BATAAN HEROES MEMORIAL COLLEGE

Roman super hi-way balanga city bataan

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN CRIMINOLOGY

“A clown can get away with Murder”

JOHN WAYNE GACY

Submitted by
Momo, Christopher
Rubio, Kc
Manansala, Edward
Muhi, Gilbert
Naraga, Jhomarie

Submitted to
Kamille S. Baluyot, Rcrim
 I. Introduction
Many people in the society pick up some traits from the environment they were born and raised
in when children and young adults. In localities where crime activities and drug usage is
rampant, one would expect to see children in that area growing up to be criminals and drug
addicts. The same case is with serial killers. These individuals who kill people in secret do so
because of some of the environmental factors that surround them. In most of the cases where
these killers are interviewed, they always tend to blame their surroundings for their actions. To
understand how serial killers operate and some of the forces behind their actions, this paper will
analyze how the Psychological theories fit in the case of John Wayne Gacy.

John Wayne Gacy endured a harsh childhood and had a perceived antisocial personality disorder.
Through the evaluation of his life and murder through various theories, certain theoretical
conclusions have been made. His actions were heinous yet very cohesive with serial killings
(Fox et al., 2012). His murders were classified as a combination of frustration/aggression, self
control, and psycho-sexual aggression principles of offending (Fox et al., 2012; Knight, 2007;
Morris et al., 2011). Gacy was an opportune specimen for studying serial homicide because he
was captured alive and in-depth insight into his early life and crimes provided the foundation for
the correlation of his actions with psychological, social, and motivational theories. The
examination of these theories through the lens of Gacy's offending is indicative of his
detachment from societal bonds, susceptibility to his sexual-aggression, and severe lack of
remorse. In sum, the sexual aggression Gacy faced, coupled with his psychological trauma from
youth, suppression of sexual identity, breakdown of social controls, and antisocial personality
disorder created the infamous monster that once allured children as a Pogo Clown.

II. Facts of the case

John Wayne Gacy was a rapist and a serial killer. It is reported that Gacy secretly raped and
murdered at least 30 teenage boys between the 1972 and 1978. Gacy carried out his operations in
Cook County, Illinois. At home, Gacy was the only son to the former World War 1 veteran, Gacy
Sr. and his wife, Marion Robinson. He was of Danish and Polish ancestry. When growing up,
Gacy had a troubled relationship with his father but was very close to his mother and sisters who
were also being abused by their father. At school, Gacy never took part in any sporting activities
due to his heart condition and was also overweight. Due to this heart and weight condition, Gacy
always found himself as the center of attraction for bullying from other students in the school.
In his entire life, Gacy always tried his best to make his father proud and gain approval before he
could take any action in any circumstance in life. This friction that existed between him and his
father was spread right from his childhood to his immature adult stage. For instance, when he
was four, Gacy's dad once beat him so bad for disarranging the components of his car engine he
had just finished arranging. At another point in life, his father hit him on the head with a stick,
and this beating rendered Gacy unconscious for some time. On a regular basis, his father belittled
him and favored his sisters more than the young Gacy (Miller, 2014). Although one would
always expect Gacy to hate his dad, Gacy, in various interviews, always denied cursing his father
for mistreating him as a child. On several occasions, as a child, Gacy was also a victim of sexual
abuse and molestation (Miller, 2014). One of the family's friends at one time molested the young
boy after taking rides with him in his truck. However, the young boy never told his father about
this sexual harassment for being afraid of his father ending up blaming him. His father was
known for blaming Gacy for everything, at one time when Gacy was in a hospital, his father
blamed him for faking his sickness so he could gain sympathy from him.

The Psychological Theories

Psychodynamic Theory 
This theory largely comes to us from the mind of noted psychologist Sigmund Freud. He argued
that everyone has instinctual drives (called the “id”) that demand gratification. Moral and ethical
codes (called the “superego”) regulate these drives, and adults later develop a rational personality
(called the “ego”) that mediates between the id and superego. Based on this idea, criminal
behavior is seen primarily as a failure of the superego.

More generally, psychodynamic theory sees criminal behavior as a conflict between the id, ego
and superego. This conflict can lead to people developing problematic behavior and delinquency.
The challenge with this theory is it is difficult to test.

Behavioral Theory
This theory revolves around the idea that human behavior develops through experience.
Specifically, behavioral theory focuses on the idea that people develop their behavior based on
the reaction their behavior gets from those around them. This is a form of conditioning, where
behavior is learned and reinforced by rewards or punishment.

So, if a person is in the company of those who condone and even reward criminal behavior –
especially a figure of authority – then they will continue to engage in that behavior. For example,
social learning theorist Albert Bandura maintains individuals are not born with an innate ability
to act violently. He instead suggests people learn violent behavior through observing others.
Typically, this comes from three sources: family, environmental experiences and the mass media.

