THE KILLER CLOWN: JOHN WAYNE GACY [MARCH 17, 1942 TO MAY 10, 1994]

20 years ago on this date, May 10, 1994, a child serial killer A.K.A The Killer Clown by the name of John Wayne Gacy, was executed by lethal injection in Illinois.

Mug shot of John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer and rapist, also known as the Killer Clown, who was convicted of the sexual assault and murder of a minimum of 33 teenage boys and young men in a series of killings committed between 1972 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.

All of Gacy's known murders were committed inside his Norwood Park home; his victims would typically be lured to this address by force or deception and all but one victim was murdered by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a 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 for 12 of these killings on March 13, 1980. He spent a total of 14 years on death row before he was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.

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

“Perhaps the emotional event that pushed me over the (philosophical) edge was the John Wayne Gacy case some years ago. I visited him on death row. During our hour-long conversation he was totally unrepentant; in fact, he was arrogant. He insisted that he was a Christian, that he believed in Christ, yet he showed not a hint of remorse. The testimony in the trial, of course, was overwhelming. I don't think anybody could possibly believe that he did not commit those crimes, and the crimes were unspeakably barbaric. What I realized in the days prior to Gacy's execution was that there was simply no other appropriate response than execution if justice was to be served. There are some cases like this—the Oklahoma bombing a case in point—when no other response is appropriate, no other punishment sufficient for the deliberate savagery of the crime.”

- Chuck Colson, quoted in his article, ‘Capital Punishment: A Personal Statement’

Gacy as "Pogo the Clown"