Countdown to an Execution: WGN-TV's Gacy Coverage and the Man Who Called Himself His Friend, May 1994

Name: Countdown to an Execution: WGN-TV's Gacy Coverage and the Man Who Called Himself His Friend, May 1994
Uploaded: 2025-11-01T00:00:00Z
Duration: 42 min 31 s
Description: Chicago's WGN-TV in the last days before Gacy's execution: a Michigan man who corresponded with Gacy, the final appeals, the unidentified victims, and interviews with the detective and prosecutor who brought him to trial.

Chicago's WGN-TV in the last days before Gacy's execution: a Michigan man who corresponded with Gacy, the final appeals, the unidentified victims, and interviews with the detective and prosecutor who brought him to trial.

Subject: John Wayne Gacy
Recorded: about May 8, 1994
Runtime: 42:31

Content warning: Concerns the murders of 33 teenage boys and young men and the recovery of their remains; one segment concerns an anti-sexual-assault artwork. No graphic detail.

The Interview

This is a compilation of WGN-TV news coverage from Chicago in the days before John Wayne Gacy's execution in May 1994, recorded off air and posted to YouTube in 2025 by a third-party channel. Its centerpiece is a report by WGN anchor Steve Sanders on Jeff Maycroft of Muskegon Heights, Michigan, who had corresponded with Gacy for two years and visited him on death row. Around it are WGN's reports on the last appeals, the town of Joliet, the sale of Gacy's paintings and the victims who were never identified, a CNN report from Chicago, a "newsmaker of the week" interview with Joseph Kozenczak, who led the 1978 Des Plaines police investigation, and an edition of WGN's Sunday program "People to People" with Gacy's prosecutor, Terry Sullivan. Gacy himself is never heard. He appears only in silent footage, and what he is said to have said comes second-hand. The YouTube title's "John Wayne Gacy Interview" refers to the interview with Maycroft.

Historical Context

John Wayne Gacy, a building contractor from Norwood Park Township outside Chicago, was arrested in December 1978 after the disappearance of 15-year-old Robert Piest from a Des Plaines pharmacy. Des Plaines police, led by Lieutenant Joseph Kozenczak, pursued him; the remains of 29 victims were found at his house and on his property, and four more in the Des Plaines River. In March 1980 he was convicted of 33 murders and sentenced to death. He spent fourteen years on death row, mostly at Menard Correctional Center, and was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center, near Joliet, early on May 10, 1994. Several victims could not be identified at the time; some have since been identified through DNA.

Circumstances

The newscasts span roughly Wednesday, May 4, to Sunday, May 8, 1994. During that week Gacy and the state settled the state's suit to recover the cost of his imprisonment, his lawyers lost appeals in federal court, the Illinois Supreme Court and Cook County Circuit Court, and the Attorney General's office kept what it called a "war room" ready for last-minute filings. A private sale of Gacy's paintings, with half the proceeds promised to a victims' relief fund, drew protest. Gacy was moved from Menard to Stateville for the execution.

What the Recording Covers

In the Maycroft report, Steve Sanders says Maycroft first wrote to Gacy after seeing a made-for-TV movie about the case, and that Gacy had called him collect at least once a week for two years. Maycroft describes meeting Gacy at Menard ("It really gave me the creeps"), shows the five Gacy oil paintings he owns, one of them of his own band, says he does not believe Gacy killed all 33 victims alone (his claim), and says Gacy told him he had made his peace with God and was not afraid. A CNN report by Lisa Price repeats parts of the interview alongside the state's war room and the coming auction of Gacy's paintings.

WGN's reporters cover the appeals: Robert Jordan and Attorney General Roland Burris on the state's preparations; Robert Jordan from Judge John Grady's federal courtroom; Jackie Bange on the challenge to the lethal injection machine, citing the 1990 execution of Charles Walker; and Carol Ramos at the Dirksen Federal Building after the appeals failed. Randy Salerno reports from Joliet and from River North, where a storefront sculpture about sexual assault stood a few blocks from the Gacy paintings. A report by Steve Sanders recalls the unidentified victims and the belief of Cook County Medical Examiner Robert Stein that some parents never came forward.

Joseph Kozenczak, who said he would be a state witness at the execution, describes Gacy as "somebody without a conscience" and says he has no doubt there were more victims. On "People to People", Terry Sullivan says he expects Gacy to take his secrets to the grave, recalls the lack of interest he met in Waterloo, Iowa, explains how the unidentified victims were buried in Hillside, and gives his reasons for not wanting to watch the execution. WGN's Robert Jordan recalls arriving at the Summerdale house in December 1978 as a CBS correspondent.

What Makes the Recording Significant

It preserves how Chicago's own television covered the last week of the Gacy case, including the voices of the investigator and the prosecutor who brought him to trial, a man who knew him only through letters and calls, and the families' and public's concerns as the execution approached.

Archival Importance

The tape keeps long stretches of several newscasts, with anchors' introductions and live reports, rather than a single excerpt, and includes two local programs ("newsmaker of the week" and "People to People").

Important Caveats

Gacy is never heard in this video; do not describe it as a Gacy interview. Words attributed to him (that he was at peace, that he liked Kozenczak's book but thought it missed his "accomplices") are second-hand. Maycroft's and Gacy's suggestion of accomplices is a claim that has never been substantiated. The compilation is an edited home recording: some segments are cut mid-sentence, some reports appear twice, and a few seconds come from other stations. Dates are inferred from the content. Several broadcast statements are inaccurate and should not be repeated as fact: one segment speaks of "Gacy's 1978 murder conviction" (he was convicted in 1980), another of "27 bodies" at the house, and the closing list of other serial killers contains date errors.

Announcer: Next, a WGN News special report on the execution of John Wayne Gacy.

