KILLER CLOWN GACY ON PEACOCK

                     

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                                                 BY BILL JUNEAU 

                                Peacock is now streaming a six-part series on John Wayne Gacy,  the politically active contractor who killed 33 teen agers and buried 29 of them in the crawl space under his home in the Norwood Park region of Chicago in the 1970s. 

                     I was a Chicago Tribune reporter in those days and part of my beat was the office of the Cook County Medical Examiner,  Dr. Robert J. Stein, the forensic pathologist for whom the Institute of Forensic Medicine, formerly the County morgue, is now named. I was with Dr. Stein at the Gacy home in 1979 when Dr. Stein donned full body work clothes and  climbed down into the crawl space and supervised the removal of bodies which were immediately bussed to the morgue for further examinations and identification whereever possible.

                      Though the six-part series is vague on the fact that by law the medical examiner is among principals in murder investigations, it was Stein, and not the prosecuting lawyers led by Terry Sullivan and Bill Kunkle, who were hands-on in seeking the identifications of the skeletal remains of Gacy victims uncovered in mud and soil under Gacy's small, ranch style home.  All but a few of the victims were positively identified.  

                      Dr. Stein, a past President of the National Association of Medical examiners, coordinated efforts to identify the victims and brought in dental and bone experts to get the job done.  Stein worked tirelessly in making the identifications and was aided by investigating detectives from Des Plaines and many other communities in the Chicago area, and from officers from the ranks of the late Sheriff Richard Elrod.

                      The Peacock series is informative and worth watching.  It's even a bit creepy as there are extensive interviews with Gacy, truly a psychopathic monster.  Listening to him boast of his talents and connections will have you shaking your head at his open and nonchalant attitude. Gacy, after his arrest, busied himself painting in his prison cell while awaiting his trial.  One of his paintings was that of a clown, dressed in garb similar to that which he wore while entertaining children.  He dedicated his creation to Dr. Stein and then sent it to him so as to impress him with his artistic talents.  Dr. Stein died in 1994 and the whereabouts of the painting is not known. He may well have trashed it. 

                       Personally, I  thought that the TV show, while well done, missed a good deal of information which would have been available from Gacy's defense attorneys, Sam Amirante and Robert Motta, to whom Gacy detailed his killings and the tricks he used with handcuffs to take control of his young victims, prior to strangling and burying them in trenches under his home.    The story of how Amirante and Motta came to serve as counsel to Gacy is fascinating and is recounted in Amirante's book, "John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster," which was published in 2015.

                       In the TV series and in the Amirante book, Gacy is seen as a heartless individual who never regretted anything that he had done.  He would bury his victims, Bob Motta has said, and then go about his daily routine as a maintenance contractor who claimed he had important connections. He was a Democratic precinct captain who ingratiated himself to merchants, politicians and businessmen and would throw parties and even entertain children in his clown suit. Frequently, he managed to have his picture taken with prominent people.  In one he is seen smiling alongside the wife of former President Jimmy Carter.                                                                                   Following the Gacy sentencing and execution, Amirante was appointed an Associate Judge in Cook county and he served as a jurist for some 18 years.  At one point, because of his personality and credentials, he was pursued by television scouts seeking to make him a TV judge (like Judge Judy), but Amirante declined.                

                          In much of the six part series on Peacock, little emphasis is given to the tireless work by Motta and Amirante who were defending perhaps the greatest mass murderer of young boys in the nation's history.  Both lawyers are strong subscribers to the right of defendants to receive a fair trial, even sociopaths like Gacy. The attorneys presented medical evidence that Gacy was insane when he committed the killings, but was adjudged capable of standing trial and aiding in his defense.  After a trial of several weeks, Gacy was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to death and the execution took place by way of lethal injection on May 10, 1994.   Gacy was 52 years old.  

                           After leaving the bench, Amirante opened a  law office in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and continues to represent defendants accused of breaking the law. 

                           Robert Motta also continues to defend clients accused of crimes as a senior partner in his firm in the western suburbs of Chicago. His son, Robert Motta Jr., is also a partner in the firm which is among leading criminal law offices in the Chicago area. 

                            The Mottas are highly respected in the legal community for their skills in the practice of criminal law and for their respect and adherence to the constitution and to legal ethics and morals.

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