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00:01From A&E, this is Biography.
00:13For August 3, 1999, Biography with Harry Smith.
00:21Before John Wayne Gacy,
00:23people envisioned serial murderers to be madmen,
00:26like Charles Manson, or myths like Jack the Ripper.
00:30But when Gacy was arrested in 1980,
00:32Americans saw a man who could have been a co-worker.
00:35He was the most prolific serial murderer in American history,
00:39and he was a man you might have called to babysit your kids.
00:43Americans never looked at their neighbors the same way again,
00:46and many were prompted to ask a frightening question.
00:49How could such a monster walk among us?
00:58I never claimed to be an angel, and I've openly admitted to everything that I've ever done.
01:03The people that knew him would have thought that the Pope would be more capable of committing a crime.
01:11I wanted to hang his ass.
01:13I wanted to rip his eyeballs out, tear his head off.
01:16That's what I wanted to do.
01:18I just can't picture that his sexual appetite got so much out of control.
01:25He was not only one of the craziest, but one of the scariest human beings,
01:29because he functioned in normal society.
01:32He is the most notorious serial murderer ever.
01:36No one can hold a candle to John Gacy.
01:47In late November 1998, Chicago police cordoned off a section of the city's northwest side.
01:54Reporters and onlookers gathered on the chance that there might be a gruesome discovery.
02:00Police had received a tip that the yard behind this picket fence
02:04had been used as a burial ground 20 years earlier by John Wayne Gacy.
02:11Investigators dug it up and found nothing at all.
02:15And yet the attention lavished on this one bad lead
02:18was a fitting postscript to the life of a man who fooled the world while he killed at least 33
02:25people.
02:25Gacy, I'm sure, from wherever he is right now, was laughing hilariously at the people digging.
02:34Or he's laughing today that they didn't dig in the right place to find something that he's left.
02:44In the Chicago winter of 1942, John and Marion Gacy awaited the birth of their second child.
02:52The young couple already had a daughter, but John longed for a son to carry on the family name.
02:57On March 17th, he got his wish when Marion gave birth to a boy.
03:03They named him John Wayne after Marion's favorite movie star.
03:08The Gacy children, including a third child, Karen, born two years later,
03:13grew up in this modest bungalow in a blue-collar neighborhood.
03:18Their father, the son of Polish immigrants and a World War I veteran,
03:22worked as a machinist building control panels for utility companies.
03:28He was the breadwinner, so that's what I think he thought his respective duties were,
03:33to bring home and provide for us a home and food, but he wasn't the nurturer.
03:39Gacy Sr. was an uncompromising man who demanded obedience from his children, especially his only son.
03:47He expected Johnny to be like the other boys who played stickball, climbed trees and fished.
03:55The father was an avid fisherman and tried to teach his son the sport, but the boy had no interest.
04:03Instead, Johnny would much rather cook with his sisters or garden with his mother.
04:09When he wanted to work on flower beds that he put in around the house,
04:13it was like, you know, the sissy thing to do, and Dad was very vocal about that.
04:20John wanted his father to know,
04:22Dad, I love you, I am your son, but please let me be Johnny Gacy.
04:32The father would often ridicule Johnny in front of his sisters and other children in the neighborhood.
04:38It's just a constant stream of, you wimp.
04:44You know, you're not going to be anything.
04:47You can't do this.
04:48What are you, one of the girls?
04:50Taunts from a father toward his son can be devastating.
04:55While Johnny's father was rigid and emotionally distant, the boy developed a special bond with his mother.
05:01Mom was confident.
05:04You go to Mom and tell her a lot of things that you couldn't talk to Dad about.
05:10And I think my dad felt threatened by that, felt like they were keeping secrets from him.
05:15Marion was a homemaker, but her husband acted as if he ran the household.
05:19The couple argued frequently about everything, from chores to child rearing.
05:25She tried so hard to keep the family together, knowing that her husband drank.
05:33And when he drank, he went into rages and he usually turned on John.
05:39After his shift on the assembly line, Johnny's father would escape to the basement where he would drink brandy before
05:47supper.
05:48Marion and the children would wait at the dinner table in fear and silence until he climbed the stairs drunk.
05:55If the children misbehaved, he would spank them with a razor strap.
06:01We actually learned how to toughen up against it.
06:04And John especially, he would not cry.
06:07He would not cry.
06:08And sometimes I think that made Dad angry.
06:11Johnny not only felt alienated at home, he longed to be accepted by his classmates.
06:17But a congenital heart condition prevented him from playing with the other kids.
06:23I was wrestling around with some older kids and I passed out.
06:27And I remained unconscious for about 10 or 15 minutes.
06:30We went to the doctor and they said I had a large bottleneck heart.
06:33So I was more or less like a sickly kid.