Anchors: Next, Steve talks one-on-one with a man who's got the goods on this convicted serial killer. And history is made in the Middle East as a long-awaited peace agreement is signed. And closer to home, a story for anyone who cuts the lawn. Also, Tom Skilling with your forecast. Tom?

Tom Skilling: Well, that's right, Allison. We have some showers out in Iowa right now. Will they hold together? And what about the changes in our weekend forecast? If you have weekend plans, you'll want to stay tuned for our weather segment in about 17 minutes.

Anchor: A rare glimpse of John Wayne Gacy on death row at Menard Correctional Center. But after 14 years here, Gacy's date with death is just five days away. It's probably safe to say that few will be sorry to see him go. But there are some, including a man you're about to meet, who might very well be John Wayne Gacy's best friend.

Steve Sanders: That's right, Allison. His name is Jeff Maycroft from Muskegon Heights, Michigan. When I first talked to him months ago by phone, I wondered who would want to associate with a serial killer, the worst serial killer of all time. Well, now I know. It was this made-for-TV movie on WGN that first piqued Jeff Maycroft's interest in John Gacy. Maycroft copied an address off a letter Gacy had mailed to me protesting his portrayal in the movie. Maycroft wrote Gacy on a whim, and two weeks later received the first of what is now a stack of letters. In that stack, a Christmas card from a serial killer.

Jeff Maycroft: It's just a simple card, but it has a, has a photo on the front.

Voice: [unclear: "Hello." (captions) / "Oh," (Whisper)]

Steve Sanders: For the last two years, Jeff Maycroft's phone has rung at least once a week with calls from Gacy. Always collect, the only way prisoners can call the outside. The letters and calls eventually led to a face-to-face meeting at Menard State Prison.

Jeff Maycroft: And I could hear somebody's voice, and I'd recognize the voice from, uh, phone conversations. And I peeked out around, and there's old Gacy standing maybe about 50 feet from me. He's handcuffed and he's holding some brochures. And I'm like, I wanted to leave. It really gave me the creeps.

Steve Sanders: But he didn't leave. And after four and a half hours, Jeff Maycroft returned to his home in Michigan with a couple of snapshot souvenirs, courtesy of Menard guards. It wasn't Gacy but gangsters, '30s-era gangsters, that have always interested Jeff Maycroft. But as his Gacy collection grew, his hobby took off in a new direction. He owns every book ever written about Gacy, Tribune headlines of Gacy's arrest, conviction and death sentence, an autographed Gacy trading card, and perhaps his most valuable memorabilia, five original oil paintings by John Gacy. Clowns, Pogo and Patches, are the most famous. But Maycroft's personal favorites are John Dillinger and this one of Maycroft's own rock band, The Weasels.

Jeff Maycroft: A '70s band that I'm in. And, uh, I gave a picture of the shirt to Gacy, and Gacy, uh, of course he put it on oil for me. And that was something I received that, um, I believe I received that right around Christmas of '93.

Steve Sanders: It may seem as though Maycroft is using John Gacy, but Gacy gets something out of the relationship as well: companionship and a sometimes sympathetic ear.

Jeff Maycroft: But no, I don't believe that, uh, I don't believe John killed all 33 of those people by himself. John had accomplices.

Steve Sanders: Maycroft's last conversation with Gacy was Sunday night. Gacy told his friend he was packing up for the move to Stateville. Is he afraid?

Jeff Maycroft: He's not really afraid. He said that, uh, that he's made his peace with, you know, with the Lord, and, uh, he believes in, he believes in God, and that, uh, he knows that there's a place for him. So he's, you know, I thought he'd, when I talked to him, I thought he'd be a little bit more, uh, anxious, you know, he'd sound more worried about it, but he's really not.

Steve Sanders: And if anyone's expecting any surprises on the night of John Gacy's date with death, Gacy's friend says, don't count on it.

Jeff Maycroft: If people are sitting around waiting for a, uh, like with Ted Bundy, you know, got to be them final hours, and they think that Gacy's going to crack, they're wrong.

Steve Sanders: Sometime this week, no one's saying when, John Gacy will be moved to Stateville prison. But that doesn't mean he's giving up.

Jeff Maycroft: I know that John's not writing the letters saying goodbye to nobody. He's definitely not saying goodbye. In fact, when I talked to him, he's got things planned for the 11th.

Steve Sanders: Now, Gacy actually won a court round today. The state of Illinois will not try to make Gacy pay for his 14-year confinement, and hearings on two lawsuits will be held on Friday, the day after tomorrow. So there is still very much a chance Gacy's execution will be postponed. If not, he'll die by lethal injection at Stateville Prison near Joliet just after midnight Monday.

Anchor: So what's that man in Michigan going to do with all those paintings? They've got to be worth quite a bit of money.

Steve Sanders: He says for now he's going to hold on to them, but he says if he did want to sell them, he could probably easily pay off his mortgage.

Anchor: Definitely. You think he'll miss him?

Steve Sanders: Yeah, he says he is going to miss him. He wants people to know that he's not obsessed with John Wayne Gacy, but he is a friend. Says he won't miss him like a close family member, but he says he'll miss the phone calls and the letters and the companionship.

Anchor: Kind of bizarre.

Anchor: Well, John Wayne Gacy has also chosen his last meal. It will consist of fried chicken, which is fitting for a man who is a graduate of Kentucky Fried Chicken school. He's also asked for French fries, and for dessert he'll have fresh strawberries, and his final drink will be a cola. He'll eat at about six o'clock Monday night, six hours before his scheduled execution. In other news, [cut] [Segment 2: WGN News at Noon, apparently Thursday, May 5, 1994.]

