True Crime

Brad Hunter has spent over thirty years writing about some of America’s most horrific crimes. In this new book he enters the mind of John Wayne Gacy, the real-life ‘Killer Clown’, often said to be the inspiration for Stephen King’s evil Pennywise in It. Gacy lured victims to his home with the promise of work or a warm bed and then duped them into putting on handcuffs, claiming he wanted to show them a magic trick. He would then rape and torture his victims before killing them by suffocating or strangling them. Twenty-six were buried in the crawl space beneath his home; others were buried elsewhere on his property, while a handful were dumped in the Des Plaines River. Gacy was executed for his crimes in 1994, but many questions remain unanswered. How many victims were there? Did Gacy act alone? And what drove John Wayne Gacy to murder? What caused the seemingly normal Gacy to sexually assault, torture and murder at least thirty-three young men and boys? local Democratic Party circles? Drawing on his many years’ experience investigating and interviewing perpetrators of terrible crimes, Hunter seeks to understand what drove Gacy to unleash a reign of terror in suburban Chicago.