John Wayne Gacy
John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer and sex offender known as the Killer Clown who assaulted and murdered at least 33 young men and boys. Gacy regularly performed at children's hospitals and charitable events as "Pogo the Clown" or "Patches the Clown", personas he had devised. He was also active in his local community as a precinct captain and building contractor.
John Wayne Gacy | |
|---|---|
 Gacy's mug shot, taken December 22, 1978 | |
| Born | March 17, 1942 |
| Died | May 10, 1994 (aged 52) |
| Cause of death | Execution by lethal injection |
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (175 cm)[1] |
| Political party | Democrat |
| Spouse(s) | Marlynn Myers
( m. 1964; div. 1969)Carole Hoff
( m. 1972; div. 1976) |
| Children | 2 |
| Conviction(s) |
|
| Criminal penalty | Death (12 counts) |
| Details | |
| Victims | 33+ |
Span of crimes | 1972–1978 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | Illinois |
Date apprehended | December 21, 1978 |
| Imprisoned at | Menard Correctional Center |
Gacy was convicted of the sodomy of a teenage boy in Iowa in 1968 and was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, but served only 18 months. He murdered his first victim in 1972, had murdered twice more by the end of 1975, and at least 30 subsequent victims were killed after his divorce from his second wife in 1976. The investigation into the disappearance of Des Plaines teenager Robert Piest led to Gacy's arrest on December 21, 1978.
According to Gacy, all his murders were committed inside his ranch house near Norridge, a village in Norwood Park, metropolitan Chicago. He would typically lure a victim to his home, dupe him into donning handcuffs on the pretext of demonstrating a magic trick, then rape and torture his captive before killing him by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a garrote. Twenty-six victims were buried in the crawl space of his home, three others were buried elsewhere on his property, and the last four were discarded in the Des Plaines River.
At the time, the conviction for 33 murders was the largest number charged to one individual in United States history. Gacy was sentenced to death on March 13, 1980. On death row at Menard Correctional Center he spent much of his time painting. He was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.
Early life
John Wayne Gacy was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 17, 1942, the second child and only son of John Stanley Gacy (June 20, 1900 – December 25, 1969) and Marion Elaine Robinson (May 4, 1908 – December 6, 1989).[2][3] His father was an auto repair machinist and World War I veteran,[4] and his mother was a homemaker.[5] Gacy was of Polish and Danish ancestry.[6] His paternal grandparents (who spelled the family name as "Gatza" or "Gaca") had immigrated to the United States from Poland (then part of Prussia in Germany).[7][8]
Childhood
As a child, Gacy was overweight and not athletic. He was close to his two sisters and mother but endured a difficult relationship with his father, an alcoholic who was physically abusive to his wife and children.[9] Gacy seldom received his father's approval, later recollecting that, no matter what he achieved, he was "never good enough" in his father's eyes.[10] His father regularly belittled him, calling him "dumb and stupid" and comparing him unfavorably with his sisters.[11] Despite this, Gacy always denied ever hating his father.[12]
One of Gacy's earliest childhood memories was of being beaten with a leather belt at the age of four for accidentally disarranging car engine components his father had assembled.[13] On another occasion, he was struck across the head with a broomstick and rendered unconscious.[14] When he was six years old, Gacy stole a toy truck from a neighborhood store. His mother made him walk back to the store, return the toy and apologize to the owners. His mother informed his father, who beat Gacy with a belt as punishment. After this incident, Gacy's mother attempted to shield her son from his father's verbal and physical abuse,[15] yet this only succeeded in Gacy earning accusations that he was a "sissy" and a "Mama's boy"[16] who would "probably grow up queer".[17]
In 1949, Gacy's father was informed that his son and another boy had been caught sexually fondling a young girl.[18] Gacy's father whipped him with a razor strop as punishment. The same year,[19] Gacy was molested by a family friend,[16] a contractor who would take Gacy for rides in his truck and then fondle him. Gacy never told his father about these incidents, afraid that his father would blame him.[11]
Because of a heart condition, Gacy was ordered to avoid all sports at school.[11] During the fourth grade, Gacy began to experience blackouts. He was occasionally hospitalized because of these seizures, and also in 1957 for a burst appendix.[20] Gacy later estimated that between the ages of 14 and 18, he had spent almost a year in the hospital for these episodes, and attributed the decline of his grades to his missing school. His father suspected the episodes were an effort to gain sympathy and attention, and openly accused his son of faking the condition as the boy lay in a hospital bed.[21] Although his mother, sisters, and few close friends never doubted his illness, Gacy's medical condition was never conclusively diagnosed.[22]
One of Gacy's friends at high school recalled several instances in which his father ridiculed or beat his son without provocation. On one occasion in 1957, the same friend witnessed an incident at the Gacy household in which Gacy's father began shouting at his son for no reason, then began hitting him. Gacy's mother attempted to intervene. The friend recalled that Gacy simply "put up his hands to defend himself", adding that he never struck his father back during these physical altercations.[22]
Career origins
In 1960, at the age of 18, Gacy became involved in politics, working as an assistant precinct captain for a Democratic Party candidate in his neighborhood. This decision earned more criticism from his father, who accused his son of being a "patsy". Gacy later speculated the decision may have been an attempt to seek the acceptance from others that he never received from his father.[23]
The same year Gacy became a Democratic candidate, his father bought him a car, with the title of the vehicle being in his father's name until Gacy had completed the monthly repayments.[24] These repayments took several years to complete, and his father would confiscate the keys to the vehicle if Gacy did not do as his father said. On one occasion in 1962, Gacy bought an extra set of keys after his father confiscated the original set. In response, his father removed the distributor cap from the vehicle, withholding the component for three days. Gacy recalled that as a result of this incident, he felt "totally sick; drained".[25]
Las Vegas
When his father replaced the distributor cap, Gacy left the family home and drove to Las Vegas, Nevada. He found work within the ambulance service before he was transferred to work as an attendant at Palm Mortuary. As a mortuary attendant, Gacy slept on a cot behind the embalming room.[25] He worked in this role for three months observing morticians embalming dead bodies, and later confessed that,[26] on one evening while alone, he had clambered into the coffin of a deceased teenage male, embracing and caressing the body before experiencing a sense of shock.[27][lower-alpha 1] This prompted Gacy to call his mother the next day and ask whether his father would allow him to return home.[27] His father agreed, and the same day Gacy drove back to Chicago to live with his family.[29]
Springfield
Upon his return, despite the fact he had failed to graduate from high school, Gacy successfully enrolled in the Northwestern Business College, from which he graduated in 1963.[30] Gacy subsequently took a management trainee position within the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company.[31] In 1964, the shoe company transferred Gacy to Springfield to work as a salesman.[26] He was eventually promoted to manager of his department. In March of that year, he became engaged to Marlynn Myers, a co-worker in the department he managed.[32]
During his courtship with Marlynn, Gacy joined the local Jaycees and became a tireless worker for the organization, being named Key Man for the organization in April 1964.[33] The same year, Gacy had his second homosexual experience. According to Gacy, he acquiesced to this incident after one of his colleagues in the Springfield Jaycees plied him with drinks and invited him to spend the evening upon his sofa; the colleague then performed oral sex upon him while he was drunk.[34] By 1965, Gacy had risen to the position of vice-president of the Springfield Jaycees.[35] The same year, he was named as the third most outstanding Jaycee within the state of Illinois.[36]
Waterloo, Iowa
KFC manager
After a six-month courtship, Gacy and Myers married in September 1964.[37] Marlynn's father subsequently purchased three Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Waterloo, Iowa, and the couple moved to Waterloo so he could manage the restaurants, with the understanding that they would move into Marlynn's parents' home (which was vacated for the couple).[32][38] The offer was lucrative: Gacy would receive $15,000 per year (the equivalent of $115,513 as of 2020), plus a share of profits earned via the restaurants.[39]
Following his obligatory completion of a managerial course, Gacy relocated to Waterloo with his wife later that year.[40] He opened a "club" in his basement where his employees could drink alcohol and play pool. Although Gacy employed teenagers of both sexes at his restaurants, he socialized only with his young male employees. Many were given alcohol before Gacy made sexual advances; if rebuffed, Gacy would claim his advances were simply jokes or a test of morals.[41]
Gacy's wife gave birth to a son in February 1966 and a daughter in March 1967. Gacy himself later described this period of his life as "perfect" – he had earned his father's approval, which he had long sought. When Gacy's parents visited in July 1966, his father apologized for the abuse he had inflicted during Gacy's childhood, and said: "Son, I was wrong about you".[42]
Waterloo Jaycees
In Waterloo, Gacy joined the local chapter of the Jaycees, regularly offering extended hours to the organization in addition to the 12- and 14-hour days he worked managing three restaurants. Although considered ambitious and something of a braggart by other Jaycees, he was highly regarded for his fund-raising work. In 1967 he was named "outstanding vice-president" of the Waterloo Jaycees.[43] At Jaycee meetings Gacy often provided fried chicken and insisted on being called "Colonel" (for Colonel Sanders).[44] The same year, Gacy served on the Board of Directors for the Waterloo Jaycees.[45] Many Jaycees in Waterloo were involved in wife swapping,[34] prostitution, pornography, and drug use; Gacy was deeply involved in many of these activities and regularly had sex with local prostitutes.[46]
Assault of Donald Voorhees
In August 1967, Gacy committed his first known sexual assault upon a teenage boy. The victim was 15-year-old Donald Voorhees, the son of a fellow Jaycee. Gacy lured Voorhees to his house with the promise of showing him pornographic films.[47] Gacy plied Voorhees with alcohol and persuaded Voorhees to perform oral sex upon him. Over the following months, several other youths were sexually abused in a similar manner, including one whom Gacy encouraged to have sex with his own wife before blackmailing him into performing oral sex upon him. Gacy tricked several teenagers into believing he was commissioned with conducting homosexual experiments in the interests of "scientific research", for which each was paid up to $50.[48]
In March 1968, Voorhees reported to his father that Gacy had sexually assaulted him. Voorhees Sr. immediately informed the police and Gacy was arrested and subsequently charged with oral sodomy in relation to Voorhees and the attempted assault of 16-year-old Edward Lynch.[48] Gacy vehemently denied the charges and demanded to take a polygraph test. This request was granted, although the results indicated Gacy was nervous when he denied any wrongdoing in relation to either Voorhees or Lynch.[49]
Gacy publicly denied any wrongdoing and insisted the charges against him were politically motivated—Voorhees Sr. had opposed Gacy's nomination for appointment as president of the Iowa Jaycees. Several fellow Jaycees found Gacy's story credible and rallied to his support. However, on May 10, 1968, Gacy was indicted on the sodomy charge.[49]
Section of report detailing Gacy's 1968 psychiatric evaluation.[50]
Witness intimidation
On August 30, 1968, Gacy persuaded one of his employees, 18-year-old Russell Schroeder, to physically assault Voorhees in an effort to discourage the boy from testifying against him. Gacy promised to pay Schroeder $300 to lure Voorhees to a secluded spot, spray Mace in his face, and beat him. Schroeder agreed, and in early September, he lured Voorhees to an isolated country park, sprayed Mace into the youth's eyes, then beat him.[51][52]
Voorhees managed to escape, and immediately reported the assault to the police, identifying Schroeder as his attacker. Schroeder was arrested the following day. Despite initially denying any involvement, he soon confessed to having assaulted Voorhees, indicating that he had done so at Gacy's request. Gacy was arrested and additionally charged in relation to hiring Schroeder to assault and intimidate Voorhees.[48]
On September 12, Gacy was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at the Psychiatric Hospital of the State University of Iowa. Two doctors examined Gacy over a period of 17 days before concluding he had an antisocial personality disorder (a disorder which incorporates constructs such as sociopathy and psychopathy), was unlikely to benefit from any therapy or medical treatment, and that his behavior pattern was likely to bring him into repeated conflict with society. The doctors also concluded he was mentally competent to stand trial.[53][54]
