Transcribed by Michelle Crist
The following is a transcription of a very rare interviewed with serial killer, John Wayne Gacy in December of 1969. This takes place in Anamosa State Penitentiary, Iowa and the interview takes place before Gacy was arrested for his gruesome killings.
Interviewer: No name given Respondent: “First Cook” John Wayne Gacy Location: Anamosa State Penitentiary, Iowa Time/Date: Dec. 1969 Topic: Christmas at Anamosa
Begin Transcript:
John Wayne Gacy: Well, I’m John Gacy. I’m from Waterloo, Iowa.
Interviewer: And your a man of some authority here, what’s what is your title?
John Wayne Gacy: Well I’m First Cook, in the kitchen and I ran the morning meal and the afternoon meal in the kitchen.
Interviewer: John, how long you been here?
John Wayne Gacy: I’ve been here now, a year and about two weeks.
Interviewer: Mind my asking how, how long do you plan to take up residence here?
John Wayne Gacy: Well, I (small chuckle) hope to be getting out sometime in May.
Interviewer: Well good, good. You going to continue as a, as a cook, use that as a profession?
John Wayne Gacy: Right. This is my profession before I came in,
Interviewer: Alright.
John Wayne Gacy: is food service.
Interviewer: Now how about Christmas time, do you do anything special for the guys. What are you planning for, oh, Christmas eve and Christmas day, for example?
John Wayne Gacy: Well, Christmas eve what the um, food service department, under the direction of Mr. John Brimer, will prepare stockings we hand out. Well, actually they’re paper bags, that’ll have fruit, an apple and an orange, and a box of brickman’s(Sp) candy. And this is all from the staff here, they donate this. Then in the cell houses at night on Christmas eve, we will serve cookies and hot chocolate to the men in the cell houses, this is around 8:30 - 9 o’clock at night. Then um, come Christmas day we serve a regular traditional Christmas dinner.
Interviewer: Now tell us about that. What’s that going to consist of? (John Wayne Gacy speaks over last words hard to make out)
John Wayne Gacy: This is quite a meal. This will be roast whole turkey, we use twenty five whole turkeys, or approximately five hundred and forty pounds of turkey,
Interviewer: Mmhmm
John Wayne Gacy: that we fix. We start preparing this on the day before. This is all prepared by inmates, and there’s nine cooks under, my direction and under the supervision of several supervisors that on the food area. Along with that we’ll make up ten bake pans, large baking pans, of oyster dressing. We use eight gallons of oyster in that.
Interviewer: My, my John Wayne Gacy: And we use these giblets and everything, so it doesn’t go to waste, and make a nice giblet gravy, We’ll have candied sweet potatoes, and we use about thirty six gallons of that. And so, that they have a choice of potato, we make up two hundred and fifty pounds of mashed potatoes,
Interviewer: MmmMm
John Wayne Gacy: to go along with it. Along with that we’ll use some sixty pounds of mixed vegetables, to serve a mixed vegetable as the second vegetable on the line. We’ll have fifty pounds of cranberry sauce made up. We’ll make up a Waldorf salad, and our Waldorf salad is your walnut meat, and we use fresh marshmallows, and fresh green grapes and fruit cocktail, and we make up our own whipped cream topping with it. We um, sometimes go through forty five gallons of this, on the line. The men, with the exception of the turkey which they get a generous portion and the pumpkin pie that will be served, are allowed to take as much as they want to eat. The only requirement is, is that you eat what you take.
end of conversation.
Video then goes on to show the Prison Christmas Choir including Gacy singing oh come all ye faithful