Documentary Biography Crime Never-before-heard audio from the interrogation of serial killer John Wayne Gacy threads through this chilling look at his 1970s murder spree. After he returned to Illinois, Gacy met his first wife Marlynn Myers in 1964 working at a shoe store. John Wayne Gacy was an American serial killer who was convicted and executed for the murders of . Body 10. The series depicts the murder spree of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who killed at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 . [49], The victims were too decomposed to be Piest. [261][262] While Rossi also claimed to have dug this grave in the late summer of 1977, Cram claimed that during his time living at 8213 W. Summerdale, Gacy had him dig a trench in the southwest corner of the crawl space where this victim was recovered. It was just this fascinating insight into the mind of a serial killer, he says. [169] He claimed all were teenage male runaways or male prostitutes, the majority of whom he had buried in his crawl space. Gacy's fiance and stepdaughters were visiting relatives in. This included seeing him keeping company with young males, hearing his car arrive or depart in the early hours of the morning, or seeing lights in his home switch on and off in the early hours. [25] Gacy filed an appeal against this decision, which was denied by the Supreme Court of the United States on March 4, 1985. [1], Piest was murdered shortly after 10:00p.m. at Gacy's home. Male aged 1418. [5][6] Gacy was of Polish and Danish ancestry, and his family was Catholic. John Wayne Gacy was born at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago, Illinois,[2] on March 17, 1942, the second of three children and only son of John Stanley Gacy (June 20, 1900 December 25, 1969) and Marion Elaine Gacy, ne Robison (May 4, 1908 December 14, 1989). Ken Goldin and his savvy team run the thrilling action in this series that goes inside a leading auction house specializing in rare collectibles. The wild Netflix docuseries details the multiple rivalries within the extremely lucrative and illegal business of exotic animal breeding. He would then produce a pair of handcuffs to "show a magic trick", sometimes as part of a clowning routine. Blinds covering the window through which witnesses observed the execution were drawn. [93], Gacy claimed he woke early the following morning to find McCoy standing in his bedroom doorway with a kitchen knife in his hand. Body 26. While convicted of 33 murders, its believed by many that Gacy, who was sentenced to death and died in 1994, is responsible for more unsolved murders or disappearances. And in the decades since, the murder has been turned into the 1989 TV movie starring William Baldwin and Lara Flynn Boyle and has inspired multiple episodes of the Law & Order franchise. When questioned whether these associates had participated directly or indirectly in the killings, Gacy replied, "Directly". His father suspected these episodes were an effort to gain sympathy and attention and openly accused his son of faking the condition as Gacy lay in a hospital bed. When questioned as to how soon he could come to the police station, he responded, "You guys are very rude. [54][60], Gacy also entered local Democratic Party politics, initially offering use of his employees to clean party headquarters at no charge. During this time, in 1969, his wife filed for and was granted a divorce and custody of their children. Investigators contend this could not have happened without Young noticing. [237], The first victims to be identified were John Butkovich (Body 2), John Szyc (Body 3), and Gregory Godzik (Body 4). Beneath a smiling exterior was the horrifying darkness of a sadistic serial killer. He got married again in 1972 to Carole Hoff, who moved into his home along with her two daughters. John Wayne Gacy: Devil In Disguise (7.3) Despite his fame, there have been surprisingly few in-depth documentaries on the life and crimes of notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy. [t][165] At 4:30p.m. on December 21, the eve of the hearing of Gacy's civil suit, Judge Marvin J. Peters granted the request for a second search warrant. [117] Bundy died of suffocation. 