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1978 photo of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
Nearly two decades after Chicago serial killer John Wayne Gacy was executed for torturing, raping and murdering 33 men and boys in the 1970s, two lawyers say they’ve unearthed evidence that indicates he didn’t act alone in some of the slayings.
Criminal defense attorneys Robert Stephenson and Steven Becker, who are partners in a Chicago law practice, said they re-examined the circumstances surrounding the disappearances of some of the victims. Their conclusion: the so-called “Killer Clown” had at least three accomplices.
The Chicago Sun-Times and WGN-TV first reported on the lawyers’ claims on Thursday and Friday.
“There is significant evidence out there that suggests that not only did John Wayne Gacy not operate alone, he may not have been involved in some of the murders, and the fact that he was largely a copycat killer,” Stephenson told WGN.
Stephenson and Becker on Friday presented their findings to Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart plus a lead investigator and a former prosecutor in the decades-old case.
Dart described the meeting as "very fruitful."
"They raised valid questions," Dart told msnbc.com in a telephone interview. "I definitely would not dismiss what they have said. It’s not out of left field. Its' well thought out."
The sheriff said investigators will follow up on the information and, if it proves solid, will try to locate the potential accomplices -- two of whom are believed to be still alive. The case has had so many twists and loose ends – seven Gacy victims remain unidentified, for example – that Dart is keeping an open mind.
"Have we ruled out that someone would have helped Gacy in one or more of the murders? No," the sheriff said.
Stephenson said he and Becker started looking into the Gacy case last year at the request of a mother who questioned the finding that her son, Michael Marino, was one of the bodies found on Gacy's property. A dentist who made the original body IDs re-examined X-rays and said he’s certain the victim was Marino, according to the Sun-Times.
The investigation into Marino's death led the lawyers to a flurry of leads and new information from other sources.
Stephenson estimates he and his law partner have voluntarily spent up to 30 percent of their work time over last six to eight months on the case -- without compensation.
“It’s one of those things, when you start meeting with family members and you start talking to them, knowing how important it is to them to have their questions resolved, you just feel compelled to do it,” Stephenson told msnbc.com on Friday.
"We've turned what we’ve had to the proper authorities. I’m sure they will take their time and look at it and do what is appropriate," he added.
Stephenson and Becker told the Sun-Times they found anomalies in the cases of victims Russell Nelson of Minneapolis and Robert Gilroy and John Mowery of Chicago. The three young men disappeared in 1977 and were among 29 victims found buried on Gacy’s property – most in the crawlspace of his home - in unincorporated Norwood Park Township outside Chicago in 1978. The remains of four other victims were dumped in a nearby river.
Gacy, a building contractor who performed as an amateur clown at fundraising events and children’s parties, was tried in Chicago in 1980 and convicted of 33 murders. He was executed in 1994.
Did Gacy have help?
Stephenson and Becker say a review of Gacy’s travel and work records and other court documents indicates he was out of town when Nelson and Gilroy disappeared.
New technology might answer who Gacy's remaining unidentified victims are. NBC's Stephanie Gosk Reports.
Gilroy vanished on Sept. 15, 1977, between 5 p.m., when he talked to his girlfriend by telephone, and 6 p.m., when he failed to show up at a bus stop for a trip to an equestrian-riding class, the lawyers told the Sun-Times and WGN. But a copy of a plane ticket shows Gacy flew to Pittsburgh on Sept. 12 and didn’t return to Chicago until the night of Sept. 16, the lawyers say.
Nelson went missing on Oct. 19, 1977. A friend told police Nelson vanished that evening while they were outside a disco bar in Chicago. But Nelson’s mother said the friend later gave her a different account and also repeatedly asked her for money to help find him.
Stephenson told the Sun-Times he doesn’t believe Gacy could have snatched the 21-year-old Nelson from the street without the friend seeing anything.
A few months before Nelson disappeared, Gacy did some work at a drug store just blocks from where Nelson’s friend lived, Becker and Stephenson said. And Nelson’s mother said the friend offered Nelson’s two brothers a job with Gacy.
Some have speculated the friend, who according to the lawyers is still alive and living in another state, may have been involved in Nelson’s disappearance.
