The serial killer John Waters called “the worst-dressed mass murderer in America”
The filmography of John Waters has made it clear there’s no subject or content off-limits for cinema’s ‘Pope of Trash’, and it’s equally fitting that when he passed judgment on one of history’s most notorious serial killers, the first thing that came to mind was their poor fashion sense.
Naturally, when he worked mass murder into his own oeuvre, the results were delightfully unhinged. The film may have underperformed during its initial theatrical release, but 30 years later Serial Mom isn’t just a stone-cold cult classic, but it’s regarded as one of Waters’ finest and most popular works.
In the movie, Kathleen Turner’s Beverly Sutphin is almost the picture-perfect definition of domesticated suburban bliss, apart from the notable caveat of carrying an intense thirst for murder. Half a dozen homicides later, the truth is eventually revealed, with Waters revelling in his signature style of pitch-black comedy with a heavy dose of camp.
It should probably go without saying, but there was nothing light or frivolous about the crimes of John Wayne Gacy. A story that continues to chill to the bone; the 33 murders of which he was convicted were the most any one person has been sentenced for in the entire legal history of the United States, with 26 of those bodies being discovered inside his home.
After being sentenced to death in 1980, Gacy spent 14 years on Death Row before his eventual execution, during which time he acquired a taste for art. The killer is estimated to have produced well over 2,000 canvases in that time, one of which ended up in the possession of the ‘Duke of Dirt’.
As well as being friends and collaborators on the 1990 musical rom-com Cry-Baby, another one of Gacy’s originals ended up in the hands of Johnny Depp, which gave him another thing in common with a filmmaker he once proudly proclaimed he wanted to work with for the rest of his life.
Grilling each other for Interview, Waters quizzed Depp on how he acquired his Gacy. “I got mine from a tattoo artist who deals on the side in art,” came the typically bohemian reply, even if the star admitted that “no one wanted to have anything to do with it” when he hung it on the wall of his home, forcing him to move it to somewhere less visible.
Waters, meanwhile, got his as a Christmas present from a friend, but he doesn’t have it out on public display, either. Instead, the filmmaker stores his “way in the attic,” even if he hasn’t found a justifiable reason to discard it completely.
When Depp revealed that he genuinely liked Gacy’s paintings as art, Waters agreed, but with a withering addendum. “I hope you don’t like him, because he was basically the worst-dressed mass murderer in America,” came the putdown. “And secondly, the ultimate closet queen. He just killed everyone he slept with so they wouldn’t tell.”
Waters and Depp discussing their shared ownership and admiration for Gacy’s art was expectedly unexpected given their reputations and shared off-kilter sensibilities, and the exact same can be said of the maverick auteur voicing his disdain for the serial killer’s fashion sense in the very next breath.