14", "BREAKING: New DNA Test Confirms Second False ID in Gacy Case", "DNA Backs Up Mom's Doubt: Gacy Victim Misidentified", "DNA Shows Presumed John Wayne Gacy Victim was Misidentified, Attorneys Say", "Alleged Victim of John Wayne Gacy to be Exhumed", "Lawyers: DNA Proves John Wayne Gacy Victim was Misidentified", "Mother of Supposed John Wayne Gacy Victim Still Seeks Answers", "Sheriff Barred from Digging for More Gacy Victims", "Grave Mistake: The Controversial, High-tech Search for John Wayne Gacy's Lost Victims", "Criminal Justice: Sheriff's Officials Seeking More Victims of Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy Want to Excavate Chicago Backyard", "To Parents of the Missing in Chicago: A Note About John Wayne Gacy", "Search of Killer John Wayne Gacy's Mother's Home Fruitless; County Sheriff to Keep Hunting", "Chicago is Center of National Child Pornography Ring", "Child Sex Trafficking in Chicago: The Missing Link in the Gacy Mystery", "What Really Happened to Michael Marino? [17] Gacy later estimated that between the ages of 14 and 18, he had spent almost a year in hospital and attributed the decline of his grades to missing school. Gacy details his murders in a chilling confession as police uncover the scope of his crimes; victims' families tell of their repeated pleas to officers to investigate . [49], Gacy was active in his local community and helpful towards his neighbors; he willingly loaned his construction tools and plowed snow from neighborhood walks free of charge. He described Pogo as a "happy clown", whereas Patches was a "more serious" character. [10][17] The offer was lucrative: Gacy would receive $15,000 per year (the equivalent of about $144,000 as of 2023[update]), plus a share of the restaurant's profits. [223][224][225], Before the execution began, the chemicals used to effect the execution solidified unexpectedly, clogging the IV tube used to administer the chemicals into Gacy's arm, complicating the procedure. [130] To support this contention, they produced several witnesses to testify to the premeditation of Gacy's actions and the efforts he took to escape detection. [146], In the northwest bedroom, investigators found a class of 1975 Maine West High School ring engraved with the initials J.A.S. He preyed on the vulnerable. A fishing license issued to Bonnin had been found in Gacy's home. Peacock's documentary proposes that there could have been more victims, too. [256][257], Based on Gacy's confession, the location of the victims buried in the crawl space, and forensic analysis, police determined the most likely dates for when his unidentified victims were killed. However, his neighbors never suspected the evil the serial killer was capable of. Watch John Wayne Gacy: Devil In Disguise: John Wayne Gacy Talks Clowning & 'Entertaining' Kids. Gacy claimed that he had run away from home, having indicated before that he wished to do so. VoorheesSr. immediately informed the police, who arrested Gacy and subsequently charged him with performing oral sodomy on Voorhees and the attempted assault of 16-year-old Edward Lynch. [118] Both Body 11 and Body 12 were found face downwards with a ligature around their necks and both were buried beside each other in the center of the crawl space, directly beneath the hallway. Eventually his behavior caught up to him, when a 15-year-old son of a fellow Jaycee named Donald Voorhees came forward and reported Gacy for forcing him to commit sexual acts with him. Gacy said to both young men: "You'd better not let me down, you fuckers. John Wayne Gacy grew up in the Chicago area, and his sister Karen, who is interviewed in Peacock's documentary, details the medical problems, abuse, and injuries he suffered in his youth. One of the most infamous serial killers in American history, John Wayne Gacy is known as the Killer Clown who would torture, bind, rape, and murder young men that he picked up in the area. 2. ", Gacy's wife and stepdaughters were visiting his younger sister in. [75], On the evening of December 20, Gacy drove to his lawyers' office in Park Ridge to attend a scheduled meeting, ostensibly to discuss the progress of his civil suit. [126] On November 16, Body 17 was identified as David Talsma using radiology images of a healed fracture of the left scapula. [288], In the 1980s, Gacy informed FBI profiler Robert Ressler that "two or three" PDM employees had assisted in several murders. He later claimed Cram and Rossi were involved in several of the murders. [45], On February 12, 1971, Gacy was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy who claimed that he had lured him into his car at Chicago's Greyhound bus terminal and driven him to his home, where he had attempted to force the boy into sex. Butkovich's father, a Yugoslav immigrant, called Gacy, who claimed he was happy to help search for his son but was sorry Butkovich had "run away". You owe it to me." He soon refused to continue the questioning, and Rossi's "erratic and inconsistent" responses to questions while attached to the polygraph machine rendered Kozenczak "unable to render a definite opinion" as to the truthfulness of his answers. This video is unavailable