“I don’t know that [the friend] was involved,” Stephenson told the Sun-Times. “But I know that he wasn’t telling the truth here.”
“I think it tells us that John Wayne Gacy was using other individuals to procure young boys over state lines,” Becker told WGN.
Mowery, 19, was last seen alive at 10 p.m. on Sept. 25, 1977, leaving his mother’s house after dinner. He was scheduled to work the next morning, Stephenson told the Sun-Times.
Contractor records show Gacy was at a job in Michigan at 6 a.m. on Sept. 26, 1977, and was in Michigan until Sept. 30, 1977, Stephenson said.
Stephenson told the newspaper he doubts Gacy would have the time to abduct, torture and kill Mowery in the narrow time frame between Mowery’s disappearance and Gacy heading to work in Michigan.
Stephenson said other evidence suggests Gacy had accomplices, too.
Gacy was known for using a rope and board to strangle his victims, but autopsies on Gilroy and Nelson showed they died from asphyxiation due to suffocation rather than strangulation, WGN reported.
And, according to the Sun-Times:
After he was arrested in 1978, Gacy told officers: “Who else do you have in the station? There are others involved.” He was asked, “Directly or indirectly?” and responded, “Directly. They participated.” He was asked, “Who are they?” and responded, “My associates.”
Also, Gacy told police he got the idea of putting his victims on a “torture board” from Elmer Wayne Henley, a Texas serial killer. Henley was an accomplice of Dean Corll, who killed at least 28 boys and young men. Henley killed Corll and is now serving a life sentence.
“Gacy was a copycat,” Stephenson told the newspaper. “And he was copycatting a killer who used accomplices.”
Stephenson told msnbc.com: "I think I can say, from our information to this point, we believe there are at least three accomplices."
One of them was the "friend" of Nelson; Stephenson wouldn't say who the other two were.
Sheriff Dart, who also declined to release the names, said one of the possible accomplices is believed to be dead. He said investigators will interview the other two if follow-up work indicates they could have been involved in some of the Gacy killings.
"There have been countless leads that have come in -- some of them obviously not valid from the get-go, others ones much more so. So here we have leads that are valid to be run out. This would be in a much higher category of leads," he said of the lawyers' information.
Loose ends
Terry Sullivan, who was on the Gacy prosecution team as a state’s attorney and who wrote a book, “Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders,” about the case, says he wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out Gacy had help in committing his crimes.
“I felt from the beginning that there may be loose ends. It was such a huge case, especially at the time,” Sullivan told WGN.
But Gacy’s defense lawyer, Sam Amirante, doesn’t buy the accomplice theory.
“Nothing as far as killing or recruiting … we thought about it, but we just never saw any evidence,” he told WGN.
Amirante said Gacy confessed to everything early on, and only after years in prison did he begin to change his story.
That's a point a former prosecutor on the case also raised, Dart said: "Gacy was trying everything he could to avoid being executed. If there was an accomplice or accomplices …he would have brought it out at that point to save his own skin.”
Stephenson contends Gacy did claim to have accomplices shortly after his arrest.
All parties agree the Gacy case has been anything from ordinary.
Dart estimates it'll take a month or two to fully investigate the new information.
As for victims' families, the reaction has been mixed.
"We've been in contact with many, many victims' family members over the past six months. None of them were really surprised by what was announced last night," Stephenson told msnbc.com. "Some of them don’t want to talk about it and revisit old wounds. Others do, and those that do have provided really valuable information."
Meanwhile, seven victims of Gacy remain unnamed. In December, the Cook County sheriff’s office announced that it had identified, through DNA testing, an eighth previously unidentified victim: 19-year-old William Bundy, a Chicago resident who disappeared in 1976. The sheriff also told four families that DNA tests ruled out their missing relatives as among Gacy's victims.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News
Leave a Comment:
I hate clowns!
If the duo had a television show; would it be called "Gagney and Gacy"?
Yeah I know so do I.Now I know why they creeped me out!
So why have they waited 30 years to do this investigation? I am sure the trail has gone cold now. My theory: The alleged accomplices later became victims and they were buried under the house along with the others.
