John Wayne Gacy: The Killer Clown
Mark A. Katz
SOC 275 AB
University of Washington
John Wayne Gacy: The Killer Clown
This paper will dive into the actions and explanations of one of the most notorious killers in the history of the United States, John Wayne Gacy. Born into a middle-class family, Gacy was abused as a child and soon developed a violent tendency towards young boys. This was shown by Gacy's six-year stretch of abducting and killing young boys. When Gacy was finally apprehended, he had abducted, raped, and killed 33 boys. Many theories could be used to explain why Gacy killed but one of the best would be the violentization theory. This theory explains that violent tendencies are taught to people and that these tendencies will be expressed later in life. Another theory, the social disorganization theory, does not do a great job in explaining why Gacy killed because Gacy did not have to experience the types of conditions that must be present for the theory to be held valid.
John Wayne Gacy was born on March 17, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois. Gacy was the only son in his family, but he had two sisters. Gacy was very close to both of his sisters and this mother, although he had a troubling relationship with his father (Wikipedia, 2018). Gacy's father was an abusive alcoholic and Gacy spent his entire childhood trying to prove himself to his father with no prevail (Wikipedia, 2018). Gacy had few friends in school due in part to being sidelined from school because of a heart condition that his father thought he faked (Wikipedia, 2018). Sometime in his early life, Gacy realized that he was attracted to men, specifically young boys (Biography.com, 2017). In 1963 Gacy graduated from Northwestern Business College, and in 1964 he became engaged to Marlynn Myers, a co-worker at the shoe company Gacy worked at (Wikipedia, 2018)
Gacy's first run-in with the law came in 1968 when he was convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage boy. Gacy gave Donald Voorhees, a 15-year-old boy, alcohol and convinced him to perform oral sex upon him (Wikipedia, 2018). Furthermore, there were other reported cases of sexual assaults that matched Gacy's (Wikipedia, 2018). Gacy even went to the lengths to say he was performing "scientific research" on the boys to mislead the children. Gacy spent the next 18 months in Iowa State Men's Reformatory for the crime he committed (Jenkins, 2018). In 1971 Gacy was accused of sexually assaulting another teenage boy, but all charges were dropped when the teen did not show up in court (Wikipedia, 2018). Later in 1971, Gacy became engaged to Carole Hoff, but a week before their wedding Gacy was charged with battery and reckless conduct as he tried to have oral sex with another teenage boy. These charges were also dropped as the teen attempted to blackmail Gacy (Wikipedia, 2018). Gacy then became a successful private contractor and was very well liked around his neighborhood (Jenkins, 2018).
Gacy's first murder came in early 1972. He picked up 16-year-old Timothy McCoy from a Chicago Greyhound terminal and later took him to his home, where McCoy spent the night. In the morning Gacy awoke to McCoy standing at the doorway with a knife. A struggle pursued and Gacy killed McCoy. Unknowing to Gacy, McCoy had just made breakfast and was carrying the knife with him with no intent to harm (Wikipedia, 2018). Gacy said in an interview that killing McCoy was the ultimate thrill. Gacy's second murder came in 1974 when he murdered an unidentified 14 to 18-year-old boy who he kept in his crawl space along with McCoy (Wikipedia, 2018). His third murder came in 1975 when he killed 17-year-old John Butkovich who worked for his contracting company (Wikipedia, 2018). Gacy lured the youth to his house promising to settle an argument over Butkovich's pay. Gacy convinced the teen to be handcuffed where he strangled him and then buried his body in his garage (Wikipedia, 2018).
In 1975 Gacy was divorced for the second time, and after his ex-wife and her two daughters left their house, Gacy began to kill at a higher rate. In the two months after his divorce, Gacy murdered three boys all walking by themselves, all of which he buried under his crawl space (Wikipedia, 2018). Between June and August of 1976 Gacy killed four boys and buried them all in a common grave underneath his kitchen. Five more victims were killed between August and October of 1976 with one being an employee of Gacy's company (Wikipedia, 2018). All of these victims were strangled and buried in Gacy's crawl space. In December of the same year, Gacy killed another employee, Gregory Godzik. Gacy misled Godzik's parents by saying that Godzik told him that he was going to run away (Wikipedia, 2018).
