1 00:00:02,167 --> 00:00:08,327 ♪♪ 2 00:00:08,417 --> 00:00:14,377 ♪♪ 3 00:00:14,459 --> 00:00:19,289 Gacy: To me, clowning was a way of relaxation for me. 4 00:00:19,375 --> 00:00:22,285 You regressed into childhood. You were able to relax. 5 00:00:24,125 --> 00:00:27,285 And you could be goofy if you wanted to. 6 00:00:30,626 --> 00:00:34,126 And still, you had the facade of your face being covered. 7 00:00:34,209 --> 00:00:44,169 ♪♪ 8 00:00:44,250 --> 00:00:54,170 ♪♪ 9 00:00:54,250 --> 00:00:56,420 ♪♪ 10 00:00:56,500 --> 00:00:58,500 Welcome to "very scary people." 11 00:00:58,584 --> 00:00:59,884 I'm Donnie wahlberg. 12 00:00:59,959 --> 00:01:02,959 It was the mid 1970s, years before the phrase 13 00:01:03,042 --> 00:01:05,422 "serial killer" had even been coined. 14 00:01:05,500 --> 00:01:07,380 So no one in Chicago could have imagined 15 00:01:07,459 --> 00:01:09,039 there was one living among them. 16 00:01:09,125 --> 00:01:12,165 And that's just how John Wayne Gacy wanted it. 17 00:01:12,250 --> 00:01:15,250 By day, he was a beloved community volunteer, 18 00:01:15,334 --> 00:01:18,634 a friendly neighbor, and a successful businessman, 19 00:01:18,709 --> 00:01:21,499 even a professional clown who made kids laugh. 20 00:01:21,584 --> 00:01:26,174 But by night, John Wayne Gacy became the stuff of nightmares, 21 00:01:26,250 --> 00:01:29,210 cruising the streets of Chicago looking for prey. 22 00:01:29,292 --> 00:01:32,882 The things Gacy did to his victims were unspeakable. 23 00:01:32,959 --> 00:01:34,459 What made this seemingly normal guy 24 00:01:34,542 --> 00:01:36,462 into such a depraved monster? 25 00:01:36,542 --> 00:01:40,502 And how would police ultimately discover his evil secret? 26 00:01:40,584 --> 00:01:49,754 ♪♪ 27 00:01:49,834 --> 00:01:51,754 Godzik: I remember being in bed. 28 00:01:51,834 --> 00:01:54,334 My mother came into my room and said, 29 00:01:54,417 --> 00:01:56,917 "do you know where your brother is?" 30 00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:59,080 I said, "no." 31 00:01:59,167 --> 00:02:01,627 And she said, "he didn't come home." 32 00:02:03,584 --> 00:02:09,584 It just wasn't something we were used to. 33 00:02:09,667 --> 00:02:12,577 And immediately, she called the police, 34 00:02:12,667 --> 00:02:15,167 and they said to my mother, 35 00:02:15,250 --> 00:02:17,920 "well, what do you want us to do about it? 36 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:19,670 17-year-olds are goofy. 37 00:02:19,751 --> 00:02:21,881 They all run away. 38 00:02:21,959 --> 00:02:23,419 But they'll be back." 39 00:02:23,500 --> 00:02:25,790 That was the mantra. 40 00:02:25,876 --> 00:02:28,416 "He'll be back. Don't worry about it." 41 00:02:31,083 --> 00:02:33,673 Albrecht: The '70s was a different time. 42 00:02:33,751 --> 00:02:36,171 Kids were running away all the time. 43 00:02:36,250 --> 00:02:40,630 In Chicago, thousands upon thousands of young men 44 00:02:40,709 --> 00:02:42,459 and women go missing. 45 00:02:42,542 --> 00:02:45,252 Woman: James Byron haakenson disappeared 46 00:02:45,334 --> 00:02:47,544 shortly after moving to Chicago. 47 00:02:47,626 --> 00:02:50,536 Man: John butkovich, an 18-year-old north side youth, 48 00:02:50,626 --> 00:02:53,666 who disappeared on July 31st, 1975. 49 00:02:53,751 --> 00:02:55,211 [ Telephone rings ] 50 00:02:55,292 --> 00:02:57,382 Missing persons. Polito. Can I help you? 51 00:02:57,459 --> 00:02:59,499 Sullivan: The police departments were understaffed 52 00:02:59,584 --> 00:03:02,504 when it came to the juvenile divisions. 53 00:03:02,584 --> 00:03:06,294 And it was very difficult to try to track runaways. 54 00:03:07,876 --> 00:03:10,666 Sneed: Typical in this case, and in many cases, 55 00:03:10,751 --> 00:03:12,291 families go to the police department, 56 00:03:12,375 --> 00:03:14,205 or they call and they say, "my son's missing," 57 00:03:14,292 --> 00:03:16,082 and they say, "well, wait 12 hours. 58 00:03:16,167 --> 00:03:17,747 Well, you know, he may come home. 59 00:03:17,834 --> 00:03:20,464 Just let us know." 60 00:03:20,542 --> 00:03:23,132 My mother kept saying, "there's something wrong. 61 00:03:23,209 --> 00:03:25,459 There's something wrong." 62 00:03:25,542 --> 00:03:29,962 There's no way that my brother would have left. 63 00:03:30,042 --> 00:03:34,712 My brother at that time thought he was on cloud nine 64 00:03:34,792 --> 00:03:37,792 because he had a girlfriend. 65 00:03:37,876 --> 00:03:40,206 He got a car that he always wanted. 66 00:03:40,292 --> 00:03:43,212 He got a job making $5 an hour. 67 00:03:43,292 --> 00:03:46,922 He'd been working for this contractor for about a week. 68 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,420 We were contacting anybody that would have 69 00:03:50,500 --> 00:03:52,580 a connection with my brother. 70 00:03:54,500 --> 00:03:57,330 My mother went over to the contractor's house. 71 00:03:59,751 --> 00:04:01,831 And she knocked on the door. 72 00:04:04,918 --> 00:04:08,418 And she said, "my son has been missing." 73 00:04:08,500 --> 00:04:14,500 Have you any idea where he could have gone? 74 00:04:14,584 --> 00:04:17,424 The contractor said, "you know, it's really odd 75 00:04:17,500 --> 00:04:21,130 that he left a message on my answering machine," 76 00:04:21,209 --> 00:04:23,629 and my mother said, "well, let me hear it." 77 00:04:23,709 --> 00:04:27,249 He goes, "I erased it already." 78 00:04:27,334 --> 00:04:30,334 And he said, just like the police said, 79 00:04:30,417 --> 00:04:34,747 "you know, kids at 17... They run away all the time. 80 00:04:34,834 --> 00:04:37,294 You just got to give it time. 81 00:04:37,375 --> 00:04:39,455 They'll be back." 82 00:04:41,334 --> 00:04:43,294 But the next day, 83 00:04:43,375 --> 00:04:46,875 when my mother was driving around in the neighborhood, 84 00:04:46,959 --> 00:04:49,709 she found his car parked 85 00:04:49,792 --> 00:04:53,252 in a parking lot two miles from our house. 86 00:04:55,584 --> 00:04:57,254 The car was unlocked, 87 00:04:57,334 --> 00:05:01,384 and inside the car was his wallet. 88 00:05:01,459 --> 00:05:05,379 There's no way that my brother would have left 89 00:05:05,459 --> 00:05:09,289 without taking his car, his driver's license. 90 00:05:09,375 --> 00:05:11,665 She knew that there was something wrong 91 00:05:11,751 --> 00:05:13,961 because this was his pride and joy... 92 00:05:14,042 --> 00:05:16,422 This car that he just got. 93 00:05:16,500 --> 00:05:19,670 This is so out of character. 94 00:05:19,751 --> 00:05:21,831 This is not your brother. 95 00:05:23,209 --> 00:05:24,709 Duke: What no one knew at the time 96 00:05:24,792 --> 00:05:27,422 was that a lot of these kids were not runaways. 97 00:05:27,500 --> 00:05:30,710 They'd been abducted, and all by the same man. 98 00:05:30,792 --> 00:05:36,172 ♪♪ 99 00:05:36,250 --> 00:05:41,330 ♪♪ 100 00:05:41,417 --> 00:05:46,667 He was on the prowl to find people to have sex with. 101 00:05:46,751 --> 00:05:50,711 Cahill: He liked young men 14 to 20, 102 00:05:50,792 --> 00:05:55,582 short, fit, but not muscular. 103 00:05:55,667 --> 00:05:58,877 And he'd find himself cruising the streets 104 00:05:58,959 --> 00:06:02,789 where the young hustlers were. 105 00:06:02,876 --> 00:06:05,746 And he'd pick them up. 106 00:06:05,834 --> 00:06:08,004 Pull to the corner, roll down the window, and just say, 107 00:06:08,083 --> 00:06:10,633 "hey, kid, you want to go get a drink? 