John Wayne Gacy: Devil In Disguise

In the late 80´s, i used to visit the local library with my mother and sister. I did go there with school friends as well, but my mother loved reading books, so she would take me and my 4 year old sister to the library, to have a look at different books. My sister was of course excited about children books, and she would open some of them, having a look at the colorful pictures. At this time i was about 11 years old, and i was starting to look at other kinds of books than classic fairy tales. I was especially curious about the novels of Stephen King, since i have already seen the films Salem´s Lot, Maximum Overdrive and Firestarter as well on VHS. I was especially curious about a novel called The Shining, since i remember my uncle talked about the film on VHS. As i was going through some book shelves, i especially remember one book, that caught my attention. And it was a book about serial killers, and on the cover was pictures of several well known serial killers. One of the pictures that caught my attention was a clown, that turned out to be serial killer John Wayne Gacy. My mother saw i was looking at that book and said:- Perhaps you should look for another book, this is more for adults. I did not open the book in the library, but the picture of John Wayne Gacy dressed up as a clown, stuck in my mind. Let´s move forward to the year of 1995, when i was inside one of our local VHS stores, in my hometown. It was here i discovered a VHS rental release of To Catch A Killer, a TV mini series split into 2 parts. This TV mini series told the story of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, played brilliant by legendary actor Brian Dennehy ( who´s done so many wonderful performances in his career, especially as Sheriff Teasle in the 1982 action drama First Blood, with Sylvester Stallone ). I have seen this TV mini series many times, and it is still really good. The story of serial killer John Wayne Gacy will always be fascinating to me, even how disturbed he was, it is hard to understand how he could do all these horrific murders. I finally sat down to watch the TV mini series documentary called John Wayne Gacy: Devil In Disguise, that i have been looking forward to see for several months. Is this a must watch for people who are interested in criminal cases, or should you skip this one and watch the classic TV mini series To Catch A Killer instead?

In 1978, a man named John Wayne Gacy was arrested in Chicago, suspected of murdering young teenage boys. It turns out that he murdered at least 33 young boys. Hear the stories from the people who knew him, and hear John Wayne Gacy himself tell his side of the story. 

TV mini series can be difficult to make really interesting, unless you have a story that you know will affect a lot of people, in an emotional way. John Wayne Gacy: Devil In Disguise does not only tell a lot of details about the life of one of the most brutal serial killers of all time, but you also get to hear the stories from family, people who investigated in Gacy, as well as hearing from people who knew him. There are so many interesting details told in these 6 episodes, you won´t be bored at all. Each episode does a really good job by telling the story in the right order, and does not jump too much in time periods. The fact that they managed to get so many people on board to be interviewed, who actually got to experience this chaos, is quite impressive. It must be very difficult going back in time and talk about their experiences, and especially the people who digged out the bodies underneath the house of Gacy. I can´t imagine how you handle that, without breaking apart inside. There are also some interesting stories told that i have not heard about John Wayne Gacy before, and these details give you a completely different perspective on his personality. He clearly knew how to manipulate people, in all parts of society. You do get to see pictures from the digging underneath the house, but they try not to show too much horrible details, and i actually think that this is good. Since there were so many young boys murdered by Gacy, you don´t need to go into too graphic details. We also get a lot of private pictures shown from Gacy´s family, as well as his wedding, and even from his involvement in politics. I don´t think there is any documentary that have told the story of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, as well as this TV mini series does. If you are interested in this specific case, i guarantee you want to see all these episodes. Director Rob Blackburst ( who directed the really good Netflix doxumentary Amanda Knox, well worth checking out ) have clearly worked really hard on this TV mini series, and does a really good job on telling the story, for each episode. This year have only a few months left, and i can honestly say, John Wayne Gacy: Devil In Disguise, may be the best TV mini series of this year.

Rating: DDDD