I spotted a well-known true crime story was part of my household historical past greater than twenty years in the past, once I found my mother’s identify in a guide. In my dad and mom’ bed room combing by means of their bookshelf, my eyes stopped on a peculiar title, “Killer Clown.”
I’m unsure why I paused. The title was unusual; until it was some Stephen King novel, why was this guide within the room the place my dad and mom slept? I pulled it from the shelf and turned to the primary chapter. The primary sentence stared again at me: “Kim Byers couldn’t determine what to do with the picture receipt.”
This was no novel. This was a piece of true crime. And Kim Byers was my mom. I learn till the solar started to forged a shadow throughout the ground within the bed room.
On Dec. 11, 1978, my mom’s good friend and coworker, Rob Piest, went lacking. She was 17, and Rob was 15, working a shift at Nisson Pharmacy in Des Plaines, Sick., when a contractor who was reworking shelving within the retailer provided Rob a job. On the finish of the shift, Rob left to signal new-hire paperwork on the man’s home. He would by no means be seen once more.
It was a sluggish day for my mother. She had time to develop a roll of movie for herself. She put the receipt within the pocket of the blue parka she wore. The parka belonged to Rob.
As he left the shop with the contractor, Rob requested my mother for his jacket again. The receipt rode within the jacket pocket by means of the snowy streets to the contractor’s home. And later, when authorities looked for Rob, it could be proof: He had labored a shift at Nisson Pharmacy that Dec. 11.
Later, the contractor would lie. He would inform the police he had by no means talked to Rob on the pharmacy. He would say the 17-year-old lady who labored with Rob was not telling the reality when she advised authorities her good friend had left with him. However the receipt proved the phrases out of his mouth have been simply that — phrases. The reality was a lot heavier.
As a toddler, I’d identified she had a good friend who went lacking. I had been taught to keep away from males in vans who would possibly hypothetically pull up and ask me if I needed a journey whereas I used to be strolling within the neighborhood. However, I used to be studying, the risks hinted at have been solely the start. My mom had confronted down a monster.
She testified on the 1980 trial of John Wayne Gacy. Within the courtroom, she pointed him out as the person who’d provided Piest a job. Gacy had buried 29 our bodies below or round his residence, and he’d disposed of her good friend within the river, together with three others. Gacy was discovered responsible of the homicide of 33 younger males and boys whose lives have been taken too quickly. My mom was the important thing witness for the prosecution.
Within the a long time since, it turned evident to me that this homicide case had largely been advised in a harmful, one-sided method. Gacy turned central, myth-like, part of cultural lore alongside different serial killers similar to Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy.
These monsters get placed on a pedestal, essentially the most attention-grabbing characters within the story. As a rule in true crime, this framing gadget is the default. However I knew, by means of my mom, that there was a lot extra to be advised: The folks affected by crime ought to be on the forefront. The 33 younger males and boys survived by so many mates, members of the family, neighbors and others who cared about them ought to take priority over the killer.
Gacy murders have been recycled for podcasts, TV and movie, and audiences have come to know his whole life story as they attempt to perceive why he killed. We’re groomed for this type of storytelling, and for many people, it makes us desensitized to violent crimes.
I’m invested in retraining the algorithm on who tells these tales and the way.
As I received older and have become a mom myself, my mother shared extra of her perspective on this case. What was it prefer to face this horrible particular person? How did she survive shedding her good friend? How does anybody address such loss?
Once I began writing concerning the case and my mom’s experiences, I purposefully moved past merely recapping the floor stage timeline of occasions, or fixating on the killer. I needed to re-enter an previous story and make it new, exhibiting the ripple results of violence.
The information revealed Gacy to be much less fascinating than his touted public picture. His mind was studied after his dying. A forensic psychiatrist thought they’d discover an evidence for why this man killed. But it surely turned out his mind was not so attention-grabbing. There was nothing particular to be discovered.
True crime instructions immense curiosity, notably from girls. A 2023 poll discovered that girls are nearly twice as doubtless as males to take heed to true crime podcasts. There’s additionally a starvation for brand new voices, new tales, new entrances into seemingly acquainted narratives. Narrative nonfiction true crime books like “The Third Rainbow Lady,” and TV reveals like Netflix’s “Into the Hearth” supply recent views that respect the younger girls misplaced, their family members, and their communities.
The connection so many people make with true crime is one value finding out. Determining our intersection with crime is necessary, on a private and cultural stage. As a result of if we change into desensitized to violence, or worse, if we discover consolation in it, we lose empathy for the lives that have been misplaced, and the lives that needed to go on lengthy after a killer was caught.
Once I lately reread “Killer Clown,” as a substitute of the shock I felt the primary time, I felt love and ache for the individuals who‘d lived by means of December 1978 in Des Plaines. I imagined what the moms and dads did once they realized that their boys have been by no means coming residence. I considered the chums and lovers of those younger males and boys.
The following time you come throughout a reference to John Wayne Gacy, serial killer of 33 younger males, do not forget that one in every of them was Rob Piest. And bear in mind that there have been these, like my mother, who liked him.
Courtney Lund O’Neil is the creator of “Postmortem: What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders.” www.courtneylundoneil.com
