The John Wayne Gacy murders

A photo from March 19, 1979, shows that the backyard structures at John Wayne Gacy’s home in unincorporated Norwood Park Township have been demolished

At the Des Plaines police station, John Wayne Gacy covers his face with his manacled hands as he emerges after an all-night questioning session on Dec. 22, 1978.

The medical examiner’s truck is backed up to John Wayne Gacy’s house in unincorporated Norwood Park Township and bags of remains are loaded for transport to the Cook County morgue on Dec. 22, 1978.

John Wayne Gacy, 36, is removed from the Des Plaines police station to be taken to a hospital for evaluation on Dec. 23, 1978.

John Wayne Gacy, 36, is taken from the Des Plaines police station to a hospital for evaluation on Dec. 23, 1978.

John Wayne Gacy’s house at 8213 W. Summerdale Ave. in unincorporated Norwood Park Township at the time of his arrest on Dec. 21, 1978.

Sheriff’s officers remove another body from the home of John Wayne Gacy, 36, on Dec. 23, 1978, in unincorporated Norwood Park Township.

Workmen who extricated more bodies from the crawl space beneath the home of John Wayne Gacy emerge on Dec. 27, 1978, in their mud-caked high boots.

A large crowd of curiosity-seekers gathers outside the home of John Wayne Gacy, where more bodies were found Dec. 28, 1978.

John Wayne Gacy, 36, is taken from the Des Plaines police station to a hospital for evaluation on Dec. 23, 1978.

Sheriff’s officers remove another body from the home of John Wayne Gacy, 36, on Dec. 23, 1978.

Marko Butkovich and his wife, Terezia, talk with reporters in their Lombard home on Dec. 30, 1978, after learning that the remains of their son, John, had been found beneath the home of John Wayne Gacy. Terezia is holding a photo of John.

The parents of Robert Piest, Harold and Elizabeth, leave the Des Plaines Circuit Court on Dec. 29, 1978. John Wayne Gacy is charged with the murder of their son.

More bodies are removed from the home of John Wayne Gacy on Dec. 28, 1978.

Cook County Chief Medical Examiner Robert Stein examines a case tag of a John Wayne Gacy victim in Crypt No. 1, which was set aside for the victims in the case in 1978.

Firefighters from the Channahon Fire Department search for bodies in the John Wayne Gacy case on Dec. 23, 1978, on the Des Plaines River near Morris.

Investigators carry the remains of a body found beneath the garage floor of the home of John Wayne Gacy in 1978.

Sheriff’s officers use air hammers in 1979 to break up the remaining concrete floor of John Wayne Gacy‘s work shed, which was attached to the garage.

Harold and Elizabeth Piest enter the funeral for their son Robert at Our Lady of Hope Church in Rosemont on April 18, 1979. Robert Piest was killed by John Wayne Gacy.

A police car carrying John Wayne Gacy (second from right) arrives in Rockford on Jan. 26, 1980, where the accused murderer was transferred for jury selection in his trial.

The jury en route to court at 26th and California in Chicago on Feb. 8, 1980, for the John Wayne Gacy trial.

One of John Wayne Gacy’s attorneys, Sam Amirante, center, arrives at for the first day of the trial on Feb. 6, 1980.

Marion Gacy, mother of John Wayne Gacy, leaves the court Feb. 25, 1980, after testifying in her son’s trial. With her is Gacy’s sister, Karen Gacy Kuzma, left. “I love my son,” Marion Gacy said on the witness stand. “I still don’t believe any of it. I can’t believe it. Not my son. I’d just like to erase everything.”

Eugenia Godzik, center, mother of victim Gregory Godzik, speaks briefly to the media after John Wayne Gacy was convicted March 12, 1980.

Workers demolish John Wayne Gacy’s house on April 10, 1979.

The lot where John Wayne Gacy‘s house stood is roped off after the home was demolished in 1979.

Personal effects seized from the home of John Wayne Gacy are displayed at the sheriff’s station in Niles in 1980, as investigators continued to try to identify nine of the Gacy victims. Some of the items were believed to have been owned by Gacy’s 33 victims.

Cook County Chief Medical Examiner Robert Stein and sculptor Betty Pat Gatliff speak during a news conference July 14, 1980. Gatliff made facial reconstructions for each of the nine unidentified victims of convicted mass murderer John Wayne Gacy.

Eugenia Godzik, left, with her daughter, Eugenia, center, leave a hearing in which John Wayne Gacy was sentenced to death on March 13, 1980. Godzik is the mother of Gacy murder victim Gregory Godzik.

Services are held for the nine remaining unidentified victims of convicted mass murderer John Wayne Gacy at the Abbey Chapel in Oak Ridge-Glenoak Cemetery in Hillside on June 12, 1981, more than two years after their remains were pulled from the crawl space of Gacy’s home.

Summerdale Avenue, where John Wayne Gacy’s ranch home once stood, is a weed-choked lot on June 5, 1984.