Killer Clown: John Wayne Gacy (Part I)

John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer who raped, tortured and murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978 in Cook County, Illinois (a part of metropolitan Chicago). All of Gacy's known murders were committed inside his Norwood Park ranch house. His victims were typically induced to his address by force or deception, and all except one of his victims were murdered by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a makeshift garrote, as his first victim was stabbed to death. Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the crawl space of his home. Three other victims were buried elsewhere on his property, while the bodies of his last four known victims were discarded in the Des Plaines River.

Convicted of 33 murders, Gacy was sentenced to death on March 13, 1980, for 12 of those murders. He spent 14 years on death row before he was executed by lethal injection at Statesville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.

Gacy became known as the "Killer Clown" because of his charitable services at fund-raising events, parades, and children's parties where he dressed as "Pogo the Clown" or "Patches the Clown", characters that he had created.

Early life

John Wayne Gacy was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 17, 1942, the second child and only son of three children born to John Stanley Gacy (June 20, 1900 – December 25, 1969), an auto repair machinist and World War I veteran, and his wife Marion Elaine Robinson (May 4, 1908 – December 6, 1989), a homemaker.  Gacy was of Polish and Danish ancestry. His paternal grandparents (who spelled the family name as "Gatza" or "Gaca") had immigrated to the United States from Poland (then part of Germany).   As a child, Gacy was overweight and not athletic. He was close to his two sisters and mother but endured a difficult relationship with his father, an alcoholic who was physically abusive to his wife and children.

Throughout his childhood, Gacy strove to make his stern father proud of him but seldom received his approval. This friction was constant throughout his childhood and adolescence.  One of Gacy's earliest childhood memories was of his father beating him with a leather belt at the age of four for accidentally disarranging car engine components that his father had assembled.  On another occasion, his father struck him across the head with a broomstick, rendering him unconscious.  His father regularly belittled him and often compared him unfavorably with his sisters, disdainfully accusing him of being "dumb and stupid". Gacy, while regularly commenting that he was "never good enough" in his father's eyes, always vehemently denied ever hating his father in interviews after his arrest.

When he was six years old, Gacy stole a toy truck from a neighborhood store. His mother made him walk back to the store, return the toy and apologize to the owners. His mother informed his father, who beat Gacy with a belt as punishment. After this incident, Gacy's mother attempted to shield her son from his father's verbal and physical abuse, yet this only succeeded in Gacy earning accusations that he was a "sissy" and a "Mama's boy" who would "probably grow up queer".

In 1949, Gacy's father was informed that his son and another boy had been caught sexually fondling a young girl.  Gacy's father whipped him with a razor strop as punishment. The same year, Gacy himself was molested by a family friend, a contractor who would take Gacy for rides in his truck and then fondle him. Gacy never told his father about these incidents, afraid that his father would blame him.

Because of a heart condition, Gacy was ordered to avoid all sports at school.  An average student with few friends, he was an occasional target for bullying by neighborhood children and classmates.  He was known to assist the school truancy officer and volunteer to run errands for teachers and neighbors.  During the fourth grade, Gacy began to experience blackouts. He was occasionally hospitalized because of these seizures, and also in 1957 for a burst appendix.  Gacy later estimated that between the ages of 14 and 18, he had spent almost a year in the hospital for these episodes and attributed the decline of his grades to his missing school. His father suspected the episodes were an effort to gain sympathy and attention, and openly accused his son of faking the condition as the boy lay in a hospital bed.  Although his mother, sisters, and few close friends never doubted his illness, Gacy's medical condition was never conclusively diagnosed.

One of Gacy's friends at high school recalled several instances in which his father ridiculed or beat his son without provocation. On one occasion in 1957, the same friend witnessed an incident at the Gacy household in which Gacy's father began shouting at his son for no reason, then began hitting him.  Gacy's mother attempted to intervene. The friend recalled that Gacy simply "put up his hands to defend himself", adding that he never struck his father back during these physical altercations.

In 1960, at the age of 18, Gacy became involved in politics, working as an assistant precinct captain for a Democratic Party candidate in his neighborhood. This decision earned more criticism from his father, who accused his son of being a "patsy". Gacy later speculated the decision may have been an attempt to seek the acceptance from others that he never received from his father.

