John Wayne Gacy- A Look Into a Killer Mind
Introduction
The question is: How could a man considered by so many to be an upstanding citizen
actually be the murderer of thirty three young men? Within the pages of this report I intend to
examine Gacy s life through two psychological theories in order to give some insight into some of
the factors that may have caused Gacy to act as he did. The beginning of this paper will start with
some family history and then move into the criminal aspects of this case.
Offender Background
Family/ Private Life
John Wayne Michael Gacy was born on March 17, 1942 to parents John Stanley
Gacy and Marion Elaine Robinson. He grew up in Norridge, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, with two
sisters. Up until age eleven he attend a Catholic School and then later moved and enrolled in public
school. Although regarded as a good student, he never finished high school. (Sears, 1991)
Life for young John Gacy was difficult. His father was very abusive and strict as
well as a perfectionist. Stanley was an alcoholic who was self-contained and silent and was a quick
tempered individual who often exploded with little warning. Stanley believed that to spare the rod
was to spoil the child . (Anonymous, 1992:51) John was always trying to please his father but
anything he had done was ridiculed. His father would constantly belittle John often calling him
High School Hitler Adolf Father
The Birth of A Tyrant On April 20, 1889, in the small village of Braunau on the River Inn between Austria and Germany, a child was born to a strutting Austrian customs official of fifty-two and a peasant girl still in her twenties. The story of Adolph Hitler is not a pretty tale. There was almost nothing kind, romantic or gentle about the life of this self-styled hero who said that he was the ...
names like stupid, mama s boy or sissy. Stanley never let an opportunity go by without letting him
know how much of a disappointment he was. John s mother, Marion, was a hard working
pharmacist who loved to sing and dance and socialize over a few drinks with her friends. John
always loved her mother and always spent more time with her. His father always taunted him over
that and told him he was going to be a queer .(Anonymous, 1992:54) Marion would often protect
her son by covering up or withholding secrets from his father so he wouldn t be punished.
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(Anonymous, 1992)
At age nine one of his father s friends began to give John frequent visits. Often
taking him on rides in his truck and ending up putting the young boy s face in between his legs. John
knew he was being victimized but feared telling his father because he thought he would taunt him
for being a queer. At age eighteen, a time in life when looks become important, Gacy was very
insecure. Often he would lie to his peers about sex because in reality he was still a virgin. He began
to have fantasies about what it would feel like to be in the arms of another boy but never spoke out
about it because his father often voiced his hatred towards homosexuals. The mental and physical
abuse would continue throughout his childhood and teenage years.(Anonymous, 1992)
Professional / Criminal Background
At age fourteen Gacy started his first salary job as a delivery boy for a supermarket. During
his mid teenage years he became interested in police and other volunteer work. He began a civil
defense squad in high school which gave him a sense of acceptance and belonging amongst his
peers. Soon after Gacy got involved with politics. He volunteered to work at a campaign office of a
local candidate, which Gacy really enjoyed. A little later that same year he joined a local church and
formed a group called Chi Ro Club in which he organized dances and other activities.
(Anonymous, 1992)
At age nineteen Gacy got into a huge argument with his father and drove off
to Las Vegas where he found work at the Palm Mortuary. There he became curious about dead
bodies. Three months later Gacy quit the job after a run-in with his boss. His boss began to raise
The Term Paper on Young One Boy Man Girl
He knew that his first prey, the firebird, lived high up in the trees in the heart of the forest. Like lightening, they were hard to miss, and the piercing of its beak left a burn that could never be forgotten. Suddenly, the boy heard a shriek, and he whirled his head to see the blood-red bird swooping toward his face. Panicking, the boy lunged for the ground, and for the net that the wise man had ...
