On
this date, May 10, 1994, a child serial killer A.K.A The Killer Clown by the name of John
Wayne Gacy, was executed by lethal injection in Illinois. I will post
information about him from Wikipedia and will add other links.
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Mug shot of John Wayne Gacy
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Background
information
Birth
name
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John Wayne
Gacy, Jr.
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Also
known as
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The Killer
Clown
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Born
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March 17,
1942
Chicago, Illinois, United States |
Died
|
May 10,
1994 (aged 52)
Crest Hill, Illinois, United States |
Cause of
death
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Executed
(Lethal injection)
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Conviction
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Sentence
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Death
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Killings
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Number
of victims
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33-34
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Country
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United
States
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State(s)
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Illinois
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Date
apprehended
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December
21, 1978
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John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American
serial killer and rapist, also known as the Killer Clown, who was
convicted of the sexual assault and murder of a minimum of 33 teenage boys and
young men in a series of killings committed between 1972 and 1978 in Chicago,
Illinois.
All
of Gacy's known murders were committed inside his Norwood Park home; his
victims would typically be lured to this address by force or deception and all
but one victim was murdered by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a tourniquet
(his first victim was stabbed to death). Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the
crawl space of his home; three further victims were buried elsewhere on his
property, while the bodies of his last four known victims were discarded in the
Des Plaines River.
Convicted
of 33 murders, Gacy was sentenced to death for 12 of these killings on March
13, 1980. He spent a total of 14 years on death row before he was executed by
lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.
Gacy
became known as the "Killer Clown" due to his charitable services at
fundraising events, parades and children's parties where he would dress as
"Pogo the Clown", a character he devised himself.
Early
life
John Wayne Gacy was born in Chicago, Illinois, the
second of three children born to John Stanley Gacy (June 20, 1900 – December
25, 1969) and Marion Elaine Robinson (May 4, 1908 – December 14, 1989). Gacy
was of Polish and Danish heritage. (His paternal grandparents had been born in
Poland.) As a child, he was overweight and nonathletic. He was close to his two
sisters and mother, but endured a difficult relationship with his father, an alcoholic
who was physically abusive toward his wife and children.
Throughout
his childhood, Gacy strove to make his father proud of him, but seldom received
his approval: one of Gacy's earliest childhood memories was of being beaten
with a leather belt by his father at the age of 4 for accidentally disarranging
car engine components his father had assembled. He was regularly belittled by
his father and often compared unfavorably with his sisters, enduring disdainful
accusations of being "dumb and stupid". The friction between father
and son was constant throughout his childhood and adolescence, yet in
interviews after his arrest, Gacy always vehemently denied he hated him. When
he was 6 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. When his mother told his father, Gacy was beaten with a belt. After
this incident, Gacy's mother attempted to shield her son from his father's
verbal and physical abuse, yet this only succeeded in Gacy earning accusations
from his father that he was a "sissy" and a "Mama's boy" who
would "probably grow up queer."
At the age of 9, Gacy was molested by a family
friend, a contractor who would take Gacy for rides in his truck, then fondle
him. Gacy never told his father about these incidents as he was afraid his
father would blame him.
At school, where he was ordered to avoid all sports
due to a heart condition, Gacy was an average student with few friends who was
an occasional target for mockery and bullying by neighborhood children and
classmates. He was known to assist the school truant officer and volunteer to
run errands for teachers and neighbors. During the fourth
grade, Gacy began to suffer blackouts. He was occasionally hospitalized as a
result of these seizures, and also in 1957 for a burst appendix. Gacy later
estimated that he spent almost a year in the hospital for these episodes between
the ages of 14 and 18, and attributed the decline in his grades to his time out
of school. His father suspected the episodes were an effort to gain sympathy;
on one occasion he accused his son of faking even as the boy lay in a hospital
bed.
Gacy's medical condition was never conclusively
diagnosed, although his mother, sisters and few close friends themselves never
doubted his illness. A friend of Gacy's named Richard Dalke was also able to
recall several instances in which Gacy Sr. ridiculed or beat his son without
provocation: on one occasion in 1957, Gacy's father began shouting at his son
for no reason, then began hitting him. Gacy's mother attempted to remonstrate
between her son and her husband. Dalke recalled Gacy simply "put up his
hands to defend himself", adding that he never struck his father during
these altercations.
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 himself later speculated the decision may have been an
attempt to seek the acceptance from others that he never received from his
father.
The
same year Gacy became a Democratic Party 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 to his father. These repayments took several
years to complete, and his father would confiscate the keys to the vehicle if
Gacy would 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 of keys from
him and used the extra set of keys to drive the vehicle. 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". When his father replaced the distributor
cap, Gacy drove to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he found work within the ambulance
service before he was transferred to work as a mortuary attendant. He worked in
this role for three months before returning to Chicago.
In
his role as a mortuary attendant, Gacy slept in a cot behind the embalming room.
In this role, he observed morticians embalming dead bodies and later confessed
to the fact that 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.
The
sense of shock prompted Gacy to call his mother the next day and ask whether his
father would allow him to return home. His father agreed and the same day, Gacy
drove back to live with his family in Chicago. 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. Gacy
subsequently undertook a management-trainee position within the Nunn-Bush Shoe
Company.
In
1964, the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company transferred Gacy to Springfield, Illinois,
initially to work as a salesman, although Gacy was subsequently promoted to
manager of his department. In March of that year, he became engaged to Marlynn
Myers, co-worker within the department he managed. After a nine-month
courtship, the couple married in September 1964. Marlynn Myers' father
subsequently purchased three Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Waterloo,
Iowa and he and his wife moved to Waterloo in order for him to manage the
restaurants, with the understanding that Gacy and his wife would move into
Marlynn's parents' home.
During
his courtship with Marlynn, Gacy joined the Jaycees and became a tireless
worker for the organization; being named Key Man for the organization in April
1964. The same year, Gacy had his first homosexual experience. According to
Gacy, he acquiesced to this incident after a colleague of his within the
Springfield Jaycees plied him with drinks, invited him to spend the evening
upon his sofa, then performed oral sex upon him while he was drunk.
By
1965, Gacy had risen to the position of vice-president of the Springfield
Jaycees. The same year, he was named as the third most outstanding Jaycee
within the State of Illinois.
In
1966, Gacy's father-in-law offered him the opportunity to manage the three
Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants he had purchased in Waterloo. The offer was
lucrative: $15,000 per year plus a share of profits. Gacy accepted the offer
and, following his obligatory completion of a managerial course, he and his
wife relocated to Waterloo in the autumn of that year.
In
Waterloo, Gacy joined the local chapter of the Jaycees, regularly offering
extensive hours to the organization in addition to the twelve- and
fourteen-hour days he worked as a manager of three KFC restaurants. Although
considered ambitious and somewhat of a braggart by his colleagues in the
Jaycees, he was highly regarded as a tireless worker on several fund-raising
projects. In 1967, he was named "outstanding vice-president" of the
Waterloo Jaycees. At Jaycee meetings, Gacy would often provide free fried
chicken to his colleagues and insisted upon being given the nickname
"Colonel" by his colleagues. The same year, Gacy served on the Board
of Directors for the Waterloo Jaycees.
Gacy's
wife gave birth to two children during the time the couple lived in Iowa: a son
named Michael was born in March 1967, followed by a daughter named Christine in
October 1968. Gacy later described this period of his life as being
"perfect." His achievements in life earned him approval from his
father, who told him during a 1967 visit, "Son, I was wrong about you."
However,
there was a seedier side of Jaycee life in Waterloo, one that involved wife
swapping, prostitution, pornography and drugs. Gacy was deeply involved in many
of these activities and regularly cheated on his wife. He is also known to have
opened a "club" in his basement, where he allowed employees to drink
alcohol and play pool. Although he employed teenagers of both sexes at his
restaurants, he socialized only with his male employees. Many were given
alcohol before Gacy made sexual advances toward them, which he would dismiss as
a joke if the teenager rebuffed his advances.