The same year Gacy became a Democratic candidate, his father bought him a car, with the title of the vehicle being in his father's name until Gacy had completed the monthly repayments. These repayments took several years to complete, and his father would confiscate the keys to the vehicle if Gacy did not do as his father said. On one occasion in 1962, Gacy bought an extra set of keys after his father confiscated the original set. In response, his father removed the distributor cap from the vehicle, withholding the component for three days. Gacy recalled that as a result of this incident, he felt "totally sick; drained".  When his father replaced the distributor cap, Gacy left the family home and drove to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he found work within the ambulance service before he was transferred to work as an attendant at the Palm Mortuary. He worked in this role for three months before returning to Chicago.

In his role as a mortuary attendant, Gacy slept on a cot behind the embalming room.  In this role, he observed morticians embalming dead bodies and later confessed that, on one evening while alone, he had clambered into the coffin of a deceased teenage male, embracing and caressing the body before experiencing a sense of shock.  This prompted Gacy to call his mother the next day and ask whether his father would allow him to return home.  His father agreed and the same day, Gacy drove back to live with his family in Chicago.

Upon his return, despite the fact, he had failed to graduate from high school, Gacy successfully enrolled in the Northwestern Business College, from which he graduated in 1963. Gacy subsequently took a management trainee position within the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company.  In 1964, the shoe company transferred Gacy to Springfield to work as a salesman. He was eventually promoted to manager of his department. In March of that year, he became engaged to Marlynn Myers, a co-worker in the department he managed. After a nine-month courtship, the couple married in September 1964. Marlynn's father subsequently purchased three Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Waterloo, Iowa, and Gacy and his wife moved to Waterloo so he could manage the restaurants, with the understanding that they would move into Marlynn's parents' home (which was vacated for the couple).

During his courtship with Marlynn, Gacy joined the local Jaycees and became a tireless worker for the organization, being named Key Man for the organization in April 1964.  The same year, Gacy had his second homosexual experience. According to Gacy, he acquiesced to this incident after one of his colleagues in the Springfield Jaycees plied him with drinks and invited him to spend the evening upon his sofa; the colleague then performed oral sex upon him while he was drunk.  By 1965, Gacy had risen to the position of vice-president of the Springfield Jaycees.  The same year, he was named as the third most outstanding Jaycee within the state of Illinois.

Waterloo, Iowa

In 1966, Gacy accepted an offer from his father-in-law to manage three KFC restaurants in Waterloo. The offer was lucrative: Gacy would receive $15,000 per year (the equivalent of $115,513 as of 2020), plus a share of profits earned via the restaurants.  Following his obligatory completion of a managerial course, Gacy relocated to Waterloo with his wife later that year.

In Waterloo, Gacy joined the local chapter of the Jaycees, regularly offering extended hours to the organization in addition to the 12- and 14-hour days he worked managing three restaurants. Although considered ambitious and something of a braggart by his colleagues in the Jaycees, he was highly regarded as a worker on several fund-raising projects. In 1967, he was named "outstanding vice-president" of the Waterloo Jaycees.  At Jaycee meetings, Gacy often provided free fried chicken to his colleagues and insisted upon being given the nickname "Colonel".  The same year, Gacy served on the Board of Directors for the Waterloo Jaycees.

Gacy's wife gave birth to two children: a son named Michael was born in February 1966, followed by a daughter named Christine in March 1967. Gacy himself later described this period of his life as "perfect", adding that he finally earned the long-sought approval of his father. On one occasion in July 1966, Gacy's parents paid a visit to Iowa, during which his father apologized privately to him for the physical and emotional abuse he had inflicted on him throughout his childhood, before proudly informing him: "Son, I was wrong about you."

However, there was an unseemlier side of Jaycee life in Waterloo that involved wife swapping, prostitution, pornography, and drug use. Gacy was deeply involved in many of these activities and regularly cheated on his wife with local prostitutes.  He is also known to have opened a "club" in his basement, where he allowed his employees to drink alcohol and play pool. Although Gacy employed teenagers of both sexes at his restaurants, he socialized only with his young male employees. Many were given alcohol before Gacy made sexual advances toward them, which, if rebuffed, he would claim were jokes or a test of morals.

First offenses

In August 1967, Gacy committed his first known sexual assault upon a teenage boy. The victim was a 15-year-old named Donald Voorhees, the son of a fellow Jaycee. Gacy lured Voorhees to his house with the promise of showing him pornographic films.  Gacy plied Voorhees with alcohol and persuaded the youth to perform oral sex upon him. Over the following months, several other youths were sexually abused in a similar manner, including one whom Gacy encouraged to have sex with his own wife before blackmailing the youth into performing oral sex upon him.  Gacy tricked several teenagers into believing he was commissioned with conducting homosexual experiments in the interests of "scientific research", for which each was paid up to $50.

