“The tapes of John Wayne Gacy”: a docuseries that tackles the chilling case of the murderous clown

The collection of Conversations with Murderers on Netflix added a new criminal case on April 20 : The John Wayne Gacy. Over the course of three episodes, director Joe Berlinger portrays the story of one of the worst serial killers in the history of the United States. In the 1970s, the man raped and killed more than 30 men, among young adults and adolescents, while, at the same time, he presented himself to his neighbors as an exemplary subject.

As the official premise published by the streaming service indicates, “John Wayne Gacy was a budding politician, a well-loved contractor in his community and even worked as a clown occasionally. Between 1972 and 1976, he murdered 33 young people. Most of the victims were buried under their home, located in a quiet residential area northwest of Chicago.”

Five decades later, scientists are still trying to identify bodies through DNA and, recently, new audios of the psychopath came to light. Between 1979 and 1980, prior to his trial, about 60 hours of conversations were recorded between the murderer and his lawyers, where he lets out his completely narcissistic mentality and his tactics so as not to be identified as a suspect for a long time.

In addition, these interviews include key people with this series of events such as a survivor who had never before revealed his testimony and offers, in the first person, the account of a stark experience in which he almost died. “The goal is to answer a crucial question: how did a public figure like Gacy manage to remain unpunished for so long?” , notes the synopsis of The Tapes of John Wayne Gacy.

In this new production by Joe Berlinger (also behind The Ted Bundy Tapes), we seek to analyze in depth the double life of John Wayne Gacy. Publicly, he was a contractor who planned to jump into politics and was also well-liked for working dressed like a clown at children's parties under the pseudonym “Pogo, the Clown”. However, when no one saw it, it became the worst nightmare of anyone who crossed his path with him.

As in Ted Bundy's documentary, the story of the murderous clown begins with one of the most emblematic victims of the case. Robert Piest was a 15-year-old boy who had a part-time job at a pharmaceutical company and the first to report missing in late 1978. In the midst of investigating the victim's whereabouts, police obtained a search warrant for suspect Wayne Gacy's home, but it wasn't until the second break-in that authorities found human bones on the property.

Conversations with Killers: The Tapes of John Wayne Gacy is available to watch on Netflix.

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