His family problems extended out into his schoolwork and after attending four high schools during his senior year and never graduating, Gacy dropped out and left home for Las Vegas. He worked part time as a janitor in a funeral home and saved his money to buy a ticket back to Chicago. Lonely and depressed, he spent three months trying to get the money together. His mother and sisters were thrilled to see him when he returned.
After his return, Gacy enrolled in business college and eventually graduated. While in school, he gained a real talent for salesmanship and he put these talents to work in a job with the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company. He excelled as a management trainee and he was soon transferred to a men’s clothing outlet in Springfield, Illinois. Soon after his move, Gacy’s health took a turn for the worse. He gained a great deal of weight and began to suffer more from his mysterious heart ailment. He was hospitalized and soon after getting out, was back in the hospital again, this time with back problems.
While living in Springfield, Gacy became involved in several organizations that served the community, including the Jaycees, to which Gacy devoted most of his efforts and was eventually a vice-president and named "Man of the Year". Many who knew Gacy considered him to be ambitious and working to make a name for himself in the community. In September 1964, Gacy met and married a co-worker named Marlynn Myers, whose parents owned a number of Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Iowa. Gacy’s new father-in-law offered him a position with the company and soon the newlyweds were moving to Iowa. Life seemed to hold great promise for Gacy and there was no foreshadowing of the horrific events to come.
Gacy began learning the restaurant business from the ground up, working 12 to 14 hours each day. He was enthusiastic and eager to learn and hoped to take over the franchises one day. When not working, he was active with the Waterloo, Iowa Jaycees. He worked tirelessly performing volunteer work and he made many friends. Marlynn gave birth to a son shortly after they moved to Iowa and not long after, added a daughter to the happy family. They seemed to have the picture perfect life -- a loving and healthy family, a good job, a house in the suburbs -- and it seemed almost too good to be true. And it was…
Rumors were starting to Спрэд around town, and among Jaycees members, about Gacy’s sexual preferences. No one could help but notice that young boys always seemed to be in his presence. Stories Спрэд that he had made passes at some of the young men who worked in the restaurants but those close to him refused to believe it -- until the rumors became truth. In May 1968, a grand jury in Black Hawk County indicted Gacy for committing an act of sodomy with a teenaged boy named Mark Miller. The boy told the courts that Gacy had tricked him into being tied up while visiting Gacy’s home and he had violently raped him. Gacy denied the charges but did say that Miller willingly had sex with him in order to earn extra money. Four months later, more charges were filed against Gacy. This time, he was charged with hiring an 18 year-old boy named Dwight Andersson to beat up Mark Miller. Andersson informed the officers who arrested him for the assault that Gacy had hired him to attack the other boy.
A judge ordered Gacy to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to see if he was mentally competent to stand trial. He was found to be competent but psychiatrists stated that he was an antisocial personality who would likely not benefit from any known medical treatment. Soon after the report was submitted, Gacy entered a guilty plea to the sodomy charge. He received ten years at the Iowa State Reformatory, the maximum time for the offence, and entered prison for the first time at the age of 26. Shortly after he went to prison, his wife divorced him on the grounds that he had violated their wedding vows.
Gacy adhered to all of the rules in prison and stayed out of trouble. Described as a model prisoner, he was paroled after only 18 months. On June 18, 1970, he left his cell and made his way back to Chicago. He moved in with his mother and obtained work as a chef in a city restaurant, settling into the position and trying to get his life back on track after serving time.
Gacy lived with his mother for four months and then decided to move out on his own. She helped him to obtain a new house at 8213 West Summerdale Avenue in the Norwood Park Township. Gacy owned one-half of the house and his mother and sisters owned the other. He was very happy with his new, two-bedroom ranch house. It was located in a clean, quiet neighborhood and he quickly went about making friends with his neighbors, Edward and Lilla Grexa, who had lived in the neighborhood since it had been built. Within seven months of moving in next door, Gacy was spending Christmas with the Grexa’s. They became close friends and often gathered for drinks and card games. The Grexa’s had no idea of Gacy’s criminal past -- or his most recent run-in with the law.
