digging trenches for a drain in the crawl space beneath his house.
John Szyc, nineteen, was a friend of Gregory Godzik and John Butkovich. On January 20, 1977, he too disappeared. Gacy lured him to his house with the pretext of selling his car to Gacy. John was killed and buried in the crawl space above the body of his friend, Gregory. Gacy then sold John Szyc’s car to another of his employees. On March 15, he then killed Jon Prestidge, age twenty, a young man who was visiting friends in Chicago.
Between July and December 1977, Gacy killed another seven young men between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one, including the son of a Chicago police sergeant. In August 1977, a clue emerged to the disappearance of John Szyc. The employee to whom Gacy had sold Szyc's car was arrested for stealing gasoline from a station while driving the car. When questioned by police, Gacy told officers that Szyc had sold the car to him before leaving town. The police did not pursue the matter further.
Robert Donnelly, nineteen, was abducted by Gacy at gunpoint from a Chicago bus stop on December 30, 1977. Gacy brought Robert to his house, tortured him with numerous devices, and raped him. Many times, he dunked Robert’s head in a bathtub of water until he passed out. Then Gacy would revive him and repeat all over again. Robert was not killed, thank God, and he later testified at Gacy’s trial that he was in so much pain that he asked to be killed, to get it over with. Gacy released him after several hours of torture and assault, and Robert went to the police. On January 6, 1978, Gacy was questioned about the crime and admitted to having slave sex with Donnelly, but that it was consensual and guess what, the police believed him, and no charges were filed.
A month later, on February 16, 1978, William Kindred, nineteen, disappeared after telling his fiancee that he was spending an evening at a bar. William was the last victim to be buried in the crawl space as it was getting full. Gacy deposited future victims in the Des Plaines River.
The next month, Gacy lured Jeffrey Rignall, twenty-six, into his car, where he instantly chloroformed him and returned with him to his house. Jeffrey was tortured and repeatedly raped into unconsciousness, then driven to Lincoln Park where he was discarded, unconscious but alive, and managed to stagger to his girlfriend's apartment. Police were again informed of the assault, but did not investigate Gacy because Jeffrey knew few details about his assailant, only remembering later that he’d been taken in a black Oldsmobile.
A few weeks later, in April, Jeffrey and his friends staked out the exit on the Expressway where he knew he had been driven until he saw Gacy's distinctive black Oldsmobile. Rignall and his friends then followed Gacy to his house at 8213 West Summerdale street. Shortly after, Jeffrey went to the police. A warrant was issued, and Gacy was arrested on July 15, 1978.
Investigation
While Gacy was awaiting trial for the assault of Jeffrey, on December 11, 1978 he went into a pharmacy to discuss a remodeling job with the storeowner, Phil Torf. Robert Piest, fifteen, overhearing Gacy telling Torf that his firm hired teenage boys, told his mother that a contractor wanted to talk to him about a job, and left the store to talk with the contractor, never to return. The boy’s mom filed a missing persons report and the owner of the store told police that the boy left the store to talk to John Gacy. The police called Gacy the next day and he denied even talking to the boy, promising to come to the station to make a statement confirming what he said. He arrived at the police station the next day covered in mud, claiming that he’d been in a car accident, and totally denied any involvement in the boy’s disappearance.
When the police did a background check on Gacy, they discovered he was awaiting trial on battery charges, and that he had served time in Iowa for sodomy. Based on this information, the police believed Gacy was lying and involved with the disappearance of Robert Piest. The police requested a search warrant of Gacy’s property, which was granted on December 13, 1978.
Several suspicious items were revealed during the search: driver’s licenses for different people, a high school ring engraved 1975, books on homosexuality and pederasty, handcuffs, a piece of two-by-four with holes drilled in the ends, a syringe, boys’ clothing, and a photo receipt from the pharmacy where Robert Piest worked part-time. While police continued with their investigation, they decided to assign two two-man surveillance teams to follow Gacy. Gacy, however, picked up on the surveillance and demanded the police cease their operation. When they did not comply, Gacy filed a three quarter million dollar civil law suit against the Des Plaines Police Department. The hearing was scheduled for December 22, 1978.
Meanwhile, the investigation continued, and interesting things started to pop up. Police were informed of Gacy’s employee, Gregory Godzik’s disappearance, the disappearance of John Butkovich, and that the high school ring found in Gacy’s house belonged to another missing person, John Szyc. Another employee revealed that Gacy made him dig trenches in the crawl space of Gacy’s house.
On the 21 of December, just one day before Gacy’s civil suit against the police, a second warrant was obtained to search his house; in particular, to search the crawl space. Upon digging in the crawl space, police discovered several human bones.
Arrest
Gacy told police officers that he wanted to “clear the air” after being informed that they had found human remains. While being interrogated, Gacy confessed to the police that since 1972, he had murdered approximately twenty-five to thirty people. He went on to tell the police and the district attorney about how he would abduct his victims, torture them, rape them, and eventually kill them and dispose of their bodies.
Gacy said that he would pour quicklime into the crawl space from time to time to hasten the decomposition of the corpses, and said that he had lost count of the number of victims he’d buried there. He told police that the last five victims were thrown off the I-55 bridge into the Des Plaines river as the crawl space under his house had become full. He confessed to strangling young Robert Piest and disposing of his body in the river. He told them he had buried John Butkovitch under his garage. Police eventually recovered four of the five victims in the river.
Between December 1978 and March 1979, criminal technicians commenced to search and remove bodies from Gacy’s property. In total, twenty-nine bodies were unearthed, giving families back their loved ones for proper burial. In several cases, bodies still had the ligatures knotted around their necks. Others had gags deep down in their throats.
Identifying the victims took time. Some were identified through their known connection with Gacy. Others by personal affects found at the property. One victim, Michael Bonnin, seventeen, was identified when his fishing license was found at the scene. Of Gacy's identified victims, the youngest were Samuel Stapleton, fourteen, and Michael Marino, fourteen. The oldest were Russell Nelson, twenty-one, and James Mazzara, twenty-one. Eight of the victims have yet to be identified.
On April 9, 1979, Robert Piest's body was discovered on the banks of the Des Plaines River. His autopsy revealed that paper-like material had been shoved down his throat while he was alive.
Trial
