Green Bay, to be precise. Five pictures of a creepy clown roaming a vacant parking lot under a bridge in downtown Green Bay at night started going viral on Aug. 1. A Facebook page was created shortly after claiming the clown was named "Gags." The story went national, from Fox News to CNN. Suspicions of the character being related to a horror film were confirmed when a Wisconsin filmmaker announced the pictures were a marketing stunt for a then unreleased short film titled "Gags." A feature film was produced based on the short film and premiered in 2018 with a wide release planned for September 2019. It wasn't well received -- in fact, the website Dread Central said "Gags needs more gags."
After the Wisconsin incident, numerous other incidents started popping up across the country. In August, kids reported “creepy looking” clowns sighted in Greenville, South Carolina. By September, clowns were reportedly seen in Oregon. In early October 2016, further incidents were reported in Canada and the first occurrences in the United Kingdom and Australia. British communities were described as "horrified" and pressure had been placed on police resources.
Clown sightings were reported in Medford, Grants Pass, Merlin, Bend and Portland. In the Rogue Valley, someone posing as a clown was arrested by police. According to the Central Point Police Dept., Michael Richard, 21, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and second-degree trespassing after police received reports that there were pictures of a clown holding a sign "We are Here" at Crater High School, North Medford High School, South Medford High School and Eagle Point High School. The CPPD received a number of tips about the clown’s identity, including a family member of Richard’s who identified him.
The CPPD increased security at area schools and several law enforcement agencies issued advisories on the potential problems if someone dressed as a clown in order to scare people.
While both news networks and social media have been ablaze with clown sightings and hoaxes, the phenomenon is not new.
According to media reports, the first creepy clown sightings were reported in early summer 1981 when reports came from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Missouri and a few other states. Clown sightings were also reported in 1988, 1991, 1994, 1997 and 2008.
One possible precursor event was the 2013 sightings of a "creepy clown" in Northampton, England. The Northampton clown sightings, which were in the town during September and October 2013, were the work of three local filmmakers Alex Powell, Elliot Simpson, and Luke Ubanski. The clown shared similar looks to Pennywise the Dancing Clown from Stephen King's book It. The trio started a Facebook page for the so-called "Northampton clown" and were using the appearances to drive traffic to the page.
In March 2014, Matteo Moroni from Perugia, Italy, owner of the YouTube channel DM Pranks, began dressing up as an evil clown and terrifying unsuspecting passersby, with his videos racking up hundreds of millions of views. A rash of sightings appeared in California in October 2014, which centered around the "Wasco clown", and primarily occurred in the Wasco, Calif., area with photos appearing on social media.
A person in clown attire was spotted in a cemetery in Chicago, in July 2015. This occurrence involved two residents who spotted the "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 waving slowly as they made a video recording. After waving for a few seconds, the clown ran into a dark wooded area and was not seen again. Police investigation of the sighting did not lead to any arrests.
“It does seem to happen in cycles,” said Heather Wade, then host of the late night radio talk show, Midnight in the Desert, a program dedicated to conspiracy theories, the paranormal and “not-so-ordinary” news events. The program started in July 2015, with Art Bell as host and Wade took over in December that year. She now hosts The Kingdom of Nye show, focusing on similar subject matter.
“It seems that this wave of sightings have really been inundating social media with hoaxes and rumors,” Wade said. “Contrary to some reports, no one dressed as a clown has been shot or killed. I think a majority of these sightings is copycats – you know, people with way too much time on their hands and thinking it’ll be good for a scare or a laugh. Now, Target and some other stores are refusing to sell clown masks and costumes. It’s getting out of hand.”
Wade thinks she knows how this current wave of clown sightings started.
“A few weeks ago, I was contacted by someone claiming to be working on the remake of It,” she said. Based on the 1986 Stephen King novel, the original 1990 miniseries featured an evil clown named Pennywise. “According to this source, some of these earlier clown sightings started as a viral marketing campaign for the new movie – which makes sense, as these clowns were seen holding red balloons, like Pennywise did in the novel.”
However, Wade feels that copycats seized upon the clown sightings and took it up to another level.
“I think that’s all it is,” she said. “I think people should be careful. I’ve heard stories of kids being scared and not wanting to go out on Halloween – I hope things settle down by then. I feel that the police and parents both will be cautious this Halloween. I hate to think that kids will have their fun spoiled by something like this.”
In the end, Wade believed that the clown sightings of 2016 would become urban legends, joining similar bewildering incidents that have happened over the years.
Which brings us full circle to murder hornets, prehistoric microbes and mysterious seeds.
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