Did John Wayne Gacy have more victims? 'Killer Clown' may have killed 12 more people than originally known
In 1980, John Wayne Gacy was convicted of killing 33 people and was sentenced to death after having been apprehended in December 1978. Gacy earned himself the creepy monicker, "Killer Clown," as he would regularly perform at children's hospitals and charitable events as "ogo the Clown" or "Patches the Clown." While Gacy was convicted of 33 murders, it is possible that he may have murdered more people.
He would lure a victim to his home, a ranch house near Norridge, a village in Norwood Park Township in metropolitan Chicago – and Gacy himself had confessed that all murders were committed here. Gacy would lure a victim by duping them into wearing handcuffs under the pretense of performing a magic trick. He would then rape and torture the captive, and then kill them, either by asphyxiation or with a garrotte.
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A new true-crime docuseries from Peacock, NBC's streaming platform, 'John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise', takes a deep dive into the investigation of Gacy's murders. The six-hour series includes footage of an extensive interview of Gacy conducted in 1992, two years before he was executed. Only minutes of this interview had been available before, but with much of the footage now available, viewers will learn a shocking truth – that Gacy may have murdered at least a dozen more people.
In the fourth episode of the docuseries, Rafael Tovar, a former Des Plaines Police Department investigator, talks of a conversation he had with Gacy while driving to the Cook County Jail. Tovar recalls asking Gacy if there were more victims, and says, "[Gacy] says '45 sounds like a good number.' I said, 'Well, where are they?' He said, 'No, that's your job. You got to find out.' We had 33 [victims], so that would mean, obviously, there's 12 more somewhere."
Tovar retired from the police department in 2009 and says during the docuseries that he had spoken with Gacy enough times to be confident that Gacy was being truthful about his number of victims during their car conversation. Tovar says in the docuseries, "I firmly believe there's more. He was the kind of guy that would be totally honest with you if he knew you already knew or were going to find out."
In the sixth episode, during an audio recording of Gacy talking with an attorney, the serial killer claims that he disposed of at least one more body – beyond the 33 victims whose murder he was convicted of – in a wooded area by a high school.
However, the Peacock series makes sure to let viewers know that Gacy often played mind games with those he would speak with, and would often raise doubts as to whether he himself was a reliable narrator of his own crimes. The series also explores the possibility that if there were additional victims, they may have been buried at a Chicago property he once worked at.
All six episodes of 'John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise' drop on Peacock on Thursday, March 25.