John Wayne Gacy AKA Pogo the Clown was an American serial killer and rapist that killed 33 teenage boys and young men in Illinois during the '70s.

Today we are going to look at his childhood, relationships, and the crimes he went o to commit later in life.

Childhood

John Wayne Gacy was born on the 17th of March 1942 in Chicago. He had two sisters, Joanne was the older sister, and Karen was the youngest of the family. His mother was called Marion Elaine Robinson and his father John Stanley Gacy, and they were of Polish and Danish descent. 

He and his siblings were subjected to regular beatings from their alcoholic and violent father whenever they did something wrong. As the only boy, Gacy was bullied by his father and when his mother protected him he would be called a sissy. 

As a child, Gacy was bullied at school because he couldn't play due to a heart condition and he suffered from seizures. This made him feel alienated further and when he was molested at 9 years old he was too scared of his father's reaction he never told him.

His Career and Relationships

After he had an argument with his father he fled to Vegas and worked in a Mortuary for a few months. It did not last long when he was caught sleeping in the embalming room with the corpses. He even admitted that he had slept underneath the body of a young boy whose cause of death had aroused him.

John Wayne Gacy in 1978. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Gacy studied at business college and graduated in 1964. He became a manager at a fast-food chain in the '60s, but he was reportedly molesting male employees and getting them drunk in his basement. He then went on to become a building contractor in the '70s and used this as another way to get close to young men.

Regardless of this, he was still respected and well-liked in the community. However, his relationships with his wives did not go well. He got married and divorced twice, and was the father to 2 children.

He would cheat on his first wife, attend swinging parties, take drugs and use pornography. During his second marriage, he came out as bisexual and started bringing young boys back to their garage and using gay pornography. 

Pogo the Clown

Gacy joined a clown club in Chicago called The Jolly Joker and began performing at children's parties. He would organise parties for the neighbourhood and dress up as Pogo the Clown to entertain the kids.

Pogo the Clown costume. Image credit: Steve Terrell @ Flickr

When he was performing he used the names Pogo the Clown or Patches the Clown. He painted his face white, his mouth red and his eyes blue. He wore a hat with colourful pom poms with his red and white suit.

He would also dress as his clown alter egos when he committed some of his crimes. Guests at his parties could smell something strange at his home, but they never suspected it was caused by anything sinister.

His Crimes

He lured his victims in with offers of construction jobs and captured them. Once he had them where he wanted them he would torture and kill them. His usual method of killing his victims was strangulation.

Gacy was first charged and convicted for sexually assaulting 2 boys and received a sentence of 10 years. However, he was released on parole after only 2 years in the Summer of 1970.

He was arrested for the assault of another boy a year later, but this time the charges were dropped as the boy failed to appear for the trial.

By the mid-'70s he would be accused several times of rape and be questioned by the police over disappearances in the area. He later went on to call these years his 'cruising years', as this was when he committed most of his crimes. 

His downfall began in December 1978 when a boy called Robert Piest went missing, and the police were told he was last seen going to see Gacy about a construction job.

The police searched his home and discovered evidence of murder. They also found bodies hidden in the crawl space under his house and in trenches.

Gacy confessed to approximately 30 murders. His first murder was of a boy called Timothy McCoy in 1972. He offered McCoy a bed for the night and paid him for sex, but the following morning when McCoy woke him up he thought he was trying to kill him. He stabbed McCoy in the chest repeatedly and hid him in the crawl space.

The 33 Victims

25 victims were identified and their names are listed below. Unfortunately, 8 of the bodies could not be identified due to the level of decomposition.

