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The Truth About John Wayne Gacy A Graveyard Under His House · Weird Darkness:True crime & The unexplained

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This program contains graphic violence and sexual situations. Viewer discretion
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: is advised. Dozens of teenage boys taken, tortured for hours,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: then killed in cold blood. The killing for him is
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  Speaker 1: very arousing. They're victims of a power-hungry sadist that can't
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: get enough.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: He is obsessed.
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  Speaker 3: There's times when he actually is killing two individuals on
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  Speaker 3: the same night.
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  Speaker 1: A plot of a Hollywood horror film? This is a
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  Speaker 1: terrifying true story.
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  Speaker 2: He actually had something that most killers don't. He had
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  Speaker 2: a graveyard underneath his house.
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  Speaker 1: The original killer clown. The real monster that came before
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  Speaker 1: the movies It, Clown House, and many others. Behind the Screens. Chicago, Illinois.
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  Speaker 1: Norwood Park is a quaint neighborhood, just a short drive
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  Speaker 1: from O'Hare International Airport. It's a sunny day in 1975
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  Speaker 1: when 18-year-old Johnny Bukovic and two of his friends arrive
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  Speaker 1: at the residential office of PDM Contractors. The owner often
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  Speaker 1: hires young, unskilled workers to keep costs down. Sometimes, he
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  Speaker 1: doesn't pay them anything at all. Johnny's had enough. Open up!
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  Speaker 4: Come on, man, I know you're in there.
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  Speaker 1: Johnny!
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  Speaker 4: You need to pay me right now!
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  Speaker 1: The two men argue for hours.
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  Speaker 4: I keep telling you, I have the money. It's just
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  Speaker 4: been an accounting problem. You have it? You have it now?
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  Speaker 1: Johnny threatens to expose his boss's sketchy business practices.
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  Speaker 4: You're absolutely right. I'm sorry this has happened.
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  Speaker 1: But in the end, He realizes he's not getting what
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  Speaker 1: he came for.
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  Speaker 4: Johnny, I'll give you every penny I owe you.
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  Speaker 1: He leaves with his friends. This should be the end
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  Speaker 1: of the story. But after leaving his boss's home, young
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  Speaker 1: Johnny Bukovic suddenly disappears. The next morning, his parents suspect
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: something terrible has happened. Johnny's father comes across his son's
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  Speaker 1: car only a few blocks away from his home, and
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  Speaker 1: the key is still inside. Johnny loves his car. He'd
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  Speaker 1: been saving up to race it. He'd never leave it
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  Speaker 1: that way.
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  Speaker 4: Chicago Precinct 14.
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  Speaker 1: The local police receive an urgent call from Mr. Bukovic.
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  Speaker 1: He frantically alerts them to his son's disappearance. Arriving at
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  Speaker 1: the scene, Officer Burkhardt of Chicago PD approaches the driver's
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  Speaker 1: side door. Peering in through the window, he sees a
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  Speaker 1: key in the ignition. But there's more inside. The young
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  Speaker 1: man's checkbook has been left in the glove box. His
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  Speaker 1: wallet is in the center console, and it's filled with cash.
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  Speaker 1: It's undeniably suspicious. Still, these abandoned items aren't proof of
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  Speaker 1: foul play. Burkhardt heads back to the station to file
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  Speaker 1: a report. Weeks later, the police still have no leads.
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  Speaker 1: But Johnny's parents won't give up. His father keeps calling
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  Speaker 1: the police over and over.
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  Speaker 4: Chicago Precinct 14.
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  Speaker 1: He remembers his son had a wage dispute and had
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  Speaker 1: gone to see his boss. Then he vanished. But Johnny's
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  Speaker 1: boss is someone the police would never suspect. He's a
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  Speaker 1: respected businessman and a prominent member of the local community. Still,
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  Speaker 1: Officer Burkhardt contacts him about the young boy. The contractor
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  Speaker 1: tells him Johnny Bukovic did come to his house with
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  Speaker 1: two friends. He says those witnesses can confirm the boy
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  Speaker 1: left his place just fine. Where he went from there
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  Speaker 1: is a mystery. Over the next three years, this same
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  Speaker 1: mystery plays out again and again in Chicago. young men
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  Speaker 1: keep going missing. The ones reported to police remain unsolved.
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  Speaker 5: This is the 1970s.
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  Speaker 6: This is a period of time when hitchhiking was still
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  Speaker 6: very popular. It wasn't unusual for people to travel distances,
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  Speaker 6: to go periods of time without actually identifying where they were.
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  Speaker 6: So it's hard to go back and determine where someone
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  Speaker 6: goes missing if you're not sure precisely where they should
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  Speaker 6: have been.
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  Speaker 1: For a predator that stalks human prey, 70s Chicago is
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  Speaker 1: the perfect hunting ground. Street after street of young boys
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  Speaker 1: willing to ride with nearly anyone who offers to get
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  Speaker 1: them high.
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  Speaker 3: Generally, there's a preference for a certain type of victim.
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  Speaker 3: They want victims that are vulnerable, victims that aren't going
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  Speaker 3: to be sought out quickly by police. So you choose
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  Speaker 3: high-risk victims, which is why prostitutes are such an easy
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  Speaker 3: target for offenders. Or you get young men engaged in
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  Speaker 3: prostitution activities, or you get drifters. People wandering around looking
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  Speaker 3: for a job that, you know, they're not from the area.
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  Speaker 3: These are very vulnerable individuals, people that will go missing
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  Speaker 3: and people won't be looking for them.
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  Speaker 2: Then.
