← All cases

John Wayne Gacy

Also known as: Killer Clown

Active

1972–1978

Region

Norwood Park Township, Cook County, Illinois, USA

Status

Executed

Victims

28

John Wayne Gacy murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978 at his home in Norwood Park Township, just outside Chicago, burying most of them on his property and leaving four in the Des Plaines River. He was caught after 15-year-old Robert Piest disappeared from the Des Plaines pharmacy where he worked in December 1978. Gacy was convicted of 33 murders in March 1980 and sentenced to death, and he was executed at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994. Five of his victims have never been identified.

Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

• Timothy Jack McCoy, 16 · January 3, 1972

  Lured from Chicago's Greyhound bus terminal.

• John Butkovich, 18 · July 31, 1975
• Darrell Samson, 18 · April 6, 1976
• Randall Reffett, 15 · May 14, 1976
• Samuel Stapleton, 14 · May 14, 1976
• Michael Bonnin, 17 · June 3, 1976
• William Carroll, 16 · June 1976
• James Haakenson, 16 · August 5, 1976
• Rick Johnston, 17 · August 6, 1976
• Kenneth Parker, 16 · October 24, 1976
• Michael Marino, 14 · October 24, 1976

  Disappeared with his friend Kenneth Parker; his identification has been disputed.

• William Bundy, 19 · October 1976
• Francis Alexander, 21 · 1976
• Gregory Godzik, 17 · December 12, 1976
• John Szyc, 19 · January 20, 1977
• Jon Prestidge, 20 · March 15, 1977
• Matthew Bowman, 19 · July 5, 1977
• Robert Gilroy, 18 · September 15, 1977
• John Mowery, 19 · September 1977
• Russell Nelson, 21 · October 17, 1977
• Robert Winch, 16 · November 1977
• Tommy Boling, 20 · November 18, 1977
• David Talsma, 19 · December 9, 1977
• William Kindred, 19 · February 16, 1978
• Timothy O'Rourke, 20 · June 1978

  The first known victim whose body Gacy left in the Des Plaines River.

• Frank Landingin, 19 · November 4, 1978
• James Mazzara, 20 · November 24, 1978
• Robert Piest, 15 · December 11, 1978

  He worked part-time at a Des Plaines pharmacy; his disappearance led police to Gacy.

Timeline of locations

1. 1967
   Restaurant manager in Waterloo, Iowa (Workplace, approximate area)

   Gacy managed Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants owned by his father-in-law in Waterloo. In 1968 he pleaded guilty to sodomy involving a teenage boy there and was sentenced to ten years in prison.

2. December 1968
   Anamosa State Penitentiary (Prison)

   Gacy served about 18 months of his ten-year Iowa sentence at Anamosa and was paroled on June 18, 1970, after which he moved back to Chicago.

3. August 1971
   Gacy's home (Norwood Park Township) (Killer's residence, approximate area)

   Gacy lived in this house in unincorporated Norwood Park Township, on Chicago's northwest edge, from 1971 until his arrest, and ran his contracting business, PDM Contractors, from it. He said he committed all of his murders here. The house was ordered demolished in 1979.

4. January 3, 1972
   Greyhound bus terminal, Chicago (Abduction, approximate area)

   Timothy McCoy was lured by Gacy from the city's Greyhound bus terminal. He is Gacy's first known victim.

5. December 11, 1978
   Nisson Pharmacy, Des Plaines (Abduction, approximate area)

   Robert Piest left his job at Nisson Pharmacy, which Gacy's firm had remodeled, to speak with Gacy about work and never returned. A film receipt from the pharmacy later found in Gacy's home helped tie him to the disappearance.

6. December 21, 1978
   Remains recovered at Gacy's property (Recovery site, approximate area)

   After a search warrant was served on December 21, 1978, investigators recovered the remains of 29 victims from the crawl space and grounds of Gacy's home. Five of them have never been identified.

7. 1980
   Menard Correctional Center (Prison)

   Gacy spent about fourteen years on death row at Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois.

8. January 28, 1980
   Jury selection in Rockford (Court / trial, approximate area)

   Because of heavy press coverage in Cook County, the jury for Gacy's trial was selected in Rockford, Illinois.

9. February 6, 1980
   Cook County Criminal Court Building (Court / trial)

   Gacy was tried here on 33 counts of murder. The jury found him guilty on March 12, 1980, and he was sentenced to death the next day.

10. May 10, 1994
    Stateville Correctional Center (Prison)

    Gacy was transferred to Stateville near Joliet and executed there by lethal injection on May 10, 1994.

Sources

• John Wayne Gacy (Wikipedia)
• The events leading to Gacy's execution (UPI, May 10, 1994)
• John Wayne Gacy timeline (Biography.com)

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.