Killer Clown

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994), also known as the Killer Clown, was an American serial killer and rapist.

He sexually assaulted and murdere dat least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978 in Cook County, Illinois.

All of Gacy's known murders were committed inside his Norwood Park, Illinois home. His victims would typically be lured to this address by force or deception, and all but one victim were murdered by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a tourniquet (his first victim was stabbed to death). Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the crawl space of his home. Three further victims were buried elsewhere on his property, while the bodies of his last four known victims were discarded in the Des Plaines River.

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

Gacy became known as the "Killer Clown" due to his charitable services at fundraising events, parades, and children's parties where he would dress as "Pogo the Clown", a character he devised himself.

Early life

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 17, 1942, the only son and the second of three children born to John Stanley Gacy (June 20, 1900 – December 25, 1969), an auto repair machinist and World War I veteran, and his wife Marion Elaine Robinson (May 4, 1908 – December 14, 1989), a homemaker. Gacy was of Polish and Danish ancestry. His paternal grandparents (who spelled the family name as "Gatza" or "Gaca") had immigrated to the United States from Poland (then part of Prussia). As a child, Gacy was overweight and unathletic. He was close to his two sisters and mother, but endured a difficult relationship with his father, an alcoholic who was physically abusive to his wife and children.

Throughout his childhood, Gacy strove to make his stern father proud of him, but seldom received his approval. One of Gacy's earliest childhood memories was of being beaten with a leather belt by his father at the age of four for accidentally disarranging car engine components his father had assembled. On another occasion, his father struck him across the head with a broomstick, rendering him unconscious. He was regularly belittled by his father and often compared unfavorably with his sisters, enduring disdainful accusations of being "dumb and stupid". The friction between father and son was constant throughout his childhood and adolescence. Although Gacy regularly commented that he was "never good enough" in his father's eyes, in interviews after his arrest, he always vehemently denied he ever hated his father.

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

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

At school, where he was ordered to avoid all sports due to a heart condition, Gacy was an average student who had few friends and who was an occasional target for mockery and bullying by neighborhood children and classmates. He was known to assist the school truant officer and volunteer to run errands for teachers and neighbors. During the fourth grade, Gacy began to experience blackouts. He was occasionally hospitalized due to these seizures, and also in 1957 for a burst appendix. Gacy later estimated that he spent almost a year in the hospital for these episodes between the ages of 14 and 18, and attributed the decline in his grades to his time out of school. His father suspected the episodes were an effort to gain sympathy and attention; on one occasion, he openly accused his son of faking as the boy lay in a hospital bed.

Gacy's medical condition was never conclusively diagnosed, although his mother, sisters and few close friends themselves never doubted his illness. A school friend of Gacy's, named Richard Dalke, recalled several instances in which Gacy Sr. ridiculed or beat his son without provocation. On one occasion in 1957, Dalke witnessed an incident in which Gacy's father began shouting at his son for no reason, then began hitting him. Gacy's mother attempted to intervene between her son and her husband. Dalke recalled Gacy simply "put up his hands to defend himself", adding that he never struck his father back during these altercations.

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

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

In his role as a mortuary attendant, Gacy slept in a cot behind the embalming room. In this role, he observed morticians embalming dead bodies and later confessed to the fact that on one evening while alone, he had clambered into the coffin of a deceased teenage male, embracing and caressing the body before experiencing a sense of shock.

The sense of shock prompted Gacy to call his mother the next day and ask whether his father would allow him to return home. His father agreed and the same day, Gacy drove back to live with his family in Chicago. Upon his return, despite the fact he had failed to graduate from high school, Gacy successfully enrolled in the Northwestern Business College from which he graduated in 1963. Gacy subsequently took a management trainee position within the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company.

In 1964, the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company transferred Gacy to Springfield, Illinois, initially to work as a salesman, although Gacy was subsequently promoted to manager of his department. In March of that year, he became engaged to Marlynn Myers, co-worker within the department he managed. After a nine-month courtship, the couple married in September 1964. Marlynn Myers' father subsequently purchased three Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Waterloo, Iowa, and he and his wife moved to Waterloo in order for him to manage the restaurants, with the understanding that Gacy and his wife would move into Marlynn's parents' home.

During his courtship with Marlynn, Gacy joined the Jaycees (United States Junior Chamber (JCs or more commonly Jaycees)) and became a tireless worker for the organization; being named Key Man for the organization in April 1964. The same year, Gacy had his second homosexual experience. According to Gacy, he acquiesced to this incident after a colleague of his within the Springfield Jaycees plied him with drinks, invited him to spend the evening upon his sofa, then performed oral sex upon him while he was drunk.

