John Wayne Gacy (2011) (edit title/settings)

Characters/People edit see section history

• Sam Amirante: A former public defender who had just started up his own private practice when this story began.
• David Cram: An employee of Gacy's and one of his two real friends
• Robby Piest: A 15-year-old pharmacy employee saving up to buy his first car
• Michael Rossi: One of Gacy's employees and one of his few real friends
• Bob Motta: A longstanding acquaintance and colleague of Sam's
• Jeff Rignall: So traumatized by his single encounter with Gacy that he threw up while testifying about it
• John Szyc: A former employee of Gacy's; he left half-completed tax forms on his kitchen table when he disappeared
• Greg Godzik: Worked for Gacy for a while
• Terry Sullivan: On the prosecution team in this case
• James Mazzara: Found floating face-down in the Des Plaines River not long before this story began
• Sam Stapleton: Only 14 when he disappeared
• Donita Gannon: The roommate of a young man who disappeared; the author used her as proof for the jury that in this case, nothing is what it seems to be
• Greg Bedoe: An investigator for the Cook County prosecutor's office
• William Kunkle: The author describes him minding his own business, playing solitaire in the middle of a bar brawl the night before the Gacy trial started
• John Wayne Gacy: The author was convinced that his behavior proved he was insane
• Jon Prestidge: Missing man
• John Butkovich: His parents had been trying for some time to get the police interested in the fact that he was missing
• Darrell Samson: Missing man
• Randall Reffett: 15 when he disappeared
• Frank Landigin: 19 when he disappeared
• David Talsma: 19 when he disappeared
• Bernard Carey: On the prosecution team
• Dr. Stein: On the investigative team, exhuming boys from the crawlspace
• Robert Egan: On the prosecution team
• Judge Garippo: In a stroke of inspiration, granted a change of venue but instead of moving the whole trial elsewhere, shipped in a jury from a neighboring county
• Mr. Amirante: After his car was vandalized by someone who called his son, the author, a fag for defending a fag like Gacy, reminded his son that he'd always wanted him to be a doctor -- not an attorney
• Ronald Geaver: On the Gacy jury
• Timothy O'Rourke: Missing Chicagoland man
• Russell Nelson: 21 when he disappeared
• Robert Winch: 16 when he disappeared
• Tommy Boling: 20 when he disappeared
• William Carroll: 16 when he disappeared
• Rick Johnston: 17 when he disappeared
• Michael Bonnin: 17 when he disappeared
• David Osborne: On the Gacy jury
• Ross Putnam: On the Gacy jury
• John Mowery: 19 when he disappeared
• Mabel Loundenback: On the Gacy jury
• Dean Johnson: On the Gacy jury
• Carole Gacy: Gacy's second wife
• Matthew Bowman: Found in the crawlspace under Gacy's house
• Robert Gilroy: 19 when he disappeared

Quotes edit see section history

• “Four hundred people tell ten friends that they were at a party at Gacy's house, and suddenly, four thousand people are talking about the guy, and so on, without the help of the press. From the highest reaches of Chicago politics, including the mayor and governor, to his neighbors and business associates, it seemed that nobody in the city had more that one degree of separation from this man.”

  Sam Amirante

• “Nobody likes to be relentlessly vilified, especially when you know deep in your soul that the job you are doing is absolutely necessary to the adminstration of justice.”

  Sam Amirante

• “I pounded on the locked front door of Gacy's house and peered into the diamond-shaped window at eye level. A face appeared that filled the window. It was a face I knew. Greg Bedoe, the seasoned Cook County investigator whom Terry Sullivan had attached to the unit early during the investigation, looked back at me. I will never forget the look on his face as long as I live. It was a look of sheer horror, the look of a man that has seen something gruesome, grotesque, unimaginable.”

  Sam Amirante

• “My lawyers work for me. They cannot tell me what to do, who to talk to, or what I can talk about.”

  John Wayne Gacy

• “The scene was like the filming of a movie. On a rare crisp, cloudless sunlit Thursday in December, four days before Christmas 1978, John Wayne Gacy breathed his last breath of free air.”

  Sam Amirante

• “This time Mr. Gacy didn't have a key to the cuffs held between his his fingertips in the palm of his hand. This time it was Gacy that was...dumb and stupid.”

  Sam Amirante

• “I had returned to the station after having visited Gacy's house -- quite the humbling experience -- and I was sitting with him, trying unsuccessfully to remind him of his constitutional right to remain silent. John thought he knew better, though. He thought he was smarter than people like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams. He wasn't.”

  Sam Amirante

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• John Wayne Gacy was the epitome of Winston Churchill’s famous quote—a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Gacy was a psychiatrist’s wet dream.

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

• that’s America. You have an inalienable right to be a nut, even an asshole.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• It’s always the most patriotic asshole in the room that has absolutely no concept of what patriotism actually means.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• ‘Tragedy is when I cut my finger, and comedy is when you fall in a manhole and die.’

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

First Sentence edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• TRO: Temporary Restraining Order

Errata edit see section history

One of the murder victims in this story is variously called "John Szyc" and "John Sync." His correct name is John Szyc, although he did pronounce his name "sync."

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Sam Amirante (Author)
2. Danny Broderick (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 364.1523092

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Not for kids.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Nonfiction › True Accounts › Serial Killers
• Books › Biographies & Memoirs
• Books › Law › Criminal Law

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history