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Boys Enter the House: The Victims of John Wayne Gacy and the Lives They Left Behind
"Here is a work that emphasizes the full view of the lives of those young people that Gacy took. . . . It is essentially the Gacy story in reverse. Victims first.”
—Jeff Coen, author of Murder in Canaryville
As investigators brought out the bagged remains of several dozen young men from a small Chicago ranch home and paraded them in front of a crowd of TV reporters and spectators, attention quickly turned to the owner of the house. John Gacy was an upstanding citizen, active in local politics and charities, famous for his themed parties and appearances as Pogo the Clown.
But in the winter of 1978–79, he became known as one of many so-called “sex murderers” who had begun gaining notoriety in the random brutality of the 1970s. As public interest grew rapidly, victims became footnotes and statistics, lives lost not just to violence, but to history.
Through the testimony of siblings, parents, friends, lovers, and other witnesses close to the case, Boys Enter the House retraces the footsteps of these victims as they make their way to the doorstep of the Gacy house itself.
—Jeff Coen, author of Murder in Canaryville
As investigators brought out the bagged remains of several dozen young men from a small Chicago ranch home and paraded them in front of a crowd of TV reporters and spectators, attention quickly turned to the owner of the house. John Gacy was an upstanding citizen, active in local politics and charities, famous for his themed parties and appearances as Pogo the Clown.
But in the winter of 1978–79, he became known as one of many so-called “sex murderers” who had begun gaining notoriety in the random brutality of the 1970s. As public interest grew rapidly, victims became footnotes and statistics, lives lost not just to violence, but to history.
Through the testimony of siblings, parents, friends, lovers, and other witnesses close to the case, Boys Enter the House retraces the footsteps of these victims as they make their way to the doorstep of the Gacy house itself.
324 pages, Hardcover
First published October 5, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 177 reviews
January 12, 2023
An admirable intention to focus on the victims, who tend in stories of serial killers to be overshadowed by the crazy antics of the psychopath himself.
However, the problem here is that each victim has parents, friends, siblings, teachers, step-parents, grandparents, workmates, and so on—and there are 33 victims who died, plus others who encountered Gacy but were not killed, as well as many other people mentioned who have nothing to do with Gacy at all. It was very challenging to juggle all these names and try to remember who was who.
In a status update for this book I mentioned it might be titled, The History of Chicago and Everyone Who Ever Lived There, because this book does have that flavour at times.
The chapters are arranged around a theme, and so victims and their families are lumped together based on the thematic thread of the chapter, which may jump around chronologically. Some of these chapters were more successful than others, but most were fairly chaotic.
There is an Author's Note before the introduction, and on the second page of this note there is a typo in the title of this book! At the back there is a “Bibliography” which lists interviews—is it only me who believes "bibliography" has a particular meaning more specific than "sources of information"?
I almost hate to say this, but the book started to come together more once the narrative reaches a focus on the investigation, arrest, trial and conviction of the notorious killer. This psychopath was manipulative, and like his alter-ego, Pogo the Clown, weirdly entertaining. Of course, the story is also sickening, because there were so many people who complained about their encounters with Gacy, or who disappeared after working for him, and police did very little. One issue was that if a victim was seen to be gay or "street-involved" the police were not interested—even when a young man who was brutally raped filed a complaint. So many warnings were ignored and not followed up.
Some of the bodies unearthed were not able to be identified until recent advances in DNA technology. Incredibly, two or three are still unknown and questions remain about accomplices and the possibility of other burial sites.
However, the problem here is that each victim has parents, friends, siblings, teachers, step-parents, grandparents, workmates, and so on—and there are 33 victims who died, plus others who encountered Gacy but were not killed, as well as many other people mentioned who have nothing to do with Gacy at all. It was very challenging to juggle all these names and try to remember who was who.
In a status update for this book I mentioned it might be titled, The History of Chicago and Everyone Who Ever Lived There, because this book does have that flavour at times.
The chapters are arranged around a theme, and so victims and their families are lumped together based on the thematic thread of the chapter, which may jump around chronologically. Some of these chapters were more successful than others, but most were fairly chaotic.
There is an Author's Note before the introduction, and on the second page of this note there is a typo in the title of this book! At the back there is a “Bibliography” which lists interviews—is it only me who believes "bibliography" has a particular meaning more specific than "sources of information"?
I almost hate to say this, but the book started to come together more once the narrative reaches a focus on the investigation, arrest, trial and conviction of the notorious killer. This psychopath was manipulative, and like his alter-ego, Pogo the Clown, weirdly entertaining. Of course, the story is also sickening, because there were so many people who complained about their encounters with Gacy, or who disappeared after working for him, and police did very little. One issue was that if a victim was seen to be gay or "street-involved" the police were not interested—even when a young man who was brutally raped filed a complaint. So many warnings were ignored and not followed up.
Some of the bodies unearthed were not able to be identified until recent advances in DNA technology. Incredibly, two or three are still unknown and questions remain about accomplices and the possibility of other burial sites.
October 10, 2021
Brilliant! This book needs no photos. David Nelson's description of people, places and events is picture perfect. Took me back to Uptown and the 70's as though I never left. He has shown genuine compassion and respect for the victims and their families. As a family member left behind in this horror I feel empowered for my brother. David has allowed my brother's voice to step over the perpetrator and be heard. Kudos David, hats off to you!
June 8, 2021
Boys Enter the House is an incredibly researched yet page-turning narrative and an essential read: anyone fascinated with this case knows of the many murdered boys, but David B. Nelson expands their lives to a familiarity I've never before felt. The tragedy typically associated with the case is that Gacy's victims were so young that they had their whole lives ahead of them, but this book illustrates that they are as people, boys who may have had much promise, but had already survived and endured a hell of a lot. In an even more novel approach, Nelson also illuminates the lives of the indirect victims, the cascading fallout on the families, friends, and even professionals whose worlds were forever changed. David B. Nelson's level of attention, detail, and respect toward the victims of criminals is the gold standard for every true crime writer.
March 4, 2024
"He could only smile at death for so long before it smiled back."
When you hear the term 'Serial Killer' we usually think about the person who has committed the murders and not about the victims. Here the author changes things up and we get a look at the lives of the victims of one of the most notorious serial killers, J.W. Gacy.
This book was a lot different from what we are used to getting when it comes to serial murderers. We always hear about the the murders themselves but never about their lives before or even the toll it has taken on these families. That's what makes this book stand out from all the others but there was just something missing from this one for me not to become fully invested.
It seemed as if Gacy had a type and these young men all had a few things in common. It made me question if the author wanted us to not feel sympathy towards the victims. It made me stop and think about the reiteration of trouble making or traveling to IL alone that the author kept pushing. It wasn't something that I enjoyed. Another thing that kept bugging me was that the author kept mentioning the 'last picture' or photographs that were being shown in the court proceedings but this contained no images at all.