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  Speaker 1: Three years after Johnny Bukovic goes missing, 26-year-old Jeffrey Rignall
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  Speaker 1: rushes into another Chicago police precinct.
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  Speaker 4: There's a guy trying to kill me, and I think
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  Speaker 4: he almost did.
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  Speaker 1: He's clearly traumatized. From the bruises on his face, detectives
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  Speaker 1: expect the worst. I need to know where you are.
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  Speaker 4: I was leaving Williamsburg. There's this dude in a black sedan.
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  Speaker 1: Rignall tells them his horrifying story. Two days earlier, he's
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  Speaker 1: walking home when he notices a big black car cruising
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  Speaker 1: right behind him.
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  Speaker 4: Hey.
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  Speaker 2: Hey.
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  Speaker 1: The driver invites him to hop in and smoke a joint.
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  Speaker 1: You want to get high? The man seems friendly enough.
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  Speaker 2: All right.
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  Speaker 4: Right on.
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  Speaker 1: So Rignell doesn't hesitate to hop in.
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  Speaker 5: All right.
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  Speaker 2: All right.
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  Speaker 4: Let's go.
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  Speaker 3: When we're looking at serial offenders and how they select
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  Speaker 3: their victims, oftentimes they're picking very vulnerable individuals. They're reading individuals.
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  Speaker 3: They're very good at reading people and what they want.
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  Speaker 3: So if this individual is looking for drugs, I'm the
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  Speaker 3: individual that can supply those drugs. Then they need to
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  Speaker 3: disarm the individual, and they need to get them alone.
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  Speaker 3: They need to get them vulnerable.
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  Speaker 1: But as soon as the car pulls away, the man pounces.
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  Speaker 1: shoving a rag over his nose and mouth. It's soaked
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  Speaker 1: with a sweet-smelling liquid, probably chloroform. He wakes several times
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  Speaker 1: during the ride, briefly catching glimpses of streetlights on the
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  Speaker 1: expressway and signs. Then, the kidnapper puts the rag back
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  Speaker 1: over his mouth, and everything goes black. And the worst
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  Speaker 1: is yet to come. When he regains consciousness, he finds
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  Speaker 1: himself inside the Predator's home. He's been stripped naked, his
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  Speaker 1: hands are locked in some sort of torture restraint, and
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  Speaker 1: the man from the car looms over him ominously. His face,
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  Speaker 1: so friendly and innocent before, now twists into a maniacal,
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  Speaker 1: obscene grin. He slowly steps forward, picks up a short,
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  Speaker 1: blunt object from the floor, and attacks. I think you
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  Speaker 1: need to stop. For hours and hours, he's raped, whipped,
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  Speaker 1: and beaten. All at the hands of the brutal sadist.
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  Speaker 1: Over and over, the assailant uses chloroform to knock him out.
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  Speaker 1: And each time he wakes up, the nightmare begins again. Then,
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  Speaker 1: after countless hours of pain, in a rare and inexplicable
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  Speaker 1: moment of mercy, the sadistic monster dumps Rignell in a park. Alive,
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  Speaker 1: but unconscious. Battered and disrespected, the tortured young man goes
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  Speaker 1: straight to the police.
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  Speaker 4: Can you tell me if you have missing?
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  Speaker 1: He's a white guy. He's a white guy. The detectives
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  Speaker 1: believe Jeffrey Rignal's frightening story.
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  Speaker 6: So, sir, right now, all I know is that you
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  Speaker 6: was a white man with a mustache.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But without a name, an address, or a solid description
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  Speaker 1: of his abductor... there's very little they can do. The
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  Speaker 1: one unique detail Rignell does remember, the car, a black Oldsmobile. Also,
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  Speaker 1: he remembers seeing an exit sign on the expressway as
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  Speaker 1: he drifted in and out of consciousness. The leads are insignificant.
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  Speaker 1: For the detectives, it's not enough information to open an investigation.
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  Speaker 6: Investigators know they're looking at a serious crime, a crime
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  Speaker 6: of battery, of one form or another. But they don't
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  Speaker 6: have any good clues. They don't have an identity of
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  Speaker 6: who this guy actually is.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, they have nothing to work with.
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  Speaker 1: Angry and frustrated, he takes matters into his own hands
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  Speaker 1: and launches his own investigation. He decides to go on
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  Speaker 1: a stakeout at the exit ramp he remembers from his
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  Speaker 1: nightmare experience. It's a long shot. Thousands of cars travel
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  Speaker 1: this busy expressway every day. But if he can spot
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  Speaker 1: that one car, he might be able to bring the
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  Speaker 1: depraved attacker to justice.
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  Speaker 6: What are the odds that you could sit at a location,
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  Speaker 6: knowing nothing about the pattern of the predator, and actually
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  Speaker 6: see the same car that was used in your crime?
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  Speaker 2: Pretty slim odds.
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  Speaker 6: That's why, for the most part, detectives probably wouldn't even
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  Speaker 6: take that approach. But here Rignell decides, this is the
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  Speaker 6: only approach I can take. I only know one thing
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  Speaker 6: about this guy for sure. I know where he snatched me.
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  Speaker 1: But it looks like a needle in a haystack. Weeks
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  Speaker 1: turn to months, and there's no sign of the black Oldsmobile.
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  Speaker 1: But just when Rignell's about to give up, He sees it.
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  Speaker 1: It's heading northwest into the suburbs. He can hardly believe it.
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  Speaker 1: It's definitely the same car. And the chase is on.
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  Speaker 6: You've got to give Rick Nall a lot of credit
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  Speaker 6: because he was able to do something that that most
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  Speaker 6: agencies can't even finance. He spent a period of months
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  Speaker 6: looking at the surveillance, basically, and actually identified the car
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  Speaker 6: that he was taken from.
