EP. 87 ILLINOIS - John Wayne Gacy (PT. 2): The MURDERS
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In our last episode, we talked about one of America's most notorious killers, John Wayne Gacy, a man who took advantage of young boys for his own sexual desires. If you haven't listened to part one, go back now and listen because it's in that episode where you'll learn everything that led up to Gacy's horrible crimes. ♪

We talked about his childhood, his abusive father, how he got married, had children, and became heavily involved in his community of Waterloo, Iowa. And we also gave you a look into the beginning of Gacy's downfall. In 1967, after sexually assaulting a minor, he was sentenced to 10 years in an Iowa prison. But as we learned, he would only end up serving 18 months of that sentence.

Afterwards, Gacy moved into a small home in a suburb of Chicago called Norwood Park. And it was there where he had a fresh start, where no one knew of his dark past. And that's where we left off in part one. But in this week's episode, we are going to tell you all about the murders that gripped the nation back in the 1970s. In the years after Gacy was released from prison, dozens of young men from around Chicago started going missing.

33 young men to be exact. Many people, including the police, thought that these boys were runaways and there weren't a lot of resources allocated to finding them. But unbeknownst to everyone, by 1978, 29 of the 33 missing young men could be found in one location, in the small, unassuming home on Somerdale Avenue.

Some were buried in the backyard or in a concrete slab in his garage. But most of them could be found buried in the cold, wet, and crowded crawlspace under his home. And it wouldn't be long until the entire world knew the name of the man responsible. This is the story of John Wayne Gacy and the murders of the 33 young men around Chicago. I'm Courtney Browen. And I'm Colin Browen.

It's the summer of 1971, and after going to prison for sexually assaulting a minor, John Wayne Gacy decides to leave Waterloo, Iowa behind and start a new life somewhere else.

After all, his wife and kids had left him after he was incarcerated and the people of Waterloo knew all about his dark past. So why not pick up and have a fresh start? And he ended up buying a small home in a suburb of Chicago called Norwood Park. It was an unassuming home, about a thousand square feet built in the 40s, located on Summerdale Avenue. And it was a nice neighborhood.

Along the streets outside of Gacy's new house were children running around, playing, families going on walks. It was considered safe.

a great place to raise a family. When Gacy moved into the home, the people in his neighborhood thought he looked like a nice and friendly man. They had no idea he had just been released from prison, or that his home would later be a mass grave for 29 missing boys from the Chicago area. And Gacy was lucky because, at the time, the National Crime Database was brand new and it wasn't easy getting people's records.

The police stations also weren't communicating with each other, so he really was able to move here without anyone knowing his past. I was divorced from Marlon. I really didn't miss Marlon, but I did miss the children. I wanted to be John Gacy, the married man, the family man, the guy who wanted to have his own home and everything. And then in August of 71, I bought the house out at 8213 Somerdale.

Another thing the people of Norwood Park didn't know was that John Wayne Gacy was not a rehabilitated man after he was released from prison. In fact, just eight months after Gacy's release from prison, he was arrested again for assaulting another underage boy. Now, keep in mind, this was before he moved into his infamous home on Summerdale Avenue. In that incident, which was just a few months after he was released from prison,

Gacy was living in a condo with his mom and working at a restaurant called Bruno's. And because he was freshly out of prison, he felt a little invincible. So he decided to go driving around the Greyhound bus station looking for a sexual encounter. But he wasn't looking for a woman or a man his age. He wanted an underage boy. And he ended up finding one that was hitchhiking near the bus station.

The boy would later go to the police and tell them that Gacy tried to force him to have sex. Luckily, the boy ended up getting away and on February 12th, 1970, the police came knocking on Gacy's door with a warrant for his arrest. And because he was on parole during this incident, he should have been sent to prison right away. But the charges ended up getting dismissed because the boy never showed up to testify in court.

So it's clear that during Gacy's time in prison, he was not rehabilitated. And about six months after this assault, John Wayne Gacy and his mother decided to move into his infamous home in Norwood Park. It's also around this time when Gacy started dating a woman named Carol Lofgren. Carol was very kind, quiet, and mostly kept to herself.

Gacy had actually known Carol for years because she was good friends with his little sister Karen. And he would go on to say that before they started dating, Carol was like a little sister to him.

In 1971, she was going through a pretty bad divorce and Gacy was a source of comfort. According to the book Buried Dreams, Carol would later say that John was a quote, very warm and understanding person, very easy to talk to, knew a lot of things. It was very easy to just listen to him. I always felt like he knew what he was talking about, end quote.

Now, Carol actually had two young daughters with her previous husband and one of the reasons she was attracted to Gacy was because he was very good with them. In fact, it wasn't long after they started dating when her girl started calling him dad.

And according to Carroll, Gacy came on very strong in the beginning of their relationship. Almost as if he could sense Carroll was vulnerable and needed someone to lean on. I started seeing Carroll in October of 71.

Carol would later say of Gacy, quote, End quote.

And Gacy was very upfront with Carol about his past. He could see a future with her and if they were going to last, he knew he needed to tell her about his incarceration. So one day he sat her down and said, "Look, I'm bisexual and last year I was kind of experimenting with this guy and I ended up getting in trouble for it." Carol said that Gacy didn't really go into any detail about exactly what had happened, but he wanted to make sure she knew he was not gay, just bisexual.

And from what I could find, it seemed like Carol handled it pretty well. She liked Gacy, and in her mind, he had a good head on his shoulders. And more importantly, he was really good to her and the girls. They seemed like a perfect match. John was the more dominant and aggressive one, while Carol was quiet and submissive. But it worked for them. And during the Christmas season of 1971, the two got engaged. They were happy. But were they actually?

Carol might have been, but Gacy still had a dark secret he carried with him. One he could never tell Carol about. Shortly after they got engaged, Gacy and Carol spent New Year's together. It was 1972 and at midnight they shared a kiss and talked about their plans for the future. They even came home afterwards and had sex.

The following day, he dropped off Carol at her house, but when he returned back home, he couldn't shake the feeling that he wanted something more. Something that Carol would never be able to give him. He wanted to have sex with a boy. Plus, his mother wasn't home because she was visiting family, so it was the perfect opportunity.

In the following day, on January 3rd, 1972, Gacy left his home to go driving around the Greyhound bus station, one of his favorite places to find potential victims. He knew that he could always go there to find young and vulnerable boys. Many of the people who hung out around the Greyhound bus station were drug addicts, runaways, or young people who had been rejected by their families.

Gacy came to find out that there were a lot of young gay people that ended up there too. And on this night, he drove there in search of someone who he could have sex with. Now, we briefly talked about this in part one of this series, but after driving around for a while, Gacy spots 16-year-old Timothy McCoy. And he was exactly Gacy's type. Young, slim, and blonde.

Timothy was at the bus station that day because he was on his way back home to Glenwood, Iowa after Christmas vacation. But he had a 12-hour layover at the bus station in Chicago. And because he had some time to spare, he stepped outside at about 1 a.m. for some fresh air. And that's when Gacy spotted him. Now, again, we told this story in part one, but just as a refresher,

Gacy pulls his car up next to Tim and offers him a place to stay, and Tim decides to take him up on the offer. Along the car ride, Gacy asks Tim personal questions about his sex life, like, how often do you have sex? Or, have you ever been with a man? And this is what he would do to introduce the idea of sex to these young boys. Once back at Gacy's house, he makes them some drinks, and before the night was over, the two end up performing oral sex on each other.

Again, we have no idea if Tim wanted to do this, but he was only 16, so either way, it was sexual assault of a minor. The next morning, Tim wakes up and decides to make Gacy breakfast as a thank you for letting him stay the night. But when he walks into Gacy's bedroom to let him know that the breakfast is ready, he's holding a knife. And Gacy takes this as a threat.

The two end up wrestling over the knife, and before long, Gacy has it in his hands. Tim didn't even have time to explain what was going on before Gacy stabbed him in the chest four to five times. Gacy would later claim that this entire incident was all a big misunderstanding. He didn't want to stab Tim. He had to. It was self-defense. After Stabbing Timothy McCoy

Gacy looks down at his hands and realizes they're covered in blood. So he quickly ran to the restroom to clean up. And as he washed himself off, he could hear Tim still gurgling on his own blood. He was still alive for several minutes after Gacy stabbed him. But when he returned back to Tim, it was clear that he was dead. Gacy recalled feeling anxious.

He said he even contemplated calling the police. But given his past conviction, he knew the cops wouldn't believe him if he said it was an accident. Knowing his mother would be home later that day, Gacy quickly started cleaning the blood on the carpet. But what would he do with Tim's body? He thought for a second and that's when it hit him. The crawlspace. There's no way anyone would ever find him there.

