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World's Most Evil Killers S01E01
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CreativityTranscript
00:00On the 21st of December 1978, police in Chicago were desperately trying to locate a missing teenager
00:15and had begun searching the home of a local maintenance contractor.
00:20When they executed that search warrant, they went in the crawl space,
00:23and the very first shovel that they dug, they found human remains.
00:28The man they had in custody, 36-year-old John Wayne Gacy,
00:33was a popular socialite who spent his weekends dressed as a clown, entertaining children.
00:39At one point, chillingly, he says to the detectives, you know, clowns can get away with murder.
00:45Well, never was a truer word said.
00:48In total, Gacy, the killer clown, had tortured and killed 33 young men over a five-year period.
00:56Twenty-seven of the bodies were buried right beneath his own home.
01:01Using other human beings, you know, inflicting pain and suffering and torture
01:07on another helpless human being, to me, is the essence of evil.
01:12The remorseless John Wayne Gacy had proved himself to be one of the world's most evil killers.
01:19Over the course of six years,
01:43John Wayne Gacy kidnapped, tortured and brutally murdered 33 young men and boys
01:50in and around Chicago, Illinois.
01:53It was one of the most shocking sets of crimes in American history.
01:59The bodies of 27 of Gacy's victims were buried directly below the house he lived in.
02:06But this killer's story starts almost 40 years before.
02:14John Wayne Gacy was born in Chicago, Illinois, on the 17th of March, 1942.
02:22The second of three children, Gacy had a difficult upbringing.
02:26His father was an alcoholic who was reportedly both mentally and physically abusive
02:31to his children and their mother.
02:34His father spent, apparently, all of Gacy's childhood
02:39demeaning him and physically punishing him
02:42and telling him how stupid and worthless and effeminate he was.
02:48Gacy's childhood friend, Barry Buscelli,
02:51remembers the physical abuse he suffered at the hands of his father.
02:55If Johnny was two minutes late, no food.
02:59So a lot of times Johnny ate at our house and stayed at our house overnight.
03:03He used to take Johnny when he was sitting at the kitchen table
03:06and he would take his fist and hit Johnny in the face.
03:10The father is a very significant figure
03:13in the genesis of Gacy's terrible deeds.
03:20For, to my mind, Gacy was always trying to satisfy his father,
03:24whom he never could.
03:26He was beaten repeatedly by his father.
03:31With belts, with brooms, at one stage he was knocked out by him.
03:36These people grow up with such a malignant view of the world
03:41and of human relationships and feeling that human relationships
03:45are not based on love and trust and respect.
03:48You know, that they're all based on exploitation and cruelty
03:51and inflicting pain.
03:52Gacy was a sickly child.
03:55He suffered from a heart condition,
03:57limiting his involvement in sports activities
03:59and consequently alienating him from his peers.
04:03Aged 11, an accident in a playground led to his teenage years
04:08being blighted by blackouts and hospital visits.
04:11At that time, the swings were wooden base swings
04:14with heavy chains coming down.
04:16Johnny went to grab it and the swing clipped him right across the forehead
04:21and knocked him to the ground.
04:26By 1966, 24-year-old Gacy was married
04:30and had relocated to the city of Waterloo,
04:34300 miles west of Chicago, in the neighboring state of Iowa.
04:38Well, Gacy got married and life from the outside appeared to be relatively normal.
04:43He had quite a good job.
04:45His wife had two children.
04:47So they appeared to be the typical cereal box American nuclear family.
04:53And Gacy wasn't just a regular family man.
04:55He was also quite active in the local chamber of commerce
04:59and he played quite an active role.
05:01And he was a real figure in the local community.
05:04Gacy had started to build the perfect life for himself,
05:08but he was concealing a dark secret.
05:10He developed an unhealthy sexual interest in young boys.
05:15There was a son of a fellow JC member
05:18who he lured back to his home and he sexually assaulted.
05:22So he's abusing power.
05:25He's getting into these positions of trust
05:27and he's taking advantage
05:28and that's a theme that's going to continue for him.
05:32And then when the kid revealed this to his father
05:36and Gacy was arrested for it,
05:39Gacy hired another teenager to intimidate this kid,
05:44to lure this kid into some remote place
05:47and spray mace in his eyes and beat him up
05:50and warn him against testifying in Gacy's case.
05:54Despite Gacy's efforts,
05:55his victim still testified,
05:57but there wasn't conclusive proof of an attack.
06:00Therefore, police were only able to charge him with sodomy
06:04of the 15-year-old boy.
06:06He pleaded guilty to one count of sodomy,
06:08thinking he would get a very, very minimal sentence.
06:12But the judge threw the book at him
06:14and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
06:16On the 3rd of December 1968,
06:20Gacy was sent to Anamosa State Penitentiary.
06:24Whilst in jail, Gacy's wife divorced him.
06:27A further blow was dealt when his father died
06:30and he was denied permission to attend the funeral.
