John Wayne Gacy is Pogo the Clown

It’s 1978, and you need a better job to pay for that new car you’ve got your eye on. You’re just a kid, so options are limited, but when you hear about local man, John Wayne Gacy, who prefers to hire young men, you know you’re a shoe in. After all, he is a good Catholic man, who runs his own business and was also active in the community. He was the children’s party clown, what could go wrong?

You meet him at his home, and he invites you inside to chat. That’s when things get weird. He locked the door behind you, and you begin to notice a funny smell. Moments later he had you tied up, and was raping you. Just when you think the worst is over, and you can escape, he stuffs paper towels in your mouth, so many of them that you begin to choke. You can’t breathe. The world goes dark, and your dead body is dumped in the river.

That’s the tragic tale of Robert Piest, the final victim of John Wayne Gacy, a.k.a Pogo the Clown.

John Wayne Gacy was born on March 17, 1942 in Chicago Illinois, the second of three children, and the only boy. His father was an abusive alcoholic, often beating the 3 children and his wife with a razor strap.

At the age of 4, Gacy made the mistake of disarranging car engine components that his father had assembled. He was beaten with a leather belt. On another occasion, he was struck across the head with a broomstick, which left him unconscious.

Despite the abuse, Gacy wanted nothing more than to make his father proud of him. Yet, with his mother trying to shield him from the abuse, he was labeled a “sissy” and “mama’s boy,” and was told he would “probably grow up queer.”

At the age of 7, Gacy Sr. was informed that his son and another boy had been caught sexually fondling a young girl. His punishment: a good whipping with a razor strap. Later that year, Gacy was molested by a friend of the family – a contractor who would take him for rides in his truck and fondle him. Gacy never told anyone, afraid of the punishment and blame that would befall him.

Gacy was bullied by neighborhood children and kids at school. When he was in the fourth grade, he began having blackouts and seizures. On occasion, he was hospitalized for these, and in 1957 he had a burst appendix. He later estimated he spent almost a year’s’ time in the hospital due to these episodes while he was between the ages of 14 and 18. His father accused him of faking it, while he lay in a hospital bed.

When he was 18, he became involved in politics, working as an assistant precinct captain for a Democratic Party candidate in his neighborhood. His father accused him of being a “patsy.” That same year, though, his father bought him a car that he would have to pay him back for. During that time, if Gacy did not do as his father said, he would confiscate the keys. At one point, Gacy made a duplicate set, so his father removed the distributor cap, and held onto it for three days. When his father finally replaced the distributor cap, Gacy left the family home and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada.

In Las Vegas, he worked for a short time with the Ambulance Service before being transferred to work as a mortuary attendant. There, he was able to sleep in a cot behind the embalming room. One evening, while alone, he climbed into the coffin of a deceased teenage boy, and embraced and caressed the body before finding himself shocked at his own behavior.

The following day, he called his mother and asked if his father would allow him to return home. His father agreed, and he drove back to live with his family in Chicago. There, he enrolled in the Northwestern Business College and later graduated in 1963. This allowed him to accept a job as a management trainee within the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company.

In 1964, Nunn-Bush transferred Gacy to Springfield, Ill to work as a salesman, but he was quickly promoted to manager. In March, he became engaged to one of his co-workers, Marilynn Myers, and they were married in September 1964.

Gacy joined the Jaycees (United States Junior Chamber – a leadership training and civic organization for people between the ages of 18 and 40. Areas of emphasis are business development, management skills, individual training, community service, and international connections.) and was named Key Man for the organization in April 1964.

By 1965, he had risen to the position of VP of the Springfield Jaycees, and was also named as the third most outstanding Jaycee within the state of Illiniois.

Marilynn’s father purchased three KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) restaurants in Waterloo, Iowa, and Gacy and his new wife moved to Waterloo so she could manage the restaurants. It was here, in 1966, that Marilynn gave birth to a son, named Michael, and in 1967, a daughter named Christine. Gacy’s parents visited him and his family in Iowa, and during a private talk with his father, Gacy Sr. apologized for the physical and mental abuse he had inflicted on him, and proudly told him, “Son, I was wrong about you.”