• Timothy McCoy, 18, disappeared January 1972.
• John Butkovitch, 17, disappeared July 1975.
• Darrell Sampson, 18, disappeared April 1976.
• Randall Reffett, 15, disappeared May 1976.
• Sam Stapleton, 14, disappeared May 1976.
• Michael Bonnin, 17, disappeared June 1976.
• William Carroll, 16, disappeared June 1976.
• Rick Johnston, 17, disappeared August 1976.
• Kenneth Parker, 16, disappeared October 1976.
• Michael Marino, 14, disappeared October 1976.
• Gregory Godzik, 17, disappeared December 1976.
• John Szyc, 19, disappeared January 1977.
• Jon Prestidge, 20, disappeared March 1977.
• Matthew Bowman, 19, disappeared July 1977.
• Robert Gilroy, 18, disappeared September 1977.
• John Mowery, 19, disappeared September 1977.
• Russell Nelson, 21, disappeared October 1977.
• Robert Winch, 16, disappeared November 1977.
• Tommy Boling, 20, disappeared November 1977.
• David Talsma, 19, disappeared December 1977.
• William Kindred, 19, disappeared February 1978.
• Timothy O’Rourke, 20, disappeared June 1978.
• Frank Landingin, 19, disappeared November 1978.
• James Mazzara, 21, disappeared November 1978.
• Robert Piest, 15, disappeared December 1978.

The Trial

His trial started on the 6th of February 1980, and he had already confessed to committing the crimes. However, the trial focused mainly on whether or not Gacy was insane when he committed them.

Gacy said the murders were committed by an alternate personality of his and mental health specialists testified for both sides of the insanity argument. 

Eventually, Gacy was found guilty of murdering 33 people and sentenced to serve 12 death sentences and 21 natural life sentences. 

The Execution

He was held at Menard Correctional Centre for a decade and a half, and he claimed he was innocent even though he had already confessed.

John Wayne Gacy was executed by lethal injection on May 10th 1994 at Stateville Correctional Centre.

Artwork by Gacy. Image credit: Pauk @ Wikimedia Commons

While he was in prison he started to paint and a few of them were auctioned off and made up to £4000. Many of his paintings were of his alter ego Pogo the Clown.

Final Thoughts

I think most people have heard of John Wayne Gacy and/or Pogo the Clown. He has probably been the biggest inspiration for most horror clowns, such as IT and Twisty the Clown in American Horror Story. 

Now, clowns do not scare me very much (except the weird clown ornaments), but what John Wayne Gacy did was and still is horrifying. The fact he used his jobs as a way to lure young men into his traps is disgusting, and the fact he got away with it for so long is shocking!

With his previous conviction, you would think the police would speak to him a lot sooner than they did when boys started to go missing. Especially when the parents of the missing children told the police to do so. So frustrating!

What are your thoughts on John Wayne Gacy and the crimes he committed? Let me know in the comments.

The RMS Queen Mary launched in 1936 and was the largest ship in the world. It was decommissioned in 1967 and is now permanently docked at Long Beach in California.

In it's hay-day it carried its fair share of celebrities, artists and politicians, which included the likes of the Kennedy's and Elizabeth Taylor. It also ferried soldiers during World War 2, but today it is more of a tourist attraction and a hotel.

With its history comes a lot of paranormal activity and stories about ghosts aboard the RMS Queen Mary it attracts many ghost hunters, and today we are going to look at some of these stories!

Little Jackie

Jackie is the spirit of a young girl that has been seen the most. She is known for her lively exchanges and answering questions. She has also left wet footprints on the poolside.

Her full name was Jacqueline Torin and she was around 5 or 6 years old when she was believed to have drowned in the second class pool. 

She likes to play in the pool area which is now the Royal Theatre. Jackie has been wandering the ship for 60 years and can be heard singing, laughing and calling for her parents.

Sarah

Sarah is another young girl that drowned on the Queen Mary. She also drowned around 1949 and is believed to protect Jackie. She has been heard singing with Jackie and can be quite aggressive. 

It's also believed the two girls were actually murdered by another ghost on the ship by the name of Grumpy.

Grumpy

Grumpy the Growling Ghost got the name because they have the strange habit of growling at people in their presence. Their true identity is unknown and he can be found in the pool area, but he has been heard in the boiler room. The smell of cigarette smoke has been reported too.

Image credit: David Jones @ Flickr

Dana

Dana was a young woman that was on the ship with her family. Unfortunately, she was murdered along with the rest of her family in their room. 

