Case Study: The Infamous Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy

Forensic anthropology played a pivotal role in the investigation of one of America’s most
notorious serial killers – John Wayne Gacy. Forensic anthropology and other forensic methods
helped to identify twenty-two of Gacy’s thirty-three victims. Because only skeletal remains were
available for many of Gacy’s victims, forensic anthropology was used to determine exactly how
they were murdered.

In 1978, a fifteen-year-old boy named Robert Piest was reported missing by his mother. She
had come to pick up Robert from the pharmacy where he worked part-time. Robert had told her
that he was going outside to talk to a man who had offered him another part-time job. After
three hours of waiting for Robert, Mrs. Piest contacted the local police.

The man who had offered Robert the part-time job was a local contractor named John Wayne
Gacy. When police went to Gacy’s house to ask about the whereabouts of Robert Piest, Gacy
denied having seen Robert. He told them he was unable to talk to them as there was a recent
death in his family and that he had funeral details to arrange. Police asked Gacy to come to the
police station later that day. Gacy was questioned several hours later, and he continued to
deny having seen Robert Piest. A background check of Gacy revealed that he had a criminal
record for sexually assaulting a teenager and that he was awaiting trial for another sexual
assault. This led police to obtain a search warrant for Gacy’s house.

In December 1978 when police initially conducted a search of Gacy’s house, they discovered a
strong stench in the crawl space below his house. However, the ground in the crawl space
looked untouched, so the police initially assumed the smell to be of sewage. Police did find
numerous suspicious items in Gacy’s house including two school graduation rings, marijuana,
handcuffs, two driver’s licences from two unknown males, police badges, and several articles
of teenage boy clothing. In the trunk of one of Gacy’s vehicles, hair matching Robert Piest’s
was found.

Finally, after an intense investigation, police discovered that one of the graduation rings found
at Gacy's house belonged to a teenager who had disappeared a year earlier. They also
discovered that three of Gacy’s former employees had mysteriously disappeared within the last
5 years.

All of this evidence finally led Gacy to confess to police that he did kill someone; however, he
initially claimed it had been in self-defence. Gacy told police they could find the body under his
garage. Police did find a body under the garage and began finding numerous remains under
the crawl space of Gacy’s house. Gacy then confessed to killing Robert Piest and more than
thirty other young men.

The search for bodies at Gacy’s house was set up much like an archaeological dig site
because the excavation had to be done carefully to preserve the decomposing remains and to
keep the remains organized because some of the bodies were piled on top of each other. On
the first day of the search, two bodies were found in the crawl space. As time passed, twenty-
six more bodies were discovered beneath the crawl space. Some victims were buried so close
together that it was hypothesized that they were probably killed or buried at the same time.
Gacy told police that on several occasions he had killed more than one person in a day.

During the demolition of Gacy’s property, the body of a young man was discovered preserved
in the concrete of Gacy’s patio. Another body was discovered under the recreation room of his
house. By the end of December 1978, police removed twenty-nine bodies from Gacy's
property. By the spring of 1979, police were able to connect four young male victims found in a
local river to Gacy. Gacy confessed he disposed of the bodies in the river because he ran out
of room in his crawl space and he had been experiencing back problems from digging the
graves in the small crawl space. Fifteen-year-old, Robert Piest was one of the victims found in
the local river. Like many of Gacy’s victims, Robert had been sexually assaulted and
suffocated after paper towels had been lodged in his throat.

Dr. Clyde Snow, a forensic anthropologist, was hired by police to help identify the victims
removed from Gacy’s property. Dr. Snow used missing person reports to help him identify the
unknown remains. For example, he identified one set of remains found at Gacy’s property as
David Talsma using information from his missing persons report. In December 1977, nineteen-
year-old David was reported missing. Records showed that David had fractured his left arm as
a child. One set of remains from Gacy’s property showed evidence of a fractured left arm that
had healed. Also, the height of the remains matched David Talsma’s height. The last
observation that Dr. Snow used to identify these unknown remains was the fact that the left
arm was several millimetres longer than the right arm and that the left scapula was bevelled.
Both of these observations enabled Dr. Snow to conclude that the remains belonged to a left-
handed victim. David Talsma was left-handed.

In the end, investigators used forensic anthropology techniques and dental records to identify
all but nine of Gacy’s victims. Gacy was found guilty and convicted of thirty-three murders in
1980. After a long legal battle that he lost, John Wayne Gacy was executed by lethal injection
in 1994.

Related Case Study Questions

1. Why was forensic anthropology used in the John Wayne Gacy criminal case?

Only skeletal remains were left of many of Gacy’s victims; therefore, forensic anthropology was
used to identify the victims and used to determine how they were murdered.

2. What specific case brought John Wayne Gacy to the attention of police?

The disappearance of fifteen-year-old Robert Piest was the case that brought the police
investigation. Robert told his mother that Gacy wanted to talk to him about a part-time job.
Gacy was the last person to speak to Robert before he disappeared.

3. Why was the search for bodies at Gacy’s house set up like an archaeological dig site?

The investigation was like an archaeological dig to preserve the decomposing remains and to
keep the remains organized because some of the bodies were piled on top of each other.

4. In the end, how many of Gacy’s victims were identified with the help of forensic
anthropology?

Twenty-four of Gacy’s 33 victims were identified with the help of forensic anthropology.
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https://www.dirjournal.com/blogs/americas-famous-serial-killers/

John Wayne Gacy (Killings between 1972 and 1978)

A respected member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, a precinct captain in the local
Democratic party, the owner of a contracting business and a performing joker at children’s
parties, John Wayne Gacy seemed as normal as they come.

He came to be known as one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history.

Modus Operandi

Gacy lured his victims into handcuffs in the pretext of showing them a pair of trick handcuffs he
used in his clown act. He’d then dare the youth to free themselves. Once the boys were
handcuffed, he would use either a rope or a board across their throats to kill them while he
raped them.

Background

Gacy was born into a blue-collar family in 1942 and had two sisters. His father was an abusive
alcoholic who verbally and physically abused his children. Gacy deeply loved his father and
strived to please him, but failed.

He had the ability to persuade an manipulate people, likely because of how normal and
harmless he seemed on the outside. He later got married and had two kids of his own, but his
wife left him when he was arrested for trying to coerce a fellow employee into homosexual
acts.

Another thing to note is that he injured his head by falling off a swing when he was 11 years
old. He suffered from blackouts until he was 16, and then was diagnosed with a blood clot and
the condition was corrected.

Killings and Sentence

When Gacy realized that police were about to arrest him, he surrendered himself. He told
them, “There are four Johns” (similar to multiple personalities) — one was a contractor, another
a clown, one a politician, and the fourth went by the name Jack Hanley, and he did evil things.

Gacy confessed to more than 24 murders and drew a map to 28 graves under his house and
garage. He also said he threw five others into the Des Plaines River.

He was executed with a lethal injection on May 10, 1994. His last meal consisted of fried
chicken, Coke, French fries and strawberry shortcake. His last words were, “Kiss my ass.”