06:34Given the perfect nature of Gacy's ability
06:38to groom whomever he came into contact with,
06:43within a matter of months,
06:46Gacy had become head cook at the prison,
06:49had convinced the staff
06:50that he was an absolutely ideal person.
06:54What's more, then convinced the parole board
06:57that he was no danger to anybody
06:59and so served barely 18 months
07:02of the 10 years of his original sentence.
07:07In June 1970, now aged 28,
07:11John Wayne Gacy was released from prison
07:13and returned home to Chicago.
07:16His friends, family and neighbours
07:19were entirely unaware of what had taken place
07:22while he'd been living over 300 miles away in Iowa.
07:26His background was not looked into in any way,
07:29I think partly because he didn't go into any line of work
07:34in which any kind of background check
07:37would have been necessary.
07:38You know, he began his own business.
07:40I mean, none of his acquaintance
07:42was even remotely aware of his criminal background.
07:46In June 1972, Gacy got married for a second time
07:51and he and his new bride set up home
07:54in the Chicago suburbs at 8213 West Somerdale Avenue,
07:59a house that would eventually become
08:03one of the most infamous addresses in America.
08:06Six years later, in December 1978,
08:1310 miles from Gacy's house,
08:1515-year-old Des Plaines resident, Rob Peast,
08:18was reported missing by his mother.
08:21Detectives Mike Albrecht and Dave Hackmeister
08:24began to investigate the teen's disappearance.
08:28Rob Peast was like a stellar kid.
08:31I mean, he was the kind of kid
08:32that anyone would want as a son.
08:35Never been in trouble,
08:37never had any inclination to run away.
08:39He was a good student,
08:40very, very much out of character.
08:42He would turn up missing.
08:45So, you know, that caught our attention, obviously.
08:47And at that time in the late 70s,
08:49there was a lot of stuff going on
08:50with the hippie moon, all that kind of stuff.
08:52But he made a determination very quickly
08:55that this was not a normal, quote-unquote, runaway.
08:58He didn't have any girlfriend problems,
09:00was not involved in drugs or anything like that.
09:02He was just an all-American good kid.
09:04At the time of his disappearance,
09:07Peast was working at a pharmacy in Des Plaines.
09:10So he had told an employee and actually his mother
09:13that he was going to go talk to a contractor about a job.
09:17And he then went out the back door
09:19and he wasn't seen any time thereafter.
09:24Rob Peast seemed to have just vanished
09:26off the face of the earth.
09:28The two detectives desperately needed
09:31to track down the contractor
09:32who was probably the last person to see him.
09:35Their search would lead them to the door
09:37of a 36-year-old man by the name of John Wayne Gacy.
09:42He divorced his second wife two years previously
09:45and was now running a successful business
09:48called PDM Contractors.
09:50Gacy would often employ young men,
09:52one of whom was Tony Antonucci.
09:55At the time when I met him,
09:56I was about 16 years old.
09:59And of course, like a lot of 16-year-olds,
10:01I wanted to get a job so I could afford to have my car.
10:04My first impressions were that he was basically a likable guy,
10:09kind of jovial, liked to joke around,
10:12you know, appeared very normal.
10:15Gacy seemed in many ways like the perfect boss.
10:20Sometimes at 3 o'clock in the afternoon,
10:23you know, John would say,
10:24hey, it's a nice day out, let's knock off early
10:27and, you know, have some fun or do something,
10:31and all normal stuff, you know,
10:33just kind of like you didn't expect, you know,
10:35your boss to, you know,
10:37be the one that wanted to knock off early.
10:41Another young man who'd come looking for a job
10:44was 15-year-old Rob Piest,
10:46but he hadn't been seen since meeting with Gacy
10:49at the pharmacy where he worked.
10:53Detectives Dave Hackmeister and Mike Albrecht
10:55were investigating.
10:57We ran a records check on him,
10:58and as it turns out,
11:00he had a fairly lengthy background.
11:02He had spent some time in Iowa for sodomy,
11:07and so it was sexual crimes, basically, against children.
11:12Concerned by Gacy's criminal record,
11:14the police obtained a warrant to search his home.
11:18The warrant consisted of three facts.
11:21The first fact is that John Wayne Gacy,
11:23in fact, was at the pharmacy
11:25the night Rob Piest went missing,
11:28and fact two,
11:29that Rob Piest had told people
11:31that he was going to see a contractor regarding a job,
11:36and fact three, his criminal background.
11:39So on those three facts,
11:40they were able to obtain a search warrant.
11:42On the 13th of December 1978,
11:45police conducted their first search of Gacy's home,
11:49finding a number of suspicious items.
11:51They recovered various items of pornography.
11:56They recovered some books that were titled
11:59Pretty Boys Must Die.
12:02They also recovered driver's licenses of other young people,
12:06and they did a check on those driver's licenses.
12:09It was determined that those kids were also reported missing.
12:13Initially, we were hoping to find Rob Piest alive someplace,
12:15and it didn't take long to realize
12:17that probably was not going to happen.
