John Wayne Gacy
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Welcome to the Serial Killer Podcast. The podcast dedicated to serial killers. Who they were, what they did, and how. I am your host, Thomas Weiberthun, and in tonight's episode, we are back in the United States of America.

We travel inland to the Windy City, Chi-Town, the city of big shoulders, also known as Chicago, to take a closer look at one of the serial killer superstars, a man whose murderous activities inspired several films and together with BTK and Bundy personifies the concept of the modern wolf in sheep's clothing. I am, of course...

Talking about none other than the killer clown himself, John Wayne Gacy. The 1970s were particularly known for the serial killer phenomenon. Most of the most famous killers operated, at least in part, during this decade, and John Wayne Gacy was no exception.

Between the years of 1972 and 1978, he murdered at least 33 young men and boys, although most investigators estimate he killed closer to 40 people. His youngest victim was just 14 years old, and his oldest only 22. Gacy is a particularly interesting case, since he is famous for at first boasting about his crimes, only to later denounce his confession.

He was also somewhat of a local celebrity, much beloved by friends, family and neighbors, and, just like contemporary killer Ted Bundy, a rising star on the political scene. Although Gacy was a rising star in the Democratic Party, not the GOP as Bundy was. Gacy, in many ways, personified the Jungian theory of the duality of man.

For those not familiar with either the film Full Metal Jacket nor Carl Jung himself, the basis for this is Jung's statement as follows. Every good quality has its bad side, and nothing that is good can come into the world without directly producing a corresponding evil. This is a painful fact. End quote. For Gacy, this is taken to the extreme.

On the one hand, a caring husband, a successful businessman, and one of the guys. On the other, an insecure mama's boy, a gluttonous slob, a closeted homosexual with a ravenous hunger for sexual torture and murder. He came from a solid family background, with loving siblings and a doting mother.

His parents, Marion and John, were Catholic and solidly middle class. Gacy had always had an entrepreneurial mindset and busied himself after school with a series of part-time positions. Boy scout activities, newspaper routes, and worked in a grocery store as a bag boy and stock clerk. But all was not rosy.

He too, much like Jeffrey Dahmer, had a serious injury while a young child. At 11 years old, he fell off a swing set and hit his head, causing a blood clot in his brain. This caused repeated blackouts that eventually went away. Also, he was never a popular kid. From early childhood, he was obese and very socially awkward.

As you, dear listener, probably know, kids with these characteristics are more often than not subject to relentless bullying by the popular kids. Many serial killers have somewhat difficult childhoods, and one can wonder if the pent-up rage from these men's grade school years contributes to them going on the prowl later in life.

Although John Wayne Jr., thus named both because it was his father's name and favorite actor, was not a social success among his peers, he was very well liked by teachers and staff. However, being well liked does not equal being academically skilled.

Gacy dropped out of high school without graduating. This gravely upset his father, who also had suspicions about his son's homosexuality. And although Gacy never professed anything but love for his father, his love was not returned. Finding himself a high school dropout, unattractive, and not very socially adept young man, Gacy moved out of his parents' home to seek his luck in Las Vegas.

While in Vegas, he worked part-time as a janitor in a funeral parlor. It was not easy finding out much information about Gacy's short career in the undertaking business, but knowing what we do about Gacy's activities as an adult, would you have been happy having him working in the place treating your dearly departed? All his life, John Wayne had delusions of grandeur about himself.

He thought himself better than a blue-collar janitor worker and was not happy with his stay in fabulous Las Vegas. Deciding Vegas didn't deserve him, Gacy moved back in with his parents outside of Chicago to develop his business talents. He enrolled himself into a business college and eventually graduated. While at business college, he perfected his talent in salesmanship.

Gacy was a born salesman who could talk his way in and out of almost anything. A skill he would hone and develop to great use later in life. And so it was in the 1960s. Life seemed to hold a lot of promise for the young John Wayne Gacy. He had landed a respectable job with the Nunn Bush Shoe Company...

and moved to Springfield, Illinois, to manage a men's clothing store. But being a simple clothing store manager was not nearly enough for Gacy. He wanted the world and more, and he was certainly an ambitious man in addition to being a psychopathic serial murderer.

In Springfield, he became heavily involved with various voluntary organizations, such as the Catholic Chiro Club, the Federal Civil Defense of Illinois, and he was a commanding captain with the Chicago Civil Defense and was eventually vice president of the Jaycees organization. To top it off, he even managed to get married

In September of 1964, Gacy met and married a co-worker named Marlon Myers, whose parents owned a string of Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food restaurant franchises in Waterloo, Iowa. Fred W. Myers, Gacy's new father-in-law, offered him a position with one of his franchises. And soon after that, Gacy and his new wife moved to Iowa. Yet...

