John Wayne Gacy Research Paper

The Double Life of John Wayne Gacy

John Szyc, Gregory Godzik, Sam Stapleton, and Robert Peist; what do all of these names

have in common? These four young men and twenty-nine others lost their lives because of Gacy.

John Wayne Gacy raped and murdered thirty-three young men in the timespan of six years.

Throughout John Wayne Gacy’s double life as a rapist and murderer, he exhibits the traits of a

human monster that can only be developed through both nature and nurture, as well as a

camouflaged personality that justifies a greater fear in human monsters, rather than fictional

monsters such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde.

Gacy’s complex story began on March 17th, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. Even though it

seemed that Gacy

The nurture argument is based on how a person was raised and nature is the argument

that a person was born that way. Gacy’s father was an abusive alcoholic with unreachable

expectations. Gacy Sr. would often become furious with Gacy when he would not live up to

expectations. According to Gacy’s sister Karen, “he wasn’t the nurture”(Killers Tv). This led

Gacy to seek out acceptance throughout his life and it also created a fascination with being in

control. Gacy’s need to be in control was found to be a huge factor in the crimes he committed.

John Wayne Gacy had no sympathy for his victims either; he instead blamed them for what he

had done. Even though Gacy tried the insanity plea and the psychologists found no psychosis,

there is evidence of nature in how Gacy thought and acted. Gacy had problems facing his

sexuality while growing up; he even learned to suppress his emotions. However, later on all that

Gacy had suppressed throughout his life became a problem when he could no longer control