And with that, Gacy drags Tim's body over to the living room closet. He opens the crawlspace trap door and just throws his body down in it. I went out to the house, jumped in a bed, got it on, and we brought in the New Year's together. Then I took her home. I think I slept all that day. At one o'clock in the morning, I went down to the ground bus station.

We drove around the block and pulled up by there. That's when it came up. So I asked him, I said, well, I'm not doing nothing. If you want to go riding around, I'll show you the sights. But he didn't have to leave until noon the next day. So we started riding around. And we talked in general. We also talked about sex. I asked him if he ever got into it with a guy. We were drinking. Talked further about sex.

We both got into oral sex, both ways. I told him he could sleep there and I said we get up and I'll drive you back down to the bus depot before noontime. I went and laid down. Something startled me. I awoke and when I looked in the doorway, he had a knife in his hand and he was coming at me. So I jumped up.

I wrestled with him. We were struggling back and forth. I believe I stabbed him a couple of times, four or five times, in the chest. I didn't know whether I should call the police or do what. I was afraid that it would sound bad. So I opened up the crawl space and I proceeded to dig a hole and bury him right there. Tim's body would lay there in the cold, dark space all alone while his family wondered what on earth happened to him.

He had just spent that Christmas with his aunt and uncle and all of his cousins, and he promised them that once his train arrived in Glenwood, he would give them a call. But that call never came, and Timothy would go unidentified for years, even after Gacy was caught. Since he was from Iowa, his family probably never suspected that he was one of Gacy's victims down in the crawlspace, but he was.

He was Gacy's first victim, but he surely wouldn't be the last. And it wouldn't be long until he would be joined by the others. Now, Gacy's mother would later come home and he started to get a little anxious. Tim's body was just laying there, right under the trap door in the living room closet. And he knew it would only be a matter of time until he started to smell.

So, one night, when his mother was away, Gacy goes down into the crawlspace, which is only about 2.5 feet deep, and he digs a shallow grave for Timothy McCoy. And then, as if it never even happened, Gacy goes on with his life. Later that summer, his mother eventually moved out, and in July of 1972, he and Carol even got married at St. Paul's Lutheran Church. But all the while, Gacy was still ridden with anxiety after this first kill.

Yes, he liked the feeling of killing, but he was always scared that the police were going to come knocking on his door. And this experience made Gacy so paranoid that he said he didn't have sex with another male for years after. The next day after that, I was, you know, with Carol and nothing ever happened anymore. That was just a nicely kept secret.

But I don't think Gacy was being totally honest when he said this. Maybe he didn't have sex with a male for years after he killed Timothy McCoy, but he definitely tried to. In fact, nine days before he and Carol got married, Gacy was arrested yet again. This time, he was driving around when he spotted a young man.

and he pulled him over as if he was a cop. Gacy drove a black Oldsmobile, and he had a red flashing light that he often put on his dashboard, so he could have easily been mistaken as an undercover officer. Even more convincing, Gacy was known to carry fake police badges, which is most likely what he did on this night. He pulls the boy over, flashes his badge, and forces him into his car. And from there, Gacy tried to force the boy to have sex with him, but luckily, he got away.

Gacy would later be charged with aggravated battery for this incident. But for whatever reason, the case never made it to trial. Which is just so frustrating because again, Gacy was on parole. And since he had been released from prison, he had been arrested twice now for assaulting minors. And they still never sent him back to prison. It's unclear how he explained this arrest to his new wife or if he even told her at all.

But from what I could tell, Gacy and Carole were pretty happy during this time. According to the people that knew the couple, they were always going out with friends and socializing out in Chicago. They even participated in a bowling league together. But it was also pretty obvious that Gacy was not in love with Carole. Yes, he cared for her, but there was just something missing in their relationship.

It almost felt as if getting married to her was just a box he wanted to check off on his list of life accomplishments. Maybe being married made him seem more normal. Whatever it was, it was clear that Gacy was not satisfied in his marriage.

Friends would also say that Gacy was nice to Carol, but he could also be very mean to her at the snap of a finger. Gacy was aggressive, but because Carol was so passive, it seemed to work for them. From what we could tell, Carol was happy in the marriage, and most importantly, her girls were happy with John as their stepfather. The only complaint Carol had was the bad odor that started emanating from their home.

Gacy told her that it was probably just dead animals down in the crawlspace, and his solution was to throw a bag of lime down in there, which did not help with the smell. So she just chalked it up to needing an exterminator, but Gacy absolutely refused to call one. He couldn't have people snooping around his home, finding his hidden secrets. So one day, he told Carol that he put some concrete down where he thought the dead animals could have been, and the problem was

was solved. And it was for the time being. That was until he started adding more bodies to the graveyard down in the crawlspace. But before we get into that, it's important to talk about John Gacy and his role in the Chicago social scene. As you may know by now, Gacy was very social and his reputation meant a lot to him. He wanted to be known by everyone.

but you have to start small if you want to end up there. So in 1973, he started dipping into Chicago politics with the Norwood Park Democratic Association. And his role was to help people in his community much like he did with the Jaycees. He would help elderly people that needed help around their home. He would take a snowplow through the streets. And he was also in charge of going out and getting people to vote.

and Gacy was really good at it. Not only was he a hard worker who took the job very seriously, but he was friendly and charming. People liked him. And Gacy really felt a sense of accomplishment with this role. He liked knowing that he was making a difference in his community. Maybe in his mind, it made up for the fact that there was the body of a young boy in his crawlspace, and he was determined to keep that hidden.

And this year, 1973, was a busy year for Gacy. Not only was he climbing Chicago's political ladder, but he was also focused on growing his business. Shortly after he got out of prison, he wanted to make something of himself.

He was a hard worker who liked to work with his hands, so he decided he was going to open a construction business, which was perfect for him because that also meant he could hire a bunch of young men to do the work. And he and his mom actually came up with the name of the company, Painting, Decorating, and Maintenance Contractors, otherwise known as PDN. And it was in 1973 when the business opened.

For Gacy's business, he bought a quintessential creepy van, except his was black, and on the side it read PDM Contractors, Commercial General Contractors, and then their phone number, which was 457-1614.

He also had a business card with bright red lettering and on the top left corner there was an animated human working on a house with a big smile on their face. And as soon as PDM opened, Gacy worked hard to grow his business. He hired a bunch of young men as his employees and soon enough it started doing really well.

And at this point, it seemed like Gacy was really trying to get his life together. He played the role of the family man, the husband who worked hard for his family. But after a while, it seemed like Gacy got a little bored with his life.

People close to him and Carroll started to notice that he was becoming more distant the more he worked. And after a while, his wife Carroll said that his work started taking over his life. John Gacy was barely ever home, and when he did come home, it was often around 2 or 3 in the morning. According to the book Buried Dreams, Carroll said, quote,

Gacy even made a little man cave for himself, just like his father used to have. It had a built-in bar, a pool table, and just like his father, Carol and the girls were never allowed in there. And even after an entire day's work, Carol would say that John would come home and immediately go into his man cave for hours. And she never knew what he was doing in there.

After a while, she started getting lonely. She didn't want to complain because she knew he was working really hard, but at the same time, she felt like she never saw her husband anymore. Some nights John would come home past midnight and she expected him to hop into bed, but instead he would come in, get dressed, and then leave again.

And anytime she asked what he was doing, he would say that he had a bed or a building he needed to check on. Which was strange because who works at that hour? One night, Gacy was out working very late. His wife Carol said that she woke up randomly in the night because she kept hearing his car come in and out of the driveway. She said she tried to fall back asleep but she couldn't. So instead, she goes into the living room and turns on the TV.

Shortly after, Gacy walks in and he's shocked to see her awake. What are you up to? He asks. And Carol said that he asked this terrified look on his face, like he had just been caught doing something he shouldn't. I couldn't sleep, she tells him.

Gacy tells Carol that he just came to the house to grab something but he has work to do so he had to leave. And at this point Carol was used to it, but she couldn't help but notice that he left without grabbing anything. Suspicious of her husband, Carol peeks out of the curtains and she sees him driving away with a young blonde haired boy in the passenger seat of his car.

Carol was rightfully suspicious. Instead of spending time with her and the girls, he was always bringing over these young men and spending hours with them drinking in the garage. And the garage was a separate part of the house, so Gacy was able to do whatever he wanted without Carol knowing. And keep in mind, Carol was well aware of Gacy's homosexual tendencies.

