People who knew John Wayne Gacy would describe him as a loving, hardworking, and giving man. In his spare time, he posed as a clown for sick children, and helped out in the community. Even after convicted of 33 murders in addition to several accounts of rape and torture, those who knew John Wayne Gacy stood by him. But how do you stand by a man convicted of all of these crimes?
Gacy was born in 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. As a child, he was beat and taunted by his alcoholic father. Many reports believe that his father's role in his life led to Gacy's violent behavior. Because his father robbed him of his childhood, it could be said that Gacy's obsession with clowns later in life was his way of redoing his childhood. When Gacy was on death row, it was reported that he would only draw clowns in his jail cell.
The first report against Gacy appeared in 1968 when he was arrested for raping an employee, and paid that employee to keep silent about the incident. Unfortunately, this incident was the first of many to appear. In just three years, John Wayne Gacy killed over 30 adolescent boys from the ages of 9 to 27 years old. Although few were let go after being tortured and sexually assaulted, most were buried in the crawl space of Gacy's small Chicago home. According to an article of Clark Prosecutor, Gacy told detectives "'There are four Johns.' He later explained that there was John the contractor, John the clown, and John the politician. The fourth person went by the name of Jack Hanley. Jack was the killer and did all the evil things."
Even though at the time of the arrest Gacy admitted to the murders and drew up a plan of where the bodies were buried in the crawl space of his house, Gacy refused to admit to the murders 13 years after being sentenced. In an interview with Walter Jacobson, Gacy changes his story and believes he did not commit any crimes.
John Wayne Gacy was put to death by lethal injection in 1994. Before his injection, he was allowed a private picnic with loved ones who still stood by him and believed he was innocent.
Connect this to what you are learning in class. How does this fit with information you know from Psychology? Give more analysis and personal interpretation.