Move To Iowa
In 1966, Gacy's father-in-law offered him the opportunity to manage the three Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants he had purchased in Waterloo, Iowa. The offer was lucrative: $15,000 per year plus a share of profits. Gacy accepted the offer and, following his obligatory completion of a managerial course, he and his wife relocated to Waterloo in the autumn of that year.
In Waterloo, Gacy joined the local chapter of the Jaycees, regularly offering extensive hours to the organization in addition to the twelve- and fourteen-hour days he worked as a manager of three KFC restaurants. Although considered ambitious and somewhat of a braggart by his colleagues in the Jaycees, he was highly regarded as a tireless worker on several fund-raising projects. In 1967, he was named "outstanding vice-president" of the Waterloo Jaycees. At Jaycee meetings, Gacy would often provide free KFC chicken to his colleagues and insisted upon being given the nickname "Colonel" by his colleagues. The same year, Gacy served on the Board of Directors for the Waterloo Jaycees.
Gacy's wife gave birth to two children during the time the couple lived in Iowa: a son named Michael was born in March 1967, followed by a daughter named Christine in October 1968. Gacy later described this period of his life as being "perfect." His achievements in life earned him approval from his father, who told him during a 1967 visit, "Son, I was wrong about you."
However, there was a seedier 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. He is also known to have opened a "club" in his basement, where he allowed employees to drink alcohol and play pool. Although he employed teenagers of both sexes at his restaurants, he socialized only with his male employees. Many were given alcohol before Gacy made sexual advances toward them, which he would dismiss as a joke if the teenager rebuffed his advances.
Read more about this topic: John Wayne Gacy
Famous quotes containing the words move and/or iowa:
“If you chance to live and move and have your being in that thin stratum in which the events that make the news transpire,—thinner than the paper on which it is printed,—then these things will fill the world for you; but if you soar above or dive below that plane, you cannot remember nor be reminded of them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When I was growing up I used to think that the best thing about coming from Des Moines was that it meant you didn’t come from anywhere else in Iowa. By Iowa standards, Des Moines is a mecca of cosmopolitanism, a dynamic hub of wealth and education, where people wear three-piece suits and dark socks, often simultaneously.”
—Bill Bryson (b. 1951)