Reddit mentions of Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation's Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures

The first waves of coulrophobia that we have records of comprise what were initially labelled "phantom clown" scares. The earliest of these actually dates to 1981 – five years before Stephen King published It – and was reported on by Loren Coleman in a seminal article which appeared in the US magazine Fate (1982), and which was elaborated on shortly afterwards by Bob Tarte and Bill Holms in piece for the British magazine Fortean Times (autumn 1982) titled "A Circle of Clowns". Coleman's original article was later republished as a chapter of his book Mysterious America (1983), a compilation that has run through numerous editions since it was first published. It's very interesting to note, in this respect, that the relevant chapter was actually omitted from the 1989 edition, because, Coleman has said, it was considered "too scary" by the book's publisher.

The scare that Coleman reported on began in Boston, and involved the spread of accounts of men dressed in colourful clothes attempting to lure children into vans. The scare spread within the state, to Brookline, and then from Massachusetts to Pittsburgh and on to Kansas City, Denver, Omaha and St Louis, where newspapers reported on "killer clowns" that were supposedly menacing children at bus stops. In every case, the police investigated, but were unable to apprehend any perpetrators, and in fact concluded that no adults had seen any of the mysterious figures – every report they had originated with children, though they were actually phoned in by concerned parents: "We've had calls saying there was a clown at a certain intersection and we happened to have police cars sitting there, and the officers saw nothing. We've had over 20 calls on 911. When the officers get there, no one tells them anything."

In fact, all these tales conformed to a basic common pattern, as Coleman explained:

>I have always strictly defined a "Phantom Clown" episode as one involving a clown-costumed individual attempting to entice or lure a child into a van, the woods, or other isolated situations. But then when the police or parents get involved, no clown can be found or captured.

Tracing the spread of stories of this sort was not easy in the pre-internet age unless they became front-page sensations, which the great majority of "phantom clown" stories did not. Coleman was only able to do so by utilising the contemporary networks that then existed of amateur newspaper clippers who supplied Fortean Times, its US equivalent INFO Journal, and an organisation known as COUD-I ("Collectors of Unusual Data – International") which was run for several years in the 1980s by an American researcher called Ray Nelke. [Full disclosure: beginning in 1981, I was one of those clipsters, and I joined the Fortean Times team in 1982 and have worked either for or with the magazine ever since.]

Compiling the information that he was able to retrieve in this way, Coleman observed that, although "the national newspapers and wire services were totally unaware of the widespread nature of such accounts, the stories were remarkably alike." One key characteristic was that the perpetrators were never caught, and indeed very likely never existed – that is, the "scares" appeared to be a type of urban legend.

Coleman's work was picked up and followed up on by the folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand, who in August 1991 published an account titled "Take away kidnapping clowns" in the Syracuse Post Standard. Brunvand's article gives a listing of clown panics that begins with the 1981 "flap", and no earlier accounts have been traced so far, although similar reports have recurred as recently as 2016.

Several writers have attempted to investigate the factors that caused the initial wave of panic back in 1981. Two that were very heavily publicised at the time, and are frequently cited as possible inspirations, are the Atlanta child murders of 1979-81, later attributed to the serial killer Wayne Williams, which involved the widely-reported disappearance of at least 19 children and adolescents aged from 7 up, and – as you mention – the trial of John Wayne Gacy, which began in February 1980. Gacy, who was found guilty of murdering 33 children, adolescents and young men, had worked as a children's entertainer known as "Pogo the Clown".

Later inspirations certainly included It (1986) and the move Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988). But I'd suggest that some elements of the trope probably go back a lot further than that – very arguably at least as far as the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamlin.

Sources

Loren Coleman, Mysterious America (1983)

Robert E. Bartholomew and Benjamin Radford, The Martians Have Landed!: A History of Media-Driven Panics and Hoaxes (2011)

Hello, Brother!

Okay, so if it's non-fiction you want, then I know just what you need.

If you want a good overview, Mysterious America by Loren Coleman, who's more or less the godfather of cryptozoology, is a superb first entry for anybody interested in cryptozoology. I especially liked the sections on "Panthera Atrox." There are sections on phantom ships and other more mystical elements of the Fortean, and some might find its focus on North America a bit limited, but I'd still recommend it.

Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation's Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures

I'd also recommend Coleman's "field guides." These don't go into quite as much detail as Mysterious America, but they do provide a rather intriguing look at the diversity in sightings of animals that do not belong. The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates and The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep are useful, as is the similar, if somewhat dated, Cryptozoology A To Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature.

The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates

The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep

Cryptozoology A To Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature

Coleman's written some other books as well, focused on individual cryptids. Bigfoot: The True Story of Apes in America and Mothman and Other Curious Encounters are among the most notable.

Bigfoot: The True Story of Apes in America

Mothman and Other Curious Encounters

Moving on, I found another book that functions as a good overview of cryptozoology is Jerome Clark's Unexplained!: Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena. Clark gets into a bit more Fortean elements than Coleman does, but his book also includes some cryptids that Coleman rarely pays attention to--including living dinosaurs.

Unexplained!: Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena

If you have a particular taste for feline cryptids--surviving Panthera Artox, surviving saber-toothed cats, whatever the heck the ones is--then I must recommend the writings of Karl Shuker. Shuker is a prolific writer, and to list his books would take up a lot more space, but if I had to choose one, I'd recommend Extraordinary Animals.

Extraordinary Animals: Revisited

You didn't mention whether you were an American, but Stackpole Books has a "Monsters Of" series that has the folklore of individual states in the United States.

Following up on that, if you live in California, or if you have a fondness for sea monsters, then you may also like the book Mysterious Sea Monsters of California's Central Coast.

Mysterious Sea Monsters of California's Central Coast

Now, I know you said you weren't looking for novels, but if you have kids of your own, or you have younger relatives who might like the material, there's always the works of Roland Smith. Sasquatch and the "Cryptid Quartet" which includes Cryptid Hunters, Tentacles, Chupacabra, and Mutation are all great reads for middle readers, or for the young at heart.

Sasquatch

Cryptid Hunters

Tentacles

Chupacabra

Mutation