John Wayne Gacy Trial: 1980

Following his arrest Gacy was questioned intensively by police, and on January 3, 1979 he confessed to the killing of Robert Piest and six others. He also gave the police information that led to the eventual recovery of the remains of 33 young men and boys. Four were found in the Des Plaines River near Gacy's home, and the rest were buried in the crawl space under his house and under the floor of the garage. Gacy was indicted by a Cook County grand jury on January 8 and the case was assigned to Judge Louis B. Garripo of the Cook County Circuit Court.

Judge Garripo ordered a psychiatric evaluation of Gacy, and Dr. Robert Reifman subsequently reported that Gacy was mentally fit to stand trial and capable of understanding the charges against him. In October the judge ruled that Cook County would bear the expense of Gacy's defense, and appointed Sam Amirante and Robert Morra as his attorneys.

John Wayne Gacy, sadistic serial killer. (API Wide World Photos)

The trial of John Wayne Gacy began on February 6, 1980 in the Cook County Criminal Court Building in Chicago. The prosecution team was lead by William Kunkle, who was assisted by Robert Egan and Terry Sullivan. Simple first-degree murder was not a capital crime under Illinois law, but multiple murders or murder during the commission of a felony were. Therefore, in order to ensure that Gacy would be eligible for the death penalty if convicted, he was originally charged with the seven murders to which he had confessed in January 1979 and with felonies of aggravated kidnapping, deviate sexual assault, and taking indecent liberties with a minor against his last victim, Robert Piest. It was during the months leading up to the trial that excavation under Gacy's house, and dredging of the river near his home, had lead to the finding of the remains of 26 more bodies, 11 of which were unidentified. These victims were added to the original charge, for a total of 33 counts of murder.