Me too!! Killer clowns the most.
Does it matter? Even if he was only a copy cat he was still a murderer, and yes I too suffer from Coulrophobia "the fear of clowns"
I still wish they would have fried him with his floppy clown shoes on.
i have never met a clown that in real life wasn't a very, very angry volitile and unbalanced person
So, the insane clown had a posse?
I hate clowns too
leave obama out of this !!(had to be done)
Does anyone know who wrote this for the Sun Times? I'd like to offer an account of that time that may be of use to the investigation. If the author is reviewing these comments please feel free to contact me via the email I gave to leave this comment with MSN.
Clown Haters...
I am a different clown...Check it out here...LOL or I will find you!...
Just kidding...
Peace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSkJ_YuIeEo
What did Jeffrey Dahmer say to Lorena Bobbitt?
"You gonna eat that?"
Where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.
So happens they're here!
Dexter: Sounds like you meet a lot of clowns.
What did they find in Jeffrey Dahmer's bathroom?
Head and Shoulders!
Why did Dahmer look for another apartment?
He needed more elbow room!
@ denver bill 2, Hilarious,Awsome,Quick Witted,Quote of the day. You Rock db2. HaHa
Back off the Clowns - us Patches Pals will kick your ass.
Gacy is not the clown that killed the most people.
They say that the Marino boy was found under the crawl space and was "possitively ID'ed" by a dentist??? How in the hell could he have done that? The upper and lower jaw bones were not even connected to the skull. So How could he assume they were Marino's? I bet when it comes out that those jaw bones really are NOT Marino's this "Dentist" wont even get into any trouble. Even though he is obviously not qualified to make ID's of possible victims.
Since one of the witnesses has said that when she and another friend went to Marino's apartment 2 days after he 1st disappeared to check up on his things, Marino's new roomate was there. What he told them next should have sent chills down their spines. He told them that he new of a place where dead bodies were dumped and that no one even knew about it. Not even the police. One heck of a thing to say to someone who's friend has just went missing, aye?
1st thing, how on earth did that conversation even come up? Did this "friend"/roomate just start telling the girls this right out of the blue? 2nd thing is, how did this guy know of a body dumping location if he wasn't in some way shape or form involved? IMO that's one heck of a coincidence. New roomate moves in, 3 days later the new roomate's "friend" and original renter of the apartment just up and disappears. Then 2 days later, when it really wasn't known that Marino was gone for good yet, his 2 friends go to his apartment to check on his things and while there run into his new roomate who tells them out of nowhere that he knows of a body dumping location that the police do not even know about? On top of that he asks the girls to take Marino's dog since Marino was gone. How did he know Marino wouldn't be coming back? Why, if he didn't know what happened to him, did he give away the guys dog? wouldn't you just assume after only 2 days, that he'd be back shortly to take care of his dog? How did he, the roomate and "friend" know he wouldn't ever be coming back? And last but not least, this "friend" and new roomate, it just so happens that he is good, good friends with John Wayne Gacy...
Well, now that it's out in the news, looks like these accomplices have plenty of time to get out of dodge.
if it's true then you are right ... sometime the media have their heads so far up their A$$$$ ... bunch of morons
It sounds as if the police know who all of the suspected accomplices are,so they probably have them under surveillance. Maybe they are hoping the suspects will get nervous and trip up this time.
You know why they didn't feed Gacey to Dalmer after the execution ? Clowns taste funny !
That's one of the bad things about execution - no way to question him about this. Frying somebody might make you feel better, but it really is an extreme radical procedure for so called civilized people. But, I have heard it said here many times by gun owners; they long for the day someone walks through their front door just so they can shoot them.
You would think someone about to be executed would come clean - but maybe our systems don't care to give them that opportunity?
You are correct in that civilized people do not use capital punishment. The USA, of which I am a citizen, is not exactly the most civilized nation on earth! And I agree that John Wayne Gacy should never have been executed in 1994! This vile animal should have been fed to the crocodiles immediately after his conviction in 1980! Yes, there are some exception. Ted Bundy, for example. And the bast*rd who murdered the nurses. All of these types deserve to be converted into crocodile, alligator, or lion food. These animals need fresh food, and we DON'T need to pay for their comfortable incarceration for years!
