Summary
John Gacy was an upstanding Chicago citizen, active in local politics and charities, famous for his themed parties and appearances as Pogo the Clown. In the winter of 1978-79, as investigators brought out the bagged remains of several dozen young men from Gacy's small Chicago ranch home, he became known as one of many so-called "sex murderers" who had begun gaining notoriety in the random brutality of the 1970s. The victims became footnotes and statistics, lives lost not just to violence, but to history. Nelson retraces the footsteps of these victims, and relatives, friends and significant others retell their memories of the times before their brother, their boyfriend, or their friend became a face in the newspaper. -- adapted from Amazon info and Author's note [page ix].