Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy (2025) s01e04 Episode Script
Billy
1
-The things
he did to those kids,
he's confessed to it twice now.
There is also the matter
of my co-counsel.
We're gonna need
a real nuts-and-bolts guy
to keep shoveling off the shit
Kunkle throws our way.
There is a petition
to remand my client
to the psychiatric
hospices of Cermak Hospital.
All we ask is that
he be held in emergency custody
for psychiatric evaluation.
-[John scoffs]
-The court agrees.
[indistinct chattering]
-I told cops, you did nothing!
Where is he?
Where is my boy?
-Parents reported
the boys missing.
CPD kept doing nothing.
-Medical and dental records
will be required
to identify the deceased.
John: They dumped some of them,
off the side. Right here.
-Goddamn fairies.
Faggots
brought it on themselves.
Elizabeth:
He wasn't like that.
Not like what they're saying
like those other boys.
He wasn't like that.
He was-- He was better
than what they're saying!
[chattering indistinctly]
[cameras rolling,
shutters clicking]
[soft somber music playing]
[footsteps approaching]
-I can do this. I, I can
-I have to. Thank you.
-You don't.
[clears throat]
These are the X-rays.
Um, one shows that root canal
he had that year.
-His infection.
-The other's for the gold crown.
I have earlier images, but I--
I don't think they'll need them.
Molds I took of his teeth.
I made models, uh,
a couple of years ago.
In, in case--
Well, after he disappeared.
In case
[somber music continues]
[wind rustling]
[bird cawing in distance]
[soft music playing]
-No. No, no, no, no.
No, no, no.
No. No. No, no, no.
[panting]
[dog whimpering]
-This case is gonna be built
by digging through case law.
It's actually
extremely exciting.
-Fucking tedious.
-All right. Be straight with me.
What did Gacy confess to police?
-All of it. All the murders.
Thirty-two of 'em.
If it's even the right number.
-How the hell'd
you let that happen?
-My team meet him.
-You get a copy
of the confession from police?
Did Gacy sign it?
-Nope. Nothing to sign, Bob.
Police didn't have him
write it down or record it.
He just kept talking
like a fucking looney tune.
Des Plaines
just jotted down notes.
-Oh, hang on a minute.
You're saying
all I got is some notes?
-Confession didn't happen.
-They could've said
whatever they wanted.
-Holy shit.
-When they got--
They got nothing to prove
Gacy said anything.
Plus,
you said he was distressed.
You said taking pills,
he's drinking heavily
could be improper
exertion of influence.
Right now,
all they got evidence of
is that Gacy was illegally
operating a graveyard.
-[scoffs]
I mean, we still gotta
build up a defense.
Insanity is the way to go.
-No other way.
-I mean, look.
The good news is
half the shrinks in the country
are begging for a crack at him.
He's like the fucking
Mona Lisa to these people.
-Prosecution's
entitled to run their own tests
with their own professionals,
but I think
we worry about that later.
-[sighs]
I mean,
there isn't a world
where he's anything
but fucking crazy, right?
[♪♪♪]
Lt. Kozenczak:
Gacy. G-A-C-Y.
Any reports on his sentencing,
incarceration,
and his release
from Anamosa State?
Yes. Thank you.
Fax it over as soon as possible.
Thank you.
[indistinct chattering,
vehicles honking horns]
Lt. Kozenczak:
Appreciate your time, Frank.
-Yeah. Helluva way to start your
tenure as Chief of Detectives.
They're, uh, calling it
the "Crime of a Century."
[Frank chuckles]
-Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know?
-Yeah. I do.
So how can I help?
-Our investigation recovered
Gacy's company payroll.
And Detective Tovar here
was looking into
some of the employees listed.
A few of them were reported
missing to your division
around the same time.
We're hoping to get
some clarification on
what was known about Gacy
and when it was known by CPD.
-God, I think it's fair to say
nothing was on here, Joe.
Otherwise, we'd intervened.
Det. Tovar: I'm sorry.
You guys dropped the ball.
You know that. We know that.
Let's just--
Let's just get this straight
here. It's our ass, too.
-We're not trying to pin
anything on Chicago
-It sounds like it.
-Help us understand this.
A man convicted
of sodomizing a teen boy
is paroled early to Chicago.
And then his teenage,
male employees
start disappearing
from the area.
And nobody in your department
looks into the guy?
Nobody taps our officers,
lets us know
there might be somebody in
our neighborhood hurting kids?
-The families, they're
gonna want an explanation.
And what
we are trying to say is that
we are more than willing
to be the first line of defense
if you can help us
fill in these gaps.
-You, uh, you know
we don't treat every missing
kid as a homicide, right?
Teenagers, especially.
Last year in Chicago, 19,000
kids go missing, 18,000 return,
and blow off a little steam,
they come home.
-Except the thousand who don't.
-The Szyc kid, I understand.
There's no direct link to Gacy.
Then you have
Butkovich's father,
and then the parents
of the other missing employee
-Yeah. Greg Godzik.
Yeah, we looked into it.
-Both families.
We have both families
saying that they were
calling CPD, nonstop.
Mentioning Gacy.
-Yeah. I--
I've read the reports, Joe.
We visited Gacy, oh yeah.
Looked into him.
Det. Tovar: Sometimes.
-But these weren't kids.
They're teenagers.
And no known violence
had occurred.
No record of foul play.
No reason
Det. Tovar: We were told--
to request
Gacy's record whatsoever.
-We were told by both families
that they were adamant to CPD
that Gacy has something
to do with it.
Nobody thought
the two missing persons
linked to the same man was odd?
It was just
chalked up to coincidence.
-This isn't Des Plaines.
It's Chicago.
It's a fucking sprawl.
Butkovich was from
Police Area Six, north side.
The Godziks are from Area Five,
northwest side.
So you got Marko Butkovich
calling Area Six about his son.
You got the Godziks
calling Area Five about theirs.
Sure. Both reports mentioned
a man named Gacy,
but how are
two different officers
in two different locations
supposed to know that?
-When I was at vice, we shared
whatever information we had.
-Vice? Yeah. That's why
you're such a fucking asshole.
Vice is where we sent
cowboys and mutts
who can't be fucking muzzled.
You know,
part of being a leader
is controlling
your subordinate, Joe.
-I'm sitting on potentially
dozens of bodies
that need to be identified,
and I've run out of road.
Files on every missing kid
that fits Gacy's M.O.,
that would be a great help.
Plus, anything
you have on Gacy himself.
-Well, there's a system.
Lotta paperwork,
gonna take some time.
Weeks, months
-Uh-hmm.
I understand the system.
I would consider it a favor
for whatever that is worth.
-Ship all the files
for every missing kid
from 1970 to now
over to Des Plaines.
Well, you got it.
But you'll see, most of these
kids are just troubled.
[siren wailing in distance]
[indistinct chattering]
[upbeat music playing in car]
singer: ♪ Well, I've been ♪
♪ lookin' real hard ♪
-Where are you two headed?
♪ and I'm tryin' ♪
♪ to find a job ♪
♪ But it just keeps ♪
-You wanna take us?
-♪ Gettin' tougher every day ♪
♪ But I got to do my part ♪
-Hop in.
♪ 'cause I know ♪
♪ in my heart I got ♪
♪ to please ♪
♪ my sweet baby, yeah ♪
♪ Well, I ain't superstitious ♪
♪ And I don't get suspicious ♪
♪ But my woman ♪
♪ is a friend of mine ♪
♪ And I know that it's true ♪
♪ That all the things ♪
♪ that I do ♪
♪ Will come back to me ♪
♪ in my sweet time ♪
♪ So keep on rock'n me ♪
♪ baby ♪
♪ Keep on rock'n me ♪
♪ baby ♪
♪ Keep on ♪
Maryjane: You don't wanna
rent some skates?
Come out here?
Danny: Don't have enough cash.
Maryjane: It's Billy, right?
You got a fancy car, too?
-Uh, no.
-[chuckles]
Beth: How can you afford
to fill that thing up with gas
if you can't afford to skate?
Danny: Maybe that's why
I can't afford to, honey.
You think of that?
-I'm sorry.
Danny has a sharp tongue,
and he thinks it's a gift.
[indistinct chattering]
[man laughing in distance]
-What's your gift?
-[chuckles] Outrunning cops.
-Can I come with you?
[music playing in distance]
Please?
-You from Chicago?
-Yeah. But, uh, my family,
we lived away for a while,
but I missed the city,
so I came back.
-What was that your friend
was saying?
About you and cops?
-He's trying to embarrass me.
singer: ♪ All my friends ♪
♪ They tell me don't ♪
-Who'd you steal that car from?
