00:00:05
-On the 21st of December, 1978, police in Chicago
were desperately trying to locate a missing teenager
00:00:13
and had begun searching the home of a local maintenance
contractor. -When they executed
that search warrant,
00:00:20
they went in the crawl space,
and the very first shovel that they dug,
they found human remains.
00:00:26
-The man they had in custody, 36-year-old John Wayne Gacy, was a popular socialite
who spent his weekends
00:00:34
dressed as a clown
entertaining children. -At one point, chillingly,
he says to the detectives,
00:00:40
"You know, clowns can
get away with murder." Well, never was
a truer word said.
00:00:46
-In total, Gacy the killer clown had tortured and killed
33 young men over a 5-year period.
00:00:54
27 of the bodies were buried
right beneath his own home. -Using other human beings,
00:01:02
you know, inflicting pain
and suffering and torture on another helpless human being,
00:01:07
to me, is the essence of evil. -The remorseless John Wayne Gacy
had proved himself
00:01:14
to be one of the world's
most evil killers. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Over the course of six years,
00:01:41
John Wayne Gacy
kidnapped, tortured, and brutally murdered
33 young men and boys
00:01:48
in and around Chicago, Illinois. It was one of the most
shocking sets of crimes in American history.
00:01:57
The bodies of 27
of Gacy's victims were buried directly below
the house he lived in.
00:02:05
But this killer's story
starts almost 40 years before. ♪♪ John Wayne Gacy
was born in Chicago, Illinois,
00:02:16
on the 17th of March 1942. The second of three children,
Gacy had a difficult upbringing.
00:02:24
His father was an alcoholic
who was reportedly both mentally and physically abusive to
his children and their mother.
00:02:31
-His father spent apparently
all of Gacy's childhood demeaning him
and physically punishing him
00:02:40
and telling him how stupid
and worthless and effeminate he was. -Gacy's childhood friend,
Barry Boschelli,
00:02:48
remembers the physical abuse
he suffered at the hands of his father. -If Johnny was two minutes late,
no food.
00:02:56
So a lot of times,
Johnny ate at our house and stayed at
our house overnight. He used to take Johnny
00:03:02
when he was sitting
at the kitchen table, and he would take his fists
and hit Johnny in the face.
00:03:07
-The father is a very
significant figure in the genesis
of Gacy's terrible deeds.
00:03:17
For to my mind, Gacy was always
trying to satisfy his father, whom he never could.
00:03:24
He was beaten repeatedly
by his father with belts, with brooms. At one stage, he was
knocked out by him.
00:03:34
-These people grow up
with such a malignant view of the world
and of human relationships,
00:03:40
feeling that human relationships
are not based on love and trust and respect, you know, that they're all based
on exploitation and cruelty
00:03:49
and inflicting pain. -Gacy was a sickly child. He suffered from
a heart condition,
00:03:54
limiting his involvement
in sports activities and consequently, alienating
him from his peers.
00:04:01
Aged 11, an accident
in a playground led to his teenage years being blighted by blackouts
and hospital visits.
00:04:09
-At that time, the swings
were wooded base swings with heavy chains coming down.
00:04:14
Johnny went to grab it, and the swing clipped him
right across the forehead and knocked him to the ground.
00:04:24
-By 1966, 24-year-old Gacy
was married and had relocated
to the city of Waterloo,
00:04:31
300 miles west of Chicago in the neighboring state
of Iowa. -Well, Gacy got married,
and life from the outside
00:04:39
appeared to be
relatively normal. He had quite a good job. His wife had two children.
00:04:45
So they appeared to be the typical, cereal-box,
American nuclear family. And Gacy wasn't just
a regular family man.
00:04:53
He was also quite active in
the local Chamber of Commerce, and he played
quite an active role.
00:04:58
And he was a real figure
in the local community. -Gacy had started to build
the perfect life for himself,
00:05:05
but he was concealing
a dark secret. He developed an unhealthy
sexual interest in young boys.
00:05:13
-It was a son
of a fellow J.C. member who he lured back to his home,
and he sexually assaulted.
00:05:20
So he's abusing power. He's getting into
these positions of trust, and he's taking advantage.