06:36Gacy's father expressed no sympathy for his son and saw the heart condition as one more failure.
06:43He pressured the boy to do well in school.
06:46Johnny disappointed his father even more when he fell behind in his studies
06:50because he was at home sick so often.
06:53In 1954, when he was 12, Johnny made his first real attempt at fitting in with the other boys when
07:00he joined the Boy Scouts.
07:02He earned merit badges in wilderness survival and campfire cooking.
07:07But despite his sense of belonging and achievement, Johnny knew he was different from the rest of the troop.
07:13The only other person who recognized this was his best friend, Barry Buscelli.
07:19One afternoon, while playing in his bedroom, Johnny shared a secret with his friend.
07:24Johnny had his mother's silk panties and bra sitting in a bag in his closet.
07:33I was astounded.
07:35I said, Johnny, what are you doing with those things?
07:40And he said to me, he said, I wonder if I ever dressed up as a woman, how I would
07:49look.
07:51Young Gacy was deeply confused about his sexuality.
07:55But there was no one to help him, so he buried his secret deep inside.
08:00By the time he entered high school, the young man had learned to hide his confusion.
08:06John dated several girls and attended school dances with them.
08:09But neither his grades nor his health improved.
08:12In 1960, while attending Prosser Vocational High School, John was learning the printing trade.
08:20He had several fainting spells in shop class.
08:24His teachers agreed that he would never be able to work with machinery.
08:29John dropped out.
08:30He had disappointed his father yet again.
08:33I couldn't get along with my father.
08:36I mean, he was just overbearing.
08:37I was dumb and stupid and never would amount to anything.
08:40And so I just took off and I said, to hell with it.
08:43In 1964, when John was 22, he accepted a job as a shoe salesman in Springfield, Illinois, the state capital,
08:51about 200 miles south of Chicago.
08:54On his own and free from his father's resentment, John was determined to make a name for himself.
09:01His mother, Marion, and sister, Karen, both thought a little independence was exactly what he needed.
09:07That was John's, I hate to say the word salvation, but I think that that's where he came alive.
09:14He became himself.
09:17Gacy craved acceptance and found it through volunteer work with the Junior Chamber of Commerce, better known as the Jaycees.
09:25Working harder than he ever did in school, Gacy organized anti-litter campaigns and booked speakers for sex education classes
09:34in the public schools.
09:36Soon, John found himself hobnobbing with politicians, including on several occasions, Illinois Governor Otto Kerner.
09:44He was always very eager to volunteer to do anything at all, whatever came up he was eager to do.
09:52But he also, at the same time, wanted to make sure that he got his name in the paper or
09:56some recognition of some kind.
09:59In February 1964, Gacy began dating a shy bookkeeper who worked with him at the shoe store, named Marlin Myers.
10:09Marlin's family was better off than his own, and John saw the relationship as another avenue for him to get
10:16ahead.
10:18That September, the couple married. The following year, his new wife became pregnant.
10:24They were real excited about the baby coming, and John was just really, I mean, he just gleaned the real
10:34proud father thing.
10:36You know, he just, he just glowed.
10:38John was thrilled with the prospect of becoming a father, but the yearnings he had repressed as a boy were
10:45forcing their way back to the surface.
10:48On February 24th, 1966, while Marlin was in labor in the hospital, John was at a bar with a male
10:56co-worker.
10:58We went to his house, and instead of having coffee, we had a couple more drinks that I must have
11:04passed out.
11:04I woke up laying on his bed with no clothes on.
11:10Gacy had oral sex with the man, and the next morning felt both exhilarated and ashamed.
11:16He pretended nothing had happened.
11:19He rushed to the hospital to see his wife and his newborn son, Michael.
11:25He was such a good father when Michael was born.
11:29He was very nurturing, and he'd kiss them, and he'd hold them, and he didn't learn that, I know.
11:36So, it was just like a natural thing to him.
11:41John's parents came down from Chicago to meet their grandson.
11:45For the first time, John saw pride in his father's eyes.
11:50He was happy when he saw my brother settle down and get married and have a family.
11:56He was happy.
11:57It was like John reached the ultimate with that.
12:01That it was okay.
12:03He got through all of that, and now he's a family man.
12:07Gacy seemed to have everything he wanted.
12:09A family, a good job, and a new relationship with his father.
12:13But over the next two years, the real John Wayne Gacy would be revealed.
12:27Riveting.
12:28A four-star gem.
12:30Remarkable.
12:32Breathtaking.
12:33A masterpiece.
12:35I see dead people.
12:37The Sixth Sense.
12:38Rated PG-13.
12:40Starts this Friday.
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13:16Oh, it's most definitely like having a new car.
13:18You'd even have the new car smell.
13:20Besides, it looks good.
13:21It's good for my ego.
