Source:A&E– documentary about serial murderer John Wayne Gacy’s execution.

Source:The Daily Press 

“John Wayne Gacy, a successful businessman from the Chicago suburbs, moonlighted as a children’s entertainer who went by the names “Pogo the Clown” and “Patches the Clown.” He was also convicted in March 1980 of murdering 33 boys and young men, making him the worst serial killer in American history at the time.

But it wasn’t just the number of victims that made Gacy’s crimes so haunting. It was the gruesome manner with which he committed the murders: luring children into his home, binding and raping them, strangling them to death and then burying them throughout his property.

For his crimes, Gacy was sentenced to death. His execution, carried out in May 1994, attracted enormous crowds.”

From A&E

“A&E Biography John Wayne Gacy A Monster In Disguise”

Source:Thomas Day– John Wayne Gacy’s sister.

From Thomas Day

Source:A&E– Terry Sullivan talking about prosecuting John Wayne Gacy.

With some serial murderers I think what could they have been if they didn’t enjoy murdering people and weren’t serial murderers, how much could they’ve accomplished in life, if they weren’t serial murderers, with their ability to hide who they really are. Maybe they could’ve had careers as actors or something. Take John Wayne Gacy who was both a serial murderer and a child molester, who enjoyed murdering people, but also having sex with adolescent boys, young men even. But in his public life, he was a successful small businessman who was very popular in his Illinois town and considering a career in politics.

John Gacy was being recruited to run for public office, but who was also another serial murderer who had a rough childhood. Bad father like Henry Lucas, but the difference between Gacy and Lucas, is that John Gacy was very intelligent, well-educated, and successful in his professional life. Unlike Henry Lucas who didn’t have a professional life, who wasn’t well-educated, who didn’t even finish junior high and wasn’t intelligent. Perhaps borderline retarded and was a drifter, moving from small town to small town, picking up work wherever he could find it. And at one point even living in a chicken coop.

John Gacy is responsible for murdering and raping at least twenty people. Some of them very young men, adolescents, because that’s who he was attracted who. He wasn’t a homosexual, but a bisexual, who was attracted to women and very young men. Who’s probably not missed by anyone other than his very close relatives.

John Gacy getting the death penalty is not a tragedy. One less serial murderer off the streets, one less bisexual rapist that young male inmates have to worry about dealing with in prison. But his life was tragic because this was a very intelligent and productive man, family man. Who in his public life was very productive and successful. And died in his early fifties in 1992, because of the death penalty, because of the person he was in his private life.

You take the private side out John Gacy’s personality out of him, you are talking about someone who might have been Governor of Illinois or ended up in Congress. Gacy dying the way he did wasn’t tragic, but the private life that he did live, with all the people who hurt and murdered was tragic and what he could’ve been, that he never achieved, because of the fact that he was a serial murderer is tragic. And represents someone who had he decided not be a serial murderer, perhaps could’ve had a career as an actor, because of his ability to live the lives of two people.