12:20Another item recovered was a high school ring,
12:24which had belonged to missing 19-year-old John Schick,
12:27last seen in January 1977.
12:31Further investigation discovered
12:33that two of Gacy's employees had been reported missing,
12:3817-year-old John Butkovich,
12:40last seen in July 1975,
12:42and Gregory Godzik, also 17-years-old,
12:47missing since December 1976.
12:50It was an evolution as we went along.
12:52I think it was after that search warrant,
12:55we're pretty confident that there's at least five or six victims
12:59that were associated with Gacy that hadn't been seen.
13:03But with no evidence or bodies,
13:05the police could not make an arrest.
13:07They decided to begin surveillance on Gacy.
13:10We just said, wherever you go, we're going.
13:13If Gacy went into a public place,
13:15we were going to follow him and see what he was up to.
13:18Throughout this overt surveillance,
13:20we became fairly friendly with John Wayne Gacy.
13:24He knew we were following him.
13:26He tried to be cordial with us.
13:28In fact, he initiated conversations with us.
13:32He'd play games with the police.
13:34He'd go up to their car and say,
13:36Hi, do you guys want some marijuana?
13:38Or just something stupid like that.
13:41He goes into Moose Lodge,
13:42and Mike and I, my partner and I, said,
13:45We're going to go in right along with Gacy,
13:47but we'll sit at a different table.
13:48All of a sudden, the waitress comes over
13:50with a couple of beers and places of beers in front of us
13:53and says, It's on that gentleman over there.
13:55We look over at John,
13:57and John gives us a hi sign, and we wave back.
14:00Very confident, cocky.
14:03Kept on bragging about all property
14:04and how much of a businessman he was
14:06and how well-connected he was.
14:10John Wayne Gacy had a psychopathic personality,
14:12so he really does seek out power,
14:14and he seeks out control,
14:16and he likes playing with people.
14:17He's a bit of a puppet master,
14:19and I think that was driving his behavior.
14:22Everyone that we talked to just loved John Wayne Gacy.
14:25His neighbors, his co-workers, all of his associates,
14:29they loved the guy.
14:31And we could see that.
14:32I mean, the way he was interacting with us
14:34was basically the same.
14:36And my partner and I would have to, on many occasions,
14:40remind one another,
14:41Hey, listen, you know, this guy is dangerous.
14:44Gacy was considered an upstanding key member
14:47of his small community.
14:49He was popular and involved in politics.
14:51At weekends, he would even dress as a clown
14:54and perform for children at parties and at local hospitals.
14:59The fact that Gacy had this other persona as Pogo the Clown,
15:04professional clowns usually, you know,
15:07will paint their smiles, you know,
15:10with sort of gentle, circular things around their lips.
15:14Gacy's smile looks like bat wings.
15:17There's just something horrifically sinister and monstrous
15:21about this figure of Pogo.
15:25Just an element that raises Gacy to the level
15:29of a kind of mythic American monster.
15:31At one point, chillingly, he says to the detectives,
15:35you know, clowns can get away with murder.
15:38Well, never was a truer word said.
15:40But it took some time for those detectives
15:43to fully comprehend that here was a man
15:46who was capable of murder, and more than one.
15:50As Mike and Dave continued with their surveillance,
15:53detectives back at the station were trying to get another warrant
15:56to search Gacy's house.
15:58They'd received some disturbing new evidence
16:01while questioning his colleagues.
16:04They're young kids, you know, 17, 18, 19 years old.
16:07And at times, Gacy had ordered these young kids
16:12to go down into his crawlspace of his home and dig trenches,
16:16and he had told them that there was a sewage issue
16:19and that he needed the trenches dug
16:22so he could alleviate that situation.
16:25But they said that it had happened several times
16:28and that there was an odor down there
16:30that was just unbelievable.
16:32So now we're starting to believe, hey, is it possible?
16:35And I know it sounds crazy, but is it possible
16:38he could have buried someone in the crawlspace?
16:40He gets other people unwittingly involved in his offending,
16:44and they don't know anything of what's going on.
16:47And I think that's what gets him gratification,
16:50the fact that he has such power over other people
16:52that they're not joining the dots together
16:54and that he's able to hide in plain sight.
16:58Mike and Dave continued to follow the popular contractor,
17:02but they had a plan to force Gacy's hand.
17:06We were on the surveillance for about seven days,
17:09and as the surveillance progressed,
17:11what we found out was that he had this huge core support
17:16of friends and family and coworkers and the such,
17:19and that that is really what was the barrier between us and Gacy.
17:26So we developed a plan for the investigators
17:29to put some pressure on all these people that were supporting him,
17:32and slowly they started peeling back from Gacy.
17:36And we were feeding Gacy information
17:39that they're possibly looking to execute a second search warrant.
17:44He became more and more desperate.
17:46And the last day, it was about midnight or one in the morning,
17:53he contacted his attorneys and met his attorneys in their office in Park Ridge.
