Worst Use of a Clown Photo
John Wayne Gacy in The Kansas City Star
To celebrate National Clown Week, The Kansas City Star printed in its July 30, 1999, issue what may have seemed like a standard clown shot -- a guy in clown makeup wearing a funny outfit and holding balloons. Unfortunately, that clown was actually serial killer John Wayne Gacy, a Chicago contractor who liked to don a clown suit to entertain children and worked with community organizations as a model citizen -- when he wasn't raping, torturing, and murdering young men, that is. What made it even worse was the cutline, which in the context of the Gacy photo, threatened: "It's a rule. You MUST celebrate Clown Week." Next thing you know, they'll use a photo of Theodore Kaczynski to tout National Postal Service Week. --MR
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