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13:25Only at your Lexus dealer.
13:27Got a female, partially decomposed.
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13:57He yearned for the ideal family life.
14:00But he only got it on TV.
14:03As a child, victimized for his religion.
14:07As a husband, marriage wasn't exactly life on the prairie.
14:12An absolute failure.
14:13But his final battle with cancer left behind a legacy of hope.
14:18Michael Landon on an all-new biography special.
14:22Sunday at 8 Eastern, 9 Pacific on A&E.
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15:28Biography's look at John Wayne Gacy continues here on A&E.
15:35By the mid-1960s, John Wayne Gacy had made a name for himself as a young civic leader in Springfield,
15:42Illinois.
15:43And by all accounts, had a promising future.
15:46But the ambitious family man was hiding a sexual compulsion that threatened to ruin him.
15:55In 1966, John, his wife Marlin, and their infant son moved to Waterloo, Iowa, a small town about 100 miles
16:03north of Des Moines.
16:06John's father-in-law owned three Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Waterloo.
16:11Business was booming, and he needed a manager.
16:14So, at 24, his son-in-law began learning the restaurant business.
16:20John loved being the boss, and insisted that his employees and friends call him Colonel.
16:27He wanted to be able to control people.
16:32He loved the idea that he could tell people,
16:37this is what I want you to do.
16:39I'm the boss.
16:41John put in 16-hour days, but his commitment to the J.C.'s never faltered.
16:47He was soon considered the most valuable new member in the Waterloo chapter.
16:52I think probably it's just John's personality.
16:55He was very ambitious and wanted to be loved by everybody and liked by everybody and accepted,
17:02and it was just his way.
17:04Local J.C. President Charles Hill was impressed with John's charm and powers of persuasion.
17:11The J.C.'s appointed him chairman of their membership drive.
17:15And talk about a membership chairman that no holds barred.
17:19I mean, he just did everything he could do to get new members, and he did it.
17:23He did the job.
17:25Gacy lured men into joining the J.C.'s by inviting them to the Clayton House Motel,
17:32where he screened illegal stag films and hosted orgies with prostitutes.
17:36In one evening, he signed up 20 new members.
17:43John's sexual romps also carried over into his marriage with the full participation of his wife, Marlene.
17:50After an evening out, they would often swap spouses with other couples.
17:56When John's sister Karen came in from Chicago for a visit, her brother and sister-in-law revealed their little
18:03bedroom secrets.
18:06He said, sometimes we don't always go home with the same persons we came with.
18:11I really thought it was a joke, but when it came time to go home, he took somebody else home
18:18to their house.
18:19That was the first time I felt I didn't know my brother, that I didn't know him.
18:24And I definitely, you can imagine how my thoughts diminished about this sister-in-law.
18:31The Waterloo J.C.'s knew all about John's sexual escapades,
18:36but that didn't keep him from earning enough votes to win the J.C. Vice Presidency
18:41and being honored as their Man of the Year.
18:46By 1967, he was a shoo-in for J.C. President and the father of another child named Christine.
18:55Yet there was a side to Gacy that his family and cronies had never seen.
19:01An insatiable lust for teenage boys.
19:07One afternoon, while Marlin and the kids were away,
19:11John invited over 15-year-old Donald Voorhees,
19:14whose father was a J.C. and an Iowa State Senator.
19:20Gacy asked the teenager if he had ever watched a stag film.
19:24When he said no, John set up the projector in his basement.
19:28He got Donald drunk to lower his inhibitions, then forced himself on the boy.
19:34Young Voorhees engaged in oral sex with Gacy.
19:39Afterwards, John hinted that he had mob connections back in Chicago.
19:44He threatened the teenager and paid him $50 for his silence.
19:48The kid, over the next period of time, just was beside himself, couldn't do anything, did not go to the
19:59police right away.
20:02He felt, as Gacy had said, that in fact nobody would believe him.
20:08In March 1968, the teenager finally broke down and revealed everything to his family.
20:15His parents pressed charges against Gacy, who was arrested and charged with sodomy.
20:22Well, Gacy took the charges out there terribly.
20:24He was at first very, very vigilant in his protection of himself and his family.
20:32He was one of these, it was one-on-one.
20:36If it wasn't me who did this, I wouldn't have done it. The kid's a liar.
20:41Gacy was convinced he could outsmart his accusers and insisted he be given a lie detector test.
20:48He failed.
20:50Investigators even joked that the only truthful answer came when he was asked his name.
20:56He felt that his world had crumbled. People would see him coming and they didn't want to be around him.
21:02And I think it drastically affected his personality.
21:06During the investigation, other teenage boys came forward with allegations of sexual abuse.
21:13Gacy pleaded guilty to the sodomy charge, but insisted that 15-year-old Voorhees willingly engaged in oral sex with
21:21him.