By 1965, Gacy had risen to the position of vice-president of the Springfield Jaycees. The same year, he was named as the third most outstanding Jaycee within the State of Illinois.

Move to Iowa

In 1966, Gacy's father-in-law offered him the opportunity to manage the three Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants he had purchased in Waterloo. The offer was lucrative: Gacy would receive $15,000 per year ($109,585 in 2015 dollars) plus a share of profits. Gacy accepted the offer and, following his obligatory completion of a managerial course, he and his wife relocated to Waterloo later that year.

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

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

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

First offenses

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

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

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

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

Section of report detailing Gacy's 1968 psychiatric evaluation.

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

Voorhees immediately reported the assault to the police, identifying Schroeder as his attacker, and the youth was arrested the following day. Despite initially denying any involvement, Schroeder confessed to having assaulted Voorhees, indicating that he had done so at Gacy's request. Gacy was arrested and additionally charged in relation to hiring Schroeder to assault and intimidate Voorhees. On September 12, Gacy was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at the Psychiatric Hospital of the State University of Iowa. Two doctors examined Gacy over a period of 17 days and concluded he had antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), was unlikely to benefit from any therapy or medical treatment, and his behavior pattern was likely to bring him into repeated conflict with society. The doctors also concluded he was mentally competent to stand trial.

Conviction and imprisonment

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

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

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

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

Parole

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

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

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

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

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

Businessman and community volunteer

Following Gacy's marriage to Carole Hoff, his new wife and stepdaughters moved into the Summerdale Avenue house. In 1972, Gacy quit his job as a cook and started his own construction business, PDM Contractors (PDM being the initials for 'Painting, Decorating, and Maintenance'). The business initially undertook minor repair work, such as signwriting, pouring concrete and redecorating, but later expanded to include projects such as interior design, remodeling, installation, assembly and landscaping. By 1978, the gross of PDM's annual turnover was over $200,000.

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

His neighbors in Norwood Park considered Gacy gregarious and helpful; he was active in his local community and, from 1974, hosted annual summer parties. He also became active in Democratic Party politics, initially offering the labor services of his PDM employees free of charge. Gacy was rewarded for his community services by being appointed to serve upon the Norwood Park Township street lighting committee. He subsequently earned the title of precinct captain. In 1975, Gacy was appointed director of Chicago's annual Polish Constitution Day Parade — he supervised the annual event from 1975 until 1978. Through his work with the parade, Gacy met and was photographed with then First Lady Rosalynn Carter on May 6, 1978. Rosalynn Carter signed one photo: "To John Gacy. Best wishes. Rosalynn Carter". The event later became an embarrassment to the United States Secret Service, as in the pictures taken Gacy can be seen wearing an "S" pin, indicating a person who has been given special clearance by the Secret Service.

Gacy as "Pogo the Clown". He stated that acting as a clown allowed him to "regress into childhood".

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

By 1975, Gacy had openly admitted to his wife he was bisexual. On May 11 (Mother's Day), after having sex, he informed her they would never again have sex. He began spending most evenings away from home only to return in the early hours of the morning with the excuse he had been working late. His wife observed Gacy bringing teenage boys into his garage and also found gay pornography inside the house. The Gacys divorced by mutual consent in March 1976.

First murders

Murder of Timothy McCoy

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

In an interview after his arrest, Gacy stated that immediately after killing McCoy, he felt "totally drained", yet noted that he had experienced an orgasm as he killed the youth. In this 1980s interview, he added: "That's when I realized that death was the ultimate thrill."

Second known victim

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

The "handcuff trick"

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

Much of the labor workforce of PDM Contractors consisted of high school students and young men. One of these youths was a 15-year-old named Anthony Antonucci, whom Gacy had hired in May 1975. In July 1975, Gacy arrived at the youth's home while the youth was alone, having injured his foot at work the day prior. Gacy plied the youth with alcohol, wrestled him to the floor and cuffed Antonucci's hands behind his back. The cuff upon Antonucci's right wrist was loose: Antonucci freed his arm from the handcuff after Gacy left the room. When Gacy returned, Antonucci—a member of his high school wrestling team—pounced upon him. The youth wrestled Gacy to the floor, obtained possession of the handcuff key and cuffed Gacy's hands behind his back. Gacy screamed threats, then calmed down and promised to leave if Antonucci removed the handcuffs. The youth agreed and Gacy left the house.

Antonucci later recalled that Gacy had told him as he lay on the floor: "Not only are you the only one who got out of the cuffs; you got them on me."

