In the 1970s, John Wayne Gacy, a Midwestern contractor and party clown, committed heinous acts by assaulting and murdering over 30 young men and underage boys. He used a rope to slip around his victims’ necks, and slowly, tightened it with a stick, deceiving and strangling them.
Authorities uncovered his heinous crimes when one of the victims’ families filed a missing person report. They initiated an investigation into the matter and recovered many of the victims’ corpses from John Gacy’s home in Chicago’s Norwood Park, with some buried in a crawl space or concealed within the property’s walls.
Authorities conducted an investigation, brought the serial killer to trial, and sentenced him to death for each murder.
What did John Wayne Gacy do to his victims and how was he caught?
John Gacy, the infamous serial killer, lured and victimized young boys, leaving a dark legacy in US history. He’d lure victims to his home, tricking them into wearing handcuffs for a magic demonstration. Then, he would subject his captives to rape and torture before killing them.
In 1972, he committed his first murder, followed by two more by the end of 1975. After divorcing his second wife in 1976, he went on to kill at least thirty victims. The investigation of the disappearance of teenager Robert Piest resulted in Gacy’s arrest on December 21, 1978.
Piest worked in a drug store where a constructor visited to discuss a potential remodeling plan with the owner. Upon hearing that he hires young men for higher pay as compared to what the drug store paid, Piest went to meet the constructor, and no one heard from him thereafter. Once the family filed a missing person report, the constructor was called in for questioning. The police grew highly suspicious when the contractor, also known as John Wayne Gacy, failed to appear. They issued a search warrant, searched the serial killer’s home, and discovered a receipt belonging to the 15-year-old.
As soon as the authorities started searching his house, they found bones in his crawl space. John Gacy confessed to killing 32 men and was arrested. The authorities brought Gacy to trial on February 6, 1980, charging him with 33 murders. On March 13, 1980, the trial ended, and the jury sentenced Gacy to death for each murder.
The authorities executed John Wayne Gacy by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994. For his last meal, he requested KFC, French fries, deep-fried shrimp, strawberries, and a Diet Coke.