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  Speaker 1: Rignell discreetly follows the car into the neighborhood of Norwood Park.
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  Speaker 1: As it stops outside 8213 Somerdale Avenue... Rignell is confident
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  Speaker 1: he's found the location where he was attacked and tortured.
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  Speaker 1: Armed with a license plate number and a residential address,
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  Speaker 1: he goes straight to the police and they identify the
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  Speaker 1: man behind his abduction, John Wayne Gacy. Gacy is a
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  Speaker 1: very public figure. He's a respected Chicago businessman who lives
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  Speaker 1: in a nice suburban neighborhood with a wife and two stepdaughters.
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  Speaker 5: He's reputable. He's involved with business. He's well-known in the community.
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  Speaker 2: He's a good neighbor.
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  Speaker 5: He's politically active. He's involved as a precinct captain.
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  Speaker 6: The scary thing about cases like this is that Gacy,
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  Speaker 6: like other predators, he's not hiding.
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  Speaker 5: He's actually very, very comfortable out in the open.
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  Speaker 6: And as a matter of fact, he's established himself in
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  Speaker 6: a way that would put him beyond suspicion. He's even
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  Speaker 6: photographed with First Lady Rosalind Carter. These are the kinds
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  Speaker 6: of things that give you cover so you can hide
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  Speaker 6: in plain sight.
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  Speaker 1: And that's not all. In his spare time, Gacy polishes
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  Speaker 1: his public persona as a member of the Jolly Joker
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  Speaker 1: Clown Club.
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  Speaker 3: For Gacy, this is just simply another way of being
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  Speaker 3: like the guy everybody likes. I mean, how could you
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  Speaker 3: not like a clown? It allows him essentially to dress
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  Speaker 3: up in face paint and act in a way that
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  Speaker 3: he probably wouldn't normally act when he's not in costume.
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  Speaker 1: Casey creates his own costume and takes the name Pogo
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  Speaker 1: the Clown. Performing for kids at birthday parties and local hospitals.
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  Speaker 3: It's just another piece of this public persona that keeps
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  Speaker 3: people thinking he's just your average great guy in the city.
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  Speaker 2: In the neighborhood.
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  Speaker 3: Very helpful, and look, he even entertains children.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, I can't wait to share some birthday gags with you.
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  Speaker 1: Three years earlier, when 18-year-old Johnny Bukovic disappeared, police spoke
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  Speaker 1: briefly with Gacy. At that time, due to his positive
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: reputation in the community and the fact that no one
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  Speaker 1: could directly connect him to the boy's disappearance, they quickly
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  Speaker 1: dismissed him as a suspect. Now, There's someone who has evidence.
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  Speaker 1: Rignell has seen Gacy's dark side. But without a corroborating witness,
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  Speaker 1: the only charge police can file in the Jeffrey Rignell
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  Speaker 1: case is battery. It's a minor offense with a fine
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  Speaker 1: of just $ 100. and no jail time.
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  Speaker 4: So why are you asking questions and not getting up?
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  Speaker 1: Rignell is furious.
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  Speaker 6: Remember that months have now transpired between the point of
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  Speaker 6: the attack and the point of the arrest. The opportunity
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  Speaker 6: to go back and collect physical evidence that would either
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  Speaker 6: corroborate Rignell's version of the story or Gacy's version of
• 16:02
  Speaker 6: the story has now vanished because so many.
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  Speaker 2: Months have transpired.
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  Speaker 6: And that's why this is a difficult case to really
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  Speaker 6: even try because you have a one-on-one, one person's word
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  Speaker 6: against somebody else, and probably little or no forensic evidence
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  Speaker 6: to corroborate one side or the other. Gacy's ultimately arrested
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  Speaker 6: for this battery. But very common to other kinds of crimes.
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  Speaker 6: Doesn't mean he's going to stay in custody. And in fact,
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  Speaker 6: this is not unusual to have somebody be out of
• 16:27
  Speaker 6: custody awaiting trial.
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  Speaker 5: And that's exactly what happens with Gacy.
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  Speaker 6: In fact, he's out of custody for a long period
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  Speaker 6: of time waiting to go to trial on the Rignell case.
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  Speaker 1: With his slap on the wrist misdemeanor trial pending, Gacy
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: quickly falls off the police radar. In his private life,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: he may be a deviant. But in public, he's still
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  Speaker 1: seen as a pillar of the community. For police, John
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Wayne Gacy's community service makes him a civic hero. On
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: the other hand, his accuser, Jeffrey Rignell, openly admits to
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  Speaker 1: police that he's bisexual. It's a dangerous confession in the
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: late 70s. and it labels Rignell a sexual deviant in
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  Speaker 1: the eyes of many.
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  Speaker 4: Chicago Precinct 14.
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  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, every few weeks, police get another call from the
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  Speaker 1: parents of young Johnny Bukovic, the boy who worked for
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Gacy and disappeared mysteriously three years earlier after they had
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: an argument.
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  Speaker 4: You need to pay me right now!
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  Speaker 1: And Johnny isn't alone. The number of missing teenagers in
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Chicago keeps growing Nineteen young men have vanished. Most are
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: never even reported to police. The ones that are quickly
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: get dismissed as runaways. If these cases are linked in
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: any way, without witnesses, there's almost no way for police
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  Speaker 1: detectives spread out over multiple precincts and jurisdictions to make
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  Speaker 1: a connection.
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  Speaker 3: It's a real detriment to law enforcement because you have
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: a lot of cases that really are linked, but there's
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  Speaker 3: no ability to link them because.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: the.
