John Wayne Gacy is perhaps one of America’s most dreaded serial killers. Apart from brutally murdering his victims, he used to systematically torture and rape them. He would ultimately end the lives of his captives by choking them or using a strangulation device known as a garrote. Although on the record, he killed 33 men, there is a chance that the number is way higher than that.
Gacy’s targets were men of every age group. The court sentenced him to death on March 13, 1980. After spending 14 years in prison, he was finally executed on May 10, 1994, using a lethal injection. According to ThoughtCo, the serial killer showed zero signs of remorse during his last minutes on Earth.
When his executors asked him if he had any last words, Gacy simply cracked a sinister smile and said,
“Kiss my ass.”
How did John Wayne Gacy get caught?
John Wayne Gacy’s last known victim was a 15-year-old boy named Robert Piest. When Piest went missing, his family filed a missing report to the Des Plaines police. According to the teenager’s mother, her son was going to speak with a contractor about higher career opportunities.
This contractor was nobody but Gacy himself. The police did a background check on the man and realized that he was not a good samaritan. They called him for questioning, however, he did not show up. Soon they acquired a search warrant and what they discovered in the criminal’s Norwood Park Township home blew their minds.
The officials discovered a number of human remains in the crawl space of Gacy’s home. He even verbally confessed to taking the lives of 32 young men. Furthermore, the police learned that the serial killer terminated Piest and dumped his body in the Des Plaines River. On January 8, 1979, John Wayne Gacy was charged with several charges that led him to his lawful execution.
