Essay Sample on Gacy Convicted of Indecent Liberties & Murder of 33 Victims

Introduction

The accused had committed crimes concerning sodomy, a murder which was esteemed to being at least 33, accounts of sexual assaults, and also performing indecent liberties with an underage. On his account of sexual assaults, at around 1964, Gacy was convicted of two underage males, and that caused him a sentence of ten years. The latter was following the traditional court participants (Han, 2020).

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On the counts of murder, the accused first killed in the year 1972, where he stabbed Timothy McCoy in his residence. His criminality was exhibited with segues from creep to his criminal mind. In the year 1975, a young teenage boy who worked for Gacy went missing. After his search by his family, the police were involved with the family demanding that the police investigate Gacy; however, the police never looked into Gacy. In 1977 a young male went to the police with the claims of kidnap and molestation by Gacy. The young man made a report, but again, the police did not investigate the claims that were made on Gacy. In 1978 December 11, another teenage boy by the name Robert Piests went missing. His mother had lastly had an encounter with him on his way to Gacy's home. Robert Priests' mother made a report with the police, and the police eventually decided to investigate Gacy. On December 21, the same year in which the teenage boy Priests had disappeared, the police search came across uncovered evidence of killings made by Gacy. The police had received a search warrant on Gacy's home in which they discovered a lot of belongings of some young men accompanied by powerful odors. The first search was, however, not enough for the complete analysis of the evidence. The first search sought for the police to seek a second search warrant.

After the second search warrant was received, the police ripped up the floorboards of the crawlspace belonging to Gacy. There the police found evidence of human bones which came with the revelation that Gacy had murdered at least 33 young men of which 26 of them he buried in the crawl space of his home and others he had buried in different locations of his property and some also thrown into the Des Plaines River. After a thorough investigation, the accused admitted to the thought of luring his victims using the prospect of working with the construction company in which Gacy owned. Gacy would then torture his victims within various ways like dripping hot candle wax on them, drowning them in the bathtub that was in the house, using fire poker on them, putting them on top of his rack which he has specially made for such purposes and also urinating on the kidnapped victims. Gacy still risked getting a charge of sodomy following the sodomy laws, which prohibited same-sex intimacy (Gloppen, Ranker, 2020). Gacy would rape victims before killing them and would then rape them after killing them, keeping their dead bodies out in the open for several days. The accused would kill his victims by strangling them as he was dressed as 'Pogo the Clown,' which was believed to being his alter ego. Gacy then buried the dead bodies of the victims under the crawl space of his house and, from time to time, poured lime juice that was meant to hasten the decomposition of the bodies.

Charges Brought Against the Accused

The accused was charged with rape, a single count of sodomy, and also murder. Upon receiving advice from his assigned attorney, Gacy entered a plea of guilty to a single count of sodomy, which vastly related to multiple charges that were against him and led by Donald Voorhees. At a formal arraignment in the courts, he had pleaded not guilty to the other charges of rape and kidnap which were lodged against him in the presence of a judge in his hearing, which was held on November 7, 1968. Gacy also contended in the presence of a judge that he and Vorhees had engaged in sexual relationships and that the duo was involved out of curiosity shown by Voorhees towards the accused an allegation used to free himself or even get a reduction in sentence (Jiang & Wang, 2019). His argument was not believed by the judge, and despite the way lawyers handling his case recommending for probation, he was convicted of sodomy in 1968 December 3. The latter earned him a ten-year sentence in prison, which was located at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. On the same day of his conviction, Gacy's wife petitioned for a divorce. She went ahead to placing forward a request for acquiring the couple's home, property belonging to the couple, and also sole custody of their two children. Fortunately for her, the court granted her divorce, which was finalized on 1969 September 18. The latter ensured that Gacy never set eyes on his first wife and their children again.

Background Information

Family History

John Wayne Gacy was born in Illinois, Chicago, in 1942 at around March 17. He was the second born and an only son of Marion Elaine Robinson and John Stanley Gacy. His mother did an exquisite work of homemaking as his father was an auto repair machinist and also played a huge role in the fighting of World War I. He is of both Polish and Danish ancestry, with his paternal grandparents being immigrants from Poland. As a child, Gacy was overweight and thus suffered bullying and insults from his schoolmates and resentful feelings from his alcoholic father. Gacy's father was abusive to his mother, and he constantly felt belittled by his father, who constantly referred to him as being dumb and stupid with all the time getting compared to his sisters. Despite the harsh treatment that his father constantly showed him, Gacy never at a single time ever accepted that he had hated his father. Gacy was molested by a family friend. He was, however, afraid of telling his parents of the occurrence having earned titles from his father of being a 'sissy.' Gacy had a heart condition and thus avoided all sports in school, he began experiencing blackouts at a tender age of fourth grade and had a burst appendix in 1957. His father, though, never believed that his son was sick with assuming that his conditions were made in an effort to gain sympathy. Gacy's father had openly accused his son of faking his condition. A friend of Gacy had reported seeing his father shouting at Gacy for no apparent reason and going on to beat him despite his mother's useless intervention.

