To most who would have said they knew him, if one cared to ask them, John Wayne Gacy was an upstanding citizen; he helped out his neighbours, he was the chaplain of the Jaycees, and, mostly notably, he dressed up as roly-poly Pogo the Clown to entertain children. However, for those who knew John on a more… intimate level, he was a sadist, rapist, torturer and murderer – not always in that particular order.
子供たちを楽しませるため、パーティなどでピエロに扮することが多かったことからキラー・クラウン（殺人道化・殺人ピエロ）の異名を持つ。少年時代はボーイスカウトに入っていたこともある。アルバイト料の支払いなどの名目で呼び寄せた少年に性的暴行を加えたうえで殺害。その遺体を自宅地下および近くの川に遺棄した。自身のホモセクシュアリティを隠すために殺害したとされている。1972年から1978年のあいだ、少年を含む33名を殺害したことが明らかになっている。資産家の名士でチャリティー活動に熱心だった彼の犯行はアメリカ社会を震撼させた。
Gacy was convicted of the torture, rape and murder of 33 males between 1972 until his arrest in 1978. Because of his Pogo the Clown persona, he was dubbed the ‘Killer Clown’ – not exactly the best image for the already feared, supposedly non-murderous, circus clowns to be associated with. During his crime time, 1972 – 1978, Gacy actively searched for homosexual young men and lured them into his home where he would then do what he was convicted for. Another tactic he used to get young men into his home was through posting jobs at his construction company. He would lure them to his house on the pretext of talking to them about a job. Once the boys got inside his home he would over power them, knock him unconscious and begin his gruesome modus operandi.
ゲイシーの描いたピエロの絵画はマニアには大変な人気があり、展示会が開かれたり、高値で取引されている。著名人では俳優のジョニー・デップが購入して所有している。
As it happened, not all of the boys who he killed were completely unloved;the dear old mum of one of those who failed to return from the clown’s clutches notified the police that Gacy’s house was where he was last said to be going, and because of his previous criminal offenses (attempted molestation – signal, anyone?) they started keeping a close watch on him. Gacy, in his usual bizarre behavior, invited the police in for coffee. The police accepted the invitation and once inside they became overwhelmed by a strong odor which they recognized as possibly coming from a decaying dead body. The police then obtained a search warrant and uncovered 29 bodies in the crawlspace of Gacy's house. The bodies were all male and ranged in age from nine years old to their mid-20s. Later Gacy admitted to more killings in which he dumped the bodies into a nearby river. In searching for all possible victims, the police excavated Gacy's yard and gutted the house, eventually tearing it completely down. Not exactly the most economic thing to do – could have easily been turned into a ‘haunted holiday house’ type of thing, and raised money for the community, enabling them to better the lives of all; but I suppose that would have been considered ‘insensitive’.
ゲイシーに興味を持ち手紙を送ってきた、ジェイソン・モスという当時18歳の少年と文通を始める。ゲイシーは後に彼の電話番号を突き止め、電話でのやりとりを行うようになった。その後、少年に「人殺しをした本当の理由を教えてあげる」と刑務所に招待し面会することになった。しかし情欲を抑えきれなくなったゲイシーは、彼を34人目の被害者にしようと企む。模範囚としての信用を利用して看守抜きでの面会(本来は規則違反)を取り付け、少年と2人きりでの面会が叶い彼を監視カメラの死角に誘い出して犯行に及ぶも、間一髪で看守が通りかかったことで未遂に終わった。この犯行が決定的となり、再審請求は取り下げられた。
Personally, I think that he, becoming the serial killer than he is known for, is primarily a result of the environment that he grew up in. Yes, I know that the overly simplified ‘nature’ versus ‘nurture’ debate now states that they both have equal influences on the individual, but, after reading his ‘early life’ on wiki, it’s easy to see that events happened that would definitely have had a profound effect on his mentality. As a child, he was both overweight and nonathletic; meaning that he wouldn’t get social recognition from his peers, or, for that matter, his father – who was a WW1 veteran, who also happened to be an alcoholic and regularly beat, or ‘discipline’ Gacy. At the age of nine, Gacy was molested by a family friend; apparently, getting sexually abused at a young age ‘triggers’ something which makes that child more likely to grow up and become a child molester as well. I’m not too sure about the details on that, I just remember it from some psych lecture.
1994年5月10日深夜、薬物注射による死刑がジョリエット刑務所にて執行された（この一件は日本のテレビ番組で幾度か取り上げられ放送されている）。彼が希望した最後の食事は、ケンタッキーフライドチキン、フライドポテト、エビフライ、イチゴ、ダイエットコークなど、若き日の成功を象徴するものばかりであった。通常、薬物注射による死刑は平均で7分前後で静かに絶命すると言われているが、何らかの手違いか薬効にムラが生じゲイシーは20分近く苦しんで絶命したという。この件についてコメントを求められた担当検事のウィリアム・カンクルは「被害者が受けた苦痛に比べれば、ゲイシーの苦痛など大したことはないね」と述べた。
He was sentenced to death, under new guidelines that would make sure the penalty was not "cruel and unusual" and therefore within constitutional bounds. However, Gacy’s execution by lethal injection in 1994, which was supposed to be a procedure of 5 minutes ended up taking 18 minutes (planned?), and it was said that he was clearly struggling. He probably ended up suffering a cruel and unusual death, but then again, the person he turned out to be, shaped by society or by genetics, was a rather cruel and unusual one as well. Does that justify it? Who knows.
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