John Wayne Gacy's house

This is the lot where John Wayne Gacy's house once stood.

It is located at 8215 West Summerdale Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.

Gacy was a serial killer who murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. Many of his victims were later found buried in the crawlspace beneath his home.

Gacy owned a construction business called PDM Contractors and was deeply embedded in his local community. He often dressed up as "Pogo the Clown" and performed at parties, charity events, and business openings. He was also a local precinct captain for the Democratic Party.

In May 1978, Gacy was photographed with First Lady Rosalynn Carter. Gacy met the First Lady in his capacity as the director of Chicago's Polish Constitution Day Parade.

Seven months after the photo was taken, investigators began recovering victims from his crawlspace.

Murders

Gacy's modus operandi involved luring victims to his home and plying them with alcohol. Once they were at ease, he would trick them into putting on a pair of handcuffs.

After securing the handcuffs, Gacy dropped his playful persona and subjected his victims to sadistic acts of rape and torture. This often included taunting the boys and partially drowning them in his bathtub.

Afterward, he would strangle them to death with a rope and bury their remains in the crawlspace beneath his house.

Among the victims were Samuel Dodd Stapleton and Michael Marino, both of whom were only 14 years old.

Eventually, the crawlspace became so crowded that he resorted to dumping bodies in the Des Plaines River.

Gacy came to the attention of the police in December 1978, after he was implicated in the disappearance of a local teenager named Robert Piest.

In 1980, he was found guilty of 33 charges of murder and sentenced to death.

On May 10, 1994, Gacy was executed by lethal injection after spending 14 years on death row.

Demolished

The excavations at Gacy's home were so extensive that they compromised the building's structural integrity. Although investigators believed more victims remained buried in the crawlspace, there were fears that the house would collapse.

Consequently, Cook County officials petitioned the Circuit Court for permission to level the site.

Gacy's defense team attempted to delay the demolition by appealing to the Illinois Supreme Court. However, the property was eventually torn down on April 11, 1979, after their request was denied.

The lot sat vacant until 1986, when the current house was built.