John Wayne Gacy, one of the most prolific serial killers in American history, raped and strangled young men and boys. Investigators found most of these victims’ bodies in the crawl space of Gacy’s Norwood Park Township home.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, police arrested Gacy on December 21, 1978, and within hours, found 19 bodies buried in his crawl space. In total, his victim count was 33, out of which many remain unidentified to date.
In 1980, the serial killer was convicted of the 33 murders. He received a death sentence, and was executed by lethal injection in 1994.
How did officials find John Wayne Gacy’s buried victims?
The New York Times reported that following John Wayne Gacy’s arrest on December 21, 1978, police searched his home in the Norwood Park Township, Illinois. They found 29 bodies buried in the crawl space or around the property. They also found four other victims in the Des Plaines River not far from his house. He started disposing of bodies in the river when he couldn’t bury them anymore on his property.
Authorities believed that Gacy, a building contractor who worked as “Pogo the Clown” at children’s parties, lured his victims after meeting them. He, reportedly, abducted young men and boys and raped them before strangling them to death in the 70s.
In March 1980, the serial killer received the death penalty after his conviction for the 33 murders. And, he was executed by lethal injection in 1994 at the Stateville penitentiary, as per AP News. Sadly, many of his victims remain unidentified even then.
The outlet reported that detectives worked relentlessly to identify some of the victims decades after they were brutally murdered by the notorious killer. Till October 2011, eight victims remained unidentified. Since then, up until October 2021, officials have revealed the identities of three of these victims. However, five names remain unknown even now.