Gacy joined the Waterloo chapter of the Jaycee’s and in 1967, he was named “Outstanding VP.” But the Jaycee life in Waterloo was different from that in Springfield. In fact, in Waterloo, the members regularly participated in wife swapping, prostitution, and drug use. Gacy was deeply involved in many of these activities, regularly cheating on his wife with local prostitutes. He was also known to have opened a “club” in his basement, where he allowed his employees to drink alcohol and play pool. He employed teenages of both sexes, and socialized only with his young male employees. He would give them alcohol before making sexual advances toward them. If they turned him down, he would claim to have been joking.

By August 1967 though, he finally crossed the line. He lured 15 year old Donald Voorhees, the son of a fellow Jaycee, to his home with the promise of shoing him pornographic films. Gacy gave him alcohol and persuaded him to perform oral sex on him. Over the following months, several other youths were sexually abused. He even managed to convince many that he had been commissioned with carrying out homosexual experiments in the interests of scientific research, for which he paid them each, $50.00.

But in March, 1968, Voorhees finally broke down and told his father that Gacy had sexually assaulted him. Voorhees Sr. notified the police and Gacy was arrested and charged with oral sodomy in relation to Voorhees and the attempted assault of a 16 year old named Edward Lynch. He denied the charges and demanded to take a polygraph test, which showed that Gacy was nervous when he denied any wrongdoing in relation to Voorhees or Lynch.

Publicly, he denied any wrongdoing, stating the charges were politically motivated as Voorhees Sr. opposed Gacy’s nomination for appointment as the President of the Iowa Jaycees. Many Jaycees rallied to his support, but he was still indicted for the sodomy charge on May 10, 1968.

On August 30, 1968, Gacy persuaded one of his employees, 18 year old Russell Schroeder, to beat up Voorhees, to discourage him from testifying against Gacy. He agreed, with the promise that he would spray mace in Voorhees face and beat him for $300.00.

During the assault, however, Voorhees managed to escape and immediately went to the police. Schroeder was arrested the following day, and soon confessed to having assaulted Voorhees at Gacy’s request. Gacy was arrested and charged additionally for hiring Schroeder to intimidate Voorhees.

On September 12, 1968, Gacy was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Two doctors examined him over the course of 17 days, and concluded that he had antisocial personality disorder, a disorder which incorporates constructs such as sociopathy and psychopathy. They also concluded that he was unlikely to benefit from therapy or medical treatment, and his behavior pattern would bring him into repeated conflict with society. They also stated that he was mentally competent to stand trial.

Gacy entered a plea of guilty to one count of sodomy in relation to the charges filed against him by Donald Voorhees, but plead not guilty to the other charges. Before the judge, he stated that he and Voorhees had engaged in sexual relations, and insisted that Voorhees had offered his sexual services to him, and that he only acted out of curiosity. He was convicted of sodomy on December 3, 1968 and sentenced to 10 years at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. That day, his wife filed for divorce and Gacy never saw his wife or children again.

A model prisoner, Gacy was granted parole with 12 months probation, and on June 18, 1970, after serving only 18 months of his 10-year sentence, he was released. One condition of his probation was that he move back to Chicago and live with his mother. But on February 12, 1971, he was again, charged with assaulting a teenage boy. The boy claimed that Gacy had lured him into his car at the Greyhound bus terminal and drove him home, where he attempted to force the boy into sex. The complaint was dismissed though, as the boy failed to appear in court.

The Iowa Board of Parole did not learn of this incident, and in October 1971, Gacy’s parole ended, and the following month, his criminal convictions in Iowa were sealed.

With the financial assistance from his mother, Gacy bought a house (8213 West Summerdale Avenue) in Norwood Park Township.
January 2, 1972, Gacy committed his first murder. He picked up 16 year old Timothy Jack McCoy from the Greyhound bus terminal. Gacy took him on a sightseeing tour of Chicago, then drove him to his home with the promise he could spend the night and would be driven back to the station in time to catch his bus. The following morning, Gacy awoke to find McCoy standing in his bedroom doorway with a knife in his hand. Gacy leapt from his bed and McCoy raised both arms, in a means of surrender, tilting the knife upwards and accidentally cutting Gacy’s forearm. Gacy twisted the knife from McCoy’s hand, banged his head against the bedroom wall, kicked him against the wardrobe and walked towards him.

