Killer Clown: John Wayne Gacy (Part III)

Closing arguments

On March 11, final arguments from both prosecution and defense attorneys began, with the arguments concluding on the following day. Prosecuting attorney Terry Sullivan argued first, outlining Gacy's history of abusing youths, the testimony of his efforts to avoid detection and describing Gacy's surviving victims—Voorhees and Donnelly—as "living dead".  Referring to Gacy as the "worst of all murderers", Sullivan stated: "John Gacy has accounted for more human devastation than many earthly catastrophes, but one must tremble. I tremble when thinking about just how close he came to getting away with it all."

After the state's four-hour closing, counsel Sam Amirante argued for the defense. Amirante argued against the testimony delivered by the doctors who had testified for the prosecution, repeatedly citing the testimony of the four psychiatrists and psychologists who had testified on behalf of the defense.   Amirante also accused Sullivan of scarcely referring to the evidence presented throughout the trial in his own closing argument, and of arousing hatred against his client. The defense lawyer attempted to portray Gacy as a "man driven by compulsions he was unable to control".

In support of these arguments, the defense counsel repeatedly referred to the testimony of the doctors who had appeared for the defense, in addition to the testimony of defense witnesses such as Jeffrey Rignall and a former business associate of Gacy's named Mickel Reed—both of whom had testified to their belief that Gacy had been unable to control his actions.  Amirante then urged the jury to put aside any prejudice they held against his client and requested they deliver a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, adding that the psychology of Gacy's behavior would be of benefit to scientific research and that the psychology of his mind should be studied.

On the morning of March 12, William Kunkle continued to argue for the prosecution. Kunkle referred to the defense's contention of insanity as "a sham", arguing that the facts of the case demonstrated Gacy's ability to think logically and control his actions. Kunkle also referred to the testimony of a doctor who had examined Gacy in 1968. This doctor had diagnosed Gacy as an antisocial personality, capable of committing crimes without remorse. Kunkle indicated that had the recommendations of this doctor been heeded, Gacy would have not been freed.

At the close of his argument, Kunkle pulled each of the 22 photos of Gacy's identified victims off a board displaying the images and asked the jury not to show sympathy but to "show justice". Kunkle then asked the jury to "show the same sympathy this man showed when he took these lives and put them there!"  Before throwing the stack of photos into the opening of the trap door of Gacy's crawl space, which had been introduced as evidence and was on display in the courtroom. After Kunkle had finished his testimony, the jury retired to consider their verdict.

The jury deliberated for less than two hours and found Gacy guilty of the thirty-three charges of murder for which he had been brought to trial; he was also found guilty of sexual assault and taking indecent liberties with a child; both convictions in reference to Robert Piest.  The following day, both the prosecution and defense made alternative pleas for the sentence the jury should decide: the prosecution requesting a death sentence for each murder committed after the Illinois statute on capital punishment came into the effect in June 1977; the defense requesting life imprisonment.

The jury deliberated for more than two hours before they returned with their decision in the sentencing phase of the trial: Gacy was sentenced to death for the twelve counts of murder upon which the prosecution had sought this penalty.  An initial date of the execution was set for June 2, 1980.

Death row

Upon being sentenced, Gacy was transferred to the Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois, where he remained incarcerated on death row for 14 years.

Isolated in his prison cell, Gacy began to paint. The subjects Gacy painted varied, although many were of clowns, some of which depicted himself as "Pogo". Many of his paintings have been displayed at exhibitions; others have been sold at various auctions, with individual prices ranging between $200 and $20,000.  Although Gacy was permitted to earn money from the sale of his paintings until 1985, he claimed his artwork was intended "to bring joy into people's lives".

On February 15, 1983, Gacy was stabbed in the arm by Henry Brisbon, a fellow death row inmate known as the I-57 killer. At the time of this attack, Gacy had been participating in a voluntary work program when Brisbon ran towards him and stabbed him once in the upper arm with a sharpened wire. A second death row inmate injured in the attack, William Jones, received a superficial stab wound to the head. Both received treatment in the prison hospital for their wounds.

