Serial Killer Project

1. By: Matthew Spangler

2. Childhood
• John was born March 17th, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois.
• John was a Boy Scout and a teacher’s pet who got along
with his teachers and played with friends afterschool.
• John had a couple of after school jobs consisting of a bag-
boy and a store clerk to pass the time.
• At age 11, John was hit in the head by a swing which caused
a blood clot in his brain discovered by doctors about 5 years
later.
• At age 17, doctors diagnosed Gacy with a heart problem.
• John’s childhood was mostly normal except for his father
being physically abusive to his mother and verbally abusive
to him and his sister.
• John kept a strong bond with his sister and mother.

3. Adulthood
• John went to four different high schools but never
graduated, so he moved to Las Vegas, and shortly moved
back to Illinois to be with his mother and sister.
• John went to business school and became an exceptional
salesman, and shortly got a job at Nunn-Bush Shoe
Company.
• Gacy served his community by leading groups like the
Catholic Inter-Club, Chicago Civil Defense, Holy Name
Society and many others.
• John married a co-worker named Marlynn Myers and
moved to Iowa. John had 2 children, one boy and one girl.
• John started learning more business tactics from his
stepdad and grew a healthy relationship with him.

4. Adulthood (cont.)
• John was accused of being a homosexual and fell from grace in the
Jaycees. John was charged for sodomy and bribing someone to beat
up someone else, and was served 10 years, but got out on early
parole of only 18 months.
• After John returned from incarceration he soon became a chef and
moved into his own house.
• A couple months after being let out of prison early, was charged
with disorderly conduct, for making a young male do sexual acts
toward him. However, the boy didn’t show up to court and the
charges were dropped.
• John got married to Carole Hoff, who had 2 daughters. John soon
got into politics and got democratic township committeeman,
Robert F. Matwick to make him his secretary treasurer.

5. Motives
• John’s father was abusive to him, his mother, and
his sister, which exposed him to erratic and
manipulative behavior.
• John also had a blood clot in his brain that would
sometimes cause him to blackout and could
definitely have done permanent brain damage
and contributed to his behavior.
• John was a homosexual and was ridiculed and
punished by his father, which could have caused
him to seek vengeance towards men or boys that
had a better life than him.

6. Methods and Rituals
• Once John actually started killing, he usually
knew his victims prior to his killing them.
• Gacy would always kidnap, then handcuff or
tie his victims up, then rape and/or torture
them, then kill them and bury them or dispose
of them himself.

7. Profiles and Characteristics
• Gacy always went after males and usually
went after teenagers, but also towards the
end of his killing spree killed a married man.
• John seemed to always go after guys that
worked on cars or worked for him to make
money to pay for a hobby.

8. Factors that got him caught
• John had stored most of his victims in a crawl
space underneath his house which left a
terrible odor throughout his house.
• John almost always kidnapped young men
that worked for him so it was easy to trace the
victims back to him.
• Gacy had already been put into prison due to
sodomy and hiring a man to beat someone
else up, so he had a criminal background.

9. Charged and Sentenced
• John was originally charged with 33 counts of
murder, sexual assault, and being indecent
with a minor.
• He eventually was only charged with 12
counts of murder and was sent to death row.
However, it took 14 years before he was
actually put to death by lethal injection.

10. Why it’s Hard to Spot Killers
• Serial Killers don’t show any symptoms of a
psychopath.
• The killers use different disguises to deceive
others and make them seem sane or normal.
• People know them and see no precursors to
their heinous action.

11. Crime Scene Characteristics
Types of Crime Scenes
Organized Disorganized Mixed Atypical
Characteristics of a Crime Scene
Transports Body Body left at Death Scene Mixture of Organized and Crime Scene can’t be
Disorganized Identified by Data Available
Planned Offense Spontaneous Offense Looks like more than One Decomposed Remains Fall
Offender under this Type
Body’s Hidden Evidence/ Weapon at Scene Offender Planned the Crime Police May Look into Past
but was Interrupted During Crime Scenes and see if there
the Act are Similarities
Controlled Conversations Victim/ Location Known Offender may have Staged the Police may have to Take Other
Scene Things into Consideration
Demands Submissive Victims Body Left in View N/A N/A
Missing Weapon/ Evidence Depersonalizes Victim N/A N/A
Victim is a Targeted Stranger Sexual Acts After Death N/A N/A
Personalizes Victim Minimal Conversation N/A N/A
Crime Scene Reflects Control Minimal Use of Restraints N/A N/A
Restraints Used Sloppy Crime Scene N/A N/A
Aggressive Acts Done Before Sudden Violence to Victim N/A N/A
Death

12. Interesting Information
• John Gacy, even though a deranged man, had
parties where hundreds of people would come,
led respectable groups that contributed to the
community, was involved in politics, and even
dressed up as a clown and brightened sick kids
and hospital patients by doing magic tricks and
telling jokes.
• John was married twice and had children despite
his erratic behavior.
• John’s last words to his lawyer before he was
killed by lethal injection was “Kiss my Ass.”

13. Bibliography
• http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_kill
ers/notorious/gacy/gacy_1.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Ga
cy,_Jr.
• http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_kill
ers/notorious/tick/1b.html
• http://serialkillr.tripod.com/SerialKillersExpose
d/crimescenes.html