John Watkiss is an artist who has worked in both comics and film. Born in England in 1961.

After growing up in the Midlands in England, John Watkiss graduated from The Faculty of Arts and Architecture, Brighton University with a bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He began his career in London as a portrait painter and illustrator and then also taught anatomy and fine art at the Royal College of Art, Ballet Stage and Fashion Design, the Museum of the Moving Image in London, and Steven Spielberg's Amblimation. His extensive career has led him from cover artist for graphic novels to storyboard artist and character designer. Watkiss has worked for Derek Jarman, Saatchi & Saatchi, Ridley Scott Associates, Francis Ford Coppola, DreamWorks, 20th Century Fox, and Disney. At Disney, Watkiss worked on the 1999 animated movie ''Tarzan''. One of his paintings, ''The Boxer'', sold at Christie's in 2001, and in 2002 he was commissioned to provide a mural for the Ford Museum. In comics Watkiss' work includes ''Sandman'', ''Conan'' and ''Deadman''.

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Category:British comics artists Category:Alumni of the University of Brighton Category:Living people

name	John Wayne Gacy
birthname	John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
birth date	March 17, 1942
birth place	Chicago, Illinois, USA
death date	May 10, 1994
death place	Crest Hill, Illinois, USA
cause	Lethal injection
victims	33
country	United States
states	Illinois
beginyear	1972
endyear	1978
apprehended	December 1978
sentence	Death }}

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer also known as the Killer Clown who raped and murdered 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the crawlspace of his home and three others elsewhere on his property, discarding the remaining four victims in a nearby river.

Gacy became known as the "Killer Clown" due to his charitable services at fundraising events, parades and children's parties where he would dress as "Pogo the Clown," a character he devised himself.

Early life

John Wayne Gacy was born in Chicago, Illinois, the only son and the second of three children born of John Stanley Gacy (June 20, 1900 – December 25, 1969), a machinist and World War I veteran, and Marion Elaine (née Robinson; May 4, 1908 – December 14, 1989). Gacy was of Polish and Danish heritage (his paternal grandparents had been born in Poland). As a child, he was both overweight and nonathletic. He was close to his two sisters and mother (who affectionately called him "Johnny"), but was regularly disciplined by his father, an alcoholic who was physically abusive toward his wife and children, often beating them with a leather belt. Throughout his childhood and adolescence, Gacy continuously strove to make his stern father proud of him, but seldom received his approval; the elder Gacy regularly belittled him, often calling him a "sissy", "stupid" and a "Mama's boy". At the age of nine, Gacy was molested by a family friend. When he was 11, he was struck on the forehead by a swing. The resulting head trauma formed a blood clot in his brain that went unnoticed until he was 16, when he began to suffer blackouts. His father suspected the episodes were an effort to gain sympathy and accused his son of faking. Gacy was prescribed medication to dissolve the clot. Gacy attended four different high schools but dropped out of every one, never actually graduating. At the age of 20, following an argument with his father, Gacy left home and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he worked in a mortuary for three months before returning to Chicago. Without returning to high school, Gacy enrolled in and eventually graduated from Northwestern Business College. He obtained a management-trainee position with the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company shortly after graduation. In 1964, Gacy was transferred to Springfield, Illinois to work as a salesman. There he met co-worker Marlynn Myers, and they married in September 1964. After completing his apprenticeship, Gacy was promoted to manager of his department. He became active in local Springfield organizations, joining the Jaycees and rising to vice-president of the Springfield chapter by 1965.

Move to Iowa, first offenses and imprisonment

Following a lucrative offer from Gacy's father-in-law to appoint him manager of three KFC restaurants, Gacy and his wife moved from Illinois and settled in Waterloo, Iowa. Gacy and his wife had two children; a son named Michael, born in March 1967, followed by a daughter named Christine in January 1969. Shortly after his arrival in the city, Gacy had his first known homosexual experience: a colleague of the Waterloo Jaycees — which Gacy had joined upon his arrival in the city — performed oral sex on Gacy while he was drunk. Gacy was an enthusiastic worker for the Waterloo Jaycees, becoming a tireless worker on several fund-raising projects. In 1967, he was named "outstanding vice-president" of the Waterloo Jaycees. These achievements even earned approval from his father, who mentioned his previous criticism of his son during a 1967 visit to Waterloo and concluded the conversation with his son with the words: "Son, I was wrong about you."

However, there was a seamier side of Jaycee life in Waterloo: one that involved wife swapping, prostitution, pornography and drugs. Gacy was deeply involved in many of these activities, and regularly cheated on his wife. In late 1967, Gacy began to molest teenage male employees of the restaurants he managed. Gacy opened a "club" in his basement, where he allowed employees to drink alcohol before he made sexual advances toward them. One youth was encouraged to sleep with Gacy's wife, then blackmailed into performing oral sex upon Gacy. Several teenagers were conned into believing Gacy was commissioned into carrying out homosexual experiments in the interests of "scientific research", for which the youths were paid up to $50.

Gacy's double life in Waterloo came to a sudden halt in March 1968 when two local boys, aged 15 and 16, accused him of sexually assaulting them. Gacy professed his innocence, but in August of that year he hired another Waterloo youth to physically assault one of his accusers in an effort to discourage the boy from testifying against him. The youth was caught and confessed, and Gacy was arrested. On September 3, Gacy was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at the Psychiatric Hospital of the State University of Iowa. Two doctors examined Gacy over a period of 17 days and concluded he was an antisocial personality, unlikely to benefit from medical treatment and whose behavior pattern was likely to bring him into repeated conflict with society. The doctors also concluded he was mentally competent to stand trial.

December 3, 1968, Gacy was convicted of sodomy and sentenced to 10 years at Anamosa State Penitentiary, located in Jones County, Iowa. The day Gacy was sentenced, his wife petitioned for divorce and requested possession of the couples' home, property and subsequent alimony payments. The Court ruled in her favor and the divorce was final in September 1969. Gacy never saw his first wife or children again.

In prison, Gacy rose to the position of head cook and was a model prisoner: joining an all-inmate Jaycee chapter in which he actively supervised several projects to improve conditions for inmates at the prison and even managed to secure an increase in the inmates' daily pay in the prison mess hall. He also oversaw the installation of a miniature golf course in the prison's recreation yard. In June 1969, Gacy first applied to the State of Iowa Board of Parole for early release, which was initially denied. In preparation for a second scheduled hearing in May 1970, Gacy completed 16 high school courses, for which he obtained his diploma in November 1969. Gacy's father died from cirrhosis of the liver on Christmas Day 1969. Gacy was not told his father had passed away until several days after his death. When he heard the news, he broke down in tears and had to be supported by prison staff. Gacy requested compassionate leave from prison to attend his father's funeral, but his request was denied.

Parole

Gacy was granted parole with 12 months' probation on June 18, 1970 after serving either 21 months or 18 months of his 10-year sentence. Upon his release, Gacy announced to a friend who collected him from prison that he intended to re-establish himself in Waterloo. However, within 24 hours of his release, Gacy opted to relocate to Chicago to live with his mother. He arrived in Chicago on June 19 and obtained a job as a short-order cook in a restaurant.

On February 12, 1971, Gacy was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy. The youth claimed that Gacy had lured him into his car at Chicago's Greyhound bus terminal and had attempted to force him into sex. The complaint was subsequently dismissed when the youth failed to appear in court. The Iowa Board of Parole did not learn of this incident (which violated the conditions of his parole) and the records of Gacy's previous convictions were subsequently sealed: he was restored to full citizenship in October 1971. Gacy hid his criminal record until police began investigating him for his later murders.

With financial assistance from his mother, Gacy bought a house at 8213 West Summerdale in an unincorporated area of Norwood Park in August 1971. Shortly after Gacy and his mother moved into the house, he became engaged to a woman named Carole Hoff, a divorcee whom he had briefly dated in high school, who had two young daughters. His fiancee moved into his home soon after the couple announced their engagement and Gacy's mother moved out of the house shortly before his wedding, which was held on July 1, 1972.

On June 22, 1972, Gacy was again arrested and charged with battery after another young man complained to police that Gacy, impersonating a police officer, had flashed a sheriff's badge, lured him into his car, and forced him to perform oral sex upon him. These charges were dropped after the complainant attempted to blackmail Gacy into his dropping the charges in exchange for money.

Businessman and community volunteer

Following Gacy's marriage to Carole Hoff, his new wife and stepdaughters moved into the Summerdale Avenue house. In 1972, Gacy quit his job as a cook and started his own construction business, PDM Contractors (PDM being the initials for 'Painting, Decorating and Maintenance'). The business initially undertook minor repair work such as signwriting, pouring concrete and redecorating but later expanded to include projects such as interior design, remodeling, installation, assembly and landscaping. By 1978, PDM's annual turnover would gross over $200,000. By 1975, Gacy had ceased to have sexual relations with his wife after openly admitting to her he was bisexual. He began spending most evenings away from home only to return in the early hours of the morning with the excuse he had been working late. His wife observed Gacy bringing teenage boys into his garage and also found gay pornography inside the house. The Gacys divorced by mutual consent in March 1976.

Gacy became active in his local community activity and projects, including entertaining at picnics and parties as a clown and volunteering to clean the township Democratic party office where he offered the labor services of his PDM employees free of charge. Gacy was rewarded for his services by being appointed to serve upon the Norwood Park Township street lighting committee. He subsequently earned the title of precinct captain. In 1975, Gacy was appointed director of Chicago's annual Polish Constitution Day Parade — an annual event he was to supervise from 1975 until 1978. Through his work with the parade, Gacy met and was photographed with then First Lady Rosalynn Carter on May 6, 1978. Rosalynn Carter signed one photo: "To John Gacy. Best Wishes. Rosalynn Carter". The event later became an embarrassment to the United States Secret Service, as in the pictures Gacy is wearing an "S" pin, indicating a person who has received a special clearance by the Secret Service. Gacy became aware of a "Jolly Joker" Clown Club when he joined the local Moose Club, whose members — dressed as clowns — would regularly perform at fundraising events and parades as well as voluntarily entertain hospitalized children. By late 1975, Gacy had joined the Jolly Jokers and had created a performance character, "Pogo The Clown". He designed his own costumes and taught himself how to apply clown makeup. The sharp corners Gacy painted at the edges of his mouth are contrary to the rounded borders that professional clowns normally employ, so as not to scare children. Gacy performed as Pogo at local parties and events, and though he often spoke of entertaining at children’s hospitals, there is no evidence of his doing so. Gacy is also known to have arrived, dressed in his clowning garb, at a favorite drinking venue named the Good Luck Lounge on several occasions with the explanation he had just performed at a venue as Pogo and was stopping for a social drink before heading home.

