John Wayne Gacy

In September 1964, Gacy married Marlynn Myers, a co-worker at the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company. The couple had two children. His first wife divorced him in 1969 when he was imprisoned on the charges of sodomy.

He married again after being released on parole. In 1972 he tied the knot with Carole Hoff, a divorcee with two young daughters. Within a few years of their marriage, he openly confessed to Carole that he was bisexual. The couple divorced in 1976.

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 17, 1942, to John Stanley Gacy and Marion Elaine Robinson. He had two sisters. His father was an auto repair machinist and World War I veteran.

His father was an abusive alcoholic and young John had a very difficult relationship with him. The father used to mercilessly beat the boy for no reason, and even rendered him unconscious with his brutal physical assaults. His mother tried her best to protect John from his father, but to no avail. Another unfortunate incident happened in the little boy’s life when he was sexually molested by a family friend.

To add to his woes, he suffered from a heart condition because of which he could not play any sports. Overweight and uncouth, he was often mocked at by his neighboring bullies. His ill health also prevented him from performing well at school.

His father’s abusive behavior continued to worsen with time, and tired of all the troubles at home, John Gacy left the family home and went to Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1962.

In Nevada he found work as a mortuary attendant. A bizarre incident happened one day—he hugged and caressed one of the dead bodies in the mortuary—and was shocked by his own behavior. Terrified and confused, he returned home to his parents.

John Wayne Gacy soon found a job as a management trainee in the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company. He found considerable success there and was soon promoted to manager of his department in Illinois. He also fell in love and married a co-worker, settling into the typical life of a respectable middle-class American.

In the 1960s he joined the Jaycees—The United States Junior Chamber—and became a tireless worker for the organization which was a non-profit venture aimed at providing opportunities for young men to develop personal and leadership skills through service to others. He became a well-known figure within the organization and by 1965, had risen to the position of vice-president of the Springfield Jaycees.

There was a dark side to Gacy’s personality and he committed his first known sexual assault on a teenage boy in 1967. The boy was a son of a fellow Jaycee who he lured to his house and assaulted. Over the next few months he molested and raped many other boys.

One of the boys he assaulted, Donald Voorhees, informed his father about Gacy’s misdeed. The father immediately contacted the police who arrested Gacy. The police, however, could not find conclusive proof and indicted Gacy on the sodomy charge.

Gacy then hired one of his employees to physically assault Donald Voorhees in an effort to discourage the boy from testifying against him at his upcoming trial. The employee attacked Donald who immediately reported the assault to the police. Gacy was again arrested and was convicted of sodomy in December 1968 and sentenced to 10 years at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. Disturbed by her husband’s criminal activities, his wife divorced him.

He proved to be a model inmate in prison where he had also joined the inmate Jaycee chapter, and was released on parole after only 18 months. He returned to Chicago and set about rebuilding his life. He developed good relations with his neighbours who were unaware of his past and got married again.

He remained active on the community as well, and often dressed up as a clown to entertain sick children. He threw parties for his neighbours and was successful in creating a positive image for himself in the society. Unbeknownst to his neighbours, Gacy was also living a secret life as a rapist and murderer—he had not reformed as his wife and mother believed.