21:22This young individual made the charge at me.
21:25He claims that he was sexually abused by me.
21:28And in essence, he was blackmailing me for it.
21:31Now, what it boiled down to was oral copulation.
21:35And it was consensual.
21:38The judge didn't see it that way and gave Gacy the maximum sentence.
21:43Ten years at the state penitentiary in Anamosa.
21:46He would never see his wife Marlin or his children again.
21:51Gacy arrived at the prison in December 1968.
21:55It's like he accepted it. Like, I did the crime so I get the time.
22:01And I mean, he didn't say anything, but just, he didn't break down.
22:04Again, he didn't cry. He did not cry. We all cried, including my father.
22:08Even behind bars, Gacy aggressively pursued all of the social outlets available to him.
22:16He not only made friends with fellow prisoners, but he mingled with the guards, social workers, and even the warden.
22:23Within eight months, Gacy landed a job as head cook in the prison kitchen.
22:28He loved trying out new recipes for the inmates.
22:32I can say unreservedly that the quality of the food improved dramatically.
22:37One thing John was was a very, very, very fine cook.
22:41And he understood something that traditionally folks who cook in prisons don't understand.
22:46He understood the use of spices.
22:48In December 1969, a TV film crew visited the prison to shoot a segment called Christmas at Anamosa.
22:57In this rare footage, the head cook spoke with pride about the meal he was preparing for his fellow inmates.
23:04The men, with the exception of the turkey, which they get a generous proportion of, and the pumpkin pie that
23:09will be served,
23:10are allowed to take as much as they want to eat.
23:12The only requirement is that you eat what you take.
23:19After his interview, Gacy joined the prison choir in singing a carol.
23:26But this holiday season would be John's worst.
23:29Back in Chicago, his father was battling cirrhosis of the liver.
23:33On Christmas morning, John Stanley Gacy died.
23:37The news devastated his son.
23:39He was convinced that his father died of shame over his sodomy conviction.
23:48He felt like he stripped him of any dignity.
23:52He was remorseful about that.
23:54That he disappointed him in such a way that it killed him.
23:59And a lot of times we'd sit and we'd talk and I'd say,
24:02John, you didn't.
24:03It was a disease.
24:04Dad's drinking is what created his death.
24:08Gacy's grief quickly turned to rage, which he took out on inmates he suspected were gay.
24:14One afternoon while walking back to his cell, he spotted two prisoners having oral sex.
24:20Gacy kicked one of the men in the face, then returned to his cell.
24:25There was someone who was struggling with an inner demon that did not have to do with hating homosexuals, but
24:32with being attracted to them.
24:34And John hated prison every day that he was there.
24:38After his father's death, a lot of hates, including that one, became much more powerful in his personality.
24:48On June 18th, 1970, prison officials released him on good behavior.
24:54He had served 16 months of his 10-year sentence.
24:59Gacy returned to his boyhood home, Chicago, where he began to rebuild his life.
25:05And yet, the longer Gacy kept a tight lid on his sexual urges, the closer he came to exploding.
25:15You're watching John Wayne Gacy, here on Biography.
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27:21Biography's got the rebels who revel in the spotlight.
27:25What's the rage behind Cage?
27:28Get the action behind Jackson.
27:31And the secrets to Surrandom.
27:34Movie Mavericks Week begins August 9th at 8 Eastern, 9 Pacific on A&E.
27:42You're watching Biography on A&E.
27:48In June 1970, 28-year-old John Wayne Gacy left Iowa
27:54after serving time in prison for committing sodomy with a teenage boy.
27:59His wife had divorced him, and he would never see her or his two children again.
28:05John returned to his hometown Chicago alone and let his family there know that he was determined to start a
28:13new life.
28:14Gacy moved in with his recently widowed mother and got a job as a short order cook.
28:19John worked hard and stashed away every penny he made.
28:23It's like he couldn't rest.
28:26Something definitely was driving him.
28:28And his temperament was different.
28:33It's almost as if he had a little plan of action.
28:38He was going to be successful.
28:41By June 1971, Gacy had saved enough money to start his own contracting company.
28:48He called it PDM for painting, decorating, and maintenance.
28:53The following year, John and his mother bought this ranch house in Norwood Park on the outskirts of Chicago.
29:02By now, he had a steady girlfriend named Carol Hoff, who was recently divorced and on welfare.
29:09Gacy had known her since high school.
29:12John confided in Carol about his bisexuality and his prison record.
29:16She was naturally concerned, but tolerant.
29:19She saw her boyfriend as a hard-working, caring man her children loved.
29:25From the beginning of their courtship, her two daughters, Tammy and April, called him Daddy.
29:32He loved the girls, and they loved him. There's no doubt about that.