because we were unable to load a message from our sponsors. [10][5][13] Despite this mistreatment, however, Gacy still loved his father,[11] but felt he was "never good enough" in his father's eyes. Gacy then duped Piest into donning handcuffs before saying, "I'm going to rape you, and you can't do anything about it" as Piest began weeping. Gacy strangled Bonnin with a ligature and buried him under the spare bedroom. [177] Body 9 was found beneath a layer of concrete and was found to have several stab wounds to the ribs and sternum, suggesting he was Gacy's first victim. According to Martha Fourt, an Illinois-based LGBTQ+ advocate, To be gay in the 1970s, it was a different world. [52][201][x] When Gacy's defense team suggested that all 33 deaths were caused by accidental erotic asphyxia, Stein called this highly improbable. [84] During Donnelly's cross-examination, one of Gacy's defense attorneys, Robert Motta, attempted to discredit his testimony, but Donnelly did not waver from his testimony of what had occurred. "[30] Over the following months Gacy similarly abused several other youths, including one whom he encouraged to have sex with his own wife before blackmailing him into performing oral sex on him. [58] By 1978, PDM's annual revenue was over $200,000. He presented himself as very avuncular and trustworthy, just like Bundy, Berlinger says, adding, Just because somebody looks and acts a certain way, it doesnt mean you can trust them., While Gacys story and murders have been well-documented, with Peacock releasing its own six-part docuseries, Devil in Disguise, in March 2021, The John Wayne Gacy Tapes offers a modern-day perspective or what Berlinger likes to call, the social justice element.. The police investigated Gacy in both 1975 and 1976 when two young boys who worked for Gacy disappeared on separate occasions, but did not find anything to link Gacy to the disappearances. [123][152], On December 15, Des Plaines investigators obtained further details of Gacy's battery charge, learning the complainant, Jeffrey Rignall, had reported that Gacy had lured him into his car, then chloroformed, raped and tortured him before dumping him, with severe chest and facial burns and rectal bleeding, in Lincoln Park the following morning. Here, thats looking back at how the prevailing attitudes towards the LGBTQ community is what allowed Gacy to flourish, the director says, explaining that unlike Bundy, who preyed after young white women, many of Gacys victims were young queer men at a time when society was least accepting of them. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy [49] Occasionally, the victim had convulsed for an "hour or two" before dying, although several victims died by asphyxiation from cloth gags stuffed deep into their throat. [251] The most recent victim to be identified is 21-year-old Francis Wayne Alexander, previously known as Body 5. Gacy neither confirmed nor denied Ressler's suspicions. That evening, officers conducted a test using three trained German shepherd search dogs to determine whether Piest had been present in any of Gacy's vehicles. [65] He had buried their bodies in his crawl space as he believed they were his property. [58], Two months later, on March 15, a 20-year-old Michigan native named Jon Prestidge disappeared. [75] Rossi did, however, further discuss the trench digging he did in the crawl space and remarked on Gacy's insistence that he not deviate from where he was instructed to dig. Police arrested Gacy and laid an additional charge of hiring Schroeder to assault and intimidate Voorhees against him. Gacy also tricked several teenagers into believing he was commissioned to conduct homosexual experiments in the interests of scientific research, and paid them up to $50 each. [173] Each victim unearthed from the crawl space was placed in a body bag, which was placed near the front door awaiting transportation to the mortuary.[105]. Gacy later described this period of his life as "perfect"he had finally earned his father's approval. The execution team replaced the clogged tube. [3] During the fourth grade, Gacy began to experience blackouts. [57][105], On November 4, Gacy killed 19-year-old Frank Landingin. [207], On March 11, final arguments by both prosecution and defense attorneys began; they concluded the following day. John Wayne Gacy is the subject of another documentary, Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes, now streaming on Netflix. [10], On September 12, Gacy was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Iowa. [ 58 ] By 1978, PDM 's annual revenue was over $ 200,000 over $ 200,000 Voorhees against.! 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