Robert Piest was fifteen years old when he disappeared from the Nisson Pharmacy in Des Plaines, Illinois, on December 11, 1978. His mother was waiting to drive him home. Robert told her he would be back in a few minutes after speaking with a contractor about a possible summer job. He never returned.
That contractor was John Wayne Gacy. The investigation into Robert’s disappearance exposed the murders of thirty-three boys and young men committed between 1972 and 1978. Twenty-nine victims were recovered from Gacy’s property, while four others were recovered from waterways downstream from the place where he said he had disposed of bodies.
Gacy performed in public as Pogo and Patches at parties and community events, and the press later made the clown persona central to his notoriety. The label is memorable, but it can distract from the reality of the case. Gacy did not evade suspicion because of theatrical makeup. He relied on his position as an employer, his involvement in the community, and the trust he was able to gain from young people and adults.
The Warning from Waterloo
Before returning to the Chicago area, Gacy lived in Waterloo, Iowa. He managed fried chicken restaurants, became active in the local Jaycees, and cultivated the image of an ambitious businessman. At the same time, he was sexually abusing teenage boys.
In 1968, Gacy was convicted in Iowa of sexually assaulting a teenage boy and received a ten-year prison sentence. He served approximately eighteen months at the Anamosa State Penitentiary before being paroled in June 1970. His conduct in prison was described as cooperative, but good institutional behavior could not establish that he no longer posed a danger outside prison.
After his release, Gacy moved back to the Chicago area and rebuilt his public life. The Iowa conviction did not make the later murders inevitable, but it was a serious warning about his sexual violence toward adolescent boys. That history became crucial when Des Plaines detectives began investigating Robert Piest’s disappearance eight years later.
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| The 1978 booking photograph of John Wayne Gacy, taken after the investigation exposed the crimes hidden behind his public image of suburban respectability. |
Access Through Work and Trust
In Illinois, Gacy established PDM Contractors. The construction business brought him into contact with teenage boys and young men seeking temporary work. Some of his victims worked for him or approached him about employment. Others met him in different circumstances. What linked many of the encounters was Gacy’s ability to present himself as an employer, a helpful adult, or a person with authority.
Survivor testimony and Gacy’s own statements described a so-called handcuff trick. He demonstrated how to escape from handcuffs and then invited another person to try. Once the restraints were secured, the harmless performance became a way to take control.
Investigators documented other methods of restraint, but repeating every detail risks turning suffering into spectacle. The essential point is that Gacy used preparation and deception. His victims were not responsible for trusting an adult who offered work, company, or assistance. He alone was responsible for exploiting that trust.
Robert Piest’s Disappearance and the Police Investigation
Robert worked at the Nisson Pharmacy on the evening he disappeared. Gacy, whose company had been working at the store, had spent part of that evening there. Robert told a coworker and his mother that he was going outside to speak with the contractor about a job. Gacy’s truck was seen outside around the time Robert vanished.
Des Plaines detectives quickly examined Gacy’s background and discovered the Iowa conviction. A search warrant executed on December 13 produced several items of interest. Among them was a film receipt from Nisson Pharmacy that police believed Robert had been carrying when he disappeared.
Police then placed Gacy under close surveillance. During that surveillance, an officer entered the house at Gacy’s invitation and noticed an odor he recognized as similar to human decomposition. That observation, the film receipt, and the earlier evidence supported a second warrant issued on December 21 to search for Robert’s remains.
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| Robert Piest, fifteen, whose disappearance led investigators to John Wayne Gacy and triggered the search that exposed the full scale of his crimes. |
The Search of the Property
The December 21 search led investigators into the crawl space beneath Gacy’s home. The work that followed required police, forensic specialists, and medical experts to recover remains from an extremely confined and difficult environment while preserving evidence needed for identification and trial.
Official records state that twenty-nine victims were recovered from Gacy’s property. They were found in the crawl space and in other locations around the home, including areas beneath the driveway and garage. Four additional victims were recovered from the Des Plaines and Illinois rivers.
Identification became one of the investigation’s most important and lasting responsibilities. Advances in DNA analysis and genetic genealogy have allowed three previously unnamed victims to be identified since the Cook County Sheriff’s Office reopened that work in 2011. Five victims remain unidentified, and the effort to restore their names continues.
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| Forensic investigators working within the crawl space beneath Gacy’s home. Official records state that twenty-nine victims were recovered across the property, including the crawl space and areas beneath the driveway and garage. |
Conviction and Execution
On March 12, 1980, a jury found John Wayne Gacy guilty of thirty-three murders. The court imposed death sentences for twelve of the murders and natural life sentences for the remaining counts. His convictions and sentences were examined through years of state and federal appeals.
Gacy remained on death row for fourteen years and continued to attract public attention, including through paintings that were sold and exhibited. He was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994. Repeating his reported final insult would add nothing of value to the victims’ stories or to an understanding of the case.
The Search for a Simple Explanation
After Gacy’s execution, his brain was retained for examination through arrangements associated with forensic psychiatrist Dr. Helen Morrison, who had interviewed him and testified for the defense at his trial. Reports of the examination described no obvious structural disease, tumor, or injury that could explain his crimes.
That result should be interpreted carefully. A normal structural examination cannot explain a person’s character, choices, or capacity for manipulation. It also cannot reduce years of calculated violence to a single medical answer. Gacy planned his actions, deceived people around him, and repeatedly used trust as a weapon.
The clown costume became the most recognizable image associated with the case, but it should never become more important than the people who were harmed. Robert Piest and the other victims were sons, brothers, friends, students, and young workers. Five still await the recovery of their names. Their dignity, and the continuing work of identification, are the most meaningful reasons to remember this case.
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| Items connected to Gacy’s clown persona, including materials associated with the image of Pogo the Clown that became inseparable from the public memory of the case. |
Sources: Cook County public records; Des Plaines Police Department crime scene archives; Stateville Correctional Center execution records; psychiatric reporting associated with Dr. Helen Morrison; Walter Jacobson prison interviews; WGN-TV archival reporting; The Real-Life Killer Clown audiobook materials.