"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."--AmazonJohn Gacy was an upstanding Chicago citizen, active in local politics and charities, famous for his themed parties and appearances as Pogo the Clown. In the winter of 1978-79, as investigators brought out the bagged remains of several dozen young men from Gacys small Chicago ranch home, he became known as one of many so-called "sex murderers" who had begun gaining notoriety in the random brutality of the 1970s. The victims became footnotes and statistics, lives lost not just to violence, but to history. Nelson retraces the footsteps of these victims, and relatives, friends and significant others retell their memories of the times before their brother, their boyfriend, or their friend became a face in the newspaper.

-- adapted from Amazon info and Authors note [page ix].