Conviction and imprisonment
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On November 7, 1968 Gacy pled guilty to one count of sodomy in relation to Voorhees, but not guilty to the charges related to other youths. Gacy claimed Voorhees had offered his sexual services to him and that he had acted out of curiosity. His story was not believed. Gacy was convicted of sodomy on December 3 and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, to be served at the Anamosa State Penitentiary.[53][55][56] That same day, his wife petitioned for divorce, requesting award of the couple's home and property, sole custody of their two children, and alimony.[57][58][lower-alpha 2] The Court ruled in her favor and the divorce was finalized on September 18, 1969. Gacy never saw his first wife or children again.[53]
During his incarceration in the Anamosa State Penitentiary, Gacy rapidly acquired a reputation as a model prisoner.[53] Within months of his arrival, he had risen to the position of head cook. He also joined the inmate Jaycee chapter and increased their membership figure from 50 to 650 in the span of less than 18 months. He is also known to have both secured an increase in the inmates' daily pay in the prison mess hall and to have supervised several projects to improve conditions for inmates at the prison.[59] On one occasion, Gacy oversaw the installation of a miniature golf course in the prison recreation yard.[60][lower-alpha 3]
In June 1969, Gacy first applied to the State of Iowa Board of Parole for early release: this application was denied. In preparation for a second scheduled parole hearing in May 1970, Gacy completed 16 high school courses, for which he obtained his diploma in November 1969.[53]
On Christmas Day 1969, Gacy's father died from cirrhosis of the liver. When told the news, Gacy collapsed to the floor sobbing.[53] His request for supervised compassionate leave to attend the funeral was denied.[62]
Return to Chicago
Gacy was granted parole with 12 months' probation on June 18, 1970, after serving 18 months of his 10-year sentence.[2][63] Two of the conditions of his probation were for Gacy to relocate to Chicago to live with his mother and to observe a 10:00 p.m. curfew, with the Iowa Board of Parole receiving regular updates as to his progress.[64][65]
Upon his release, Gacy told friend and fellow Jaycee Clarence Lane—who picked him up from the prison upon release and had remained steadfast in his belief of Gacy's innocence—that he would "never go back to jail" and that he intended to re-establish himself in Waterloo. However, within 24 hours of his release, Gacy relocated to Chicago to live with his mother.[65] He arrived in Chicago on June 19 and shortly thereafter obtained a job as a short-order cook in a restaurant.[66]
On February 12, 1971, Gacy was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy who claimed that Gacy had lured him into his car at Chicago's Greyhound bus terminal and driven him to his home, where he had attempted to force the boy into sex. This complaint was dismissed when the boy failed to appear in court. The Iowa Board of Parole did not learn of this incident (which violated the conditions of his parole) and eight months later, in October 1971, Gacy's parole ended.[67] The following month, records of Gacy's previous criminal convictions in Iowa were sealed.[68][lower-alpha 4]
8213 West Summerdale Avenue
With financial assistance from his mother, Gacy bought a house near the village of Norridge in Norwood Park Township, an unincorporated area of Cook County, a part of metropolitan Chicago. The address, 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, is where he resided until his arrest in December 1978 and where, according to Gacy, all his known murders were committed.[71] He became active in his local community, and his neighbors considered him helpful; willing to loan his construction tools and plowing snow from neighborhood walks free of charge.[72] Between 1974 and 1978, he hosted annual summer parties attended by hundreds of people, including politicians.[73]
In August 1971, shortly after Gacy and his mother moved into the house, he became engaged to Carole Hoff, a divorcee with two young daughters. Hoff, whom he had briefly dated in high school, had been a friend of his younger sister. His fiancée and stepdaughters moved into his home soon after the couple announced their engagement.[74] Gacy's mother subsequently moved out of the house shortly before his wedding, which was held on July 1, 1972.[65]
One week before Gacy's wedding, on June 22, he was arrested and charged with aggravated battery and reckless conduct. The arrest was in response to a complaint filed by a youth who claimed that Gacy had flashed a sheriff's badge, lured him into his car, and forced him to perform oral sex.[75] These charges were dropped after the complainant attempted to blackmail Gacy.[76]
PDM Contractors
In 1971, Gacy established a part-time construction business, PDM Contractors (PDM being the initials for 'Painting, Decorating, and Maintenance').[77] With the approval of his probation officer, he was allowed to work evenings to commit to his employment contracts while working as a cook during the day. The business initially undertook minor repair work, such as sign-writing, pouring concrete and redecorating, but later expanded to include projects such as interior design, remodeling, installation, assembly and landscaping. In mid-1973, Gacy quit his job as a cook so he could fully commit to his construction business.[78]
By 1975, PDM was expanding rapidly and Gacy was working up to 16 hours per day. In March 1977, he became a supervisor for PE Systems, a firm specializing in the remodeling of drugstores. Between PE Systems and PDM, Gacy worked on up to four projects at once and frequently traveled to other states.[79] By 1978, PDM's annual revenue was over $200,000.[80]
Employees
Much of the labor workforce of PDM consisted of high school students and young men.[81] Gacy would often proposition his workers for sex, or insist on sexual favors in return for acts such as the loaning of his vehicles, financial assistance, or promotions.[82] He also claimed to own guns, telling employee Arthur Peterson: "Do you know how easy it would be to get one of my guns and kill you—and how easy it would be to get rid of the body?"[83]
In 1973, Gacy and a teenage employee of PDM traveled to Florida to view property Gacy had purchased. On the first night in Florida, Gacy raped the employee in their hotel room.[84] After returning to Chicago, he drove to Gacy's house and beat him in his yard. Gacy told his wife he had been attacked for refusing to pay the employee for poor-quality work.[85]
In May 1975, Gacy hired 15-year-old Anthony Antonucci. In July 1975, Gacy went to Antonucci's home. The two drank a bottle of wine, then watched a heterosexual stag film before Gacy wrestled Antonucci to the floor and cuffed his hands behind his back.[86] One cuff was loose and Antonucci freed his arm while Gacy was out of the room. When Gacy returned, Antonucci—a high school wrestler—pounced upon him. He wrestled Gacy to the floor, obtained possession of the handcuff key and cuffed Gacy's hands behind his back. Gacy at first threatened Antonucci, then calmed down and promised to leave if Antonucci would remove the handcuffs. Antonucci agreed and Gacy left.[86] Antonucci later recalled that Gacy told him: "Not only are you the only one who got out of the cuffs, you got them on me".[87]
On July 26, 1976, Gacy picked up 18-year-old David Cram as the teenager hitchhiked on Elston Avenue. Gacy offered Cram a job with PDM, and Cram began working for his firm the same evening. On August 21, Cram moved into his house. The following day, Gacy—dressed as Pogo the Clown—conned Cram into donning handcuffs. Cram was drunk and the handcuffs were placed on him with his wrists in front of his body. Gacy swung Cram around while holding the chain linking the cuffs, then said he intended to rape him.[88] Cram kicked Gacy in the face and freed himself from the handcuffs. One month later, Gacy appeared at Cram's bedroom door with the intention to rape him, saying: "Dave, you really don't know who I am. Maybe it would be good if you give me what I want".[89] Cram resisted, straddling Gacy, who left the bedroom, stating, "You ain't no fun". Shortly thereafter, Cram moved out and left PDM, although he did periodically work for Gacy over the following two years.[90]
Shortly after Cram moved out of Gacy's house another employee, 18-year-old Michael Rossi, moved in.[91][92][93] Rossi had worked for PDM Contractors since May 1976.[94] He lived with Gacy until April 1977.[lower-alpha 5]
Politics
Gacy became active in local Democratic Party politics, initially offering the labor services of his employees to clean party headquarters for free.[96] He was rewarded for his community service by being appointed to serve upon the Norwood Park Township street lighting committee,[69] subsequently earning the title of precinct captain.[70][97]
In 1975, Gacy was appointed director of Chicago's annual Polish Constitution Day Parade—he supervised the annual event from 1975 until 1978. Through his work with the parade, Gacy met and was photographed with First Lady Rosalynn Carter on May 6, 1978. She signed one photo: "To John Gacy. Best wishes. Rosalynn Carter".[98] The event later became an embarrassment to the United States Secret Service, as in the pictures taken, Gacy can be seen wearing an "S" pin, indicating a person who has been given special clearance by the Secret Service.[99]
Clown
Through his membership in a local Moose Club, Gacy became aware of a "Jolly Joker" clown club, whose members regularly performed at fundraising events and parades in addition to voluntarily entertaining hospitalized children.[100] In late 1975, Gacy joined the Jolly Jokers and created his own performance characters: "Pogo the Clown" and "Patches the Clown".[101] He performed as Pogo at numerous local parties, political functions, charitable events, and children's hospitals.[102] Patches was used at the grand opening of stores of his PDM clients. Gacy designed his own clowning costumes and taught himself how to apply clown makeup. For these reasons, Gacy is known as the "Killer Clown".[lower-alpha 6]
Gacy was also known to occasionally remain in his clowning garb after a performance. On several occasions, he is known to have arrived, dressed in his clowning garb, at a favorite drinking venue, "The Good Luck Lounge", with the explanation he had performed at a charitable event and was stopping for a social drink before heading home.[103][104] Gacy later stated acting as a clown allowed him to "regress into childhood".[102]
Divorce
By 1975, Gacy had told his wife that he was bisexual.[105] After the couple had sex on Mother's Day that year, he informed her this would be "the last time" they would ever have sex.[84] He began spending most evenings away from home only to return in the early hours of the morning with the excuse he had been working late.[106] His wife observed Gacy bringing teenage boys into his garage and also found gay pornography and men's wallets and identification cards inside the house.[107] When she once confronted Gacy about who these items belonged to, he angrily informed her the property was none of her business.[107]
Following a heated argument regarding her failing to balance a checkbook correctly in October 1975,[108] Carole Gacy asked her husband for a divorce. Gacy agreed to his wife's request although, by mutual consent, Carole continued to live at 8213 West Summerdale until February 1976, when she and her daughters moved into their own apartment. One month later, on March 2, the Gacys' divorce—decreed upon the false grounds of Gacy's infidelity with women—was finalized.[109][110][111][lower-alpha 7]
Murders
Gacy is known to have murdered at least 33 young men and boys, 26 of whom were buried in the crawl space. He typically abducted his victims from Chicago's Greyhound Bus station, Bughouse Square, or simply off the streets. Some victims were grabbed by force, or conned into believing Gacy (who often carried a sheriff's badge and had spotlights on his black Oldsmobile)[113] was a policeman. Other victims were lured to his house with either the promise of a job with PDM, or an offer of drink, drugs, or money for sex.[114] The victims were usually lured alone to his house; although on approximately three occasions, Gacy had what he called "doubles"—two murder victims killed the same evening.[115]
Inside Gacy's home, his usual modus operandi was to ply a youth with drink, drugs, or generally gain his trust. Gacy would then produce a pair of handcuffs to show a magic trick, sometimes as part of a clowning routine. He typically cuffed his own hands behind his back, then surreptitiously released himself with the key, which he hid between his fingers. He then offered to show his intended victim how to release himself from the handcuffs.[116][117] With his victim manacled and unable to free himself, Gacy then made a statement to the effect of: "The trick is, you have to have the key".[118] Gacy referred to this act of restraining his victim as the "handcuff trick".[119]
Having restrained his victim, Gacy proceeded to rape and torture his captive. He frequently began by sitting on the chest before forcing his victim to fellate him.[120] He then inflicted acts of torture including burning with cigars, making his captive imitate a horse as he sat on their back and pulled upon makeshift reins around their necks, and violation with foreign objects such as dildos and prescription bottles after he had sodomized his captive.[121][122] To immobilize the legs of his captive prior to engaging in acts of torture, Gacy frequently manacled their ankles to a two-by-four with handcuffs attached at each end; an act inspired by the Houston Mass Murders.[123][lower-alpha 8] Several victims were dragged or forced to crawl into his bathroom where they were partly drowned in the bathtub before Gacy repeatedly revived them, enabling him to continue his prolonged assault.[127][128]
