John Wayne Gacy was born on March 17, 1942 to John Stanley and Marion (nee Robinson) Gacy in Chicago, Illinois; he was one of three children and had two sisters, Joanne and Karen. Mr. Gacy was born on June 20, 1900 in Chicago, and John’s Mother was born on May 4, 1908 in Racine, WI. As a child, the sickly Gacy was reportedly close with his mom and sisters but had a poor relationship with his alcoholic father, who was verbally and physically abusive and reportedly beat him regularly. He was hospitalized in 1957 for a burst appendix, and when he was eleven was hit in the head with a swing. As a result of the injury he suffered from seizures and blackouts until the age of sixteen, when a doctor diagnosed him with a blood clot on the brain; the condition was corrected with medication. John Stanley made it clear that he thought his son was faking his illness in an attempt to garner attention and sympathy, and strangely enough his conditions were never formally diagnosed (although his mother and two sisters never doubted him). In 1949, Mr. Gacy was told that John and another boy had been caught sexually molesting a young girl, and he whipped him with a razor strop. Later the same year, a friend of the Gacy family began molesting John in his truck; he never told his father about it as he was afraid that he might somehow be blamed for it.
Despite dropping out of high school his senior year, Gacy still managed to have a fairly successful life: in April 1962 he moved to Las Vegas, where he briefly worked for an ambulance company before moving on to employment in a mortuary. John worked there as an attendant for roughly three months, watching morticians preserve bodies and at times serving as a pallbearer. He slept in the embalming room on a cot, and later confessed that one night while alone he got into a coffin with the body of a teenage male inside. He had a few “intimate moments” with the corpse before going into a state of shock. After this, Gacy returned home to Chicago and enrolled in classes at Northwestern Business College. After finishing his studies, he got a job as a shoe salesman at the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company, and in 1964 he was transferred to a store in Springfield, IL where he met bookkeeper Marlynn Myers. The two were wed in September 1964 and had two children together: a son and a daughter. While living in Springfield Gacy became active in the Waterloo Jaycees, and in 1965 became the chapter’s vice-president. Just in case anyone was curious (I kept hearing about the organization in Netflix’s ‘Conversations with a Killer’ and had no idea what it was), the Jaycees are a civic organization for individuals between the ages of 18 and 40. It provides leadership training and its areas of emphasis are business development, management skills, individual training, community service, and international connections.
In 1966 Gacy began his career managing three KFC’s in Waterloo, Iowa owned by his FIL. He said he enjoyed the first few years of marriage but compared it to constantly being in church… big surprise: it didn’t last long, and the couple divorced after he was arrested for sodomyin December 1968 (which was illegal in Iowa until 1976). John was sentenced to ten years at the Anamosa State Penitentiary, and after his arrest Marlynn took the children andleft; the last time Gacy saw them was in 1968.
After serving only eighteen months in prison Gacy was granted parole on June 18, 1970 on the condition he serve a year of probation. As a part of his release he had to move back to Chicago and reside with his mother, and shortly after they bought the infamous murder house located at 8213 West Summerdale Avenue. On February 12, 1971 John was arrested again for reckless conduct and aggravated sexual battery, but the charges were dropped after the victim attempted to blackmail him. In 1971, he established his construction company, ‘PDM Contractors’ (short for ‘Painting, Decorating, and Maintenance’), and with the ‘OK’ of his PO worked nights on side gigs while maintaining his day job as a cook. At first he only took on smaller jobs like minor repair work, but he later expanded to include bigger projects like landscaping, remodeling, and interior design. In August 1971 he got engaged to a divorced mother of two that he briefly dated in high school named Carole Hoff. The couple quickly moved in together (along with her two daughters, Tammy and April) and were married on July 1, 1972; Gacy’s mother moved out shortly before their nuptials.
In 1973, Gacy traveled to Florida with one of his teenage employees to take a look at a piece of property he had recently bought; while there, he raped the young man in their shared hotel room. After returning home to Chicago, the youth drove to John’s house and beat him up in his front yard; he told his wife that he had been attacked after refusing to pay him for a poor painting job. In the middle of the same year, Gacy quit his FT job as a cook so he could fully commit to his construction business. By early 1975 he had shared with his second bride that he was bisexual, and after they had sex on Mother’s Day he informed her that it would be ‘the last time’ he did that with her. After that John started spending most of his time away from the family home, returning early in the morning with the excuse that he had been working late or was preoccupied with ‘business meetings.’ It was also around this time that Carole started to notice her husband was sneaking teenage boys in and out of their garage in the early morning hours of the day. She also found wallets and ID’s amongst his belongings as well as gay pornography, and when she attempted to talk to him about it he told her that it was ‘none of her business.’ By October 1975 Carole had enough of her husband’s shenanigans and after a big blow-up asked him for a divorce, which he agreed to; despite this, she continued to live with him until February 1976 (with his blessing). On March 2, 1976 the couple’s divorce was finalized.