♪ But I've been ♪
♪ around in the world ♪
-If I tell you, will you
go to dinner with me?
♪ Why? Why, oh, why? ♪
[people laughing and chattering]
John: I'm happy to have you
on the team.
That's a helluva 'stache
you got on you.
You do somethin' with it?
Put somethin' in it
to make it so full?
Bob: Soap and water.
-Hah. Good on you.
Sam: All right. Here she is.
Lot of very accomplished,
intelligent psychiatrists
wanted to meet with you, John.
Fought for it even.
Dr. Deborah Healy
is the best out of California.
Flew out here just to see you.
-Oh.
All right then.
You're the lucky winner.
Step right up, head-shrinker.
-It's good to meet you.
[loud metal clang]
-I'm not being rude. Just
-You're not gonna try anything,
are you?
-[chuckles] I've always
had a thing for blondes.
-I suppose that's a no then.
John: There you go.
[sighs]
That's better.
Sam: Before Bob and I go,
we just wanna make sure that
you understand the prosecution
will make use
of this evaluation. Okay?
Everything you say
will be on the record.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm happy to talk to whoever,
get the story straight,
you know?
Put the blame where it belongs.
[prison door alarm
in distance]
Sam: All right. Have fun.
[eerie music playing]
-So,
what do you want to know?
Dr. Healy:
A good childhood then.
-I loved my father.
And he loved me.
He was just from the old-school.
A strong man. Strong views.
Guess you could call him
somethin' of a disciplinarian.
[unsettling music playing]
-Fair to say that he beat you?
-[chuckles softly]
John: Put it this way.
Pop liked his drink,
liked his sports,
liked his son
actin' like a man.
But I liked gardening,
baking with my ma.
I was sickly.
Couldn't throw a ball.
And the things I liked
[unsettling music continues]
Dr. Healy:
You like wearing the panties?
Maybe enjoyed dressing
like a woman?
-[groans] Hell no.
God. No.
The feel is all.
I stole 'em for the feel.
[unsettling music playing]
Dr. Healy: You buried them?
Under the house?
Why not borrow the panties?
Return them to the drawer?
- There was no
putting them back
because I'd use them for,
uh, for private sex.
-"Private sex"? Masturbation?
-Boys will be boys.
This is your typical
Oedipus complex.
Jesus Christ.
Let me explain it to you.
It's an obsession
with the mother.
It's a competition
with the father, yada yada.
I know all about this stuff
'cause I read lots of books
in psychology.
I could recommend some to you.
-That's very kind.
-I can pretend to be a virgin
if it's ruinin' your fun.
Give you the feelin' you're
poppin' my head cherry?
-No need to pretend.
It's good to talk to someone
so knowledgeable.
May I ask, John.
Your mother caught you.
Were you punished?
[ominous music plays]
-Yeah.
And the old man never quit
tryin' to beat
the sissy out of me.
But I got older.
Got tired of it.
Always dealing with him.
Like a different person
when he was drinking.
And this one night,
he wrestled me to the ground.
He was drunk.
He was cursing at me,
beating on me,
but I managed to get
on top of him
and hold him down. All right?
And he was screaming at me.
"Hit me!" He was saying,
"Hit me! Come on. Hit me!"
Calling me a coward.
"Hit me, you coward!"
-Did you hit him?
-I only held him down.
Just held him there.
[♪♪♪]
Told him, "I love you.
I won't hit you. I love you."
I took off that night.
John: I figured if I left and
made somethin' of myself,
I'd come back
and he'd have a reason
to be proud of me.
[dramatic music playing]
I made my way to Sin City.
It sounded so neat.
[chuckles]
-What was your plan?
-Oh, I didn't have one.
No. I just focused
on trying to find work,
and it was a lot harder
than I figured.
I tried banks, schools, casinos.
Nobody would hire me
because I was underage.
I almost tucked tail,
turned around,
went back home,
but then, a miracle.
[dramatic music playing]
John: They were
lookin' for a janitor.
I met the mortician, Ben.
He seemed
real hesitant at first,
but I told him that
not everything in life
is about a diploma.
Sometimes it's about passion,
and drive,
and a way with people.
I didn't need
some fancy diploma.
I had people skills.
And he saw that.
He hired me on the spot.
Janitor/night watchman.
[dramatic music continues]
Yeah, I was just a teenager
movin' up in the world.
I was so, so damn excited.
[♪♪♪]
He even gave me a cot,
let me sleep right next to where
he did the embalming.
So he believed in me.
Understood I was a hard worker.
I was working the night shift,
7:00 to 7:00.
Also,
I got a chance to learn some,
watching him work.
[dramatic music rises]
[music ends]
Dr. Healy: John?
John?
John?
Everything okay?
-Yeah. Yeah, just a nice memory.
[indistinct chattering,
laughing]
-It was my grandfather's.
Billy: Oh, that's nice.
-You're gonna steal it?
-[laughs]
-You don't look like a thief.
-Uh, okay.
What does a--
What does a thief look like?
-You dress well,
and you're polite.
-[laughs] Well, that--
Yeah, okay.
Thank you.
-[chuckles]
-That's my mom.
She's, uh,
always on me about
taking pride in my appearance.
She taught me how to iron,
how to crease my clothes.
-Hmm. Where is she?
-Uh, Ohio with my siblings.
-How many are you?
-Uh, five.
And I'm the oldest,
so, uh,
you know,
I kind of raised them.
My, uh,
my mom was always working.
And so, uh,
every day after school,
I was alone with them
when they were little, you know?
So they'd
always be tugging on me
and asking me for stuff,
like toys and candy
and chips, whatever.
And, and I felt bad 'cause
I didn't have any money.
So, so I started stealing
the stuff they were asking for.
I realized it was pretty easy.
I was good at it.
-You ever worry
you'll get caught?
-Yeah,
I've been caught a few times.
My mom made a point
not to bail me out,
but you learn from it.
You figure out what to do
to not get caught the next time.
What matters is you make it home
at the end of the night.
[soft piano music playing]
-I feel like
you've lived so much.
-We'll, you're a girl.
When you're a girl,
everybody helps you,
get you back on track.
If you're in trouble,
people assume the best of you.
If you're a guy,
they assume the worst.
Be told to man up,
figure it out.
-I've never
thought of it like that.
-It's okay. I figured it out.
I got a place,
I got nice clothes, I can eat.
Take out a pretty girl.
Okay. You ready?
-For what?
-It's time to dash.
-No.
-But now I'm kind of
giving away the gambit,
come on, we gotta go.
-Right.
[chuckles]
-You didn't hold your tongue
downtown,
why are you doing it now?
-It's nothing.
-Stop lookin' at me like that.
-I just didn't know you were
such a kiss-ass is all.
-Okay.
CPD didn't kill those kids
and neither did you.
So put down your pitchfork
and your cross
and start flipping
through the pages,
you son of a bitch.
-Why are you defending them?
-It's a massive department.
This was not on purpose.
It wasn't malicious.
Gacy fell through the cracks.
-Timmons said it himself.
You heard him.
He told us that we're gonna
go through all these files,
and we're gonna see that
all these kids were troubled.
-[chuckles]
Yeah, they're troubled.
Drugs, runaways,
gangs, delinquents.
Timmons was right.
-Exactly.
That's my fucking point.
-Finally, a fucking point.
-All right. Police Area 73
doesn't communicate
with Police Area 773, fine.
But how about this?
How many pages are in each
of those files, give or take?
-I don't know. Couple.
-That's what I'm saying.
There's fucking nothing in here.
Two pages. Two pages.
Three pages.
Most of these are just the
initial missing persons report.
There's no field interviews,
there's no contact
with the person
that reported them missing.
Chicago didn't follow up.
This?
You would really
not have to give a fuck
to wind up with one page.
But you don't get it.
And it's not your fault
that you don't get it.
You're not in the muck.
You didn't have
Marko Butkovich's spit
all over your face, all right?
-You're making this personal.
-Well, fuck yeah, I am.
And that's not my fault.
[knocking on door]
rookie cop: Sorry.
-What?
-Body we ID'd?
Godzik? Mom's here.
Wants to talk to somebody.
She's got her kid's
dental records and teeth.
Lt. Kozenczak: I can go do this.
Det. Tovar:
No. It's not your job.
[sorrowful music playing]
[inaudible]
-Now, when you came home,
how did--
Excuse me for a moment.
Sorry. I know
I have another pen somewhere.
Yes. Vegas.
How did your family react
when you came home?
-This is a mess.
-Is it bothering you?
-Better question is,
why isn't it bothering you?
If cleanliness is godliness,
you're a goddamn heathen,
aren't you?
