Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / Serial Killer Documentary - John Wayne Gacy： A Real Life Nightmare

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Serial Killer Documentary - John Wayne Gacy： A Real Life Nightmare · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:06
Speaker 1: On the 21st of December, 1978, police in Chicago were
0:11
Speaker 1: desperately trying to locate a missing teenager and had begun
0:15
Speaker 1: searching the home of a local maintenance contractor.
0:19
Speaker 2: When they executed that search warrant, they went in the
0:21
Speaker 2: crawl space, and the very first shovel that they dug
0:25
Speaker 2: they found human remains.
0:27
Speaker 1: The man they had in custody, 36-year-old John Wayne Gacy,
0:31
Speaker 1: was a popular socialite who spent his weekends dressed as
0:35
Speaker 1: a clown, entertaining children.
0:38
Speaker 3: At one point, chillingly, he says to the detectives, you know,
0:42
Speaker 3: clowns can get away with murder. Well, never was a
0:45
Speaker 3: truer word said.
0:47
Speaker 1: In total, Gacy the Killer Clown had tortured and killed
0:51
Speaker 1: 33 young men over a five-year period. 27 of the
0:56
Speaker 1: bodies were buried right beneath his own home.
1:00
Speaker 4: Using other human beings, you know, inflicting pain and suffering
1:05
Speaker 4: and torture on another helpless human.
1:08
Speaker 5: Being, to me, is the essence of evil.
1:11
Speaker 1: The remorseless John Wayne Gacy had proved himself to be
1:15
Speaker 1: one of the world's most evil killers. Over the course
1:41
Speaker 1: of six years, John Wayne Gacy kidnapped, tortured, and brutally
1:46
Speaker 1: murdered 33 young men and boys in and around Chicago, Illinois.
1:52
Speaker 1: It was one of the most shocking sets of crimes
1:55
Speaker 1: in American history. The bodies of 27 of Gacy's victims
2:01
Speaker 1: were buried directly below the house he lived in. But
2:06
Speaker 1: this killer's story starts almost 40 years before. John Wayne
2:14
Speaker 1: Gacy was born in Chicago, Illinois, on the 17th of March, 1942.
2:19
Speaker 1: The second of three children, Gacy had a difficult upbringing.
2:24
Speaker 1: His father was an alcoholic who was reportedly both mentally
2:28
Speaker 1: and physically abusive to his children and their mother.
2:32
Speaker 4: His father spent years apparently all of Gacy's childhood, demeaning
2:38
Speaker 4: him and physically punishing him and telling him how stupid
2:42
Speaker 4: and worthless and effeminate he was.
2:46
Speaker 1: Gacy's childhood friend, Barry Buscelli, remembers the physical abuse he
2:51
Speaker 1: suffered at the hands of his father.
2:54
Speaker 6: If Johnny was two minutes late, no food. So a
2:57
Speaker 6: lot of times Johnny ate at our house and stayed
3:00
Speaker 6: at our house overnight. He used to take Johnny when
3:03
Speaker 6: he was sitting at the kitchen table and he would
3:05
Speaker 6: take his fist and hit Johnny in the face.
3:08
Speaker 3: The father is a very significant figure in the genesis
3:14
Speaker 3: of Gacy's terrible deeds. For, to my mind, Gacy was
3:20
Speaker 3: always trying to satisfy his father, whom.
3:23
Speaker 7: He never could.
3:25
Speaker 3: He was beaten repeatedly by his father, with belts, with brooms.
3:32
Speaker 3: At one stage, he was knocked out by him.
3:35
Speaker 4: These people grow up with such a malignant view of
3:39
Speaker 4: the world and of human relationships and feeling that human
3:43
Speaker 4: relationships are not based on love and trust and respect,
3:46
Speaker 4: you know, that they're all based on exploitation and cruelty
3:50
Speaker 4: and inflicting pain.
3:51
Speaker 1: Gacy was a sickly child. He suffered from a heart condition,
3:55
Speaker 1: limiting his involvement in sports activities and consequently alienating him
4:01
Speaker 1: from his peers. Aged 11, an accident in a playground
4:05
Speaker 1: led to his teenage years being blighted by blackouts and
4:08
Speaker 1: hospital visits.
4:10
Speaker 6: At that time, the swings were wooden base swings with
4:13
Speaker 6: heavy chains coming down. Johnny went to grab it and
4:17
Speaker 6: the swing clipped him right across the forehead and knocked
4:21
Speaker 6: him to the ground.
4:25
Speaker 1: By 1966, 24-year-old Gacy was married and had relocated to
4:30
Speaker 1: the city of Waterloo, 300 miles west of Chicago, in
4:35
Speaker 1: the neighboring state of Iowa.
4:38
Speaker 8: Well, Gacy got married, and life from the outside appeared
4:41
Speaker 8: to be relatively normal. He had quite a good job.
4:44
Speaker 8: His wife had two children. So they appeared to be
4:48
Speaker 8: the typical cereal box American nuclear family. And Gacy wasn't
4:52
Speaker 8: just a regular family man. He was also quite active
4:55
Speaker 8: in the local chamber of commerce, and he played quite
4:58
Speaker 8: an active role, and he was a real figure in
5:01
Speaker 8: the local community.
5:02
Speaker 1: Gacy had started to build the perfect life for himself,
5:06
Speaker 1: but he was concealing a dark secret. He developed an
5:10
Speaker 1: unhealthy sexual interest in young boys.
5:13
Speaker 8: There was a son of a fellow Gacy member who
5:18
Speaker 8: he lured back to his home, and he sexually assaulted him.
5:21
Speaker 8: So he's abusing power. He's getting into these positions of
5:25
Speaker 8: trust and he's taking advantage. And that's a theme that's
5:28
Speaker 8: going to continue for him.
5:30
Speaker 4: And then when the kid revealed this to his father
5:36
Speaker 4: and Gacy was arrested for it, Gacy hired another teenager
5:41
Speaker 4: to intimidate this kid, to lure this kid into some
5:45
Speaker 4: remote place and spray mace in his eyes and beat
5:48
Speaker 4: him up and against testifying in Gacy's case.