Gacy typically murdered his victims by placing a rope tourniquet around their neck before progressively tightening the rope with a hammer handle.[118][129] He referred to this act as the "rope trick", frequently informing his captive: "This is the last trick".[130] Gacy occasionally read sections of the 23rd Psalm as he tightened the rope around his captive's neck.[131][132] Occasionally, the victim convulsed for an "hour or two" before dying, although several victims died by asphyxiation from cloth gags stuffed deep into their throat.[118] With the exceptions of his final two victims, all were murdered between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m.[133]
After death, the victims' bodies were typically stored beneath his bed for up to 24 hours. Gacy then buried his victim in the crawl space, where he periodically poured quicklime to hasten the decomposition of the bodies.[132] The bodies of some victims would be taken to his garage and embalmed prior to their burial.[134] It is believed by some investigators that Gacy engaged in acts of necrophilia with the bodies of several victims prior to burial.[135]
Murder of Timothy McCoy
Gacy's first known murder occurred on January 2, 1972. According to Gacy's later account, following a family party, he decided to drive to the Civic Center in the Loop to view a display of ice sculptures before luring a 16-year-old named Timothy Jack McCoy from Chicago's Greyhound bus terminal into his car. McCoy was traveling from Michigan to Omaha. Gacy took McCoy on a sightseeing tour of Chicago, and then drove him to his home with the promise that he could spend the night and be driven back to the station in time to catch his bus.[136] Prior to McCoy's identification, he was known simply as the "Greyhound Bus Boy".[137]
Gacy claimed he woke early the following morning to find McCoy standing in his bedroom doorway with a kitchen knife in his hand.[138] He then jumped from his bed and McCoy raised both arms in a gesture of surrender, tilting the knife upwards and accidentally cutting Gacy's forearm.[139][lower-alpha 9] He then twisted the knife from McCoy's wrist, banged his head against his bedroom wall, kicked him against his wardrobe and walked towards him. McCoy then kicked Gacy in the stomach, doubling him over. Gacy then grabbed McCoy, wrestled him to the floor, then stabbed him repeatedly in the chest as he straddled him.[105]
As McCoy lay dying, Gacy claimed he washed the knife in his bathroom, then went to his kitchen and saw an opened carton of eggs and a slab of unsliced bacon on his kitchen table. McCoy had also set the table for two; he had walked into Gacy's room to wake him while absentmindedly carrying the kitchen knife in his hand.[141] Gacy buried McCoy in his crawl space and later covered his grave with a layer of concrete.[142] In an interview several years after his arrest, Gacy stated that immediately after killing McCoy, he felt "totally drained", yet noted as he listened to the "gurgulations" as McCoy lay gasping for air that he had experienced a mind-numbing orgasm as he had stabbed him.[138] He added: "That's when I realized that death was the ultimate thrill".[141]
Second murder
Gacy later stated the second time he committed murder was around January 1974.[143] This victim is still unidentified. Gacy strangled this victim before stowing his body in his closet prior to burial.[144][145] He later stated that bodily fluids leaked from the mouth and nose of this victim while stored in his closet, staining his carpet. As a result, Gacy regularly stuffed cloth rags, or the underwear of subsequent victims, in their mouths to prevent this leakage from recurring.[146]
Murder of John Butkovich
One week after the attempted assault of Antonucci, on July 31, 1975, another of Gacy's employees, an 18-year-old from Lombard, John Butkovich, disappeared.[147][148] Butkovich's car was found parked near the corner of Sheridan and Lawrence with his jacket and wallet inside and the keys still in the ignition.[149]
The day before his disappearance, Butkovich had confronted Gacy over two weeks' outstanding back pay. Butkovich's father, a Yugoslav immigrant, called Gacy, who claimed he was happy to help search for his son but was sorry Butkovich had "run away".[150] When questioned by police, Gacy said Butkovich and two friends had arrived at his house demanding the overdue pay, but that a compromise had been reached, and all three had left. Over the following three years, Butkovich's parents called police more than 100 times, urging them to investigate Gacy further.[150][151]
Gacy later admitted to encountering Butkovich exiting his car at the corner of West Lawrence Avenue, and waving to attract his attention. He invited Butkovich back to his home, ostensibly to settle the issue of his overdue wages. His wife and stepchildren were visiting his younger sister in Arkansas. Gacy offered Butkovich a drink, then conned him into allowing his wrists to be cuffed behind his back. Gacy said he "sat on the kid's chest for a while" before he strangled him. He initially stowed Butkovich's body in his garage, intending to later bury the body in the crawl space.[152] When his wife and stepdaughters returned to Illinois earlier than expected, Gacy buried the body of Butkovich under the concrete floor of the garage.[153]
Cruising years
In addition to being the year of his business expanding, Gacy freely admitted 1975 was also when he began to increase the frequency of his excursions for sex with young males.[154] He often referred to these jaunts as "cruising".[155] Gacy committed most of his murders between 1976 and 1978, as he largely lived alone following his divorce. He later referred to these as his "cruising years".
Although Gacy remained gregarious and civic-minded, several neighbors noticed erratic changes in his behavior after his 1976 divorce. This included keeping company with young males, hearing his car arrive or depart in the early hours of the morning, or seeing lights in his home switch on and off in the early hours.[109] One neighbor later recollected that, for several years, she and her son had repeatedly been awoken by the sounds of muffled high-pitched screaming, shouting, and crying in the early morning hours, which she and her son identified as emanating from a house adjacent to theirs on Summerdale Avenue.[156]
1976
One month after his divorce was finalized, Gacy abducted and murdered 18-year-old Darrell Samson. Samson was last seen alive in Chicago on April 6, 1976.[157] He was buried under the dining room, with a section of cloth lodged in his throat.[158] Five weeks later, on the afternoon of May 14, 15-year-old Randall Reffett disappeared while walking home from Senn High School. Reffett died of asphyxiation; his body was buried in the crawl space. Hours after Reffett had been abducted, 14-year-old Samuel Stapleton vanished as he walked to his home from his sister's apartment.[109][159] Investigators later stated they believed both victims were murdered the same evening.[160]
On June 3, Gacy killed a 17-year-old Lakeview teenager named Michael Bonnin. He disappeared while traveling from Chicago to Waukegan, and was strangled with a ligature and buried beneath Gacy's spare bedroom.[160][161][162] Ten days later, a 16-year-old Uptown youth named William Carroll was murdered and buried in a common grave in the crawl space. Carroll seems to have been the first of four males known to have been murdered between June 13 and August 6, 1976.[163] Three were between 16 and 17 years old, and one unidentified murder victim appears to have been an adult.
On August 5, a 16-year-old Minnesota youth named James Haakenson is last known to have phoned his family.[164] He was murdered and buried in the crawl space beneath the body of a 17-year-old Bensenville youth named Rick Johnston, who was last seen alive on August 6.[165][166][lower-alpha 10]
Two further unidentified males are estimated to have been killed by Gacy between August and October 1976. On October 24, Gacy abducted and killed teenage friends Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino: the two were last seen outside a restaurant on Clark Street.[168][169] Two days later, a 19-year-old construction employee, William Bundy, disappeared after informing his family he was to attend a party.[170] Bundy died of suffocation. His body was buried beneath Gacy's master bedroom.[171] Apparently he had worked for Gacy.[172]
In December 1976, another PDM employee, 17-year-old Gregory Godzik, disappeared: he was last seen by his girlfriend outside her house after he had driven her home following a date.[173][174] Godzik had worked for PDM for only three weeks before he disappeared. He had informed his family that Gacy had had him "dig trenches for some kind of (drain) tiles" in his crawl space.[92] Godzik's car was later found abandoned in Niles. His parents and older sister, Eugenia, contacted Gacy about Greg's disappearance. Gacy claimed to the family that Greg had run away from home, having indicated to Gacy before his disappearance that he wished to do so. Gacy also claimed to have received an answering machine message from Godzik shortly after he had disappeared. When asked if he could play back the message to Godzik's parents, Gacy stated that he had erased it.[92][175]
1977
On January 20, 1977, John Szyc, a 19-year-old acquaintance of Butkovich, Godzik, and Gacy, disappeared.[174] Szyc was lured to Gacy's house on the pretext of selling his Plymouth Satellite to Gacy, who later sold Szyc's car to Michael Rossi for $300.[176] Szyc had recently purchased new license plates for his car and his final paycheck remained with his employer.[177]
Between December 1976 and March 1977, Gacy is known to have killed an unidentified adult man. This victim was buried in the crawl space beneath the body of a 20-year-old Michigan native named Jon Prestidge, who disappeared on March 15.[178] Shortly before his disappearance, Prestidge had mentioned to acquaintances he had obtained work with a local contractor.[179] No cause of death could be determined for Prestidge. He was buried in the northeast section of the crawl space directly beneath the room Gacy used as his office.[180]
Gacy murdered one further unidentified youth and buried him in the crawl space in the spring or early summer of 1977, although the timing of this murder is inconclusive. On July 5, Gacy killed a 19-year-old from Crystal Lake named Matthew Bowman. Bowman was last seen by his mother at a suburban train station.[178]
The following month, Michael Rossi was arrested for stealing gasoline from a service station while driving John Szyc's car. The attendant noted the license plate number and police traced the car to Gacy's house. When questioned, Gacy told officers that Szyc had sold the car to him in February with the explanation that he needed money to leave town. A check of the VIN number confirmed the car had belonged to Szyc.[177] The police did not pursue the matter further, although they did inform Szyc's mother that her son had sold his car to Gacy in February.[181][182]
By the end of 1977, Gacy is also known to have murdered an additional six young men between the ages of 16 and 21. The first of these six victims was 18-year-old Robert Gilroy, the son of a Chicago police sergeant, who was last seen alive on September 15.[178][183] Gilroy lived just four blocks from Gacy. He was murdered and buried in the crawl space. On September 12, Gacy had flown to Pittsburgh to supervise a remodeling project and did not return to Chicago until September 16.[184] As Gacy is known to have been in another state at the time Gilroy was last seen, this is cited to support Gacy's claim of being assisted by one or more accomplices in several homicides. Ten days after Gilroy was last seen, 19-year-old former U.S. Marine John Mowery disappeared after leaving his mother's house to walk to his apartment.[178] Mowery was strangled and buried beneath Gacy's master bedroom.[171]
On October 17, 21-year-old Minnesota native Russell Nelson disappeared: he was last seen outside a Chicago bar. Nelson was in Chicago to look for contracting work.[179] He was murdered and buried beneath Gacy's guest bedroom. Less than four weeks later, 16-year-old Kalamazoo teenager Robert Winch was murdered and buried in the crawl space, and on November 18, 20-year-old father-of-one Tommy Boling disappeared after leaving a Chicago bar.[178]
Three weeks after the murder of Tommy Boling, on December 9, a 19-year-old U.S. Marine named David Talsma disappeared after informing his mother he was to attend a rock concert in Hammond.[178][185] Talsma was strangled with a ligature and buried in the crawl space, close to the body of John Mowery.[118]
On December 30, Gacy abducted 19-year-old student Robert Donnelly from a Chicago bus stop at gunpoint.[186] Gacy drove Donnelly to his home, where Donnelly was raped, tortured, and repeatedly had his head dunked into a bathtub until he passed out as Gacy taunted him with statements such as: "Aren't we playing fun games tonight?"[187] Donnelly later testified at Gacy's trial that he was in such pain that he asked Gacy to kill him. Gacy replied, "I'm getting round to it".[188] After several hours, Gacy drove Donnelly to his workplace and released him, first warning him that if he complained to police they would not believe him.[189]
1978
Donnelly reported the assault and Gacy was questioned by police on January 6, 1978. Gacy admitted to having had "slave-sex" with Donnelly, but insisted everything was consensual, adding that he "didn't pay the kid" the money he had promised him.[190] The police believed him and no charges were filed.[191] The following month, Gacy killed 19-year-old William Kindred, who disappeared on February 16 after telling his fiancée, who knew Gacy,[192] that he was to spend the evening in a bar.[193][194] Kindred was the final victim to be buried in Gacy's crawl space.[195][196]