Development History

In 1960, at a tender age of 18, Gacy involved himself in politics working as an assistant precinct captain in charge of a Democratic Party candidate that resided in his neighborhood. His decision to join politics was as a result of trying to seek acceptance from his father and others. Gacy's father bought him a car the same year that he became a Democratic candidate. Gacy worked in Springfield as a salesman and was promoted to the manager of his department. At the end of the same year, he got engaged to his coworker Marylyn Myers. During his courtship with Marylyn, he joined another organization, namely local Jaycees, and due to his tireless efforts and constant hard work, he was named a key man in ensuring that the company made the maximum sales it made. In 1964, Gacy experienced his second gay experience. He was caught up in the incident when one of his colleagues plied him with the drinks he had and performed oral sex on Gacy when he was drunk. In 1965, he rose to the position of vice president of Springfield Jaycees and was named the third most outstanding employee of Jaycees within the whole state of Illinois.

Medical Information

Apart from the seizures which Gacy suffered as a child during his fourth grade, bursting of his appendix, and also his heart condition, all of were never documented to having being diagnosed, he was suspected of having over psychological illnesses. According to Brennan (2019), most of the medical cases about one's psychological state begin at a young age, with traumas being caused to the victim. With young boys looking up to their fathers who guided them, Gacy never had one to look up to and was raised by an alcoholic who physically abused him regularly. Upon the growth of Gacy, and when he began being charged with sexual assault, there were many cases in which he was required to get examined for psychological problems. On September 3, it was concluded that he has a psychiatric evaluation that took place for seven straight days. According to Whipp, Korhonen, Raevuori &Heikkila (2019), Gacy probably tried to use the personality disorder involving aggression to one of several criteria to gain parole.

Upon completion, the doctors concluded that Gacy had an antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and that treatment would not help in any case. During the trial, Gacy tried convincing the jury that he had multiple personality disorder with some of the doctors ordered to testify to him having a paranoid schizophrenic condition. Upon execution of Gacy, his brain was examined by Doctor Helen Morrison, who proved that Gacy's brain showed no abnormalities. (Khasho, Van Alphen & Heijnen, 2019)

Social History

Gacy worked as a manager in the food chain industry in the 1960s and also became a self-made building contractor. He also tried out politics with him being a Democratic precinct captain in the suburbs in Chicago in the 1970s. He was also married twice and divorced in both marriages, having a total of four children, two biological with two more stepdaughters. In his incarceration in the State Penitentiary of Anamosa, he had become a head cook and also said to have been supervised several projects aiming at increasing the living conditions of the inmates. He pleaded for parole release in 1969 June, and as he awaited his second parole hearing in May 1970, he had completed 16 high school courses. After his father died of liver cirrhosis, he was informed, and he collapsed on the floor sobbing uncontrollably. He applied to be allowed to attend his father's funeral, but his request was denied.

Theoretical Conceptualization of the Accused

The researches were conducted following forensic psychology by Robinson (2018). According to the psychological evaluation conducted by the doctors, Gacy suffered from factors such as glibness as he was constantly ridiculed and humiliated by his father. He was also suffering from being a pathological liar, which in he denied all his murders until the shreds of evidence of his murders were established. The victim was also cunning as he led most of his victims through promises of employment and also blackmailed them. He also lacked remorse and killed most teenagers without any doubt. He also lacked empathy and had promiscuous behavior, and he was also impulsive in his actions. He was diagnosed with secondary psychopath issues with him dressing as a killer clown to torture his victims. There is also predatory aggression, which he exhibited when he targeted his victims. Gacy was also diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder in which no medical treatment would help.

Recommendations to The Court

The accused has a 100% likelihood of reoffending, and his crimes should thus be punishable by death.

References

Brennan, T. (2019). Identification of Psychosocial Factors in the Development of Serial Killers in the United States.

Gloppen, S., & Rakner, L. (2020). LGBT rights in Africa. In Research Handbook on Gender, Sexuality, and the Law. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Han, W. (2020). Effect of behavioral health services and neighborhood disadvantages on recidivism: a comparison of mental health court and traditional court participants. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 1-22.

Jiang, Q., & Wang, Q. (2019, January). Research on Gender Equality and Equity Protection. In 2nd Interna...