Talk:John Wayne Gacy

"Handcuff trick"

It should be referred to by name, like the rope trick. It is a bit of lingo one should know after reading an article about Gacy. Furthermore, just read the Houston Mass Murder article. The handcuff trick was also taken from Wayne Henley. This should be mentioned somewhere. Probably in the footnote detailing the torture board influence. Cake (talk) 15:24, 29 April 2026 (UTC)

Sexual abuse in Gacy's childhood

In this article, only his abuse by a family friend is mentioned and said that Gacy never told his father. However, this article by A&E (https://www.aetv.com/articles/john-wayne-gacys-childhood) states that he did tell his father, resulting in the contact being cut with the "family friend". It also mentions the abuse by a 15 years-old girl when he was eight. Can somebody tell me which source is more trustworthy, or if I missed something that explains the apparent contradiction? Private encyclopedia (talk) 03:36, 4 May 2026 (UTC)

According to Cahill's book, a 15-year-old Norwegian girl with mild learning difficulties fondled him in some prairie grass in around 1946. Gacy later claimed he did tell his father about the abuse by the family friend, but earlier claimed to Russ Ewing he didn't.--Kieronoldham (talk) 09:22, 4 May 2026 (UTC)

McCoy's bus ride

How was he going to make his ride at noon if he stayed the night at Gacy's? Cake (talk) 02:05, 11 May 2026 (UTC)

Gacy (who usually slept for around two hours each night) said he'd drive him back to the station in time to catch his bus.--Kieronoldham (talk) 13:52, 11 May 2026 (UTC)

Forgive me but I am not following even with Gacy's sleep schedule. It sounds like McCoy was picked up in the morning with a bus ride at noon. But instead he stays the night and the next morning he is murdered. Cake (talk) 04:25, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

He picked him up from the station in the early hours of January 3. His bus was due at noon that day.--Kieronoldham (talk) 18:46, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

I see now. My failure at reading comprehension. "He had time to kill" of I guess like 10 hours. I notice Albrecht and Hachmeister don't seem to buy Gacy's story, and just say "this kid pulled a knife on him." Cake (talk) 19:47, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

Gacy was quite consistent with a lot of the details of picking up McCoy. He provided a lot of details which could be verified (the wake; his mother refusing to get in his car with him afterward because he'd been drinking; the ice sculptures etc.), but we only have his word as to McCoy standing in the door silhouetted with the knife in his hand. Personally I think he either r ped McCoy, who then grabbed a knife and attacked him in a rage, or he tried forcing himself on McCoy at knifepoint and a struggle ensued. Gacy's sister JoAnne saw the fresh cut on his arm later that day at his Aunt Pearl's funeral.--Kieronoldham (talk) 19:58, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

It does seem way too likely it was Voorhees all over again but this time a knife was involved. Gacy's story would be a lot more plausible if he hadn't said they had sex. One selfish reason I would like to see the second victim identified would be to trace the evolution of Gacy's MO. Butkovich seems a lot bolder and more seasoned compared to McCoy, with his own local employee and the handcuff trick. It seems to me like Gacy may have learned a lot from the second victim. Didn't he confuse victims 1 and 2 a lot? Makes me wonder if that was because the second victim was also from the bus station. Cake (talk) 21:32, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

In some of his statements given in the days after his arrest (and he was exhausted at that point from the extensive surveillance plus the Valium and alcohol he had been consuming) he confused the date of his second murder with his first. Sometimes he mentioned December '74; sometimes he said January of '74. He stated more than once his second victim was also buried in the crawl space. Body 28 was killed in the first half of 1976. Can rule out Body 21 and Body 26 as they were both killed between June 13 and August 6 of '76, so either Body 13 or Body 10 was his second victim. Othram have stated more than once they would "love" to take these five cases on, funded via crowdfunding. Don't know what progress or endeavors they have made to do so.--Kieronoldham (talk) 22:01, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

I sometimes wonder if I should offer to volunteer for such things. As I understand the process, the DNA tells you the 3rd great grandfather or some such of the deceased, then you build trees to find all his descendants, then you go looking for who is the right age and went missing. If the problem is the middle step of tree building, I can do that. Cake (talk) 17:27, 25 May 2026 (UTC)

Just served 18 month out of 10 years

"Gacy was granted parole with twelve months' probation on June 18, 1970, having served eighteen months of his ten-year sentence." That sounds really odd to me. As far as I know you have to serve a minimum (one third or more) and than the probation would be longer. However, I am not an expert. Could that really be true? Maybe some lawyer reading this and can help to explain. Dr.Dibs (talk) 13:55, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

I am no expert or lawyer either, and it is a good question. One standard reply from those who have read a bit about him is he was considered a model prisoner in Iowa. He worked hard in the kitchen. He was even filmed for such. He oversaw the installation of a miniature golf course, which I believe is still in use. He got to wear white rather than prison blue (orange these days). He seemed to be able to con the 'system'. Cake (talk) 17:21, 25 May 2026 (UTC)

I know that... However, it doesn't explain how he could fall below the official minimum he had to serve. For an (way too) early release like that you would need something formal and official that justifies that. Even model prisoners (or precisely them) are under the law and I doubt that anyone in charge within the prison could make such a decision just because they feel like this dude really lays out. Dr.Dibs (talk) 09:43, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

Darrell Samson

It is a shame there is so little to say about him, as a once living soul, and as the beginning of Gacy's post-divorce, ramped up killing spree. Just abducted and killed. I seem to find conflicting reports about whether he worked for Gacy, but I suspect he did. That would obviously explain more about how he was abducted. Cake (talk) 17:29, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

Info about paintings

Hi, @Kieronoldham:, I recently added some info about the number of paintings Gacy made and the amount of money he made from them, and I cited it to Encyclopaedia Britannica. I think that info is worth including because the scale of his art "business" (for lack of better word) was quite immense and isn't mentioned elsewhere in the page. I think the fact that he made thousands of paintings and earned about $30k is a pretty big deal worth noting. You removed the sentence and source, saying Is that largely a mirror article?. I don't really understand what you meant by this, would you mind clarifying? I hope we can come to a consensus on if that info should be included and if so how. ArtemisiaGentileschiFan (talk) 23:22, 10 June 2026 (UTC)

Sorry, ArtemisiaGentileschiFan. What I meant by "mirror article" was that isn't the info. on that webpage originally taken from Wikipedia? Looks very much like it does. An alt. webpage or news article could be found? (Gacy's paintings sold for a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars apiece. His charging price for commissioned works started at $225.00.)--Kieronoldham (talk) 23:36, 10 June 2026 (UTC)

Hi, I've found two alternative sources. This LATimes article from 1994 says that he made $30,000 from his paintings (and attributes the claim to his lawyer Gregory Adamski). This article from United Press International from 1994 says that Gacy created up to 2,500 paintings. I'll add the info with these sources, if that's alright. ArtemisiaGentileschiFan (talk) 23:58, 10 June 2026 (UTC)

Asphyxiation and strangulation

The top section says this about Gacy's method of killing, "He would then rape and torture his captive before killing his victim by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a garrote." This seemed to me to say that asphyxiation and strangulation are two different things. After some reading, it seems like the best understanding is that strangulation is one particular way of asphyxiating. I think the intent might have been to say that he always killed by asphyxiation. Sometimes it was by strangulation, and sometimes by other means (e.g., stuffed cloth down some victims' throats). I would propose something like this, "He would then rape and torture his captive before killing his victim by strangulation with a garrote or some other method of asphyxiation." Bt1159 (talk) 15:49, 23 June 2026 (UTC)