In addition to Gacy’s booming personal business in March 1977 he became a supervisor for a firm specializing in the remodeling of drugstores called PE Systems (remember this tidbit for later), and between the two there were occasions where he was working sixteen hours a day. By 1978, his construction company alone was bringing in over $200,000 annually. Thanks to John’s membership at a nearby Moose Club in late 1975 he became affiliated with a group that called themselves the ‘Jolly Joker Clown Club;’ an organization that regularly entertained sickly children and participated in parades, parties, and other public fundraising events. As he got more and more into clowning, Gacy developed costumes and makeup for different characters such as ‘Pogo’ and ’Patches,’ and described Pogo as a ‘happy clown,’ whereas the latter had a ‘more serious’ side. When performing, John rarely made money and in interviews during his later life he shared that being a clown allowed him to ‘regress into childhood.’
Many of Gacy’s employees were local high school students and men that tended to be on the youngerside. He frequently would proposition them for sex, and traded sexual favors in return for the use of his vehicles, money, or advancement of employment. John also made it known that he owned guns, and on one occasion said: ‘do you know how easy it would be to get one of my guns and kill you, and how easy it would be to get rid of the body?’ After his first stint in prison he became active in the local Democratic Party, and after giving them use of his employees to clean their headquarters (at no charge) he was rewarded with an invite to serve on the Norwood Park Township Street lighting committee, which eventually helped him obtain the title of precinct captain. In addition to being active in local politics in 1975 he was made the director of Chicago’s yearly Polish Constitution Day Parade, and it was directly because of his work with the organization that helped him meet the (former) First Lady, Rosalynn Carter. It’s worth noting, in their pictures together Gacy is wearing a pin with a ‘S’ on it, which gave its wearer a special security clearance with the US Secret Service.
After his intended victim was successfully inside his home, Gacy’s typical MO was to give them alcohol and illicit substances in an attempt to gain their trust. He would then pull out handcuffs and tell them he wanted to ‘show them a magic trick,’ sometimes as part of a routine that began with cuffing his own hands behind his back. After a bit of fussing he would eventually uncuff himself (thanks to a hidden key), and when finished he would offer to show the young man how to perform the illusion. Once they were subdued, John would then procede to assault, torture, and rape them. He would also inflict various acts of torture onto the men, including burning them with cigars, violating them with foreign objects (after sodomizing them), and making them pretend to be a horse while he sat on their backs and rode them (while pulling on homemade ‘reins’ he strung around their necks… WTF?). Gacy frequently bound his victims’ ankles together with the help of a two-by-four, complete with handcuffs attached at both ends. He also taunted most of the young men while he was murdering them, and partly drowned several of them in his bathtub before repeatedly bringing them back to life (only to kill them again).
The Killer Clown typically killed his young victims using what he called his ‘rope trick:’ he put a tourniquet made out of a rope around their neck and using a hammer handle progressively made it tighter and tighter. Additionally, several of his young victims died by asphyxiation from cloth gags stuffed down their throats. Gacy typically kept their remains underneath his bed for up to twenty-four hours before moving them to the crawl space underneath the house. On occasion, he would pour quicklime on them in order to speed up the rate of decomp. Looking into it, quicklime (or calcium carbonate) has been used for centuries to help break down human remains. Strangely enough, Gacy took some of his victims out to his garage and embalmed them before they were disposed of underneath his house.
On the afternoon of December 11, 1978, Gacy went to the Nisson Pharmacy in Des Plaines, to talk about a potential remodeling deal with its owner, Phil Torf. While there he met 15-year-old PT employee Robert Piest, and made a point of mentioning that his firm frequently hired teenage boys at far more than what he was making at the pharmacy. Shortly after John left, Mrs. Piest arrived to bring her son home, but he asked her to wait and said ‘some contractor wants to talk to me about a job.’ He walked away from her at 9:00 PM, saying he’d be right back but never returned; by 10 PM, he was dead. When Rob never came home, his family quickly filed a missing person report with the Des Plaines PD. Torf told them Gacy was the contractor his young employee had most likely left his store to speak with, and a quick look into his criminal background showed an outstanding battery charge as well as his Iowa imprisonment. The evening after Piest disappeared three Des Plaines police officers visited Gacy at his home and questioned him about the missing boy; he said he never offered Rob a job and promised to come in later that evening to make an official statement, and that he was unable to go then because his uncle had just passed away. John got to the station around 3:20 AM completely covered in mud, telling detectives he had recently been involved in a car accident.