00:05:27
That's a theme that's
gonna continue for him. -And then when the kid revealed this to his father,
00:05:35
and Gacy was arrested for it, Gacy hired another teenager
to intimidate this kid,
00:05:42
to lure this kid
into some remote place and spray mace in his eyes
and beat him up
00:05:47
and warn him against
testifying in Gacy's case. -Despite Gacy's efforts
his victim still testified,
00:05:55
but there wasn't conclusive
proof of an attack. Therefore, police were
only able to charge him
00:06:00
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,
00:06:10
but the judge threw
the book at him, and he was sentenced
to 10 years in prison.
00:06:14
-On the 3rd of December 1968, Gacy was sent to
Anamosa State Penitentiary. Whilst in jail,
Gacy's wife divorced him.
00:06:25
A further blow was dealt
when his father died, and he was denied permission
to attend the funeral.
00:06:32
-Given the perfect nature
of Gacy's ability to groom whomever
he came into contact with,
00:06:40
within a matter of months, Gacy had become head cook
at the prison, had convinced the staff that
he was absolutely ideal person.
00:06:52
What's more, then convinced
the parole board that he was no danger
to anybody,
00:06:57
and so served barely 18 months of the 10 years
of his original sentence. -In June 1970, now age 28,
00:07:09
John Wayne Gacy was
released from prison and returned home to Chicago. His friends, family,
and neighbors
00:07:17
were entirely unaware
of what had taken place while he'd been living
over 300 miles away in Iowa.
00:07:24
-His background was not
looked into in any way, I think partly because he didn't
go into any line of work
00:07:33
in which any kind of background
check would've been necessary. You know, he began
his own business.
00:07:38
I mean, none of his acquaintance
was even remotely aware of his criminal background.
00:07:44
-In June 1972, Gacy got married
for a second time, and he and his new bride
set up home
00:07:51
in the Chicago suburbs at 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, a house that would
eventually become
00:08:00
one of the most infamous
addresses in America. ♪♪ Six years later,
in December 1978,
00:08:10
10 miles from Gacy's house, 15-year-old Des Plaines resident
Rob Piest was reported missing
by his mother.
00:08:19
Detectives Mike Albrecht
and Dave Hachmeister began to investigate
the teen's disappearance.
00:08:26
-Rob Piest was, like,
a stellar kid. I mean, he was the kind of kid
that anyone would want as a son.
00:08:32
Never been in trouble. Never had any inclination
to run away. He was a good student.
00:08:38
Very, very much out of character
that he would turn up missing. So, that caught
our attention, obviously.
00:08:45
-At that time,
in the late '70s, there was a lot of stuff going
on with the hippie movement,
00:08:49
all that kind of stuff. But he made a determination
very quickly that this was not
a normal "runaway."
00:08:57
Didn't have any
girlfriend problems. Was not involved in drugs
or anything like that.
00:09:00
Just an all-American good kid. -At the time
of his disappearance, Piest was working at
a pharmacy in Des Plaines.
00:09:08
-So he had told an employee
and actually his mother that he was gonna go talk
to a contractor about a job.
00:09:15
And he then went out
the back door, and he was not seen
any time thereafter. -Rob Piest seemed
to have just vanished
00:09:24
off the face of the earth. The two detectives
desperately needed to track down the contractor
00:09:30
who was probably
the last person to see him. Their search would lead them
to the door of a 36-year-old man
00:09:37
by the name of John Wayne Gacy. He'd divorced his second wife
two years previously
00:09:43
and was now running
a successful business called P.D.M. Contractors. Gacy would often
employ young men,
00:09:50
one of whom was Tony Antonucci. -At the time when I met him,
I was about 16 years old.
00:09:56
And, of course, like a lot
of 16-year-olds, I wanted to get a job so
I could afford to have my car.
00:10:02
My first impressions were that
he was basically a likable guy. Kind of jovial.
Liked to joke around.
00:10:11
You know, appeared very normal. -Gacy seemed in many ways
like the perfect boss.
00:10:17
-Sometimes at 3:00
in the afternoon, John would say,
"Hey, it's a nice day out.
00:10:23
Let's knock off early
and have some fun or do something,"
all normal stuff,
00:10:30
you know, just kind of --
You didn't expect your boss to be the one
that wanted to knock off early.
00:10:39
-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
00:10:46
at the pharmacy where he worked. Detectives David Hachmeister
and Mike Albrecht were investigating.
00:10:54
-We ran a records check on him,
and as it turns out, he had a fairly
lengthy background.
00:11:00
He had spent some time
in Iowa for sodomy, and so it was sexual crimes,
basically, against children.
00:11:09
-Concerned by Gacy's
criminal record, the police obtained a warrant
to search his home.