108 00:06:10,709 --> 00:06:13,629 Want to get a beer? Want some work?" 109 00:06:13,709 --> 00:06:16,249 You know, "come on. Get in. Let's go for a ride." 110 00:06:16,334 --> 00:06:18,174 And he'd find a vulnerable child 111 00:06:18,250 --> 00:06:23,460 who would be susceptible to this kind of sympathy. 112 00:06:23,542 --> 00:06:25,252 Duke: After taking the kid to his home, 113 00:06:25,334 --> 00:06:28,504 he would subdue them with a trick. 114 00:06:30,876 --> 00:06:35,286 He would trick his victims into handcuffs. 115 00:06:35,375 --> 00:06:36,785 Amirante: He would show them a magic trick, 116 00:06:36,876 --> 00:06:39,286 and he would put handcuffs on himself. 117 00:06:43,250 --> 00:06:45,670 And then he'd go around, turn around, 118 00:06:45,751 --> 00:06:49,251 and take the handcuffs off. 119 00:06:49,334 --> 00:06:50,584 Presto-change-o. 120 00:06:50,667 --> 00:06:52,627 He would be spinning the handcuffs 121 00:06:52,709 --> 00:06:54,829 around on his fingertip. 122 00:06:54,918 --> 00:06:57,628 Now the victim is fascinated. 123 00:06:57,709 --> 00:06:59,329 "How did you do that?" 124 00:06:59,417 --> 00:07:01,877 And he goes, "I'll show you. 125 00:07:01,959 --> 00:07:03,169 Put your hands out." 126 00:07:03,250 --> 00:07:10,790 ♪♪ 127 00:07:10,876 --> 00:07:16,626 So, in other words, his victims allowed him to put handcuffs on. 128 00:07:16,709 --> 00:07:19,379 And once you're in handcuffs, you can't fight back. 129 00:07:19,459 --> 00:07:23,749 ♪♪ 130 00:07:23,834 --> 00:07:25,924 Hachmeister: Then he says, "I can't get out of these things. 131 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:27,250 What's the trick?" 132 00:07:27,334 --> 00:07:29,384 And he pulls out a key... A handcuff key... 133 00:07:29,459 --> 00:07:32,289 And he says, "the trick is you got to have the key." 134 00:07:32,375 --> 00:07:42,325 ♪♪ 135 00:07:42,417 --> 00:07:44,207 [ Tires screech ] 136 00:07:44,292 --> 00:07:46,212 Wilkinson: He had a second manner, 137 00:07:46,292 --> 00:07:48,962 which I would guess he employed when he was growing frustrated 138 00:07:49,042 --> 00:07:51,132 and he couldn't find a kid who was vulnerable, 139 00:07:51,209 --> 00:07:53,629 which is that he would pretend to be a cop. 140 00:07:55,375 --> 00:07:58,245 His big, black oldsmobile that he tricked out 141 00:07:58,334 --> 00:08:00,584 to make it look like a police car. 142 00:08:01,626 --> 00:08:03,456 [ Tires screech ] 143 00:08:03,542 --> 00:08:07,882 He'd wear a leather jacket, a leather bomber-type jacket. 144 00:08:07,959 --> 00:08:12,079 So he could look as if he was an undercover cop. 145 00:08:12,167 --> 00:08:13,827 Wilkinson: And he'd say, "I'm a cop. Get in the car." 146 00:08:13,918 --> 00:08:17,878 And he'd put handcuffs on the kid, or something like that. 147 00:08:17,959 --> 00:08:22,499 Sort of scare them, but then say, "don't worry. 148 00:08:22,584 --> 00:08:25,584 Everything's gonna be okay." 149 00:08:25,667 --> 00:08:28,247 Sneed: And I think he was getting very confident 150 00:08:28,334 --> 00:08:31,964 that he could do whatever he wanted to do 151 00:08:32,042 --> 00:08:33,792 and was gonna get away with it. 152 00:08:33,876 --> 00:08:42,376 ♪♪ 153 00:08:42,459 --> 00:08:45,709 Cahill: Once he had them handcuffed, 154 00:08:45,792 --> 00:08:51,462 he would do painful sexual things to... 155 00:08:51,542 --> 00:08:53,632 To them through... 156 00:08:56,626 --> 00:08:58,706 ...awful tortures. 157 00:08:59,792 --> 00:09:03,502 He would drown them in the bathtub, pull them out. 158 00:09:03,584 --> 00:09:08,294 He would burn them with his cigarillos. 159 00:09:08,375 --> 00:09:12,245 He would show them tricks... Clown tricks, 160 00:09:12,334 --> 00:09:14,334 magic tricks, things he had learned. 161 00:09:14,417 --> 00:09:17,957 Only they turned out to be deadly things 162 00:09:18,042 --> 00:09:21,132 that ended their lives. 163 00:09:21,209 --> 00:09:23,539 Rignall: Shortly after I got in the car with him, 164 00:09:23,626 --> 00:09:26,326 he placed a rag over my face. 165 00:09:26,417 --> 00:09:28,327 He floats in and out of consciousness, 166 00:09:28,417 --> 00:09:31,627 and finally begins to plead to be killed 167 00:09:31,709 --> 00:09:34,379 because what he's going through is so awful. 168 00:09:34,459 --> 00:09:35,919 He had it down to a science. 169 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:41,250 ♪♪ 170 00:09:46,125 --> 00:09:48,325 Sneed: 1970s Chicago... 171 00:09:50,167 --> 00:09:52,167 ...young men were going missing. 172 00:09:52,250 --> 00:09:53,540 [ Telephone rings ] 173 00:09:53,626 --> 00:09:55,916 Cahill: And for the most part, they've run away. 174 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:57,920 And you're a police officer... 175 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:01,040 You don't really look into that too deeply. 176 00:10:01,125 --> 00:10:04,875 The Chicago police department was inundated. 177 00:10:04,959 --> 00:10:06,329 Wilkinson: People knew in Chicago 178 00:10:06,417 --> 00:10:08,247 that boys were disappearing. 179 00:10:08,334 --> 00:10:10,504 But of course, if you have one boy disappear 180 00:10:10,584 --> 00:10:12,754 and a week goes by and another disappears, 181 00:10:12,834 --> 00:10:15,754 it takes a long time before a pattern emerges. 182 00:10:15,834 --> 00:10:19,084 But nobody in Chicago knows that the explanation 183 00:10:19,167 --> 00:10:21,917 for the disappearance of all these boys 184 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,630 is that a serial killer is operating in these haunts. 185 00:10:25,709 --> 00:10:35,669 ♪♪ 186 00:10:35,751 --> 00:10:37,171 ♪♪ 187 00:10:37,250 --> 00:10:39,710 Sneed: This guy... His name was Jeff rignall. 188 00:10:39,792 --> 00:10:42,332 Walking outside a bar one night... 189 00:10:45,334 --> 00:10:47,544 ...when a guy in a black oldsmobile picked him up, 190 00:10:47,626 --> 00:10:49,876 asked if he wanted to share a joint. 191 00:10:51,792 --> 00:10:55,542 He was a clean-cut-looking man. 192 00:10:55,626 --> 00:10:59,416 And I got in the car with him. 193 00:10:59,500 --> 00:11:02,880 And shortly after I got in the car with him, 194 00:11:02,959 --> 00:11:05,879 he placed a rag over my face, 195 00:11:05,959 --> 00:11:09,079 of which turned out to be chloroform... 196 00:11:11,500 --> 00:11:14,790 ...and proceeded to have a lengthy drive. 197 00:11:14,876 --> 00:11:17,076 Every time I would come to, 198 00:11:17,167 --> 00:11:19,707 the rag would go back over my face. 199 00:11:22,542 --> 00:11:25,582 And I remember him carrying me into his house. 200 00:11:29,125 --> 00:11:30,665 The boy wakes up in a man's house. 201 00:11:30,751 --> 00:11:33,211 Of course, he must not have had any idea where he was. 202 00:11:33,292 --> 00:11:41,752 ♪♪ 203 00:11:41,834 --> 00:11:45,084 But he's being tortured by this man 204 00:11:45,167 --> 00:11:47,747 who's just doing unspeakable things to him. 205 00:11:47,834 --> 00:11:52,294 ♪♪ 206 00:11:52,375 --> 00:11:58,625 He did express he appeared to become almost a monster. 207 00:12:00,626 --> 00:12:03,416 His face changed. His eyes changed. 208 00:12:03,500 --> 00:12:10,000 And he became a completely unrecognizable being. 