-[chuckles]
[ominous music playing]
-You're not gonna tidy up?
Clean it.
[music rises]
[yells] Clean it!
[ominous music playing]
[ominous music continues]
The jacket.
[music fades]
[sighs]
Ma forgave me.
And Pop felt it was time
to move out, find a girl.
And he wasn't wrong.
I wanted to show him that
I could do okay for myself
on my own.
I found a job at a men's
clothing store not too far,
in Springfield.
And that's where
I met my first wife.
[dramatic music playing]
[John speaking indistinct]
John: Had such a nice,
warm feeling with Marlynn.
I always wanted to be a father,
a family man,
and I finally was.
[indistinct]
I loved the kids.
It's hard being away from them.
-You, you were away often?
-Oh.
Well, my father-in-law put me
in charge of his restaurants.
Dr. Healy: So he clearly
liked you, respected you?
John: No,
I don't know about that.
I think he just wanted what
was best for his little girl.
-Was your father-in-law
difficult to impress?
-He was demanding.
He didn't approve of me easy.
-So you inherited
another father figure
whose approval
you couldn't earn?
-[laughs] No, no.
No, my father-in-law
was tough on me,
but, uh--
Shit.
You're real good.
Well,
whatever it was with him,
it helped with my dad.
'Cause Ma told him
how well I was doin'
and he just had to come
see it for himself.
[♪♪♪]
He was proud of me that day.
I know he was.
Because he told me so.
We were sitting there
splittin' a bucket of biscuits
and he looked me
dead in the eye,
and he says,
"I was wrong about you, John.
Good wife,
good kids, good job.
You done good."
Just like that.
[inaudible]
"You done good."
[music playing on radio]
John: Was on top of the world.
Around that time is when I got
hooked up with the Jaycees.
singer:
♪ Loneliness and sorrow ♪
- The social club?
-Social club?
Jaycees is about politics.
Means for young men to get
into a network of professionals.
You wind up meetin'
important people,
organizin' charitable events
together.
-You have a love for politics.
-Politics is about power.
Power depends on consent.
That's a quote from
"Main Currents
in Modern Political Thought."
Lotta folks don't know
that's all politics is.
The feelin' of bein' important,
that people trust you.
-And you like power.
-Don't you?
You sittin' there,
jottin' whatever you're jottin'.
Judgin' me
when you don't even know me?
At one point,
the head of our chapter,
he asked me personally for
my help recruitin' new members.
That's how much they trusted me.
After a while, I got this
notion to start showin' films
after our meetings
to draw interest.
[indistinct chattering,
laughing]
all: Whoa!
man 1: Let's go!
man 2: Yeah!
all: Woo-hoo!
[clapping, cheering]
John: Membership tripled.
[laughs]
You like stag films?
-Never seen one.
-[laughs] Oh, my God.
Yeah?
Okay. Uh-huh.
You can't bullshit
a bullshitter.
Anyway, everybody agreed
there was no harm in it,
and it kind of snowballed,
and this idea of wife swapping
came up.
Even got Marlynn into it.
And all of a sudden,
I could fuck whoever I wanted.
Even other men's wives.
That's just how powerful I was.
Plus, I had good standin'
in the community,
so I thought I might as well
run for president
of the Waterloo Jaycees.
[♪♪♪]
And that's how I met
Don Vorhees.
Local politician.
Offered to be
my campaign manager.
[soft music playing]
[indistinct chattering]
[inaudible]
Met him and his son.
[ominous instrumental
music playing]
One day I was drivin', right?
Just goin' about my day.
I saw his son,
Don Jr., hitchhikin'.
I give him a ride.
Pickin' him up that day.
Probably the worst mistake
of my life.
Marlynn was out of town
visiting her mother at the time
and Don Sr. was a nice guy,
I thought.
So I assumed that his son
was a nice kid.
I was dumb and stupid.
Pop always said that to me,
that I shouldn't be so dumb
and stupid.
"Don't be so dumb and stupid,
John Wayne."
I should have listened.
[ominous music playing]
[inaudible]
[♪♪♪]
Because I'm gullible like that.
That's my fault.
I just, I, I trust too easy.
-You feel this boy took
advantage of your good nature?
-Kid ruined my life.
Just when things were going
perfect with my family, my pops.
And for what?
He wanted it, I wanted it.
-Are you saying it was
a consensual relationship?
-Damn right it was.
-He was a teenager.
You were a man.
-Okay. See,
you don't understand.
You don't understand at all.
He and I had an agreement.
I didn't force him
to do anything.
He asked for money
and I paid him.
Then he wanted more.
I says no, he starts talking
about telling his father,
and that is blackmail.
Pure and simple,
that is blackmail.
And this is a fairy trait too,
you know.
Lyin', flippin',
changing their word.
One moment this is okay,
the next it isn't.
Or there isn't enough money
anymore. They're liars.
-You speak with great disdain
for fairies.
You hate them. Why?
-They're weak.
-You feel as though you're
a different kind of homosexual?
-You've been listenin' to a word
that I've said?
I'm not a homosexual.
-Sorry, it's only that you're
telling me you seek out men.
-I'm not a fuckin' fairy.
-But you spend money
to have sex with them.
-[bangs table] Christ's sake!
This is ridiculous.
You are not listenin'.
How can you get an accurate
account of my mind
when you're not listenin'
to a thing that I'm tellin' you?
This is sloppy.
I'm gonna get on Sam about this.
You're a woman
for cryin' out loud.
You can't understand
how complicated
gettin' off can be for a guy.
They need a boy psychiatrist,
a male psychiatrist in here.
-I apologize. I was wrong.
Wrong to assume
you're homosexual.
That's-- That it's not
what you said to me.
-[exhales sharply]
I'm not mad.
I'm not mad at you, Deb.
I'm sorry I lost it a bit.
I'm trying to tell you,
you don't--
You don't seem to understand me.
And everybody's
getting this wrong.
Everyone's getting me wrong.
-That's frustrating.
-It is.
And the thing is,
I'm not the monster image that's
being portrayed in the papers.
There's no truth to it.
I was the one
taken advantage of.
And that's what all the lawyers
and the cops are missing.
Everyone's got this
tunnel vision for these guys
that I was dealing with,
labeling them "victims"
like they were altar boys
or something.
The focus has all been on them.
-But what was done to you?
-Exactly. Exactly.
And what I don't understand is,
why are you the first person
to ask me that, Deb?
"Oh, oh,
please don't help Mr. Gacy.
He's been blowing and jerking
and molesting me."
The court was a joke.
Do you know that
when the sentencing report
came back
from Iowa State Hospital,
they recommended
that I be given probation?
Probation.
Was never
supposed to go to prison.
Then they
sentence me to ten years.
You know,
I don't even think
my pops was surprised.
It was like he expected it.
Said something about how he
had to work twice as hard now,
to wipe out the blot
on his good name.
I was the blot.
[indistinct chattering]
Det. Fanholm:
Nice of you to join us.
-All right. Let's go.
Let's make the most out
of the last hours of the day.
I'll help.
[plane flying overhead]
-It wasn't a jab. I'd take
any excuse not to be here.
-Yeah, believe it or not,
I'd rather been here instead.
-Yeah, pretty easy day, really.
One kid still had his shoes on,
so he didn't spill any bones
anywhere.
-How was your Christmas?
-Got a couple of Dandyburgers.
Got a little drunk.
Passed a lot out.
How about yourself?
-I wasn't my best.
-Yeah?
-I couldn't really talk much
and they all noticed.
[birds chirping in distance]
-Growing up, all I wanted
was to push a black and white,
catch bad guys, you know,
like in the movies.
[chuckles]
-Yeah. How's that
working out for you?
-I'm digging fucking bodies
up out of a floor.
-So pretty fucking good, huh?
-Yeah. Pretty fucking good.
[exhales deeply]
Dr. Healy:
I imagine prison was
quite a shocking
experience for you,
given that you'd never have
been in legal trouble before.
-I was terrified.
Worried someone
was gonna rape me.
But I did everything I could to
make the best of a bad situation
and restore honor
to my dad's name.
After a while,
things ended up being fine.
There's this,
this one older fella
a few cells down from me.
He's a real talented painter.
I'm better than him but,
he was still good.
And I asked him
if he would paint
my father's portrait from
a photo that I'd brought in.
I wanted to gift it to him.
He took his sweet-ass time.
Had to keep on him.
Fucking artist.
Took him three months to finish.
My old man died
before I could give it to him.
Christmas Day, '69.
-How'd you feel
when you found out he passed?
-Like I killed him.
The shame of it killed him.
-His death
profoundly affected you.
-He was my dad.