17:59At that point, Mike and I are outside,
18:01and we see the attorneys waving us into the building.
18:05It was very uncharacteristic of the attorneys to do this.
18:09The first thing they were telling us, though,
18:10is to park your cars in front of Gacy's and don't let him out.
18:13If he tries to move, shoot his tires out.
18:14You know, what's going on here?
18:16It was very obvious to us
18:18that the attorneys were absolutely scared to death, petrified.
18:22They're pacing up and down.
18:23They won't take their eyes off of Gacy.
18:25And that pretty much solidified the fact to us
18:28that he had confessed to his attorneys about at least a couple, three murders.
18:33Dave and Mike knew that Gacy was beginning to buckle.
18:37They continued to trail him as he left his attorney's office.
18:41So we follow Gacy, and Gacy is driving like a madman,
18:45and he drives to the Shell gas station where he did all of his business.
18:50He goes in, and we see a transaction happen in the gas station.
18:56It was very emotional, shaking his hand almost.
18:58I'm sorry, hugging that kind of thing,
19:00and this is so out of context for Gacy.
19:03So when Gacy comes back out, jumps in his car and takes off,
19:07I go back in the gas station, and when I go in there,
19:10they throw a couple of bags of marijuana at me, the employees,
19:14and they say, hey, listen, we didn't buy this, we didn't ask for it.
19:18Gacy just gave it to us.
19:19As Gacy's behavior grew more and more erratic,
19:23the two detectives at least now had a reason to apprehend him.
19:28We make a decision at that point to arrest him for the drug transaction
19:32that happened at the Shell gas station.
19:34So we cut off the car, pull Gacy out of the car,
19:37and arrest him for the drug transaction.
19:44Devon in Milwaukee.
19:46This was Gacy's final location of freedom.
19:50That's it.
19:51He was never free from this point on.
19:53Grabbed him out of the car.
19:54He was all whining to us, why are you doing this to me and all that.
19:57And that's where it ended.
20:00So technically, he was arrested for marijuana possession and delivery.
20:05And then we took him to the station.
20:08While in custody, Gacy told detectives he was experiencing chest pains
20:13and was taken to a local hospital as a precaution.
20:16But he was just trying to buy some more time.
20:19The police had obtained the second warrant they'd been so desperate for.
20:23On the 21st of December, 1978,
20:28they searched Gacy's home on West Somerdale Avenue for the second time.
20:33When they executed that search warrant, they went in the crawl space,
20:36and the very first shovel that they dug, they found human remains.
20:42Police had finally unearthed the secrets that Gacy had thought
20:46would stay buried forever.
20:49So they immediately called me,
20:51let me know that there was human remains in a crawl space,
20:55and at that time I arrested John Gacy for murder.
20:58Gacy says he wants to confess,
21:00but really he wants to confess to the surveillance team,
21:05both myself and my partner and the other team.
21:08And now, all of a sudden, he's got an audience again,
21:12and he's on top of the world.
21:14And he knows he can't get out of it at this point,
21:18and so he might as well just divulge everything that actually happened.
21:23Gacy told detectives he was willing to draw a map
21:26of the burial site beneath his home.
21:29I gave him a pen, and he started right off,
21:31he squared it off in the thing, and he started,
21:33well, this was a double, and this was a triple,
21:35and this was the first guy who put an X on it,
21:37and went around the whole crawl space
21:40with these places where the body was buried.
21:44I mean, they were digging with spoons and everything,
21:48but they obviously identified where all the bodies were,
21:52and they did an overlay of where the bodies were actually found
21:55compared to that diagram that he made,
21:58and it was unbelievable.
21:59It was right on the money.
22:00In total, 27 bodies were discovered in Gacy's crawl space.
22:05It wouldn't take long for news of this horrific discovery
22:09to filter out to the wider world.
22:12Then the arrests came down,
22:14and that was the headline on the local papers,
22:17how many bodies they took out of Gacy's basement.
22:20Well, you know, when Gacy's crimes were uncovered,
22:23he entered into the record books,
22:26you know, as America's most prolific serial murderer.
22:29The notion that this, you know, pudgy, normal-seeming,
22:36decent, regular, ordinary guy
22:38was living in this horror house,
22:42you know, that was just suffused with the stench of death,
22:47and that there were the rotting bodies
22:50of 27 young men in this crawl space,
22:56bringing home and torturing young boys
22:59right in the midst, you know, of all his neighbors,
23:02and then going off to work the next day.
23:04When we booked him for murder,
23:06we asked Gacy where he was born,
23:09and Gacy looked at us and said,
23:11I was born in a state of confusion,
23:13and he smiled like that, and we captured the photo.
23:16In total, Gacy confessed to the murder
23:19of 33 young men and boys between 1972 and 1978.
23:26Gacy preyed on victims
23:28who he knew were not necessarily going to be missed
23:32by any family members,
23:34rootless and homeless teenage boys
23:38who had no families that were going to miss them
23:42or care about their disappearance.
