Unease settled over the city like a shroud. Painted faces, stretched into grotesque smiles, appeared overnight down every dark turn. Whispers traveled faster than the wind, chilling tales of figures lurking at the edges our sight, their laughter echoing in the dead of night. These weren't playful jesters or whimsical performers. These were harbingers of something wicked, their colorful faces a mask for a darkness that promised only terror. Enter the clowns. Things, are about to get strange.
There has always been a creepiness around clowns that has not been fully explained. Writer Benjamin Radford warns “It’s misleading to ask when clowns turned bad. They were never really good.” The fear of clowns, known as coulrophobia, could be seen in the acting of the character from “It” or as the Joker from “Batman”. It could have also been John Wayne Gacy, an American serial killer and rapist who was convicted of killing 33 men between 1972-1978. He was known in the community as Pogo the Clown and he performed at children's parties and fundraising events. He is reported to say “You know, clowns can get away with murder” while he was getting arrested. Somehow something meant to be so fun and joyful has turned for the worse.
There were some clown events before 2016 that are worth mentioning. One was a sighting of a creepy clown in Northampton, England. The Northampton clown sightings took place in September and October of 2013. It was the work of three local filmmakers. They were Alex Powell, Elliot Simpson, and Luke Ubanski. The clown shared a look similar to Pennywise from It. The three of them started a Facebook group and were using the appearances to drive traffic to the page. In March 2014, Matteo Moroni from the Youtube channel DM Pranks began dressing up as an evil clown terrifying unsuspecting passersby. His videos racked up hundreds of millions of views. More sightings even further back appeared in Wasco, California in October 2014 centered on the “Wasco Clown” with photos appearing all over social media. There was a documentary in 2014 called “Killer Legends” that featured a segment called “Why Are Clowns Scary?” The filmmakers traveled to Chicago to explore the clown panics that swept the city in 1991 and 2008, linking them to the serial killer John Wayne Gacy and the stranger danger panic. It was around this time in 2014 that some of the first clown sightings appeared in the US. A person in clown attire was spotted in a cemetery in Chicago in July 2015. This event involved two residents who spotted the scary “creepy clown” scaling the gate at the Rosehill Cemetery late at night. After the clown entered the cemetery, they turned to face the residents and began to slowly wave as they made a video. After waving for a few seconds, the clown ran into the dark woods and was not seen again. Police who investigated the sighting did not arrest anyone.
Let’s go into the breakdown of clown sightings and the dates correlating with the sightings.
September 14, 2016: Three children in Georgia told police about an incident involving two adult men dressed as clowns. McDuffie County deputies said that Cameron Frails, 12, and his little brother were walking to a bus stop at 6 am. They were chased by men dressed in all black clothes, red wigs, and clown masks. Hannah Rice, a neighbor, saw the clowns following the boys out from between two mobile homes before the chase, deputies said. People in Pottsville, Pennsylvania said that clowns had been harassing children at the playground. A week later, police in Pottsville began investigating a frightening claim by a 12 year old who said that she was chased through a park by a clown. 12 year old Brianne Hawke told WNEP-TV that a little boy came screaming through the park after allegedly seeing a group of clowns “eating something in the woods.” She stated that “A clown started chasing us up here and turned around and went back to the woods.” The alleged clowns returned and started throwing sticks at the children before cursing at the children.
September 24, 2016: The Tennessee Highway Patrol issued a warning to parents to watch their kids and to be on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary. This came after alleged clown sightings in South Carolina, southern Kentucky, Tennessee, and a few other states. The Highway Patrol said the threat was the possibility of predators in clown costumes seeking to lure children into the woods. Around the same time, law enforcement said a teen in Coffee County, Tennessee claimed to have been attacked by a clown.
September 26, 2016: A social media threat featuring a clown image was to blame for an abnormal number of school absences, according to Arizona officials. 24 schools between two Phoenix school districts were named in a multitude of threats posted online. Students and parents alike were worried, and about half of the 3,000 students at Marydale High skipped school. Three young individuals were arrested after the FBI joined the investigation. The juveniles faced felony charges, and law enforcement said they believed others were involved. Later in the week, schools in Tennessee and Ohio would be targeted by similar clown-related threats.
September 27, 2016: In Phoenix, police say two different fast food restaurants were robbed by suspects wearing clown masks. About 8PM, a Taco Bell was allegedly hit by an armed robber. As police were busy investigating at Taco Bell, the suspects allegedly hit a Domino’s nearby. Two 17 year olds were connected to the robberies and arrested.
September 28, 2016: Several 911 calls were made in Long Island in regards to clown incidents. In one call, drivers reported a group of clowns were jumping in front of moving vehicles in Brentwood. No one was arrested.
