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"Clowns can get away with murder." - John Wayne Gacy |
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(Gacy painting) |
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| As one of the most vile, merciless, and unrepentant of all the serial killers, John Wayne Gacy seemed to relish making brazen, defiant quotes like the one above. However, this one did not hold true. Pogo the clown got away with murder, but just for a while. Gacy was euthanized on May 10, 1994 by lethal injection. Even the most ardent of Capital punishment detractors probably didn't lose any sleep over this one. Gacy was convicted of raping, torturing, and murdering thirty three young men and boys over a period of approximately six years between 1972 and 1978. He disposed of twenty eight of them by burying them beneath his house in a crawl space and a couple other spots on his property. The other five Gacy unceremoniously dumped into the Des Plaines River in Chicago. Gacy was seen as a "pillar" of the community. He was an active member of the local Jaycees and hosted numerous parties at his house which often included local dignitaries. Gacy even enjoyed entertaining the little ones with his Pogo the Clown costume. Gacy was also the owner of a construction company whereby he came to hire many disenfranchised and troubled young men as employees. He would also cruise the seedier neighborhoods of Chicago picking up male prostitutes and runaways, many of whose relatives and friends didn't notice or didn't care about their disappearances. Most of John Wayne Gacy's murderous and sadistic activities are well known. There have been many books and a couple of movies with most of the gory details. The only real question remaining is - Where was John Wayne Gacy buried? It has been commonly accepted that he was buried in the same cemetery as his parents - Mary Hill Cemetery in Niles, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago and relatively close to the Gacy House of Horrors. However, there have been questions and very little confirmation as to the location of Pogo the Clown's corpse. Consequently The Death 2ur headed to The Windy City to Hunt for John Wayne Gacy. |
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Initial contact with Mary Hill Cemetery was via the telephone. The gentleman who answered was quite friendly and helpful until the name "Gacy" was mentioned. He stated, in no uncertain terms, that they were not allowed to give out any information. The office had apparently been well-schooled through instruction and repetition to be none too forthcoming with any details regarding John Wayne Gacy's or his parents' gravesites. In our initial visit to the cemetery itself, we decided to do the "inch-by-inch" search, meaning stepping off every section of the grounds. It is a laborious procedure, but can reap great rewards upon discovery. We assumed that if Gacy were indeed buried in Mary Hill, he would have an unmarked grave. However, if we located his parents' graves, an unmarked plot nearby may indeed be his. As we began to step off Section 11 we were quickly accosted by one of the grounds keepers. Whether it was because we were getting warm or they had just taken notice of us is hard to say. The younger man, maybe mid-twenties, was very friendly and asked if he could help us. We generally do not try to play games or engage in subterfuge when dealing with cemetery personnel. If we are accosted for whatever reason, we find that just being up front with them generally works best. When asked about the location of any Gacy gravesites, he smiled and quickly stated that "John Gacy was not buried there." When asked about the parents he offered that "he was not allowed to give out that information." His phrasing sounded very similar to that of the man on the phone as though it were a mantra that they had come to use through shear repetition. The young man explained that many people inquire about Gacy's gravesite, or that of his parents, in hopes of vandalizing them in some way. When asked if it was alright for us to continue searching the grounds he stated, "we would rather you didn't." So, for the day, we departed.
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(Gacy self portrait) |
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Section 11, Mary Hill, Cemetery |
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The
following morning The Death 2ur made a second visit to Mary Hill
Cemetery. After limited searching (we drove about some,
deciding where to start) we began to be watched by a couple more
grounds keepers. One was a little older than the previous
day's grounds keeper.
"Kiss my ass." - The final words of John Wayne Gacy as he was lead to his death.
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THE JOHN WAYNE GACY HOUSE LOCATION 8213 WEST SUMMERDALE AVENUE, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
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The knowledge of what took place in this spot may have tainted our feelings, but we found this area to be a creepy, claustrophobic little Chicago suburb. Gacy's original house no longer exists. It was destroyed during the search for bodies and was subsequently razed. The property stood abandoned for years, even grass refused to grow there. Eventually, someone bought the lot and built a house. The address has been changed to throw off tourists with a morbid curiosity. The video clip below is of an interview with Gacy before he began his killing spree. It was from a local news show, whose producers were quite unaware of what was before their cameras.
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He
appeared to be in his late forties. We approached the
gentleman and spent some time talking with him. He vehemently
asserted that John Wayne Gacy was not buried there. The
grounds keeper himself had been employed by the cemetery during the
time of Gacy's execution. Apparently Mary Hill had been
surrounded by news people anticipating Gacy's burial, but no body
every arrived. The man stated "unless it was done in some way
that none of us is aware of." It made sense to us that Gacy,
at the very least, would not have any kind of headstone, as to avoid
the certain desecration by angry citizens and that had he actually
been buried there that information would have come to light long
before now. The cemetery employee stated that Gacy was
cremated and that his ashes were in the possession of his sister in
Arkansas. He also "intimated" that Gacy's parents were buried
in Mary Hill, but that finding them would be nearly impossible in
that there were 50,000 interments there and most of the headstones
were flat and quite similar. We asked him jokingly to nod his
head in a certain direction, but he laughed and said "I don't think
it would help you anyway." In the end, it was not Gacy's
parents we were after. We decided to leave them in peace.
We were satisfied at what we had learned - that John Wayne Gacy was
not there, but was residing in an urn in Arkansas.
