John Wayne Gacy Thesis

John Wayne Gacy Born March 17, 1942, John Wayne Gacy was the only boy out of three siblings. Growing up, Gacy had a difficult childhood. He was overweight and struggled to be able to make his alcoholic and physically abusive father proud. Very rarely did John ever receive praise from his father. Often times, Gacy was talked down to and beaten over small things. John Stanley Gacy, John Wayne’s father, often told the young boy he was “dumb” or “stupid”. In 1949, John Wayne Gacy and one of his friends were caught sexually harassing a young girl. As punishment of his acts, Gacy’s father beat him with a razor strop. Later that same year, Gacy was molested by a close family friend, not telling his father until several years later over fear of punishment.

After the boy had hurt his foot the day before at work, Gacy gave the 16 year old alcohol, wrestled him to the floor, and handcuffed him. The boy was able to free one of his arms from the handcuff and tackled Gacy to the floor, somehow getting the key to the handcuffs and cuffing Gacy. Gacy starting screaming multiple threats and promised the boy he would leave.

On July 29, 1975, just one week after the assault on Antonucci, another one of Gacy’s employees, 17 year old John Butkovich, went missing. The boys truck was found abandoned with his wallet and keys inside. Gacy told the boys parents he was happy to help search for the “missing” boy. Gacy later admitted to handcuffing and strangling Butkovich to death. Then, burying the boy’s body under the his garage floor.

In October 1975, Gacy’s new wife, Carole, asked for a divorce. Not long after his divorce was finalized in March 1976, Gacy kidnapped and killed 18 year old Darrell Sampson. Just five weeks later, 15 year old, Randall Reffett was reported missing. Then, just a few hours after Randall went missing, 14 year old Samuel Stapleton also went missing. Both Randall and Samuel were found buried in Gacy’s crawl space.

Between 1976 and 1978, John Wayne Gacy kidnapped, raped, tortured, and brutally murdered more than 20 teenage boys, ages ranging from 14-21 years

Upon arrival, Gacy picked up a copy of a local magazine with Robert Piest on the front and said, “This boy is dead. He’s in the river.” Over the next couple hours, Gacy gave a very detailed confession of all the murders. He told where he had placed all the bodies. He told specific details about how he tortured and murdered each of the boys.

On December 22, 1978 Gacy officially confessed to police and was arrested. Gacy confessed to abducting killing 25-30 teenage boys since 1972. After confessing, Gacy went back to his home with police where he showed them where his victims were. 28 of the bodies were found on Gacy’s property, with 26 of those in his crawl space. Then, 3 additional bodies were found at a nearby Des Plaines River.

Gacy’s trial began on February 6, 1980, where he was charged with 33 murders. After undergoing many psychological test, Gacy was found to be a Paranoid Schizophrenic with multiple personality disorder. Gacy was sentenced to death on twelve counts of murder. His execution date was set for June 2,