29:35But his and Carol's relationship was that of a friendship as well as their love for one another.
29:43Yet Carol's affection was not enough for Gacy.
29:46He could no longer control his hidden attraction to teenage boys.
29:51Something deep inside of him was about to snap.
29:56On January 2, 1972, Gacy picked up 16-year-old Tim McCoy at the Greyhound bus station.
30:05John offered to show the boy the sights, then lured him back to his house, where they engaged in sex.
30:13When they were done, Gacy grabbed a kitchen knife and plunged it into the teenager's chest.
30:20Then he buried the body in the crawl space under his house.
30:24It was impulsive. He really hadn't planned on killing him.
30:28But I think that once he did make that move, it gave him the ultimate power trip.
30:34Gacy was able to act as if nothing had happened.
30:39Seven months later, he and Carol were married.
30:42She and her daughters moved in with John.
30:45His mother moved out to give the newlyweds privacy.
30:50Soon after the wedding, John's relationship with his wife began to deteriorate.
30:55He still longed for sex with young men, wherever and whenever he could find it.
31:01On the night of July 31, 1975, Gacy had the house to himself and invited over one of his young
31:09employees.
31:1016-year-old John Butkovich had worked for Gacy for nearly a year.
31:15First, on the pretext of doing a magic trick, he coaxed the boy into slipping on a pair of handcuffs.
31:25And he says, what's the trick to this? I can't get these things off.
31:28And at that time, Gacy went in his pocket and grabbed the key to the handcuffs and says, the trick
31:33is, you have to have the key.
31:36Then, with his victim gagged by his own underwear, the sexual torture began.
31:44Afterwards, Gacy looped a rope around the teenager's neck, then slid a stick between the knots.
31:49It's in a tourniquet, so it cut off the air.
31:53So if you're going to kill somebody, you just put it on their neck and twist it three times or
31:57four times or whatever, until the person stopped moving.
32:00He removed the handcuffs and disposed of the body.
32:05Now, Gacy had killed twice.
32:08His psychiatrists would come to believe that the motive could be traced to his abusive childhood.
32:14There began to be a confusion between feeling better about himself in the sense of empowering himself to overcome this
32:22childhood sense of failure and his sexual desires and needs.
32:26He liked handcuffs. He liked to hurt people.
32:29But he did it more in the sense of wanting to experiment to see how somebody would react.
32:36Gacy's double life had taken shape.
32:40Family, friends, and business associates had no idea who the real John Wayne Gacy was.
32:46Not only was he a prosperous entrepreneur by day, but even entertained children in hospitals.
32:53He would dress up as a clown he called Pogo.
32:57When I got into clown makeup, I regressed into childhood.
33:00It was fun being a clown because you could be yourself or just let yourself go and act a fool.
33:07Gacy even dabbled in Cook County politics and was named a Democratic precinct captain.
33:13He would help people. He would do favors for people.
33:15The old-fashioned precinct captain, if they needed something, a garbage can or something, he'd get it, a Christmas tree.
33:20He'd get it for them. If they needed construction work, he would do it. He'd have somebody do it for
33:24them.
33:25Everybody knew John Gacy, and he knew everybody in this precinct.
33:28But Gacy's hectic schedule was taking its toll on his marriage.
33:33He had stopped having sex with his wife, Carol, and they bickered constantly.
33:38One afternoon in 1975, John berated Carol for spending too much money.
33:44After three years of marriage with him, she filed for divorce and soon left the house with her daughters.
33:52Now single again, the 33-year-old Gacy was like a wild beast uncaged.
33:58With no wife and children to look after, he resumed his hunt for young men.
34:04Gacy would abduct teenage boys, sometimes at gunpoint, and drive them back to his suburban house, where he would rape
34:11and kill them.
34:13But he was growing tired of digging holes in his crawl space.
34:17He wanted graves readily available.
34:21Gacy hired an unsuspecting employee, David Cram, to trench for piping, and instructed him to break ground only in the
34:28areas he had marked.
34:30He would lay out the trench.
34:32All right, this is where you dig, this is where you dig.
34:35Don't vary from the path.
34:36There was also comments about the time factor.
34:39He'd come down and see how he was doing.
34:41How's it going? Are we done yet?
34:43Are you done being down there?
34:46Cram also rented the spare bedroom in his boss's house.
34:51He returned home one night and found Gacy drunk and dressed in his clown costume.
34:57Gacy invited Cram to join him for a drink.
35:00The men had a few Mai Tais, then Gacy tricked Cram into the handcuffs.
35:06And he's laughing, ha, ha, ha, you know, just like a little kid.
35:10You know, and again, I'm standing there looking at a clown in a clown suit, laughing at me because I'm
35:16locked up.
35:16And he's like poking me.
35:17Does that bother you? Huh? Does that bother you? Huh?
