Series Review: "Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes" (2022).

From the director of Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes comes Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes. This crime documentary series directed by Joe Berlinger. Never-before-heard audio from the interrogation of serial killer John Wayne Gacy threads through this chilling look at his 1970s murder spree, as new interviews with investigators and survivors bring the horror of his crimes into full focus.

On March 17, 1942, American serial killer and pederast, John Wayne Gacy, was born. He raped, tortured, and murdered at least thirty-three young men and boys. Gacy regularly performed at children's hospitals and charitable events as "Pogo the Clown" or "Patches the Clown", personas he had devised. He became known as the Killer Clown due to his public services as a clown prior to the discovery of his crimes. Gacy committed all of his murders inside his ranch house near Norridge, a village in Norwood Park Township, metropolitan Chicago, Illinois. Typically, he would lure a victim to his home and dupe him into donning handcuffs on the pretext of demonstrating a magic trick. He would then rape and torture his captive before killing him by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a garrote. Twenty-six victims were buried in the crawl space of his home, and three others were buried elsewhere on his property; four were discarded in the Des Plaines River. In 1968, Gacy was convicted of the sodomy of a teenage boy in Waterloo, Iowa, and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, but served eighteen months. In 1972, he murdered his first victim and had murdered twice more by the end of 1975, and murdered at least thirty subsequent victims after his divorce from his second wife in 1976. The investigation into the disappearance of Des Plaines teenager Robert Piest led to Gacy's arrest on December 21, 1978. His conviction for thirty-three murders (by one individual) then covered the most homicides in United States legal history. On March 13, 1980, Gacy was sentenced to death. On death row at Menard Correctional Center, he spent much of his time painting. On May 10, 1994, he was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center.

The John Wayne Macy Tapes draws its strength precisely from what many have misunderstood as an error that serial killers are perfectly capable of integrating as the neighbor next door. The experience of watching the series is characterized by prurience, self-obsession, and, ultimately, a failure to hold to account the men who should have investigated these crimes properly. Berlinger handles the material with the significance it deserved. His use of archival footage, images, and interviews paint a full and complete picture of the events. Berlinger brings new facts to light here including new details, expert witness interviews with people speaking out for the first time and over one hundred hours of Gacy's audio tape interviews. The series though, is far from a passionate crusade against capital punishment; featuring hours of Gacy's unimaginable crimes.

Simon says Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes receives:

Also, see my reviews for Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer and Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes.