John Wayne Gacy and the Nationwide Child Trafficking Network

13 min readDec 6, 2023

John Wayne Gacy as Patches the Clown (also Pogo the Clown). Gacy was a member of Chicago’s Jolly Joker clown club, which gave him access to children hospitals, charities and parties. [1]

John Wayne Gacy was no petty burglar like Richard Ramirez, or trained by the “Hands of Death” (CIA) like Henry Lee Lucas. Gacy owned PDM Construction Company, did community service with the Jaycees, and was also a precinct captain for the Democratic party in Chicago Illinois. [1]

On top of that he was a ‘parade director’ for the city of Chicago under Mayor Richard Daley. For some reason Gacy was recommended for that role by Col. Jack Reilly, despite having been convicted for the rape of a teenage boy 10 years before. The Secret Service also gave him security clearance to hang out with Rosalynn Carter despite that.[2][4]

Former 1st lady Rosalynn Carter with Gacy. Note the Secret Service’s “S” pin.

In regards to the 1968 rape conviction, Gacy had one of his employees unsuccessfully try to intimidate the boy from testifying. He also said the boy was being used to blackmail him. Ultimately he was sentenced to 10 years, but only did 18 months and was released on parole.[2]

A model prisoner, he joined the Jaycees (United States Junior Chamber), and used his management skills and connections to increase prisoner mess hall pay, and supervised projects to improve prisoner conditions, like the addition of a mini golf course. [3]

After his release he was arrested for attempting to rape another teenager. But the charges were dropped after the teen failed to show up to trial and testify.[1]

Pogo the Clown

Gacy’s crawlspace was used for hiding bodies. How could someone sleep on top of that?

Gacy was definately guilty of hiding bodies under his house, and there is little doubt that Gacy killed. The problem we see in his case is whether he killed all 33 victims he was sentenced for. And if he acted alone, which is highly unlikely.

Most of the victims attributed to Gacy were teenagers and young adults, with a couple of them working for his company PDM Contractors. Others were prostitutes, like 19 year old Robert Donnelly who was tortured but was able to escape from Gacy’s house and reported him to police. Gacy claimed that this was just sexual rough play, and the police let it go.[1]

It wasn’t until the disappearance of 15 year old Robert Piest that the police took an interest in him. Piest was talking to Gacy about getting at job with PDM Contractors before his disappearance. Gacy was known to lure in young men and boys by offering them jobs in his company.[1][5]

Piest at the time was working at Nisson Pharmacy in Des Plaines, where his mother had last seen him before Piest left to talk to Gacy. Gacy’s truck was spotted parked outside the pharmacy until the time of disappearance. The pharmacy’s owner Phil Torf when questioned was evasive, and didn’t want to give Gacy’s address to police. [5][7]

Gacy learned that a surveillance team was put on him and he tried to win them over by inviting them to dine with him. The police claimed that there was “an odor similar to that of a putrified human body” inside Gacy’s house. And when Gacy went to another room, they conveniently found a receipt belonging to Piest’s girlfriend. But many decades later after Gacy’s death, the same officers admitted that the receipt was found on the street and there was no bad smell in his home.[5][6]

According to the official story, Gacy later admitted to the crime and explained that he had previously attempted to have oral sex with Piest who could not get an erection, and became frightened that Piest might expose him so he killed him and threw his body into a nearby river. Gacy also claimed that he had multiple personalities he called the “four Johns”, which was part of his unsuccessful insanity plea. [5]

There is no transcript or audio recording of his alleged confessions to 5 murders. The police’s official excuse was they were afraid that Gacy won’t talk if he saw a tape recorder. While the States Attorney did not allow a record of his confession because he might use details of his mode of operation in his defense. In reality this was likely done to protect other criminals involved from being mentioned on record, and to blame Gacy for all 33 murders. [8]

Gacy denied that he confessed but years later he told CBS Chicago that he killed some of the victims without giving names. He says that Piest was killed in his home by someone else but he disposed of the body.[14][15][16]

It is a fact that Gacy had been framed for some murders. The police hardly investigated the deaths and most of the bodies were not even tested for identification until many years later. One victim, the runaway Harold Wayne Lovell, was found alive in 2011. And it took almost 30 years to learn that Michael Marino’s body was misidentified by police. That’s just two examples out of many others, where the police just used Gacy to avoid doing their job.[20][41]

During Gacy’s trial, his defense team railroad him and chose to argue for insanity, not for lack of evidence that he murdered all 33 people. Even Gacy’s original confessions to police are vague on 27+ of the killings, and boil down to a short summary of him just driving around to pick up would-be murder victims. [9]

In reality, Gacy’s house was being used to hide the bodies linked to a much larger organized crime operation.