One week after the attempted assault on Antonucci, on July 29, 1975, another of Gacy's employees, 17-year-old John Butkovitch, disappeared. The day before his disappearance, Butkovitch had threatened Gacy over two weeks' outstanding back pay. Gacy later admitted to luring Butkovitch to his home while his wife and stepchildren were visiting his sister in Arkansas, ostensibly to settle the issue of Butkovitch's overdue wages. Gacy conned the youth into cuffing his wrists behind his back, then strangled him to death and buried his body under the concrete floor of his garage. Gacy later admitted to having "sat on the kid's chest for a while" before killing him. Butkovitch's Dodge sedan was found abandoned in a parking lot with the youth's wallet inside and the keys still in the ignition. Butkovitch's father called Gacy, who claimed he was happy to help search for the youth but was sorry Butkovitch had "run away". Gacy was questioned about Butkovitch's disappearance and admitted that the youth and two friends had arrived at his apartment demanding Butkovitch's overdue pay, but claimed all three youths had left after a compromise had been reached. Over the following three years, Butkovitch's parents called police more than 100 times, urging them to investigate Gacy further.

Victims

Identified victims

Only 25 of Gacy's victims were ever conclusively identified. By the time of Gacy's trial, a total of 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, two teenage friends who were reported missing on October 25, 1976, the day after they had disappeared. However, DNA analysis conducted between 2012 and 2016 has confirmed that neither body found in the common grave in Gacy's crawl space initially believed to hold the youths' bodies was actually Marino.

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 before his murder. 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.

• Timothy McCoy (16)
  January 3, 1972
• John Butkovitch (17)
  July 29, 1975
• Darrell Sampson (18)
  April 6, 1976
• Randall Reffett (15)
  May 14, 1976
• Samuel Stapleton (14)
  May 14, 1976
• Michael Bonnin (17)
  June 3, 1976
• William Carroll (16)
  June 13, 1976
• Rick Johnston (17)
  August 6, 1976
• Kenneth Parker (16)
  October 24, 1976

• William Bundy (19)
  October 26, 1976
• Gregory Godzik (17)
  December 12, 1976
• John Szyc (19)
  January 20, 1977
• Jon Prestidge (20)
  March 15, 1977
• Matthew Bowman (19)
  July 5, 1977[319]
• Robert Gilroy (18)
  September 15, 1977
• John Mowery (19)
  September 25, 1977
• Russell Nelson (21)
  October 17, 1977

• Robert Winch (16)
  November 10, 1977
• Tommy Boling (20)
  November 18, 1977
• David Talsma (19)
  December 9, 1977
• William Kindred (19)
  February 16, 1978
• Timothy O'Rourke (20)
  June 16–23, 1978
• Frank Landingin (19)
  November 4, 1978
• James Mazzara (21)
  November 24, 1978
• Robert Piest (15)
  December 11, 1978

Suspected misidentified victim

• Michael Marino (14)
  October 24, 1976

Unidentified victims

Seven victims remain unidentified, six 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.

• January 1974. Body 28. Backyard. Male aged 14–18.
• June 13 – August 6, 1976. Body 26. Crawl space. Male aged 22–30.
• June 13 – August 6, 1976. Body 24. Crawl space. Male aged 15–19.
• August 6 – October 5, 1976. Body 13. Crawl space. Male aged 17–21.

• August 6 – October 24, 1976. Body 21. Crawl space. Male aged 21–27.
• 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.

  Facial reconstructions of the unidentified victims, released to the media in 1980. Depicted left to right are Body 5, Body 9 (later identified as Timothy McCoy), Body 24, Body 19 (later identified as William Bundy), Body 21, Body 28, Body 13, Body 26, and Body 10.

On October 11, 2011, Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart announced that investigators, having obtained full DNAprofiles 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 one victim, ruled out the possibility of numerous other missing youths as being victims of Gacy, and solved four unrelated cold casesdating between 1972 and 1979.

The four unrelated cold cases solved to date are those of 21-year-old Daniel Noe, who was last seen alive on September 30, 1978, and whose remains had been found near Mount Olympus in 2010; 16-year-old Steven Soden, who was last seen alive April 3, 1972, in New Jersey and whose body was found in April 2000 in Burlington County; 22-year-old Chicagoan Edward Beaudion, who was last seen alive on July 23, 1978; and 16-year-old Andre Drath, whose body had been found buried upon Ocean Beach in June 1979.

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 was released in 2010, starring 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).[383]
• Killer Clown: the John Wayne Gacy Murders, by Terry Sullivan and Peter T. Maiken (ISBN 0-7860-1422-9).
• 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).

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 Devil You Know 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 Gacy.
• The television program Psychic Investigators has 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.