John Wayne Gacy: Case Facts and Timeline

Here are the key facts, timeline and legacy of the John Wayne Gacy case, with a sourced overview of what happened.

John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured and murdered at least thirty-three young men and boys between 1972 and 1978 in Norwood Park Township, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. He became known as the "Killer Clown" due to his public performances as a clown prior to the discovery of his crimes. Gacy committed all of his known murders inside his ranch-style house. Typically, he would lure a victim to his home and dupe them into donning handcuffs on the pretext of demonstrating a magic trick. He would then rape and torture his captive before killing his victim by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a garrote. Twenty-six victims were buried in the crawl space of his home, and three were buried elsewhere on his property; four were discarded in the Des Plaines River. Gacy had previously been convicted in 1968 of the sodomy of a teenage boy in Waterloo, Iowa, and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, but served eighteen months. He murdered his first victim in 1972, had murdered twice more by the end of 1975, and murdered at least thirty victims after his divorce from his second wife in 1976. The investigation...

Quick facts about John Wayne Gacy

• Born: March 17, 1942
• Died: May 10, 1994
• Location: Illinois, United States
• Victims: At least 33, according to Wikipedia
• Status: Convicted and executed

More Serial Killers

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• Richard Ramirez
• Tsutomu Miyazaki
• Ted Bundy
• Jeffrey Dahmer
• Amy Archer-Gilligan

Profile compiled from public Wikipedia and Wikidata data. Details can change over time.