A recent true crime watch. I figured Gacy would be a logical choice for Netflix to cover given the spate of true-crime docuseries that they are turning out at the moment, but after a couple of episodes of this, I am figuring there would be little need for anyone else to try and redo the subject. Comprised of six 50-minute episodes, JOHN WAYNE GACY: DEVIL IN DISGUISE is certainly shaping up to be a comprehensive look into the life and crimes of this notorious killer of 33 teenaged boys during the mid-70s, the bulk of the bodies of which he kept buried in the crawlspace beneath his unassuming suburban Chigaco home.
A lot of this series is comprised of an extensive interview with Gacy himself, given in prison in 1992 and conducted by the late FBI profiler Robert Ressler. With Gacy's execution looming, the interview provides a terrifying but engrossing, and very important, psychological profile of a deranged homicidal mind, one that is in complete denial of any responsibilities for his actions. But there are also interviews with retired cops that worked on the case, parents and relatives of victims, and even the photographer who snapped many pictures of Gacy, including the infamous photos of him dressed up as Pogo the Clown. Not to mention plenty of original news footage and photographs.
There's also a rather distressing audio interview with Carole Hoff, Gacy's wife at the time he began his killing spree, who recalls her continual complaints to Gacy that there was a bad stench permeating their home, which she believed was caused by a dead animal under the house, never imagining the horrifying truth until after she had moved out and Gacy's stiflingly private homicidal life became public. There were likely some strange things going on with Gacy's late mother as well, who may have had knowledge or suspicions about her son's activities, but stayed silent to protect him. And I'm intrigued to see where the story leads in regards to David Cram and Michael Rossi, two 18-year-olds who worked for, and likely had sexual relations with, Gacy. They both claimed to have no knowledge of Gacy's murder spree, yet they were the ones who dug the holes in Gacy's crawlspace, where the bodies were buried, and they also accepted gifts given to them by Gacy that were taken from his victims, including a car, without asking any questions about where the gifts were coming from.
