The first thing that grabs you about this writing is the disagreeable pastosity and the abundant signs of confusion. The heavy pastosity points to a strong need to satisfy urges which, in a generally negative writing, indicates wanton sexuality and cruel violence that would play out in his life. An examination of the lower zone letter formations especially the loops that extend to the left combined with the pastosity indicate an explosive temper with perverse sadistic tendencies. The leftward tendency and weak nature of the lower zone is a clue that the author was unsure of his own sexual identity. Gacy had an overbearing, abusive and alcoholic father whose normal method of teaching John a lesson was severe punishment. Gacy had a love/hate relationship with his father and tried to please him continually without success. There are multiple Personal Pronoun I's (PPI's are both printed and scripted) which suggest a division of the personality. Gacy often referred to an alter ego named Jack whom he said performed the gory activities that he had carried out. In addition to the mixed forms of PPI's, the baseline of the writing is sinuous which attest to his inner confusion.
Another glaring component of this writing is the extreme right slant (45° to the right of vertical or more) leading to hysteria and flight from the past (and therefore the self).
There are a number of indications in this writing of criminal tendency that should be noted. The low form levelš of this writing indicates a weakness of character and suggests repression of anger. There are examples of tremulous formations that combined with low form level point to feelings of guilt for known and perceived wrongdoing. Another common criminal tendency indication can be found in the numerous misplaced capitals, particularly the uppercased "F", which some analysts believe to be a subliminally suppressed fascination with a word beginning with the capped letter. The suppressed word could be an expletive or perhaps a person's name that evokes an emotional reaction. What the "F" means would be known only to Mr. Gacy. The mixing of letter forms in a low form level writing is another indication of criminal tendency. Another clue to Gacy's motivations can be found in angles in some of the PPI's present in this writing which are based in disconnection from, and anger towards his parents, particularly his father. Some of the contributing analysts felt that the heavy pastosity, with it's underpinning of excessive instinctual cravings, is yet another criminal indication in this writing.
The consensus of those analysts reviewing this writing was that the IQ of Gacy to be around 110. This is based upon the limited number of lead-in strokes, the numeric formations and the speed of the writing. 110 would be a low to moderate achiever in college. If the writing were not retarded by other negative factors, the IQ rating might be slightly higher. The book "Buried Dreams" confirms that 118 was determined to be Mr. Gacy's IQ according to tests given while he was court ordered to undergo psychiatric evauation on a sodomy charge.
The gaps between words is a clue that Gacy did not mix well with others. The rightward slant, while indicating flight from the past, also shows that he could be outgoing when it suited his needs. The flat-top lowercase "r" is said, by some analysts, to represent manual dexterity though this did not figure into the overall analysis. There are a few isolated leftward arcades (like the ending "w" in the word interview) that suggest a self-protective side of Gacy that was, no doubt, another defense that he employed.
Summary: As stated in the beginning paragraph, Gacy's writing is quite disturbed and indicates that he suffered from conflicts with his inner daemons. Indications of disconnection from his parents and his past are apparent in this writing and one gets the feeling from looking at this writing that Gacy's actions were an attempt to make sense out of a very confused existence. Violence and criminal leanings are visible in this writers script as are indications of excesses and perversions running counter to the norm. Gacy's disconnection also suggests that he may have developed more than one personality to deal with the deep held neuroses that were employed to try to defend against perceived deficiencies.
