Despite not graduating from high school, Gacy attended and graduated from the Northwestern Business College in Chicago, then worked as a salesman and manager at a shoe company. In 1964, he met and became engaged to Marlynn Myers, whose father owned three KFC restaurants in Waterloo, Iowa. Gacy relocated there to manage the restaurants, and he and Myers had two children together, according to Buried Dreams: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer by Tim Cahill and Russ Ewing. Had Gacy not targeted Piest, a well-regarded Maine West athlete and student with strong family ties to the community, his killing spree may have continued. Today, Amirante speculates that the usually cautious Gacy may have subconsciously pursued a victim who he knew would get him caught.

Bettiker recalled the elaborately themed parties that Gacy hosted at his home, where dozens of guests unwittingly celebrated over his private graveyard. Personally, I wanted a bit more of the crime(s) in my true crime book rather than the law and the trial, you know? On March 12, 1980, after a short jury deliberation, Gacy was found guilty of committing 33 murders, and he became known as one of the most ruthless serial killers in American history. I really enjoyed the legal sides of the arguments and how it affected Amarante's family being Gacy's lawyer. Both lawyers had independent psychological profiles done claiming opposing viewpoints. It definitely makes you wonder if Gacy was truly evil or desperately unwell.While dressing as a clown is unique to Gacy, he and Dahmer appeared to be ordinary people leading normal lives. Gacy owned a construction business, was involved in local politics and enjoyed performing for children. Dahmer was well-mannered, served in the military, had a job, and, although he was somewhat of a loner, didn’t appear to be a cannibalistic serial killer. Of course, their timelines crossing has led people to compare the two before, which is likely why it was included in Monster. Gacy was a member of a Chicago-area “Jolly Joker” clown club and frequently performed in clown attire and makeup at children’s parties, charity fundraisers, and other events as his alter egos “Pogo the Clown” or “Patches the Clown.” Years later, during a conversation with detectives while he was under surveillance, Gacy discussed his work as a clown, remarking, “Clowns can get away with murder.” I don’t think the magnitude could ever occur again like this,” he said. “I just don’t see a scenario where it would happen.”

I was left still puzzling over the enigma that Gacy is and annoyed by the tease the book was, but ultimately this isn't a book about John Wayne Gacy; it's about being Gacy's attorney. Know that before you decide whether this is the book you wish to read when trying to understand this man. He’d have parties at his residence where he’d invite maybe 200 people. He’d be the center of attraction,” he recalled. "One-on-one, or in a group setting, he would be the last person that you’d think was a serial killer and is as devious as he was.” A photo used as evidence in the 1980 trial shows the excavation in Gacy's crawl space. (Cook County Circuit Court) the story was well laid out and the commentary was rich. getting to see the behind the scenes of due process and the respect giving to our rights as US citizens was enlightening. After the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Gacy’s final appeal in October 1993, an execution date was set for May 10, 1994 at the Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois. Before his death, Gacy said the victim’s families would get no comfort from his death and accused the state of murdering him. His last words were reportedly “Kiss my a––,” but the prosecutor who tried the case and attended his execution said Gacy didn’t speak in his final moments. Gacy was executed by lethal injection. The cops started digging up the bodies, and Amirante realized he was now defending one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history.

Open Library

Image p2p slug: ct-john-wayne-gacy-investigation-major-players-002 Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart spearheaded an effort starting in 2010 to find out the names of the remaining unidentified Gacy victims. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune)

On December 11, 1978, 15-year-old Robert Piest went missing after telling his mother he was going to meet Gacy to discuss a potential construction job. Piest’s family filed a missing person report with the police, which led to a search of Gacy’s house in Norwood Park. Authorities discovered several suspicious items there, including police badges, a pistol, hypodermic needles, pornographic films, and items that they later learned belonged to some of Gacy’s victims. Attorney Sam Amirante likes to joke that he was 6-foot-4 before he began representing an acquaintance named John W. Gacy and wound up 5-foot-2 after being ground down by the immense and horrifying details of the case. Amirante, who later became a Cook County judge, wrote about his experience and how his infamous former client made a drunken confession to being “judge, jury and executioner of many, many people.” It comes off being a self important missive by a braggart about his first case, which oddly enough, is the same way he referred to Gacy. Funny don't you think? this was actually a very entertaining unique perspective to one of the most notorious and famous serial killers of all time.I’ve solved more non-Gacy victims,” Moran said grimly. He has also helped isolate a DNA profile for Gacy that can be used in a law enforcement database to be matched with any as-of-yet undiscovered or unidentified skeletons that may still hold traces of the killer’s DNA. I cannot answer that question just relief there was no question on whether this guy was indeed guilty, that made it easier knowing he wouldn't walk away from the carnage he left behind. Amirante, a former assistant public defender who represented Gacy as his first private client, agreed that the secret to Gacy’s success lay largely in his unctuous charm developed over years as the son of a harsh, verbally abusive father and later refined as a successful shoe salesman.

The book initially attempts to grab readers by telling an imagined version of the murder of Gacy's final victim. I was interested in the case and tried to force myself through this book, but I had to give before I was even 60% through. Moran said identifying the remaining victims is difficult because of the likelihood that they were people with weak family bonds, possibly runaways or wards of the state, whose disappearances wouldn’t have raised alarms at a time when a million teenagers a year ran away from home, according to a published report from that time. Today, with airliners crisscrossing the skies above, Norwood Park Township, with its small bungalows and two-flat buildings, resembles other neighborhoods at the edges of the city, popular with municipal workers and ethnic whites. In the aftermath of the gruesome discovery on Gacy’s property, his neighbors had difficulty reconciling the friendly, gentle neighbor with the killer.

Thoroughly enjoyable at first. Though it took nearly half of the book to get into second gear. The constant repeats of, "Welcome to private practice, Sam," and others, ran from mildly irritating to frustrating. Sam, could you do me a favor?" Thus begins a story that has now become part of America’s true crime hall of fame. It is a gory, grotesque tale befitting a Stephen King novel. It is also a David and Goliath saga—the story of a young lawyer fresh from the Public Defender’s Office whose first client in private practice turns out to be the worst serial killer in our nation’s history. Gacy, for a man of the ’70s, was a traveler. He would travel all over the country for business and pleasure, and how did he turn it off in other places?” Moran said, referring to his urges to kill. The overwhelming style is as if the Reader is sharing drinks with the lead attorney at a bar and talking about the case. There are many asides. There are many stray opinions. There are “left field” comments about the importance of guaranteeing the Right of a fair and impartial trial along with derogatory comments about people who think that not everyone deserves this Right. And there are also digressions about the importance of people who fight and die for our country. As I indicated, it felt as if we were having the discussion over drinks at a bar.