The chilling true story of John Wayne Gacy is not merely the plot of a Hollywood horror film; it is the terrifying account of the "original killer clown," a power-hungry sadist who was obsessed with taking lives. Gacy achieved what most killers do not: he possessed a "graveyard underneath his house".
This horrific saga begins in the seemingly quaint Chicago neighborhood of Norwood Park in 1975. Eighteen-year-old Johnny Buukovich and two friends arrived at the office of PDM contractors to confront the owner over unpaid wages. The argument lasted for hours, with Johnny threatening to expose his boss's "sketchy business practices". Johnny eventually left with his friends, and that should have been the end of the story.
Instead, young Johnny Buukovich suddenly disappeared. The next morning, his father discovered Johnny’s car only blocks from his home, the key still in the ignition. Johnny loved his car and had been saving up to race it—he would never have abandoned it that way. When Officer Burkhard of the Chicago PD arrived, he peered into the vehicle and confirmed the suspicion: the young man's checkbook was in the glove box, and his wallet, filled with cash, was in the center console. While suspicious, these abandoned items were not proof of foul play. Weeks turned into months without leads. Johnny’s father persistently called the police, insisting his son had vanished after seeing his boss. Yet, this boss was a "respected businessman and a prominent member of the local community" whom police quickly dismissed as a suspect.
The Perfect Hunting Ground
Over the next three years, the same mystery played out repeatedly across Chicago. Young men kept going missing, many of whom were never even reported to the police. This was the 1970s, a time pre-technology where law enforcement agencies across multiple precincts lacked the ability to connect linked cases. For a predator who stalked human prey, 70s Chicago was the "perfect hunting ground". The killer preferred vulnerable, high-risk victims, drifters, people wandering around looking for a job, or young men engaged in prostitution activities, individuals who would go missing and often "people won't be looking for them". Then, three years after Johnny Buukovich vanished, a crucial break occurred.
Twenty-six-year-old Jeffrey Wrignel rushed into a Chicago precinct, bruised and clearly traumatized. He relayed a horrifying story: walking home two days earlier, he was approached by a friendly driver in a big black car who invited him to "hop in and smoke a joint". Serial offenders are adept at reading people and providing what the victim wants in order to disarm and isolate them.
As soon as the car pulled away, the man pounced. He shoved a rag soaked with a sweet-smelling liquid, likely chloroform, over Wrignel’s nose and mouth. Wrignel woke up inside the predator’s home, naked, his hands locked in "some sort of torture restraint". The attacker, whose face had been friendly before, now twisted into a "maniacal, obscene grin". For countless hours, Wrignel was raped, whipped, and beaten by the brutal sadist, repeatedly knocked out with chloroform.
In a "rare and inexplicable moment of mercy," the sadistic monster dumped Wrignel, alive but unconscious, in a park.
The Stakeout and The Pillar of the Community
Wrignel's description of his abductor was vague, a white guy with a mustache, but he did remember one unique detail: the car was a black Oldsmobile, and he recalled seeing a specific exit sign on the expressway. Since police lacked enough information to launch an investigation, an angry and frustrated Wrignel decided to launch his own.
Wrignel launched a months-long stakeout at the exit ramp he remembered, facing "pretty slim odds". Just when he was about to give up, he saw it: the black Oldsmobile. Wrignel discreetly followed the car to 8213 Summerdale Avenue in the Norwood Park neighborhood. Armed with the license plate and address, Wrignel went straight to the police, who identified the owner as John Wayne Gacy.
Gacy was an unbelievable suspect. He was a well-known, reputable Chicago businessman, a good neighbor, politically active, and a precinct captain. He had established himself "beyond suspicion," even hiding in plain sight by being photographed with First Lady Rosalynn Carter. Furthermore, Gacy bolstered his public persona as a member of the Jolly Joker Clown Club, performing as Pogo the Clown.
Due to this positive public image and the lack of direct evidence, police had initially dismissed Gacy as a suspect in Johnny Buukovich’s disappearance three years earlier. Now, because months had passed since Wrignel’s attack, the opportunity to collect physical evidence had "vanished". Gacy was only charged with battery, a minor offense with a $100 fine and no jail time, and he was released awaiting trial.
The Vanishing of Robert Past
Nine months later, the clock began ticking again when 15-year-old Robert Past disappeared. Robert was an "outlier", a model child, close to his family, whose parents immediately knew something was wrong. Robert had asked his mother to wait at his pharmacy job, explaining he had a lead on a new summer job that offered "really good money". The man Robert went to meet? A contractor named John Gacy.
