Top Ten Evil Clown Stories of 2015

WARNING: 

NOT FOR

COULROPHOBICS

Top Ten Evil Clowns of 2015
by Loren Coleman, author of The Copycat Effect (New York: Paraview Pocket-Simon and Schuster, 2004).

Following in the tradition of my list from 2008, my notes on evil clowns (and Joker clones) that turned up in 2009, my documenting of real killer clowns in 2010, my list of evil clowns of 2011, weirdness in 2012, another compilation for 2013, and the creepy clown reports in California, countrywide in the USA & in France, ending up back in Aurora for 2014, here is a "top ten" gathering of "evil clown" stories for 2015.

(1) January 31, 2015. Merseyside, UK



Crooks dressed as clowns carried out a string of crimes in Merseyside and police have dealt with 14 incidents - from armed robbery to bogus charity collections - involving people wearing face paint and circus costumes, they reported at the end of the first month of the year.

One of the crimes was caught on camera, when a robber strolled into a currency exchange shop in Walton wearing a yellow wig, white face paint and a pink prosthetic nose and forced a terrified worker to hand over bundles of notes.

Another victim had an egg thrown at his car by a yob wearing a clown mask, reports the Liverpool Echo.

(2) July 2015

Early in July 2015, a Chicagoan took a cellphone video of a person dressed in a clown suit, trespassing at the city's historic Rosehill Cemetery in the dead of night. Julia Graham says she was “freaked out” at the figure as it ran toward the main gate. She and her husband were driving by around 10 p.m.

“When we get closer, we realize it’s a clown, which is super weird,” Graham said.

The first picture her husband snapped was of the clown scaling the 7-foot-tall gate at the Ravenswood Avenue entrance. That feat is no easy task, especially for someone wearing a clown suit. The North Side cemetery was clearly closed and locked for the night. Officials don’t know what to make of it because other than the trespass there were no complaints of vandalism.

(3) July 2015

In July 2015, a 12-year-old Elkhart, Indiana girl fatally stabbed her stepmother, and said an online horror story clown named “Laughing Jack” (pictured) told her to do it, it was revealed in court documents in November. The girl set her family’s apartment on fire and stabbed Maria Torres “at the direction of a fictional character found on the CreepyPasta website known as 'Laughing Jack.’”

Laughing Jack is a clown who befriends children as their imaginary friend before slicing them open and replacing their organs with candy, according to Urban Dictionary. The unidentified Elkhart girl “heard voices and had an 'alter ego' months before the stabbing and begged her father for help,” the court documents said.

(4) August 7, 2015. Hickory, North Carolina.

On Friday, August 7, 2015, a woman living in the 1300 block of 20th Avenue NE in Hickory, North Carolina, reported to police that at 4:32 a.m. a clown with an ax knocked at her residence. The suspect then began swinging an ax and attempted to cut the victim. The clown was wearing a mask and a multicolored wig. She was able to remove his mask and recognized him as an acquaintance before he left, according to the Hickory Daily Record. An arrest warrant was issued. Jimmy Daniel Raybon (pictured above), 28, also known as Robert Gross, turned himself in without incident at 2:15 p.m.


(5) September 2015. Las Vegas, Nevada.

Some people thought it was funny, but it is amazing no one shot the "killer" clowns that were scaring folks around the Las Vegas Valley in September of this year.

Matteo Moroni, the famous prankster behind DM Pranks in Italy, teamed up with Fright Dome-owner Jason Egan to bring the "killer clowns" to Nevada. They set up "crime scenes" with creepy clowns nearby and waited for real people to walk into the situations.

In the video, the clowns hang out in a gas station, the long hallways of Circus Circus and in an ambulance behind the hotel-casino. Each time an unsuspecting person or group walks into the created scenario and are scared almost into having heart attacks. Not funny.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article30923304.html#storylink=cpy

(6) October 2015. Kent, UK

"Clowns in vans chasing terrified children spark warning 'go straight home after school today and not to loiter,'" reported the Daily Mirror. ""Police are investigating after numerous reports of kids being approached by people wearing clown masks driving a van."

