John Wayne Gacy was born in Chicago in 1942. His father was verbally abusive toward him and the young Gacy suffered from dizzy spells often in his youth, the result of being hit in the head by a swing at the age of 11. Still he graduated from business school and moved to Iowa where he became a successful shoe salesman. When he married Marlynn Myers in 1964 he took a management position in his father-in-laws fast food business. At this point Gacy seemed like a normal everyday fella who was involved in the Waterloo community and respected.

Then he attempted to sodomize a boy he had lured into the back of the resteraunt he managed after the boy refused to perform oral sex. The boy went to police and Gacy was convicted of sexual molestation and given a sentence of ten years in prison. He served only 18 months but it was long enough to send his life into a tailspin. His wife divorced him and his criminal record made work in Iowa impossible so he moved back to his hometown of Chicago. Gacy worked to regain his social standing and began his own construction business. He also entertained at children's parties as Pogo The Clown and became heavily involved in the local political scene. Carole Hoff became his second wife in 1972 but the marriage didn't last long when she found her husband had a very loose reign on a violent temper. On his own again, Gacy turned his attention on aquiring the company of young men. And killing them.

Gacy hadn't stayed completely trouble-free in Chicago. He had been accused of attempting to force sex with a young man shortly after his arrival in the Windy City but had escaped justice when the boy would not testify. In 1978 is warped fantasies of sexual abuse and murder had taken over and Gacy began not only cruising for young homosexuals, but luring boys that were simply looking for work to his home on the pretext of employment at his construction company. He even managed to go on killing after he released Jeffrey Rignall after picking up in a known homosexual area. Taking the boy home he torured Rignall, repeatedly knocking him unconscious with chloroform, until the youth promised that he would leave Chicago forever if Gacy would let him go which, unbelievably, Gacy did. Rignall went to police but they could not locate the man. Rignall had been too out of it to know where the house was and had never caught his abductor's name. Eventually he located Gacy's car on his own and turned him in but it resulted in only a misdemeanor battery charge. Gacy was free to go on with his killing and had no doubt learned an important lesson.

On December 11, 1978, Gacy murdered Robert Piest. When Piest's mother reported him missing it was found that he had met with Gacy to discuss a possible job and had never been seen again. After taking a close look at his prior record, plice began to focus heavily on Gacy, though they had no idea there was even a string of serial killings at that time. They began tight surveillance on Gacy, who acted erratically, inviting the officers sitting outside his home inside to have a cup of coffee. The cops immediately smelled a strong odor in the home, which Gacy chalked up to sump problem. A warrant was soon obtained and Gacy was arrested, though the police really had little to go on and certainly had no clue what they were about to uncover in the aging businessman's house.

What they found was one of the most gruesome scenes in the history of American crime. 29 bodies were buried in Gacy's crawlspace, covered with lime and dirt. The victims ranged in age between 9 and mid-twenties. Some were homosexuals and some were men who worked for, or sought out work from Gacy. All had doubtlessly endured savage sexual torture such as Rignall, the survivor, had. Gacy also admitted to dumping bodies in the Des Plaines river when he had gotten too lazy or weak to bury them in the small crawlspace. The house had to literally be gutted in the effort to recover the bodies of the victims and had to be later torn down.

Gacy was tried in 1980 and sentenced to death. He continually changed his story, even claiming that some men who worked for him had actually killed the men and boys and buried them in his basement, and that for whatever reason, Gacy had not alerted police. Hs ridiculous claims cast aside, Gacy was executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994.