After all, he told her he had gone to jail for getting involved with a guy. So she knew about that part of him. I was aware of what he was doing. He just felt he was going more for the men than that for the women because he could not function with a woman. So seeing all of these boys coming over after hours just didn't sit right with her. And eventually, their sex life started to be affected as well.

When Gacy would come home, she would try to have sex with him, but he always claimed he was too tired from work. Sometimes, he wouldn't even sleep in their bed, and he would just come home and pass out on the couch. So, Carol eventually confronts her husband, and she asks him if he's been sexually involved with the young men that he's constantly bringing over.

Gacy denies it, but after a while, their relationship starts to dwindle. Carol and I were fighting over sex. It was just that I was tired. Working seven days a week, you're tired. You just don't want to do it. Here's what Carol told CBS Chicago about their relationship at the time. He would not have much to do with me. We hardly had any sex.

And he found it very difficult to have anything to do with me. And anytime Carol would accuse him of sleeping with these boys, Gacy would just gaslight her. And he would say that she was, quote, planting a seed. And he says that eventually she accused him so much that he decided he might as well just start sleeping with them.

"If you're going to be accused of something, then you might as well reap the rewards of those accusations," he would later say. As if it's her fault that he started sexually assaulting these young men. Then she was accusing me, "Why didn't I have young boys working for me?" and all this. "Was I doing something with the boys?" I said, "No." I was being accused of it all the time. So I just finally said, "Fuck it. You know, I'm accused of it so goddamn much, I might as well go out and do it." Which I did.

Now, as you may know, a number of John Wayne Gacy's victims were boys that he employed at his company, PDM Contractors. And people always asked him why he only employed young men, when he could hire older and experienced workers. But Gacy always made it seem like he was trying to be a mentor to these young boys. You know, he grew up in an environment where he didn't really have a mentor, so he was just trying to help these boys out.

I found a lot of good in young people working. It's just that they had to have somebody that was understanding. To a lot of them, I was almost like a father to them.

But in reality, Gacy was attracted to these young kids, and being their boss gave him a sense of power over them. In one incident, Carroll recalled that in 1973, the same year Gacy started his business, a boy came over to their house, met Gacy outside, and started beating him up right there in the front yard. When asked why he got jumped, Gacy claimed that the boy was mad because he withheld one of his checks.

He went on and on and on about how the guy didn't do a good painting job, so Gacy didn't pay him. Carol said she didn't learn until years later that the real reason her husband had been jumped was because he invited that boy to Florida for a job, but on the first night there, Gacy raped him. Afterwards, the boy was so scared to sleep under the same roof, he ended up just sleeping on the beach all week.

So as you can see, Gacy was getting more and more risky when it came to these boys that worked for him. Another employee of Gacy's was a boy named Tony Antonucci, who started working for him when he was just 16 years old. Tony said that Gacy always made it seem like he was your friend rather than your boss, and that he was always trying to help them out any chance he could. If a boy needed a ride home, Gacy was happy to drive them.

If they needed extra hours of work, Gacy would happily give it to them. So Tony worked long hours trying to make some extra money for himself. But one day in the summer of 1975, while he was doing demolition work for Gacy, he accidentally stepped on a nail that went through his foot. Gacy quickly brought Tony to the hospital and he was out of work for a while.

Then one night around midnight, Tony remembered hearing a knock on his front door.

His parents were on vacation, so he went to open the door to find his boss, John Wayne Gacy, standing on his front porch. Hey, I just wanted to check in and see if everything's okay with your foot and make sure you're alright. Tony noticed that Gacy had a bottle of wine tucked under his arm, so he invited him inside. After all, it's his boss, and I'm sure he appreciated that Gacy cared enough to stop by and check on him.

So the two come inside and start up a conversation. And eventually, Gacy brings up the fact that Tony is a wrestler. And there was kind of this running joke with Tony and the other employees at PDM where they would always call him the wrestler because he was on the high school wrestling team. And he was a big guy.

So Gacy tells Tony, So you're good at wrestling, huh? I bet I could take you. Loving a friendly competition, Tony takes him up on the offer and the two begin to wrestle on the floor. In Tony's mind, they were just messing around, having fun. But Gacy was fully aroused. And after a few minutes of wrestling, he whips out a pair of handcuffs, puts them around Tony's wrists, knocks him to the ground, then just walks out of the room.

Tony was a little caught off guard, but at the same time, Gacy was known to do things like this. Tony said that even in the workplace, he was known to kind of push people to their limits, purposefully stress them out to see what they could handle. And Tony was under the impression that this was just one of those tests that Gacy was known to do.

So Tony's sitting there on the ground with the handcuffs still on his wrists and he notices that one of the cuffs was a little loose. So he wiggled his hand and eventually he slipped out of it. Not long after, Gacy walks back into the room and there's a look of shock on his face when he sees that Tony got out of the cuffs. He wasn't expecting that.

Tony then walks up to Gacy, throws him on the ground and puts the cuffs on his wrists. Gacy sits there quietly for a few moments, feeling defeated, before saying, "You were the only one that not only got out of the handcuffs, but you got them on me." And Tony remembered thinking that this comment was a little weird. Is this a normal thing he does with people?

Little did he know that, yes, that is precisely what John Wayne Gacy would do to incapacitate his victims. Luckily, Tony was able to get away. After Gacy gets out of the cuffs, he leaves Tony's home, most likely upset that the night didn't go as planned.

But just two weeks later, another employee of Gacy's would go missing. John Buckovich was 17 years old, and everyone that knew him described him as a good kid and a very hard worker. And in 1975, he was needing a job and somehow got connected with John Wayne Gacy.

Tony Antonucci, the guy that escaped Gacy's cuffs, said that he and John worked on several projects together and over time they became good friends and they bonded over their shared love of cars. Tony said that because both John Butkovich and John Gacy had the same name, they would call Butkovich "Little John" and Gacy "Big John". And according to Tony, Gacy and the other John had a unique relationship compared to other employees at PDM. They were really close, almost like a father and son.

but their relationship would later turn sexual. John Bukovic came to work for me. Very naive kid. I treated him on a father-son relationship. Also got into a sexual relationship with him. Him blowing me and me blowing him.

It's likely that Gacy manipulated Butkovich into thinking he had to perform sex acts on him so he could keep his job or maybe he promised him more money Gacy would later say that some of these sexual relationships were consensual But we really want to push the fact that most of these victims were minors and he was a master manipulator So these boys likely felt they had to do what he said

But anyways, Tony Antonucci would later say that just weeks after his strange encounter with Gacy, his friend and coworker John just disappeared. John was last seen on July 31st, 1975, and he would never be seen alive again, leaving his family absolutely devastated. Here is John's mother talking about her son's disappearance.

When the police found out that 17-year-old John was missing, they didn't really take it seriously. And they told his family that he was likely just a runaway. After all, in the state of Illinois, 17-year-olds weren't considered juveniles. And they were allowed to go missing if they wanted to. But John's family never believed that to be the case.

When Tony Antonucci finally came back to work after his foot healed, he went up to Gacy and asked if he was going to be working with Little John on their next project. But Gacy quickly told him, "Oh, uh, Little John actually quit. He won't be coming around anymore." Tony thought that this was strange because he and John were friends. John would have told him if he was going to quit. But even more strange was that John left his car behind.

Now, if you remember, Tony and John used to bond over their love of cars, and he was extra proud of his 1968 Dodge. There was no way that John would have run away and left that car. So what happened to him? Well, according to John Gacy himself, he invited Bukovic over to his house on the night of July 31st for some drinks.

This wasn't the first time Bukovic had gone to Gacy's home, so he had no reason to think that this would be the last night of his life. Gacy claimed that the two were in his garage drinking and smoking joints, when all of a sudden Bukovic started getting belligerent. Apparently, Gacy owed him some money and he wanted it right then and there.

Gacy told him that he didn't have the money right then, so Bukovic yelled out, fine, then I quit. Gacy was quickly losing control of the situation. He didn't want Bukovic to quit, especially since he had so much control over him.

So, thinking quickly, he grabs a pair of handcuffs lying nearby, puts them around Bukovic's wrists, and tells him: "You can't go anywhere now." Bukovic attempts to get away, but before he can do so, he's thrown to the ground. Gacy then grabs a rope lying nearby and places it around his neck. And over the next few minutes, he pulls it tight, slowly strangling him to death.

By the end of that night, Gacy had murdered his second victim. And the next thing Gacy said he remembers was waking up the next morning in bed. And he honestly thought that it was all a dream. But then he walked over to the garage and there was Bukovic's body lying on the floor with the rope still tightly wrapped around his neck.