September 29, 2016: In Tennessee, police say a clown armed with explosives walked into a bank and demanded money from a teller. Memphis police said one person wearing a clown costume and another got away with an unknown amount of money.
October 3, 2016: Philadelphia police identified a 13 year old girl as the person who made the clown threats towards local schools. She told investigators that it was a prank that she did with a friend at her school, and she never intended to hurt anyone.
October 4, 2016: Hammond police said that they were investigating social media threats against several Indiana schools made by clowns. Hammond Police Lt Richard Hoyda stated “So far there have been no reports of confirmed clown sightings in the City of Hammond and at this time the information appears to be solely based on Facebook.” On October 5th, a teen was arrested in connection with a fake clown threat in Hammond. Worried parents went with their kids to school because of creepy clown threats in the Chicago area. Chicago Public Schools said that they were investigating approximately 50 social media incidents with threats involving clowns.
October 6, 2016: A mother in California said that she had to fight off a man dressed in a clown suit to keep him from snatching her 1 year old out of her arms. She said that he didn’t wear a mask or makeup, but did wear a blue curly wig. She said he tried to grab her daughter’s arm after having a brief conversation with her. That same day, a 13 year old girl was caught in a murder for -hire plot against her teacher. Authorities said the girl asked a person posing as a clown on social media to kill her teacher.
October 7, 2016: After leaving their 4 year old child at home alone, two parents were later arrested. They left the child at home so they could allegedly terrorize a neighborhood while dressed as clowns. Police in Menasha said several people wearing clown costumes were seen chasing cars in the early morning hours.
October 8, 2016: Someone in a clown costume was caught on video hanging off the back of a moving bus in Detroit. The video received more than 500,000 views on social media. The Detroit Department of Transportation stated that it was going to increase security following the incident.
October 11, 2016: McDonald’s stated it was being “thoughtful in respect to Ronald McDonald’s participation in community events” as a result of the “current climate around clown sightings in communities.” McDonald’s decision came after more pranks involving clowns.
October 16, 2016: Someone dressed as a clown was apparently scared off after the man he was approaching fired a gun in the air, according to the La County Sheriff’s Department. Authorities said a man called 911 to report that someone dressed in a clown costume approached his home. The man told deputies that he fired a warning shot in the air and the suspect ran away.
October 17, 2016: Within a month before Halloween, Target stated that they are removing clown masks from its shelves and from online after everything that was going on. A media representative from Target told ABC News, “We had a few masks in stores, which we began to pull last week. We also have edited down our assortment online. You’ll still find clown asks there, but we made the decision to pull back on the number.”
There was a lot of fallout after all of this. The Russian Embassy in England issued a warning on October 12th for Russians and British citizens due to the clown scares. On October 13, the Fijian police department warned people against involvement in the events. Several shops in New Zealand took clown costumes off of the shelves. There was a blanket ban on clown costumes in the Side Union High School district, the West Milford school district, Ohio school district, and Springboro Community schools. Employees of theme parks were told to take off any horror costumes and makeup before they left work. By October 25, 2016, several news outlets reported about an alleged clown-initiated attack or purge of some sort. It was supposedly going to happen on October 30, 2016.
There were no widespread purge attacks as threatened, but there was a family in Florida that was attacked on Halloween by a group of about 20 people wearing Purge masks. No arrests were made.
There were also students at Michigan State University and Pennsylvania State University who were involved in mobs that searched for clowns on campus after there were reported sightings.
FUN FACTS
-According to the New York Times, the clown sightings resulted in at least 12 arrests across the US, and one death. In Reading, Pennsylvania, a 16 year old boy was fatally stabbed during an incident that could have been provoked by a prowler wearing a clown mask.
- During Halloween in 2016, Floridians decided to go armed while trick-or-treating.
- In Kemper County Mississippi, Kemper City supervisors enacted a clown ban, temporarily preventing people from dressing as clowns. A $150 fine would be given to anyone caught in public dressed in a clown costume, mask or makeup.
- The World Clown Association president took a stance against people dressing up as clowns. The clown business, circuses, and other related fields were affected by the sightings.
- The clown sightings even reached the White House. The White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked about the situation. He stated, “I don’t know that the president has been briefed on this particular situation. Obviously, this is a situation that local law enforcement authorities take quite seriously.”
QUESTIONS:
- Are you afraid of clowns?
- What do you think about all of the clown sightings?
- What would you do if you experienced this?
The clown craze of 2016, fueled by a combination of social media, fear-mongering, and real-life incidents, left a lasting impression on the collective consciousness, proving that even the most innocent symbols can be twisted into something sinister.
Stay weird ya’ll.
