Editing John Wayne Gacy (section)

==Biography==
'''Childhood'''

Gacy was born into Chicago Illinois on March 17, 1942 to a blue-collar family.  The son of Danish and Polish parents, Gacy and his siblings grew up with an ex-military, strict and abusive alcoholic father who would beat the children with a razor strap if they were perceived to have misbehaved. His father physically assaulted Gacy's mother as well. Gacy's sister Karen would later say that the siblings learned to toughen up against the beatings, and that Gacy would not cry. Gacy suffered further alienation at school, unable to play with other children due to a congenital heart condition that was looked upon by his father as another failing. He later realized he was attracted to men, and experienced great turmoil over his sexuality.

'''Birth of the devil inside him'''

Growing up, Gacy exhibited a growing tendency toward sadism and paraphilia which resulted in several encounters with the law in the 1960s. In 1968, after his conviction for sexually assaulting a teenage boy, he was confined in the Iowa State Men’s Reformatory (Anamosa State Penitentiary) and forced to undergo psychological evaluation. After his release in 1970 and while still on parole, he was again arrested for sexual assault, but the charges were later dropped. Gacy then became a fairly successful independent contractor and bought a house in suburban Chicago.

The tortures that Gacy infringed on his captives included drowning them repeatedly in his bathtub, throwing burning poker cards on their torsos, as well as spilling hot wax on them. As part of the dominion he could exert on his victims, Gacy allowed himself the luxury of urinating on them.

In 1978, after one of Gacy’s victims, Robert Piest, was reported missing, police learned that Gacy was the last person known to have seen him. After obtaining a search warrant, police discovered the bodies of 29 boys and young men in or near Gacy’s house; four other bodies were found in the nearby Des Plaines River. Indeed, the area of the house had emitted a foul stench for years, but Gacy had told his houseguests and his wife that the smell was the result of moisture buildup.