While names like Columbine, Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer may be more well-known, John Wayne Gacy trumps everyone as the worst serial killer in American history. He raped and murdered 33 teenage boys and young men during the late 1970s, 27 of whom he buried under the floor of his house. He became notorious as the "Killer Clown" because of the parties he threw for his friends and neighbors, entertaining children in a clown suit and makeup, under the name of "Pogo". At his execution in 1994, the prison he was being held in was surrounded by an angry mob of thousands who came out to celebrate his imminent death by lethal injection, chanting, "Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!" Many made signs that said "Burn in Hell, Gacy!" Vendors were selling scores of commemorative t-shirts just off the prison grounds that said "No tears for the clown." One of the customers, George Tsokatos, told an interviewer, "It's definitely a party, I bought this T-shirt for $10 and can probably sell it for $100 after this." Josh Emanuel, 17, showed up in a multi-colored clown wig and a shirt that said, "My parents went to Gacy's execution and all I got was this stupid T-shirt." Being that Gacy committed these murders nearly 20 years earlier, the vast majority of the crowd had no personal connection whatsoever to the victims or their families. Many had not even been born yet at the time of the murders. They were simply there to cheer on John Gacy's executioners and revel in the media spectacle ...
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