Appeals

After his incarceration, Gacy read numerous law books and filed voluminous motions and appeals, although he did not prevail in any. Gacy's appeals related to issues such as the validity of the first search warrant granted to Des Plaines police on December 13, 1978, and his objection to his lawyers' insanity plea defense at his trial.  Gacy also contended that, although he held "some knowledge" of five of the murders (those of McCoy, Butkovich, Godzik, Szyc and Piest), the other 28 murders had been committed by employees who were in possession of keys to his house while he was away on business trips.

In mid-1984, the Supreme Court of Illinois upheld Gacy's conviction and ordered that he be executed by lethal injection on November 14.  Gacy filed an appeal against this decision, which was denied by the Supreme Court of the United States on March 4, 1985. The following year, Gacy filed a further post-conviction petition, seeking a new trial. His then-defense lawyer, Richard Kling, argued that Gacy had been provided with ineffective legal counsel at his 1980 trial. This post-conviction petition was dismissed on September 11, 1986.

The 1985 decision that he be executed was again appealed by Gacy, although his conviction was again upheld on September 29, 1988, with the Illinois Supreme Court setting a renewed execution date of January 11, 1989.

After Gacy's final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied in October 1993, the Illinois Supreme Court formally set an execution date for May 10, 1994.

Execution

On the morning of May 9, 1994, Gacy was transferred from the Menard Correctional Center to Statesville Correctional Center in Crest Hill to be executed. That afternoon, he was allowed a private picnic on the prison grounds with his family. For his last meal, Gacy ordered a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, a dozen fried shrimp, French fries, fresh strawberries, and a Diet Coke.  That evening, he observed prayer with a Catholic priest before being escorted to the Statesville execution chamber to receive a lethal injection.

Before the execution began, the chemicals used to perform the execution unexpectedly solidified, clogging the IV tube administering the chemicals into Gacy's arm and complicating the execution procedure. Blinds covering the window through which witnesses observed the execution were drawn, and the execution team replaced the clogged tube to complete the procedure. After ten minutes, the blinds were reopened and the execution resumed. The entire procedure took 18 minutes. Anesthesiologists blamed the problem on the inexperience of prison officials who were conducting the execution, stating that had correct execution procedures been followed, the complications would never have occurred. This error apparently led to Illinois' subsequent adoption of an alternative method of lethal injection. On this subject, one of the prosecutors at Gacy's trial, William Kunkle, said: "He got a much easier death than any of his victims."

According to published reports, Gacy was a diagnosed psychopath who did not express any remorse for his crimes. His final statement to his lawyer before his execution was that killing him would not compensate for the loss of others and that the state was murdering him.  His final spoken words were "Kiss my ass."

In the hours leading up to Gacy's execution, a crowd estimated to number over 1,000 gathered outside the correctional center; the majority of whom were vocally in favor of the execution, although a number of anti-death penalty protesters were also present. Some of those in favor of the execution wore T-shirts hearkening to Gacy's previous community services as a clown and bearing satirical slogans such as "No tears for the clown".  The anti-death penalty protesters present observed a silent candlelight vigil.

After Gacy's death was confirmed at 12:58 a.m. on May 10, 1994, his brain was removed. It is in the possession of Helen Morrison, a witness for the defense at Gacy's trial, who has interviewed Gacy and other serial killers in an attempt to isolate common personality traits of violent sociopaths. His body was cremated after the execution.

In the months following Gacy's execution, many of his paintings were auctioned.  Some were bought so that they could be destroyed in a June 1994 communal bonfire held in Naperville, Illinois and attended by approximately 300 people, including family members of nine of Gacy's victims.

Victims

Identified victims

Only 27 of Gacy's victims were ever conclusively identified. By the time of Gacy's trial, 22 victims had been identified. In March 1980, two further bodies unearthed from Gacy's crawl space were identified via dental and radiology records as those of Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino; both reported missing on October 25, 1976, the day after they had disappeared.

In May 1986, the ninth victim exhumed from Gacy's crawl space was identified as Timothy Jack McCoy, Gacy's first victim.  One further victim was identified in November 2011 through DNA testing as William George Bundy, a 19-year-old construction worker who was last seen by his family on his way to a party on October 26, 1976.  Bundy had apparently worked for Gacy.  Shortly after Gacy's arrest, his family had contacted Bundy's dentist in the hope of submitting his dental records for comparison with the unidentified bodies. However, the records had been destroyed after the dentist had retired.  A second victim was identified through DNA testing in July 2017 as a 16-year-old from Saint Paul, Minnesota named James Haakenson, who was the last known to have contacted his family on August 5, 1976.