209 00:12:10,083 --> 00:12:12,633 Wilkinson: He floats in and out of consciousness 210 00:12:12,709 --> 00:12:16,079 and finally begins to plead to be killed 211 00:12:16,167 --> 00:12:18,667 because what he's going through is so awful. 212 00:12:18,751 --> 00:12:22,291 Sneed: And then for some bizarre reason... who knows? 213 00:12:22,375 --> 00:12:25,495 The man put him back in the car 214 00:12:25,584 --> 00:12:28,294 and drove him to a park, 215 00:12:28,375 --> 00:12:30,785 did not kill him, dumped him off. 216 00:12:33,834 --> 00:12:37,674 That's the last thing I remember until I was... found myself, 217 00:12:37,751 --> 00:12:40,711 about 5:00, 5:30 in the morning on the steps 218 00:12:40,792 --> 00:12:42,252 right by Lincoln park, 219 00:12:42,334 --> 00:12:45,834 half dressed, my face completely burned. 220 00:12:45,918 --> 00:12:48,248 He's bleeding from his backside, 221 00:12:48,334 --> 00:12:52,714 and he's got burns on his face from the chloroform. 222 00:12:52,792 --> 00:12:55,582 Sneed: The guy gets to his girlfriend's house. 223 00:12:55,667 --> 00:12:57,827 She takes him to a hospital. 224 00:12:57,918 --> 00:13:02,208 He goes to the cops, and the cops don't believe him. 225 00:13:03,709 --> 00:13:07,829 So now he's determined to find this man that did this to him. 226 00:13:07,918 --> 00:13:10,208 Rignall: What I did, since the police took the matter 227 00:13:10,292 --> 00:13:11,632 very, very lightly... 228 00:13:11,709 --> 00:13:16,129 I rented a car and sat where I thought I was, 229 00:13:16,209 --> 00:13:19,629 approximately, waiting for his car to come by, 230 00:13:19,709 --> 00:13:21,709 waiting for a very distinct car... 231 00:13:21,792 --> 00:13:26,582 A black four-door sedan with the license plates pdm42. 232 00:13:26,667 --> 00:13:33,827 ♪♪ 233 00:13:33,918 --> 00:13:37,288 So I just... took me about a week for that car to pass. 234 00:13:37,375 --> 00:13:42,825 ♪♪ 235 00:13:42,918 --> 00:13:45,248 And I just followed it to the house. 236 00:13:47,751 --> 00:13:53,461 Sneed: It was just a regular, old, ranch-style house, 237 00:13:53,542 --> 00:13:55,002 a very nondescript kind of house. 238 00:13:55,083 --> 00:13:59,463 Jeff rignall reported the address to the police. 239 00:13:59,542 --> 00:14:01,462 He then goes to the police and says, 240 00:14:01,542 --> 00:14:03,332 "this is the man who assaulted me," 241 00:14:03,417 --> 00:14:06,207 but the police don't bring charges because they think 242 00:14:06,292 --> 00:14:10,542 we have a somewhat established citizen in our community. 243 00:14:10,626 --> 00:14:14,376 The story just doesn't seem to square with the image 244 00:14:14,459 --> 00:14:16,539 that we have in our community of this man. 245 00:14:16,626 --> 00:14:22,416 Here was a guy who was respected in his neighborhood. 246 00:14:22,500 --> 00:14:25,920 Everybody knew John Wayne Gacy. 247 00:14:28,542 --> 00:14:31,172 Sullivan: He was in politics. 248 00:14:31,250 --> 00:14:33,960 He was involved in bowling leagues, 249 00:14:34,042 --> 00:14:36,752 neighborhood parties for the 4th of July... 250 00:14:36,834 --> 00:14:41,174 Themed parties... Hawaiian, Italian festival, 251 00:14:41,250 --> 00:14:43,790 sometimes 400 people at the parties... 252 00:14:43,876 --> 00:14:45,326 Important people. 253 00:14:45,417 --> 00:14:47,457 Wilkinson: He had a contracting company called p.D.M... 254 00:14:47,542 --> 00:14:49,292 Painting, decorating, and maintenance. 255 00:14:49,375 --> 00:14:51,535 If John was walking down lasalle street 256 00:14:51,626 --> 00:14:53,246 and the mayor was walking the other way, 257 00:14:53,334 --> 00:14:55,924 the mayor would say hi to John. 258 00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:58,500 Hachmeister: He had his fingers in everything. 259 00:14:58,584 --> 00:15:00,674 And everyone thought he was great. 260 00:15:01,834 --> 00:15:04,504 Sullivan: And he did a lot of functions for charity 261 00:15:04,584 --> 00:15:08,794 that involved him dressing up as the clown. 262 00:15:10,918 --> 00:15:12,998 He loved doing that. 263 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,290 Broderick: He was actually a real clown... 264 00:15:16,375 --> 00:15:21,125 ♪♪ 265 00:15:21,209 --> 00:15:24,999 ...who did tricks for little kids. 266 00:15:25,083 --> 00:15:26,883 And he was in a union and all that. 267 00:15:26,959 --> 00:15:29,459 He got kids laughing. He had little hand puppets. 268 00:15:29,542 --> 00:15:32,542 He had a squeaky voice that would talk to the children, 269 00:15:32,626 --> 00:15:34,746 and they would talk back. 270 00:15:34,834 --> 00:15:36,794 Gacy: Pogo the clown was the clowning that I did 271 00:15:36,876 --> 00:15:40,416 for charity hospital work for the Democratic party. 272 00:15:40,500 --> 00:15:44,040 "Pogo" comes from being Polish and on the go all the time. 273 00:15:44,125 --> 00:15:45,625 So it's po-go. 274 00:15:45,709 --> 00:15:52,459 Broderick: He got pleasure out of performing for people, 275 00:15:52,542 --> 00:15:56,582 particularly little kids, in hospitals. 276 00:15:56,667 --> 00:15:59,747 He'd see this kid who's got leukemia 277 00:15:59,834 --> 00:16:04,544 and is, you know, diagnosed incurable. 278 00:16:04,626 --> 00:16:09,126 He'd do his clown act and cry on their behalf. 279 00:16:10,834 --> 00:16:15,634 Cahill: He became the director of the Polish day parade. 280 00:16:15,709 --> 00:16:19,129 That, in Chicago, is a big deal. 281 00:16:19,209 --> 00:16:22,379 On one of them, he met rosalynn Carter, 282 00:16:22,459 --> 00:16:25,459 the wife of the president of the United States. 283 00:16:25,542 --> 00:16:28,042 So it's really no wonder with a reputation like that, 284 00:16:28,125 --> 00:16:31,535 that after this guy Jeff rignall went to the police, 285 00:16:31,626 --> 00:16:34,746 that even though they did charge Gacy, 286 00:16:34,834 --> 00:16:36,924 the charge went nowhere. 287 00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:38,380 Hachmeister: Jeff rignall reported this 288 00:16:38,459 --> 00:16:40,329 to the Chicago police department, 289 00:16:40,417 --> 00:16:45,127 and Jeff really didn't have that much information. 290 00:16:45,209 --> 00:16:47,129 So they couldn't do too much with it. 291 00:16:47,209 --> 00:16:50,329 He turned out to be an individual 292 00:16:50,417 --> 00:16:53,957 that the police didn't believe. 293 00:16:54,042 --> 00:16:56,002 Duke: But what no one knew at the time, 294 00:16:56,083 --> 00:16:58,793 and would never have guessed, is that Jeff rignall 295 00:16:58,876 --> 00:17:01,576 was really the luckiest of all of Gacy's victims 296 00:17:01,667 --> 00:17:05,577 because Gacy never showed him his scariest trick. 297 00:17:07,709 --> 00:17:12,499 The final trick was the rope trick. 298 00:17:14,792 --> 00:17:19,332 Broderick: The rope trick was a thing that he developed. 299 00:17:19,417 --> 00:17:21,167 Put the rope around the kid's neck, 300 00:17:21,250 --> 00:17:24,960 and he would use, like, the handle for a hammer 301 00:17:25,042 --> 00:17:30,132 or any kind of strong piece of wood that he had handy... 302 00:17:33,834 --> 00:17:35,964 ...and then twist it, twist it, twist it. 303 00:17:36,042 --> 00:17:40,462 ♪♪ 304 00:17:40,542 --> 00:17:42,502 He had arranged it in such a way 305 00:17:42,584 --> 00:17:44,424 it was lodged against the kid's back. 306 00:17:44,500 --> 00:17:47,790 The more he struggled, the tighter it got. 307 00:17:47,876 --> 00:17:50,956 Hachmeister: And he got so good at this rope trick. 