00:11:15
-The warrant consisted
of three facts. The first fact is that
John Wayne Gacy, in fact,
00:11:21
was at the pharmacy the night
Rob Piest went missing. And, fact two, that Rob Piest
had told people
00:11:29
that he was going to see
a contractor regarding a job. And, fact three,
his criminal background.
00:11:36
So on those three facts, they were able to obtain
a search warrant. -On the 13th of December 1978,
00:11:43
police conducted their first
search of Gacy's home finding a number
of suspicious items.
00:11:50
-They recovered various
items of pornography. They recovered some books that were titled
"Pretty Boys Must Die."
00:12:00
They also recovered driver's
licenses of other young people, and they did a check
on those driver's licenses.
00:12:06
It was determined that those
kids were also reported missing. -Initially, we're hoping to
find Rob Piest alive someplace.
00:12:14
And it didn't take long
to realize that probably was not
gonna happen. -Another item recovered
was a high-school ring
00:12:21
which had belonged to missing
19-year-old John Szyc, last seen in January 1977. Further investigation discovered
00:12:31
that two of Gacy's employees
had been reported missing -- 17-year-old John Butkovich,
last seen in July 1975,
00:12:41
and Gregory Godzik,
also 17 years old, missing since December 1976. -It was an evolution
as we went along.
00:12:50
I think, you know, it was after
that search warrant, we're pretty confident there
is at least five or six victims
00:12:57
that were associated with Gacy
that haven't been seen. -But with no evidence
or bodies,
00:13:02
the police could not
make an arrest. They decided to begin
surveillance on Gacy.
00:13:08
-We just said,
"Wherever you go, we're going." If Gacy went into
a public place,
00:13:13
we were gonna follow him in
and see what he was up to. -Throughout this
overt surveillance,
00:13:18
we became fairly friendly
with John Wayne Gacy. He knew we were following him. He tried to be cordial with us.
00:13:26
In fact, he initiated
conversations with us. -He'd play games
with the police.
00:13:31
He'd go up to their car and say, "Hi. Do you guys want
some marijuana?"
00:13:36
or just something
stupid like that. -He goes into Moose Lodge, and Mike and I,
my partner and I said,
00:13:42
"We're gonna go in
right along with Gacy, but we'll sit
at a different table."
00:13:46
All of a sudden,
the waitress comes over with a couple of beers and places the beers
in front of us
00:13:51
and says, "It's on
that gentleman over there." We look over at John,
and John gives us the "Hi" sign.
00:13:56
And we wave back. -Very confident, cocky. Kept on bragging
about all property and how much
of a businessman he was
00:14:04
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,
00:14:13
and he likes playing
with people. He's a bit of a puppet master. And I think that was
driving his behavior.
00:14:20
-Everyone that we talked to
just loved John Wayne Gacy. His neighbors, his co-workers,
all of his associates,
00:14:27
they loved the guy.
And we could see that. I mean, the way he was
interacting with us
00:14:32
was basically the same. And my partner and I would
have to on many occasions remind one another,
"Hey, listen.
00:14:39
This guy is dangerous." -Gacy was considered
an upstanding, key member of his small community.
00:14:46
He was popular
and involved in politics. At weekends, he would even
dress as a clown
00:14:52
and perform
for children at parties and at local hospitals. -The fact that Gacy had
this other persona
00:15:00
as Pogo the Clown -- Professional clowns
usually, you know, will paint their smiles
00:15:08
with sort of gentle, circular
things around their lips. Gacy's smile looks
like bat wings.
00:15:15
There's just something
horrifically sinister and monstrous about this figure of Pogo.
00:15:23
Just an element that raises Gacy
to the level of a kind of mythic
American monster.
00:15:29
-At one point, chillingly,
he says to the detectives, "You know, clowns
can get away with murder."
00:15:35
Well, never was
a truer word said. But it took some time for those detectives
to fully comprehend
00:15:42
that here was a man
who was capable of murder and more than one. -As Mike and Dave continued
with their surveillance,
00:15:51
detectives back at the station were trying to get
another warrant to search Gacy's house.
00:15:56
They'd received some
disturbing new evidence while questioning
his colleagues.
00:16:02
-They were young kids,
you know, 17, 18, 19 years old. And at times he, Gacy,
had ordered this young kids
00:16:09
to go down into his crawl space
of his home and dig trenches. And he had told them
that there was a sewage issue
00:16:17
and that he needed
the trenches dug so he could alleviate
that situation. But they said that it
happened several times
00:16:26
and that there was
an odor down there that was just unbelievable. So now we're starting to
believe, hey, is that possible?