First
offenses
In
August 1967, Gacy committed his first known sexual assault upon a teenage boy.
The youth was a 15-year-old named Donald Voorhees, the son of a fellow Jaycee.
Gacy lured the youth to his house upon the promise of showing Voorhees
pornographic films. Gacy plied Voorhees with alcohol and persuaded the youth to
perform oral sex upon him. Several other youths were sexually abused over the
following months, including one whom Gacy encouraged to sleep with his wife
before blackmailing the youth into performing oral sex upon him. Several
teenagers were tricked into believing Gacy was commissioned with carrying out
homosexual experiments in the interests of "scientific research," for
which the youths were each paid up to $50.
In
March 1968, Donald 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 a 16-year-old named Edward Lynch. Gacy vehemently
denied the charges and demanded to take a polygraph test. This request was
granted, although the results indicated Gacy was lying when he denied any
wrongdoing in relation to either Voorhees or Lynch.
Despite
the charges against him, 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 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.
On
August 30, 1968, Gacy persuaded one of his employees, an 18-year-old named
Russell Schroeder, to physically assault Donald Voorhees in an effort to
discourage the boy from testifying against him at his upcoming trial. The youth
agreed to lure Voorhees to a secluded spot, spray Mace in his face and beat the
youth upon the promise that if he did so, he would be paid $300. In early
September, Schroeder lured Voorhees to an isolated county park, sprayed the
Mace supplied by Gacy into the youth's eyes, then beat him, all the while
shouting that the youth was not to testify against Gacy at his upcoming trial.
Voorhees
immediately reported the assault to police, identifying Schroeder as his
attacker, and the youth was arrested the following day. Despite initially
denying any involvement, the youth confessed to having assaulted Voorhees,
indicating that he had done so at Gacy's behest. Gacy was arrested and
additionally charged in relation to hiring Schroeder to assault and intimidate
Voorhees. On September 3, 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 and concluded he had antisocial
personality disorder (ASPD), was unlikely to benefit from medical treatment,
and whose behavior pattern was likely to bring him into repeated conflict with
society. The doctors also concluded he was mentally competent to stand trial.
"The most striking aspect of the test results is the patient's total denial of responsibility for everything that has happened to him. He can produce an 'alibi' for everything. He presents himself as a victim of circumstances and blames other people who are out to get him ... the patient attempts to assure a sympathetic response by depicting himself as being at the mercy of a hostile environment."Section of report detailing Gacy's 1968 psychiatric evaluation.
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John Gacy's mug shot, taken in December 1968
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Conviction
and imprisonment
Upon
advice from his attorney, Gacy entered a plea of guilty to one count of sodomy
in relation to the charges filed against him by Donald Voorhees. He pleaded not
guilty to the other charges lodged against him by other youths at a formal arraignment
held on November 7, 1968. Before the judge, Gacy contended that he and Voorhees
had indeed engaged in sexual relations, yet he insisted Voorhees had offered
his sexual services to him and that he had acted out of curiosity. His story
was not believed. Despite his lawyers' recommendations for parole, Gacy was
convicted of sodomy on December 3, 1968, and sentenced to 10 years at the Anamosa
State Penitentiary. The day Gacy was sentenced, his wife petitioned for divorce;
requesting possession of the couple's home, property and subsequent alimony
payments. The Court ruled in her favor and the divorce was finalized in
September 1969. Gacy never saw his first wife or children again.
Inside
the Anamosa State Penitentiary, Gacy rapidly acquired a reputation as a model
prisoner. Within months of his arrival, he had risen to the position of head
cook; Gacy also joined the inmate Jaycee chapter and increased their membership
figure from 50 to 650 in the space 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 actively supervised several projects to improve conditions for
inmates at the prison. On one occasion, Gacy oversaw the installation of a miniature
golf course in the prison's recreation yard.
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. Gacy's father died from cirrhosis of the
liver on Christmas Day 1969. Gacy was not told that his father had died until
two days after his death. When he heard the news, Gacy broke down in tears and
had to be supported by prison staff. Gacy requested supervised compassionate
leave from prison to attend his father's funeral, but his request was denied.
Parole
Gacy
was granted parole with 12 months' probation on June 18, 1970 after serving 18
months of his 10-year sentence. Upon his release, Gacy announced to a friend
who collected him from prison that he intended to re-establish himself in
Waterloo. However, within 24 hours of his release, Gacy opted to relocate to
Chicago to live with his mother. He arrived in Chicago on June 19 and obtained
a job as a short-order cook in a restaurant.
On
February 12, 1971, Gacy was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy. The
youth claimed that Gacy had lured him into his car at Chicago's Greyhound bus
terminal and had attempted to force him into sex. The complaint was
subsequently dismissed when the youth failed to appear in court. The Iowa Board
of Parole did not learn of this incident (which violated the conditions of his
parole) and the records of Gacy's previous convictions were subsequently
sealed: he was restored to full citizenship in October 1971. Gacy hid his criminal
record until police began investigating him for his later murders.
With
financial assistance from his mother, Gacy bought a house in Norwood Park, an unincorporated
area of Cook County. The address, 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, would be where
he resided until his arrest in 1978 and where all his known murders would be
committed. 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 moved into his home soon after the couple announced
their engagement and Gacy's mother subsequently moved out of the house shortly
before his wedding, which was held on July 1, 1972.
One
week prior to Gacy's wedding, on June 22, 1972, Gacy was again arrested and
charged with battery after another young man complained to police that Gacy, impersonating
a police officer, had flashed a sheriff's badge, lured him into his car, and
forced him to perform oral sex upon him. These charges were dropped after this
complainant attempted to blackmail Gacy into paying money in exchange for
dropping the charges.
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John Gacy with First Lady Rosalynn Carter in
May 1978
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Businessman
and community volunteer
Following
Gacy's marriage to Carole Hoff, his new wife and stepdaughters moved into the
Summerdale Avenue house. In 1972, Gacy quit his job as a cook and started his
own construction business, PDM Contractors (PDM being the initials for
'Painting, Decorating and Maintenance'). The business initially undertook minor
repair work, such as signwriting, pouring concrete and redecorating, but later
expanded to include projects such as interior design, remodeling, installation,
assembly and landscaping. By 1978, the gross of PDM's annual turnover was over
$200,000.
In
1973, Gacy and an employee of PDM Contractors traveled to Florida to view
property Gacy had purchased. On the first night the two were alone in Florida,
Gacy raped the youth in their hotel room. As a result, this youth refused to
stay in the same hotel room as Gacy and instead slept on a beach. Upon
returning to Chicago, this employee drove to Gacy's house as Gacy was in his
yard and beat him. Gacy's mother-in-law stopped the youth from further
attacking Gacy and he drove away. Gacy explained to his wife that this attack
happened because he had refused to pay the youth for poor quality work he had
performed.
To
his neighbors in Norwood Park, Gacy became known as a gregarious, helpful
individual: active in his local community and, from 1974, hosting annual summer
parties. He also became active in Democratic Party politics, initially offering
the labor services of his PDM employees free of charge. Gacy was rewarded for
his community services by being appointed to serve upon the Norwood Park
Township street lighting committee. He subsequently earned the title of
precinct captain. In 1975, Gacy was appointed director of Chicago's annual Polish
Constitution Day Parade — an annual event he was to supervise from 1975 until
1978. Through his work with the parade, Gacy met and was photographed with then
First Lady Rosalynn Carter on May 6, 1978. Rosalynn Carter signed one photo:
"To John Gacy. Best wishes. Rosalynn Carter". 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
received a special clearance by the Secret Service.
