The Man Who Killed Boys (6 page)

At the request of the judge, Heston later elaborated that "Predicting the future behavior of an individual must be based on the known performance of other persons similar to him." Individuals similar to Gacy, Heston added, appear to do best "where there are firm, consistent external controls on their behavior. Intensive parole supervision might accomplish this end as well as any other method."

Gacy was described by the psychiatrist as apparently a bisexual, and based on his personality, a person whose behavior "is usually regarded as thrill-seeking or explorative and not as an absolute fixation on abnormal sexual objects."

Dutton had been conferring with Gacy's attorney, D. A. Frerichs, and going over the charges and evidence against the defendant. On November 7, 1968, in an appearance before Judge Peter Van Metre in the Tenth Judicial District Court of Iowa, Gacy waived formal arraignment and entered a guilty plea to the charge of sodomy. The other charges were dismissed a few weeks later.

A guilty plea to one charge in return for dismissal of others is not unusual in the nation's courts. Nor is pleading guilty to a charge that has been trimmed from a more serious offense, such as a reduction from murder to manslaughter. The process is called plea bargaining.

Overworked prosecutors, struggling to keep their heads above the jam-up of cases overcrowding criminal court dockets everywhere, may find it convenient and appropriate to accept a finding of guilty to charges that are less serious than those originally filed in order to avoid long drawn-out court battles. There can be other reasons as well. A prosecutor may be unsure that evidence will support a guilty finding if a case goes to trial. Or an agreement may be reached to avoid calling a witness whose safety or activities as an informant or law enforcement officer would be jeopardized by being identified in open court.

Defense attorneys may advise their clients to plead guilty to a single offense if their case is weak, or if they fear conviction and sentencing on a series of charges. In the matter of the charges against Gacy, discomfort to the boys and to their families could be avoided if the youths did not have to appear in open court and recount potentially embarrassing testimony.

There is nothing illegal or unethical about plea bargaining. It is a device that has become increasingly necessary and prevalent in the criminal courts. It should not include agreement on sentencing. Sentencing is another matter.

Judge Van Metre, who was selected to preside over the Gacy case, is today a boyish-looking, unassuming veteran of twenty years on the bench. His father once presided over the same court, and the son moved up to the job some six years after graduating from law school at the University of Iowa.

Judge Van Metre takes the traditional image of the scales seriously and strives to temper the justice he metes out with mercy. A number of times during his career as a jurist he has lost sleep and agonized over the sentencing of a defendant, particularly young first offenders, when he was caught in the dilemma of deciding between a suspended or deferred sentence and attempt at rehabilitation, or imprisonment for the protection of the public. At times, prosecutors have grumbled that he tempers his judgments with too much mercy.

That is understandable to the judge, who concedes that he is not punitive. "My reputation is the other way around," he says. "I've run afoul of the law-enforcement people for being too lenient."

Consequently, it was mildly surprising when he rejected the recommendation of Harker, whom he had directed to make a pre-sentence investigation. Harker recommended probation on the sodomy charge, pointing out that Gacy had said he planned to return to Illinois and resume his old occupation, selling shoes.

"It appears to this agent that this is a valid plan if the State of Illinois will accept him, as he apparently has written confirmation of a job and home situation there," Harker wrote. "What psychiatric help is available for this type of offender could be obtained there as well as in Iowa."

In the report, prepared on November 14, 1968, Harker pointed out that Gacy came from a strong family where the father was "considered a strict disciplinarian, but fair." Gacy was pictured as being assiduous with good work performance, although he had indicated there was some conflict with his father-in-law, whom he considered to be too dictatorial in their business relationship.

Frerichs also pleaded eloquently for his client, reminding the court that Gacy was a married man, father of two children, and a citizen whose deportment and employment record were excellent until his recent "bizarre behavior."

The attorney insisted that probation would restore his client to society as a better person, while prison would return him to society "worse than when he went in. He would be exposed to many problems by a term in prison," Frerichs argued. "He will be taken back into the safekeeping of his family if given probation, and he is assured of employment."

