John Wayne Gacy Research Paper

2464 Words10 Pages
The United States is riddled with crime and none more heinous than the killing of another person. Yet, there are those who find this crime so intoxicating; that if not caught the first time will continue to repeat this offense until they are stopped. These offenders are classified as Serial Killers; a serial killer is a person who kills three or more people in a 30-day period, with a cooling off period between each murder. But the question remains, why do these people find this crime, which is so, appalling something that they want to repeat? There are so many theories on this topic, all which go extremely in depth on psycho evaluation, and the upbringing of these offenders to try to find some consistency which can be used to explain the thought…show more content…
As a child Gacy experienced a hard life of trying to please his father, whom Gacy said was never satisfied. His father, a drunk who constantly beat Gacy and his siblings with a belt if they were even thought to have misbehaved, would also frequently torment and humiliate Gacy. (Scott, Crime Library Ch.6) Calling him a failure and attribute his mother’s defending him as a sign that he was weak and that he would grow up to become queer. Later a family friend, who would often take Gacy for rides, sexually molested him on those said rides. Gacy did not tell his father this in fear that it would be turned against him, and further validate his father’s statements of him being queer. It was around this time as well that Gacy started to realize his sexual attraction towards men, which growing up tormented him in fear of his father’s disapproval. (A&E, Gacy) Even though Gacy would grow up to be married twice, this sexual attraction towards men never went away. In the 1960s Gacy was charged and arrested in the sexual assault of two young boys serving 10 years for his crime, after being released in 1970 a year later another boy came forth accusing Gacy of sexual assault and rape. (A&E, Gacy) But the charges were dropped when the boy did not show up for court this would later be realized as Gacy’s first kill. But Gacy did not stop there he went on to kill a total of 33 boys and…show more content…
Researchers all agree that the way a child is raised has a tremendous affect on the type of person they grow up to be. (Welch, Profiling Serial Killers) In these cases all were seen to have horrible upbringings. From being physically and verbally abused to sexual molestation and confusion. All of these aspects would play a huge role in the way these men would act into adult hood. In all events the repeated stress of being abused in some way either it be verbally or physically, triggered a point in their lives where they could not and would not take it anymore so they snapped and the raged within was released. This rage and aggression relates over into the ways these men kill and target. In the case of Edmund Kemper, he targeted women and brutally killing them. The reason for the targeting of women is due to his mother, he killed the women in the fantasy of doing what he never could, which was kill, his mother. (Ramsland pg. 175) Growing up and his mother treating him the way she did is what caused the violent actions towards women. In the end Kemper finally fulfilled his fantasy, killing his mother and her friend who was with her at the time. Henry Lee Lucas also targeted women, and again was due to his mother’s constant beatings and torment of him. Like Kemper, Lucas showed signs of his past in his killings, by the brutal killing of the women victims he had. These

More about John Wayne Gacy Research Paper

Open Document