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November 3, 2017

Chasing John Wayne Gacy

Winner of the Fall 2017 StMU History Media Award for

Article with the Best Introduction

It was December 12, 1978. Just as every morning, Chief Detective Joseph Kozenczak sat in his office on the first floor and went over the reports from the past 24 hours. Sipping some coffee, he started off by reading through Monday’s list of events: “a domestic argument which ended with the police restoring peace, a break-in on Phoenix Drive, a report of an abandoned vehicle, several malfunctioning alarms in businesses requiring police assistance to restore, etc.”1 It wasn’t until midway through the list of Monday’s Report when Joseph Kozenczak came across the name Robert Jerome Piest, a missing persons report filed by his mother Elizabeth Piest.2

John Wayne Gacy as “Pogo The Clown” | Courtesy of Wikimedia commons

Joseph Kozenczak had found this to be very interesting because of the narrative part of the report. As described from the report, the mother and son had a very repetitive routine. Elizabeth would pick up her son at 5:30 p.m. after his gymnastics session at Maine West High School in Des Plaines, Illinois. Then she would have his dinner and milk to eat in the car, and he’d usually eat it as Elizabeth drove to Nisson Pharmacy, where Robert worked. But Monday was a bit different. Rob ate a sandwich. Elizabeth had saved her birthday cake to be cut after picking up Rob from work. She arrived at Nisson Pharmacy at 9 p.m., and she went in to get Rob. Rob asked his mother to wait outside so he could discuss a summer job with a construction contractor. Twenty minutes passed and Elizabeth went to check the parking lot only to find that she was alone. There was no sign of Rob, or this mysterious construction contractor. Not knowing who the contractor was, Elizabeth called her son’s friends and one of the owners of the pharmacy, and found out that his name was John Wayne Gacy, Jr.3

Something about the report didn’t seem right to Detective Kozenczak. He knew Robert had no reason to leave his family, or run away from home, so where was he? He read the report one more time. While reading through the report, Detective Kozenczak found that the young boy Robert was born the same year as his own son, as well as the fact that the two boys attended the same high school (Maine West High School).

Detective Kozenczak decided to put “Ronnie” Ron Adams to investigate the Piest missing persons case. He chose Adams because he wasn’t just a good cop, but he also had passion for his job. He knew Adams was the right one for this case. Also Kozenczak knew about the fact that Adams had a family, and had hoped it would make things more personal while continuing the harsh investigation. Adams didn’t waste any time at all. He talked with the two brothers who owned the pharmacy, and found out that the contractor, John Gacy, had been in the store not once, but twice. To check Gacy’s alibi, Adams then called Gacy at 9:15 a.m. and Gacy explained that he had been present at the pharmacy, but only because of some remodeling plans, and to gather or see if there were any tools he needed. He also said, “He had not spoken, nor had any personal contact with the missing boy.” It was at this point that things started to not add up in the mind of Detective Kozenczak.4

Actual suit worn by John Wayne Gacy | Courtesy of Flickr Commons

The investigation “wasn’t getting anywhere fast” as Kozenczak put it. It was not until Detective Jim Pickell stepped out of his office, when things started to take off. The two detectives knew about Gacy’s arrest, but did not know exactly what John Wayne Gacy had been arrested for. Pickell went off in search of what Gacy had been arrested for. Pickell was known to get what he wanted, and always did what he had to in order to obtain it.

The two Detectives then read Gacy’s rap sheet, which was filled with numerous crimes, the first and most important: “20 May 1968-Waterloo, Iowa-Sodomy-10 years.” The word “sodomy” stuck into the two detectives’ heads. After going through the rap sheet, the two detectives were both convinced Gacy was deeply involved in the disappearance of Robert Piest.5 Later that day,Detectives Kozenczak, Pickell, Olsen, and Sommerschield went to Gacy’s house to interview him. Kozenczak and Pickell went inside, while Sommerschield and Olsen waited outside on the street. While inside the house, Gacy sat in his recliner, and not much happened except for the same story he gave Adams over the phone. Kozenczak had coaxed Gacy into coming down to the station, and after a few attempts, it finally worked.

