"I Am at Peace with God": John Wayne Gacy on the Eve of His Execution, 1994

Name: "I Am at Peace with God": John Wayne Gacy on the Eve of His Execution, 1994
Uploaded: 2024-05-09
Duration: 5 min 28 s
Description: Speaking by telephone to Inside Edition's Bill O'Reilly in the last days before his execution, John Wayne Gacy said he had never had a fair trial and would go to his death maintaining his innocence.

Speaking by telephone to Inside Edition's Bill O'Reilly in the last days before his execution, John Wayne Gacy said he had never had a fair trial and would go to his death maintaining his innocence.

Subject: John Wayne Gacy
Recorded: about May 8, 1994
Runtime: 5:28

Content warning: Concerns the murders of 33 boys and young men, and a survivor's account of being drugged and waking in Gacy's bed.

The Interview

In the last days before his execution in May 1994, John Wayne Gacy spoke by telephone from an Illinois prison to Bill O'Reilly, then the anchor of the syndicated newsmagazine Inside Edition. The programme presented the call as Gacy's "final public comments." O'Reilly asked whether he was frightened, whether he felt remorse and whether he would confess before he died. Gacy said he had never had a fair trial, that "there's more fantasy on me than there is fact," and that he would go to his death maintaining his innocence.

Historical Context

Gacy was a building contractor in Norwood Park Township, near Des Plaines and Chicago's O'Hare Airport, who was active in local Democratic politics and entertained at parties as "Pogo the Clown." On December 11, 1978, 15-year-old Robert Piest disappeared from the pharmacy where he worked after telling his mother that a contractor wanted to talk to him about a job. Gacy was arrested on December 21, 1978, and confessed. Police recovered 29 bodies from his property, most of them from the crawl space under his house. In March 1980 he was convicted of 33 murders and sentenced to death.

Circumstances of the Interview

Gacy spent fourteen years on death row, most of them at Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois. He was moved to Stateville Correctional Center, near Joliet, for his execution, and was put to death by lethal injection shortly after midnight on May 10, 1994. O'Reilly says in the segment that Gacy had chosen Inside Edition "yesterday" for his final comments, so the call was probably made on May 8 and broadcast on May 9. Gacy is heard by telephone only.

What the Interview Covers

The segment opens with a narrated account of the case, with brief comments from an investigator, a parent of victim John Szyc, and a man identified only as Robert, who says that Gacy drugged him with chloroform months before the arrest and then let him go. In the telephone interview Gacy says he is "in a good mood," asks O'Reilly whether he thinks about death every day, and calls his coming execution "a state-executed murder." He refuses to confess ("If you're looking for a Ted Bundy, go talk to Ted Bundy"), says he has not decided whether to make a final statement, and claims that other people had keys to his house and that 16 of the bodies were "linked" to one individual and 14 to another. He says he feels sorry for the victims' families because "they have not gotten justice." He ends: "I am at peace with God."

What Makes the Recording Significant

The recording preserves Gacy's position at the very end of his life. He had confessed in 1978 and drawn police a map of the crawl space. By 1994 he denied everything and blamed unnamed others with keys to his house. The interview shows that he went to his execution without accepting responsibility.

Archival Importance

The programme billed the call as Gacy's final public comments. That is the programme's claim: other outlets also reported his remarks in his last days, and no source has been found that confirms this was his last interview. It belongs with the other Gacy interviews of 1992 and 1993.

Important Caveats

Everything Gacy says about his innocence, a lack of a fair trial and other people with keys to his house is his own claim. It is contradicted by his 1978 confession and the trial evidence. O'Reilly's figure of "27 bodies" under the house is as spoken; police recovered 29 bodies from the property, most of them from the crawl space (accounts give 26 or 27). The narration's statement that Gacy "admitted to killing one young man in self-defense" at trial is the programme's summary. The upload is an off-air copy that begins mid-sentence.

Narrator: [recording begins mid-sentence] ...suburbs near Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Gacy was active in local politics and once had his photo taken with then First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

Unidentified Man: This guy didn't have horns on him. He, you know, he didn't walk around with a sign that he's a mass murderer. And he was extremely well liked, very popular.

Narrator: Gacy always liked the limelight. Dressed as Pogo the Clown, he liked to entertain children, and he loved to throw lavish parties. Then on December 11th, 1978, a local boy, Rob Piest, disappeared. He told his mother he was meeting with John Gacy about a job. A search of Gacy's home turned up a number of items from other missing kids, like class rings and other jewelry, but police couldn't find any sign of foul play.