In March 1968, Voorhees reported to his father that Gacy had sexually assaulted him. Voorhees Sr. immediately informed the police and Gacy was arrested and subsequently charged with oral sodomy in relation to Voorhees and the attempted assault of a 16-year-old named Edward Lynch.  Gacy vehemently denied the charges and demanded to take a polygraph test. This request was granted, although the results indicated Gacy was nervous when he denied any wrongdoing in relation to either Voorhees or Lynch.

Gacy publicly denied any wrongdoing and insisted the charges against him were politically motivated – Voorhees Sr. had opposed Gacy's nomination for appointment as president of the Iowa Jaycees.  Several fellow Jaycees found Gacy's story credible and rallied to his support. However, on May 10, 1968, Gacy was indicted on the sodomy charge.

"The most striking aspect of the test results is the patient's total denial of responsibility for everything that has happened to him. He can produce an 'alibi' for everything. He presents himself as a victim of circumstances and blames other people who are out to get him ... the patient attempts to assure a sympathetic response by depicting himself as being at the mercy of a hostile environment."--Section of report detailing Gacy's 1968 psychiatric evaluation.

On August 30, 1968, Gacy persuaded one of his employees, an 18-year-old named Russell Schroeder, to physically assault Voorhees in an effort to discourage the boy from testifying against him at the upcoming trial. Schroeder agreed to lure Voorhees to a secluded spot, spray Mace in his face and beat him. Gacy promised to pay Schroeder $300 if he followed through on the plot. In early September, Schroeder lured Voorhees to an isolated county park, sprayed Mace supplied by Gacy into the youth's eyes, then beat him, all the while shouting that he was not to testify against Gacy at his upcoming trial.

Voorhees managed to escape, and immediately reported the assault to the police, identifying Schroeder as his attacker. Schroeder was arrested the following day. Despite initially denying any involvement, he soon confessed to having assaulted Voorhees, indicating that he had done so at Gacy's request. Gacy was arrested and additionally charged in relation to hiring Schroeder to assault and intimidate Voorhees.

On September 12, Gacy was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at the Psychiatric Hospital of the State University of Iowa.  Two doctors had examined Gacy over a period of 17 days before concluding he had an antisocial personality disorder (a disorder which incorporates constructs such as sociopathy and psychopathy), was unlikely to benefit from any therapy or medical treatment, and that his behavior pattern was likely to bring him into repeated conflict with society.  The doctors also concluded he was mentally competent to stand trial.

Conviction and imprisonment

Upon advice from his attorney, Gacy entered a plea of guilty to one count of sodomy in relation to the charges filed against him by Donald Voorhees. He pleaded not guilty to the other charges lodged against him by other youths at a formal arraignment held on November 7, 1968. Before the judge, Gacy contended that he and Voorhees had indeed engaged in sexual relations, yet he insisted Voorhees had offered his sexual services to him and that he had acted out of curiosity.  His story was not believed. Despite his lawyers' recommendations for probation, Gacy was convicted of sodomy on December 3, 1968, and sentenced to 10 years at the Anamosa State Penitentiary.  On the day Gacy was convicted and sentenced, his wife petitioned for divorce, requesting possession of the couple's home, property, sole custody of their two children and subsequent alimony payments.  The Court ruled in her favor and the divorce was finalized on September 18, 1969. Gacy never saw his first wife or children again.

During his incarceration in the Anamosa State Penitentiary, Gacy rapidly acquired a reputation as a model prisoner.  Within months of his arrival, he had risen to the position of head cook. He also joined the inmate Jaycee chapter and increased their membership figure from 50 to 650 in the span of less than 18 months. He is also known to have both secured an increase in the inmates' daily pay in the prison mess hall and to have supervised several projects to improve conditions for inmates at the prison.  On one occasion, Gacy oversaw the installation of a miniature golf course in the prison's recreation yard.

In June 1969, Gacy first applied to the State of Iowa Board of Parole for early release: this application was denied. In preparation for a second scheduled parole hearing in May 1970, Gacy completed 16 high school courses, for which he obtained his diploma in November 1969.

On Christmas Day 1969, Gacy's father died from cirrhosis of the liver.  Gacy was not told that his father had died until two days after his death. When he heard the news, Gacy was said to have collapsed to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably, and had to be supported by prison staff.  Gacy requested supervised compassionate leave from prison to attend his father's funeral in Chicago, but his request was denied.