On March 21, Gacy lured 26-year-old Jeffrey Rignall into his car. Upon entering the car, the young man was chloroformed and driven to the house on Summerdale, where his arms and head were restrained in a pillory device affixed to the ceiling.[197] He was then raped, tortured with various instruments including lit candles and whips, and repeatedly chloroformed into unconsciousness.[198] Rignall was then driven to Lincoln Park, where he was dumped, unconscious but alive. He was later informed the chloroform had permanently damaged his liver.[198]
Rignall managed to stagger to his girlfriend's apartment. Police were again informed of the assault but did not investigate Gacy. Rignall was able to recall, through the haze of that night, the Oldsmobile, the Kennedy Expressway and particular side streets. He and two friends staked out the Cumberland exit of the Expressway when, in April, Rignall saw the Oldsmobile, which he and his friends followed to 8213 West Summerdale.[199] Police issued an arrest warrant, and Gacy was arrested on July 15.[200] He was facing an impending trial for battery against Rignall when he was arrested.[201]
By 1978, the crawl space could store no further bodies.[52][202][203] Gacy later confessed to police that he initially considered stowing bodies in his attic, but had been worried of complications arising from "excessive leakage".[204] Therefore, he chose to dispose of his victims off the I-55 bridge into the Des Plaines River.[205] Gacy stated he had thrown five bodies into a river in 1978, one of which he believed had landed upon a passing barge.[71] Only four of these five bodies were ever found.[179]
The first known victim thrown from the I-55 bridge into the Des Plaines River, 20-year-old Timothy O'Rourke, was killed in mid-June after leaving his Dover Street apartment to purchase cigarettes. Shortly before his disappearance, he had told his roommate that a contractor on the Northwest Side had offered him a job.[196][206]
On November 4, Gacy killed 19-year-old Frank Landingin. His naked body was found in the Des Plaines River in Channahon on November 12.[206] On November 24, a 20-year-old Elmwood Park resident, James Mazzara, disappeared after sharing Thanksgiving dinner with his family, having informed his sister, Annette, that he was working in the construction industry and "doing all right".[207] He was last seen alive walking in the direction of Bughouse Square, carrying a suitcase.[80]
Murder of Robert Piest
On the afternoon of December 11, 1978, Gacy visited the Nisson Pharmacy in Des Plaines to discuss a potential remodeling deal with the store owner, Phil Torf. While Gacy was within earshot of 15-year-old part-time employee Robert Piest, he mentioned that his firm often hired teenage boys at a starting wage of $5 per hour—almost double the pay Piest earned at the pharmacy.[208][209]
Shortly after Gacy left the pharmacy, Piest's mother arrived at the store to drive her son home so the family could celebrate her forty-sixth birthday together.[210] Piest asked his mother to wait, adding that "some contractor wants to talk to me about a job". He left the store at 9:00 p.m., promising to return shortly.[211]
Piest was murdered shortly after 10:00 p.m. at Gacy's home.[211] Gacy later stated that at his house, he asked Piest whether there was anything he "wouldn't do for the right price", to which Piest replied that he did not mind working hard. In response, Gacy stated "good money" could be earned by hustling, although Piest was dismissive of this statement.[212] Gacy then duped Piest into donning handcuffs before stating: "I'm going to rape you, and you can't do anything about it" as Piest began weeping.[213] He also stated that as he placed the tourniquet around Piest's neck, the boy was "crying, scared".[214] Gacy also admitted to having received a phone call from a business acquaintance as Piest lay dying, suffocating on his bedroom floor.[215]
Investigation
When Piest failed to return, his family filed a missing person report on their son with the Des Plaines police. Torf named Gacy as the contractor Piest had most likely left the store to talk with about a job. Lieutenant Joseph Kozenczak, whose son, like Piest, attended Maine West High School, chose to investigate Gacy further.[216] Having spoken with Piest's mother on the morning of December 12, Kozenczak became convinced Piest had not run away from home.[216][217] A routine check of Gacy's criminal background revealed that he had an outstanding battery charge against him in Chicago and had served a prison sentence in Iowa for the sodomy of a 15-year-old boy.[218]
Kozenczak and two other Des Plaines police officers visited Gacy at his home the following evening. Gacy indicated he had seen two youths working at the pharmacy and that he had asked one of them—whom he believed to be Piest—whether any remodeling materials were present in the rear of the store.[219] He was adamant, however, that he had not offered Piest a job, and had only returned to the pharmacy shortly after 8:00 p.m. as he had left his appointment book at the store.[220] Gacy promised to come to the station later that evening to make a statement confirming this, indicating he was unable to do so at that moment as his uncle had just died. When questioned as to how soon he could come to the police station, he responded: "You guys are very rude. Don't you have any respect for the dead?"[221]
At 3:20 a.m., Gacy, covered in mud, arrived at the police station, claiming he had been involved in a car accident.[222] Upon returning to the police station later that day, Gacy denied any involvement in the disappearance of Piest and repeated that he had not offered him a job. When asked why he had returned to the pharmacy, Gacy repeated his claim that he had done so in response to a phone call from Torf informing him he had left his appointment book at the store. Detectives had already spoken with Torf, who had stated he had placed no such call to Gacy.[223] At the request of detectives, Gacy prepared a written statement detailing his movements on December 11.[224]
First search warrant
Suspecting Gacy may be holding Piest against his will at his home, Des Plaines police obtained a warrant to search Gacy's house on December 13.[225] This search of Gacy's property revealed several suspicious items, including several police badges and a 6mm Brevettata starter pistol inside an office drawer, and a syringe and hypodermic needle inside a cabinet in Gacy's bathroom. Investigators also found handcuffs, books on homosexuality and pederasty, seven pornographic films, capsules of amyl nitrite,[226] and an 18-inch dildo in Gacy's bedroom.[227] A 39-inch-long two-by-four with two holes drilled into each end, bottles of Valium and atropine, and several driver's licenses were found in the northwest bedroom. A blue hooded parka was found atop a tool box inside the laundry room, and underwear too small to fit Gacy was located inside a bathroom closet.[227][228]
In the northwest bedroom, investigators found a Maine West High School ring, but the ring was not Piest's. This ring was a class of 1975 ring engraved with the initials J.A.S.[229][230] A photo receipt from Nisson Pharmacy was also recovered from a trash can, alongside a section of nylon rope measuring thirty-six inches.[227]
Surveillance
Gacy's Oldsmobile and other PDM work vehicles were confiscated by the Des Plaines police, who assigned two two-man surveillance teams to monitor Gacy on a rotational twelve-hour basis as they continued their investigation into his background and potential involvement in Piest's disappearance.[231] These surveillance teams consisted of officers Mike Albrecht and David Hachmeister, and Ronald Robinson and Robert Schultz.[232] The following day, investigators received a phone call from Michael Rossi, who informed the investigators both of Gregory Godzik's disappearance and the fact that another PDM employee, Charles Hattula, had been found drowned in an Illinois river earlier that year.[233][234]
On December 15, Des Plaines investigators obtained further details upon Gacy's battery charge, learning the complainant, Jeffrey Rignall, had reported that Gacy had lured him into his car, then chloroformed, raped and tortured him before dumping him, with severe chest and facial burns and rectal bleeding, in Lincoln Park the following morning. In an interview with Gacy's former wife the same day, they learned of the disappearance of John Butkovich.[235] The same day, the Maine West High School ring was traced to a John Alan Szyc.[236] An interview with Szyc's mother revealed that several items from her son's apartment were also missing, including a Motorola TV set.[237]
By December 16, Gacy was becoming affable with the surveillance detectives, regularly inviting them to join him for meals in restaurants and occasionally for drinks in bars or within his home. He repeatedly denied that he had anything to do with Piest's disappearance and accused the officers of harassing him because of his political connections or because of his recreational drug use. Knowing these officers were unlikely to arrest him on anything trivial, he openly taunted them by flouting traffic laws and succeeded in losing his pursuers on more than one occasion.[238] That afternoon, Cram consented to a police interview, in which he described Gacy's open-minded attitude regarding sex between males, and his workaholic lifestyle. Cram also divulged that, on one occasion, due to his poor timekeeping, Gacy had given him a watch, explaining he had obtained the item "from a dead person".[239]
On December 17, investigators conducted a formal interview of Michael Rossi, who informed them Gacy had sold Szyc's vehicle to him with the explanation that he had bought the car from Szyc because Szyc needed money to move to California. A further examination of Gacy's Oldsmobile was conducted on this date. In the course of examining the trunk of the car, the investigators discovered a small cluster of fibers which may have been human hair. These fibers were sent for further analysis. That evening, officers conducted a test using three trained German shepherd search dogs to determine whether Piest had been present in any of Gacy's vehicles.[240] The dogs were allowed to examine each of Gacy's vehicles, whereupon one dog approached Gacy's Oldsmobile and lay upon the passenger seat in what the dog's handler informed investigators was a "death reaction", indicating the body of Piest had been present in this vehicle.[240]
That evening, Gacy invited the surveillance detectives Albrecht and Hachmeister to a restaurant for a meal. In the early hours of December 18, he invited them into another restaurant where, over breakfast, he talked of his business, his marriages and his activities as a registered clown. At one point during the conversation, Gacy remarked: "You know... clowns can get away with murder".[241][242]
Civil suit
By December 18, Gacy was beginning to show visible signs of strain as a result of the constant surveillance: he was unshaven, looked tired, appeared anxious and was drinking heavily. That afternoon, he drove to his lawyers' office to prepare a $750,000 civil suit against the Des Plaines police, demanding that they cease their surveillance.[243] The same day, the serial number of the Nisson Pharmacy photo receipt found in Gacy's kitchen was traced to 17-year-old Kim Byers, a colleague of Piest at Nisson Pharmacy, who admitted when contacted in person the following day that she had worn the jacket on December 11 to shield herself from the cold and had placed the receipt in the parka pocket just before she gave the coat to Piest as he left the store to talk with a contractor.[244] Byers was adamant the contractor had lured Piest from the store, as Piest had said to her: "The contractor guy wants to talk to me. I'll be right back."[245] This revelation contradicted Gacy's previous statements that he had had no contact with Robert Piest on the evening of December 11.[246]
Second search warrant
The same evening, Michael Rossi was interviewed a second time: on this occasion, Rossi was more cooperative, informing detectives that in the summer of 1977, Gacy had had him spread ten bags of lime in the crawl space of the house.[247]
On December 19, investigators began compiling evidence for a second search warrant of Gacy's house. The same day, Gacy's lawyers filed the civil suit against the Des Plaines police. The hearing of the suit was scheduled for December 22. That afternoon, Gacy again invited surveillance detectives inside his house. On this occasion, as officer Robinson distracted Gacy with conversation, officer Schultz walked into Gacy's bedroom in an unsuccessful attempt to write down the serial number of the Motorola TV set they suspected belonged to John Szyc. While flushing Gacy's toilet, this officer noticed a smell he suspected could be that of rotting corpses emanating from a heating duct; the officers who previously searched Gacy's house had failed to notice this, as on that occasion the house had been cold.[231]
Both David Cram and Michael Rossi were interviewed by investigators on December 20. Rossi had agreed to be interviewed in relation to his possible links with John Szyc as well as the disappearance of Robert Piest. When questioned by Kozenczak as to where he believed Gacy had placed Piest's body, Rossi replied: "In the crawl space; he could have put him in the crawl space".[248] A polygraph test showed his responses to questions to be inconclusive; however, upon his agreeing to a subsequent visual test in which a map of Cook County was divided into 12 grid sections numbered 1 to 12, with Gacy's home marked in the fourth grid section, Kozenczak noted an extreme response in Rossi's blood pressure when asked: "Is the body of Robert Piest buried in grid number 4?"[249] Upon hearing this question, Rossi refused to continue the polygraph questioning, although he did discuss further his digging trenches in the crawl space and remarked upon Gacy's insistence that he not deviate from where he was instructed to dig.[250]