Through
joining a local Moose Club, Gacy became aware of a "Jolly Joker"
clown club whose members — dressed as clowns — would regularly perform at
fundraising events and parades in addition to voluntarily entertaining
hospitalized children. By late 1975, Gacy had joined the Jolly Jokers and had
created his own performance character, "Pogo the Clown." Gacy
designed his own costumes and taught himself how to apply clown makeup. 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. Gacy is known to have performed as Pogo at numerous local parties and
charitable events, and although he often spoke of entertaining at children's
hospitals, there is no evidence of his doing so. Gacy is also known to have
arrived, dressed in his clowning garb, at a favorite drinking venue named
"The Good Luck Lounge" on several occasions with the explanation he
had just performed as Pogo and was stopping for a social drink before heading
home.
By
1975, Gacy had openly admitted to his wife he was bisexual. On May 11 (Mother's
Day), after making love, he informed her they would never again have sex. 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. His wife observed Gacy
bringing teenage boys into his garage and also found gay pornography inside the
house. The Gacys divorced by mutual consent in March 1976.
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Gacy as "Pogo the Clown"
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Murders
On
January 2, 1972, Gacy picked up a 15-year-old youth named Timothy Jack McCoy
from Chicago's Greyhound bus terminal. Gacy took McCoy—who was traveling en
route from Michigan to Omaha—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. Gacy later said that he awoke the
following morning to find McCoy standing in his bedroom doorway with a kitchen
knife in his hand. Gacy leapt from his bed and McCoy raised both arms in a
gesture of surrender, tilting the knife upwards and accidentally cutting Gacy's
forearm (Gacy had the scar on his arm to support this claim). Gacy 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 him in the
stomach and Gacy grabbed the youth, wrestled him to the floor, then stabbed him
repeatedly in the chest as he straddled him with his body. Gacy claimed he 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. Gacy subsequently buried McCoy in his crawl space and later covered
the youth's grave with a layer of concrete.
In
an interview after his arrest, Gacy stated that immediately after killing
McCoy, he felt "totally drained", yet noted that he had experienced orgasm
as he killed the youth. In this 1980s interview, he added: "That's when I
realized that death was the ultimate thrill."
Gacy
later stated that the second time he killed was around January, 1974. The
victim was an unidentified teenage youth with medium brown, curly hair estimated
to be aged between 15 and 17 whom Gacy strangled before stowing the youth's
body in his closet prior to burial. Gacy later stated that fluid leaked out of
this youth's mouth and nose as he was stored in his closet, staining his carpet.
As a result of this experience, Gacy later stated he regularly stuffed cloth
rags or the victims' own underwear in their mouths to prevent a recurrence of
this incident. This particular unidentified victim was buried approximately 15 feet
from the barbecue pit in Gacy's backyard.
By
1975, Gacy's business was expanding rapidly; by his own later admission, he
began working 12- and 16-hour days to fulfill agreed commitments upon an
increasing number of contracts. Much of the labor workforce of PDM Contractors
consisted of high school students and young men. One of these youths was a
15-year-old named Anthony Antonucci, whom Gacy had hired in May 1975. In July
1975, Gacy arrived at the youth's home while the youth was alone, having
injured his foot at work the day prior. Gacy plied the youth with alcohol,
wrestled him to the floor and cuffed Antonucci's hands behind his back. The
cuff upon Antonucci's right wrist was loose: Antonucci freed his arm from the handcuff
after Gacy left the room. When Gacy returned, Antonucci—a member of his high
school wrestling team—pounced upon him. The youth wrestled Gacy to the floor,
obtained possession of the handcuff key and cuffed Gacy's hands behind his
back. Gacy screamed threats, then calmed down and promised to leave if
Antonucci removed the handcuffs. The youth agreed and Gacy left the house.
Antonucci
later recalled that Gacy had told him as he lay on the floor: "Not only
are you the only one who got out of the cuffs; you got them on me."
One
week after the attempted assault on Antonucci, on July 29, 1975, another of
Gacy's employees, 17-year-old John Butkovitch, disappeared. The day prior to
his disappearance, Butkovitch had threatened Gacy over two weeks' outstanding
back pay. Gacy later admitted to luring Butkovitch to his home while his wife
and stepchildren were visiting his sister in Arkansas, ostensibly to settle the
issue of Butkovitch's overdue wages. Gacy conned the youth into cuffing his
wrists behind his back, then strangled him to death and buried his body under
the concrete floor of his garage. Gacy later admitted to having "sat on
the kid's chest for a while" before killing him. Butkovitch's Dodge sedan
was found abandoned in a parking lot with the youth's wallet inside and the
keys still in the ignition. Butkovitch's father called Gacy, who claimed he was
happy to help search for the youth but was sorry Butkovitch had "run
away." Gacy was questioned about Butkovitch's disappearance and admitted
the youth and two friends had arrived at his apartment demanding Butkovitch's
overdue pay, but claimed all three youths had left after a compromise had been
reached. Over the following three years, Butkovitch's parents called police
more than 100 times, urging them to investigate Gacy further.
Following
a heated argument regarding her failing to correctly balance a PDM Contractors
checkbook in October 1975, 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, the Gacys' divorce was
finalized.
Within
one month of his divorce, Gacy had abducted and murdered an 18-year-old youth
named Darrell Sampson. Sampson was last seen alive in Chicago on April 6, 1976.
Five weeks later, on the afternoon of May 14, a 15-year-old named Randall
Reffett disappeared while walking home from Senn High School; the youth was
gagged with a cloth and strangled. Hours after Reffett had been abducted, a
14-year-old named Samuel Stapleton vanished as he walked to his home from his
sister's apartment. Both youths were buried in the same grave in the crawl
space.
On
June 3, 1976, Gacy killed a 17-year-old Lakeview youth named Michael Bonnin.
Bonnin was strangled with a ligature and buried in the crawl space. Ten days
later, a 16-year-old Uptown youth named William Carroll was murdered and buried
directly beneath Gacy's kitchen. Carroll may have been the first of four youths
known to have been murdered between June 13 and August 6, 1976 and who were
buried in a common grave located beneath Gacy's kitchen and laundry room. (This
common grave also held the body of a fifth youth estimated to have been killed
after this date.) The two identified youths killed between June 13 and August 6
were aged 16 and 17 years old; the two unidentified youths are respectively
estimated to have been aged between 15 and 19 and 22 and 30 years old. The
first of these two unidentified youths known to have been murdered between
these dates is a youth with medium dark brown hair estimated to have been aged
between 22 and 30 years old and between 5'1" and 5'6"
tall. This youth is also known to have had two missing upper front teeth at the
time of his disappearance, leading investigators to believe this particular
victim most likely wore a denture. All that is known about the second unknown
youth known to have been murdered between these dates is that he had dark brown
hair, was estimated to have been aged between 15 and 19 years old and that he
was strangled to death.
On
July 26, 1976, Gacy employed an 18-year-old named David Cram. On August 21,
Cram moved into his house. The following day, Gacy conned the youth into
donning handcuffs while the youth was inebriated. Gacy swung Cram around while
holding the chain linking the cuffs, then informed the youth that he intended
to rape him. Cram, who had spent a year in the Army, kicked Gacy in the face,
then freed himself from the handcuffs as Gacy lay prone. One month later, Gacy
appeared at Cram's bedroom door with the intention to rape the youth and said:
"Dave, you really don't know who I am. Maybe it would be good if you give
me what I want." Cram resisted Gacy's attempts to assault him and Gacy
left his bedroom. After this incident, Cram moved out of Gacy's home and
subsequently left PDM Contractors.
Two
further unidentified youths are estimated to have been killed between August
and October 1976. One of these youths was buried directly above the body of
William Carroll, who had been murdered on June 13, yet higher than the body of
a 17-year-old Bensenville youth named Rick Johnston, who was last seen on
August 6. This particular unidentified youth is estimated to have been aged
between 21 and 27 years old and sequential burial patterns of victims within
the crawl space, plus the circumstancial fact that Cram had not lived with Gacy
between the dates of August 6 and August 20, leave a possible date of between August
6 and August 20, 1976 as the time this particular youth was murdered. The
second unidentified youth likely to have been murdered between August and
October 1976 is a youth with dark brown hair aged between 19 and 21 years old,
who is known to have suffered from an abscessed tooth at the time of his murder.