-How did you deal with it?
-What? I'm not sure.
Uh, I mean, that's life?
Shit happens?
I got let out
a little while later. Paroled.
-Early. Remarkably early.
-Yeah. They knew
I didn't belong there.
Was a model inmate.
They studied me
like you're doing now.
Doctors, parole board.
They found me to be
a near-perfect case
of rehabilitation.
Figured I benefited society.
Let me out after 18 months.
And that says everything
you need to know right there.
[♪♪♪]
John: I just wish I could've
made him proud of me
one more time.
[birds chirping in distance]
Never saw Marlynn
or my kids after that.
-Why?
-She took them.
Nothing I could do.
-It's fairly commonplace
in a divorce,
fathers work something out,
arrange to see their kids
on holidays, what have you.
Even incarcerated people
still see their children.
Did Marlynn prevent you
from seeing them
or did you stay away?
-Uh, it just boils down to
she took them from me.
-I only ask because you were
so invested in being a father.
-I don't understand.
-Just go back to that time,
in your mind,
to how you felt
when you were released.
I mean,
your kids were quite young.
You'd only been away
a year and a half.
You didn't reach out. Why?
-See,
you're going in circles now.
-Did some part of you
feel relieved they were gone?
-Okay.
We're not going into that.
-Knowing you had this proclivity
for young men,
did you feel
it was for the best?
-No, we're not going into it.
I was a family man.
A happily married one. I just--
I couldn't have the kids.
I was supposed to stay
near my mother.
My mother.
That's what the parole
recommendation was,
so that's what I did.
I did what I was told.
Now, I could tell you
about that part if you want
but you have to stop it
with this.
You gotta knock it off.
-It's right around this time,
by your own admission,
that you murdered
the first young man.
-Self-defense.
-Will you tell me about it?
-Greyhound Bus Boy.
-Is that what you call him?
Did this boy have a name?
-He must have.
I'm sure he did.
-Pervasive narcissism.
Personality disorder
with obsessive-compulsive,
antisocial and hypomanic
qualities.
All compounded
by alcohol and drugs.
Grandiose
sense of self-importance.
Possibly borderline
psychopathic personality
with episodes of paranoid
schizophrenia.
Psycho-sexual conflicts,
a pronounced feeling
of masculine inadequacy,
an alarming lack of empathy,
ego disintegration,
expressions of very hostile,
dangerous impulses.
-So? He's crazy, right?
[chuckles]
-I've never seen
anything like it.
Like him.
I hope to never again.
-[inhales deeply]
Was there anything
in what he told you
that could explain
why he did this?
-Did he say why? No.
But, uh,
I think he was killing off
bits and pieces of himself
that he hated,
that his father hated.
Specifically, his homosexuality.
-We have to prove Gacy
has a condition.
Loses control,
loses his grip on reality,
prevents him from understanding
what he's doing is illegal.
Does this evaluation
support that?
-When you consider
his various delusions,
psychotic episodes,
his complete lack of emotional
control under duress,
I'd say it's entirely possible.
-And you'll testify to that?
-[inhales deeply]
I moved up my flight.
Headed back this evening.
Sam: Great. [groans]
-Obviously,
I'll file my findings.
Make myself available
as you need me.
O'Hare has a bar, right?
-Gate 38.
-[Bob scoffs]
-Great.
-Take care.
-You too.
-We are going with this.
Every interview,
every piece of press
that mentions John Wayne Gacy
has got to include
the word psychotic.
We drive home
how unstable he is.
-John Gacy, face of insanity.
That's how we win.
[depressing music playing]
-[sniffles]
Is it a win if we win?
-[sighs]
[people chattering indistinctly]
Eugenia: Excuse me.
You're Elizabeth Piest.
-Yes?
-I saw you on TV.
Robert's mother?
I'm Eugenia Godzik,
Greg's mother.
I-- Uh,
I needed to see it.
Doesn't seem real.
-Hmm.
-The whole time,
he was in there,
twenty minutes away
every day for two years.
-Hmm.
-Can you make sense of it?
-I went looking for Rob
down by the river the other day.
That's where he
threw him into the river.
I don't know why I thought
I'd find Rob,
but it was frozen.
I have to wait till spring
to find my boy.
-[exhales sharply]
The kind of-- How a man--
The kind of evil that man is.
I spoke to him.
-To Gacy?
-Begged him for help.
He was Greg's boss at the time.
-[inhales deeply]
[exhales sharply]
-I called to ask him
if he'd seen my son
and he told me Greg
had left a message
on his answering machine
days after I had
reported him missing,
that he was probably fine.
When I asked him to play
the message for me,
he said he'd erased it.
-That's [breathes shakily]
-Cruel.
[people chattering indistinctly]
My husband and I called
Chicago Police so often.
Kept telling me to trust them.
[mournful music playing]
They weren't trying
like I was trying.
I spoke to every halfway house,
every group
dealing with runaways,
even hired a private detective
to do their job.
All they could do
was give us
Greg's bones in a bag
and apologize.
[♪♪♪]
[sorrowful music playing]
-I love you.
Billy?
-[Billy inhales deeply]
This is fucked.
-What?
-This is just fucked.
-Why?
-Because I'm not a--
I'm not--
I'm not a good person
like you.
-Yes, you are.
-I've done really
fucked up things in my life.
-I don't care.
-I'm trying to tell you
that you should care, okay?
Me and Danny, we,
we, we nearly
killed a guy one time
for his TV. Like
-Billy
-You're not for me, okay?
And, and that's okay.
You know, there's,
there's, there's an--
There's a good guy
out there for you,
a guy with--
You know,
he's got a good job and,
and he's not doing
fucked up shit all the time.
And-- Um, and he's,
he's a guy that
you can be really proud of.
-So shut the hell up and be him.
Be that guy.
Get a real job.
Bag groceries, I don't care.
Whatever it is, I'll be
proud of you just for trying.
I know who you are.
I'm for you,
so I'm not going anywhere.
-[sniffles]
[♪♪♪]
[dialing phone number]
[line ringing]
[pick up tone]
Frank [on phone]: Hello?
-Commander.
Kozenczak, Des Plaines.
-[Frank sighs] It's late.
Lt. Kozenczak:
Been doing some digging.
A year ago,
Robert Donnelly is walking
from college to the bus stop.
Gacy pulls over,
pretends to be a cop,
cuffs him,
takes him to his house,
he sodomizes him,
he pisses on him.
He forces him to play
Russian roulette.
He takes him into the bathtub
and he drowns him over and over
until he loses consciousness.
Donnelly begs Gacy to kill him.
Frank: Chief
-State's Attorney's office
declines to prosecute.
They called it
homosexual horseplay.
Now three months later,
Gacy attacks Jeffrey Rignall.
Same outcome.
That and the two
missing employees
that you and I talked about,
it's not a fuck up.
It's not a miscommunication,
an oversight.
That's a scandal.
Ten days,
we had Gacy tailed and
in custody in ten fucking days.
Chicago had ten years.
Frank: You finished?
Your boy, Rob Piest?
You know why you
launched a thousand ships
looking for that boy?
Makes me wonder.
What if he'd been a runaway,
a thug, a queer, an addict?
How many days
would it have taken you then?
[disconnect tone]
[slams the receiver]
[phone ringing]
-Hello?
Billy [on phone]: Don't be mad.
-What? Where are you?
-I know I'm late. I'm sorry.
But I got the best
reason in the world.
I think I got a job,
a real job.
-Serious?
-Yeah.
Your fiance's got a job.
-[chuckles]
I'm, I'm so proud of you.
We should celebrate.
-I gotta sign some of the stuff
for this guy but,
but I'll be there really soon.
I love you.
[song playing on radio]
singer: ♪ Only, only ♪
♪ Only tonight ♪
♪ All the ladies, stay inside ♪
♪ Time may freeze ♪
♪ A world could cry ♪
♪ All this night ♪
♪ Running loud ♪
♪ I hear the whispers ♪
♪ and I hear the shouts ♪
♪ And though they ♪
♪ never cry for help ♪
[song fades]
[dark music playing]
-[grunts]
[mournful music playing]
[inaudible]
[mournful music continues]
[indistinct chattering]
John: [chuckles]
You, you just looked so nice.
[♪♪♪]
-I talked to him.
I called him up to find out
if my Gregory called
and he said he did,
and that he was
gonna come to work. And
And I says,
"Well, did he ever come?"
He says, "No."
And I says,
"How do you know
it was Gregory?"
And he says
because he had him on his,
uh, tape, you know.
And I asked him if he
you know,
if he could play it back.
He said, no. He erased it.
So I wouldn't know.