Parole

Gacy was granted parole with 12 months' probation on June 18, 1970, after serving 18 months of his 10-year sentence.  Two of the conditions of his probation were for Gacy to relocate to Chicago to live with his mother and to observe a 10 p.m. curfew, with the Iowa Board of Parole receiving regular updates as to his progress.

Upon his release, Gacy told a friend and fellow Jaycee named Clarence Lane—who picked him up from the prison upon release and had remained steadfast in his belief of Gacy's innocence—that he would "never go back to jail" and that he intended to re-establish himself in Waterloo. However, within 24 hours of his release, Gacy relocated to Chicago to live with his mother.  He arrived in Chicago on June 19 and shortly thereafter obtained a job as a short-order cook in a restaurant.

On February 12, 1971, Gacy was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy.  The youth claimed that Gacy had lured him into his car at Chicago's Greyhound bus terminal and driven him to his home, where he had attempted to force the youth into sex. This complaint was subsequently dismissed when the youth failed to appear in court. The Iowa Board of Parole did not learn of this incident (which violated the conditions of his parole) and eight months later, in October 1971, Gacy's parole ended.  The following month, records of Gacy's previous criminal convictions in Iowa were subsequently sealed.

With financial assistance from his mother, Gacy bought a house in Norwood Park Township, an unincorporated area of Cook County. The address, 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, is where he resided until his arrest in December 1978 and where all his known murders were committed. In August 1971, shortly after Gacy and his mother moved into the house, he became engaged to Carole Hoff, a divorcee with two young daughters. Hoff, whom he had briefly dated in high school, had been a friend of his younger sister. His fiancée moved into his home soon after the couple announced their engagement. Gacy's mother subsequently moved out of the house shortly before his wedding, which was held on July 1, 1972.

One week before Gacy's wedding, on June 22, he was arrested and charged with aggravated battery and reckless conduct. The arrest was in response to a complaint filed by a youth named Jackie Dee, who informed police that Gacy, impersonating a police officer, had flashed a sheriff's badge, lured him into his car, and forced him to perform oral sex.  These charges were later dropped after the complainant attempted to blackmail Gacy into paying money in exchange for dropping the charges.

Businessman and community volunteer

Following Gacy's marriage to Carole Hoff, his new wife and stepdaughters moved into the Summerdale Avenue house.  Gacy had quit his job as a cook and started his own construction business, PDM Contractors (PDM being the initials for 'Painting, Decorating, and Maintenance').  The business initially undertook minor repair work, such as sign-writing, pouring concrete, and redecorating, but later expanded to include projects such as interior design, remodeling, installation, assembly, and landscaping. By 1978, the gross of PDM's annual turnover was over $200,000.

In 1973, Gacy and a teenage employee of PDM Contractors traveled to Florida to view property Gacy had purchased. On the first night in Florida, Gacy raped the youth in their hotel room.  As a result, this youth refused to stay in the same hotel room as Gacy and instead slept on the beach. Upon returning to Chicago, this employee drove to Gacy's house as he was in his yard and beat him. Gacy's mother-in-law stopped the youth from further attacking Gacy and he drove away. Gacy explained to his wife that the attack happened because he had refused to pay the youth for poor quality work.

His neighbors in Norwood Park considered Gacy gregarious and helpful; he was active in his local community and hosted annual summer parties beginning in 1974.  He also became active in Democratic Party politics, initially offering the labor services of his PDM employees free of charge.  Gacy was rewarded for his community services by being appointed to serve upon the Norwood Park Township street lighting committee.  He subsequently earned the title of precinct captain.  In 1975, Gacy was appointed director of Chicago's annual Polish Constitution Day Parade—he supervised the annual event from 1975 until 1978. Through his work with the parade, Gacy met and was photographed with First Lady Rosalynn Carter on May 6, 1978.

Through his membership in a local Moose Club, Gacy became aware of a "Jolly Joker" clown club whose members regularly performed at fund-raising events and parades, in addition, to voluntarily entertaining hospitalized children.  In late 1975, Gacy joined the Jolly Jokers and created his own performance characters: "Pogo the Clown" and "Patches the Clown."  Gacy designed his own costumes and taught himself how to apply clown makeup, although some professional clowns noted the sharp corners Gacy painted at the edges of his mouth is contrary to the rounded borders that professional clowns normally employ, so as not to scare children.  Gacy is known to have performed as Pogo or Patches at numerous local parties, Democratic party functions, charitable events, and at children's hospitals.  He is also known to have arrived, dressed in his clowning garb, at a favorite drinking venue named "The Good Luck Lounge" on several occasions with the explanation he had performed at a charitable event and was stopping for a social drink before heading home.