5:52
Speaker 1: Despite Gacy's efforts, his victim still testified, but there wasn't
5:57
Speaker 1: conclusive proof of an attack. Therefore, police were only able
6:01
Speaker 1: to charge him with sodomy of the 15-year-old boy.
6:04
Speaker 4: He pleaded guilty to one count of sodomy, thinking he
6:07
Speaker 4: would get a very, very minimal sentence, but the judge
6:11
Speaker 4: threw the book at him, and he was sentenced to
6:14
Speaker 4: 10 years in prison.
6:15
Speaker 1: On the 3rd of December 1968, Gacy was sent to
6:20
Speaker 1: Anamosa State Penitentiary. Whilst in jail, Gacy's wife divorced him.
6:26
Speaker 1: A further blow was dealt when his father died and
6:29
Speaker 1: he was denied permission to attend the funeral.
6:33
Speaker 3: Given the perfect nature of Gacy's ability to groom whomever
6:39
Speaker 3: he came into contact with, within a matter of months...
6:44
Speaker 3: Gacy had become head cook at the prison, had convinced
6:48
Speaker 3: the staff that he was an absolutely ideal person. What's more,
6:53
Speaker 3: then convinced the parole board that he was no danger
6:57
Speaker 3: to anybody, and so served barely 18 months of the
7:02
Speaker 3: 10 years of his original sentence.
7:06
Speaker 1: In June 1970, now aged 28, John Wayne Gacy was
7:11
Speaker 1: released from prison and returned home to Chicago. His friends,
7:16
Speaker 1: family and neighbours were entirely unaware of what had taken
7:20
Speaker 1: place while he'd been living over 300 miles away in Iowa.
7:25
Speaker 4: His background was not looked into in any way, I
7:28
Speaker 4: think partly because he didn't go into any line of work.
7:33
Speaker 4: in which any kind of background check would have been necessary.
7:37
Speaker 4: You know, he began his own business. I mean, none
7:39
Speaker 4: of his acquaintance was even remotely aware of his criminal background.
7:45
Speaker 1: In June 1972, Gacy got married for a second time,
7:50
Speaker 1: and he and his new bride set up home in
7:53
Speaker 1: the Chicago suburbs at 8213 West Somerdale Avenue. a house
7:59
Speaker 1: that would eventually become one of the most infamous addresses
8:04
Speaker 1: in America. Six years later, in December 1978, ten miles
8:12
Speaker 1: from Gacy's house, 15-year-old Des Plaines resident Rob Piest was
8:17
Speaker 1: reported missing by his mother. Detectives Mike Albrecht and Dave
8:21
Speaker 1: Hackmeister began to investigate the teen's disappearance.
8:27
Speaker 2: Rob Piest was like a stellar kid. I mean, he
8:30
Speaker 2: was the kind of kid that anyone would want as
8:32
Speaker 2: a son. Never been in trouble, never had any inclination
8:37
Speaker 2: to run away, was a good student, very, very much
8:40
Speaker 2: out of character. He would turn up missing. So that
8:44
Speaker 2: caught our attention, obviously.
8:45
Speaker 5: And at that time, in the late 70s, there was
8:47
Speaker 5: a lot of stuff going on with the hippie movement,
8:50
Speaker 5: all that kind of stuff. But he made a determination
8:53
Speaker 5: very quickly that this was not a normal quote-unquote runaway.
8:58
Speaker 5: Didn't have any girlfriend problems, was not involved in drugs
9:00
Speaker 5: or anything like that, just an all-American good kid.
9:03
Speaker 1: At the time of his disappearance, Peace was working at
9:06
Speaker 1: a pharmacy in Des Plaines.
9:09
Speaker 2: So he had told an employee and actually his mother
9:13
Speaker 2: that he was going to go talk to a contractor
9:14
Speaker 2: about a job. And he then went out the back
9:18
Speaker 2: door and he wasn't seen any time thereafter.
9:23
Speaker 1: Rob Peace seemed to have just vanished off the face
9:26
Speaker 1: of the earth. the two detectives desperately needed to track
9:30
Speaker 1: down the contractor who was probably the last person to
9:33
Speaker 1: see him. Their search would lead them to the door
9:36
Speaker 1: of a 36-year-old man by the name of John Wayne Gacy.
9:41
Speaker 1: He'd divorced his second wife two years previously and was
9:44
Speaker 1: now running a successful business called PDM Contractors. Gacy would
9:49
Speaker 1: often employ young men, one of whom was Tony Antonucci.
9:54
Speaker 9: At the time when I met him, I was about
9:55
Speaker 9: 16 years old, And of course, like a lot of
9:58
Speaker 9: 16 year olds, I wanted to get a job so
10:01
Speaker 9: I could afford to have my car. My first impressions
10:04
Speaker 9: were that he was basically a likable guy, kind of jovial,
10:09
Speaker 9: liked to joke around, you know, appeared very normal.
10:14
Speaker 1: Gacy seemed, in many ways, like the perfect boss.
10:18
Speaker 9: Sometimes at three o'clock in the afternoon, you know, John
10:22
Speaker 9: would say, hey, it's a nice day out, let's knock
10:24
Speaker 9: off early and, you know, have some fun or do
10:28
Speaker 9: something and all normal stuff, you know, just kind of
10:32
Speaker 9: like you didn't expect, you know, your boss to, you know,
10:36
Speaker 9: be the one that wanted to knock off early.
10:40
Speaker 1: Another young man who'd come looking for a job was
10:43
Speaker 1: 15-year-old Rob Piest, but he hadn't been seen since meeting
10:47
Speaker 1: with Gacy at the pharmacy where he worked. Detectives Dave
10:52
Speaker 1: Hackmeister and Mike Albrecht were investigating.
10:55
Speaker 2: We ran a records check on him, and as it
10:58
Speaker 2: turns out, he had a fairly lengthy background. He had
11:01
Speaker 2: spent some time in Iowa for sodomy, and so it
11:06
Speaker 2: was sexual crimes basically against children.
11:10
Speaker 1: Concerned by Gacy's criminal record, the police obtained a warrant
11:15
Speaker 1: to search his home.
11:16
Speaker 2: The warrant consisted of three facts. The first fact is
11:20
Speaker 2: that John Wayne Gacy, in fact, was at the pharmacy
11:24
Speaker 2: the night Rob Peace went missing. And fact two, that
11:28
Speaker 2: Rob Peace had told people that he was going to
11:31
Speaker 2: see a contractor regarding a job. And fact three, his
11:36
Speaker 2: criminal background. So on those three facts, they were able
11:39
Speaker 2: to obtain a search warrant.
