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Postmortem: What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders
In the vein of the bestselling I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, this compelling work of true crime explores the aftershocks of "Killer Clown" John Wayne Gacy's crimes with a uniquely intimate slant, as the daughter of a key witness probes her mother's personal experiences and the legacy of murder within a family, a community, and the American psyche. On a December night in 1978, Courtney Lund O’Neil’s mother, teenaged Kim Byers, saw her friend Rob Piest alive for the last time. At the end of his shift at the pharmacy where they both worked, fifteen-year-old Rob went outside to speak to a contractor named John Wayne Gacy about a possible job. That night Rob became Gacy’s final victim; his body was later found in the Des Plaines River. Kim’s testimony, along with a receipt belonging to her found in Gacy’s house, proving that Rob had been there, would be pivotal in convicting the serial killer who assaulted and killed over thirty young men and boys. Though she grew up far from Des Plaines, Courtney has lived in the shadow of that nightmare, keenly aware of its impact on her mother. In search of deeper understanding and closure, Courtney and Kim travel back to Illinois. Postmortem transforms their personal journey into a powerful exploration of the ever-widening ripples generated by Gacy’s crimes. From the 1970s to the present day, his shadow extends beyond the victims’ families and friends—it encompasses the Des Plaines neighborhood forever marked by his horrific murders, generations of the victims’ families and friends, those who helped arrest and convict him, fandom communities, and many others. Layered and thought-provoking, Postmortem is a complex story of loss and violence, grief and guilt, and the legacy that remains long after a killer is caught.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published December 24, 2024
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4225 people want to read
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November 13, 2024
We open in 1977 to a mom awakening to hear noises in the backyard. Grabbing a baseball bat, she slips outside to find the source. The sound of her slamming it into the fence and bushes wakes up the house. A little girl stands next to her dad in the middle of that night with his head in his hands, her traumatized mom crying, claiming she saw someone, and they ran off.
The next day, her mom tells her safety is an illusion, and she carries that all her life. Sharing her trauma, her diary, and her fear with her children as they grow.
We learn that her mom had a younger friend and coworker, Rob, who didn't survive John Wayne Gacy. This is a dive into what it was like to witness a loss of her friend, and the capture of a killer, through her daughters eyes, and how that generational trauma carriers on and spreads its fingers further.
******
This is going to be long, so buckle up.
I really wanted to like this book. Hearing about the effects of generational trauma and community trauma is vastly interesting and such a nuanced field. However, I could not stand the author. I had to stop multiple times to just bathe in her audacity and single-minded focus to her own relation to her mother's grief.
Very early on, we're brought to Courtney and her mother visiting the previous location of the Gacy residence. They discuss that there's no memorial for the dead boys at the home or in town and that it's erasure. It has been two decades since John Gacy was executed, 40+ years since he was active. New people live in that home and have for decades. Why would a memorial need to be present in a place where a murdered thrived decades ago? It completely dismisses that the families of those 33 boys and men may not want that for them. They may not want to see a reminder of their dead family. They may grieve and carry on in different ways. Who would want something erected to the person they loved in the place they were brutally murdered and stored, and then upkept for 40-50 years after they passed? Especially when that house is now someone else's home. This starts off the tone of the book, where the authors self-interest continues to override common decency.
It oddly feels like the narrator romanticizes the murderer, survivors, and events surrounding it by consistently living in the past. The book spans 6 years of her actively interviewing and traveling and having conversations with her mother, as well as flashbacks to the past her mother lives. She interjects her beliefs on how people felt back then instead of impartially describing their actions, and it adds unnecessary sensationalism to what were already horrific events.
She pushes her mother to view his home, to visit the last place she saw her murdered friend alive (which of course no longer exists), and all of it for her own understanding now that she has sons. The author makes it all about herself and her feelings, even going on about how she wants to hold her hands in the cold water Rob was found in until her fingers get creased, but alas, she has a flight to catch. As she wipes away her tears. It feels very performative as the child of the woman who knew someone who died.
She continually, throughout the book, adds unnecessary details that are exasperating and in no way furthered the story, for example:
- the boys flirted with her mom unreciprocated, and that she was aware and also not aware of their crushes. She talked about her mom's teenage shoulders and how the boys wished she was their gf.
- she adds spiritual weirdness. She talks about her mom believing her baby crying out on the night that her own mother died was her dead mothers spirit passing through her baby. This scene is brought up twice
- We hear about what snacks she ate, when the bag was tossed out, what her mother's hair smelled like (free hotel shampoo and conditioner, fyi), her sneeze, if someone looked at their phone, etc. It just felt like meandering for the sake of hitting a character limit goal to publish the book
- She constantly uses redundant information. "He said he'd con kids by having them think he was a police officer, but he wasn't." Yes, we obviously know Gacy wasn't a police officer
- She describes in detail the house selling information, even talking about Zillow listings, and then ponders on why it could be listed and unlisted and then sell for a lower value. I think she genuinely forgot an economic recession occurred
- She claims her sister and mother have a sixth sense of intuition, and she has visions. She goes into detail about this, and it decimated any attempt at credibility
- She describes an officer unzipping his pants and urinating. It was so unnecessary. This is directly from the book:
"In the guest bathroom, Officer Schultz unzipped his trousers and urinated. When finished, he zipped up, pressed his finger down to flush, and heard the rumble of the furnace as it kicked on. The smell was unforgettable: rancid flesh liquifying in the summer sun." The entire book is riddled with moments like this. It's exasperating
She also seems to be a generally intrusive person with a poor understanding of boundaries and a heavy dose of mysticism. She wanders the neighborhood where Gacy lived, years after her first visit. Hoping to find someone to talk to about the murders, over 45 years later. She calls a neighbour who's selling their house to enquire if they lived there during the murders. Its unhinged behaviour and she acts on it constantly. When she wrote about her writing a Mother's Day card to a dead boys mother, decades after he passed, my jaw dropped. Her writing a note about how she deeply cared for Rob through her mother was horrifying. She and her mother filled out the card and dropped it at the woman's door and left, without a second thought as to how that could affect the other woman. The audacity to intrude on someone else's life by bringing up their grief and trauma to help themselves find some sort of misguided closure? Astounding.
