Stories Of Halloween 2017

An Experience With The Killer Clown [10-15]

It was the early 1970s in Des Plaines, Illinois. Back then it was not uncommon to hitchhike. My dad and my uncle (his younger brother) enjoyed doing this, as they were quite the adventurers. They were both pretty young, in their early teens. They had just gone fishing, when they had made their way to a nearby coffee shop parking lot, in search of a ride to get close to home.

A middle aged man stopped to pick them up. There was nothing really striking about this guy, he just looked like a typical guy. So they got into the car with him. My dad sat in the passenger seat, while my uncle sat in the middle back seat. Everything was fine, until the driver reached his arm towards the back of the car, and put his hand on my uncles knee. My dad's creep-o-meter sounded right away, and as soon as they came to a stop light, my dad got out of the car, took his brother by the arm, and got the hell out of there.

Fast forward a few years. It's 1978, and my dad catches a glimpse of a familiar face in the Chicago newspaper. It's the man who had picked them up a few years back. The article states that this man was arrested after police found 33 teenaged males buried in various parts of his home, including the crawl space. This sick man would find teenaged boys wherever he could, to rape, torture, and kill. His name was John Wayne Gacy.

Why John Wayne Gacy was called the killer clown (plus other info):

John Wayne Gacy Jr. (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an and . He , and at least 33 teenaged boys and young men between 1972 and 1978 in , (a part of ).

All of Gacy's known murders were committed inside his ranch house. His victims were typically lured to his address by force or deception, and all but one of his victims were murdered by either or with a makeshift ; his first victim was stabbed to death. Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the of his home. Three other victims were buried elsewhere on his property, while the bodies of his last four known victims were discarded in the .

Convicted of 33 murders, Gacy was on March 13, 1980, for 12 of those killings. He spent 14 years on before he was by at on May 10, 1994.

Gacy became known as the "Killer Clown" because of his charitable services at fundraising events, parades, and children's parties where he would dress as "Pogo the Clown", a character he had devised.