He was the inspiration for Stephen King’s ‘It’, murdering more than 30 young men and boys while living a double life as a children’s entertainer.

Now paintings by ‘killer clown’ John Wayne Gacy are on sale, expected to fetch thousands of pounds when they go under the hammer on October 15.

His paintings are part of the controversial ‘murderabilia’ market, which includes art by notorious criminals and murderers.

Gacy appeared to be a kind and generous man, donating to charity and performing for sick children as his alter-ego Pogo the Clown.

It was all a front to lure in victims, who he raped, tortured and killed after tricking them into going to his house and putting on handcuffs, which many of them believed was part of his clown act.

He strangled or choked all his victims, except the first who was stabbed, then dumped their bodies under his home or in the Des Plaines River.

Gacy finally confessed to his crimes in December 1978 and was executed by lethal injection in May 1994.

There has been renewed interest in his crimes with the release of the film ‘It’, where Pennywise the clown preys on children of Des Moines.

Gacy’s art is expected to sell for around £7,000 a piece at the auction at Mullocks in Shropshire, if you fancied one of the works hanging in the living room.

Other gruesome items at the auction include police photographs of the crawl space under his home on West Summerdale Avenue in Cook County, Chicago, where he buried multiple victims.

Alongside Gacy’s art will be paintings by other killers, including Anthony Sowell – the Cleveland Strangler who slayed 11 – and a handwritten letter from Ted Bundy.

‘This is certainly an interesting subject that has been fascinating to catalogue,’ Ben Jones, consultant at Mullock’s Auctioneers in Shropshire said.

‘We are aware that there are collectors of this type of material across the world and do appreciate that this is a sensitive subject.’

It’s not just serial killer’s artwork that can fetch a high price.

Last month, a pair of Hitler’s gross old underpants sold for £5,000.

‘We’ve sold underwear belonging to Eva Braun before, but never any belonging to Hitler himself. I think this is the first pair to come to market,’ Bill Panagopoulos, who owns Alexander Historical Auctions in Chesapeake City, Maryland, said.

The pants were apparently left behind in the luxury Parkhotel Graz in Austria after the genocidal dictator stayed there in April 1938, less than a month before the Nazis annexed the country.

And let’s not forget the deluge of love letters sent to serial killers like Charles Manson, whose ‘fan page’ says he gets so much mail he doesn’t have time to answer it all.

Source:
courtesy of METRO

by Jen Mills

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