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  Speaker 3: Individual law enforcement agencies aren't aware of the other cases.
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  Speaker 2: Remember, we're in the 70s.
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  Speaker 5: This is pre-Internet. This is pre, really, computers being able
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  Speaker 5: to do the kinds of databasing we do today.
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  Speaker 6: It's pre-technology for DNA and other kind of forensic technology.
• 18:27
  Speaker 6: It's pre-social media. Your smartphone today can identify where you are.
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  Speaker 6: It's pre any of that. We're looking at a time
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  Speaker 6: in history in which someone could go missing. There'd be
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  Speaker 6: little or no trail online, little or no trail forensically,
• 18:42
  Speaker 6: that would help investigators solve such a case.
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  Speaker 1: Then, there's a break that could finally solve these mysterious disappearances.
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  Speaker 4: My son is missing.
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  Speaker 1: Nine months after Rignell's brutal abduction, Des Plaines, Illinois, officer
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Ron Adams takes a statement from a very frightened mother.
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  Speaker 4: Please, you've got to help me.
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  Speaker 1: Named Elizabeth Piest. She says her 15-year-old son, Robert, is missing.
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  Speaker 1: And unlike previous cases, Robert is a model child with
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  Speaker 1: no motive to run off.
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  Speaker 2: Robert Piest is unusual.
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  Speaker 6: He's different than the other missing young men. He's an
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: outlier in the sense that he's the kind of guy
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  Speaker 6: who's connected to his family.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: He's close to his parents. His parents have an.
• 19:27
  Speaker 6: Expectation when they're going to see him, when they're not
• 19:29
  Speaker 6: going to see him. If he goes missing for a
• 19:31
  Speaker 6: short period of time, they're alarmed.
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  Speaker 2: When's the last time.
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  Speaker 1: You saw him?
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  Speaker 2: Um.
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  Speaker 1: I went to Nissen's drugstore where he worked.
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  Speaker 5: He goes missing on the night of his mother's birthday.
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: It's very unusual for Robert.
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  Speaker 6: They've got a close relationship, and they don't expect this
• 19:43
  Speaker 6: kind of behavior from him. And for that reason, the
• 19:45
  Speaker 6: detectives take this very seriously.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Earlier that evening... Mrs. Piest is waiting to drive her
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: son Robert home from his current job at a local
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: pharmacy when he asks her to wait a little longer.
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  Speaker 4: I got to meet with him.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: It's twice as much as the pharmacy job.
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  Speaker 2: Who are you meeting with?
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  Speaker 5: Two minutes.
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  Speaker 2: Who are you meeting with?
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  Speaker 1: He says he has a lead on a new job
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: for the summer. He runs off to talk to the
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: potential employer. Young Robert never returns. It's a parent's worst nightmare.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: And his mother has no idea how real and terrifying
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: this nightmare truly is. Her son's current boss says the
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: name of the man Robert went to see... I had
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: a guy in here before.
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  Speaker 2: He was talking to me about some shelving. It's a contractor.
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Is John Gacy. That night, at the precinct, police take Mrs.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Piest's story very seriously. Enter the corner, and he never
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: came back. Lieutenant Joe Kozenczak is the chief of detectives
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: at Des Plaines PD, and this case hits especially close
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  Speaker 1: to home. Kozenczak also has a teenage son, and he
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: attends the same high school as Robert Piest. It's not
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: hard for him to imagine what Mrs. Piest is going through.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: It's almost as if he's searching for his own child.
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  Speaker 4: And you find that Gacy, he's the last person to
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: see Robbie.
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  Speaker 1: Using the name John Gacy and a phone number supplied
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: by the boy's boss, Kozenczak contacts Chicago Police Headquarters to
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: see if this mysterious contractor has any prior convictions. What
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: he finds is very disturbing. Digging through records from multiple precincts,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: he finds out John Wayne Gacy has a serious criminal
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: history involving young men and boys.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: We know that offenders choose, especially serial offenders, tend to
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: have a particular victim type that they're looking for. When
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: you see a particular sex being targeted, a particular age
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: range being targeted, it starts to really sort of raise
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: your hackles.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: His rap sheet shows the recent case involving 26-year-old Jeffrey Rignall.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: That criminal trial is still pending. But there's more. Ten
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: years earlier, Gacy was convicted in Iowa of sodomizing a
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: 15-year-old boy the same age as Robert Piest. He served
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: just 18 months of a 10-year prison sentence. Clearly... moving
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: to another state and building his reputation as an upstanding
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: citizen did not curb his deviant appetites.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: Gacy has a very clear definition of what is legal
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: and what is not legal. He understands that, but he
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: doesn't care. He just simply chooses to do wrong without
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: any consequences because that's what makes him feel good.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Detective Kozenczak knows the boy is in serious danger. And
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: every second counts.
• 23:05
  Speaker 6: It's not a cliche to say that the first 48
• 23:07
  Speaker 6: hours of an investigation are critical because it's all about
• 23:10
  Speaker 6: evidence and what evidence is still available to us. At
• 23:13
  Speaker 6: some point, evidence either deteriorates because of the nature of
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: the evidence, if it's biological, for example, or a suspect
• 23:18
  Speaker 6: has the opportunity to dispose of evidence. So that's why
• 23:21
  Speaker 6: we want to work quickly. It's not just in figuring
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: out who did it. It's about preserving the evidence that
• 23:26
  Speaker 6: points to the person who did it.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Detective Kosanzak and another officer head to Gacy's home on
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Somerdale Avenue. They want to question the suspect face-to-face. They're
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: also praying they'll find teenage Robert inside the man's home, unharmed.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: Hi, Mr. John Gacy?