His lucky streak would not last much longer. Rumors were spreading around town and amongst Jay-Z members regarding Gacy's sexual preference. It seemed that young boys were always in Gacy's presence. Everyone heard the stories that Gacy was homosexual and made passes at the young boys who worked for him at the fast food franchises.

yet people close to him refused to believe in the gossip until just before the summer of love may of nineteen sixty eight when rumors became truths gazey was indicted

by a grand jury in Black Hawk County for allegedly committing the act of sodomy with a teenage boy named Mark Miller. Miller told the courts that Gacy had tricked him into being tied up while visiting Gacy's home a year earlier and had violently raped him.

He had shown Miller a variety of dildos, many of them extremely large, all the while detailing what he planned on doing with them, and that he planned on doing those things to Miller. He then proceeded to anally penetrate Miller repeatedly with said dildos, without lube, ripping his sphincter, causing enormous pain.

Miller was also repeatedly gagged to induce suffocation, was forced to perform oral sex and was repeatedly anally raped by Gacy. Gacy, of course, denied all the charges against him and told a conflicting story, stating that Miller willingly had sexual relations with him in order to earn extra money.

Gacy further insisted that JC members opposed to him becoming president of the local chapter organization were setting him up. However, Miller's were not the only charges that Gacy would have to face. Four months later, Gacy was charged with hiring an 18-year-old boy to beat up Mark Miller.

Gacy offered Dwight Anderson $10 plus $300 more to pay off his car loan if he carried out the beating. Anderson lured Miller to his car and drove him to a wooded area, where he sprayed mace in his eyes and began to beat him. Miller fought back and broke Anderson's nose, managed to break away and run to safety.

Soon after, Miller called the police. Anderson was picked up and taken into police custody, where he gave Gacy's name as the man who had hired him to perform the beating. A judge thus ordered Gacy to undergo psychiatric evaluation at several mental health facilities to find out if he were mentally competent to stand trial. Upon evaluation, Gacy was found to be mentally competent.

However, he was considered to be an anti-social personality who would probably not benefit from any known medical treatment. And that disorder, dear listener, is also known as sociopathy or psychopathy, depending on the severity. Soon after health authorities submitted their report, Gacy pleaded guilty to the charge of sodomy.

When the judge handed down the sentence, Gacy received 10 years at the Anamosa State Penitentiary, a maximum time for such an offense. John Wayne Gacy was 26 years old when he entered prison for the first time. Shortly after Gacy entered prison, his wife divorced him on the grounds that Gacy violated their marriage vows.

While in prison, Gacy had heard to all the rules and stayed far away from trouble. He was a model prisoner, realizing that there was a high possibility of an early parole if he remained non-violent and well-behaved. Another interesting thing about Gacy is that he was an excellent cook. He loved to cook food and soon landed a prison job as a canteen cook. Prisoners and Staff

still talk about the great food they had been served when John Wayne Gacy was the prison chef. There is actually archival footage from this that I am happy to be able to present to you. A local news station was doing a Christmas special on what the inmates were doing for Christmas. It wound up interviewing a cook-clothing-garbed young Gacy. And here he is, talking about the Christmas menu at the Anamosa State Penitentiary.

I'm John J. Seaton from Waterloo, Iowa. And you're a man of some authority here. What is your title? Well, I'm first cook.

in the kitchen and I run the morning meal and the afternoon meal in the kitchen. How long have you been here? I've been here now a year and about two weeks. Am I asking how long do you plan to take up residence here? Well, I hope to be getting out sometime in May. Well, good. You've got to continue as a cook, you said, as a profession? Right. This is my profession before I came in. All right. Well, now, how about

Christmas time. Is there anything special for the guys? What are you planning for on Christmas Day? Well, Christmas Eve, the food service department under the direction of Mr. John Breiman will prepare stockings that we hand out. Well, actually, they'll give you bags that'll have fruit, an apple and an orange, and a box of Brick Mix candy. This is all from the staff here. They donate this.

Then in the cell houses at night on Christmas Eve we will serve cookies and hot chocolate to the men in the cell houses. This is around 8:30, 9 o'clock at night. Then from Christmas Day we serve a regular traditional Christmas dinner. I'll tell you about that. This is quite a meal.

This will be roast whole turkey. We use 25 whole turkeys. There are approximately 540 pounds of turkey that we fix. We start preparing this on the day before. This is all prepared by inmates and there's nine cooks under my direction, under the supervision of several supervisors that are planning to make food earlier. Along with that, we'll make up ten bake pans, large baking pans of oyster dressing. We use eight gallons of oyster in that.