Murders

On January 2, 1972, Gacy, engaged to marry his second wife, picked up a 15-year-old youth named Timothy Jack McCoy from Chicago's Greyhound bus terminal. Gacy took McCoy — who was traveling en route from Michigan to Omaha — on a sightseeing tour of Chicago, and then drove him to his home on the promise that he could spend the night and be driven back to the station in time to catch his bus. Gacy later said that he awoke the following morning to find McCoy standing in his bedroom doorway with a kitchen knife in his hand. Gacy leapt from his bed and McCoy raised both arms in a gesture of surrender, tilting the knife upwards and accidentally cutting Gacy's forearm (he had the scar on his arm to support this claim). Gacy twisted the knife from McCoy's wrist, banged his head against his bedroom wall then kicked him against his wardrobe and walked towards him. McCoy then kicked him in the stomach and Gacy then stabbed McCoy repeatedly in the chest and watched him slide down towards the floor. Gacy claimed he then went to his kitchen and saw an opened carton of eggs and a slab of unsliced bacon on his kitchen table. McCoy had also set the table for two: he had walked into Gacy's room to wake him while absentmindedly carrying the kitchen knife in his hand. Gacy subsequently buried McCoy in his crawl space and later covered the youth's grave with a layer of concrete.

Three years later, in July 1975, one of Gacy's employees, 17-year-old John Butkovitch, disappeared. The day prior to his disappearance, Butkovitch had threatened Gacy over two weeks' outstanding back pay. Gacy later admitted to luring Butkovitch to his home while his wife and stepchildren were visiting his sister in Arkansas, ostensibly to settle the issue of Butkovitch's overdue wages. Gacy conned the youth into cuffing his wrists behind his back, then strangled him to death and buried his body under the concrete floor of his garage. Gacy later admitted to having "sat on the kid's chest for a while" before killing him. Butkovitch's Dodge sedan was found abandoned in a parking lot with the youth's wallet inside and the keys still in the ignition. Butkovitch's father called Gacy, who claimed he was happy to help search for the youth but was sorry Butkovitch had "run away". Gacy was questioned about Butkovitch's disappearance and admitted the youth and two friends had arrived at his apartment demanding Butkovitch's overdue pay, but claimed all three youths had left after a compromise had been reached. Over the following three years, Butkovitch's parents called police more than 100 times, urging them to investigate Gacy further.

Gacy's second wife divorced him eight months later, and Gacy began to kill more frequently as he now had the house to himself. Between April and October 1976, Gacy killed a minimum of eight youths between the ages of 14 and 18, seven of whom were buried in his crawlspace, and one beneath his dining room floor. In December 1976, another Gacy employee, Gregory Godzik, disappeared. Godzik had worked for PDM for only three weeks before he disappeared. In the time he had worked for Gacy, he had informed his family Gacy had had him "dig trenches for some kind of (drain) tiles" in his crawl space. Godzik's parents and older sister, Eugenia, contacted Gacy about Greg's disappearance. Gacy claimed to the family that Greg had run away from home, having indicated to Gacy prior to his disappearance that he wished to do so. Gacy also claimed to have received a recorded answering machine message from Godzik shortly after the youth had disappeared. When asked if he could play back the message to Godzik's parents, Gacy stated that he had erased it.

On January 20, 1977, John Szyc, a 19-year-old acquaintance of Butkovich, Godzik and Gacy, disappeared. Szyc was lured to Gacy's house on the pretext of selling his Plymouth Satellite to Gacy. He was buried in Gacy's crawl space directly above the body of Godzik. Gacy later sold Szyc's car to another of his employees. In April 1977, following the March 15 murder of 20-year-old Jon Prestidge — a Michigan youth who disappeared while visiting friends in Chicago — Gacy became temporarily engaged to a woman he had been dating for three months and his fiancée moved into his house. By mutual agreement, the engagement was called off in June of that year and his fiancée moved out of his home. Between July and December 1977, Gacy killed a further seven young men between the ages of 16 and 21, including the son of a Chicago Police Sergeant. In August 1977, a clue emerged to the disappearance of John Szyc when the employee, to whom Gacy had sold Szyc's car, was arrested for stealing gasoline from a station while driving Szyc's car. Upon investigating the theft, Gacy told officers that Szyc had sold the car to him before leaving town. The police did not pursue the matter further.

On December 30, 1977, Gacy abducted a 19-year-old student named Robert Donnelly from a Chicago bus stop at gunpoint. Gacy drove Donnelly home with him, raped him, tortured with various devices, and repeatedly dunked his head into a bathtub filled with water until he passed out, before Gacy revived him. Donnelly later testified at Gacy's trial that he was in such pain that he asked Gacy to kill him to "get it over with", to which Gacy replied: "I'm getting 'round to it". After several hours of assaulting and torturing the youth, Gacy drove Donnelly to his place of work, removed the handcuffs from the youth's wrists, and released him. Donnelly reported the assault and Gacy was questioned about it on January 6, 1978. Gacy admitted to having had "slave-sex" with Donnelly, but insisted everything was consensual. The police believed him and no charges were filed. The following month, Gacy killed a 19-year-old youth named William Kindred, who disappeared February 16, 1978 after telling his fiancée he was to spend the evening in a bar. Kindred was the final victim to be buried in Gacy's crawl space, and Gacy began disposing of his victims in the Des Plaines River.

In March 1978, Gacy lured a 26-year-old named Jeffrey Rignall into his car. Upon entering the car, the young man was chloroformed and driven to the house on Summerdale, where he was raped, tortured with various instruments including lit candles, and repeatedly chloroformed into unconsciousness. Rignall was then driven to Lincoln Park, where he was dumped, unconscious but alive, and managed to stagger to his girlfriend's apartment. Rignall was later informed the chloroform had permanently damaged his liver. Police were again informed of the assault, but did not investigate Gacy. Rignall remembered, through the chloroform haze of that night, Gacy's black Oldsmobile, the Kennedy Expressway and particular side streets. He staked out the exit on the Expressway where he knew he had been driven until — in April — he saw Gacy's distinctive black Oldsmobile, which Rignall and his friends followed to 8213 West Summerdale. Police issued an arrest warrant, and Gacy was arrested on July 15. He was facing an impending trial for a battery charge for the Rignall incident when he was arrested in December for the murders.

Investigation

On December 11, 1978, John Gacy visited a Des Plaines pharmacy to discuss a potential remodeling deal with Phil Torf, the owner of the store. While discussing the potential deal with Torf, Gacy was heard mentioning that his firm hired teenage boys while he was within earshot of a 15-year-old employee named Robert Jerome Piest.

After Gacy left the store, Piest told his mother that "some contractor wants to talk to me about a job". Piest left the store, promising to return shortly. When Piest failed to return, his family filed a missing person report on their son with the Des Plaines Police. The owner of the pharmacy named Gacy as the contractor Piest had most likely left the store to talk with.

Gacy denied talking to Piest when Des Plaines police called him the next day, and promised to come to the station later that evening to make a statement confirming this, indicating he was unable to do so at that moment as his uncle had just died. At 3:30 a.m., Gacy, covered in mud, arrived at the police station, claiming he had been involved in a car accident. Upon returning to the station later that day, Gacy flatly denied any involvement in Piest's disappearance, and denied offering him a job.

Des Plaines police were convinced Gacy was behind Piest's disappearance and checked Gacy's record, discovering that he had an outstanding battery charge against him in Chicago and had served a prison sentence in Iowa for sodomy. A search of Gacy's house, on December 13, turned up several suspicious items: a 1975 high school class ring, other people's driver's licenses, handcuffs, a two-by-four with holes drilled in the ends, books on homosexuality and pederasty, a syringe, clothing too small for Gacy, and a photo receipt from the pharmacy where Robert Piest worked. Police decided to assign two two-man surveillance teams to follow Gacy, while they continued their investigation of Gacy regarding Piest's disappearance. Gacy filed a $750,000 civil suit against the Des Plaines police, demanding the police surveillance cease. The hearing of his suit was scheduled for December 22.

Further investigation into Gacy's background linked him to the disappearance of three additional youths. One of Gacy's employees informed detectives of Gregory Godzik's disappearance, and Gacy's second wife told of the disappearance of John Butkovich. The high school ring found in Gacy's house was traced to John Szyc. On December 18, the Nisson Pharmacy photo receipt found in Gacy's kitchen was traced to a colleague of Piest's, who said she had placed it in his parka pocket just before he left the store, proving conclusively Piest had been in Gacy's house. Another employee revealed Gacy had made him dig trenches in the crawl space of Gacy's house.

On December 20, 1978, Gacy invited two of the surveillance detectives inside his house. The police noticed the smell of corpses emanating from a heating duct. The officers who previously searched Gacy's house failed to notice this as on that occasion the house had been cold. Gacy had remarked to two of the surveillance officers watching him in the days before his arrest: "You know... clowns can get away with murder." On the afternoon of December 21, the eve of the hearing of Gacy's civil suit, police obtained a second search warrant of Gacy's house. To hold Gacy in custody while the search commenced, officers arrested Gacy on a charge of marijuana possession. Upon digging in the crawl space of Gacy's Norwood Park Township residence, police quickly found several human bones and informed investigators they could charge Gacy with murder.

Arrest and confession

After being informed that police had found human remains in his crawl space and that he would now face murder charges, Gacy told officers he wanted to "clear the air," adding that he knew his arrest was inevitable since he had spent the previous evening on the couch in his lawyers' office. In the early hours of December 22, Gacy confessed to police that since 1972, he had committed approximately 25–30 murders, all of whom he falsely claimed were teenage male runaways or male prostitutes, whom he would typically abduct from Chicago's Greyhound Bus station or off the streets and lure to his house with either the promise of a job with his construction company, with an offer of money for sex or simply grab by force.

Once back at Gacy's house, the victims would be handcuffed or otherwise bound, then choked with a rope or a board as they were sexually assaulted. Gacy would often stick clothing in the victims' mouths to muffle their screams. Many of his victims had been strangled with a tourniquet, which Gacy referred to as his "rope trick." Occasionally, the victim had convulsed for an "hour or two" after the rope trick before dying. When asked where he drew the inspiration for the two-by-four found at his house in which he had manacled many of his victims, Gacy stated he had been inspired to construct the device from reading about the Houston Mass Murders.

The victims were usually lured alone to his house, although on approximately three occasions, Gacy had what he called "doubles" — occasions wherein he killed two victims on the same evening.

Most victims were buried in Gacy's crawl space where, periodically, he would pour quicklime to hasten the decomposition of the bodies. Gacy stated he had lost count of the number of victims buried in his crawl space and had thrown the final five victims — all killed in 1978 — off the I-55 bridge into the Des Plaines River because his crawl space was full. He also confessed to police he had buried the body of John Butkovitch in his garage. To assist officers in their search for the victims buried in his house, Gacy drew a diagram of his basement to show where the bodies were buried. Accompanied by police, Gacy returned to his house on December 22 and showed police where he had buried Butkovitch's body, then police drove to the spot on the I-55 bridge where he had thrown the body of Piest and four other victims (although only four of the five victims Gacy claimed to have disposed of in this way were ever recovered from the Des Plaines river).

