How Did John Wayne Gacy Die? What Happened on the Night He Was Executed

More than a decade after his arrest shocked the nation, serial killer John Wayne Gacy met his end in a highly scrutinized execution that drew both outrage and relief.

Gacy, infamously dubbed the “Killer Clown” for his habit of performing as “Pogo” at community events, was convicted in 1980 of murdering at least 33 teenage boys and young men across the 1970s.

Typically, Gacy would lure victims to his home and dupe them into donning handcuffs on the pretext of demonstrating a magic trick. He would then s*xually assault and torture his victims before killing them by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a garrote.

Twenty-six victims were buried in the crawl space of his home, and three were buried elsewhere on his property; four were discarded in the Des Plaines River. Despite overwhelming evidence, including bodies discovered beneath his home, he showed little remorse and maintained a disturbing detachment from his crimes.

One of Gacy’s defense attorneys, Robert Motta, remarked during his trial: “The insanity defense has been looked (upon) as an escape; a defense of last resort. The defense of insanity is valid and it is the only defense that we could use here, because that is where the truth lies ... because if (Gacy) is normal, then our concept of normality is totally distorted.”

Gacy was executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994, at Stateville Correctional Center. He was 52 years old.

The execution itself did not go smoothly. According to reports, a blockage in the IV line delayed the proper flow of the chemicals used in the lethal injection protocol. As a result, the process took approximately 18 minutes, significantly longer than expected, raising concerns about the procedure even as it unfolded.

In his final moments, Gacy delivered words that would become as infamous as his crimes: “Kiss my a*s.” The remark reinforced the chilling lack of remorse he had displayed for years, including in interviews and recorded conversations later featured in Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes.

Earlier that day, Gacy reportedly requested a last meal that included fried chicken, shrimp, strawberries, fries, and a soft drink—an unsettlingly ordinary detail given the extraordinary brutality of his crimes.

Public reaction to his execution was intense and deeply divided in tone, though not in outcome. In Chicago, crowds gathered outside to mark the moment, with some celebrating what they saw as long-overdue justice. Many expressed relief that the man responsible for such horrific acts could no longer harm anyone.

Gacy’s case remains one of the most notorious in American history, not only because of the scale of his crimes but also because of the double life he led. To neighbors and colleagues, he was a seemingly upstanding businessman and community volunteer. In reality, he was a predator who used trust and charm to lure victims.

Decades later, his story continues to be revisited in documentaries and dramatizations, including John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise. Yet even among countless true crime cases, the details of his death, prolonged, public, and punctuated by defiance, remain a haunting final chapter.