Gacy called and came in around noon. He had no problem telling the same story, as well as filling out the witness report; but he did seem agitated after he refused a lie detector test. While that was going on, Kozenczak was gathering his warrant, and on his way back to get Gacy’s keys. At 5 p.m. Kozenczak rushed in to find Gacy and asked for his keys. Gacy was terrified and filled with anger. He fought and argued before he was forced to give up his keys.

As Kozenczak put it, “I put the key in the door and I felt like I was stepping into the unknown.”6 They searched the house and found a crawl space that was creepy, but nothing seriously incriminating; but they did take many things as evidence. They took clothes, papers, towels, shoes, etc. It was not until the third warrant was issued that Detective Kozenczak decided to crawl into the crawl space. That’s when everything changed in the blink of an eye.

When Detective Kozenczak crawled into the muddy crawl space, he was face to face with not one or two, but three bodies. He encountered the three bodies in the first ten minutes he had spent in the crawl space. A call was made, and as soon as the news was told to Gacy about the findings, he admitted to the murders with no hesitation. Once the crime scene was investigated and dug up, and everything was done, the Medical Examiner was called in, and over the course of a few weeks or so, twenty-four more bodies were discovered in the ground beneath Gacy’s crawl space. As reported by Detective Kozenczak, “There was plastic over their heads and most of them were partially clothed. They had been strangled and were in various stages of decomposition. There were skeletons everywhere.”7 But that wasn’t the end of finding bodies. The serial killer admitted that there was not enough room left for his last six victims. With no room left for the bodies, Gacy had turned to the river, dumping his last victim Robert Piest into the Des Plaines river. The river was near the Chicago Airport. Gacy admited to dumping the body in the winter of 1978, although they found his body in late spring of 1979. Robert’s body had froze, and was conserved in ice until it thawed out late spring.

John wayne Gacy Crawl Space | Courtesy of Google Images

Justice was finally served when Gacy was arrested and found guilty after a long and devastating trial in March 13, 1980. He received multiple sentences. “The jury quickly returned a verdict of guilty on thirty-three counts of murder, twelve carrying a death sentence, and two charges of sexual assault.” The jury did the right thing by putting a heartless monster like Gacy away. Gacy was executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994, in the Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, Illinois. Gacy was pronounced dead at 12:58 a.m.8

The ending somehow did not seem to lift the weight off the shoulders of Detective Joseph R. Kozenczak, as he stated “I thought that I would feel that it was all resolved then. But it wasn’t. It was just hard to live with.”9 Someone will never understand what it was like to be in the chase, but we know how hard and personal it was for Detective Joseph R. Kozenczak. After the chase was done and finally put to rest, Kozenczak retired and went on to write his own book, A Chicago Killer, which was a great insight into what the Gacy Case was like. Unfortunately Joseph R. Kozenczak passed away Wednesday May 13, 2015. He had served on the Des Plaines Police team as Chief Detective for 27 years.10 Detective Joseph R. Kozenczak’s passion, strength, and patience will live on longer than we can imagine. He brought justice to 33+ families and their relatives.

  1. Joseph R. Kozenczak and Karen M. Kozencz, The Chicago Killer: The Hunt For John Wayne Gacy (Xlibris, Corp., 2011), 23.
  2. Joseph R. Kozenczak and Karen M. Kozencz, The Chicago Killer: The Hunt For John Wayne Gacy (Xlibris, Corp., 2011), 24.
  3. Joseph R. Kozenczak and Karen M. Kozencz, The Chicago Killer: The Hunt For John Wayne Gacy (Xlibris, Corp., 2011), 25.
  4.  Joseph R. Kozenczak and Karen M. Kozencz, The Chicago Killer: The Hunt For John Wayne Gacy (Xlibris, Corp., 2011), 28.
  5. Joseph R. Kozenczak and Karen M. Kozencz, The Chicago Killer: The Hunt For John Wayne Gacy (Xlibris, Corp., 2011), 37.
  6. Joseph R. Kozenczak and Karen M. Kozencz, The Chicago Killer: The Hunt For John Wayne Gacy (Xlibris, Corp., 2011), 58.
  7. Ginnie Teo, “Sleuth Recalls Viciousness of Killer,” The Straits Times (Singapore, August 1997).
  8. Debbie Howlett and Sandra Sanchez, “John Wayne Gacy Executed/ Fatal Injection Ends Saga Of Serial Killer,” USA Today, (May 1994): 3.
  9. Ginnie Teo, “Sleuth Recalls Viciousness of Killer,” The Straits Times (Singapore, August 1997).
  10. N. Sameer Yacoub, “Detective who led John Wayne Gacy Investigation Dies,” US News Online, May 15, 2015.