The first part took us through the lives of some of the young men who had met their demise after meeting Pogo. It was interesting at first but it was extremely repetitive. The second part is where we get into the investigation of the murders and that is what seemed to save this book. I thought chatting with the families was a great touch for a book like this. Even though it broke my heart, it was good that they included the families in on this. It makes this book that much more personal.
Boys Enter the House was an okay read but you'll learn nothing new. Not sure I like where the author lead us. I don't care about your background, no one should have their lives taken in a horrendous way as they did with this clown pos.
When you hear the term 'Serial Killer' we usually think about the person who has committed the murders and not about the victims. Here the author changes things up and we get a look at the lives of the victims of one of the most notorious serial killers, J.W. Gacy.
This book was a lot different from what we are used to getting when it comes to serial murderers. We always hear about the the murders themselves but never about their lives before or even the toll it has taken on these families. That's what makes this book stand out from all the others but there was just something missing from this one for me not to become fully invested.
It seemed as if Gacy had a type and these young men all had a few things in common. It made me question if the author wanted us to not feel sympathy towards the victims. It made me stop and think about the reiteration of trouble making or traveling to IL alone that the author kept pushing. It wasn't something that I enjoyed. Another thing that kept bugging me was that the author kept mentioning the 'last picture' or photographs that were being shown in the court proceedings but this contained no images at all.
The first part took us through the lives of some of the young men who had met their demise after meeting Pogo. It was interesting at first but it was extremely repetitive. The second part is where we get into the investigation of the murders and that is what seemed to save this book. I thought chatting with the families was a great touch for a book like this. Even though it broke my heart, it was good that they included the families in on this. It makes this book that much more personal.
Boys Enter the House was an okay read but you'll learn nothing new. Not sure I like where the author lead us. I don't care about your background, no one should have their lives taken in a horrendous way as they did with this clown pos.
December 2, 2024
3+ rounded up for the narrator.
This is a collection of narratives about Gacy’s victims.
The author provides historical context for each young man and teen, details of their life, and relationships with and impact upon friends and family.
Do not expect this to be a smooth, chronological telling of Gacy’s life.
Although you’ll learn a lot about Gacy, it’s not the purpose of the book.
It felt a bit disjointed. But given most of the victim’s lives were unrelated, I wasn’t expecting it to be one story.
These young men were not mere statistics, but brothers, friends, and sons. They were students, musicians, often imperfect boys and men, fighting their own demons or following their dreams.
The history was fascinating on its own. Be prepared to learn about the city, evolution of drug and gay culture, and the era. It was like taking stops along a tour, each location offering something different.
Overall, the stories are haunting, brutal, and tragic.
But giving time to the lives of the victims and their families was far more satisfying than a typical true crime retelling of a serial killer.
This is a collection of narratives about Gacy’s victims.
The author provides historical context for each young man and teen, details of their life, and relationships with and impact upon friends and family.
Do not expect this to be a smooth, chronological telling of Gacy’s life.
Although you’ll learn a lot about Gacy, it’s not the purpose of the book.
It felt a bit disjointed. But given most of the victim’s lives were unrelated, I wasn’t expecting it to be one story.
These young men were not mere statistics, but brothers, friends, and sons. They were students, musicians, often imperfect boys and men, fighting their own demons or following their dreams.
The history was fascinating on its own. Be prepared to learn about the city, evolution of drug and gay culture, and the era. It was like taking stops along a tour, each location offering something different.
Overall, the stories are haunting, brutal, and tragic.
But giving time to the lives of the victims and their families was far more satisfying than a typical true crime retelling of a serial killer.
August 20, 2022
This is an outstanding read, nothing more or less than everything the author was able to find out about the young men and boys found in the Des Plaines River and John Wayne Gacy's crawl space. He wasn't able to provide full biographies of every one of them, but there was a little something on everyone, even the unidentified victims. He also provided a rundown on many of the unanswered questions about this case, including whether some of the officially identified victims were really who we think they are, and whether Gacy did in fact kill them all, giving us a fair amount of information on some really slimy associates of his I never heard about before reading this book. He also told us a lot about the terrible gaps left in the lives of friends and families after these young men vanished. The writing was surprisingly clumsy at odd moments -- this is an award-winning writer but he uses "hone in" when he means "home in," stuff like that -- but overall this was a really hard book to put down. Absolutely do not miss this one. It's the book I have been waiting for all these years on this tragic, maddening case.
December 9, 2024
This was an intense read. I usually don't read crime-related books like this, but I ventured out of my reading-comfort-zone because this was a pick in the Morbidly Curious Book Club.
This book tells the story of the victims of a horrible criminal who violated and murdered them, all young boys/men. The stories are compiled from many interviews the author has done the past years, with family and others, trying to give a voice to a story that is otherwise usually dominated by the criminal. This is an important perspective, and I appreciate the focus on something else than John Gacy. However, there are many victims, so it took quite a while for me to get into a reading groove. The first half of the book was somewhat difficult to follow because of this. In the second half the investigation into Gacy began, and then the stories started to fall into place.
In all, a well written book with an interesting perspective, and worth reading because of that. For me personally, the execution didn't work so well, as the build-up was too slow. But it fits the mood of the book, so I guess it is really personal.
This book tells the story of the victims of a horrible criminal who violated and murdered them, all young boys/men. The stories are compiled from many interviews the author has done the past years, with family and others, trying to give a voice to a story that is otherwise usually dominated by the criminal. This is an important perspective, and I appreciate the focus on something else than John Gacy. However, there are many victims, so it took quite a while for me to get into a reading groove. The first half of the book was somewhat difficult to follow because of this. In the second half the investigation into Gacy began, and then the stories started to fall into place.
In all, a well written book with an interesting perspective, and worth reading because of that. For me personally, the execution didn't work so well, as the build-up was too slow. But it fits the mood of the book, so I guess it is really personal.
January 14, 2022
This book is very well-researched. It is not your typical true crime book. Instead, David B. Nelson gives a voice to the victims’ family and friends. Nelson shares the victims’ stories with grace and puts them first in this book. The stories of the victims are woven together in many ways. I appreciate the magnitude of detail — both depicting the victims lives and the city of Chicago at the time the murders took place.
Many of us know about John Wayne Gacy, but by reading Boys Enter the House you will come to know the men who’s lives were taken. The interviews that Nelson conducted were heartbreaking, as they showed how the family and friends were affected by losing their loved ones in such a horrific way. Boys Enter the House puts victims first.