Timothy Jack McCoy (16). January 3, 1975 Body 9. Crawl space.

John Butkovich (18) July 31, 1975 Body 2. Garage.

Darrell Julius Samson (18) April 6, 1976. Body 29. Dining room.

Randall Wayne Reffett (15) May 14, 1976. Body 7. Crawl space.

Samuel G. Dodd Stapleton (14) May 14, 1976. Body 6. Crawl space.

Michael Bonnin (17) June 3, 1976. Body 18. Crawl space.

William Huey Carroll, Jr. (16) June 13, 1976. Body 22. Crawl space.

James Byron Haakenson (16) August 5, 1976. Body 24. Crawl space.

Rick Johnston (17) August 6, 1976. Body 23. Crawl space.

Kenneth Ray Parker (16) October 24, 1976. Body 15. Crawl space.

Michael Marino (14) October 24, 1976. Body 14. Crawl space.

William George Bundy (19) October 26, 1976. Body 19. Crawl space.

Gregory John Godzik (17) December 12, 1976. Body 4. Crawl space.

John Alan Szyc (19) January 20, 1977. Body 3. Crawl space.

Jon Steven Prestidge (20) March 15, 1977. Body 1. Crawl space.

Matthew Bowman (19) July 5, 1977. Body 8. Crawl space.

Robert Edward Gilroy, Jr. (18) September 15, 1977. Body 25. Crawl space.

John Antheney Mowery (19) September 25, 1977. Body 20. Crawl space.

Russell Lloyd Nelson (21) October 17, 1977. Body 16. Crawl space.

Robert Winch (16) November 10, 1977. Body 11. Crawl space.

Tommy Joe Boling (20) November 18, 1977. Body 12. Crawl space.

David Paul Talsma (19) December 9, 1977. Body 17. Crawl space.

William Wayne Kindred (19) February 16, 1978. Body 27. Crawl space.

Timothy D. O'Rourke (20) June 16–23, 1978. Body 31. Des Plaines River.

Frank William Landingin (19) November 4, 1978. Body 32. Des Plaines River.

James Mazzara (20) November 24, 1978. Body 33. Des Plaines River.

Robert Jerome Piest (15) December 11, 1978. Body 30. Des Plaines River.

Unidentified victims

Six victims remain unidentified, five of whom had been buried beneath Gacy's crawl space, with one additional youth buried approximately 15 feet (4.6 m) from the barbecue pit in his backyard.  Experts used the skulls of the unidentified victims to create facial reconstructions.  Based upon Gacy's confession, information relative to where the victims were buried in his crawl space relative to Gacy's identified victims, and forensic analysis, police were able to determine the most likely dates when his unidentified victims were killed.

c. January 1974. Body 28. Backyard. Male aged 14–18.

June 13 – August 5, 1976. Body 26. Crawl space. Male aged 23–30.

August 6 – October 5, 1976. Body 13. Crawl space. Male aged 18–22.

August 6 – October 24, 1976. Body 21. Crawl space. Male aged 15–24.

December 1976 – March 15, 1977. Body 5. Crawl space. Male aged 22–32.

March 15 – July 5, 1977. Body 10. Crawl space. Male aged 17–21.

In October 2011, Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart announced that investigators, having obtained full DNA profiles from each of the unidentified victims were to renew their efforts to identify all of them. At a press conference held to announce this intention, Sheriff Dart stated investigators are actively seeking DNA samples from individuals across the United States related to any male missing between 1970 and 1979.  Test results thus far conducted have confirmed the identification of two victims ruled out the possibility of numerous other missing youths as being victims of Gacy, and solved four unrelated cold cases dating between 1972 and 1979.

Identification dispute of Michael Marino

In 2012, DNA tests conducted upon remains identified as those of Michael Marino revealed that the remains had been misidentified. Marino's mother had always doubted the identification of her son because clothing found upon the body was inconsistent with what her son had worn when she last saw him. In addition, the dental X-ray conducted upon the victim identified as Michael Marino had revealed the victim had all of his second molars, whereas a dental X-ray conducted upon Marino in March 1976 revealed one molar had not erupted.  Nonetheless, the orthodontist who had identified Marino's remains has stated his conviction in the accuracy of his findings, adding he had "compared 32 teeth, probably half a dozen of them had very distinct fillings and every one of them was consistent with Michael Marino."

