John Wayne Gacy (11 page)

Also found but not listed on the original report was a receipt for photographs, which had been dropped off for development at Nisson Pharmacy. This item was recovered from the garbage bag in the kitchen of the Gacy home. A supplemental report was filed regarding that item.

The implications attendant to the items found in Gacy’s house during the search go without saying. The suspect was either gay or bisexual, had drugs, drug paraphernalia, and what were potentially items of torture, weapons, and potential weapons; the consensus was quite simple to reach. What more proof did a good cop need? This guy was going down. Everyone agreed.

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. Gacy, he had been released without being charged from the Des Plaines police station. Upon his arrival home, he was greeted by the aftermath of the search of his residence. He was shaken by the experience. His normally tidy home was in complete disarray. Before he had a chance to assess the mess, or even really check it out to see what the police had taken from the home, he received a welcome call from his trusted employee and friend David Cram. Gacy was particularly happy to hear from David because he had no desire to stay in the house. He was worried that he was being watched, and he was uncomfortable with the mess. He also wanted help with the cleanup. Although his car and his snowplow truck had been confiscated, one of the PDM vans was available, and he used that to go pick up David Cram that night. Cram was still shaking in his boots from his chance meeting with the Des Plaines police earlier that day when they came to Mr. Gacy’s home to execute the search warrant. Gacy grilled him about that.

Mr. Cram later gave a statement to Officers James Pickell and Ronald Adams regarding the activities of the evening following the search of Gacy’s home and other matters.

After spending some time at the Golden Bear Restaurant on Forest Preserve Drive near Harlem Avenue where he and Gacy feasted on cheeseburgers and coffee, and David listened to Gacy grouse on about the fucking cops, they returned to Gacy’s house. Cram tells the police officers what happened next and about a variety of other things:

Officer: “Did he walk through the house?”

Cram: “Yes he did.”

Officer: “Where did he go?”

Cram: “Crawl space.”

Officer: “Down under the house?”

Cram: “Yes.”

Officer: “Did you see him go down there?”

Cram: “Yes I did.”

Officer: “When he went down there, what did he do while he was down there?”

Cram: “Okay, he seen the mud on the floor. Complained about that. Went into the crawl space with a flashlight and the lights were on also. Went down in there, walked about, didn’t even take a full step. He just went around in a complete circle and came back out.”

Officer: “Did he walk around at all down there?”

Cram: “No, he went down into the crawl space, crouched down, ’cause there’s not much clearance to stand up under there. He went around in a complete circle. All he did was check it out and then came back up into the house.” Officer: “Did he go anywhere else in the house?”

Cram: “Attic, bedrooms, bathroom, laundry room, kitchen, back room, every space in the house.”

Officer: “And did he indicate that he found anything else to be missing?”

Cram: “Just what I said, and he’d have to stumble over it.

You know, if there’s anything else.”

Officer: “Okay, what time did you leave John’s house?”

Cram: “Oh, about I’d say 1:30, quarter to two. 1:30 quarter to two somewhere in there.”

Officer: “Would that be in the morning, or …”

Cram: “Ah, yeah that would be morning, early.”

Officer: “On which date?”

Cram: “Ah, Wednesday.”

Officer: “So, are we talking about the early morning hours? Would that be Wednesday or Thursday?”

Cram: “The early morning would be on Thursday. Thursday morning.”

Officer: “Did he ask you anything about while you were in his house and the police officers were there?”

Cram: “Yes he did. He said what were they looking for. What did they take? And also they had a few bags. There were probably other bags, because they were like mailing envelopes of some sort, brown, and he said those were the books. He said were there about five of them and I said; ‘yeah,’ and he goes what have they done with the books and I said they might have taken them with.”

Officer: “Did he say what kind of books they were?”

Cram: “He said dirty books.”

Officer: “Dirty books?”

Cram: “Like that would be Playboy, all the way down the line, who knows?”