Many of us know about John Wayne Gacy, but by reading Boys Enter the House you will come to know the men who’s lives were taken. The interviews that Nelson conducted were heartbreaking, as they showed how the family and friends were affected by losing their loved ones in such a horrific way. Boys Enter the House puts victims first.
December 8, 2021
David Nelson is attentive, caring, and eloquent in sharing the stories of the victims of John Wayne Gacy, of the boys whose lives were cut far too short by a sick man. I was moved by the final few chapters, where David skillfully weaves all the stories together, artfully illustrating the magnitude of what Gacy did. On top of it all, as a former resident of Chicago, I appreciated the detail with which David maps out the city, casting streets familiar to me in a new light.
January 26, 2022
A tremendous book about the victims of John Wayne Gacy. We read almost nothing of the killer's life, but thanks to author David Nelson, who must have spent YEARS putting in the research for this book, we finally become familiar with the boys whose lives were taken away from them in the most savage of ways.
Typically reduced to a footnote in the story, the most information I've seen about Gacy victims are paragraphs in the occasional "who were his victims?" stories, which often mention only where they were from and went to school, but very little else. Here, we learn about their childhoods, their families, their first loves, their hobbies, their passions, and in many cases, the trouble they got into, as many grew up in broken or abusive homes, in poverty, and in areas where joining a gang was the only way to stay safe, and where sex work was the only way to earn enough money to get by. Many of their backgrounds speak to how they became so vulnerable, especially as Gacy's promise to hire them and pay them more than they could make anywhere else meant that maybe they could turn their lives around. Instead, it was how he lured them into his home and raped, tortured, and murdered them.
Getting to know the families, friends, and other loved ones was devastating. Even nearly 50 years after their deaths, you could feel the grief on every page as people in their lives talked about who they were and what they'll never become. The book also takes you through the timeline after the last victim, Robert Piest, went missing, the subsequent police investigation, the discovery of the crawlspace and the bodies it held, and Gacy's arrest and trial. The discussion about the trial includes many of the testimonies from victims' families, as well as the prosecutor's BRILLIANT closing argument that ultimately convicted Gacy of 33 murders, and from there we see how many of the families were STILL unable to fully move on, regardless of the "justice" that had been done.
I would say the biggest struggle for me in reading this was that the stories are told through a sort of timeline rather than separately, so in the earliest part of the book you're reading about the childhoods of many of the boys up to a certain point, and then it jumps to the childhoods of others, and then it jumps back to the first group leading up to their disappearances, and then back to the second group, and then to the childhoods of a third group, and then the disappearances of the second...for me, it was difficult to keep a lot of the stories straight. For one boy, you'd get only a few paragraphs before moving onto someone else, and then when he was reintroduced later on, it was like wait, was he the one who did THIS and then THIS, or was that this other boy? I found myself going back quite a bit to piece all of the individual stories together, and felt that getting a chapter or two on each boy in the order in which they disappeared would have made things easier to keep track of...but still not enough of an inconvenience for me to take any stars away from my rating because what the author accomplishes here is still ABSOLUTELY worth all five.
Typically reduced to a footnote in the story, the most information I've seen about Gacy victims are paragraphs in the occasional "who were his victims?" stories, which often mention only where they were from and went to school, but very little else. Here, we learn about their childhoods, their families, their first loves, their hobbies, their passions, and in many cases, the trouble they got into, as many grew up in broken or abusive homes, in poverty, and in areas where joining a gang was the only way to stay safe, and where sex work was the only way to earn enough money to get by. Many of their backgrounds speak to how they became so vulnerable, especially as Gacy's promise to hire them and pay them more than they could make anywhere else meant that maybe they could turn their lives around. Instead, it was how he lured them into his home and raped, tortured, and murdered them.
Getting to know the families, friends, and other loved ones was devastating. Even nearly 50 years after their deaths, you could feel the grief on every page as people in their lives talked about who they were and what they'll never become. The book also takes you through the timeline after the last victim, Robert Piest, went missing, the subsequent police investigation, the discovery of the crawlspace and the bodies it held, and Gacy's arrest and trial. The discussion about the trial includes many of the testimonies from victims' families, as well as the prosecutor's BRILLIANT closing argument that ultimately convicted Gacy of 33 murders, and from there we see how many of the families were STILL unable to fully move on, regardless of the "justice" that had been done.
I would say the biggest struggle for me in reading this was that the stories are told through a sort of timeline rather than separately, so in the earliest part of the book you're reading about the childhoods of many of the boys up to a certain point, and then it jumps to the childhoods of others, and then it jumps back to the first group leading up to their disappearances, and then back to the second group, and then to the childhoods of a third group, and then the disappearances of the second...for me, it was difficult to keep a lot of the stories straight. For one boy, you'd get only a few paragraphs before moving onto someone else, and then when he was reintroduced later on, it was like wait, was he the one who did THIS and then THIS, or was that this other boy? I found myself going back quite a bit to piece all of the individual stories together, and felt that getting a chapter or two on each boy in the order in which they disappeared would have made things easier to keep track of...but still not enough of an inconvenience for me to take any stars away from my rating because what the author accomplishes here is still ABSOLUTELY worth all five.
October 30, 2021
I was a senior in a suburban Chicago high school when the John Wayne Gacy story broke. I have strong memories of watching the news each night, hearing the body count rise, and then discussing the case with my classmates at school the next day. We were around the same age as many of the victims, and it was chilling.
Boys Enter the House is not a great book, but I found it fascinating. The first 150 pages is as much a history of Chicago neighborhoods and especially of gay life in Chicago in the 1970s as it is a story about the victims of John Wayne Gacy. I might have been totally bored (at least with chapters 2 and 3) if I weren't interested in Chicago streets and communities. The book enters more familiar territory about how Gacy finally got caught starting around chapter 8.
Unfortunately the book was not well edited. In a book about Illinois published by independent publisher Chicago Review Press, I was surprised to see the city of Champaign misspelled Champagne (p. 32). Apparently they do not take the “review” part of their name too seriously. Part of Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago,” is quoted, and while the quotation is a good choice for the book, the text does not make clear that the quote is only an excerpt (p. 27).
The author is clearly riveted by the people he talks to, and in the early chapters I sometimes had a hard time knowing who the victims were and who were friends and relatives. Since some of the victims lived in the same neighborhoods, moved in the same circles, and frequented the same nightlife spots, it’s not surprising that the author would talk about several victims in the same chapter. However, the book would be greatly improved by information at the beginning of each chapter listing the names of the victims who appear in it. There is actually not a complete listing of the victims anywhere in the book. I got the impression that some of the people the author quoted did not know the victims that well and were responding because of the notoriety of the case. That happens, of course, with any well-known tragedy. The book ends with a strange Coda about the Disco Inferno at Comiskey Park.
