The History of John Wayne Gacy - Case Study Example

John Wayne Gacy Name: Institution: Date: Abstract John Wayne Gacy is a famous notorious killer in the history of America. Gacy was unlike other serial killers since he was fully functioning in the society. Gacy maintained a stable career and fully provided for his family while concealing a deadly secret to himself. Gacy sodomized, tortured, and murdered about 33 young men and teenage boys and buried their bodies in the crawlspace at his home in the sunset of 1970’s. The troubled childhood of Gacy set a good environment for delinquent behavior. He was sexual molest as a child by a family friend. This paper reviews the history of the offender while exploring psychological theory that would have resulted in the criminal behavior. The background of the case explains the foundation that resulted into Gacy transforming a sexual offender and a serial killer. At the height of his murders he broke down and confessed to his lawyers since his soul was troubled. Introduction John Wayne Gacy is a notorious American serial killer and rapist also referred to as Killer clown. He was later convicted for murder and sexual assault of about thirty three young men and teenage boys in a series of murders committed between 1972 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. Gacy was subsequently sentenced to death for these killings on 13th March 1980. He spent a total number of fourteen years on death row before being executed using lethal injection on 10th May, 1994 at Statesville Correctional Center. He was referred to as the ‘Killer Clown’ following his charitable deeds at fundraising events, children’s parties and parades where he dressed himself as ‘Pogo the Clown’. This character was a creation by Gacy himself. This case study gives a detail account of the history of John Gracy as the offender and discusses psychological and criminological theories that may had led him to the murderer he town out to be later in life. Definition of offence An offence is a breach of law or an illegal act. Violation of law or any doing that is against the public good is a crime or offence. History of the Offender John Wayne Gacy was a second born child to John Stanly Gracy born in Chicago, Illinois on March 17th, 1942. Gacy had both Danish and Polish heritage. As a child, Gacy was not athletic and was overweight. He enjoyed a close relationship with his mother and two sisters but had a strained relationship with his father. Gacy’s father was physically abusive to his children and wife. In his childhood Gacy strived to make his father to be proud of him but all his effort was in vain. His father was harsh towards him and abusive. At the age of four he was brutally beaten by a belt by his father for accidentally scuttling car engine components that his father had put together. He regularly mocked by his father and taunted in front of his sisters where he bore drudgingly the tag of being dumb and stupid (Nash, 1973). His strained relationship with his father continued throughout his childhood although he later denied ever hating his father. Barely six year old, Gacy stole a toy truck from a store in the neighborhood. His mother forced him to return the toy to the owner and apologize. The mother reported the incident to the father who later lashed out to Gracy with his belt as punishment. Later on Gracy’s mother tried as much as possible to shield her son from the father’s physical and verbal abuse. Gracy suffered in his childhood and the abusive relationship he had with his father might have turned him into the serial killer he turned out to be. His father was abusive but Gracy stilled loved him and tried zealously to win his affection. He never won his father’s attention despite his devotion. The environment within which Gracy grew up nurtured him to become the serial killer he was (TreuTV, 2010). He had a troubled childhood where he endured abuse treatment from his father. There was no demonstration of affection from his father who looked for every opportunity to belittle him as being dumb and stupid. According social control theory in criminology the process of socialization as well as social learning builds control and largely reduces the tendency of an individual engaging in behavior that is general recognized as antisocial (Pratt, 2009). Social control theory holds that people’s values, norms, commitments, beliefs and relationship dissuade them from breaking the law. In his case, Gracy was antisocial, overweight and perhaps despised by other children in his neighborhood. His father never showed him low and hence he felt isolated and prone to relapsing into deviant behavior. Socialization and social learning is important in one’s life. However, Gracy only witnessed the brutal battering of his father and his abuse relationship towards the entire family. If he had been shown love and kindness, Gracy would have learnt how to be a good person who respected norms and rules in the society (Banyard & Quartey, 2006). Gracy engaged in juvenile delinquency at the age of six when he stole a toy truck from a store in the neighborhood. The four social bonds in the social bond theory include commitment, involvement, attachment, and belief. When the bonds are strong a child is less likely to engage in juvenile delinquency (Sullivian & Peter, 2000). According to the theory everyone has the potential to be criminal and delinquent and it is only social controls as opposed to moral values that result in the maintenance of law and order. In the absence of controls one can easily engage in criminal acts. People who are found in the same social settings more often than not share common beliefs; they adhere to values such as sensitivity