The Man Who Killed Boys (28 page)

A seven-man crew of county highway department employees was helping with the excavation work. As dirt was dug out, it was tossed into a conveyor and sifted. When a sliver of bone, a clot of hair, or piece of clothing showed up, the machine was shut down and digging with the fingers was resumed.

The inside of the main house was gutted. The floorboards were gone and planks were laid over the joists with rope handrails to use for walking from the front door to the rear. The recreation room, which had been added at the rear of the house after the initial construction, did not extend over the crawl space and it was preserved from the wrecking crews until the last so they would have a place to sit and eat lunches that were brought in during the search. A couple of bar chairs and a folding chair were left for the workmen and police who continued to maintain their round-the-clock vigil.

On January 27, the bodies of John Mowery and Matthew Bowman were identified through dental records supplied by their families. Mowery's brother, Robert, said John had never worked for Gacy but he frequented the north side and may have been "in the wrong place at the wrong time."

After a mid-January break in the search caused by the bad weather, investigators prepared to seek extension of the search warrants and resume their probe of Gacy's property. Attention would be shifted from the crawl spaces, and plans were underway to rip up the rest of the garage and shed, the patio, including the barbecue pit, the driveway and front yard.

The defense opposed the extension and charged at the hearing that the warrants did not show probable cause of wrongdoing. Motta added that the house had already been gutted and said it was obvious that there were no additional bodies on the premises.

Egan responded that the warrants were valid, pointing out that twenty-seven bodies were eventually exhumed from the property. The appeal to permit immediate resumption of the search was rejected and a February hearing was scheduled on the defense motion to quash the warrants. The search couldn't continue anyway until crews had a chance to remove snow that had accumulated on the property during the past month.

Permission to resume the search was granted on February 21 as the motion to quash the existing warrants was dismissed. County Highway Department employees broke up the concrete stoop and uncovered the gun Czarna had told police about. The rusted .38-caliber revolver was sent to the Chicago Police Crime Laboratory for closer examination and ballistics tests. The owner had gone to obvious pains to conceal the weapon, and it would be checked to determine if it had been used in another crime. Additional skeleton fragments were also recovered from the garage in the same area where Butkovich's body was previously exhumed.

A workman was breaking up the patio a few days later when he peeled off the top layer of frozen earth with a giant bucket scoop at the end of a machine similar to a backhoe and was enveloped by a putrid odor. Ignoring the sudden nausea that rose in his throat, he yelled to his supervisor, "Bill, we've got another one." A few moments later the yard was full of investigators, looking down at the grave of the first corpse discovered on the property in ten weeks.

One of the workmen later admitted that they might have dug right through the body and accidently destroyed it if the frost hadn't been so deep. Faced with a combination of concrete reinforced with chicken wire, blacktop, and frost-hardened earth, they were peeling it away in layers instead of digging straight down.

The skeletal remains were wrapped in three garbage bags and had been preserved in remarkably good condition in their concrete burial crypt. Unlike the bodies previously recovered, the cadaver appeared to be that of an adult male, six feet tall or more. The shredded remains of blue jeans and shorts were still on the body. It had reposed under electric lines leading from the house to the garage.

Even more intriguing to investigators anxious to learn his identification was a small chain around his neck and a wedding band on the ring finger of his left hand. The presence of the ring meant that the scope of the investigation would, for the first time, be broadened to include missing men who were married.

The discovery prompted gloomy speculation that the toll might continue to climb, and investigators prepared to seek court permission for another meeting with Gacy to explore the possibility that there were still more bodies. But discovery also provided timely vindication for the argument authorities had pressed while seeking approval from the court to continue their search.

Exactly one week after discovery of the twenty-eighth victim on the property, still another body was removed.

It was announced almost simultaneously that the body found in the Illinois River near Morris the previous June had been identified as Timothy O'Rourke. Identification was made after a friend of O'Rourke's father had seen a newspaper story and recognized the description of the young man with the "Tim Lee" tattoo. The youth's father, Terrance O'Rourke, later explained that his son was an admirer of Bruce Lee and borrowed the Kung Fu champion's last name for the tattoo. Friends of the twenty-year-old murder victim said he frequented some of the same gay bars as Gacy.

The Des Plaines River flows into the Illinois River just west of where the bodies of Landingin and Mazzara were recovered. O'Rourke's body was apparently carried into the Illinois by the current. He had not been reported missing.

With the latest two bodies exhumed from Gacy's property and the three youths pulled from the water, the toll of dead attributed to the suburban contractor now stood at thirty-two, and the bodies of Piest and possibly one other victim were still thought to be in the Des Plaines or Illinois Rivers.

The latest victim discovered on Gacy's property was exhumed from under the recreation room. The body had lain directly below the large table where workmen ate their lunches and Sheriff's deputies read paperback books during all-night watches at the house. It was located when workmen probed in the soft dirt and uncovered a hip bone after ripping off a portion of the flooring. The skeleton was dry and fragile because the heat ducts had been installed on top of it after burial. Another driver's license and additional identification were found when a cabinet was ripped apart.

Despite the most recent discovery of bodies on the premises, the right of authorities to continue demolition of the house and property was soon challenged again.

That occurred after State's Attorney Carey filed a civil suit in Circuit Court for permission to tear down the remaining shell of Gacy's house. The State's Attorney contended that the house was "unoccupied, unsafe, dangerous, and hazardous," adding that further excavations were needed in the east and west sections.

Working in the house was dangerous because floor joists had been cut and removed, plumbing and sewage drainage were gone and four-to-six-foot holes had destroyed "the integrity" of partition footings. The county was prepared to bear the cost of demolition. Wiring was open and exposed and the crawl spaces, dug to the depth of four feet, were flooded and posing danger of fire or electrocution.