Cram informed investigators of Gacy's attempts to rape him in 1976 and stated that after he and Gacy had returned to his home after the December 13 search of his property, Gacy had turned pale upon noting a clot of mud on his carpet which he suspected had come from his crawl space. Cram then stated Gacy had grabbed a flashlight and immediately entered the crawl space to look for evidence of digging. When asked whether he had been to the crawl space, Cram replied he had once been asked by Gacy to spread lime down there and had also dug trenches upon Gacy's behest with the explanation they were for drainage pipes.[247] Cram stated these trenches were 2 feet (0.61 m) wide, 6 feet (1.8 m) long and 2 feet (0.61 m) deep—the size of graves.[251]
Confession
On the evening of December 20, Gacy drove to his lawyers' office in Park Ridge to attend a scheduled meeting ostensibly to discuss the progress of his civil suit. Upon his arrival Gacy appeared disheveled and immediately asked for an alcoholic drink whereupon Sam Amirante fetched a bottle of whiskey from his car. Upon his return Amirante asked Gacy what he had to discuss with them. Gacy picked up a copy of the Daily Herald from Amirante's desk, pointed to a front-page article covering the disappearance of Robert Piest and said, "This boy is dead. He's in a river".[252]
Over the following hours Gacy gave a rambling confession that ran into the early hours of the following morning. He began by informing Amirante and Stevens he had "been the judge ... jury and executioner of many, many people", and that he now wanted to be the same for himself.[253] He stated most of his victims were buried in his crawl space, and others in the Des Plaines River. Gacy dismissed his victims as "male prostitutes", "hustlers" and "liars" to whom he gave "the rope trick", adding that he occasionally awoke to find "dead, strangled kids" on his floor, with their hands cuffed behind their back.[254] He had buried their bodies in his crawl space as he believed "they were my property".[141]
As a result of the alcohol he had consumed, Gacy fell asleep midway through his confession and Amirante immediately arranged a psychiatric appointment for Gacy at 9:00 a.m. that morning. Upon awakening several hours later, Gacy simply shook his head when informed by Amirante he had earlier confessed to killing approximately 30 people, stating: "Well, I can't think about this right now. I've got things to do". Ignoring his lawyers' advice regarding his scheduled appointment, Gacy left their office to attend to the needs of his business.[255]
Gacy later recollected his memories of his final day of freedom as being "hazy", adding that he knew his arrest was inevitable and that, in his final hours of freedom, he intended to visit his friends and say his final farewells.[256] Upon leaving his lawyers' office, Gacy drove to a Shell gas station where, in the course of filling his rental car, he handed a small bag of cannabis to the attendant, Lance Jacobson. Jacobson immediately handed the bag to the surveillance officers, adding that Gacy had told him: "The end is coming (for me). These guys are going to kill me". Gacy then drove to the home of a fellow contractor, Ronald Rhode. Inside Rhode's living room, Gacy hugged Rhode before bursting into tears and saying: "I've been a bad boy. I killed thirty people, give or take a few".[257] Gacy then left Rhode and drove to David Cram's home to meet with Cram and Rossi. As he drove along the expressway, the surveillance officers noted he was holding a rosary to his chin as he prayed while driving.[258]
After talking with Cram and Rossi, Gacy had Cram drive him to a scheduled meeting with Leroy Stevens. As Gacy spoke with his lawyer, Cram informed the officers that Gacy had divulged to him and Rossi that the previous evening, he had confessed to his lawyers his guilt in over thirty murders. Gacy then had Cram drive him to Maryhill Cemetery, where his father was buried.[259]
As Gacy drove to various locations that morning, police outlined their formal draft of their second search warrant. The purpose of the warrant was specifically to search for the body of Robert Piest in the crawl space. Upon hearing from the surveillance detectives that, in light of his erratic behavior, Gacy may be about to commit suicide, police decided to arrest him upon a charge of possession and distribution of marijuana[260] in order to hold him in custody as the formal request for a second search warrant was presented. At 4:30 p.m. on December 21, the eve of the hearing of Gacy's civil suit, the request for a second search warrant was granted by Judge Marvin J. Peters.[261] After police informed Gacy of their intentions to search his crawl space for the body of Robert Piest, Gacy denied the teenager was buried there, but confessed to having killed a young man in self-defense and buried his body under his garage.[179]
Armed with the signed search warrant, police and evidence technicians drove to Gacy's home. Upon their arrival, officers found that Gacy had unplugged his sump pump and that the crawl space was flooded with water; to clear the water they simply replaced the plug and waited for the water to drain. After it had done so, evidence technician Daniel Genty entered the 28-by-38-foot (8.5 m × 11.6 m) crawl space, crawled to the southwest area, and began digging.[262] Within minutes, he had uncovered putrefied flesh and a human arm bone. Genty immediately shouted to the investigators that they could charge Gacy with murder.[263] Genty added the remark: "I think this place is full of kids".[263]
The victim was too decomposed to be Piest, and as the body was later unearthed, a crime scene technician discovered the skull of a second victim alongside this body. Later excavations of the feet of this second victim revealed a further skull beneath the body.[264] Because of this, technicians returned to the trench where the first body was unearthed, discovering the rib cage of a fourth victim within the crawl space, confirming the scale of the murders.[265]
Arrest
After being informed that the police had found human remains in his crawl space and that he would now face murder charges, Gacy told officers he wanted to "clear the air", adding that he had known his arrest was inevitable since the previous evening, which he had spent on the couch in his lawyers' office.[266]
In the early morning hours of 22 December and in the presence of his lawyers, Gacy provided a formal statement, in which he confessed to murdering approximately 30 young males—all of whom he claimed had entered his house willingly.[71] Some victims were referred to by name, but most names Gacy claimed not to know or remember.[267] He claimed all were teenage male runaways or male prostitutes, the majority of whom he had buried in his crawl space.[115] Gacy claimed to have only dug five of the victims' graves in this location, and had his employees (including Gregory Godzik) dig the remaining trenches so that he would "have graves available".[268] One victim hailed from Round Lake; another had been a Michigan native. When shown a driver's license issued to a Robert Hasten which had been found on his property, Gacy claimed not to know this individual, but admitted this license had been in the possession of one of his victims.[269][270] In January 1979, he had planned to further conceal the corpses by covering the entire crawl space with concrete.[97]
When specifically questioned about Piest, Gacy confessed to strangling him at his house on the evening of December 11 after luring him there. He also admitted to having slept alongside Piest's body that evening, before disposing of the corpse in the Des Plaines River in the early hours of December 13.[271] The reason he had arrived at the police station in a dirty and disheveled manner in the early hours of December 13 was that he had been in a minor traffic accident en route to his appointment with Des Plaines officers after disposing of Piest's body. In this accident, his vehicle had slid off an ice-covered road, and he had unsuccessfully attempted to free the vehicle himself before the vehicle had to be towed from its location.[272]
Accompanied by police and his lawyers, Gacy was subsequently driven to the spot on the I-55 bridge from which he had confessed to have thrown the bodies of Piest, Landingin, and three other victims that summer[273] into the Des Plaines River.[196][274][275] Gacy was then taken to his house and instructed to mark his garage floor with orange spray-paint to show where he had buried this individual he supposedly killed in self defense, whom Gacy named as John Butkovich.[276]
Search for victims
Crawl space
During his confession, to assist officers in their search for the victims buried beneath his house, Gacy drew a rough diagram of his basement upon a phone message sheet to indicate where their bodies were buried.[277][lower-alpha 11] Twenty-six bodies would ultimately be unearthed from Gacy's crawl space over the next week, and two more were later unearthed elsewhere on his property.[278]
Cook County medical examiner Robert Stein supervised the exhumations.[279] Each victim unearthed from the crawl space was placed in a body bag and the body placed near the front door, awaiting late afternoon transportation to the mortuary.[280]
All the victims discovered at 8213 W. Summerdale were in an advanced state of decomposition, and Stein chiefly relied upon dental records and X-ray charts to facilitate the identification of the remains.[281][282] Identifications were also supported via personal artifacts found at the home.
Several bodies unearthed at Gacy's property were found with plastic bags over their heads or upper torsos.[lower-alpha 12] Several were also found with the rope still around their necks. In some cases, bodies were found with foreign objects such as prescription bottles lodged into their pelvic region, the position of which indicated the items had been thrust into the victims' anus.[283]
The crawl space was marked in sections and each body was given an identifying number. The first body recovered from the crawl space was assigned a marker denoting the victim as Body 1. The body of John Butkovich was labelled as Body 2.[284] On December 23, investigators returned to unearth the three corpses which had been buried in the same trench as Body 1.[285] Body 3 was buried in the crawl space directly above Body 4.[264] Alongside them, Body 5 was buried directly beneath Body 1.[286] A cloth rag was found inside the mouth of this victim.[287]
The search for victims was temporarily postponed over Christmas. Four more bodies were unearthed on December 26.[288] Bodies number 6 and 7 were buried in the same grave.[289] Body 7 was gagged with a cloth, leading investigators to conclude this victim most likely died of asphyxiation.[118][160][161] Body 8 was found with the tourniquet used to strangle him still knotted around his neck.[290] Body 9 was found beneath a layer of concrete, and was found to have several stab wounds to the ribs and sternum, suggesting he was Gacy's first victim.[105]
On December 27, eight more bodies were discovered.[291] Body 10 was buried face upwards, parallel to the wall of the crawl space directly beneath the entrance to Gacy's home.[292] Both Body 11 and Body 12 were found with a ligature around their necks and both were buried beside each other in the center of the crawl space, directly beneath the hallway.[118][171] Body 13 was found beneath the spare bedroom; Bodies 14 and 15 were recovered from a common grave diagonal to Body 10. The upper torso of both victims was concealed in a plastic bag.[293] Body 16 was found close to Body 13. This victim was found with a cloth rag lodged deep in his throat, causing this victim to die of suffocation. The seventeenth victim was found with a ligature around his neck.[294]
The following day, four more bodies were exhumed.[295] Body 19 was buried directly beneath Gacy's master bedroom, perpendicular to Body 18, which was located beneath the spare bedroom, and which was found with a ligature around the neck.[286] Body 20 was buried in the northwest corner of the crawl space perpendicular to Body 19.[171]
By December 29, six more bodies were unearthed. Bodies 22, 23, 24, and 26 were buried in a common grave located beneath Gacy's kitchen and laundry room,[163] with Body 25 located beneath Gacy's bathroom.[286] Body 22 was found directly beneath Gacy's kitchen with a section of cloth-like material lodged in his throat. Two socks were recovered from the pelvic region.[296][297] This victim was buried directly beneath Body 21 (recovered the previous day). Bodies 23, 24 and 26 were buried beneath the laundry room. The bones of victims 23 and 24 were commingled together, and a section of cloth was found inside the mouth of Bodies 24 and 26.[159][298][299][300] Body 25 was found beneath Gacy's bathroom with a section of cloth lodged in the throat.[301] The final victim recovered from Gacy's crawl space was also found beneath Gacy's bathroom, buried ten inches below the surface of the soil.[302] This victim was also discovered to have a section of cloth lodged deep in his throat.[286]
Operations were suspended due to the Chicago Blizzard of 1979, but resumed in March despite Gacy's insistence that all the buried victims had been found.[52][303] On March 9, Body 28 was found wrapped within several plastic bags and buried beneath the patio approximately 15 feet (4.6 m) from the barbecue pit in Gacy's backyard.[304][305] On March 16, Body 29 was found beneath the dining room floor.[306]
Stein concluded 12 victims recovered from Gacy's property died not of strangulation, but of asphyxiation.[80] Gacy's vacant house was demolished in April 1979.[307]
Des Plaines River
The victim found 6 miles (10 km) downstream from the I-55 bridge on June 30 was not initially connected to Gacy.[308][309] In January 1979, this victim was identified via fingerprint records and a distinctive tattoo upon his left biceps reading "Tim Lee" (a homage to Bruce Lee) as Timothy O'Rourke. An autopsy was unable to discount strangulation as the cause of death.[196][310] This victim was numbered 31.[294] Following Gacy's arrest, investigators discovered he was a further victim.
