“The end is coming (for me). These guys are going to kill me.”
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John Wayne Gacy
John Wayne Gacy was an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured and murdered at least thirty-three young men and boys between 1972 and 1978 in Norwood Park Township, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. He became known as the "Killer Clown" due to his public performances as a clown prior to the discovery of his crimes.
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culture · American serial killer (1942–1994) · clown · painter · serial killer · also John Wayne Gacy, Pogo the Clown, The Killer Clown, Gacy, J. W. Gacy, John Wayne Jr. Gacy
Born 17 March 1942 · Died 10 May 1994 · Q298252
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- Quote
2026· 3 entries
“You know ... clowns can get away with murder.”
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“s mouth and nose, staining his carpet. Because of this incident, Gacy regularly stuffed rags, the victim”
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2025· 1 entry
And stars Michael Chernus as Gacy
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2024· 1 entry
And features interviews with several individuals responsible for Gacy's apprehension and conviction
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2020· 1 entry
That these words were spoken to a prison official, and were not part of any official statement prior to Gacy's execution
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2012· 2 entries
The DNA of Gacy and other executed Illinois inmates was entered into a national DNA database in efforts to establish potential forensic links to further unsolved murders
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Two Chicago lawyers said travel records show that he had been in another state at the time of three of the murders, implying he had one or more accomplices
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2010· 1 entry
Stars William Forsythe as Gacy
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1998· 1 entry
A radar survey suggested fourteen areas of interest within the grounds, yet only two of these had been excavated; four of those remaining were described as being "staggeringly suggestive" of human skeletons
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1994· 5 entries
Died 1994-05-10.
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Career landmark: capital punishment.
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List of serial killers by number of victims
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“You know, clowns can get away with murder”
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“All the police are going to get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license.”
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1988· 1 entry
Setting a new execution date of January 11, 1989
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1984· 1 entry
Sam Amirante authored procedures that were incorporated by the Illinois General Assembly into the Missing Child Recovery Act of 1984
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1983· 1 entry
Henry Brisbon, a fellow death row inmate known as the I-57 killer, stabbed Gacy in the arm with a sharpened wire
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1980· 1 entry
(too late to include among the victims identified before Gacy's trial)
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1979· 3 entries
Were identified as Robert Winch and Tommy Boling, respectively
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A man walking along a Grundy County towpath discovered a decomposed body tangled in roots on the edge of the Des Plaines River
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This victim was identified using fingerprint records and a distinctive tattoo as Timothy O'Rourke
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1978· 5 entries
To discuss the whereabouts of the body of Robert Piest
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And his objection to his lawyers' insanity plea defense
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25-year-old Charles Antonio Hattula was found drowned in the Pecatonica River near Freeport, Illinois
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One of which he believed had landed on a passing barge; only four were ever found
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Career landmark: arrest.
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1977· 1 entry
Gacy lured 19-year-old John Szyc to his house on the pretext of buying his Plymouth Satellite
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1976· 1 entry
Gacy picked up 18-year-old hitchhiker David Cram and offered him a job with PDM; he began work the same evening
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1975· 4 entries
John Butkovich, an 18-year-old PDM employee, disappeared
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“s Day that year, he informed her this would be”
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Gacy was appointed director of Chicago's annual Polish Constitution Day Parade
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Dorsch—then a Chicago police officer—observed Gacy (whom he knew on a casual basis) holding a shovel in the early morning
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1973· 1 entry
Gacy and a teenage employee traveled to Florida to view a property Gacy had purchased; while there, Gacy raped the employee in their hotel room
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1972· 1 entry
Had murdered twice more by the end of 1975, and murdered at least thirty victims after his divorce from his second wife in 1976
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1971· 3 entries
And a month later the records of Gacy's criminal convictions in Iowa were sealed
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Gacy was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy who claimed that he had lured him into his car at Chicago's Greyhound bus terminal and driven him to his home, where he had attempted to force the boy into sex
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Gacy established a part-time construction business, PDM Contractors (for "Painting, Decorating, and Maintenance")
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1970· 1 entry
Having served eighteen months of his ten-year sentence
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1968· 4 entries
Gacy pleaded guilty to one count of sodomy in relation to Voorhees, but not guilty to the charges related to other youths
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Gacy was indicted on the sodomy charge
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Of sodomizing a teenage boy in Waterloo, Iowa, and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, but served eighteen months
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And had concluded he was an antisocial personality, stating that had the recommendations of this doctor been heeded, Gacy would not have been freed
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1967· 1 entry
Was named "outstanding vice-president" of the Waterloo Jaycees and served on the board of directors
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1964· 1 entry
The company transferred him to Springfield, Illinois, to work as a salesman, and eventually promoted him to department manager
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1963· 1 entry
And took a management trainee position with the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company
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1960· 1 entry
At age 18, Gacy became involved in politics, working as an assistant precinct captain for a local Democratic Party candidate
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1949· 1 entry
Gacy's father whipped him after he and another boy were caught sexually fondling a young girl
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1942· 2 entries
Born 1942-03-17.
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The second of three children and only son of John Stanley Gacy and Marion Elaine Robison
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