00:16:33
I know it sounds crazy,
but is it possible he could've buried someone
in the crawl space?
00:16:38
-He gets other people
unwittingly involved in his offending, and they don't know anything
of what's going on.
00:16:45
I think that's what
gets him gratification -- the fact that he has such power
over other people
00:16:50
that they're not joining
the dots together and that he's able
to hide in plain sight.
00:16:55
-Mike and Dave continued to
follow the popular contractor, but they had a plan
to force Gacy's hand.
00:17:04
-We were on the surveillance
for about seven days. And as the surveillance
progressed, what we found out
00:17:10
was that he had
this huge core support of friends and family
and co-workers and such,
00:17:17
and that that is really
what was the barrier between us and Gacy. So we developed a plan
for the investigators
00:17:26
to put some pressure on all these people
that were supporting him, and slowly, they started
peeling back from Gacy.
00:17:34
And we were feeding
Gacy information that there's possibly looking to
execute a second search warrant.
00:17:42
He became more
and more desperate. And the last day, it was about midnight
or 1:00 in the morning,
00:17:50
he contacted his attorneys and met his attorneys
in their office in Park Ridge. At that point,
Mike and I are outside,
00:18:00
and we see the attorneys
waving us into the building. It was very uncharacteristic
of the attorneys to do this.
00:18:06
-First thing they were telling
us, though, is to park your cars in front of Gacy's
and don't let him out.
00:18:10
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
00:18:17
were absolutely scared
to death, petrified. They're pacing up and down. They won't take their eyes
off of Gacy.
00:18:23
And that pretty much
solidified the fact to us that he had confessed
to his attorneys
00:18:27
about at least
a couple, three murders. -Dave and Mike knew that Gacy
was beginning to buckle.
00:18:35
They continued to trail him as
he left his attorneys' office. -So we followed Gacy, and Gacy
is driving like a madman.
00:18:43
And he drives
to the Shell gas station where he did
all of his business. He goes in,
00:18:49
and we see a transaction
happen in the gas station. -Was very emotional, shaking
his hand almost on the side,
00:18:57
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,
00:19:05
I go back in the gas station. And when I go in there, they throw a couple of bags
of marijuana at me,
00:19:11
the employees,
and they say, "Hey, listen. We didn't buy this.
We didn't ask for it.
00:19:15
Gacy just gave it to us." -As Gacy's behavior
grew more and more erratic,
00:19:21
the two detectives at least now
had a reason to apprehend him. -We make a decision
at that point
00:19:28
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,
00:19:35
and arrest him
for the drug transaction. ♪♪ -Devon and Milwaukee. -This was Gacy's final location
of freedom.
00:19:47
-That's it. -He was never free
from this point on. -Grabbed him out of the car.
He was all whining to us.
00:19:54
"Why you doing this to me?"
and all that. And that's where it ended.
00:19:58
-So, technically
he was arrested for marijuana possession
and delivery. Then we took him to the station.
00:20:06
-While in custody,
Gacy told detectives he was experiencing chest pains and was taken to a local
hospital as a precaution.
00:20:14
But he was just trying
to buy some more time. The police had obtained
the second warrant
00:20:19
they'd been so desperate for. On the 21st of December, 1978, they searched Gacy's home
on West Summerdale Avenue
00:20:29
for the second time. -When they executed
that search warrant, they went in the crawl space,
and the very first shovel
00:20:36
that they dug,
they found human remains. -Police had finally
unearthed the secrets
00:20:43
that Gacy had thought
would stay buried forever. -So they immediately called me,
00:20:49
let me know that there was human
remains in the crawl space. And at that time, I arrested
John Gacy for murder.
00:20:56
Gacy says he wants to confess, but really he wants to confess
to the surveillance team,
00:21:03
both myself and my partner
and the other team. And now all of a sudden,
he's got an audience again,
00:21:09
and he's on top of the world. And he knows he can't get
out of it at this point,
00:21:15
and so he might as well
just divulge everything
that actually happened. -Gacy told detectives
he was willing
00:21:22
to draw a map of the burial site
beneath his home. -I gave him a pen,
and he started right off.
00:21:28
He squared it off
in the thing, and he started, "Well, this was a double,
and this was a triple,
00:21:32
and this was the first guy,"
with a -- put an X on it. Went around
the whole crawl space
00:21:38
with these places
where the body was buried. I mean, they were digging
with spoons and everything.