... Well, that's comforting to know.
I know who his accomplice is.......... The dog!!!
I used to think that Gacy looked fat in that picture used with the story. He doesnt look fat at all anymore.
A clown?
He hated to perform oral sex on fellow clowns.
Said it "tastes funny."
"Wonder clown powers; activate!"
"Form of, wig wearing murderous homosexual!"
"Shape of, torturing, clown faced pedophile!"
Grease paint .... it's not just for faces anymore.
Chicago seems to have many more clowns than anywhere else.
Yeah, and one is in the White House right now and is killing us all sooooo slowly.
Wait a minute... you're going to turn this political? Let me get back to the topic of ,"Clowns". Are you one of those CLOWNS that voted TWICE for the CLOWN that held the office from 2000-2008? Now, who were you calling a CLOWN?
Skeeter... your comment is pathetic and completely outside of this article. Grow up.
For crying out loud why do you folks find it necessary to drag politics and name calling into an article about this serial killer????? PLEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAASSSSEEEE give it a rest!!! Save politics for related stories!!!!!!!!!! Kinda freakin' disrespectful to the victims and their families. Are you all 12 or what???
Want to make sure others can read this! The stupidity and hatred of the Right has no bounds!
Awww poor wittle Vox thinks my comment was dupid and hateful...and yes, I am 12.
Still doesn't change the fact that Obama is a clown and is destroying this country...he's an upgraded version of Gacy but both are hiding behind a false face.
Nanny nanny poo-poo.
Ask Michelle Bachman, she might know.
Why did she say clowns taste funny too.
I saw Gacy a whole buncha times in the CPAC audiences ... LOL.
Wrong ! He was from Chicago goober head. We've seen another total failure out of Chicago for the last three years.
If you've been watching CPAC you would agree with me ... everytime the cameras panned into the audience, you would see a whole buncha Gacy's ... and his victims ... it's quite bizarre ...
LOL.
You saw Gacy a bunch at CPAC - what, on a date?Dude (I guess) u look like a Gay-Cee in that picture!
You actually call yourself Skeeter McClusky ? ... what is that ?
* Hi ya' all I'm one a' them thar hillbilly-redencks from Deliverance * or * Hi ya' all, ahma jack and skeet and c*um all over ya * ...
Jus'damn ... LOL.
CPAC, is Sarah there? She's a big C.
The sad part is that so many victims have not been identified. Gacy's victims were generally young men. Did nobody care enough about seven young men to bring them to the police's attention?
The most surprising part is that it appears that these lawyers are working this case for free! I don't see anywhere that they are representing a client or anyone who will pay them.
Here's a fact...in America, men are less valued members of society than are women (unless the men are wealthy and socially powerful). Kill a woman (other than a professional prostitute) and everyone will be whining and crying over it...the perpetrator will be caught ASAP. Kill the average man and...chances are...no one will care....unless he is married with children....the wife will be angry that her breadwinner is gone.
These attorneys are doing this for publicity's sake...they are experiencing slow times and so picked up this case in order to do something constructive and build their public image.
If no one cares about the average man being murdered why would the lawyers do it for publicity's sake? In fact why would they report on Gacy at all since he killed only men?
Pauper-What is your problem?? Woman hater???
Laura,
The book and movie to follow will more than compensate.
Why do women get longer sentences for muder than men do?
The corpses were found on his property, yet "defense lawyers" claim he may not have been ivolved in some of the murders? Other people may have done it & he was just a copycat? Do they really believe we're that stoooopid?
It was Cook County, man. Anything's possible. Chicago law: shape the facts to fit the prosecutors' political needs.
Yeah, you can never hold a job yet buy a house that costs millions!!!!! And then move to the White House and call yourself one of the "99%!"
They're lawyers. They have an inherent curiosity about criminal matters. The families would get some measure of peace knowing more about what actually happened and how and why. These guys would like to help them with that. How is that some sort of conspiracy?