Gacy later said that his "eyes were closed but his face was red, that kind of blue-red, and his mouth was wide open." Thinking quickly, he digs a hole in his garage floor and places his body down into the earth. Gacy would later say "It was hard to get the hole big enough, so I had to bend him over and by this time he was stiff as a board."

Afterwards, Gacy covered the hole with concrete, cementing John Bukovic in the ground forever.

Now, like we mentioned, little John left his car behind, and after the murders, it ended up on a random street in town with the keys still in the ignition. Butkovich's parents also tell police that before he disappeared, he was going to go to his boss to confront him about some money that he was owed. So, before long, the police come knocking on Gacy's door.

But he assures them that he hasn't seen Butkovich. And the last time he saw him, he was getting in a car with a few of his friends. And with that, the police mark him up as a runaway, even though he left behind his car, wallet, and cash.

The Butkovich even called Gacy themselves, hoping to get more answers. But all he told them was that he was sorry about what happened to their son, but he couldn't help them. Over the next few years, the Butkovich family called the Norwood Police Department nearly every week, urging them to take a closer look at Gacy. But they never did. In fact, the police department eventually refused to take any more calls from the family. And when the police left Gacy's home that day, they never came back to question him again.

He felt exhilarated. His first murder left him feeling a little paranoid. It was also messy with all the blood, which he didn't like. But this one was exciting, and he found a method of killing that gave him the best feeling he had ever felt. Gacy had now murdered two young boys and got away with it. He felt invincible, and he knew that this definitely wasn't going to be his last kill.

Tony Antonucci said that not long after little John went missing, he went over to Gacy's house and noticed that the floor in the garage was covered in concrete. And he remembered thinking that the concrete slab seemed a little unnecessary. But never in a million years did he ever think that his friend was dead underneath it. And it was after this murder when Gacy's marriage took a turn for the worse.

According to Carol, one night Gacy comes into bed for the first time in a while and after they had sex he looks at her and says, "That's the last time I'm ever going to have sex with you." Carol was taken aback and she honestly thought he was joking but he wasn't. He wasn't interested in her anymore and that's because his sexual urges were being satisfied elsewhere.

It also didn't help that many people in the neighborhood started gossiping about all the young men Gacy would bring around. Carol had finally had enough, and by October of that year, she filed for divorce. At the Bukovic, there was a change in the marriage from that point forward. Carol was for a divorce in 75. She got a divorce in February of 76 and moved out. It was an unhealthy situation because...

And after Carroll left, John Wayne Gacy got really into Chicago politics, more so than he ever had before. One of his neighbors on Somerdale Avenue was actually a Democratic precinct captain, and after talking with him for a while, Gacy volunteered to be his assistant.

Years prior, Gacy had bigger dreams like running for Senate, but he knew that would never happen since he had gone to prison. So he aimed a little lower and decided it would be fun to be the advisor who had the power behind the throne. And Gacy found it easy to move up the ladder in Chicago politics. After all, it was a lot like the work he did with the Jaycees back in Iowa. When they needed him, he showed up.

Gacy and his PDM employees would often volunteer to clean up the Democratic headquarters, set up chairs for big meetings, or build barricades for different events. It didn't matter the task, Gacy was always there ready to help. He eventually was appointed the secretary for the street lighting district, where he would put up and replace street lights in town. Then after that he was appointed the Democratic precinct captain, which was a pretty big title to hold.

Over the years, he really made a name for himself. Nearly everyone in the area knew who John Wayne Gacy was. He even became friends with members of the police force, mayors, judges, and politicians. In 1975, Gacy was even the director of the Chicago's annual Polish parade. There is a right way, there's a wrong way, and there's my way. You have to have organization, you have to have leadership.

And you have to be able to not demand respect, but command it. And the same thing when Mrs. Carter came. But they were trying to tell me how to do things. I didn't give a damn who they were. Gacy was in charge of making sure all the floats and bands and marchers came out on time. And this was a very big deal for Gacy because every Chicago politician was at this parade. And they all talked to Gacy to thank him for his work.

But little did they know, the hands they were shaking were the same hands used to murder young men around town. 1975 is also the year that Gacy created Pogo the Clown, and he actually joined a group called the Jolly Joker Clown Club, which consisted of about five to six other people who dressed up as clowns for their community.

Gacy was excited about Pogo the Clown, and he even got his costume custom made. There's probably a picture that pops up in your mind when we say Pogo the Clown. If you haven't seen a picture of Pogo, make sure to go to our Instagram where we post all of the pictures for each episode, but Gacy was not a fun-looking clown.

In the infamous picture we're describing, his face is painted white, his mouth is painted red in this large creepy looking smile, and there are blue painted triangles over his eyes. And clowns are actually not supposed to do their makeup this way. Gacy's face paint had very harsh lines, which is actually scary for children. Real clowns that are fun are supposed to do rounded edges for their face paint.

It makes them look less scary. At least, that's what they teach you in clown school. Which is a real thing, by the way. But Gacy didn't follow those rules. He said he didn't need to go to clown school because, quote, "...it just came naturally to me. In a way, I guess you could say I love to perform."

But he probably should have gone to clown school because I know if I were a child and I saw Pogo, I would probably take off screaming. But Gacy absolutely loved it. And on special occasions like Easter, Halloween, and Christmas, he would dress up and entertain people at parades, nursing homes, or children's hospitals. When he would go to parades, Gacy said, quote,

End quote.

When he would go to children's hospitals, he was bringing laughter to children who had been in horrific accidents or kids who didn't have much longer to live. Gacy would later say, quote, Pogo was a tranquilizer for me. When I was Pogo, I was in another world. Maybe Pogo was a way of running away from myself. I

But Gacy didn't just use pogo to make children happy. He also claimed that when he dressed up as pogo, he would, quote, And he would never get in trouble for it because he was a clown. Yeah.

Clowns can get away with anything. Clowns can get away with murder. If children were annoying him or pulling on his costume, he said he would sometimes whisper cuss words at them and then laugh when they ran off crying. Gacy also used Pogo to advance in his political pursuits. If someone in his party was having a parade or any type of event,

Gacy would offer his services, making a new connection along the way. And it's around this time when Gacy becomes kind of obsessed with clowns. He even started collecting clown artwork to hang around his home. Another interesting fact was that Gacy was also known to have these elaborate yard parties, which were pretty much just huge barbecues that he had in his backyard. And they were always themed.

Some were Hawaiian, others were old western. One year, for the 4th of July, they had a colonial party where Gacy wore a white wig and dressed up as Paul Revere.

And these parties were huge. Sometimes there were over 400 people all piled into a small backyard. And as you can imagine, Gacy loved having these parties where everyone in his community got together and celebrated. And he invited everyone. He wanted everyone in town to be there, especially if you were influential.

Before the party, he would get the PDM boys to line his backyard with tables and he always had a ton of food for everyone to enjoy while they socialized. It's been said that Gacy was the perfect host. He drank just enough to where he was letting loose and having fun, but he never drank too much.

He couldn't have people wandering around in his home without him knowing. But while Gacy was having these parties and building his reputation around Chicago,

He was also building a reputation near the Greyhound bus stations. By 1976, he and Carol's divorce was finalized, so he could finally do whatever he wanted without her breathing down his neck. And on nights where he was in the mood to have sex with a young boy, he would get in his car and drive around until he found someone.

Then he would pull up and ask them to come home with him. And he always offered these boys something in return so they had incentive to go with him.

He often offered drugs or he would tell them he could give them a job or just a good time. And once they were in Gacy's car, Gacy viewed them as his property. In his mind, he could do whatever he wanted with them because they were his. When you're busier than hell, you want to satisfy yourself more. Could it be that through seeking out different people for sex that I developed a hatred for him?

He called it cruising when Gacy would drive around looking for sex, and he cruised a lot.

No matter what time of day, if Gacy was near the area where he would pick up these boys, he would drive by, get his fix, and then kick them out of his car like trash. Gacy would later say, quote, I didn't want to be down there cruising, but then I always said, as long as I'm here, I might as well get my rocks off because I didn't have the time to be doing that. And if I was there, I could get it over with. And the next night I would find myself out cruising again because anyone who knows me knows the one thing I always say. I always say, I haven't got the time.

So if I was already cruising, even though I didn't consciously set out to, I would look for someone who'd do it quick, you know? Blow me and get the fuck out of my sight, you piece of shit." It was a "quick animal thing," Gacy would later say, that if any of these boys would try to raise the price or he didn't like their services, he would pull up to a vending machine, give them a quarter, and ask them to get a Coke. Then as soon as they got out of the car, he would speed off, only giving them a single quarter for their work.

