It would appear there’s a creepy clown epidemic gripping the South, plucked straight from our collective nightmares.
The disturbing reports began in South Carolina on Aug. 21, prompting an apartment complex to send warning letters to residents after receiving calls that a clown was trying to lure children into the woods. On Sept. 1, a 12-year-old told police there were two clowns in her back yard in Greenville, South Carolina. On Sept. 7, a man in Greensboro, North Carolina, grabbed a machete and chased a clown into the woods. Recently, Georgia police said they were investigating a threat from a Facebook user saying they planned to dress like a clown and abduct children from local schools, and multiple schools in Alabama were put on lockdown last week after receiving clown threats.
“If this is a hoax or publicity stunt, it is not funny,” Greensboro police spokeswoman Susan Danielsen told People. “We just don’t know at this point, because we haven’t had the chance to interview any clowns.”
(Un)luckily for your nightmares, the current circus-y horror isn’t the only clown terror. Read up on these terrifying real-life clowns and enjoy never sleeping ever again.
1. The cold case clown
On May 26, 1990, at 10:45 a.m., in Wellington, Florida, Marlene Warren opened her door to a find a bulb-nosed clown holding a bouquet of red and white flowers and two balloons, one emblazoned with a picture of Snow White. The clown shot her point-blank in the face, and she died at the hospital two days later. Warren’s teenage son saw the clown run to a white Chrysler LeBaron and escape, never to be found.
“This is the strangest thing I’ve seen in all my 19 years in law enforcement,” Palm Beach County sheriff’s spokesman Bob Ferrell told the Sun-Sentinel.
Warren’s husband, Michael Warren, was a prime suspect in the crime. Police searched his office at a West Palm Beach car dealership and found evidence that he’d tampered with odometers, but nothing to connect him to his wife’s murder. However, a suspected affair and five-figure life insurance policy looked suspicious.
Michael Warren was allegedly romantically involved with a female employee. The flowers and balloons delivered before Marlene Warren’s murder were purchased at stores near the employee’s apartment, and costume shop employees tentatively identified her as the woman who had purchased a clown costume the same day as the killing. Neither was charged in the murder, and the case remains unsolved.
2. The Wasco Clown
In October 2014, armed clowns terrified residents in Wasco and Bakersfield, California. The sightings began after a Wasco couple posted photos of themselves in creepy clown costumes as part of a year-long art project, but the photos went viral, and copycats followed suit.
“We’ve been having sightings all over the city,” Bakersfield police watch commander Lt. Jason Matson told Reuters at the time. “They range anywhere from a guy carrying a gun to a guy carrying a knife running up to houses.”
One teen was arrested for chasing a minor while dressed as a clown, but no other pranksters were caught. Various Twitter and Instagram accounts from the time, including a Facebook fan page, posted images claiming to be the creepy clowns. They’ve all since been deactivated, except for one.
In 2013, Northampton, England, had a similarly creepy experience when a clown similar to Stephen King’s Pennywise stalked the town’s streets.
That character gave an anonymous interview to the Chronicle & Echo in September 2013.
“Most people enjoy being a bit freaked out,” the man, later revealed to be an aspiring filmmaker, said. “And then they can laugh about it afterwards.”
3. Klutzo the Clown
In October 2007, a former cop and minister who performed as a “Christian clown” was arrested and charged with possessing child pornography and traveling to engage in sexual conduct with a minor.
A. Paul Carlock Jr., who had performed as “Klutzo the Clown” for a decade-plus, had traveled to perform at the House of Joy orphanage in the Philippines. When he returned, customs officers at the San Francisco Airport asked to look at his digital camera, since he’d been with children in a country marked as high-risk for sex tourism. Authorities found images of naked boys “playing, showering, and sitting clothed but with their genitals visible,” according to the official affidavit. Carlock told investigators he planned to edit the images to show his church that the boys were so poor, they couldn’t even afford clothes, and that they were photographed that way because “that’s how they live.”
Three boys at House of Joy told investigators that they woke up to find Carlock fondling them. When Carlock’s Springfield, Illinois, home was searched, at least 21 child porn videos were found.
Carlock’s employment history had always revolved around children, from working at a boys’ school and the Illinois Department of Public Health’s Child Health Division, time as a certified juvenile officer, volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and acting as a police department “youth division detective.”
Carlock denied any wrongdoing, even as he was sent to prison. He died there awaiting trial in November 2007, after 39 days of ongoing health complications and confrontations with guards.
4. Bandes de clowns
France has also seen its fair share of clown horror. In October 2014, Police in Adge, a Mediterranean port in the South of France, arrested 14 armed pranksters disguised as clowns who were chasing locals and “laughing manically.” The teenagers were carrying pistols, knives and baseball bats.
The same month, a person dressed as a clown was arrested in Montpellier after beating a 35-year-old pedestrian with an iron bar. A student in Besançon sliced his hand trying to defend himself from an ax-wielding clown. In Liévin, four fake clowns terrified school students with a chainsaw. The disturbing sightings became so common that a town in southern France went as far as banning clown costumes in November 2014. French police blamed social media for the Wasco and Northampton copycats sparking the bout of terror.
“Since mid-October, a rumor inspired by videos … has created the presence of threatening and aggressive clowns in France,” a French national police spokesman said at the time.
The videos are from DM Pranks, a YouTube channel created by an Italian duo that went viral for their “Killer Clown Scare Prank” in 2014. In the videos, the pair dress up as clowns and terrify unsuspecting passers-by — including chasing pedestrians with giant mallets and chainsaws. Their videos have over 527 million combined views.
“At first it was a joke, to scare my friends by dressing up as a clown and shouting boo with a stick like on Facebook,” a 19-year-old told a judge after he was arrested for dressing as a clown and terrorizing people in Béthune. “I didn’t intend to hurt anyone.”
5. Pogo the Clown
John Wayne Gacy, one of America’s most notorious serial killers, was an established community leader, named the Springfield, Illinois, “Man of the Year” in 1964 by a local group, and performed as a beloved children’s clown, Pogo.
Gacy was first arrested on sodomy charges in 1968 after the father of a 15-year-old boy Gacy had hired to do odd jobs around his home told authorities that Gacy forced his son into oral sex. Gacy received a 10-year sentence but was released after two years due to good behavior, and was given 12 months’ probation. During his time in prison, Gacy’s first wife filed for divorce. After his release in 1970, he relocated to Des Plaines, Illinois, where he married his high school sweetheart, began a contracting business, and created Pogo the clown, who became a popular figure at birthday parties and the children’s hospital.
His second wife filed for divorce in 1975, after he admitted he was sexually attracted to young men. Between 1972 and 1978, he tortured, raped and murdered at least 33 boys.
Gacy was convicted of 12 murders and sentenced to death on March 13, 1980. He was executed by lethal injection on May 9, 1994.
While in prison, Gacy painted dozens of portraits of himself as Pogo. After his execution, his attorney auctioned off the artwork — some of which was purchased and burned at a bonfire attended by his victims’ family members.