The murder took place in room B-474 and she was found in the bathroom with a gunshot wound. Her mother and sister were found strangled in the room too. She has been heard calling for her mother and sometimes found with the children at the pool.

The Lady in White

She loves to dance to music that nobody else can hear in the Queen's Salon. She wears a white gown as her name suggests, and she has been witnessed floating in the lobby where she entered an elevator and disappeared.

There is also photographic proof of The Lady in White, and you can see it here.

John Pedder

John was an 18-year-old member of the crew that was crushed to death in the shaft alley at door 13. He was playing a game of chicken with a colleague when the accident happened. It is a very popular place for ghost hunters to visit, and they say he leaves greasy handprints in the places he roams in. 

Final Thoughts

I can believe that there may be spirits on the Queen Mary due to its long history. I researched this quite a bit and the stories can be upsetting, but there is not much information on the people they believe still haunt the ship.

I did find a brilliant website full of information, and there is one website full of EVP evidence. I have spent some time listening, but if you are interested you can find it here.

What are your thoughts on the hauntings? Do you believe the stories or are you sceptical? Let me know in the comments! 

Erzsébet Báthory is one of the first female serial killers in history and was also the inspiration for Lady Gaga's character in American Horror Story. 

Her trial records were found in the 1720s and ever since she has become known as the first sadomasochist. So, today we are going to look at her life, her marriage and her crimes.

Attention! The content of this article or section may seem obscene or offensive to some readers.

Childhood

Erzsébet Báthory was born on the 7th of August 1560 to Baron George VI Báthory and Baroness Anna Báthory. She was born in the Kingdom of Hungary, which is now known as Slovakia and Romania. She was born into one of the most powerful clans in Europe, and her parents spared no expense when it came to their daughter.

They made sure she had the finest education money could buy. Erzsébet was able to speak Hungarian, Slovak, Greek, Latin and German.

As a child, she suffered from seizures which were possibly caused by epilepsy but back then the illness was called Falling Sickness. They would treat this by rubbing the blood of a non-sufferer onto the lips of the sick. It is thought that she suffered from this because her parents were cousins and the incest within their clan.

It is also thought the crimes she committed later in life could have been a desperate attempt to cure her illness, but there is no proof of this.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

When she was a child she witnessed a lot of violence, so much so she became used to it. She once witnessed a man guilty of theft be sewn into to stomach of a horse, and she laughed at the sight of it. 

Thanks to her education Erzsébet was a smart woman but she was also very beautiful. Like most aristocratic women she had a high, white forehead which she most likely plucked her hairline to achieve.

At 10 years of age, she was engaged to marry 15-year-old Ferenc Nádasdy,  the son of another powerful family. During their engagement, Erzsébet moved to the Nádasdy palace and started to learn how to run their estate.

During their engagement, a rumour was spread that she gave birth to a child. The father was allegedly a young peasant boy and the child was given away to a friend of the Báthory clan. After the affair her fiance had the boy castrated and thrown into a pack of wild dogs. Again this has not been proven, but Erzsébet gained a reputation for being promiscuous and her fiance for his violence. 

Married Life

At 14 years old Erzsébet married her fiance on the 8th of May 1574. They had their wedding in front of 4,500 guests and the celebrations lasted 3 days.

As her social standing was higher than Ferenc her new husband, she refused to change her last name. For a while when they got married she spent a lot of time at Nádasdy castle alone while Ferenc was studying in Vienna. 

As a wedding gift, she was given a secluded castle called Castle Csejthe which would be the place she committed most of her crimes.

Image credit: Jacomoman78 at Wikimedia Commons

Ferenc left to go to battle, which meant the couple didn't have their first child until 10 years after they got married. He loved war and after The Long War, he was given the name The Black Knight of Hungary because of his cruelty. During the war, he was known to play catch with the severed heads of his enemies.

The Long War was draining the countries wealth, but Erzsébet was not affected at all thanks to all the Ottoman treasures that she received from Ferenc. The King also borrowed money from her.