By 1975, Gacy had told his wife that he was bisexual.  After the couple had sex on Mother's Day that year, he informed her this would be "the last time" they would ever have sex.  He began spending most evenings away from home only to return in the early hours of the morning with the excuse he had been working late.   His wife observed Gacy bringing teenage boys into his garage and also found gay pornography and men's wallets and identification cards inside the house.  When she once confronted Gacy about who these items belonged to, he angrily informed her the property was none of her business.  They divorced by mutual consent in March 1976.

First murders

Murder of Timothy McCoy

On January 2, 1972, Gacy picked up 16-year-old Timothy Jack McCoy from Chicago's Greyhound bus terminal.  Gacy took McCoy—who was traveling from Michigan to Omaha—on a sightseeing tour of Chicago and then drove him to his home with the promise that he could spend the night and be driven back to the station in time to catch his bus. According to Gacy's later account of the murder, he awoke the following morning to find McCoy standing in his bedroom doorway with a kitchen knife.  Gacy leaped from his bed and McCoy raised both arms in a gesture of surrender, tilting the knife upwards and accidentally cutting Gacy's forearm (Gacy had a scar on his arm to support this account).  He then twisted the knife from McCoy's wrist, banged his head against his bedroom wall, kicked him against his wardrobe and walked towards him. McCoy then kicked him in the stomach and Gacy grabbed the youth, wrestled him to the floor, then stabbed him repeatedly in the chest as he straddled him with his body.   Gacy claimed he then went to his kitchen and saw an opened carton of eggs and a slab of unsliced bacon on his kitchen table. McCoy had also set the table for two; he had walked into Gacy's room to wake him while absentmindedly carrying the kitchen knife in his hand.  Gacy subsequently buried McCoy in his crawl space and later covered the youth's grave with a layer of concrete.

In an interview after his arrest, Gacy stated that immediately after killing McCoy, he felt "totally drained", yet noted that he had experienced a mind-numbing orgasm as he killed the youth. He added: "That's when I realized that death was the ultimate thrill."

Second known victim

Gacy later stated that the second time he committed the murder was around January 1974. The victim is believed to have been an unidentified teenage youth with medium brown hair estimated to be aged between 14 and 18 whom Gacy strangled before stowing the youth's body in his closet prior to burial. Gacy later stated that fluid leaked out of this youth's mouth and nose as he was stored in his closet, staining his carpet.  As a result of this experience, Gacy later stated he regularly stuffed cloth rags or the victims' own underwear in their mouths to prevent a recurrence of this incident. This particular unidentified victim was buried about 15 feet (4.6 m) from the barbecue pit in Gacy's backyard.

"The handcuff trick" and "the rope trick"

By 1975, Gacy's business was expanding rapidly; by his own later admission, he began working 12- and 16-hour days to fulfill agreed commitments upon an increasing number of contracts. Gacy freely admitted that 1975 was also the year in which he began to increase the frequency of his excursions for sex with young males.  He often referred to these jaunts as his "cruising".

Much of the labor workforce of PDM Contractors consisted of high school students and young men. One of these youths was a 15-year-old named Anthony Antonucci, whom Gacy had hired in May 1975. In July 1975, Gacy arrived at the youth's home while the youth was alone, having injured his foot at work the day prior. Gacy plied the youth with alcohol, wrestled him to the floor and cuffed Antonucci's hands behind his back. The cuff upon Antonucci's right wrist was loose: Antonucci freed his arm from the handcuff after Gacy left the room. When Gacy returned, Antonucci—a member of his high school wrestling team—pounced upon him. The youth wrestled Gacy to the floor, obtained possession of the handcuff key and cuffed Gacy's hands behind his back. Gacy screamed threats, then calmed down and promised to leave if Antonucci removed the handcuffs. The youth agreed and Gacy left the house.  Antonucci later recalled that Gacy had told him as he lay on the floor: "Not only are you the only one who got out of the cuffs; you got them on me."