Officer: “Okay, do you recall what time you left John’s house?”

Cram: “Approximately quarter to two.”

Officer: “Okay, where did you go?”

Cram: “We took a ride past the police station to see if his truck was, his car was left in the lot.”

Officer: “Did he tell you what his intention was?”

Cram: “Yeah, if they were there, that he wanted to pick them up, the truck up, because he needed transportation on the jobs. If the car was there, he was going to take that, so that either a truck or a van would be supplied for the men to haul materials, and so on and so forth.”

Officer: “Do you recall what time you got to Des Plaines?”

Cram: “I wasn’t paying attention to the watch, but I arrived home at around 2:30. Give or take a few, 10–15 minutes anyway, and it had to be between the time I left John’s house and the time I arrived home; and I live in Chicago and it’s approximately a 20 minute drive.”

Officer: “And you said you left John’s house at what time?”

Cram: It was approximately a quarter to two.”

Officer: “Okay, you said earlier, I believe, that you left about 2:30, or am I mistaken?”

Cram: “No, I arrived home at two thirty or so.”

Officer: “Did you have any more conversation with John after you got home?

Cram: “After he dropped me off, the next time I talked to him was on the phone the next morning.”

Officer: “That would have been Thursday morning?”

Cram: “Yes, Thursday morning.”

Officer: “What time did you have a conversation with him?”

Cram: “Must have been around 10 o’clock, 9 o’clock, somewhere in there. I talked to him on a job site. He was at a job site. He carried a radio beeper with him and I had him return the call, requesting another job.”

Officer: “Okay, where were you working on Thursday morning?”

Cram: “Democratic Precinct Headquarters, which is on Montrose.”

Officer: “Do you recall what time you finished working at the Democratic Police Headquarters? Or, the Democratic Precinct Headquarters?

Cram: “Yeah, about 5:25. I called in on his radio, or his telephone answering service. Left a message. Time out 4:35 and went back in the office. Knocked over paint. Had to clean that up, so it was about 5:25 when I left, so I called a cab from there. I arrived at his house at 6 o’clock, ’cause I stopped off at the Hunger Dog on Cumberland for a hot dog or Italian Beef and I arrived at the house at approximately 6 o’clock. From there I met with the Lieutenant and other police officers.”

Officer: “And what date was that?”

Cram: That was on Thursday.”

Officer: “Did you work for John on Thursday?”

Cram: “Yes I did. Wednesday is when the investigation was right?”

Officer: “Wednesday is when the police officers were at his house.”

Cram: “That’s when it was, Wednesday, not Thursday, it was Wednesday when I worked for him. Thursday I worked for the Fox Valley Shopping Center with Rich and Raphael.”

Officer: Did you have any conversation with Mr. Gacy at that time?”

Cram: “Once in the morning when he picked me up so I could drop him off at his house. He originally wanted to get a rent car with him and go pick up his vehicles at the police station, and he said he couldn’t get his vehicles back, so he’d have to do it himself. That Richard would meet me out at Fox Valley Shopping Center.”

Officer: “And what happened, how did you get out there?”

Cram: “I took the van.”

Officer: “And how did you get the van?”

Cram: “From John Gacy.”

Officer: “And how did you get to his house?”

Cram: “John Gacy picked me up at my house.”

Officer: “Do you recall what time you finished working at Fox Valley?”

Cram: “Yeah, 11 o’clock at night.”

Office: “And what night was that?”

Cram: “Thursday.”

Officer: “Did you have any conversation with Mr. Gacy after that?”

Cram: “No I didn’t.”

Officer: “Did you take the truck home?”

Cram: “Yeah, from Fox Valley Shopping Center at 11 o’clock I rolled into his house to pick up a wheelbarrow and unload headboards. I picked up the wheelbarrow and proceeded home.”

Officer: “Did you work Friday morning?”