11:41
Speaker 1: On the 13th of December 1978, police conducted their first
11:46
Speaker 1: search of Gacy's home, finding a number of suspicious items.
11:51
Speaker 2: They recovered various items of pornography. They recovered some books
11:57
Speaker 2: that were titled Pretty Boys Must Die. They also recovered
12:02
Speaker 2: driver's licenses of other young people, and they did a
12:05
Speaker 2: check on those driver's licenses. it was determined that those
12:09
Speaker 2: kids were also reported missing.
12:11
Speaker 5: Initially, we were hoping to find Rob Pease alive someplace,
12:15
Speaker 5: and it didn't take long to realize that probably was
12:16
Speaker 5: not going to happen.
12:19
Speaker 1: Another item recovered was a high school ring, which had
12:22
Speaker 1: belonged to missing 19-year-old John Schick, last seen in January 1977.
12:30
Speaker 1: Further investigation discovered that two of Gacy's employees had been
12:34
Speaker 1: reported missing. 17-year-old John Butkovich, last seen in July 1975,
12:42
Speaker 1: and Gregory Godzik, also 17 years old, missing since December 1976.
12:47
Speaker 1: It was an.
12:49
Speaker 5: Evolution as we went along. I think it was after
12:52
Speaker 5: that search warrant, we're pretty confident there's at least five
12:56
Speaker 5: or six victims that were associated with Casey that hadn't
13:00
Speaker 5: been seen.
13:01
Speaker 1: But with no evidence or bodies, the police could not
13:04
Speaker 1: make an arrest. They decided to begin surveillance on Gacy.
13:09
Speaker 5: We just said, wherever you go, we're going. If Gacy
13:12
Speaker 5: went into a public place, we were going to follow
13:14
Speaker 5: him and see what he was up to.
13:17
Speaker 2: Throughout this overt surveillance, we became fairly friendly with John
13:22
Speaker 2: Wayne Gacy. He knew we were following him. He tried
13:25
Speaker 2: to be cordial with us. In fact, he initiated conversations
13:29
Speaker 2: with us.
13:31
Speaker 10: He'd play games with the police. He'd go up to
13:33
Speaker 10: their car and say, hi, do you guys want some marijuana?
13:37
Speaker 10: Or just something stupid like that.
13:39
Speaker 2: He goes into Moose Lodge, and Mike and I, my
13:42
Speaker 2: partner and I, said, we're going to go in right
13:44
Speaker 2: along with Gacy, but we'll sit at a different table.
13:47
Speaker 2: All of a sudden, the waitress comes over with a
13:49
Speaker 2: couple of beers and places a beers in front of
13:52
Speaker 2: us and says, it's on that gentleman over there. We
13:54
Speaker 2: look over at John, and John gives us a hi sign, and.
13:58
Speaker 5: We wave back. Very confident, cocky. Kept on bragging about
14:02
Speaker 5: all property and how much of a businessman he was
14:05
Speaker 5: and how well connected he was.
14:08
Speaker 8: John Wayne Gacy had a psychopathic personality. So he really
14:12
Speaker 8: does seek out power and he seeks out control. And
14:14
Speaker 8: he likes playing with people. He's a bit of a
14:17
Speaker 8: puppet master. And I think that was driving his behavior.
14:21
Speaker 5: Everyone that we.
14:22
Speaker 2: Talked to just loved John Wayne Gacy. His neighbors, his co-workers,
14:26
Speaker 2: all of his associates, they loved the guy. And we
14:30
Speaker 2: could see that. I mean, the way he was interacting with.
14:33
Speaker 5: Us was basically the same.
14:35
Speaker 2: And my partner and I would have to, on many occasions,
14:38
Speaker 2: remind one another, hey, listen, you know, this guy is dangerous.
14:43
Speaker 1: Gacy was considered an upstanding key member of his small community.
14:47
Speaker 1: He was popular and involved in politics. At weekends, he
14:51
Speaker 1: would even dress as a clown and perform for children
14:54
Speaker 1: at parties and at local hospitals.
14:58
Speaker 4: The fact that Gacy... have this other persona as Pogo
15:02
Speaker 4: the Clown. Professional clowns usually, you know, will paint their smiles,
15:08
Speaker 4: you know, with sort of gentle, circular things around their lips.
15:13
Speaker 4: Gacy's smile looks like bat wings. There's just something horrifically
15:18
Speaker 4: sinister and monstrous about this figure of Pogo. Just an
15:24
Speaker 4: element that raises Gacy to the level of a kind
15:28
Speaker 4: of mythic American monster.
15:30
Speaker 3: At one point, chillingly, he says to the detectives, you know,
15:34
Speaker 3: clowns can get away with murder. Well, never was a
15:37
Speaker 3: truer word said. But it took some time for those
15:41
Speaker 3: detectives to fully comprehend that here was a man who
15:45
Speaker 3: was capable of murder, and more than one.
15:49
Speaker 1: As Mike and Dave continued with their surveillance, detectives back
15:52
Speaker 1: at the station were trying to get another warrant to
15:55
Speaker 1: search Gacy's house. they'd received some disturbing new evidence while
16:00
Speaker 1: questioning his colleagues.
16:02
Speaker 2: They're young kids, you know, 17, 18, 19 years old.
16:06
Speaker 2: And at times, Gacy had ordered these young kids to
16:10
Speaker 2: go down into his crawl space of his home and
16:13
Speaker 2: dig trenches. And he had told them that there was
16:17
Speaker 2: a sewage issue and that he needed the trenches dug
16:21
Speaker 2: so he could alleviate that situation. But they said that
16:25
Speaker 2: it happened several times and that there was an odor
16:28
Speaker 2: down there that was just unbelievable. So now we're starting
16:32
Speaker 2: to believe, hey, is it possible? I know it sounds crazy,
16:35
Speaker 2: but is it possible he could have buried someone in
16:38
Speaker 2: the crawlspace?