Solemn and judicially imposing in his black robes, Van Metre listened attentively. Combined with Harker's request and the observation by Dr. Heston that Gacy might respond well to close supervision, a compelling argument had been constructed for probation.

When it was his turn to speak, Dutton reminded the court of the seriousness of the offense. "This defendant gained the confidence of many young people and abused their trust to gratify his desires," said the prosecutor. He recommended that Gacy be given the maximum sentence.

Dutton was convinced that Gacy would be a continuous threat, even on probation or supervision. Consequently, it would have been improper to recommend that the defendant receive less than the full sentence of the law.

Judge Van Metre pronounced a sentence of ten years at the Iowa State Reformatory for Men at Anamosa. It was the maximum allowable at that time for the offense. It would be another decade before the criminal code of Iowa was revised so that under certain circumstances a similar offense could be prosecuted as a form of sexual abuse carrying a maximum penalty of twenty-five years in prison.

"The particular pattern you seem to have chosen is to seek out teenage boys and get them involved in sexual misbehavior," Van Metre said. Although prison would be unsatisfactory for Gacy, the judge remarked it would at least "ensure that for some period of time you cannot seek out teenage boys to solicit them for immoral behavior of any kind. It may possibly serve as a deterrent and a warning to others who might engage in the same kind of activity." Gacy stood impassively beside his attorney as the sentence was pronounced. He showed no surprise and no emotion.

Gacy was given credit on the sentence for eighty-four days already served in the Black Hawk County Jail. Appeal bond was set at twenty thousand dollars.

A week later, unable to raise the bond and with credit for another seven days in jail, he was transported to prison. John Wayne Gacy, Jr. was twenty-six years old when he made the transition from a life of backyard barbecues, house parties, good cigars, and relaxing drinks with friends to existence as denim-clad prisoner number 26526 in a barred cell. In the new life, other men decided what he would have for meals, when he would exercise, what time he would get up in the morning, whom he could write to and visit with.

He was also about to make the transition from husband and father of two children who shared his last name. His wife filed for divorce on the same day and in the same court building where he was sentenced. The marriage was irretrievably shattered by the arrest, disclosure of bisexuality, and criminal conviction.

Marlynn Gacy petitioned for a divorce on grounds that her husband was guilty of cruel and inhuman treatment that endangered her life and health in violation of the couple's marriage vows. Marlynn told the court that she had conducted herself as a loving and dutiful wife at all times during the marriage. She asked for alimony, property, including the car, attorney fees, court costs, and a reasonable division of other possessions. The divorce action was not unexpected. Gacy concentrated on the task of learning to live as a convict. Like every other undertaking he approached, he applied himself and worked hard at it.

A routine psychological examination he took while being processed into the prison system gave no indication that his emotional or sexual problems were so serious that they could not be solved, despite the earlier conclusions of psychiatrists.

Gacy's behavior appeared to bear out the more optimistic determination. He reacted well to the disciplined life of a convict. His reaction was typical of many people who somehow take to a prison environment where they are relieved of the pressures of decision making and earning a living. As Van Metre observed, Gacy was an individual who "behaves himself when people are watching him and he is under the gun."

Gacy settled into the routine amazingly quickly and launched himself into prison society with the same industriousness and earnest concentration he had exhibited when he moved first to Springfield and then to Waterloo as a young businessman. He avoided known homosexuals, and selected most of his prison friends from among other first-time offenders, seeking out those who were not convicted of violent crimes. One of Gacy's close friends in prison said that Gacy showed absolute scorn for homosexuals. He ignored them like the plague. All prisoners maintain some kind of false front, another inmate observed. Exhibiting a hatred for homosexuals may have been Gacy's.

Ray Cornell, who served time with Gacy and later became an Iowa prison ombudsman, witnessed the former Waterloo businessman's professed dislike for homosexuals. Cornell was one of those who knew that Gacy had asked another prisoner for protection because he was afraid he was going to be homosexually attacked.