It has nothing to do with thinking anyone is stupid. The killer clown is long gone and they aren't trying to clear him of wrong doing. Perhaps they study serial killers and the info they find may actually at some point lead to getting more murderers off the streets. Why would that be a bad thing? Getting some closure for the families is an admirable thing in my opinion not something to bitch about. They're doing this research on their own dime and they don't have a client. Maybe you need to actually read to whole story and attempt to comprehend it before spouting off.
Robin Gecht used to work for Gacy and was later the head of the Ripper Crew also known as the Chicago Rippers who tortured, mutilated and killed women then cut off their breasts to use later for masturbation and satanic rituals. I always thought it was a shame Gacy didn't target him, but maybe they worked together.
Now there's some sad things known to man, but there aint too much sadder than....the tears of a clown, when there's no one around...
[Insert your own joke here:
- it may or may not be somewhat or outright insensitive
- but it must be political incorrect and funny
that is all.]
Gays have a tendency to travel in packs anyway.
Meaning the Navy?
the fellas at the Y-M-C-A?
"30% of their work time over the last 6 to 8 months...without compensation." Attorneys.....pro bono ...... Chicago? Will fairy tales never cease?
A book deal, Movie, Big Pay Day. Lawyers:-(
Right. They're obviously lying. They're obviously up to no good. Sheesh.
This guy was really not very nice
he lived right down the street from my old girlfriend about 3-4 blocks from gregory and canfield ...harlem and higgins area. i thought it was chicago or harwood heights, guess i'm wrong. that house was abandoned for a long time.
The house was on Summerdale and yes it was unincorporated Norwood Township. I lived on Oleander off of Addison at the time, only minutes away, and had a friend that was on his bowling league. He had asked my friend to come work for him and thank god he said no. Also my best friend at the time, her second cousin was one of his victims and another one of her cousins who I knew had also been asked to work for him and said no. My friend told me some of the findings on the Medical Examiner Report about what had been done to her cousin by Gacy and let me tell you it was very disturbing and utterly disgusting. I remember some of my friends and I taking a ride by the house after some of the hoopla had died down and it was just surreal looking at it. We even went back after they tore the house down and the feeling hadn't changed with the house gone. The whole thing just gives me the creeps, even today.
I also had one more connection to the case. The receptionist where I worked at the time was the sister of one of the detectives that arrested him. Her brother was actually one of the two detectives surrounding him when they took him out of the house. She brought the photo from the paper to work the next day and was excitingly running around the office showing it to everyone.
If Killer Gacy had accomplices then does that means there exists Gacy and gang like as in a local independent mobster/gangster boss? Is that how Gacy handle police interrogations? So, he pick catholic butt loving to control people with butt loving power, that still doesnt explain why he's a serial killer and not a mob/mafia boss.
Curious as to why the mother of one victim had information the police probably could have used at the time. Was she never interviewed? Goodness.
Soooo??? Were there any people missing in Michigan while he was there??
Alos a very sick part of American History...Bordan, Bundy, Gacy...and the others. Dangerous People Really Make Life Bad for All of Us...They should have given him truth serum before they oft him...They should all of them.
look out Bozo, we're coming to get you!
The serial killer they believe he copy catted was Dean Corll. Dean used two other boys to do horrific murders to many young boys.
Gacy even stated in an interview that he got the idea to use rope and board from reading about the Huston Mass Murders.
Why a movie was never done about the real "Candy Man" is puzzling. His crimes and murders were unheard of and still make the skin crawl just reading about it.
The two accomplices of Corlls are still in prison.
If you meet a clown in a forest, it means you're going to die.
- Unknown
Or you might have to kill a clown!
it's all fun and games, until a clown try's to kill you after having sex.
Haunting Thoughts ....
The legacy of the atrocities of John Wayne Gacy, the 'Killer Clown' will forever haunt the family and friends of his tortured victims. The idea that he may have had accomplices who might still be out there is even more disturbing. As in many of the serial murder cases in our past, we may never know all of the facts surrounding this macabre and sordid piece of our history.
Peace to all
1st thought that should cross your mind is "Michele Bachmann" might have been an accomplice
"Well what I want them to know is just like John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That's the kind of spirit that I have, too"