Tears of a killer clown
John Wayne Gacy unconvincingly maintained his innocence to the very end.
While waiting for a medical appointment the other day, I read through Conversations With a Killer, the Kindle e-book version of Alec Wilkinson’s New Yorker article about notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
It was either that or look at Twitter, and I wanted the option with less negative energy.
You almost certainly know Gacy’s story: a self-employed contractor in the Chicago area, well known in his neighbourhood for big parties, political involvement and dressing up as “Pogo the clown,” Gacy also kidnapped, tortured and murdered several young men and kept their bodies in the crawl space of his home. (When he ran out of room he started dumping their bodies in a river.) Even during the heyday of the serial killer - Ted Bundy and several other serial murderers, some never caught, were active around the same time - Gacy stood out, mainly because of that damn clown outfit.
(A side note: it seems like the number of serial killers declined as the number of mass shooters increased. I wonder if the kind of person who would have once become a serial murderer now turns toward mass shootings. But that’s beyond my pay grade.)
What you may not have known about Gacy is that, despite initially confessing to the crimes and having several bodies in his house, he went to the execution chamber maintaining his innocence. Wilkinson’s article covers several visits with Gacy before he was put to death, and the convicted killer insisted that it was all a set-up. He even wrote a self-published book insisting that he was away on business when the killings occurred, and that the bodies may have been hidden in his home by employees and others who had their own keys.
A new documentary series also deals with Gacy’s professions of innocence:
John Wayne Gacy was one of America’s most prolific—and horrific—serial killers, responsible for the deaths of 33 young men, 26 of whom he buried in the crawlspace beneath his Norwood Park Township home in Chicago. An egomaniacal sociopath who ran a remodeling business, had strong local political ties (and aspirations), and moonlit as a children’s hospital clown named Pogo, Gacy was the worst of the worst. He was also, unsurprisingly, a cunning liar, as reconfirmed by a 1992 interview that functions as the centerpiece of John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise, in which he claims that the police and media “created this fantasy monster image” of him, and that “I had nothing to do with the murders of anyone.” Rarely has a cocky killer lied so much, and so brazenly.
In fact, the only true thing he may say in the entire chat, conducted by legendary FBI profiler Robert Ressler, is that “clowning has taken a bad name because of what they’ve used in my case.”
Premiering March 25 on Peacock, John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise is part history lesson, part psychological inquiry, and part showcase of cold, deceptive inhumanity, treading a fine line throughout between investigation and voyeurism. Its main hook is that 1992 conversation between Gacy and Ressler, which gazes in close-up at the incarcerated killer as he chats amiably and confidently about his innocence—he goes so far as to say that he didn’t even know the dead—while flipping through an enormous tome of research material that, he believes, exonerates him. No one on planet Earth is buying that nonsense, including this docuseries. Yet if anyone comes close, it’s Craig Bowley, a long-time prison correspondent with Gacy who helped set up Ressler’s videotaped meeting with the fiend, and who spent years befriending him, to the point that he recounts being just about heartbroken when he finally had to say goodbye—via a hug—to his long-time acquaintance and confidant.
[…]
John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise’s conclusion makes a convincing argument that, in some respects, more should still be done—for example, cops digging up the yard at the apartment building where Gacy’s mom used to live, and where he very possibly buried more bodies. What needs no further elaboration, however, is the depths of Gacy’s deviant depravity, which despite his affable 1992 routine to Ressler, can be seen lurking behind his hard, emotionless eyes.
There have indeed been far too many cases of innocent people being sentenced to death, and even executed, which is why I cannot support capital punishment. Right now, the very attorney general who got the death penalty reinstated in Alabama is trying to free a likely innocent man from his state’s death row.
Gacy was not one of these innocent people. Wilkinson noted that his self-serving accounts were riddled with inconsistencies and logical flaws, and when he confronted the killer about them, Gacy simply retreated within himself, insisting that it didn’t matter and that he was innocent. The reader is left unsure if Gacy was desperately trying to con people, or if he had really convinced himself he was a wrongly convicted man. It hit somewhat close to home for me, though I have never handled a murder case, because I have come across this blatant state of denial in so many of my criminal and family law clients.
Also worth noting: Gacy was a Democrat, but this kind of denial and conspiracy theorizing would have served him well in the other major political party today.
I’m very curious to see how this plays out:
Finnair is looking to electric to deliver its sustainability goals in the future. Today, the airline signed a letter of interest for up to 20 electric regional planes from developers Heart Aerospace. The plane, the ES-19, will carry 19 passengers to a range of 250 miles and is being designed to be capable of landing on runways as short as 2,500 feet.
[…]
The letter of interest has been signed in relation to Heart Aerospace’s ES-19 aircraft. The ES-19 is the first aircraft from the Swedish manufacturer and is a fully electric model. It will have a range of 400 KM (around 250 miles) and will seat 19 passengers. It operates on four electric motors and has a T-shaped tail, giving it the appearance of a somewhat shrunken Dash 7.
I was skeptical about electric cars finding popular acceptance, but they’ve come much further in much less time than I ever anticipated. When legendary car brands are planning to go all-electric, and an infamous gas-guzzler is being revived with electric power, you know things have changed. I love my Mazda 3, but I suspect it will be the last car I own powered by gasoline.
Electric airplanes are the logical next step. Some small planes have been successfully converted to electric power, but a passenger airliner is much more ambitious. A 250-mile range isn’t much for even a small plane, so I’m not holding my breath for an electric aircraft that can carry hundreds of passengers across an ocean, but I hope I’m proven wrong again.
“I sure am looking forward to another busy day serving as head of the Charlottesville, Virgina Chamber of Commerce. Let’s start by seeing how our mayor is promoting the city on social media, but first let me take a big sip of cof-"
The extent to which people seem to ascribe the personality features of a character to the person wearing the costume (also true for certain social roles, such as a coach or teacher) is kind of breathtaking. It could let a perpetrator get close to victims and normalize his presence around them. Like the pedophile who played Santa at the mall, went into people’s homes to sit their children on his knee, and was paid for it to boot.
Costumes and social roles don’t make people saints. The person in the costume or role is still just a person, and should be treated with the same precautions as any other person, based on our actual knowledge about them.
That arm’s length approach is also helpful when forced to live with a bald-faced denier. Such people can lie well enough to make you question your own firsthand knowledge of what is real and true. If it goes on for years, it can be hard to figure out how to trust one’s own judgment again [chronic gaslighting]. Asking oneself “how would I deal with this person if they were any other person” and “what are the verifiable facts about what I’m being told” are two ways to deal with people who undermine our perception of reality so they can use us.
Being able to drive without polluting would be awesome. I’m not too keen on driverless cars though. Driving is what makes running errands fun.