308 00:17:51,042 --> 00:17:52,582 At every half turn, 309 00:17:52,667 --> 00:17:55,077 the body would start reacting a little bit differently, 310 00:17:55,167 --> 00:17:57,667 and he knew exactly what he could do or not do 311 00:17:57,751 --> 00:17:59,921 with the body at that point. 312 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:02,080 So he had it down to a science. 313 00:18:03,834 --> 00:18:07,634 Pretty eerie and pretty creepy. 314 00:18:07,709 --> 00:18:10,749 We got a report of a missing person. 315 00:18:10,834 --> 00:18:13,044 Finder: There was something apparently evil 316 00:18:13,125 --> 00:18:14,495 that had happened. 317 00:18:14,584 --> 00:18:16,964 I think everybody kind of agreed that 318 00:18:17,042 --> 00:18:19,962 there was more to this than a runaway, 319 00:18:20,042 --> 00:18:22,382 and it just started building up. 320 00:18:22,459 --> 00:18:26,789 ♪♪ 321 00:18:29,417 --> 00:18:33,327 ♪♪ 322 00:18:33,417 --> 00:18:35,787 Nobody knew that Gacy found a niche 323 00:18:35,876 --> 00:18:37,326 in which he was operating. 324 00:18:37,417 --> 00:18:44,417 ♪♪ 325 00:18:44,500 --> 00:18:47,540 Hachmeister: I was assigned to the detective unit. 326 00:18:47,626 --> 00:18:50,666 We got a report of a missing person... 327 00:18:50,751 --> 00:18:52,751 Robert piest. 328 00:18:52,834 --> 00:18:57,084 Rob piest was a 15-year-old kid that was active in high school, 329 00:18:57,167 --> 00:19:00,077 a good kid with a loving family. 330 00:19:00,167 --> 00:19:03,537 He was working at a pharmacy called the nisson pharmacy 331 00:19:03,626 --> 00:19:04,996 in des plaines. 332 00:19:05,083 --> 00:19:08,253 Albrecht: He worked part-time as a stock boy, 333 00:19:08,334 --> 00:19:11,044 and his one desire was to buy a car 334 00:19:11,125 --> 00:19:13,535 when he was 16 and able to drive. 335 00:19:17,083 --> 00:19:19,293 Hachmeister: The night that Rob piest went missing, 336 00:19:19,375 --> 00:19:21,995 his mom had come to pick him up at the end of his shift. 337 00:19:22,083 --> 00:19:24,333 It was his mom's birthday that particular day. 338 00:19:24,417 --> 00:19:26,627 They were gonna go home and celebrate her birthday. 339 00:19:26,709 --> 00:19:28,999 She was waiting outside in the parking lot. 340 00:19:29,083 --> 00:19:31,043 Rob went out there and said, "I'll be back in a few minutes. 341 00:19:31,125 --> 00:19:32,875 I just want to talk to this guy about a job." 342 00:19:32,959 --> 00:19:36,829 She said, "no problem. See you in a few." 343 00:19:36,918 --> 00:19:39,248 There was a contractor in the store. 344 00:19:39,334 --> 00:19:44,884 He was there doing an estimate for the owners of the pharmacy. 345 00:19:44,959 --> 00:19:47,129 Hachmeister: This contractor had been hiring young people, 346 00:19:47,209 --> 00:19:48,669 and he paid them pretty well. 347 00:19:48,751 --> 00:19:52,251 When he heard that he could maybe make $5 an hour, 348 00:19:52,334 --> 00:19:54,834 to basically double what he was making, 349 00:19:54,918 --> 00:19:59,828 he was excited and wanted to approach him for a job. 350 00:20:01,334 --> 00:20:05,254 Cahill: And that's the last anyone saw of Rob piest. 351 00:20:06,751 --> 00:20:08,291 He was not the kind of young man 352 00:20:08,375 --> 00:20:12,495 that one would expect to run away or just go missing. 353 00:20:12,584 --> 00:20:14,714 So there was something apparently evil 354 00:20:14,792 --> 00:20:17,752 that had happened. 355 00:20:17,834 --> 00:20:20,964 The owner of the pharmacy had identified that contractor 356 00:20:21,042 --> 00:20:24,082 as John Wayne Gacy. 357 00:20:26,042 --> 00:20:29,542 The detectives went out to his home that following morning 358 00:20:29,626 --> 00:20:32,036 and spoke to Gacy, 359 00:20:32,125 --> 00:20:35,415 in hopes that he had seen the young boy. 360 00:20:35,500 --> 00:20:41,920 He denied any involvement or any contact with Rob piest. 361 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:45,580 Hachmeister: We really had nothing big to go on. 362 00:20:45,667 --> 00:20:49,707 All we had as far as evidence was Rob piest going out 363 00:20:49,792 --> 00:20:52,332 to talk to John Gacy 364 00:20:52,417 --> 00:20:53,917 and never being seen again. 365 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:55,790 Hachmeister: Sometime after that, 366 00:20:55,876 --> 00:21:00,496 a check was made on Gacy. 367 00:21:00,584 --> 00:21:01,964 Finder: There was no Internet at the time, 368 00:21:02,042 --> 00:21:04,542 so it took a little while to get court records 369 00:21:04,626 --> 00:21:07,206 and to dispatch leads to local police departments 370 00:21:07,292 --> 00:21:09,172 to find out more about him. 371 00:21:09,250 --> 00:21:18,960 ♪♪ 372 00:21:19,042 --> 00:21:23,422 John Gacy was married to a very pretty young lady. 373 00:21:23,500 --> 00:21:26,250 He had two children with her, a boy and a girl. 374 00:21:26,334 --> 00:21:29,334 Jacobson: He said that he liked playing 375 00:21:29,417 --> 00:21:30,957 kind of a fatherly role. 376 00:21:31,042 --> 00:21:37,042 And he insisted that he was a very warm and loving father. 377 00:21:37,125 --> 00:21:38,375 Man: Were you strict with them? 378 00:21:38,459 --> 00:21:40,629 No, I don't believe in hitting children. 379 00:21:40,709 --> 00:21:45,079 I don't believe in spoiling a child, either. 380 00:21:45,167 --> 00:21:47,827 He was extremely successful. 381 00:21:47,918 --> 00:21:49,418 His wife, marlynn's, father 382 00:21:49,500 --> 00:21:52,290 had three Kentucky fried chicken stands, 383 00:21:52,375 --> 00:21:57,825 and John was hired on to manage all three stands. 384 00:21:57,918 --> 00:22:01,958 In Waterloo, John joined the junior chamber of commerce. 385 00:22:02,042 --> 00:22:06,212 He did a lot of work for the jcs. 386 00:22:06,292 --> 00:22:09,672 He was the chaplain for a while. 387 00:22:09,751 --> 00:22:11,041 If you serve other people, 388 00:22:11,125 --> 00:22:13,665 it'll come back to serve you, you know? 389 00:22:13,751 --> 00:22:15,631 I've always believed that way with generosity. 390 00:22:15,709 --> 00:22:18,669 There was some evidence during those years 391 00:22:18,751 --> 00:22:23,921 that John was gonna be a normal suburban guy. 392 00:22:25,751 --> 00:22:29,331 Investigators in Chicago discovered that John Wayne Gacy 393 00:22:29,417 --> 00:22:32,497 had charges in Iowa from 10 years ago 394 00:22:32,584 --> 00:22:34,674 stemming from his first marriage. 395 00:22:34,751 --> 00:22:39,331 John Wayne Gacy had a fairly extensive record... 396 00:22:39,417 --> 00:22:42,207 Minor types of things, basically... 397 00:22:42,292 --> 00:22:45,382 You know, battery, disorderly conduct. 398 00:22:45,459 --> 00:22:49,329 But one conviction was for sodomy, 399 00:22:49,417 --> 00:22:54,497 and it was learned that it was performed against a young boy. 400 00:22:54,584 --> 00:22:56,334 Cahill: On the day he was convicted, 401 00:22:56,417 --> 00:23:02,747 his wife filed for divorce, left him, took his two kids. 402 00:23:02,834 --> 00:23:06,424 He never saw any of them again. 403 00:23:06,500 --> 00:23:09,830 That ended his wonderful life he was having in Waterloo, Iowa, 404 00:23:09,918 --> 00:23:12,078 because he wound up in a penitentiary. 