to right of others, sharing, and admiration for the legal code. There was no sense of involvement on the part of Gracy since he was overweight and not much loved. Gracy was socially isolated in his childhood and he felt detached from the society. Although his mother was fond of him, the father scolded and beat him up whenever he got an opportunity and sometimes just for the sake of it. Gracy lacked guidance in his childhood and he never felt loved (Akers & Sellers, 2008). His father did not take his time to talk to Gracy and understand him. Gracy’s father was an alcoholic who beat him up at the slightest provocation. Gracy’s father seemed to delight in torturous his family and the son came to enjoy torturing his victims later on when he started engaging in serious crime. Gracy must have felt ashamed of himself in his childhood and a big let won to his father whom he vehemently sought his approval. Gacy was taunted by his father as being a Mummy’s boy and a ‘sissy’. He felt ashamed and lost his self-esteem as he sought affection from his father (Peck & Dolch, 2001). Gacy was molested by a family friend at the age of nine. The family friend used to take Gacy for rides in his truck and then fondle him. Gacy kept his incident concealed since he reckoned that his father would blame him. This was the first exposure of Gacy to homosexual activities. This background initiated him into homosexuality and he later molested other people in life the way he was molested in his childhood. He went ahead to sodomize, torture and kill them (Hirschi & Gottfredson, 2005). If Gacy parents were loving, caring and affectionate, he could have divulged what had happened to him in the family friend’s truck and sought their help. He suffered in silence and hated to be scolded by his father. At the age of eleven, Gracy was struck by a swing on the head while on a swing set resulting in a blood clot in his brain. This clot went undetected until when Gracy started experiencing blackout at the age of sixteen. The doctors offered medication to dissolve the clot and the problem was overcome. The clot might have caused a problem to his brain. He was later diagnosed by non-specific heart disorder at the age of seventeen. Gracy ordered on medical ground to avoid sports due to his heart condition. He was an average student having few friends who was a potential target of bullying and mockery by neighborhood children as well as classmates. This bullying and molestation affected Gracy and tried to seek incessantly approval in the society (Laub & Sampson, 2003). He volunteered to run errands for neighbors and teachers as well assisted the school truant officer. Gracy began to suffer blackouts in his fourth grade. He was hospitalized following these seizures and for a burst appendix in 1957. Between the age of 14 and 18 Gracy estimated that he spent a year in hospital. His grades in school declined by his father suspected him feigning in order to win sympathy. Gracy’s father accused him of faking in order to spent time in hospital. A friend of Gacy recalls that Gacy’s father beat his son or ridiculed him without any provocation. Gacy did things to gain approval from his father. At 18, Gacy plunged into politics and worked as an assistant Democratic Party precinct captain. Instead of feeling proud of his son, the father criticized him and labeled him a patsy. Gracy tried to seek approval and acceptance from the wider society after missing out on his father’s love, attention and affection (A&E Biography, 2006). He later ran away from home and worked as a morgue attendant. He worked for three months before going back to Chicago. Gacy slept in a cot behind the embalming room while working as a mortuary attendant. In one incident Gracy climbed into a coffin and embraced and caressed a deceased teenage male before going through a sense of shock that prompted him to ask for permission to return home. He had dropped out in high school but he went ahead to enroll in the Northwestern Business College where he graduated in 1963. He went for a management trainee position in Nunn-Bush Shoe Company. He was later deployed to Springfield, Illinois as a salesman but later he was promoted to take up the position of the manager of the department. In March, 1964 he got engaged to Marylynn Myers who was a co-worker in his department. The couple married in September after courting for nine months. In the course of their courtship, Gracy joined the Jaycee where he became a tireless worker raising to the rank of Key Man in April 1964. In that year Gacy went through his second homosexual experience (Lilly, Cullen, & Ball, 2007). A colleague within Springfield Jaycee plied him with drinks and performed oral sex on him when he was drunk. He rose to the position of Springfield Jaycees’ vice-president by 1965. He was named as the third most distinguished Jaycee in Illinois. In 1966 he was offered a chance by the father-in-law of managing three Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants that had been purchased in Waterloo. He accepted the offer and relocated in the autumn of that year to Waterloo. He joined the Jaycee chapter in Waterloo and worked tirelessly. He served on the Waterloo Jaycee board of director and was named as the Waterloo Jaycee outstanding vice-president. Gracy’s wife gave birth to a son 1967 and a daughter the following year. He described this period as being perfect in his life. His gains in life earned him approved from his father who later consented to being wrong about it when he visited his son 1967 (Kozenczak & Henrikson, 2003). There was a dark side of Waterloo that involved prostitution, pornography, wife swapping and drugs. Gacy participated passionately in