However, Des Plaines authorities had contacted Freeport during their investigation into Gacy, and were told Hattula had fallen to his death from a bridge. Gacy entered local Democratic Party politics, initially offering use of his employees to clean party headquarters at no charge. Body 3 (John Szyc) was buried in the crawl space directly above Body 4 (Gregory Godzik); both were identified December 29, 1978. They found Gacy had unplugged his sump pump, flooding the crawl space with water; they replaced the plug and waited for the water to drain.

Gacy also claimed to own guns, once telling an employee, "Do you know how easy it would be to get one of my guns and kill you—and how easy it would be to get rid of the body? In addition to Cram and Rossi, Gacy named his former employee Phillip Paske, who was a close associate of John Norman and an acquaintance of Cram. Gacy's subsequent statements regarding the events varied, [20] [136] although in one of his initial statements, he claimed Piest failed to resist as he removed the boy's trousers. His conviction for thirty-three murders (by one individual) then covered the most homicides in United States legal history.

Gacy seldom earned money for his performances and later said that acting as a clown allowed him to "regress into childhood". Gacy murdered one additional unidentified youth and buried him in the crawl space in the spring or early summer of 1977. He performed as both Pogo and Patches at numerous local parties, political functions, charitable events, and children's hospitals.

Gacy promised to come to the station later that evening to make a statement, indicating he was unable to do so at that moment as his uncle had just died. The same day, the Nisson Pharmacy photo receipt found in Gacy's kitchen was traced to 17-year-old Kimberly Byers, a colleague of Piest at Nisson Pharmacy. That afternoon, Cram consented to a police interview, in which he revealed that, because of his poor timekeeping, Gacy had once given him a watch, explaining he got it "from a dead person". The police did not pursue the matter further, although they did inform Szyc's mother that her son had sold his car. To prepare for a second scheduled parole hearing in May 1970, he completed sixteen high school courses, obtaining his diploma in November 1969.In Waterloo, Gacy joined the local Jaycees chapter, regularly offering extended hours to the organization in addition to the 12- and 14-hour days he worked managing the restaurants.

Amirante then urged the jury to put aside any prejudice they held against his client and asked they deliver a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, adding that Gacy was a danger to both himself and to others, and that studying his psychology and behavior would be of benefit to science. Investigators always believed that Houston serial killer Dean “Candyman” Coryll was the killer clown’s template. S. Supreme Court denied Gacy's final appeal in October 1993, the Illinois Supreme Court formally set an execution date for May 10, 1994.They were identified using dental records and radiology images as Michael Marino and Kenneth Parker on March 29, 1980 (too late to include among the victims identified before Gacy's trial). By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.