16:39
Speaker 8: He gets other people unwittingly involved in his offending and
16:43
Speaker 8: they don't know anything of what's going on. And I
16:46
Speaker 8: think that's what gets him gratification. The fact that he
16:49
Speaker 8: has such power over other people, that they're not joining
16:52
Speaker 8: the dots together and that he's able to hide in
16:55
Speaker 8: plain sight.
16:56
Speaker 1: Mike and Dave continued to follow the popular contractor, but
17:00
Speaker 1: they had a plan to force Gacy's hand.
17:05
Speaker 2: We were on the surveillance for about seven days, and
17:08
Speaker 2: as the surveillance progressed, what we found out was that
17:11
Speaker 2: he had this huge core support of friends and family
17:16
Speaker 2: and coworkers and such, and.
17:18
Speaker 5: That that is really what was.
17:21
Speaker 2: the barrier between us and Gacy. So we developed a
17:26
Speaker 2: plan for the investigators to put some pressure on all
17:29
Speaker 2: these people that were supporting him. And slowly, they started
17:33
Speaker 2: peeling back from Gacy. And we were feeding Gacy information
17:38
Speaker 2: that they're possibly looking to execute a second search warrant.
17:43
Speaker 2: He became more and more desperate. And the last day
17:47
Speaker 2: he It was about midnight or 1 in the morning.
17:51
Speaker 2: He contacted his attorneys and met his attorneys in their
17:55
Speaker 2: office in Park Ridge. At that point, Mike and I
17:59
Speaker 2: are outside, and we see the attorneys waving us into
18:03
Speaker 2: the building. It was very uncharacteristic of the attorneys to
18:06
Speaker 2: do this.
18:07
Speaker 5: The first thing they were telling us, though, was to
18:08
Speaker 5: park your cars in front of Gacy's and don't let
18:11
Speaker 5: him out. If he tries to move, shoot his tires out.
18:13
Speaker 5: You know, what's going on here?
18:14
Speaker 2: It was very obvious to us that the attorneys were
18:18
Speaker 2: Absolutely scared to death.
18:20
Speaker 4: Petrified.
18:21
Speaker 2: They're pacing up and down. They won't take their eyes
18:23
Speaker 2: off of Gacy. And that pretty much solidified the fact
18:26
Speaker 2: to us that he had confessed to his attorneys about
18:29
Speaker 2: at least a couple, three murders.
18:32
Speaker 1: Dave and Mike knew that Gacy was beginning to buckle.
18:36
Speaker 1: They continued to trail him as he left his attorney's office.
18:40
Speaker 2: So we follow Gacy and Gacy is driving like a madman.
18:44
Speaker 2: and he drives to the Shell gas station where he
18:47
Speaker 2: did all of his business. He goes in, and we
18:50
Speaker 2: see a transaction happen in the gas station.
18:54
Speaker 5: It was very emotional, shaking his hand, almost on his side, hugging,
18:58
Speaker 5: that kind of thing, and this is so out of
19:00
Speaker 5: context for Gacy.
19:01
Speaker 2: So when Gacy comes back out, jumps in his car,
19:04
Speaker 2: and takes off, I go back in the gas station,
19:07
Speaker 2: and when I go in there, they throw a couple
19:10
Speaker 2: of bags of marijuana at me, and they say, hey, listen,
19:14
Speaker 2: we didn't buy this. We didn't ask for it. Gacy
19:16
Speaker 2: just gave it to us.
19:18
Speaker 1: As Gacy's behavior grew more and more erratic, the two
19:22
Speaker 1: detectives at least now had a reason to apprehend him.
19:26
Speaker 2: We make a decision at that point to arrest him
19:29
Speaker 2: for the drug transaction that happened at the Shell gas station.
19:33
Speaker 2: So we cut off the car, pull Gacy out of
19:35
Speaker 2: the car, and arrest him for that drug transaction.
19:43
Speaker 5: Devon and Milwaukee.
19:45
Speaker 2: This was Gacy's final location of freedom.
19:49
Speaker 4: That's it.
19:49
Speaker 2: He was never free from this point on.
19:51
Speaker 5: Grabbed him out of the car. He was all whining
19:54
Speaker 5: to us, why are you doing this to me and
19:56
Speaker 5: all that. That's where it ended. So technically he was
20:00
Speaker 5: arrested for marijuana possession and delivery. And then we took
20:05
Speaker 5: him to the station.
20:07
Speaker 1: While in custody, Gacy told detectives he was experiencing chest
20:11
Speaker 1: pains and was taken to a local hospital as a precaution,
20:15
Speaker 1: but he was just trying to buy some more time.
20:18
Speaker 1: The police had obtained the second warrant they'd been so
20:21
Speaker 1: desperate for. On the 21st of December, 1978, they searched
20:27
Speaker 1: Gacy's home on West Somerdale Avenue for the second time.
20:32
Speaker 2: When they executed that search warrant, they went in the
20:34
Speaker 2: crawl space, and the very first shovel that they dug,
20:38
Speaker 2: they found human remains.
20:41
Speaker 1: Police had finally unearthed the secrets that Gacy had thought
20:45
Speaker 1: would stay buried forever.
20:48
Speaker 2: So they immediately called me, let me know that there
20:52
Speaker 2: was human remains in the crawl space, and at that
20:54
Speaker 2: time I arrested John Gacy for murder. Gacy says he
20:58
Speaker 2: wants to confess, but really he wants to confess to
21:02
Speaker 2: the surveillance team, both myself and my partner and the
21:06
Speaker 2: other team. And now, all of a sudden, he's got
21:09
Speaker 2: an audience again, and he's on top of the world.
21:13
Speaker 2: And he knows he can't get out of it at
21:15
Speaker 2: this point, and so he might as well just divulge
21:19
Speaker 2: everything that actually happened.
21:21
Speaker 1: Gacy told detectives he was willing to draw a map
21:25
Speaker 1: of the burial site beneath his home.
21:28
Speaker 5: I gave him a pen and He started right up,
21:30
Speaker 5: he squared it off in the thing, and he started, well,
21:31
Speaker 5: this was a double, and this was a triple, and
21:33
Speaker 5: this was the first guy with an X on it.