The Torture Begins

The couple may have spent a lot of time apart, but they found the time to bond over torturing young servant girls. 

Both had their fair share of violence, Erzsébet punished people when in charge of hundreds of peasants, and Ference when he served in the war. Nádasdy taught his wife different ways she could torture people, and he even bought her a clawed glove to slash at the servants' skin.

Eventually, in 1601, Erzsébet found another partner in crime called Anna Darvolya. Rumours began to spread that she was a witch and when she came to the castle Erzsébet became increasingly cruel. People say that Nádasdy may have taught her how to torture, but Darvolya taught her how to kill.

Servant girls started to die at an alarming rate at the Nádasdy-Báthory household. It didn't make anyone suspicious because back then servants were deemed as disposable. The law protected the nobles and meant that servants had no rights.

Erzsébet started to feel invincible and that she was above the law. The King of Hungary was in her debt and owed her an amount that would have been impossible to pay back. 

However, some people did start to become suspicious of her and the amount of servants dying of Cholera or unknown mysterious causes. She was questioned by one pastor after a sermon, but she stormed out in disgust at the accusations. 

The pastor threatened to exhume the body of a servant girl that died recently to see the cause of her death, but Nádasdy managed to stop this happening. Unfortunately, Nádasdy would not be there forever and would die in 1604.

Images credit: Wikimedia Commons

When he passed away Erzsébet became more violent. What the couple had shared as a hobby became an obsession for her. She would take young girls from local towns and leave their bodies for the wolves when she was done. She even gathered a new group to help her with the torture.

The abuse usually started with a simple mistake, and to punish them she would punch, slap, and mutilate them. They would sever fingers and take chunks from their faces. The torture would continue in the torture chambers.

What happened in the torture chambers was truly horrific. They would beat the servants, force them to eat human flesh, cut off their fingers with shears, and lash them. It got t the point where she couldn't go a day without torturing someone. 

It is rumoured she would bathe in the blood of the victims to preserve her beauty, but this has never been proven to be a fact. 

At first, she had her pick of girls in the towns, and parents would willingly sell their daughters to her. This would change when families started to hide their daughters when she came to town. This meant she was running out of people to kill.

To solve this problem she would create a finishing school for young girls, and noble parents paid to send their daughters there. Not only did she have extra income but she had the girls to satisfy her urges. However, she didn't think this through as their parents would ask how their children were.

Her downfall would follow not long after opening the school, as when the parents asked if their children were okay, she told them that one girl had become jealous and murdered the others girls. 

People were very suspicious of this story and eventually the king decided to move against Erzsébet.

The Arrest and Trial

It is believed that Erzsébet was caught in the act when investigators went to the castle in December 1610. They found one girl dead and mutilated and 2 others dying near the doors. They also heard screaming which led them to a torture chamber and her torture squad.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

She claimed that she was innocent but was arrested the next day. Many people speculated as to how many girls lost their lives, but they could not give a definite number. The numbers ranged from 30 - 650 deaths.

Two of her accomplices were given the death sentence and one was put in jail. Erzsébet was thrown into her own blood-drenched castle and imprisoned there for life. As a result of this, the king didn't have to pay the debt he owed her.

Erzsébet died on August 22nd 1614 after saying her hands were cold. She laid down and sang a song before passing away. She was then buried in holy ground but was moved to the Báthory family crypt when people complained. However, when the crypt was opened in 1995 her body was not found there.

Final Thoughts

Honestly, I think that some of the stories have been exaggerated as time has gone by. There are a lot of rumours about her and what she did, but there is little to no proof that they happened. 

That being said, she was obviously a bloodthirsty woman that was obsessed with inflicting pain. I also find it strange she only chose to harm young girls and not men. 

The things she did to those poor girls were horrific and the fact it was a way she bonded with her husband was crazy to me. I know there were many couples that committed crimes together, but it always shocks me.

What do you think of this case? Do you think there is any truth to her possibly killing 600 or more people? Let me know in the comments.