00:21:45
But they obviously identified
where all the bodies were. And they did an overlay of where
the bodies were actually found
00:21:53
compared to that diagram
that he made. And it was unbelievable.
It was right on the money.
00:21:58
-In total, 27 bodies were discovered
in Gacy's crawl space. It wouldn't take long for news
of this horrific discovery
00:22:07
to filter out
to the wider world. -Then the arrest came down. And that was the headline
on the local papers,
00:22:15
how many bodies they took
out of Gacy's basement. -Well, you know, when Gacy's
crimes were uncovered
00:22:20
he entered into
the record books, you know, as America's most
prolific serial murderer.
00:22:27
The notion that this pudgy, normal-seeming, decent, regular, ordinary guy was living in this horror house
00:22:40
that was just suffused
with the stench of death, and that there were
the rotting bodies
00:22:47
of 27 young men in this crawl space -- bringing home
and torturing young boys right in the midst
of all his neighbors
00:22:59
and then going off
to work the next day. -When we booked him for murder,
we asked Gacy where he was born.
00:23:07
And Gacy looked at us and said, "I was born in the state
of confusion."
00:23:11
And he smiled like that,
and we captured the photo. -In total, Gacy confessed to the murder
of 33 young men and boys
00:23:19
between 1972 and 1978. -Gacy preyed on victims
who he knew were not necessarily gonna be
missed by any family members,
00:23:32
rootless and homeless
teenage boys who had no families
that were going to miss them
00:23:39
or care about
their disappearance. -At that time in the late '70s, kids were running away
all the time.
00:23:45
And a lot of these kids
were reported missing, but there was no follow-up. -As it turns out, he had buried
00:23:51
27 young kids
in the crawl space. He buried one of the young kids
outside in his backyard.
00:23:57
And he didn't have any room
left on his property, so he threw five remaining
victims in the Des Plains River.
00:24:04
-One of the bodies
found floating in the Des Plaines River
in April 1979 was that of Rob Piest,
00:24:11
the 15-year-old boy
whose disappearance had ultimately led
to Gacy's downfall.
00:24:17
-He was very descriptive on
what he had done with Rob Piest. -Rob Piest's mom
was waiting for him
00:24:23
in the front parking lot. And Rob said to his mom, "Hey, I'm gonna talk to
a contractor about a job.
00:24:29
I'll be right back."
He goes back in the pharmacy. Gacy is the back parking lot,
the alleyway.
00:24:37
And as Gacy's leaving,
Rob follows him outside and says, "Excuse me, sir.
00:24:42
I understand
that you hire young kids. And I'm really interested
in having a different job."
00:24:48
And Gacy says,
"Well, jump in the car. I'll have you fill out
an application."
00:24:52
So Gacy actually drives Piest
willingly to Gacy's house. While there,
Gacy starts showing Piest
00:25:01
some little tricks of the trade
of being a clown. He shows him a couple
of card tricks.
00:25:08
And the last trick that he shows
Piest is the handcuff trick. Gacy actually handcuffs himself
and turns around
00:25:16
and struggles
with the handcuffs and then turns back,
and he holds the handcuffs up.
00:25:21
And Piest is pretty
amazed at that. He said, "That's neat. How'd you do that?"
So Gacy says, "Well, here.
00:25:27
You handcuff yourself, and
I'll show you how to do that." So Piest handcuffs himself,
and he struggles,
00:25:35
and he struggles,
and he struggles. And he looks at Gacy,
and he says, "What's the trick to this?"
00:25:41
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."
00:25:50
-This handcuff trick was part
of an horrific yet clinical M.O. -Gacy, throughout
all of the 33 killings,
00:25:58
had developed a method
of killing these young kids. -He would pick up these victims.
00:26:04
Some were kids
who worked from him, but most were teenage runaways. You know, in bringing them
back to his house
00:26:11
and giving them drinks, he would sort of trick them
into handcuffing themselves or being handcuffed.
00:26:21
-Gacy would use chloroform
to subdue his victims. Chloroform's an old-fashioned
anesthetic, really,
00:26:28
so it gets into your lungs, and it just renders you
unconscious very effectively.
00:26:34
-He did what he called
a rope trick. And when he had these young kids
incapacitated like that,
00:26:39
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.