Suspecting Gacy might be holding the young man, Des Plaines police got a search warrant for his residence on December 13, which revealed several suspicious items (including ropes, sex toys, and handcuffs). He was quickly becoming friendly with the detectives that were in charge of his surveillance, and by December 16 he was regularly inviting them to join him for meals and drinks (both in bars and at his home).
By December 18, Gacy was starting to crack and was showing visible signs of strain from the constant police surveillance. That afternoon, he drove to his lawyers’ office to file a $750,000 civil suit against the Des Plaines PD demanding that they stop their monitoring of him. Later that same day, LE found a photo receipt from the Nisson Pharmacy was found in his kitchen that was traced back to a colleague of Robs named Kimberly Byers, who told them she had borrowed his blue parka earlier in the evening and had put it in his pocket before returning it. The following day Gacy’s lawyers filed the civil suit, and Cook County detectives started compiling information for a second search warrant for his residence. Later that afternoon, he invited the surveillance team inside his home, and as one of them distracted him the other walked into his room in an (unsuccessful) attempt to get the serial number on the back of his Motorola TV that they suspected belonged to one of his victims (John Szyc). While one of the detectives was using Gacy’s restroom, he noticed a very particular odor coming out of his heating duct that he strongly suspected was rotting corpses. The first time the residence was searched it had been cold, and the officers had failed to notice it.
On the evening of December 20, Gacy went to his attorney’s office for a scheduled meeting, most likely to talk about the progress of the civil suit. When arriving he seemed to be visibly nervous and immediately gulped down two cups of whiskey provided by his lawyer, Sam Amirante. By then Amirante was having serious doubts about his client’s innocence, and it was then that he threw down a copy of The Daily Herald and said: ‘you said you had something new to tell me! Something important!’ John picked up the paper, pointed at the front page story about Piest and dramatically announced, ‘this boy is dead. He’s dead. He’s in a river.’ He then proceeded to give a rambling, hours-long drunken confession claiming that he had ‘been the judge, jury, and executioner of many, many people,’ and that he now wanted to be the same for himself. Gacy also volunteered that he had killed ‘at least thirty’ young men, most of which he dismissed simply as ‘male prostitutes,’ ‘hustlers,’ and ‘liars,’ and said that sometimes he would wake up and discover ‘dead, strangled kids’ with their hands handcuffed behind their backs.
Mid-way during his rambling John passed out. When he woke up a couple of hours later he told his lawyer that he couldn’t talk about the night before, and said ‘I can’t think about this right now. I’ve got things to do’ then left. Gacy later said that his memories of his last day of freedom were ‘hazy,’ and that he knew his arrest was only a matter of time and that he intended to drive around and visit his friends and say his last goodbyes. After leaving, John went to a nearby gas station where he handed off a small baggie of marijuana to an attendant, who immediately gave it to the surveillance officers. He said that Gacy told him, ‘the end is coming (for me). These guys are going to kill me.’ John then drove to the home of Ronald Rhode, a friend and fellow contractor, hugged him then burst into tears while sobbing, ‘I’ve been a bad boy. I killed thirty people, give or take a few.’ From there, he left and drove to former employee David Cram’s home to meet with him and Michael Rossi, and as he drove down the expressway, surveillance officers noted he was holding a rosary to his chin and appeared to be praying.
When investigators heard from the surveillance officers that Gacy was showing increasingly erratic behavior, they became fearful that he may have become suicidal and decided to arrest him on a possession charge (for the weed) in order to put him in their custody. On the night of Gacy’s civil hearing a second search warrant for his residence was granted at 4:30 PM, and when he was informed of their plans to dig up his crawl space to search for Rob Piest’s body he confessed that he killed the boy in self-defense and buried him under his garage. When police and evidence technicians arrived at John’s home they found he had unplugged his sump pump, which flooded the crawl space. After they replaced it and the water drained away, evidence technician Daniel Genty began digging, and within minutes he uncovered a human arm bone as well as rotted flesh. According to Tim Cahill’s novel, ‘Buried Dreams:’ ‘in the northeast corner of the crawl space under John Gacy’s house, the officers found puddles, all swarming with thin red worms. There, two feet from the north wall, they uncovered what appeared to be a knee bone. The flesh was so desiccated that at first they thought is was blue-jean material.’
After Gacy was told that investigators had found remains underneath his house and he was now facing homicide charges, he told them that he wanted to ‘clear the air:’ on December 22, 1978 John Wayne Gacy confessed to murdering roughly thirty young men. He referred to a few of his victims by name, butclaimed not to know the majority of them and volunteered that they were all teenage prostitutes or runaways. Gacy also claimed he only dug five of the graves underneath his house, and that his employees dug the remaining ones so that he would have then ‘available.’ In January 1979 he claimed to have plans to further destroy evidence by covering the entire crawl space with concrete.