The cause of death of Frank Landingin (assigned victim number 32) was certified at autopsy as suffocation through his own underwear being lodged down his throat, plugging his airway and effectively causing him to drown in his own vomit.[311]
On December 28, one further body linked to Gacy was found one mile from the I-55 bridge. This victim was identified as James Mazzara, whom Gacy confessed to having murdered shortly after Thanksgiving.[80] Mazzara had been strangled with a ligature.[201][312]
On April 9, 1979, a decomposed body was discovered entangled in exposed roots on the edge of the Des Plaines River in Grundy County.[313] The body was identified via dental records as being that of Robert Piest. A subsequent autopsy revealed that three wads of "paper-like material" had been shoved down his throat while he was still alive, causing him to die of suffocation.[314][315]
Trial
Gacy was brought to trial on February 6, 1980, charged with 33 murders.[316] He was tried in Cook County, Illinois, before Judge Louis Garippo; the jury was selected from Rockford because of significant press coverage in Cook County.[317]
At the request of his defense counsel, Gacy spent over three hundred hours in the year before his trial with the doctors at the Menard Correctional Center. He underwent a variety of psychological tests before a panel of psychiatrists to determine whether he was mentally competent to stand trial.[318][319]
Gacy had attempted to convince the doctors that he suffered from a multiple personality disorder.[320] He claimed to have four personalities: the workaholic, civic-minded contractor, the clown, the active politician, and his fourth personality was a policeman called Jack Hanley, whom he referred to as "Bad Jack". When Gacy had confessed to police, he claimed to be relaying the crimes of Jack, who detested homosexuality.[321] His lawyers opted to have Gacy plead not guilty by reason of insanity to the charges against him. Presenting Gacy as a Jekyll and Hyde character,[322] the defense produced several psychiatric experts who had examined Gacy the previous year to testify to their findings.[323] Three psychiatric experts at Gacy's trial testified they found Gacy to be a paranoid schizophrenic with a multiple personality disorder.[52][324]
The prosecutors presented a case that indicated Gacy was sane and fully in control of his actions.[306] To support this contention, they produced several witnesses to testify to the premeditation of Gacy's actions and the efforts he went to in order to escape detection. Those doctors refuted the defense doctors' claims of multiple personality and insanity. Cram and Rossi both confessed that Gacy had made them dig trenches and spread bags of lime in his crawl space. Both testified that Gacy periodically looked into the crawl space to ensure they and other employees ordered to dig these trenches did not deviate from the precise locations he had marked.[325] Cram testified that in August 1977, Gacy had marked a location in the crawl space with sticks and told him to dig drainage trenches "a couple of feet wide and knee high" in order that a plumber could install piping.[90][250][326]
Immediately after Cram had completed his testimony, Rossi testified for the state. When asked where he had dug in the crawl space, Rossi turned to a diagram of Gacy's home on display in the courtroom. This diagram showed where the bodies were found in the crawl space and elsewhere on the property. Rossi pointed to the location of the remains of an unidentified victim known as "Body 13".[326] Rossi stated he had refused to dig any other trenches, but—at Gacy's request—had supervised other PDM employees digging trenches in the crawl space.[250]
On February 18 Robert Stein testified that all the bodies recovered from Gacy's property were "markedly decomposed [and] putrefied, skeletalized remains",[327] and that of all the autopsies he performed, thirteen victims had died of asphyxiation, six of ligature strangulation, one of multiple stab wounds to the chest, and ten in undetermined ways.[105][lower-alpha 13] When Gacy's defense team suggested that all 33 deaths were accidental (by erotic asphyxia), Stein called this highly improbable.[330][331]
Jeffrey Rignall testified on behalf of the defense on February 21.[332] Recounting his ordeal, Rignall wept repeatedly while describing Gacy's torture of him in March 1978. Asked whether Gacy appreciated the criminality of his actions, Rignall said he believed that Gacy was unable to conform his actions to the law's expectations because of the "beastly and animalistic ways he attacked me".[333] During specific cross-examination relating to the torture, Rignall vomited and was excused from further testimony.[334]
On February 29, Donald Voorhees, whom Gacy had sexually assaulted in 1967, testified to his ordeal at Gacy's hands and Gacy's attempts to dissuade him from testifying by paying another youth to spray Mace in his face and beat him.[335] Voorhees felt unable to testify, but did briefly attempt to do so, before being asked to step down.[335]
Robert Donnelly testified the week after Voorhees, recounting his ordeal at Gacy's hands in December 1977. Donnelly was visibly distressed as he recollected the abuse he endured and came close to breaking down on several occasions. As Donnelly testified, Gacy repeatedly laughed at him,[187] but Donnelly finished his testimony. During Donnelly's cross-examination, one of Gacy's defense attorneys, Robert Motta, attempted to discredit his testimony, but Donnelly did not waver from his testimony of what had occurred.[336]
During the fifth week of the trial, Gacy wrote a personal letter to Judge Garippo requesting a mistrial[337] on a number of bases, including that he did not approve of his lawyers' insanity plea strategy; that his lawyers had not allowed him to take the witness stand (as he had desired to do); that his defense had not called enough medical witnesses, and that the police were lying with regard to verbal statements he had purportedly made to detectives after his arrest and that, in any event, the statements were "self-serving" for use by the prosecution.[338] Judge Garippo addressed Gacy's letter by informing him that both counsels had not been denied the opportunity or funds to summon expert witnesses to testify, and that, under the law, he had the choice as to whether he wished to testify, and he was free to indicate as much to the judge if he wished to do so.[339]
Closing arguments
On March 11, final arguments from both prosecution and defense attorneys began, with the arguments concluding on the following day. Prosecuting attorney Terry Sullivan argued first, outlining Gacy's history of abusing youths, the testimony of his efforts to avoid detection and describing Gacy's surviving victims—Voorhees and Donnelly—as "living dead".[284] Referring to Gacy as the "worst of all murderers",[340] Sullivan stated: "John Gacy has accounted for more human devastation than many earthly catastrophes, but one must tremble. I tremble when thinking about just how close he came to getting away with it all".[284]
After the state's four-hour closing, counsel Sam Amirante argued for the defense. Amirante argued against the testimony delivered by the doctors who had testified for the prosecution, repeatedly citing the testimony of the four psychiatrists and psychologists who had testified on behalf of the defense.[341] Amirante also accused Sullivan of scarcely referring to the evidence presented throughout the trial in his own closing argument, and of arousing hatred against his client. The defense lawyer attempted to portray Gacy as a "man driven by compulsions he was unable to control", contending the State had not met their burden of proving Gacy sane beyond a reasonable doubt.[342]
In support of these arguments, the defense counsel repeatedly referred to the testimony of the doctors who had appeared for the defense, in addition to the testimony of defense witnesses such as Jeffrey Rignall and Gacy's former business associate Mickel Ried—both of whom had testified to their belief that Gacy had been unable to control his actions.[343] Amirante then urged the jury to put aside any prejudice they held against his client, and requested they deliver a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, adding that Gacy was a danger to both himself and to others, and that studying his behavior would be of benefit to scientific research and that the psychology of his mind should be studied.[344]
On the morning of March 12,[345] William Kunkle continued to argue for the prosecution. Kunkle referred to the defense's contention of insanity as "a sham", arguing that the facts of the case demonstrated Gacy's ability to think logically and control his actions. Kunkle also referred to the testimony of a doctor who had examined Gacy in 1968. This doctor had diagnosed Gacy as an antisocial personality, capable of committing crimes without remorse. Kunkle indicated that had the recommendations of this doctor been heeded, Gacy would have not been freed.[346]
At the close of his argument, Kunkle pulled each of the 22 photos of Gacy's identified victims off a board displaying the images and asked the jury not to show sympathy but to "show justice". Kunkle then asked the jury to "show the same sympathy this man showed when he took these lives and put them there!"[346] before throwing the stack of photos into the opening of the trap door of Gacy's crawl space, which had been introduced as evidence and was on display in the courtroom. After Kunkle had finished his testimony, the jury retired to consider their verdict.[347]
The jury deliberated for less than two hours[348] and found Gacy guilty of the thirty-three charges of murder for which he had been brought to trial; he was also found guilty of sexual assault and taking indecent liberties with a child; both convictions in reference to Robert Piest.[347][349] The conviction for 33 murders was then the largest number of murders charged to one individual in U.S. history.[104][350]
In the sentencing phase of the trial, the jury deliberated for more than two hours before sentencing Gacy to death for each murder committed after the Illinois statute on capital punishment came into effect in June 1977.[351][352][353] Execution was initially set for June 2, 1980.[354]
Death row
Upon being sentenced, Gacy was transferred to the Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois, where he remained incarcerated on death row for 14 years.[355]
Prior to his trial, Gacy initiated contact with WLS-TV journalist Russ Ewing, to whom he granted numerous interviews between 1979 and 1981.[356] Ewing later collaborated with author Tim Cahill to compose the book Buried Dreams.[357] The information divulged by Gacy to Ewing would later prove instrumental in establishing the identity of his first victim.[358]
On February 15, 1983, Gacy was stabbed in the arm by Henry Brisbon, a fellow death row inmate known as the I-57 killer. At the time of this attack, Gacy had been participating in a voluntary work program when Brisbon ran towards him and stabbed him once in the upper arm with a sharpened wire. A second death row inmate injured in the attack, William Jones, received a superficial stab wound to the head. Both received treatment in the prison hospital for their wounds.[359]
Appeals
After his incarceration, Gacy read numerous law books and filed voluminous motions and appeals, although he did not prevail in any. Gacy's appeals related to issues such as the validity of the first search warrant granted to Des Plaines police on December 13, 1978, and his objection to his lawyers' insanity plea defense at his trial.[360] Gacy also contended that, although he held "some knowledge" of five of the murders (those of McCoy, Butkovich, Godzik, Szyc and Piest),[29] the other 28 murders had been committed by employees who were in possession of keys to his house while he was away on business trips.
In mid-1984, the Supreme Court of Illinois upheld Gacy's conviction and ordered that he be executed by lethal injection on November 14.[361] Gacy filed an appeal against this decision, which was denied by the Supreme Court of the United States on March 4, 1985. The following year, Gacy filed a further post-conviction petition, seeking a new trial. His then-defense lawyer, Richard Kling, argued that Gacy had been provided with ineffective legal counsel at his 1980 trial. This post-conviction petition was dismissed on September 11, 1986.[362]
The 1985 decision that he be executed was again appealed by Gacy, although his conviction was again upheld on September 29, 1988, with the Illinois Supreme Court setting a renewed execution date of January 11, 1989.[363]
After Gacy's final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied in October 1993, the Illinois Supreme Court formally set an execution date for May 10, 1994.[364]
Execution
On the morning of May 9, 1994, Gacy was transferred from the Menard Correctional Center to Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill to be executed. That afternoon, he was allowed a private picnic on the prison grounds with his family. For his last meal, Gacy ordered a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, a dozen fried shrimp, french fries, fresh strawberries, and a Diet Coke.[365] That evening, he observed prayer with a Catholic priest before being escorted to the Stateville execution chamber to receive a lethal injection.[366]
Before the execution began, the chemicals used to perform the execution unexpectedly solidified, clogging the IV tube administering the chemicals into Gacy's arm and complicating the execution procedure. Blinds covering the window through which witnesses observed the execution were drawn, and the execution team replaced the clogged tube to complete the procedure. After ten minutes, the blinds were reopened and the execution resumed. The entire procedure took 18 minutes.[367] Anesthesiologists blamed the problem on the inexperience of prison officials who were conducting the execution, stating that had correct execution procedures been followed, the complications would never have occurred. This error apparently led to Illinois' subsequent adoption of an alternative method of lethal injection. On this subject, one of the prosecutors at Gacy's trial, William Kunkle, said: "He got a much easier death than any of his victims".[368]
According to published reports, Gacy was a diagnosed psychopath who did not express any remorse for his crimes.[369] His final statement to his lawyer before his execution was that killing him would not compensate for the loss of others, and that the state was murdering him.[368] His final spoken words were reported to be "Kiss my ass".[370]
In the hours leading up to Gacy's execution, a crowd estimated to number over 1,000 gathered outside the correctional center; the majority of whom were vocally in favor of the execution, although a number of anti-death penalty protesters were also present.[371] Some of those in favor of the execution wore T-shirts hearkening to Gacy's previous community services as a clown and bearing satirical slogans such as "No tears for the clown".[372] The anti-death penalty protesters present observed a silent candlelight vigil.[373]
After Gacy's death was confirmed at 12:58 a.m. on May 10, 1994, his brain was removed. It is in the possession of Helen Morrison, a witness for the defense at Gacy's trial,[374] who has interviewed Gacy and other serial killers in an attempt to isolate common personality traits of violent sociopaths. His body was cremated after the execution.
