NEW YORK – After more than forty-five years, the Chicago police have identified another victim of John Wayne Gacy, the “killer clown” who sowed terror in the ’70s by raping and killing more than thirty young people, and inspired the horror novel It from Stephen King. The last name is that of Francis Wayne Alexander, a young man from North Carolina who at the time had moved with his wife to live in Chicago, but who then, after the separation, had remained in the city, only to disappear without a trace at the end of ’76.
A mugshot of him had remained for years showing him smiling, long hair, black bow tie over light party shirt. “Even after 45 years – the family members commented in a written statement – it is hard to know the fate of our beloved Wayne. Our heart is swollen with pain, and our thoughts go to the families of the other victims. The only consolation is knowing that the killer no longer breathes the air we breathe “.
The remains close a human story, but reopen one of the greatest wounds that marked the modern criminal history of the United States, which became famous in the world with the chilling character of Pennywise, the character from King’s novel, a creepy clown who lures young people and sows death in the city of Derry, Maine.
Why he was called “Killer clown”
Gacy is the serial killer who kidnapped his victims, raped them and then killed them, often by strangulation. Then he buried the victims in the basement of his house or nearby. They called him the “killer clown” because he had a passion for being a clown in children’s hospitals to entertain little patients. He called himself “Pogo the Clown” or “Patches the Clown”.
The dark side of his personality was frightening: an overweight and unhappy child, declared unsuitable for any sporting activity due to heart problems, isolated from his peers, and continually scolded, ridiculed and beaten by his drunk father, in ’68 Gacy was already becoming a monster .
At 26, he was arrested for sodomizing a minor in Waterloo, Iowa. He had been sentenced to ten years in prison, but was released after eighteen months. Four years later, in ’72, the first victim of a long series. Two others had been killed by 1975. Then, after his divorce from his wife, Gacy started hitting obsessively.
He targeted young people, minors or in their twenties, luring them into the house with the excuse of offering them a job in his construction company or in exchange for sex. At times he had exploited his popularity as a clown for good, known and loved throughout the neighborhood.
After the disappearance of yet another minor from the area, investigators arrived in Gacy, who was arrested on December 21, 1978. On March 13, 1980, he was sentenced to death for the murder of thirty-three people. On 10 May ’94 he was executed with lethal injection.
Who was Alexander, the latest victim identified
But punctually, his macabre legacy comes to light, with the discovery of a new victim. Since 2011, investigators have managed to name the remains of three other people, but five remain without identities. Alexander lived in the north of Chicago, in a neighborhood frequented by the ‘killer clown’.
After his divorce from his wife, the young man continued to write home, updating his parents about his life. He loved to send notes and memories from the places where he went on vacation. In ’76, the family received a postcard from California. That had been Alexander’s last communication.
For months the family had tried to track him down, but he had lost track of him, a fate common to other young people, whose families had reported missing.
The discovery of dozens of remains in the home of the “killer clown” had triggered a series of analyzes to trace the identities. In recent years those of the so-called “victim number 5” had remained unknown. Advances in technology have made a difference. A year ago, laboratory research resumed, starting with the analysis of a molar.
Thanks to the persistence of a detective, Jason Moran, and the use of databases, it was possible to trace the family of the young man from North Carolina. Moran questioned dozens of people and ended up closing the circle. The remains were indeed of Alexander, who was between 21 and 22 years old at the time he met the children’s clown.
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