Now we use the giblets and everything so it doesn't go away from the nice giblets gravy. We'll have candied potatoes and use about 36 gallons of that. And so if they have a choice of potato, we make up 250 pounds of mashed potatoes.

along with it. Along with that we'll use some 60 pounds of mixed vegetables to serve a mixed vegetable as the second vegetable on the line. We'll have 50 pounds of cranberry sauce made up. And we'll make up a Walmart salad. And our Walmart salad is your walnut meat and we use fresh marshmallows, fresh green grapes, and fruit cocktail and

make up our own whipped cream topping with it. We sometimes go through as much as 45 gallons of this on the line. The men, with the exception of the turkey, which they get a generous proportion of, and the pumpkin pie that will be served, are allowed to take as much as they want to eat. The only requirement is that you eat what you take.

The nice Christmas carol at the end there was sung by the prison choir, of which Gacy was a member. Eighteen months later, on the 18th of June 1970, Gacy's hopes came true. His parole was approved. Gacy left the confines of the prison gates and made his way back to his place of birth in Chicago.

While Gacy had been incarcerated, his father had died. This deeply affected him, even though his father never had been very fond of him, and he became depressed. However, he refused to let this stand in the way of his prospects and picked up where he left with business and organizational work.

He moved in with his mother, took a job as a chef in a restaurant, and with his mother's help purchased a house in the Chicago suburbs. Gacy tried and succeeded in making friends with his neighbors, all of whom thought of him as a pillar of the neighborhood, all up until his final arrest and trial. But he was not satisfied sexually and sought out young men and boys, often paying them for sex.

He was almost put back in jail following yet another sodomy and underage sex charge, had it not been for the witness simply not showing up to court. One would think a homosexual, massively obese, rather ugly-looking man was not exactly what women were looking for back in the 1970s. But on the 1st of June 1972, Gacy married Carol Hoff.

a newly divorced mother of two daughters. Gacy had romanced a woman who was in a state of emotional vulnerability, and she fell for him. She was attracted to Gacy's charm and generosity, and she believed he would be a good provider for her and her children. She was aware of Gacy's prison sentence, yet she trusted that he had changed his life around for the better.

Carol and her daughters quickly settled into their new home with Gacy. And Gacy, he threw memorable barbecue parties, in which he invited all those close to him. On one occasion, more than 300 guests showed up to attend one of Gacy's parties. The two that were attended by the most people were a luau-themed party and a western-themed party. Both were huge successes.

"'Gacy thrived on the attention he received from people who had either been to or heard of these parties, and he liked to feel important. "'His wife, his stepchildren, caring neighbors, and multitude of friends all had noticed a foul odor emanating from underneath Gacy's house that never seemed to dissipate.'

Gacy blamed the horrible stench on some moisture buildup in the crawlspace under his house. Today, it is easy to be flabbergasted by the fact that no one came to investigate. But, dear listener, this was the 70s,

in a very all-American, middle-class neighborhood. And to top it off, in 1974, Gacy decided he wanted to go into business for himself with a contracting business named Painting, Decorating and Maintenance, or PDM Contractors Incorporated. So no one simply entertained any reason why Gacy would lie. He hired young teenage boys to work for him.

He told friends that he hired such young men to keep the costs low. However, that was not Gacy's only reason for hiring teenage boys. Gacy intended to seduce his young employees. His homosexual desires and urge to inflict harm were slowly becoming more apparent to those around him, especially his wife.

Their sex life had come to a halt, and Gacy's moods became more unpredictable. He would be in a good mood one moment, and the next moment he would be flying into an uncontrollable rage and throwing furniture. He was an insomniac, and his lack of sleep seemed to have only exacerbated his other problems. Gacy was rarely home in the evenings, and when he was, he was either fixing something with the outside of the house or working in the garage.

However, there was one thing that Carol was extremely worried about. It was not only that Gacy showed no sexual interest in her that hurt Carol, but also what pained her even more was when she began to find magazines with naked men and boys in her house. She knew that Gacy was reading them, and he acted nonchalantly about his new choice of reading material.

In fact, Gacy had told Carol that he preferred boys to women. Naturally, Carol was distressed by this and she soon filed for divorce. The couple's divorce became final on the 2nd of March 1976. Although Gacy was having marital problems, he refused to let it hold him back from realizing his dream of success.

Being a man who thrived on and delighted in recognition and attention, Gacy turned his sights to the world of politics. It was in politics that Gacy hoped to make his mark on the world. He had high aspirations and hoped to one day run for public office. Gacy realized that he needed to get his name out and make himself known by participating in volunteer projects and community activities.

