John Wayne Gacy: A Timeline of the 'Killer Clown' Murders, Trial and Execution

house of john wayne gacy

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Death row

Gacy's side business in construction and painting eventually became his primary method for luring in his unsuspecting victims. Under the guise of offering them part-time work for cash, Gacy would entrap them before torturing, sexually assaulting, and strangling or asphyxiating them to death. In 1978, after one of Gacy’s victims, Robert Piest, was reported missing, police learned that Gacy was the last person known to have seen him. After obtaining a search warrant, police discovered the bodies of 29 boys and young men in or near Gacy’s house; four other bodies were found in the nearby Des Plaines River.

John Wayne Gacy’s Victims Receive Justice

Mental health professionals testified for both sides about Gacy’s mental state. While the new home bears little resemblance to the former residence at 8213 W. Summerdale Ave (even donning a new house number), the idea that dozens of bodies were buried on the site does still leave a dark stain on the location immortalized by death. Over the years, the house has been bought and sold several times. It was most recently purchased in March 2021, when the property sold for $395,000 after two years on the market.

John Wayne Gacy Family

Indeed, the area of the house had emitted a foul stench for years, but Gacy had told his houseguests and his wife that the smell was the result of moisture buildup. When the ruthless killer wasn’t working or performing as “Pogo the Clown” at children’s birthday parties, he was raping and killing adolescents. The deranged serial killer only became suspect to police when several teenage boys reported him for sexual assault. In the years since Gacy’s arrest, there have been lingering concerns that Gacy might have been responsible for the deaths of other people whose bodies have yet to be found.

Former Nickelodeon child star alleges connection between producer and Chicago serial killer John Wayne Gacy - NBC Chicago

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April 23, 1979: Gacy is indicted for a total of 33 murders

John Wayne Gacy was a serial killer and rapist who murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men in Cook County, Illinois, burying most under his house. Sometimes known as the “Killer Clown” for his habit of dressing in a clown costume and makeup, Gacy had an abusive childhood and struggled with his homosexuality. Gacy committed all the murders in his Norwood Park home, luring his victims there with the promise of construction work or some other ruse, then sexually assaulting and torturing them before killing them, usually by strangulation.

house of john wayne gacy

Meanwhile, a search warrant was obtained for Gacy’s house. Officers and evidence technicians—representatives of the Des Plaines police department, the Cook County sheriffs police, and the state’s attorney’s detail—began arriving at the brick ranch house about seven that night. They were looking for evidence of a kidnapping; they feared they might find evidence of a murder.

'Killer Clown' John Wayne Gacy's death row attorney reveals why he likely had dozens more victims — and help - Fox News

'Killer Clown' John Wayne Gacy's death row attorney reveals why he likely had dozens more victims — and help.

Posted: Thu, 25 Apr 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

He was also found guilty of one count of 'deviate sexual assault' and one count of 'indecent liberties with a child'. One of the most notorious serial killers in recorded history sits in the warden’s office at the downstate Menard Correctional Center, wearing a button-down, short-sleeved shirt, his gray hair slicked back, a silver watch on his wrist. (Why does he need a watch?) He is about to have an extensive conversation recorded on video with legendary FBI profiler Robert Ressler. His efforts bear fruit when Victim No. 19 is identified the following month as William George Bundy, and when Victim No. 24 is identified as James Byron Haakenson in July 2017.

By 1971, Gacy had settled into a new home in Norwood Park, a neighborhood in northwestern Chicago. His yellow brick ranch house there, at 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, would eventually become a graveyard for 29 young men and boys. Over the next six years, dozens more bodies would join Timothy McCoy’s. And all the while, Gacy pretended to be an upstanding member of his community. He performed at parties and hospitals as “Pogo the Clown,” but his penchant for murder was no joke. By the time he was caught, Gacy the “Killer Clown” had amassed at least 33 victims.

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Carol Hoff, his high school sweetheart and second wife who he married in 1972, questioned his sexuality. When Gacy told her he was bisexual in 1975, Hoff divorced him and left him alone in their house. Wikimedia CommonsAn active member of his community in the 1970s, John Wayne Gacy often attended political events. He’s pictured here with First Lady Rosalynn Carter, just a few months before police discovered he’d murdered 33 people. His customers remembered him as kind, generous, and willing to help people out.

Another evidence technician and an investigator dropped into the crawl space. Genty crawled to the northwest corner of the crawl space, then moved to the southwest, where he noted three small puddles, about the size of ashtrays. The other two were filled with hundreds of thin red worms, about two inches long, and when Genty shone the floodlight on them, they burrowed into the soft mud.

Peck is a longtime friend of controversial film director Bryan Singer, who was once accused of assaulting four minors, and had an uncredited cameo in Singer’s first “X-Men” film. Schneider was let go after two ViacomCBS investigations, in 2017 and 2018, that found he had committed no sexual misconduct but had been verbally abusive on set. He claims it was least partly because his mom, Tracey Brown, was too mouthy about what she saw as strange and inappropriate behavior on the set, which was run by the then-king of children’s television, Dan Schneider. Bryan Hearne never became a big star like Amanda Bynes, Ariana Grande or Drake Bell when he was one of many child actors in the Nickelodeon universe that dominated children’s TV in the late ’90s and early aughts.

Yet somehow the bodies of 29 victims were found on Gacy’s property, and four more bodies were discovered nearby, and it’s possible there were more victims. Over the next several weeks, investigators would unearth the remains of 29 bodies on Gacy's property and another four in the rivers southeast of Chicago. Already living alone, Gacy has his separation from Carol formalized with their divorce. During this time he begins appearing more frequently around town as his alter ego, Pogo the clown. He also picks up the pace on his murderous spree, claiming another two dozen victims from April 1976 through the end of 1977.

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