405 00:23:13,751 --> 00:23:15,711 Jackson: After serving more than a year in prison, 406 00:23:15,792 --> 00:23:19,962 John Wayne Gacy moves to Chicago to start an entirely new life, 407 00:23:20,042 --> 00:23:24,172 and no one knows anything about his checkered past. 408 00:23:24,250 --> 00:23:26,170 He lives under the radar for years 409 00:23:26,250 --> 00:23:28,000 until Rob piest goes missing. 410 00:23:28,083 --> 00:23:33,333 And then the des plaines police finally have a suspect. 411 00:23:33,417 --> 00:23:35,037 I think everybody kind of agreed 412 00:23:35,125 --> 00:23:39,035 that there was more to this than a runaway. 413 00:23:39,125 --> 00:23:42,665 And it just started building up. 414 00:23:42,751 --> 00:23:46,081 It was shortly after that we got the first search warrant 415 00:23:46,167 --> 00:23:47,667 looking for Rob piest. 416 00:23:47,751 --> 00:23:50,791 We really had the confidence that we had the right guy, 417 00:23:50,876 --> 00:23:52,956 but to put it together 418 00:23:53,042 --> 00:23:55,672 to where we had some sort of criminal case, 419 00:23:55,751 --> 00:23:57,831 we had nothing. 420 00:23:59,417 --> 00:24:01,077 The investigators did not know 421 00:24:01,167 --> 00:24:03,377 what they were about to get into. 422 00:24:03,459 --> 00:24:06,829 The hairs on the back of my head just went up. 423 00:24:06,918 --> 00:24:11,128 ♪♪ 424 00:24:16,334 --> 00:24:19,044 Welcome back to "very scary people." 425 00:24:19,125 --> 00:24:22,955 After Rob piest disappeared from his job at nisson pharmacy, 426 00:24:23,042 --> 00:24:24,962 detectives learn that John Wayne Gacy 427 00:24:25,042 --> 00:24:27,332 was the last known person to see him. 428 00:24:27,417 --> 00:24:29,667 They also learned that Gacy had a criminal record 429 00:24:29,751 --> 00:24:32,961 for sexually assaulting another 15-year-old. 430 00:24:33,042 --> 00:24:35,332 Now they were pretty sure they had their man, 431 00:24:35,417 --> 00:24:36,747 but they still had to find a clue 432 00:24:36,834 --> 00:24:39,674 that tied Gacy to the boy's disappearance. 433 00:24:39,751 --> 00:24:41,751 And as the investigation continued, 434 00:24:41,834 --> 00:24:45,254 they realized they were dealing with something, and someone, 435 00:24:45,334 --> 00:24:49,464 far more sinister than any of them had ever imagined. 436 00:24:53,083 --> 00:24:57,213 The des plaines police did get a search warrant early on 437 00:24:57,292 --> 00:25:00,292 to search John Wayne Gacy's house. 438 00:25:00,375 --> 00:25:05,125 It was determined that, in fact, he was restraining, 439 00:25:05,209 --> 00:25:06,919 kidnapping Rob piest, 440 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:12,920 and that kid possibly was still being held in his house. 441 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:15,130 During that search warrant, a variety of items 442 00:25:15,209 --> 00:25:19,829 were found in his house... Some pornography, some sex toys, 443 00:25:19,918 --> 00:25:23,918 and they recovered some driver's licenses of young boys 444 00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:26,130 and some jewelry. 445 00:25:26,209 --> 00:25:29,879 While much evidence was taken from that residence, 446 00:25:29,959 --> 00:25:32,129 Rob piest was not found. 447 00:25:32,209 --> 00:25:35,249 Of the items that were taken, and there were many, 448 00:25:35,334 --> 00:25:36,884 two stand out in my mind. 449 00:25:36,959 --> 00:25:39,079 Hachmeister: Maine west class ring. 450 00:25:39,167 --> 00:25:40,827 Rob piest had gone to Maine west. 451 00:25:40,918 --> 00:25:43,998 So we felt that, "oh, man, is it even a possibility 452 00:25:44,083 --> 00:25:47,583 that there are two or three or four other victims?" 453 00:25:47,667 --> 00:25:50,037 So that was just unimaginable in itself. 454 00:25:50,125 --> 00:25:53,325 There was another thing there that the police came back with, 455 00:25:53,417 --> 00:25:58,457 and that was a partial receipt found in Gacy's garbage. 456 00:25:58,542 --> 00:26:00,462 Duke: It was a pickup slip for a roll of film 457 00:26:00,542 --> 00:26:03,422 that was being developed at the nisson pharmacy. 458 00:26:03,500 --> 00:26:07,290 And that was the pharmacy where Rob piest disappeared from. 459 00:26:07,375 --> 00:26:11,785 ♪♪ 460 00:26:11,876 --> 00:26:14,916 Sullivan: A day or so after the first search warrant, 461 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,750 I asked the police department if they would put 462 00:26:17,834 --> 00:26:23,464 a 24-hour surveillance on Gacy with the hopes that, in fact, 463 00:26:23,542 --> 00:26:29,042 he would go back to wherever Rob was now. 464 00:26:29,125 --> 00:26:32,995 Two 12-hour shifts, two guys... 465 00:26:33,083 --> 00:26:35,793 They watched him around the clock. 466 00:26:35,876 --> 00:26:37,166 Hachmeister: My partner and I... 467 00:26:37,250 --> 00:26:39,830 Really, we had no exact direction 468 00:26:39,918 --> 00:26:41,378 where to go with this case, 469 00:26:41,459 --> 00:26:45,709 other than the fact that we were not to lose him. 470 00:26:45,792 --> 00:26:48,882 Albrecht: I decided pretty much that the first night that we were out, 471 00:26:48,959 --> 00:26:50,919 that if Gacy went into a public place, 472 00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:53,290 Dave and I would go in and follow him. 473 00:26:53,375 --> 00:26:55,625 Hachmeister: We didn't want to leave him alone for one minute. 474 00:26:55,709 --> 00:26:59,209 Whatever it took, we were to stay with him. 475 00:26:59,292 --> 00:27:03,382 The second night that Mike and I were on the surveillance, 476 00:27:03,459 --> 00:27:05,289 Gacy was out late at night. 477 00:27:05,375 --> 00:27:08,035 He goes over to a restaurant. He sits at a table. 478 00:27:08,125 --> 00:27:09,625 He's all by himself. 479 00:27:09,709 --> 00:27:12,959 And we sit at a table a couple tables away from him. 480 00:27:13,042 --> 00:27:15,252 And pretty soon, he says, "hey, guys, 481 00:27:15,334 --> 00:27:16,504 as long as you're gonna follow me, 482 00:27:16,584 --> 00:27:17,884 why don't you just join me?" 483 00:27:17,959 --> 00:27:20,879 So Mike and I joined him. 484 00:27:20,959 --> 00:27:24,329 And we developed a bit of a relationship. 485 00:27:28,417 --> 00:27:30,577 Amirante: But life is a series of curve balls, 486 00:27:30,667 --> 00:27:33,327 and this was a huge curve that came at me 487 00:27:33,417 --> 00:27:35,037 for my first time at bat. 488 00:27:35,125 --> 00:27:37,825 I had planned to be this wealthy, 489 00:27:37,918 --> 00:27:39,578 successful personal-injury lawyer. 490 00:27:39,667 --> 00:27:43,287 I'm sitting in my new office that I had just opened up, 491 00:27:43,375 --> 00:27:45,575 trying to figure out what I was gonna put on my wall. 492 00:27:45,667 --> 00:27:46,747 And the phone rings. 493 00:27:46,834 --> 00:27:48,584 [ Telephone rings ] 494 00:27:48,667 --> 00:27:50,957 "Hey, Sam, how you doing?" I said, "how you doing, John?" 495 00:27:51,042 --> 00:27:52,462 He was the kind of guy... "oh, yeah, John Gacy? 496 00:27:52,542 --> 00:27:53,712 I know John Gacy." 497 00:27:53,792 --> 00:27:55,042 So it was like that. 498 00:27:55,125 --> 00:27:57,955 A neighbor, a good brother, a good cousin, 499 00:27:58,042 --> 00:27:59,832 somebody who's helpful all the time... 500 00:27:59,918 --> 00:28:01,878 I mean, that's the reputation he had. 501 00:28:01,959 --> 00:28:03,169 He said, "can you do me a favor?" 