Homosexual rape is a fact of life in prison, and it is a constant threat, particularly to young inmates. Many young prisoners, menaced with psychologically devastating mass rape by a half dozen inmates or more at a time, accept the protection of an older, stronger man and become his property. Much, perhaps most of the swift, brutal fighting in prisons, the knifings and beatings, is over soft, young first-timers.

Inmate number 26526 appeared to be uninterested in homosexual activities in prison. He impressed his convict friends as being more interested in material success. One of his friends said the John Gacy he knew in prison appeared to be always after money and was almost overly ambitious. He never missed a day of reading
The Wall Street Journal
if he could help it. And he talked animatedly of the luxurious restaurant he was going to open after he was freed, and bragged about his prosperous business investments.

To most people he felt were entitled to an explanation of why he was in prison, Gacy confided that he was doing time for showing pornographic films to teenage girls. One of his friends who knew the real reason convinced himself that Gacy must have gotten drunk and didn't know what he was doing. It was hard to believe that John Gacy was a homosexual.

On January 7, 1969, Gacy filed for a court-appointed attorney to assist him in appealing the conviction and sentence. Gacy said he was broke and without funds to employ counsel. He could not even pay for the transcription of the court proceedings and other costs.

Judge Van Metre appointed Attorney Henry Cutler to represent Gacy, but a week later Cutler was permitted to withdraw. He was replaced by Richard Knock, a Cedar Falls lawyer.

Dutton, who moved from first assistant in the Black Hawk County Prosecutor's office to the job of prosecutor while Gacy was in prison, vigorously opposed the appeal. He cited two reasons.

"One is the pattern of behavior that got him in trouble with us in the first place, involving his enticing of young boys into compromising sexual relationships," he said. "That's bad and frequently can cause irreparable harm to the young men involved. This was not just gentle persuasion, but also involved force and the use of restraining devices and weapons. I felt it involved a serious threat to young people.

"Second, this man was involved in the type of thing that is not likely to be cured but only restrained for a period of time. Since he had used weapons in the past, I felt it was just a matter of time until he harmed someone." Dutton was unimpressed by a promise of Gacy's to leave the state. A move to Chicago might solve the problem for Iowa, the county attorney realized, but it would not make the convicted sex offender less dangerous.

Dutton considered incarceration to be the only appropriate means of handling Gacy at that time. Jail or probation were the only choices available to deal with a person like Gacy. If therapy of any kind was to be involved, the prevailing theory held that state correctional professionals were more knowledgeable and better equipped to select the proper treatment programs. There was no appreciable attempt to provide therapy for Gacy. On August 28, 1969, the Supreme Court of Iowa dismissed the appeal. The conviction stood.

Accepting the fact that he was in prison for a while, Gacy set about impressing his fellow convicts and the corrections staff alike with his industriousness. He worked excessively hard, even on Sundays. With his background in the fast-food business, he was assigned to the prison kitchen as a cook and salad man. It was a job he could relate to, and he went about it with spirit.

Virgil Martin, Gacy's supervisor and food-services coordinator at Anamosa, was pleased with the enthusiasm that Gacy brought to the job. The chunky cook was a model prisoner, and the only criticism of him that Martin could think of was that Gacy had to be cooled off sometimes and reminded that he wasn't the boss.

There was a more pleasant surprise for the new inmate than assignment to the prison kitchen. Anamosa boasted a fledgling Jaycee chapter, one of the first organized in an American prison, for Gacy to become involved with. He threw himself back into the work of the service club with the same fervor, dedication, and headlong intensity that he had shown previously in Springfield and Waterloo.

On one Jaycee project alone, he worked 370 hours helping to install a donated miniature golf course inside the prison grounds. He helped with the inmates' annual Christmas drive to recondition toys for poor children. But he was best known for preparing Jaycee banquets, which were so popular that other inmates competed for the opportunity to work on them.