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Subscribe to RSSCook County Sheriff Tom Dart, pictured, said William George Bundy disappeared 35 years ago, when he was 19 years old. NBC's Phil Rogers reports.
DNA evidence identified Victim No. 19 — labeled as such because his was the 19th body removed from the killer's basement — as William George "Bill" Bundy, 39, Sheriff Tom Dart said Tuesday. The body was found in the crawl space of Gacy's house on Dec. 28, 1978.
Bundy had been reported missing on Oct. 27, 1976, and his family always believed that he might have been a victim of Gacy. But the only identification tool available at the time was dental records, and Bundy's records had been destroyed by his retired dentist.
Bundy's brother, Robert, and sister, Laura, who attended the news conference Tuesday, provided comparison DNA to the sheriff's department, which sent it to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification.
"Because of all this, Victim Number 19 isn't going to be known as a number anymore," Dart said.
• Read the original story on NBCChicago.com
"Closure is great, but my only wish in this particular case would have been that we could have provided some sort of closure for William's mother and father before they passed away," Dart said. "I do hope and pray that Laura and Robert might find some peace and closure with the news today."
Laura Bundy said she believed from the beginning that her brother was a victim of Gacy, who was a construction contractor. Bundy was also a construction worker, and "he was always all over the city," she said.
"When that happened and I found out that Gacy was a contractor, I just knew it," she said.
Dart announced in October that his office had obtained DNA profiles for all of the notorious serial killer's remaining victims and asked that anyone with missing loved ones to come forward to give DNA samples.
After the request, more than 30 people contacted the sheriff's office in hope of matching names to the remaining eight Gacy victims. Four samples came back from the North Texas institute without matches.
Gacy was convicted of murdering 33 young men and boys, most of whom were found buried in the crawl space of his Norwood Park Township home near O'Hare Airport. The former construction contractor was executed in May of 1994.
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19? -- That anchors him in solid place as Bachmann's favorite home town celebrity
Wow, I've seen a lot of idiots put politics in any given conversation, but you are a doozy. You must be a very disturbed, angry individual. Try and keep to the subject at hand.
That devil still torments people.
Bachmann?
This article is full of errors. Victim was 19. Sister's name no longer Laura Bundy. Geez.
Hope Gacy is comfortable in Hell.
"Gacy kills Bundy!".....sounds like a low rate "Freddie vs. Jason" movie.
All you idiots who oppose the death penalty should reconsider whether you would like your tax dollars going to house killers like Gacy who will have free room and board,,pump iron, read how to delay his execution from the library, and all with breakfast, dinner and supper waiting for him while you get up every morning to go to work and him still sleeping. Nice deal huh????
Your tears of outrage (bloodthirst?) fuel my opposition to state-sponsored murder.
Even the most uneducated understand that it takes more money to house a killer until executed because of the high cost of death penalty appeals.
It actually is cheaper to keep people alive for a lifetime sentence than it is to kill them. So much for your inane financial argument.
The appeals process needs to be revamped. One and done.
someone like this should not be aloud to breath anymore though. I know it costs more because of appeals and such but when there is no doubt with someone like gacy why should there be appeals court? 33 people he killed. No doubts.
such a thin argument to think that state sanctioned execution is murder, kind of the same argument that abortion is simply a choice. Typical liberal ideological twisting of language in an attempt to strengthen their arguments through smoke and mirrors. Gacy was a sociopath of the worse kind, a mad dog who committed unspeakable acts, yet there are still people unable to see past their idiotic progressive ideology. Just set it aside for a moment and realize if ever there was an for FOR the death penalty this was it and that in the end he was given an easy out. Your ability to emphasize with the criminal and not the victims amazes me.
Um, not in Texas.. They line them up on an express line.. As they should!!! I'm so sick of you bleeding hearts... All these fools that sit around in tha appeals system.. What a waste of $ time and effort. and the pain the families have gone through..
It actually is cheaper to keep people alive for a lifetime sentence than it is to kill them. So much for your inane financial argument.
Excellent argument for electing politicians who will change that - spend at least as much time, money and effort in that as fighting gay marriage.
And - even if it is true that it costs more money to execute - those who are found guilty should be executed anyway. Tax dollars well spent.