00:26:47
And he would slowly
turn the tourniquet. He said he had it
perfected so well that he knew exactly
how the body would react
00:26:55
to each half turn. -Putting a ligature
'round the neck, the first thing it's going
to block is the blood vessels,
00:27:01
so it prevents blood
getting to the brain, prevents it getting back
to the body from the brain.
00:27:06
It's gonna be very
uncomfortable, and it can even
render you unconscious in a small number of seconds.
00:27:12
-And he went into detail on how he would torture
these young men. And he, in fact, did double
and triple murders.
00:27:20
He would incapacitate two
or three people at a time and kill one person in front
of the other victims,
00:27:27
and then continue to kill
the other victims. And he seemed to be
pretty proud of that.
00:27:32
We used that to our advantage
to keep him talking, and he described
every killing to a "T,"
00:27:38
exactly how it happened, all 33. -As the news broke
across the country, one shocked viewer
00:27:45
who'd unknowingly experienced
Gacy's M.O. firsthand was his ex-employee
Tony Antonucci.
00:27:52
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,
00:28:01
and took me home. And he came over
later that evening to check on if I was okay,
or that was the theory.
00:28:11
But he also had some wine,
and we were drinking, and he was kind of
joking around.
00:28:16
It was probably 10:00,
10:30 at night. I was a high-school wrestler,
and he said,
00:28:22
"Oh, you know, you're
a big wrestler guy." And he started
wrestling around with me.
00:28:27
He got my left arm,
and he got it behind me. And I felt him
put a handcuff on it.
00:28:34
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,
00:28:43
and he knocked me down to the
floor with my hands behind me. He left the room
for a few minutes,
00:28:50
and I realized that if I pulled
really hard on my right hand, that I could pull my hand
through the handcuff.
00:28:58
I could get it out. -By pretending
he was still handcuffed, Tony was able to catch Gacy
unawares when he returned
00:29:06
and turned the situation
to his advantage. -I took the handcuff
that I had gotten out of,
00:29:13
and I handcuffed him
on one of his wrists. Then I reached into his pocket,
got the key,
00:29:20
and I handcuffed him behind
his back laying face down. He goes, "You're the only one
00:29:26
that not only got out
of the handcuffs -- You got them on me." And I didn't know
what that meant.
00:29:32
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
00:29:40
before I let him out
of the handcuffs. And he had previously agreed
that when I let him up,
00:29:45
he would leave. And he did. -Tony had no idea
just how close he'd come to being another victim
of this deadly killer.
00:29:54
-I did not fear for my life. And not fearing for my life
and not panicking is probably what saved my life.
00:30:03
'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,
00:30:08
he was 33 years old
and very strong, and I was 16 or 17. I'm sure he could've
overpowered me
00:30:16
if he knew he had to. -Tony continued
working for P.D.M. for a few months
after the attack
00:30:23
and only reported the incident
after Gacy's arrest. By the time the case
went to trial,
00:30:28
police had managed to identify the remains
of 22 of the victims. -So, with Gacy,
we have around 30 bodies,
00:30:37
different states
of decomposition, some of which have been there
for many years.
00:30:41
Forensically, that sort of scene
is a nightmare. You've got so many
different things to dig up.
00:30:47
It's a very complex procedure. It's very hard work. It will involve a lot of people
and a lot of time.
00:30:54
-Seven of Gacy's victims
have never been identified. This close-knit community
on the outskirts of Chicago
00:31:03
was baffled beyond belief that such a monster had lived
amongst them for so long.
00:31:09
-One of the effects
that learning about these crimes has on the public is that it sort of reduces you
00:31:17
to a state of childlike awe and terror and wonder. You can imagine all these
middle American suburbanites.
00:31:27
Suddenly, here are
the authorities bringing out the decomposed
remains of young men
00:31:34
that had been stored
in the crawl space of your neighbor's house. -A horrified public were both
shocked and outraged
00:31:43
by the crimes
Gacy had committed. As the State prepared
their case, they were determined to ensure
00:31:49
that the man who'd been held
in such high esteem by his local community would pay
for his crimes in full.
00:31:56
♪♪ The trial of John Wayne Gacy
began on February the 6th, 1980, at the Cook County Criminal
Courts building in Chicago.
00:32:08
At the time, Illinois still had
the death penalty. Gacy's defense team
were pleading insanity.