In the months following Gacy's execution, many of his paintings were auctioned. Some were bought so that they could be destroyed in a June 1994 communal bonfire held in Naperville, Illinois and attended by approximately 300 people, including family members of nine of Gacy's victims.[375]
Victims
Identified victims
Only 27 of Gacy's victims were ever conclusively identified. Of Gacy's identified victims, the youngest were Samuel Stapleton and Michael Marino, both 14; the oldest was Russell Nelson, who was 21. Six victims have never been identified.[376]
The first victims to be identified were John Butkovich (Body 2), John Szyc (Body 3), and Gregory Godzik (Body 4). Their identities were confirmed via dental records on December 29, 1978. The thirty-third victim linked to Gacy, James Mazzara, was identified the following day.[179] The twenty-third victim exhumed from Gacy's property was identified as Rick Johnston on January 1.[377]
Four further victims were identified on January 6: Body 18 was identified as Michael Bonnin; Body 25 was identified as Robert Gilroy; the first victim exhumed from the crawl space was identified as Jon Prestidge; and the victim labelled Body 16 was identified as Russell Nelson. A fishing license issued to Bonnin had previously been found in Gacy's home.[179] Three days later, the victim recovered from the Des Plaines River on June 30 was identified as Timothy O'Rourke.[294]
On January 27, dental charts were used to identify Body 20 as John Mowery. Two days later, Body 8 was identified as Matthew Bowman.[301]
Two months later, on March 27, the twenty-second victim recovered from Gacy's property was identified via dental records as William Carroll.[179] The following month, the identity of the seventh victim was confirmed via X-Ray records as Randall Reffett,[179] and on May 21, dental records confirmed the identity of Body 27 as William Kindred.[179]
On September 12, Bodies 11 and 12 were identified as Robert Winch and Tommy Boling respectively. Winch was identified via distinctive healed bone fractures. A distinctive brown "tiger's eye" metal buckle with black stripings belonging to Winch had previously been found in Gacy's home.[179]
The sixth victim exhumed from Gacy's property was identified via dental records as Samuel Stapleton on November 14, 1979.[179] On November 16, Body 17 was identified as David Talsma via comparison of radiology records of a healed fracture of the left scapula.[281] Two days later, the final victim recovered from Gacy's property, Body 29, was identified as Darrell Samson.[158]
In March 1980, Bodies 14 and 15 were identified via dental and radiology records as those Michael Marino and Kenneth Parker. Their identities were confirmed too late to include among the identified victims at Gacy's trial.[169][378][379]
In May 1986, the ninth victim exhumed from Gacy's property was identified as Timothy Jack McCoy, Gacy's first victim.[380][381] Dental records and a distinctive belt buckle assisted this identification.[382]
Renewed efforts
In October 2011, Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart announced that investigators, having obtained full DNA profiles from each of the unidentified victims, were to renew their efforts to identify all of them. At a press conference held to announce this intention, Sheriff Dart stated investigators are actively seeking DNA samples from individuals across the United States related to any male missing between 1970 and 1979.[383]
Test results thus far conducted have confirmed the identification of two victims, ruled out the possibility of numerous other missing youths as being victims of Gacy,[384][385] and solved four unrelated cold cases dating between 1972 and 1979.[386][387][388][389] In November 2011, the victim previously known as Body 19 was identified through DNA testing as William Bundy, who may have worked for Gacy.[172] Shortly after Gacy's arrest, Bundy's family had contacted his dentist in the hope of submitting his dental records for comparison with the unidentified bodies. However, the records had been destroyed after the dentist had retired.[390] The most recent victim to be identified is 16-year-old James Haakenson, who was identified in July 2017 using DNA testing. He was the twenty-fourth victim exhumed from beneath Gacy's property.[391]
List
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Unidentified victims
Six victims remain unidentified, five of whom had been buried beneath Gacy's crawl space, with one additional youth buried approximately 15 feet (4.6 m) from the barbecue pit in his backyard.[392] Forensic experts used the skulls of the unidentified victims to create facial reconstructions.[393]
Based upon Gacy's confession, information relative to where the victims were buried in his crawl space relative to Gacy's identified victims, and forensic analysis, police were able to determine the most likely dates when his unidentified victims were killed.[394]
- January 3, 1972 – July 31, 1975. Body 28. Backyard. Male aged 14–18.
- June 13 – August 5, 1976. Body 26. Crawl space. Male aged 23–30.
- August 6 – October 5, 1976. Body 13. Crawl space. Male aged 18–22.
- August 6 – October 24, 1976. Body 21. Crawl space. Male aged 15–24.
- December 1976 – March 15, 1977. Body 5. Crawl space. Male aged 22–32.
- March 15 – July 5, 1977. Body 10. Crawl space. Male aged 17–21.
Gacy's likely second murder victim, Body 28, is believed to have been an unidentified teenager with brown hair, approximately 5 ft 9 in (180 cm) in height, and estimated to be aged between 14 and 18. This victim was buried near Gacy's barbecue pit, possibly in 1975.[395] He wore a silver ring on the fourth finger of his left hand, indicating the possibility he had been married.[396][lower-alpha 14]
Body 26 was a man with medium dark brown hair estimated to have been aged between 23 and 30 years old and approximately 5 ft 4 in (160 cm) in height. This man had two missing upper front teeth at the time of his disappearance, leading investigators to believe this particular victim most likely wore a denture. This victim was almost certainly murdered between June 13 and August 5, 1976.[398][399]
Body 13 was a man likely to have been murdered between August and October 1976. This victim was between 5 ft 9 in and 6 ft 2 in (180 and 190 cm) in height. He had long, dark brown, wavy hair and was between 18 and 22 years old.[400] This victim is known to have suffered from an abscessed tooth, and may have injured his left third rib months or years before his disappearance.[401][402] While Rossi also claimed to dig this grave in 1977, Cram claimed Gacy had him dig a trench in the southwest corner[293] of the crawl space where Body 13 was recovered before he left Gacy's residence on October 5, 1976.[326] In 2018, an updated facial reconstruction was released to the media.
Body 21 is estimated to have been aged between 15 and 24 years old and approximately 5 ft 10 in (180 cm) in height. He had light brown hair.[403][404] This victim was buried directly above the body of William Carroll, indicating his murder had occurred on or after June 13, 1976. As David Cram did not live with Gacy until August 21, 1976, a possible date for this murder is between August 6 and 20, 1976, although investigators have not discounted the possibility this victim may have been murdered later in 1976.[326]
Body 5 is a man with brown hair, approximately 5 ft 9 in (180 cm) in height, and estimated have been between 22 and 32 years old.[405] An inscription upon a leather key fob found with his body suggests his first name may have been Greg or Gregory.[406] This victim was almost certainly murdered between December 1976 and March 15, 1977.[178]
Body 10 was aged between 17 and 21 years old, between 5 ft 7 in and 5 ft 11 in (170 and 180 cm), and had suffered a fractured left collarbone months or years before his disappearance.[407] The two victims murdered on the same day in May 1976 were buried alongside this victim, yet sequential burial patterns of three victims murdered in 1977 leave an equal possibility he may have been murdered in the spring or summer of 1977. Statements made by Gacy following his arrest leave a possibility this unidentified victim may have been murdered as early as 1974.[408] In 2018, an updated facial reconstruction was released to the media.
Possible additional victims
At the time of Gacy's arrest, he had claimed to both Des Plaines and Chicago investigators that the total number of victims he had killed could be as high as 45.[409] However, only 33 bodies were ever found which were linked to Gacy. Investigators did excavate the grounds of his property until they had exposed the substratum of clay beneath the foundations, yet only 29 bodies were found buried upon his property.[410] When asked as to whether there were more victims, Gacy simply stated, "That's for you guys to find out".[411]
Gacy stated that after he had assaulted and then released Jeffrey Rignall in March 1978, he had begun to throw his murder victims into the Des Plaines River. He confessed to having disposed of five bodies in this manner. However, only four bodies recovered from the Des Plaines River were linked to Gacy.[412]
Identification dispute of Michael Marino
Disputed DNA and dental tests conducted between 2012 and 2016 indicates that neither body found in the common grave in Gacy's crawl space and identified as those of Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino in 1980 was actually Marino.[413][414][415] Marino's mother had always doubted the identification of her son because the clothing found upon Body 14 (dark corduroy trousers, high top athletic shoes and red socks[293]) was inconsistent with what her son had worn when she last saw him. In addition, the dental X-ray conducted upon the victim identified as Michael Marino had revealed the victim had all of his second molars, whereas a dental X-ray conducted upon Marino in March 1976 revealed one molar had not erupted.[416] The original identification of the body identified as Michael Marino has been disputed because neither an upper nor a lower jaw bone was present upon the exhumed body.[417] Nonetheless, the orthodontist who had identified Marino's remains has stated his conviction in the accuracy of his findings, adding he had "compared 32 teeth, probably half a dozen of them had very distinct fillings and every one of them was consistent with Michael Marino".[lower-alpha 15]
Death of Charles Hattula
On May 23, 1978, 25-year-old Charles Hattula was found drowned in a river near Freeport, Illinois.[419] Hattula had been missing since May 13.[420] He was an employee of PDM and had been linked to the initial investigation of Gacy after Michael Rossi informed investigators of both Godzik's disappearance and Hattula's death. Moreover, Rossi had stated that Hattula was known to have conflicts with Gacy, and when Hattula had "failed to show up at work", Gacy had informed him and several other employees Hattula had drowned.[421][422] Hattula's body was later recovered from the Pecatonica River. Des Plaines authorities had contacted colleagues in Freeport during their investigation into Gacy, but were told Hattula had fallen to his death from a bridge.[423] At the time of Hattula's death, Gacy's crawl space could store no further bodies, which leaves a possibility Gacy had disposed of Hattula's body in the Pecatonica River as opposed to burying the man in his crawl space. However, Hattula's death has been officially ruled as asphyxia by drowning.[419][423]
West Miami Avenue
Retired Chicago police officer Bill Dorsch has stated he has reason to believe there may be more victims buried within the grounds of the apartment building located at the 6100 block of West Miami Avenue in Chicago; a property which Gacy is known to have been the caretaker of for several years prior to his 1978 arrest.[424] In 1975, Dorsch—then a Chicago police officer—observed Gacy (whom he knew on a casual basis), holding a shovel in the early hours of the morning. When confronted by Dorsch as to his actions, Gacy stated he was performing work that he was too busy to do during the day. Dorsch has also related that several other residents of West Miami Avenue have stated that, in the early- to mid-1970s, they had observed Gacy digging trenches in the grounds of the property;[425] one of these residents has also stated that Gacy later placed plants in the elongated trenches he had dug. At the time these actions had been observed, Gacy had still been married to Carole Hoff.[426]
In March 2012, Cook County Sheriff's officials submitted a request to excavate the grounds of this property. The Cook County State's Attorney denied this request, stating a lack of probable cause as the reason the submission was denied (including the results of a previous 1998 search of the property).[427] However, the sheriff's office had noted that in 1998, a radar survey conducted had noted 14 areas of interest within the property grounds, yet only two of these 14 anomalies had been excavated. Of the 12 remaining anomalies which police had not examined in greater detail on that occasion, four were described as being "staggeringly suggestive" as human skeletons.[428] Moreover, Bill Dorsch had provided police with a letter from the radar company which confirmed the 1998 search of the grounds was incomplete.[424]
A second request to excavate the grounds of West Miami Avenue was submitted to the Cook County State's Attorney by Sheriff Tom Dart in October 2012. This request was granted in January 2013, and a search of the property was conducted in the spring. Both FBI sniffer dogs and ground-penetrating radar equipment were used in the second search of West Miami Avenue; however, the search yielded no human remains.[429][lower-alpha 16]
Potential accomplices
One of the first things Gacy told investigators after his arrest was that he had not acted alone in several of the murders: he asked whether "my associates" had also been arrested. When questioned as to whether these associates had participated directly or indirectly in the killings, Gacy replied, "Directly". Gacy later specifically named Cram and Rossi as being involved in several of the murders.[431]
In the 1980s, he also informed Robert Ressler that "two or three" PDM employees had assisted in several murders.[432] Ressler replied that he believed there were unexplained avenues to the case and stated his belief that Gacy had killed more than 33 victims. Gacy neither confirmed nor denied Ressler's suspicions.[432][lower-alpha 17]
Jeffrey Rignall, who had been assaulted and tortured by Gacy in March 1978, was adamant that at one point during his abuse and torture, a young man with brown hair, kneeling before him, watched his abuse.[433] Rignall also said that as Gacy was assaulting him he saw a light switch on in another part of the house.[434]
Moreover, on one occasion during the surveillance of Gacy, three days prior to his arrest, two officers followed him to a bar to which Gacy had driven to meet two of his employees: Michael Rossi and Ed Hefner. An anxious Gacy was observed walking with the two out of earshot of the surveillance officers to talk privately before the three walked back within earshot of the officers, with Gacy exclaiming to both young men: "You'd better not let me down, you fuckers. You owe it to me". The officers then overheard sections of a hushed conversation between Gacy and the two in which Rossi asked Gacy, "And what? Buried like the other five?"[243]
In interviews from death row, Gacy stated that at the time of his arrest, three PDM employees were also considered suspects in the disappearances of the missing boys investigators had linked to Gacy—all of whom he stated were in possession of keys to his house.[432] In addition to Cram and Rossi, Gacy named his former employee Philip Paske, a young man who is known to have been a close associate of John Norman. At the time, Norman operated a nationwide sex trafficking ring based in Chicago known as the Delta Project.[435] At least two victims believed to have been murdered by Gacy, Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino, are known to have last been seen alive close to where Norman resided at the time of their disappearance, and Gacy is known to have been aware of Paske's connections.[436] This led to the theory Gacy may have been connected to this trafficking ring.[437]
Later investigations
Gacy also claimed that he was not present in Chicago when 16 of the identified victims had disappeared. In 2012, two Chicago lawyers claimed travel records show that Gacy had been in another state at the time of three of the murders, implying he was assisted by one or more accomplices.[438][439] For example, Gacy had flown to Pittsburgh three days before the disappearance of Robert Gilroy, and only returned to Chicago the day after the youth disappeared.[439]
Investigators also note that Robert Young, the traveling companion with whom victim Russell Nelson was visiting Chicago at the time of his October 1977 disappearance, gave differing accounts of Nelson disappearance to both Nelson's family and investigators. To Nelson's family, Young had stated Nelson failed to arrive at a bar at a prearranged time; to investigators, Young claimed he had last seen Nelson standing among a crowd who had gathered outside a Chicago bar and when his attention was diverted for a few moments, Nelson simply disappeared. Investigators contend this could not have happened without his traveling companion noticing.[440]
Young is known to have filed a missing person's report with Chicago police, before unsuccessfully requesting money from Nelson's parents to finance a search for their son. When Nelson's two brothers arrived in Chicago to search for him, Young had offered them a job with PDM.[439] Young was never summoned to testify at Gacy's trial.[440]
In a third case, travel records indicate Gacy was at a scheduled job site in Michigan at 6:00 a.m. on September 26, 1977—the day following the disappearance of 19-year-old John Mowery, who was last seen leaving his mother's house at 10:00 p.m. on September 25.[439] Mowery's roommate was a PDM employee who had formerly lived with Gacy and had moved into Mowery's apartment less than one week before Mowery's disappearance. Two witnesses have stated that this roommate had recommended to Mowery that he meet "a man who is going out of town" two days before Mowery disappeared.[434]
Criminal defense attorneys and investigators researching the possibility Gacy had not acted alone in several of the murders have stated there is "overwhelming evidence Gacy worked with an accomplice".[441]
Notoriety
Amber Alert
In 1984, Sam Amirante, one of Gacy's two defense attorneys at his 1980 trial, authored procedures that were incorporated by the Illinois General Assembly into the Missing Child Recovery Act of 1984. Amirante has since stated that the primary inspiration for this legislation was the fact that at the time of the Gacy murders, there had been a 72-hour period which police in Illinois had to allow to elapse before initiating a search for a missing child or adolescent.[442]
The Illinois Missing Child Recovery Act of 1984 removed the 72-hour waiting period. Other states across America subsequently adopted similar procedures and sensibilities, as a result of which a national network aimed at locating missing children was gradually formed. This national network has since developed into the Child Abduction Emergency—commonly known today as an Amber Alert.[442]
Paintings
Isolated in his prison cell, Gacy began to paint. The subjects he chose were varied, from birds to skulls, even other murderers. Many were of clowns, including himself as Pogo or Patches. His "Hi Ho" series includes scenes from the Seven Dwarfs. Although Gacy was permitted to earn money from the sale of his paintings until 1985, he claimed his artwork was intended "to bring joy into people's lives".[361]
Many of Gacy's paintings have been displayed at exhibitions;[443][444] others have been sold at various auctions, with individual prices ranging between $200 and $20,000.[445] Following Gacy's execution, family members of his victims publicly burned several of his paintings.[446]
Films and documentary
Film
- The made-for-TV film To Catch a Killer, starring Brian Dennehy as Gacy, was released in 1992. The film is largely based on the investigation of Gacy, following the disappearance of Robert Piest, by Des Plaines Police and their efforts to arrest him before the scheduled civil suit hearing on December 22.
