This date in 1994 was the last on earth for Pogo the Clown — better known as John Wayne Gacy.
Hello, children.
The local small businessman and closeted pederast filled his crawlspace with the remains teenage boys he’d either kidnap off the street, or hire in his capacity as an independent contractor.
When he wasn’t raping and murdering, he kept up appearances as a Democratic machine operative (once photographed with First Lady Rosalynn Carter) and amateur block party harlequin.
Gacy was a notable “serial killer artist” in the years he spent awaiting lethal injection.* In that capacity, the clown motif continued to inspire him.
* The lethal injection was botched with a clogged IV tube. It took 18 minutes.
On this day..
- 1682: Four at a Lisbon auto de fe
- 1942: Julius "Babe" Hoffmeister, alcoholic POW
- 1896: Five Persians by gatching
- 1643: The Book of Sports
- 1756: Owen Syllavan
- 1945: Sudeten Germans, known but to God
- 1527: Johann Hüglin, Meersburg martyr
- 1794: Elisabeth of France, sister of the king
- 1956: Andreas Dimitriou and Michalis Karaolis, the first EOKA men hanged
- 1900: Three Algerians in Setif
- 1821: Stephen Merrill Clark, boy arsonist
- 1987: Sadamichi Hirasawa, by old age