The tale of Sawney Bean inspired Wes Craven's 1977 horror movie The Hills Have Eyes. The Hills Have Eyes earned 25 million dollars and there have been sequels and remakes since the original was released. The movie became a franchise and there are graphic novels and merchandise available too.

So, who was Sawney Bean? Sawney Bean was the leader of a clan in Scotland. His clan was a good size and it had 45 members in total. They were active in the 16th century and were executed for the mass killing and cannibalisation of around 1000 people.

It's not known if Sawney Bean ever existed as there is no documentation to prove it, but it's a well-known story in Edinburgh and has become part of the tourism.

Attention! The content of this article or section may seem obscene or offensive to some readers.

The Tale of Sawney Bean

Alexander "Sawney" Bean was born in East Lothian, Scotland. His father was a ditch-digger and Bean tried to follow in his father's footsteps. However, he lost interest in labour and realised it wasn't for him.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

He met and fell for a woman called Agnes Douglas who had been accused of being a witch by the locals. The couple left, began robbing and cannibalised one of their victims.

On their travels, they found a cave on the coast and decided to live there. In their 25 years living in the cave, they had 8 sons, 6 daughters, 18 grandsons and 14 granddaughters. Various grandchildren were products of incestuous intercourse between the children and their parents.

To feed their growing clan they would ambush people at night to rob them, and then take the bodies back to their cave to eat them.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

The locals noticed people were disappearing and body parts were washing up on the coast. They would leave body parts to be found so the locals would blame it on a beast. This meant that they had no idea that the clan lived so close.

Several searches took place to find the person or animal responsible for the murders. They found the cave but they never searched the cave because they didn't believe anyone could live there. Some locals even believed it was a goblin-like creature. As a result, several innocent people were accused and killed, but the murders didn't stop.

They were discovered one night when they attacked a young married couple. Unfortunately for them he was skilled in combat and fought them off with a sword and pistol. His poor wife was not so lucky, and when she fell the clan attacked her.  Before they could finish off the husband a group of people from a fayre nearby appeared, and the clan had to flee.

Sawney Bean's Cave. Image credit: Mary and Angus Hogg

Now their existence was known they were hunted. 400 men with bloodhounds searched for the clan on behalf of the king. The eventually found the cave, and when they got inside they found a horrifying scene. They found human remains hung and dried, the cave reeked of decay, and there were barrels of pickled and salted body parts. They also found stolen goods which consisted of gold, silver, watches, rings and weapons. 

What Happened Then?

The ending of this chilling story has 2 versions, and it's unknown which of them is true. 

Version 1:

This version tells how the clan were captured alive, and they put up no fight. They were taken to jail in chains and executed without trial. The clan showed no remorse for what they did.

Sawney and the other males had their genitalia removed and thrown into a fire. They then had their feet and hands severed and were left to bleed to death. Sawneys last words were:

"It isn't over, it will never be over."

Agnes and the girls watched the men die before they were burnt at the stake for their crimes.

Version 2:

In this version, the cave entrance was blown in using gunpowder. This left the Bean clan to suffocate inside with no way to escape.

Final Thoughts

Cannibalism is horrific but has been around since prehistoric times. However, this does not excuse what this clan did. This tale is gruesome from beginning to end, and I have never been one to enjoy movies that involve cannibalism, such as The Hills Have Eyes.

I had never heard of this tale before, but I found it very interesting to read about! Even though there is no proof the clan actually existed.

What do you think of this tale? Do you think it could be real or is it just a myth? Please let me know in the comments!

Ursula Kempe was an English cunning woman that practised folk medicine in St Osyth. She would help her friends and neighbours regularly with their ailments, but she was later blamed for causing pain and suffering.

Today's post is about the St Osyth witch trials that took place in the village in 1582, and how it all started with a feud between two friends.

The Feud

The feud began when Grace Thurlow's son fell ill. Ursula visited them to see how he was, and she offered to perform a well-known ritual in an attempt to help him. After she completed the ritual she left, only to return later to repeat the ritual again.

