The Terrifying True Story of “Killer Clown” John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy was born in Chicago on March 17, 1942, the second of three siblings and only son of John Wayne Stanley and his wife Marion Elaine Robison.

By all accounts, Gacy's father was a violent alcoholic who belittled his son for seeking solace with his mother. Gacy also alluded to being molested as a child by a family friend. In a manuscript he gave to the New Yorker in 1994, he wrote, “1950, age 8, Sexual incident with contractor."

Gacy briefly worked as a mortuary attendant in Las Vegas in 1962 before returning to Illinois and attending Northwestern Business College.

He met Marlynn Myers while working as a shoe salesman and they married in September 1964. The newlyweds moved to Waterloo, Iowa, where Gacy managed several Kentucky Fried Chicken locations owned by his father-in-law. He and Marlynn welcomed a son in February 1966 and a daughter in March 1967.