He didn't think of these boys as human. They were simply his property for the time he paid for them. And he could treat them however he wanted to. Now, Gacy claims that he doesn't remember a lot of the murders from the year 1976. And because of that, we don't know exactly what happened to some of these boys. But we do know that his first murder in 76 was of 18-year-old Daryl Sampson.

Darryl was young with blonde shaggy hair, born in West Virginia. And he had actually just run away from home because he had some curfew tickets he was trying to avoid. And while he was out around Chicago, he came into contact with John Wayne Gacy. Darryl's body would actually be the last body investigators would find inside of Gacy's home when he was finally caught.

At the time of Daryl's disappearance, Gacy was renovating his dining room and since there was already a big hole in the floor, he just threw Daryl's body in it along with some discarded coke cans he was drinking at the time. Then, about five weeks after Daryl's murder, Gacy was ready to kill again. And on May 14th, he spots 15-year-old Randy Raffet.

Randy never had the easiest life. In fact, when he was 14, he was jumped by two guys who stabbed him in the heart, lungs, and liver. Luckily, he survived and his stab wounds would later help identify him as one of the boys in the crawlspace. Randy also didn't have the best home life. And when things got bad, he would often run away for a few days at a time.

But he always came back, no matter what. Then on May 14th, after walking around Chicago's uptown area, Randy was picked up by Gacy and never seen again. But after murdering Randy, Gacy still had the desire to kill. Usually there was a cooling off period, but not this time.

Almost immediately after putting Randy in the crawlspace, Gacy took to the streets again, looking for another victim. And as he's driving around the outskirts of Chicago, he spots 14-year-old Sam Stapleton. Sam and Randy Refett were actually really good friends.

And on this night, Sam was walking back home from his sister's house when Gacy pulled up next to him in his car. Like we mentioned, Gacy usually offered his victims booze or weed as an incentive, which is most likely what happened here. Sam Stapleton got into Gacy's car and was brought back to his house, having no idea that his friend Randy was just there hours prior.

and that his body was lying beneath them in the crawlspace. And by the end of the night, Sam's body would end up there too. In fact, Sam and Randy were actually found lying right next to each other in the crawlspace. Sam was Gacy's youngest victim, and he would later be identified by a bracelet that was still wrapped around his wrist when the

when their bodies were discovered. Less than a month later, in June of 1976, Gacy was ready to kill again. And his next victim would be 17-year-old Michael Bonin. Michael was a good kid who had a bright future. He also had a lot of friends. And on June 3rd, 1976, he was in his neighborhood playing basketball with a few of his friends when he told one of them that he was going to catch the bus and get something to eat before he went home. But Michael Bonin never came home.

While he was out, he was picked up by John Gacy and would later be found in the crawlspace. When he didn't come home, his family was worried sick, and his dad blamed himself for his son's disappearance. Patty Vasquez, Mike's half-sister, said in a Netflix interview that her dad would go on drinking binges and then come home crying, saying, "...I'm going to burn in hell. I should have been a better dad to Mike."

His family tried to go to the police, but as usual, they just considered Mike a runaway. But his family knew that wasn't the case, and after weeks of not hearing from him, they knew something horrible had happened. Those fears would be confirmed when police would later find Mike's fishing license inside of Gacy's home. Gacy was known to take trophies from his victims, and this was one of them.

Michael was now one of the boys inside of the crawlspace. And by now, Gacy was killing more frequently than ever before. His first kill was in 1972 and he didn't kill again until 1975. But starting in April of 76, he averaged about two murders per month. And after killing Michael Bonin, he would take his next victim about a week later.

William, or Billy Carroll, was 16 years old, and he was last seen on his older brother's birthday in June of 1976. Billy left his home that night telling his father that he would be back in an hour, but that hour came and went and he never came back home. Billy's father would later say that after the bodies were discovered in Gacy's home, he had a bad feeling that his son was one of them.

He described Billy as "handsome, athletic, with a penchant for getting in trouble." He would later tell the Chicago Tribune that because of Billy's habits, he figured his son was one of the victims. And he was.

On the night of June 10th, Billy was strolling around Chicago when Gacy pulled up beside him and offered him something appealing. Something that Billy didn't want to pass up. And by the end of the night, his body was tossed in the crawlspace along with the five other boys. The next victim would be 16-year-old James or Jimmy Hackinson. Jimmy was originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, but he always had dreams of moving to a big city.

and in 1976, he finally took that first step and left for Chicago. On August 5th, 1976, he called his mother to let her know that he had arrived, but she would never hear from her son again. It's believed that Gacy picked up Jimmy that very day he arrived in the city, and because he was new to the area, it's likely that Gacy offered him a job.

I'm sure Jimmy was excited to start his new life, but as soon as he stepped foot in Gacy's home, all of those dreams would be crushed. Jimmy would later be found in the crawlspace of Gacy's home and sadly, he would go unidentified for nearly 40 years. Of Gacy's 33 victims, there are still five unidentified to this very day.

Luckily, in 2017, one of Jimmy's family members decided to submit their DNA and after nearly a century, victim number 24 had a name.

The very next day, after killing 16-year-old Jimmy, Gacy took to the streets of Chicago again, looking for another victim. And he ends up running into 17-year-old Rick Johnston. Rick had been dropped off at the Aragon Ballroom that night by his mother, so that he could attend a concert. But he never came back home.

While he was out, Rick was picked up by Gacy and much like the others, it's believed Gacy used the handcuff trick and strangled him. And he too would later be found in the crawlspace. Next was 19-year-old William Bundy who was a talented diver and gymnast.

In October of 1976, he told his family that he was leaving to go to a party, but he was never seen again. William would go unidentified for over 30 years after Gacy was caught, until one of his siblings provided DNA confirming that he was one of the boys in the crawlspace.

The next two victims were friends who were kidnapped and murdered on the same day, October 24th, 1976. 14-year-old Michael Marino and 16-year-old Kenneth Parker were last seen walking near a restaurant in Chicago when they came into contact with John Wayne Gacy. Both of their bodies would later be found in the crawlspace, lying directly next to each other.

leading investigators to believe that they were killed on the same night. Gacy's next victim was 21-year-old Francis Wayne Alexander. Now, it's unclear exactly when Francis went missing, but it's widely believed that it happened towards the end of 1976. Francis moved to Chicago the year before, in 1975, and shortly after he got married.

but their marriage didn't last very long and soon after the divorce, no one ever heard from Francis again. His family assumed that he was embarrassed about the divorce and just wanted to be left alone, so they don't end up filing a missing persons report.

His body would later be found in the crawlspace, and it wasn't until last year, in 2021, when he was finally identified, after his family submitted DNA. So as you can see, even all these years later, this case is still actively affecting people. 1976 was a busy year for John Wayne Gacy.

He was still having his backyard barbecues, building his reputation in Chicago, all while the bodies in the crawlspace were piling up. No one knew about Gacy's dark secret, which made it all the more fun.

And his last victim in 1976 was 17-year-old Gregory Godzik. Gacy claimed that he didn't remember a lot of the murders during this year, but for whatever reason, he did remember this one. Gregory was a senior at Taft High School, and in the weeks before his murder, he was going around Chicago trying to find a job. He ended up finding one with John Wayne Gacy.

who offered him $5.50 an hour. Then, on December 11th, Gregory left his home at about 8 p.m. to go on a date with his girlfriend, but he never came back. His car would later be found abandoned, and his family knew immediately that something had happened to him. They even hired a private investigator, but nothing came about it.

Shortly after his disappearance, Greg's girlfriend decided to go to Gacy's house, knowing he had recently started working for him. But when Gacy opened the door, he told her that Greg had been talking to him about running away. Little did she know, his body was right under her feet in the crawlspace. Gacy would later claim that Greg came over to his house that night and he played the good old handcuff trick on him.

And once Greg was defenseless, Gacy put the rope around his neck and strangled him to death. And something horrific about this story is that Gacy would later say that Greg actually dug his own grave that night, thinking it was a job he was getting paid for. He had no idea that the hole he was digging was for hemp.

By the time 1976 ended, Gacy had murdered at least 14 young men from around Chicago. And we say at least because there were five other victims who are still unidentified that could have possibly been killed this year as well. Meaning, in 1976, Gacy could have killed up to 19 young men, and their bodies were quickly piling up in the crawlspace of his home. And after a while, it started to smell, but Gacy didn't seem to be very paranoid about it. In

In fact, he continued to have barbecues with hundreds of people at his home, all while the bodies were under his floorboards. And 1977 was a busy year for Gacy too when it came to murdering young men. And that year really started with a bang. The first of this series of killings took place on January 20th, 1977, when Gacy lured a 19-year-old acquaintance named John Allen Schitts to his home on Summerdale Avenue.