Despite the indifferent editing, this book will appeal to those who remember the Gacy case and would like to know more about the victims. If you are as fascinated by the case as I am, you will want to read Boys Enter the House.
Boys Enter the House is not a great book, but I found it fascinating. The first 150 pages is as much a history of Chicago neighborhoods and especially of gay life in Chicago in the 1970s as it is a story about the victims of John Wayne Gacy. I might have been totally bored (at least with chapters 2 and 3) if I weren't interested in Chicago streets and communities. The book enters more familiar territory about how Gacy finally got caught starting around chapter 8.
Unfortunately the book was not well edited. In a book about Illinois published by independent publisher Chicago Review Press, I was surprised to see the city of Champaign misspelled Champagne (p. 32). Apparently they do not take the “review” part of their name too seriously. Part of Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago,” is quoted, and while the quotation is a good choice for the book, the text does not make clear that the quote is only an excerpt (p. 27).
The author is clearly riveted by the people he talks to, and in the early chapters I sometimes had a hard time knowing who the victims were and who were friends and relatives. Since some of the victims lived in the same neighborhoods, moved in the same circles, and frequented the same nightlife spots, it’s not surprising that the author would talk about several victims in the same chapter. However, the book would be greatly improved by information at the beginning of each chapter listing the names of the victims who appear in it. There is actually not a complete listing of the victims anywhere in the book. I got the impression that some of the people the author quoted did not know the victims that well and were responding because of the notoriety of the case. That happens, of course, with any well-known tragedy. The book ends with a strange Coda about the Disco Inferno at Comiskey Park.
Despite the indifferent editing, this book will appeal to those who remember the Gacy case and would like to know more about the victims. If you are as fascinated by the case as I am, you will want to read Boys Enter the House.
December 15, 2021
Read about 1/4 of this and found it to be a slog. I may try it again later. Great premise: the victims of John Wayne Gacy, , their bios and how they came to be associated with Gacy. However, this author's writing style...I don't know. I thought it would be like one person per chapter type of thing, but I found that the author jumped around a lot, sometimes talking about multiple victims and all their family and friends in one chapter. I found it quite hard to follow.
February 11, 2022
This is an intense, meticulously researched, victim-centered account. When murderers take lives--they don't just hurt the victim, they psychologically destroy their entire network of family and friends, too. Some of the victims still haven't been identified--I had no idea.
January 21, 2022
A touching tribute to the 33 young men that lost their lives. Hard to stomach.
October 8, 2021
"Boys Enter the House" is an intelligent, sharply-written narrative that does justice to the victims. True to its title, the book succeeds in recreating the vivid, gritty, and ultimately, heartbreaking lives of Gacy's victims in 70s-era Chicago. As someone who was not alive to experience the 70s and has only visited the touristy areas of Chicago, the writing richly paints a portrait of the era and what it was like to live in a part of the city most of us did not know existed. No detail is too small and as a whole they accomplish something rare in the true crime genre: give us a fully-realized picture of the victims and their families. This is a remarkable book and highly-recommended reading for true crime and narrative nonfiction fans.
January 12, 2022
I don't usually read a lot of true crime, especially not true crime about serial killers, and especially books about serial killers as infamous as John Wayne Gacy; I generally avoid these books because a lot of them (in my opinion) focus overmuch on the killers and the violent details of their crimes, to the point where it seems like the object is to shock and sensationalize as much as possible. I understand the need to get inside the mind of serial killers and to try and understand why they did what they did, and I know that it's pretty much impossible to write about violent crimes without describing how they were carried out. But I also feel like there's a line that too often gets crossed, when the eccentricities of the killers--like Gacy's clown obsession--are given more attention than the actual victims they murdered. Especially when a killer was as prolific as Gacy, and when many of the victims came from troubled backgrounds, it's too easy for some to skim over the victims' lives and write them off as just more bodies in the crawl space.
This book is the opposite of those kinds of books. The focus is almost entirely on Gacy's victims and their families and friends; while Nelson does talk about how the boys were killed and (in the last few chapters) the Gacy investigation and trial, he focuses primarily on how the victims' loved ones were affected. Some of the information in the book will probably be familiar to anyone who's read about the Gacy case before, but a lot of it is new detail about the lives of the victims, gleaned from hours of interviews that Nelson conducted with their friends and families. We learn about how the victims grew up, what their dreams and goals were, their flaws and strengths, and how their absence was felt by the people they left behind. In many cases the victims' loved ones had to wait years between when their sons, brothers, and boyfriends went missing and when their fates were actually discovered. In the meantime, they dealt with apathy and mismanagement by law enforcement, who wrote off the missing boys as just having run away; since many of the boys had criminal pasts, did sex work, and/or were gay, so finding out what happened to them wasn't high priority for the police. But Nelson shows that--regardless of the paths each victim took in life, and regardless of how they ended up in the crawl space or the river--each of the boys and young men murdered by Gacy had someone who never stopped wondering what happened to them.
Boys Enter the House is also a really fascinating look into 1970s Chicago as a whole, especially the Uptown neighborhood where many of the victims were from. A lot of the boys crossed paths growing up in the area, whether as friends, acquaintances, or on opposite sides of turf fights; that so many of them ended up mere feet apart from each other in Gacy's crawl space shows the devastating extent to which he preyed on vulnerable, down-on-their-luck boys and men.
My only issue with this book is that, as other reviewers have mentioned, it's not very well-edited. There are a lot of typos and grammatical mistakes, some of which really should've been caught by a proofreader or editor, and the way the book is organized can make it confusing to keep track of who is who (especially when several of the victims had the same name). A list at the start of the book of the victims and their frequently mentioned friends and family might've clarified things a bit. However, I don't want to lower my rating just because of editorial flaws, because overall this was a very insightful book and one that I'll be thinking about for a long time.
This book is the opposite of those kinds of books. The focus is almost entirely on Gacy's victims and their families and friends; while Nelson does talk about how the boys were killed and (in the last few chapters) the Gacy investigation and trial, he focuses primarily on how the victims' loved ones were affected. Some of the information in the book will probably be familiar to anyone who's read about the Gacy case before, but a lot of it is new detail about the lives of the victims, gleaned from hours of interviews that Nelson conducted with their friends and families. We learn about how the victims grew up, what their dreams and goals were, their flaws and strengths, and how their absence was felt by the people they left behind. In many cases the victims' loved ones had to wait years between when their sons, brothers, and boyfriends went missing and when their fates were actually discovered. In the meantime, they dealt with apathy and mismanagement by law enforcement, who wrote off the missing boys as just having run away; since many of the boys had criminal pasts, did sex work, and/or were gay, so finding out what happened to them wasn't high priority for the police. But Nelson shows that--regardless of the paths each victim took in life, and regardless of how they ended up in the crawl space or the river--each of the boys and young men murdered by Gacy had someone who never stopped wondering what happened to them.
