Buried Dreams

Inside the Mind of John Wayne Gacy

The definitive study of John Wayne Gacy—from his abusive childhood to the murders of thirty-three boys—based on four years of investigative reporting.

John Wayne Gacy, the “Killer Clown,” was a suburban Chicago businessman sentenced to death in 1980 for a string of horrific murders after the bodies of his victims were found hidden in a crawl space beneath his Des Plaines, Illinois, home. The serial killer had preyed on teenagers and young men—at the same time entertaining at children’s parties and charitable events dressed as “Pogo the Clown.”

Drawing on exclusive interviews and previously unreported material, journalist Tim Cahill “offers the stuff of wrenching nightmares” (The Wall Street Journal): a harrowing journey inside the mind of a serial killer. Meticulously researched and graphically recounted, Buried Dreams brings to vivid life the real John Wayne Gacy—his complex personality, compulsions, inadequacies, and torments—often in the murderer’s own words.

Called “an absorbing and disturbing story” by Publishers Weekly and “surprisingly graceful” by the New York Times, this is a journey to the heart of human evil that you will never forget.