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Friday, May 1, 2009

Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: John Wayne Gacy

Tonight's serial killer bedtime story about John Wayne Gacy will help even the worst of insomniacs go into a deep sleep.

Straight out of the he's-such-a-nice-guy file, Johnny was the type of man who liked to dress in a homemade Pogo the Clown outfit to entertain kids. A lonely and sadistic contractor, Johnny also liked to entertain young boys privately in a very different fashion. The prototypical organized killer, he had all aspects of the murder worked out before each kill.
Once he entered his murderous fantasy, there was no turning back.

He enjoyed handcuffing his victims, anally raping them, beating them to a pulp, offering to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, reciting verses from the Bible and strangling them to death. In 1978 he was tracked down by the police in Chicago. Thirty bodies were found buried in the crawl space underneath his house, explaining his wife's complaints about the constant stench. As a prisoner, Johnny Boy started a new career as an artist, painting mostly colorful clown pictures, which have been shown in galleries nationwide. He was executed by lethal injection in 1994.

On November 11, 1998, the Chicago Tribune reported that police, acting on a tip from a former detective, were searching for human remains in a parking lot behind Gacy's mother's house. Authorities believe there could be as many as four bodies buried 3 1/2 feet deep. Former Detective Bill Dorsch, now a private investigator, told prosecutors of a night in 1975 when he found Gacy holding a dirty shovel next to the alley where the new search is proposed. "I stopped and said, 'John, what are you doing out here at this time of night with a shovel?"' Dorsch said. Gacy replied: "Well, with all the kind of work I do, there just isn't enough time in the day. So here I am."

Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.