23:44At that time, in the late 70s,
23:45these kids were running away all the time,
23:47and a lot of these kids were reported missing,
23:49but there was no follow-up.
23:51As it turns out,
23:52he had buried 27 young kids in the crawl space.
23:56He buried one of the young kids outside in his backyard,
23:59and he didn't have any room left on his property,
24:02so he threw five remaining victims in the Des Plaines River.
24:07One of the bodies found floating
24:09in the Des Plaines River in April 1979
24:11was that of Rob Piest,
24:14the 15-year-old boy whose disappearance
24:16had ultimately led to Gacy's downfall.
24:19He was very descriptive on what he had done with Rob Piest.
24:23Rob Piest's mom was waiting for him in the front parking lot,
24:28and Rob said to his mom,
24:30Hey, I'm going to talk to a contractor about a job.
24:32I'll be right back.
24:33He goes back in the pharmacy.
24:35Gacy is in the back parking lot, the alleyway.
24:40And as Gacy's leaving,
24:41Rob follows him outside and says,
24:44Excuse me, sir,
24:44I understand that you hire young kids,
24:46and I'm really interested in having a different job.
24:50And Gacy says,
24:51Well, jump in the car.
24:52I'll have you fill out an application.
24:54So Gacy actually drives Piest willingly to Gacy's house.
25:00While there,
25:02Gacy starts showing Piest some little tricks
25:06of the trade of being a clown.
25:08He shows a couple of card tricks,
25:10and the last trick that he shows Piest
25:12is the handcuff trick.
25:15Gacy actually handcuffs himself
25:17and turns around and struggles with the handcuffs,
25:20and then turns back,
25:22and he holds the handcuffs up.
25:24And Piest is pretty amazed at that,
25:26and he says,
25:26That's neat.
25:27How'd you do that?
25:29So Gacy says,
25:29Well, here, you handcuff yourself,
25:31and I'll show you how to do that.
25:34So Piest handcuffs himself,
25:36and he struggles,
25:37and he struggles,
25:38and he struggles,
25:39and he looks at Gacy,
25:41and he says,
25:41Now, what's a trick to this?
25:44And Gacy reaches in his pocket
25:46and pulls out a key to the handcuffs,
25:48and he says,
25:48The trick is,
25:49You've got to have this key.
25:52This handcuff trick
25:53was part of an horrific yet clinical M.O.
25:58Gacy, throughout all of the 33 killings,
26:00had developed a method of killing these young kids.
26:03He would pick up these victims.
26:06Some were kids who worked for him,
26:09but most were teenage runaways,
26:11and bringing them back to his house,
26:14and giving them drinks.
26:16He would sort of trick them
26:18into handcuffing themselves,
26:21or being handcuffed.
26:22Gacy would use chloroform to subdue his victims.
26:28Chloroform's an old-fashioned anesthetic, really,
26:31so it gets into your lungs,
26:33and it just renders you unconscious very effectively.
26:36He did what he called a rope trick,
26:39and when he had these young kids incapacitated like that,
26:42he would slip a rope over their neck,
26:44a knotted rope like a loop,
26:46and then put the stick in the back like a tourniquet,
26:49and he would slowly turn the tourniquet.
26:53And he said he had it perfected so well
26:55that he knew exactly how the body would react to each half turn.
27:00Putting a ligature around the neck,
27:01the first thing it's going to block is the blood vessels,
27:04so it prevents blood getting to the brain,
27:06prevents it getting back to the body from the brain.
27:09It's going to be very uncomfortable,
27:10and it can even render you unconscious
27:12in a small number of seconds.
27:15And he went into detail
27:16on how he would torture these young men.
27:19And he, in fact, did double and triple murders.
27:23He would incapacitate two or three people at a time
27:26and kill one person in front of the other victims
27:28and then continue to kill the other victims.
27:31And he seemed to be pretty proud of that.
27:34We used that to our advantage to keep him talking,
27:37and he described every killing to a T,
27:41exactly how it happened, all 33.
27:44As the news broke across the country,
27:46one shocked viewer
27:47who'd unknowingly experienced Gacy's M.O. firsthand
27:51was his ex-employee, Tony Antonucci.
27:55Whilst working for PDM,
27:57Tony had accidentally got a nail stuck in his foot.
28:00John took me, and I got a tetanus shot
28:03and took me home.
28:06And he came over later that evening
28:09to check on if I was okay,
28:12or that was the theory.
28:14But he also had, you know, some wine,
28:16and we were drinking,
28:17and he was kind of joking around.
28:19It was probably 10, 10.30 at night.
28:22I was a high school wrestler.
28:24And he said, oh, you know,
28:25you're a big wrestler guy.
28:26And he started wrestling around with me.
28:29He got my left arm,
28:31and he got it behind me,
28:33and I felt him put a handcuff on it.