Boys Enter the House is also a really fascinating look into 1970s Chicago as a whole, especially the Uptown neighborhood where many of the victims were from. A lot of the boys crossed paths growing up in the area, whether as friends, acquaintances, or on opposite sides of turf fights; that so many of them ended up mere feet apart from each other in Gacy's crawl space shows the devastating extent to which he preyed on vulnerable, down-on-their-luck boys and men.
My only issue with this book is that, as other reviewers have mentioned, it's not very well-edited. There are a lot of typos and grammatical mistakes, some of which really should've been caught by a proofreader or editor, and the way the book is organized can make it confusing to keep track of who is who (especially when several of the victims had the same name). A list at the start of the book of the victims and their frequently mentioned friends and family might've clarified things a bit. However, I don't want to lower my rating just because of editorial flaws, because overall this was a very insightful book and one that I'll be thinking about for a long time.
January 13, 2025
The serial killer, John Wayne Gacy, is well known (at least in the USA) and be sure of that, do we really need to hear more about the guy who was a clown at children's birthday parties (and had a creepy obsession with them) and also killed at least 33 boys and young men in the Chicago region. Naw, he doesn't need more of our time. But what about his victims? Who were they? Why them? Of course they were someone's child, brother, significant other, etc. and this book delves into those lives. The lives tragically and horrendously cut short. Of course, you can't fully cut out the life and acts of Gacy - context is needed. I really wish there had been focus on more of the victims but perhaps the family didn't want to get involved and there was little info in some of these cases, and that's fair enough. Boys Enter the House should make anyone angry, the amount of reports that were ignored over the word of a murderer just out of sheer homophobia is tragic. These victims, these boys, deserve to be remembered and I'm glad some authors are beginning to focus on those lost lives over those monsters that took them. My only complaint is the writing sometimes seems to be all over the place and jumps around in the timeline which threw my dyslexic brain into overdrive at times. There are many trigger warnings, including murder and SA.
July 28, 2024
I'm finding it hard to articulate a review for this book but it was a humbling read. I'm grateful to now know so much about the lives of the victims. I always knew that regardless of their backgrounds, they were just young men and boys with the rest of their lives ahead of them. But this book paints an extemely vivid picture of the lives they had already lived, the connections they made and the many losses their deaths brought. Hearing the stories and perspectives of those left behind was extremely moving. Very grateful that the crimes themselves and the perpetrator were described minimally.
April 27, 2022
I have found myself over the years struggling with the issue of the death penalty but that’s just me personally. However in Gacy’s case it was the right and just decision to make. Death by lethal injection for Gacy was far too easy and merciful for him. He should have suffered an execution as horrific if not worse than what he subjected his victims to.
November 29, 2021
Recommended to anyone who has complained that true crime media never pays enough attention to the victims. This book is really the story of Chicago in the 70’s and the lives of the young men Gacy killed. It has a very well crafted sense of time and place. In addition care is given to describe what Chicago was like for young gay men at the time.
Fans of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, The Babysitter, and podcasts like True Crime Bullshit should find this book compelling.
Fans of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, The Babysitter, and podcasts like True Crime Bullshit should find this book compelling.
February 6, 2022
Mixed feelings on this one - certainly a "modern" take on the serial killer true crime history by focusing on the victims, but the author has an ax to grind and sometimes oversteps and makes me question the reliability. That said, it really highlights how awful Gacy's crimes were and humanizes the victims. Knowing who the victims were adds a much needed perspective.
I did get confused by the narrative's structure as it did the victims' backstories - there were just so many names and the storytelling kept flipped back and forth between their stories. It made it hard to keep track who was who.
That said, I think we need more true crime focusing on the victims instead of their killer.
I did get confused by the narrative's structure as it did the victims' backstories - there were just so many names and the storytelling kept flipped back and forth between their stories. It made it hard to keep track who was who.
That said, I think we need more true crime focusing on the victims instead of their killer.
November 10, 2021
Outstanding Book about John Wayne Gacy’s Victims
This book provides biographies of many of John Wayne Gacy’s victims and families. It humanizes them and provides a voice to young men who were murdered by a brutal killer. Is allows families to talk about their loss. Moving.
This book provides biographies of many of John Wayne Gacy’s victims and families. It humanizes them and provides a voice to young men who were murdered by a brutal killer. Is allows families to talk about their loss. Moving.
May 13, 2025
If you can keep track of the ten thousand names in this book you deserve a medal
January 11, 2026
My partner and I recently went on a trip to Savannah, GA, where we revisited what has become one of my favorite unique destinations - The Graveface Museum. The museum itself isn’t for the faint of heart. Within, one wanders through exhibits dedicated to some of the world’s most notorious cults, killers, and true crime cases, and is invited to explore artifacts of the mystic and supernatural. There’s so much to see and read in this museum that both times I’ve visited, I left wishing I had more time to absorb the contents of each exhibit. Perhaps the most impressive exhibit at Graveface is the one dedicated to John Wayne Gacy. It includes the world’s largest collection of artifacts belonging to Gacy, consisting primarily of artwork painted by Gacy himself, both during his imprisonment and before. Walking amongst those paintings, like you would in any old art gallery, is quite surreal. It’s hard to imagine how the man who painted scenes of Snow White and her dwarves marching merrily off to work is the same man who committed such horrific acts of savagery on so many people.
On this last visit, I was drawn to a portion of the exhibit dedicated to Gacy’s victims. On the wall were the pictures of the young boys and men whose lives were taken by John Wayne Gacy. If you’ve ever seen a composite of portraits at a fraternity or sorority house, where rows upon rows of faces are smiling back at you, it’s like that, but when you consider the context in which these pictures are displayed, it just about makes you physically sick. Each picture was accompanied by a brief biography, but I didn’t have nearly enough time to read them all. It was then that I recalled this book, which has been on my TBR for quite some time, so I made it a priority to get my hands on a copy.
This book was profoundly sad, and it’s certainly one of the heavier non-fiction books I’ve read. The amount of time invested in conducting research and pouring over what I suspect must be mountains of detailed reports, interviews transcripts, recordings, and more is a true feat, and I greatly appreciate the victim-centric narrative that the author set out to tell. Admittedly, the true crime media I often digest spends most of its time focused on the culprit, and while this book does touch on Gacy quite a bit in the third act (it’s unavoidable, really), the majority of the book was dedicated to telling the heartbreaking and complicated stories of his victims.
Of course, the suffering each of these boys endured is absolutely horrifying, and I cannot possibly imagine how terrifying it must have been in those last moments. Much of this was difficult to read, and I advise anyone who picks this up to do so with caution.
