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See Also

See Also in
Notorious Lives

Joe Ball

David Berkowitz

Kenneth Bianchi

Ted Bundy

Angelo Buono, Jr.

Andrei Chikatilo

Andrew Cunanan

Jeffrey Dahmer

Albert DeSalvo

Albert Fish

Ed Gein

Leonard Lake

Charles Ng

Marcel Petiot

Dennis Rader

Gilles de Rais

Aileen Carol Wuornos.

Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives

John Wayne Gacy

by Anthony J. Luongo III

American serial killer

Major offenses: Sodomy and murder

Active: September, 1968; January, 1972-December, 1978

Locale: Des Plaines and Chicago, Illinois

Sentence: Life imprisonment for twenty-one victims murdered between January, 1972, and June, 1977; death by lethal injection for twelve victims murdered between July, 1977, and December, 1978

Early Life

John Wayne Gacy (GAY-cee), Jr., was born on St. Patrick’s Day, 1942, and was raised Roman Catholic by his parents, John Wayne Gacy, Sr., and Marion Gacy. His father, who frequently drank alcohol, was physically and psychologically abusive. At age eleven, Gacy was struck on the head with a playground swing, causing periodic blackouts until doctors discovered and treated a blood clot. After dropping out of high school, Gacy drifted to Las Vegas but eventually returned to Chicago and graduated from business college. At age twenty-two, Gacy married and moved to Waterloo, Iowa, taking a position as manager of a restaurant belonging to his new wife’s family.

To the shock and dismay of his family, Gacy was arrested in May, 1968, for coercing a young employee into homosexual acts. He pleaded guilty to sodomy and was sentenced to ten years in prison. After serving only eighteen months of the sentence, Gacy was released on parole. While incarcerated, Gacy’s wife divorced him and left with their two children.

Gacy returned to the Chicago area and bought a new home in Norwood Park Township. Shortly thereafter, he established his own business, called PDM Contracting, Inc. Gacy, now a well-respected businessman, held elaborate parties at his home for neighbors and entertained children as “Pogo the Clown.” He also held an office in the Democratic Party.

Criminal Career

Gacy’s serial crimes began to surface when he was arrested on February 12, 1971, for disorderly conduct and attempted rape. However, Gacy’s accuser, a young male, failed to appear in court, and Gacy’s charges were subsequently dismissed. According to Gacy’s estimate, his first murder victim was a teenage boy whom he picked up at a bus depot in January, 1972. Between January, 1972, and December, 1978, Gacy killed more than thirty young men. Gacy’s primary modus operandi was to troll the streets of Chicago for young boys and prostitutes and bring them (through coercion or by force) to his house, where he would sexually assault, torture, and strangle them. He then buried the corpses around his house.

Legal Action and Outcome

In early December, 1978, the Des Plaines police department, investigating the disappearance of Robert Piest, confronted Gacy while executing a search warrant at his home. Gacy denied any knowledge about Piest’s disappearance. On December 22, 1978, facing mounting physical evidence against him from subsequent searches of his home, Gacy confessed that he had killed thirty-three young men and boys and buried most on his property. Police summoned the coroner, and when digging was finished on Gacy’s property, twenty-eight bodies were unearthed from the crawl space, the garage floor, and the patio. Five additional bodies were later recovered from the Des Plaines River. Of the victims recovered between December, 1978, and April, 1979, nine remained unidentified.

Gacy’s trial began on February 6, 1980, in Chicago. Gacy pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The defense was ultimately unsuccessful when, on March 13, Gacy was found guilty on all thirty-three counts of murder. Gacy was executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994, in the Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, Illinois.

Impact

Dubbed the Killer Clown, John Wayne Gacy lived a double life for years: successful entrepreneur and popular neighbor by day, sexual predator and murderer by night. Gacy’s notorious criminal career drew considerable attention. “There’s been eleven hardback books on me, thirty-one paperbacks, two screenplays, one movie, one off-Broadway play, five songs, and over five thousand articles,” Gacy boasted in one of his last interviews. After his execution in 1994, Gacy’s original oil paintings of clowns, made while on death row, were sold at auction to collectors. Author Stephen King reportedly used Gacy as a model for the character of the murderous clown in his novel It (1986).

Further Reading

1 

Cahill, Tim. Buried Dreams: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer. New York: Bantam Books, 1986. A thorough examination of Gacy’s many mind-sets and personalities—John the politician, the contractor, and the clown, as well as Jack, the sexual predator and killer.

2 

Linedecker, Clifford L. The Man Who Killed Boys: The John Wayne Gacy, Jr., Story. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993. A factual account of Gacy’s serial murders and subsequent trial as portrayed in the local media, official police records, and court documents.

3 

Mendenhall, Harlan H. Fall of the House of Gacy. West Frankfort, Ill.: New Authors, 1998. Described as the only authorized biography of the infamous serial killer, Mendenhall’s psychological study focuses on the early family abuses that shaped Gacy’s personality and his subsequent diagnosis as a psychotic schizophrenic.

4 

Sullivan, Terry, and Peter T. Maiken. Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders. New York: Kensington, 2000. Sullivan, who was involved in the investigation of Gacy, provides an in-depth and comprehensive look at the complexities of the investigation, prosecution, and conviction of Gacy.

Citation Types

MLA 9th
Luongo, Anthony J. "John Wayne Gacy." Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives, edited by Carl L. Bankston III, Salem Press, 2007. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLN_1221.
APA 7th
Luongo, A. J. (2007). John Wayne Gacy. In C. L. Bankston III (Ed.), Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Luongo, Anthony J. "John Wayne Gacy." Edited by Carl L. Bankston III. Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2007. Accessed March 21, 2026. online.salempress.com.