[sorrowful music playing]
[dramatic music playing]
-The things
he did to those kids,
he's confessed to it twice now.
There is also the matter
of my co-counsel.
We're gonna need
a real nuts-and-bolts guy
to keep shoveling off the shit
Kunkle throws our way.
There is a petition
to remand my client
to the psychiatric
hospices of Cermak Hospital.
All we ask is that
he be held in emergency custody
for psychiatric evaluation.
-[John scoffs]
-The court agrees.
[indistinct chattering]
-I told cops, you did nothing!
Where is he?
Where is my boy?
-Parents reported
the boys missing.
CPD kept doing nothing.
-Medical and dental records
will be required
to identify the deceased.
John: They dumped some of them,
off the side. Right here.
-Goddamn fairies.
Faggots
brought it on themselves.
Elizabeth:
He wasn't like that.
Not like what they're saying
like those other boys.
He wasn't like that.
He was-- He was better
than what they're saying!
[chattering indistinctly]
[cameras rolling,
shutters clicking]
[soft somber music playing]
[footsteps approaching]
-I can do this. I, I can
-I have to. Thank you.
-You don't.
[clears throat]
These are the X-rays.
Um, one shows that root canal
he had that year.
-His infection.
-The other's for the gold crown.
I have earlier images, but I--
I don't think they'll need them.
Molds I took of his teeth.
I made models, uh,
a couple of years ago.
In, in case--
Well, after he disappeared.
In case
[somber music continues]
[wind rustling]
[bird cawing in distance]
[soft music playing]
-No. No, no, no, no.
No, no, no.
No. No. No, no, no.
[panting]
[dog whimpering]
-This case is gonna be built
by digging through case law.
It's actually
extremely exciting.
-Fucking tedious.
-All right. Be straight with me.
What did Gacy confess to police?
-All of it. All the murders.
Thirty-two of 'em.
If it's even the right number.
-How the hell'd
you let that happen?
-My team meet him.
-You get a copy
of the confession from police?
Did Gacy sign it?
-Nope. Nothing to sign, Bob.
Police didn't have him
write it down or record it.
He just kept talking
like a fucking looney tune.
Des Plaines
just jotted down notes.
-Oh, hang on a minute.
You're saying
all I got is some notes?
-Confession didn't happen.
-They could've said
whatever they wanted.
-Holy shit.
-When they got--
They got nothing to prove
Gacy said anything.
Plus,
you said he was distressed.
You said taking pills,
he's drinking heavily
could be improper
exertion of influence.
Right now,
all they got evidence of
is that Gacy was illegally
operating a graveyard.
-[scoffs]
I mean, we still gotta
build up a defense.
Insanity is the way to go.
-No other way.
-I mean, look.
The good news is
half the shrinks in the country
are begging for a crack at him.
He's like the fucking
Mona Lisa to these people.
-Prosecution's
entitled to run their own tests
with their own professionals,
but I think
we worry about that later.
-[sighs]
I mean,
there isn't a world
where he's anything
but fucking crazy, right?
[♪♪♪]
Lt. Kozenczak:
Gacy. G-A-C-Y.
Any reports on his sentencing,
incarceration,
and his release
from Anamosa State?
Yes. Thank you.
Fax it over as soon as possible.
Thank you.
[indistinct chattering,
vehicles honking horns]
Lt. Kozenczak:
Appreciate your time, Frank.
-Yeah. Helluva way to start your
tenure as Chief of Detectives.
They're, uh, calling it
the "Crime of a Century."
[Frank chuckles]
-Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know?
-Yeah. I do.
So how can I help?
-Our investigation recovered
Gacy's company payroll.
And Detective Tovar here
was looking into
some of the employees listed.
A few of them were reported
missing to your division
around the same time.
We're hoping to get
some clarification on
what was known about Gacy
and when it was known by CPD.
-God, I think it's fair to say
nothing was on here, Joe.
Otherwise, we'd intervened.
Det. Tovar: I'm sorry.
You guys dropped the ball.
You know that. We know that.
Let's just--
Let's just get this straight
here. It's our ass, too.
-We're not trying to pin
anything on Chicago
-It sounds like it.
-Help us understand this.
A man convicted
of sodomizing a teen boy
is paroled early to Chicago.
And then his teenage,
male employees
start disappearing
from the area.
And nobody in your department
looks into the guy?
Nobody taps our officers,
lets us know
there might be somebody in
our neighborhood hurting kids?
-The families, they're
gonna want an explanation.
And what
we are trying to say is that
we are more than willing
to be the first line of defense
if you can help us
fill in these gaps.
-You, uh, you know
we don't treat every missing
kid as a homicide, right?
Teenagers, especially.
Last year in Chicago, 19,000
kids go missing, 18,000 return,
and blow off a little steam,
they come home.
-Except the thousand who don't.
-The Szyc kid, I understand.
There's no direct link to Gacy.
Then you have
Butkovich's father,
and then the parents
of the other missing employee
-Yeah. Greg Godzik.
Yeah, we looked into it.
-Both families.
We have both families
saying that they were
calling CPD, nonstop.
Mentioning Gacy.
-Yeah. I--
I've read the reports, Joe.
We visited Gacy, oh yeah.
Looked into him.
Det. Tovar: Sometimes.
-But these weren't kids.
They're teenagers.
And no known violence
had occurred.
No record of foul play.
No reason
Det. Tovar: We were told--
to request
Gacy's record whatsoever.
-We were told by both families
that they were adamant to CPD
that Gacy has something
to do with it.
Nobody thought
the two missing persons
linked to the same man was odd?
It was just
chalked up to coincidence.
-This isn't Des Plaines.
It's Chicago.
It's a fucking sprawl.
Butkovich was from
Police Area Six, north side.
The Godziks are from Area Five,
northwest side.
So you got Marko Butkovich
calling Area Six about his son.
You got the Godziks
calling Area Five about theirs.
Sure. Both reports mentioned
a man named Gacy,
but how are
two different officers
in two different locations
supposed to know that?
-When I was at vice, we shared
whatever information we had.
-Vice? Yeah. That's why
you're such a fucking asshole.
Vice is where we sent
cowboys and mutts
who can't be fucking muzzled.
You know,
part of being a leader
is controlling
your subordinate, Joe.
-I'm sitting on potentially
dozens of bodies
that need to be identified,
and I've run out of road.
Files on every missing kid
that fits Gacy's M.O.,
that would be a great help.
Plus, anything
you have on Gacy himself.
-Well, there's a system.
Lotta paperwork,
gonna take some time.
Weeks, months
-Uh-hmm.
I understand the system.
I would consider it a favor
for whatever that is worth.
-Ship all the files
for every missing kid
from 1970 to now
over to Des Plaines.
Well, you got it.
But you'll see, most of these
kids are just troubled.
[siren wailing in distance]
[indistinct chattering]
[upbeat music playing in car]
singer: ♪ Well, I've been ♪
♪ lookin' real hard ♪
-Where are you two headed?
♪ and I'm tryin' ♪
♪ to find a job ♪
♪ But it just keeps ♪
-You wanna take us?
-♪ Gettin' tougher every day ♪
♪ But I got to do my part ♪
-Hop in.
♪ 'cause I know ♪
♪ in my heart I got ♪
♪ to please ♪
♪ my sweet baby, yeah ♪
♪ Well, I ain't superstitious ♪
♪ And I don't get suspicious ♪
♪ But my woman ♪
♪ is a friend of mine ♪
♪ And I know that it's true ♪
♪ That all the things ♪
♪ that I do ♪
♪ Will come back to me ♪
♪ in my sweet time ♪
♪ So keep on rock'n me ♪
♪ baby ♪
♪ Keep on rock'n me ♪
♪ baby ♪
♪ Keep on ♪
Maryjane: You don't wanna
rent some skates?
Come out here?
Danny: Don't have enough cash.
Maryjane: It's Billy, right?
You got a fancy car, too?
-Uh, no.
-[chuckles]
Beth: How can you afford
to fill that thing up with gas
if you can't afford to skate?
Danny: Maybe that's why
I can't afford to, honey.
You think of that?
-I'm sorry.
Danny has a sharp tongue,
and he thinks it's a gift.
[indistinct chattering]
[man laughing in distance]
-What's your gift?
-[chuckles] Outrunning cops.
-Can I come with you?
[music playing in distance]
Please?
-You from Chicago?
-Yeah. But, uh, my family,
we lived away for a while,
but I missed the city,
so I came back.
-What was that your friend
was saying?
About you and cops?
-He's trying to embarrass me.
singer: ♪ All my friends ♪
♪ They tell me don't ♪
-Who'd you steal that car from?