21:36
Speaker 5: Went around the whole crawl space with these places where
21:41
Speaker 5: the body was buried. I mean, they were digging with
21:44
Speaker 5: spoons and everything, but they obviously identified where all the
21:49
Speaker 5: bodies were, and they did an overlay of where the
21:52
Speaker 5: bodies were actually found compared to that diagram that he made,
21:56
Speaker 5: and it was unbelievable. It was right on the money.
21:59
Speaker 1: In total, 27 bodies were discovered in Gacy's crawlspace. It
22:04
Speaker 1: wouldn't take long for news of this horrific discovery to
22:08
Speaker 1: filter out to the wider world.
22:10
Speaker 5: Then the arrests came down, and that was the headline
22:14
Speaker 5: on the local papers, how many bodies they took out
22:17
Speaker 5: of Gacy's basement.
22:18
Speaker 4: Well, you know, when Gacy's crimes were uncovered, he entered
22:22
Speaker 4: into the record books, you know, as America's most prolific
22:26
Speaker 4: serial murderer. The notion that this, you know, pudgy, normal-seeming, decent, regular,
22:36
Speaker 4: ordinary guy was living in this horror house, you know,
22:41
Speaker 4: that was just suffused with the stench of death, and
22:46
Speaker 4: that there were the rotting bodies of 27 young men
22:52
Speaker 4: in this crawl space, bringing home and torturing them. young
22:57
Speaker 4: boys right in the midst of all his neighbors and
23:00
Speaker 4: then going off to work the next day.
23:03
Speaker 2: When we booked him for murder, we asked Gacy where
23:06
Speaker 2: he was born. And Gacy looked at us and said,
23:10
Speaker 2: I was born in a state of confusion. And he
23:13
Speaker 2: smiled like that and we captured the forum.
23:15
Speaker 1: In total, Gacy confessed to the murder of 33 young
23:19
Speaker 1: men and boys between 1972 and 1978. Gacy preyed on victims.
23:27
Speaker 4: Who he knew were not necessarily going to be missed
23:31
Speaker 4: by any family members. Rootless and homeless teenage boys who
23:37
Speaker 4: had no families that were going to miss them or
23:40
Speaker 4: care about their disappearance.
23:42
Speaker 5: At that time, in the late 70s, kids were running
23:44
Speaker 5: away all the time. And a lot of these kids
23:47
Speaker 5: were reported missing, but there was no follow-up.
23:50
Speaker 2: As it turns out, he had buried 27 young kids
23:53
Speaker 2: in the crawlspace. He buried one of the young kids
23:56
Speaker 2: outside in his backyard, and he didn't have any room
23:59
Speaker 2: left on his property, so he threw five remaining victims
24:04
Speaker 2: in the Des Plaines River.
24:06
Speaker 1: One of the bodies found floating in the Des Plaines
24:08
Speaker 1: River in April 1979 was that of Rob Piest, the
24:13
Speaker 1: 15-year-old boy whose disappearance had ultimately led to Gacy's downfall.
24:18
Speaker 5: He was very descriptive on what he had done with
24:20
Speaker 5: Rob Piest.
24:22
Speaker 2: Rob P's mom was waiting for him in the front
24:25
Speaker 2: parking lot, and Rob said to his mom, hey, I'm
24:28
Speaker 2: going to talk to a contractor about a job. I'll
24:30
Speaker 2: be right back. He goes back in the pharmacy. Gacy
24:34
Speaker 2: is in the back parking lot, the alleyway. And as
24:39
Speaker 2: Gacy's leaving, Rob follows him outside and says, excuse me, sir,
24:43
Speaker 2: I understand that you hire young kids, and I'm really
24:46
Speaker 2: interested in having a different job. And Gacy says, well,
24:50
Speaker 2: jump in the car. I'll have you fill out an application.
24:53
Speaker 2: So Gacy actually drives Piest willingly to Gacy's house. While there,
25:00
Speaker 2: Gacy starts showing Piest some little tricks of the trade
25:06
Speaker 2: of being a clown. He shows a couple of card tricks.
25:09
Speaker 2: And the last trick that he shows Piest is the
25:12
Speaker 2: handcuff trick. Gacy actually handcuffs himself and turns around and
25:17
Speaker 2: struggles with the handcuffs and then turns back, and he
25:20
Speaker 2: holds the handcuffs up. And Piest is pretty amazed at that,
25:24
Speaker 2: and he said, well, that's neat.
25:26
Speaker 5: How'd you do that?
25:27
Speaker 2: So Gacy says, well, here, you handcuff yourself, and I'll
25:30
Speaker 2: show you how to do that. So Piest handcuffs himself,
25:35
Speaker 2: and he struggles, and he struggles, and he struggles. And
25:38
Speaker 2: he looks at Gacy, and he says, now, what's the
25:41
Speaker 2: trick to this? And Gacy reaches in his pocket and
25:44
Speaker 2: pulls out a key to the handcuffs, and he says,
25:47
Speaker 2: the trick is you've got to have this key.
25:50
Speaker 1: This handcuffed trick was part of an horrific yet clinical M.O.
25:56
Speaker 2: Gacy, throughout all of the 33 killings, had developed a
25:59
Speaker 2: method of killing these young kids.
26:01
Speaker 4: He would pick up these victims. Some were kids who
26:06
Speaker 4: worked for him, but most were teenage runaways. You know,
26:10
Speaker 4: and bringing them back to his house and giving them drinks.
26:15
Speaker 4: He would sort of trick them into handcuffing themselves or
26:20
Speaker 4: being handcuffed.
26:22
Speaker 11: Gacy would use chloroform to subdue his victims. Chloroform's an
26:28
Speaker 11: old-fashioned anesthetic, really, so it gets into your lungs and
26:32
Speaker 11: it just renders you unconscious very effectively.
26:35
Speaker 5: He did what he called a rope trick.
26:37
Speaker 2: And when he had these young kids incapacitated like that,
26:40
Speaker 2: he would slip a rope over their neck, a knotted
26:43
Speaker 2: rope like a loop, and then put the stick in
26:46
Speaker 2: the back, like a tourniquet, and he would slowly turn
26:50
Speaker 2: the tourniquet. And he said he had it perfected so
26:53
Speaker 2: well that he knew exactly how the body would react
26:56
Speaker 2: to each half turn.
