JWayne Gacy was one of the most prolific – and horrific – serial killers in America, responsible for the deaths of 33 young people, 26 of whom were buried in the access space under the Norwood Park Township in Chicago. An egomaniacal sociopath who ran a remodeling business, had strong local political ties (and aspirations), and was moonlit as a children’s hospital clown named Pogo, Gacy was the worst of the worst. He was also, surprisingly, a cunning liar, as confirmed by a 1992 interview that serves as a central element of the John Wayne Gacy: The Devil in Disguise, in which he claims that the police and the media “created this image of a fantastic monster” about him and that “I had nothing to do with killing anyone”. Rarely has a murderous murderer lied so much and so discouraged.
In fact, the only real thing he can say throughout the chat, led by legendary FBI profiler Robert Ressler, is that “the clown got a bad name because of what they used in my case.”
For the first time on March 25 at Peacock, John Wayne Gacy: The Devil in Disguise it is part of the history lesson, part of the psychological research and part of the cold and deceptive showcase of inhumanity, tracing a fine line between investigation and voyeurism. His main hook is the 1992 conversation between Gacy and Ressler, who closely watches over the imprisoned killer as he speaks kindly and confidently about his innocence – he goes so far as to say he didn’t even know he was dead – while flipping through an enormous volume of material. research that, he believes, exonerates him. No one on planet Earth buys this nonsense, including this documentary. However, if anyone comes close, it’s Craig Bowley, a long-time prison correspondent with Gacy, who helped set up Ressler’s recorded encounter with the devil and who spent years with him to the point where he says that she was almost heartbroken when she finally had to say goodbye – through a hug – to her long-known acquaintance and confidence.
Bowley’s distorted fascination with Gacy is one area John Wayne Gacy: The Devil in Disguise it may have been much harder to get into. For the most part, though, this six-part non-fiction adventure is a little too comprehensive; like many of his brothers, it could have been at least a shorter episode, without losing any key facts or information. This is especially noticeable in the back half, when excessive attention is paid to the details of Gacy’s trial (and especially to her unnecessary defense to insanity), as well as to the efforts to name a handful of victims who have never been identified. officially then. Such subjects are relevant to the larger portrait painted here, but greater conciseness would have strengthened the impact of these passages, as well as improved the momentum of the procedures.
Fortunately, John Wayne Gacy: The Devil in Disguise it is otherwise exhaustive, enlightening and interesting. Gacy reveals that he is an ambitious and ruthless narcissistic man who grew up with an abusive alcoholic father and a sexual appetite for young men. He was married and divorced twice (raising children with his first wife), all while conducting homosexual attempts with countless individuals (he firmly held the line that he was bisexual). He struggled to cross paths with political organizations and power players in Chicago (sometimes by broadcasting and promoting pornography) and ran a remodeling business, equipped with male teens who had a suspicious habit of disappearing. When a potential recruit, Robert Plest, a 15-year-old Des Plains native, disappeared in 1978 while seeing Gacy about a job – while the boy’s mother was waiting for him outside his job – The police started spying. What they finally found was a mass grave that had never been seen before.
Using interviews with detectives, journalists, relatives, friends, family members of the victims and more, as well as archive news broadcasts, crime scene images, movies and photos at home, John Wayne Gacy: The Devil in Disguise provides a detailed account of police surveillance and arrest of Gacy and the digging of his nightmare home. The series avoids formal sensationalism at most; dramatic recreations are absent (only stage-like sets of key locations are used), and Gacy’s images of Pogo – a look he didn’t use to draw victims – are kept to a minimum. His stories have a discouraging quality, which also refers to Gacy’s checkered past, before Chicago, Iowa, where he was convicted of sexually assaulting the teenage son of a state official and was sentenced to 10 years behind bars at the Penitentiary. of Stat Anamosa.
“What they finally found was a mass grave that had never been seen before.”
The fact that Gacy was released on parole just 18 months after that sentence proves one of the many cases in which criminal justice and law enforcement systems have been short. John Wayne Gacy: The Devil in Disguise details how Gacy repeatedly appeared on police radar for various crimes and missing persons, and yet he always seemed to revolve, either because of his personality or the political connections he had made throughout the area. Moreover, in its chapter on the epilogue, the series claims that the police, fearing not to reveal the revelations that would shed contemptuous light on their initial investigation, could have deliberately ignored clues and evidence in the years that would have dug up victims. of Gacy (he boasted that his body number was closer to 45).
Excessive and implicit accusations against the police are common components of John Wayne Gacy: The Devil in Disguiseand are complemented by a rather convincing conspiracy theory that Gacy may not act alone, but may be helped instead by members of John Norman’s pedophile sex trafficking circle to which Gacy was linked by an employee ( Phil Because). Gacy’s acquaintance with those individuals, as well as with his shadowy colleagues, Michael Rossi and David Cram, makes it entirely possible for others to help him accomplish the facets of his old murder. Consequently, even though Gacy was executed by lethal injection on 10 May 1994, the case continues to raise unanswered questions.
John Wayne Gacy: The Devil in DisguiseThe conclusion makes a compelling argument that, in some respects, more needs to be done – for example, the police digging up the yard at the block of flats where Gacy’s mother lived and where she probably buried several bodies. However, what needs no further details is the depth of Gacy’s deviant depravity, which, despite its pleasant 1992 routine towards Ressler, can be seen hiding behind his hard, emotionless eyes.