John Wayne Gacy
Clowns have been around for centuries now, people usually dress up as them to perform
some kind of physical comedy act. Some events that this would take place include, circuses,
birthday parties, and at rodeos. The purpose of a clown is to entertain people, specifically
children. When one thinks of a clown, usually good and happy thoughts are resembled towards
it. All of that stops when the name John Wayne Gacy gets brought up. John W. Gacy is an
American serial killer and rapist of at least 33 victims in his life. He was born in Chicago, Illinois
where, later in his life, came back to do the gruesome unforgiving acts. He would dress up as a
clown and use that to lure his victims in and attack. He mostly went after teenage boys and
young men who had either run away from home or were separated from their parents for a little
bit. He is one of the most horrific serial killers to have roamed the earth. There are many
conclusions people could reach about why John Wayne Gacy did the things that he did but his
suppressed and secluded childhood, social conditions, and the shame placed upon him by his
father, along with the Biological Theory show why he did such horrendous acts.
To begin with, John Wayne Gacy was born on March 17, 1942. He was born with a heart
defect, which had an effect on his physical appearance(Guy Lucky). The heart defect is a
biological trait that may have made Gacy more aggressive because he was not able to do the
same activities as other kids his age did. He was an overweight child and never played sports. He
was also bullied in school because of the way he looked and his inability to play any sports. At
the age of 11, Gacy was playing on a swing set, but ended up getting hit in the head by one of the
swings(The Axeman Cometh). The accident actually caused him to get a blood clot in his brain,
but that was not discovered until the age of 16. Between that time, Gacy suffered many blackouts
as a cause of the bloodclot. At the age of 17, he was also diagnosed with a heart ailment. He was
hospitalized several times throughout his life because of this. While being in the hospital through
his teenage years, his father would say that he was faking it. Gacy’s father would always make
him feel terrible in some kind of way. He wound up dropping out of High School and decided to
move to Las Vegas(The Axeman Cometh). He never had a normal childhood or teenage years
which could have made him very aggressive and easily agitated. He held in all of these emotions
and feelings for many years. Gacy was never able to tell anyone how he felt or even have a
normal conversation with his dad.. When someone does not have a good relationship with
people, especially in their own family, that can make someone feel like they are not important or
live a meaningless life. All of these incidents piling up could lead anyone to snap in the same
way that John W. Gacy did.
Furthermore, Enrico Ferri, one of Lombroso's students and founder of...