This youth was buried in the northeast corner of the crawl space. Subsequent
recollections by an employee of PDM Contractors of a trench Gacy had ordered
him to dig on or prior to October 5, 1976 being the location where this
particular victim was buried suggest a date between August and October 5, 1976,
as being when this youth was murdered.
On
October 24, 1976, Gacy abducted and killed two teenage friends named Kenneth
Parker and Michael Marino: the two youths were last seen outside a restaurant
on Clark Street. Both youths were strangled and buried in the same grave in the
crawl space. Two days later, a 19-year-old employee of PDM Contractors named
William Bundy disappeared after informing his family he was to attend a party.
Bundy was also strangled and buried in the crawl space, buried directly beneath
Gacy's master bedroom.
In
December 1976, another PDM employee, 17-year-old Gregory Godzik, disappeared:
he was last seen by his girlfriend outside her house having driven her home
following a date. Godzik had worked for PDM for only three weeks before he
disappeared. In the time he had worked for Gacy, he had informed his family
Gacy had had him "dig trenches for some kind of (drain) tiles" in his
crawl space.
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 prior to his
disappearance that he wished to do so. Gacy also claimed to have received a
recorded answering machine message from Godzik shortly after the youth had
disappeared. When asked if he could play back the message to Godzik's parents,
Gacy stated that he had erased it.
A
month later, on January 20, 1977, John Szyc, a 19-year-old acquaintance of
Butkovich, Godzik and Gacy, disappeared. Szyc was lured to Gacy's house on the
pretext of selling his Plymouth Satellite to Gacy. He was buried in Gacy's
crawl space directly above the body of Godzik. A ring worn by Szyc, which bore
his initials, was retained in a dresser in Gacy's master bedroom. Gacy also
kept Szyc's portable Motorola TV in his bedroom and later sold the youth's car
to another of his employees, 18-year-old Michael Rossi.
Between
December 1976 and March 1977, Gacy is known to have killed an unidentified
young man estimated to be around 25 years old. His body was buried in the crawl
space beneath the body of a 20-year-old named Jon Prestidge, a Michigan youth
visiting friends in Chicago whom Gacy killed on March 15. After the murder of
Prestidge, Gacy is believed to have murdered one further unidentified youth
exhumed from his crawl space, although the timing of this particular youth's
murder is inconclusive. The youth was buried parallel to the wall of Gacy's
crawl space directly beneath the entrance to his home. The two victims murdered
on the same day in May 1976 were buried alongside this youth, yet sequential
burial patterns of three victims murdered in 1977 leave an equal possibility
this particular victim may have been murdered in the spring or summer of 1977.
All that is known about this particular youth is that he was aged between 17
and 21 years old and that he had suffered a fractured left collarbone prior to
his disappearance.
In
March 1977, Gacy was hired as a construction supervisor for PE Systems, a firm
which specialized in the nationwide remodeling of drugstores. As a result of
this contract, Gacy regularly traveled to other states to supervise
construction projects and he later stated that, through both businesses (PDM
Contractors and PE Systems), almost 80 buildings were successfully remodeled in
1977 alone. In April 1977, Gacy became temporarily engaged to a woman he had
been dating for three months, and his fiancée moved into his house. By mutual
agreement, the engagement was called off in June of that year and his fiancée
moved out of his home. The following month, Gacy killed a 19-year-old Crystal
Lake youth named Matthew Bowman. He was buried in the crawl space with the
tourniquet used to strangle him still knotted around his neck.
In
August 1977, a clue emerged to the disappearance of John Szyc. Michael Rossi,
who had bought Szyc's car from Gacy, was arrested for stealing gasoline from a
service station while driving the car. The attendant noted the license plate
number and police traced the car to Gacy's house. (Rossi lived with Gacy at
this point and had worked for PDM Contractors since May, 1976.) 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. The police did not
pursue the matter further, although they did inform Szyc's mother that her son
had sold his car to Gacy.
Throughout
the autumn and winter of 1977, Gacy began dating Carole Hoff in the hope of a
reconciliation. (Carole became engaged to another man the following year.) By
the end of 1977, Gacy is also known to have murdered a further six young men
between the ages of 16 and 21. The first of these six victims, 18-year-old
Robert Gilroy, was last seen alive on September 15. Gilroy—the son of a Chicago
Police Sergeant—was suffocated 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. As Gacy is known to have been in another
state at the time the youth was last seen, it is possible that Gacy's
subsequent claims that he had not acted alone in some murders may have held
credence. Ten days after Gilroy was last seen, a 19-year-old U.S. Marine named
John Mowery disappeared after leaving his mother's house to walk to his own
apartment. Mowery was strangled to death and buried in the northwest corner of
the crawl space perpendicular to the body of William Bundy.
On
October 17, a 21-year-old Minnesota youth named Russell Nelson disappeared: he
was last seen outside a Chicago bar. Nelson died of suffocation and was also
buried in the crawl space. Less than four weeks later, a 16-year-old Kalamazoo
youth named Robert Winch was murdered and buried in the crawl space, and on
November 18, a 20-year-old father-of-one named Tommy Boling disappeared after
leaving a Chicago bar. Both Winch and Boling were strangled to death and both
youths were buried in the crawl space directly beneath the hallway.
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. Talsma was strangled with a ligature and
buried in the crawl space.
On
December 30, 1977, Gacy abducted a 19-year-old student named Robert Donnelly
from a Chicago bus stop at gunpoint. Gacy drove Donnelly home with him, raped
him, tortured him with various devices, and repeatedly dunked his head into a
bathtub filled with water until he passed out, then revived him. Donnelly later
testified at Gacy's trial that he was in such pain that he asked Gacy to kill
him to "get it over with," to which Gacy replied: "I'm getting
round to it." After several hours of assaulting and torturing the youth,
Gacy drove Donnelly to his place of work, removed the handcuffs from the
youth's wrists, and released him. Donnelly reported the assault and Gacy was
questioned about it on January 6, 1978. Gacy admitted to having had "slave-sex"
with Donnelly, but insisted everything was consensual. The police believed him
and no charges were filed. The following month, Gacy killed a 19-year-old youth
named William Kindred, who disappeared February 16, 1978, after telling his
fiancée he was to spend the evening in a bar. Kindred was the final victim to
be buried in Gacy's crawl space, and Gacy began disposing of his victims in the
Des Plaines River.
In
March 1978, Gacy lured a 26-year-old named Jeffrey Rignall into his car. Upon
entering the car, the young man was chloroformed and driven to the house on
Summerdale, where he was raped, tortured with various instruments including lit
candles, and repeatedly chloroformed into unconsciousness. Rignall was then
driven to Lincoln Park, where he was dumped, unconscious but alive. Eventually
he managed to stagger to his girlfriend's apartment. Rignall was later informed
the chloroform had permanently damaged his liver. Police were again informed of
the assault, but did not investigate Gacy. Rignall remembered, through the
chloroform haze of that night, Gacy's black Oldsmobile, the Kennedy Expressway
and particular side streets. He staked out the exit on the Expressway where he
knew he had been driven until—in April—he saw Gacy's distinctive black
Oldsmobile, which Rignall and his friends followed to 8213 West Summerdale.
Police issued an arrest warrant, and Gacy was arrested on July 15. He was
facing an impending trial for a battery charge for the Rignall incident when he
was arrested in December for the murders.
Gacy
later confessed to police that he had thrown a total of five bodies off the
I-55 bridge into the Des Plaines River in 1978, one of which he believed had
landed upon a passing barge, although only four of these five bodies were ever
found. 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 and found six miles
downstream on June 30. Four months later, on November 4, Gacy killed a
19-year-old named Frank Landingin. His body was found in the Des Plaines River
on November 12. Three weeks after the murder of Landingin, on November 24, a
20-year-old Elmwood Park youth named James Mazzara disappeared after sharing
Thanksgiving dinner with his family; his body was found on December 28. The
cause of death in the case of Landingin was certified as suffocation due to the
youth's own underwear being lodged down his throat. Mazzara had been strangled
with a ligature.
 |
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Victims Darrell Sampson (left) and Gregory
Godzik (right). Sampson was found buried beneath Gacy's dining room floor.
