A scripted limited series about one of America’s most terrifying killers is coming to Peacock.
The devil in disguise: John Wayne Gacy reveals the crimes of the real-life convicted murderer responsible for the unfathomable murders of 33 people, mostly young men and teenagers. With Michael Chernus (Severance pay, Dead Ringers) in the title role, the 1970s-based drama series (inspired by the Peacock docuseries of the same name) “uncovers the tangled layers of Gacy’s life as it weaves in heartbreaking stories of his mostly gay victims; it explores the grief, guilt and trauma of their families and friends; and it exposes the systemic failures, missed opportunities and societal prejudices that fueled his reign of terror,” according to the show’s official description.
Before the premiere of The devil in disguise: John Wayne Gacy, Learn more about the sadistic killer known as the “Killer Clown.”
Who was John Wayne Gacy?
John Wayne Gacy was a Chicago-raised man who raped, tortured, and killed 33 teenage and young men between 1972 and 1978. Most of them were found in the crawl space of his home in Norwood Park Township, part of the Chicago metropolitan area. For years, Gacy remained undetected, largely due to his status as an honorable citizen and respected member of the community.
The son of an allegedly violent, alcoholic father, Gacy’s first crimes came to light in the 1960s after he moved to Waterloo, Iowa, with his wife and two children. Gacy managed several of his father-in-law’s Kentucky Fried Chicken fast-food restaurants and even joined a national citizen’s group. But in 1968, Gacy was accused of sexually abusing several teenagers, reported The New York Times. He served 18 months of a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to sodomy against a single victim, The Chicago Tribune.
The victim committed suicide, allegedly due to the psychological trauma caused by the abuse, according to NBC affiliate Waterloo KWWL.
Gacy divorced and returned to Chicago – where he was allowed to serve his parole – and became a model citizen, eventually moving into the now-infamous murder house on West Summerdale Avenue, where he lived until his arrest in 1978, he said. News week.
Gacy remarried, and for nearly a decade, the popular neighbor hosted annual parties at the residence. He even dressed up as “Pogo the Clown” and entertained children at parties, hiding his secret life as a deranged killer.
Gacy owned and operated his own construction company, PDM Contractors, which sometimes gave him easy access to his young, male victims. Sometimes Gacy would roam the streets of Chicago and kidnap or lure them to his home, sometimes posing as a police officer. Typically, Gacy would ply his victims with alcohol and/or drugs, handcuff them, and rape and torture them.
Most of the victims died by strangulation with a strangulator before Gacy roughly moved the bodies to his crawl space.
Who were John Wayne Gacy’s victims?
Gacy’s first known victim was 15-year-old Tim McCoy, who – unlike the others – was stabbed to death in Gacy’s home in January 1972 after Gacy found him at a Greyhound bus stop in Chicago. He was one of the 26 bodies discovered beneath Gacy’s home and was not identified until 14 years later.
The modest family man murdered an as yet unknown teenager in 1974. In 1975, Gacy killed one of his teenage construction workers, 18-year-old John Butkovitch, who had left the PDM company and disappeared when he went to collect his last paycheck, according to The Chicago Tribune.
His next victim remained unknown until 2021, when his DNA linked him to missing North Carolina man Francis Wayne Alexander.
The killer’s gruesome crimes increased significantly when his wife divorced him in 1976 and moved out of the house with their two children. In that year alone, Gacy brutally murdered more than a dozen young men and teenagers, starting with Darrel Samson.
A complete list of Gacy’s known victims was previously published by Oxygen.com, although many were considered runaways at the time. According to the Tribune, Gacy regularly searched the city’s gay bars for victims, including 20-year-old Timothy O’Rourke, whose body was discovered in the Illinois River.
Authorities did not notice Gacy until his last victim, 15-year-old Robert Piest, disappeared. Witnesses last saw Piest at a local pharmacy talking to Gacy about possible construction work at PDM, and the search for the teenager led authorities to Gacy’s home, where the bodies were discovered.
Piest was found dead in the Illinois River in the spring of 1979.
Ultimately, Gacy was convicted of all 33 murders and died by lethal injection in 1994.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Office is still hoping to determine the names of the remaining five victims whose deaths are still unknown.
what is John Wayne Gacy: The devil in a robe?
Based on the 2021 NBC Documentary series John Wayne Gacy: The devil in a robe (now available on Peacock), The devil in disguise: John Wayne Gacy is a staged dramatization “based on the gruesome crimes of one of America’s most notorious serial killers and the thorough investigation that ultimately brought him to justice,” says the show’s description.
As announced on Tuesday, August 27, 2024, an exciting cast will star in the series, including Gabriel Luna (The Last of Us, Terminator: Dark Fate) as Detective Rafael Tovar, James Badge Dale (Scholar, 1923) as Chief of Criminal Investigation Joe Kozenczak, Michael Angarano (Oppenheimer, That’s us) as Sam Amirante, Chris Sullivan (This is us, Mercy) as senior prosecutor Bill Kunkle and Marin Ireland (The Irishman, The Umbrella Academy) as Elizabeth Piest.
Actor Michael Chernus previously had this to say after his lead role was confirmed: “I am both excited and humbled by this opportunity,” he said. “Although Gacy was the perpetrator of these gruesome crimes, I am relieved that he will not be the focus of the series.”
Patrick Macmanus (Dr. Death, The Girl from Plainville) serves as showrunner. Executive producers are Noah Oppenheim and Liz Cole for NBC News Studios, Ashley Michel Hoban, Ahmadu Garba and Kelly Funke for Littleton Road Productions.
Where can I watch John Wayne Gacy: The devil in a robe?
A premiere date for The devil in disguise: John Wayne Gacy has not yet been announced, but the series will debut exclusively on Peacock.
