The Rest of Us

 Watched a "Soft, White Underbelly" video about a man who escaped from the clutches of John Wayne Gacy, as a young teen. Being of the Chicago area, I've heard of close calls with Gacy for decades, most of which were after the fact and of the nature of: "I ran across this creepy guy, and he turned out to be JOHN WAYNE CACY!" Probably true, but you never know. People like to make themselves main characters and even supporting characters at times. What was interesting about this episode was, it had happened hundreds of miles away from Gacy's usual hunting ground around Chicago. This took place in a state park in Kentucky. And the guy met Gacy there twice in three years. What was this suburban Chicago area contractor doing way down in Kentucky? As he told the boy when he met him, he was "visiting friends". You really have to wonder who those friends were. 

Gacy had a lot of friends all over the country, purportedly, friends with the same interests in boys as him. I had watched a documentary about him a couple years back where a rolodex of names of men all over the country was gathered as evidence after his capture, and then quickly disappeared- forever- by someone in authority. A person who had viewed the rolodex noted that many of the names were known to be of well-respected people. There were judges, doctors, politicians and police officials. It's always the last people you would expect, right? That's why everybody wants to go with the obvious suspects, the fat, unkempt, creepy guys like Gacy; the ones that have you saying: "Oh, well of course!"

Gacy was caught for his murders in 1979 in an era where there were no cell phones, and most importantly, no internet. How did pedophiles meet back then, and wind up listed on rolodexes like clients and business associates? That's a very good question and one no one seems to have an answer for. As what we know of The Epstein Files now and everyday crime reporting, it's a cakewalk for pedophiles to get together now and exchange information and photos of their victims. Evidently you get on the Dark Web of the internet and take it from there. I've found very little mention of the rolodex in stories of Gacy on the internet. I kind of get that as it was evidence that never made it to trial. It might not ever have existed at all. It could have been a red herring. However, as the victim in the 'underbelly' video noted, Gacy had been suspected in the disappearances of other boys and young men in other rural resort-type places like where he encountered him. What was Gacy doing in Kentucky with one suitcase filled with male child porn and another filled with restraint devices? Gacy's method of operation was to befriend young men he was attracted to, and ply them liquor, beer or weed. The subject of the 'underbelly' video related that Gacy asked him if he'd like to go back to his motel room and have a beer. As a boy, this man was kind of a free-range kid who had the run of a state park where his parents worked and he knew everyone. His dad ran a gas station where card games and gambling supplemented the family income. From a young age he had been around grown men who were smoking, drinking and cussing. He was comfortable with that. Nothing had ever happened to him. He was worldly in his small world and thought nothing of having a beer with an adult stranger. 

Gacy was probably one of the sloppiest serial killers ever. Of his 33 documented victims, 26 were buried in the crawlspace of this Des Plaines home, 3 more elsewhere on the property and four were found in the Des Plaines River near his home. He was literally running out of space to bury bodies. He was caught when his last victim was reported missing by his parents to the police who were alerted that it was known that Gacy had offered their son a job. The cops investigated and found very reasonable suspicion in the disappearance of the young man, in respect to Gacy. They put Gacy under surveillance. I doubt at that point they had any reason to believe they were dealing with a serial murderer. But Gacy began to feel the jig was up. He at once befriended the cops surveilling him and taunted them. He'd buy them breakfast and then lose them later in traffic knowing they wouldn't hinder their investigation with traffic arrests. As they watched him, he began to feel harassed. In his lawyer's assessment, his erratic behavior showed he wanted to get caught to stop his spree, but he would often come off of that and even filed a suit against the cops for harassment. I believe that suit was filed the day he was arrested. 

I know that homosexuals are not necessarily pedophiles, but in young Gacy's childhood, his abusive, alcoholic father had taunted him for being a "sissy" and perhaps he was. He was a 50's kid and that was not a time to be gay of any age. To be beaten by one's father while accused of being a homosexual, would warp most anyone's mind towards violence involving one's sexuality. Right up to his end, he had no remorse for his depraved, murderous deeds. No respect for his victims, most of whom had had no idea what they were becoming involved in when they were offered a job or booze by a grown man. Young minds just can't always process the danger in these solicitations to avoid them in the first place. Introduce booze and knockout drugs into the equation as Gacy did, and there is the recipe for death. There's no evidence that Gacy ever manifested his homosexuality with grown men. Likely, non-attraction aside, he was probably afraid to face up to that. A grown man would fight back and not fall for rope and handcuff tricks and surely spot him right off the bat. But I'm no psychologist. 

With the knowledge of Epstein's Island and the evidence of the wealthy men involved in the raping of young girls (mostly girls, that they allow us to barely know of at this point) I can't help but wonder where those freaks went after the Island was shut down. I'm going to guess they did not give up their pedophile ways. Human trafficking has been a scourge on this world since the beginning of time. It wasn't going to stop with one high-profile bust and a president. And where did that rolodex go? Someone snagged it to protect the reputations and careers of 'better', more important men than John Wayne Gacy. Our own FBI has thrown away their ethics and integrity to protect a certain president- and others like him. It is sickening, but humans have always been disposable to the worst of us who believe themselves to be the best of us.