John Wayne Gacy Jr. was involved in crime.
John Wayne Gacy Jr. ( March 17 , 1942 -- May 10 , 1994 ) was an American serial killer and rapist . He sexually assaulted , tortured and murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978 in Cook County , Illinois ( a part of metropolitan Chicago ) . His victims were typically lured to his address by force or deception , and all but one of his victims were murdered by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a makeshift tourniquet ; his first victim was stabbed to death . Three other victims were buried elsewhere on his property , while the bodies of his last four known victims were discarded in the Des Plaines River . Convicted of 33 murders , Gacy was sentenced to death on March 13 , 1980 for 12 of those killings .