Wayne Gacy Double Life

The Double Life of John Wayne Gacy John Szyc, Gregory Godzik, Sam Stapleton, and Robert Peist; what do all of these names

have in common? These four young men and twenty-nine others lost their lives because of Gacy.

John Wayne Gacy raped and murdered thirty-three young men in the timespan of six years.

Throughout John Wayne Gacy’s double life as a rapist and murderer, he exhibits the traits of a

human monster that can only be developed through both nature and nurture, as well as a

camouflaged personality that justifies a greater fear in human monsters, rather than fictional

monsters such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde.

Gacy’s complex story began on March 17th, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. Even though it

seemed that Gacy had
Due to his character, the police knew that Robert Peist did not run

away from home. Peist had gone missing after talking to Gacy about a construction job and his

parents reported it to the police. After a connection with Gacy was made and a background check

was completed, Gacy was under twenty-four hour surveillance. Shortly after the investigation

began the police were able to conduct a search throughout Gacy’s home for any evidence of Rob

Peist. Two key items were found during the first search, a receipt that belonged to Robert Peist

and a class ring that belonged to a missing highschool boy. The push for a second search warrant

came when one of the detectives who had been inside of Gacy’s home recognized the odor of

decaying bodies. Gacy was followed by the detectives for several days, and it was believed that

he “decided that he was going to commit suicide and go around and say his goodbyes”(World

wide). While following Gacy one of the detectives found marijuana that had been in his

possession and arrested him on December 21, 1978. While in police custody, the second search

of Gacy’s home was conducted. When Gacy found out that the bodies had been found during
The nurture argument is based on how a person was raised and nature is the argument

that a person was born that way. Gacy’s father was an abusive alcoholic with unreachable

expectations. Gacy Sr. would often become furious with Gacy when he would not live up to

expectations. According to Gacy’s sister Karen, “he wasn’t the nurture”(Killers Tv). This led

Gacy to seek out acceptance throughout his life and it also created a fascination with being in

control. Gacy’s need to be in control was found to be a huge factor in the crimes he committed.

John Wayne Gacy had no sympathy for his victims either; he instead blamed them for what he

had done. Even though Gacy tried the insanity plea and the psychologists found no psychosis,

there is evidence of nature in how Gacy thought and acted. Gacy had problems facing his

sexuality while growing up; he even learned to suppress his emotions. However, later on all that

Gacy had suppressed throughout his life became a problem when he could no longer control it.

This is believed to be the reason as to why all of his victims were teenage boys. It is argued