suspicions when he started to find corpses unclothed in the coffins. After this incident Gacy went
back home and enrolled in a local business college. In 1963 Gacy had gotten a job with a shoe
company called Nun-Bush, he was twenty one years old. He soon became a manager and things
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were beginning to look bright. Gacy moved out of his parents house and in with his maternal aunt
and uncle where life was much easier. Later that year he joined the Junior Chamber of Commerce,
the Jaycees. Very quickly he became sociable and involved in the Jaycees and soon earned the
respect and recognition he had been dreaming about. In 1964 Gacy married Marlynn Myers (a co-
worker at the department store Gacy was working at) and had their first child. Gacy was then
offered a job by Marlynn s father, Fred, to come manage three Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets in
Waterloo, Iowa which he excepted. Everything in Gacy s life was excellent, Gacy was feeling on top
of the world. Then in 1968 Gacy s world had collapsed. He was arrested and charged for sodomy on
a young employee of Kentucky Fried Chicken named Donald Voorhees. At the trial several other
young employees came forward and said they too were assaulted by Gacy. The trial ended with the
judge taking into consideration all the testimonies of other young victims and sentenced Gacy to 10
years in the Iowa State Reformatory for Men. On the day Gacy was sentenced, Marlynn filed for
divorce and Gacy would never see his children again. While in prison Gacy s father had died but
Gacy was not notified until several months later which upset him very much. On June 18,1970
Gacy was released from prison on good behavior only after serving eighteen months. Gacy moved
back in with his mother and found employment at a Chicago restaurant called Bruno s. There he
became fixated on a police person named Jack Hanley. Gacy admired Jack because he was
everything he was not- almost an image of his father. Gacy would later use Jack as a scapegoat for
many of the murders committed.(Anonymous, 1992)
In 1971 Gacy began taking on odd maintenance jobs and showing interest in small
The Essay on Robert Gray Poem- Old House And Late Ferry
In Robert Grays poems, he uses language to capture human experiences. In two of his poems; old house and late ferry, gray has effectively captured human experiences by his varies poetic languages and through insight and feeling. Throughout both texts late ferry and old house, grays main message in the poems, with his critical analysis, is the destruction of nature by mankind. In old house, gray ...
construction work. In the months to follow Gacy decided construction is what he wanted to do, so he
quit his job at Bruno s and opened a business called PDM. The business became very successful in
the months ahead. Gacy decided to move out of the condo he was living in with his mother and into
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a rancher style home on 8213 West Summerdale dr. in Des Plaines, Illinois.(Anonymous, 1992)
In 1972 Gacy remarried an old acquaintance from high school named Carole Hoff. A short
time later Gacy s wife recalled a rancid odor emanating from under the house. When she
complained, Gacy would cover by saying it was just the dampness of the ground causing the smell.
Gacy s marriage began to decline when Gacy started to bring young men back to the garage of his
house late at night. In 1976 the couple divorced.(Anonymous, 1992)
Gacy recalled around January 3,1972 the killing started with a boy later identified as Tim
McCoy. He was picked up by Gacy near a Greyhound bus station in Chicago and brought back
to Gacy s house where they had sex then went to bed. In the morning Gacy stated he woke to the
youth coming at him with a knife, they had a struggle and the boy fell on the knife. Gacy noted that
during the struggle he experienced a sexual release .(Anonymous, 1992) Over the next six years
Gacy lured many victims in various ways. Some were coerced by posing as police officer Jack
and others by the promise of drugs and alcohol. The victims ranged from runaways and hustlers to
employees of his contracting business. In 1976 police surveillanced Gacy s house in connection with
a young missing male prostitute but came up with nothing. Gacy s connection with missing young
males was virtually unnoticed until December 11,1978 when fifteen year old Robert Piest was
reported missing. The police soon figured all the evidence pointed to Gacy so they set up an intense
surveillance. Throughout the next ten days numerous acquaintances of Gacy s were interviewed and
based on the statements given a search was issued. On December 21,1978 Gacy was arrested for
passing a bag of marijuana and a search began at Gacy s house. In the crawlspace under the house a
The Term Paper on Antisocial Personality Disorder
... antisocial behavior cannot be declared APD unless the symptoms are present at other times. Narcissistic, Histrionic, Borderline and Paranoid Personality ... little avail as of yet. However, some theories have developed. In the study of adopted ... who smelled the dead bodies at Gacys house, believed him when he explained it as ... was the case argued by John Wayne Gacy, Jr., the killer clown. For the most ...