502 00:28:03,250 --> 00:28:04,670 "Sure, John. No problem. What do you need?" 503 00:28:04,751 --> 00:28:06,291 He said, "could you please find out 504 00:28:06,375 --> 00:28:08,035 why the des plaines police are tailing me? 505 00:28:08,125 --> 00:28:10,575 They're all over me. They're ruining my business." 506 00:28:10,667 --> 00:28:14,207 I was shocked at that and very curious 507 00:28:14,292 --> 00:28:16,542 as to know why they were tailing him. 508 00:28:16,626 --> 00:28:18,666 I said, "John, I know those police officers. 509 00:28:18,751 --> 00:28:21,171 I know the chief over there. I'll ask him. 510 00:28:21,250 --> 00:28:24,000 I'll find out what's going on." 511 00:28:24,083 --> 00:28:26,043 Gacy was not a scary person. 512 00:28:26,125 --> 00:28:27,535 There was no reason to believe 513 00:28:27,626 --> 00:28:30,626 he would have done anything criminal or wrong. 514 00:28:30,709 --> 00:28:32,289 And I was just gonna help him out. 515 00:28:32,375 --> 00:28:36,535 He needed a favor, and that's what I was gonna do. 516 00:28:36,626 --> 00:28:38,246 [ Laughing ] It turned out to be 517 00:28:38,334 --> 00:28:41,214 my first case in private practice. 518 00:28:45,375 --> 00:28:46,575 Albrecht: Gacy walked into the room, 519 00:28:46,667 --> 00:28:48,127 people just gravitated towards him. 520 00:28:48,209 --> 00:28:51,079 I mean, he was very popular, very well-liked, 521 00:28:51,167 --> 00:28:52,577 and very well-respected. 522 00:28:52,667 --> 00:28:54,037 Hachmeister: Everyone that they talked to 523 00:28:54,125 --> 00:28:56,415 just swore up and down that Gacy was, 524 00:28:56,500 --> 00:28:58,540 like, the best guy that they ever knew. 525 00:28:58,626 --> 00:29:02,376 He was, like, the best neighbor, the best coworker, 526 00:29:02,459 --> 00:29:04,039 just a great guy. 527 00:29:04,125 --> 00:29:07,875 And that's the way he came across to myself and my partner. 528 00:29:07,959 --> 00:29:11,039 He was a lot of fun to be with. 529 00:29:11,125 --> 00:29:16,075 His conversations were funny and fun and carefree. 530 00:29:16,167 --> 00:29:20,037 We had to, on many occasions, remind each other, 531 00:29:20,125 --> 00:29:22,125 if one was getting a little too comfortable, 532 00:29:22,209 --> 00:29:23,709 you know, the other would remind him, 533 00:29:23,792 --> 00:29:26,132 "hey, it's looking like maybe this guy's involved 534 00:29:26,209 --> 00:29:28,329 with maybe a homicide here or a couple. 535 00:29:28,417 --> 00:29:30,127 So let's try to stay sharp. 536 00:29:30,209 --> 00:29:33,749 Let's not fall into any bad habits here." 537 00:29:33,834 --> 00:29:36,794 This one particular time, we followed him around, 538 00:29:36,876 --> 00:29:39,916 and he goes into the all-night restaurant for breakfast. 539 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:41,960 So we're all sitting around a table just discussing 540 00:29:42,042 --> 00:29:45,132 all kinds of different things... Vacations and you name it. 541 00:29:45,209 --> 00:29:49,879 And he starts bringing up his being a registered clown. 542 00:29:49,959 --> 00:29:51,379 And he said, "I got to tell you, Dave", 543 00:29:51,459 --> 00:29:54,379 this registered-clown thing is pretty cool. 544 00:29:54,459 --> 00:29:57,749 As a matter of fact, I can go on a parade route 545 00:29:57,834 --> 00:30:02,464 and I'd be in my clown outfit, and if I see a nice-looking gal, 546 00:30:02,542 --> 00:30:04,172 I can go up right alongside of her, sit down, 547 00:30:04,250 --> 00:30:06,420 "put my arm around her, and get a little feel." 548 00:30:06,500 --> 00:30:09,920 He says, "that's what clowns can get away with. 549 00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:12,830 In fact, clowns can get away with murder." 550 00:30:14,918 --> 00:30:18,578 And he just stared me in the eye and said that to me. 551 00:30:18,667 --> 00:30:19,917 I tried to remain cool. 552 00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:22,170 You know, I tried to just let it go over my head, 553 00:30:22,250 --> 00:30:26,630 but, man, the hairs on the back of my head just went up. 554 00:30:26,709 --> 00:30:28,249 Amirante: Police were tailing him, 555 00:30:28,334 --> 00:30:29,924 and they certainly knew a lot more than I knew about it. 556 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:31,960 I came in totally cold. 557 00:30:32,042 --> 00:30:36,672 And they sincerely believed that he had kidnapped Robbie piest. 558 00:30:36,751 --> 00:30:38,791 And I said, "oh, come on. He didn't do that." 559 00:30:38,876 --> 00:30:40,996 But, of course, they had already investigated his background. 560 00:30:41,083 --> 00:30:42,923 They knew about the sodomy conviction. 561 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:48,040 We were on top of something that just was too much 562 00:30:48,125 --> 00:30:51,665 to even believe by ourselves. 563 00:30:51,751 --> 00:30:53,291 Amirante: John and I continued to meet, 564 00:30:53,375 --> 00:30:56,495 and I would ask him over and over again what happened. 565 00:30:56,584 --> 00:30:58,584 "Did you do this? Did this happen?" 566 00:30:58,667 --> 00:31:02,877 Vehemently, unequivocally denied. 567 00:31:04,709 --> 00:31:07,079 We decided to file a lawsuit 568 00:31:07,167 --> 00:31:09,207 against the des plaines police department 569 00:31:09,292 --> 00:31:12,292 in the federal court to stop them, restrain them 570 00:31:12,375 --> 00:31:14,705 from violating our client's civil rights 571 00:31:14,792 --> 00:31:17,042 by tailing him for no reason at all. 572 00:31:17,125 --> 00:31:20,825 We were concerned that if there was a federal lawsuit 573 00:31:20,918 --> 00:31:24,958 and an order against us, that our case would be over. 574 00:31:25,042 --> 00:31:28,962 Our investigation could really go nowhere else. 575 00:31:30,876 --> 00:31:34,666 He had ended up coming back and telling us, 576 00:31:34,751 --> 00:31:38,251 "man, I smell dead bodies in there." 577 00:31:38,334 --> 00:31:41,294 And I said, "boys, we might be dealing 578 00:31:41,375 --> 00:31:44,075 with a lot more than we think." 579 00:31:44,167 --> 00:31:48,167 ♪♪ 580 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:53,880 ♪♪ 581 00:31:53,959 --> 00:31:57,169 Hachmeister: Following the execution of that search warrant, 582 00:31:57,250 --> 00:32:01,630 police reviewed everything that they recovered. 583 00:32:01,709 --> 00:32:06,459 Sullivan: Now we had so much literal junk from Gacy's house. 584 00:32:06,542 --> 00:32:11,582 Junk turned out to be evidence that we had to go through. 585 00:32:11,667 --> 00:32:17,577 Things didn't move as fast back then to try to identify jewelry 586 00:32:17,667 --> 00:32:22,287 or a license or any of those kind of things. 587 00:32:22,375 --> 00:32:25,075 We had in there, among other things, 588 00:32:25,167 --> 00:32:30,627 a class ring that had initials on it. 589 00:32:30,709 --> 00:32:34,669 Finder: The class ring that did not bear Gacy's initials 590 00:32:34,751 --> 00:32:36,251 said "js." 591 00:32:36,334 --> 00:32:38,464 So, what was Gacy doing with that? 592 00:32:39,626 --> 00:32:40,916 Hachmeister: They ran that ring down, 593 00:32:41,042 --> 00:32:43,252 and they found out that that ring came back 594 00:32:43,334 --> 00:32:46,004 to a young boy by the name of John szyc. 595 00:32:47,751 --> 00:32:50,791 John szyc had been reported missing, 596 00:32:50,876 --> 00:32:53,496 and he was an ex-employee of Gacy's. 597 00:32:53,584 --> 00:32:56,214 They determined that some of these driver's licenses 598 00:32:56,292 --> 00:33:00,502 that were found in Gacy's house were from young boys 599 00:33:00,584 --> 00:33:02,674 that had been reported missing. 