One week after the attempted assault on Antonucci, on July 31, 1975, another of Gacy's employees, 18-year-old John Butkovich, disappeared.  The day before his disappearance, Butkovich had threatened Gacy over two weeks' outstanding back pay.  Gacy later admitted to luring Butkovich to his home while his wife and stepchildren were visiting his sister in Arkansas, ostensibly to settle the issue of Butkovich's overdue wages. Gacy conned the youth into allowing his wrists to be cuffed behind his back, at which point Gacy strangled him to death and buried his body under the concrete floor of his garage. Gacy later admitted to having "sat on the kid's chest for a while" before killing him. Butkovich's Dodge sedan was found abandoned in a parking lot with the youth's wallet inside and the keys still in the ignition.  Butkovich's father called Gacy, who claimed he was happy to help search for the youth but was sorry Butkovich had "run away".  Gacy was questioned about Butkovich's disappearance and admitted that the youth and two friends had arrived at his apartment demanding Butkovich's overdue pay, but claimed all three youths had left after a compromise had been reached. Over the following three years, Butkovich's parents called police more than 100 times, urging them to investigate Gacy further.

Deceiving youths into donning handcuffs became Gacy's typical modus operandi in subduing his victims. After plying a youth with drink, drugs or generally gaining his trust, Gacy would produce a pair of handcuffs (occasionally as part of a clowning routine) which he persuaded his intended victim into donning.  With his victim manacled and unable to free himself, Gacy then made a statement to the effect of: "The trick is, you have to have the key", before proceeding to rape and torture his captive. He finished with "the rope trick", placing a rope over his victim's neck and tying a makeshift tourniquet until the victim was strangled to death.

Divorce

Following a heated argument regarding her failing to balance a PDM Contractor's checkbook correctly in October 1975, Carole Gacy asked her husband for a divorce. Gacy agreed to his wife's request although, by mutual consent, Carole continued to live at 8213 West Summerdale until February 1976, when she and her daughters moved into their own apartment. One month later, on March 2, the Gacys' divorce—decreed upon the false grounds of Gacy's infidelity with women—was finalized.

Although Gacy remained gregarious and civic-minded, several neighbors became aware of erratic changes in his behavior after his divorce in March 1976 and subsequent arrest in December 1978. This behavior included hearing his car arrive and depart in the early hours of the morning; noting lights switching on and off in his home at odd hours and his keeping company with young males.  One neighbor later recollected that, for several years, she and her son had repeatedly been awoken by the repeated sounds of muffled screaming, shouting, and crying in the early morning hours, which she and her son had identified as emanating from a house adjacent to theirs on Summerdale Avenue.

Cruising years: 1976–1978

The majority of Gacy's murders were committed between 1976 and 1978, which he later referred to as his "cruising years" now that he had his house to himself. One month after his divorce was finalized; Gacy abducted and murdered an 18-year-old youth named Darrell Samson. Samson was last seen alive in Chicago on April 6, 1976. Five weeks later, on the afternoon of May 14, a 15-year-old named Randall Reffett disappeared while walking home from Senn High School; the youth was gagged with a cloth, causing him to die of asphyxiation.  Hours after Reffett had been abducted; a 14-year-old named Samuel Stapleton vanished as he walked to his home from his sister's apartment.  Both youths were buried in the same grave in the crawl space.

On June 3, 1976, Gacy killed a 17-year-old Lakeview youth named Michael Bonnin. He disappeared while traveling from Chicago to Waukegan, and was strangled with a ligature and buried in the crawl space.  Ten days later, a 16-year-old Uptown youth named William Carroll was murdered and buried directly beneath Gacy's kitchen. Carroll may have been the first of four males known to have been murdered between June 13 and August 6, 1976, and who were buried in a common grave located beneath Gacy's kitchen and laundry room.

The three identified youths killed between June 13 and August 6 were aged between 16 and 17 years old, whereas the only unidentified male known to have been murdered between these dates is a man with medium-dark brown hair estimated to have been aged between 23 and 30 years old and between 5 ft 1 in and 5 ft 6 in (150 and 170 cm) tall. This man had two missing upper front teeth at the time of his disappearance, leading investigators to believe this particular victim most likely wore a denture. He was buried directly beneath the body of a 16-year-old Minnesota youth named James Haakenson, who is last known to have phoned his family on August 5, and whose body was itself buried directly beneath that of a 17-year-old Bensenville youth named Rick Johnston, who was last seen alive on August 6.