Cognitive Theory 
Cognitive theory focuses on how people perceive the world and how this perception governs
their actions, thoughts and emotions.

Application of the Psychological Theories to the Case of John Wayne Gacy

According to Freud, the unconscious mind is a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts,

wishes, feelings, and memories. John Wayne Gacy collected many unconscious thoughts and
memories beginning in his childhood. His father was abusive physically and mentally in his early
years and Gacy ended up repressing those memories of his father because they were unwanted to
him. Those unwanted feelings and memories of his abusive and unhappy childhood are displayed
in his ego and reflected in his actions of killing males.. The superego is the part of personality
that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the
conscience) and for future aspirations. John Wayne Gacy was diagnosed with antisocial
personality disorder, which is a mental disorder that disregards the feelings and regards of others.
Since he suffered from ASPD, it would explain why he had such a lack of remorse towards the
family of the victims and the act of committing the murders. The superego is also the conscience,
which Gacy did not have. The judgment of the crimes he committed was not ideal, obviously, for
the victims. Because of that, he had nothing in his mind to tell him to care about the act and to
tell him that it was the wrong thing to do. If he had a superego, Gacy would have felt guilty and
probably would have confessed to the murders way earlier.

John Wayne Gacy had such a strong desire for sexual acts and killing for males that it was thrill
seeking to him. The death instinct compelled Gacy to continue to murder males even though he
was aware of the consequences. Since the crimes were so immense, Gacy was then given an
adrenaline rush through killing the victims. The behavior of killing was so destructive to his
well-being and others, that he kept wanting more of it. Gacy knew the crimes were thrill seeking
and aggressive, so he had a stronger appetite for it.

III. Reaction Proper

John Wayne Gacy was an interesting serial killer, although he almost precisely fit the typical
mold of serial killer characteristics. In order to fully understand John Wayne Gacy's Homicidial
intent, one must look into hills early childhood. Growing up, the environment in which Gacy
grew up allowed him to change his way of thinking and to see things. Coming from a family
where his father never appreciated him and going to a school where his classmate would bully
him, he grew up into believing that everyone in the society deserves to go through torture before
killing them by strangulation or asphyxiation.

Before carrying out the murder of his male victims, Gacy would force them into having sex with
him. When growing up Gacy was victim of child sexual abuse. In two accounts He was sexually
molested as a child. In the first account, Gacy was molested by a make relatives, while on the
second occasion he was molested by his father's male friend. Through these molestation
incidents. Gacy came to know of the consequences sexual molestation had on its victims (parke,
2014) this consequences was lifetime trauma, depression and feeling of lifetime rejection. By
sexually molesting his victims, I argue that Gacy always had the intentions of making his victims
go through the same case he went through and face the same emotional battle he faced as a child.

The environment and the behavior mutually have an influence on each other. From the case of
Gacy, both his environmental at school and home had an impact on what he grew up to become.
At one point, he even worked as a mortuary attendant after running away from home. When
working as a mortuary attendant, Gacy would sleep behind the body embalming room. Gacy
even at one time climbed into a coffin of dead teenage man embraced and caressed his body
(Miller, 2014. From these cases, we see how Gacy's interaction with dead bodies at the morgue
made him get used to dead bodies, hence becoming a serial killer. On the other hand, the sexual
harassment he went through as a child, by the male grown-ups, made him fond of having sex
with men, even the dead male. From these accounts, it is evident to see how the behavior and the
environment work hand in hand to change a person into something different than he was when he
was a baby.

IV. Concluding Statement

The behaviors of the people around an individual have the ability to change and mold the
individual into a very different person. When a child is regularly abused back at home and in
school without any interventions from the adults in the extended family or even the teachers, the
child stands a chance of becoming someone with so much anger and hate inside him. As in the
case of Gacy, he grew up with so much anger and hate that led him into becoming a serial killer
and someone who loves to put other people through pain. To conclude, I would ask the adults in
the society to be mindful of their behaviors and actions because children grow up to be a
reflection of what they see in the community when growing.

V. References
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orsxuAjBaY0 - Gacy’s Documentary
2. Miller, L. (2014). Serial killers: I. Subtypes, patterns, and motives. Aggression and
violent behavior, 19(1), 1-11.
3. criminal-justice/psychological-theories-of-crime/
4. Sigmund Freud’s Theory
5. "John Wayne Gacy Biography". Biography.com. A&E. February 11, 2019 [April 2, 2014]. Archived from
the original on May 22, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
6. "Gacys Murder Spree Still Vivid". The Times of Northwest Indiana. April 25, 1994. Archived from the
original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2020.