John Wayne Gacy
1942–1994 · contractor and American serial killer, occasional painter
John Wayne Gacy (Chicago, 17 March 1942-Crest Hill, Illinois, 10 May 1994) is remembered above all as a serial killer rather than as a painter. His name is linked to the murders of young men he committed between 1972 and 1978, and in American history he appears far more often in criminal chronicles than in the history of the arts. His work as a painter is marginal in the available sources and is limited to one episode of his public life.
He was the only son and the second of three children of a family of Polish and Danish descent. His father, a machinist, was an alcoholic and violent man, and Gacy's childhood was marked by obesity and physical punishment. He attended four different schools without graduating, but later earned a diploma from Northwestern Business College in Chicago. He worked as an apprentice and then as a manager at the shoe company Nunn-Bush, was a salesman in Springfield, Illinois, and managed a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Waterloo, Iowa.
In 1968 he was found guilty of sexually abusing minors and spent 18 months at the Anamosa State Penitentiary, from which he was released on parole in 1970. He then settled in Norwood Park Township, Illinois, where he founded a construction firm called PDM Contracting. He took part in local organisations such as the Jaycees, where he reached the post of vice president in 1965. He also performed as a clown at parades and children's parties under the name Pogo the Clown, a character he created himself.
His connection to painting is slight. In 1978 he painted Democratic Party offices free of charge, a task that formed part of his volunteer political activity. This involvement allowed him to be photographed with the then first lady Rosalynn Carter, who signed the picture. The sources do not describe any paintings by him or a personal style, so his work cannot be placed within an artistic movement.
His public legacy is dominated by the crimes. The sources stress that he managed to conceal his record for years and was only investigated in December 1978, after a teenager disappeared, which shows how fully he was able to blend into his community while committing his offences.