huge discovery was made. The bodies of twenty seven young males were found neatly arranged
under almost every room in the house. The floors had to be ripped up so the coroners could exhume
them properly. Gacy later gave the locations of seven more bodies, one set in the cement of his
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garage (John Butkovich an employee of Gacy s) and marked with an X , one underneath the
asphalt of the driveway, and four more dumped in the Des Plaines river about fifty miles from
Gacy s house. In all, thirty three bodies were recovered. On February 6,1980 the trial began, and
taking about six weeks to present conflicting portraits of Gacy. On March 12,1980 the trial ended
with a deliberation of only one hour and fifty minutes, the verdict was guilty on thirty three counts of
murder. On March 13, 1980 the same jurors deliberated again for sentencing, within two hours the
verdict was back- death by lethal injection. For the next fourteen years Gacy spent life on death row
taking up activities such as writing, correspondence and painting portraits of himself as a clown. On
May 10, 1994 Gacy was executed.(Anonymous; Sears,1991)
Theories
Neo- Freudian Theory of Criminality
Followers of Freud s theories began to theorize a fundamental distinction between the
different roles of the Id, Ego, and Super Ego. The main difference was between punishing and being
punished. Freud theorized that an overly dominant super-ego resulted in guilt and a need to be
punished. Whereas Neo- Freudians believed that a controlling and dominant Id results in need to be
satisfied, a need to punish which in turn results in crime.
August Aichorn is a well known Neo-Freudian who theorized in criminology. Aichorn felt in
order for criminality to surface as a lifestyle there had to be three characteristics: 1) seeks immediate
gratification without concerns for others, 2) unable to retain a health relationship; prefers to satisfy
personal desires, 3) no sense of remorse over acts committed. Based on these theories Aichorn came
to assume the powerful Id was to much for the Ego in criminals. An Ego which has been damaged in
an early age could result with the over powering Id taking control and manipulating one s behavior
The Essay on Antisocial Disorder Failure Behavior Repeated
Since the beginnings of psychiatry in the early 19 th century, it has been recognized that there are persons whose persisting antisocial behavior can not be understood in terms of mental disorder or neurotic motivations. The father of French psychiatry, Phillipe Panel, noted that some people seem to behave crazily without actually being crazy. The German systematisist, like Robert Koch, first ...
thus making it very difficult for a person with an dominating Id to live in society because they are
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unable to understand the impact of their behavior towards others.(Holman and Quinn, 1992)
Classification
Neo- Freudian theorists would use micro theory to classify this theory because it explains
behavior at the individual level. Positive classification would be used because observational and
empirical methods are used to measure crime and criminal behavior related to this theory.
Processual would apply because it uses psychology, sociology and biology to explain how
individuals become criminal. Consensus theory would be the last classification because the beliefs in
laws and the Criminal Justice System are agreed among all members of society as being equal and
fair.
Antisocial Personality
antisocial personality disorder can be defined as follows:
The essential feature of antisocial personality disorder is a persuasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begin in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood (Linden, 1996:251)
This meaning a person will have no respect for authority and are unable to learn from
punishment. Antisocial personality disorder can be masked by many different characteristics. Often
a sociopath ( another term for antisocial personality) will be very manipulative and charming as well
as skilled and calculated in his/her activities.(Holman and Quinn, 1992)
Many have high IQ s. They display little or no remorse for their actions due to the lack of
The Essay on Psychodynamic Personality Theories
Contemporary society is intrigued with the notion of human behavior as it expresses itself in our personality. Psychoanalytic model is most noted for introspective strategies such as depth interviewing and projective techniques, which have emanated from its theoretical perspective. Classical psychoanalytic conceptualization approached the study of character or personality in two very different ...
