John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy (17 March 1942, Chicago — 10 May 1994, Stateville Correctional Center, Illinois) was an American serial killer and rapist who brutally murdered over thirty male teenagers and young adults between 1972 and 1978 in his house. He was arrested in December 1978, dubbed the "Killer Clown" by the thrill-seeking American press after the investigation revealed his volunteering as a clown for children's hospitals. Gacy was found guilty of 33 counts of murder, the highest number in the US legal history at the time, and sentenced to death in March 1980. He spent 14 years on death row, where J.W. Gacy began drawing and gave numerous interviews before his execution by lethal injection. Like many serial killers, Gacy led a "double life" for decades — married twice, for instance, and even had two children. He only served a brief prison sentence in 1967 for his first sexual assault on a minor in Iowa; after settling in Chicago, John maintained his pristine facade of a decent, well-established citizen. Gacy was a Moose fraternity member and joined its local "Jolly Joker" clown club circa 1975, long after his killing spree began. He created two characters with full makeup and costumes, "happy" Pogo the Clown and more "serious" Patches, and performed numerous times at local fundraisers, political functions, and children's parties. J.W. Gacy engaged in politics, volunteering at Democratic Party headquarters and serving on various Norwood Park Township committees. Between 1975 and 1978, Gacy was a director of Chicago's annual Polish Constitution Day Parade and even met with Rosalynn Carter in May 1978, only seven months before his arrest; a publicity photo shows Gacy's handshake with the First Lady, with the US Secret Service "security clearance" pin visible on his jacket. After his sentencing, Gacy spent 14 years in solitary confinement at Menard Correctional Center in Randolph County, Illinois. He became an amateur painter and illustrator, drawing varied subjects like portraits (including his self-portraits in clown disguise), birds, skulls, or images of Christ. John Wayne sold many artworks over mail, which became sought-after among "murderabilia" collectors, reaching up to $12,000 in auction sales. Several musicians extensively corresponded with J.W. Gacy, such as Canadian "cowpunker" Glen Meadmore, who purchased several paintings, including his portrait later used on Hot Horny & Born Again album's cover, and notorious punk rocker GG Allin, who visited Gacy on death row multiple times. When Todd Phillips began working on Allin's documentary biopic Hated as his junior student project in 1993, he wrote Gacy and asked to paint an upcoming movie poster. The killer responded with a collect call from death row, demanding a $50 fee and Todd's compromising photo; Edward complied, taking a "hawkish" photo on the roof and sending a money order. After printing posters, Todd Edwards sold them for $15 through ads in local punk zines like Maximumrocknroll and Flipside, raising over $10,000, which covered most of the film production costs; in subsequent interviews, Edwards jokingly referred to Gacy as the project's "true executive producer." The same portrait later appeared on the Hated soundtrack album by GG Allin & The Murder Junkies. Other bands that used Gacy's drawings include Acid Bath, a sludge metal band from Louisiana, and Missourian post-hardcore Season To Risk. In 1988, Bruce LaBruce made a 12-min experimental short, Bruce and Pepper Wayne Gacy's Home Movies, co-directed with Candy Parker and starring LaBruce, Dave Dictor, and G.B. Jones. Over the years, a few mainstream film portrayals of J.W. Gacy came out, starting with a 1992 TV film, To Catch a Killer, with Brian Dennehy playing his role.