600 00:33:04,626 --> 00:33:08,786 Sullivan: There was way too much that came back 601 00:33:08,876 --> 00:33:10,826 on the first search warrant 602 00:33:10,918 --> 00:33:14,708 for us to think that we were just looking for Rob piest. 603 00:33:14,792 --> 00:33:18,252 And I said, "boys, we might be dealing 604 00:33:18,334 --> 00:33:21,384 with a lot more than we think." 605 00:33:23,167 --> 00:33:26,327 And we had no idea where it was gonna end. 606 00:33:28,542 --> 00:33:32,712 Quite naturally, some of the first paths that we took 607 00:33:32,792 --> 00:33:36,082 were to try to interview some of the people that worked for Gacy. 608 00:33:36,167 --> 00:33:39,747 And one of the key things that they found out 609 00:33:39,834 --> 00:33:42,674 was that he had instructed these employees 610 00:33:42,751 --> 00:33:46,711 to go into his crawl space and dig trenches. 611 00:33:46,792 --> 00:33:50,132 And he claimed it was because they had a sewage issue 612 00:33:50,209 --> 00:33:52,709 and that he was trying to resolve that problem. 613 00:33:52,792 --> 00:33:54,752 And occasionally, the smell would come back up, 614 00:33:54,834 --> 00:33:56,714 so he'd instruct them to go in there with lime 615 00:33:56,792 --> 00:33:58,132 and spread lime down there, 616 00:33:58,209 --> 00:34:00,459 which would cover up that smell for a while. 617 00:34:02,083 --> 00:34:04,383 Sullivan: They certainly were helpful in telling us 618 00:34:04,459 --> 00:34:08,959 that we really probably wanted to get down to the crawl space. 619 00:34:10,918 --> 00:34:12,918 Duke: Then, one really cold Chicago night, 620 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:17,500 Gacy actually invited the surveillance team into his home. 621 00:34:17,584 --> 00:34:20,044 Sullivan: Gacy was trying to make it seem 622 00:34:20,125 --> 00:34:22,205 as if he was friends with the police 623 00:34:22,292 --> 00:34:23,752 and that there was no reason 624 00:34:23,834 --> 00:34:26,924 that they should be surveilling him. 625 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:28,420 Cahill: They went to Gacy's house. 626 00:34:28,500 --> 00:34:32,250 Gacy invited them in, offered them a drink. 627 00:34:32,334 --> 00:34:34,834 Finder: Of course, the police officers were delighted 628 00:34:34,918 --> 00:34:36,498 not only to go into a warmer place, 629 00:34:36,584 --> 00:34:40,504 but to go into the house where Gacy lived. 630 00:34:40,584 --> 00:34:42,214 Cahill: They talked with him. 631 00:34:42,292 --> 00:34:45,252 John would talk. John will talk your ear off. 632 00:34:45,334 --> 00:34:51,634 And one officer said he wanted to go off to the bathroom. 633 00:34:51,709 --> 00:34:53,999 Albrecht: He excused himself to go to the bathroom, 634 00:34:54,083 --> 00:34:56,043 which is in the older part of the house. 635 00:34:56,125 --> 00:34:58,995 When he was in the bathroom, the heat kicked on, 636 00:34:59,083 --> 00:35:03,383 and this odor came up from the heat vents. 637 00:35:03,459 --> 00:35:04,879 Hachmeister: And he equated it to the smell 638 00:35:04,959 --> 00:35:07,209 that he would smell at the morgue. 639 00:35:07,292 --> 00:35:11,332 Albrecht: If you've ever been to a morgue, around a dead body, 640 00:35:11,417 --> 00:35:14,997 it's an odor that you will never forget. 641 00:35:15,083 --> 00:35:18,583 Sullivan: He had ended up coming back and telling us, 642 00:35:18,667 --> 00:35:22,167 "man, I smelled dead bodies in there." 643 00:35:23,918 --> 00:35:27,788 We now were coming to the absolute conclusion 644 00:35:27,876 --> 00:35:30,746 that this guy had to be stopped. 645 00:35:31,876 --> 00:35:33,786 We needed to get a second search warrant 646 00:35:33,876 --> 00:35:36,076 to get back into Gacy's house. 647 00:35:36,167 --> 00:35:37,997 You can't just start ripping apart 648 00:35:38,083 --> 00:35:40,633 someone's crawl space because of a bad odor. 649 00:35:40,709 --> 00:35:43,459 You need judicial approval, so you have to get a warrant. 650 00:35:43,542 --> 00:35:46,042 The problem with getting a warrant is you have to connect 651 00:35:46,125 --> 00:35:50,785 John Wayne Gacy to Rob piest on the night he disappeared. 652 00:35:54,834 --> 00:35:56,544 Amirante: He called me and said, "it's very, very important 653 00:35:56,626 --> 00:35:57,876 I talk to you." 654 00:35:57,959 --> 00:35:59,419 And I didn't know what to think. 655 00:35:59,500 --> 00:36:01,130 I had a zillion things going through my head, like, 656 00:36:01,209 --> 00:36:02,999 "oh, my god. What am I gonna do?" 657 00:36:03,083 --> 00:36:05,083 Nobody could have predicted this. 658 00:36:05,167 --> 00:36:09,957 This is more than people would have ever believed possible. 659 00:36:16,667 --> 00:36:18,877 Duke: As the evidence was building up against Gacy, 660 00:36:18,959 --> 00:36:21,959 it became clear that he was starting to feel the heat. 661 00:36:22,042 --> 00:36:24,752 Hachmeister: We really started to see his demeanor change quite a bit, 662 00:36:24,834 --> 00:36:28,464 say, five or six days into the investigation. 663 00:36:28,542 --> 00:36:30,922 Typically, early on, he would come out of his house, 664 00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:33,460 and he'd say, "hey, I'm going to check on a job, this and this," 665 00:36:33,542 --> 00:36:35,752 and he'd take off, and we'd follow him. 666 00:36:35,834 --> 00:36:38,384 But now he seems to not be telling us that, 667 00:36:38,459 --> 00:36:41,749 and on the way to job sites, actually trying to lose us, 668 00:36:41,834 --> 00:36:44,084 driving like a mad man through the city. 669 00:36:45,751 --> 00:36:50,581 He was driving 75, 80 miles an hour through a residential area. 670 00:36:50,667 --> 00:36:52,497 Hachmeister: Many times, we had to cut him off 671 00:36:52,584 --> 00:36:53,924 and pull him out of the car 672 00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:55,330 and shake him around a little bit and say, 673 00:36:55,417 --> 00:36:56,917 "Gacy, you know, you're gonna hurt somebody. 674 00:36:57,000 --> 00:36:59,040 You're driving like a mad man. You got to slow it down. 675 00:36:59,125 --> 00:37:01,325 You know, we don't want to arrest you on this." 676 00:37:04,292 --> 00:37:06,292 Amirante: Gacy called me and said, "it's very, very important 677 00:37:06,375 --> 00:37:07,285 I talk to you. 678 00:37:07,375 --> 00:37:09,285 I have to tell you something." 679 00:37:09,375 --> 00:37:12,705 I'm like, "okay, John. It better be important." 680 00:37:12,792 --> 00:37:14,502 It better be new because you're telling me 681 00:37:14,584 --> 00:37:16,424 the same old crap all the time. 682 00:37:16,500 --> 00:37:18,250 I don't want to hear it." "No, it's something new. 683 00:37:18,334 --> 00:37:20,714 It's something important I have to talk to you about." 684 00:37:22,167 --> 00:37:26,627 He comes into the office, and I'm getting pissed 685 00:37:26,709 --> 00:37:28,329 because he's telling me the same old stuff 686 00:37:28,417 --> 00:37:29,417 he had been telling me. 687 00:37:29,500 --> 00:37:31,790 I lost it. I lost it. 688 00:37:31,876 --> 00:37:34,876 And I start pounding my hand on the table, 689 00:37:34,959 --> 00:37:36,039 pounding it really hard. 690 00:37:36,125 --> 00:37:38,455 I said, "John, tell me the truth. 