these activities and from time to time cheated on his wife. He opened a club in his basement where employees drunk alcohol and played pool. He was fond of socializing with male employees although he employed teenagers from all sexes. He gave them alcohol and made sexual advances to them. When his advances were rejected he would dismiss it as a joke. Gracy began committing sexual assaults on teenage youth from 1967. He lured a youth to his house, plied him with alcohol and performed oral sex on him. Many teenagers were deceived into believing that Gacy has been hired to carry out homosexual experiments among youths and they were paid $50. Gacy assaulted and sodomized several youths in his house. He was charged after one of the youths reported him. He paid one youth to molest the youth who had reported the incident into dropping the charges. Medical examination on Gracy revealed that he had antisocial personality disorder. He could not be helped and his behavior pattern was likely to lead him in conflict with the society but he was mentally competent to go through trial (Kaplan University, 2008). The antisocial personality disorder made Gacy to be at loggerheads with society and be involved in criminal behavior. He was convicted for sodomy in 1968 and condemned to ten years at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. His wife, Marylyn petitioned for divorce the day he was sentenced claiming possession of the home, property and alimony payments. The divorce was finalized in 1969 and Gacy never set his eyes on his children and wife again. Gacy father died while his was in prison but no one told him until after two days. After serving eighteen months Gacy was paroled. He got engaged to Carol Hoff in 1971. He started his own construction company in 1972. In 1975 he joined the Jolly Jokers where he created his character ‘Pogo the Clown’. The same year he openly confessed to his wife that he was bisexual. On May 11th he refused to make love to his wife ever again and instead spent most of his time out. They divorced in 1976. He began a spiral of assaulting, sodomizing and killing young men and teenage boys (Amirante & Broderick, 2011). He confessed, convicted and executed by lethal injection in 1994 after fourteen years on death row. By doing what he was doing Gacy felt that he was lashing out to the society that he had tried so much to seek its approval. He enjoyed inflicting pain and suffering. He Experienced orgasm when killing the youth and came to realize that death was the absolute thrill to him. He demonstrated the characteristic of a psychopath. This is psychopath that enjoying inflicting pain to others and was fascinated seeing them suffering (Larsen & Buss, 2008). From this time onwards there was no looking back has he killed other youths for pleasure to a total count of about thirty three murders. Gacy derived pleasure from torturing and killing the young men and teenage boys. Conclusion This discussion reveals that John Wayne Gacy troubled childhood pushed him to engage in criminal acts. He was never loved by his father who scolded him incessantly. He was mocked and bullied at school. From the analysis using social control theory, Gacy was never involved in school and there was no sense of commitment any values or beliefs. He felt isolated he lacked bonding in order to be integrated fully into the society. He did many things just to seek attention and approval in the society. He was mocked by his father and beaten at no provocation. The abuse childhood that Gacy was a recipe for his delinquent and criminal behavior later in life. Crime has a root cause and one’s childhood matters a lot. Being molested at a young age grated affected Gacy who begum sexually assaulting teenage boys and killing them. He derived pleasure. He felt that no one cared about it and strived to assert his authority in the society. Absence of social bonding and the feeling of being isolated precipitated the criminal mind in Gacy who turned out to be a notorious serial killer. He killed about thirty three young men and teenage boys before breaking down and confessing to his lawyers. The case of John Wayne Gacy proves many theories in psychology that explains the development of a criminal mind. Social bonding is very important. References A&E Biography (Director). (2006, May 2). John Wayne Gacy: A Monster in Disguise [Television series episode]. In John Wayne Gacy: A Monster in Disguise. A&E. Akers, R. L., & Sellers, C. S. (2008). Criminological theories: Introduction, evaluation, and application. New York: Oxford University Press Amirante, S.L., & Broderick, D. (2011). 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Kozenczak, J.R. & Henrikson, K. (2003). The Chicago Killer: The hunter for serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Philadelphia: Xlibris. Lilly, J. R., Cullen, F. T., & Ball, R. A. (2007).Criminological theory: Context and consequences (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Laub, J. H., & Sampson, R. J. (2003). Shared beginnings, divergent lives: Delinquent boys to age 70. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. TreuTV. (2010). John Wayne Gacy, Jr., retrieved on 29th August, 2010, from http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serieal_killers/notorious/gacy/gacy_1html Peck, D.L. & Dolch, N.M.A. (2001). Behavior Beyond Boundaries: A case study approach to understanding social problems, Ontario: Greenwood. Pratt, T. C. (2009). Addicted to incarceration: Corrections policy and the politics of misinformation in the United States, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Sullivian, T., & Peter, T. (2000). Killer Clown: The Wayne Gacy Murders, New York: Pinnacle. Read More