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: But when Gacy opens the door, there's no sign of
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: anyone else inside.
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: He spoke with you? No, I don't.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: The contractor denies ever meeting Robert Piest. He says his
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: uncle just died. He doesn't have time to talk about
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: missing boys he's never met. Gacy wants them to leave
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: so he can speak to his mourning mother. This may
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: not be a good time, sir, but we just need
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: to clear a few things up. Lieutenant Kozenczak is suspicious.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: He thinks this story is smoke and mirrors. Deceased uncle
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: or not.
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: I need you to come down, sir.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Kozenczak knows Gacy's hiding something.
• 24:25
  Speaker 6: Detectives are always looking for some form of evidence in
• 24:28
  Speaker 6: everything they do.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Sometimes that evidence is just behavior.
• 24:31
  Speaker 6: It's just what somebody says and how they say it,
• 24:34
  Speaker 6: the things they chose to say, the things they could
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: have said but chose not to say, expressions.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: These are the things that are important to detectives.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: But Kozenczak can tell he's not getting any more out
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: of Gacy right now. He asks the contractor to come
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: to the station and make a formal statement later that evening.
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: Why?
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Reluctantly. Gacy agrees. Gacy's criminal record makes his possible involvement
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: in the disappearance of Robert Piest very disturbing. But it
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: also gives Lieutenant Kozenczak hope. The contractor may be a
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: sexual predator, but there's no evidence he's a killer. Robert
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: may still be alive, but the clock is ticking. Kozenczak
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: needs a search warrant.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 25:21
  Speaker 6: The problem with many of these cases is trying to
• 25:23
  Speaker 6: develop enough probable cause to write a search warrant so
• 25:26
  Speaker 6: you can actually find the evidence you need to make
• 25:28
  Speaker 6: the case. And if you're standing on the outside, you
• 25:31
  Speaker 6: don't have much information to begin with, it's.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Hard to do that.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: This offender is not going to stop, and your concern
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: as an investigator is, what can I do now to
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: get this guy identified and get him stopped?
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Kozenczak contacts the state's attorney. He's short on physical evidence,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: but Gacy's criminal record and the witness testimony that says
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Robert went to speak to the convict contractor right before
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: he disappeared is enough to secure the warrant he needs.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: Hey, fellas.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Later that day, when Gacy finally shows up to make
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: a formal statement, his demeanor is calm and confident. He
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: has no idea... He's walking into a trap.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: He sees himself as infallible. There's no way the police
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: are going to catch me. I am just that good.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: That's the way he looks at himself. And oftentimes that's
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: the undoing for individuals like this.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Kozenczak serves him the warrant and requests the keys to
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Gacy's house and vehicles.
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: You can't do this.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Gacy's volatile reaction says everything.
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: You can't have my keys. I know your boss. I
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: will have your jobs for this.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: There's obviously something he doesn't want them to see. You
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: have no idea who you're dealing with.
• 26:53
  Speaker 6: Gacy is clearly a very clever, cunning man, but there's
• 26:56
  Speaker 6: even something more disturbing about it. There's a sense here
• 26:59
  Speaker 6: that Gacy thinks that he's got more experience in this
• 27:02
  Speaker 6: than the people.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Who are investigating him. And he acts that way. He's
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: very bold. He's very brazen.
• 27:07
  Speaker 6: He's leaving things out. He's not covering all of his tracks.
• 27:10
  Speaker 6: There's a sense that he's very comfortable doing what he's doing.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: With Gacy at the station, Lieutenant Kozenczak heads to the
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: contractor's home. His heart is racing. It's been nearly two
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: days since 15-year-old Robert Piest vanished. Trapped by a vile
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: predator like Gacy, it would be naive to think that
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Robert's unharmed. But Kozenczak prays he's still alive. Stepping inside,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Kozenczak and the other detectives spread out. Going room to room,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: they search every inch of Gacy's home.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Detectives are always trying to connect the dots.
• 27:53
  Speaker 6: You're trying to find those pieces of evidence that connect
• 27:56
  Speaker 6: your victim to your suspect, especially if the suspect has
• 27:59
  Speaker 6: denied having any extended contact with the victim or has
• 28:01
  Speaker 6: maybe even denied knowing the victim. I'm looking for something
• 28:05
  Speaker 6: that betrays the lie. That can be personal property from
• 28:08
  Speaker 6: the victim.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: It could be his jewelry. It could be clothing from
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: the victim. It could be.
• 28:12
  Speaker 6: Anything like this that connects victims to suspects.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: They find gay pornographic videos, magazines, and sex toys. a
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: set of nickel-plated handcuffs, and something far more disturbing, a
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: two-by-four with human restraints at either end. It's a device
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: someone like Gacy might use for sexual torture. But that's
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: not all they find. In the kitchen trash, there's a
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: film-developing receipt from Nissan Pharmacy, where Robert Peast worked. Gacy
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: also has a suspicious assortment of personal effects... that clearly
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: are not his own. A class ring with the initials J.A.S.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Underwear that's too small to fit a man his size.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: And a blue hooded coat, similar to one Robert Peast
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: wore the night he disappeared. Then, while pulling items from
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: a closet, Kozenczak sees something unexpected. A trap door leading
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: down under the house. Reaching down, he slides his hand
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: under the door and slowly begins to lift it up.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Robert could be trapped below. Or worse. Is this a crawlspace?