He also knew that if he were to succeed in politics, he had to win over the people. And Gacy had a natural talent when it came to persuading others, and he creatively came up with a way to gain the recognition he sought. It was not long before Gacy caught the attention of Robert F. Matwick, the Democratic Township Committee man for Norwood Park.

As a free service to the community, Gacy and his employees volunteered to clean up the Democratic headquarters. And it was while trying to rise in the Democratic Party that Gacy started what would gain him his infamous nickname.

Gacy had impressed Matwick when the contractor had dressed up as Pogo the Clown and entertained children at parties and hospitals. Unaware of Gacy's past and impressed by his sense of duty and dedication towards the community, Matwick nominated Gacy to the Street Lighting Commission. In 1975, Gacy became the secretary treasurer.

It seemed as if Gacy's dreams of success were beginning to come true. However, his career in politics would be short-lived. Troubles started to brew when rumors again began to circulate about Gacy having homosexual interests in teenage boys.

One of these rumors stemmed from an actual incident that took place during the time Gacy was involved with cleaning the Democratic Party headquarters. One of the teenagers who worked with Gacy on that particular project was a 16-year-old boy named Tony Antonucci. According to the boy, Gacy made sexual advances towards him. He had backed off when Antonucci threatened to hit him with a chair.

Gacy joked about the situation and left him alone for a month. The following month, while visiting Gacy's home, Gacy again approached Antonucci. Gacy tried to trick the young man into handcuffs, and believing he was securely cuffed, he began to undress the boy. However, Antonucci had made sure that one of his hands was loosely cuffed, and he was able to free himself and wrestle Gacy to the ground.

Once he had Gacy on the ground, he handcuffed him, but eventually let him go after Gacy promised he would never again try touching him. Gacy never made sexual advances towards Antonucci again, and the boy remained working for Gacy for almost a year following the incident. Again, we are left wondering how anyone could be so naive and not report Gacy to the authorities.

But those were the times when the kid probably needed the money and didn't have any reason to think Gacy was anything other than a closeted homosexual.

It was around this time that things started to unravel for Gacy. His health problems stemming from his extremely unhealthy lifestyle, his mental issues, his divorce and sexual urges all came to a climax and resulted in seven young men's disappearance in short succession.

17-year-old Johnny Butkovich was like most young men who enjoyed cars, and he took great pride in his 1968 Dodge, on which he was continually working. He particularly loved to race his car, a hobby that cost quite a bit for a young man of 17. In order to pay for new parts to sustain his hobby, he knew he had to get a job.

Johnny began doing remodeling work for Gacy at PDM Contractors, a position he enjoyed and that paid well. He and Gacy had a good working relationship, which made the long hours pass by more quickly. However, their working relationship ended abruptly when Gacy refused to pay Johnny for two weeks of work,

something Gacy did often to his employees in order to save money for himself. Angered that Gacy had withheld his pay, Johnny went over to his boss's house with two friends to collect what he believed was rightfully his. When Johnny confronted him about his paycheck, Gacy refused to pay him anything.

and a large argument erupted. Johnny threatened that he was going to tell authorities that he was not deducting taxes from earnings. Gacy was enraged and screamed at him. Finally, Johnny and his friends realized there was little they could do. They eventually left Gacy's house. Johnny dropped off his friends at their house and drove away, never to be seen alive again.

Michael Bonin, also 17, was not too different from Johnny, in that he enjoyed working with his hands. He especially liked doing woodworking and carpentry, and he was often busy with several projects at a time. In June of 1976, he had almost completed work on restoring an old jukebox, yet he never had a chance to finish the job he had begun.

While en route to catch a train to meet his stepfather's brother, he disappeared. Billy Carroll Jr. was the kind of boy who seemed to be always getting into trouble, ever since his parents could remember. At the age of nine, he was in a juvenile home for stealing a purse, and at age 11, he was caught with a gun. Billy was mischievous and spent most of his time in the streets in Uptown Chicago.

At the age of 16, Billy was making money by arranging meetings between teenage homosexual boys and adult clientele for a commission. Although Billy came from a very different background than Michael Bonin and Johnny Butkovich, they all had one thing in common. John Wayne Gacy. Just like Johnny and Michael, Billy also disappeared suddenly. On 13th of June, 1976...

Billy left his home and was never seen alive again. An avid camper, outdoorsman and horse lover, 18-year-old Robert Gilroy was on the 15th of September 1977 supposed to catch a bus with friends to go horseback riding out, but he never showed up. His father, who was a Chicago police sergeant, immediately began searching for Robert when he heard that his son was missing.