Between December 1978 and March 1979, 29 bodies were found at Gacy's property: 26 of the victims were found buried in his crawl space, one victim was found buried beneath the concrete floor of Gacy's garage, another victim was found buried in a pit beneath a barbecue grill in Gacy's back garden and the 29th body was found buried beneath the joists of his dining room floor. Three additional bodies, which had been found in the nearby Des Plaines River between June and December 1978, were also confirmed to have been victims of Gacy.

Several of the bodies were found with the ligature used to strangle them still knotted around their necks. In other instances, cloth gags were found lodged deep down the victims' throats, leading the investigators to conclude that 13 of Gacy's victims died not of strangulation, but of asphyxiation. Some victims were identified due to their known connection to Gacy through PDM Contractors; others were identified due to their personal artifacts being found at 8213 Summerdale: one victim, 17-year-old Michael Bonnin, who had disappeared June 3, 1976 while traveling from Chicago to Waukegan, was identified because his fishing license was found at Gacy's home; another youth, Tim O' Rourke, was last heard mentioning that a contractor had offered him a job. Of Gacy's identified victims, the youngest were Samuel Stapleton and Michael Marino, both 14 years old; the oldest were Russell Nelson and James Mazzara, both 21 years old. Eight of the victims have never been identified.

On April 9, 1979, Robert Piest's body was discovered on the banks of the Des Plaines River: his autopsy revealed that "paper-like material" had been shoved down his throat while he was alive.

Trial

John Gacy was brought to trial on February 6, 1980, charged with 33 murders. He was tried in Rockford before Judge Louis Garippo.

In the year before his trial, at the request of his defense counsel, Gacy spent over 300 hours with the doctors at the Menard Correctional Center undergoing a variety of psychological tests before a panel of psychiatrists to determine whether he was mentally competent to stand trial.

Gacy had attempted to convince the doctors he was suffering from a multiple personality disorder. His lawyers, however, opted to plead not guilty by reason of insanity to the charges against him, and produced several psychiatric experts who had examined Gacy the previous year to testify to their findings. Three psychiatric experts appearing for the defense at Gacy's trial testified they found Gacy to be a paranoid schizophrenic who suffered from a multiple personality disorder.

The prosecution's case was that Gacy was sane and fully in control of his actions. The prosecution produced several witnesses to testify to the premeditation of his actions and the efforts he went to in order to escape detection, plus doctors who refuted the defense doctors' claims of multiple personality and insanity. Two witnesses who testified were PDM employees, who confessed Gacy had made them dig trenches in his crawl space. One of these employees, Michael Rossi, testified that in August 1977, Gacy had marked a location in the crawl space with sticks and told him to dig a drainage trench. When asked where in the crawl space he had dug, Rossi turned to a diagram of Gacy's home on display in the courtroom, showing where the bodies were found in the crawl space and elsewhere on the property, and pointed to the location of the remains of an unidentified victim known as "Body 13". Rossi stated he had not dug any other trenches, but — at Gacy's request — had supervised other PDM employees digging trenches in the crawl space. He also testified that Gacy would periodically look into the crawl space to ensure employees did not deviate from the precise locations he had marked. Gacy had testified after his arrest he had had employees (including Gregory Godzik) dig trenches in order that he would "have graves available". During the third week of the trial, Gacy's defense team attempted to raise the possibility that all 33 murders were accidental erotic asphyxia deaths: the Cook County Coroner countered this assertion with evidence that Gacy's claim was impossible.

On February 29, one of the youths Gacy had sexually assaulted in 1967, Donald Voorhees, testified to his ordeal at Gacy's hands, and that Gacy had subsequently paid another youth to beat him and spray mace in his face so he would not testify against him. The youth felt unable to testify, but did attempt to briefly, before being asked to step down. Robert Donnelly testified the week after Voorhees, recounting his ordeal at Gacy's hands in December 1977. Donnelly was visibly distressed as he recollected the abuse he endured at Gacy's hands and came close to breaking down on several occasions. As the youth testified, Gacy repeatedly laughed at Donnelly's expense, but the youth finished his testimony. One of Gacy's defense attorneys, Robert Motta, attempted to discredit Donnelly's testimony, but the youth refused to recant.

During the fifth week of the trial, Gacy wrote a letter to Garippo, requesting a mistrial, claiming he had been against the defense's insanity plea, that his defense team had not called enough witnesses, that he had been denied the opportunity to testify (as his defense counsel had advised him) and that the statements given by police as to what he had said after his arrest were false, "self-serving" statements used by the prosecution. Garippo told Gacy that he had the choice as to whether he wished to testify, and was free to indicate if he wished to do so.

On March 11, both counsels began their final arguments (which finished the following day). The prosecution's Terry Sullivan spoke first, outlining Gacy's history of abusing youths and his efforts to avoid detection, and describing Gacy's surviving victims — Voorhees and Donnelly — as "living dead". After four hours of argument, the prosecution rested, followed immediately by the defense, Sam Amirante and Robert Motta. Motta and Amirante refuted the prosecution doctors' testimony, attempting to portray Gacy as a "man driven by compulsions he was unable to control", and repeatedly referred to the defense doctors' previous testimony. Amirante and Motta then argued that Gacy's psychology should be studied.

The jury deliberated for less than two hours and found Gacy guilty of each murder. The following day, March 13, both the prosecution and defense made alternate pleas for the sentence the jury should decide: the prosecution requesting a death sentence for each murder committed after the Illinois statute on capital punishment came into effect in June 1977; the defense requesting life imprisonment. The jury deliberated for more than two hours before sentencing Gacy to death.

Death row and execution

Gacy was incarcerated at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois, where he spent a total of 14 years on death row.

In prison, Gacy began to paint. The subjects Gacy painted varied, although many were of clowns, some of which depicted himself as "Pogo." Many of his paintings were sold at various auctions for prices ranging between $200 and $20,000 apiece.

John Gacy spent much of his time on death row studying books on law and filing numerous, exhaustive appeals and motions, none of which were successful. Gacy contended that he only had "some knowledge" of five of the murders: those of McCoy, Butkovitch, Godzik, Szyc and Piest and contended the remaining 28 murders had been committed by employees who were in possession of keys to his house while he was away on business trips.

In the summer of 1984, the Supreme Court of Illinois upheld Gacy's conviction, ordering him to be executed by lethal injection on November 14. Gacy appealed against this decision, although on March 4, 1985, the Supreme Court of the United States denied his appeal.

On the morning of May 9, 1994, Gacy was transferred from the Menard Correctional Center to Stateville Correctional Center to be executed. That afternoon, he was allowed a private picnic in the prison grounds with his family. That evening, he observed prayer with a Catholic priest before he was escorted to the Stateville execution chamber to receive a lethal injection.

Before the execution began, the chemicals administered to perform the execution unexpectedly solidified, clogging the IV tube administering the chemicals into Gacy's arm and complicating the execution procedure. Blinds covering the window through which witnesses observed the execution were drawn, and the execution team replaced the clogged tube to complete the procedure. After ten minutes, the blinds were reopened and the execution resumed. The entire procedure took a total of 18 minutes to complete. Anesthesiologists blamed the problem on the inexperience of prison officials who were conducting the execution, stating the proper procedures taught in IV 101 would have prevented the error from occurring. This error apparently led to Illinois' subsequent adoption of an alternate method of lethal injection. On this subject, one of the prosecutors at Gacy's trial, William Kunkle, said: "He still got a much easier death than any of his victims. In my opinion he got an easier death than he deserved, but the important thing is that he paid for his crimes with his life."

According to published reports, Gacy was a diagnosed psychopath who did not express any remorse for his crimes. His last words to his lawyer prior to his execution were that "killing him would not compensate for the loss of others, and that this was the state murdering him." It is reported that his final spoken words, said to a correctional officer as he walked to the execution chamber, were simply "kiss my ass."

In the hours leading up to Gacy's execution, a crowd estimated to number over 1,000 gathered outside the correctional center to observe the execution; the majority of them were vocally in favor of the execution, although anti-death penalty protesters were also present. Of those in favor of the execution, some wore t-shirts harking to Gacy's previous community services as a clown and bearing satirical slogans such as "no tears for the clown". The anti-death penalty protesters present observed a silent candlelight vigil.

After Gacy's death was confirmed at 12:58 a.m., his brain was removed. It is in the possession of Dr. Helen Morrison, a witness for the defense at Gacy's trial, who interviewed Gacy and other serial killers in an attempt to isolate common personality traits of violent sociopaths. An examination of Gacy's brain after his execution revealed no abnormalities.

Artist

In the months following Gacy's execution, many of his paintings were auctioned. A total of nineteen were sold by an autograph dealer named Steve Koschal. The asking prices of Gacy's artwork ranged from $195, for an acrylic painting of a bird to $9500 for a painting depicting dwarves playing baseball against the Chicago Cubs. This particular painting was autographed by several members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, although those who had signed the painting were unaware Gacy was the creator. Koschal had initially suggested to Gacy that he offer his paintings for sale and subsequently became Gacy's agent; even commissioning Gacy to produce specific paintings such as the one signed by the Baseball Hall of Famers.

Exhibitions of Gacy's paintings have been held since the 1980s and continue to be held to this day. Gacy had been criticized for earning money from the sale of his paintings, although he dismissed the criticism, claiming his paintings were designed "to bring joy into people's lives."

Several of Gacy's paintings were specifically bought with the intention that they be burned: a bonfire held in Naperville in June 1994 saw a total of 25 paintings burned. The communal bonfire was attended by approximately 300 people, including family members of nine of Gacy's victims.

On May 13, 2011, an exhibit of 74 of Gacy's works opened at the Arts Factory Gallery in Las Vegas, NV, including the self-portrait "Goodbye Pogo" priced at $4,500. Reportedly, the National Center for Victims of Crime, one of the named beneficiaries of the sale, obtained a cease and desist order on the use of their name in connection with the exhibit.

Victims

Identified victims (age in parentheses)

Only 25 of Gacy's victims were ever identified. By the time of Gacy's trial, 22 victims had been identified. In March 1980, Dr. Robert Stein was able to identify two further bodies unearthed from Gacy's crawl space as those of Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino, two teenage friends who were reported missing on October 25, 1976; the day after they had disappeared. In 1986, one further unidentified victim was eventually identified as Timothy McCoy, Gacy's first victim.

