John Wayne Gacy's house

Serial Killer House in Chicago, Illinois

This is John Wayne Gacy's former house.

The address is 8215 West Summerdale Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.

Gacy was a sadistic serial killer who tortured and killed at least 33 teenagers and young men between 1972 and 1978.

His original house was demolished by a wrecking crew on April 11th, 1979, after extensive police excavations made it structurally unsound.

By the time the property was torn down, the inside had been completely gutted, leaving behind only the exterior walls and roof.

Gacy's house former house at 8215 West Summerdale Ave

Although the building itself no longer exists, it is still sad to think that 29 men were murdered and then buried on this lot.

Two of his youngest confirmed victims were Samuel Dodd Stapleton and Michael Marino, both of whom were only 14 years old.

Gacy's M.O. involved luring victims back to his home and plying them with alcohol. Then, once they were at ease, he would trick them into putting on a pair of handcuffs. As soon as the handcuffs were secured, his playful mask would slip, and he would begin to carry out sadistic acts of rape and torture. He also liked to taunt his victims and partially drown them in his bathtub.

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

Towards the end of his crime spree, there were so many bodies in the crawlspace that he had to start dumping his victims in the Des Plaines River.

His luck finally came to an end after he was implicated in the disappearance of a local teenager.

In 1980, Gacy was found guilty of 33 charges of murder and sentenced to death. On May 10th, 1994, he was executed by lethal injection after spending fourteen years on death row.

John Wayne Gacy house address

The address and the GPS coordinates for this location are as follows:

Address

8215 West Summerdale Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, IL 60656, USA

Map

To view directions on how to get there, you can use the Google Maps shortcut below:

Google Maps

GPS coordinates

The latitude and longitude coordinates for the house are:

41.976188, -87.832445

Directions

The house lies to the east of the Hilton Chicago O'Hare Airport. It is close to the intersection of Summerdale Avenue and North Pioneer Ave.

Private Property Warning

This is a private property. It is not a public place. Therefore, you should be respectful and not step foot on the property without permission.

Photos

Photos of the house and other related images.

Why was Gacy's house demolished?

The house was not demolished for moral reasons.

The property was deemed unsafe after police excavations gutted the interior of the structure. At that point, investigators were unable to continue their work unless the building was torn down.

In other words, the police suspected that there might be more victims. However, there were fears that the house might collapse on top of them if they continued digging.

Consequently, representatives from Cook County petitioned the Circuit Court and asked for permission to level the site.

After the structure was demolished, the lot remained empty for a number of years. The current house was built seven years later, in 1986.

Aerial photograph

This is an aerial photograph of the current property.

Nisson Pharmacy

On December 11th, 1978, Gacy approached his final victim, Robert Piest (15), at the Nissan Pharmacy in Des Plaines.

These days, the building is home to a daycare center called Millie's House.

At the time, Piest was working part-time at the pharmacy.

Gacy, who owned a construction company called PDM Contractors, visited the pharmacy to discuss a remodeling job with the owner.

After noticing Piest, he loudly mentioned that his construction firm paid teenage boys $5 per hour—a very substantial amount back in 1975.

Later that day, Piest's mother arrived to pick him up. However, he asked her to wait a little while because he needed to talk to a contractor about a potential job.

Sadly, he never returned. Within an hour of leaving the pharmacy, the teenager was murdered at Gacy's house on Summerdale Avenue.

It was Piest's sudden disappearance that ultimately led to Gacy's arrest.

Coordinates: 42.010205, -87.877112

Google Maps

Crawlspace

These are crime scene photographs of the crawlspace beneath Gacy's house.

This is where investigators unearthed the remains of 26 young men.

Five of his victims remain unidentified.

Gacy's victims

These are photographs of some of Gacy's victims.

He murdered at least 33 teenagers and young men between 1972 and 1978. Their ages ranged between 14 and 21.

Although he committed his first murder in 1972, it wasn't until 1976 that his main serial killings began.

His murders became a regular occurrence shortly after his divorce from his second wife, Carole Hoff, was finalized.

Inside

These are colorized police photographs of his bedroom (top) and recreation room (bottom).

Notably, a painting of a clown is visible on his bedroom wall. Gacy would sometimes dress up as "Pogo the clown" and perform 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. His meeting with Carter took place because he was the director of the Polish Constitution Day Parade in Chicago.

Seven months after the photograph was taken, investigators were recovering victims from his crawlspace.