What You've Never Heard John Wayne Gacy Say: New Series On Serial Killer’s Tapes

A new Netflix docuseries offers more insight into the mind of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

“Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes,” which hit Netflix this week, is the result of “60 hours of unearthed audio between Gacy and his defense team,” according to a Netflix press release.

Through that audio, filmmaker Joe Berlinger – known for several true crime documentaries, including “Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes” – believes that the world now has a fresh perspective on the narcissistic mindset of the murderer and a deeper understanding of how he operated for so long with seeming impunity.

The three-part documentary is the second in an installment from Berlinger, “Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes,” was released in 2019. 

The new docuseries also “features new interviews with key participants – some of whom have never talked before, including gut-wrenching testimony from one of Gacy’s survivors – all in search of answers to a crucial question: How was a public figure like Gacy able to get away with murder for so long?”

Gacy preyed upon boys and men while posing as both a family man and dignified public official in the Chicago area in the 1970s. The serial killer was convicted of murdering 33 young men and boys between 1972 and 1978, many of whom he killed after meeting through his contracting business, PDM Contractors. Gacy typically looked for the vulnerable — young victims whose disappearances were initially explained away by authorities as runaway cases. PDM Contractors served as a convenient hunting ground, as he could lure young potential victims with the promise of a well-paying job.

Of those 33 victims, 29 were found by investigators buried in the crawl space beneath his Des Plaines, Illinois home. 

“Nobody else had the guts to pull off what I pulled off,” the killer can be heard saying in a trailer for the series, just part of the of “never-before-heard audio” included

To learn even more about the Gacy case, watch “John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise” on Peacock.