Timothy McCoy (15) January 3, 1972 John Butkovitch (17) July 29, 1975 Darrell Sampson (18) April 6, 1976 Randall Reffett (15) May 14, 1976 Samuel Stapleton (14) May 14, 1976 Michael Bonnin (17) June 3, 1976 William Carroll (16) June 13, 1976 Rick Johnston (17) August 6, 1976 Kenneth Parker (16) October 24, 1976 Michael Marino (14) October 24, 1976 Gregory Godzik (17) December 12, 1976 John Szyc (19) January 20, 1977 Jon Prestidge (20) March 15, 1977 Matthew Bowman (19) July 5, 1977 Robert Gilroy (18) September 15, 1977 John Mowery (19) September 25, 1977 Russell Nelson (21) October 17, 1977 Robert Winch (16) November 10, 1977 Tommy Boling (20) November 18, 1977 David Talsma (19) December 9, 1977 William Kindred (19) February 16, 1978 Timothy O' Rourke (20) June 16–23, 1978 Frank Landingin (19) November 4, 1978 James Mazzara (21) November 24, 1978 Robert Piest (15) December 11, 1978

Unidentified victims

Eight victims remain unidentified: seven from Gacy's crawl space and one from beneath his barbecue pit. Experts used the skulls of the unidentified victims to create facial reconstructions. Based upon Gacy's confession, where the victims were buried in his crawl space relative to Gacy's identified victims, and forensic analysis, police were able to determine the most likely dates when his unidentified victims were killed. January, 1974. Body 28. Barbecue pit. Male aged 18–20. July 29, 1975 – May 1976. Body 10. Crawl space. Male aged 15–17. June 13 – August 6, 1976. Body 21. Crawl space. Male aged 20–24. June–December, 1976. Body 13. Crawl space. Male aged c. 17

August–December 1976. Body 26. Crawl space. Male aged 19–21. August–December 1976. Body 24. Crawl space. Male aged 22–28. January 20 – March 15, 1977. Body 5. Crawl space. Male aged c. 25. July–September, 1977. Body 19. Crawl space. Male aged 18–20.

Media

Film

The made-for-TV film ''To Catch a Killer'', starring Brian Dennehy as John Wayne Gacy, was released in 1992. The film is largely based on the investigation of Gacy, following the disappearance of Robert Piest, by Des Plaines Police and their efforts to arrest him before the scheduled civil suit hearing on December 22.

A feature film, ''Gacy'', was released in 2003. This film cast Mark Holton in the role of John Gacy and largely focuses upon Gacy's life after he moved to Norwood Park in 1971 up until his arrest in 1978.

The made-for-TV film ''Dear Mr. Gacy'' was released in 2010, starring William Forsythe as John Wayne Gacy. The film is based upon the book ''The Last Victim'', written by Jason Moss. The film focuses upon the correspondence between Moss and Gacy before Gacy invited Moss to visit him on death row in 1994.

A horror film, ''8213: Gacy House'', was also released in 2010. This film focuses upon a fictional account of a team of paranormal investigators basing themselves in a house constructed on the former site of Gacy's home and attempting to contact his spirit.

Books

''Buried Dreams: Inside the Mind of Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy'', written by Tim Cahill (ISBN 1-85702-084-7).

''Johnny and Me: The True Story of John Wayne Gacy'', written by Barry Boschelli (ISBN 1-4343-2184-3).

''Killer Clown: the John Wayne Gacy Murders'', written by Terry Sullivan and Peter T. Maiken (ISBN 0-7860-1422-9).

''The Last Victim: A True-Life Journey into the Mind of the Serial Killer'', written by Jason Moss and Jeffrey Kottler, Ph.D (ISBN 0-7535-0398-0).

''The Man Who Killed Boys'', written by Clifford L. Linedecker (ISBN 0-312-95228-7).

''John Wayne Gacy: Defending A Monster'', written by Sam L. Amirante and Danny Broderick (ISBN 1-616-08248-8).

Television

"Hell on Earth 2006", the 150th episode of the Comedy Central animated series ''South Park'', portrays Gacy and fellow serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer as a Three Stooges-like trio of comic relief buffoons sent to run errands for Satan's birthday party.

Music

Illinois, an album by Sufjan Stevens includes a track called "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." that tells the story of Gacy's Chicago murders.

References

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Cited works and further reading

External links

Crimelibrary.com's entry on John Wayne Gacy

FBI file on John Wayne Gacy

Artwork by John Wayne Gacy

"People v. John Wayne Gacy", from the ''Cook County Clerk of Court'' website.

Category:1942 births Category:1994 deaths Category:20th-century executions by the United States Category:American clowns Category:American murderers of children Category:American painters Category:American people convicted of murder Category:American people of Danish descent Category:American people of Polish descent Category:American rapists Category:American serial killers Category:Bisexual artists Category:Executed American people Category:Executed serial killers Category:LGBT artists from the United States Category:People convicted of murder by Illinois Category:People convicted of sodomy Category:People executed by Illinois Category:People executed by lethal injection Category:People from Chicago, Illinois Category:People from Waterloo, Iowa

cs:John Wayne Gacy da:John Wayne Gacy de:John Wayne Gacy es:John Wayne Gacy eo:John Wayne Gacy fr:John Wayne Gacy gl:John Wayne Gacy is:John Wayne Gacy it:John Wayne Gacy he:ג'ון ויין גייסי hu:John Wayne Gacy nl:John Wayne Gacy ja:ジョン・ゲイシー no:John Wayne Gacy pl:John Wayne Gacy pt:John Wayne Gacy ro:John Wayne Gacy ru:Гейси, Джон Уэйн simple:John Wayne Gacy fi:John Wayne Gacy sv:John Wayne Gacy

name	John Wayne
birth name	Marion Robert Morrison
birth date	May 26, 1907
birth place	Winterset, Iowa, U.S.
death date	June 11, 1979
death place	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
other names	Marion Mitchell Morrison; "The Duke"; Duke Morrison
occupation	Actor, director, producer
education	Glendale High School
alma mater	University of Southern California
home town	Glendale, California
party	Republican
religion	Roman Catholic convert from Presbyterian
years active	1926–76
death cause	Stomach cancer
spouse
website	http://www.johnwayne.com }}

Marion Mitchell Morrison (born Marion Robert Morrison; May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive voice, walk and height. He was also known for his conservative political views and his support, beginning in the 1950s, for anti-communist positions.

A Harris Poll, released January 2011, placed Wayne third among America's favorite film stars, the only deceased star on the list and the only one who has appeared on the poll every year since it first began in 1994.

In June of 1999, the American Film Institute named Wayne 13th among the Greatest Male Screen Legends of All Time.

Early life

Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa. His middle name was soon changed from Robert to Mitchell when his parents decided to name their next son Robert.

Wayne's father, Clyde Leonard Morrison (1884–1937), was the son of American Civil War veteran Marion Mitchell Morrison (1845–1915). Wayne's mother, the former Mary "Molly" Alberta Brown (1885–1970), was from Lancaster County, Nebraska. Wayne was of Presbyterian Scots-Irish descent through his second great-grandfather Robert Morrison, who was born in County Antrim, Ireland and emigrated to the United States in 1782.

Wayne's family moved to Palmdale, California, and then in 1911 to Glendale, California, where his father worked as a pharmacist. A local fireman at the station on his route to school in Glendale started calling him "Little Duke" because he never went anywhere without his huge Airedale Terrier, Duke. He preferred "Duke" to "Marion", and the name stuck for the rest of his life.

As a teen, Wayne worked in an ice cream shop for a man who shod horses for Hollywood studios. He was also active as a member of the Order of DeMolay, a youth organization associated with the Freemasons. He attended Wilson Middle School in Glendale. He played football for the 1924 champion Glendale High School team. Wayne applied to the U.S. Naval Academy, but was not accepted. He instead attended the University of Southern California (USC), majoring in pre-law. He was a member of the Trojan Knights and Sigma Chi fraternities. Wayne also played on the USC football team under legendary coach Howard Jones. An injury curtailed his athletic career; Wayne later noted he was too terrified of Jones's reaction to reveal the actual cause of his injury, which was bodysurfing at the “Wedge” at the tip of the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach. He lost his athletic scholarship and, without funds, had to leave the university.

Wayne began working at the local film studios. Prolific silent western film star Tom Mix had gotten him a summer job in the prop department in exchange for football tickets. Wayne soon moved on to bit parts, establishing a longtime friendship with the director who provided most of those roles, John Ford. Early in this period, Wayne appeared with his USC teammates playing football in ''Brown of Harvard'' (1926), ''The Dropkick'' (1927), and ''Salute'' (1929) and Columbia's ''Maker of Men'' (filmed in 1930, released in 1931). Also, it is during this period that Wayne is reputed to have met the legendary gunfighter and lawman Wyatt Earp.

Film career

While working for Fox Film Corporation in bit roles, he was given on-screen credit as "Duke Morrison" only once, in ''Words and Music'' (1929). In 1930, director Raoul Walsh cast him in his first starring role in ''The Big Trail'' (1930). For his screen name, Walsh suggested "Anthony Wayne", after Revolutionary War general "Mad Anthony" Wayne. Fox Studios chief Winfield Sheehan rejected it as sounding "too Italian". Walsh then suggested "John Wayne". Sheehan agreed, and the name was set. Wayne himself was not even present for the discussion. His pay was raised to $105 a week.

''The Big Trail'' was to be the first big-budget outdoor spectacle of the sound era, made at a staggering cost of over $2 million, using hundreds of extras and wide vistas of the American southwest, still largely unpopulated at the time. To take advantage of the breathtaking scenery, it was filmed in two versions, a standard 35mm version and another in "Grandeur", a new process using innovative camera and lenses and a revolutionary 70mm widescreen process. Many in the audience who saw it in Grandeur stood and cheered. Unfortunately, only a handful of theaters were equipped to show the film in its widescreen process, and the effort was largely wasted. The film was considered a huge flop. After the failure of ''The Big Trail'', Wayne was relegated to small roles in A-pictures, including Columbia's ''The Deceiver'' (1931), in which he played a corpse. He appeared in the serial ''The Three Musketeers'' (1933), an updated version of the Alexandre Dumas novel in which the protagonists were soldiers in the French Foreign Legion in then-contemporary North Africa. He appeared in many low-budget "Poverty Row" westerns, mostly at Monogram Pictures and serials for Mascot Pictures Corporation. By Wayne's own estimation, he appeared in about eighty of these horse operas between 1930 - 1939. In ''Riders of Destiny'' (1933) he became one of the first singing cowboys of film, albeit via dubbing. Wayne also appeared in some of the ''Three Mesquiteers'' westerns, whose title was a play on the Dumas classic. He was mentored by stuntmen in riding and other western skills. He and famed stuntman Yakima Canutt developed and perfected stunts still used today.

