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On St. Patrick's Day in 1942 John Wayne Gacy was born the second of three children. Gacy was raised Catholic and lived on the northern side of Chicago. Gacy grew up in a middle class neighborhood and was not particularly a popular kid. John had a typical normal childhood; he made friends at school and in his Boy Scout troop. He was liked by his teachers and co-workers and remained active with other children while enjoying outdoor activities. Young Gacy had newspaper routes and worked as a bag a bag-boy and stock clerk. When Gacy was eleven years old he was playing by a swing set when he was hit in the head by one of the swings. This caused a blood clot in the brain. The clot was not discovered until he was sixteen. Since the age of eleven he suffered from a series of blackouts. At the age of seventeen, Gacy was diagnosed with heart ailment. He complained throughout his life about his sufferings, but never experienced any serious heart attacks. Doctors were never able to discover the exact cause for the pain. In Gacy's teen years the relationship between his mother and his sisters was strong; however, his father was an abusive alcoholic who abused his wife, and verbally assaulted his children. John stood by his father through rough times and loved him no matter what happened. John always wanted to gain his father’s attention and support, but never got. His father dies and Jon regretted it his entire life. Gacy attended four high schools his senior year and never graduated. Gacy dropped out and went to Las Vegas. John went to Las Vegas only to find disappointment, because he did not have a high school diploma finding employment was very difficult. He saved just enough money in three months to buy a plane ticket back to Chicago where his two sisters and his mother waited for him to arrive. In the early 1960’s John once again returned to Las Vegas with better intentions this time. Gacy enrolled in a business college and soon graduated. He learned to talk his way in and out of almost any situation, he was perfect in salesmanship. John found employment with the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company and was placed as a management trainee where he was successful. He was soon transferred to manage a men’s clothing store in Springfield, Illinois. Just when things were finally going his way John’s life took a sudden turn and headed down hill. Gacy was once again hospitalized because of his heart condition and he began to gain an immense amount of weight. Next came a spinal injury. These injuries haunted John for the rest of his life. For some reason he never quit working, he remained active through all the pain. While in Springfield John began to be involved with the community. Others saw Gacy as an ambitious individual. John then married a co-worker whose father was the owner of a fast food chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Gacy’s new father in law offered him a position in the chain. John learned how to manage this business from the bottom up. He was always working twelve to fourteen hour days hoping to one day take over the chain. Soon enough he was a father with a boy and a girl, everything seemed to be going John’s way after such a horrible start. Then tragedy struck. Everything was too good to be true. Rumors began to circulate about Gacy’s sexual preference, with people taking note that young boys were always in John’s presence. Everyone heard stories that John was a homosexual and mad passes to young boys working in his fast food restaurants. His family members refused to believe what they were hearing; little did they know these rumors became truths. In 1968 John was put on the grand jury for having committed sodomy with a teenage boy named Mark Miller. Miller told authorities that Gacy had tricked him into being tied up and then violently raped him. Gacy denied all charges, pleading that Miller had sexual relation with him in order to receive a higher pay. Only four months later Gacy was again put on trial after hiring a man named Dwight Andersson to beat up Mark Miller. Andersson lured Miller into his car and drove him to an area where he sprayed mase in Miller’s eyes and began to beat him. Miller fought back and broke Andersson’s nose, he then ran to safety. Miller told officials what had happened, soon after Andersson was picked up by police and he gave Gacy’s name. The judge then ordered that Gacy must undergo tests in several mental health facilities to find if he was mentally capable to undergo trial. The tests only proved that he was an antisocial individual that would not be helped by medical treatment. After health authorities submitted the report, Gacy pleaded guilty of sodomy. At age twenty-six Gacy entered prison where he was divorced played the role as a model prisoner. After only eighteen months of his ten-year sentence he was given an early parole. On June 18, 1970, Gacy left for home in Chicago. While back in his hometown Gacy began to put his life back on track. He lived with his mother for about four months and then decided it was time to live on his own. He worked as a chef in a Chicago restaurant earning money to own a two bedroom 1950’s ranch style house where his two sisters owned half of it. He enjoyed the house and became good friends with neighbors that were unaware of his criminal past. He threw many parties thriving off the attention from other people. Sometimes there were over three hundred people in his house at once. By March 2, 1976 Gacy was divorced again by Carole Hoff, there sex life came to an end as John’s preference for boys became present once again. He admitted to his wife the he preferred boys over women and his wife even found magazines of naked men in the house. Three months later reports of missing teenage boys began to increase. All of which had some kind of tie to Gacy or worked for him. Police investigated his house, John Gacy was not present at the time, but police found many items including a high school ring that said class of 1975, nylon rope, a pair of handcuffs with keys, and many more items that do not belong to Gacy. After a background check on John police discovered his criminal past of sodomy and further investigated Gacy’s house. Gacy admitted to killing one person out of self-defense and said the body was buried in the ground of his garage. Remains of a body were found and the whole house was then under search for bodies. When the search was complete over thirty bodies had been pulled from the house. On December 22, 1978 Gacy finally confessed to killing at least thirty bodies. The long search for missing bodies was over but the trial had just begun. On Wednesday, February 6, 1980, John Wayne Gacy’s murder trial had begun in the Cook County Criminal Courts Building in Chicago, Illinois. The defense testified that Gacy was insane, not knowing the outcomes of such crimes. The prosecution stressed how the murders of thirty-three boys were premeditated and planned. After five weeks of testimony and over a hundred witnesses the jury would make their decision in just two hours. Silence in the courtroom was broke after John Wayne Gacy was found guilty; he received the death penalty and was sent to Menard Correctional Center where after years of appeals, he would be killed by lethal injection.