28:36I kept flailing my right hand around
28:39so that he couldn't get my right arm,
28:42but eventually he did get a hold of my right arm,
28:45and he knocked me down to the floor
28:47with my hands behind me.
28:49He left the room for a few minutes,
28:52and I realized that if I pulled really hard
28:56on my right hand,
28:57that I could pull my hand through the handcuff.
29:01I could get it out.
29:02By pretending he was still handcuffed,
29:05Tony was able to catch Gacy unawares
29:07when he returned
29:08and turn the situation to his advantage.
29:13I took the handcuff that I had gotten out of,
29:16and I handcuffed him on one of his wrists,
29:19and I reached into his pocket,
29:21got the key,
29:22and I handcuffed him behind his back,
29:25laying face down.
29:26He goes,
29:27you're the only one
29:28that not only got out of the handcuffs,
29:30you got them on me.
29:33And I didn't know what that meant.
29:34I thought that this was some type of test
29:36that he had performed before,
29:38and I let him stay handcuffed
29:40for 10 or 15 minutes
29:42before I let him out of the handcuffs,
29:45and, you know,
29:46he had previously agreed
29:47that when I let him up,
29:48he would leave,
29:49and he did.
29:50Tony had no idea
29:52just how close he'd come
29:53to being another victim
29:55of this deadly killer.
29:57I did not fear for my life,
29:59and not fearing for my life
30:00and not panicking
30:01is probably what saved my life.
30:04Because I'm sure
30:06if when I got out of the handcuffs,
30:07if I tried to run for the door
30:09or do something,
30:10you know,
30:10he was 33 years old
30:12and very strong,
30:14and I was 16 or 17,
30:17I'm sure he could have overpowered me
30:18if he knew he had to.
30:21Tony continued working for PDM
30:23for a few months after the attack,
30:25and only reported the incident
30:27after Gacy's arrest.
30:29By the time the case went to trial,
30:31police had managed to identify
30:32the remains of 22 of the victims.
30:36So with Gacy,
30:36we have around 30 bodies,
30:39different states of decomposition,
30:41some of which have been there
30:42for many years.
30:43Forensically,
30:44that sort of scene is a nightmare.
30:46You've got so many
30:47different things to dig up.
30:49It's a very complex procedure.
30:52It's very hard work.
30:53It will involve a lot of people
30:55and a lot of time.
30:56Seven of Gacy's victims
30:58have never been identified.
31:00This close-knit community
31:03on the outskirts of Chicago
31:05was baffled beyond belief
31:07that such a monster
31:08had lived amongst them
31:09for so long.
31:11One of the effects
31:12that learning about these crimes
31:15has on the public
31:16is that it sort of reduces you
31:19to a state of childlike awe
31:23and terror and wonder.
31:25You know, you can imagine
31:26all these middle-American suburbanites.
31:29Suddenly,
31:30here are the authorities
31:32bringing out
31:33the decomposed remains
31:35of young men
31:36that have been stored
31:38in the crawlspace
31:39of your neighbour's house.
31:41A horrified public
31:43were both shocked
31:44and outraged
31:45by the crimes
31:46Gacy had committed.
31:47As the state prepared
31:49their case,
31:50they were determined
31:51to ensure that the man
31:52who'd been held
31:53in such high esteem
31:54by his local community
31:56would pay for his crimes
31:58in full.
32:01The trial of John Wayne Gacy
32:04began on February 6, 1980
32:06at the Cook County
32:07Criminal Courts building
32:09in Chicago.
32:10At the time,
32:11Illinois still had
32:12the death penalty.
32:14Gacy's defence team
32:15were pleading insanity.
32:16It was an interesting trial
32:20and what was so fascinating
32:22about it was
32:23they had so many
32:24different psychiatrists
32:25saying so many
32:26different things
32:27that they all came up
32:28with different diagnoses,
32:31which really goes
32:33towards this picture
32:34of this not-intact
32:36human being,
32:37this bits and pieces
32:38of person.
32:40During the five-week trial,
32:42the prosecution
32:42were desperate
32:43to prove
32:44that Gacy
32:45was fully responsible
32:46for his actions.
32:47There's a difference
32:48between psychopathy
32:49and mental illness.
32:50Psychopaths are rational.
32:52They know what they're doing
32:53and they know
32:53what they do is wrong
32:55but they decide
32:55to do it anyway.
32:57So he was really culpable
32:58for his crimes.
33:00He was vicious.
33:01He was evil.
33:03He was not insane
33:04in any way.
33:05He knew exactly
33:05what he was doing
33:06and he killed these people
33:08for self-preservation
33:09because he was so well-liked
33:11politically
33:11and business-wise
33:13he couldn't have his public
33:15out that he was
33:15taking advantage
33:16of these kids.
33:17One of the prosecution
33:18witnesses was Gacy's
33:20former employee,
33:22Tony Antonucci,
33:23who'd been attacked
33:24by the 37-year-old contractor.
