NEED TO KNOW
- John Wayne Gacy was a serial killer in the 1970s who murdered at least 33 boys and young men
- After evading police for six years, Gacy was arrested in 1978 after they linked him to the murder of 15-year-old Robert Piest
- The Peacock scripted series Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy tells the story, with Michael Chernus acting as Gacy
Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy tells the real-life story of the brutal crimes of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
In the Peacock series, Michael Chernus portrays the murderer who killed at least 33 boys and men in the 1970s. Gacy, who was given the moniker the “Killer Clown” because he often dressed as one when volunteering, targeted young men and sexually assaulted many of them before murdering them.
After killing his victims, he buried many of them in a mass grave in a crawl space under his home in a suburb of Chicago. Gacy was eventually arrested in 1978 and confessed to the murders.
Gacy was convicted in 1980 and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection in 1994 at the age of 52.
Gacy’s gruesome crimes have been depicted in several TV shows and films over the years, including the 2021 Peacock docuseries John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise. Four years later, the streamer created a scripted limited series based on the docuseries titled Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy, which premiered on Oct. 16.
“We have the benefit that our show is based on the brilliant documentary that Peacock made about this case, so we all started there,” Chernus told NBC of the scripted series.
Here’s everything to know about what Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy got right and which parts were fictionalized for storytelling purposes.
Did Gacy really dress up as a clown?
Although the Peacock adaptation didn’t show a full shot of Gacy in his clown costume, the series included scenes of him talking about his passion for dressing up as a clown and publicly performing as one. In the show, Gacy explained that he acted as a clown as a means of defying his strict and conservative upbringing.
In real life, Gacy did have an obsession with clowns, according to CBS News. Around the time he was on his killing spree in the 1970s, Gacy joined a clown club and created his own persona as “Pogo the Clown” and “Patches the Clown.” He went on to perform as a clown at hospitals, children’s parties and various events.
After Gacy was caught, he was dubbed the “Killer Clown” due to his hobby. In a 1992 interview with an FBI agent (which was featured in the 2021 Peacock documentary), Gacy explained that he felt “relaxed” while acting as a clown. He added that it allowed him to “let yourself go and act a fool.”
Elsewhere in the infamous interview, he said, “Clowns can get away with murder.”
Did Robert Piest’s disappearance lead to Gacy’s arrest?
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/devil-in-disguise-9-070825-47fbe2ce3032483db33453c57591252f.jpg)
For most of his six-year murder spree, Gacy went under the radar as he killed more than 30 boys and young men whom he thought were runaways or wouldn’t be noticed as missing. However, Gacy was finally caught when 15-year-old Robert Piest went missing.
In Devil in Disguise, the story begins with Piest’s mom looking for her son after he disappeared while working his pharmacy job in December 1978. As the first episode unfolds, Piest’s mom’s actions lead to police questioning Gacy and eventually arresting him just days after the teenager’s disappearance.
While the show starts with Piest and works backward, it is true that he was Gacy’s final victim. The serial killer murdered Piest after telling him that he could hire him for his contracting business and drove him to his home, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Shortly after Piest went missing, police identified that Gacy was the one offering the job. Police later interviewed Gacy and eventually arrested him on Dec. 21, 1978.
Did Gacy immediately confess to his crimes?
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(742x140:744x142)/john-wayne-gacy-netflix-mugshots-050925-d57f04e9beae405e94a22136b81813fa.jpg)
While Piest’s disappearance and murder directly contributed to Gacy’s arrest, he didn’t immediately confess, as was depicted in the series. In real life, it wasn’t an instant confession, but it also didn’t take an extensive amount of time.
Shortly after Piest went missing, police obtained a search warrant and found various concerning items in the killer’s home, but nothing that would have proved Gacy’s guilt, per Britannica. They continued surveilling him for days, while Gacy denied any involvement in Piest’s murder.
However, the constant surveillance took a toll on Gacy, and he eventually confessed to Piest’s murder and at least 30 other young men. He also gave detailed information about the crawl space under his house, including a map of the victim’s locations, per the Chicago Tribune.
Did Gacy hide bodies in his home?
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/john-wayne-gacy-house-914-101625-e584d45da5d846bdbdb232e167bba692.jpg)
Just as the Peacock series depicted, Gacy buried nearly all of his victims in the crawl space under his home. Of his 33 victims, he buried 26 of them in the crawl space, while he placed three of them elsewhere on his property and four in a nearby river, according to the Associated Press.
Before storing the bodies in the crawl space, Gacy used lime to hasten the bodies’ decomposition. The process made it more difficult for authorities to later identify the corpses, and as of 2025, there are still five unidentified victims, per the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
Did Gacy’s attorney, Sam Amirante, agree to represent him on false pretenses and later struggle to be his lawyer?
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/devil-in-disguise-4-070825-7b4d2a7234504080a397a7957c1ae12d.jpg)
The first episode of Devil in Disguise depicts the moment when Gacy lies to his attorney, Sam Amirante (played by Michael Angarano), about why he needs his help in the midst of the police investigating him. The series shows Gacy contacting Amirante under the guise of “police harassment.”
However, shortly after Amirante agreed to the case, Gacy confessed to him. As the series continues, Amirante plays a crucial role in the morality of the characters, as he expresses his inner struggle in representing Gacy.
In real life, the sequence of events between Gacy and Amirante is accurate, as Gacy did mislead Amirante into representing him. The lawyer has since written about working with Gacy during his 15-week trial and his inner conflict in the 2011 book, John Wayne Gacy: Defending A Monster. In the book, Amirante explained that while he had to hear all the gory details of Gacy’s crimes, he also agreed to prioritize being the killer’s attorney.
“The toughest thing about a case like that — any case that involves the victims of horrible crimes — is looking at those family members when you’re the lawyer defending someone accused of doing that and sometimes even knowing that they’ve done it,” he told SeattlePI in 2012. “Seeing the looks on the faces of these people and feeling compassion for them is a very difficult thing to experience.”
Did Gacy really meet former First Lady Rosalynn Carter?
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(680x238:682x240)/john-wayne-gacy-rosalynn-carter-102025-7a25b09854324d6db3d67a1240f25639.jpg)
In the series, Gacy enjoyed talking about many of his accomplishments and exaggerating some of his stories. One of those anecdotes included a time when Gacy met then-First Lady Rosalynn Carter at a private event in Chicago after the city’s Polish Constitution Day Parade.
Although Gacy lied about other aspects of his life, he did indeed meet the former First Lady, per the Chicago Tribune. Gacy and Carter were photographed meeting after he helped supervise the annual parade in 1978 — just a few months before his arrest.
Were the victims’ families led to think they could see Gacy’s execution?
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(753x376:755x378)/john-wayne-gacy-victims-102025-58dde47c6557493da2ab52bd48284df4.jpg)
The final episode of Devil in Disguise shows the lead-up to Gacy’s execution on May 10, 1994. At the time of his lethal injection death, several people gained access to witness the ordeal.
However, the series adds a dramatic effect by depicting many of Gacy’s victims’ families showing up at the prison to witness the ordeal. The prison staff place the families in a separate room, and after Gacy is killed, they discover that they had been misled into thinking they could watch it.
Unlike the show, there are no reports that any victims’ families attended the execution or that any families came to the prison and got denied. The Chicago Tribune reported at the time that although some families expressed interest in attending the execution, they were turned away ahead of time.
In reality, the eyewitnesses included members of the legal teams, law enforcement and some media personnel, according to a 1994 story in the Journal Gazette and Times-Courier.
Read the full article here