Gacy murdered at least thirty-three boys and young men between 1972 and 1978, twenty-six of whom he buried in the crawl space of his house. His victims included young men that he knew as well as random individuals he lured from Bughouse Square, the nearby Greyhound Bus Station, or off the streets with the promise of a job, booze/drugs, or cash for sexual favors. Some were grabbed by force, while others were conned into trusting him. After Cook County LE tore apart his residence they investigated a five-unit apartment building in Chicago about four miles away (located at 6114 West Miami Avenue), where he worked as a maintenance man for many years (apparently his mother even lived there at one point). He also told investigators that in 1978 he dumped five of his victims into the Des Plaines River after running out of room in his crawl space, one of which he believed landed on a barge (it is worth noting that only four were ever found). Interesting fact: on more than one occasion the ‘Killer Clown’ committed what he referred to as ‘doubles,’ or two murders in one night.
On March 13, 1980 John Wayne Gacy was sentenced to death; he was executed by lethal injection at the age of 52 on May 10, 1994 at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois. Marion Gacy died on December 14, 1989 and John’s older sister Joanne died on March 23, 2007.
Gacy at roughly the age of three in 1945.Gacy as a child. Photo courtesy of Biography.A young JWG standing in front of a car. Photo courtesy of Biography.A young JWG. Photo courtesy of Biography.A young John Wayne Gacy with his second dog, Prince.A young JWG posing with the scout group he joined as an adolescent; he is on the bottom row, second from the right. Photo courtesy of Biography.A young John Wayne Gacy is to the far left. Photo courtesy of Barry Boschelli (Gacy’s childhood friend).The Gacy family posing with some of the Boschelli’s. Photo courtesy of Barry Boschelli.Another picture of Gacy as a child. Photo courtesy of Altered Dimensions Paranormal.A young JWG wearing a fancy hat. Photo courtesy of Biography.A young Gacy (in the middle wearing the dark suit). Photo courtesy of Boschelli.Some members of the Gacy family; John Stanley is on the far right, and John is in the middle with no shirt on. Photo courtesy of Biography.John in a vehicle. Photo courtesy of Biography.A young Gacy at a gathering, on the far right. Photo courtesy of Biography.Gacy with one of his sisters. Photo courtesy of Biography.Another pic of a young JWG wearig a suit. A adolescent Gacy. Photo courtesy of Biography.JWG. Photo courtesy of Biography.Gacy is on the far left.A young Gacy with one of his sisters. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.A younger JWG.Gacy at the age of eighteen, dressed in his uniform for the local civil defense squad. Photo courtesy of the Tumblr account, ‘true-crime-xgirlx.’Another picture of Gacy in his uniform for the local civil defense squad.Gacy standing with Miss Illinois. Another shot of Gacy with Miss. Illinois.John in his chef’s uniform.Another John in his chef’s uniform.Gacy taste testing a dish in his chef’s uniform.An action shot of John dressed in his chef’s uniform. Photo courtesy of Netflix.JWG’s first wife, Marlynn Myers. Photo courtesy of Biography.John on (I think) one of his sisters wedding day. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Another shot of Gacy and Marlynn on their wedding day. Photo courtesy of Netflix.JWG and his first wife, Marlynn . Photo courtesy of Netflix.Another shot of Gacy and Marlynn at some sort of banquet. Photo courtesy of Netflix. Gacy and Marlynn posing with one of their children. Photo courtesy of Biography.Marlynn Lee Myers.A shot of Gacy with his father holding his young son. Photo courtesy of Biography.A shot of Gacy playing with his young son. Photo courtesy of Biography.A shot of a younger JWG. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy with a bunch of men possibly some other JC’s; he is the second one in on the left (do I have to keep doing this? We all know who JWG is).A dapper JWG. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy singing in prison after his first arrest. Photo courtesy of Biography.Gacy worked as the ‘first chef’ during his first stint in prison. Photo courtesy of Biography.Gacy married his second wife, Carole Hoff on June 1, 1972. She had two little girls, Tammy and April.John with his second wife and Mom on his wedding day.Gacy and his second wife on their wedding day. Photo courtesy of Netflix.John and Carole on their wedding day. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy feeding his second wife cake on their wedding day. Photo courtesy of Biography.Gacy giving his new wife a kiss. Photo courtesy of Biography.John and Carole on their wedding day. Photo courtesy of Netflix.A picture of Gacy’s and Carole on their wedding day. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Another shot of John and Carole, this time posing with some money. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy and his second wife. Photo courtesy of Biography.John and Carole. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy and his second wife Carole posing with her two daughters; the couple eventually divorced on March 2, 1976. Photo courtesy of Netflix.John and Carole. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy and his second wife. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Another shot of John and Carole with one of her daughters. Photo courtesy of Netflix.JWG is on the man on the far left. Photo courtesy of Netflix.A shot of an invite for a party the Gacy’s threw. Photo courtesy of Netflix. John in Carole, dressed in cowboy hats. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy with his second wife Carole in the same home where he hid his victims. Photo courtesy of Netflix.John and Carole. Photo courtesy of Netflix.JWG. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy hard at work for PDM Contractors. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy is on the right. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy at some sort of political event. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy at a party standing with a friend. Photo courtesy of Biography.Gacy at a JC event. Photo courtesy of Biography.Another shot of Gacy at a JC event. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Another shot of Gacy at a JC event. Photo courtesy of Biography.Another shot of Gacy at a JC event. Photo courtesy of Biography.Another shot of Gacy at a JC event (he’s the second from the left). Photo courtesy of Netflix.Another shot of Gacy at a JC event (he’s right in the middle). Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy standing on a balcony. Photo courtesy of Biography.Gacy in his days as a contractor. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy posing with friends. I couldn’t find much on this picture if anyone knows more about it please let me know.Gacy and what looks like his sister. Weird.Gacy hosted a bicentennial party on July 4, 1976. Photo courtesy of The Chicago Tribune. His former business associate, Jim Van Vorous is on his right.Gacy (far right) regularly held dress-up parties to throw suspicious neighbors off his scent. Photo courtesy of Rafael Tovar and The Sun.Another shot of Gacy dressed up at a party. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Another shot of Gacy dressed up at a party. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Another shot of Gacy. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy dressed up for a party. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy at a party. Photo courtesy of Netflix.A commonly used photo of John Wayne Gacy.A young John and his mom.Gacy enjoying a meal with his mother.Gacy with a fake sheriffs badge on at a party. Photo courtesy of Netflix.JWG at a party. Photo courtesy of Netflix.JWG at what looks like another costume party. Photo courtesy of Netflix.JWG at another party. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy at a parade for a Democratic event. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Another shot of Gacy at a parade, for a Democratic event. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy posing with former first lady Rosalynn Carter on May 6, 1978. Photo courtesy of The Chicago Tribune.Another shot of Gacy with Mrs. Carter. Photo courtesy of The Chicago Tribune.An older picture of Gacy and an unnamed man before his second arrest. Another shot of Gacy. Photo courtesy of Netflix.JWG before his second arrest. Photo courtesy of Netflix.A stock pic of Gacy from 1978. Photo courtesy of Daily Mail.A picture of Gacy that was smuggled out of jail by a guard, published by The Chicago tribune in 1978.An older Gacy on death row. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.A picture of Gacy holding one of his paintings he dubbed ‘Pennywise The Clown;’ it was taken just five weeks before his execution. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.Gacy during his time on death row. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Gacy in his cell. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.Supposedly this is a photo of Gacy awaiting execution. Photo courtesy of finwise.edu.Gacy dressed as Pogo. Another photo of Gacy dressed as Pogo the Clown.Gacy dressed as Pogo.Another photo of Gacy dressed as Pogo the Clown.Another shot of Pogo.A B&W shot of Gacy as Pogo, courtesy of The Chicago Tribune.A younger John Stanley Gacy. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Another shot of a younger John Stanley Gacy. Photo courtesy of Netflix.John’s parents.John’s sister Joanne on Oprah. She died in 2007.John Wayne Gacy’s card for the ‘Democratic Precinct Captain’ of Norwood Park Township. Courtesy of The Chicago Tribune.John Wayne Gacy’s business card for his personal business, ‘PDM Contractors.’ Courtesy of Newsweek.Gacy loved flashy belt buckles and frequently wore one with his initials. Photo courtesy of Rafael Tovar and The Sun.Gacy kept items belonging to his victims that he considered ‘mementos’ that he often looked at. Photo courtesy of Rafael Tovar and The Sun.Police found necklaces, bracelets and other jewelry belonging to Gacy’s victims. Photo courtesy of Rafael Tovar and The Sun.Some garters and keys belonging to Gacy’s victims.John Gacy’s clown shoes. Photo courtesy of finwise.edu.Gacy was indicted for 33 murders of young boys and men; these are his victims. Notice some remain unnamed to this day, March 2024. Photo courtesy of The Chicago Tribune.A B&W shot of John Wayne Gacy’s completely intact house located at 8213 West Summerdale Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.A photo taken on March 19, 1979 showing that certain portions of Gacy’s property in Norwood Park Township have been completely picked through and demolished by members of LE. Photo courtesy of Walter Kale from The Chicago Tribune.A picture of Gacy’s tiki-themed bar in his living room. Photo courtesy of Cook County Court.The other side of Gacy’s living room. Photo courtesy of Cook County Court.A different angle of Gacy’s living room. Photo courtesy of Cook County Court.JWG’s kitchen, untouched. Photo courtesy of Cook County Court.JWG’s kitchen counter, untouched. Photo courtesy of Biography.Another shot of JWG’s kitchen, in color. Photo courtesy of Netflix.JWG’s bathroom, untouched. One of the detectives that was tasked with trailing Gacy used it one day and when the heat kicked on he immediately recognized the smell of human decomp. Photo courtesy of Cook County Court.One side of Gacy’s bedroom. Photo courtesy of Cook County Court.Another shot of Gacy’s bedroom. Photo courtesy of Cook County Court.Another bed in Gacy’s house. Photo courtesy of Biography.A picture inside of Gacy’s house. Photo courtesy of Netflix.The main hallway in Gacy’s house. Photo courtesy of Biography.A poster related to Gacy’s contracting company, ‘PDM Contractors.’ Photo courtesy of Netflix.Information related to Gacy’s contracting company, ‘PDM Contractors.’ Photo courtesy of Netflix.Members of the Cook County Sheriff’s Department carrying a piece of floor out of Gacy’s home.Members of LE carrying equipment into Gacy’s residence to remove the bodies of his victims. Investigators bringing out another body from Gacy’s house. Another body being taken out of Gacy’s house. Another body being taken out of Gacy’s house.A body is recovered from John Wayne Gacy’s house in 1979 and transferred to a sheriff’s van. Photo courtesy of Sally Good from The Chicago Tribune.Another body being taken out of Gacy’s house.Another one of Gacy’s victims being taken out of his house.Cook County investigators carrying another body out of Gacy’s house. Members of Cook County LE putting one of Gacy’s victims in the back of a vehicle to be further studied.Police standing in Gacy’s garage. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.Investigators opening up Gacy’s garage. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Members of the Cook County Sherrif’s Department removing the floorboards in Gacy’s kitchen in either late 1978 or early 1979. Photo courtesy of the Cook County Sheriff’s Department.Members of LE looking through Gacy’s crawl space in either late 1978 or early 1979. Photo courtesy of Netflix.The kitchen cabinets and partially tore up floorboards in Gacy’s kitchen. Photo courtesy of the Cook County Sheriff’s Department.After realizing the full extend of Gacy’s atrocities, investigators eventually had to tear up the floors in his house. Photo courtesy of the Cook County Sheriff’s Department.A technician cuts carpet in Gacy’s home in either late 1978 or early 1979. Photo courtesy of Cook County.The crawl space underneath Gacy’s house. Photo courtesy of tCook County.Another shot of the crawl space underneath JWG’s house. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Another shot underneath Gacy’s house. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Numbered stakes show where the remains of Gacy’s victims were discovered in the crawl space underneath his house. Photo courtesy of Tribune News Services.Grids were marked as the crawl space was excavated circa late 1978 or early 1979. Police found the bodies of twenty-nine young men were recovered on his property, and four more were found in Illinois rivers. Photo courtesy of the Cook County Court.A shot of Gacy’s crawl space. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Another shot of Gacy’s crawl space. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Another shot of Gacy’s crawl space. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Some bones found in JWG’s crawl space.A member of Cook County LE in the crawl space under JWG’s home.A member of Cook County LE in JWG’s home. Photo courtesy of Cook County.A member of Cook County LE in the crawl space under JWG’s home. Photo courtesy of Cook County.A member of Cook County LE in the crawl space under JWG’s home. Photo courtesy of Cook County.A member of Cook County LE in the crawl space under JWG’s home. Photo courtesy of Cook County.A member of Cook County LE in the crawl space under JWG’s home. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Investigators in Gacy’s residence. Photo courtesy of Cook County.A technician digging in Gacy’s crawl space. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Investigators at JWG’s house. Photo courtesy of Cook County.The hallway of Gacy’s house. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Investigators tearing apart Gacy’s floorboards. Photo courtesy of Cook County.The early stages of the Gacy investigation, when his house was mostly intact. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Investigators at JWG’s house. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Underneath the floors at Gacy’s house. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Investigators going through Gacy’s house after his arrest. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Investigators dismantling Gacy’s kitchen floors. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Investigators tearing apart Gacy’s floorboards. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Investigators tearing apart Gacy’s residence. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Investigators tearing apart Gacy’s residence. Photo courtesy of Cook County.LE were forced to remove the floors in Gacy’s house in order to access victims’ bodies. Photo courtesy of Rafael Tovar.A crime scene technician from Cook County digging in Gacy’s basement. Photo courtesy of Cook County.LE excavating the crawl space underneath Gacy’s home in either late 1978 or early 1979. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Investigators digging through Gacy’s basement. Photo courtesy of Cook County.A member of Cook County LE underneath Gacy’s homes looking for the remains of his victims. Photo courtesy of Cook County.A member of LE underneath Gacy’s homes looking for the remains of his victims. Photo courtesy of Netflix.A member of Cook County LE underneath Gacy’s homes looking for the remains of his victims. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Cook County investigators going through the crawl space under JWG’s home.A member of LE underneath Gacy’s homes looking for the remains of his victims. Photo courtesy of Cook CountyA member of Cook County LE underneath Gacy’s homes looking for the remains of his victims. Photo courtesy of Cook County.A member of Cook County LE looking through the bones of one of Gacy’s victims. Photo courtesy of Cook County.One of the skeletons found in Gacy’s crawl space.Another shot of one of the skeletons found underneath JWG’s house. Rafael Tovar remembers stumbling across two left femurs. Photo courtesy of Rafael Tovar.A member of Cook County LE standing up in Gacy’s crawl space, as the floorboards above were removed. Photo courtesy of Cook County.A member of Cook County LE puling a body out of Gacy’s crawl space. Photo courtesy of Cook County.A member of Cook County LE puling a body out of Gacy’s crawl space. Photo courtesy of Cook County.A Investigators going through evidence found in Gacy’s crawl space. Photo courtesy of Cook County.A picture of Gacy’s crawl space; I apologize for the text in the middle, it was the only copy I could find. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.A picture of Gacy’s crawl space; I apologize for the text in the middle, it was the only copy I could find. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.Evidence identification marker number eight. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.Another view of evidence identification marker number eight. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.Evidence identification marker number twelve. Photo courtesy of Supernaught.Evidence identification marker number fifteen. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.Evidence identification marker number sixteen. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.Evidence identification marker number seveteen. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.Evidence identification marker number twenty. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.A pieced together skeleton found under JWG’s house. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.Investigators looking into JWG’s crawl space.The entrance to Gacy’s crawl space. Photo courtesy of Cook County.The entrance to Gacy’s crawl space. Photo courtesy of Cook County.The frame of Gacy’s crawl space. Photo courtesy of The Chicago Tribune.Work continues on removing mud from JWG’s crawl space. Photo taken on on January 5, 1979, courtesy of The Chicago Sun-Times Collection.A member of Cook County LE looking through the bones of one of Gacy’s victims. Photo courtesy of Cook County.Members of Cook County LE removing mud from the crawl space underneath Gacy’s house. Photo taken on on January 5, 1979, courtesy of The Chicago Sun-Times Collection.Investigators taking another body out of Gacy’s house. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Investigators taking another body out of Gacy’s house. Photo courtesy of The Chicago Tribune.Investigators carring out the remains of a body found beneath the garage floor on JWG’s property. Photo taken on on December 22, 1978, courtesy of Karen Engstrom from The Chicago Tribune.Investigators taking another body out of Gacy’s house. Photo courtesy of The Chicago Tribune.A blurry shot of investigators taking another body out of JWG’s house. Photo courtesy of The Chicago Tribune.Evidence techs from the the Cook County Sheriff’s Department taking out of one of the bodies that were found underneath JWG’s property. Photo courtesy of Daily Mail.Investigators and evidence techs taking another body out of Gacy’s house. Photo courtesy of The Chicago Sun-Times.Sheriff’s officers carry bodies to the county morgue from Gacy’s house. Photo taken on December 22, 1978, courtesy of Quentin C. Dodt from The Chicago Tribune.Investigators carrying out the remains of a body found in JWG’s crawl space.The 28th body that was taken out of Gacy’s property in Norwood Park as members of LE transferred it to a sheriff’s van. Photo taken on on March 9, 1979, courtesy of The Chicago Tribune.A shot of Cook County LE putting one of Gacy’s victims into a transport vehicle. Photo courtesy of Netflix.JWG’s front yard, (almost) completely empty of Cook County investigators and evidence technicians.Remains found in Gacy’s crawlspace. Photo courtesy of Netflix.More remains found in Gacy’s crawlspace. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Another picture of remains found in Gacy’s crawlspace. Photo courtesy of Netflix.A body pulled out of JWG’s crawl space. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Multiple remains uncovered in JWG’s house.