Wayne's breakthrough role came with director John Ford's classic ''Stagecoach'' (1939). Because of Wayne's non-star status and track record in low-budget westerns throughout the 1930s, Ford had difficulty getting financing for what was to be an A-budget film. After rejection by all the top studios, Ford struck a deal with independent producer Walter Wanger in which Claire Trevor—a much bigger star at the time—received top billing. ''Stagecoach'' was a huge critical and financial success, and Wayne became a star. He later appeared in more than twenty of John Ford's films, including ''She Wore a Yellow Ribbon'' (1949), ''The Quiet Man'' (1952), ''The Searchers'' (1956), ''The Wings of Eagles'' (1957), and ''The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'' (1962).

Wayne's first color film was ''Shepherd of the Hills'' (1941), in which he co-starred with his longtime friend Harry Carey. The following year, he appeared in his only film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, the Technicolor epic ''Reap the Wild Wind'' (1942), in which he co-starred with Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard; it was one of the rare times he played a character with questionable values.

In 1949, director Robert Rossen offered the starring role of ''All the King's Men'' to Wayne. Wayne refused, believing the script to be un-American in many ways. Broderick Crawford, who eventually got the role, won the 1949 Oscar for best male actor, ironically beating out Wayne, who had been nominated for ''Sands of Iwo Jima.'' He lost the leading role in ''The Gunfighter'' (1950) to Gregory Peck due to his refusal to work for Columbia Pictures because its chief, Harry Cohn, had mistreated him years before when he was a young contract player. Cohn had bought the project for Wayne, but Wayne's grudge was too deep, and Cohn sold the script to Twentieth Century Fox, which cast Peck in the role Wayne badly wanted but for which he refused to bend.

One of Wayne's most popular roles was in ''The High and the Mighty'' (1954), directed by William Wellman, and based on a novel by Ernest K. Gann. His portrayal of a heroic copilot won widespread acclaim. Wayne also portrayed aviators in ''Flying Tigers (1942),'' ''Flying Leathernecks'' (1951), ''Island in the Sky'' (1953), ''The Wings of Eagles'' (1957), and ''Jet Pilot'' (1957).

''The Searchers'' (1956) continues to be widely regarded as perhaps Wayne's finest and most complex performance. In 2006, ''Premiere Magazine'' ran an industry poll in which Wayne's portrayal of Ethan Edwards was rated the 87th greatest performance in film history. He named his youngest son Ethan after the character. John Wayne won a Best Actor Oscar for ''True Grit'' (1969). Wayne was also nominated as the producer of Best Picture for ''The Alamo'' (1960), one of two films he directed. The other was ''The Green Berets'' (1968), the only major film made during the Vietnam War to support the war. During the filming of ''Green Berets'', the Degar or Montagnard people of Vietnam's Central Highlands, fierce fighters against communism, bestowed on Wayne a brass bracelet that he wore in the film and all subsequent films. His last film was ''The Shootist'' (1976), whose main character, J. B. Books, was dying of cancer—the illness to which Wayne himself succumbed three years later.

According to the Internet Movie Database, Wayne played the lead in 142 of his film appearances.

Batjac, the production company co-founded by Wayne, was named after the fictional shipping company Batjak in ''Wake of the Red Witch'' (1948), a film based on the novel by Garland Roark. (A spelling error by Wayne's secretary was allowed to stand, accounting for the variation.) Batjac (and its predecessor, Wayne-Fellows Productions) was the arm through which Wayne produced many films for himself and other stars. Its best-known non-Wayne production was the highly acclaimed ''Seven Men From Now'' (1956), which started the classic collaboration between director Budd Boetticher and star Randolph Scott.

In the ''Motion Picture Herald'' Top Ten Money- Making Western Stars poll, Wayne was listed in 1936 and 1939. He appeared in the similar ''Box Office'' poll in 1939 and 1940. While these two polls are really an indication only of the popularity of series stars, Wayne also appeared in the ''Top Ten Money Makers Poll'' of all films from 1949 to 1957 and 1958 to 1974, taking first place in 1950, 1951, 1954 and 1971 . With a total of 25 years on the list, Wayne has more appearances than any other star, beating Clint Eastwood (21) into second place.

In later years, Wayne was recognized as a sort of American natural resource, and his various critics, of his performances and his politics, viewed him with more respect. Abbie Hoffman, the radical of the 1960s, paid tribute to Wayne's singularity, saying, "I like Wayne's wholeness, his style. As for his politics, well—I suppose even cavemen felt a little admiration for the dinosaurs that were trying to gobble them up." Reviewing ''The Cowboys'' (1972), Vincent Canby of the ''New York Times'', who did not particularly care for the film, wrote: "Wayne is, of course, marvelously indestructible, and he has become an almost perfect father figure."

Filmography

1964 illness

Wayne had been a chain-smoker of cigarettes since young adulthood. In 1964, Wayne was diagnosed with lung cancer, and underwent successful surgery to remove his entire left lung and four ribs. Despite efforts by his business associates to prevent him from going public with his illness (for fear it would cost him work), Wayne announced he had cancer and called on the public to get preventive examinations. Five years later, Wayne was declared cancer-free. Despite the fact that Wayne's diminished lung capacity left him incapable of prolonged exertion and frequently in need of supplemental oxygen, within a few years of his operation he chewed tobacco and began smoking cigars until the day he died.

Politics

Wayne claimed in his ''Playboy'' interview to have been a socialist during his years at college, and he admitted voting for Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election. In the same interview, he also expressed admiration for Democratic President Harry S Truman. For most of his career, however, he was a vocally conservative Republican. He took part in creating the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals in February 1944 and was elected president of that organization in 1947. He was an ardent anti-communist and vocal supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1952, he made ''Big Jim McLain'' to show his support for the anti-communist cause. A supporter of Vice President Richard Nixon's candidacy in the United States presidential election in 1960, he expressed his vision of patriotism when John F. Kennedy won the election: "I didn't vote for him but he's my president, and I hope he does a good job."

Wayne used his iconic status to support conservative causes, including rallying support for the Vietnam War by producing, co-directing, and starring in the critically panned ''The Green Berets'' in 1968. In the mid-1970s, however, he went against many fellow conservatives in supporting the Panama Canal Treaty.

Due to his enormous popularity, and his status as the most famous Republican star in Hollywood, wealthy Texas Republican Party backers asked Wayne to run for national office in 1968, as had his friend and fellow actor, Senator George Murphy. He declined, joking that he did not believe the public would seriously consider an actor in the White House. However, he did support his friend Ronald Reagan's runs for Governor of California in 1966 and 1970. He was also asked to be the running mate for Democratic Alabama Governor George Wallace in 1968. Wayne vehemently rejected the offer. Wayne actively campaigned for Richard Nixon, and addressed the Republican National Convention on its opening day in August 1968. Wayne also was a member of the conservative and anti-communist John Birch Society.

Wayne openly differed with the Republican Party over the issue of the Panama Canal. Conservatives wanted America to retain full control, but Wayne, believing that the Panamanians had the right to the canal, sided with President Jimmy Carter and the Democrats to win passage of the treaty returning the canal in the Senate. Mr. Wayne was a close friend of the late Panamanian leader, Brig. Gen. Omar Torrijos Herrera. Mr. Wayne's first wife, Josephine, whom he divorced in 1946, was a native of Panama.

Soviet documents released in 2003 revealed, despite being a fan of Wayne's movies, Joseph Stalin ordered Wayne's assassination due to his strong anti-communist politics. Stalin died before the killing could be accomplished. His successor, Nikita Khrushchev, reportedly told Wayne during a 1959 visit to the United States that he had personally rescinded the order.

Controversy

Military service

America's entry into World War II resulted in a deluge of support for the war effort from all sectors of society, and Hollywood was no exception. Many established stars rushed to sign up for military service.

As the majority of male leads left Hollywood to serve overseas, John Wayne saw his just-blossoming stardom at risk. Despite enormous pressure from his inner circle of friends, he put off enlisting. Wayne was exempted from service due to his age (34 at the time of Pearl Harbor) and family status, classified as 3-A (family deferment). Wayne's secretary recalled making inquiries of military officials on behalf of his interest in enlisting, "but he never really followed up on them". He repeatedly wrote to John Ford, asking to be placed in Ford's military unit, but consistently postponed it until "after he finished one more film", Republic Studios was emphatically resistant to losing Wayne, especially after the loss of Gene Autry to the Army.

Correspondence between Wayne and Herbert J. Yates (the head of Republic) indicates Yates threatened Wayne with a lawsuit if he walked away from his contract, though the likelihood of a studio suing its biggest star for going to war was minute. Whether or not the threat was real, Wayne did not test it. Selective Service records indicate he did not attempt to prevent his reclassification as 1-A (draft eligible), but apparently Republic Pictures intervened directly, requesting his further deferment. In May, 1944, Wayne was reclassified as 1-A (draft eligible), but the studio obtained another 2-A deferment (for "support of national health, safety, or interest"). He remained 2-A until the war's end. Thus, John Wayne did not illegally "dodge" the draft, but he never took direct positive action toward enlistment.

Wayne was in the South Pacific theater of the war for three months in 1943–44, touring U.S. bases and hospitals, as well as doing some work for OSS commander William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan, who "hoped that a celebrity like Wayne could provide information denied his own operatives. Donovan was particularly interested in Wayne's assessment of MacArthur himself. Wayne's mission was only partly successful. He never met MacArthur, and although he filed a report with Donovan when he got back to the States, he had nothing substantial to offer Donovan." Donovan gave him a plaque and commendation for serving with the OSS, but Wayne dismissed it as meaningless.

The foregoing facts influenced the direction of Wayne's later life. By many accounts, Wayne's failure to serve in the military during World War II was the most painful experience of his life. Some other stars, for various reasons, did not enlist, but Wayne, by virtue of becoming a celluloid war hero in several patriotic war films, as well as an outspoken supporter of conservative political causes and the Vietnam War, became the focus of particular disdain from both himself and certain portions of the public, particularly in later years. While some hold Wayne in contempt for the paradox between his early actions and his later attitudes, his widow suggests Wayne's rampant patriotism in later decades sprang not from hypocrisy but from guilt. Pilar Wayne wrote, "He would become a 'superpatriot' for the rest of his life trying to atone for staying home."

Statements to ''Playboy'' magazine

In an interview with ''Playboy'' magazine published on May 1, 1971, Wayne made several controversial remarks about race and class in the United States. The interview became a hot topic and many stores had trouble keeping the issue in stock. He noted that, as someone living in the 20th century, he was not responsible for the way people who lived one hundred years before him had treated Native Americans, stating:

I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them if that's what you're asking. Our so called stealing of this country was just a question of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.... Look, I'm sure there have been inequalities. If those inequalities are presently affecting any of the Indians now alive, they have a right to a court hearing. But what happened 100 years ago in our country can't be blamed on us today. I'm quite sure that the concept of a Government-run reservation... seems to be what the socialists are working for now – to have everyone cared for from cradle to grave.... What happened between their forefathers and our forefathers is so far back – right, wrong or indifferent – that I don't see why we owe them anything. I don't know why the government should give them something that it wouldn't give me.

