The 2014 documentary Killer Legends featured a segment called "Why Are Clowns Scary?". The filmmakers traveled to Chicago to explore the previous clown panics that swept the city in 1991 and again in 2008, linking them to John Wayne Gacy who was a killer, and the Stranger Danger panic. It was around this time in 2014 that some of the first clown sighting appeared in the U.S., including early sightings in Staten Island, New York.