Grace said Ursula repeated this ritual 3 times in total. After her last visit Ursula assured Grace her son would be on the mend, and that night he appeared to be a lot more comfortable.

During this time Grace was also heavily pregnant, and Ursula assumed due to their friendship and her experience that she would be chosen as her midwife. Unfortunately, Grace had already made other plans. Ursula was angered by this and she made her feelings clear.

Grace complained that she was experiencing lameness and threatened Ursula with naming her as the cause of her suffering to a magistrate.

The threats of having her name being connected in any way to witchcraft didn't bother Ursula. She had admitted openly that she had the ability to un-witch people that had been bewitched but could not bewitch them herself. Ursula instead offered to help Grace with her lameness if she agreed to let her be the midwife at her birth, which Grace eventually agreed to.

After the birth of Grace's baby girl they clashed again, but this time over who was going to nurse the child. Grace decided she wanted to nurse her baby, and all seemed to be going well at first. That was until her baby fell from her crib and died of a broken neck.

Ursula had no sympathy and openly said that it would never have happened if she was nursing the baby. After the loss of her baby, Grace's lameness appeared again.

This time Ursula visited unannounced and offered to help, but she asked for 12 pence as payment. Grace accepted and after several weeks she was feeling better. However, when it came to paying Ursula she didn't have the money. Ursula said she would accept cheese instead of money, but Grace had none of that either.

Ursula left again and when she did Grace's lameness came back. She also said that whenever she started to feel better her son fell ill again and vice versa.

Grace decided to speak to Justice Bryan Darcy, a justice of the peace for Essex and tell him about everything. She told Darcy that Ursula was practising witchcraft and that she was to blame for everything that happened to her and her neighbours.

The Investigation

The day after Grace visited Darcy they brought Ursula in for questioning. During the questioning, Ursula was adamant at first that she was not a witch. She told him that she cured the lameness using a ritual she had learnt when she was suffering with it. She only wanted to use her knowledge to help others. 

However, when Darcy promised her leniency she burst into tears and started to tell him everything. She told him all about her 4 familiars and what they did for her. 

She told him that she had 2 female familiars, Piggin a black toad and Tiffin a white lamb. The females were the ones that caused lameness and other bodily harm. She also had 2 male familiars that were both cats. A black cat called Jack and a grey cat called Titty. The males were more dangerous and brought death to the ones Ursula wanted to punish.

Ursula confessed that she had used the familiars to cause harm to others, which included her own sister in law and Graces daughter. She confessed to sending Tiffin to knock over the crib as a punishment for Grace.

Later in the questioning, she tried to shift the blame to another young woman called Alice. She hoped that offering Darcy another witch meant that he would keep his promise of being lenient. It wouldn't stop there though, as she would incriminate several other women in her future confessions.

As a result of Ursula's confessions, all of these women were brought in for questioning by Darcy. Some of the women followed Ursula's example after they were promised leniency and told him everything he wanted to hear. 

Darcy collected more evidence over time and questioned all of the accused. Then on the 29th of March 1582, Ursula and the others were tried at Chelmsford Assizes.

Ursula was indicted for murder by witchcraft with the young woman called Alice. Even though Ursula was promised leniency for her cooperation, she was found guilty of her crimes and sent to the gallows to be hung.

The Discovery

In 1921 at Mill Street in St Osyth 2 skeletons were found in a garden. The founder believed that one of the skeletons was that of Ursula Kempe. Both of the skeletons had iron rivets through their elbows and knees, which was a common practice and was believed to stop the witches rising from the dead.

However, the identity of the skeletons was never confirmed and they could have been any of the women tried in the area between 1582 and 1645.

Final Thoughts

I am not sure if I believe that any of the women tried in St Osyth were witches. I think that the women that did confess did so thinking it would save them from the gallows. It was also sad that this all stemmed from a feud between two women, and as a result, it ended the lives of several women in the village.

What are your thoughts on this story? Do you believe in witches? Do you believe that Ursula was a witch? Share them in the comments below!