How Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy Used His Character Pogo The Clown To Paint Himself As An Upstanding Citizen

Published October 15, 2024

John Wayne Gacy began performing as Pogo the Clown in the Chicago area in 1975 — right in the middle of his gruesome murder spree.

Pogo The Clown

Wikimedia CommonsSerial killer John Wayne Gacy dressed as Pogo the Clown.

The image of serial killer John Wayne Gacy dressed up as his alter ego, Pogo the Clown, is chilling, like something out of Stephen King’s It. One of history’s most notorious serial killers, Gacy presented himself as a model citizen in his Chicago-area community before he was caught.

He was an active participant in the local “Jolly Joker” clown club, where he performed at numerous charity events, birthday parties, and children’s hospitals. Gacy’s jovial persona, Pogo the Clown, became a way for him to, as he would later describe, “regress into childhood.” Gacy also developed an interest in art and created numerous illustrations of Pogo the Clown and other infamous clowns, almost to the point of obsession.

Of course, this only made it all the more horrifying when the nature of his crimes was brought to light. Gacy wasn’t an upstanding, caring member of the community, after all. He was a serial killer and rapist who murdered dozens of young men and boys by night, all the while donning his clown makeup and integrating himself into the local community during the day. It’s little wonder why Gacy soon became known as the “Killer Clown.”

Who Was John Wayne Gacy?

John Wayne Gacy

Des Plaines Police DepartmentAfter John Wayne Gacy’s arrest, chilling rumors spread that he murdered some of his victims while dressed as Pogo the Clown, but there’s no evidence that he ever killed anyone while wearing his clown costume.

John Wayne Gacy was an American serial killer born in Chicago on March 17, 1942. He was responsible for the deaths of at least 33 young men and boys in the 1970s, many of whom he had tortured and raped in the moments before he killed them. But to people on the outside, he was a mild-mannered businessman who made an effort to be part of his community.

Gacy grew up in an abusive home, where he was subjected to frequent berating by his father, who called him a “sissy” and whipped him with a belt. At a young age, Gacy realized he was gay, but given that he grew up in 1950s America, this was a secret he kept to himself. Physically, Gacy suffered from a congenital heart condition that forced him to keep physical activity to a minimum, and as a result, he was overweight for virtually his entire life.

He tried to lead a traditional life, for a time. He married a woman named Marlynn Myers, took over the management of his father-in-law’s Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises in Waterloo, Iowa (where the couple relocated), and had two children, Michael and Christine. To an outsider looking in, Gacy was living the American Dream, but he was deeply unsatisfied with his life.

Police Searching The Property Of John Wayne Gacy

Bettmann/Getty ImagesPolice searching John Wayne Gacy’s property in 1978.

Gacy eventually joined the Waterloo Jaycees, a group of businessmen who regularly participated in activities such as wife swapping, prostitution, and pornography. Then, he started forcing young men, including some of his own employees at KFC, to engage in sexual acts with him.

In 1968, he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a teenage boy and later served two years of a 10-year prison sentence before being released for good behavior. Upon his release, now divorced from his wife, Gacy moved back to the Chicago area. He starting living with his mother again and maintaining a strict 10 p.m. curfew, but this did little to stop him from preying on young men. While he was on parole, he was again charged with sexual assault, but that charge was later dropped, meaning that Gacy remained a free man.

While building a respectable career as an independent contractor, John Wayne Gacy bought a house in Chicago’s Norwood Park, where he would commit his most heinous deeds. And right in the middle of his murder spree, he also brought the character Pogo the Clown to life.

How The Character Pogo The Clown Helped John Wayne Gacy Hide His Gruesome Crimes

John Wayne Gacy As Pogo The Clown

World History Archive/Alamy Stock PhotoJohn Wayne Gacy taught himself how to apply clown makeup, bringing his alter ego Pogo the Clown to life in 1975.

At some point while he was in prison for sexual assault, John Wayne Gacy developed a knack for art. Here, he reportedly created the first images of what would become Pogo the Clown, a sort of twisted self-portrait of Gacy wearing clown makeup. But Pogo eventually became real when Gacy joined a “Jolly Joker” clown club and began performing at various events around the Chicago area. This likely helped him find some of his victims.

By playing the role of an involved, caring member of the community who entertained children, Gacy was able to grow closer to his victims — all of whom were young men and boys — earning their trust, only to lure them back to his home, sexually abuse them, and ultimately kill them. Shockingly, Gacy was so trusted in his community that he even had the audacity to join the search parties for some of his victims and “help” their worried parents.