Possible additional victims

At the time of Gacy's arrest, he had claimed to both Des Plaines and Chicago investigators that the total number of victims he had killed could be as high as 45.  However, only 33 bodies were ever found which were linked to Gacy. Investigators did excavate the grounds of his property until they had exposed the substratum of clay beneath the foundations, yet only 29 bodies were found buried upon his property.  When asked as to whether there were more victims, Gacy simply stated, "That's for you guys to find out."

On May 8, 1977, a 24-year-old named Charles Hattula was found drowned in a river near Freeport, Illinois.  Hattula, an employee of PDM Contractors, had been linked to the initial investigation of Gacy after Robert Piest's disappearance; this was after the same employee who had informed the investigators of Gregory Godzik's disappearance informed them of Hattula's death. Moreover, this employee had stated that Hattula was known to have conflicts with Gacy. Gacy had himself informed several of his employees the youth had drowned after Hattula's body was recovered from the Pecatonica River. Des Plaines authorities had contacted colleagues in Freeport during their investigation into Gacy, but were told the youth had fallen to his death from a bridge.  At the time of Hattula's death, Gacy had become engaged, and his fiancée had moved into his home, which leaves a possibility that Gacy had disposed of Hattula's body in the Pecatonica River as opposed to burying the man in his crawl space. However, Hattula's death has been officially ruled as accidental.

Gacy stated that after he had assaulted and then released Jeffrey Rignall in March 1978, he had begun to throw his murder victims into the Des Plaines River. He confessed to having disposed of five bodies in this manner. However, only four bodies were recovered from the river and conclusively confirmed to be victims of Gacy. Given the gap of over four months between the dates of the murders of the first and second victims known to have been disposed in the river, it is possible that this unknown victim may have been killed between June and November 1978.

A retired Chicago police officer named Bill Dorsch has stated he has reason to believe there may be more victims buried within the grounds of the apartment building located at the 6100 block of West Miami Avenue in Chicago; a property which Gacy is known to have been the caretaker of for several years prior to his 1978 arrest. In 1975, Dorsch—then a Chicago police officer—observed Gacy (whom he knew on a casual basis), holding a shovel in the early hours of the morning. When confronted by Dorsch as to his actions, Gacy stated he was performing work that he was too busy to do during the day. Dorsch has also related that several other residents of West Miami Avenue have stated that, in the early- to mid-1970s, they had observed Gacy digging trenches in the grounds of the property; one of these residents have also stated that Gacy later placed plants in the elongated trenches he had dug. At the time these actions had been observed, Gacy had still been married to Carole Hoff.

In March 2012, Cook County Sheriff's officials submitted a request to excavate the grounds of this property. The Cook County State's Attorney denied this request, stating a lack of probable cause as the reason the submission was denied (including the previous 1998 search).  However, the sheriff's office had noted that in 1998, a radar survey conducted had noted 14 areas of interest within the property grounds, yet only two of these 14 anomalies had been excavated. Of the 12 remaining anomalies which police had not examined in greater detail on that occasion, four were described as being "staggeringly suggestive" as human skeletons.  Moreover, Bill Dorsch had provided police with a letter from the radar company which confirmed the 1998 search of the grounds was incomplete.

A second request to excavate the grounds of West Miami Avenue was submitted to the Cook County State's Attorney by Sheriff Tom Dart in October 2012. This request was granted in January 2013, and a search of the property was conducted in the spring. Both FBI sniffer dogs and ground-penetrating radar equipment where used in the second search of West Miami Avenue; however, the search yielded no human remains.

Inspiration for the Missing Child Recovery Act of 1984

In 1984, Sam Amirante, one of Gacy's two defense attorneys at his 1980 trial, authored procedures that were incorporated by Illinois General Assembly into the Missing Child Recovery Act of 1984. Amirante has since stated that the primary inspiration for this legislation was the fact that at the time of the Gacy murders, there had been a 72-hour period which police in Illinois had to allow to elapse before initiating a search for a missing child or adolescent.