Phantom Clowns stalked St. John's Road in Kent. The incidents started after several reports in Tonbridge. On October 5 in Hectorage Road, pupils reported they were scared by people in clown masks.On October 7 and 8 there were also reports of a woman in the High Street wearing a clown mask. The following week in Tunbridge Wells, on October 13 and 14 there are reports of people wearing clown masks in a van on St John's Road. Some witnesses said the clowns wore black clothing and white masks.

No one was ever caught. (These are the classic Phantom Clowns that I discussed in Mysterious America.)

(7) October 15, 2015. Springfield, Missouri.

Police say they arrested a 30-year-old man on October 15, after he dressed as clown, carried a toy gun onto Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, and claimed he had a bomb and was going to take a hostage. James D. Robertson (pictured) was charged with making terroristic threats. Police found Robertson in a parking lot at the college. He told them he was formerly a student at the college and wanted to return but school officials ignored him. Robertson told police he dressed like a clown and carried a toy gun in order to make school officials pay attention to him. They did. Robertson did not have a car bomb. In the trunk of his car, police found a bag of charcoal with a note that said: "This is my CAR bomb!"

(8) November 24, 2015. Waukesha, Wisconsin.

This turns out to be merely unsettling, not evil. Around Thanksgiving 2015, the media began noting there were sightings of a man dressed up as a clown walking around Carroll University campus, Waukesha, Wisconsin. Some people, who said it was "creepy," took photographs. Waukesha police say they know who it is. Waukesha police told the local media the teenage boy is "developmentally delayed and is just doing this to see people's reaction. Both he and his parents were advised several times it would really help us out if he wouldn't stand out there doing that."

Police say they aren't aware of any crimes the teen has committed.

(9) December 24, 2015. Lakewood, Colorado. 

The ultimate costumed clown around Christmas, of course, is Santa Claus. In 2015, an evil Santa emerged near Denver. A stabbing suspect was on the loose Christmas Eve in Lakewood, Colorado, after allegedly stabbing a bus passenger early Thursday morning, December 24, 2015. At around 1 a.m., two people were riding an RTD bus when they got into a fight that ended when one of the passengers -- who police say was wearing a Santa Claus jacket -- stabbed the other. The suspect remains on the run. (For an infamous recent Killer Santa case, see the 2013 Pardo-Corvina story.)

(10) The Joker resurfaces

American University Press published a book of some note on the subject of evil clowns. Appearing in 2015, The Joker: A Serious Study of the Clown Prince of Crime, edited by Robert Moses Peaslee and Robert G. Weiner, is the first academic work to provide a comprehensive study of this villain dressed like a clown, illustrating why the Joker appears so relevant to audiences today.

In a related vein, Suicide Squad is an upcoming American superhero film based on the DC Comics antihero team of the same name. It is scheduled to be released on August 5, 2016. One of the most significant characters in the forthcoming movie is the Joker, being played by Jared Leto. During 2015, photos of Leto as the new Joker caused quite a stir. 

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Top Ten Evil Clown Stories of 2015

© Loren Coleman, 2015

Aurora's Stalking Evil Clown

We are in the midst of the largest worldwide wave of weird, evil, creepy clown sightings and encounters to have ever occurred in modern times. Today, to me, signaled these manifestations are taking place in locations that cannot be ignored for their hidden twilight language.

As longtime readers know, it is in Mysterious America where I detailed the USA national wave of sightings in May of 1981 of costumed sinister jokers in vans, trying to kidnap children, seemingly beginning in New England and spreading from there. By the end of the month, the local newspapers in Kansas City were publishing warnings about "Killer Clowns" said to be after children at bus stops there. I coined the term "Phantom Clowns" to describe them because they were (are) seen but never caught.

Sightings would come and go, and Phantom Clown encounters would continue.

Then in 2008 reports coming from Chicago were tied to a Wicker Park, which has a symbolic name linked to New York City's Son of Sam killings of 1976-1977. In letters to the media, the "Son of Sam" serial killer signed himself as "The Wicked King Wicker" and allegedly shoot a Wicker Street German shepherd.