On July 26, 1976, Gacy employed an 18-year-old named David Cram. On August 21, Cram moved into his house. The following day, Gacy conned Cram into donning handcuffs while the youth was inebriated. Gacy swung Cram around while holding the chain linking the cuffs, then informed him that he intended to rape him. Cram, who had spent a year in the Army, kicked Gacy in the face and then freed himself from the handcuffs as Gacy lay prone. One month later, Gacy appeared at Cram's bedroom door with the intention to rape him and said: "Dave, you really don't know who I am. Maybe it would be good if you give me what I want."  Cram resisted Gacy's attempts to assault him and Gacy left his bedroom. After this incident, Cram moved out of Gacy's home and subsequently left PDM Contractors, although he did periodically work for Gacy over the following two years.  Shortly after Cram had vacated Gacy's residence, another employee of PDM Contractors, 18-year-old Michael Rossi moved into Gacy's house.

Two further unidentified males are estimated to have been killed between August and October 1976. One of these victims was buried directly above the body of William Carroll, who had been murdered on June 13, yet higher than the body of Rick Johnston, who was last seen on August 6. This particular unidentified male is estimated to have been aged between 15 and 24 years old and had light brown hair. Sequential burial patterns of victims within the crawl space, plus the circumstantial fact that Cram had not lived with Gacy until August 21, leave a possible date of between August 6 and 20, 1976 as the time this particular man was murdered.  The second unidentified male likely to have been murdered between August and October 1976 is a youth with dark brown, wavy hair, aged between 18 and 22 years old, who is known to have suffered from an abscessed tooth at the time of his murder. This male was buried in the northeast corner of the crawl space. Subsequent recollections by an employee of PDM Contractors of a trench Gacy had directed him to dig before the termination of his employment on October 5, 1976 being the location where this particular victim was buried suggests a date between August and October 1976 as being when this particular victim was murdered.

On October 24, 1976, Gacy abducted and killed two teenage friends named Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino:  the two youths were last seen outside a restaurant on Clark Street. Both youths were strangled and buried in the same grave in the crawl space. Two days later, a 19-year-old employee of PDM Contractors named William Bundy disappeared after informing his family he was to attend a party. Bundy was also strangled and buried in the crawl space, buried directly beneath Gacy's master bedroom.

In December 1976, another PDM employee, 17-year-old Gregory Godzik, disappeared: he was last seen by his girlfriend outside her house after he had driven her home following a date.  Godzik had worked for PDM for only three weeks before he disappeared. In the time he had worked for Gacy, he had informed his family Gacy had had him "dig trenches for some kind of (drain) tiles" in his crawl space.  Godzik's car was later found abandoned in Niles. His parents and older sister, Eugenia contacted Gacy about Greg's disappearance. Gacy claimed to the family that Greg had run away from home, having indicated to Gacy before his disappearance that he wished to do so. Gacy also claimed to have received a recorded answering machine message from Godzik shortly after the youth had disappeared. When asked if he could play back the message to Godzik's parents, Gacy stated that he had erased it.

A month later, on January 20, 1977, John Szyc, a 19-year-old acquaintance of Butkovich, Godzik, and Gacy disappeared. Szyc was lured to Gacy's house on the pretext of selling his Plymouth Satellite to Gacy. He was buried in Gacy's crawl space directly above the body of Godzik.  A ring worn by Szyc, which bore his initials, was retained in a dresser in Gacy's master bedroom.  Gacy also kept Szyc's portable Motorola TV in his bedroom and later sold the youth's car to Michael Rossi.

Between December 1976 and March 1977, Gacy is known to have killed an unidentified young man estimated to be around 25 years old.  An inscription upon a key fob found among the personal artifacts buried with this unknown victim suggests his first name may have been Greg or Gregory. His body was buried in the crawl space beneath the body of a 20-year-old named Jon Prestidge, a Michigan youth visiting friends in Chicago whom Gacy killed on March 15. After the murder of Prestidge, Gacy is believed to have murdered one further unidentified youth exhumed from his crawl space, although the timing of this particular youth's murder is inconclusive. The youth was buried parallel to the wall of Gacy's crawl space directly beneath the entrance to his home. The two victims murdered on the same day in May 1976 were buried alongside this youth, yet sequential burial patterns of three victims murdered in 1977 leave an equal possibility this particular victim may have been murdered in the spring or summer of 1977. All that is known about this youth is that he was aged between 17 and 21 years old and that he had suffered a fractured left collarbone before his disappearance.