There are a number of factors that psychologists have linked to Gacy’s behavior. According to Psychologs Magazine, Gacy was later diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, a mental health condition that causes people to engage in harmful behaviors toward others without remorse. Gacy was egotistical yet often paranoid. He was manipulative and aggressive, and his inflated ego was often at odds with his shame and resentment of himself.

John Wayne Gacy Without Makeup

Police HandoutJohn Wayne Gacy, known as the “Killer Clown,” showed no remorse after killing his victims.

So, where does Pogo the Clown fit into this?

It’s worth noting that Pogo wasn’t the only clown persona that Gacy used during his murder spree. As The Mirror reported, Gacy actually had two clown alter egos: Pogo and Patches. Pogo the Clown, according to Gacy, was a “happy clown” who allowed him to return to a “childlike” state. Patches the Clown, on the other hand, was “more serious.” Given how tumultuous Gacy’s childhood was, it seems as if Pogo and Patches were ways by which Gacy was reclaiming the years of his childhood that were lost to abuse.

After Gacy’s arrest, he also claimed to have had multiple personalities. This was never confirmed by experts, and some thought he was making that up entirely, but it does suggest that Gacy viewed his self as being fragmented. It could also potentially explain how John Wayne Gacy could simultaneously be a fun-loving member of the community and a sadistic killer.

He murdered his first known victim in 1972 and continued killing from there. Disturbingly, he was already acquainted with many of his victims before he decided to murder them. Some were his employees, while others were involved in sex work. After his divorce from his second wife, Carole Hoff, in 1976, Gacy was left alone in their home, meaning that it would only be easier to commit his horrific crimes. All of the Killer Clown’s victims were murdered in the home, and most of them were buried in the house’s crawl space.

The Downfall Of Pogo The Clown

Pogo The Clown Painting

John Wayne GacyA painting of Pogo the Clown by John Wayne Gacy.

Between 1972 and 1978, John Wayne Gacy lured dozens of young men and boys to his home, supplying them with drugs or alcohol, impressing them with a “magic trick,” or simply offering them a place to stay before torturing them, raping them, and murdering them. It wasn’t until December 1978, with the murder of Robert Piest, that Gacy was finally caught.

Gacy lured Piest to his home under the prospect of offering him a summer contracting job for nearly double what the 15-year-old student was making at his pharmacy job. On the night of December 11th, Piest’s mother arrived at the pharmacy to pick him up when he asked her to wait while he discussed a potential new job with a customer. From there, Piest vanished.

When he failed to return home that day, his mother filed a missing person report. Once police learned that Gacy had been seen talking to Piest before he vanished, the truth about what had happened began to unravel.

Police Carrying John Wayne Gacy's Victim

Karen Engstrom/Chicago Tribune/TNS via Getty Images
Police carrying the body of one of John Wayne Gacy’s victims from his house.

Authorities soon uncovered the disturbing extent of John Wayne Gacy’s crimes after he was arrested on December 21, 1978 for handling marijuana. Just one day later, he confessed to killing over 30 young men and boys. He also called himself the “judge, jury, and executioner of many, many people.”

While investigators combed his house, they eventually came across the smell of rotting flesh. Guided by the horrific scent in the home, they made their way to Gacy’s crawl space, where 26 bodies would later be discovered. Three more bodies were later found in the home’s yard. (The other four confirmed victims had been dumped in Des Plaines River.)

With that, the image of Pogo the Clown, who once brought joy to people, became a horrific symbol of the mask that helped John Wayne Gacy get away with murder for years. Gacy was ultimately sentenced to death for his crimes and was eventually given a lethal injection on May 10, 1994.


After reading about John Wayne Gacy’s infamous persona, Pogo the Clown, go inside the macabre true stories of other brutal serial killers. Then, learn about some of history’s most “haunted” paintings.

author
Austin Harvey
author
A staff writer for All That's Interesting, Austin Harvey has also had work published with Discover Magazine, Giddy, and Lucid covering topics on mental health, sexual health, history, and sociology. He holds a Bachelor's degree from Point Park University.
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Jaclyn Anglis
editor
Jaclyn is the senior managing editor at All That's Interesting. She holds a Master's degree in journalism from the City University of New York and a Bachelor's degree in English writing and history (double major) from DePauw University. She is interested in American history, true crime, modern history, pop culture, and science.
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Harvey, Austin. "How Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy Used His Character Pogo The Clown To Paint Himself As An Upstanding Citizen." AllThatsInteresting.com, October 15, 2024, https://allthatsinteresting.com/pogo-the-clown. Accessed November 9, 2024.