experience and underdeveloped conscience. They often do not fear consequences of their behavior
thus showing little regard for others in society.(Holman and Quinn, 1992) The show an excessive
need to control others, seeing others as just life-size dolls to control and use.(Sears, 1991:50) They
often do not plan ahead if engaging in deviant behavior. There are many different characteristics to
antisocial personality disorder. The following is a list comprised from Hervy Cleckley, an
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authoritative figure in this area, of some of the other main characteristics:
Superficial charm; intelligence; absences of delusions or irrational thinking; lack of nervousness; unreliable; untruthful, and insincere; exhibits poor judgements and fails to learn from experience; pathological egocentricity and incapable of love; lacks specific insight; unresponsive in dealing with interpersonal relations; displays fantastic and uninviting behavior when drinking and sometimes without; sex life is impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated; fails to follow any specific life plan. (Sears, 1991:55)
Classification
Antisocial Personality uses Micro theory to classify an explanation of behavior at an
individual level. Observational and Empirical methods are used to measure crime and criminal
behavior in this theory thus using positive classification. Prossecual theory would apply to antisocial
personality disorder because it uses psychological, sociological, and biological information to explain
how individuals become criminal. The last classification would be consensus theory because it
focuses on the beliefs in laws and the Criminal Justice System of all members of society as being
equal and fair.
Theory Application
Neo- Freudian
Neo- Freudians theory states that an ego that has been damaged at a young age could result
in the overpowering Id taking control and manipulating ones behavior. One could argue that Gacy s
father damaged Gacy s ego by ridicule and belittlement to the point of feeling worthless. Gacy was
always trying to prove his worth to his father by great echievments he had tried to accomplish
through out his life. One could theorize that when Gacy s father died in 1969, he felt it was alright
to satisfy his needs and fantasies without his tormentor around anymore.(Holman and Quinn, 1992)
Antisocial Personality Disorder
Often a person with antisocial personality will be very manipulative and charming as well as
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cold and calculated in his/ her actions. Many victims and acquittances of Gacy s testified in court
that Gacy thrived on being in control and manipulating his victims with false promises. On one
occasion Gacy told his victim he was a magician and asked him to participate in a magic trick, the
victim was so persuaded he allowed Gacy to hand-cuff him and tied a rope around his neck.
Although he was choked and molested he was one of the lucky ones to be let go. In Cleckley s
theory he states antisocial personalities show no remorse or recourse for his/ her actions. Gacy never
displayed any remorse, in fact when he was caught he was eager to brag to the police about his
murderous actions. In his confession Gacy explained how strangled his last victim, Robert Peist, in
the middle of his living room. While doing so the phone rang so he finished him, and then calmly
answered the phone. Shortly after the call, Gacy was putting the body in the addict when the doorbell
rang- it was the police doing a check on whether Gacy had any knowledge of Robert Peist
whereabouts. The police left that day without having any clue about that murder. Gacy is consistent
with other characteristics of antisocial personality disorder such as lying or denial, lack of
nervousness, and an excessive need to control and use others. Gacy always maintained he was
innocent and that the victims killed themselves. He also told police that he was not homosexual,
which judging from all the young male victims found proves to be totally untrue. After ever murder
he had committed he was able to function normally in society as if murder was his other job. With
every encounter Gacy had he was always the dominant one. He always controlled the victim so he
could have his way with him, like he was a life size doll .(Sears, 1991:50)
Gacy had some inconsistences with antisocial personality disorder as well. Antisocial
personality disorder theorizes that a person with this disorder is incapable of love and unable to deal
with interpersonal relations. Gacy had been married twice and had two biological children. Both of
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his wives stated he was kind, loving and easy to talk to. (Sullivan and Maiken, 1983; Anonymous,
1992)
Critical Assessment
John Gacy can not be assessed easily. Although there are many theories out there, there are
not very many that accurately and consistently portray a psychological profile of Gacy. Of the
theories I have used, the antisocial personality disorder theory worked the most. Many of the
characteristics used in this theory fit but do not fully paint an accurate picture of Gacy s lifestyle.
Gacy was almost a real life Jekyll and Hyde in that he was known by many as a thoughtful, kind,
considerate and devoted man and others as a psychotic, violent and sexually perverse man.
During Gacy s trial the notion of split personality came up. When ever the police had
question Gacy about details of the murderers he could not really tell them what had happened and
would refer to Jack as the person who knew. When the police tried to question Jack , Gacy never
responded. This idea was eventually tossed out after psychologist said he was bluffing.
Conclusion
John Gacy is a complicated man who was seemingly charming on the outside but cold and
ruthless underneath, and had a clear absence of any feels of quilt. Through the psychological
theories used in this case study we might be able to get a little more understanding on how a man
can commit such brutal crimes.