Introduction
John Wayne Gacy. Jr was one of the most dreaded serial killers in Chicago during the 70s. While most other serial killers of the time worked in isolation, Gacy happened to be a social figure who inculcated a very different picture of himself in public. This paper will cover certain aspects from Gacy from a criminal aspect, such as a brief profile, details of the crime, aspects of the trial, the defense strategy and the final outcome.
Brief Profile
Gacy was born to parents of Danish and Polish heritage in 1942 in Chicago, IL. He was the second child of his parents with two sisters. The children had a strict Catholic background, having attended Catholic school in North Chicago. (Bell & Bardsley 2001) While his childhood was normal, there were a few accidents and health problems that Gacy suffered from including a severe blow to his head as a child while playing on a swing set that also had a probable effect on his physical and mental health in later years. (Taylor 2003) His father was a highly abusive alcoholic and often ended up beating his wife and children for trivial reasons. (Sullivan & Maiken 2000)
Gacy’s first minor crime occurred when he stole a toy truck from a store for which his father ended up beating him with a belt and called him a ‘queer.’ (Cahill 26) As he grew up, he worked various odd jobs, including that of a mortuary attendant and subsequently completed a business degree from Northwestern Business College. This helped him land up a job in sales. His first marriage failed after he was convicted by a grand jury and ended up serving time for an act of sodomy with a teenage boy. (Taylor 2003) After release, he remarried and tried to lead a normal life by getting into politics and community affairs, but went back to his old ways by committing assault on a teenage boy and later graduating to murder.
Details of the Crime
After his release on the sodomy charge, Gacy started a new crime spree. Even before this new crime pattern, Gacy had already been convicted and imprisoned for sexual assault on a boy. On January 2, 1972, he met 15 year old Timothy Jack McCoy at the Chicago Greyhound bus terminal. He convinced the boy to spend the night at his home and ended up murdering him. Gacy, then, disposed of the body by burying it in the crawl space and covering the grave with concrete. (Cahill 101) In an interview in 1980, Gacy mentioned his thoughts on his first killing, “That's when I realized that death was the ultimate thrill.” (349) Soon after this killing, Gacy took a short break and commenced killing around January 1974 and continued this pattern on a sustained basis until he was caught in 1978 after the disappearance of 15 year old Robert Piest. (OCPA) Even in this case, Gacy might have never been caught had Piest’s mother not alerted the police about his disappearance and about the fact that he had left home to meet Gacy for a job. Robert Piest’s body was found in the Des Plaines river on April 9, 1979, and identified on basis on dental records with autopsy revealing torture before death. (Sullivan & Maiken 362) The only survivors of Gacy’s elaborate killing spree were Donald Vorhees and Robert Donnelly, who experienced severe torture and sexual assault but managed to survive the ordeal.
The worst part of these series of murders was that most of the young boys who lost their lives did so after sustained brutal torture and sexual assault from Gacy. In order to dispose of the bodies, Gacy buried them in the crawl space under the house and later in the Des Plaines river when he discovered that he could not accommodate any more bodies in the crawl space. (Cahill 219) Most of the boys who disappeared were from his contracting company (PDM), although the police could never ascertain the identity of a few victims. (Amirante and Broderick 104)
The Trial – Prosecution and Defense Strategies
As per the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney for Clark County (2012), John Gacy was charged in 33 murders with a bulk of the victims being teenage boys. Although the trial commenced in Cook County, the jury selection occurred largely from Rockford, Illinois since the judge was of the opinion that a jury of the same county would be inherently biased due to resulting press coverage. (Amirante and Broderick 241)
At the trial, Gacy’s attorneys Sam Amirante and Robert Motta were primarily focusing on proving that Gacy was insane. In doing so, the court confined Gacy to over 300 hours of supervision at the Menard Correctional Center. (Cahill 261) The intention of the defense requesting this supervision was to determine if Gacy was mentally competent to stand trial as well as to determine the stand that the defense should take during the trial. To convince the state and the doctors, Gacy told them, "There are four Johns. John the contractor, John the clown, and John the politician. The fourth person went by the name of Jack Hanley. Jack was the killer and did all the evil things.” (OCPA 2012) While Gacy had tried to convince the doctors that he suffered from possible multiple personality disorder, his advocates preferred to take the stand of ‘Not Guilty by reason of Insanity.’ (316) In accordance with this stand, Gacy’s counsel produced a number of medical experts to testify the defense’s stand of Gacy’s insanity. (320-321) Of these, at least three well known experts testified that one could classify Gacy as a paranoid schizophrenic with multiple personality disorder. The evidence against Gacy, including the testimonies of Voorhees and Donnelly, was overwhelming due to which the defense strategy had to solely rely on the insanity plea to save Gacy.