Anchor: Gacy, seen here in his death row cell at the Menard Correctional Center, has reached an agreement with the state to drop its lawsuit seeking repayment for the cost of his imprisonment. Gacy will also drop a countersuit. The Department of Corrections says Gacy has requested a visit with a clergyman before he enters Stateville's execution chamber. WGN's Robert Jordan is standing by in the newsroom with details on the latest Gacy-related developments. Bob?

Robert Jordan: Well, this morning, Roseanne, we talked with Attorney General Roland Burris, who said that an agreement between his office and attorneys for John Wayne Gacy has moved the mass murderer one step closer to keeping his date with the executioner at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. Further, Burris says that he believes that the execution will go off without a hitch.

Roland Burris: We're prepared for any eventuality with our war room that we've established, the state's attorney's office and the attorney general's office. Uh, we have the Supreme Court covered in Springfield, we have the Supreme Court covered in Washington, D.C., we have the appellate courts covered here in Chicago. Uh, we have a whole battle plan for anything that's filed, and we are prepared then to react instantaneously.

Robert Jordan: The 52-year-old construction contractor and part-time clown was convicted of murdering 33 young men and teenage boys. Most of the bodies were buried under Gacy's house in unincorporated Norwood Park Township. Police say that some of the victims were also thrown into rivers. And as, uh, Burris told us, they have an elaborate, uh, scheme set up to make sure that the execution does go off without a hitch. They have a war room set up where they have telephones to the Supreme Court, to the governor's office, and, uh, to the warden [unclear: "and Stateville" / "at Stateville"] as well, so that should any eventuality crop up at the last minute, they are prepared to act. Live from the newsroom, Robert Jordan, WGN News.

Anchor: Thank you. Our coverage of the countdown to Gacy's execution will continue in our second half hour today. Steve Sanders will [unclear], that's coming up in the second half hour of this newscast. [unclear: "34-year-old John in" / "34y old Johnny"] New Jersey, at least two people are dead after a helicopter crash near the Jersey entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. Local officials say a small chopper plunged into a parking lot there. The Lincoln Tunnel runs under the Hudson River connecting New York and New Jersey. That tunnel now reportedly shut down, and traffic in that area very backed up, as you can imagine. We'll bring you more on this breaking story just as soon as details become available. And coming up next, the Illinois State Lottery drawing, live on WGN News at Noon.

Anchor: [...] of the impending execution of John Wayne Gacy continues now with a rare glimpse of the serial killer on death row at Menard Correctional Center. Appeals have kept him alive for 14 years, but he's now less than five days away from a date with the executioner's needle. Despite his convictions and all the negative publicity which has surrounded him for so long, there are those who still call John Gacy a friend. Who? Well, you're about to meet one. His name is Jeff Maycroft from Muskegon Heights, Michigan. Steve Sanders gives us a look at how a friendship can develop with a serial killer.

Steve Sanders: It was this made-for-TV movie on WGN that first piqued Jeff Maycroft's interest in John Gacy. Maycroft copied an address off a letter Gacy had mailed to me protesting his portrayal in the movie. Maycroft wrote Gacy on a whim, and two weeks later received the first of what is now a stack of letters. In that stack, a Christmas card from a serial killer.

Jeff Maycroft: It's just a simple card, but it has a, it has a photo on the front. [cut] [Segment 3: WGN evening news, apparently Thursday, May 5, 1994.]

Anchor: [...]two-year-old Gacy was convicted of killing 33 young men back in 1980, making Gacy the worst serial killer in American history. Now, unless something changes, Gacy will die for his crimes just after 12:01 Tuesday morning at Stateville. The prison is just outside the community of Joliet, where residents find themselves at the center of national attention. WGN's Randy Salerno reports from there tonight.

Randy Salerno: Downtown Joliet. Lately, many say its image is improving as fast as various construction projects. Tree-lined streets and new businesses abound. The city's take of $45,000 a day from riverboat gambling goes mainly to infrastructure, debt reduction and a new image. Just north of Joliet lies Stateville prison. National media will stream in and begin camping out here next Monday, and Joliet and Gacy will be linked together in many people's minds.

Joliet Speaker: And all of the, uh, all of the acknowledgements of Joliet, going back to, like, movies like The Blues Brothers, has also brought up the idea of a prison town. Uh, we've had to deal with that all along, and it's a reality. The prison has been here for years and has created jobs.

Randy Salerno: The prison and its soon-to-be most famous inmate also creates some concern among some of the city's 77,000 residents, concerned about the city's place in history.

Joliet Resident: Yeah, I think Joliet's come a long way since the riverboats, and there's been a lot of jobs created, and it's finally turning around, and Gacy has nothing to do with Joliet.

Second Joliet Resident: No, it doesn't bother me, because I feel he deserves it. It's a good, what they've done with the Joliet area, how much they've improved it, but I don't think it's going to give it a bad name by doing that here.

Randy Salerno: There are many in the Joliet area here who say they will just be happy when this execution and expected media circus are over and things can once again return to normal. Outside Stateville, Randy Salerno, WGN News.

Anchor: And tonight, Gacy is still confined at the Menard Correctional Center near Chester, Illinois. Prison officials are not saying when he'll be transferred to [cut]

Fragment: [unclear: "Oh, flag-waving patriot" (Whisper) / "Now, flag waving patriot" (captions)] [cut] [Segment 4: WGN noon news, apparently Friday, May 6, 1994.]

Anchor: [...] to spare the life of John Wayne Gacy. The convicted serial killer is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday. But Gacy's lawyers are asking a federal court to stay his execution so new evidence can be presented that might prove an alibi in some of the 33 murders. Gacy's attorneys are arguing in Cook County Circuit Court that the presence of a doctor at the execution poses a conflict of two state laws, and both court cases argue that lethal injection is inhumane. We have team coverage of the Gacy appeals this afternoon with Robert Jordan and Jackie Bange. Robert joins us now with the very latest from federal court. Bob?

