Fall of the House of Gacy [Paperback]

Harlan H. Mendenhall (Author), Harlan H Mendenhall (Author), Mary Lou Kowaleski (Author), John Mars (Author), Sydney M Johnsen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1887827013 | ISBN-13: 978-1887827010 | Publication Date: May 31, 1996

The only authorized biography of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. The Chicago-area contractor was executed in 1994 for the murders of 33 teenage boys and young men, the most convictions in the history of the United States.

Editorial Reviews

Review

It is an honor to be associated with this dynamic biography, written with such penetrating insight by Harlan H. Mendenhall. Perhaps the book will help us all-laymen and professionals alike-to better understand such a complicated, intricate and tangled personality.

Even more important, this book reveals and examines the explosive dangers inherent in physical and psychological abuses within the family sphere. In addition, and, perhaps, most important of all, it is hoped that society will learn to recognize and treat such illnesses before the point of no return.

(John Wayne Gacy was) one of the most complex individuals I have ever observed. After a long and very difficult diagnosis, I arrived at the conclusion that Mr. Gacy-to try to use a simple label-(was) suffering from a disease which is a type of psychotic paranoid schizophrenia. This can be traced, I believe, to the severe physical, psychological and emotional abuse which he suffered as a child. Unfortunately, this type of family abuse is becoming more and more common. A terrifying phenomenon.

I have diagnosed Mr. Gacy as a "psychotic schizophrenic" because only persons who are psychotic can split off-or divide-the personality so far, so completely, that they negate reality. This is totally an unconscious function of the brain. Mr. Gacy (did) not know when it (occurred). He (did) not know when the "bad" part (was) in control and when the "good" part (was) in control.

The results were tragic. -- Tobias H. Brocher, M.D., Professor, University of Frankfurt; Scientific Member, Sigmund Freud Institute, Frankfurt, Germany; Distinguished Professor of Applied Behavioral Sciences; The Menninger School of Psychiatry, Menninger Foundation, Topeka, Kansas

From the Author

In writing the only authorized biography of the John Wayne Gacy family, I spent over 550 hours face-to-face with Gacy, plus many more hours with his family, reporters, photographers and historians. I have tried diligently to be neither judge nor jury, and where facts and information are in conflict, I have sifted through all pertinent information and accepted the most logical data. It is my sincere hope that the reader will try to keep an open mind as he or she reads Gacy's story.

The intent of this book is definitely not to defend John Gacy but rather to unravel the tangled and complex underlying personal, family and societal forces that could have motivated the behavior he was found guilty of, in the hope that with understanding, tools of prevention can be forged.

John Wayne Gacy was once an appealing, gentle child. He was once a successful, admired young businessman skyrocketing to success, happily married, with two young children. What happened, then, to place him on death row when he was 37 years old, convicted of killing 33 young men, the most in U.S. history?

The brutality and abuse, the love and kindness, the fears, the frictions and tensions in close personal relationships, the ecstasy of winning and the final agony of the total collapse of the House of Gacy are accurately portrayed.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 267 pages
• Publisher: New Authors Pubns (May 31, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887827013
• ISBN-13: 978-1887827010
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,494,557 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)