Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings/Conspiracy Theories Book II

Killer Clown: John Wayne Gacy (Part I)

One of Gacy's friends at high school recalled several instances in which his father ridiculed or beat his son without provocation. On one occasion in 1957, the same friend witnessed an incident at the Gacy household in which Gacy's father began shouting at his son for no reason, then began hitting him. Gacy's mother attempted to intervene. The friend recalled that Gacy simply "put up his hands to defend himself", adding that he never struck his father back during these physical altercations.

In 1960, at the age of 18, Gacy became involved in politics, working as an assistant precinct captain for a Democratic Party candidate in his neighborhood. This decision earned more criticism from his father, who accused his son of being a "patsy". Gacy later speculated the decision may have been an attempt to seek the acceptance from others that he never received from his father.

The same year Gacy became a Democratic candidate, his father bought him a car, with the title of the vehicle being in his father's name until Gacy had completed the monthly repayments. These repayments took several years to complete, and his father would confiscate the keys to the vehicle if Gacy did not do as his father said. On one occasion in 1962, Gacy bought an extra set of keys after his father confiscated the original set. In response, his father removed the distributor cap from the vehicle, withholding the component for three days. Gacy recalled that as a result of this incident, he felt "totally sick; drained". When his father replaced the distributor cap, Gacy left the family home and drove to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he found work within the ambulance service before he was transferred to work as an attendant at the Palm Mortuary. He worked in this role for three months before returning to Chicago.

In his role as a mortuary attendant, Gacy slept on a cot behind the embalming room. In this role, he observed morticians embalming dead bodies and later confessed that, on one evening while alone, he had clambered into the coffin of a deceased teenage male, embracing and caressing the body before experiencing a sense of shock. This prompted Gacy to call his mother the next day and ask whether his father would allow him to return home. His father agreed and the same day, Gacy drove back to live with his family in Chicago.

Upon his return, despite the fact he had failed to graduate from high school, Gacy successfully enrolled in the Northwestern Business College, from which he graduated in 1963. Gacy subsequently took a management trainee position within the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company. In 1964, the shoe company transferred Gacy to Springfield to work as a salesman. He was eventually promoted to manager of his department. In March of that year, he became engaged to Marlynn Myers, a co-worker in the department he managed. After a nine-month courtship, the couple married in September 1964. Marlynn's father subsequently purchased three Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Waterloo, Iowa, and Gacy and his wife moved to Waterloo so he could manage the restaurants, with the understanding that they would move into Marlynn's parents' home (which was vacated for the couple).

During his courtship with Marlynn, Gacy joined the local Jaycees and became a tireless worker for the organization, being named Key Man for the organization in April 1964. The same year, Gacy had his second homosexual experience. According to Gacy, he acquiesced to this incident after one of his colleagues in the Springfield Jaycees plied him with drinks and invited him to spend the evening upon his sofa; the colleague then performed oral sex upon him while he was drunk. By 1965, Gacy had risen to the position of vice-president of the Springfield Jaycees. The same year, he was named as the third most outstanding Jaycee within the state of Illinois.

Waterloo, Iowa

In 1966, Gacy accepted an offer from his father-in-law to manage three KFC restaurants in Waterloo. The offer was lucrative: Gacy would receive $15,000 per year (the equivalent of $115,513 as of 2020), plus a share of profits earned via the restaurants. Following his obligatory completion of a managerial course, Gacy relocated to Waterloo with his wife later that year.