Charging that the home was a public nuisance, the suit was filed against Gacy as one-half owner, and against his mother, Marion E. Gacy, and his two sisters, Karen Kusma and Joanne E. Casper, as owners of the other half. A Chicago bank continued to hold a mortgage for several thousand dollars on the property.

Before action on the petition could be concluded, Dr. Stein released the identity of another of the victims. Billy Carroll was identified through his dental charts. He had been to the dentist once in his life and had two small fillings.

Representing the interests of Gacy's mother and sisters LeRoy Stevens threatened a damage suit if authorities went ahead with their plan to demolish the house. But a real-estate appraiser testified at the hearing that the house was a magnet for sightseers, it no longer had any worth, and it was lowering neighborhood property values. Three other expert witnesses told the court that after three months of digging under the house for bodies, the structure was dangerously unstable.

Gacy requested to attend the hearing, and it was transferred from the City Civic Center to Criminal Court because authorities believed that otherwise they could not guarantee his safety. Although he had appeared uninterested during hearings on the murder charges against him, he showed keen interest in the testimony concerning his home, frequently turning to ask questions of his lawyer.

But at the conclusion of the hearing, Housing Court Judge Richard E. Jorzak issued an order approving demolition—almost two months after permission was initially sought. In early April, the Illinois Supreme Court refused to reverse Judge Jorzak's order and within an hour the walls and roof of the house were being tumbled down. In barely a week's time, the once cozy ranch house was reduced to splinters and hauled away. A few bricks were handed out to children and adults who asked for souvenirs. Then nothing remained but an uneven plain of black dirt and ocher clay.

Footnotes

²²
Associated Press, January 12, 1979.

²³
"Kup's Column,"
Chicago Sun-Times
, December 27, 1979.

10 ...
John and Jack

The day before Gacy's scheduled arraignment in Third District Circuit Court on December 29, Des Plaines police officials huddled for hours planning security for the suspect.

Thirty-five off-duty policemen were called in, many on overtime pay, to beef up the protective umbrella spread over the city's Civic Center and court complex, before Chief Alfano was satisfied that they were fully prepared.

Although the press had been told that the hearing was scheduled for 9:30
A.M.
, authorities in Des Plaines were privately advised that Gacy would be taken from his room at Cermak Hospital at about ten o'clock and would arrive with a heavy police escort at the Civic Center about an hour later.

By seven thirty, uniformed officers and plainclothesmen were scattered around the Civic Center, stationed at doorways with two-way radios and peering from the roofs and windowed offices of surrounding buildings. As Judge John L. White began his regular court call at nine thirty, extra bailiffs joined full-time employees using metal detectors to screen people entering the courtrooms.

But by ten thirty, despite all the security and the obvious care taken to ensure the safety of the defendant, news people and others who had crowded into the courtroom were exchanging whispered rumors that Gacy wouldn't show up for the hearing.

At eleven o'clock, Chief Alfano was officially notified that Gacy would not be leaving his room at Cermak Hospital. A half-hour later Judge White announced that "Mr. Gacy will not appear in this courtroom because of fears for his safety."

"You don't know what could transpire over there," Judge Fitzgerald later explained, pointing out that he made the decision for security reasons. "The community is inflamed. But even more, it's the kooks who would feel that they were doing a service by blowing his head off."
²⁴
No threats were made on Gacy's life, but Des Plaines police received religious pamphlets and letters for him in the mail from "God," as well as a note suggesting that spaceships should quit dropping people like him off on earth.

Amirante was astonished at the last-minute development, and vigorously protested continuing the hearing without his client. He complained to Judge White that Gacy had "the right to be in court." The attorney also took exception because he wasn't notified of the plans in advance and warned that he would protest to Judge Fitzgerald. But the chief judge had already determined that the hearing and consideration of motions could take place without the suspect's presence.

When the hearing finally got underway, the judge granted Amirante's petition for an order to have Gacy given a psychiatric examination to determine if the defendant was mentally capable of understanding the charges against him and of assisting in his own defense. The Cook County Psychiatric Institute was designated to conduct the examination, but White also agreed that a private psychiatrist could be selected by Amirante to make a similar study.

The judge additionally issued a gag order forbidding witnesses and public officials, including policemen, from making statements that might prejudice Gacy's right to a fair trial. Amirante complained that such massive publicity had already been disseminated on the case that it would be impossible for his client to obtain a fair trial anywhere in the country.

A plea for dismissal of the murder charges filed in the Piest case, on the grounds that no body had been found, was continued. Members of the boy's family were watching from seats near the front of the court and when Amirante asked for dismissal, Harold Piest reached over and placed his hand comfortingly on that of his wife. After the hearing the family was escorted from the room by police officers, shielding them from reporters.

Amirante was still ruffled as he walked from the courtroom and he grumbled that it was a tragedy that this man (Gacy) could not be in court today to face the charges against him. He should have been there.

Amirante wasn't alone in his disappointment. The city of Des Plaines had spent considerable money and effort to ensure the safety of the suspect during a court appearance. To some the incident appeared to be just one more instance of Chicago politicians pushing their weight around.

The local weekly newspaper, the
Des Plaines Times
, wrote in an editorial that "Behind the scenes . . . there was talk the decision was based on the desire of downtown judges to get the arraignment and resultant publicity, rather than giving it to a suburban judge."
²⁵
The editorial added bitterly that the State's Attorney's office had effectively left the Des Plaines Police Department out of the continuing investigation and prosecution effort.