World's Most Evil Killers - Season 1, Episode 13 - John Wayne Gacy | True Crime | Forensic Files

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

John Wayne Gacy murdered 33 boys and young men during a six-year period in the 1970s. He hid the bodies of his victims in the walls of his suburban home.

In this true crime series, take an in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, Cary Stayner, Leonard Lake, Dorothea Puente and more.

Brief Summary

John Wayne Gacy, a killer clown, murdered 33 young men, shocking America with his heinous crimes and chilling confessions.

Key points

The Killer Clown Unveiled. John Wayne Gacy, a seemingly normal man, was revealed to be a serial killer who murdered 33 young men.
The Chilling Confession. Gacy confessed to the murder of 33 young men, detailing the burial sites beneath his home.
Gacy's Confession. John Wayne Gacy confessed to the murder of 33 young men and boys between 1972 and 1978.
The Trial of John Wayne Gacy. The trial began on February 6, 1980, with Gacy's defense team pleading insanity.
Gacy's Execution. On May 10, 1994, John Wayne Gacy was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Penitentiary.
Gacy's Last Words. Gacy's final words were a defiant "Kiss my ass," showing no remorse for his actions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You know, clowns can get away with murder.

John Wayne Gacy chillingly remarks to detectives.

0:40WatchJul 28, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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