Lieutenant Joe Kosenzac, Chief of Detectives at Des Plaines PD, took the case extremely seriously. Digging into records, Kosenzac found Gacy’s disturbing history: the pending Wrignel battery case and an Iowa conviction 10 years prior for sodomizing a 15-year-old boy, Robert's exact age. Kosenzac knew every second counted because Gacy was a predator who understood the law but "simply chooses to do wrong without any consequences".
Kosenzac and another officer went to Summerdale Avenue, praying to find Robert inside unharmed. Gacy answered the door and denied ever meeting the boy, claiming his uncle had just died and he had no time for missing boys. Kosenzac was suspicious, but Gacy agreed only to come to the station later to make a formal statement. The contractor might be a predator, but Kosenzac hoped he wasn't a killer, Robert might still be alive.
The Trap Door and the Smoking Gun
At the police station, Gacy arrived calm and confident, seeing himself as "infallible". Kosenzac served him the first search warrant. Gacy’s confident demeanor shattered: "You can't do this. You can't have my keys. I know your boss. I will have your jobs for this.". His volatile reaction confirmed he was hiding something.
Inside the home, detectives found horrifying evidence: gay pornographic material, nickel-plated handcuffs, and a 2x4 with human restraints at either end, a device Gacy might use for sexual torture. They also found suspicious personal effects: a class ring with the initials JAS, and a blue hooded coat similar to what Robert Past wore.
Then came the discovery that spiked the tension: pulling items from a closet, Kosenzac saw a trap door leading down under the house. Sliding his hand under the door and lifting it, he faced a dank, dungeon-like area. He wondered: "Is this a crawl space or a deadly tomb?". The air was thick and musty, but the dirt appeared undisturbed, and there was no sign of the young boy.
The breakthrough arrived when Robert Past's mother called with new information. She remembered that a coworker had placed a Nissan Pharmacy film developing receipt into Robert’s blue coat pocket the night he vanished. Kosenzac raced to the evidence table and found the exact receipt in an evidence bag. The numbers matched the pharmacy records, it was the "smoking gun" proving Robert Past had undeniably been in Gacy’s home, betraying Gacy’s lie.
The Smell of Death
Despite the mounting evidence, Gacy became cockier, thinking he had everything under control. He even boldly invited the officers back inside his home. As they talked, Gacy chillingly declared, "A clown can get away with murder".
While one officer kept him talking, another stepped away. Just as he flushed the toilet, the heating vents kicked on. A strange, sweet, putrid odor suddenly seeped into the room. There was no denying the smell, it was coming from under the house. "It smells like a morgue," the investigator thought. This was a "bone chilling moment", the horrific, unmistakable smell of death.
The Crawl Space Graveyard
The criminal record, the matching receipt, and the deathly odor provided Kosenzac with enough probable cause for a second search warrant. Meanwhile, Gacy’s behavior became erratic, leading to his arrest on a simple drug offense. With Gacy in custody and evidence technicians on site, Kosenzac went straight for the crawl space. They began digging in the hard-packed dirt. Almost immediately, they found something truly horrifying: a human bone.
The more they dug, the more they found. It was not one victim, but dozens of bodies. Gacy, in his arrogance, had believed he was so much smarter than the police that he could bury his victims on his own property, ensuring he had control over them even in death. Investigators ultimately found a total of 27 bodies in Gacy’s home. Twenty-six victims were buried in the crawl space, and one additional victim was hidden underneath the concrete of his garage. That victim was Johnny Buukovich, the young man who disappeared three years earlier after arguing with Gacy.
The Psychopath’s Confession
Confronted with the horrifying discovery, Gacy looked Lieutenant Kosenzac in the cold, dead eyes of a psychopath. Gacy was "completely unaffected by the enormity of what he's done," displaying the complete "lack of remorse" characteristic of a sadist.He casually admitted he used a rope trick because using just hands made the victims "struggle way too much". For Gacy, the victim was just a "tool I'm using to feel good," to be disposed of "like trash" when he was done. He confessed that he ran out of room under the house and began dumping dead bodies, including Robert Past, into the Des Plaines River. He could not even remember how many. The search for the remaining bodies lasted five months, but Robert Past’s remains were finally discovered in an area of the river he and his father used to travel by canoe.
In March 1980, after five weeks of testimony, jurors returned a verdict in just two hours. They found John Wayne Gacy guilty on all 33 counts of first-degree murder. Gacy’s methodical, consistent patterns proved he was clever, not crazy.
Gacy was sentenced to death as one of the most vicious serial killers in US history. Even facing execution, he remained in control, his final words being "Kiss my ass". Gacy’s successful reign of terror confirmed a disturbing truth: serial killers "don’t look like the monster". They are your neighbors, hiding a "secret life" behind a public façade, forever linking the face paint of Pogo the Clown to unimaginable horror.