35:20So I told him, I said, if you don't take these off, I'm going to kick your ass.
35:24The teenager then saw a side of his boss that few ever lived to tell about.
35:29It was just like a light switch went off in the middle of a conversation, in the middle of a
35:34sentence, in the middle of a thought.
35:35He just starts growling like a mad dog.
35:40Gacy lunged at Cram and swung him around the room shouting, I'm going to rape you.
35:46Despite the handcuffs, Cram was able to push Gacy to the ground.
35:50He somehow managed to grab the key and escape to his room.
35:56David Cram moved out. Others were not so lucky.
36:01By the end of 1977, Gacy had killed 19 young men in his home, all the while carefully maintaining his
36:10double life.
36:12In May 1978, he was back in the limelight, organizing the Polish Independence Day parade in Chicago.
36:19The guest of honor was none other than First Lady Rosalind Carter.
36:26At a function that evening, the serial killer mingled just inches from the president's wife.
36:33By December, Gacy was committing a murder every two or three weeks.
36:38He showed no signs of stopping until an investigation into a missing youth would lead police to Gacy's front door.
36:48For the web's best bios, log on to our website at biography.com.
36:56Stuart, can I see you in my office, please?
36:58That kid is sick.
36:59That hinge is squeaky. He's very sick.
37:01Stuart, get in here.
37:02Sure thing, Mr. P.
37:04Stuart, I just opened my Ameritrade account.
37:07Let's light this candle.
37:08Let's go to Ameritrade.com.
37:10It's easier than falling in love.
37:12What do you feel like buying today, Mr. P?
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37:20Let's buy!
37:21Let's buy a hundred shares.
37:22Alright, click it in there.
37:23Okay.
37:23How about five hundred?
37:24One hundred, Stuart.
37:26Feel the excitement? You're about to buy a stock online.
37:29Okay.
37:29Oh! Fabulous!
37:30I'm thrilled!
37:32What did that cost me?
37:33Eight dollars, my man.
37:34Eight dollars?
37:34Eight dollars.
37:35You're riding the wave of the future, my man.
37:37I can get a soda.
37:38I'm sorry, Mr. P.
37:39I'm having a party on Saturday night if you really want to go.
37:42I'm going to try and get there.
37:43Thank you, Stuart.
37:44Rock on.
37:45Alright, Stuart.
37:46Call toll-free.
37:47800-573-9914.
37:50Or visit Ameritrade.com.
37:51Ameritrade.
37:52The way to trade, period.
37:54Tomorrow on Biography.
37:57His brash sense of humor seized our attention.
38:01Petrified me at first.
38:03Success unleashed self-destruction until disease ravaged his life.
38:08Richard Pryor on Biography tomorrow at 8 Eastern, 9 Pacific on A&E.
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39:15Biography's look at John Wayne Gacy continues here on A&E.
39:23By 1978, 36-year-old John Wayne Gacy had sexually tortured and killed 32 young men.
39:30He had not only managed to cover up his crimes, but to keep up his status as a businessman and
39:36community leader in Chicago.
39:38On December 11th, Gacy met with a client of his contracting company at the Nissan Pharmacy in Suburban Des Plaines.
39:47Gacy was bidding on a remodeling job.
39:50Around closing time, he abducted 15-year-old Rob Piest, who worked at the drugstore.
39:57Gacy had lured him into the car with the promise of a better-paying job with his company.
40:02The teenager was never seen alive again.
40:06He became Gacy's 33rd victim.
40:10The next day, after witnesses at the pharmacy said Piest was last seen with Gacy, police questioned him about the
40:18boy's disappearance.
40:20He would say, I was in the drugstore, but I never saw him.
40:24You got the wrong guy.
40:25It was always, I'll cooperate.
40:27He had gotten away with so much before that he thought he was so smooth that he'd get away with
40:35this one just as easily.
40:36This time, Gacy couldn't talk his way out of trouble.
40:40Police didn't buy a story and got a warrant to search his house.
40:46While they found nothing they could tie to Piest, they did discover numerous personal items belonging to other missing teenagers.
40:55Gacy was now a murder suspect.
40:58But without the bodies, little could be done.
41:02Gacy was placed under 24-hour surveillance.
41:06If he was nervous about the police presence, he was putting up a good front.
41:11The first night of the stakeout, Gacy picked up the officer's dinner tab.
41:16My partner and I had to continuously remind each other that he's a suspect for murder.
41:24I mean, he was a very likable guy, and he never really intimidated you.
41:29He wasn't the kind of guy that you'd be afraid of, but he was a hustler.
41:35Gacy even had the surveillance team over to his house for a fish dinner.
41:40When one of the officers smelled a foul odor coming from the air vents, investigators were all but convinced that
41:47the crawl space below had become Gacy's makeshift burial ground.