Wayne responded to questions about whether social programs like Medicare and Social Security were good for the country:

I know all about that. In the late Twenties, when I was a sophomore at USC, I was a socialist myself – but not when I left. The average college kid idealistically wishes everybody could have ice cream and cake for every meal. But as he gets older and gives more thought to his and his fellow man's responsibilities, he finds that it can't work out that way – that some people just won't carry their load.... I believe in welfare – a welfare work program. I don't think a fella should be able to sit on his backside and receive welfare. I'd like to know why well-educated idiots keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living. I'd like to know why they make excuses for cowards who spit in the faces of the police and then run behind the judicial sob sisters. I can't understand these people who carry placards to save the life of some criminal, yet have no thought for the innocent victim.

In the interview he previously had discussed race relations, including his response to Angela Davis's assertion that her removal from a position as an assistant professor in the UCLA philosophy department on the grounds that she was an active member the Communist party was actually because she was black:

With a lot of blacks, there's quite a bit of resentment along with their dissent, and possibly rightfully so. But we can't all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks. I believe in white supremacy until blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.

When asked how blacks could address their perceived lack of leadership experience and the inequities of the past, Wayne replied:

It's not my judgment. The academic community has developed certain tests that determine whether the blacks are sufficiently equipped scholastically. But some blacks have tried to force the issue and enter college when they haven't passed the tests and don't have the requisite background.... By going to school. I don't know why people insist that blacks have been forbidden to go to school. They were allowed in public schools wherever I've been. Even if they don't have the proper credentials for college, there are courses to help them become eligible. But if they aren't academically ready for that step, I don't think they should be allowed in. Otherwise, the academic society is brought down to the lowest common denominator.... What good would it do to register anybody in a class of higher algebra or calculus if they haven't learned to count? There has to be a standard. I don't feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves. Now, I'm not condoning slavery. It's just a fact of life, like the kid who gets infantile paralysis and has to wear braces so he can't play football with the rest of us. I will say this, though: I think any black who can compete with a white today can get a better break than a white man. I wish they'd tell me where in the world they have it better than right here in America.

Wayne later made controversial pro-war comments when asked why a North-South joint election in Vietnam could not have been administered in lieu of armed conflict:

That would be no more practical than if France, after coming to help us in the Revolution, suggested having an election to decide what we wanted to do. It would be an exact parallel. The majority of those living in the Colonies didn't want war at that time. If there had been a general election then, we probably wouldn't be here today. As far as Vietnam is concerned, we've made mistakes. I know of no country that's perfect. But I honestly believe that there's as much need for us to help the Vietnamese as there was to help the Jews in Germany. The only difference is that we haven't had any leadership in this war. All the liberal senators have stuck their noses in this, and it's out of their bailiwick. They've already put far too many barriers in the way of the military. Our lack of leadership has gone so far that now no one man can come in, face the issue and tell people that we ought to be in an all-out war.

Personal life

Wayne was married three times and divorced twice. His wives, all of them Hispanic women, were Josephine Alicia Saenz, Esperanza Baur, and Pilar Pallete. He had four children with Josephine:

Michael Wayne (film producer) - Born November 23, 1934 / Died April 2, 2003

Mary Antonia "Toni" Wayne LaCava - Born February 25, 1936 / Died December 6, 2000

Patrick Wayne (actor) - Born July 15, 1939

Melinda Wayne Munoz - Born December 3, 1940

and three with Pilar:

Aissa Wayne (actress, now attorney) - Born March 31, 1956

John Ethan Wayne (actor) - Born February 22, 1962

Marisa Wayne (actress) - Born February 22, 1966

Heavyweight boxer Tommy Morrison alleges that Wayne is his great-uncle. Wayne's son Ethan was billed as John Ethan Wayne in a few films, and played one of the leads in the 1990s update of the ''Adam-12'' television series.

His stormiest divorce was from Esperanza Baur, a former Mexican actress. She convinced herself that Wayne and co-star Gail Russell were having an affair. The night the film ''Angel and the Badman'' (1947) wrapped, there was the usual party for cast and crew, and Wayne came home very late. Esperanza was in a drunken rage by the time he arrived, and she attempted to shoot him as he walked through the front door.

Wayne's hair began thinning in the 1940s, and he started wearing a hairpiece by the end of that decade (though his receding hairline is quite evident in ''Rio Grande''). He was occasionally seen in public without the hairpiece (notably, according to ''Life Magazine'' photos, at Gary Cooper's funeral). The only time he unintentionally appeared on film without it was for a split second in ''North to Alaska.'' On the first punch of the climactic fistfight, Wayne's hat flies off, revealing a brief flash of his unadorned scalp. Wayne also has several scenes in ''The Wings of Eagles'' where he is without his hairpiece. (During a widely noted appearance at Harvard University, Wayne was asked by a student, "Is your hair real?" Wayne responded in the affirmative, then added, "It's not mine, but it's real!")

Wayne had several high-profile affairs, including one with Marlene Dietrich that lasted for three years. In the years prior to his death, Wayne was romantically involved with his former secretary Pat Stacy (1941–1995). She wrote a biography of her life with him, ''DUKE: A Love Story'' (1983).

A close friend of Wayne's, California Congressman Alphonzo Bell, wrote of him, "Duke's personality and sense of humor were very close to what the general public saw on the big screen. It is perhaps best shown in these words he had engraved on a plaque: 'Each of us is a mixture of some good and some not so good qualities. In considering one's fellow man it's important to remember the good things. . . We should refrain from making judgments just because a fella happens to be a dirty, rotten SOB.'"

During the early 1960s, John Wayne traveled extensively to Panama. During this time, the actor reportedly purchased the island of Taborcillo off the main coast of Panama. It was sold by his estate at his death and changed hands many times before being opened as a tourist attraction.

Wayne was a Freemason, a Master Mason in Marion McDaniel Lodge #56 F&AM;, in Tucson. He became a 32nd Degree Scottish Rite Mason and later joined the Al Malaikah Shrine Temple in Los Angeles. He became a member of the York Rite.

Wayne biographer Michael Munn writes of Wayne's love of alcohol. According to Sam O'Steen's memoir, ''Cut to the Chase'', studio directors knew to shoot Wayne's scenes before noon, because by afternoon Wayne "was a mean drunk".

John Wayne's height has been perennially described as at least 6'4" (193 cm), but claims abound that he was shorter. However, Wayne's high school athletic records indicate he was 6'3" at age 17, and his University of Southern California athletic records state that by age 18, he had grown to 6'4".

Death

Although he enrolled in a cancer vaccine study in an attempt to ward off the disease, John Wayne died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1979, at the UCLA Medical Center, and was interred in the Pacific View Memorial Park cemetery in Corona del Mar. According to his son Patrick, he converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before his death. He requested his tombstone read "Feo, Fuerte y Formal", a Mexican epitaph Wayne described as meaning "ugly, strong and dignified". However, the grave, unmarked for twenty years, is now marked with a quotation from his controversial 1971 ''Playboy'' interview: "Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."

Among the 220 or so cast and crew who filmed the 1956 film, ''The Conqueror'', on location near St. George, Utah, 91 at various times developed some form of cancer (41%), including stars Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorehead, and director Dick Powell. The film was shot in southwestern Utah, east of and generally downwind from where the U.S. Government had tested nuclear weapons in southeastern Nevada. Although the 41% incidence of cancer in the cast and crew is identical to that of the general population, many contend radioactive fallout from these tests contaminated the film location and poisoned the film crew working there. Despite the suggestion Wayne’s 1964 lung cancer and his 1979 stomach cancer resulted from this nuclear contamination, he himself believed his lung cancer to have been a result of his six-pack-a-day cigarette habit.

Legacy

Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom

John Wayne's enduring status as an iconic American was formally recognized by the United States Congress on May 26, 1979, when he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Hollywood figures and American leaders from across the political spectrum, including Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Mike Frankovich, Katharine Hepburn, General and Mrs. Omar Bradley, Gregory Peck, Robert Stack, James Arness, and Kirk Douglas, testified to Congress of the merit and deservedness of this award. Most notable was the testimony of Robert Aldrich, then president of the Directors Guild of America: "It is important for you to know that I am a registered Democrat and, to my knowledge, share none of the political views espoused by Duke. However, whether he is ill disposed or healthy, John Wayne is far beyond the normal political sharp shooting in this community. Because of his courage, his dignity, his integrity, and because of his talents as an actor, his strength as a leader, his warmth as a human being throughout his illustrious career, he is entitled to a unique spot in our hearts and minds. In this industry, we often judge people, sometimes unfairly, by asking whether they have paid their dues. John Wayne has paid his dues over and over, and I'm proud to consider him a friend and am very much in favor of my Government recognizing in some important fashion the contribution that Mr. Wayne has made."

Maureen O'Hara, Wayne's close friend, initiated the petition for the medal and requested the words that would be placed onto the medal: "It is my great honor to be here. I beg you to strike a medal for Duke, to order the President to strike it. And I feel that the medal should say just one thing, 'John Wayne, American.'" The medal crafted by the United States Mint has on one side John Wayne riding on horseback, and the other side has a portrait of Wayne with the words, "John Wayne, American". This Congressional Gold Medal was presented to the family of John Wayne in a ceremony held on March 6, 1980, at the United States Capitol. Copies were made and sold in large numbers to the public.

On June 9, 1980, Wayne was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter (at whose inaugural ball Wayne had appeared "as a member of the loyal opposition", as Wayne described it in his speech to the gathering). Thus Wayne received the two highest civilian decorations awarded by the United States government.

American icon

Wayne rose beyond the typical recognition for a famous actor to that of an enduring icon who symbolized and communicated American values and ideals. By the middle of his career, Wayne had developed a larger-than-life image, and as his career progressed, he selected roles that would not compromise his off-screen image. By the time of his last film ''The Shootist'' (1976), Wayne refused to allow his character to shoot a man in the back as was originally scripted, saying "I've made over 250 pictures and have never shot a guy in the back. Change it."

Wayne's rise to being the quintessential movie war hero began to take shape four years after World War II, when ''Sands of Iwo Jima'' (1949) was released. His footprints at Grauman's Chinese theater in Hollywood were laid in concrete that contained sand from Iwo Jima. His status grew so large and legendary that when Japanese Emperor Hirohito visited the United States in 1975, he asked to meet John Wayne, the symbolic representation of his country's former enemy.