McCoy kicked Gacy in the stomach, and that’s when Gacy grabbed him, wrestled him to the floor and stabbed him repeatedly in the chest. Gacy later said that he then went to his kitchen and found an open carton of eggs and a slab of unsliced bacon on his kitchen table. McCoy had also set the table for two. Gacy had killed him after he had absentmindedly walked into Gacy’s room while carrying the kitchen knife.

Gacy buried McCoy in his crawl space and later covered the grave with a layer of concrete. He said, in an interview, that he felt “totally drained” after killing McCoy, yet noted that he had experienced a mind-numbing orgasm as he killed the boy. “That’s when I realized that death was the ultimate thrill,” Gacy said.

Gacy became engaged to Carole Hoff, a woman he had briefly dated in High School, who had also been a friend of his younger sister. Hoff had 2 daughters from a previous marriage and soon moved in with Gacy and his mother. Shortly before their wedding, July 1, 1972, his mother moved out. Also, before their wedding, Gacy was again arrested and charged with aggravated battery and reckless conduct.

A young boy named Jackie Dee told police that Gacy flashed a sheriff’s badge at him and lured him into his car to perform oral sex. Charges were dropped though, after Dee attempted to blackmail Gacy into paying him to drop the charges.

It was at this time that Gacy started his own construction business, known as PDM Contractors (Painting, Decorating and Maintenance). His neighbors considered him gregarious and helpful. He was very active in the community and again, became active in Democratic Party politics. He was appointed to serve on the Norwood Park Township street lighting committee and subsequently earned the title of precinct captain. In 1975, he was appointed director of Chicago’s annual Polish Constitution Day Parade, which he supervised from 1975 until 1978. Through his work with the parade, he was able to meet and be photographed with first lady, Rosalynn Carter.

Gacy has stated that his second murder was around January 1974. He lured an unidentified male victim to his home where he strangled him. Gacy said fluid leaked out of his mouth and nose as he was stored in his closet, staining the carpet. From that point forward, Gacy regularly stuffed cloth rags or even the victim’s’ own underwear in their mouths to prevent any other messes. This particular victim was found buried about 15 feet from the barbecue pit in Gacy’s backyard.

Gacy joined a local Moose Club, where he learned of a “Jolly Joker” clown club. In this club, members would dress as clowns and perform at fundraising events and parades. They also entertained hospitalized children. Gacy joined the Jolly Jokers where he created his own characters, Pogo the Clown and Patches the Clown. He designed his own costumes and taught himself to apply clown makeup.

Gacy performed for numerous local parties, Democratic Party functions, charitable events and children’s hospitals. He was also known to arrive at one of his favorite bars, “The Good Luck Lounge,” dressed as a clown.

In 1975, Gacy told his wife he was bisexual. He began staying out all night, telling his wife when he returned in the morning, that he had been working late. She watched him bring teenage boys into the garage, and by March 1976, they had divorced.

In 1975, PDM’s business was booming, and Gacy began working 12-16 hour days to fulfil commitments. Much of his workforce consisted of high school students and young men. One such worker was 15 year old Anthony Antonucci. In July 1975, Gacy went to the boys home as he had hurt his foot at work the prior day. Gacy gave him alcohol and wrestled him to the floor, then cuffed his hands behind his back. The cuff on the boys right wrist was loose and he was able to free himself as soon as Gacy left the room. They wrestled again, this time the boy, a member of his high school wrestling team, managed to get Gacy on the floor and handcuff his hands behind his back. Gacy screamed threats, and then calmed down and promised to leave if Antonucci removed the cuffs. He agreed and Gacy left the house.

One week later, another employee, 17 year old John Butkovitch disappeared. The day before his disappearance, he had confronted Gacy about two-weeks’ outstanding back pay. Gacy lured Butkovitch to his home while his wife and stepchildren were away, with the premise of settling the issue of the overdue wages. It was there that Gacy conned the boy into cuffing his wrists behind his back, and then strangled him to death. He buried him beneath 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 father called Gacy, who said he would be happy to search for the boy, but was sorry he had “run away.” He admitted the boy and two of his friends had arrived at his home demanding the overdue pay, but claimed all three left after a compromise had been reached. Over the following three years, Butkovitch’s parents called the police more than 100 times, begging them to investigate Gacy further.