Gacy had told John that he wanted to purchase his white Plymouth Satellite, a mid-sized stylish automobile And so John had come over that day in his vehicle with some of his belongings John Schitts and Gacy had actually been talking for a while now And the 19-year-old had apparently been telling his friends about Gacy Saying that his friend John, who had money, wanted to take him to Florida and buy him a fur coat

You see, most people that knew John Schitts knew that he was gay, and to them this man that they nicknamed "Florida John" may have just been a new love interest. But to some, this phantom man "Florida John" seemed suspicious. Something just wasn't adding up. Regardless though, on that day, January 20th, 1977, after arriving at the Gacy residence to sell his car, John Schitts was strangled to death in the spare bedroom, and his body was taken down beneath the home to the crawlspace and buried.

Later, Gacy would sell John Schitt's white Plymouth satellite to an employee of his named Michael Rossi, who worked for his contracting company. Gacy told Michael that he had purchased the car legally and for $300, and that it was now his to sell. This car, though, would prove to be a key piece to solving the puzzle later on. But before we get to that, we have to discuss the other murders that took place in 1977.

On March 15th of that year, a 20-year-old man named John Prestidge disappeared after last being seen leaving a restaurant in near Northside, one of Chicago's 77 community areas. John had grown up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where his family owned a beehive farm. On March 15th of that year, John was just passing through Chicago on his way to Colorado, and at the time he was crashing on an older friend's couch.

That evening, John's friend Roger took him to get a haircut, and the two then got coffee together in that area at a place called the Oak Tree Restaurant. Later that night, Roger dropped John off at nearby Bug House Square, a place that Gacy was known to frequent.

John had told his friend that he was in need of money, and so Roger had dropped him off and hoped that he could somehow scrounge together some cash for the rest of his journey. However, when John didn't return that night, Roger reported him missing, called his family back in Michigan, and went on a search for his friend, whom he would never be able to find.

According to some reports, John had told his friend that he had gotten work with a local contractor. It's assumed that that night, John had met up with John Wayne Gacy, was taken back to his home, strangled, and then buried in the crawlspace. Sometime during this period, Gacy murdered another young man, either in the spring or summer of 1977. However, to this day, the identity of the victim remains a mystery.

And without knowing who they were, it's difficult to know a timeline. But let's fast forward to July 5th, 1977. It was the day after the 4th of July. And 19-year-old Matthew Bowman, a young man from Crystal Lake, Illinois, was at a train station in the suburbs planning on traveling to nearby Harwood Heights.

He had to go to court there that day regarding a parking ticket. In the years before his disappearance, the Bowman family had already been going through a lot. In 1975, Matthew's stepfather, Anthony, had been shot and killed during a carjacking gone wrong, a crime that heavily affected Matthew and his family.

Then, two years later, on July 5th, Matthew's mom dropped him off at the train station early in the day. Later that evening, Matthew visited his sister in the city. Then he left, telling her he was going to the train station to go back home. And at some point along that walk, Matthew crossed paths with John Wayne Gacy. And after that, he was never seen again.

Once back at Gacy's home, he was strangled and thrown into the crawlspace. Then in August of that very year, something interesting happened. Remember Michael Rossi who worked for Gacy and actually purchased one of the victim's cars? Well it turns out, in the summer of that year, Michael admitted to helping his employer John Wayne Gacy dig a trench in the crawlspace.

Michael said that if he deviated from the path that Gacy instructed him to dig, he would be scolded. He claimed he didn't know exactly why he was digging the trench, but he was just listening to his boss. It was also later found out that Michael actually participated in some of the clowning that Gacy did in his free time. And he would dress up, make balloon animals, and entertain people with Gacy.

The two went by Pogo and Patches, and they were really close. Like, really close. It turns out Gacy had asked Michael a number of times to have sex with him, but Michael said he declined. But the two were also known to fist fight and physically assault each other all the time.

At one point, one of the fights got so bad that Gacy filed a criminal complaint against him. And Michael even said that Gacy threatened to kill him on multiple occasions.

But somehow, he escaped death, unlike the other victims. But back to August of 1977. During that month, Michael Rossi was arrested by authorities after stealing gasoline from a gas station. The gas station attendant who was working at the time noted his car's license plate, which led the authorities to the home of John Wayne Gacy.

When they questioned him, Gacy told the police that he had legally bought the car from John Schitts earlier that year, and from there, he sold the car to his own employee, Michael Rossi. Gacy even showed the police a receipt of sale for the car which bore Schitts' signature. Even though it was later proven that the signature had been forged, the authorities believed Gacy, and they left the house that day without ever following up on the matter.

if they had only known at the time that the real owner of the car was buried beneath the house that stood in front of them and that the man's killer was right before their very eyes. It's incredible that after all of this, they didn't look any further into this matter. I mean, John Schitts had been missing for over half a year at this point, hadn't communicated with any of his family, and had even mentioned to his friends before his disappearance that a strange man nicknamed Florida John had wanted to buy him expensive things and take him to another state.

But just like in many other true crime cases, the police glossed over all of this and moved on with their day. And even though he had been recently questioned by the police regarding a possession of one of his victims, John Wayne Gacy's bloodlust only grew stronger, and he would strike again very soon.

September 15, 1977 was the last day that 18-year-old Robert Gilroy was ever seen alive. Robert was the son of a Chicago police sergeant and lived a mere four blocks from the Gacy house. Robert was supposed to attend a horse riding lesson in nearby Northbrook and later that month, he was supposed to attend camp in Maryland.

But when he failed to show up for either of these things, his dad, the police sergeant, conducted his own investigation into his son's whereabouts. But unfortunately, after searching around Chicago, he couldn't find anything. His son had simply vanished.

Out of all the victims of John Wayne Gacy, Robert Gilroy ended up having the most thorough missing persons report, probably because his father was a police sergeant. To gather information for the report, which was over 40 pages long, friends of Robert's were interviewed, employees of the camp in Maryland were interviewed, and thorough searches of the city were performed. Officers even searched the area surrounding the apartment where Robert and his father had lived, literally only a few blocks north of John Wayne Gacy's home.

Once again, it seemed like the authorities were so close to finding him, but the search didn't turn up any new information. Eventually, the additions to the report slowed down, and the case stalled. It's assumed that Robert was murdered at Gacy's home on September 15th and buried in the crawlspace shortly afterwards. When his body was recovered, it was discovered that a piece of cloth had been shoved so far down his throat that it was actually what had killed him.

Which is a notable change in Gacy's method of killing At this point, the bloodlust of the killer clown simply couldn't be contained Only 10 days after Robert Gilroy was murdered 19-year-old John Morey, a former Marine, went missing But the story of John's disappearance is, let's say, different than the stories of most

Just five years prior to his death, John Morey, at the age of 14, had actually witnessed the aftermath of a murder himself. In 1972, John had walked into his sister's apartment and found her dead, bloodied corpse sprawled out on her living room floor, surrounded by her three beloved young puppies. She had been stabbed multiple times, and her younger brother had been the one to discover her body. This murder affected John, who, after high school, had joined the U.S. Marine Corps.

After returning home from the Corps, John returned to the Chicago area, got a job at a bank, and seemed to be heading in a positive direction in life. At one point, though, he moved into an apartment on Column Avenue in Chicago with a friend named Mike, which had proved to be a fatal mistake that we'll talk about later. On September 25, 1977, John disappeared after leaving his mother's home. He had left her house on Sunnyside Avenue that rainy evening on foot.

as it was only a short walk back to his apartment that he shared with Mike. But it was during this walk when he vanished. It's theorized that somehow John Wayne Gacy had encountered the other John, lured him back to his home, and then strangled him and buried him in the crawlspace beneath the house's master bedroom. But we'll talk about some of the strange inconsistencies in this theory later on in the story.

At this point, John Wayne Gacy was on a rampage. Even though on the outside, he continued to live a normal life, working contracting jobs and socializing with the higher-ups in Chicago, on the inside, he was a tortured man. There was a beast inside of him that he could no longer restrain, what some would call a dark passenger. Evil tendencies that compelled him to continuously kill and kill.

October 17, 1977, only a few weeks before Halloween. 21-year-old Russell Nelson, a man who was from Minnesota who was in Chicago for a vacation, disappears after a night out at the local bars. Russell, who, at the time, was studying architecture at the University of Minnesota, was excited to see some of the stunning buildings and, yes, architecture that Chicago had to offer.

