moment of killing as a mind-numbing orgasm. It was the moment that he realized death was the most important thing to him. From this moment forward, killing became a type of obsession for Gacy. Something he knew he could not find elsewhere.

It awakened something that he would pursue relentlessly. Though it might have taken a while until his obsession came out in full force. We aren't sure of Gacy killed for the next two years. The next confirmed life he took was in January of 1974. But what we do know is that the terrible seed was planted that would spark one of the most well-known serial killers the United States has ever seen. Then, in 1975, a lot began to happen in Gacy's life, in both innocent and sinister ways. First, Gacy's business started growing. As a result, he hired more and more teenage boys and started working up to 16 hours a day. Secondly, and I wonder if there's any correlation here,

he started to increase the amount of time he spent on the prowl for teenage boys. Thirdly, Gacy told his wife he would no longer be sleeping with her. He said he was bisexual and that he would be seeking sexual gratification elsewhere. Carol observed Gacy bringing teenage boys into their garage and found Gacy's gay pornography strewn about their home. This forced her to become estranged from her husband. They soon began divorce proceedings. This string of events certainly was related and all seemed to encourage Gacy to fully commit to these horrific acts.

By removing his wife from his household, Gacy was able to operate without suspicion, and the increase in workload gave him an excuse to meet more potential teenage victims. Gacy set up an environment where he could maintain the cover of a cheerful, outgoing businessman and hide the atrocious murders he started to commit more frequently. His commitment to outward's appearances never wavered, and this commitment tricked an entire neighborhood. His ability to go about his daily life without any sort of remorse really highlights how deranged Gacy was. Gacy worked hard at creating an external disguise, and all the endeavors he put his time and effort into distracted the community from seeing the real inside of this murderer. Gacy was adept at having a shifting identity.

From a young age, Gacy practiced taking on multiple personas. so he knew how to operate smoothly in this double life. And with this constant struggle with identity, it makes sense why Gacy chose a clown as his alter ego. That's right. In 1975, after a brief obsession with clowns, John Wayne Gacy made his own character. He called this character Pogo,

and he used him to entertain children at his neighborhood parties. Gacy even learned to do his makeup, though the experts say Gacy did it a little different. He pointed some of the lines on his face rather than rounding them. The round lines were supposed to look softer, less intimidating. But Gacy preferred the more sinister-looking style. However, it's important to remember that clowns were not necessarily part of the horror lore yet. Yes, they weren't the evil pop culture icons that they are today.

But looking at pictures of Pogo very much gives me the creeps. Even though we know that might be hindsight bias. Gacy became obsessed with dress. messing up as Pogo. He entertained children at the hospital, through parties, and often dressed as the clown on trips to local bars. Pogo was a character that would play a part in the rest of John Wayne Gasey's life. It really seems like after all these years, Gacy found a personality he identified with. In the clown costume, he was able to form a barrier between himself and society, an external

realization of what he felt all along. And perhaps this was another factor in enabling him to start down the terrible path he did. Wait a second. You're saying that somehow dressing up as Pogo made Gacy more comfortable as a murderer? Exactly. Gacy found a skin in which he felt free to express himself. It's just unfortunate that expression came out in such a violent way. Violent it was. Because over these years, from 1975 to 1978, Gacy was perfecting his act as a clown. He was also perfecting a horrific performance. An act so terrible, it claimed

dozens of young boys, some who even lived to tell about it. But we'll tell you about them next time. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. If you want to listen to any previous episodes of serial killers, you can find them on Apple Podcasts, tune in, Google Play, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Spotify, or in our website, parkast.com, spelled p-a-r-c-s-a-st-com. If you like what you hear, please leave a five-star review or tell us what you think on social media. We're on Facebook and Instagram as at Parcast. And Twitter at Parcast Network. It seems simple, but it really helps our show. Join us next Monday as we continue delving into the twisted psyche of John Wayne Gasey.

Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler, is a production of Cutler media and is part of the Parcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Ron Shapiro, with production of assistance by Carrie Murphy. Additional production assistance by Carly Madden and Maggie Admeyer. Serial Killers is written by Drew Cole and stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. Thanks for tuning into serial killers. Here's a reminder that you can find hundreds of shockingly true stories, episodes you won't hear anywhere else by following serial killers free and only on Spotify. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and

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