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: Or a deadly tomb? The air inside the dank, dungeon-like
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: area is thick with a musty smell. But the dirt
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: appears undisturbed, and there's no sign of the young boy.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Removing the evidence they've collected, Kozunczak and his team leave
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Gacy's home. What he's found so far is chilling. But
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: before he can make an arrest, he still needs solid
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: proof Robert Peast was in Gacy's home. He wants to
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: keep close tabs on the predator. He instructs his team
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: to follow Gacy wherever he goes, day and night.
• 30:23
  Speaker 6: What's interesting here is if you know your suspect is
• 30:27
  Speaker 6: kind of baiting you in a way, thinks he's more
• 30:30
  Speaker 6: clever than you are, then this surveillance, him knowing you're
• 30:33
  Speaker 6: watching him, may actually play in your favor because he
• 30:36
  Speaker 6: may want to do something in response to your surveillance.
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: Hi, may I speak to.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Carol, please? Kozenczak does some further investigating into Gacy's past.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: I just have a couple of questions I want to
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: ask you about your ex-husband.
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: Do you have a few minutes to talk to me?
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: He contacts Gacy's ex-wife, Carol. She has some very interesting
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: things to say about her former husband. While they were married,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Gacy would often go out without explanation. And as their
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: marriage began to fall apart, he stopped concealing his sexual appetites,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: even telling her the kind of young men he preferred.
• 31:15
  Speaker 6: Carol had seen wild mood swings, had seen acts of
• 31:18
  Speaker 6: violence in the course of their marriage, but when she
• 31:19
  Speaker 6: discovered that he had a sexual appetite that she wasn't
• 31:22
  Speaker 6: aware of, That changed everything.
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: And that's not all. She tells Lieutenant Kozenczak that a
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: former employee of Gacy, Johnny Bukovic, also disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: You need to pay me right now!
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: At the time, Gacy was questioned and dismissed as a suspect.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: But now, it's very suspicious. the list of missing boys
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: connected to Gacy grows bigger. And bigger.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, Mrs.
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: Piest.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: Hi, Detective.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: Then, Kozenczak gets his big break when Robert Piest's mother
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: checks in on the status of the case. And she
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: has some new information.
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: Robbie had a receipt.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: She remembers that the night her son disappeared, a co-worker
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: put a Nissan Pharmacy film developing receipt into the pocket
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: of Robert's blue coat. Kozenczak is stunned. He races over
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: to the table of evidence. And right there, in an
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: evidence bag, is a Nissan Pharmacy film developing receipt. It's
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: the smoking gun he's been searching for. He immediately calls
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: the pharmacy and confirms. 123-1349. It is a match? Yes.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: Fantastic. Thank you.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: The numbers on the receipt found in Gacy's home perfectly
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: match the film envelope at the store. Gacy said he
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: never even met the teenager. But this is undeniable evidence.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Robert Piest was in Gacy's home. Kozenczak believes without a
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: doubt that Gacy is responsible for the disappearance of Robert Piest.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: and several other young men. But without a body or
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: proof Gacy harmed the missing teenager, getting a second search
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: warrant will be tough. Amazingly, Kozenczak gets help from Gacy himself.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: The contractor becomes very cocky, even inviting the officers inside
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: his home. How bold is that?
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: How risky is that? But for him, in his mind,
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: he thinks, I have got all of this completely under control.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Let's go.
• 33:53
  Speaker 6: There's a cat and mouse relationship here, it seems, between
• 33:56
  Speaker 6: Gacy and the detectives, who he invites into his house
• 33:58
  Speaker 6: at some point, as if to say, hey, you can't
• 34:00
  Speaker 6: make a case against me.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: I'm clever enough to be able to avoid detection. I'm
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: clever enough to be able to fool you. Well, fellas,
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: what can I do for you?
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: We appreciate you giving us a moment of your time, Mr.
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: Gacy.
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: We just have a couple of routine questions to ask you,
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: hoping you might be able to help us out.
• 34:17
  Speaker 6: I'm always trying to develop probable cause for the next
• 34:20
  Speaker 6: search warrant. The problem is right now I've got not
• 34:22
  Speaker 6: enough probable cause.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: To do a search warrant.
• 34:25
  Speaker 6: But if you're going to invite me in, well, then
• 34:27
  Speaker 6: trust me, I'm going to find a way to look
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: for the pieces of evidence I need to have the
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: probable cause to do an in-depth search.
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: How's business going, by the way?
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's good. It's good.
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: Business is booming.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: I've got about 15 employees right now. Takes up a
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: lot of my time, though. Keeps me away from my passion.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: As the men talk, the topic quickly turns to Gacy's
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: love for clowns.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: I'm a professional clown on weekends for charities, kids' parties.
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: Pogo the Clown!
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Then, out of the blue, Gacy says something that shows
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: just how little he fears the law. Oh yeah, detective,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: I tell ya.
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: Clowns are where it's at.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: A clown can get away with murder. While one officer
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: keeps him talking, another steps away to use the bathroom.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: And just as he flushes, the heating vents suddenly kick on.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: A strangely sweet, putrid odor seeps into the room. There's
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: no denying that smell, and it's coming from under the house.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: It smells like a morgue.
• 35:38
  Speaker 6: If I'm the investigator, there's a bone-chilling moment here. There's
• 35:40
  Speaker 6: a moment, an aha moment, that's horrific. And that's that
• 35:43
  Speaker 6: moment when you actually smell death coming up from the heater.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Underneath the house.
• 35:48
  Speaker 6: Death has a particular smell, and you learn it pretty
• 35:50
  Speaker 6: quickly as an investigator. Even if you haven't worked a
• 35:52
  Speaker 6: case where someone's been dead for a period of days,
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: if you do an autopsy or go to an autopsy
• 35:55
  Speaker 6: as an investigator, you're going to smell that.
