DID SERIAL KILLER JOHN WAYNE GACY KILL ALONE?

It was not an unusual night, the clouds laid a light cover over a sliver of the moon. The streets were busy as usual as people moved around, seeming rushed and generally late for nothing. A chill was in the air as spring had not quite pulled itself completely out of its slumber. A young man walked eagerly down the street, a mission in his head, but he had a long walk ahead and no ride to get there. The quickness in his step and anxiety about getting to his destination must have showed because as he walked a car pulled up beside him and the driver asked if he needed a ride somewhere. The driver was unobtrusive and his question rang almost jovial as he said it. The young man held no reservations on getting into the vehicle, a black Oldsmobile, and sat in the passenger seat.

“Where are you headed?”, the driver asked.

“Seventh and Arden.” , quick and to the point.

The driver put the car in gear and started the drive. They drove for a while without speaking as the car weaved in and out of traffic.

“Are you from around here?”, questioned the driver, trying to make small talk.

“Yes, I live in town, about 10 blocks that way.” , the young man pointed in the opposite direction the car was moving.

The car continued onto the Kennedy Expressway and the young man questioned the direction the car was going, asking whether they were taking a short cut. The driver didn’t respond with words, just shook his head with a yes and reached into his pocket. Without warning a cloth was held over the young man’s mouth and slowly falling out of consciousness, he saw them moving off the expressway.

The next memory the young man had was being in handcuffs and tied to a bedpost inside a strange house. He tried to look around the room he was in but was slapped when he looked toward the door. The driver of the car was sitting next to him and held a bottle of liquor in his hand. He held the bottle over the young man’s face and told him he was going to drink this. The young man shook his head as to say no to the driver of the car and was hit with the bottle on the forehead. The bottle was thick and resistant to break so just a thud was heard as it banged his head. Again it was offered to be drunk and this time the gag that was in his mouth was pulled away. The bottle was opened and poured to his lips. The liquor burned as it slid down his throat. He could barely keep up with the fervor of the flow. After about a quarter of the bottle was gone the pouring stopped and the gag was replaced.

The driver stood up next to the young man, grabbed the neck of his white t-shirt and tore it off in one motion, then moved to his slacks. He grabbed at them as a child grabs at a toy that has been put off limits. A kind of shameful yet delightful reach. Breaking the rules was a part of the passion of the scene that was being played out. The pants were removed a little more patterned, as if this was the goal of it all, to get a glimpse of the forbidden fruit.

The driver reached into the drawer of a bedside table and pulled out a rope, tightening it around the genitals of the young man. Removing his belt he began to slap the leather across the young mans body and genitals, easing harder and harder with each hit, until the hits began to not only leave red marks but cut into his tender flesh.

The young man wanted to scream but thought that if he did the man would only make things worse. That this is what he wanted, to make him hurt, make him feel pain. The hitting didn’t stop until the man told him to turn over, to get on the bed on his knees.
The young man didn’t move, just laid there limp. The driver would not relent, he started pulling at the young man, yanking at his legs trying to get him to move without success. The young man was feeling ill with the effects of the alcohol and chloroform kicking in. He started to fade in and out of consciousness, seeing and remembering only little bits of what happened next.

The driver was now on the opposite side of the bed with the young mans arms in his hands and his legs were being moved by someone else, a second man in the room. He tried to stay prone and resist but fell again out of consciousness. The next time he woke up he was tied into a ball and a piece of raw wood was being racked against his back. His legs and backside were sore even through the alcohol haze, his genitals were red and swollen. He wished in his head to just be done with this, that they would just end the misery he was feeling. He wanted to choke on the vomit he felt rising in his throat. He fell again out of it.

When he woke up, he was being thrown out of the black Oldsmobile into the middle of Lincoln Park, beaten and bruised. He laid there for what seemed like an eternity and decided that since he was free he was going to find out who had done this too him. Revenge and a need to have the man pay for what he did was the only thing on his mind.

He staked out the exit on the Kennedy expressway for days until he saw the black Oldsmobile that had abducted him. He followed it to 8213 W. Summerdale, an unobtrusive street in an average neighborhood and saw the man that had kidnapped him. His name would later be found to be John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey, the young man, would be one of the very few boys to escape Gacy’s grasp.

It is with Jeffrey Rignall’s police report that we begin to question whether Gacy worked alone with all of his murders or if he actually had help. There are many people throughout Gacy’s life that could very well have had a part, whether knowingly or not. From his wife Marlin who participated in sexual partner swapping with him and others, to Carol Hoff to whom he revealed for the first time his bisexuality.

He had others in his life that may have been more deeply involved, like David Cram who rented a room in the same house that the 33 murders occurred and who “unwittingly” dug trenches for Gacy to bury the bodies in.

There was a rhythm to the murders Gacy committed, most of the men he murdered were young and either lured or coerced to drink and party with Gacy. There was also a method to the murders and that was a tourniquet type of choking where a rope was placed around the neck of the victim, a board tied to the back of the neck and twisted until death occurred. This is where some other questions of working alone occur. Three of Gacy’s victims were not killed in the same way as the others.

One, Tim McCoy was killed by being stabbed with a kitchen knife. This was Gacy’s first known murder and it is likely that this is what enticed Gacy with the fact that he was not caught for it. It perhaps started his excitement toward a fantasy where he was the ruler of his world and anything he wanted could happen. It is also understandable that Gacy had not yet developed his preferred killing method. There were two others that were buried inside the Gacy home that were also killed in a different manner and were much later in his killing spree, bringing questions as to a single person doing the deed.

Robert Gilroy, 18, disappeared between 5 and 6 p.m. on September 15th, 1977. Robert was suffocated by a cloth in the mouth and the tourniquet style murder of the 29 others was not used. This raised the first question, the second is raised by the fact that Gacy was actually out of town during the time that Gilroy was abducted. Gacy showed proof of a plane ticket that was used by Gacy himself from the dates of September 12th and September 16th, placing him in Pittsburgh during the time of the murder. These two facts alone bring deeply into question the idea that Gacy was alone in the murder of this young man.

The second young man, Russell Nelson, an architecture student in Minnesota disappeared in October of 1977. He was the second person found in Gacy’s crawlspace that was killed by being gagged with a piece of cloth and not done tourniquet style. The particulars of this case also bring into question whether Gacy was alone. A friend of Nelson was said to have been with Nelson all day up until the supposed abduction, making it impossible for Gacy to actually kidnap him without the knowledge of Nelsons friend. Also, this friend of Nelson went to his family and demanded money in return for helping to find their kidnapped son. In further questioning, this friend of Nelson had actually worked for PDM contractors, Gacy’s contracting business in Chicago.

With all of these questions and loose ends being brought up within the Gacy case, it is not hard to imagine that Gacy had help with the murder of at least two of them. With the testimony of Rignall, it’s easy to believe that Gacy’s help not only was just a part of the murder but also perhaps a part of the torture of the victims. With the kidnapping of Nelson one can also believe that Gacy had help with the finding of and luring of his victims as well. One can not commit as many murders as Gacy and not have along the way been found out or helped in some way shape or form.

Even today, these questions struck a cord with attorneys Robert Stephenson and Steven Becker who continue to investigate the Gacy murders and tie up loose ends left in the case.