John Wayne Gacy
The costume did the marketing.
The record
- Convicted of thirty-three murders and executed on 10 May 1994.
The packaging
Greasepaint, photographed once.
A photograph of a man in greasepaint is a poster, and a poster is a franchise. The costume is the reason this name is spoken more often than several higher counts below it.
We have drawn the costume empty on purpose. Put a face inside it and the jacket becomes a portrait of him, which is the sale we are describing rather than making.
Thirty-three, and the thing everybody can picture is a party outfit.
Checked
John Wayne Gacy was convicted of thirty-three murders and executed on 10 May 1994.
The New York Times, 11 May 1994retrieved 2026-08-14
The full argument is filed in the anchor piece, and the index to all ten jackets is here.