THE HOUSE OF JOHN WAYNE GACY

There are inevitable questions asked whenever a serial killer is apprehended. Why did they do it and how did they do it? The answers lie in the development of the individual from birth as like all human beings, serial killers are the product of their heredity and upbringing. Their behavior is affected by stimulation received.

A serial killer is defined as someone who kills several people in three or more events with a cooling off period separating each individual episode. Further definition includes the organized and disorganized killer. Most killers share aspects of both categories, although one is more prominent.

The organized killers are usually of high intelligence and plan their murders meticulously. They maintain a high degree of control over the crime scene, going to great lengths to make their crimes difficult to solve.

The disorganized types are of low intelligence and execute their crimes impulsively, killing when the opportunity arises.

The different types of serial killers are further classified by the basis of their motives. The motivation of any killer often displays considerable overlap within these categories.
The Visionary killers maintain that voices or visions command them to kill. The mission orientated killers target the undesirable in their eyes, citing their actions as honorable. The hedonistic killers derive pleasure, commonly sexual pleasure from the act of killing. Sex is the primary motive of the lust killer and their sexual gratification depends on the amount of torture and mutilation of their victims. The thrill killer creates pain and terror for the adrenalin rush provided by hunting and killing of their victims, while the comfort killer is motivated by material gain.

Lastly and most commonly, is the power/control killer. They feel overwhelming satisfaction in influencing, dictating, controlling and wielding life or death power over another person. The victim will be kept alive for a length of time to be tortured and sexually abused. The sexual aspect is another form of domination for this type of serial killer. This desire of power and control can often be related to a background where the killer felt powerless. Being able to control the life of a victim temporarily counteracts the killer’s feelings of inadequacy and allows them to feel grandiose and superior.
John Wayne Gacy is will be the focus of this article. He is classified as an organized, power/control serial killer.

John Wayne Gacy, Jr committed the rape and murder of thirty-three teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. Twenty-six of his victim were found buried in the crawlspace of his home.

The only son and second of three children to John and Marion, Gacy was close to his mother and sisters but his relationship with his father was strained. The elder John, an alcoholic, would regularly beat Gacy and other family members. Despite this, Gacy strived to gain his father’s approval but he seldom gained this and was frequently called ‘a sissy’ and ‘a mamma’s boy.’ This created an incredibly strong feeling of inadequacy in Gacy.

At the age of eleven, he was struck on the head by a swing. This caused a blood clot to form and he suffered blackouts until the age of sixteen when he was given medication to dissolve the blockage. Despite the prescription, the elder John thought Gacy was faking to gain sympathy. Gacy’s continuing struggle to live up to his father’s expectations added to his feelings of insufficiency.

In his early twenties, Gacy eventually enrolled in and graduated from Northwestern Business College, obtaining a management-trainee position with the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company. This was a period in Gacy’s life where he flourished. He met and married co-worker Marlynn Myers and he was promoted to manager of his department until his father-in-law asked him to manage three KFC restaurants. Gacy and Marlynn moved from Illinois to Waterloo, Iowa and had a son and a daughter.

Behind closed doors. Gacy indulged in wife swapping, prostitution, pornography and drugs, regulary cheating on Marlynn. It was in late 1967 where Gacy began to abuse teenage male employees at the restaurants he managed, opening up a club where he could control who attended. He made sexual advances towards the employees after supplying them with alcohol.

Gacy’s fantasies halted in 1968 when two youths accused him of sexual assault. Gacy was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and two doctors examined Gacy over a period of seventeen days, concluding he was an antisocial personality but was mentally competent to stand trial. Gacy was convicted of sodomy and sentenced to 10 years at Anamosa State Penitentiary. He and Marlynn divorced and he never saw his wife or children again. Did the failure of his marriage add to Gacy’s feelings of inadequacy regarding himself?

A model inmate, Gacy completed sixteen high school courses in prison. Inside, he learned his father died of cirrhosis, caused by alcohol abuse, and broke down, reportedly becoming highly emotional. In June of 1970, he was released and relocated to Chicago to live with his mother where it did not take long for Gacy to return to old urges. In February 1971, Gacy was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy but the complaint was dismissed when the youth failed to appear in court.

Despite these transgressions, Gacy began to build up his life again, purchasing a house and becoming engaged to Carole Hoff, a divorcee with two young daughters. However, his urges were never far from his mind.

On January 2, 1972, Gacy picked up a 15-year-old Timothy Jack McCoy from a bus terminal, promising the youth that he could spend the night at his house. According to Gacy, he woke to find McCoy standing in the doorway to his bedroom with a knife the following morning. In the struggle, Gacy was cut on the forearm, (he has the scar) and McCoy was stabbed in the chest. Gacy buried McCoy in his crawl space and later covered the youth's grave with a layer of concrete.

Gacy became active in his local community, entertaining at picnics and parties as Pogo The Clown and starting a construction business, PDM Contractors, that undertook minor repair work. The business prospered.

In 1975, a 17-year-old employee of Gacy’s disappeared. John Butkovitch went to Gacy’s home to settle a dispute over wages where Gacy talked the boy into putting handcuffs on. Gacy sat on the boy’s chest before strangling him and burying his body under the floor of his garage.

His homosexual desires and urge to inflict harm were becoming too strong to resist. Gacy behavior changed, and his wife, Carole noticed this. Gacy’s moods became unpredictable and his late nights only worsened the issue. Hoff observed Gacy interacting with teenage boys and found gay pornography in the house and the couple divorced by mutual consent in March 1976. After the divorce, Gacy killed eight youths between the months of April and October 1976, burying seven of them in his crawl space. The eighth was buried beneath his dining room floor.

The killing of 19-year-old Robert Donnelly on December 30 1977 saw a change in what Gacy did to his victims. Donnelly was repeatedly raped and tortured with various devices. He had his head dunked into a bathtub filled with water until he passed out, only to have Gacy revive him. The power Gacy held and the pain he inflicted upon Donnelly drove the young man to beg Gacy to kill him.

Gacy replied, “I’m getting round to it.”

After several hours of torturing the youth, Gacy decided to free Donnelly and when questioned about the incident, Gacy said it was consensual and no charges were laid.

In March 1978, Gacy chloroformed 26-year-old Jeffrey Rignall. As with the Donnelly incident, Gacy repeatedly raped and tortured Rignall with various instruments including lit candles before chloroforming him into unconsciousness. Gacy dumped Rignall, unconscious but alive.

It was the killing of Robert Jeist that brought Gacy to justice as Gacy was linked to the boy’s disappearance and police found record of his time in Anamosa State Penitentiary. A search warrant was issued For Gacy’s address and bodies were found at his house.
Gacy confessed to police that since 1972, he had committed 25–30 murders. His victims would be handcuffed or tied and then choked with a rope or a board as they were sexually assaulted. This could go on for some time as Gacy enjoyed the power he had over them. He would sometimes stick clothing in their mouths to muffle their screams so he would not be interrupted.

John Wayne Gacy felt overwhelming satisfaction in manipulating, ordering, controlling and influencing life or death power over his victims. His recurring raping and torture of the young men was for the pleasure obtained by controlling them, hence the often prolonged and repetitive nature of his crimes. While homosexual, his raping of the young men was arguably not for sexual gratification, it was another form of domination and control. This allowed Gacy to forget his feelings of inadequacy formed in his youth by the treatment of his father. In the moment, he was in control and he was as powerful and as controlling as his father had been over him.