Unplugged, you are correct, it is cheaper to keep them alive and maybe it will be tougher on them because of prison justice. However, there is no guarantee they will stay in prison for life. Here is an example. A killer in Massachusetts was let out for a weekend furlough by a Liberal Governor and fled the state. He killed a young couple in Washington State before he was caught. He had always claimed his innocence and had a Liberal lawyer supporting him by the name of Devaul Patrick. Patrick wrote letters on his behalf offered financial and moral support to this guy, I think named LeGrande. Patrick is now the Gov of Massachusetts and had this guy not gotten out and murdered 2 innocents, I guarantee you Patrick would have quietly commuted his sentence. This is why we need the death sentence, you can't trust Liberals to do the right think. I can't wait to see who Obama pardons on his way out the door in January 2013.
There should be no appeals for serial killers. Give them them a short trial and fry them. PERIOD! This freak killed 33 young men. He deserved nothing but a quick death. Same with any serial killer.
I have absolutely NO problem executing serial killers once we're sure we've got the right person. I understand the frustration with killers living for years on death row, and I agree that the appeal process needs to be made much more efficient than it currently is. We need to allow at least one appeal at the state level, one at the federal and one at the supreme court, however, because there are FAR too many innocent people on death row and preventing a mistaken execution is more important than killing a guilty person as fast as possible.
And all you idiots who support the death penalty should have an innocent loved one put to death.
Just kidding. Kind of.
Do you mean murdered? Yes, I would support the death penalty even more if someone murdered my innocent loved one.
Especially if there were idiots who wanted to keep him alive.
No kidding.
Admit it, you all officialy involved blew it,,I don't particularly blame you all, but it has been my contention all along that the death penalty is rediculous, I do find it interesting that in all this time nobody has contacted 'Me' the jerkoff gacy's plumber at the time, who knew or could have known, so many of these boys. And now, so many years later you work. My mind sat iddle so many years in regard, nary a clue,,,,as to why we take our pound of flesh for cheap revenge.
I will, all my life, feel for those in doubt, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers,,,could have been me...But I saw the beast coming, That he knew....Been near the crawl and suggested lime powder for a family of dead raccoons or possum or who knows what,, but that god damn sewer worked as it was designed to.
I have one question all along, and I did my best to make this point at the time,,,Prove to me that the bastard was alone...
who are you?
I wouldn't feel guilty about not catching on to Gacy.I knew him for awhile befor the time of the murders "small world" We worked on a miniature golf course together and a few other projects , I"ll say, for the JCs, and let that go at that. Anyway, once during a card game to pass away the "time" he became quite irritated and stuck a sharpened pencil at my throat. I felt not the slightest bit threatened, I made some joking remark, don't remember, and just laughed. Also had no clue at the time that he was even gay. Virtually all of the time Gacy was outgoing and friendly with a lot of sick joking around with off color remarks.
I think also that he "worked" alone on all the murders. He would definitely have ratted on a partner to try and save his own skin. That's a SURE bet. Also, the police aren't stupid, they'd have figured it out by now.
Could you or anyone else have known what was going on? I don't think so, he was a master at deceit We had a total eclipse of the sun here the next morning after his execution. As we were watching it,I told my Born Again Christian friends "yeah, when my friends die, the world turns to darkness". I just couldn't help myself. They didn't say anything
Excuse me, I made a mistake,,I meant to say "That Eval Bastard".
You see I am the expert and when it comes time for someone to say "You did your job" it will be me..
So go write your books and go make you money. But the fact of the matter is,,,You @!$%#ed Up...
Well at least the PIECE OF EVIL SH IT IS DEAD.Like I always say Throw the Stinking Garbage Out.For what it's worth I hope these families can find some closure to this Horrific Incident.
gloria, His death did nothing. Stop the foolish drug war and apply the money to real criminals then perhaps these canibals could be diseminated until their deeds are found out, giving the grieving loved ones true closier. Try for a moment to imagine a love one lost, wondering all the while whether or not said love one left you on their own valition or were snatched unwillfully,,,Thats closier..
actually closure to me would have been being able to see his fat bloated corpse - that's closure.
His death did plenty, his life did nothing!
Gacy, the mild mannered, chubby little guy, always a smile,the jester with the off color remarks. The "Benny Hill" of the pervert world, the work a hoick that went till he passed out, even with his heart problems. Answer a guestion with "you suck what???" , or "you take it where???" and a big grin. No one saw it comming, not even a clue--
George, I was right there and in a way you are right, he was a compleat @!$%#, when he turned his back everyone in the room said 'keep on going, you looser creep' but the fact is No one saw it coming.. those poor souls only wanted a decent construction job to better themselves, a bunch of young men who would never see the inside of a college classroom but could think as well as any. there used to be people like that.
19,,so many more to go...