Godzik was buried in the crawl space.
|
Investigation
On
December 11, 1978, John Gacy visited a Des Plaines pharmacy to discuss a
potential remodeling deal with Phil Torf, the owner of the store. While discussing
the potential deal with Torf, Gacy was heard mentioning that his firm hired
teenage boys while he was within earshot of a 15-year-old employee named Robert
Jerome Piest.
After
Gacy left the store, Piest told his mother that "some contractor wants to
talk to me about a job." Piest left the store, promising to return shortly.
When Piest failed to return, his family filed a missing person report on their
son with the Des Plaines Police. The owner of the pharmacy named Gacy as the
contractor Piest had most likely left the store to talk with.
Gacy
denied talking to Piest when Des Plaines police visited his home the following
evening, indicating 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. He was adamant, however, that
he had not offered Piest a job and 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. At 3:30 a.m., Gacy, covered in mud,
arrived at the police station, claiming he had been involved in a car accident.
Upon
returning to the police station later that day, Gacy flatly denied any
involvement in the disappearance of Robert Piest and repeated that he had not
offered the youth a job. When questioned as to why he had returned to the
pharmacy at 8 p.m. on December 11, Gacy claimed he had done so in response to a
phone call from Phil 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. At the request of detectives, Gacy prepared a written
statement detailing his movements on December 11.
Des
Plaines police were convinced Gacy was behind Piest's disappearance and checked
Gacy's record, discovering that he had an outstanding battery charge against
him in Chicago and had served a prison sentence in Iowa for sodomy. A search of
Gacy's house on December 13, ordered by a judge at the request of detectives,
turned up several suspicious items: a 1975 high school class ring engraved with
the initials J.A.S., various driver's licenses, handcuffs, a two-by-four with
holes drilled in the ends, books on homosexuality and pederasty, a syringe,
clothing too small for Gacy, a 6mm Brevettata starter pistol and a photo
receipt from the pharmacy where Robert Piest worked. Police decided to
confiscate Gacy's Oldsmobile, along with other PDM vehicles and assign two
two-man surveillance teams to follow Gacy, while they continued their
investigation of Gacy regarding Piest's disappearance.
The
following day, investigators received a phone call from Michael Rossi, who
informed the investigators both of Gregory Godzik's disappearance and the fact
another PDM employee, Charles Hattula, had been found drowned in an Illinois
river the previous year.
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, chloroformed him, raped him and dumped him, while
he was suffering 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. The same day, the
Maine West High School ring was traced to a John A. Szyc. In an interview with
Szyc's mother the same day, she informed officers of the January 1977
disappearance of her son and that several items from his apartment were also
missing, including a Motorola TV set. She added that investigators had informed
her the month following his disappearance that her son had apparently sold his
Plymouth Satellite to a John Gacy. Investigators noted that one of Gacy's
employees, Michael Rossi, drove a similar car to Szyc's: A check of the VIN
confirmed the car driven by Rossi had belonged to Szyc.
By
December 16, Gacy was becoming affable with the surveillance detectives,
regularly inviting them to join him for meals in various restaurants and
occasionally for drinks in bars or 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 use of recreational
drugs. 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.
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 the youth 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. 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 Robert Piest had been
present in this vehicle.
That
evening, Gacy invited two of the surveillance detectives to a restaurant for a
meal. In the early hours of December 18, he invited the same officers into
another restaurant where, over breakfast, he talked of his business, his
marriages and his activities as a registered clown. At one point during this
conversation, Gacy remarked to one of the two surveillance detectives:
"You know… clowns can get away with murder."
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 the
police surveillance cease. The same day, the serial number of the Nisson
Pharmacy photo receipt found in Gacy's kitchen was traced to a Kim Byers, a
colleague of Piest's at Nisson Pharmacy, who admitted when contacted in person
the following day that she had worn the jacket and had placed the receipt in his
parka pocket just before she gave the parka to Piest as he left the store to
talk with a contractor. This revelation contradicted Gacy's previous statements
that he had had no contact with Robert Piest on the evening of December 11: the
presence of the receipt indicated that Gacy must have been in contact with
Robert Piest after the youth had left the Nisson Pharmacy on December 11.
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.
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 invited two of the surveillance detectives inside his house. On
this occasion, as one officer distracted Gacy with conversation, another
officer 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 failed to notice this as on that occasion the
house had been cold.
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 (whose vehicle investigators had established he drove) as well as the
disappearance of Robert Piest. When questioned by Detective Joseph 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." A polygraph test
conducted upon the youth 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?" 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.
Cram
himself 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 been asked by Gacy to spread lime down there and also dug
trenches upon Gacy's behest with the explanation they were for plumbing. Cram
stated these trenches were two feet wide, six feet long and two feet deep—the
size of graves.
On
the evening of December 20, Gacy drove to his lawyers' office in Park Ridge to
attend a pre-scheduled meeting he had arranged with them, 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; he pointed to a front page article covering the disappearance
of Robert Piest and informed his lawyers "This boy is dead. He's in a
river."
Over
the following hours, Gacy gave a rambling confession which 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,"
most of whom he stated were buried in his crawl space, and others in the Des
Plaines River. Some victims he referred to by name; most he dismissed as
"male prostitutes", "hustlers" and "liars" whom
he would give "the rope trick". On other occasions, he stated he
would wake up to find "dead, strangled kids" on his floor. In
reference to Robert Piest, Gacy harked that as he placed the tourniquet around
his neck, that Piest was "crying, scared." 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 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.
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. 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 marijuana
to the attendant, a youth named 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 killed thirty
people, give or take a few." Gacy then left Rhode's home to meet with
Michael Rossi and David Cram. As he drove along the expressway, the
surveillance officers noted he was holding a rosary to his chin as he prayed
while driving.
After
talking with Cram and Rossi at Cram's home, Gacy had Cram drive him to a
scheduled meeting with Leroy Stevens. As he spoke with his lawyer, Cram
informed the officers that Gacy had earlier divulged to both himself and Rossi
that the previous evening, he had confessed to his lawyers his guilt in over thirty
murders. Upon concluding his meeting with his lawyer, Gacy had Cram drive him
to Maryhill Cemetery, where his father was buried.
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 radioed reports from the surveillance detectives that, in light of his
erratic behavior, Gacy might be about to commit suicide, police decided to
arrest him upon a charge of possession and distribution of marijuana in order
to hold him in custody as the formal request for a second search warrant was
presented. At 4:30 on the afternoon of 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.
Armed
with the signed search warrant, police and evidence technicians quickly 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, an evidence technician named Daniel Genty entered the crawl space and
crawled to the southwest area of the crawl space and began digging. 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.
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Robert Piest, 15. Murdered December 11, 1978
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Arrest
and confession
After
being informed that 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 knew his arrest was inevitable since he had spent
the previous evening on the couch in his lawyers' office.
In
the early hours of December 22, 1978, Gacy confessed to police that since 1972,
he had committed approximately 25–30 murders, all of whom he falsely claimed
were teenage male runaways or male prostitutes, whom he would typically abduct
from Chicago's Greyhound Bus station, from Bughouse Square or simply off the
streets. The victims would often be grabbed by force or conned into believing
Gacy—often carrying a sheriff's badge and placing spotlights on his black
Oldsmobile—was a policeman and would be lured to his house with either the
promise of a job with his construction company or with an offer of money for
sex.
