Before John Wayne Gacy’s death by execution in May 1994, he was given a picnic on the prison grounds as his final meal — and he may have uttered some chilling last words.
World History Archive / Alamy Stock PhotoJohn Wayne Gacy, an American serial killer and rapist active during the 1970s, dressed as his character Pogo the Clown.
John Wayne Gacy, a.k.a. the “Killer Clown,” was a serial killer and rapist responsible for the murder of at least 33 men and boys in the Chicago area. Every single murder was reportedly committed in Gacy’s home in Norwood Park — and most of his victims were buried in his crawl space. Although he was arrested in 1979 and ultimately executed in 1994, John Wayne Gacy’s death didn’t mark the end of his sordid story.
Nearly 30 years after his execution, Gacy’s lawyer, Karen Conti, opened up about her conversations with the serial killer during his time on death row, revealing a somewhat surprising side to “Pogo the Clown.” Despite the gruesome nature of his crimes, Conti considered Gacy to be “an amusing character,” less concerned with his own impending execution than about financial matters.
This strange period of time leading up to John Wayne Gacy’s death offers a fascinating insight into the mind of a killer — one of the worst in American history.
Who Was John Wayne Gacy?
Born in Chicago on March 17, 1942 to John Stanley Gacy and Marion Elaine Robison, John Wayne Gacy led a troubled early life. As a child, he was often abused, both emotionally and physically, by his alcoholic father. Gacy’s father often referred to him as a “sissy” and other pejoratives, belittling him and comparing him to his two sisters. He also regularly beat the children with a razor strap.
As a child, Gacy’s physical activity was limited by a congenital heart condition. As a result, he was overweight throughout his life and was often bullied in school.
Gacy was also a victim of sexual abuse from a young age. When he was five years old, the teenage daughter of one of his mother’s friends allegedly undressed and fondled him. A couple of years later, Gacy was molested again, this time by a family friend and contractor. Fearing his father would blame him for the abuse, Gacy never told his parents.
NetflixMarion and John Stanley Gacy.
Around this time, Gacy began to reveal his own psychosexual tendencies. When he was between the ages of 10 and 12, a young girl reported that Gacy and another boy had sexually fondled her.
Meanwhile, Gacy was beginning to realize that he was attracted to men. For years, he hid his sexuality due to the cultural taboo around homosexuality at the time.
At age 11, Gacy sustained a blood clot in his brain, which caused him to experience chronic blackouts and seizures until doctors finally diagnosed and treated it five years later. Unable to keep up in class after his years in and out of the hospital, Gacy dropped out of high school — and set out on a dark path that would ultimately end in his execution.
John Wayne Gacy’s Heinous Crimes
Gacy eventually escaped his father’s home and tried to lead a normal life. He married a woman named Marlynn Myers in 1964 and settled down in Waterloo, Iowa, where he managed three Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. The couple had two children, Michael and Christine.
But Gacy couldn’t keep his urges at bay. At first, he joined the Waterloo Jaycees, a club of men who secretly engaged in activities like wife swapping, prostitution, porn, and drugs. This apparently wasn’t enough for Gacy, however. Before long, he started luring teenage boys, many of whom were his own employees, into his basement with the promise of free alcohol and pornography. Then, he forced them into sexual acts.
Eventually, some of these boys came forward with allegations of sexual assault. John Wayne Gacy was convicted of sodomy in 1968, and the following year, his wife divorced him. But Gacy would only serve two years of his 10-year sentence.
After that, he moved back to Chicago, where he would remarry, create his new house of horrors, and begin performing as “Pogo the Clown” at a variety of local parties.
NetflixJohn Wayne Gacy and his second wife, Carole Hoff.
His second wife, Carole Hoff, suspected that something was not quite right with her husband when he refused to have sex with her and spent most nights out of the house. She divorced him in 1976, leaving him alone in their home.
Still, no one suspected that this seemingly friendly clown was secretly torturing, sexually assaulting, and murdering dozens of young men in the area.
Things finally came to a head for Gacy in December 1978, after Gacy murdered his final victim, 15-year-old Robert Piest. When an investigation led police right to Gacy, he admitted to murdering not only Piest, but 32 other boys and young men.
The ‘Killer Clown’ Receives The Death Sentence For His Crimes
Investigators recovered 29 bodies from John Wayne Gacy’s property, most of them in the crawlspace beneath his home. He had dumped four others in the Des Plaines River.