On the other hand, the prosecution’s case (represented by Prosecutor Terry Sullivan) was that Gacy was in sound mental health and in total control of his actions. (Sullivan & Maiken 250) Further, the case made out by the prosecution was strong since the State presented evidence in the form of witnesses to highlight the premeditation that were visible in the killings. In addition, the prosecution also presented medical experts who refuted the defense’s claims of Gacy suffering from multiple personality disorder and insanity. To enhance the case, the prosecution also succeeded in convincing two of Gacy’s employees to testify before the court that they had been hired by Gacy to dig trenches in the crawl space under his house, although they did not know the real reason for these trenches. (Cahill 181)
During the testimony of Dr. Stein, the Cook County Medical Examiner the methods of death were revealed. The medical examiner testified that thirteen victims had died of asphyxiation six due to ligature strangulation and one due to multiple stab wounds to the chest, while in about nine to ten cases the reason for death could not be ascertained. (Sullivan & Maiken 322) However, Stein affirmed that all the deaths occurred due to homicide. In response to this testimony, the defense attempted to show that all the 33 deaths might have been caused due to possible erotic asphyxia, although Stein refuted these claims with appropriate evidences. (323) The testimony of a few survivors of Gacy’s killing spree such as Donald Voorhees, Robert Donnelly and Jeffery Rignall also stood in favor of the prosecution. In particular, during the testimony, Rignall described the attacks that Gacy perpetrated on him as “beastly and animalistic.” (Amirante & Broderick 290) Most of the surviving victims were scarred for life and the prosecution could highlight these aspects in a very precise way to the jury.
In the final arguments, the state detailed out the case and the gravity of the offense as well as the depravity of the accused in perpetrating these ghastly crimes with particular reference to Gacy as “the worst of all murderers.” (Amirante & Broderick 324) The prosecution also, in the final note, considered the manner in which Gacy had almost got away with the crimes had the last of these murders not been properly investigated. As opposed to the prosecution stand, the defense counsel Amirante and Motta stuck to their stand and argued against the testimony provided by the state’s doctors on Gacy’s mental health. In doing so, the defense strategy was primarily aimed at the jury by painting the picture of a “man driven by compulsions he was unable to control.” (Sullivan & Maiken 363) In line with the defense strategy, the counsel kept referring to the testimony of doctors who spoke on the side of the defense. Further, the defense also used the testimonies of Jeffery Ringall and other survivors to highlight the fact that Gacy’s beastly and animal-like behavior pointed to insanity. Finally, the defense made a plea that Gacy should be declared insane, so that his brain and behavior would provide valuable inputs to the medical and criminal faculty. To further counter this argument, the state prosecutor William Kunkle continued the rebuttal argument by referring to the defense’s insanity plea as a façade and gave numerous instances of Gacy’s ability to act logically and control his actions. Finally, at the close of the argument, Kunkle pulled out photos of 22 victims of the Gacy killings and displayed them to the jury while requesting the members to “show the same sympathy this man showed when he took these lives and put them there.” (Sullivan & Maiken 368)
The Outcome
The jury unanimously declared Gacy guilty on 12 counts of murder with an initial execution date set for June 2, 1980. (Amirante & Broderick 387) Upon sentencing, Gacy was moved to the Menard Correctional Facility in Chester, IL, and he stayed there for almost 14 years. During this period, Gacy studied law books and attempted to file numerous appeals in various higher courts, including the US Supreme Court, all of which were turned down. (Cahill 351) The Illinois Supreme Court finally set his execution date for May 10, 1994 with death by lethal injection. Even before the execution, Gacy in a true psychopathic style did not express any remorse and his last words before being executed were “Kiss my Ass.” (OCPA Records 2012)
Conclusion
But on general principle, a person who neither cared for human life, nor human dignity definitely should not be let off on the premise of insanity. The important fact is that Gacy had no remorse of his acts even till the very end and for this very reason Gacy is a poster boy for those who advocate the death penalty.
Works Cited
Amirante, Sam L.; Broderick, Danny. John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster. New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing, 2011. Print.
Bell, Rachel & Bardsley, Marilyn. “John Wayne Gacy Jr.” Crime Library. 2001. Web. 17 Nov 2014.
Cahill, Tim. Buried Dreams: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1986. Print.
Office of the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney, Clark County, Indiana (OCPA). John Wayne Gacy – Record #237. 2012. Web. 17 Nov 2014.
Sullivan, Terry & Maiken, Peter T. Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders. New York, NY: Pinnacle Books, 2000. Print
Taylor, Troy. “The Clown that Killed.” Prairie Ghosts. 2003. Web. 17 Nov 2014.