26:58
Speaker 11: Putting a ligature around the neck, the first thing it's
27:00
Speaker 11: going to block is the blood vessels, so it prevents
27:03
Speaker 11: blood getting to the brain, prevents it getting back to
27:06
Speaker 11: the body from the brain. It's going to be very uncomfortable,
27:09
Speaker 11: and it can even render you unconscious in a small
27:12
Speaker 11: number of seconds.
27:13
Speaker 2: And he went into detail on how he would torture
27:16
Speaker 2: these young men. And he, in fact, did double and
27:20
Speaker 2: triple murders. He would incapacitate two or three people at
27:24
Speaker 2: a time and kill one person in front of the
27:26
Speaker 2: other victims and then continue to kill the other victims.
27:30
Speaker 2: And he seemed to be pretty proud of that. We
27:33
Speaker 2: used that to our advantage to keep him talking, and
27:36
Speaker 2: he described every killing to a T, exactly how it happened,
27:41
Speaker 2: all 33.
27:42
Speaker 1: As the news broke across the country, one shocked viewer
27:46
Speaker 1: who'd unknowingly experienced Gacy's MO firsthand was his ex-employee, Tony Antonucci.
27:54
Speaker 1: Whilst working for PDM, Tony had accidentally got a nail
27:58
Speaker 1: stuck in his foot.
28:00
Speaker 9: John took me and I got a tetanus shot and
28:03
Speaker 9: took me home.
28:05
Speaker 5: And he came over later that evening to.
28:09
Speaker 9: Check on if I was okay or that was the,
28:12
Speaker 9: but he also had, you know, some wine and we
28:15
Speaker 9: were drinking and he was kind of joking around. It
28:17
Speaker 9: was probably 10, 10.30 at night. I was a high
28:21
Speaker 9: school wrestler. And he said, oh, you know, you're a
28:24
Speaker 9: big wrestler guy. And he started wrestling around with me.
28:28
Speaker 9: He got my left arm and he got it behind
28:31
Speaker 9: me and I felt him put a handcuff on it.
28:35
Speaker 9: I kept flailing my right hand around so that he
28:39
Speaker 9: couldn't get my right arm, but he did. Eventually, he
28:42
Speaker 9: did get a hold of my right arm, and he
28:44
Speaker 9: knocked me down to the floor with my hands behind me.
28:48
Speaker 9: He left the room for a few minutes, and I
28:51
Speaker 9: realized that if I pulled really hard on my right hand,
28:56
Speaker 9: that I could pull my hand through the handcuff.
29:00
Speaker 5: I could get it out.
29:01
Speaker 1: By pretending he was still handcuffed, Tony was able to
29:05
Speaker 1: catch Gacy unawares when he returned and turn the situation
29:09
Speaker 1: to his advantage.
29:12
Speaker 9: I took the handcuff that I had gotten out of,
29:14
Speaker 9: and I handcuffed him on one of his wrists, and
29:18
Speaker 9: I reached into his pocket, got the key, and I
29:21
Speaker 9: handcuffed him behind his back, laying face down. He goes,
29:26
Speaker 9: you're the only one that not only got out of
29:28
Speaker 9: the handcuffs, you got them on me. And I didn't
29:32
Speaker 9: know what that meant. I thought that this was some
29:34
Speaker 9: type of test that.
29:35
Speaker 5: He had performed before.
29:37
Speaker 9: And I let him stay handcuffed for a or 15
29:40
Speaker 9: minutes before I let him out of the handcuffs. And,
29:44
Speaker 9: you know, he had previously agreed that when I let
29:46
Speaker 9: him up, he would leave.
29:47
Speaker 2: And he did.
29:49
Speaker 1: Tony had no idea just how close he'd come to
29:52
Speaker 1: being another victim of this deadly killer.
29:55
Speaker 9: I did not fear for my life and Not fearing
29:58
Speaker 9: for my life and not panicking is probably what saved
30:02
Speaker 9: my life. Because I'm sure if when I got out
30:05
Speaker 9: of the handcuffs, if I tried to run for the
30:07
Speaker 9: door or do something, you know, he was 33 years
30:10
Speaker 9: old and very strong, and I was 16 or 17.
30:15
Speaker 9: I'm sure he could have overpowered me if he knew
30:18
Speaker 9: he had to.
30:19
Speaker 1: Tony continued working for PDM for a few months after
30:23
Speaker 1: the attack and only reported the incident after Gacy's arrest.
30:27
Speaker 1: By the time the case went to trial, police had
30:30
Speaker 1: managed to identify the remains of 22 of the victims.
30:34
Speaker 11: So with Gacy, we have around 30 bodies, different states
30:38
Speaker 11: of decomposition, some of which have been there for many years. Forensically,
30:43
Speaker 11: that sort of scene is a nightmare. You've got so
30:46
Speaker 11: many different things.
30:47
Speaker 4: To dig up.
30:48
Speaker 11: It's a very... It's very hard work. It will involve
30:52
Speaker 11: a lot of people and a lot of time.
30:55
Speaker 1: Seven of Gacy's victims have never been identified. This close-knit
31:01
Speaker 1: community on the outskirts of Chicago was baffled beyond belief
31:05
Speaker 1: that such a monster had lived amongst them for so long.
31:10
Speaker 4: One of the effects that learning about these crimes has
31:14
Speaker 4: on the public is that it sort of reduces you
31:18
Speaker 4: to a state of childlike awe and terror and wonder.
31:23
Speaker 4: You know, you can imagine all these middle American suburbanites. Suddenly,
31:28
Speaker 4: here are the authorities bringing out the decomposed remains of
31:34
Speaker 4: young men that had been stored in the crawlspace of
31:37
Speaker 4: your neighbor's house.
31:40
Speaker 1: A horrified public were both shocked and outraged by the
31:44
Speaker 1: crimes Gacy had committed. As the state prepared their case,
31:48
Speaker 1: they were determined to ensure that the man who'd been
31:51
Speaker 1: held in such high esteem by his local community would
31:55
Speaker 1: pay for his crimes in full. The trial of John
32:01
Speaker 1: Wayne Gacy began on February 6th, 1980, at the Cook
32:05
Speaker 1: County Criminal Courts building in Chicago. At the time, Illinois
32:10
Speaker 1: still had the death penalty. Gacy's defence team were pleading insanity.