- A feature film, Gacy, was released in 2003. This film cast Mark Holton in the role of Gacy and depicts Gacy's life after he moved to Norwood Park in 1971 up until his arrest in 1978.
- The made-for-TV film Dear Mr. Gacy, released in 2010, stars William Forsythe as Gacy. The film is based upon the book The Last Victim, written by Jason Moss. The film focuses upon the correspondence between Moss and Gacy before Gacy invited Moss to visit him on death row in 1994.
- The horror film 8213: Gacy House was released in 2010 and is based upon paranormal investigators spending a night in the house built on the former site of 8213 Summerdale Terrace.[447]
Documentary
- The Discovery Channel has broadcast an episode relating to Gacy's crimes within the true crime series The New Detectives: Case Studies in Forensic Science. This documentary features an interview between Gacy and FBI profiler Robert Ressler, whom Gacy claimed to have known when both he and Ressler were children. (As a child, Ressler had lived just four blocks from Gacy in Chicago and Gacy had delivered groceries to Ressler's family.)
- The Investigation Discovery channel has broadcast two documentaries about the Gacy murders. The first documentary focusing upon Gacy's crimes was commissioned for the Most Evil series, a forensics program in which forensic psychiatrist Michael Stone analyzes various murderers and psychopaths. The second Investigation Discovery program on Gacy is featured in the Evil Lives Here series. This program explores how Gacy's actions affected his family. Gacy's sister and niece are among those interviewed.
- The Biography Channel has broadcast a 45-minute documentary on the crimes of John Wayne Gacy.
- The television program, Psychic Investigators, has broadcast an episode entitled "What Lies Below".[448] This program focuses upon the consultation between Detective Joseph Kozenczak and psychic Carol Broman, whom Kozenczak had met on December 17, 1978 to discuss the whereabouts of the body of Robert Piest.[449]
- The Lifetime Movies network series Monster in My Family has broadcast a 42-minute episode focusing on the murders committed by Gacy. This episode, titled "Killer Clown: John Wayne Gacy", was initially broadcast in August 2015. The episode features Karen Kuzma, the sister of John Wayne Gacy, and her daughter, and focuses upon formative events in Gacy's life that may have initiated his later crimes.[450][451]
See also
Notes
- Gacy later claimed to have engaged in acts of necrophilia twice, while he worked at Palm Mortuary. He justified his actions by claiming the bodies he had defiled were "just dead things" who "couldn't tell anybody".[28]
- On this date, Judge Van Metre set Gacy's appeal bond at $20,000. Gacy was unable to raise his bond fee, and was only transferred to the Anamosa State Penitentiary to begin his sentence on December 11, 1968.[58]
- The miniature golf course is still in use at the prison today.[61]
- Gacy successfully hid his criminal record from friends, business associates and political acquaintances; they only learned the truth of his past after police had begun investigating him for his later murders.[69][70]
- The same month, Gacy became temporarily engaged to a woman he had been dating for three months, and his fiancée moved into his house. In June of that year, by mutual agreement the engagement was called off and she moved out.[95]
- Some professional clowns noted the sharp corners Gacy painted at the edges of his mouth are contrary to the rounded borders that professional clowns normally employ, so as not to scare children.[96]
- In the hope of a reconciliation, Gacy and Hoff began dating again in late 1977, but Hoff became engaged to another man the following year.[112]
- The Houston Mass Murders were a series of killings uncovered in 1973 in which Dean Corll, with two teenaged accomplices, had also used a wooden device (in their case, a board fitted with handcuffs at each corner) to restrain their male victims throughout their sexual abuse and torture.[124][125] Gacy was likely inspired to construct this device, and to initially restrain his victims by tricking them into handcuffs, by press coverage relating to the Houston Mass Murders.[126]
- Gacy had a scar on his arm to support this account. This wound was first seen by his older sister, Joanne, at a family wake Gacy attended on the afternoon of January 3.[140]
- Because Haakenson and Johnston disappeared just 24 hours apart (and their bones were commingled) they may have been murdered on the same day or even at the same time.[167]
- When Gacy completed this diagram, he closed his eyes for one minute, then opened them, exclaiming: "What's going on? Oh, I see Jack drew a diagram of the crawl space".[277]
- Gacy stated in a January 1979 interview that he would cover the victim's head or upper torso with a plastic bag if he noted bleeding from the nose or mouth.[207]
- Stein performed autopsies on each victim recovered at Gacy's property and upon the body of Robert Piest. He did not perform autopsies upon the three other victims recovered from the Des Plaines River.[328][329]
- An unidentified body found in the crawl space, Body 10, may actually have been Gacy's second murder victim and first unidentified victim. According to Gacy's account, his second victim had also been buried in the crawl space close to his first. However, at his 1980 trial, prosecutor William Kunkle reasoned Gacy's second murder victim must have been the unidentified victim buried near his barbecue pit.[397]
- DNA testing conducted upon the exhumed body of Kenneth Parker has also proven that Marino's body had not been mistaken for Parker, and that they had not both been misidentified (Kenneth Parker's relatives refused to submit to DNA testing.)[414][418]
- Some parties have questioned the integrity and thoroughness of the second search conducted of West Miami Avenue; citing the fact the ground of the property was still frozen on the date of the search (March 20), that the press had not been informed that the property had been searched until 6 days after the search had been conducted, and that the sniffer dogs used had solely been provided core samples of soil to test.[430]
- Gacy is known to have given Ressler a painting with a written inscription reading: "Dear Bob Ressler, You cannot hope to enjoy the harvest, without first laboring in the fields".[432]
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Books and journals
Cited works
- Amirante, Sam L.; Broderick, Danny (2011). John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster. Skyhorse. ISBN 978-1-61608-248-2.
- Berry-Dee, Christopher (2009). Born Killers: Childhood Secrets of the World's Deadliest Serial Killers. John Blake. ISBN 978-1-85782-648-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Berry-Dee, Christopher (2008). How to Make a Serial Killer: The Twisted Development of Innocent Children into the World's Most Sadistic Murderers. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-569-75943-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Borowski, John (2020). John Wayne Gacy: Hunting a Predator (Paperback ed.). Waterfront. ISBN 978-0-997-61406-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Cahill, Tim (1986). Buried Dreams: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer. Bantam. ISBN 0-553-05115-6. OCLC 12421532.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- "Murder In Mind" (11). London, England: Marshall Cavendish. 1997. ISSN 1364-5803. Cite journal requires
|journal=(help) - Evans, Colin (2007). The Casebook of Forensic Detection. ISBN 0-471-07650-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Foreman, Laura; The editors of Time-Life Books (1992). Serial Killers: True Crime (Hardcover ed.). Time-Life. ISBN 978-0-7835-0001-0.
- Hare, Robert D. (1999). Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us. New York City: Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-57230-451-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Kozenczak, Joseph R.; Henrikson, Karen (November 3, 2003). The Chicago Killer: The Hunt for Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy. Philadelphia: Xlibris. ISBN 1-4010-9532-1. OCLC 54782106.
- Linedecker, Clifford L. (1980). The Man Who Killed Boys: A True Story of Mass Murder in a Chicago Suburb (First ed.). St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-51157-4. OCLC 5564916.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Linedecker, Clifford L. (1986). The Man Who Killed Boys: A True Story of Mass Murder in a Chicago Suburb (Paperback ed.). St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-95228-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Moss, Jason; Kottler, Jeffrey, Ph.D (1999). The Last Victim: A True-Life Journey into the Mind of the Serial Killer. ISBN 0-7535-0398-0.
- Olsen, Jack (2008). The Man with the Candy: The Story of the Houston Mass Murders. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-439-12870-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Peck, Dennis L.; Dolch, Norman Allan (2001). "Behavior Beyond the Boundaries". Extraordinary Behavior: A Case Study Approach to Understanding Social Problems. Greenwood. ISBN 0-275-97057-4. OCLC 43694355.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Ressler, Robert; Schactman, Tom (1992). Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Hunting Serial Killers for the FBI. New York: St Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-95044-6. OCLC 27658115.
- Stone, Michael; Brucato, Gary (2019). The New Evil: Understanding the Emergence of Modern Violent Crime. Prometheus Books.
- Sullivan, Terry; Maiken, Peter T. (2000). Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders (Paperback ed.). Pinnacle. ISBN 0-7860-1422-9. OCLC 156783287.
- Taylor, Troy (2009). True Crime: Illinois: The State's Most Notorious Criminal Cases (Paperback ed.). Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-811-73562-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Further reading
- 29 Below, by Jeffrey Rignall and Ron Wilder (ISBN B0006XG56Y).
- A Question of Doubt: The John Wayne Gacy Story, by John Wayne Gacy (ISBN 1-87886-503-X).
- Johnny and Me: The True Story of John Wayne Gacy, by Barry Boschelli (ISBN 1-4343-2184-3).
- Killer Clown: The True Story of John Wayne Gacy, by Aimee Baxter (ISBN 978-1-973-75535-7).
- Unfinished Nightmare: The Search for More Victims of Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy, by Chris Maloney (ISBN 978-1466080317).
- Destination Gacy: A Cross-Country Journey to Shake the Devil's Hand, by Nancy Rommelmann (ISBN 978-1940838380).
External links
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Wikiquote has quotations related to: John Wayne Gacy |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Wayne Gacy. |
- Archived FBI files relating to John Gacy
- Examples of artwork produced by Gacy
- People v. John Wayne Gacy "Cook County Clerk of Court" records and archives
- 1993 Decision of Gacy's case by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, rejecting his federal appeal
- 2018 news article detailing the release of updated forensic facial reconstructions of two of Gacy's unidentified victims
- Time article exploring the possibility Gacy had a minimum of one accomplice
- John Wayne Gacy's Other Victims: A website detailing the ongoing investigation by Detective Bill Dorsch into the possibility Gacy had committed other murders
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