• 35:57
  Speaker 5: And once you've smelled it once, you never forget it.
• 36:00
  Speaker 6: Death's got a very particular smell, and virtually nothing else
• 36:03
  Speaker 6: can account for that smell.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: It's all Lieutenant Kozenczak needs. Gacy's criminal record involving young boys,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: the matching photo receipt from Nissan Pharmacy, and the deathly
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: odor coming from under his home is enough proof to
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: get a second search warrant. Meanwhile, as if Gacy knows
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: they're closing in, his behavior becomes more and more erratic.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: He drives recklessly. Then, suddenly, he veers off the road,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: walks up to a total stranger, and slides a bag
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: of drugs into his back pocket, right in front of police.
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: He is an individual who has a very, very high
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: opinion of himself. I think he's very narcissistic. I'm untouchable.
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: The police simply haven't got the wherewithal to do anything
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: with me.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: With all the evidence mounting against Gacy and the disappearance
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: of several young men, it's a simple drug offense that
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: gets him arrested. Now, with Gacy in custody and armed
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: with a new search warrant, this time with a team
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: of evidence technicians, Kozenczak has entered Gacy's home again. And
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: there's no question where they'll begin the search. The crawl
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: space under the house.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: This is a missing persons investigation. So you're looking for
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: the person who's missing. And that means you're looking for
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: a body.
• 37:48
  Speaker 6: Especially if you think you've smelled death coming from underneath
• 37:50
  Speaker 6: this house to begin with. Your fear is probably that
• 37:53
  Speaker 6: there's a dead person under the house.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: They begin digging in the hard packed dirt. Almost immediately,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: they find something truly horrifying. A human bone. And the
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: more they dig, the more they find. It's not just
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: one victim. There are dozens of bodies.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: He had a graveyard underneath his house.
• 38:40
  Speaker 6: When we typically read about these kinds of gruesome fines,
• 38:42
  Speaker 6: we read about it very briefly. It's in a newspaper article.
• 38:45
  Speaker 6: You don't put yourself in the position of the people
• 38:47
  Speaker 6: who actually had to do it. I think when you
• 38:50
  Speaker 6: work a case in which you get to a crime
• 38:52
  Speaker 6: scene that's horrific, where the level of mayhem that's been
• 38:56
  Speaker 6: performed is just beyond the.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Pale, those are the ones that are the hardest to process.
• 39:01
  Speaker 6: The investigators, the detectives who actually had to sift through
• 39:05
  Speaker 6: this evidence, had to touch the bodies, had to move
• 39:07
  Speaker 6: these bodies. It's the kind of thing that you cannot
• 39:10
  Speaker 6: just leave it at the crime scene. This is a
• 39:12
  Speaker 6: horrific experience. It is very troubling. It's very hard to
• 39:15
  Speaker 6: just do.
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: It and remain calm, remain detached.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: It's apparent Gacy was too arrogant to think he'd ever
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: get caught.
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: He feels that he can bury his victims. on his
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: own property under his house, which of course becomes very
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: problematic if they're discovered. But for him, he doesn't see
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: that as a problem because in his mind, he is
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: so much smarter than the police that I am actually
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: able to do this. I can actually bury people on
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: my own property. That way I know where they are.
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: I have control over them. I know that the police
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: haven't discovered them. There's no way the police are going
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: to catch me.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Mr. Gacy. Kozenczak returns to police headquarters and confronts Gacy
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: with their discovery.
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: We found multiple bodies.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Kozenczak is staring into the cold, dead eyes of a psychopath.
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: One of the hallmarks of being a psychopath is this
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: complete lack of remorse for the victims and their abject
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: lack of empathy for the victims. They simply do not care.
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: What they're interested in is what's important to them. So
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: if torturing somebody is important to them, then they're going
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: to engage in it. Killing somebody means almost nothing to them.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: Boy, he was a pain. Kind of had it coming.
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: In Gacy's case, despite the fact that the police had
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: dug up these victims out of his crawl space and
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: from underneath his house, Gacy is completely unaffected by the
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: enormity of what he's done.
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: I showed him the rope trick.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: You use a rope. If you just use your hands,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: they struggle way too much.
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: If it feels good to Gacy, that's all that matters.
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: How the victim feels is unimportant. The victim is just
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: a tool I'm using to feel good. And when I'm
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: done with the victim, I just dispose of them. They're
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: just like trash. I get rid of them. And I
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: don't have any more concern about dumping this young man
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: under my house and throwing quick line on him than
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: I would with throwing away a cardboard box.
• 41:45
  Speaker 5: You do a little double loop, and you put a
• 41:47
  Speaker 5: stick in there, and then you twist it.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: Gacy casually admits he strangled Robert Piest and threw his
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: body off a bridge, just like a piece of garbage.
• 41:58
  Speaker 5: There was no room under the house.
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: For serial offenders, people are simply objects to be used,
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: to be stepped on, to be hurt, and there's no empathy,
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: no thought about that. They're predators, and they are only
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: out for themselves. Because they have this complete lack of empathy,
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: they simply can murder somebody in a most cruel and
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: unusual way, and then moments later be completely unbothered by this.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: You're under arrest.
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah. You have the right to remain silent.
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: Anything you say will be used against you in the
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: court of law.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Disgusted, Lieutenant Kozenczak reads him his rights and arrests him.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: from murder the scale of Gacy's butchery is unimaginable police
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: find a total of 27 bodies in his home 26
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: buried in the crawl space with one additional victim hidden
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: underneath the concrete of his garage it's Johnny Bukovic the
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: young man who disappeared three years ago after arguing with Gacy.