32:16
Speaker 10: It was an interesting trial. And what was so fascinating
32:21
Speaker 10: about it was they had so many different psychiatrists saying
32:24
Speaker 10: so many different things that they all came up with
32:28
Speaker 10: different diagnoses, which really goes towards this picture of this
32:34
Speaker 10: non-intact human being, this bits and pieces of person.
32:39
Speaker 1: During the five-week trial, the prosecution were desperate to prove
32:43
Speaker 1: that Gacy was fully responsible for his actions.
32:46
Speaker 8: There's a difference between psychopathy and mental illness. Psychopaths are rational.
32:50
Speaker 8: They know what they're doing, and they know what they
32:53
Speaker 8: do is wrong, but they decide to do it anyway.
32:55
Speaker 8: So he was really culpable for his crimes.
32:58
Speaker 5: He was vicious. He was evil. He was not insane
33:03
Speaker 5: in any way. He knew exactly what he was doing.
33:05
Speaker 5: And he killed these people for self-preservation because he was
33:08
Speaker 5: so well-liked politically and business-wise, he couldn't have his public
33:13
Speaker 5: out that he was taking advantage of these kids.
33:16
Speaker 1: One of the prosecution witnesses was Gacy's former employee, Tony Antonucci,
33:21
Speaker 1: who'd been attacked by the 37-year-old contractor.
33:25
Speaker 9: I saw him in court, and he was off to
33:28
Speaker 9: my left, sitting at the table where the defense attorneys are, and.
33:34
Speaker 5: He just stared straight forward.
33:36
Speaker 9: He was fairly far away. I might have caught his
33:39
Speaker 9: eye on occasion in the courtroom, but I was pretty
33:45
Speaker 9: nervous to be on it. a witness on a trial
33:48
Speaker 9: of that significance, even at that age, in my early 20s.
33:53
Speaker 1: On the 13th of March, 1980, the jury had made
33:56
Speaker 1: their decision on the fate of John Wayne Gacy.
34:00
Speaker 10: It didn't take long for them to find him guilty.
34:03
Speaker 10: I think it took maybe less than three hours, which
34:07
Speaker 10: was amazing. And then he was found guilty.
34:12
Speaker 5: It was kind of amazing how fast everything went. When
34:17
Speaker 5: you look at other trials that I've gone on, this
34:19
Speaker 5: trial went extremely fast.
34:22
Speaker 3: In the final moments of the trial, one of the prosecutors,
34:24
Speaker 3: William Kunkel, called him a ruthless, sadistic killing machine, and
34:30
Speaker 3: I think that's a pretty apt description.
34:33
Speaker 1: Judge Louis B. Garippo sentenced Gacy to death. He was
34:38
Speaker 1: immediately taken to the Menard Correctional Center, Illinois, where he
34:42
Speaker 1: would remain on death row for 14 years. Whilst in jail,
34:46
Speaker 1: he took up painting, selling his artwork for profit.
34:50
Speaker 8: Even when he was behind bars, he continued to control
34:53
Speaker 8: and manipulate people. He produced several paintings, several works of art,
34:58
Speaker 8: which he sold, and he maintained a legacy even after
35:03
Speaker 8: his death through those paintings. So he was still in
35:07
Speaker 8: control when he was behind bars. He still had power
35:10
Speaker 8: over other people, and he was still able to make
35:12
Speaker 8: choices and decisions.
35:14
Speaker 1: The profits he gained from these paintings resulted in the
35:17
Speaker 1: government suing him for his earnings. Lawyer Karen Conte took
35:21
Speaker 1: on Gacy's case against the state.
35:24
Speaker 7: Gacy liked to paint, and he was a terrible, terrible painter.
35:28
Speaker 7: And he painted horrible things like skulls and clowns and
35:32
Speaker 7: creepy things like that. But people bought them, and they
35:35
Speaker 7: paid $ 200 a shot for him to paint these ugly pictures.
35:39
Speaker 7: So that's the first thing he wanted to talk to
35:41
Speaker 7: us about, but we went down there knowing that what
35:43
Speaker 7: we wanted to do was represent him in the death penalty.
35:46
Speaker 7: What was surprising was he looked and acted just like
35:49
Speaker 7: anybody else, like your favorite uncle, like your next-door neighbor.
35:53
Speaker 7: And if you think about it, that's probably why he
35:56
Speaker 7: got away with killing so many boys and men, because he.
36:00
Speaker 1: Didn't look evil.
36:01
Speaker 7: You could not reconcile what he did with the man
36:05
Speaker 7: you were talking to.
36:06
Speaker 1: Karen was a firm opponent of the death penalty and
36:10
Speaker 1: represented Gacy during his final appeals against the sentence.
36:15
Speaker 7: Over the years, Gacy had numerous appeals, and our system
36:18
Speaker 7: allows that. Appeals in the federal court, appeals in the
36:21
Speaker 7: state court. By the time that Gacy had his execution
36:25
Speaker 7: date set, we were out of traditional appeals.
36:28
Speaker 4: There are certain serial killers, even staunch anti-death penalty advocates,
36:35
Speaker 4: would not protest against the execution of somebody like Casey.
36:41
Speaker 4: If he felt any twinge of feeling sorry, it was
36:45
Speaker 4: only feeling sorry for himself. You know, these people are
36:48
Speaker 4: possessed of this incredibly malignant narcissism. The only thing that
36:53
Speaker 4: they are capable of feeling anything for is themselves and
36:56
Speaker 4: their own needs.
36:57
Speaker 7: When you have a client who has committed these horrific acts,
37:00
Speaker 7: 33 murders, No court is going to want to let
37:04
Speaker 7: him out. No court is going to want to change
37:07
Speaker 7: execution to life in prison because it's politically a disaster.
37:12
Speaker 7: Gacy had to be executed. And no matter what we alleged,
37:16
Speaker 7: even if we had really, really good arguments, I don't
37:19
Speaker 7: think anyone would have listened because it was John Gacy.
37:23
Speaker 1: In a CBS TV interview filmed in Menard Correctional Center
37:27
Speaker 1: in May 1992, Gacy recanted his confession and tried to
37:32
Speaker 1: deny that he was guilty of any of the murders.
