Crime Blog

by Ashling Gabig, guest blogger

On the night of December 22^nd 1978, a grisly discovery was made in the crawl space of the Chicago home of John Wayne Gacy.  Twenty nine bodies in all were excavated from the property of the “Killer Clown,” with four others found discarded at a nearby river.  Gacy admitted to raping and murdering local males over a period of about six years, with the most recent victim being killed just ten days prior to Gacy’s arrest.  For his horrific crimes, Gacy was convicted of murder, and finally executed in May of 1994.  The man who once dressed up as a clown for children’s parties, violently took the lives of 33 men and young boys.  While Gacy was ultimately brought to justice, at least eight of his victims had yet to be identified, thus leaving cases unsolved.  Many families and friends of local missing persons in Chicago have been left wondering if their loved one has fallen prey to Gacy’s murderous rampage.  For excavated Victim #19, one such family has finally found their closure.

On October 27^th 1976, nineteen year old William George Bundy was reported missing by his family in the Chicago area.  William never returned home, and his body was never officially found.  According to his family, missing person cases during that time were not aggressively pursued.  Two years later, the Gacy murder case was blown wide open, and given worldwide notoriety.  The Bundy family suspected that William was a victim of Gacy’s, but had no way to identify the body.  DNA technology was not available as it is today, and all dental records had been unfortunately destroyed by William’s dentist.  Once involved in construction, William’s family surmised that he must have had contact with Gacy, who was also a construction worker.

Fueled by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s renewed effort to identify the remaining eight victims in the Gacy murders, William’s sister, Laura, recently supplied her DNA sample to authorities.  Laura had no proof of her brother’s link to the infamous murder case, but she could not shake the feeling that Gacy was involved in William’s disappearance.  Thanks to improvements in DNA technology, genetic testing was able to confirm that Victim #19 was indeed her long missing brother.  William disappeared when Laura was only fifteen, and over thirty years later, she has found the brother she loved and missed.

Currently, there are still seven unidentified victims that were found on John Wayne Gacy’s property.  While William Bundy’s missing persons case can now be closed, Sheriff Tom Dart wants to bring that same closure to other families.  Whether some families have simply moved on, or never thought to link their missing loved one to Gacy, the authorities are asking people to still come forward and provide DNA samples anyway.  In the case of William Bundy, his mother never came forward to provide a DNA sample prior to her death because, as Laura said, she was in denial of that possibility.  Sheriff Dart acknowledges that it is not a comfortable situation to be associated with the infamous Gacy murders, but believes it will ultimately bring closure to friends and families of any missing persons.  More importantly, it will allow people to lay their loved ones to rest, and finally close the chapter on John Wayne Gacy for good.

For more on the story, go here, and stay tuned for news on the Crime Museum’s upcoming exhibit on John Wayne Gacy!

Read all our entries about John Wayne Gacy