Although a full-scale investigation was mounted for his son, Robert... It's that time of the year. Your vacation is coming up. You can already hear the beach waves, feel the warm breeze, relax and think about...

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The money from his job also allowed for him to buy parts for his 1966 Pontiac car, a time-consuming hobby, and he was proud of his car. Although it was a bit of an eyesore, it served its purpose. On the 12th of December 1976, Gregory dropped his date off at her house, a girl he had a crush for for some time, and drove off towards his home. The following day, police found Gregory's Pontiac,

but Gregory was missing. He was 17 years old. On the 20th of January 1977, 19-year-old John Zick also disappeared, much like the other young men before him. He had driven off in his 1971 Plymouth satellite and was never seen again. Interestingly, a short while after the young man vanished,

Another teenager was picked up by police in a 1971 Plymouth satellite while trying to leave a gas station without paying. The young man said that the man he lived with could explain the situation. The man was Gacy, who explained to police that Zsuk had earlier sold him the car. Police never checked car title, which had been signed 18 days after Zsuk's disappearance.

with a signature that was not his own. In Leyendeckes' The Man Who Killed Boys, the author points out that Zick had known not only Gregory Godzik and Johnny Butkovich, but had also, and I quote, been an acquaintance of John Gacy, although he hadn't worked for PDM contractors, end quote. More than a year later, another young man named Robert Piest would vanish mysteriously.

The investigation into his disappearance would lead to not only the discovery of his body, but the bodies of Butkovich, Bonin, Carroll, Zsik, Gilroy, and 27 other young men, who all had suffered similar fates. It would be a discovery that would rock the foundations of Chicago and shock all of America.

Robert Peast was only 15 when he disappeared from just outside the pharmacy where he had worked just minutes earlier. His mother, who had come to pick him up from work, had been waiting inside the pharmacy for Robert, who had said he'd be right back after talking with a contractor who had offered him a job. Yet, Robert never returned. His mother began to worry as time passed. Eventually, her worry turned to dread.

She searched the pharmacy area outside and inside, and still Robert was nowhere to be found. Three hours after Robert's disappearance, the DePlaines Police Department was notified. Lieutenant Joseph Kozenchak led the investigation. Soon after learning the name of the contractor who had offered the job to Piest, Lieutenant Kozenchak knocked at a man's door.

When Mr. Gacy answered, the lieutenant told him about the missing boy and asked Gacy to go with him to the police station for questioning. Gacy said he was unable to leave his home at the moment because there was a recent death in the family and he had had to attend to some phone calls. Gacy showed up at the police station hours later and gave his statement to police.

Gacy said he knew nothing about the boy's disappearance and left the station after further questioning. Lieutenant Kozenchak decided to run a background check on Gacy the next day and was surprised to find that Mr. Gacy had served time for committing sodomy on a teenager years earlier. Soon after Lieutenant Kozenchak's discovery, he obtained a search warrant for Gacy's house. It was there that he believed he would find Robert Pieste.

So it was on the 13th of December, 1978, police entered John Wayne Gacy Jr.'s house on Somerdale Avenue. Gacy was not at his home during the investigation. Inspector Kautz was in charge of taking inventory of any recovered evidence that might be found at the house. Some of the items on his list that were confiscated from Gacy's home were...

A jewelry box containing two driver's licenses and several rings, including one which had engraved on it the name Maine West High School Class of 1975 and the initials JAS. A box containing marijuana and rolling papers, seven erotic movies made in Sweden, pills including amyl nitrate and valium, a switchblade knife, a stained section of rug,

...and...

A pair of handcuffs with keys. A three-foot-long, two-by-four wooden plank with two holes drilled in each end. A six-millimeter Italian pistol with passable gun caps. Police badges. An 18-inch rubber dildo was also found in the attic beneath the installation. A hypodermic syringe, a needle, and a small brown bottle.

Clothing that was much too small for Gacy, a receipt for a roll of film with a serial number on it from Nissan Pharmacy. Also, nylon rope. Three automobiles belonging to Gacy were also confiscated, including a 1978 Chevrolet pickup truck with a snowplow attached that had the name PDM Contractors written on its side.

a 1979 Oldsmobile Delta 88, and a van with PDM contractors also written on its side. Within the trunk of the car were pieces of hair that were later matched to Robert Piest's hair. Further into the investigation, police entered the crawlspace located beneath Gacy's home. The first thing that struck investigators was a rancid odor that they believed to be sewage.