41:51We weren't giving up, and he could not lose the evidence.
41:57He was sitting on the evidence.
42:00And he knew we were seeking a second search warrant.
42:02So John was cornered.
42:07Gacy realized the truth about his serial killings would soon be exposed.
42:13Out of desperation, he met with his attorney for an all-night confession.
42:19And then he looked at me and said, I've been the judge, jury, and executioner of many, many people.
42:24Now I want to be my own judge, jury, and executioner.
42:26I don't want you to interfere.
42:27I'm going to tell you everything from the beginning.
42:29I kept telling him it was unbelievable, and that's why he offered to show me the crawl space.
42:32He was going to prove to me that he committed the murders, and I don't want any part of that.
42:37Amaranti didn't need to see it, because within hours, investigators were on their way.
42:42They had their second search warrant.
42:46When they descended into the crawl space, it didn't take long for them to dig up a human bone.
42:53On December 21st, 1978, John Wayne Gacy was arrested for murder.
43:00At the police station, Gacy seemed to take the news well, and even joked with police while they were booking
43:06him.
43:07When investigators asked where he was born, Gacy looked up and proclaimed that he was, quote, born in a state
43:14of confusion.
43:16The mugshot captured Gacy laughing at his own wit.
43:21Gacy also told police that he was not responsible for his brutal acts, because he was suffering from a multiple
43:28personality disorder.
43:30He knew we were going to get the rest of the bodies, and he knew we had human bones, and
43:34he knew we weren't going to stop.
43:35So now as he's back telling, he's saying, all right, I'm nuts.
43:42Gacy's home in suburban Chicago was besieged by a fleet of officers and evidence technicians.
43:48Captured on this rare police video, the excavation of the crawl space was carried out with the precision of an
43:56archaeological dig.
43:58Piece by piece, officers lifted the remains of Gacy's victims through the floorboards and carried them out the front door.
44:10It was then that John Wayne Gacy was introduced to the world as the worst serial killer in American history.
44:18Yet Gacy seemed more concerned with the police rummaging through his home than with his criminal notoriety.
44:25He wanted to make sure his bar that had like 20-some cases of old Milwaukee sitting around it, that
44:33he made sure that nothing was done there and that we didn't dirty his floors.
44:38Those who thought they knew him best, his own family, realized they had no idea who John Gacy was.
44:47I went into first a denial stage, and then I went into anger.
44:53And I told him how much I just hated everything that he had brought upon us.
44:59And I saw in my mother, I saw something die in her.
45:03There was never that light again.
45:09There was never that twinkle in her eye from that day forth.
45:14It was like someone put the light out, and she got rejected because of her love.
45:23And she said to me, I'm a mother.
45:26I love him.
45:27How can I stop loving him?
45:30Thirty-three bodies were found in all.
45:34Now, John Gacy's fate for committing these hideous crimes would be determined in a Chicago courtroom.
45:43Our biography of John Wayne Gacy will continue.
45:46But first, Biofeedback asks, what underlies our fascination with serial killers?
45:52Log on to our website at biography.com and tell us what you think.
45:58You can't control Mother Nature.
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46:57Every 13 seconds, a break-in occurs.
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47:58History's Lost and Found.
48:00On History's Lost and Found, you'll find some pretty amazing things.
48:04Paul Revere's lantern.
48:05Yeah, we got it. Hold on.
48:06Whether it's following the trail line.
48:08The oldest pair of Levi's.
48:09Or unearthing the hygiene habits of the ancient world.
48:12King Herod's bathtub.
48:13What do you see the ring on it?
48:15The strange but always true stories from a scavenger hunt in time.
48:20History's Lost and Found.
48:21Saturday at 8 Eastern, 9 Pacific on the History Channel.
48:27Biography's got the rebels who revel in the spotlight.
48:32What's the rage behind Cage?
48:36Get the action behind Jackson.
48:41And the secrets to Sarandon.
48:43She spent many years struggling to pay bills.
48:46When everything's game, how do you tame the wild hearts you thought you knew?
48:51Movie Maverick Street begins August 9th at 8 Eastern, 9 Pacific on A&E.
48:59You're watching Biography on A&E.
49:05In February 1980, 37-year-old John Wayne Gacy went on trial in Chicago for the murders of 33 young
49:14men and boys.
49:15His case attracted widespread attention as people struggled to understand how anyone could be responsible for so many appalling crimes.
49:25Hoping to save Gacy's life, his attorneys entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
49:33John did not appear worried about being considered a crazed serial killer.
49:38Instead, he was afraid the public might think he was homosexual, a charge he denied.
49:43I would definitely not be homosexual.
49:48I have nothing against what they do, and I don't deny that I've engaged in sex with males, but that
49:57I'm bisexual.