Investigator: You know, we had maybe a slight idea, but no real concrete evidence that there was a homicide here.

Narrator: For Rosemary and Richard Szyc, the search of Gacy's home brought disturbing news. Some of the jewelry police recovered belonged to their son John. He'd been missing for almost two years by then.

Parent Of John Szyc: He was my third son. He was 19 when he disappeared. He had been out of high school for about a year and a half.

Narrator: Police didn't have enough to charge Gacy with anything, so they decided to follow him. After two weeks of constant surveillance, Gacy cracked. With his lawyer present, Gacy told a roomful of shocked policemen that he'd killed dozens of young men and buried most of them under his house. He drew a detailed map of his crawl space showing where the bodies were, as best as he could recall. Using the map that Gacy made, police began the brutal job of excavating the crawl space under Gacy's home, and one by one the body bags made their morbid parade to the coroner's truck.

Narrator: This man, who we will identify only as Robert, was one of the lucky few who got away. Only months before Gacy's arrest, he ran into Gacy in a bar. Gacy brought him back to his house, where Gacy asked him to try a new drug.

Robert: Gave me that, and I tried it, and while it was chloroform, it knocked me out.

Interviewer: Then what happened?

Robert: Well, I woke up in bed with him.

Narrator: For some reason, Gacy didn't kill Robert. He just let him go. But it wasn't until after Gacy's arrest for murder that Robert realized just how lucky he was. Now he's happy to see Gacy get his. At his trial, Gacy admitted to killing one young man in self-defense, but claimed someone else put the other bodies under his house. He was convicted of all 33 murders. Yesterday, he chose Inside Edition to make his final public comments.

Bill O'Reilly: I spoke with him on the phone. Are you frightened right now? Time is growing very short.

John Wayne Gacy: No, I'm in a good mood. [unclear: "Do I?" / "Why?"]

Bill O'Reilly: So you're not frightened of losing your life?

John Wayne Gacy: Bill, do you think about death every day?

Bill O'Reilly: I don't. But if my death were scheduled to be tomorrow, I might.

John Wayne Gacy: Well, I'm not.

Bill O'Reilly: So you're not frightened at all?

John Wayne Gacy: You accept the things you cannot change.

Bill O'Reilly: Do you feel any sense of remorse about anything that's happened here?

John Wayne Gacy: Well, considering I've never had a fair trial, how am I supposed to feel?

Bill O'Reilly: So you're telling me from the heart that you feel no remorse or guilt here at all?

John Wayne Gacy: Well, if somebody would have taken the time to look at the facts, you'll find out that they're not what they were said to be. There's more fantasy on me than there is fact.

Bill O'Reilly: Even at this late date, you still say that you are innocent?

John Wayne Gacy: I will go to my death that way. Until you remove politics from the court system, all we're going to go ahead with is a state-executed murder.

Bill O'Reilly: So you feel you're going to be murdered?

John Wayne Gacy: That's correct.

Bill O'Reilly: Is there any possibility that you would change your mind before the execution and say, yeah, I really did something? Is there any possibility that that would happen?

John Wayne Gacy: No. If you're looking for a Ted Bundy, go talk to Ted Bundy. They've asked me to give them a final statement, and I haven't issued one yet. All I've told the DOC is to arrange for ten minutes, in which at that time I will decide whether I'm going to talk or not.

Bill O'Reilly: I strongly suspect you will have something to say. What could that be?

John Wayne Gacy: I have no idea at this time. I haven't even thought about it.

Bill O'Reilly: Do you think you'll be very emotional at that moment?

John Wayne Gacy: In regards to what? I just feel that I, I feel sorry for the victims' families, because they have not gotten justice in this case. I think they have a right to know. Some of them have got the remains of bodies that don't even belong to them.

Bill O'Reilly: Is there any way you can explain at this late hour how 27 bodies were found underneath your house?

John Wayne Gacy: I've already told you, there's 12 keys to the house. We've linked, we've linked 16 of the bodies to one individual. We've linked 14 more to another individual. All these people had keys to the house.

Bill O'Reilly: If you did it and you do not repent, I'm sure the confessor will tell you, God have mercy on your soul.

John Wayne Gacy: I am at peace with God.

Bill O'Reilly: Once again, Gacy is set to receive a lethal injection at one minute after midnight. Still ahead today, our adventure reporter gets shot out of a cannon, and next, corruption on a [unclear: "beauty" / "beautiful"] [recording ends]. ---