One of my biggest takeaways from the book is how significant the fallout was for the lives of those that surrounded each of the boys. After the news broke and bodies were identified, the dominoes started to fall - marriages ended, families fell apart, relationships were cut into pieces, addiction took hold, and lives were lost. And then there’s the boys. Everything they achieved and the aspirations they had. The car they were saving for. The degree they were chasing. It’s all just so tragic.
Narratively, I must say I found parts of this read challenging due to how many people are involved (which, again, is a heartbreaking fact about this case). It was hard keeping track of who was who, and how they related to each victim or what timeline they lived in. Aside from that, this was a captivating and fast-paced read that I felt did a great job remaining objective.
I commend David Nelson for telling the victims’ stories - the boys deserve it, and so much more.
On this last visit, I was drawn to a portion of the exhibit dedicated to Gacy’s victims. On the wall were the pictures of the young boys and men whose lives were taken by John Wayne Gacy. If you’ve ever seen a composite of portraits at a fraternity or sorority house, where rows upon rows of faces are smiling back at you, it’s like that, but when you consider the context in which these pictures are displayed, it just about makes you physically sick. Each picture was accompanied by a brief biography, but I didn’t have nearly enough time to read them all. It was then that I recalled this book, which has been on my TBR for quite some time, so I made it a priority to get my hands on a copy.
This book was profoundly sad, and it’s certainly one of the heavier non-fiction books I’ve read. The amount of time invested in conducting research and pouring over what I suspect must be mountains of detailed reports, interviews transcripts, recordings, and more is a true feat, and I greatly appreciate the victim-centric narrative that the author set out to tell. Admittedly, the true crime media I often digest spends most of its time focused on the culprit, and while this book does touch on Gacy quite a bit in the third act (it’s unavoidable, really), the majority of the book was dedicated to telling the heartbreaking and complicated stories of his victims.
Of course, the suffering each of these boys endured is absolutely horrifying, and I cannot possibly imagine how terrifying it must have been in those last moments. Much of this was difficult to read, and I advise anyone who picks this up to do so with caution.
One of my biggest takeaways from the book is how significant the fallout was for the lives of those that surrounded each of the boys. After the news broke and bodies were identified, the dominoes started to fall - marriages ended, families fell apart, relationships were cut into pieces, addiction took hold, and lives were lost. And then there’s the boys. Everything they achieved and the aspirations they had. The car they were saving for. The degree they were chasing. It’s all just so tragic.
Narratively, I must say I found parts of this read challenging due to how many people are involved (which, again, is a heartbreaking fact about this case). It was hard keeping track of who was who, and how they related to each victim or what timeline they lived in. Aside from that, this was a captivating and fast-paced read that I felt did a great job remaining objective.
I commend David Nelson for telling the victims’ stories - the boys deserve it, and so much more.
November 22, 2024
This was a nonfiction book club selection. Overall, this book delivers on its promise to do things differently in writing about victims of crime. In the first half of the book, John Wayne Gacy is only a background figure and the young men take center stage. Nelson does a great job weaving together their narratives and the Chicago they inhabited. He is overt in stressing that even though some of these boys had rough lives, they were more than the 'hustlers' or prostitutes the media made them out to be. In fact, they came from a diverse range of backgrounds, and all had people who loved them. Their stories are woven together by themes and give the reader a good understanding of not just who they were, but of what Uptown was like in the 70s. It can be a bit confusing trying to keep track of all the characters, but it's worth the effort. Nelson incorporates interviews with loved ones whenever he can. The second half does of course cover the discovery of the boys' bodies and Gacy's arrest, though again, the courtroom scenes recounted focus on the family's testimonies. The trial scenes are a little tedious, but it's because Nelson is working hard to represent all the boys, including those who are still unidentified. I liked that Nelson didn't dig into Gacy's biography and in no way tries to explain why he did the things he did. He's simply not the focus - the families still dealing with their losses are. I hope this book will help change the way people write about and portray cases like this one. You can tell a lot of the people interviewed found talking about their loved ones and their ongoing grief truly cathartic. This book makes very clear the ripple effect murder can have generations later.
August 7, 2025
A man had erased thirty-three lives from a corner of the world, and the country had watched as he took the stage dressed as a clown, and they, the boys he’d killed, retreated into the shadows.
Most of the time we always get the stories from the killer and his life, which this book decided to do the total opposite, and it worked. The focus of the book was on the victims, their lives, their families, their relationships humanizing them and not just considering them as a number and nothing more.
These young men crossed path unfortunately with Gacy, but the book also provides a background how Uptown was doing on that time. The evolution of drugs and the impacts and prejudice of the gay culture. Let's just say that Chicago wasn't a good place but those who lived there at that time did the best they could to have a good life.
Some chapters will hunt you but the chapters once Gacy gets arrested are extremely good. Not only the typical true crime let's read about the trial, but it was interesting on how it affected the families, witnesses and how the prosecution and defense teams prepared for this.
Here are some books mentioned that I want to read later:
● John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster by Amirante, Sam L., and Danny Broderick
● Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay Community by Tracy Baim
● Buried Dreams: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer by Tim Cahill
● The Chicago Killer: The Hunt For Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy by Kozenczak, Joseph R., and Karen M. Kozenczak
● The Man Who Killed Boys: The John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Story by Clifford L. Linedecker
● The Man With The Candy: The Story of The Houston Mass Murders by Jack Olsen
● Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders by Terry Sullivan & Peter Maiken
Most of the time we always get the stories from the killer and his life, which this book decided to do the total opposite, and it worked. The focus of the book was on the victims, their lives, their families, their relationships humanizing them and not just considering them as a number and nothing more.
These young men crossed path unfortunately with Gacy, but the book also provides a background how Uptown was doing on that time. The evolution of drugs and the impacts and prejudice of the gay culture. Let's just say that Chicago wasn't a good place but those who lived there at that time did the best they could to have a good life.
Some chapters will hunt you but the chapters once Gacy gets arrested are extremely good. Not only the typical true crime let's read about the trial, but it was interesting on how it affected the families, witnesses and how the prosecution and defense teams prepared for this.
Here are some books mentioned that I want to read later:
● John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster by Amirante, Sam L., and Danny Broderick
● Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay Community by Tracy Baim
● Buried Dreams: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer by Tim Cahill
● The Chicago Killer: The Hunt For Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy by Kozenczak, Joseph R., and Karen M. Kozenczak
● The Man Who Killed Boys: The John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Story by Clifford L. Linedecker
● The Man With The Candy: The Story of The Houston Mass Murders by Jack Olsen
● Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders by Terry Sullivan & Peter Maiken
January 22, 2023
4.5 stars. This was such a powerful, necessary book. The reframing of true crime through the eyes of the victims is something that has become a welcome trend in recent years and Nelson does an excellent job in telling the stories he was given the opportunity to tell, really bringing to life what it was like to live on the fringes of society in the 1970s. Several moments, especially talk about the victims that were just starting to understand their sexualities at the beginning of adulthood, moved me to tears.
