The king of the Western, the Duke himself, was
hanging out in his very own home.
“The only thing I don’t get,” one of the psychics
said, shattering the dream with a single
sentence, “Is why he’s dressed like a clown...”
Gacy was known to dress as a clown named
Pogo, attending charity events and children’s
parties in the garish make-up. Many people
find clowns to be scary by their very nature, but
pictures of Gacy as Pogo take it to an entirely
new level, especially when one realizes just
what a monster was lurking underneath that
face paint. All clowns are creepy. This one was
pure evil.
During his time on death row, Gacy painted
several pictures, including one that he named
‘Goodbye Pogo,’ a childish daubing showing the
smiling clown waving goodbye — at this stage,
Gacy knew that his execution was imminent.
His paintings were distributed to several
people, mostly family and friends. Some were
burned. Some were sold (they fetch high prices
at auction to this day). Others were kept.
At first thought, it makes no sense. Why would
John Wayne Gacy haunt a movie theater in
small town Illinois? The answer takes us back to
the issue of haunted categories: although the
R Theater is said to be a haunted place, with a
number of other spirits supposedly walking its
halls, the Gacy connection comes in the form of
an object.
The object in question is an armoire, an
ornate wooden cabinet that once belonged to
somebody with a close professional connection
to Gacy. Inside it were stored several of the
serial killer’s paintings, locked and secured. The
armoire came into the possession of Robbin
and Norma several years ago, and immediately
after it was placed inside the R Theater, the
killer clown began to make his presence felt.
Taking into account the fact that Gacy was
a psychotically violent man by nature, one
would expect his ghost to manifest itself by
scratching, burning, and physically injuring
people. That did not turn out to be the case.
In fact, no matter how provocative an attitude
visiting paranormal investigators have taken,
Gacy’s spirit never seems to lash out at them in
return.
The R Theater turned up on Brad Klinge’s radar
after a chance conversation, which led to him
paying it a personal visit, along with a camera
crew shooting footage for his TV show Strange
Curiosity. Nobody can accuse Brad of being a
subtle man. Once all of the equipment was set
up, he set out on a loud and angry rampage,
taunting and provoking Gacy in an attempt to
get the serial killer to show himself. During
his lifetime, Gacy was known for his emotional
volatility. It turned out to be a great tactic on
Brad’s part.
Gacy is said to be most active on one of the
catwalks that can be found high up above
the floor of the garage, which was once the
R’s main auditorium, but is now home to
Robbin’s extensive collection of Scooby Doo
memorabilia. (I’m not kidding — Robbin owns
the original Mystery Machine, built by Hanna-
Barbera in order to promote the cartoon when
it first came out). Why does Gacy prefer the
catwalk? According to the psychics, he enjoys
lurking out of sight and watching the activities
that are going on down below; an invisible
voyeur.After his tirade, Brad did a little investigative
work while the crew documented it all. Once the
footage and audio were reviewed afterwards,
a deep, gravelly male voice turned up on the
soundtrack, ominously declaring: I’ll show you
one.With the R theater getting the Klinge Brothers
seal of approval, I just had to see for myself.
Robbin and Norma graciously allowed me to
take in a small team of fellow investigators and
spend a few days poking around there. The
place did not disappoint. After a couple of very
hot, still days, a fierce thunderstorm did a great
job of both cooling things down and stirring
the energies up. Our equipment began to act
erratically, batteries draining without apparent
cause.Light anomalies were seen with the naked eye
that could not be readily explained; shadow
figures were sighted by multiple eyewitnesses;
some impressive talking board activity took
place in the main auditorium, and an Estes
Method spirit box session really left us
scratching our heads.Anna, my fellow investigator, was sitting in one
of the rows of seats, surrounded on all sides
by dolls (including, worryingly enough, one of
Pee Wee Herman). With a blindfold in place and
headphones jacked directly into the SB-11, she
began to call out the voices that were coming
through the spirit box. A few minutes into the
session, she suddenly sat bolt upright.“He’s coming.”
“Who is?” I asked, hoping that I already knew
the answer.
“John.”
Perfect, I thought to myself. “Where’s John
coming from?”
The answer came without the slightest
hesitation: “From Hell...”
The shadow figure activity began to increase. It
was time for me to head up to the catwalk and
see if Gacy would come out to play...For the full story, Richard’s book, Gacy’s
Ghost, will be released in September of 2019.