Police have begun arresting people dressed as clowns on various charges. In Alabama, seven people are facing felonies for making a terrorist threat, while two more juveniles face lesser charges. In Middlesboro, Kentucky, a 20-year-old man was arrested for wearing a clown costume while hiding in a ditch. In Virginia, two teens were taken into custody for donning clown costumes and chasing children. And in recent days, the list has been growing.
As campus safety officials in Pennsylvania pointed out in their notice, the “creepy clown” situation is becoming a national phenomena. Unfortunately, the situation is nothing new. In 1981, “sinister” clowns were seen in Boston and neighboring towns throughout New England. The clowns, who harassed small children, were never seen by adults. They would coax children into vans with candy, usually driving alongside children walking down the street or in front of schools. The Phantom Clowns, as they were dubbed by cryptozoologist Loren Coleman given their allusive nature, spread to Kansas City, Denver, Omaha, and Pennsylvania. Since the 1980s, clowns have made appearances across the country, usually in the weeks and months leading up to Halloween.
Coleman’s phantom clown theory is rooted in the “primal dread that so many children experience in their presence.” The first notable instance of a creepy clown is when serial killer John Wayne Gacy was captured in 1979. His alter ego Pogo the Clown frequented children’s parties, so his capture drew a connection between a killer and a clown. Three years later came Poltergeist, in which a sinister clown doll lives underneath the bed. Stephen King doubled down and only increased the public’s fear of clowns – his 1987 novel It, featuring Pennywise the clown, was made into a horrifying film in 1990. (People still love to fear clowns – Poltergeist was rebooted last year, and a remake of It is set to arrive next fall.)
Yet despite the recent arrests – and despite some state laws banninganyone over the age of 16 from wearing a mask or hood with the intent of intimidation or harassment – a solution to the phantom clown resurgence remains unknown. But more than stopping the phenomena, officials are concerned with the terrified people who may have a conceal-carry permit for a gun, or for vigilantes actively seeking to end the clown problem on their own. Child psychiatrist Dr. Steven Schlozman of Harvard University spoke to the New York Times about the power this problem has to “grab you emotionally before it grabs you cognitively.” It’s what caused videos and claims of clowns to go viral – whether it’s real or a hoax – and what leads to the horrifying outcomes our fears bring to pass.
What the country is facing now is not the fear of clowns, but the aftermath that’s likely to ensue. In Dr. Schlozman’s view, “It never ends well.”
Article Appeared @http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/killer-clowns-inside-the-terrifying-hoax-sweeping-america-w442649