John Wayne Gacy: The Crime Of The State Men's Crimes

John Wayne Gacy was first brought up on charges of “deviate sex acts” in 1968 (Stevens, p.237, 2004). Gacy served eighteen months for this offense and was soon free to begin his killing spree. After his release from prison, Gacy began luring boys and young men to his home then killing and sexually assaulting them. A few the boys were employees of Gacy at his construction business and others were boys he lured with the promise of employment. Gacy would trick the boys claiming he was showing them a magic trick, since he often worked as Pogo the clown, and would handcuff them in his basement before killing and assaulting them. The police began surveilling Gacy, who acted as if their surveillance was a joke (Stevens, 2004). One officer, after accepting an invitation to Gacy’s home for dinner, smelled the “telltale odor of decomposition and rotting flesh while in the bathroom when the furnace fan turned on” (Stevens, p. 240, 2004). The officers investigated the smell by examining the crawl

Gacy had previously been convicted for committing “deviant sex acts” and sentenced to ten years at the Iowa State Men’s Reformatory at Anamosa. Gacy had a psychological evaluation done while serving time and this evaluation was part of his permanent record on file at the Iowa Department of Corrections. Gacy was viewed as a model prisoner and as a result he was paroled after serving eighteen months. After Gayc’s release an inmate came forward to report that Gacy sexually assaulted him while incarcerated. Gacy was friendly with prison staff which is what caused the inmate to wait to report the assault until after Gacy’s release (Stevens, 2004). Gacy had access to areas that were “out-of-bounds for most prisoners” and as a result he was viewed as trustworthy and this likely influenced the parole board’s decision to allow him to be paroled after only eighteen months (Stevens, 2004, p.