The earth in the crawlspace was sprinkled with lime, seemed to have been untouched. Police found nothing else during their first search and eventually returned back to headquarters to run tests on some of the evidence and research the case more. Gacy was called into the police department and told of the articles they had confiscated. Gacy was enraged and immediately contacted his lawyer.

When Gacy was presented with a Miranda waiver stating his rights and asked to sign it, he refused when instructed by his lawyer. Police had nothing to arrest him on and eventually had to release him after more questioning about the peaced boy's disappearance. Gacy was put under 24-hour surveillance. During the days following the police search of Gacy's house, some of his friends were called into the police station and interrogated.

Gacy had told his friends earlier that police were trying to charge him with a murder, but claimed he had nothing to do with such a thing. From the interviews, police gathered little information on any connection with Gacy to Robert Piest. Friends of Gacy could not believe he was capable of killing a teenage boy. Frustrated due to the lack of evidence that police had linking Gacy to Piest, they decided to arrest Gacy on possession of marijuana...

and value. Unknown to police at the time, Gacy had recently confided in a friend and co-worker a day before his arrest that he had indeed killed. Gacy further confided in his friend, a friend it seems impossible to identify in this day and age, that he had killed about 30 people because they were bad and trying to blackmail him.

Around the time Gacy was arrested, he was awaiting action on a case in which he had been charged with rape. In the spring of 1978, a young man named Jeffrey Ringall had suffered a very similar fate to that of Mark Miller. Gacy had picked up Ringall, who was walking along the cold Chicago streets with an invitation to smoke marijuana.

He then forced a chloroform cloth over Ringel's mouth and nose, resulting in him passing out. When Ringel had woken up intermittently during the drive to Gacy's house, Gacy forced more chloroform into his lungs. When he finally woke up at Gacy's home, he was handcuffed to Gacy's bed and endured sexual torture for what must have felt like many, many hours.

His anus was ripped, he was forced to perform oral sex and Gacy repeatedly anally raped him. He was, however, one of the lucky ones that Gacy actually let go. A few months before Gacy's arrest, determined to find his rapist, Ringel waited by one of the highway exits that he was able to remember during one of his wakeful episodes in Gacy's car, before being chloroformed again. Finally,

After hours of waiting by the exit... He spotted a familiar car... And followed it to Gacy's house. Upon learning Gacy's name... He immediately filed charges of sexual assault. And so it was. Finally... After intense investigation and lab work... Into some of the items confiscated by police from Gacy's house... And after the charges of sexual assault filed by Ringall...

Police came up with critical evidence against Gacy. One of the rings found at Gacy's house belonged to another teenager who had disappeared a year earlier, named John Sick. They also discovered that three former employees of Gacy had also mysteriously disappeared.

Furthermore, the receipt for the roll of film that was found at Gacy's home had belonged to a co-worker of Robert Piest, who had given it to Robert the day of his disappearance. With the new information, investigators began to realize the enormity of the case that was unfolding before them. It was not long before investigators were back searching Gacy's house. Gacy had finally confessed to police that he did kill someone,

but said it had been in self-defense. He said that he had buried a body underneath his garage. He told police where they could find the body, and police marked the gravesite in the garage, but they did not immediately begin digging. They first wanted to search the crawlspace under Gacy's house. It smelled rancid down there, and the lime on top of the earth balked the investigator's curiosity.

It was not long before they discovered a suspicious mound of earth. Minutes after digging into the suspicious mound, investigators found the remains of a body. That evening, Dr. Robert Stein, Cook County Medical Examiner, was called in to help with the investigation. Upon his arrival at Gacy's house, he immediately recognized a familiar odor, the distinctive smell of death.

"'Stein began to organize the search for more bodies by marking off the areas of earth in sections, as if it were an archaeological site. "'He knew that the excavation of a decomposing body must be done with the utmost care to preserve its integrity and that of the gravesite. "'Throughout the night and into the days that followed the digging progressed under the watchful eye of Dr. Stein.'

On Friday, the 22nd of December 1978, Gacy finally confessed to police that he had killed at least 30 people and buried most of the remains of the victims beneath the crawlspace of his house. According to the book Killer Clown, The John Wayne Gacy Murders by Sullivan and Makin, Gacy said, and I quote...

The first killing took place in January 1972, and the second in January of 1974, about a year and a half after my marriage. He further confessed that he would lure his victims into being handcuffed, and then he would sexually assault them. To muffle the screams of his victims, he would stuff a sock or underwear or paper into their mouths and down their throats.

and kill them by pulling a rope or board against their throats as he was raping them. Gacy admitted to sometimes keeping the dead bodies under his bed or in the attic for several hours before eventually burying them in the crawlspace when the smell of them became too much. On the first day that the police began their digging, they found two bodies.

