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John Wayne Gacy Murdered At Least 33 Young Men. New Sketches Hope to Help Identify Some Still Unknown.

Six of Gacy's victims found buried beneath his home are still unidentified. New sketches could help identify two. 

By Will Huntsberry

John Wayne Gacy—an active member of his local community, who performed for benefits and charities as “Pogo The Clown”—was convicted of raping and murdering 33 young men and boys, then burying most of them in his crawl space. Some of the remains have still not been identified, but cops are hoping that new sketches may help them identify two of the bodies.

Artists for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children sketched the faces of “John Doe #10” and “John Doe #13” using facial reconstruction techniques. The images seek to reconstruct the young men’s faces as they might have looked between 1972 and 1978—the period during which cops believe Gacey murdered them.

Cops believe Gacy often managed to lure victims to his home by pretending to be a police officer or offering them construction work. Many were hitchhikers or travelers, who were not from the Chicago area where Gacy committed the crimes.

That means the two John Does in the new sketches could be from anywhere.

John Doe #10 was between 17 and 21 years old. He stood somewhere between 5’7” and 5’11,” according to the center. He had a previous injury to his left collarbone that had healed well.

John Doe #13 had crooked front teeth that may have been noticeable to friends and family, according to the center’s analysis. He was between 18 and 22 years old and around six feet tall.

The center for missing children is partnered with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, which is still attempting to identify six of Gacy’s victims, to release the sketches. They hope people might be able to match the sketches with young men who went missing while Gacy was active in the seventies.

Gacy was well-liked by many community members and participated in the Jaycees club. In the late sixties in Iowa, he allegedly took part in swinger’s groups with other adults. That was also the era when he was first busted for sexually abusing a young boy. He served a brief stint in prison and divorced from his first wife.

He moved back to the Chicago area, where he was originally from, and eventually remarried. Cops believe he killed at least 33 people between 1972 and 1978. He buried most of them in the crawl space of his house.

DNA testing in 2011 helped identify William Bundy, 19 at the time of his death, as one of Gacy’s victims, according to USA Today. James "Jimmie" Haakenson, 16 at the time of his death, was identified as another victim last year.

Cops finally caught Gacy after he drugged and released one of his victims. That man helped police track down Gacy, who was put to death in 1994 in Illinois. While he was in prison, he painted a self-portrait of himself as a clown that eventually sold for thousands of dollars, according to CNN

Cops want anyone with information on the sketches to call the Cook County Sheriff’s Office at 708-865-6244 or the center for missing children at 1-800-843-5678.

[Photos: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and Getty Images]