As I was reading this, I kept thinking of Hallie Rubenhold's excellent book The Five, about the lives of Jack the Ripper's victims before they were killed. I liked the structure of that book better, as it focused on one victim at a time. Nelson instead themes his victims, which leads to a lot of going back and forth and a lot of family members and friends with similar names that it is hard to keep track of. But I understand why he did it. With so many victims, so many of which overlap with each other in their lives, it makes sense. But I found it confusing a bit sometimes, hence leaving off one half star.
Still, I recommend this to anyone interested in true crime, especially the Gacy case. And I keep thinking of the disappearance of Craig Conner. I hope his family and friends get resolution one day.
As I was reading this, I kept thinking of Hallie Rubenhold's excellent book The Five, about the lives of Jack the Ripper's victims before they were killed. I liked the structure of that book better, as it focused on one victim at a time. Nelson instead themes his victims, which leads to a lot of going back and forth and a lot of family members and friends with similar names that it is hard to keep track of. But I understand why he did it. With so many victims, so many of which overlap with each other in their lives, it makes sense. But I found it confusing a bit sometimes, hence leaving off one half star.
Still, I recommend this to anyone interested in true crime, especially the Gacy case. And I keep thinking of the disappearance of Craig Conner. I hope his family and friends get resolution one day.
November 29, 2024
This book was excellent. I was completely and utterly transfixed from the foreward on. If you want a book solely about Gacy and his crimes this book is not for you. This book is about life in the 60’s and 70’s and the triumphs and heartache that was experienced by the families. It goes into their histories and the atmosphere of the times up until they all intersect at the one man who ruined so many peoples lives.
I really enjoyed the way this was written and the audio version was fantastic. Everything felt so vibrant and vivid. Like I was dropped into the place and time he was describing. It was also clear this book was meticulously researched. There was never a time I was tempted to fast forward or speed it along due to boredom. The first thing I did once finished was look up if the author has done other works and while I am disappointed there isn’t anything yet I’ll look forward to anything else published.
The narrator T. Ryder Smith was perfection. He let his emotion show at the right moments. There was righteous indignation in his voice as he read out charges and his tone was sober when it needed it. Overall I would definitely recommend it so long as you have the right expectations (Not all Gacy focused) going in you’ll enjoy it.
I really enjoyed the way this was written and the audio version was fantastic. Everything felt so vibrant and vivid. Like I was dropped into the place and time he was describing. It was also clear this book was meticulously researched. There was never a time I was tempted to fast forward or speed it along due to boredom. The first thing I did once finished was look up if the author has done other works and while I am disappointed there isn’t anything yet I’ll look forward to anything else published.
The narrator T. Ryder Smith was perfection. He let his emotion show at the right moments. There was righteous indignation in his voice as he read out charges and his tone was sober when it needed it. Overall I would definitely recommend it so long as you have the right expectations (Not all Gacy focused) going in you’ll enjoy it.
January 8, 2025
We know his name and his heinous crimes, but what about his victims? This book shines a much-needed light on the lives of the young men and boys who fell victim to John Wayne Gacy. They were far more than just numbers in a grim tally; they were people with names, interests, accomplishments, and dreams.
Through these pages, I learned not only the names of Gacy's victims but also about their struggles, families, friends, lovers, education, and aspirations. It’s a heartbreaking read, made even more poignant by the testimonials of their loved ones. Be prepared to shed tears as you witness the immense loss and grief left in Gacy's wake.
The book also exposes the frustration and tragedy of how Gacy evaded justice for so long. Despite his name being linked to missing boys for years, countless lives were lost before he was finally stopped. This failure of justice is infuriating, and the lingering questions about some victims' identities only deepen the sorrow.
This book does more than recount a serial killer's crimes—it honors those he tried to erase. It's a powerful, necessary read that ensures the victims are remembered as individuals, not statistics.
Popsugar reading challenge: a book you got for free
Through these pages, I learned not only the names of Gacy's victims but also about their struggles, families, friends, lovers, education, and aspirations. It’s a heartbreaking read, made even more poignant by the testimonials of their loved ones. Be prepared to shed tears as you witness the immense loss and grief left in Gacy's wake.
The book also exposes the frustration and tragedy of how Gacy evaded justice for so long. Despite his name being linked to missing boys for years, countless lives were lost before he was finally stopped. This failure of justice is infuriating, and the lingering questions about some victims' identities only deepen the sorrow.
This book does more than recount a serial killer's crimes—it honors those he tried to erase. It's a powerful, necessary read that ensures the victims are remembered as individuals, not statistics.
Popsugar reading challenge: a book you got for free
June 26, 2022
John Wayne Gacy has been for a long time a one of my top 5 cases. In fact he's always been either #3 or #2. He's been my number #2 for many years. This is my 6th book about the case. The Gacy case stands out a lot in my mind for many reasons. Gacy was caught in 1978; Ted Bundy, Hillside stranglers; Bianchi and Buono, to name a few. Gacy was also caught one month after the Jonestown mass suicide/murder. I also think of the Christmas season for two reasons. He was caught during the Christmas season, and the Christmas season was a very depressing time for him. Having lost several people he loved during December. So I can't help but think about 1978's Christmas in Chicago, Illinois; the windy city. Which is how I view many other cases. The hillside stranglers. I think about the sleazy 1970's Hollywood scene and the fact that California, especially L.A was the serial killer's playground. As a criminal sociologist once said "it's unbelievable how many are from California"....ya....L.A must of had at least 60 or more serial killers during the 70s and 80's. Although not all of them were strictly California restricted. A few of them lived in Oregon, Washington, or some other relatively near state and vise versa. They killed in California, killed in California, but also traveled. Killing in Oregon, Washington, etc as well.
The Gacy case has a personal significant to me as well. Beginning in 2016 I've generally bought a new book on the Gacy case before or after New years. In fact, a couple of my December books arrived on Christmas eve or Christmas day. Including a rare book I got on the Gacy case, and another rare book about a very obscure case.
Several years I've started another brand new year with a Gacy hook.
Every year I try and keep up with what is coming out. Relatively big pool, but very few books on cases I want to read about or read more about to add to my knowledge of a case I've already looked into, no matter how small.
So in about maybe October I came across this new Gacy book "Boys enter the house" which wasn't really suppose to be about Gacy, but about his victims. New details about his victims. Which absolutely appealed to me. Of course I looked at it a little bit, examined it a little bit as I always do. Can't just buy a book based on a premise/promise or idea.