He didn't have to become a complete @!%* Extremely intelligent, understood the stock market during a time when it wasn't so popular. Actually had a very cordial personality when meeting people. Could have been a nice guy, took a wrong turn. Probably his divorce in1969 affected him.
I really hope you're kidding, if not what is it about "sociopath" that you don't understand?
I'm not kidding--said he didn't HAVE to become a sicko, didn't say he didn't become one. He was very capable of going just as extreme in the right direction. He concealed his "dark side" so well that no one suspected. He was not threatening by mannerisms or appearances. That picture of him's a little spookey though--think they altered it?
One of the primary causes of sociopathic behavior is believed
to be neurological abnormalities mainly in the frontal lobe of the brain. The abnormal anatomy or chemical activity within this area of the brain may be caused by abnormal growth (possibly
genetic), brain disease, or injury. A second factor believed to be partially responsible for the sociopathic disorder in some cases is the primary socialization of individuals within dysfunctional environments, such as abusive, poorly educated, or poverty stricken homes, but this factor has fallen in cause to the primary.
Gacy was brain damaged, and incapable of making a decision to be anything other then who he was. He could never have gone in the extreme opposite direction of life. He was born damaged goods - extremely damaged goods and the best possible outcome for him would have been early identification of his pathology, institutionalization and lots and lots of medications. The only positive contributions he could have ever made was to have been a long-term case study. He was simply broken, and born defective.
Unidentified was our problem.
Justice was served too lightly .
Actually a lot of sociopaths turn in the "right" direction, they become CEO's. They just obsess over money instead of death.
Those CEO's aren't sociopaths, per se, they are narcissists. I would also like to say that believing in the death penalty doesn't always (shouldn't) have to be painted as "blood lust". It should be viewed as humane, actually. The whole system needs to be overhauled, made more certain --yay DNA- (for the innocent lives lost on death row), but the "putting down" should be much, much quicker when there is no shadow of a doubt. It's more humane...they are damaged and may not even want to kill but can't help the compulsion. I am a liberal in a lot of ways but I am for the death penalty.
Sorry, not really-no- Gacy was capable of making intelligent decisions but chose to do otherwise with his secret life. He was also proficient at organization and was OUTGOING with people. not hostile in nature. Don't choke on this--a likeable person if you didn't know better
he got sentenced in 1968 to 10 years for sodomy and hiring someone to beat the witness. he served 18 months. He was married 2 times and had 2 children. I hope he did not pass on this disease to them.
2 times? didn't know that--- sodomy?--gosh-bet he didn't advertise that too much! even in a "kinder garden prison"
he was charged with sexual misconduct my mistake.
showing porn at a JC meeting--would you really believe that? Doesn't sound like so much
John Wayne Gacy was born in 1942 and grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. His father, John S. Gacy, Sr. (1900-1969), was an alcoholic and beat him frequently during his violent rages. As Gacy grew up, he began to develop a identity crisis - doubting his own masculinity. At the age of 11, he suffered a blow to the head from a swing. Over the next five years, he had frequent blackouts until doctors found a clot in his brain that was removed with medications. Following that, he would feign 'heart problems' for attention.
He graduated from business college and started to work as a shoe salesman. Gacy married a co-worker worker, whose family owned a KFC in Waterloo, Iowa and began to work there as Manager. He gradually earned the respect of the local Jaycees. In May 1968 he was arrested for sexual misconduct with a young male employee. Gacy actually hired a thug to beat up the witness, which failed, and only increased the charges against him. He plead guilty to sodomy and was sentenced to 10 years. Gacy was a model prisoner and was paroled in 1970 after serving only 18 months.
He then moved to Chicago where he began his life anew as a building constructor. Gacy became popular with his new neighbors and colleagues. He would throw theme parties and often dress up as 'Pogo the Clown' for children's parties and charity shows. Gacy was also involved with the Democratic party and even had his picture taken with then First Lady Rosalynn Carter (wife of former President Jimmy Carter).
On February 12, 1971 he was once again charged with sexual misconduct towards a young man. The witness did not show up in court and the charges were dropped. He finished his parole on October 18, 1971. Gacy committed his first murder on January 3, 1972. His modus operandi would be to drive around town looking for young male runaways, ex-jailbirds or even male prostitutes. Gacy's victims ranged in age from 9 to 20 years. He would flash them a 'badge' or a 'gun' pretending to be an officer of the law and 'arrest' them. Gacy would then befriend them and take take them home where he showed them tricks with 'magic handcuffs'. Once he had subdued his victim he would torture, sodomize and garrote them. Then he would bury them in a crawl space beneath his house. When he ran out of space he began to dump bodies in neighboring rivers. After he divorced his second wife in 1976 the killings escalated as he had the house to himself. On October 25, 1976 he committed a double homicide! In December 1977 he actually let one of his victims leave after he had 'done' with him.