♪ But I've been ♪
♪ around in the world ♪
-If I tell you, will you
go to dinner with me?
♪ Why? Why, oh, why? ♪
[people laughing and chattering]
John: I'm happy to have you
on the team.
That's a helluva 'stache
you got on you.
You do somethin' with it?
Put somethin' in it
to make it so full?
Bob: Soap and water.
-Hah. Good on you.
Sam: All right. Here she is.
Lot of very accomplished,
intelligent psychiatrists
wanted to meet with you, John.
Fought for it even.
Dr. Deborah Healy
is the best out of California.
Flew out here just to see you.
-Oh.
All right then.
You're the lucky winner.
Step right up, head-shrinker.
-It's good to meet you.
[loud metal clang]
-I'm not being rude. Just
-You're not gonna try anything,
are you?
-[chuckles] I've always
had a thing for blondes.
-I suppose that's a no then.
John: There you go.
[sighs]
That's better.
Sam: Before Bob and I go,
we just wanna make sure that
you understand the prosecution
will make use
of this evaluation. Okay?
Everything you say
will be on the record.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm happy to talk to whoever,
get the story straight,
you know?
Put the blame where it belongs.
[prison door alarm
in distance]
Sam: All right. Have fun.
[eerie music playing]
-So,
what do you want to know?
Dr. Healy:
A good childhood then.
-I loved my father.
And he loved me.
He was just from the old-school.
A strong man. Strong views.
Guess you could call him
somethin' of a disciplinarian.
[unsettling music playing]
-Fair to say that he beat you?
-[chuckles softly]
John: Put it this way.
Pop liked his drink,
liked his sports,
liked his son
actin' like a man.
But I liked gardening,
baking with my ma.
I was sickly.
Couldn't throw a ball.
And the things I liked
[unsettling music continues]
Dr. Healy:
You like wearing the panties?
Maybe enjoyed dressing
like a woman?
-[groans] Hell no.
God. No.
The feel is all.
I stole 'em for the feel.
[unsettling music playing]
Dr. Healy: You buried them?
Under the house?
Why not borrow the panties?
Return them to the drawer?
- There was no
putting them back
because I'd use them for,
uh, for private sex.
-"Private sex"? Masturbation?
-Boys will be boys.
This is your typical
Oedipus complex.
Jesus Christ.
Let me explain it to you.
It's an obsession
with the mother.
It's a competition
with the father, yada yada.
I know all about this stuff
'cause I read lots of books
in psychology.
I could recommend some to you.
-That's very kind.
-I can pretend to be a virgin
if it's ruinin' your fun.
Give you the feelin' you're
poppin' my head cherry?
-No need to pretend.
It's good to talk to someone
so knowledgeable.
May I ask, John.
Your mother caught you.
Were you punished?
[ominous music plays]
-Yeah.
And the old man never quit
tryin' to beat
the sissy out of me.
But I got older.
Got tired of it.
Always dealing with him.
Like a different person
when he was drinking.
And this one night,
he wrestled me to the ground.
He was drunk.
He was cursing at me,
beating on me,
but I managed to get
on top of him
and hold him down. All right?
And he was screaming at me.
"Hit me!" He was saying,
"Hit me! Come on. Hit me!"
Calling me a coward.
"Hit me, you coward!"
-Did you hit him?
-I only held him down.
Just held him there.
[♪♪♪]
Told him, "I love you.
I won't hit you. I love you."
I took off that night.
John: I figured if I left and
made somethin' of myself,
I'd come back
and he'd have a reason
to be proud of me.
[dramatic music playing]
I made my way to Sin City.
It sounded so neat.
[chuckles]
-What was your plan?
-Oh, I didn't have one.
No. I just focused
on trying to find work,
and it was a lot harder
than I figured.
I tried banks, schools, casinos.
Nobody would hire me
because I was underage.
I almost tucked tail,
turned around,
went back home,
but then, a miracle.
[dramatic music playing]
John: They were
lookin' for a janitor.
I met the mortician, Ben.
He seemed
real hesitant at first,
but I told him that
not everything in life
is about a diploma.
Sometimes it's about passion,
and drive,
and a way with people.
I didn't need
some fancy diploma.
I had people skills.
And he saw that.
He hired me on the spot.
Janitor/night watchman.
[dramatic music continues]
Yeah, I was just a teenager
movin' up in the world.
I was so, so damn excited.
[♪♪♪]
He even gave me a cot,
let me sleep right next to where
he did the embalming.
So he believed in me.
Understood I was a hard worker.
I was working the night shift,
7:00 to 7:00.
Also,
I got a chance to learn some,
watching him work.
[dramatic music rises]
[music ends]
Dr. Healy: John?
John?
John?
Everything okay?
-Yeah. Yeah, just a nice memory.
[indistinct chattering,
laughing]
-It was my grandfather's.
Billy: Oh, that's nice.
-You're gonna steal it?
-[laughs]
-You don't look like a thief.
-Uh, okay.
What does a--
What does a thief look like?
-You dress well,
and you're polite.
-[laughs] Well, that--
Yeah, okay.
Thank you.
-[chuckles]
-That's my mom.
She's, uh,
always on me about
taking pride in my appearance.
She taught me how to iron,
how to crease my clothes.
-Hmm. Where is she?
-Uh, Ohio with my siblings.
-How many are you?
-Uh, five.
And I'm the oldest,
so, uh,
you know,
I kind of raised them.
My, uh,
my mom was always working.
And so, uh,
every day after school,
I was alone with them
when they were little, you know?
So they'd
always be tugging on me
and asking me for stuff,
like toys and candy
and chips, whatever.
And, and I felt bad 'cause
I didn't have any money.
So, so I started stealing
the stuff they were asking for.
I realized it was pretty easy.
I was good at it.
-You ever worry
you'll get caught?
-Yeah,
I've been caught a few times.
My mom made a point
not to bail me out,
but you learn from it.
You figure out what to do
to not get caught the next time.
What matters is you make it home
at the end of the night.
[soft piano music playing]
-I feel like
you've lived so much.
-We'll, you're a girl.
When you're a girl,
everybody helps you,
get you back on track.
If you're in trouble,
people assume the best of you.
If you're a guy,
they assume the worst.
Be told to man up,
figure it out.
-I've never
thought of it like that.
-It's okay. I figured it out.
I got a place,
I got nice clothes, I can eat.
Take out a pretty girl.
Okay. You ready?
-For what?
-It's time to dash.
-No.
-But now I'm kind of
giving away the gambit,
come on, we gotta go.
-Right.
[chuckles]
-You didn't hold your tongue
downtown,
why are you doing it now?
-It's nothing.
-Stop lookin' at me like that.
-I just didn't know you were
such a kiss-ass is all.
-Okay.
CPD didn't kill those kids
and neither did you.
So put down your pitchfork
and your cross
and start flipping
through the pages,
you son of a bitch.
-Why are you defending them?
-It's a massive department.
This was not on purpose.
It wasn't malicious.
Gacy fell through the cracks.
-Timmons said it himself.
You heard him.
He told us that we're gonna
go through all these files,
and we're gonna see that
all these kids were troubled.
-[chuckles]
Yeah, they're troubled.
Drugs, runaways,
gangs, delinquents.
Timmons was right.
-Exactly.
That's my fucking point.
-Finally, a fucking point.
-All right. Police Area 73
doesn't communicate
with Police Area 773, fine.
But how about this?
How many pages are in each
of those files, give or take?
-I don't know. Couple.
-That's what I'm saying.
There's fucking nothing in here.
Two pages. Two pages.
Three pages.
Most of these are just the
initial missing persons report.
There's no field interviews,
there's no contact
with the person
that reported them missing.
Chicago didn't follow up.
This?
You would really
not have to give a fuck
to wind up with one page.
But you don't get it.
And it's not your fault
that you don't get it.
You're not in the muck.
You didn't have
Marko Butkovich's spit
all over your face, all right?
-You're making this personal.
-Well, fuck yeah, I am.
And that's not my fault.
[knocking on door]
rookie cop: Sorry.
-What?
-Body we ID'd?
Godzik? Mom's here.
Wants to talk to somebody.
She's got her kid's
dental records and teeth.
Lt. Kozenczak: I can go do this.
Det. Tovar:
No. It's not your job.
[sorrowful music playing]
[inaudible]
-Now, when you came home,
how did--
Excuse me for a moment.
Sorry. I know
I have another pen somewhere.
Yes. Vegas.
How did your family react
when you came home?
-This is a mess.
-Is it bothering you?
-Better question is,
why isn't it bothering you?
If cleanliness is godliness,
you're a goddamn heathen,
aren't you?
