Book Review: Killer Clown by Terry Sullivan

Recently it had gotten to the point where I was enjoying all the true crime books I picked up so much that I was worried I just couldn’t tell the difference between a good true crime book and a bad true crime book. Maybe my love for true crime was clouding my vision. Alas, no need to be concerned, because this was a bad one...

“They’ll never believe you.”

Okay, maybe bad is harsh. But it was a struggle for me. The first 150 pages are literally just the surveillance cops driving around after John Wayne Gacy while he went about his life of work, restaurants and bars. It was like Groundhog Day. For 150 pages.

After that, it did pick up, but I just felt like I didn’t really learn anything new. I’m not sure if that’s the book’s fault, or if there really just isn’t much more to this case. When reading true crime my objective is to learn more about why these people behave the way they do. And this book just really provided little insight into Gacy himself, it was more a list of facts after facts.

There was an updated section at the back, where Sullivan caught up years later with the team he worked on the Gacy case with. They discussed how their lives had changed and the lasting influence the case had. This ended up being the most interesting part to me, it just felt a little more personal as the bone-dry narrative had been removed. I wish the whole book had been more like this!

I also found it incredibly sad that quite a few victims managed to escape, but they didn’t go to the police - either due to a fear of not being believed, or because they were afraid of admitting to taking part in homosexual acts. It just makes you wonder that if things were different, maybe Gacy would have been caught earlier.

Not the most enjoyable or interesting true crime read for me, but worth checking out if you’re interested in learning the facts of the Gacy case! 2.5 stars.

Johann

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