(Retired) Cook County Chief ME Robert Stein examines the case tag of victim number eighteen on December 29, 1978 in a crypt set aside specifically for Gacy victims. Photo courtesy of Gerald West from The Chicago Tribune.Cook County employees demolishing Gacy’s home.Workers demolish Gacy’s house in April 1979. Photo courtesy of Daily Mail.The house had to be knocked down the inside was gutted in the search for bodies. Photo courtesy of Daily Mail.The ruins of Gacy’s one-time home. Photo courtesy of Daily Mail.The shell of JWG’s former home. Photo courtesy of Daily Mail.The demolition of Gacy’s house. Photo courtesy of Netflix.The lot where Gacy’s house once stood. Photo courtesy of Netflix.A barren plot of land where the home of John Wayne Gacy once stood. Photo courtesy of Bettmann Archive.The house that was built in the lot where Gacy’s house once stood. The Channahon Fire Department searching for bodies in the Des Plaines River. Photo taken on December 23, 1978, courtesy of Frank Hanes from The Chicago Tribune.In addition to Gacy’s house, after police honed in on him they investigated this five-unit apartment building located at 6114 West Miami Avenue in Chicago. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.On November 23, 1998 technicians from the Cook County Sheriff’s Department began preliminary work on a possible excavation at an apartment building in the Northwest Side of Chicago in search of as many as five additional victims of JWG. Photo courtesy of The Associated Press.The yard of the apartment building where Gacy’s mother once lived, and at one time he did some construction work there. This information regarding the location was released by retired Chicago police detective and PI Bill Dorsch in late 1998. Dorsch said he had seen Gacy carrying a shovel near the general area at about three in the morning one day in 1975. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.Technicians use radar to scan beneath the parking lot at the apartment complex where Gacy once cared for. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.Gacy’s car sitting in his driveway. Photo courtesy of Netflix.The back of John Wayne Gacy’s muddy Oldsmobile. Photo courtesy of Netflix.JWG’s contracting van. Photo courtesy of Netflix. The back of JWG’s contracting van. Photo courtesy of Netflix. A picture of the gas station where Gacy passed off the marijuana. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Another shot of the gas station where Gacy passed off the marijuana. Photo courtesy of Netflix.A photo of JWG after his first arrest for sodomy in 1968.A mugshot from Gacy’s 1968 arrest for sodomy in Waterloo, Iowa.Gacy’s mugshot taken on December 21, 1978 at the Des Plaines Police Department. Photo courtesy of the Des Plaines PD.John Wayne Gacy being transported from the Des Plaines Police Station to a hospital on December 23, 1978. Photo courtesy of William Yates from The Chicago Tribune.At the Des Plaines police station, John Wayne Gacy covers his face with his manacled hands as he emerged after an all-night questioning session on December 22, 1978. Photo courtesy of Roy Hall from The Chicago Tribune.Gacy being put in a squad car at the Des Plaines Police Station to be transported to a hospital. Photo taken on December 23, 1978, courtesy of William Yates from The Chicago Tribune.Police floor plans showing location of bodies found in Gacy’s home. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.A hand drawn diagram by Gacy of where he buried the bodies of his victims in the crawl space underneath his home. Photo courtesy of Erin Hooley from The Chicago Tribune.A floor plan drawn by Gacy pointing out the locations of his victims. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.A picture from the memorial service for the nine (then) unidentified victims of Gacy; of that, five remain. Photo taken on June 12, 1981, courtesy of The Berkshire Eagle.The service was held at a cemetery in Hillside, IL on June 12, 1981. The remains will be buried in nine different cemeteries in hopes of preventing a potential tourist attraction. Photo courtesy of The Berkshire Eagle.Items found in the home of JWG. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Some of the ‘tools’ Gacy used in his murders. Photo courtesy of Netflix.A ligature used by Gacy. Photo courtesy of Erin Hooley from The Chicago Tribune.A pair of handcuffs belonging to John Wayne Gacy. Photo courtesy of Erin Hooley from The Chicago Tribune.A blue nylon jacket belonging to Robert Piest that was found in Gacy’s home. Photo courtesy of Erin Hooley from The Chicago Tribune.Porn found in Gacy’s house after his arrest. Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.Some of the pornography themed literature found in Gacy’s house after his arrest. Photo courtesy of Netflix.Some more of the pornography themed literature found in Gacy’s house after his arrest. Photo courtesy of Netflix.One of John Wayne Gacy’s paintings, a ‘self-portrait.’ Photo courtesy of Steve Eichner and WireImage.Original Artwork by JWG. Photo courtesy of Steve Eichner and WireImage.Original Artwork by JWG. Photo courtesy of Steve Eichner and WireImage.Another one of Gacy’s paintings.Gacy’s paints.Technicians from the Cook County Sheriff’s examining containers holding some remains of the unidentified victims of JWG in June 2011. For many years they were kept at the Cook County’s ME’s office and in 2009 were buried in a paupers’ grave. After they obtained a court order, investigators dug up a wooden crate at Homewood Memorial Gardens in June 2011 that contained eight smaller, pail-shaped boxes, each holding a victim’s jaw bones and their teeth. Photo courtesy of The Chicago Tribune.An obituary for John’s sister, published on March 24, 2007.
Another Bundy Blog. 