Originally this is when I was gonna go into my common anti "no notoriety" rant, but I'll save that for later.
I got copies of many Gacy documentaries. Including multiple documentaries from his sister and niece's point of view. I got 6 [Boys enter the house included] books on the Gacy case including one of the rare books. I've listened to interviews with his defense lawyer. So it's fair to say I've researched the case pretty good and know a lot about the case and as I already said, this book was a welcomed addition to my knowledge.
The book starts off with an intro. The first chapter is called "The greyhound bus boy" which I instantly knew was gonna Mccoy, Gacy's first victim in 1972.
We learn about Mccoy's family, a few childhood adventures and his personality and I am pretty convinced after reading about Mccoy that he did in fact make Gacy and him self a meal resulting in his stabbing. That does sound like something Mccoy would of done. I found it sad about his stepfather who disliked "Long hairs". Which put a bit of a strain on his relationship with his mother. Although his family over all did say he had grown away from them for a while before he went missing. Although he did join them for Christmas and New years.
The next chapter and for several more chapters it focuses mainly on about 4 other boys, sometimes referencing other victims and inserting other victim's stories in between their stories. I've seen other reviews and they complain that there is too much "going back and forth. It was hard to keep up" and I can understand that even if I was able to keep up with who was who. The most basic way to put it would be "Billy Kindred, then switch to Dale Landingin, Sam Stapleton, then back to Kindred, then Stapleton, then Kindred, then Landingin, then Billy Carroll, then Kindred again, Landingin," and so on and so forth. At one point it mentions Landingin leading a march into a gang hangout after a boy named WIlliam Bundy was beaten by the gang. As soon as I heard the name "William Bundy" I thought "The same WIlliam Bundy that was also a victim of Gacy?" William Bundy was one of the unidentified bodies for many years and of course the author states it was the same kid.
The book is about the victims, but uses them also a springboard to go into the history of Chicago and the culture at the time. It goes into the cultural context of "The poor side of town" where many victims of Gacy came from.
In 2020, I watched several movies prior to New years eve. Of course I celebrated New years eve it's self...but because 2020 was so chaotic I watched CNN's the Sixties -68 episode. To quote one of the commentators "if you look at the whole year of 1968 as theater...as real acts of tragedy. 1968 was one gawd damn thing after another." Which of course was entirely appropriate for the year of 2020, because 2020 was absolutely "One gawd damn thing after another". Since I was watching that I had stumbled across a movie called Medium cool. A movie this book mentions due to it's obvious relevance to the cultural and historical context.
Medium cool is about a journalist who is in Chicago around the time of the Democratic National convention on 1968. In the middle of this, the journalist meets a nice poor women living in the "poor side of town" with her young boy. The mother and son having come from appalachia. Near the end of the movie the boy runs away and the mother get's caught up in the riot/protest/police brutality that ensued around the DNC of 1968. The movie mixes real footage in with the fake film reenactment, which creates a very realistic authentic feel. That the mother [actress] was really there.
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The Gacy case has a personal significant to me as well. Beginning in 2016 I've generally bought a new book on the Gacy case before or after New years. In fact, a couple of my December books arrived on Christmas eve or Christmas day. Including a rare book I got on the Gacy case, and another rare book about a very obscure case.
Several years I've started another brand new year with a Gacy hook.
Every year I try and keep up with what is coming out. Relatively big pool, but very few books on cases I want to read about or read more about to add to my knowledge of a case I've already looked into, no matter how small.
So in about maybe October I came across this new Gacy book "Boys enter the house" which wasn't really suppose to be about Gacy, but about his victims. New details about his victims. Which absolutely appealed to me. Of course I looked at it a little bit, examined it a little bit as I always do. Can't just buy a book based on a premise/promise or idea.
Originally this is when I was gonna go into my common anti "no notoriety" rant, but I'll save that for later.
I got copies of many Gacy documentaries. Including multiple documentaries from his sister and niece's point of view. I got 6 [Boys enter the house included] books on the Gacy case including one of the rare books. I've listened to interviews with his defense lawyer. So it's fair to say I've researched the case pretty good and know a lot about the case and as I already said, this book was a welcomed addition to my knowledge.
The book starts off with an intro. The first chapter is called "The greyhound bus boy" which I instantly knew was gonna Mccoy, Gacy's first victim in 1972.
We learn about Mccoy's family, a few childhood adventures and his personality and I am pretty convinced after reading about Mccoy that he did in fact make Gacy and him self a meal resulting in his stabbing. That does sound like something Mccoy would of done. I found it sad about his stepfather who disliked "Long hairs". Which put a bit of a strain on his relationship with his mother. Although his family over all did say he had grown away from them for a while before he went missing. Although he did join them for Christmas and New years.
The next chapter and for several more chapters it focuses mainly on about 4 other boys, sometimes referencing other victims and inserting other victim's stories in between their stories. I've seen other reviews and they complain that there is too much "going back and forth. It was hard to keep up" and I can understand that even if I was able to keep up with who was who. The most basic way to put it would be "Billy Kindred, then switch to Dale Landingin, Sam Stapleton, then back to Kindred, then Stapleton, then Kindred, then Landingin, then Billy Carroll, then Kindred again, Landingin," and so on and so forth. At one point it mentions Landingin leading a march into a gang hangout after a boy named WIlliam Bundy was beaten by the gang. As soon as I heard the name "William Bundy" I thought "The same WIlliam Bundy that was also a victim of Gacy?" William Bundy was one of the unidentified bodies for many years and of course the author states it was the same kid.
The book is about the victims, but uses them also a springboard to go into the history of Chicago and the culture at the time. It goes into the cultural context of "The poor side of town" where many victims of Gacy came from.
In 2020, I watched several movies prior to New years eve. Of course I celebrated New years eve it's self...but because 2020 was so chaotic I watched CNN's the Sixties -68 episode. To quote one of the commentators "if you look at the whole year of 1968 as theater...as real acts of tragedy. 1968 was one gawd damn thing after another." Which of course was entirely appropriate for the year of 2020, because 2020 was absolutely "One gawd damn thing after another". Since I was watching that I had stumbled across a movie called Medium cool. A movie this book mentions due to it's obvious relevance to the cultural and historical context.
Medium cool is about a journalist who is in Chicago around the time of the Democratic National convention on 1968. In the middle of this, the journalist meets a nice poor women living in the "poor side of town" with her young boy. The mother and son having come from appalachia. Near the end of the movie the boy runs away and the mother get's caught up in the riot/protest/police brutality that ensued around the DNC of 1968. The movie mixes real footage in with the fake film reenactment, which creates a very realistic authentic feel. That the mother [actress] was really there.
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