Yes, friends, the so-called "Evil Clown" of fiction, film and, in the case of John Wayne Gacy, true crime, who conceals his wickedness behind a layer of greasepaint, is a portrait drawn by tradition. Emasculated by generations of French Harlequins, Marcel Marceau and Ringling Brothers, the true clown is a debased devil -- real evil from the land of the dead, smothered under frightwigs, rubber noses, and doe-eyed innocence. No wonder clowns make so many of us ill at ease -- you can take the clown out of the evil, but you can't take the evil out of the clown.