Watch The John Wayne Gacy Tapes trailer featuring new conversations with the serial killer
Netflix Documentary series 'Conversations With a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes' details the crimes of the infamous murderer
The documentary series Conversations With a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes details the crimes of the notorious Gacy, who was found guilty of murdering 33 people during the '70s and executed in 1994. The three-part show is from filmmaker Joe Berlinger (the Paradise Lost trilogy, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) and hits Netflix on April 20.
Berlinger previously directed 2019's Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and the same year's Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which starred Zac Efron as Bundy, who murdered dozens of people and was himself executed in 1989.
"The lessons of Bundy and Gacy can't be overstated enough," says the director, explaining his continued interest in the subject of serial killers. "Just because somebody looks and acts a certain way, doesn't mean you should trust them. I think we're under the misperception, as a society, that serial killers present themselves 100 percent of the time as evil, weird, ugly, off-putting people. That gives us a sense of comfort: gee, I can identify a serial killer from a mile away, so I won't become a victim to them. That's a false perception. Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy, Richard Cottingham, all presented themselves as the life of the party, the person you want to hang around with. I mean, for God's sake, Gacy was a Democratic precinct captain. He rubbed elbows with Rosalynn Carter. He was the neighborhood guy who threw all the parties. So, to me, that's a very important lesson to give the next generation."
Many of Gacy's victims were young gay men and Berlinger additionally wanted to highlight the connection between that and the fact that he was able to commit his crimes for a lengthy period of time. "For years, he got away with murder because of the prevailing attitudes towards LGBTQ kids," says the director. "The prevailing attitudes towards that community allowed Gacy to flourish."
Conversations With a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes features previously unheard audio of Gacy speaking with a member of his defense team selected from around 60 hours of taped recordings. "Someone from the original legal team reached out and said that these tapes were available but they asked for their anonymity," explains Berlinger.
The director also includes some extremely grim vintage footage of cops disinterring bodies from the crawlspace at Gacy's house in suburban Chicago where the killer buried them. "Their excavation footage has never been seen before and that's truly horrifying material," says Berlinger. "We debated how much of that excavation footage [but] we felt enough of it had to go in to make people realize the horror of what was going down."
Berlinger's interviewees include Steve Nemmers who crossed paths with Gacy and survived a harrowing night at the killer's house.
"What I'm proud of with the show is that there are number of people who haven't talked before," says the director. "Obviously, there is some controversy about, gee, why are you telling this story, it retraumatizes the survivors? You have to be very sensitive. Steve Nemmers has never talked before, he's one of the few Gacy survivors and he's just an incredible storyteller."
Five of the bodies discovered following Gacy's arrest have never been identified and the documentary concludes with a plea that viewers who believe a missing loved one could have been a victim to contact the Cook County Sheriff's Office.
"There's still ongoing efforts to identify the remaining [victims]," says Berlinger. "I do have hope. DNA technology is amazing, these guys are committed to identifying everybody. I don't think necessarily everyone will be identified but I think there's a shot at identifying more."
Watch the exclusive trailer for Conversations With a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes below.
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