Robert Jordan: First of all, Randy, Judge John Grady has been listening to arguments from John Gacy's attorneys this morning as they have tried to explain to him why it would be cruel and unusual for Gacy to be executed without a doctor present. They are citing grounds, constitutional grounds, that they say are reason for Gacy's execution to be stayed, at least, uh, either on a day-by-day basis or perhaps for as long as 60 days while they are able to work out the constitutional issues which they feel are paramount in this case. Judge Grady has been very patient this morning, listening, even guiding the attorneys through their presentation and trying to show why it is that they feel that a doctor needs to be present. Uh, they so far have not been able to do that. Judge Grady says that he is still listening to their arguments and will possibly rule later this afternoon on those grounds, and we will of course bring that news to you later. Live from the Dirksen Federal Building, I'm Robert Jordan. Let's go now to Jackie Bange.

Jackie Bange: Well, we are following another lawsuit that is filed, and the target on this lawsuit is the lethal injection machine itself, the $25,000 lethal injection machine. And the way the machine works is it uses three solutions. The first solution will knock the person out. The second solution will stop the person from breathing, and the third solution will be used to stop the heart from breathing, or beating. Now, this was filed on April 25th. Gacy claims the machine is cruel and unusual punishment and has the potential of causing a, quote, "torturous and excruciatingly painful death." Now, Gacy states a specific case, that of Charles Walker. He was the last man to die and the first man to die in Illinois by the lethal injection machine, and, uh, that death occurred September 12th, 1990, at 12:01. He was pronounced dead, Charles Walker, at 12:12. Now, Gacy and his attorneys are contending that in those 11 minutes that it took for Charles Walker to die, it was a very painful death. So the potential of that happening to Gacy, they argue, violates his constitutional right. Now, the attorney general's office will argue, one of the arguments that they'll say is that this is based on opinion, and that is simply insufficient. So we hope to hear of these arguments in front of Judge Albert Green in a matter of moments. This was scheduled at 11:15 and it's running a little bit late, so we'll go up there and see if it's going on and come back and tell you what's happening. Back to you, Randy.

Anchor: Thanks, Jackie. We'll look forward to those reports tonight at nine o'clock. Meanwhile, in the final days leading up to Gacy's scheduled execution, speculation continues over the scope of his killing spree. Police pulled the bodies of 29 young men and boys from Gacy's home on West Summerdale. In all, Gacy was convicted of 33 murders, but many suspect there were more victims never accounted for. And one of Gacy's prosecutors tells WGN authorities in other towns seemed unwilling to investigate those claims.

Terry Sullivan: It just seemed to me that they were not even prepared to open up an investigation to see if there were other missing people out there and if they could link him to Gacy, or possibly just over the border in Wisconsin, where we were able to track and know that Gacy, uh, went up there a lot of the times.

Anchor: Sullivan made those comments during the taping of this week's People to People. The show airs Sunday morning at 7:30 here on WGN. WGN-TV will have complete coverage of the Gacy execution. Gacy is set to die by lethal injection at 12:01 Tuesday, May 10th. Our live coverage from Stateville Prison begins Monday at noon. We'll have live updates on WGN News at Nine and cut into our regularly scheduled programming to bring you the live reaction to the execution. Tuesday, we'll have the follow-up in the final chapter in the life of John Wayne Gacy.

Anchor: Meanwhile, [unclear: "around the world of execution" (both sources)], the court just issued a two-paragraph order denying the request made yesterday by Gacy's lawyers to delay Gacy's execution until appeals pending in state and federal court are resolved. Arguments in both of these cases are being heard today. Gacy is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday at Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet.

Fragment: [unclear: "sometimes a child."] [cut] [Segment 5: CNN report by Lisa Price, Chicago, apparently Friday, May 6, 1994.]

Lisa Price: A team of civil and criminal lawyers is assembled inside what prosecutors in Chicago call a war room.

Voice In The War Room: Let's, uh, talk about how the progress is coming.

Lisa Price: They're working around the clock to see that serial killer John Wayne Gacy's execution takes place as scheduled on Tuesday morning at 12:01 a.m.

Official: There's nothing that will hold up the execution, and it will proceed as scheduled on May 10th.

Lisa Price: Friday morning, Gacy's attorneys were trying to save him again.

Gacy'S Attorney: He tells us he's going to go down fighting.

Lisa Price: More desperate attempts in a long line of appeals that has kept Gacy on death row for 14 years. He's convicted of killing 33 people.

Jeff Maycroft: Just for, out of curiosity, I wrote him a letter.

Lisa Price: Jeff Maycroft struck up a relationship with Gacy two years ago. They've kept in touch ever since, speaking as recently as last Sunday.

Jeff Maycroft: There's always a possibility that, uh, that he could have, uh, a stay of execution, and that's what he's looking for right now.

Lisa Price: Short of that, Maycroft says, Gacy told him he's at peace.

Jeff Maycroft: He's not really afraid. He said that, uh, that he's made his peace with, you know, with the Lord, and he believes in, he believes in God, and that he knows that there's a place for him.

Lisa Price: One of the most notorious criminals in history apparently has a place for his paintings, too. Since he went to jail in 1980, Gacy's produced hundreds of works. His style is called art brut.

Art Dealer: Art brut is the art of the criminally insane.

Lisa Price: An auction is scheduled for Monday. Bottom bids will range from $2,500 on up to $25,000. The work should be worth even more after the execution.

Art Dealer: Shortly, uh, thereafter, the prices are going to go up. You know, the man's going to be dead. There will not be any more John Wayne Gacy paintings produced.

Lisa Price: As the execution draws near, attorneys still cling to the outside chance they can win one more appeal, even though they have only this weekend to try and keep John Wayne Gacy alive.

Gacy'S Attorney: This legal activity that's been going on will stop only when John Gacy's either executed or he's safe.