He had been traveling at the time cross-country with his friend Robert Young, who was originally from South Dakota, my home state. On their way to Chicago, Robert had even told Russell that he knew of a contractor in the city that could give them some work while they were there. As they were strapped for cash, this was an appealing offer to Russell. But on that night, October 17th, while out drinking at the bars, Russell disappeared.

Robert and Russell had actually been standing outside of a club called Crystal's Blinkers that night when a loud and unruly group passing by distracted them. After the group had passed, Robert turned around and noticed that his friend Russell had vanished into thin air.

It's assumed that somehow John Wayne Gacy either abducted or lured Russell back with him to his house and then proceeded to strangle and bury him beneath the guest bedroom in that cursed crawlspace. November of 1977 was a very violent month for Gacy. On November 11th, a 16-year-old boy named Robert Winch disappeared after running away from home in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Robert told his mother on the day that he ran away that he was headed over to a friend's house and that he would be back before 5 o'clock. But that wouldn't be the case. After leaving his family home, Robert had boarded a packed bus headed to Chicago, seeking a better life for himself, free from the family drama he had been forced back into in Michigan.

It's unknown exactly what happened during Robert's time in Chicago, but the last time he was seen was November 11th, 1977.

Somehow, Robert got into contact with John Wayne Gacy, and once he was there, he was strangled and buried in the crawlspace. Exactly a week later, on November 18th, 20-year-old Tommy Bowling disappears after a night spent at a Chicago bar. On that evening, Tommy had sat and watched the film Bonnie and Clyde on a television inside of the bar. While he relaxed and drank, he placed a phone call to his parents to check up on his dad, who had been sick that day.

At the time that he disappeared, Tommy was married and had a three-year-old child. He also had a warrant out for his arrest related to a burglary he had allegedly participated in and he had been receiving threatening phone calls to his home from an unknown number. But after leaving the bar that night, once again, Tommy disappeared.

It's assumed that sometime that evening, Tommy crossed paths with John Wayne Gacy, was either lured or taken back to his home, and was then strangled and buried in the crawlspace. And at this point, the disappearances of young men in the Chicago area were getting hard to ignore.

Families had come to town in search of their sons and brothers. Friends had taken out ads in magazines. And a number of investigations had been opened by different police departments. But still, there were no leads. And no one had any clue where these young men were going. Were they leaving on trains bound for California or New York? Did they want to disappear? Or was there something sinister going on within Chicago?

All around the country, families were growing more and more desperate to find their loved one. And soon, a lead in the case would change everything. But before the end came a horrific stretch of darkness that would change the city of Chicago forever. On December 9th, 1977, 19-year-old U.S. Marine David Tulsma tells his mom that he's going to see a concert in the town of Hammond, Indiana.

The acts that he was planning on seeing were The Rock Band's UFO and Cheap Trick, two popular groups at the time. To this day, it's unclear whether David actually made it to the concert or not. But what's known for certain is that he never showed up for his 2am plan that he had made with A Girl in Town. Sometime during the night, David had fallen into Gacy's trap.

He was taken back to his house, strangled with a ligature, and buried deep within the crawlspace next to all the other young men. December 30th, 1977. Only two nights left until 1978.

On that evening, John Wayne Gacy was feeling bold, and his bloodlust was once again too strong to overpower. He was deep in the grips of his murderous addiction, and he desperately craved the next hit. So that night, he grabs a gun and heads down to the bus station, a place one could practically nickname Gacy's Hunting Grounds.

As he's cruising amongst the parked cars and buses, John comes across 19-year-old Robert Donnelly. Quickly, John pulled out the gun and pointed at Robert and forced him to get into his vehicle after pretending to be a police officer. After entering the vehicle, John made sure that Robert couldn't escape by clicking him into a pair of handcuffs. And from there, the two drove back to the Gacy residence. The details of the shocking night of torture that Robert was forced to endure are horrific.

After being forced into the handcuffs, Gacy began to torture and rape Robert. Throughout the torture, Gacy continuously dunked Robert's head up and down into a bathtub full of water, and he would hold his head under until he would pass out.

Robert stated that he passed out multiple times throughout the night either from water torture or from Gacy choking him. At one point, Gacy asked Robert, "Aren't we playing fun games tonight?" In between the bouts of sexual assault, choking, and water torture, Gacy also grabbed his loaded revolver and pointed it at Robert's head. It seemed as though Gacy wanted to play a game of Russian Roulette.

Multiple times throughout the night, he would pull the trigger and the pistol would click, signaling that there was no ammunition. But at one point, the gun did fire. And after the smoke cleared, Robert was relieved to find out that it was a blank. At one point in the night, Robert asked Gacy, why don't you just kill me? The pain was too much for him to bear. Chillingly, Gacy responds, I'm getting around to it.

During the torture, Gacy also stated to Robert that he had killed girls in nearby Schiller Park. Gacy has never been connected to this, but interestingly enough, a 16-year-old girl named Deborah Rosenkranz had indeed been found beaten and bound with an intricately knotted rope inside of the park earlier that year. She had died two weeks after the violent assault, and to this day, the crime remains unsolved.

And even though these girls are not part of Gacy's victim type, it is interesting to know that he claimed to have killed her. Or maybe he knew the person who did. I guess we'll never know. But we will talk about it in the next episode. At the end of the evening, it seems like John Wayne Gacy decided that he was exhausted.

Either he didn't have enough energy to kill Robert or he simply didn't feel like it. And so, he loaded Robert back into his car, drove him to his place of employment downtown, and dropped him off. Before the two parted ways though, Gacy told Robert that if he were to ever file a criminal complaint against him or go to the police with his story, that they would never believe him. He told Robert, "I have connections in this town. You don't want to mess with me."

But shortly after the ordeal, Robert Donnelly did report the assault, which led the police, again, to John Wayne Gacy's front doorstep on January 6th, 1978.

When questioned, Gacy admitted to the authorities that yes, he had indeed had sexual relations with Robert but he told them that the two had a slave sex relationship and assured that everything was consensual In fact, Gacy claimed that Robert had come forward with these allegations because Gacy hadn't paid him for his time And after hearing all of this, the police took Gacy's sign and never followed up with the case effectively silencing Robert by telling him that they didn't believe him

Back in the day, the idea that these people were involved in these homosexual encounters was just something the police didn't want to deal with. Which is exactly what happened in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer. The fact that these crimes were between gay men just wasn't important enough for them to look into. And this was another time when investigators should have connected the dots.

The young men that were going missing in Gacy's neighborhood. The car of a missing man that Gacy had allegedly purchased and sold. But they didn't. And by the time 1977 came to an end, there were 28 young men either in the crawlspace or buried somewhere on Gacy's property.

He was running out of room and his home started to reek of decomposition. But his desire to kill was stronger than his fear of getting caught. And his next victim was just around the corner. On February 16th, 1978, 19-year-old William Kindred vanished from Chicago's North Side. William was excited for his future and he had just gotten engaged to his girlfriend, Mary Jo Paulus.

In fact, on the night of his disappearance, he had just left his apartment and was on his way over to a bar when he came into contact with John Wayne Gacy. After he didn't come home the next day, both his family and his fiancé took to the streets to look for William, but they had no luck. He was at Gacy's home in the crawlspace, along with all of the other boys Gacy had murdered.

And the police definitely weren't taking his disappearance seriously. William Kindred would actually be the last victim buried on Gacy's property, simply because there was no more room. I mean, imagine a 1,000 square foot home, and then think about 29 bodies lying the floor of that small space. It was getting crowded, but that didn't stop Gacy from killing, or at least trying to kill.

His next victim would actually escape and his testimony gives us an idea of what the other boys went through before their murders. His name was Jeffrey Rignall and he was 26 years old, a little bit older than Gacy's typical victim. And on the night of March 21st, 1978, he and his girlfriend got into a fight so he left on foot to go to a gay bar.

Now, Jeffrey was bisexual, but he admitted that he preferred men over women, so after this fight with his girlfriend, he was ready to let off some steam and have a few drinks. But on his way there, a black Oldsmobile pulled up beside him and offered him a ride. Jeffrey said that Gacy looked friendly and so he agreed. But after a few minutes in the car, the driver's demeanor completely changed.

He was no longer this smiling, friendly man, but someone evil. Before Jeffrey could even react, Gacy put a chloroform-soaked rag over his face and he went unconscious. The next thing he remembered was feeling groggy as he woke up still in Gacy's car, and he could see the lights of the freeway zooming by. Then he saw a sign that read, Cumberland. And that's the last thing he remembered before Gacy put the rag over his mouth for a second time. When he eventually woke up,

Jeffrey was in Gacy's man cave, attached to a device. It was a 2x4 piece of wood with three holes in it, one for his head and the other two for his hands. And the device was connected to the ceiling with chains. When Jeffrey realized what was happening, he began to panic. And that's when he saw Gacy standing nude in front of him, masturbating.