Once
back at Gacy's house, the victims would be handcuffed or otherwise bound, then
choked with a rope or a board as they were sexually assaulted. Gacy would often
stick clothing in the victims' mouths to muffle their screams. Many of his
victims had been strangled with a tourniquet, which Gacy referred to as his
"rope trick." Occasionally, the victim had convulsed for an
"hour or two" after the rope trick before dying. When asked where he
drew the inspiration for the two-by-four found at his house in which he had manacled
many of his victims, Gacy stated he had been inspired to construct the device
from reading about the Houston Mass Murders.
The
victims were usually lured alone to his house, although on approximately three
occasions, Gacy had what he called "doubles"—occasions wherein he
killed two victims on the same evening. After death, the victims' bodies would
typically be stored beneath his bed for up to 24 hours before burial in the
crawl space. When asked as to why several bodies were found with plastic bags
over their heads or upper torsos, Gacy stated he would cover the victim's head
or upper torso with a plastic bag if he noted bleeding from the nose or mouth.
Most
victims were buried in Gacy's crawl space where, periodically, he would pour quicklime
to hasten the decomposition of the bodies. Gacy stated he had lost count of the
number of victims buried in his crawl space and had initially considered
stowing bodies in his attic before opting to dispose of his victims off the I-55
bridge into the Des Plaines River. Thus the final five victims—all killed in
1978—were disposed of in this manner because his crawl space was full. When
asked about Robert Piest, Gacy confessed to strangling the youth at his house
that evening, adding that he had been interrupted by a phone call from a
business colleague while doing so; he also admitted to having disposed of
Piest's body in the Des Plaines river and stated that the reason he had arrived
at the Des Plaines police station in a disheveled manner in the early hours of
December 13 was that he had been in a minor traffic accident after disposing of
Piest's body en route to his appointment with Des Plaines officers. He also
confessed to police he had buried the body of John Butkovitch in his garage. To
assist officers in their search for the victims buried in his house, Gacy drew
a diagram of his basement to show where the bodies were buried.
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|
The crawl space at 8213 Summerdale.
Twenty-six victims were found buried in this location.
|
Search
for victims
Accompanied
by police, Gacy returned to his house on December 22 and showed police the
location in his garage where he had buried Butkovitch's body, then police drove
to the spot on the I-55 bridge from which he had thrown the body of Piest and
four other victims (although only four of the five victims Gacy claimed to have
disposed of in this way were ever recovered from the Des Plaines River).
Between
December 22 and December 29, 1978, a total of 27 bodies were recovered from
Gacy's property, 26 of which were found buried in his crawl space, with one
additional victim, John Butkovitch, being found buried beneath the concrete
floor of his garage precisely where Gacy had marked the youth's grave with a
can of spray paint. Following a temporary postponement of the excavations
imposed in January 1979 due to a severe winter snowfall in Chicago, excavations
of the property resumed in March—despite Gacy's insistence to investigators
that all the victims' bodies buried upon his property had been found.
On
March 9, the body of a 28th victim was found buried in a pit close to a barbecue
grill in the backyard of the property: the victim was found wrapped within
several plastic bags and wore a ring on the wedding finger of his left hand,
indicating the possibility he had been married. One week later, on March 16,
the skeletal remains of another victim were found buried beneath the joists of
the dining room floor, bringing the total number of bodies exhumed at 8213 West
Summerdale Avenue to 29. In April 1979, Gacy's vacant house was demolished.
Three
additional bodies, which had been found in the nearby Des Plaines River between
June and December 1978, were also confirmed to have been victims of Gacy.
Several
of the bodies were found with the ligature used to strangle them still knotted
around their necks. In other instances, cloth gags were found lodged deep down
the victims' throats, leading the investigators to conclude that 13 of Gacy's
victims died not of strangulation, but of asphyxiation. 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. Some victims were identified due to their known connection
to Gacy through PDM Contractors; others were identified due to their personal artifacts
being found at 8213 Summerdale: one victim, 17-year-old Michael Bonnin, who had
disappeared June 3, 1976, while traveling from Chicago to Waukegan, was
identified because his fishing license was found at Gacy's home; another youth,
Timothy O'Rourke, was last heard mentioning that a contractor had offered him a
job. Of Gacy's identified victims, the youngest were Samuel Dodd Stapleton and
Michael Marino, both 14 years old; the oldest were Russell Nelson and James
Mazzara, both 21 years old. Seven of the victims have never been identified.
On
April 9, 1979, a body was discovered entangled in exposed roots on the edge of
the Des Plaines River in Grundy County. The body was identified via dental
records as being that of Robert Piest. A subsequent autopsy revealed that
"paper-like material" had been shoved down his throat while he was
alive.
Trial
John
Gacy was brought to trial on February 6, 1980, charged with 33 murders. He was
tried in Cook County, Illinois before Judge Louis Garippo; the jury was
selected from Rockford, Illinois, due to saturation of press coverage in Cook
County.
In
the year before his trial, at the request of his defense counsel, Gacy spent
over 300 hours with the doctors at the Menard Correctional Center undergoing a
variety of psychological tests before a panel of psychiatrists to determine
whether he was mentally competent to stand trial.
Gacy
had attempted to convince the doctors he was suffering from a multiple
personality disorder. His lawyers, however, opted to plead not guilty by reason
of insanity to the charges against him, and produced several psychiatric
experts who had examined Gacy the previous year to testify to their findings.
Three psychiatric experts appearing for the defense at Gacy's trial testified
they found Gacy to be a paranoid schizophrenic who suffered from a multiple
personality disorder.
The
prosecution's case was that Gacy was sane and fully in control of his actions.
The prosecution produced several witnesses to testify to the premeditation of
his actions and the efforts he went to in order to escape detection, plus
doctors who refuted the defense doctors' claims of multiple personality and
insanity. Two witnesses who testified were PDM employees, who confessed Gacy
had made them dig trenches in his crawl space. One of these employees, Michael
Rossi, testified that in August 1977, Gacy had marked a location in the crawl
space with sticks and told him to dig a drainage trench.
When
asked where in the crawl space he had dug, Rossi turned to a diagram of Gacy's
home on display in the courtroom. The diagram showed where the bodies were
found in the crawl space and elsewhere on the property, and pointed to the
location of the remains of an unidentified victim known as "Body 13".
Rossi stated he had not dug any other trenches, but—at Gacy's request—had
supervised other PDM employees digging trenches in the crawl space.
Rossi
also testified that Gacy would periodically look into the crawl space to ensure
employees did not deviate from the precise locations he had marked. Gacy had
testified after his arrest that he had only dug five of the victims' graves in
his crawl space and had had employees (including Gregory Godzik) dig the
remaining trenches in order that he would "have graves available".
On
February 18, Dr. Robert Stein, the Cook County medical examiner appointed to
supervise the exhumation of the victims' bodies from Gacy's home, testified as
to how he and his colleagues had conducted the recovery of the remains. Stein
testified that the excavation was conducted in an "archeological
fashion," adding that all the bodies recovered were "markedly
decomposed, putrefied, skeletalized remains." In relation to the cause of
death of each victim upon which he had later performed an autopsy, Stein stated
he had concluded that thirteen victims had died of asphyxiation; six had died
of ligature strangulation and one victim of multiple stab wounds to the chest.
In ten cases, Stein testified that the cause of death could not be determined,
although all were ruled as homicides.
Upon
cross-examination, Gacy's defense team attempted to raise the possibility that
all 33 murders were accidental erotic asphyxia deaths: Dr. Stein countered this
assertion with evidence that Gacy's claim was impossible.
On
February 29, one of the youths Gacy had sexually assaulted in 1967, Donald
Voorhees, testified to his ordeal at Gacy's hands, and that Gacy had
subsequently paid another youth to beat him and spray Mace in his face so he
would not testify against him. The youth felt unable to testify, but did
briefly attempt to do so, before being asked to step down.
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 at Gacy's hands and came close to breaking down on several
occasions. As the youth testified, Gacy repeatedly laughed at Donnelly's
expense, but the youth finished his testimony. One of Gacy's defense attorneys,
Robert Motta, during Donnelly's cross-examination attempted to discredit his
testimony, but Donnelly did not waver from his testimony of what had occurred.