Jasmine Martinez

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Recent Comments

117 comments

  • Monica Avila

    The introduction hooked me right away, a quite different approach to introducing a story. Gacy was obviously very disturbed to have killed 30+ human beings and to have simply stored them in the crawl space of his home. If not for the passionate detectives in the article, Gacy would not have been brought to justice and could have gone on to murder many more innocent victims.

  • Cheyanne Redman

    By the introduction, I was already hooked on the article. The case itself is absolutely terrifying, knowing that Gacy lived a complete double life, working as a clown by day, and killing children by night. You would think that the detective crawling through the crawl space and finding those bodies played a role on his troubled future, the mental health of these officers, even today are often over looked, and its sad to say this isn’t a taboo thing. Even though Justice was served properly, the officers face those demons everyday.

  • Timothy ODekirk

    This article proves how important the use of images are while writing an article. The images used made me realize who John Gacy even was, because before seeing the picture, I was unfamiliar with the person, and what he did. The image of the skeletons found in Gacy’s crawl room were absolutely horrific and describe the complete monster that John Gacy was. However, despite the images, the fact that Gacy kidnapped and killed 27 and more people without even being caught is the true horror. Plus, the fact that he was a clown did not help at all with the horror aspect of this story. I truly hate clowns.

  • Alexandra Lopez

    The pictures in this article are beyond terrific. They give a great insight of how John Wayne Gacy was. To know Gacy would dress up as a clown for children events is incredibly disturbing after reading about how many children he’s killed. What shocks me is the amount of time it took to actually pin down Gacy. When he was confronted about the bodies found, he didn’t even deny anything. Did he feel guilty? Did he truly feel remorse? How was he able to wake up everyday knowing he committed those sick crimes? Knowing that the families of the victims, and many more, received Justice is tremendously joyful.

  • Dayna Valdez

    I really liked your introduction and the way you caught the readers attention. I also really like the images you included because it gives a clear idea of what the killer looked like. The crime articles always catch my attention and I really enjoyed yours. It was formatted very well and and left me shocked.

  • Joel Gracia

    This was a tremendously chilling case to read about. It seems that the most horrific topics are the ones we cannot resist reading the most. It is disturbing how many people Gacy killed, and it is even more upsetting that he got away with it for so long before he was caught. This article made me want to be suspicious towards every-day settings, cause they could be much more than what they seem.

  • Matthew Rios

    The minds of serial killers are something yet to be truly understood. We like to thing we end up having things figured out, but in the end we’re always left with the same question. Why? It makes sense that the detective was troubled after this. The good men of Law Enforcement do a job beyond any civilian. The problem is that where there is one Gacy, there exist more. It’s up to society to find them, and justice to be served.

  • Ernie Sano

    The name John Wayne Gacy rings a bell in my head, but I was never sure who the man was. Not only did I discover who he was, but I really enjoyed reading your article on the man and the crimes he committed. Also, you did amazing to cover the aftermath of his conviction and the weight bared by the people left behind who have to deal with the loss of a loved one.

  • Eduardo Foster

    What an great article! It is first time I have ever heard of John Wayne Gacy. It is not understandable how a person can kill some much people and no one noticing. It is actually great to know that he was brought down to justice. The article is actually very well narrated. Great article and very informative keep it up with the good work!

  • Alejandra Chavez

    I had previously heard the term “they’re being a john wayne” when someone would be caught doing something yet was trying to distract or stall the consequences. I am glad that now I have been enlightened enough to not be confused when it comes to hearing that phrase being used. It’s amazing how a routine can really help everyone out, even in tragic situations. This was a very good article to read, but with info that was hard to swallow. Thank you.

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