00:32:15
-It was an interesting trial. And what was so fascinating
about it was they had so many
different psychiatrists
00:32:23
saying so many different things that they all came up
with different diagnosis, which really goes toward
this picture
00:32:32
of this not-intact human being, this bits-and-pieces of person. -During the five-week trial,
00:32:39
the prosecution
were desperate to prove that Gacy was fully
responsible for his actions.
00:32:45
-There's a difference between
psychopathy and mental illness. Psychopaths are rational.
00:32:49
They know what they're doing, and they know
what they do is wrong, but they decide to do it anyway.
00:32:54
So he was pretty culpable
for his crimes. -He was vicious. He was evil. He was not insane in any way.
00:33:02
He knew exactly
what he was doing. And he killed these people
for self-preservation,
00:33:07
because he was so well liked
politically and business-wise he couldn't have this public out
00:33:13
that he was taking
advantage of these kids. -One of the prosecution
witnesses was Gacy's former employee
Tony Antonucci,
00:33:20
who'd been attacked
by the 37-year-old contractor. -I saw him in court,
and he was off to my left
00:33:28
sitting at the table where the defense attorneys are. And he just stared
straight forward.
00:33:35
He was fairly far away. I might've caught his eye
on occasion in the courtroom,
00:33:42
but I was pretty nervous
to be a witness on a trial of that significance even at that age,
in my early 20s.
00:33:52
-On the 13th of March 1980, the jury had made their decision
of the fate of John Wayne Gacy.
00:33:59
-It didn't take long
for them to find him guilty. I think it took
maybe less than three hours,
00:34:06
which was amazing. And then he was found guilty. -It was kind of amazing
how fast everything went.
00:34:16
When you look at other trials
that have gone on, this trial went extremely fast.
00:34:21
-In the final moments
of the trial, one of the prosecutors,
William Kunkle, called him a ruthless,
sadistic killing machine.
00:34:29
And I think that's
a pretty apt description. -Judge Louis B. Garippo
sentenced Gacy to death.
00:34:36
He was immediately taken to the Menard Correctional
Center Illinois, where he would remain
on death row for 14 years.
00:34:44
Whilst in jail,
he took up painting, selling his artwork for profit. -Even when he was behind bars,
00:34:51
he continued to control
and manipulate people. He produced several paintings, several works of art
which he sold,
00:34:59
and he maintained a legacy even after his death
through those paintings. So he was still in control
when he was behind bars.
00:35:07
He still had power
over other people, and he was still able
to make choices and decisions.
00:35:13
-The profits he gained
from these paintings resulted in the government
suing him for his earnings.
00:35:18
Lawyer Karen Conti took on
Gacy's case against the State. -Gacy like to paint, and he was
a terrible, terrible painter.
00:35:27
And he painted horrible things
like skulls and clowns and creepy things like that.
00:35:33
But people bought them,
and they paid $200 a shot for him to paint
these ugly pictures.
00:35:38
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
00:35:43
was represent him
in the death penalty. What was surprising was he looked and acted
just like anybody else,
00:35:49
like your favorite uncle,
like your next-door neighbor. And if you think about it,
that's probably why he got away
00:35:55
with killing
so many boys and men, because he didn't look evil. You could not reconcile
what he did
00:36:03
with the man
you were talking to. -Karen was a firm opponent
of the death penalty
00:36:08
and represented Gacy during his final appeals
against the sentence. -Over the years,
Gacy had numerous appeals,
00:36:16
and our system allows that -- appeals in the federal court,
appeals in the state court.
00:36:21
By the time that Gacy had
his execution date set, we were out
of traditional appeals.
00:36:28
-There are certain
serial killers -- Even staunch
anti-death penalty advocates would not protest
against the execution
00:36:38
of somebody like Gacy. If he felt any twinge
of feeling sorry it was only feeling sorry
for himself.
00:36:46
You know, these people
are possessed with incredibly
malignant narcissism. The only thing that they are
capable of feeling anything for
00:36:54
is themselves
and their own needs. -When you have a client
who has committed these horrific acts,
33 murderers,
00:37:01
no court is gonna want
to let him out. No court is going to want
to change execution
00:37:07
to life in prison, because
it's politically a disaster. Gacy had to be executed,
and no matter what we alleged,
00:37:16
even if we had really,
really good arguments, I don't think anyone
would've listened,
00:37:19
because it was John Gacy. -In a CBS TV interview filmed
in Menard Correctional Center
00:37:26
in May 1992, Gacy recanted his confession
and tried to deny he was guilty
of any of the murders.