“He looked at his victims like he was taking out the trash,” his lawyer at the time, Sam Amirante, told the Chicago Tribune. “He had no feelings about them.”
Thirty-three victims of John Wayne Gacy, each lured into his home, raped, tortured, and brutally murdered. At the time, Gacy was the worst serial killer in American history.
Des Plaines Police DepartmentJohn Wayne Gacy’s arrest photo from Dec. 21, 1978.
During his murder trial, Gacy tried to play up the nice guy routine. After all, he had been a relatively well-liked member of the community. He performed as a clown at children’s parties and charity events.
Gacy also attempted an insanity plea, arguing that he’d been diagnosed with schizophrenia. The jury rejected the plea, and found John Wayne Gacy guilty of his crimes in March 1980. His punishment would be death.
Not everyone was in favor of Gacy’s sentence, however. Some, such as his death row attorney Karen Conti, were abjectly opposed to the death penalty, and Conti attempted to help spare Gacy’s life. While that ultimately failed, the time Conti spent with Gacy in the years leading up to his death is certainly enlightening.
Gacy’s Life On Death Row
John Wayne Gacy was on death row for 14 years before the day of his execution finally came. It was here that he produced his infamously creepy series of paintings, many of which depicted clowns.
Wikimedia CommonsJohn Wayne Gacy dressed as Pogo the Clown, who was also the subject of many of his paintings.
During that time, Conti described Gacy as “an amusing character” and “chatty.” He wanted to spend his last hours socializing, rather than fretting about his death.
“He never expressed concern about his death,” Conti told A&E True Crime in 2021. “I didn’t sense he even realized it was going to happen.”
Instead, she said, Gacy was concerned about the fact that the state of Illinois had sued him, and that he wouldn’t be able to leave the money he’d earned from his paintings to his family.
He also reportedly had a pen pal who told him that she loved him. However, Gacy said he would never marry her because she had “three children and they’re all in the penitentiary. You think I’m going to marry into a family like that?”
On May 9, 1994, the day before John Wayne Gacy was scheduled to die by lethal injection, the serial killer was given a picnic on the prison grounds with his family as his final meal. This feast included a bucket of KFC chicken, French fries, a dozen fried prawns, a pound of strawberries, and a Diet Coke.
Gacy was in surprisingly good spirits during the picnic, chatting with his visitors about things as mundane as the Chicago Cubs.
“He didn’t strike me as somebody who had a few hours left to live,” Conti said. “He didn’t want to talk about it — he wanted to socialize with the people who were visiting him for the last time. He was pleasant.”
And then the moment came.
How Did John Wayne Gacy Die?
On the day of John Wayne Gacy’s execution, crowds gathered outside the Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois to protest for and against the death penalty.
Spectators laid out 33 body bags in memory of Gacy’s victims and carried signs reading “Gacy — stick it to him” and “Death to Gacy.” They also sang songs like “Goodbye Gacy” to the tune of “Hello Dolly,” and “Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye).” Their chants were reportedly so loud that they could be heard from the execution building.
Inside the prison, Gacy was eventually led into the execution chamber. There, shortly after midnight on May 10, 1994, he was administered a three-drug lethal injection. He was given the first drug, sodium thiopental, to put him to sleep, followed by pancuronium bromide, and finally potassium chloride to stop his heart.
After a momentary complication in which the second IV tube clogged, John Wayne Gacy was pronounced dead at the age of 52.
NetflixCrowds gathered outside of the prison on the day of Gacy’s death.
William Kunkle, a chief prosecutor during Gacy’s trial, was sitting in the front row during the execution. He said he had “asked for the invitation.”
“I think any prosecutor who seeks the death penalty should have the guts to be there and see it,” Kunkle told A&E. “And I wanted to be sure he was dead. As a personal matter.”
According to urban legend, the Killer Clown’s last words were “Kiss my a–.” However, prison officials reported at the time that his actual last words were a statement about his execution being unjust and that “taking his life would not compensate for the loss of the others,” according to a 1994 Chicago Tribune article. To complicate the matter further, Kunkle later reported that, in the moments before his execution, Gacy didn’t say anything at all.
In the end, however, it wasn’t Gacy who would have the last word; when his death was announced, the crowds gathered outside the prison reportedly cheered.
After reading about John Wayne Gacy’s death, learn about the bizarre death of cult leader Charles Manson. Then, read about nine allegedly haunted paintings and the creepy stories behind them.