Multiple Killers

In death row, Gacy compiled a “Victim Book” with the help of an unnamed contact known under the alias “Chris Lewis”. The ‘book’ contained news and police reports on several victims, some which Gacy claims were killed while he was out of town. He also says that he did not know who all the victims were and was trying to find who killed them.[8]

It is important to note that Gacy was convicted for killing specific individuals that in reality were never confirmed to have been found in his crawl space. Two examples already mentioned were Harold Wayne Lovell and Michael Marino. Unfortunately to this day most of the bodies found have not been tested to match them with the names given to by police. So Gacy was on to something here.[20]

In 1994, his new defense team used evidence that he was out of town during 16 of the 33 murders in an unsuccessful attempt at saving him from execution. Prosecution incorrectly tried to counter by pointing out that Gacy had drawn a map showing them where the bodies were under his house. But this only shows culpability in hiding the bodies, not murder. Ultimately U.S. District Judge John Grady rejected the contention. [12][14]

Gacy and Lewis believe that David Cram, Michael Rossi, (later) convicted pedo John Paske, and John Norman were the ones committing the murders. The first 3 worked for PDM and all 4 were said to have keys to his house. “There were 12 keys out to the house”, Gacy told reporters.[7][8][13][16][17]

Rossi and Gacy were both drinking with victim Johnny Szyc at the time of his murder. He claims that he left and when he returned Szyc was dead, but did not intervene because it wasn’t his “business”. Rossi actually took a polygraph test, where he did show “an extreme response in his blood pressure” when asked about Robert Piest. However the test was deemed inconclusive as Rossi refused to continue because he “didn’t like the way the test felt”.[16][18]

Rossi had testified at Gacy’s trial that he dug under Gacy’s house, but was ignorant as to what was going on. Gacy’s defense also stated that they would “protect” Rossi during cross examination, to the chagrin of the victim’s families. [18]

Interestingly, Edward Hanrahan who was representing and protecting Rossi, was the one who ordered the raid on the Black Panther’s Fred Hampton’s apartment that resulted in his death. It’s no surprise that Rossi got this man to represent him and Cram, because Rossi was the grandson of former Chicago Democratic alderman Vito Marzullo. [14]

Years later Rossi along with 4 others, were charged for kidnapping and beating a man in his basement apparently for making a harassing call to one of their wives. Rossi also held a “ghost job” as agent provocateur for unions with known mafia ties. He was part of a group that was setting fires to movie theaters.[18][21]

The New Yorker reported (names inside brackets were added by me):

“Cram and Rossi were questioned by the police when Gacy was arrested, but the police found no reason to believe that they had taken part in Gacy’s crimes. In 1977, Cram and Rossi had asked Gacy to hire a friend, a young man I’ll call Tom Peters [Philip Paske]. (Lewis asked me not to use his real name.) Peters had an alliance with a man I will call Lester Tompkins [John Norman], who operated a business that supplied boys to older men. Lewis says that Tompkins is now in prison in Colorado for molesting a child. Gacy says that the boys were killed because they were members of Tompkins’ prostitution ring and wanted to quit, or had become involved in drug deals that soured. He says that movies were made of some of their murders. It does not seem to occur to him that Peters was hired after a number of the boys had already been killed. “[8]

Gacy also had two close friends, Donald Morrill and Ronald Rohde, who were never investigated by police despite Gacy’s own claims that there were others involved. Gacy’s address book also had various names marked with the letter “H”, who also were not investigated. Where they also involved in the pedo ring? [7][11]

Another ‘coincidental’ former employee of Gacy was Robin Gecht of “The Ripper Crew”. A group that would abduct and murder women who were sometimes prostitutes. The group seems to have been abducting women to provide them to larger human trafficking organizations, and also carried out hits.[32]

International Child Trafficking Ring

Phillip Paske and John Norman, were both Gacy’s link to an international child trafficking and black mailing network.

Only a few blocks from the Nisson pharmacy were Robert Piest was last seen, a man by the name of John Norman lived. Originally he was part of the Odyssey Foundation in Dallas TX, which provided children, teenagers, and young homosexual men to wealthy pedophiles nationwide (although there is at least one instance of an escort sent to Canada). During one of his arrests, Norman was found to have at least 30,000 index cards with client information. Some of them were “prominent people and some federal employees in Washington”. Unfortunately the list was destroyed, and the authorities were “unable to explain why”.[24][25]

While imprisoned in Chicago, Norman created the Delta Project and used the jail’s printing facilities to self-publish newsletters for his child abuse ring.[24]

Gacy was connected to Norman via their associate Phillip Paske, who Gacy described as “dangerous”, and someone who pimped boys and girls for pornographic movies. Paske also worked for Gacy’s contracting company, and Gacy says that Paske was given keys to his house which he was known to visit.[17][24]

Paske himself was considered the “right hand man” of Norman and his Delta Project. Paske was seen at Norman’s apartments during one of his arrests, and also handled their mailing operations. Strangely Paske was not arrested at that time. [27]

Delta Project was later renamed “Creative Corps” and “MC (Male Call) Publications”.[28]

Not surprisingly, the prosecution against Gacy had no interest in investigating and prosecuting the ring. A year before Gacy’s arrest, there was a Congressional investigation into a child prostitute ring in Chicago which meant they knew of Norman and Paske. But the state didn’t care about Gacy’s proven links and they even ignored the fact that Gacy mentioned Paske and what he did. [24]

The police and prosecution were working a protection racket, and Gacy was the fall guy who had to take all the blame with him.