00:37:35
-He claimed that he was
a victim of circumstance and clearly innocent. Now, that was balderdash.
00:37:41
He was guilty as sin,
but, nevertheless, he just proved what
an extraordinary man he was.
00:37:48
And throughout the interview,
you can see the interviewer looking more and more astounded
by Gacy's relaxation.
00:37:56
He didn't look nervous. He looked absolutely
composed, relaxed, if anything, a little angry.
00:38:04
"Why am I being
put through this? It's not fair. It was a pure accident.
00:38:09
I never did it." -We knew it was
his last-ditch effort. You know,
everything else failed.
00:38:15
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
00:38:23
or that others participated. But it was very clear
during his initial confession
00:38:28
that he was the one
who completed these crimes and completed them by himself. -Gacy never took responsibility
for his actions,
00:38:36
and he would always
blame others. He would blame his victims, and in some cases,
he blamed his victim's parents.
00:38:43
He would turn around and say,
"Well, it's not my fault. I'm completely not responsible
for any of this."
00:38:49
And that's a key
psychopathic trait, the failure
to take responsibility for their own actions.
00:38:55
-Despite numerous attempts
to appeal his death sentence, on the 10th of May 1994,
00:39:01
John Wayne Gacy was executed
by lethal injection at Stateville Penitentiary
in Illinois.
00:39:08
-It was a circus.
We were in a room at some point, and we saw a television screen,
00:39:12
and we saw thousands
of people lined up at least a mile down the street
at the prison
00:39:19
with signs,
"Kill the Clown," "Kill Gacy," with our names on it.
"Kill Karen Conti,"
00:39:25
people beating drums,
people dancing, people with clown makeup on. It was a celebration.
00:39:32
-Gacy's last words were,
"Kiss my ass." Those are the words of a man
00:39:38
who absolutely didn't mind
what he'd done. He was proud of himself
and proud of that killing spree,
00:39:45
which makes him
particularly chilling. -Gacy was unrepentant right up
until his last moments.
00:39:52
He clearly felt no remorse
for any of his 33 victims. -Using other human beings,
00:40:00
inflicting pain
and suffering and torture on another helpless human being, to me, is the essence of evil.
00:40:08
-After the execution,
you think there'd be closure, but there really isn't closure
for something like that.
00:40:14
I mean, you always think back
to the victim's family and the poor, young boy
who was 15 years old
00:40:18
and just a good kid. So as much as you'd like
to believe there was closure, there really wasn't closure.
00:40:25
-40 years after being attacked, Tony Antonucci feels relieved he didn't become one
of Gacy's many victims.
00:40:34
-I do feel very lucky
to be alive. I don't know what
to attribute that to, you know?
00:40:39
Maybe I -- Luck, definitely
the biggest component, you know, a little bit
of help from above.
00:40:47
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,
00:40:58
if it was a game,
is probably what helped. I also would've been one
of the earlier victims.
00:41:05
So I'm sure his techniques
became more honed after he was divorced
and lived alone
00:41:12
and had more freedom
to act differently. -John Wayne Gacy remains one
of the most infamous killers
00:41:19
in American history. His horrific murders continue
to haunt the nation to this day.
00:41:25
-I still get weird e-mails. I still get weird things
where people lash out and say terrible things to me
about representing Gacy.
00:41:34
Gacy said to me, "You know,
your obituary will read, 'Karen Conti represented
serial killer John Gacy.'"
00:41:40
And although I won't be
around to verify that, I have no doubt
that's what it will read.
00:41:46
-For kids, monsters are real.
Once you become an adult, you realize, well,
there are no real werewolves.
00:41:51
There are no real vampires. Then something like
this happens, and it's like,
00:41:57
"Whoa, this monster is real." There is this ogre. It's transfixing. It's riveting.
00:42:04
It's fascinating
in the most horrifying way. -Gacy was the epitome of evil. And he was the epitome
of being a great guy,
00:42:14
which gave him the ability to be
the most evil guy in the world. -Gacy's outward persona
of a charming socialite
00:42:23
helped to keep his crimes
hidden for over five years. But behind the mask
of this friendly clown
00:42:29
was a sadistic killer who cruelly and savagely
ended the lives of 33 young men by torturing them
in the most hideous of manners,
00:42:38
all for his own selfish
sexual gratification. His lack of remorse
for any of his victims,
00:42:43
all their loved ones, right up
until the day he was executed, proved that he is,
without doubt,
00:42:50
one of the world's
most evil killers. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