Gacy bent down and whispered to Jeffrey that he had complete control over him and he was going to do whatever he wanted, however he wanted, and there was nothing he could do about it. On the floor in front of Jeffrey were whips, leather toys, dildos, and tools that almost looked like they were for a fireplace. Upon seeing this, Jeffrey was horrified.

Gacy then forced him to give him oral sex. And afterwards, he assaulted him with a large dildo. It was the most painful thing Jeffrey had ever experienced. But the entire time, Gacy was forcing him to say that he liked it. And he would tell Jeffrey, "Tell me how much you love it. I want to hear you say how much you love this." During the torture and rape, Jeffrey kept passing out. And once, when he came to,

He noticed that Gacy was not the only person in the room. While Gacy was raping him from behind, there was another man with dark hair parted down the middle who was on his knees in front of him. But when Jeffrey tried to get a good look at this guy, the chloroform rag was put on his face and he passed out yet again.

The next thing he remembered was waking up in a pile of snow near a park. His clothes were barely on his body and his face was burning from the chloroform. Jeffrey quickly went to the police to report the rape and he was sent to the hospital to treat his injuries. He had severe facial burns and rectal bleeding. But the police didn't seem too concerned, especially when they found out it was a homosexual incident.

And they literally told Jeffrey that there was nothing they could do because he didn't know anything about the man other than a physical description. I found myself about 5, 5.30 in the morning on the steps right by Lincoln Park, half-dressed, my face completely burned. So police took the matter very, very lightly, and I felt that, you know, it wasn't a light matter. I'm just thankful that I woke up in the park instead of underneath his...

And with that, the police sent him away without conducting an investigation. But Jeffrey was angry and more than anything, he wanted revenge. He was determined to find the man who did this to him, so he tried his best to remember every single detail of that night. And that's when he remembered that along the car ride, he saw a sign that read Cumberland. Now, Jeffrey didn't have a car, but he was so determined to find this guy that he went out and rented one and drove all along the Chicago roads until he saw that Cumberland sign.

And then once he found it, he parked his rental along the freeway and sat there for hours hoping to see his abductor's car. And what do you know, he eventually sees it.

After seeing the black Oldsmobile take the exit, Jeffrey follows him and quickly writes down his address and license plate number so that he can give it to the police And luckily, after doing their job for them, the police finally agree to take a look into Gacy And not long after this, John Wayne Gacy would be charged with battery Not rape or kidnapping, but battery And interestingly enough, Gacy would actually be on probation for this offense when he was arrested for the murders later that year

Now, keep in mind, while all of this is happening, Gacy still has a great reputation throughout Chicago. In fact, right after the rape and torture of Jeffrey, Gacy was in charge of another Polish Day Parade, where First Lady Rosalynn Carter was a special guest of honor.

There's even a picture of her and Gacy standing together shaking hands. And she later signed it, quote, "To John Gacy, best wishes, Rosalynn Carter." Imagine that, the president's wife shaking hands with the most prolific serial killer in America.

But even though Gacy was doing well socially, he knew he needed to be careful. After all, he was in the middle of a lawsuit with Jeffrey and he had absolutely no more room in his crawlspace to bury any more boys. But he still had the burning desire to kill and there was nothing that would stop him.

About a month after shaking hands with Rosalind Carter in June of 1978, Gacy came across 20-year-old Timothy O'Rourke. The last time Tim was seen alive, he told his roommate he was going out to get cigarettes, but he never made it back. Tim and Gacy had actually been in contact before about him getting a job at PDM.

So when Gacy pulled up next to him that night, he had no problem getting into his car. But Tim would later face the same fate as the 29 boys before him. Except his body wouldn't be thrown into the crawlspace. There wasn't enough room for him. Instead, Gacy put his body into the back of his car and slowly drove along the bridge on Interstate 55.

It was early in the morning, so there wasn't any traffic on the roads when Gacy pulled his car over. The bridge was about an hour and a half away from Gacy's home, so it was far enough that no one would ever suspect him. And when the coast was clear, he threw Tim's body over the bridge into the Des Plaines River. Tim's body wouldn't surface for another two weeks.

and no one in Chicago suspected that Gacy was responsible. A month later, in July of 1978, Gacy had his largest backyard party of all time. There were hundreds of people in attendance, and many of them were politicians and wealthy, influential people from Chicago. And as always, they celebrated by making a lot of food on the barbecue pit outside.

Little did they know, there was a body under the barbecue pit while they all ate and socialized, and there were another couple dozen boys just feet away under the floorboards of Gacy's home.

And in just a few short months, all of those people in attendance were about to learn of Gacy's dark secrets, and that they were all standing over his mass grave of young boys. But interestingly enough, for the next five months, Gacy wouldn't kill anyone. It was the longest hiatus he had in years. It's unclear why he took this break, but at the time, his business was doing really well, so it's believed that he just didn't have the time.

Gacy was making more money than he ever had In the following year, he was expected to make over a half a million dollars So, he was doing really well and was busy But then, in November, Gacy found out that his ex-wife Carol was getting remarried And not long after that, the killing started again The next boy to go missing was 19-year-old Frank Landingen

Frank was known to deal drugs around the Chicago area, and he had recently been in and out of jail. But on November 4th, he left his home and told his dad he was going to go look for his girlfriend so they could make up. Frank was last seen walking along Foster Avenue around 3 a.m., but he was never seen again.

Eight days later, his body was found floating in the Des Plaines River. During his autopsy, they found that his underwear had been shoved down his throat and that his cause of death was drowning on his own vomit. And interestingly, he was the 13th victim of Gacy's who died this way. So, it seems like along the way he switched up his method of killing.

Or this was one of his accomplices' preferred methods? We don't know, but we're going to talk about that more in the next episode. A few weeks later, another young man would go missing after having Thanksgiving dinner with his family. His name was James Mazzara, and he was 21 years old. At the time of his murder, James was living with friends near Bug House Square, where Gacy picked up a number of his victims.

and he was last seen on November 24th walking around that area carrying a suitcase. About one month later, his body would be found floating in the Des Plaines River. He was now the third victim thrown off the I-55 bridge. And now that Gacy had a new method of disposing of his victims, he was even planning to pour concrete all throughout the crawlspace, which would hopefully cover up the smell.

Then in his mind, all of his problems would disappear. He could keep killing boys across Chicago, but the ones in his home would be covered up forever. His own little secret. He even thought about doing renovations on his home with all of the new money that was coming in. But that would never happen. Gacy was getting arrogant and sloppy.

And his next and final murder, the murder of 15-year-old Robert Peist, would change everything. And it would eventually lead to his downfall.

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That's simply safe with an I dot com slash in America. There's no safe like simply safe. And now let's get back to our story. Hey, everybody, it's Colin and Courtney. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Murder in America. We're going to dive deep into the finale of this story next week and cover the massive conspiracy behind this case. That is honestly so interesting that I personally, as a true crime fan, had never heard or read about. But Courtney, how are you feeling?

I had the flu this week so if I sounded a little different that's why.

Well, I'm hoping that you feel better soon. I want to give a shout out to our new patrons this week. Jessica Ho, Sarah Mark, Madison Tuggle, Tiff Jones, Teresa Cole, Brittany, Nikki Turner, Kendall Baker, The Grizz, Amanda Cicerelli, Caleb, Melissa Stone, Alexandra Wheeler, Ryan Robinson, Wendy Connell, Issue, Mariah Duncan, and Caitlin Free. Holy shit, that is a lot of patrons for one week. We just want to thank you all so much.

If you don't know what Patreon is, you can sign up to become a patron, which means that you get access to the ad-free versions of every episode and all of that. Courtney? I was just going to say, if you want to follow us on Instagram, we post all of the pictures from every single episode. So follow us there at Murder in America, or you can join our Facebook group.

And yeah, if you want to see true crime documentaries that Courtney and I produce, you can head to my YouTube channel, the paranormal files. We just did a really great one on Ted Bundy, or you can follow me on Tik TOK, uh, at the paranormal files. And I post a lot of true crime stuff on there, but yeah, next week is going to be a big episode with the finale of the John Wayne Gacy story. I'm telling you when we were researching this, my mind was blown and I'm like, we really need to get this out to the people, but we

We want to thank you all again for listening. We love you guys. We'll see you next week. Yeah, we'll see you next week, everybody. And yeah, have a great weekend.