-[chuckles]
[ominous music playing]
-You're not gonna tidy up?
Clean it.
[music rises]
[yells] Clean it!
[ominous music playing]
[ominous music continues]
The jacket.
[music fades]
[sighs]
Ma forgave me.
And Pop felt it was time
to move out, find a girl.
And he wasn't wrong.
I wanted to show him that
I could do okay for myself
on my own.
I found a job at a men's
clothing store not too far,
in Springfield.
And that's where
I met my first wife.
[dramatic music playing]
[John speaking indistinct]
John: Had such a nice,
warm feeling with Marlynn.
I always wanted to be a father,
a family man,
and I finally was.
[indistinct]
I loved the kids.
It's hard being away from them.
-You, you were away often?
-Oh.
Well, my father-in-law put me
in charge of his restaurants.
Dr. Healy: So he clearly
liked you, respected you?
John: No,
I don't know about that.
I think he just wanted what
was best for his little girl.
-Was your father-in-law
difficult to impress?
-He was demanding.
He didn't approve of me easy.
-So you inherited
another father figure
whose approval
you couldn't earn?
-[laughs] No, no.
No, my father-in-law
was tough on me,
but, uh--
Shit.
You're real good.
Well,
whatever it was with him,
it helped with my dad.
'Cause Ma told him
how well I was doin'
and he just had to come
see it for himself.
[♪♪♪]
He was proud of me that day.
I know he was.
Because he told me so.
We were sitting there
splittin' a bucket of biscuits
and he looked me
dead in the eye,
and he says,
"I was wrong about you, John.
Good wife,
good kids, good job.
You done good."
Just like that.
[inaudible]
"You done good."
[music playing on radio]
John: Was on top of the world.
Around that time is when I got
hooked up with the Jaycees.
singer:
♪ Loneliness and sorrow ♪
- The social club?
-Social club?
Jaycees is about politics.
Means for young men to get
into a network of professionals.
You wind up meetin'
important people,
organizin' charitable events
together.
-You have a love for politics.
-Politics is about power.
Power depends on consent.
That's a quote from
"Main Currents
in Modern Political Thought."
Lotta folks don't know
that's all politics is.
The feelin' of bein' important,
that people trust you.
-And you like power.
-Don't you?
You sittin' there,
jottin' whatever you're jottin'.
Judgin' me
when you don't even know me?
At one point,
the head of our chapter,
he asked me personally for
my help recruitin' new members.
That's how much they trusted me.
After a while, I got this
notion to start showin' films
after our meetings
to draw interest.
[indistinct chattering,
laughing]
all: Whoa!
man 1: Let's go!
man 2: Yeah!
all: Woo-hoo!
[clapping, cheering]
John: Membership tripled.
[laughs]
You like stag films?
-Never seen one.
-[laughs] Oh, my God.
Yeah?
Okay. Uh-huh.
You can't bullshit
a bullshitter.
Anyway, everybody agreed
there was no harm in it,
and it kind of snowballed,
and this idea of wife swapping
came up.
Even got Marlynn into it.
And all of a sudden,
I could fuck whoever I wanted.
Even other men's wives.
That's just how powerful I was.
Plus, I had good standin'
in the community,
so I thought I might as well
run for president
of the Waterloo Jaycees.
[♪♪♪]
And that's how I met
Don Vorhees.
Local politician.
Offered to be
my campaign manager.
[soft music playing]
[indistinct chattering]
[inaudible]
Met him and his son.
[ominous instrumental
music playing]
One day I was drivin', right?
Just goin' about my day.
I saw his son,
Don Jr., hitchhikin'.
I give him a ride.
Pickin' him up that day.
Probably the worst mistake
of my life.
Marlynn was out of town
visiting her mother at the time
and Don Sr. was a nice guy,
I thought.
So I assumed that his son
was a nice kid.
I was dumb and stupid.
Pop always said that to me,
that I shouldn't be so dumb
and stupid.
"Don't be so dumb and stupid,
John Wayne."
I should have listened.
[ominous music playing]
[inaudible]
[♪♪♪]
Because I'm gullible like that.
That's my fault.
I just, I, I trust too easy.
-You feel this boy took
advantage of your good nature?
-Kid ruined my life.
Just when things were going
perfect with my family, my pops.
And for what?
He wanted it, I wanted it.
-Are you saying it was
a consensual relationship?
-Damn right it was.
-He was a teenager.
You were a man.
-Okay. See,
you don't understand.
You don't understand at all.
He and I had an agreement.
I didn't force him
to do anything.
He asked for money
and I paid him.
Then he wanted more.
I says no, he starts talking
about telling his father,
and that is blackmail.
Pure and simple,
that is blackmail.
And this is a fairy trait too,
you know.
Lyin', flippin',
changing their word.
One moment this is okay,
the next it isn't.
Or there isn't enough money
anymore. They're liars.
-You speak with great disdain
for fairies.
You hate them. Why?
-They're weak.
-You feel as though you're
a different kind of homosexual?
-You've been listenin' to a word
that I've said?
I'm not a homosexual.
-Sorry, it's only that you're
telling me you seek out men.
-I'm not a fuckin' fairy.
-But you spend money
to have sex with them.
-[bangs table] Christ's sake!
This is ridiculous.
You are not listenin'.
How can you get an accurate
account of my mind
when you're not listenin'
to a thing that I'm tellin' you?
This is sloppy.
I'm gonna get on Sam about this.
You're a woman
for cryin' out loud.
You can't understand
how complicated
gettin' off can be for a guy.
They need a boy psychiatrist,
a male psychiatrist in here.
-I apologize. I was wrong.
Wrong to assume
you're homosexual.
That's-- That it's not
what you said to me.
-[exhales sharply]
I'm not mad.
I'm not mad at you, Deb.
I'm sorry I lost it a bit.
I'm trying to tell you,
you don't--
You don't seem to understand me.
And everybody's
getting this wrong.
Everyone's getting me wrong.
-That's frustrating.
-It is.
And the thing is,
I'm not the monster image that's
being portrayed in the papers.
There's no truth to it.
I was the one
taken advantage of.
And that's what all the lawyers
and the cops are missing.
Everyone's got this
tunnel vision for these guys
that I was dealing with,
labeling them "victims"
like they were altar boys
or something.
The focus has all been on them.
-But what was done to you?
-Exactly. Exactly.
And what I don't understand is,
why are you the first person
to ask me that, Deb?
"Oh, oh,
please don't help Mr. Gacy.
He's been blowing and jerking
and molesting me."
The court was a joke.
Do you know that
when the sentencing report
came back
from Iowa State Hospital,
they recommended
that I be given probation?
Probation.
Was never
supposed to go to prison.
Then they
sentence me to ten years.
You know,
I don't even think
my pops was surprised.
It was like he expected it.
Said something about how he
had to work twice as hard now,
to wipe out the blot
on his good name.
I was the blot.
[indistinct chattering]
Det. Fanholm:
Nice of you to join us.
-All right. Let's go.
Let's make the most out
of the last hours of the day.
I'll help.
[plane flying overhead]
-It wasn't a jab. I'd take
any excuse not to be here.
-Yeah, believe it or not,
I'd rather been here instead.
-Yeah, pretty easy day, really.
One kid still had his shoes on,
so he didn't spill any bones
anywhere.
-How was your Christmas?
-Got a couple of Dandyburgers.
Got a little drunk.
Passed a lot out.
How about yourself?
-I wasn't my best.
-Yeah?
-I couldn't really talk much
and they all noticed.
[birds chirping in distance]
-Growing up, all I wanted
was to push a black and white,
catch bad guys, you know,
like in the movies.
[chuckles]
-Yeah. How's that
working out for you?
-I'm digging fucking bodies
up out of a floor.
-So pretty fucking good, huh?
-Yeah. Pretty fucking good.
[exhales deeply]
Dr. Healy:
I imagine prison was
quite a shocking
experience for you,
given that you'd never have
been in legal trouble before.
-I was terrified.
Worried someone
was gonna rape me.
But I did everything I could to
make the best of a bad situation
and restore honor
to my dad's name.
After a while,
things ended up being fine.
There's this,
this one older fella
a few cells down from me.
He's a real talented painter.
I'm better than him but,
he was still good.
And I asked him
if he would paint
my father's portrait from
a photo that I'd brought in.
I wanted to gift it to him.
He took his sweet-ass time.
Had to keep on him.
Fucking artist.
Took him three months to finish.
My old man died
before I could give it to him.
Christmas Day, '69.
-How'd you feel
when you found out he passed?
-Like I killed him.
The shame of it killed him.
-His death
profoundly affected you.
-He was my dad.
-How did you deal with it?