Lisa Price: Lisa Price for CNN, Chicago.

Announcer: Headline consumer news is next: Wall Street reacts to the unemployment figures. [cut] [Segment 6: Steve Sanders' WGN report on the unidentified victims, joined in progress; apparently May 6, 1994.]

Steve Sanders: [...]-art efforts to recreate facial features from human skeletons, no one stepped forward to identify the remains.

Speaker In An Archive Clip: Those [unclear: "poor" (Whisper) / "two" (captions, 28:22)] guys down there are using literally their ten fingers.

Steve Sanders: It was and still is the belief of Cook County Medical Examiner Robert Stein that some parents may have suspected their missing sons were Gacy victims but failed to come forward. Dr. Stein was present when the unidentified remains were buried in 1981. He thought even then he had the medical evidence to identify them, if only the parents had come forward.

Dr. Robert Stein: I'm not going to eulogize the nine unfortunate young men that met their demise. Excuse me. I'm going to eulogize the parents. I think the parents are the dead ones, the walking dead.

Steve Sanders: It was reported some of Gacy's victims were young male prostitutes, creating a stigma that may have kept some parents away.

Speaker: I think most of it was because a lot of the media made it seem as if, as if everybody was a male prostitute, and that's one of the things that came out at trial. The fact of the matter is we were able to show, and I'm firmly convinced, that most of these kids were not only straight, but some had fiancées, girlfriends, and all the rest of the stuff.

Steve Sanders: Gacy's forgotten victims were remembered in a private memorial service held here at this cemetery in suburban Hillside. The only ones in attendance, we are told, were police officers and prosecutors. Reporters were not invited. Each was buried in individual grave sites at eight different cemeteries throughout the Chicago area, with eight identical granite markers, each bearing a simple inscription: "We remembered." [unclear: "While" (Whisper) / "Well," (captions)] efforts are underway to identify one of the eight. As time goes on, identification will only be more difficult. [Segment 7: WGN evening news, apparently Friday, May 6, 1994.]

Anchor: Some artwork is on display tonight in Chicago. One display showcases the work of John Wayne Gacy. Another, some describe as shocking, has a different message altogether. WGN's Randy Salerno joins us live from LaSalle and Ontario with that story. Randy?

Randy Salerno: [unclear: "Allison," (captions) / "Out in" (Whisper)] this River North area, as you know, is very busy on a Friday night. Quite a bit of traffic here, and that is just what the artist of this storefront exhibit wanted. He wants people to see this. This is called "Morality." "Morality," and many who see it say it is simply shocking. Shocking. Artist Ed Massey's sculpture is a traffic stopper. The anti-sexual-assault work is unveiled simultaneously in New York, Chicago, L.A., Washington, D.C., and Miami, all on busy streets in storefronts. It's supposed to create dialogue, and seems to be working.

Passerby: First, it really freaks you out, but it's got a good message to it.

Randy Salerno: What is the message, do you think?

Passerby: That sexual assault happens and it's not right, and something needs to be done about it.

Second Passerby: I have nothing against it. It's an expression. I think that what it's saying has a definite meaning, and actually I kind of like the art myself, because it's kind of off-the-wall and a bit offbeat.

Randy Salerno: The artist writes, "Few people outside law enforcement ever see the immediate aftermath of sexual assault. I hope the parallel national exhibitions of this work generate vigorous and widespread discussion on the brutal crime of rape and society's response to it."

Third Passerby: Well, I think it gets its message across, definitely. That's probably what most women think about when something like that happens to them.

Fourth Passerby: It's apropos, in the time when they're doing something with Gacy, that maybe they should do something else, [unclear: "the Gacy, then" / "The Gacy than"] maybe they should do this to Gacy.

Randy Salerno: Coincidentally, close to 80 original Gacy artworks sit on display just a few blocks away from Massey's work. Private collectors hope to sell it Monday night, but some say it shouldn't exist at all.

Gallery Curator: The, uh, Illinois Department of Prisons and Corrections should have stopped the paintings from being sold. And since they didn't do that, the art's been created, has a right to exist, treated like a commodity, like any other piece of art that I would buy or sell any other day that nobody would complain about.

Randy Salerno: Now, that Gacy artwork will go for between $2,500 and the highest, there is some $50,000. Gacy won't get any of that money. And proceeds from that sale, [unclear: "50%" (Whisper) / "15%" (captions)] will go to a victims' relief fund. The rest will go to the private owners of that Gacy work. This project right here on Ontario is privately funded, and it will be here for about three weeks. Reporting live from River North, Randy Salerno, WGN News.

Anchor: All right, thank you, Randy. And once again, the execution is scheduled for just after midnight on Monday. WGN will have complete coverage on the Gacy execution beginning Monday at noon and on the news after the game. We'll also have live reports beginning at midnight. And stay tuned to WGN News for full coverage throughout the weekend as well. Steve?

Steve Sanders: Allison, some other news tonight. A top [cut] [Fragments, 23:24 to 24:00: short pieces from more than one newscast, apparently from changes of channel during the home recording. The stations and speakers are not established; one fragment says "here in West Michigan".]

Fragment: [...] death sentences in Illinois are carried out by lethal injection. Joliet, [cut]

Fragment: Here in West Michigan, there was a brief scare this afternoon over a six-year-old Rockford boy. [cut]

Fragment: As we told you at six, officials said [he] lost appeals in three courts, increasing the chances he will be executed Tuesday. Gacy was convicted of killing 33 people in the 1970s. He was first sentenced to death 14 years ago, but appeals have kept him alive. [unclear: "When New York" (Whisper) / "In New York," (captions)] spent more than a decade on death row. [cut] [Segment 8: WGN weekend morning news, apparently Saturday, May 7, 1994.]

Anchor: Could this be John Wayne Gacy's final weekend?

