Editing John Wayne Gacy (section)

====Confession====
On the evening of December 20, Gacy drove to his lawyers' office in [[Park Ridge, Illinois|Park Ridge]] to attend a scheduled meeting, ostensibly to discuss the progress of his civil suit. Gacy appeared anxious and disheveled and immediately asked for an alcoholic drink. Sam Amirante fetched a bottle of [[Seagram]]s whiskey,<ref>{{cite news|last=Dudek|first=Mitchell|url=https://chicago.suntimes.com/2018/12/14/18416340/where-john-wayne-gacy-buried-the-bodies-more-key-sites-tied-to-serial-killer|date=December 14, 2018|title=Where John Wayne Gacy Buried the Bodies, More; Key Sites Tied to Serial Killer|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|access-date=April 7, 2023}}</ref> and Gacy immediately drank two cupfuls. Amirante—by this stage dubious of Gacy's claims of innocence—then asked what he had to discuss with them, placing a copy of the ''[[Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, Illinois)|Daily Herald]]'' on his desk and stating: "You said you had something new to tell me! Something important!" Gacy picked up the newspaper, pointed to the front-page article covering the disappearance of Piest and said, "This boy is dead. He's dead. He's in a river."{{sfn|Amirante|2011|p=126}}

Gacy then proceeded to give a rambling confession that ran into the early hours of the following morning. He began by stating he had "been the judge{{nbsp}}... jury and executioner of many, many people", and that he now wanted to be the same for himself.{{sfn|Amirante|2011|p=127}} He stated he had murdered "at least thirty" victims, most of whom he had buried in his crawl space, and had disposed of five other bodies in the Des Plaines River. Gacy dismissed his victims as "male prostitutes", "hustlers" and "liars", adding he sometimes awoke to find "dead, strangled kids" with their hands cuffed behind their back.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=165–172}} He had buried their bodies in his crawl space as he believed they were his property.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=342–351}}

As a result of the alcohol he had consumed, Gacy fell asleep midway through his confession. Amirante immediately arranged a psychiatric appointment for Gacy that morning. On awakening several hours later, Gacy shook his head when informed by Amirante he had confessed to killing approximately thirty people, saying, "Well, I can't think about this right now. I've got things to do." Ignoring his lawyers' advice regarding his scheduled appointment, Gacy left to attend to his business.{{sfn|Amirante|2011|p=150}}

Gacy later recollected his memories of his final day of freedom as being "hazy", adding he knew his arrest was inevitable and that he intended to visit his friends and say his farewells. After leaving his lawyers' office, Gacy drove to a gas station where he handed a small bag of [[cannabis (drug)|cannabis]] to the attendant, who immediately handed the bag to the surveillance officers, adding that Gacy had told him, "The end is coming (for me). These guys are going to kill me." Gacy then drove to the home of a fellow contractor and friend, Ronald Rhode. Gacy hugged Rhode before bursting into tears and saying, "I've been a bad boy. I killed thirty people, give or take a few."{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=253–262}} Gacy left Rhode and drove to Cram's home to meet with Cram and Rossi. The surveillance officers noted he was holding a [[Catholic rosary|rosary]] to his chin, praying while he drove along the expressway.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=152–157}}

After talking with Cram and Rossi, Gacy had Cram drive him to a scheduled legal meeting. Cram informed the surveillance officers that Gacy had told him and Rossi that he had confessed to over thirty murders with his lawyers the previous evening. Gacy then had Cram drive him to Maryhill Cemetery, where his father was buried.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=253–262}}

As Gacy drove to various locations that morning, police outlined the formal draft of their second search warrant, specifically to search for Piest's body in the crawl space. On hearing from the surveillance detectives that, in light of his erratic behavior, Gacy might be about to commit suicide, police decided to arrest him on a charge of possession and distribution of cannabis in order to hold him in custody, as the formal request for a second search warrant was presented.{{efn|Recreational use of cannabis was illegal in the state of Illinois prior to 2020.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Beginning of a New Age, the End of an Antiquated Viewpoint: Long Lines, Celebrations Mark First Hours of Recreational Marijuana Sales in Illinois|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/marijuana/illinois/ct-legal-weed-first-day-recreational-sales-20200101-fhtdvp4j6naphff6jmnnh6fkqy-story.html|access-date=May 7, 2021|work=[[The Chicago Tribune]]|date=January 1, 2020|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418101653/https://www.chicagotribune.com/marijuana/illinois/ct-legal-weed-first-day-recreational-sales-20200101-fhtdvp4j6naphff6jmnnh6fkqy-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>}}{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=152–157}} At 4:30&nbsp;p.m. on December 21, the eve of the hearing of Gacy's civil suit, a second search warrant was granted.{{sfn|Amirante|2011|p=171}} After police informed Gacy of their intentions to search his crawl space for the body of Piest, Gacy denied the teenager was buried there, but confessed to having killed in self-defense a young man whose body was buried under his garage.<ref name=timeline/>

Armed with the signed search warrant, police and evidence technicians drove to Gacy's home. They found Gacy had unplugged his [[sump pump]], flooding the crawl space with water; they replaced the plug and waited for the water to drain. Evidence technician Daniel Genty then entered the {{convert|28|x|38|ft|adj=on}} crawl space, crawled to the southwest area and began digging.{{sfn|Foreman|1992|pp=50–58}} Within minutes, he uncovered putrefied flesh and a human arm bone. Genty shouted to the investigators that they could charge Gacy with murder, adding, "I think this place is full of kids." A police photographer uncovered a [[patella]] in the northeast corner. The two then began digging in the southeast corner, uncovering two lower leg bones.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=166–179}}

The victims were too decomposed to be Piest. As the body in the northeast corner was unearthed, a crime scene technician discovered the skull of a second victim alongside this body. Later excavations of the feet of this second victim revealed a further skull beneath the body.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=207–223}} Because of this, technicians returned to the trench where the first body was unearthed, discovering the [[rib cage]] of a fourth victim, confirming the scale of the murders.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/gacy-s-murder-spree-still-vivid/article_766f66e7-db97-565c-8895-13914aeac051.html|title=Gacys Murder Spree Still Vivid|newspaper=[[The Times of Northwest Indiana]]|date=April 25, 1994|access-date=September 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928070754/https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/gacy-s-murder-spree-still-vivid/article_766f66e7-db97-565c-8895-13914aeac051.html|archive-date=September 28, 2020}} {{Open access}}</ref>