The Illinois Missing Child Recovery Act of 1984 removed this 72-hour waiting period. Other states across America subsequently adopted similar procedures and sensibilities, as a result of which a national network aimed at locating missing children was gradually formed. This national network has since developed into the Child Abduction Emergency—commonly known today as an Amber Alert.

Potential accomplices and connections

One of the first things Gacy told investigators after his arrest was that he had not acted alone in several of the murders: he questioned whether individuals he referred to as "my associates" had also been arrested.  When questioned as to whether these individuals had participated directly or indirectly in the killings, Gacy replied, "Directly."

Gacy specifically named two PDM employees as being the individuals he had referred to as being involved in several of the murders.  In the 1980s, he also informed Robert Ressler that "two or three" employees had assisted him in several murders.  Ressler replied that he believed there were unexplained avenues to the case and stated his belief that Gacy had killed more than 33 victims. Gacy neither confirmed nor denied Ressler's suspicions.

Jeffrey Rignall, who had been assaulted and tortured by Gacy in March 1978, was adamant that at one point during his abuse and torture, a young man with brown hair, kneeling before him, watched his abuse.  When this youth realized Rignall had regained consciousness, he was again chloroformed into unconsciousness. Rignall also informed police that as Gacy was raping and assaulting him, a light was switched on in another part of the house.

Moreover, on one occasion during the surveillance of Gacy prior to his arrest, two of the surveillance officers followed Gacy to a bar to which Gacy had driven to meet two of his employees. At the bar, the surveillance officers overheard a hushed conversation between Gacy and one of his employees in which the youth asked Gacy the question: "And what? Buried like the other five?"

In interviews following his arrest and conviction, Gacy repeatedly claimed that he was not present in Chicago when 16 of the identified victims had disappeared. In one interview, he stated that at the time of his arrest, four PDM employees were also considered suspects in the disappearances of the missing individual's investigators had linked to Gacy—all of whom he stated were in possession of keys to his house.  One of these employees was a young man named Philip Paske, who is known to have been a close associate of a man named John Norman. At the time, Norman operated a nationwide sex trafficking ring based in Chicago. At least two victims believed to have been murdered by Gacy, Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino, are known to have last been seen alive close to where Norman resided at the time of their disappearance, and Gacy is known to have been aware of Paske's connections. This led to the theory Gacy may have been connected to this trafficking ring.

Later investigations

In 2012, two Chicago lawyers named Steven Becker and Robert Stephenson publicly stated that having reviewed archived records relating to Gacy's business travels for both PDM Contractors and PE Systems, it is likely that Gacy may have been assisted by one or more accomplices in a minimum of three murders.  In each case, Becker and Stephenson state that official documents attest to the fact that Gacy was in another state at the time the youths in question disappeared. In one case, that of 18-year-old Robert Gilroy, investigators found that on September 12, 1977—three days before Gilroy's disappearance—Gacy had flown to Pittsburgh and did not return to Chicago until the day after the youth had disappeared.

Investigators also note that Robert Young, the traveling companion with whom victim Russell Nelson was visiting Chicago at the time of his disappearance in October 1977, gave differing accounts of the youth's disappearance to both Nelson's family and investigators. To Nelson's family, Young had stated Nelson failed to arrive at a bar at a prearranged time; to investigators, Young claimed he had last seen Nelson standing among a crowd who had gathered outside a Chicago bar and when his attention was diverted for a few moments, Nelson simply disappeared. Investigators contend this could not have happened without his traveling companion noticing.

Young is known to have filed a missing person's report with Chicago police, before unsuccessfully requesting money from Nelson's parents to finance a search for their son. When Nelson's two brothers arrived in Chicago to search for him, Young had offered both brothers a job with Gacy's construction company.  Young was never summoned to testify at Gacy's trial as to the circumstances surrounding Nelson's disappearance.

In a third case, travel records indicate Gacy was at a scheduled job site in Michigan at 6:00 a.m. on September 26, 1977—the day following the disappearance of 19-year-old John Mowery, who was last seen leaving his mother's house at 10:00 p.m. on September 25. Mowery's roommate was a PDM employee who had formerly lived with Gacy and had moved into Mowery's apartment less than one week before the youth's disappearance. Two witnesses have stated that this roommate had recommended to Mowery that he meet "a man who is going out of town" two days prior to the youth's disappearance.