During
the fifth week of the trial, Gacy wrote a personal letter to Judge Garippo
requesting a mistrial on a number of bases, including that he did not approve
his lawyers' insanity plea approach; 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 witnesses, and that the police were lying about 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. Judge
Garippo addressed Gacy's letter by informing him that under the law he had the
choice as to whether he wished to testify, and he was free to indicate to the
Judge if he wished to do so.
On
March 11, final arguments from both prosecution and defense attorneys began
(these arguments concluded 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."
After
the state's four-hour closing, counsel Sam Amirante and Robert Motta argued for
the defense. Motta and Amirante argued against the testimony delivered by the
doctors who had testified for the prosecution. The defense lawyers attempted to
portray Gacy as a "man driven by compulsions he was unable to control."
In support of these arguments, the defense counsel repeatedly referred to the
testimony of the doctors who had appeared for the defense. Amirante and Motta
then argued that the psychology of Gacy's behavior would be of benefit to
scientific research and that the psychology of his mind should be studied.
Following
the closing arguments of Amirante and Motta, William Kunkle again argued for
the prosecution. Kunkle referred to the defense's contention of insanity as
"a sham," arguing that the facts of the case hearkened to 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. 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 to not 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!" 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.
The
jury deliberated for less than two hours 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. The following day, March 13,
both the prosecution and defense made alternate pleas for the sentence the jury
should decide: the prosecution requesting a death sentence for each murder
committed after the Illinois statute on capital punishment came into effect in
June 1977; the defense requesting life imprisonment.
The
jury deliberated for more than two hours before they returned with their
verdict: Gacy was sentenced to death for the twelve counts of murder upon which
the prosecution had sought this penalty. An initial date of execution was set
for June 2, 1980.
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William Kunkle, prosecutor at Gacy's trial,
standing before a board depicting the 22 victims identified by February 1980.
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Death
row
Upon
being sentenced, Gacy was transferred to the Menard Correctional Center in Chester,
Illinois, where he was to remain incarcerated on death row for a total of 14
years.
After
his incarceration, Gacy read numerous law books and thereupon filed voluminous
motions and appeals, although he did not prevail upon any. Gacy mainly
contended that he had "some knowledge" of only five murders: those of
McCoy, Butkovitch, Godzik, Szyc and Piest, and that 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
prison, Gacy began to paint. The subjects Gacy painted varied, although many
were of clowns, some of which depicted himself as "Pogo". Many of his
paintings were sold at various auctions with individual prices ranging between
$200 and $20,000 apiece.
In
the summer of 1984, the Supreme Court of Illinois upheld Gacy's conviction and
ordered that he be executed by lethal injection on November 14. Gacy filed an
appeal against this decision, which on March 4, 1985, the Supreme Court of the
United States denied.
After
his final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied in October 1993, the
Illinois Supreme Court set his execution date for May 10, 1994.
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. That evening, he observed prayer with a Catholic priest before he was
escorted to the Stateville execution chamber to receive a lethal injection.
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 a
total of 18 minutes to complete. 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 alternate method of lethal injection. On this subject, one of the
prosecutors at Gacy's trial, William Kunkle, said: "He still got a much
easier death than any of his victims."
According
to published reports, Gacy was a diagnosed psychopath who did not express any
remorse for his crimes. 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. It is reported that his final spoken words were
simply, "Kiss my ass."
In
the hours leading up to Gacy's execution, a crowd estimated to number over 1,000
gathered outside the correctional center to observe the execution; the majority
of whom were vocally in favor of the execution, although a number of anti-death
penalty protesters were also present. Of those in favor of the execution, some
wore T-shirts hearkening to Gacy's previous community services as a clown and
bearing satirical slogans such as "No tears for the clown." The
anti-death penalty protesters present observed a silent candlelight vigil.
After
Gacy's death was confirmed at 12:58 a.m. May 10, 1994, his brain was removed.
It is in the possession of Dr. Helen Morrison, a witness for the defense at
Gacy's trial, who interviewed Gacy and other serial killers in an attempt to
isolate common personality traits of violent sociopaths. An examination of
Gacy's brain after his execution revealed no abnormalities.
Artwork
In
the months following Gacy's execution many of his paintings were auctioned. A
total of 19 were sold by autograph dealer Steve Koschal, who had commissioned
many of them directly from Gacy. Selling prices ranged from $195 for an acrylic
painting of a bird to $9,500 for a painting depicting cartoon characters
resembling Disney's Seven Dwarfs playing baseball against the Chicago Cubs. The
baseball painting had been autographed by numerous members of the Baseball Hall
of Fame, though Koschel admitted that the signers had not been told the
identity of the painter. Some were bought so that they could be destroyed: 25
paintings were burned in June, 1994 in Naperville, Illinois, at a communal
bonfire attended by approximately 300 people, including family members of nine
of Gacy's victims.
Exhibitions
of Gacy's artwork have been held since the 1980s and continue to be held. Gacy
dismissed criticism that he was permitted to keep money from the sale of his
paintings, claiming his artwork was intended "to bring joy into people's
lives."
In
2011 the Arts Factory Gallery in Las Vegas sold Gacy's self-portrait Goodbye
Pogo ($4,500) and 73 other Gacy paintings, drawings and audio recordings to
benefit various charitable organizations. The National Center for Victims of
Crime, one of the named beneficiaries, demanded that the gallery cease using
its name in connection with the sale.
Victims
Identified
victims (age in parentheses)
Only
25 of Gacy's victims were ever conclusively identified. By the time of Gacy's
trial, a total of 22 victims had been identified. In March 1980, two further
bodies unearthed from Gacy's crawl space were identified via dental and radiology
records as those of Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino, two teenage friends who
were reported missing on October 25, 1976, the day after they had disappeared.
However, DNA analysis conducted in 2012 has confirmed that the 14th body
exhumed from the crawl space—initially believed to have been Michael Marino—was
misidentified.
In
May 1986, the ninth victim exhumed from Gacy's crawl space was identified as
Timothy McCoy, Gacy's first victim. One further victim was identified in
November 2011 through DNA testing as William George Bundy, a 19-year-old
construction worker who was last seen by his family on his way to a party on
October 26, 1976. Bundy had apparently worked for Gacy before his murder.
Shortly after Gacy's arrest, his family had contacted Bundy's 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.
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- Michael Marino (14) October 24, 1976
Unidentified
victims
Eight
victims remain unidentified, seven of whom had been buried beneath Gacy's crawl
space; one additional youth was found buried approximately 15 feet from the
barbecue pit in his backyard. Experts used the skulls of the unidentified
victims to create facial reconstructions. 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.
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On
October 11, 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 Gacy's victims. 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. Test results thus far conducted have
confirmed the identification of one victim, ruled out the possibility of
numerous other missing youths as being victims of Gacy and solved an unrelated cold
case dating from 1978.
In
October and December 2011 respectively, two youths whom investigators had
initially believed likely matches to unidentified victims of Gacy were found
alive. One of these individuals, Harold Lovell, had disappeared from Aurora in
May 1977 at age 19. Lovell was located in Florida and subsequently reunited
with his family. Lovell had been listed by investigators as one of the most
likely matches for the eight unidentified victims, having last told his mother
he was to find a construction job. The other individual, Theodore Szal, had disappeared
from Glen Ellyn in March 1977 at age 24. Szal was located in Oregon and had
also worked in construction prior to his disappearance.
In
September 2012, sheriff Thomas Dart announced that through efforts made to
identify Gacy's unidentified victims, investigators had solved an unrelated
cold case relating to a 21-year-old Peoria youth named Daniel Noe. Noe, an
Illinois native, was last seen alive on September 30, 1978 hitchhiking from Bellingham
to Chicago. His remains had been found near Mount Olympus in 2010. As Noe had
been listed as a possible unidentified victim of Gacy, investigators had
collected DNA samples from his family which, although negative when compared to
the seven remaining unidentified victims exhumed from Gacy's property, proved a
positive match to the unidentified remains found in Utah in 2010.
