Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised.

This episode includes dramatizations and discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive.

We advise extreme caution for children under 13.

Identity.

Something we all struggle with from time to time.

Figuring out who we are, what our place is,

how to balance our base desires in a world that

asks for some level of conformity and productivity.

Identity is molded both internally and externally and rooted in the most fundamental properties that make us human.

It has generated countless questions and riddles about what the individual is

and how we should treat its role in society.

Nature versus N, Descartes' theory of mind-body dualism, Plato's allegory of the cave.

For eons humans have been asking ourselves who we are and what that means in relationship to the world.

And over time we have honed our definitions, sharpened them.

Identity is ingrained in us.

We encourage people to explore themselves, to find who they want to be,

to refine and master their identity in a way that is personal and individual.

But what happens when a person becomes so conflicted with their identity that they reach a point of extreme denial?

What happens when someone's pathology becomes so sick and infected that it lashes out in unspeakable ways. Do we blame their upbringing, genetics, or is it a combination of both?

How does that person react to this conflict? Do they try and hide it? Can they recognize the monster within them?

Do they pretend to be someone else? Today we hope to answer those questions as we jump back into our investigation of John Wayne Gacy, the killer clown, who terrorized

Chicago neighborhoods in the 1970s.

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