33:26I saw him in court
33:27and he was off to my left
33:30sitting at the table
33:33where the defense attorneys are
33:34and he just stared
33:36straight forward.
33:38He was fairly far away.
33:39I might have caught
33:41his eye on occasion
33:42in the courtroom
33:44but I was pretty nervous
33:47to be a witness
33:48on a trial
33:49of that significance
33:50even at that age
33:52in my early 20s.
33:53On the 13th of March 1980,
33:57the jury had made
33:58their decision
33:58on the fate
33:59of John Wayne Gacy.
34:01It didn't take long
34:02for them to find him guilty.
34:05I think it took
34:05maybe less than three hours
34:08which was amazing
34:10and then he was found guilty.
34:13It was kind of amazing
34:15how fast everything went.
34:17When you look at other trials
34:20that have gone on,
34:21this trial went extremely fast.
34:23In the final moments
34:24of the trial,
34:25one of the prosecutors,
34:26William Kunkel,
34:27called him a ruthless,
34:29sadistic killing machine
34:31and I think that's
34:32a pretty apt description.
34:35Judge Louis B. Garippo
34:37sentenced Gacy to death.
34:39He was immediately taken
34:40to the Menard Correctional Center,
34:42Illinois,
34:43where he would remain
34:44on death row for 14 years.
34:46Whilst in jail,
34:47he took up painting,
34:49selling his artwork for profit.
34:51Even when he was behind bars,
34:53he continued to control
34:55and manipulate people.
34:56He produced several paintings,
34:58several works of art,
35:00which he sold
35:01and he maintained a legacy
35:04even after his death
35:05through those paintings.
35:07So he was still in control
35:08when he was behind bars.
35:10He still had power
35:11over other people
35:12and he was still able
35:13to make choices and decisions.
35:15The profits he gained
35:17from these paintings
35:18resulted in the government
35:19suing him for his earnings.
35:21Lawyer Karen Conte
35:22took on Gacy's case
35:23against the state.
35:25Gacy liked to paint
35:26and he was a terrible,
35:28terrible painter
35:29and he painted horrible things
35:31like skulls
35:32and clowns
35:33and creepy things like that
35:35but people bought them
35:36and they paid $200 a shot
35:38for him
35:38to paint these ugly pictures.
35:40So that's the first thing
35:41he wanted to talk to us about
35:43but we went down there
35:44knowing that what we wanted
35:45to do was represent him
35:46in the death penalty.
35:47What was surprising
35:48was he looked and acted
35:50just like anybody else,
35:51like your favorite uncle,
35:53like your next door neighbor
35:54and if you think about it,
35:56that's probably why
35:57he got away with killing
35:58so many boys and men
36:00because he didn't look evil.
36:03You could not reconcile
36:04what he did
36:05with the man you were talking to.
36:07Karen was a firm opponent
36:09of the death penalty
36:11and represented Gacy
36:12during his final appeals
36:14against the sentence.
36:16Over the years,
36:17Gacy had numerous appeals
36:18and our system allows that.
36:21Appeals in the federal court,
36:22appeals in the state court.
36:24By the time that Gacy
36:25had his execution date set,
36:27we were out of traditional appeals.
36:30There are certain serial killers,
36:32even staunch anti-death penalty advocates
36:36would not protest
36:38against the execution
36:40of somebody like Gacy.
36:42If he felt any twinge
36:44of feeling sorry,
36:46it was only feeling sorry
36:47for himself.
36:49You know, these people
36:50are possessed of this
36:51incredibly malignant narcissism.
36:54The only thing that they are
36:55capable of feeling anything for
36:57is themselves and their own needs.
36:59When you have a client
37:00who has committed
37:00these horrific acts,
37:0133 murders,
37:03no court is going to want
37:05to let him out.
37:06No court is going to want
37:07to change execution
37:09to life in prison
37:10because it's politically
37:11a disaster.
37:14Gacy had to be executed
37:15and no matter what we alleged,
37:18even if we had really,
37:19really good arguments,
37:20I don't think anyone
37:21would have listened
37:22because it was John Gacy.
37:24In a CBS TV interview
37:26filmed in Menard Correctional Center
37:28in May 1992,
37:31Gacy recanted his confession
37:32and tried to deny
37:34that he was guilty
37:35of any of the murders.
37:37He claimed that he was
37:38a victim of circumstance
37:39and clearly innocent.
37:41Now, that was Balderdash.
37:43He was guilty of sin,
37:45but nevertheless,
37:46it just proved
37:47what an extraordinary man he was.
37:51And throughout the interview,
37:53you can see the interviewer
37:54looking more and more astounded
37:56by Gacy's relaxation.
37:59He didn't look nervous.
38:00He looked absolutely composed,
38:03relaxed, if anything,
38:06a little angry.
38:07Why am I being put through this?
38:08It's not fair.
38:10It was a pure accident.
38:12I never did it.
38:14We knew it was
38:15his last-ditch effort.