691 00:37:38,542 --> 00:37:39,632 It's bull [bleep]. 692 00:37:39,709 --> 00:37:41,379 I don't want to hear it anymore." 693 00:37:41,459 --> 00:37:45,459 He goes, "okay, do you have anything to drink around here?" 694 00:37:45,542 --> 00:37:47,542 One of my investigators in the public defender's office 695 00:37:47,626 --> 00:37:49,416 happened to give me a bottle of v.0. 696 00:37:49,500 --> 00:37:52,290 That day as a Christmas gift. 697 00:37:52,375 --> 00:37:54,075 And I had it in my car. 698 00:37:54,167 --> 00:37:57,287 I ran out to the car, and I go in with the bottle. 699 00:37:57,375 --> 00:37:59,415 Gacy says, "fill it up." 700 00:37:59,500 --> 00:38:00,670 We all toasted. 701 00:38:00,751 --> 00:38:02,211 Gacy... glug, glug, glug, glug... drank it. 702 00:38:02,292 --> 00:38:04,042 "Fill it up again." 703 00:38:04,125 --> 00:38:05,875 Poured another little thing. 704 00:38:05,959 --> 00:38:07,999 We each had a shot. Glug, glug, glug, glug. 705 00:38:08,083 --> 00:38:10,253 And he looks at me, and he says, 706 00:38:10,334 --> 00:38:14,134 "I'm gonna tell you the whole story from the beginning. 707 00:38:14,209 --> 00:38:16,629 I've been a judge, jury, and executioner 708 00:38:16,709 --> 00:38:18,129 of many, many people. 709 00:38:18,209 --> 00:38:21,579 Now I want to be my own judge, jury, and executioner." 710 00:38:21,667 --> 00:38:23,287 My heart started pounding, 711 00:38:23,375 --> 00:38:25,075 like, ba-bum, ba-bum. 712 00:38:25,167 --> 00:38:27,207 "What are you talking about, John?" 713 00:38:27,292 --> 00:38:29,382 And he goes, "I don't want you to interfere. 714 00:38:29,459 --> 00:38:32,959 I just want you to listen to what I have to say." 715 00:38:33,042 --> 00:38:36,332 Meanwhile, across town, cops had a big breakthrough. 716 00:38:36,417 --> 00:38:39,037 They finally figured out that that photo receipt 717 00:38:39,125 --> 00:38:41,125 they found in Gacy's garbage 718 00:38:41,209 --> 00:38:43,709 belonged to a woman named Kim byers, 719 00:38:43,792 --> 00:38:46,212 and she happened to be a coworker of Rob piest 720 00:38:46,292 --> 00:38:48,252 at nisson pharmacy. 721 00:38:48,334 --> 00:38:51,044 And the story behind that was Kim byers 722 00:38:51,125 --> 00:38:52,745 was gonna go out and take a break, 723 00:38:52,834 --> 00:38:57,424 and she asked Rob if she could borrow his coat. 724 00:38:57,500 --> 00:38:59,380 And just before she did that, 725 00:38:59,459 --> 00:39:02,129 she processed a roll of film and took the film receipt 726 00:39:02,209 --> 00:39:05,919 and put it in the jacket of Rob piest's coat. 727 00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:09,750 Sullivan: Rob eventually borrowed his coat back. 728 00:39:09,834 --> 00:39:11,254 Jackson: How would that photo receipt 729 00:39:11,334 --> 00:39:13,714 that was in Rob piest's jacket pocket 730 00:39:13,792 --> 00:39:16,752 have ended up in Gacy's house, 731 00:39:16,834 --> 00:39:20,674 unless the two of them crossed paths that night? 732 00:39:20,751 --> 00:39:24,291 So now police have the proof and the evidence they need 733 00:39:24,375 --> 00:39:27,625 to get that search warrant to go back into Gacy's house 734 00:39:27,709 --> 00:39:29,879 to examine that crawl space. 735 00:39:31,709 --> 00:39:35,249 Amirante: So maybe six hours, he talked continuously, 736 00:39:35,334 --> 00:39:37,424 describing every murder. 737 00:39:39,751 --> 00:39:44,001 ♪♪ 738 00:39:44,083 --> 00:39:45,633 He remembered every single detail 739 00:39:45,709 --> 00:39:47,789 about every single murder. 740 00:39:51,417 --> 00:39:54,207 ♪♪ 741 00:39:54,292 --> 00:39:56,292 It was getting daylight. 742 00:39:56,375 --> 00:39:58,825 He finished his talking. 743 00:39:58,918 --> 00:39:59,998 His head just dropped. 744 00:40:00,083 --> 00:40:02,173 [ Chuckles ] He started snoring. 745 00:40:02,250 --> 00:40:05,880 So now I'm sitting there watching Gacy sleep. 746 00:40:05,959 --> 00:40:08,539 All of a sudden, he sat up perfectly straight 747 00:40:08,626 --> 00:40:10,626 and looked at me, but, like, 748 00:40:10,709 --> 00:40:13,879 looked right through me, like I wasn't even there. 749 00:40:13,959 --> 00:40:18,129 And I'm going, "John? John? John, you awake?" 750 00:40:18,209 --> 00:40:21,629 He stands up, 751 00:40:21,709 --> 00:40:23,879 and he starts walking toward me. 752 00:40:25,500 --> 00:40:27,380 I always have a baseball bat around. 753 00:40:27,459 --> 00:40:30,669 I went over, and I picked up this bat. 754 00:40:30,751 --> 00:40:34,171 And I'm walking backwards. 755 00:40:34,250 --> 00:40:37,710 And he sat down, and he started snoring again. 756 00:40:37,792 --> 00:40:39,132 And I didn't know what to think. 757 00:40:39,209 --> 00:40:40,669 I had a zillion things going through my head, 758 00:40:40,751 --> 00:40:42,461 like, "oh, my god. What am I gonna do?" 759 00:40:42,542 --> 00:40:44,502 It was frightening. 760 00:40:44,584 --> 00:40:47,214 This guy just told us he killed all these people. 761 00:40:47,292 --> 00:40:48,502 He's crazy. 762 00:40:48,584 --> 00:40:50,714 He's crazy, and the police are out there. 763 00:40:50,792 --> 00:40:52,252 What are we gonna do now? 764 00:40:52,334 --> 00:40:53,674 And I was in a panic. 765 00:40:53,751 --> 00:40:58,671 ♪♪ 766 00:40:58,751 --> 00:41:01,041 Gacy: I believe I... I did kill him. 767 00:41:01,125 --> 00:41:03,745 Finder: I had never seen anything like this before. 768 00:41:03,834 --> 00:41:06,674 I had never heard anything like this before. 769 00:41:06,751 --> 00:41:09,501 I had never experienced anything like this before. 770 00:41:09,584 --> 00:41:12,544 Hachmeister: On our job, we see a variety of horrific things, 771 00:41:12,626 --> 00:41:14,916 but this was out of the norm. 772 00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:16,670 Man: Identities unknown, 773 00:41:16,751 --> 00:41:20,831 victims of a man who probably did not know their names. 774 00:41:20,918 --> 00:41:23,378 Woman: You see bodies in your sleep. 775 00:41:23,459 --> 00:41:25,539 You see him in your sleep. 776 00:41:25,626 --> 00:41:26,706 It's just too much. 777 00:41:26,792 --> 00:41:28,672 Woman #2: It was very eerie 778 00:41:28,751 --> 00:41:31,001 'cause you know exactly what was happening. 779 00:41:31,083 --> 00:41:33,173 Nobody can explain what he did. 780 00:41:34,792 --> 00:41:36,462 Who can explain that? 781 00:41:36,542 --> 00:41:43,632 ♪♪ 782 00:41:43,709 --> 00:41:45,789 John Wayne Gacy's detailed confession 783 00:41:45,876 --> 00:41:48,416 to a gruesome seven-year killing spree 784 00:41:48,500 --> 00:41:50,790 was almost impossible to believe. 785 00:41:50,876 --> 00:41:52,456 But within 24 hours, 786 00:41:52,542 --> 00:41:55,132 police would learn the truth for themselves. 787 00:41:55,209 --> 00:41:57,789 The questions on everyone's minds were, 788 00:41:57,876 --> 00:41:59,706 "how did Gacy become so evil? 789 00:41:59,792 --> 00:42:01,172 And how did he get away with killing 790 00:42:01,250 --> 00:42:03,670 so many people for so long?" 791 00:42:03,751 --> 00:42:05,041 The shocking conclusion 792 00:42:05,125 --> 00:42:09,075 of "John Wayne Gacy: Evil secret" next. 793 00:42:09,167 --> 00:42:10,537 I'm Donnie wahlberg. 794 00:42:10,626 --> 00:42:12,706 Thanks for watching.