Between December 1976 and May 1977, Gacy killed seven people and buried them all in the crawlspace (Wikipedia, 2018). Gacy kept a ring and a Motorola TV from one of his victims, John Szyc, which was found in his master bedroom by police (Wikipedia, 2018). In the latter half of 1977, Gacy committed six more murders all similar to his prior ones (Wikipedia,2018). On December 30, 1977, Gacy kidnapped a 19-year-old student, Robert Donnelly, raped and tortured him, and dropped him back to where he worked (Wikipedia, 2018). The police investigated Gacy, however, Gacy lied to the police saying they were having "slave-sex," and the police dropped all charges (Wikipedia, 2018). In March 1978, Gacy abducted Jeffrey Rignall then raped and tortured him. Gacy again let his victim go, and Rignall made it back to his girlfriend's house. On July 15th Gacy was arrested for battery on the attack on Rignall (Wikipedia, 2018). In Gacy's last few murders instead of putting the bodies into the crawl space, he dumped them into the Des Plaines River (Wikipedia, 2018). In all Gacy dumped five bodies in the river, adding his total victim count to 33 (Wikipedia, 2018).
In 1978 Gacy was caught by the police (Jenkins, 2018). The parents of one of his last victims notified police that Gacy was the last person in contact with their son (Biography.com, 2017). Police searched Gacy's house and found all the bodies in the crawl space (Jenkins, 2018). Gacy then confessed to the police and gave details on how he killed all of his victims. He was charged with 33 murders and after his trial, he was found guilty of 33 murders, sexual assault, and indecent liberties with a child (Wikipedia, 2018). He got the nickname of "The Killer Clown" because he used to always dress up as his character "Pogo the Clown." Gacy would come to neighborhood block parties as his alter ego and there have also been rumors that Gacy dressed up as Pogo when he would commit some of his murders. After being found guilty, Gacy was sentenced to death, and after countless appeals on death row, Gacy was executed on May 10, 1994 (Biography.com, 2017)
Now the real question must be asked; What caused John Wayne Gacy to kill so many people? This question may seem very complicated, and it is. There is no single answer to why Gacy did what he did. However, there are ways we can explain his actions, and that is through the use of theories. Some theories like the violentization theory do a great job in explaining the cause of Gacy's actions, but theories like the social disorganization theory do not do as good of a job.
Violentization is a criminology theory developed by Lonnie Athens. Athens created the theory to explain violent tendencies in people. The primary focus of the theory is the self is a product of one's social interaction with one's family, peers, and community (Winton, 2011, p. 364). He describes the path to become violent as a process that has multiple steps. The first step is the brutalization stage (Athens 1992). In this stage, the subject is forced into subjugation by another party. The brutalization stage has three stages within it; violent subjugation, personal horrification, and violent coaching (Athens 1992). The violent subjugation stage involves violent acts upon the victim in specific ways. The goal of this stage is to show dominance over the victim, and if retaliation is shown, then the violence will not stop until respect is given to the attacker (Athens, 1992).
The second step is personal horrification. This step involves the violent subjugation of a member of the same group as the victim. That means the attacker will cause violence to a sister, brother, mother, etc. (Athens, 1992). The goal of this stage is to make the victim feel that he is helpless. The last step in the stage is violent coaching. In this step, the attacker teaches the victim to respond with violence at all costs. There are multiple ways this can be done, but violence is the main idea behind everything that is taught in this step (Athens, 1992).
The next stage is called the Belligerency Stage (Athens, 1992). This stage marks the beginning of violent acts done by the victim. Athens (1992) describes this stage as having four steps: personal responsibility, emotionally-laden, provocation and precaution, and violent resolution. The personal respo nsibility step is where the victim tries to stop the violence being brought upon them (Athens 1992). This step is brought on by the realization that resorting to violence to get what you want is necessary. The second step is the emotionally laden step. Here the victim realizes that they should attack with the intention to harm if they are provoked. Athens (1992) describes this as a very deeply emotional resolution. The third step is where the victim resorts to violence but has extreme caution in only using violence if they know they can win. The last step is the first act of violence that resolves the issue. This is where the belligerency stage ends (Athens, 1992).
The third stage is the violent performances step (Athens, 1992). This stage is very crucial. Here the victim is now comfortable with their ability to cause violence and is actively seeking out to harm someone. The most significant idea that comes from this step is that the violence is no longer being used a resolution. The last step is virulency. Here the victim is now completely comfortable to use their violence with little or no provocation. Athens (1992) says that any person to have reached the virulency stage will become a dangerous criminal.