In the October 2008 Illinois incidents, a man wearing clown make-up and a wig was using balloons in an attempt to lure children into his vehicle on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. Police issued an alert about a week after a man with a similar description was spotted on the West Side.

Other postings to consult include:
Top Ten Evil Clown Stories of 2008
Evil Clowns: Summer 2009
Real Killer Clowns (2010)
Northern Irish Clowns Attack (2011)
Top Ten Evil Clowns of 2011
Idaho Phantom Clown Incident (2012)

In January 2013, In the Dutch city of Volendam three phantom clowns beat up a boy at the local clown festivities (which involves over 200 clowns). The boy was taken to the local hospital. The clowns disappeared and were not caught.

The incidents kept occurring - with all the following in 2013:
Dutch Clown Stabs Russian Boy On Crete
Coulrophobia Alert: Send In The Clowns
Mexican Clowns Kill Drug Lord
Phantom Clowns Update: Gaywood Sighting Latest In Epidemic

Northampton Clowns
Top Ten Evil Clown Stories of 2013

Along strolls 2014, which after some early weird clown reports, the clown stories begin exploding:
Wasco's Mysterious Clowns
Copycat Creepy Clowns Countrywide
Evil Clowns Reach France
More Clowns in France
Clowns in Spain

Two views of the Dendermonde Joker.

The concurrent attacks and incidents involving The Joker are not to be overlooked. It will be recalled that the Dendermonde Joker's face was painted white and his eyes were made black, with his distinctive pink/red/ginger hair cut in spikes, "as if he had cut his hair himself," his mouth was apparently not painted, as was Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight. The Belgian crèche (daycare) was attacked by this "Joker" on January 23, 2009. (Ledger had died on January 22, 2008). Two babies and one daycare worker were killed. The weapons used were a knife and hatchet. There was nothing "phantom" about this "clown."

Then it got very hot.

"The fire rises!" ~ Bane, The Dark Knight Rises, 2012.

On July 20, 2012, the Dark Knight Shooting: 12 Dead, 58 Injured occurred. It happened in Colorado, at Aurora, forever broadcasting "Red Dawn" into our awareness. And James Holmes apparently had a Bane mouth mask that covered a Joker facial makeup underneath.

Even a James Holmes/Aurora Joker mask was marketed for Halloween 2012, briefly.

Now we find ourselves in the midst of a major clown epidemic.

Today, a reader emailed me, noting: "When you post about the phantom clowns, it always raises an eyebrow. But when syncs like this occur [see following], it really opens your eyes."

What the person was talking about was not strictly a "Phantom Clown," but an evil clown, a stalking clown.

There is a new report of a Phantom Clown event in Aurora, Colorado (at the Southland Mall, pictured above). Once again, we are not making this stuff up. 

AURORA, Colo. - A woman says she was attacked and badly injured by a man dressed as a clown on Tuesday night [October 28, 2014] at Southlands Mall in Aurora.
"It's definitely something out of a nightmare," said Molly who asked us not to use her last name.
The stuff of nightmares, Molly experienced firsthand.
"A man that had a clown mask on and kind of like a monkey suit jumped out and grabbed me," she explained.
The attack happened in public at Southlands Mall on Tuesday at around 9:30 p.m.
Similar mysterious, creepy clowns have been popping up across the country.
Videos and pictures of these pranks can be found all over the internet. One clip on YouTube shows a clown holding a chainsaw seriously scaring people inside a bathroom.
Molly said the pranks are getting out of hand.
"It was dark and it was like he was waiting for us around the corner," she further explained. "I feel like I was assaulted."
She said the attacked occurred in an alley near the movie theater, and as soon as the clown grabbed her, she tried to run.
"(I) scrapped up my knee. Went to a doctor today, I have first degree burns on my leg from falling," Molly said.
The clown left her with injuries to her knee and hand. She also cracked her iPhone during the attack.
"The rest of the night I was super jumpy and didn't want to go around any corners," she explained.
Two clown incidents were reported Tuesday between 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., at the shopping center located at 6155 S. Main St., according to the Aurora Police Department.
Officers drove around the area after the reports, but were unable to locate the clowns.
Aurora Police said while dressing up like a clown is legal; it is now considering criminal charges because of the injuries Molly suffered.
"They definitely need to get caught and get in trouble for this, it's not ok, and it's terrorizing people," she said.
A terrifying experience, Molly says wasn't funny at all.
"If I wanted to be scared I'd go to a haunted house," she explained. "It's a really bad idea; it's not a good prank." Source.