On
October 25, 2012, DNA tests conducted upon remains identified in 1980 through
dental analysis as those of a missing Chicago youth named Michael Marino
revealed that the remains had been misidentified. Marino's mother had always
doubted the identification of her son due to the fact clothing found upon the
body 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.
The
original misidentification of the body identified as Michael Marino has been
disputed due to the fact the body was identified in 1980 via dental records and
neither an upper nor a lower jaw bone was present upon the exhumed body,
leading to strong speculation that either the body of Marino may have been
buried as that of Kenneth Parker and vice versa, or the incorrect set of
unidentified remains of another unidentified victim of John Gacy had been
released to Marino's mother as those of her son. In addition, the orthodontist
who initially identified Marino's remains has stated he is convinced his
initial findings are correct, stating: "The dental identification is 100
percent solid ... no question. We compared 32 teeth, probably half a dozen of
them had very distinct fillings and every one of them was consistent with
Michael Marino."
Investigators
do acknowledge that strong circumstantial evidence does point to the remains of
the 14th body unearthed from the crawl space as being those of Michael Marino,
including the fact the body shared a common grave with that of Kenneth Parker;
a close friend of Marino who disappeared on the same day as he.
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. 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.
On
May 8, 1977, a 24-year-old named Charles Hattula was found drowned in a river
near Freeport, Illinois. Hattula, an employee of PDM Contractors, had been
linked to the initial investigation of Gacy after Robert Piest's disappearance;
this was after the same employee who had informed the investigators of Gregory
Godzik's disappearance informed them of Hattula's death. Moreover, this
employee had stated that Hattula was known to have conflicts with Gacy. Gacy
had himself informed several of his employees the youth had drowned after
Hattula's body was recovered from the Pecatonica River. Des Plaines authorities
had contacted colleagues in Freeport during their investigation into Gacy, but
were told the youth had fallen to his death from a bridge. At the time of
Hattula's death, Gacy had become engaged, and his fiancée had moved into his
home, which leaves a possibility that Gacy had disposed of Hattula's body in
the Pecatonica River as opposed to burying the youth in his crawl space.
However, Hattula's death had been ruled as accidental.
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 a total of five bodies in this manner. However, only four
bodies were recovered from the river and conclusively confirmed to be victims
of Gacy. Given the gap of over four months between the dates of the murders of
the first and second victims known to have been disposed in the river, it is
possible that this unknown victim may have been killed between June and
November 1978.
As
a successful contractor, Gacy is also known to have both visited numerous
states across America and visited Canada during the years he is known to have
killed. When asked as to whether there were more victims, Gacy simply stated:
"That's for you guys to find out."
Detective
Bill Dorsch has stated he has reason to believe there may be more victims
buried elsewhere. In 1975, he claims that he saw a person he believes to be
Gacy digging upon the property of the apartment building he then resided in,
located at the 6100 block of West Miami Avenue in Chicago. Gacy is known to
have been the caretaker of this property in 1975. When confronted by Dorsch as
to his actions, Gacy stated he was performing work that he was too busy to do
during the day. Another resident says she also has reason to believe there may
be additional victims buried at that location, stating Gacy had dug a number of
large trenches around the property where fresh plants would later be planted.
In
March 2012, Cook County Sheriff's officials submitted a request to excavate the
grounds of this property. However, the Cook County State's Attorney denied this
request, stating a lack of probable cause as the reason the submission was
denied; adding that there had been a search of the property conducted in 1998.
However, the sheriff's office had noted that in 1998, a radar survey conducted
had noted a total of 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.
Moreover, Detective Dorsch, who had informed investigators of the possibility
of Gacy having buried victims' bodies at West Miami Avenue, had provided police
with a letter from the radar company who had conducted the 1998 search of the
property which stated the initial search of the grounds was incomplete.
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.
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) and adding the facts 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. Moreover, no images of the second
search of West Miami Avenue have been released to the press: the released
images date from the search conducted in 1998.
Inspiration for the formation of
Missing Child Recovery Act of 1984
In
1984, Sam Amirante, one of Gacy's two defense attorneys at his 1980 trial,
authored the Missing Child Recovery Act of 1984. Amirante has since stated that
the primary inspiration for his feeling the need to instigate 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. The Missing Child Recovery Act of 1984 authored by
Amirante removed this 72-hour waiting period and thus any missing child report
received in Illinois from 1984 onwards immediately triggered a statewide police
search rather than 72 hours needing to elapse before the police could do so.
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.
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 questioned whether individuals he
referred to as "my associates" had also been arrested. When
questioned as to whether these individuals had participated directly or
indirectly in the killings, Gacy replied "Directly."
Gacy
specifically named two employees of PDM Contractors as being the individuals he
had referred to as being involved in several of the murders. In the 1980s, he
also informed Robert Ressler that "two or three" employees had
assisted him in several murders. Ressler replied that he did indeed believe
there were unexplained avenues to the case and stated he believed Gacy had
killed more than 33 victims. Gacy neither confirmed or denied Ressler's
suspicions. (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".)
Moreover,
on one occasion during his surveillance, two of the surveillance officers
followed Gacy to a bar Gacy had driven to meet two of his employees. At the
bar, the surveillance officers overheard a hushed conversation between one of
the employees and Gacy in which the youth asked Gacy the question: "And
what? Buried like the other five?"
In
addition, 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 watched his abuse as he kneeled in front of him. When this
youth realized Rignall had regained consciousness, he was again chloroformed
into unconsciousness. Rignall had also informed police that as Gacy had raped
and assaulted him, lights in the room in which he had been manacled were
switched on and off.
In
2012, two Chicago lawyers named Steven Becker and Robert Stephenson publicly
stated that, having reviewed archived records relating to Gacy's business
travels for both PDM Contractors and PE Systems, it is likely that Gacy may
have been assisted by one or more accomplices in a minimum of three murders. In
each case, Becker and Stephenson state that official documents attest to the
fact Gacy was in another state at the time the youths in question disappeared.
In one case, that of 18-year-old Robert Gilroy, investigators found that on
September 12, 1977—three days prior to Gilroy's disappearance—Gacy had flown to
Pittsburgh and did not return to Chicago until the day after the youth had
disappeared.
In
a second case, that of 21-year-old Russell Nelson, the traveling companion with
whom Nelson was visiting Chicago at the time of his disappearance gave
differing accounts of the youth's disappearance to both Nelson's family and
investigators. Nelson was apparently abducted from a crowd who had gathered
outside a Chicago bar; yet investigators contend this could not have happened
without his traveling companion noticing. In addition, Nelson's traveling
companion later gave differing accounts of the circumstances surrounding the
youth's disappearance to Nelson's mother. This youth is also known to have
offered Nelson's two brothers a job with Gacy's construction company.
In
a third case, travel records indicate Gacy was at a scheduled job site in
Michigan at 6 a.m. on September 26, 1977—the day following the disappearance of
a 19-year-old youth named John Mowery. Mowery was last seen leaving his mother's
house at 10 p.m. on September 25. His roommate was an employee of PDM
Contractors who had formerly lived with Gacy and had moved into Mowery's
apartment less than one week prior to the youth'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 prior to the youth's disappearance.
Gacy
had repeatedly claimed in interviews following his arrest and conviction that
he was not present in Chicago when a total of 16 of the identified victims had
disappeared. In one interview, he stated that at the time of his arrest, a
total of four PDM Employees were also considered suspects in the disappearances
of the missing individuals investigators had linked to Gacy—all of whom he
stated were in possession of keys to his house.
Criminal
defense attorneys investigating the possibility Gacy had not acted alone in
several of the murders have stated there is "overwhelming evidence Gacy
worked with an accomplice."
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