Just a month before the Grexa’s had invited Gacy over for Christmas dinner, he had been charged with disorderly conduct for forcing a young boy, whom he had picked up at the bus station, to perform sexual acts on him. He managed to slip through the system when the charges against him were dropped, thanks to the fact that his accuser never showed up in court.
In June 1972, Gacy married Carole Hoff, a newly divorced mother of two daughters. Gacy romanced her when most vulnerable and she fell for his charm and generosity. She knew about his time in prison but believed that he had changed his life for the better. Carole and her daughters soon settled into Gacy’s home and forged a close relationship with the Grexa’s. The older couple was often invited over to the Gacy’s house for elaborate parties and cook-outs. However, they were often bothered by the horrible stench that often wafted throughout the house. Lillie Grexa was convinced that an animal had died beneath the floorboards of the place and she urged Gacy to do something about it. He blamed the odor on a moisture buildup in the crawlspace under the house though -- refusing to reveal the true, and much more sinister, cause for the smell. He would keep this secret for years to come.
In 1974, Gacy started a contracting business called Painting, Decorating and Maintenance or PDM Contractors, Inc. He hired a number of teenaged boys to work for him, explaining to friends that hiring young men would keep his payroll costs low. In truth, Gacy’s desires were starting to get out of control and he was having trouble hiding his true nature from those closest to him, especially his wife.
By 1975, Carole and Gacy had drifted apart. Their sex life had ended and Gacy’s moods became more and more unpredictable, ranging from jovial to an uncontrollable rage that would have him throwing furniture. He had become an insomniac and his lack of sleep seemed to make his mood swings even worse. And if his personality changes were not enough, his choice of reading material worried her even more. Carole had started to find magazines with naked men and boys in them around the house and when confronted, Gacy casually admitted they were his. He even confessed that he preferred young men to women. Naturally, this was the last straw for Carole and she soon filed for divorce. It became final on March 2, 1976.
Gacy dismissed his marital problems and refused to let them hamper his need for recognition and success. To most people, Gacy was still the outgoing and hardworking man that he always had been. So many people had experienced divorces that no one thought a thing about it. Gacy made up for any lingering questions about him with his natural talent for persuading others to his ideas and thoughts and he always came up with creative ways to get himself noticed. It was not long before he gained the attention of Robert F. Matwick, the Democratic township committeeman for Norwood Park. As a free service to the committeeman, Gacy volunteered himself and his employees to clean up and repair Democratic Party headquarters. Unaware of the contractor’s past and impressed by his sense of duty and dedication to the community, Matwick nominated Gacy to the street lighting commission. In 1975, Gacy became the secretary treasurer but his political career was short-lived -- no matter how he thought he was hiding it, rumors again began to circulate about Gacy’s interest in young boys.
One of the rumors stemmed from an actual incident that took place during the time that Gacy was working on the Democratic headquarters. One of the teenagers who worked on the project was 16 year-old Tony Antonucci. According to the boy, Gacy made sexual advances toward him but backed off when Antonucci threatened to hit him with a chair. Gacy recovered his composure and made a joke out of it. Several weeks later, while visiting Gacy’s home, Gacy again approached Antonucci. He tricked the young man into a pair of handcuffs and then tried to undress him. Antonucci had made sure that he was loosely cuffed though and when he slipped free, he wrestled Gacy to the ground and cuffed the older man instead. He eventually let him go when Gacy promised not to bother him again. That was the last time that Gacy ever made advances toward Antonucci and the boy remained working for the contracting company for almost a year after the incident. Tony Antonucci would not realize how lucky he had been that day. Others would not fare as well.
