His self portrait entitled “Pogo in the Making” shows a smiling, waving madman layering on makeup and a clown costume disguise.  Another of his paintings entitled “Self Portrait” shows a dark, moody Gacy — perhaps the clown with his makeup removed.  A brief peek into the life and mind of a killer.

John Wayne Gacy Jr. was born March 17, 1942 as the second of three children.  His father was a physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic.  John Wayne Gacy Jr. was, however, close to his mother.  He attended four different high schools before dropping out and moving away from his family.  When he ran out of money, he returned home to Chicago and enrolled in a Business School.  He married in 1964 and had two children, a boy and a girl.  He eventually moved to Waterloo, Iowa to become manager of a Kentucky Fried Chicken store owned by his wife’s parents.

His middle-class life crumbled in 1968 when he was accused of the sexual assaults of two young boys.  He had been rumoured to be homosexual and was involved heavily with young boys.  He had opened up a club of sorts in his basement where he made sexual advances to young boys while luring them in with alcohol.  He hired one of these boys to beat up his accusers.  When his henchmen confessed entirely to the plan, he was convicted of sodomy and sexual assault.  He was sentenced to ten years by was paroled in 18 months.  His wife filed for and obtained a divorce while he was in prison and moved away with their children whom he never saw again.  His father died during this period of incarceration as well.

When he was released, he went home to his mother.  He found a job as a chef and his mother helped him by a house in the Norwood Park area of Northwest Chicago.  In 1971 he was again accused of trying to force a young boy into sex.  He was charged with disorderly conduct but the charges were dropped when the youngster did not show up in court.  The parole board did not hear of this charge somehow and his parole was discharged the same year.

In 1972 he was charged again with forced sex of a minor and again, the charges were dropped.  The same year, Gacy remarried.    In 1975 he started his own construction company.  His wife began finding gay pornography and young men’s wallets in the home.  One of his employees, John Butkovich, disappeared this year after an argument with Gacy over back pay.  Although Butkovich’s parents urged police to investigate Gacy because of this ongoing argument, nothing came of it. Gacy’s married quickly dissolved and he was divorced again by 1976.  This is when Gacy’s killing spree truly began.

He used his jobs at his construction company to lure young boys and men to his home.  Then he would overpower then, knock them unconscious, rape and murder them.  The police missed several more chances to stop Gacy.  Another of his employees, Gregory Godzik, disappeared in 1976 and his parents also suggested that the police investigate Gacy.  Their neither pursued Gacy or discovered his criminal history.  Another disappearance in 1977 of an acquaintance of Gacy’s, John Szyc, also failed to give the police any red flags.  The police again failed to investigate when one of Gacy’s employees was arrested for theft while driving Szyc’s car which he claimed Gacy had given him.

In December of 1978, the disappearance of another boy seen with Gacy finally caused alarm.  The police searched Gacy’s house and discovered several suspicious items such as jewellery linked to missing boys.  They also noticed a strong odour coming from the basement.  When they dug it up, they discovered the bodies of 29 boys buried in the crawlspace.  They discovered another body along a river bank.  Gacy confessed to one of his employees to committing over 30 murders.  Eight of the bodies recovered have still not been identified.

Gacy claimed he was not guilty by reason of insanity when his trial started in 1980.  This plea was rejected and he was found guilty of 30 murders and sentenced to death. He had no remorse for his brutal murders and asserted that the only crime he committed was running an unlicensed cemetary.  He continued to taunt police about additional unsolved murders in an attempt to stay alive.  His ploy failed and he was executed in 1994.  His last words were reportedly “kiss my ass.”

Gacy became a prolific artist while imprisoned.  His most favoured subject in his oil paintings was his alter persona of Pogo the Clown.  He had performed in full make up for neighborhood children frequently throughout the years.  The pictures of him as a clown, as well as his paintings of himself as a clown, are eerie reminders of his horrific past.  The media has often dubbed him the “Killer Clown” because of these haunting images.  He also produced many paintings of birds, the seven dwarfs, skulls and most famously, portraits of other serial killers.  Some of his paintings look like art to be hung in a children’s room while some are pornographic.  People have been so disturbed by his paintings that many have been bought to be destroyed.  A bonfire after his execution of two dozen of his paintings was attended by at least 300 people.

His self portrait of the transformation of John Wayne Gacy into Pogo the Clown is particulary disturbing.  He, like most other serial killers, just looks like an ordinary man.  It’s hard to put a line between “us” and “them” when outward appearances are so utterly normal.  Perhaps this painting entitled “Pogo in the Making” shows a transformation of man into beast instead of merely, man into clown.

Another self portrait Gacy did shows that he attained a certain skill level in oil painting.  This one shows him in a completely different light that the painting above.  He is pictured as dark and moody in this painting as opposed to a smiling and waving madman disintegrating into a clown.