Why a Stalking (not Phantom) Clown in Aurora? Why now? A dawn clown event?

For the record, the original Phantom Clown business was not caused by Stephen King. King's It (below) terrorized children (as a novel in 1986 and a TV movie in 1990), but please note, only after I published my treatments on the discovery of the "Phantom Clown" wave of 1981 (first in magazine articles and later in my 1983 first edition of Mysterious America).

Coulrophobia Alert: Send In The Clowns

The Northampton Clown is not a phantom. He has been photographed.

Readers of this blog are well aware of our clown-radar being on high alert. Sometimes it has been about Jokers and Jokawilds, sometimes of Evil Clowns, and frequently concerning Phantom Clowns.

On 9/11, the clown news presented itself subtly.

As the Denver Post penned, "a U-turn, not clowning around, caused a crash involving a van full of clowns" in West York, Pennsylvania. The September 11, 2013 incident happened on that Wednesday evening, according to multiple media sources.

The van was going south on South Highland Avenue when its driver attempted a U-turn near a gate of the York Expo Center and collided with another van that was also heading south about 5:45 p.m., according to West York Police. Police said the driver, 83-year-old James Billingsley of York, also known as "Dimples the Clown," suffered a minor bump on the head. His passenger clown, 77-year-old Norman Clouser of York, was unhurt.

A photo from the scene of the clown van accident.

The van with the clowns in it was also pulling a trailer with a clown car on it.

Four clowns were in the van at the time, and one of them, the driver who goes by "Dimples the Clown," was taken to an area hospital for minor injuries.

Police say the clowns were going to the York Fair when the driver missed the entrance and attempted to turn around when the crash happened.

Police said "Dimples" was wearing clown shoes but the oversized footwear apparently didn't play a role in the crash.

West York Borough police Sgt. Brad Thomas said both vehicles had to be towed. He didn't know if the clowns ever made it to the fair.

A clown appearance much more sinister is another bit of news this week, out of the United Kingdom.

The sightings of a mystery clown may have been taking place for some time, but reports of them tied his initial appearance to Friday the 13th of September. In the British town of Northampton, the creepy clown, said The Herald & Post, was of a man with white face, red hair and sharply arched eyebrows. He appeared in two separate areas of Northampton.

(Northampton, btw, is the city of Dark Knight creator/magician/graphic novelist Alan Moore, as noted by RPJ.)

The Independent compared his appearance to that of Pennywise from Stephen King's film IT. Staring at people, he's been reported holding a clown teddybear and at other times, balloons.

One female resident of Northampton told the Inquisitr that the clown knocked on her door and offered to paint her window sills.

Have there been copycats? The Northampton Chronicle said that two "teens" dressed as clowns knocked on a resident's door and asked if they could paint her window sills—though they had no paint or brushes.

Over at Dangerous Minds, a comment maker has left this keen observation:

"655321
"I never read the novel, but reading the wiki I see that [Stephen King's] It shows up roughly every 27 years in Derry. The book was published 15 September, 1986. 27 years ago."

What's next?

Horror Clown: The Face of Tomorrow?

WARNING: 

NOT FOR CHILDREN or

SUFFERERS OF COULROPHOBIA

You just knew it was going to happen. An ad would reflect the ghastly and shocking future we see right in front of us. Indeed, something wicked this way comes.

This is not your grandparents' kind of commercial. 

 

(Thanks to Doug Stone for bringing this disgusting video to my attention. 

I shall be boycotting Herbaria Tea.)