Biography of John Wayne Gacy Jr - Research Paper Example

John Wayne Gacy Jr. Introduction Since the early days of psychiatry, alienists have tried to comprehend the motives and acts of the criminally insane. Initially they believed that anyone who acted contrary to reason must be psychotic, but then a certain type of rational criminal stood out. Collectively, psychologists and psychiatrists who have used their training and skills to probe the minds of the most extreme murders have retrieved important information about motives, pre and post crime behavior, fatal fantasies, mental rehearsal, compartmentalization personalities, and the role of mental disorders. John Wayne Gacy was such a criminal convicted of murder and rape of young men from 1972 to 1978. He had murdered 33 young men and buried some them in an edge space underneath the floor of the house. In addition, he also hid the dead bodies in his property and in a nearby river. John Wayne Gacy lived two lives as a criminal and as a clown where he would extend his charitable services to fundraising events, Halloweens and political events. In reference to Tilstone, Savage and Clark (2006), John Wayne Gacy beguiled many young men into his home for homosexual relationships where he tied them and strangled them to death. According to studies, there are different factors that motivate people to be involved in deviant behaviours. Gacy murdered people for pleasure. His deviant behavior led to the desire for more pleasure and thrill and more murders. It goes without saying that everyone who encountered John Wayne Gacy knew him as the affable and generous man. The community widely liked him for he was charming and easy to get along with. He was a business man and had interest in politics where he became an active member of the Democratic Party. Background In reference to Linedecker (1993), Gacy was born in 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. He seemed to have a regular and normal childhood like any other child with the exception of his father’s abusive behavior. Tilstone, Savage and Clark (2006) describe his father John Wayne Gacy Sr. as a violent and abusive father. He was a drunkard and used to physically assault his children. John Wayne Gacy tried to win his father’s attention and approval but all was in vain. John Wayne Gacy was overweight and non athletic. Like any other growing boy, John Wayne Gacy was close to his sisters and mother since his father did not give him the much needed attention and care. John Wayne Gacy had tried by all means to appease his father but all his puny efforts did not bear any fruit. Sullivan and Maiken (2000) describe an incident where John Wayne Gacy was beaten by his father with a belt after he disarranged engine parts his father had assembled. John Wayne Gacy’s father continuously belittled him and was compared inauspiciously with his sisters. Moreover, his father disdainfully accused him of being unintelligent and dumb. Though John Wayne Gacy constantly disagreed and conflicted with his father in his childhood and adolescence, he fervently denied that fact when he was arrested. John Wayne Gacy’s mother loved him and did not like how his father treated him. At one incidence, in reference to Sullivan and Maiken (2000), he was beaten by his father after stealing a toy from a store when his mother told his father. After the beating, the mother tried to safeguard him from the abusive and violent nature of his father. All the children in his family were raised in Christianity by their mother and attended catholic schools. While growing up, John Wayne Gacy was an obedient and quiet boy who was hard working. He kept himself busy with newspaper routes and scouting activities. Though was not that famous in his school, many teachers and school mates loved and liked him. At school, sometimes John Wayne Gacy would be mocked and bullied by both classmates and neighborhood children. This was after he was diagnosed with a heart disease when he was 17. In reference to Linedecker (1993), at the age of 11, John Wayne Gacy was hit in the head by a swing when playing. This caused a blood clot in his brain that was later discovered when he was 16 years old. Before discovery, John Wayne Gacy had suffered from blackouts caused by the clot. By this time, he had spent nearly a year in hospital and his grades had dropped. On the other hand, his father thought that he was faking the illnesses in order to gain sympathy from him. As a teenager, his father’s abuse and violence intensified. At one point, John Wayne Gacy’s father, drunk, started scolding and raveling at him for no reason and began hitting him. At the age of 18, Gacy got interested in politics and worked as deputy precinct captain for a Democratic Party within his vicinity. According to Sullivan and Maiken (2000), his father criticized his move citing that he was being a person who is gullible and easy to manipulate. By this time, family problems were streaming into his school life and after attending four high schools without graduating he dropped out of school. Employment, Business and political life and Marriage After dropping out of school, Gacy worked as a part time janitor at a funeral home in Las Vegas. He saved his earnings to book for a ticket back to Chicago. After he had enough money to get him home, he talked to his mother to confirm