38:16You know, everything else failed.
38:18He thought he could get away
38:18with the insanity plea
38:21and that didn't work.
38:22So it was last-ditch effort
38:24to say that he wasn't involved
38:25or that others participated.
38:27But it was very clear
38:29during his initial confession
38:30that he was the one
38:32who completed these crimes
38:33and completed them by himself.
38:35Gacy never took responsibility
38:37for his actions
38:38and he would always blame others.
38:40He would blame his victims
38:42and in some cases,
38:43he blamed his victims' parents.
38:45He would turn around and say,
38:46well, it's not my fault.
38:48I'm completely, you know,
38:49not responsible for any of this.
38:51And that's a key psychopathic trait,
38:54the failure to take responsibility
38:55for their own actions.
38:57Despite numerous attempts
38:59to appeal his death sentence,
39:01on the 10th of May, 1994,
39:03John Wayne Gacy was executed
39:05by lethal injection
39:07at Stateville Penitentiary in Illinois.
39:10It was a circus.
39:11We were in a room at some point
39:13and we saw a television screen
39:15and we saw thousands of people
39:17lined up at least a mile
39:19down the street at the prison
39:21with signs,
39:22kill the clown,
39:23kill Gacy,
39:24with our names on it,
39:25kill Karen Conte,
39:27people beating drums,
39:28people dancing,
39:29people with clown makeup on.
39:31It was a celebration.
39:34Gacy's last words
39:36were, kiss my arse.
39:38Those are the words of a man
39:40who absolutely didn't mind
39:43what he'd done,
39:44who was proud of himself
39:45and proud of that killing spree,
39:47which makes him
39:48particularly chilling.
39:50Gacy was unrepentant
39:52right up until his last moments.
39:54He clearly felt no remorse
39:56for any of his 33 victims.
39:59Using other human beings,
40:02you know, inflicting pain
40:04and suffering and torture
40:05on another helpless human being
40:08to me is the essence of evil.
40:10After the execution,
40:12you'd think there'd be closure,
40:14but there really isn't closure
40:16for something like that.
40:17I mean, you always think back
40:18to the victim's family
40:19and the poor young boy
40:20who was 15 years old
40:21and just a good kid.
40:23So as much as you'd like
40:24to believe there was closure,
40:26there really wasn't closure.
40:28Forty years after being attacked,
40:30Tony Antonucci feels relieved
40:32he didn't become
40:33one of Gacy's many victims.
40:35I do feel very lucky to be alive.
40:38I don't know what to attribute that to.
40:41You know, maybe I, you know,
40:42luck definitely,
40:44the biggest component,
40:46you know,
40:46a little bit of help from above.
40:49And basically,
40:51my own ignorance of the fact
40:53that I was truly in danger
40:55and the fact that I didn't panic
40:57and just wanted to win the game
41:00if it was a game
41:01is probably what helped.
41:03I also would have been
41:05one of the earlier victims,
41:07so I'm sure his techniques
41:09became more honed
41:10after he was divorced
41:12and lived alone
41:14and had more freedom
41:16to act differently.
41:18John Wayne Gacy remains
41:20one of the most infamous killers
41:21in American history.
41:23His horrific murders
41:24continue to halt the nation
41:26to this day.
41:27I still get weird emails.
41:29I still get weird things
41:30where people lash out
41:32and say terrible things to me
41:34about representing Gacy.
41:35So, as Gacy said to me,
41:38you know,
41:38your obituary will read
41:39Karen Conte
41:40represented serial killer
41:41John Gacy.
41:42And although I won't be around
41:43to verify that,
41:46I have no doubt
41:47that's what it will read.
41:48For kids,
41:49monsters are real.
41:50Once you become an adult,
41:51you realize,
41:52well, there are no real werewolves
41:54or no real vampires.
41:55But then something like this
41:57happens and,
41:58you know,
41:58it's like,
41:59whoa,
42:00you know,
42:00this monster is real.
42:02You know,
42:02there is this ogre.
42:03It's transfixing.
42:05It's riveting.
42:06You know,
42:06it's fascinating
42:07in the most horrifying way.
42:10Gacy was the epitome of evil.
42:13And he was the epitome
42:14of being a great guy,
42:17which gave him
42:18the ability
42:19to be the most evil guy
42:20in the world.
42:21Gacy's outward persona
42:23of a charming socialite
42:25helped to keep his crimes
42:26hidden for over five years.
42:28But behind the mask
42:30of this friendly clown
42:31was a sadistic killer
42:32who cruelly and savagely
42:34ended the lives
42:35of 33 young men
42:37by torturing them
42:38in the most hideous
42:39of manners,
42:40all for his own
42:41selfish sexual gratification.
42:43His lack of remorse
42:45for any of his victims
42:46or their loved ones,
42:47right up until the day
42:49he was executed,
42:50proved that he is,
42:51without doubt,
42:52one of the world's
42:53most evil killers.
42:55of the world's
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