Wayne was a popular visitor to the war zones in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. By the 1950s, perhaps in large part due to the military aspect of films such as the ''Sands of Iwo Jima'', ''Flying Tigers'', ''They Were Expendable'', and the Ford cavalry trilogy, Wayne had become an icon to all the branches of the U.S. Military, even in light of his actual lack of military service. Many veterans have said their reason for serving was in some part related to watching Wayne's movies. His name is attached to various pieces of gear, such as the P-38 "John Wayne" can opener, so named because "it can do anything", paper towels known as "John Wayne toilet paper" because "it's rough and it's tough and don't take shit off no one," and C-Ration crackers are called "John Wayne crackers" because presumably only someone as tough as Wayne could eat them. A rough and rocky mountain pass used by military tanks and jeeps at Fort Irwin in San Bernardino County, California, is aptly named "John Wayne Pass".

Various public locations, named in memory of John Wayne, include John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, where his nine-foot bronze statue graces the entrance; the John Wayne Marina that Wayne bequeathed the land for, near Sequim, Washington; John Wayne Elementary School (P.S. 380) in Brooklyn, NY, which boasts a 38-foot mosaic mural commission by New York artist Knox Martin entitled "John Wayne and the American Frontier"; and a 100-plus-mile trail named the "John Wayne Pioneer Trail" in Washington state's Iron Horse State Park. A larger than life-size bronze statue of Wayne atop a horse was erected at the corner of La Cienega Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California at the former offices of the Great Western Savings & Loan Corporation, for whom Wayne had done a number of commercials. (The building now houses Larry Flynt Enterprises.)

In the city of Maricopa, Arizona, part of AZ State Highway 347 is named John Wayne Parkway, which runs right through the center of town.

On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Wayne into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.

Celebrations and landmarks

Several celebrations took place on May 26, 2007, the centennial of John Wayne's birth.

At the John Wayne birthplace in Winterset, Iowa, the John Wayne Birthday Centennial Celebration was held on May 25–27, 2007. The celebration included chuck-wagon suppers, concerts by Michael Martin Murphey and Riders in the Sky, a Wild West Revue in the style of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, a Cowboy Symposium with John Wayne co-stars, Gregg Palmer, Ed Faulkner, and Dean Smith, along with Paramount producer A.C. Lyles and costumer Luster Bayless were all there to talk about their friendships with Wayne. They had cavalry and trick horse demonstrations, as well as many of John Wayne's films running at the local theater.

This event also included the groundbreaking for the New John Wayne Birthplace Museum and Learning Center at his birthplace house. Over 30 family members were there, including Melinda Wayne Munoz, Aissa, Ethan and Marisa Wayne. Several grandchildren and great-grandchildren were also present. An old gas station is being torn down to make way for the new museum. This groundbreaking was held with Ethan Wayne at the controls of the equipment.

In 2006, friends of Wayne's and his former Arizona business partner, Louis Johnson, inaugurated the "Louie and the Duke Classics" events benefiting the John Wayne Cancer Foundation and the American Cancer Society. The weekend long event each fall in Casa Grande, Arizona includes a golf tournament, an auction of John Wayne memorabilia and a team roping competition.

Missed roles

John Wayne desperately wanted the role of "Jimmy Ringo" in the 1950 film ''The Gunfighter,'' directed by Henry King. But the role went to Gregory Peck instead. John Wayne's final film, ''The Shootist'' (1976), directed by Don Siegel was very similar to ''The Gunfighter.''

An urban legend has it that John Wayne was offered the leading role of Matt Dillon in the longtime favorite television show ''Gunsmoke,'' but he turned it down, recommending instead James Arness for the role. The only part of this story that is true is that Wayne did indeed recommend Arness for the part. Wayne introduced Arness in a prologue to the first episode of ''Gunsmoke''.

Wayne was approached by Mel Brooks to play the part of the Waco Kid in the film ''Blazing Saddles.'' After reading the script he said, "I can't be in this picture, it's too dirty ... but I'll be the first in line to see it."

He reportedly had initially strongly considered taking the role of Major Reisman in ''The Dirty Dozen'', even asking MGM to make changes to the script to accommodate him. But ultimately, he turned it down to make ''The Green Berets''. The role went to Lee Marvin.

Wayne had lobbied to play the lead in ''Dirty Harry'', but Warner Bros. felt that at age 63, he was too old for the role. The role eventually went to Clint Eastwood.

Prior to his death, Wayne had bought the film rights to Buddy Atkinson's novel, ''Beau John'', and was in the pre-production stage of the movie when he took ill. The film was a comedy set in Kentucky during the 1920s, and would have co-starred Ron Howard and Hal Linden.

Quotations

Movie quotations

"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, I require the same from them." (''The Shootist'')

Speaking to his young cavalry lieutenants: "Don't apologize—it's a sign of weakness." (''She Wore a Yellow Ribbon'')

"Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!" (''True Grit'')

"That'll be the day!" (''The Searchers'' - Spoken several times; inspired Buddy Holly to write a song with that title.)

"Pilgrim". (''The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'' - Reportedly he used the expression "Pilgrim", as in "tenderfoot" or "dude" or "amateur", 23 times in that film, and once also in ''McLintock!''. It became a catchphrase for impressionists such as John Byner, and Rich Little)

"I haven't lost my temper in 40 years; but, Pilgrim, you caused a lot of trouble this morning; might have got somebody killed; and somebody oughta belt you in the mouth. But I won't. I won't. ''The hell I won't!''" (He belts him in the mouth). (To Leo Gordon in ''McLintock!'')

"Out here, due process is a bullet!" (To anti-war journalist David Janssen in ''The Green Berets'')

"Not hardly!" (''Big Jake'' - used several times throughout the movie when told by others "Jacob McCandles?! I thought you were dead!")

"It's a hard life!" (''The Cowboys'' - in response to "The 'long-haired man'" played by Bruce Dern saying "You're a hard man!")

"We're burning daylight!" ("The Cowboys")

"You want that gun, pick it up...I wish you would" (Rio Bravo)

Famous quotations outside the movies

"I eat as much as I ever did, I drink more than I should, and my sex life is none of your goddamned business." (May 1971, ''Playboy'' interview)

"If I had known this, I would've put that patch on thirty-five years earlier." (1969, Academy Awards speech for Best Actor in ''True Grit''.)

"We had a pretty good time together, when she wasn't trying to kill me!" (1954, in an interview with Hedda Hopper regarding his marriage to Esperanza "Chata" Baur.)

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry. Wayne was nominated for three competitive awards and won once.

Actor

{| |- | The winner for each year is in bold face text against a | style="background:yellow;"| yellow | background. |}

[[1969 in film
! Actor	! Film	! Actor	! Film
	style="background:yellow;"	[[Richard Burton">1949 in film
	[[1969 in film
! Actor	! Film	! Actor	! Film
	style="background:yellow;"	[[Richard Burton	''Anne of the Thousand Days''
Kirk Douglas		Dustin Hoffman
Gregory Peck	''Twelve O'Clock High''	Peter O'Toole'''	''Goodbye, Mr. Chips''
Richard Todd	''The Hasty Heart''	Jon Voight'''
John Wayne	''Sands of Iwo Jima''		style="background:yellow;"

Producer

{| class=wikitable | style="text-align:center; background:lightsteelblue;" colspan="2"|- 1960 - |- ! Producer ! Film |- | Bernard Smith | ''Elmer Gantry'' |- | Jerry Wald | ''Sons and Lovers'' |- | John Wayne | ''The Alamo'' |- | style="background:yellow;"|Billy Wilder | style="background:yellow;"|''The Apartment'' Best Picture} |- | Fred Zinnemann | ''The Sundowners'' |}

Golden Globes

The Golden Globe Awards are presented annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) to recognize outstanding achievements in the entertainment industry, both domestic and foreign, and to focus wide public attention upon the best in motion pictures and television. Wayne won a Golden Globe Award for his performance in "True Grit".

The Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures is an annual award given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association at the Golden Globe Award ceremonies in Hollywood, California. It was named in honor of Cecil B. DeMille (1881–1959), one of the industry's most successful filmmakers; John Wayne won this particular award in 1966.

See also

Hall of Great Western Performers

List of film director and actor collaborations

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

Red Scare

References

Further reading

Baur, Andreas, and Bitterli, Konrad. "Brave Lonesome Cowboy. Der Mythos des Westerns in der Gegenwartskunst oder: John Wayne zum 100. Geburtstag". Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg. Nuremberg 2007 ISBN 978-3-939738-15-2.

Roberts, Randy, and James S. Olson. ''John Wayne: American''. New York: Free Press, 1995 ISBN 978-0029238370.

Campbell, James T. "Print the Legend: John Wayne and Postwar American Culture". ''Reviews in American History'', Volume 28, Number 3, September 2000, pp. 465–477.

Shepherd, Donald, and Robert Slatzer, with Dave Grayson. ''Duke: The Life and Times of John Wayne''. New York: Doubleday, 1985 ISBN 0-385-17893-X.

Carey, Harry Jr. ''A Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1994 ISBN 0-8108-2865-0.

Clark, Donald & Christopher Anderson. ''John Wayne's The Alamo: The Making of the Epic Film''. New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1995 ISBN 0-8065-1625-9. (pbk.)

Eyman, Scott. ''Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999 ISBN 0-684-81161-8.

McCarthy, Todd. ''Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood''. New York: Grove Press, 1997 ISBN 0-8021-1598-5.

Maurice Zolotow., ''Shooting Star: A Biography of John Wayne''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1974 ISBN 0671829696.

Jim Beaver, "John Wayne". ''Films in Review'', Volume 28, Number 5, May 1977, pp. 265–284.

McGivern, Carolyn. ''John Wayne: A Giant Shadow''. Bracknell, England: Sammon, 2000 ISBN 0-9540031-0-1.

Davis, Ronald L. ''Duke: The Life and Times of John Wayne''. University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. ISBN 0806133295.

Raab, Markus, Beautiful Hearts, Laughers at the World, Bowlers. Worldviews of the Late Western; in: Baur/Bitterli: Brave Lonesome Cowboy. Der Myhos des Westerns in der Gegenwartskunst oder: John Wayne zum 100. Geburtstag, Nuremberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-939738-15-2.

External links

John Wayne Cancer Foundation

John Wayne Cancer Institute

FBI file on John Wayne

Birthplace of John Wayne official website

"On the Set of The Alamo": Behind-the-scenes footage from the production of the film, from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image.