Conning young men into wearing handcuffs became Gacy’s typical modus operandi for subduing his victims. He would give them alcohol, then produce a pair of handcuffs, often as one of his “clown” routines. He would persuade his victim into putting on the cuffs. He would then tell them, “The trick is, you have to have the key,” before proceeding to rape and torture his victim. He would then finish with the “rope trick,” placing a rope over his victims neck, and typing a makeshift tourniquet until the victim was strangled to death.

The majority of his murders were committed between 1976 and 1978, which he referred to as his “cruising years.”

18 year old Darrell Sampson disappeared on April 6, 1976.
15 year old Randall Reffett disappeared on May 14. He was gagged with a cloth causing him to die of asphyxiation. Hours later, 14 year old Samuel Stapleton disappeared. Both boys were buried in the same grave in Gacy’s crawl space.
17 year old Michael Bonnin disappeared on June 3, 1976. He was strangled and buried in the crawl space.
16 year old William Carroll disappeared on June 13, 1976, and was buried directly beneath Gacy’s kitchen and laundry room.
Three identified (but unnamed) young men were aged between 16 and 17 years old, were killed between June 13, and August 6.
One unidentified man between 22 and 30 years old was buried directly beneath the body of 16 year old James Haakenson, who disappeared on August 5, 1976. He, in turn, was buried directly beneath 17 year old Rick Johnston, who was last seen August 6.

Two more, unidentified boys, were estimated to have been killed between August and October 1976. One of these victims was buried directly above the body of William Carroll who had been murdered on June 13, yet was higher than the body of Rick Johnston, who was last seen on August 6. The second unidentified boy, aged between 17 and 21 was buried in the northeast corner of the crawl space.
Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino were abducted on October 24, 1976. They were both strangled and buried in the same grave in the crawl space.
October 26, 1976, 19 year old PDM Contractors employee, William Bundy disappeared. He was also strangled and buried in the crawl space, directly beneath Gacy’s master bedroom.
17 year old, Gregory Godzik, another PDM employee, disappeared in December 1976.
January 20, 1977, John Szyc, the 19 year old friend of Butkovich, Godzik and Gacy disappeared. He was found buried in the crawl space, directly above the body of Godzik. A ring, bearing his initials, was found in a dresser in Gacy’s master bedroom.
An unidentified young man, killed sometime between December 1976 and March 1977, was estimated to be about 25 years old. His body was found in the crawl space beneath the body of a 20 year old named Jon Prestidge, who was killed on March 15.

After the murder of Prestidge, another unidentified young man was murdered. This body was exhumed from the crawl space, and the timing of his death is inconclusive. His body was buried parallel to the wall of Gacy’s crawl space, directly beneath the entrance to his home.
Matthew Bowman was found buried in the crawl space along with the tourniquet used to strangle him still knotted around his neck. He was killed in July 1977.
18 year old Robert Gilroy, disappeared on September 15, 1977. He was suffocated and buried in the crawl space.
19 year old Jon Mowery disappeared on September 25, 1977, and was strangled to death, buried in the northwest corner of the crawl space – perpendicular to the body of William Bundy.
21 year old Russell Nelson disappeared on October 17, 1977. He was also suffocated and buried in the crawl space.
16 year old Robert Winch disappeared in November 1977, and was found in the crawl space directly beneath the hallway along with the body of 20 year old Tommy Boling.
19 year old U.S. Marine, David Talsma disappeared on December 9. He was strangled and buried in the crawl space.
19 year old Robert Donnelly disappeared on December 30, 1977. Gacy kidnapped him from a Chicago bus stop at gunpoint, drove him home, raped him and tortured him with various devices. He repeated dunked his head into a bathtub filled with water until he passed out, and then Gacy would revive him. After several hours of assaulting and torturing him, Gacy drove Donnelly to his place of work, removed the handcuffs and released him. Donnelly reported the assault and when Gacy was questioned about it, he admitted to having had “slave-sex” with Donnelly, but insisted it was consensual. The police believed him and no charges were filed. Donnelly later testified that he was in so much pain that he asked Gacy to kill him to “get it over with,” to which Gacy replied, “I’m getting round to it.”
19 year old William Kindred disappeared on February 16, 1978 and was the final victim buried in the crawl space.
In March 1978, 26 year old Jeffrey Rignall was chloroformed and driven to Gacy’s home where he was raped and tortured with various items, including lit candles and whips. He was repeatedly chloroformed into unconsciousness before being driven to Lincoln Park where he was dumped, unconscious, but alive. He made it to his girlfriend’s apartment where he informed the police of the assault, but the police did not investigate Gacy.