Cram: “Yes I did. 7:30 in the morning I picked up Michael Rossi at his house. Following him. Met Michael Rossi at his house, followed him, he drove his own vehicle. Followed him to North Avenue job. He parked his car at the North Avenue job, which is at North Avenue and Pulaski. Both of us drove over to a lumberyard, Southernland Lumber, which is about 4 or 5 blocks from the North Avenue job. Picked up materials on the job, went back to the job with those materials. I picked up extra material that was on the job site. That I dropped off at John’s garage for storage. Stopped off before going back before going back to the North Avenue job for the second load. Stopped off and got gasoline, delivered the material from Century Tile and what material was in his garage I delivered that also. Brought it back to the North Avenue job. Made one more stop at
Southernland Lumber to pick up something. From there I left the city to go to Fox Valley Shopping Center.”

Officer: “Did you have any conversation with Mr. Gacy when you met with him?”

Cram: “I ran into him. He pulled up in the driveway on the first trip out to his house before I stopped and got gas and I was loading up materials from his house.”

Officer: “And did he say anything?”

Cram: “Well, he just asked me you know, has the police got in contact with you and stuff like that.”

Officer: “Did he discuss anything at all about the police being at his home or related to his activities?”

Cram: “No, he said that he spent the night at his sister’s house.”

Officer: “Where is that?”

Cram: “Approximately in Carpentersville. Somewhere around Carpentersville.”

Officer: “Can I ask you about your personal feelings about Mr. Gacy?”

Cram: “Well, it’s hard to explain him. Sometimes he’s the nicest guy in the world and sometimes he’s evasive.”

Officer: “Has he ever indicated to you that he was arrested?”

Cram: “Yeah, he said he was arrested a sodomy. I believe the word is. It’s something to do with dirty films and stuff like that. Yeah, dirty films I believe it was. And prostitution. I think it was prostitution.”

Officer: “Did he say where the arrest took place?”

Cram: “I believe it was Ohio or Oregon. Or one of the southern states down south.”

Officer: “Have you ever known Mr. Gacy to have an argument with anybody?”

Cram: “Oh, I argue with him all the time.”

Officer: “I’m talking about physically. Did he ever fight with a person?”

Cram: “Oh, yeah, he and Michael Rossi were at Ma’s Bar in Cicero, Little Joe, and they were out bar hopping. Michael, his friend and John. John was driving his own vehicle. Now, this is just the story between the two of them, okay? Now one has one story and one has another. They both coincide pretty well, but I wasn’t there so I can’t say. But, the story that I got was from Michael. John wanted to shoot pool and he felt like he was being teamed up on. They were exchanging words, goofing around like guys do and John took it personal and said “Hell with ya,” and walked out of the bar. He walked out into the street. John’s version, he walked out into the street, drove around the block once, came back in. He double parked out in front of the bar, which was across the street from Ma’s bar, was going to walk back in supposedly to give Mike a ride back to his car, ’cause his car was parked on the north side. Michael was mad because he’s stranded in Cicero, Illinois, and they also previously exchanged words earlier that day, had an argument. John pushed Michael earlier that day at a restaurant and they went outside and had a discussion and came back in, you know, buddy, buddy. Well anyway, Michael had a few drinks and walked across the street. Met John halfway in the middle of the street. Knocked away two guys; one knocked his mother and went at John, where he proceeded to fight with John. John didn’t strike no blows. He tried to hold Michael back. Michael swung at him and John said the other guy, Michael’s friend, hit him three times. And with that John went to the hospital for a couple of days.”

Officer: “Do you know the name of Michael’s friends?”

Cram: “No I don’t.”

Officer: “Do you know what hospital John went to?”

Cram: “That I don’t know neither, but it should be on the police report.”

Officer: “Well, what police department was called?”

Cram: “Cicero Police. And the court was being held at First Avenue and Highway 65, right there at that court building. And they gave Michael a year’s probation.”