Criminal defense attorneys and investigators researching the possibility Gacy had not acted alone in several of the murders have stated there is "overwhelming evidence Gacy worked with an accomplice".

Media

Film

The made-for-TV film To Catch a Killer, starring Brian Dennehy as Gacy was released in 1992. The film is largely based on the investigation of Gacy, following the disappearance of Robert Piest, by Des Plaines Police and their efforts to arrest him before the scheduled civil suit hearing on December 22.

A feature film, Gacy, was released in 2003. This film cast Mark Holton in the role of Gacy and depicts Gacy's life after he moved to Norwood Park in 1971 up until his arrest in 1978.

The made-for-TV film Dear Mr. Gacy, released in 2010, stars William Forsythe as Gacy. The film is based upon the book The Last Victim, written by Jason Moss.  The film focuses upon the correspondence between Moss and Gacy before Gacy invited Moss to visit him on death row in 1994.

The horror film 8213: Gacy House was released in 2010 and is based upon paranormal investigators spending a night in the house built on the former site of 8213 Summerdale Terrace.

Books

29 Below, by Jeffrey Rignall and Ron Wilder (ISBN B0006XG56Y).

A Question of Doubt: The John Wayne Gacy Story, by John Wayne Gacy (ISBN 1-87886-503-X).

Buried Dreams: Inside the Mind of Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy, by Tim Cahill (ISBN 1-85702-084-7).

John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster, by Sam L. Amirante and Danny Broderick (ISBN 1-616-08248-8).

Johnny and Me: The True Story of John Wayne Gacy, by Barry Boschelli (ISBN 1-4343-2184-3).

Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders, by Terry Sullivan and Peter T. Maiken (ISBN 0-7860-1422-9).

Killer Clown: The True Story of John Wayne Gacy, by Aimee Baxter (ISBN 978-1-973-75535-7).

The Chicago Killer, by Joseph R. Kozenczak and Karen M. Kozenczak (ISBN 978-1401095314).

The Last Victim: A True-Life Journey into the Mind of the Serial Killer, by Jason Moss and Jeffrey Kottler, Ph.D. (ISBN 0-7535-0398-0).

The Man Who Killed Boys, by Clifford L. Linedecker (ISBN 0-312-95228-7).

Unfinished Nightmare: The Search for More Victims of Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy, by Chris Maloney (ISBN 978-1466080317).

Destination Gacy: A Cross-Country Journey to Shake the Devil's Hand, by Nancy Rommelmann (ISBN 978-1940838380).

Television

The Discovery Channel has broadcast an episode relating to Gacy's crimes within the true-crime series The New Detectives: Case Studies in Forensic Science.  This documentary features an interview between Gacy and FBI profiler Robert Ressler, whom Gacy claimed to have known when both he and Ressler were children. (As a child, Ressler had lived just four blocks from Gacy in Chicago and Gacy had delivered groceries to Ressler's family.)

The Investigation Discovery channel has broadcast two documentaries about the Gacy murders. The first documentary focusing upon Gacy's crimes was commissioned for the Most Evil series; a forensics program in which a forensic psychiatrist named Michael Stone analyzes various murderers and psychopaths. The second Investigation Discovery program on Gacy is featured in the Evil Lives Here series. This program explores how Gacy's actions affected his family. Gacy's sister and niece are among those interviewed.

The Biography Channel has broadcast a 45-minute documentary on the crimes of John Wayne Gacy.

The television program, Psychic Investigators have broadcast an episode entitled "What Lies Below".  This program focuses upon the consultation between Detective Joseph Kozenczak and a psychic named Carol Broman, whom Kozenczak had met on December 17, 1978, to discuss the whereabouts of the body of Robert Piest.

The Lifetime Movies network series Monster in My Family has broadcast a 42-minute episode focusing on the murders committed by Gacy. This episode, titled "Killer Clown: John Wayne Gacy", was initially broadcast in August 2015. The episode features Karen Kuzma, the sister of John Wayne Gacy, and her daughter, and focuses upon formative events in Gacy's life that may have initiated his later crimes.