Category:1907 births Category:1979 deaths Category:People from Winterset, Iowa Category:Former Presbyterians Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:California Republicans Category:John Birch Society Category:Actors from Iowa Category:American anti-communists Category:American film actors Category:American football offensive linemen Category:American silent film actors Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Conservatism in the United States Category:Deaths from stomach cancer Category:Film serial actors Category:Liberty Records artists Category:Lung cancer survivors Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:University of Southern California alumni Category:USC Trojans football players Category:Western (genre) film actors

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Name	Ivan van Sertima
Birth date	January 26, 1935
Birth place	Karina Village, Guyana
Death date
Death place	New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
Residence	New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Nationality	Guyana
Spouse	Maria Nagy; Jacqueline L. Patten
Field	Anthropologist, Linguist, Historian
Work institutions	Rutgers University
Alma mater	University of London, Rutgers University
Known for	pre-Columbian contact between Africa and the Americas
Signature	}}

Ivan Gladstone Van Sertima (26 January 1935 - 25 May 2009) was a historian, linguist and anthropologist at Rutgers University in the United States. He was noted for his controversial theory of pre-Columbian contact between Africa and the Americas, which he published in his book ''They Came Before Columbus'' (1976). While the book was a popular bestseller, it was "either completely ignored or generally dismissed by anthropologists, historians and other academic professionals."

Early life and education

Van Sertima was born in Karina Village, Guyana, when Guyana was still a British colony; he retained his British citizenship throughout his life. He completed primary and secondary school in Guyana, and started writing poetry.

He attended the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London from 1959. In addition to his creative writing, Van Sertima completed his undergraduate studies in African languages and literature at SOAS in 1969, where he graduated with honors. During his studies, he learned Swahili and Hungarian.

He worked for several years in Great Britain as a journalist, doing weekly broadcasts to the Caribbean and Africa. In doing field work in Africa, he compiled a dictionary of Swahili legal terms. In 1970 Van Sertima immigrated to the United States, where he entered Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, for graduate work. He began his teaching career at Rutgers University as an instructor in 1972. In 1977, he completed his master's degree.

Career

Van Sertima became Associate Professor of African Studies at Rutgers in the Department of Africana Studies. In his work, he addressed topics in literature, linguistics, anthropology and history. He wrote that the kings of the 25th Dynasty of Egypt were Nubians, as recounted in his ''They Came Before Columbus'' (1976), dealing mostly with his claims of African origin of Mesoamerican culture in the Western Hemisphere. The book, published by Random House rather than an academic press, was a bestseller and achieved widespread fame for his claims of prehistoric African contact and diffusion of culture in Central and South America. It was generally "ignored or dismissed" by academic experts at the time and strongly criticized in detail in an academic journal in 1997.

In 1979, Van Sertima founded the ''Journal of African Civilizations'', which he exclusively edited and published for decades. He published several annual compilations, volumes of the journal dealing with various topics of African history.

Van Sertima discussed African scientific contributions in an essay for the volume ''African Renaissance,'' published in 1999 (he had first published the essay in 1983). This was a record of the conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 1998 on the theme of the African Renaissance. His article, "The Lost Sciences of Africa: An Overview" (1983), makes claims for early African advances in metallurgy, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, engineering, agriculture, navigation, medicine and writing. He claimed that higher learning, in Africa as elsewhere, was the preserve of elites in the centres of civilizations, rendering them vulnerable in the event (as happened in Africa) of the destruction of those centers and the disappearance of the knowledges.

On July 7, 1987, Van Sertima testified before a United States Congressional committee to oppose recognition of the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's "discovery" of the Americas. He said, "You cannot really conceive of how insulting it is to Native Americans . . . to be told they were discovered".

Criticisms

Van Sertima's work has been strongly criticized by opposing academics, who describe his claims to be ill-founded and false. Van Sertima's ''Journal of African Civilizations'' was not considered for inclusion in ''Journals of the Century.'' In 1997 academics in a ''Journal of Current Anthropology'' article criticized in detail many elements of ''They Came Before Columbus'' (1976). Except for a brief mention, the book had not previously been reviewed in an academic journal. The researchers wrote a systematic rebuttal of Van Sertima's claims, stating that Van Sertima's "proposal was without foundation" in claiming African diffusion as responsible for prehistoric Olmec culture (in present-day Mexico). They noted that no "genuine African artifact had been found in a controlled archaeological excavation in the New World." They noted that Olmec stone heads were carved hundreds of years prior to the claimed contact and only superficially appear to be African; the Nubians whom Van Sertima had claimed as their originators do not resemble these "portraits". They further noted that in the 1980s, Van Sertima had changed his timeline of African influence, suggesting that Africans made their way to the New World in the 10th century B.C., to account for more recent independent scholarship in the dating of Olmec culture.

They further called "fallacious" his claims that Africans had diffused the practices of pyramid building and mummification, and noted the independent rise of these in the Americas. Additionally, they wrote that Van Sertima of "diminishe[d] the real achievements of Native American culture" by his claims of African origin for them.

Van Sertima wrote a response to be included in the article (as is standard academic practice) but withdrew it. The journal required that reprints must include the entire article and would have had to include the original authors' response (written but not published) to his response. Instead, Van Sertima replied to his critics in his journal volume published as ''Early America Revisited'' (1998).

In a ''New York Times'' 1977 review of Van Sertima's 1976 ''They Came Before Columbus'', the archaeologist Glyn Daniel labeled Van Sertima's work as "ignorant rubbish", and concluded that the works of Van Sertima, and Barry Fell, whom he was also reviewing, "give us badly argued theories based on fantasies". In 1981 Dean R. Snow, a professor of anthropology, wrote that Van Sertima "uses the now familiar technique of stringing together bits of carefully selected evidence, each surgically removed from the context that would give it a rational explanation". Snow continued, "The findings of professional archaeologists and physical anthropologists are misrepresented so that they seem to support the [Van Sertima] hypothesis".

In response to Daniel's review, archeologist and engineer Dr. Clarence Weiant (1897-1986) wrote a letter to the New York Times supporting Van Sertima's work. Following his B.S. in anthropology in 1937 from Columbia University, Weiant worked in excavation of Olmec heads in Mexico in 1938, and then as an assistant archeologist in 1939 for the first National Geographic Society-Smithsonian Institution expedition to Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, where ceramics were discovered. Weiant's letter, published in May 1977 in the ''New York Times,'' asserted that Van Sertima's work was "a summary of six or seven years of meticulous research based upon archeology, egyptology, African history, oceanography, astronomy, botany, rare Arabic and Chinese manuscripts, the letters and journals of early American explorers and the observations of physical anthropologists...As one who has been immersed in Mexican archeology for some forty years, I am thoroughly convinced of the soundness of Van Sertima's conclusions."

Marriage and family

Van Sertima married Maria Nagy in 1964; they adopted two sons. After their divorce, he remarried in 1984 to Jacqueline L. Patten, who had two daughters.

Death

Van Sertima retired in 2006. He died on 25 May 2009 aged 74. He was survived by his wife and four adult children.

His widow, Jacqueline Van Sertima, said she would continue to publish the ''Journal of African Civilizations''. She also planned to publish a book of his poetry.

Bibliography

''They Came Before Columbus'', New York: Random House, 1976

Essay in Malegapuru William Makgoba, ed., ''African Renaissance'', Sandton and Cape Town, South Africa: Mafube and Tafelberg, 1999

Runoko Rashidi and Ivan Van Sertima, ed., ''African Presence in Early Asia'', New Brunswick, NJ: ''The Journal of African Civilizations'', 1985 (reprint 1995)

He edited the following books, compilations of articles published in ''The Journal of African Civilizations'', and contributed about one essay per volume.

Ivan Van Sertima, ed., "African Presence in Early Europe", ''The Journal of African Civilizations,'', New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1985

____ ''Black Women in Antiquity'', New Brunswick, NJ: ''The Journal of African Civilizations,''New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1988

____ ''Blacks in Science: Ancient and Modern'', New Brunswick, NJ: ''The Journal of African Civilizations'', New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers,1983

____ ''Early America Revisited'', New Brunswick, NJ: ''The Journal of African Civilizations,'' New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1998

____ ''Egypt Revisited'', New Brunswick, NJ: ''The Journal of African Civilizations,'' New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1993

____ ''The Golden Age of the Moor'', New Brunswick, NJ: ''The Journal of African Civilizations,'' New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1992

____ ''Great African Thinkers, Cheikh Anta Diop'', New Brunswick, NJ: ''The Journal of African Civilizations,'' New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1986

____ ''Great Black Leaders: Ancient and Modern,'' New Brunswick, NJ: ''The Journal of African Civilizations,'' New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1988

____''Cheikh Anta Diop'', New Brunswick, NJ: ''The Journal of African Civilizations,'' New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1988

____"Van Sertima before Congress: The Columbus Myth", United States. Congress. House. Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. Subcommittee on Census and Population; Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Commission. Highland Park, NJ: Audio Division, ''Journal of African Civilizations'', 1988.

Legacy and honors

1981 - Clarence L. Holte Literary Prize for ''They Came Before Columbus'', Twenty-First Century Foundation 2004 - Inducted into Rutgers African-American Alumni Hall of Fame

See also

John Henrik Clarke

Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact

Runoko Rashidi

References

External links

"A Look Back at Slavery: Ivan Van Sertima On Cultural and Scientific Achievements in Africa", Democracy Now broadcast, 20 October 1999

''Journal of African Civilizations'', Official Website

Runoko Rashidi, "Ivan Van Sertima", The Global African Presence Website (Runoko Rashidid)

Category:1935 births Category:2009 deaths Category:Alumni of the School of Oriental and African Studies Category:Black British writers Category:British academics Category:British anthropologists Category:British expatriates in the United States Category:British historians Category:British people of Guyanese descent Category:Historians of Africa Category:Pseudohistory Category:Rutgers University alumni Category:Rutgers University faculty Category:Place of death missing

fr:Ivan Van Sertima

name	Cleveland Watkiss
background	solo_singer
born	October 21, 1959Hackney, London, UK
instrument	VocalsPianoGuitar
genre	Rock musicJazzNu jazzFunkSoulLoungeReggaeDrum and bass
occupation	SingerComposer
notable instruments	}}

Cleveland Watkiss (born 21 October 1959) is a versatile English singer who performs in a variety of musical genres, including jazz, reggae, rock music and drum and bass. Watkiss also performs on piano and guitar. His extensive career launched in the 1970s while performing in local reggae and funk music bands, with Watkiss forming his own band known as Alumni in 1981. In 1982 he joined Simon Purcell's Jazz Train, and shortly after began touring with Norma Winstone, Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor. He is probably most remembered for being the co-founder of the Jazz Warriors along with Courtney Pine in 1985, an outfit which was awarded the Best Band Award by The Wire/Guardian in 1987. Additionally, Watkiss has performed throughout his career frequently with the London Community Gospel Choir and has done stints with The Who and side projects with Pete Townshend. In the drum and bass genre he formed Project 23 with Marque Gilmore and DJ Le Rouge. He was also featured on the track "Time" from Makoto (artist)'s first album, "Human Elements".

Discography

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Watkiss, Cleveland (1991).'' Blessing in Disguise''. Polydor

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References

Category:Drum and bass musicians Category:English jazz singers Category:English reggae musicians Category:1959 births Category:Living people