This theory is consistent with how John Wayne Gacy was raised. His father was abusive towards him and his family, which agrees with the steps in the brutalization stage. Gacy's father subjected him to violence, his siblings to violence, and in turn, coached Gacy to respond to situations with violence. Gacy was arrested for molesting a young boy early in his life and because of that was punished physically by his father. This agrees with the belligerency stage of the theory. Gacy had been molded into thinking violence was the norm in dealing with situations where Gacy had power. That reason could explain why Gacy killed so many young boys, especially the ones who worked for him. Being an adult comes with a lot of power and being the boss of a company adds to that power. Gacy used his power in many of his killings because it could have mimicked the way his father used violence against him. The next stage would have come when Gacy committed his first murder. Instead of using violence to protect himself or use it because he had a lot of power, Gacy now began to kill because causing violence to another human was normal to him. This is where the last stage of virulency comes in. Gacy now did not need a reason for his killings; he did it just because he enjoyed the fact he was causing violence to another person. According to the theory, this is where a person officially can be described as a dangerous and violent criminal and Gacy was no different.
Violentization helps explain why Gacy committed so many murders very well. Most of the key assumptions are the same in how Athens explained them and how Gacy was raised. Athens tries to explain that the way you are brought up and the lessons you are taught will have an effect on how you act. Gacy was the same. He was taught to be violent and in turn, used what he knew as an adult but to a much greater degree.
Another theory is the social disorganization theory. The Chicago School developed this theory, and its main idea is that crime rates are directly linked to socioeconomic characteristics of neighborhoods (McNeeley 2014). What this at means is that crime is not based on the individual, but it is based on the individual's environment. Just like the violentization theory, this theory operates under the assumption that people must be taught to commit a crime; crime isn't a trait people are born with. Social disorganization starts with the rapid social changes that affect large cities (Hannula 2018). Many people move in and out of neighborhoods, and the transition parts of the city will begin to experience slum like conditions (Hannula 2018). This will lead to poverty and residential instability (Hannula 2018). Because of the lack of organization in many of these neighborhoods, kids will learn how to survive on their own and many of them a lot will become delinquents (Hannula 2018). This will pass on from generation to generation and because of that neighborhoods will continue to be places of high crime, regardless of who lives there. (Hannula 2018).
This theory does not do a great job at explaining Gacy's murders. Gacy was raised in pretty terrible conditions because his father beat him. However, that is best explained by the violentization theory. Gacy was raised in a middle-class area of Chicago and wasn't subject to many of the issues that come with social disorganization. Kubrin and Weitzer (2003) say that social disorganization refers to the inability of a community to realize common goals and solve chronic problems, but Gacy's community did not have a problem in reaching common goals (p. 374). Gacy had a mother and father who didn't let him turn into a delinquent, so in turn, Gacy could not have passed that down to another generation. Social disorganization does not explain Gacy's case very well because he wasn't brought up in a run-down, urban part of Chicago. Gacy seemed to have been more influenced by what his father did and his hidden sexual desires rather than what neighborhood he was raised in.
John Wayne Gacy grew up in a seemingly normal middle class household in Chicago. However, the abuse suffered at the hand of this father made Gacy's life a living hell. As Gacy grew up, the violent tendencies that Gacy's father displayed to him, were now being displayed on innocent people. Gacy's adult life seemed very normal, and he was very friendly with all of his neighbors. He even dressed up as his alter ego "Pogo the Clown" at many neighborhood block parties. However, Gacy spent six years of his adult life abducting, raping, and murdering over 33 young boys and burying them in his crawl space. Without the action of one pair of parents, Gacy's crimes could have continued for many years. Many theories could be used to explain Gacy's actions. One of these is the violentization theory which describes the criminal as one who has been taught to be violent. This violence will then be used against other people, most of the time random. That theory describes Gacy's actions very well. However, there are some theories like the social disorganization theory that does not explain Gacy's actions very well. This is because Gacy did not grow up in an area that experienced a lack of community connection, which is one of the major ideas behind the theory.
References
Athens, L. (1992). The Creation of Dangerous Violent Criminals. University of Illinois Press.
Hannula, K. (2018). Lecture 5: Sociological and Criminological Explanations [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1199827/files/48266551?module_item_id=8382828
Jenkins, J. P. (2018, March 10). John Wayne Gacy American Serial Killer. Retrieved May 4, 2018, from Encyclopedia Brittanica website: https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Wayne-Gacy
John Wayne Gacy. (2018, May 2). Retrieved May 4, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy
John Wayne Gacy Biography. (2017, December 15). Retrieved May 4, 2018, from The Biography.com website: https://www.biography.com/people/john-wayne-gacy-10367544
Kubrin, C. E., & Waiter, R. (2003). New Directions in Social Disorganization Theory. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 40(4), 374-402. https://doi-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/10.1177/0022427803256238
Winton, M. A. (2011). Violentization Theory and Genocide. Homicide Studies, 15(4), 363-381. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767911424538