whether his father would allow him back home. His father accepted and he drove back home to be with his family. After returning home, Gacy enrolled in a business college where he attained salesmanship and business skills (Sullivan & Maiken, 2000). Gacy got a job with a shoe company referred to as Nunn-Bush where he excelled as a management trainee and was transferred to Springfield where he would head a clothing outlet. After he was moved, he gained extra weight and his health deteriorated. He suffered from numerous heart ailments. While at Springfield, he was involved in numerous community projects and was also involved with numerous organizations where he served the society. This led to his crowning as the man of the year. While working at Springfield, Gacy met Marylyn Myers whom they worked in the same department in Nunn-Bush Shoe Company. Marylyn’s father bought three Kentucky Chicken restaurants in Lowa and offered Gacy an opportunity to work at the restaurants. Gacy married Marylyn and they moved together to Lowa where he would work as a chef in one of the restaurants (Sullivan & Maiken, 2000). Everything appeared to grip scores of promise for Gay at this moment in his days. He was learning more about business when working for his father in law. He worked hard with the aim and ambition that one day he would own one of these fast food restaurants. In addition, Gacy committed himself to serving the community through the Jaycees. After sometime, his wife gave birth to two kids, a boy and a son (Cahill, 1986). Gacy, with the help of his rich father in law bought a house where he lived happily with his wife and kids. Gacy was happy working at the restaurants and with the Jaycees. By this time, in 1971, he was also campaigning for presidency at the Jaycees. Rumors Everything had seemed very good for him till his lucky streak could hold no longer. Rumors in town and among members of Jaycee concerning Gacy’s sexual penchant were spreading. According to Linedecker (1993), young men always used to be in his presence and at home. Rumors spread that he was homosexual and enticed young coworkers at the restaurants. Gacy had severally been involved in regular activities that had amounted to cheating on his wife. He had opened a club at his basement where his coworkers and friends would come to drink and ply snooker. By this time, his wife and close relatives had refused to believe this fact till the matter unraveled itself. First Offenses In 1967, Gacy committed the first sexual assault on a teenage boy. This boy was a son of a fellow Jaycee. Gacy had enticed the young boy into his house after he promised he would show him pornographic movies. He then gave the boy alcohol and asked the boy to perform oral sex on him. Later, Gacy sexually abused other young boys. At one instance, he even encouraged a young boy to sleep with his wife and blackmailed him to perform oral sex on him. In some instances, Gacy would trick young men into the pretext that he was performing scientific research on homosexuality and bribing them with 50 US dollars (Linedecker, 1993). In March 1968, Donald Voorhees, the assaulted boy, reported to his father about the incidence. Voorhees father pressed charges against Gacy who was arrested and charged with sodomy for both Voorhees and a 16 year old Edward Lynch. Gacy passionately denied the charges citing them as politically instigated. Gacy requested for a polygraph test that later showed that he was guilty of sodomy (Linedecker, 1993). Later in August 1968, Gacy convinced a coworker, Russell Schroeder, to physically attack Voorhees in an attempt to dampen him from testifying against him. Gacy told Russell to decoy Voorhees to an isolated place, spew mace, a liquid that irritates the eyes and causes dizziness and immobilization, on his face and beat him up and would get 300 US dollars as the payment. Russell did as he was told by Gacy (Cahill, 1986). After the assault, Voorhees instantaneously reported to the police. Russell was arrested and confessed having done it but under Gacy’s request. Gary underwent psychiatric evaluation where he was deemed normal and he pleaded guilty. The Judge sentenced him to ten years in prison where he was taken to Lowa State penitentiary. After the conviction, his wife divorced him for violating their marriage vows. At the prison, Gacy remained very obedient and calm and his parole was approved in 1970 where he left prison and went back home. After his parole in 1971, Gacy was also convicted of assaulting a teenage boy. This case did not go through as the boy failed to appear in court to testify. The parole board did not hear of this and Gacy was restored to full citizenship. Again Gacy was convicted and indicted for physical assault in 1972 after a teenager claimed that Gacy had lured him to his car at night in the pretense of a police officer and asked him to perform oral sex on him. These charges were again dropped (Cahill, 1986). After the parole, Gacy got married again to Carole who was working in his company, PDM contractors and became very helpful to the community. He then later joined the Moose Club and became a clown. Murders Different people engage in deviant behaviours for different reasons. Gacy confessed to have killed more than 30 young people. The first victim was Timothy McCoy who Gacy murdered in January 1972 at his home. Gacy