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: If you look at it in terms of possession and control,
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: even in death, he has control of these victims because
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: they're right there. They're right under his house.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: He knows where they are.
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: And that really is the ultimate in control.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: But these are only some of Gacy's victims. The serial
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: killer confesses he ran out of room under his home.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: And all that digging... and began dumping dead bodies into
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: the Des Plaines River.
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: He thought about putting bodies in his attic, but thought
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: that would become problematic. So really, as a matter of
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: simply disposing of the bodies, he actually started taking them
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: to the river, throwing them off the bridge.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: How many? He can't remember. And one missing body police
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: are desperate to recover is Robert Pieste.
• 44:13
  Speaker 6: This whole search was dictated by a missing person. So
• 44:16
  Speaker 6: the first thing you're looking for in this kind of
• 44:17
  Speaker 6: a search is a body. And that's what they're actually
• 44:21
  Speaker 6: looking for evidentially, is the remains of something they can
• 44:24
  Speaker 6: identify as a human body.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: Over the next five months, police pull body after body
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: out of the river. Then, finally, they discover young Robert's remains.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: And in a cruel twist of fate, his final resting
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: place is in an area of the river he and
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: his father used to travel by canoe. It's much-needed closure
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: for the victims' families and Lieutenant Joe Kozenczak. At least now,
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Gacy will finally answer for his crimes. March 1980. After
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: five weeks of testimony from more than a hundred witnesses,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: Jurors began deliberations. There was no doubt Gacy killed all
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: of the boys. But was he legally insane when he
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: did it?
• 45:24
  Speaker 6: Gacy ultimately admitted to these killings. So the issue is
• 45:27
  Speaker 6: not whether he did it or not. The issue is,
• 45:29
  Speaker 6: was he crazy? Is that his excuse? Can he use
• 45:31
  Speaker 6: insanity as his plea? Can he use insanity as his
• 45:33
  Speaker 6: way out of any kind of a criminal charge? The problem,
• 45:39
  Speaker 6: of course, is if you look at the history of
• 45:41
  Speaker 6: how he did these murders, the methodical.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: Way, he's got a very consistent pattern. He does things
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: the exact same way.
• 45:47
  Speaker 6: Only when he makes small changes in his pattern does
• 45:49
  Speaker 6: he expose himself to risk. These are the maneuvers of
• 45:52
  Speaker 6: somebody who's clever, not crazy.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: In just two hours, jurors returned a verdict.
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: We, the jury, find the defendant, John Wayne.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: Gacy, guilty on all 33 counts of first-degree murder.
• 46:07
  Speaker 6: What's fascinating about Gacy, like other serial killers, is the
• 46:12
  Speaker 6: fact that no one suspected him until investigators actually did
• 46:15
  Speaker 6: an investigation.
• 46:16
  Speaker 5: It's really hard for people to imagine, that guy could
• 46:19
  Speaker 5: do that?
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: Really?
• 46:21
  Speaker 6: You're telling me that this guy who I know and
• 46:23
  Speaker 6: I go to business meetings with and I've been involved
• 46:26
  Speaker 6: in political fundraisers with, I know this guy pretty well?
• 46:29
  Speaker 5: He's capable of that?
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: No way.
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: It shocks us.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: What people really want.
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: Is when we have a serial killer, when we have
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: this really disturbing series of murders, we want the behavior
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: in that crime to match the complexity of the offender.
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: We want to see the monster. We want to be
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: able to recognize that we are dealing with a serial killer.
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: The fact is that almost never happens. It almost never happens.
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: The reason that these individuals are so successful is that
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: they look just like you and I. They aren't the monster.
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: They're your next-door neighbor who has that secret life. They've
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: got the public life, and that's the life they let
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: you see. That's why neighbors are always talking about on
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: television shows, he seemed like the nicest guy. He always
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: said hi to me in the morning.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: He was always.
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: Walking his dog, took care of his garden. That's the
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: public face that we get to see for these guys.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: We never get to see the private life or the
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: secret life for these individuals. And it's very disturbing for people.
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: They want to know that if I see a serial killer,
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: I can recognize him. It's never going to happen. That's
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: what makes serial killers successful, is that they don't look
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: like the monster. They just look like you and me.
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: And sometimes, really, they're the antithesis of what we would
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: think a serial offender.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: Should be like.
• 47:56
  Speaker 4: It's hereby recommended that the defendant be executed.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: John Wayne Gacy, considered one of the most vicious serial
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: killers in U.S. history, was sentenced to death.
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: Even when they're pushing the cocktail, the deadly cocktail, into
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: his arm, he's being executed. He still is taking control.
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: He still tells them, kiss my ass. He still thinks
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: that he's in control. And that really was the hallmark
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: of his entire career.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: Gacy's vile acts, his unquenchable appetite for young men and murder,
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: and his bizarre fascination with a favorite children's entertainer, Clowns,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: has completely changed the way we see these previously innocent,
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: painted performers. And this new face of horror continues to
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: inspire countless villains, each one more disturbing than the last.
• 48:58
  Speaker 6: There's something horrific about the clown figure that Gacy represents,
• 49:01
  Speaker 6: and our culture has kind of exploited that. You'll see
• 49:04
  Speaker 6: costumes now on Halloween that are evil clown costumes.
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: That all stems and starts with Gacy.
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: That's what makes serial killers successful, is that they don't
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: look like the monster. And sometimes really, they're the antithesis
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: of what we would think a serial offender should be like.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: A mass grave of missing boys. Sadistic sexual torture. and
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: a clown-obsessed murderer behind it all. These things shouldn't be real,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: but they are. It's the true story of John Wayne Gacy,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: the original killer clown, behind the screens.