49:59Gacy was no textbook criminal.
50:02Even the psychiatric experts who testified at his trial were baffled by his complex personality.
50:09He fit absolutely nowhere.
50:12No known diagnostic categories.
50:15Part of it is because we don't know what these serial murderers are.
50:20We know what they do, but we don't know what they are.
50:25The jury was not interested in figuring out who John Gacy was.
50:31On March 13, 1980, Gacy was found guilty and sentenced to death.
50:37Afterwards, he consoled his defense team and then asked to speak with his prosecutors.
50:43He congratulated them for doing a great job.
50:46He said they did what they had to do, and he respected what they did, and they did a great
50:49job,
50:49and he actually congratulated them on getting the death penalty.
50:52The serial killer was sent to death row at the Menard Correctional Center in southern Illinois.
50:59He quickly cashed in on his criminal celebrity by becoming an artist.
51:04Gacy's artwork won praise from those who appreciated the macabre image of a killer clown.
51:12In 1988, John exploited his notoriety by proclaiming his innocence.
51:18He wrote and published a book he titled, A Question of Doubt.
51:23In it, he passed himself off as the 34th victim and claimed that all the bodies discovered beneath his home
51:31were planted there by his employees.
51:34The idea that I'm a homosexual thrill killer, that I strolled down the streets and stalked young boys and slaughtered
51:44them.
51:44Hell, if you could see my schedule, my work schedule, you know damn well that I was never out there.
51:49One person who kept on believing Gacy was his mother, Marion.
51:54Then after a series of strokes, she lost all memory of her son and his crimes.
52:00She died in 1989.
52:04Five years later, on May 10th, 1994, Gacy's execution date arrived.
52:10He was to die by lethal injection at the Stateville Prison in Joliet, just south of Chicago.
52:17His sister, Karen, was there for the final hours.
52:21I was losing a brother. I was losing someone that I loved.
52:25Of course, there was great sadness to have to part and say a final goodbye to know that this person's
52:33not dying because they're sick.
52:35They're dying because someone's going to murder them.
52:37Kill her! Kill her! Kill her! Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!
52:41Hundreds gathered outside the prison walls to celebrate Gacy's execution.
52:47Supporters of the death penalty believed that if anyone should be executed, it was John Gacy.
52:53The revelers waited for the countdown.
52:57We had all leaned over, and I said, John, have you made your peace with God?
53:05And he said, I have.
53:07And he said, I love you.
53:13That was the very last thing. He said, I love you.
53:16And I told him the same thing, that I loved him.
53:19And I guess that's when it all came to a head that this was it.
53:24At 1240 a.m., John closed his eyes and took a deep breath before the doctor injected the needle.
53:32Eighteen minutes later, 52-year-old John Wayne Gacy was dead.
53:39At 3 a.m., his body was secretly transported to a nearby hospital where Dr. Helen Morrison, a forensic psychiatrist,
53:47waited to extract Gacy's brain.
53:50There are so many questions, basically, that come up.
53:56What happened prenatally? What happened in the development? What happened to the brain?
54:01Can we start doing some human experimentation?
54:05Dr. Morrison thought Gacy's brain might show signs of abnormality that could possibly explain his actions.
54:12Yet, after examining it, she found nothing.
54:16No biological evidence that shed light on Gacy's severe psychological problem, leaving the world with an enduring mystery.
54:26I believe, and continue to believe, that what we don't know about John Gacy is more vast than we will
54:38ever imagine in my lifetime or in yours.
54:42When he was good, John, he was the best of good, and he had a high drive for success.
54:46But when he was bad, he was the worst of evil, and he had a high drive for destruction.
54:51Johnny didn't even know who Johnny was.
54:56Johnny was playing a role, like on a stage, various parts.
55:02Maybe he would have been what he wanted to be.
55:05That governor, that politician, that senator.
55:10You know, we talk here about all these things. He had the capability.
55:15None of it makes sense for his character, for everything we know about him.
55:21I just can't picture that his sexual appetite got so much out of control.
55:28I don't think we ever know the person. I really don't.
55:31I don't think there's any way you can ever know what's going on through another person.
55:35And it's kind of scary to think that we don't know.
55:39I mean, we just really don't know.
55:48John Wayne Gacy spent much of his time on Death Row creating his version of art.
55:53His specialties included sketches of clowns, portraits of Elvis Presley.
55:58One week after his execution, a businessman named Joe Roth bought 21 of Gacy's paintings at auction.
56:04Roth was roundly booed by the crowd, then cheered when he announced his intention to destroy the sketches.
56:10A few weeks later, relatives of Gacy's victims took turns throwing the paintings onto a huge bonfire.
56:17One woman who lost a son said that burning John Wayne Gacy's art was like condemning him to eternal hell.