John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy
Mugshot of Gacy taken on December 21, 1978
Born	John Wayne Gacy Jr. (1942-03-17)March 17, 1942 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	May 10, 1994(1994-05-10) (aged 52) Crest Hill, Illinois, U.S.
Cause of death	Execution by lethal injection
Other names	The Killer Clown
Height	5 ft 8 in (173 cm)
Weight	230 lb (104 kg)
Criminal penalty	Death (12 counts) Life imprisonment (21 consecutive counts)
Spouse(s)	Marlynn Myers (m. 1964; div. 1969) Carole Hoff (m. 1972; div. 1976)
Children	2
Conviction(s)	1 count of sodomy 33 counts of murder 1 count of sexual assault 1 count of indecent liberties with a child
Killings
Victims	33–34
Span of killings	January 3, 1972–December 11, 1978
Country	United States
State(s)	Illinois
Date apprehended	December 21, 1978
Imprisoned at	Stateville Correctional Center

John Wayne Gacy Jr. (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer and rapist. He sexually assaulted, tortured and murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978 in Cook County, Illinois (a part of metropolitan Chicago).

All of Gacy's known murders were committed inside his Norwood Park ranch house. His victims were typically lured to his address by force or deception, and all but one victim were murdered by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a makeshift tourniquet (his first victim was stabbed to death). Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the crawl space of his home. Three further victims were buried elsewhere on his property, while the bodies of his last four known victims were discarded in the Des Plaines River.

Convicted of 33 murders, Gacy was sentenced to death on March 13, 1980 for 12 of those killings. He spent 14 years on death row before he was finally executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.

Gacy became known as the "Killer Clown" because of his charitable services at fundraising events, parades, and children's parties where he would dress as "Pogo the Clown", a character he devised himself.

John Wayne Gacy Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 17, 1942, the only son and second of three children born to John Wayne Gacy (1900 – 1969), an auto repair machinist and World War I veteran, and his wife Marion Elaine Robinson (1908 – 1989), a homemaker. Gacy was of Polish and Danish ancestry. His paternal grandparents (who spelled the family name as "Gatza" or "Gaca") had immigrated to the United States from Poland (then part of Prussia). As a child, Gacy was overweight and not athletic. He was close to his two sisters and mother, but endured a difficult relationship with his father, an alcoholic who was physically abusive to his wife and children.