Rignall could not remember clearly, because of all the chloroform, but did recall a black Oldsmobile, the Kennedy Expressway and some side streets. He staked out the Expressway where he knew he had been driven until he saw Gacy’s black Oldsmobile, which he and his friends followed to 8213 Summerdale. Police issued an arrest warrant and Gacy was arrested on July 15, 1978 for assault.
But he didn’t stay in jail, and as they say, old habits die hard.
20 year old Timothy O’Rourke was killed in mid-June 1978, his body thrown from the I-55 bridge into the Des Plaines River. His body was found 6 miles downstream on June 30.

20 year old James Mazzara disappeared on November 24, 1978.
December 11, 1978, Gacy visited a Des Plaines pharmacy to discuss a potential remodeling deal. While he was there, he made sure to mention, while in earshot of 15 year old part-time employee Robert Piest, that his firm hired teenage boys with a starting salary of $5 per hour – nearly double the salary Piest was earning at the pharmacy.

Piest told his mother that “some contractor wants to talk to me about a job” and left the store, promising to return shortly. When he failed to return, his family filed a missing person report, and the owner of the pharmacy named Gacy as the contractor Piest had left the store to talk to.

Gacy denied talking to Piest, indicating that he had seen 2 youths working at the pharmacy and had asked one, whom could have been Piest, whether any remodeling materials were present in the rear of the store. He remained adamant that he had not offered Piest a job, and even promised to go to the police station to make a statement later that evening.

At 3:20am, Gacy arrived at the police station, covered in mud, claiming he had been involved in a car accident.
Des Plaines police checked Gacy’s record, and discovered he had an outstanding battery charge (for assaulting Rignall), and had served a prison sentence in Iowa for the sodomy of a 15 year old boy.

A judge ordered the search of Gacy’s house on December 13, and that turned up several suspicious items. A 1975 high school class ring, engraved with the initials J.A.S., various drivers’ licenses, handcuffs, a two by four with holes drilled in the ends, books on homosexuality and pederasty, a syringe, male clothing too small for Gacy, a 6mm Brevettata starter pistol and a photo receipt from the pharmacy where Robert Piest worked.

Police confiscated Gacy’s Oldsmobile along with his other PDM vehicles and assigned 2 two-man surveillance teams to follow him while they continued their investigation of Gacy, regarding Piest’s disappearance.

By December 16, Gacy had become affable with the surveillance detectives, regularly inviting them to join him for meals in various restaurants, and occasionally for drinks in bars, or even his home. On December 17, officers conducted a test using three trained German Shepherd search dogs to determine whether Piest had been in any of Gacy’s vehicles. The dogs were allowed to examine each of Gacy’s vehicles, whereupon one dog approached Gacy’s oldsmobile and lay upon the passenger seat in what the dog’s handler informed investigators was a “death reaction,” indicating the body of Robert Piest had been present in this vehicle. That evening, Gacy invited two of the surveillance detectives to a restaurant for a meal. Early December 18, he invited the same officers to another restaurant for breakfast. There, they talked business, his marriages, his activities as a registered clown. At one point, Gacy remarked, “You know… clowns can get away with murder.”

Gacy was brought to trial on February 6, 1980 and on March 12, 1980, he was found guilty of 33 counts of murder, and guilty of sexual assault and taking indecent liberties with a child.

Gacy was sentenced to death for the twelve counts of murder in which the prosecution had sought this penalty. His initial date of execution was set for June 2, 1980, but ultimately carried out on May 10, 1994.