There was also another child abuse operation in Chicago during the same years. A computer-based service called “Chicken Delight Escort Services” was also operating in Chicago. The teenage escorts would “deliver medicine” to respected lawyers and doctors in “plush high rises on North Lake Shore Drive”. [29]

From Texas and Chicago, to Nebraska

Interestingly, Paul Bonacci, one of the child victims of the ‘Franklin cover-up’ in Nebraska, also mentioned an individual known as “The Colonel”; a recurring nickname seen in various organized pedophilia cases such as the Presidio case, the Johnny Gosch case and others. John Norman was mentioned as “The Colonel” in official CBI files cited.[30] It is unknown if this is an alias shared by various individuals, or a single one, as Gacy, and Michael Aquino have also been referred to under the same alias.[22][23][30]

Paul Bonacci and the Colorado property (Source: America’s Most Wanted)

In regards to Norman, the CBI documents state he used his “Colonel” alias when he lived in Colorado, which is where Paul Bonacci took the crew of ‘America’s Most Wanted’ to prove there was a cabin where “The Colonel” imprisoned children inside tunnels.[30][31]

From the US East Coast to Saudi Arabia

In New Orleans LA, Richard S. Halvorsen, Raymond T. Woodall, and Robert E Lang “set up a Boy Scout troop for the purpose of sexually abusing children”. The front was called Boy Scout Troop 137 and made up of around 40 boys. 10 boys would be picked for “scout trips” to be abused by clients. Some children were runaways who would come from community volunteer agencies. [34]

John Norman’s address book was found to have the name “Raymond Woddall”, one of the troop’s handlers, further exposing the size of the network John Wayne Gacy was part of.[34]

“Among those arrested were Richard C. Jacobs of Arlington, Mass., millionaire president of the Jet Spray Corp. and a former part-owner of the New England Patriots football team; Robert B. Mallers, a California millionaire; and Hugh Scott Mellor of Brighton, Mass., millionaire president of a real estate holding company. New Orleans police said Jacobs has forfeited a $50,000 bond to avoid standing trial in Louisiana. They said Halvorsen and Woodall went to New Orleans from Coral Gables, Fla., where they had worked as maintenance men for the Adelphi Academies, identified by Florida police as a former male prostitution front that was recently sold to legitimate operators. “[34]

On an interesting note, Jet Spray Corp’s president Richard Jacobs vanished after being released on bail, avoiding trial altogether. The court still ruled him to be alive though.[37]

Some clients were from the Philippines and the UK. And the police believes that Troop 137 had connections all the way to Saudia Arabia. [35]

Troop 137 co-founder Robert E Lang claimed to have been “either in Saudi Arabia or on Kwajelien Atoll, working security for the U.S. government”, during the time of the accusations. Despite that, he pleaded guilty and only got a 4 years probation ‘sweetheart deal’. [38]

Police who investigated the troop say that they think Robert Lang was CIA. Photos of him in different US military uniforms were found, as well as his DD214’s (discharge papers) that mention that he “was an officer in all four branches of the military”. This would only be possible if he was a “sheep dipped” intelligence agent. [40]

Unnamed US politicians were also involved with Troop 137:

“There were some congressmen, there was a senator involved,” Woodall said in a letter obtained by the newspaper. “Almost the entire hierarchy of one of the states as far as the top political posts (was involved).” “The newspaper said its sources indicated the politicians were not from Louisiana.”[36]

Files found on Richard Halvorsen, an adult member, had the name of Rev. Claudius Ira [Bud] Vermilye Jr., who ran Boys Farm Inc. out of Winchester TN. Boys Farm was similar to Boys Town in that it was a home for wayward boys, and partially tax-payer funded. Police seized a list of 270 clients, with one paying more than $4,000 for a pornographic film.[34]

“Further information on these operations came with the arrest last July of Gerald Richards, a Port Huron, Mich., man subsequently convicted of having had sex with a 10-year-old boy. Richards told police all four of these organizations were fronts for homosexual activity involving boys and all were set up as tax dodges. He identified himself as the organizer of Brother Paul’s Children’s Mission.” (Michigan)[34]

Then New Orleans DA Harry Connick who prosecuted the Troop 137 case, links to the JFK assassination. Connick is known for ordering files to be destroyed from Jim Garrison’s investigation into JFK.[39]

Another Serial Killer Hoax

A critical look into serial killer cases reveal an important common trait FBI profilers ignore — they’re framed for murders. Evidence in the Richard Ramirez case points to different individuals in all murders attributed to him. On Henry Lee Lucas’ case, while he certainly did commit a couple of the murders, he was proven to have given literally hundreds of false confessions. And a similar thing happened with Gacy.

Another important common theme is that they were part of organized crime rings that were not investigated in their respective cases. Any honest investigator worth his pay would have looked into them. But unfortunately the keyword here is “honest”.