On December 12, 1978 he killed his 33rd and last victim; a 15-year-old boy, named Robert Piest, who lived in his neighborhood. This was Gacy's one big mistake. The victim had told someone he was going to see his "contractor" about a job and was never seen again. The "contractor" turned out to be Gacy. When the police dropped by his house they noticed the smell from the decomposing corpses underneath. When they saw his police record, it wasn't hard for them to get a search warrant of his house. A total of 29 bodies were extracted from the crawlspace and five more from the nearby river, of which 9 remain unidentified. Gacy was judged sane by the court psychiatrists and in 1980 was charged with 21 counts of life for murders committed before June 21, 1977 when Illinois reinstated the death sentence. For the 12 committed since then he got the death sentence.
Your paper left out the time of his 1st divorce which was in 1969 I read somewhere his only comment was "they're dead" --you don't mean that John??--"they're dead", with no emotion. You don't make that up, musta been true
his last words were "kiss my ass".
He was divorced after sentencing in 1968 charges. He remarried in 1971 and divorced again in 1976. He said his ex wife and kids were dead to him after the divorce. He and his second wife did not have any children. (probably a good thing)
Right out of the "book" no offense. Was he a prisoner or did he run the place?? That's a little joke-- The disease passed on to his family? no, divorced remember? Two words in regard to his wife and family-- "they're dead"
I had to write a paper on him some years ago. I found him to be so disgusting. I don't like to be harsh but he is the worst of them. He was not a good man at any point. Yeah its easier to copy and paste things....but it still is the truth of it.
Most of the truth- he wasn't a large man or even physically strong-heart problems. Was physically even a weak man. Forget the movies--fiction
Guess this vine is "dead" kinda like " running a cemetery without a permit" can't imagine who'd do that. o well
It's a horrible thing that Gacy murdered these men. But as the Policeman said 'He is no longer a number'. At least William is with his family in the afterlife.
Gacy still has many disciples, fukkass clowns.
gacy was in idiot as far as construction was concerned, he coulodn't build his way out of a paper bag. I always thought he had a drinking proublem, he would start the day giving conflicting orders and scream at the top of his lungs to his workers that questioned anything, at 11;00 he'd disapear and come back about 2;00 acting the clown, like everybodies best friend..
...I don't believe for a minute he was alone through all his time in Chicago, All you gacy freaks out there, the ones who would collect his crappy art and such, go look into the guy who kicked his ass in the guys moms bar on I believe it was Wrightwood ave.....
I saw him get his ass kicked once muself . He got knocked down and yelled "what I do, what I do?' Not a tough guy at all. I didn't help him. I'd disagree with you about his work ethics unless he changed, I saw him pass out from overwork. This was all before your time .
You knew him before 1977? or you know me??
I checked your posts a little deeper and find you knew gacy quite a long time before I did, where you as shocked as I was when they arrested him? I hated the bastard but it took us by suprise..I always felt bad for not inspecting that crawl deeper and always expected him to blame me, I think he tried but I never heard about it. I also want to know about two other people that where on the scene at the time, the guy Mike with the bar and some guy with a big mustache from out of state (can't remember the guys name) the out of state guy disapeared right when gacy got nabed or shortly before. The guy was quite large and I find it hard to believe gacy could have taken him down.....
We had just woken up and it was on the radio. My wife and I were very shocked by it! Couldn't believe it was Gacy. Like I said, the Gacy I knew just wasn't anything like that. He was actually an intelligent, like-able sort. Under the circumstances that I knew him, his behavior probably was subdued and he behaved himself VERY well. He definitely was a "leadership" type personality as far as coordinating committees, work, ect. He WAS NOT a "tough guy" or a "bad azz", but mild manured. I don't know anything concerning Gacy in Des Plaines or the two you mentioned. Don't know a big guy with a mustache.. It was a surprise alright, he could have become a decent citizen and made something of himself besides that.
"GEORGE'the troll-good a name as any. Knew a kid named George when I was a little kid and always liked that name
By the way, he NEVER walked around loudly proclaming "fuc*&^#" queers" or anything like that if you get my drift. He'd have answered for that on his own if he had. Never happened. Don't believe everything you read-- about that clown