Carol Ramos: I'm Carol Ramos at the Federal Building. There will be another attempt today to delay that execution. More coming up in a live report.

Anchor: Also, who could forget this grim scene? Body after body retrieved from Gacy's home. This morning, a look at the forgotten victims.

Anchor: [unclear: "Topping on Gacy" (Whisper) / "Topping our gay" (captions); probably "Attorneys for Gacy" or similar] are pulling out all the stops in a frantic final weekend attempt to halt his scheduled Tuesday execution. So far, they're 0 for 3 in their efforts. But one lawyer for the convicted serial killer insists his client is not out and vows to continue the fight. We have team coverage this morning on the new court action and Gacy's forgotten victims. We'll also look at the latest controversy over the serial killer's artwork. We begin with WGN's Carol Ramos, live at the Seventh [unclear: "District" (both sources)] Circuit Court of Appeals. Good morning, Carol.

Carol Ramos: Good morning, Sonja. And John Wayne Gacy's attorneys will be here at the federal building early this morning in another attempt to delay Gacy's execution, scheduled for Tuesday morning. It is a last-ditch attempt. They didn't have much luck yesterday. Appeals filed in three different courts failed yesterday. First, attorneys argued in federal court that there is new evidence that Gacy was out of town during some of the murders he was convicted of, and is mentally incompetent. A federal judge ruled the appeal had no merit.

Speaker: There's no merit to any of the claims that Mr. Gacy has brought, and I don't think there's any merit to any claim that he could bring in the future.

Carol Ramos: A jurisdictional issue was argued before the Illinois Supreme Court. That, too, failed. And finally, in Cook County Circuit Court, Gacy's attorneys contended that the means of execution, the lethal injection machine, is flawed, and that John Wayne Gacy's death would be tantamount to torture. The machine was used in 1990 for the execution of Charles Walker.

Speaker: They could not bring any evidence before this court as to the truth of those statements, and that's why the court rejected them.

Carol Ramos: But despite all the setbacks, John Wayne Gacy's lawyers plan to fight to the very end.

Gacy'S Attorney: We believe in what we're doing very strongly, and, uh, it took a long time for people to, uh, abolish slavery in this country, and it's going to take a long time to get rid of capital punishment. And, uh, Mr. Gacy is unfortunately, uh, the person that everybody holds up, uh, to support the idea that capital punishment is right, and that it works, and that it's just.

Carol Ramos: Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris has put together a rapid response team. They're on call 24 hours a day this weekend, and they'll be ready to respond to any other legal challenges to Gacy's execution. Reporting live from the Dirksen Federal Building, Carol Ramos, WGN News.

Anchor: Carol, if the attorneys lose today, is there any other legal step they can take?

Carol Ramos: If the appeals court refuses to hear the appeal or sends it back to a lower court, Gacy's attorneys do have the option of going and taking their appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. Sonja?

Anchor: All right, Carol, thank you. Gacy spent many of his days in prison painting, creating artwork that has now become a topic of controversy itself. The problem is this exhibit of Gacy's art at a Canal Street gallery. Private collectors are putting paintings by the mass murderer up for sale, and that's creating an uproar in the art world. But the curator of the exhibit says complaints should not be targeted at the gallery.

Gallery Curator: Illinois Department of Prisons and Corrections should have stopped the paintings from being sold. And since they didn't do that, the art's been created, has a right to exist, treated like a commodity, like any other piece of art that I would buy or sell any other day that nobody would complain about.

Anchor: The artwork sells for between $2,500 and $50,000, with none of the money going to Gacy. Half the proceeds will go to a victims' relief fund and the rest to those collectors selling the art. The heinous crimes of John Wayne Gacy make him one of the most unforgettable killers in U.S. history. Body after body was retrieved from the crawl space in Gacy's suburban Norwood Park home back in 1978. Nine of those victims eventually went to their graves unidentified, although the name of one was learned later. The others, as WGN's Steve Sanders reports, became Gacy's forgotten victims.

Steve Sanders: These are reconstructed images of the victims who were never identified. Despite state-of-the-art efforts to recreate facial features from human skeletons, no one stepped forward to identify the remains.

Speaker In An Archive Clip: Those [unclear: "poor" (Whisper) / "two" (captions)] guys down there are using literally their ten fingers.

Steve Sanders: It was and still is the belief of Cook County Medical Examiner Robert Stein that some parents may have suspected their missing sons were Gacy victims, but failed to come forward. Dr. Stein was present when the unidentified remains were buried in 1981. He thought even then he had the medical evidence to identify them, if only the parents had come forward.

Dr. Robert Stein: I'm not going to eulogize the nine [unclear: "unfortunate" (Whisper only)] young men that [cut]

Fragment: When it comes to music [cut] [Segment 9: WGN evening news, "newsmaker of the week", apparently Saturday, May 7, or Sunday, May 8, 1994.]

Anchor: [...] as a missing persons case, authorities looking for a 15-year-old boy who had disappeared. It led to the discovery of 27 bodies of young men and boys found buried in John Wayne Gacy's Norwood Township home. It would take more than a year for forensics experts to identify most of the bodies. Nine of them would remain unidentified. The 33 murders make Gacy one of the worst serial murderers in U.S. history. One of the men who cracked the case and helped to put Gacy behind bars was former Des Plaines detective Joseph Kozenczak, and he is our newsmaker of the week. He joins us now from our newsroom. Good evening, Mr. Kozenczak. Thanks for joining us.

Joseph Kozenczak: Good evening.

Anchor: What was going through your mind at the time of these discoveries?

Joseph Kozenczak: Well, it was a horrendous period of time for everybody involved. The enormity of the case was not realized until we were in the process of excavating Mr. Gacy's house for the victims. Uh, initially the case started out with one missing person and essentially turned into a horrendous crime of 33 victims.

