Coulrophobia is the term for people who are terrified of clowns. Most of us don’t see clowns this way, but there is no denying some of them do look very creepy. The people who have coulrophobia experience many troubling things which include fear sweat, nausea, weakness, fast heartbeat, dread and other symptoms. While many of these symptoms are caused by coulrophobia they are not exclusive to it. Many other phobias produce at least some of the same ones. Clowns have been used has symbols of evil in many horror movies and this may have led to even more people fearing the sight of clowns. I think in previous times when circuses were more prevalent, people accepted clowns a lot more readily than they do today. Stephen King wrote the story titled “It” which revolved around a supernatural creature which took the form of a clown. Portraying clowns in this manner helps to fuel their image as dangerous, untrustworthy and perhaps evil.
Clowns are playing a big part today in South Carolina. They are being sighted in many different places and are being reported to be doing strange things. One sighting said a clown was offering money to children if they would follow him into the woods. If that doesn’t sound evil I don’t know what does. While some of us seem to be scared of clowns, children seem to love them. Stephen King even remarked on what is happening in South Carolina and said, "The clown furor will pass, as these things do, but it will come back, because under the right circumstances, clowns really can be terrifying." The police seemed to think there are many copycat clowns walking around and they’re asking people not to do this. One report was about clowns in Greenville, South Carolina. Reports were of clowns standing around by roadsides completely silent and also of clowns hanging around laundromats. The phenomenon seems to have spread to North Carolina where police there will reporting a wave of sightings of clowns.
So what the heck is going on here? Are these all different people as the police suspect or are the same people moving in a certain direction? A weird theory has emerged and it states these clowns are moving towards the state of Maine where the fictional town of Derry appeared in Mr. King’s novel “It”. This certainly sounds bizarre to me. Just because clown sightings have happened in South Carolina then North Carolina doesn’t indicate to me that there are a group of clowns headed towards Maine. Maybe a group of Stephen King groupies have dressed like clowns and are headed towards his home. Even that would seem to be extremely bizarre, especially since the story about the clown was written years ago. Why would people wait all these years and then decide that this would be a good idea?
In the past some criminals have dressed like clowns and terrorized different areas. John Wayne Gacy was notorious for dressing as a clown and became known as the killer clown. He was an American serial killer and rapist and sexually assaulted and murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men in Cook County, Illinois. He buried at least 26 of the bodies in the crawls pace under his home. This was a very sick individual who certainly contributed to people’s fear of clowns. He received the ultimate punishment for his crimes and was executed by lethal injection.
Problems with clowns are nothing new. Residents of a city in California were being terrorized by people dressed as clowns, some of which were carrying machetes and others baseball bats. In one week alone there were over 20 sightings and one clown was arrested and put into handcuffs. A juvenile who was dressed like a clown was chasing other teenagers, but police found that he was only participating in a hoax he had seen online.
Amon Paul 'Klutzo' Carlock Jr. was a clown and former minister who entertained thousands of children in Sunday school and other Christian gatherings around the world. One day he was returning from a stint as a clown at an orphanage in the Philippines and was stopped for a routine check at the airport. The reason for the stop was the country was a danger zone for child sex trafficking. When the authorities examined his car and his person they found photos of naked boys which was still in his camera and similar photos on his laptop computer. Subsequently his house was raided and more child pornography was found. Several boys then testified against him and told of his acts of sexual abuse.
Sometimes clowns turn up in the strangest of places. Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix was the brother of the head of the Arellano drug cartel. He was shot to death by a clown while he was at Los Cabos. Was this just a disguise for a gunmen or was this some crazed person in a clown suit who was going to continue his murderous ways? Marlene Warren heard a knock on her door and when she got to the door and opened it there was a clown holding two silver balloons and a bunch of flowers. She was about to speak to the clown, but before she could the clown shot her to death.
Canada has had their share of clown crimes in 2012 a large 230 pound clown tried to rob a credit union. Floridian Rondell McGarrett Johnson was in a clown costume which pictured him as a rather large woman clown. He didn’t have a real gun, but nobody wanted to take any chances so he was given the money, but his freedom didn’t last long, 15 minutes later he was in custody. The next criminal clown was even more bizarre, he was a clown wearing a mask. Several years ago a Florida resident opened the door only to find this clown on the steps. He had two other men with him with crowbars. The clown told her to run and the three men went inside the house. There was a man inside they tied up before taking a safe. The clown was arrested sometime later.
Is it any wonder why people are scared of clowns? As long as people dress as clowns and commit crimes or doing strange acts, this fear will continue to increase.
You can read the original article "Fear Of Clowns" written by me in 2009 by copying and pasting this address into your browser's address area, http://www.stimlock.ru/statya/Fear-Of-Clowns.php
