john wayne gacy His attorney believes he killed more than 33 victims, and the “Killer Clown” did not do it alone.
Karen Conti was a budding lawyer in the early 1990s when she defended The most notorious serial killer During his final death penalty appeal from 1993, his execution by lethal injection took place on May 4, 1994.
Gacy was convicted 33 murdersBut Contee said he was sure there were more victims.
“I’m almost positive about it,” he told Fox News Digital. “Gacy traveled during his crime spree, and he traveled to rural areas to do construction work. I actually looked at his business records, which were meticulously kept.
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Mugshot of John Wayne Gacy after his arrest in 1978. (Bureau of Prisons/Getty Images)
“I can’t imagine why he stopped killing during that time.”
“He was gone for two or three weeks at a time, and he was in the middle of this crime spree. I can’t imagine why he would stop killing during that time.”
Nearly all of his victims he was convicted of murder were buried in his home and throughout his estate in Norwood Park Township, Illinois, about 15 miles north. of chicago,
According to Conti, Gacy often traveled to more rural areas, which would have made it easier “to incarcerate young men and boys, kidnap them, and bury the bodies.”
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“We didn’t have any integrated database at that time, but my guess is that if a podcaster or a detective went into these areas and looked at these business records and tried to figure out if there were people who had gone missing, they Can connect the dots and conclude that what I’m saying is true,” Contee said.
They believe there are at least 20 more victims of Gacy’s murders that extend beyond the suburban city limits.
Karen Conti, a trial lawyer for 37 years in the Chicago area and author of “Killing Time with John Wayne Gacy,” talks about what it was like to represent one of the most prolific serial killers in history. (Karen Conti)
And he is “convinced” that Gacy received help, possibly from two men who lived with and had sex with Gacy during his crime spree.
“They were taking money and drugs from him, and he testified at the trial that they actually dug a trench under the house,” Conti said. “To me, it’s impossible for them to have no idea what they were doing and why they were doing it.
“And it’s impossible for me to believe that Gacy, who was so obese, could actually go into that crawlspace and take the bodies in there and bury them alone.”
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He mentioned a victim who escaped Gacy’s clutches in 1978, Jeffrey Rignall, who testified during the trial that Gacy shot him after offering to take him home from a local bar, according to court documents. Chloroform cloth was used to render unconscious.
He was conscious and unconscious during the brutal sexual assault Detailed in court documents And woke up next to a statue in a Chicago park.
This is a police photo of 37-year-old John Wayne Gacy, who is being held for questioning after the discovery of five badly decomposed bodies. The bodies, believed to be those of young people, were found in the crawl space of a home owned by Gacy. Neighbors said he operated a construction business from his house and employed many youths. (Getty Images)
During Rignall’s testimony, he said that Gacy “was at one point assisted by an accomplice,” which was documented by a West Virginia University research paper On the defense of insanity.
The research paper included a footnote stating that no one else had been arrested in the sexual assault on Rignall.
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But prosecutors did not want to “dirty” the case against Gacy by bringing forward other suspects, Contee told The US Sun in an interview in March. Therefore, potential co-conspirators were never introduced.
Contee said, “It’s my really strong feeling that these two young men helped bring the young men to Gacy and helped tie them up and probably even helped commit the crimes, certainly burying the bodies. helped.”
Headshots of boys and young men whose bodies have been identified as victims of John Wayne Gacy are shown. Gacy was accused of murdering 33 boys and young men. (Getty Images)
Debunking the myth of Gacy’s last words
What stood out most about Conti was Gacy’s dry, cynical sense of humor, which continued until his final moments.
“Gacy, despite all his bad actions, didn’t seem bad, and that’s why he got away with it,” she said. “He was very friendly. He was friendly. He was brilliant. He could be very aggressive with the other men on the team, but not so much with me. He was a little soft with me.”
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As a 29-year-old lawyer, Contee was a trailblazer and the only woman on Gacy’s death row defense team.
“The other thing that was really interesting was his sense of humor,” he said. “Because, even though obviously nothing he did was funny, he used his sense of humor to draw attention away from his bad side and get people to like him.
“And I think that was one of his tools in committing crimes. These people (like Gacy) are very cunning and very interested in manipulating the people around them. And Gacy was certainly that.”
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John Wayne Gacy takes this self-portrait in his “Pogo the Clown” costume. (Steve Eichner/WireImage)
As she was being led to her death, Gacy told guards she wished they had the electric chair, she said during an interview on April 2.fuzzy mic,
“And the guards were like, ‘Why?’ And he was like, ‘Because then I’m going to ask you to hold my hand,'” Conti said.
The dark humor and anecdote seemed to contradict Gacy’s alleged last words: “Kiss my a–.”
Turns out that’s just an urban myth.
Contee said, “I talked with the prosecutor, who died a few months ago, and he was with Gacy when he died. And I asked him, ‘Did he really say those words?’ And he said, ‘No.'”
In reality he did not say anything.
A barren plot of land is an uncomfortable reminder of John Wayne Gacy’s “House of Horrors” house that once stood there. (Bateman Archive/Getty Images)
His final impression of Gacy was that he wanted to be caught by the police, and he was “relieved” to be behind bars. Otherwise he will kill again.
“He was in hysterics (when he was arrested),” Conti said during a “Fuzzy Mike” interview. Contee said, “A lot of serial killers, they start out killing once a year. Then, it escalates. And they need more violence. They need more victims.” “So, I think Gacy, in the end, it was just bothering him.
“And I think he knew that if he ever came out again, he would kill again.”
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Karen Contee, who was John Wayne Gacy’s death penalty lawyer, said Gacy’s humor came through in their conversations. (Karen Conti)
He said he was sexually abused as a child, suffered head trauma and had repressed homosexual tendencies.
With the murders, “I think he was trying to kill himself over and over again,” she said.
“I think he was trying to kill himself over and over again.”
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Contee received death threats, bomb threats, and at the age of 29, he almost ruined his career by taking on the Gacy case, he said.
After Gacy’s death, and as many years passed, threats and evil glances turned into conspiracies from strangers.
Karen Conti’s book, “Killing Time with John Wayne Gacy.” (Karen Conti)
She has been a trial lawyer in Chicago for 37 years, is a law professor and is now an author, having recently published “Killing Time” about her interactions with Gacy.
Conti said of his book, “It’s the story of how a young lawyer takes on this case, and how, along with the public reaction, I had to build a relationship with someone who was the epitome of evil.”
The book explores “how this man (Gacy), who committed the most inhumane act you can imagine, had humanity and a family that loved him.”
fox news digital emmet jones Contributed to this report.