One of the bodies was that of John Butkovich, who was buried under the garage. The other body was the one found in the crawlspace. As the days passed, the body count grew higher. Some of the victims were found with their underwear still lodged deep in their throats. Other victims were buried so close together that police believed they were probably killed or buried at the same time.

Gacy did confirm to police that he had on several occasions killed more than one person in a day. However, the reason he gave for them being buried so close together was that he was simply running out of room and needed to conserve space. On the 28th of December, police had removed a total of 27 bodies from underneath Gacy's house.

There was also another body found weeks earlier, yet it was not in the crawlspace. The naked corpse of Frank Wayne Dale Landigan was found in the De Plaine River. At the time of their discovery, police were not yet aware of Gacy's horrible crimes, and the case was still under investigation. But investigators found Landigan's driver's license in Gacy's home and connected him to the young man's murder.

Landegin was not the only one of Gacy's victims to be found in the river. Also, on the 28th of December, police removed from the De Plane River the body of James Moho, or Mojo, Mazara, who still had his underwear lodged deep in his throat. The coroner said that the underwear stuffed down the victim's throat had caused Mazara to suffocate.

Gacy told police that the reason he disposed of the bodies in the river was because he ran out of room in his crawlspace and because he had been experiencing back problems from digging the graves. Mazara was the 29th victim of Gacy's to be found, yet it would not be the last.

By the end of February, police were still digging up Gacy's property. They had already gutted the house and were unable to find any more bodies in the crawlspace. It had taken investigators longer than expected to resume the search due to the bad winter storms that froze the ground and the long process of obtaining proper search warrants. However, they believed there were still more bodies to be found, and they were right.

While workmen were breaking up the concrete of Casey's patio, they came across another horrific discovery. They found the body of a man, still in good condition, preserved in the concrete. The man wore a pair of blue jeans, shorts and a wedding ring. Casey's victims no longer included just young boys or suspected homosexuals, but now also married men. The following week another body was discovered.

The 31st body to be found, linked to Gacy, was in the Illinois River. Investigators were able to discover the identity of the young man by a Tim Lee tattoo on one of his arms. A friend of the victim's father had recognized the Tim Lee tattoo while reading a newspaper story about the discovery of a body in the river.

This victim's name was Timothy O'Rourke, who was said to be such a fan of Bruce Lee that he took the Kung Fu Master's last name and added it to his own name in his tattoo. It is possible that Gacy had become acquainted with the young man in one of the gay bars in Newtown. Yet another body was found on Gacy's property around the time O'Rourke was discovered and pulled from the river.

The body was located beneath the recreation room of Gacy's house. It would be the last body to be found on Gacy's property. Soon after their discovery, the house was destroyed and reduced to rubble. Unfortunately, among the 32 bodies that were discovered, that of Robert Piest was still unaccounted for. Piest was still missing. Finally, in April of 1979...

The remains of Robert Piest were discovered in the Illinois River. His body had supposedly been lodged somewhere along the river, making it difficult to find his body. However, strong winds must have dislodged the corpse and carried it to the locks at Dresden Dam, where it was eventually discovered. Autopsy reports on Piest determined that he had suffocated,

from paper towels being lodged down his throat. The family soon after filed a $85 million lawsuit against Gacy for the murder and the Iowa Board of Parole, the Department of Corrections and the Chicago Police Department for negligence. Police investigators continued to match dental records and other clues to help identify the remaining victims who were found on Gacy's property.

All but nine of the victims were finally identified. Although the search for the dead had finally come to an end, Gacy's trial was just beginning. At the dawn of a new decade, on the 6th of February, 1980, the trial of John Wayne Gacy Jr. began in Cook County Criminal Court Building in Chicago, Illinois.

Gacy's defense attorneys did not initially state that Gacy's confession was false, but instead chose the more predictable route of the insanity plea. A plea that is very difficult to prove, but the only one that would give Gacy any hope of ever being a free man again. Although prosecutors were annoyed by Gacy's insanity plea, it was something they had expected and were well prepared for.

When the opening statements had concluded, the prosecution brought its first witness to the stand. Marko Butkovic, the father of Gacy's victim John Butkovic. He was the first witness of many, that included the family and friends of the murdered victims. Some of the witnesses broke down in tears on the bench, while others sadly recounted their last goodbyes to their loved ones.

Following the friends and family of the victims came the testimony of those who worked for Gacy, who survived sexual and usually violent encounters with their boss. Some of his ex-employees told of his mood swings and how he would trick them into being handcuffed. Gacy had told the young man, as a game, hey, try on these handcuffs and see if you can get out. There's a fun trick to it. The young man, never suspecting anything, did as he was told...