had driven him home at night to rest and go catch the bus the next morning. As according to the trial, Gacy said that the next morning McCoy had a knife in his hand and in the process of getting the knife from his hands as defense, he stabbed him repeatedly as they wrestled (Sullivan & Maiken, 2000). Gacy then buried him underneath his house. In reference to Cahill (1986), Gacy confessed as having felt orgasm as he killed the young boy. From this point, he recognized that death was the eventual excitement. According to lee (1996), people’s brains function differently in response to the environmental stimuli. Arousal theory is the best theory to explain on Gacy’s criminal behavior. According to lee (1996), the centre of this theory lays the fact that a sensation seeker is environmentally and biologically prone to take part in criminal activities. Researchers have identified that searching for sensation is a great contributor of the deviant behaviours of criminals. According to this theory, obtaining pleasure and thrill are the primary crime motivators. Lee (1996) defines sensation seeking as the search for novel, varied, intense and complex feelings and experiences and the enthusiasm to take financial, social, physical, and legal risks for the sake of the experiences and feelings. In this regard, sensation seekers are always willing to take these risks in order to attain their sensations and feelings. According to numerous researches, factors such as sexual pleasure are sensations and feelings a person may take the risk of acquiring. In addition, research has shown that sensation seekers are individuals who are well integrated in the society and are creative and helpful. Gacy continued to murder people because of the pleasure and thrill he used to acquire after murdering people. Each murder led to more desire for that thrill and experience and at the end of the day, he ended up strangling young men. It is not known clearly whether Gacy’s murder was triggered by lack of gratification from his father when he was a young boy. Frustration theory explains that an individual may be involved in killing people because of frustration. Frustration occurs when an individual is not appreciated and rewarded in his or her past. According to this theory, at childhood, many serial killers experience a lot of humiliation and non-rewarding situations. When it comes to killing, serial killers do not kill the people who did not appreciate them but other weaker people within the society. Needless to say, aggravation gets into their goals and feels that the aggravation needs to be released. Their behavior to kill people is seen as a way to relieved their anger and frustration. For this reason, Gacy’s behavior may have been triggered by his violent father’s lack of appreciation and attention. Gacy may have chosen on the young people because they are weak and were easily enticed (Lee, 1996). According to Cahill (1986), after the first encounter Gacy embarked on killing for pleasure. His second victim was unidentified young boy whom he murdered and buried him in his backyard. He used to stack their clothes in their mouth to reduce their fluid from spilling to his carpet. In july1975, John Butkovich, Gacy’s employee disappeared (Sullivan & Maiken, 2000). Investigations as according by Cahill (1986) notes that Gacy had been threatened by John over outstanding payments due. Gacy lured John to his home in the pretext of settling the dues. Gacy confessed having handcuffed the young man and strangled him to death. By April 1976, he had conflicts with his wife and they divorced. Immediately after divorce, Gacy had kidnapped and murdered Darrel Sampson. Later Gacy abducted and killed Reffet and Stapleton and buried in underneath his house. In 1976, Gacy murdered Michael Bonnin by strangling him and buried him underneath his house. Ten days later, he murdered William Carroll and buried him underneath his kitchen and laundry room. Gacy had dug a grave under his kitchen and laundry where he later buried other youths. He later buried some two unidentified youths aged between 16 and 17 years (Sullivan & Maiken, 2000). In 1976, Gacy employed David Gacy who was lucky to escape Gacy’s rape and murder. Gacy continued raping and murdering youths. In October 1876, Gacy killed two other youths and buried them in the crawl space underneath his house. By December 1976, more youths had disappeared such as Gregory Godzik. Between December 1976 and January 1977, Gacy killed an unidentified young man. He continued killing and assaulting people till an arrest warrant was issued on July 15th 1978. He then confessed to the police for all the murders he had committed and the place he had hidden the bodies. He was arraigned in court in 1980 and charged for murder (Sullivan & Maiken, 2000). References Cahill, T. (1986). Burried Dreams: Inside the Mind of a serial Killer. Bantan Books. Lee, E. (1996). Arousal Theory and the Religiosity-criminality Relationship. Contemporary Criminology Theory, 65-84. Linedecker, C. L. (1993). The Man Who Killed Boys: John Wayne Gacy Jr. Story. St. Martins Press. Sullivan, T., & Maiken, T. P. (2000). Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders. Pinnacle. Tilstone, W. J., Savage, K. A., & Clark, L. A. (2006). Forensic Science: An encyclopedia of History, methods and Techniques. ABC-CLIO. Read More