-What? I'm not sure.
Uh, I mean, that's life?
Shit happens?
I got let out
a little while later. Paroled.
-Early. Remarkably early.
-Yeah. They knew
I didn't belong there.
Was a model inmate.
They studied me
like you're doing now.
Doctors, parole board.
They found me to be
a near-perfect case
of rehabilitation.
Figured I benefited society.
Let me out after 18 months.
And that says everything
you need to know right there.
[♪♪♪]
John: I just wish I could've
made him proud of me
one more time.
[birds chirping in distance]
Never saw Marlynn
or my kids after that.
-Why?
-She took them.
Nothing I could do.
-It's fairly commonplace
in a divorce,
fathers work something out,
arrange to see their kids
on holidays, what have you.
Even incarcerated people
still see their children.
Did Marlynn prevent you
from seeing them
or did you stay away?
-Uh, it just boils down to
she took them from me.
-I only ask because you were
so invested in being a father.
-I don't understand.
-Just go back to that time,
in your mind,
to how you felt
when you were released.
I mean,
your kids were quite young.
You'd only been away
a year and a half.
You didn't reach out. Why?
-See,
you're going in circles now.
-Did some part of you
feel relieved they were gone?
-Okay.
We're not going into that.
-Knowing you had this proclivity
for young men,
did you feel
it was for the best?
-No, we're not going into it.
I was a family man.
A happily married one. I just--
I couldn't have the kids.
I was supposed to stay
near my mother.
My mother.
That's what the parole
recommendation was,
so that's what I did.
I did what I was told.
Now, I could tell you
about that part if you want
but you have to stop it
with this.
You gotta knock it off.
-It's right around this time,
by your own admission,
that you murdered
the first young man.
-Self-defense.
-Will you tell me about it?
-Greyhound Bus Boy.
-Is that what you call him?
Did this boy have a name?
-He must have.
I'm sure he did.
-Pervasive narcissism.
Personality disorder
with obsessive-compulsive,
antisocial and hypomanic
qualities.
All compounded
by alcohol and drugs.
Grandiose
sense of self-importance.
Possibly borderline
psychopathic personality
with episodes of paranoid
schizophrenia.
Psycho-sexual conflicts,
a pronounced feeling
of masculine inadequacy,
an alarming lack of empathy,
ego disintegration,
expressions of very hostile,
dangerous impulses.
-So? He's crazy, right?
[chuckles]
-I've never seen
anything like it.
Like him.
I hope to never again.
-[inhales deeply]
Was there anything
in what he told you
that could explain
why he did this?
-Did he say why? No.
But, uh,
I think he was killing off
bits and pieces of himself
that he hated,
that his father hated.
Specifically, his homosexuality.
-We have to prove Gacy
has a condition.
Loses control,
loses his grip on reality,
prevents him from understanding
what he's doing is illegal.
Does this evaluation
support that?
-When you consider
his various delusions,
psychotic episodes,
his complete lack of emotional
control under duress,
I'd say it's entirely possible.
-And you'll testify to that?
-[inhales deeply]
I moved up my flight.
Headed back this evening.
Sam: Great. [groans]
-Obviously,
I'll file my findings.
Make myself available
as you need me.
O'Hare has a bar, right?
-Gate 38.
-[Bob scoffs]
-Great.
-Take care.
-You too.
-We are going with this.
Every interview,
every piece of press
that mentions John Wayne Gacy
has got to include
the word psychotic.
We drive home
how unstable he is.
-John Gacy, face of insanity.
That's how we win.
[depressing music playing]
-[sniffles]
Is it a win if we win?
-[sighs]
[people chattering indistinctly]
Eugenia: Excuse me.
You're Elizabeth Piest.
-Yes?
-I saw you on TV.
Robert's mother?
I'm Eugenia Godzik,
Greg's mother.
I-- Uh,
I needed to see it.
Doesn't seem real.
-Hmm.
-The whole time,
he was in there,
twenty minutes away
every day for two years.
-Hmm.
-Can you make sense of it?
-I went looking for Rob
down by the river the other day.
That's where he
threw him into the river.
I don't know why I thought
I'd find Rob,
but it was frozen.
I have to wait till spring
to find my boy.
-[exhales sharply]
The kind of-- How a man--
The kind of evil that man is.
I spoke to him.
-To Gacy?
-Begged him for help.
He was Greg's boss at the time.
-[inhales deeply]
[exhales sharply]
-I called to ask him
if he'd seen my son
and he told me Greg
had left a message
on his answering machine
days after I had
reported him missing,
that he was probably fine.
When I asked him to play
the message for me,
he said he'd erased it.
-That's [breathes shakily]
-Cruel.
[people chattering indistinctly]
My husband and I called
Chicago Police so often.
Kept telling me to trust them.
[mournful music playing]
They weren't trying
like I was trying.
I spoke to every halfway house,
every group
dealing with runaways,
even hired a private detective
to do their job.
All they could do
was give us
Greg's bones in a bag
and apologize.
[♪♪♪]
[sorrowful music playing]
-I love you.
Billy?
-[Billy inhales deeply]
This is fucked.
-What?
-This is just fucked.
-Why?
-Because I'm not a--
I'm not--
I'm not a good person
like you.
-Yes, you are.
-I've done really
fucked up things in my life.
-I don't care.
-I'm trying to tell you
that you should care, okay?
Me and Danny, we,
we, we nearly
killed a guy one time
for his TV. Like
-Billy
-You're not for me, okay?
And, and that's okay.
You know, there's,
there's, there's an--
There's a good guy
out there for you,
a guy with--
You know,
he's got a good job and,
and he's not doing
fucked up shit all the time.
And-- Um, and he's,
he's a guy that
you can be really proud of.
-So shut the hell up and be him.
Be that guy.
Get a real job.
Bag groceries, I don't care.
Whatever it is, I'll be
proud of you just for trying.
I know who you are.
I'm for you,
so I'm not going anywhere.
-[sniffles]
[♪♪♪]
[dialing phone number]
[line ringing]
[pick up tone]
Frank [on phone]: Hello?
-Commander.
Kozenczak, Des Plaines.
-[Frank sighs] It's late.
Lt. Kozenczak:
Been doing some digging.
A year ago,
Robert Donnelly is walking
from college to the bus stop.
Gacy pulls over,
pretends to be a cop,
cuffs him,
takes him to his house,
he sodomizes him,
he pisses on him.
He forces him to play
Russian roulette.
He takes him into the bathtub
and he drowns him over and over
until he loses consciousness.
Donnelly begs Gacy to kill him.
Frank: Chief
-State's Attorney's office
declines to prosecute.
They called it
homosexual horseplay.
Now three months later,
Gacy attacks Jeffrey Rignall.
Same outcome.
That and the two
missing employees
that you and I talked about,
it's not a fuck up.
It's not a miscommunication,
an oversight.
That's a scandal.
Ten days,
we had Gacy tailed and
in custody in ten fucking days.
Chicago had ten years.
Frank: You finished?
Your boy, Rob Piest?
You know why you
launched a thousand ships
looking for that boy?
Makes me wonder.
What if he'd been a runaway,
a thug, a queer, an addict?
How many days
would it have taken you then?
[disconnect tone]
[slams the receiver]
[phone ringing]
-Hello?
Billy [on phone]: Don't be mad.
-What? Where are you?
-I know I'm late. I'm sorry.
But I got the best
reason in the world.
I think I got a job,
a real job.
-Serious?
-Yeah.
Your fiance's got a job.
-[chuckles]
I'm, I'm so proud of you.
We should celebrate.
-I gotta sign some of the stuff
for this guy but,
but I'll be there really soon.
I love you.
[song playing on radio]
singer: ♪ Only, only ♪
♪ Only tonight ♪
♪ All the ladies, stay inside ♪
♪ Time may freeze ♪
♪ A world could cry ♪
♪ All this night ♪
♪ Running loud ♪
♪ I hear the whispers ♪
♪ and I hear the shouts ♪
♪ And though they ♪
♪ never cry for help ♪
[song fades]
[dark music playing]
-[grunts]
[mournful music playing]
[inaudible]
[mournful music continues]
[indistinct chattering]
John: [chuckles]
You, you just looked so nice.
[♪♪♪]
-I talked to him.
I called him up to find out
if my Gregory called
and he said he did,
and that he was
gonna come to work. And
And I says,
"Well, did he ever come?"
He says, "No."
And I says,
"How do you know
it was Gregory?"
And he says
because he had him on his,
uh, tape, you know.
And I asked him if he
you know,
if he could play it back.
He said, no. He erased it.
So I wouldn't know.
[sorrowful music playing]
[dramatic music playing]