Gacy, while the young man was properly handcuffed, suddenly changed his face and leered at the young man, held up a key and said, the trick is to actually have the key. He then proceeded to rape the young man. Others again told of how Gacy constantly made passes at them while at work. On the 24th of February, the defense began its proceedings again.

and to the surprise of many in the courtroom, the first witness they had called was Jeffrey Ringall. The prosecution thought it better to use Ringall in cross-examination. Gacy's other defense lawyer, Amirante, asked Ringall if he thought Gacy was able to control himself. Ringall didn't believe so, considering the savagery of Gacy's attack.

The testimony of Ringel did not last very long, because he broke down while telling the court the details of his rape. Ringel was so stressed that he began to vomit and cry hysterically. He was eventually removed from the courtroom as Gacy sat by exhibiting no signs of emotion. In an effort to prove Gacy's insanity, the defense team called to the stand the friends and family of the accused killer.

Gacy's mother told of how her husband abused Gacy on several occasions, at one time whipping him with a leather strap. Gacy's sister told a similar story of how she repeatedly witnessed her brother being verbally abused by the father. Others who testified for the defense told of how Mr. Gacy was a good and generous man who helped those in need and always had a smile on his face.

Gacy's friendly neighbors, the Grexas, took the stand and told of how wonderful a neighbor he was. However, Mrs. Grexa did say something that would prove damaging to Gacy's case. She refused to say that he was crazy. Instead, she said she believed Gacy to be, and I quote, "...a very brilliant man."

That statement would conflict with the defense's story that Gacy was unable to control his actions and was insane. It took only two hours of deliberation before the jury came back with its verdict. The courtroom was filled with silence and everyone within stood at attention when the jury marched in with its verdict. The silence was broken when the court clerk read...

We, the jury, find the defendant, John Wayne Gacy, guilty. He was found guilty in the deaths of 33 young men, and at the time he had the singular notoriety of having been convicted of more murders than anyone else in American history.

I put an emphasis on convicted here, because as we know, Gacy does not hold the record in body count in America nor the world, but he did, up until Gary Ridgway, hold the record for being convicted of most murders. Gacy received 21 life sentences and 12 death sentences, and was sent to Menard Correctional Center to await execution.

While on death row, Gacy was again the model prisoner. He spent most of his time painting and corresponding with his lawyer and family. Due to the enormity of his crimes and the media frenzy following his arrest and conviction, Gacy received a lot of mail from strangers. Love letters, letters from academics trying to study his case, and a surprising amount of letters from people admiring him.

Gacy's paintings was usually self-portraits of himself as Pogo the Clown. You can actually still buy some of these paintings as they keep turning up at various auction houses. In your humble host's opinion, these paintings are not really good. They are similar to that of a child's painting. But they are interesting, that is for sure.

Gacy also received several visitors, and it was not long until he started talking about how he had been framed, how his confessions were all lies, and being one of the serial killer superstars, I have for you a small treat. Gacy himself arguing his innocence in the last recorded interview for television.

John Wayne Gacy, 51 years old, was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Penitentiary on the 10th of May 1994.

His last meal consisted of a dozen deep fried shrimp, a bucket of original recipe chicken from KFC, a pound of fresh strawberries and french fries. Before the execution began, his last words were, and I quote, Kiss my ass. Gacy's execution was not a smooth one.

After the execution began, the lethal chemicals unexpectedly solidified, clogging the IV tube that led into Gacy's arm and prohibiting any further passage. Blinds covering the window through which witnesses observed the execution were drawn, and the execution team replaced the clogged tube with a new one.

Ten minutes later, the blinds were then reopened and the execution process resumed. It took 18 minutes to complete. I have been your host, Thomas Warburg Thun. Doing this podcast is a labor of love, but if you want to support me, it is greatly appreciated. I have created a Patreon account that you can find at www.patreon.com slash

The Serial Killer Podcast. Any donation, no matter how small, helps a great deal. If only 2% of my monthly listeners donated $1 a month, it would enable me to really increase the quality further and ensure the continuation of the series. Most of all, I wish to provide you, dear listener, with as good quality content as possible.

In order to do this, I need to know a bit more about my audience. So please, take 30 seconds out of your no-doubt busy schedule and fill out my small questionnaire you will find on my website at www.serialkillerpod.wordpress.com and in the description of this episode. Finally, as always, if you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe to it.

Thank you, dear listener, for listening. And join me next time for another tale of serial murder. Good night and good luck.

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