In March 1977, Gacy was hired as a construction supervisor for PE Systems, a firm which specialized in the nationwide remodeling of drugstores. As a result of this contract, Gacy regularly traveled to other states to supervise construction projects and he later stated that, through both businesses (PDM Contractors and PE Systems), he often simultaneously worked on up to four construction projects, with almost 80 buildings being successfully remodeled in 1977 alone. In April 1977, Michael Rossi moved out of Gacy's home; the same month, Gacy became temporarily engaged to a woman he had been dating for three months, and his fiancée moved into his house. By mutual agreement, the engagement was called off in June of that year and his fiancée moved out of his home.  The following month, Gacy killed a 19-year-old Crystal Lake youth named Matthew Bowman. He was buried in the crawl space with the tourniquet used to strangle him still knotted around his neck.

In August 1977, a clue emerged to the disappearance of John Szyc: Michael Rossi, who had bought Szyc's car from Gacy, was arrested for stealing gasoline from a service station while driving the car. The attendant noted the license plate number and police traced the car to Gacy's house.  When questioned, Gacy told officers that Szyc had sold the car to him in February with the explanation that he needed money to leave town. The police did not pursue the matter further, although they did inform Szyc's mother that her son had sold his car to Gacy.

In late 1977, Gacy began dating Carole Hoff in the hope of reconciliation.  By the end of 1977, Gacy is also known to have murdered an additional six young men between the ages of 16 and 21. The first of these six victims, 18-year-old Robert Gilroy, was last seen alive on September 15. Gilroy—the son of a Chicago police sergeant—was suffocated and buried in the crawl space. On September 12, Gacy had flown to Pittsburgh to supervise a remodeling project and did not return to Chicago until September 16.  As Gacy is known to have been in another state at the time the youth was last seen, it is possible that Gacy's subsequent claims that he had not acted alone in some murders may have held credence. Ten days after Gilroy was last seen, a 19-year-old U.S. Marine named John Mowery disappeared after leaving his mother's house to walk to his own apartment. Mowery was strangled to death and buried in the northwest corner of the crawl space perpendicular to the body of William Bundy.

On October 17, a 21-year-old Minnesota youth named Russell Nelson disappeared: he was last seen outside a Chicago bar. Nelson died of suffocation and was also buried in the crawl space. Less than four weeks later, a 16-year-old Kalamazoo youth named Robert Winch was murdered and buried in the crawl space, and on November 18, a 20-year-old father-of-one named Tommy Boling disappeared after leaving a Chicago bar. Both Winch and Boling were strangled to death and both youths were buried in the crawl space directly beneath the hallway.

Three weeks after the murder of Tommy Boling, on December 9, a 19-year-old U.S. Marine named David Talsma disappeared after informing his mother he was to attend a rock concert in Hammond.  Talsma was strangled with a ligature and buried in the crawl space.

On December 30, 1977, Gacy abducted a 19-year-old student named Robert Donnelly from a Chicago bus stop at gunpoint.  Gacy drove Donnelly home with him, raped him, tortured him with various devices, and repeatedly dunked his head into a bathtub filled with water until he passed out, then revived him. Donnelly later testified at Gacy's trial that he was in such pain that he asked Gacy to kill him to "get it over with", to which Gacy replied: "I'm getting round to it." After several hours of assaulting and torturing the youth, Gacy drove Donnelly to his place of work, removed the handcuffs from the youth's wrists, and released him. Donnelly reported the assault and Gacy was questioned about it on January 6, 1978. Gacy admitted to having had "slave-sex" with Donnelly, but insisted everything was consensual. The police believed him and no charges were filed.  The following month, Gacy killed a 19-year-old youth named William Kindred, who disappeared on February 16, 1978, after telling his fiancée he was to spend the evening in a bar.  Kindred was the final victim to be buried in Gacy's crawl space, and Gacy began disposing of his victims in the Des Plaines River.

In March 1978, Gacy lured a 26-year-old named Jeffrey Rignall into his car. Upon entering the car, the young man was chloroformed and driven to the house on Summerdale, where he was raped, tortured with various instruments including lit candles and whips, and repeatedly chloroformed into unconsciousness.  Rignall was then driven to Lincoln Park, where he was dumped, unconscious but alive. Eventually, he managed to stagger to his girlfriend's apartment. Rignall was later informed the chloroform had permanently damaged his liver. Police were again informed of the assault but did not investigate Gacy. Rignall was able to recall, through the chloroform haze of that night, Gacy's distinctive black Oldsmobile, the Kennedy Expressway and particular side streets. He staked out the exit on the Expressway where he knew he had been driven until—in April—he saw the Oldsmobile, which Rignall and his friends followed to 8213 West Summerdale. Police issued an arrest warrant, and Gacy was arrested on July 15. He was facing an impending trial for a battery charge for the Rignall incident when he was arrested in December for the murders.