37:35
Speaker 3: He claimed that he was a victim of circumstance and
37:38
Speaker 3: clearly innocent. Now, that was balderdash. He was guilty of sin,
37:43
Speaker 3: but nevertheless, it just proved what an extraordinary man he was.
37:49
Speaker 3: And throughout the interview, you can see the interviewer looking
37:53
Speaker 3: more and more astounded by Gacy's relaxation. He didn't look nervous.
37:59
Speaker 3: He looked absolutely composed, relaxed, if anything, a little angry.
38:05
Speaker 3: Why am I being put through this?
38:07
Speaker 5: It's not fair.
38:08
Speaker 3: It was a pure accident. I never did it.
38:13
Speaker 2: We knew it was his last ditch effort. You know,
38:15
Speaker 2: everything else failed. He thought he could get away with,
38:18
Speaker 2: you know, insanity plea, and.
38:20
Speaker 4: That didn't work.
38:21
Speaker 2: So it was last ditch effort to say that he
38:23
Speaker 2: wasn't involved or that others participated. But it was very
38:27
Speaker 2: clear during his initial confession that he was the one
38:30
Speaker 2: who completed these crimes and completed.
38:32
Speaker 5: Them by himself.
38:34
Speaker 8: Gacy never took responsibility for his actions, and he would
38:38
Speaker 8: always blame others. He would blame his victims, and in
38:41
Speaker 8: some cases, he blamed his victims' parents. He would turn
38:44
Speaker 8: around and say, well, it's not my fault. I'm completely
38:48
Speaker 8: not responsible for any of this. And that's a key
38:51
Speaker 8: psychopathic trait, the failure to take responsibility for their own actions.
38:56
Speaker 1: Despite numerous attempts to appeal his death sentence, on the
39:00
Speaker 1: 10th of May 1994, John Wayne Gacy was executed by
39:04
Speaker 1: lethal injection at Stateville Penitentiary in Illinois.
39:09
Speaker 7: It was a circus. We were in a room at
39:11
Speaker 7: some point and we saw a television screen and we
39:14
Speaker 7: saw thousands of people lined up at least a mile
39:18
Speaker 7: down the street at the prison with signs, kill the clown,
39:22
Speaker 7: kill Gacy, with our names on it, kill Karen Conti,
39:26
Speaker 7: people beating drums, people dancing, people with clown makeup on.
39:29
Speaker 7: It was a celebration.
39:32
Speaker 3: Gacy's last words were, kiss my ass. Those are the
39:38
Speaker 3: words of a man who absolutely didn't mind what he'd done,
39:42
Speaker 3: who was proud of himself and proud of that killing spree,
39:46
Speaker 3: which makes him particularly chilling.
39:49
Speaker 1: Gacy was unrepentant right up until his last moments. He
39:53
Speaker 1: clearly felt no remorse for any of his 33 victims.
39:58
Speaker 4: Using other human beings, you know, inflicting pain and suffering
40:03
Speaker 4: and torture on another helpless human.
40:06
Speaker 5: Being, to me, is the essence of evil.
40:09
Speaker 2: After the execution, you'd think there'd be closure. but there
40:13
Speaker 2: really isn't closure for something like that. I mean, you
40:15
Speaker 2: always think back to the victim's family and the poor
40:18
Speaker 2: young boy who was 15 years old and just a
40:20
Speaker 2: good kid. So as much as you'd like to believe
40:23
Speaker 2: there was closure, there really wasn't closure.
40:25
Speaker 1: 40 years after being attacked, Tony Antonucci feels relieved he
40:31
Speaker 1: didn't become one of Gacy's many victims.
40:34
Speaker 9: I do feel very lucky to be alive. I don't
40:38
Speaker 9: know what to attribute that to. You know, maybe I,
40:40
Speaker 9: you know, luck definitely, um, the biggest component, you know,
40:45
Speaker 9: a little bit of help from above, and basically my
40:50
Speaker 9: own ignorance of the fact that I was truly in
40:53
Speaker 9: danger and the fact that I didn't panic and just
40:56
Speaker 9: wanted to win the game, if it was a game,
41:00
Speaker 9: is probably what helped. I also would have been one
41:03
Speaker 9: of the earlier victims, so I'm sure his techniques became
41:08
Speaker 9: more honed after he was divorced and lived alone and
41:13
Speaker 9: had more freedom to act differently.
41:16
Speaker 1: John Wayne Gacy remains one of the most infamous killers
41:20
Speaker 1: in American history. His horrific murders continue to haunt the
41:24
Speaker 1: nation to this day.
41:26
Speaker 7: I still get weird emails. I still get weird things
41:29
Speaker 7: where people lash out and say terrible things to me
41:32
Speaker 7: about representing Gacy. So, as Gacy said to me, you know,
41:36
Speaker 7: your obituary will read, Karen Conte represented serial killer John Gacy.
41:41
Speaker 7: And although I won't be around to verify that, I
41:45
Speaker 7: have no doubt that's what it will read.
41:47
Speaker 4: For kids, monsters are real. As you become an adult,
41:50
Speaker 4: you realize, well, there are no real werewolves, there are
41:52
Speaker 4: no real vampires. But then something like this happens, and,
41:57
Speaker 4: you know, it's like, whoa, you know, this monster is real.
42:00
Speaker 4: You know, there is this ogre. It's transfixing, it's riveting.
42:05
Speaker 4: You know, it's fascinating in the most horrifying way. Gacy
42:09
Speaker 4: was the epitome of evil. And he was the epitome
42:13
Speaker 4: of being a great guy, which gave him the ability
42:18
Speaker 4: to be the most evil guy in the world.
42:20
Speaker 1: Gacy's outward persona of a charming socialite helped to keep
42:24
Speaker 1: his crimes hidden.
42:25
Speaker 5: For over five years.
42:27
Speaker 1: But behind the mask of this friendly clown was a
42:30
Speaker 1: sadistic killer who cruelly and savagely ended the lives of
42:34
Speaker 1: 33 young men by torturing them in the most hideous
42:38
Speaker 1: of manners, all for his own selfish sexual gratification. His
42:42
Speaker 1: lack of remorse for any of his victims or their
42:45
Speaker 1: loved ones right up until the day he was executed
42:49
Speaker 1: proved that he is, without doubt, one of the world's
42:52
Speaker 1: most evil killers.