Johnny Butkovich, 17, began doing remodeling work for Gacy’s company in an effort to raise money for his racing car. He enjoyed the position, it paid well, and he maintained a good working relationship with Gacy until one pay period when Gacy refused to pay Johnny for two weeks of work. This was something that Gacy often did in order to save money. Angered that Gacy had withheld his pay, Johnny went over to his employer’s house with two friends to collect what was rightfully his. When he confronted him, Gacy refused to pay and a loud argument erupted. Finally, he realized there was little that he could do and Johnny and his friends left. Butkovich dropped off his friends at home and drove off -- never to be seen again.
Michael Bonnin, 17, enjoyed working with his hands, especially carpentry and woodworking, and often had several different projects going at the same time. In June 1976, he had almost completed restoring an antique jukebox -- but the job was never finished. When on his way to catch a train to meet his stepfather’s brother, he vanished.
Billy Carroll, 16, was a long time troublemaker who had first been in trouble with the authorities at the age of 9. Two years later, he was caught with a gun and he spent most of his life on the streets of Chicago, making money by arranging meetings between teenaged boys and adult men for a commission. Although he came from a very different background that Michael Bonnin and Johnny Butkovich, they all three had one thing in common -- John Wayne Gacy. Like the others Carroll also disappeared suddenly. He left home on June 13, 1976 and was never seen alive again.
Gregory Godzik, 17, started working for PDM Contractors in order to finance parts for his 1966 Pontiac. He considered it an eyesore but it was a consuming hobby for him. The work that he did for Gacy paid well and he liked it a lot. On December 12, 1976, Gregory dropped his date, a girl he had had a crush on for awhile, at her house and drove off towards home. The following day, the police found Gregory’s Pontiac but the boy was missing.
On January 20, 1977, John Szyc, 19, also vanished. He had driven off in his 1971 Plymouth Satellite and was never seen alive again. Interestingly, a short time after Szyc disappeared, another teenager was picked up by police in a 1971 Plymouth Satellite while trying to leave a gas station without paying. The boy said that the man he lived with could explain the situation -- John Wayne Gacy. He told the officers that John Szyc had sold him the car some time earlier. The police never checked the title, which had been signed 18 days after John’s disappearance. Szyc had not worked for PDM Contractors but he was acquainted with Gregory Godzik, Johnny Butkovich and fatally, John Wayne Gacy.
On September 15, 1977, Robert Gilroy, 18, also disappeared. Gilroy was an avid outdoorsman and on that date, was supposed to catch a bus to meet friends for horseback riding. When he never showed up, his father, a Chicago police sergeant, immediately began searching for the boy. A full scale investigation was launched but Robert was nowhere to be found.
More than a year later, another young man named Robert Piest would vanish as well. The investigation into his disappearance would lead not only to the discovery of his body but the bodies of Butkovich, Bonnin, Carroll, Szyc, Gilroy and 27 other young men who suffered similar fates. These discoveries would horrify not only Chicago, but all of America.
Before Robert disappeared though, a weird event would occur that would later turn out to be a chilling prediction of events to come -- or rather a stunning revelation of events that had already occurred. At a pre-Christmas party that was held on December 2, 1978, a well-known local psychic known as Florece (Florence Branson) had been hired to provide cards readings for the guests. The party was held at the home of a contractor associate of Gacy’s and Gacy was one of the many in attendance.
The evening was almost over when it came time for Gacy to have his fortune told. Up until this point, the party and the readings had been going well and everyone was having a great time, including the psychic, and then Gacy approached her for his reading. As soon as he spoke to her, Florece later reported that she sensed something was very wrong with the man. She also said that she became physically ill when she laid out his cards. She was unable to discern any details but knew there was an evil hiding below the surface of this man. She bluffed her way through the reading, much too frightened to say anything to Gacy.
At the end of the evening, she felt compelled to speak to the hostess about her horrific impressions of Gacy. She told what she had sensed and added tha...
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