John Wayne Gacy slaughtered at least 33 young men and boys in the Chicago area, but it was his murder of 15-year-old Robert Piest that finally led to his capture in December 1978.
Apple TVRobert Piest, the final victim of John Wayne Gacy.
By the time Robert Piest disappeared on Dec. 11, 1978, John Wayne Gacy had already killed more than 30 young men and boys. But Robert would be Gacy’s last victim. The 15-year-old honor student had left clues behind, and police soon followed the trail straight to Gacy’s door.
Piest’s murder would lead to Gacy’s arrest, and the end of his long reign of terror in the Chicago area. The serial killer was ultimately convicted of 33 murders, sentenced to death, and later executed in 1994.
This is the heartbreaking story of Robert Piest, the teenage boy who tragically became John Wayne Gacy’s last victim.
Robert Piest And John Wayne Gacy Cross Paths
Robert Piest and John Wayne Gacy fatefully met on Dec. 11, 1978. By then, Robert was a 15-year-old student at Maine West High School and a part-time employee at Nisson Pharmacy in Des Plaines, Illinois. Gacy was a serial killer who’d brutally murdered more than 30 young men and boys.
Though Gacy was a violent killer who tortured and raped his victims, starting with his first victim in 1972, few who knew him would have guessed it. Gacy performed as Pogo the Clown at local hospitals and charity events in the Chicago region, and ran a successful construction business. So when he walked into Nisson Pharmacy on a winter night in 1978 to discuss a remodeling project with the pharmacy’s owner, no one paid much attention.
Des Plaines Police Department“Killer Clown” John Wayne Gacy murdered 33 young men and boys between 1972 and 1978.
At some point, Robert heard that Gacy had a potential summer job opportunity that would pay him twice what he was making at the time.
According to Postmortem: What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders by Courtney Lund O’Neil, the daughter of Kim Byers, one of Robert’s coworkers, Robert was excited about the possibility. When Robert’s mother Elizabeth showed up at the pharmacy before 9 p.m. to drive him home, Robert asked her to wait while he spoke to “that contractor,” Gacy, “about a summer job.”
Robert Piest told his mother that he’d “be right back.” But after 10 minutes, when he still hadn’t returned, his coworker Kim Byers went to look for him. Elizabeth Piest also went out to look for her son. But there was no sign of the 15-year-old, aside from footprints and tire tracks in the ice and snow.
The Brutal Murder Of Robert Piest
After searching for Robert Piest at the pharmacy and back at the Piest family home, Robert’s parents went to the Des Plaines police station. At 11:29 p.m. that night, they filed a missing person report for their son.
But by then, Robert Piest was already dead.
Gacy had brought Robert back to his house in Norwood Park Township, just outside Chicago. Though no one knows exactly what happened in Robert’s final moments, Gacy killed most of his victims in the same way. He would trick them into wearing handcuffs, put a rope around their necks, and slowly strangle them, often while sexually assaulting them. Gacy was also known to sit on his victims and force them to perform oral sex. He sometimes also partially drowned and then revived them before murdering them.
Cook County Circuit CourtThe interior of John Wayne Gacy’s home.
“[Gacy] talked about what he did to these young men, especially about Rob Piest,” retired Des Plaines police officer Michael Albrecht recalled to Esquire in 2021. “He went into pretty good detail on what happened, from the handcuff trick to the rope trick, to starting to strangle them in such a way that it was slow while he would perform oral sex on the victims.”
In Robert Piest’s case, Gacy was reportedly still tightening the noose when his phone rang. He answered it, and when he returned, Robert was dead.
But even though John Wayne Gacy had escaped serious scrutiny in the past, this time was different. Des Plaines police officer Lt. Joe Kozenczak, whose son also attended Maine West High School, thought it was unlikely that an honor student like Robert Piest would run away. Kozenczak conducted an in-depth investigation to find out what happened to the missing 15-year-old.
How Robert Piest’s Murder Led To John Wayne Gacy’s Arrest
Tribune Content Agency LLC/Alamy Stock PhotoRobert Piest’s jacket was eventually found in John Wayne Gacy’s home.
It didn’t take long for police to consider John Wayne Gacy as a suspect.
Just hours after Robert Piest disappeared, investigators deduced that Gacy was the contractor who Robert had wanted to talk to about a job. On December 12th, Gacy admitted to authorities that he’d gone to Nisson Pharmacy the night before, but denied that he’d spoken to Robert. Later that same night, Gacy took Robert’s body from his attic, placed the corpse in the trunk of his car, and dumped the body in the Des Plaines River.
But even though Gacy had tried to cover his tracks, police found clues about Robert Piest’s murder the very next day, December 13th, during a search of Gacy’s home. Then, they found a receipt for a roll of film. The receipt belonged to Kim Byers, Robert’s coworker at Nisson Pharmacy, who had borrowed Robert’s coat during their shift and tucked the film receipt in the coat’s pocket. Later, Robert’s coat was found at Gacy’s house as well.
Cook County Sheriff’s OfficeInvestigators tearing up the floorboards in John Wayne Gacy’s house, where 29 bodies were ultimately found.
Investigators also discovered that Gacy had pleaded guilty to sodomizing a teenage boy back in 1968, and they uncovered a ring that belonged to John Szyc, a 19-year-old who had disappeared back in 1977.
Then, on December 21st, police started to find body parts at Gacy’s home. On December 22nd, Gacy began to confess to his horrific crimes, and told the police that he’d killed 32 young men after having sex with them. Investigators ultimately found 29 bodies on his property, and learned that Gacy dumped four other bodies, including Robert Piest’s corpse, into nearby rivers. Robert’s body was discovered and identified in April 1979.
With that, John Wayne Gacy’s long string of murders finally came to an end. In March of 1980, Gacy was found guilty of murdering 33 boys and young men. Gacy was later executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994.
Sadly, it took Robert Piest’s murder to bring John Wayne Gacy to justice. For years, the Killer Clown had targeted runaways and troubled youths, whose disappearances weren’t taken seriously by the police. He also preyed upon local boys whose parents he befriended and “helped” during their desperate searches for their loved ones, throwing suspicion off of him.
It was only when Robert, an honor student and a classmate of a policeman’s son, disappeared that Gacy attracted any serious scrutiny from authorities. Maybe if the disappearances of some of Gacy’s earlier victims had been more thoroughly investigated, he could have been stopped sooner.
After reading about Robert Piest, the final victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, discover the stories of John Wayne Gacy’s children, Christine and Michael. Or, look through these chilling images of serial killer houses.
