John Wayne Gacy May Have Killed More

He was convicted of killing a mind-boggling 33 men, but a new docuseries raises the possibility that John Wayne Gacy had even more victims, reports NBC News. The six-part series John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise on Peacock includes an audio recording of Gacy telling an attorney that he disposed of a body in the woods near a high school—in contrast to the other victims found buried at his home outside Chicago. But a detective who worked on the case suspects Gacy had more than one additional victim. Rafael Tovar recalls driving Gacy to jail and asking the serial killer in the car whether more victims were out there. "Forth-five sounds like a good number," Gacy responded, though he refused to provide more details. The series interviews neighbors of a property where Gacy worked who remember him carrying large trash bags and digging trenches.

Tovar says he knew Gacy well enough by then to know when he was telling the truth, though the docuseries points out that Gacy liked to play mind games with investigators. The series also explores the possibility that Gacy had help covering up his murders, notes Oxygen, and it looks into whether Gacy might have been stopped sooner if investigators had taken the disappearances of young gay men more seriously. Gacy was executed in 1994, and as the fascination with his crimes endures, Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times ends a column by recounting an interview with Dolores Nieder, mother of 19-year-old victim Johnny Mowery. She calls Gacy a "mope" and a "loser," adding, “If you got 33 people together at work or had a party for 33 people, think of how large a gathering that would be. And then picture one man systematically killing that many people. That's who John Wayne Gacy is." (More John Wayne Gacy stories.)