Anchor: Then what did you think about this man, John Wayne Gacy? What were your thoughts when you first saw him?

Joseph Kozenczak: Uh, Mr. Gacy, uh, was a person who was, uh, non-caring, belligerent, uh, somebody without a conscience, somebody who was, uh, concerned about, uh, defeating the tactics of the police investigation, and did everything he could within his, uh, power to, uh, not be caught by the police officers.

Anchor: Will you be witnessing Gacy's execution?

Joseph Kozenczak: Yes, I've been selected as one of the state's witnesses in Gacy's execution and will be at the prison on Monday evening.

Anchor: Any mixed feelings at all about being there?

Joseph Kozenczak: Well, it's a, uh, it's a horrendous, uh, period of time for everybody involved, but I would suspect that, uh, many police officers and various people who were involved in this case, uh, see this as a period of culmination of 14 years of, uh, agony and anxiety. And, uh, I know the victims' families are hoping to have this thing terminated on Monday evening.

Anchor: Will it be terminated on Monday evening, or are there still going to remain unanswered questions?

Joseph Kozenczak: I think a case of this, uh, enormity will always have unanswered questions. And I believe that, uh, some of the unanswered part of it will be the various emotional aspects of all the people that were involved in it, and the scars that have, uh, been created by this case. I know a lot of people, including myself, will probably take a lot of this to their grave.

Anchor: Mm-hmm. Are there other victims out there, do you think, that we'll never know of?

Joseph Kozenczak: Uh, there's no doubt in my mind that there are more victims out there. Uh, this type of personality, this type of killer, uh, certainly, uh, is not limited to the, uh, victims, uh, that he was convicted for. Uh, a person like this is not going to tell you about the rest of the crimes unless you can confront him with the proof, and then he'll tell you about it.

Anchor: Now, you know, Gacy, of all the books written about John Wayne Gacy, he says that he likes yours the best, but that if you'd have dug a little deeper, you would have found out about his accomplices. What do you think of that?

Joseph Kozenczak: Well, uh, in a crime of this magnitude, there's always the possibility that other people may have been involved in it. And I certainly, uh, believe that at that point in time, in 1978, that the police investigation and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, uh, did everything within their, uh, power to, uh, dig as deep as they could at that point in time.

Anchor: Must have been a very interesting case to work on. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. And that is Joseph Kozenczak, and he's a former Des Plaines detective. Thanks, Mr. Kozenczak.

Joseph Kozenczak: Thank you.

Anchor: John Wayne Gacy's 1978 murder conviction made him one of the worst serial killers in U.S. history. The most deadly serial killer was Donald Harvey, a former Ohio nurse's aide who was convicted in 1978 for the murders of 37 people. He is currently serving a life sentence. But there are other killers who have been nearly as deadly. In 1977, Patrick Wayne Kearney confessed to killing 32 men. The dismembered remains of many of his victims were found in trash bags along California highways. He was convicted of 21 murders and sentenced to life in prison. Dean Corll was one of three men accused of killing 27 boys and young men in Houston, Texas, between 1969 and 1971. Corll was shot and killed by one of his accomplices in 1973. The other two are serving life terms. In California, Juan Corona was charged and convicted of killing 25 farm workers whose bodies were found buried in an orchard in 1971. He was sentenced to 25 consecutive life terms. Another serial killer struck closer to home. Jeffrey Dahmer, a former candy factory worker, confessed to killing and dismembering 17 people since 1978. The dismembered remains of 11 of his victims were found in his Milwaukee apartment in 1991. He is serving life in prison. Four other notorious serial killers are also currently serving time for killing anywhere from 11 to 14 people each. Only one has been sentenced to death.

Fragment: A scandal in the gospel [cut] [Segment 10: WGN "People to People", Sunday morning, apparently May 8, 1994. The host is not named in the video.]

Host: [...] recollections of all this. But, uh, Terry, I want to follow up on something Gacy's good friend Jeff Maycroft said just before the break. He said he did not think that John Gacy is going to crack, uh, before he's executed, not going to make any confessions, uh, is not going to break down. Do you agree with that?

Terry Sullivan: Well, in my opinion, he's not going to, uh, stand up there and, uh, and take it like the hard person that he, that he, uh, has made himself out to be. Now, whether he'll crack and make any further confessions of anything is, I doubt. I doubt. I think he'll take all of his secrets to the grave with him, and, uh, and the identities of the unknown people, and perhaps, uh, any secrets he may have about any other victims that are other places. But, but to go as a, as a strong, hardened, uh, criminal, I believe he'll crack just before he gets in the room.

Host: So, Terry, you think there's a possibility that there might be other victims?

Terry Sullivan: Oh, definitely. I think that possibility, uh, exists. It existed back then. Uh, to my knowledge, uh, Cook County was the only, uh, jurisdiction that actively investigated Gacy at that time. I remember going out to Waterloo, uh, with Greg Bedoe, my investigator, and a couple of others, and we got a real cool reception out there, uh, when we first went out there. I suppose because of all the publicity there had been here, that nobody really wanted to be associated, despite the fact that he lived there. And I, uh, I remember the reception very well, because it just seemed to me that they were not even prepared to open up an investigation to see if there were other missing people out there, and if they could link him to Gacy, or possibly just over the border in Wisconsin, where we were able to track and know that Gacy, uh, went up there a lot of the times, and we weren't sure of his reasons. Um, but I think that, uh, the Illinois investigation was the only one that was ever completed.

Host: Terry, what about the eight victims who were never identified? Do we know anything about them?

Terry Sullivan: No, we know virtually nothing about, uh, about those people.

Host: Where were they buried?

Terry Sullivan: Uh, they were buried at a, at a cemetery, uh, in Hillside. This was sometime after, um, after the trial. Their remains had been held. Um, and in fact, to this date, I believe some of the dental, uh, of the dental material is still at the, uh, Cook County Medical Examiner's Office. But then, uh, someone was kind enough to donate a plot, and their remains were buried in a, in a very nice, uh, funeral out in Hillside.

Host: Cook County's medical examiner at the time, I was just looking at some old videotape, was critical, critical of the fact that, uh, there may have been some parents here in Cook County who knew that their child was possibly a victim of John Gacy and wouldn't step forward. Do you believe that?

Terry Sullivan: Yes, I agree, I agree with Dr. Stein that, uh, that there were people who didn't come forward at that time. I mean, with the publicity that there was on this, uh, certainly almost everybody throughout the country had the chance, if they had somebody who was missing, to be able to come forward at that time. But everybody, we're finding out, everybody has their own reason not to come forward.

Host: Bob, you've got some pretty vivid recollections of this, uh, period in 1978. What do you remember about all this?

Robert Jordan: I was in Kansas City covering a firemen's strike.

Host: You were a CBS correspondent.

Robert Jordan: Right, I was at CBS at the time. And, um, the initial call we got that morning was that, um, fly back to Chicago, because they had uncovered what they thought at that time were four bodies under a house. And I remember flying back in to Chicago and coming in, um, to O'Hare. The runway we took was just over Gacy's home. And I remember looking out the window of the plane, and I saw all the minicam trucks out there, and I said, "Boy, that must be it." And we landed. I went straight to the scene, and it was a cold day, and I can remember standing out there all day long, and we still would get hints from police officers as to more victims being found, the possibility of more bodies. And this gruesome scene attracted people from all over, and as cold as it was, people would stand out there, some with babies in their arms, just waiting for the police officers to bring the bodies out of the house. And of course, as they began to count the skulls, it was the way that they eventually, initially began to tell how many bodies there were, because if you found a bone here and a bone there, you just couldn't tell, um, how many victims there were initially. So, and then more and more reports started coming out.

Host: Right. Terry, you, uh, wrote a book back in '83. It's been reissued, Killer Clown. This is called "Surprise the Cameraman." I'm going to try to take a shot of this. Um, this is a, uh, this is a reissue, and, uh, it says, "He murdered 33 boys. Now he will die for his crimes." Do you think he will?

Terry Sullivan: Oh, yeah, I do. I do. I don't think that there's much doubt. Whether he will die, uh, come late tomorrow night or early Tuesday morning is, uh, is anybody's guess, because we have not had an execution in Illinois for, golly, 20-some years. I think it is maybe going on 30 years, but for one a few years ago who wouldn't appeal his case. And so the fact that it only takes one single judge somewhere, or justice somewhere, to stay an execution. Um, I've tried to console a lot of the victims' families that, you know, don't be crushed if in fact the thing doesn't go off on, uh, Monday night, Tuesday morning.

Host: On a, on a lighter note, if you can talk lightly about a man's execution, uh, this is something you all were talking about during the commercial. He's requested chicken, fried chicken, and, uh, strawberries in part for his last meal. You've been wondering if John Gacy's allergic to strawberries. Why is that a concern?

Terry Sullivan: Well, when, uh, we first had him arrested, he, uh, faked a heart attack [unclear: "in Des Plaines" (captions only)] and had to be taken to the hospital. We later learned that he didn't have anything close to a heart attack. Uh, the fact that he has, uh, asked for fresh strawberries, I don't know what his allergies are, but I know there are people who are anticipating perhaps he has some way that he's going to delay this.

Robert Jordan: Well, I can just tell you that I was at a press conference two or three days ago with Attorney General Roland Burris, who was asked that same question by a reporter: "Well, Attorney General Burris, if he's sick, would that delay the execution?" And Burris thought for a while and said, "Well, you know, we're going to kill the man, and I don't think it makes too much difference whether he's sick or not."

Voice: That's right.

Robert Jordan: I mean, when you think about it, suppose he says, "I have a headache," or a toothache, you know. I mean, what constitutes being too sick?

Host: We've only got a few seconds. You've been invited to the execution. You say you may or may not attend. Why not?

Terry Sullivan: Well, I have, uh, my own personal reasons for deciding whether or not, uh, whether or not I feel that I need to be at, uh, at, uh, somebody's execution. This is not a culmination of my career by any means. I don't want to be remembered as a serial murder expert, and I have seen enough dead bodies in my lifetime, uh, throughout my career, almost 12 years in the State's Attorney's Office, that I don't need, actually, probably to see one more.

Host: Okay. Stay with us. We're back with more on John Wayne Gacy right after this. [cut] [...] this morning by Gacy prosecutor Terry Sullivan and Robert Jordan.

Host: Terry, I guess one of the things that most people, uh, hear about anytime there's an execution, there are always those who say there's a possibility that this person might be innocent. I guess in the case of John Wayne Gacy, with the bodies found under his house, is it safe to assume that this man is absolutely guilty?

Terry Sullivan: Well, there's absolutely no doubt about it, um, in, in my mind and a lot of other people's minds. I mean, when, when he makes the confession, even though he blames it on his alter ego, some of it, and he draws a crawl space showing where all the bodies are, and admits to them, and takes us to the river and tells us, "This is where he dropped the body," and we wait for a season, actually, uh, for springtime to be able to find some of them. Uh, there's no doubt that, that he committed these. Uh, how could anybody know where all these bodies were and admit to them and draw us a picture, and now today claim that, uh, that somebody else did it?

Host: Okay. Terry Sullivan, Robert Jordan, thanks for joining us. That's all the time we have for People to People this morning. My thanks again to Terry Sullivan and Bob Jordan. Stay tuned now for the weekend morning news with Sonja Gantt and Alan Seals. See you next week. [42:30 to 42:31: video ends.] ---