Also, her feeling threatened talking to Michael and making the offhand comment that it's some "errant thread in [her] DNA connected to Gacy" is just such an out there statement. Just like she attributed being cautious of noises in a parking lot being due to Gacy, but also maybe being a woman, etc. Everything was conjecture and sensationalism. If anything, it's an awkward portrayal of someone grasping at straws to equate trauma to them, and not a lot of attempts at deep dives until the last chapters of the book.
She's trying so hard to make a legacy out of the past. Courtney openly tries to layer trauma on people. She kept pressing the lawyer for reasons to be haunted by Gacy. She asked him in multiple different ways, whether it affected him, whether he had nightmares, what he thought of the execution, etc. He very clearly said he was not affected. He didn't really think about it, etc. Yet she still stated that he has trauma due to it because he chose not to continue to be a lawyer on murder cases. Her own filter immediately views everyone as cascading levels of trauma with very little evidence it's anything but a feeling or a guess.
There was actually very little of interest, or that gave more intel into secondary grief. She danced around it, then pulled away, over and over again. As if by repeating what she thought, that would make it a fact. Its all presented so single-mindedly, and about how she feels about things and how she perceives other people should feel about things and she's in a constant state of needling and pushing to insist people linger and dredge up their own trauma.
More than once, I wondered what the point of all of this was? Generational grief is barely discussed from anything outside of her own sphere of interest and how it directly affects her. She alludes to others, but it's all from her sphere of what she thinks they actually mean. You get very little from her interviews at all, a basic conversation, and then a perception, and she's moving on. Nothing actually validates what she's pushing towards for the majority of the book.
Between all of the above and the authors self-promotion as some kind of victim advocate and guardian of trauma, I would in no way recommend this book. I'm sure much better works exist out there that don't put the daughter of the friend of a victim from 45+ years past on their own pedestal.
******
Thank you, NetGalley and Kensington Publishing Corp. for the digital ARC copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
The next day, her mom tells her safety is an illusion, and she carries that all her life. Sharing her trauma, her diary, and her fear with her children as they grow.
We learn that her mom had a younger friend and coworker, Rob, who didn't survive John Wayne Gacy. This is a dive into what it was like to witness a loss of her friend, and the capture of a killer, through her daughters eyes, and how that generational trauma carriers on and spreads its fingers further.
******
This is going to be long, so buckle up.
I really wanted to like this book. Hearing about the effects of generational trauma and community trauma is vastly interesting and such a nuanced field. However, I could not stand the author. I had to stop multiple times to just bathe in her audacity and single-minded focus to her own relation to her mother's grief.
Very early on, we're brought to Courtney and her mother visiting the previous location of the Gacy residence. They discuss that there's no memorial for the dead boys at the home or in town and that it's erasure. It has been two decades since John Gacy was executed, 40+ years since he was active. New people live in that home and have for decades. Why would a memorial need to be present in a place where a murdered thrived decades ago? It completely dismisses that the families of those 33 boys and men may not want that for them. They may not want to see a reminder of their dead family. They may grieve and carry on in different ways. Who would want something erected to the person they loved in the place they were brutally murdered and stored, and then upkept for 40-50 years after they passed? Especially when that house is now someone else's home. This starts off the tone of the book, where the authors self-interest continues to override common decency.
It oddly feels like the narrator romanticizes the murderer, survivors, and events surrounding it by consistently living in the past. The book spans 6 years of her actively interviewing and traveling and having conversations with her mother, as well as flashbacks to the past her mother lives. She interjects her beliefs on how people felt back then instead of impartially describing their actions, and it adds unnecessary sensationalism to what were already horrific events.
She pushes her mother to view his home, to visit the last place she saw her murdered friend alive (which of course no longer exists), and all of it for her own understanding now that she has sons. The author makes it all about herself and her feelings, even going on about how she wants to hold her hands in the cold water Rob was found in until her fingers get creased, but alas, she has a flight to catch. As she wipes away her tears. It feels very performative as the child of the woman who knew someone who died.
She continually, throughout the book, adds unnecessary details that are exasperating and in no way furthered the story, for example:
- the boys flirted with her mom unreciprocated, and that she was aware and also not aware of their crushes. She talked about her mom's teenage shoulders and how the boys wished she was their gf.
- she adds spiritual weirdness. She talks about her mom believing her baby crying out on the night that her own mother died was her dead mothers spirit passing through her baby. This scene is brought up twice
- We hear about what snacks she ate, when the bag was tossed out, what her mother's hair smelled like (free hotel shampoo and conditioner, fyi), her sneeze, if someone looked at their phone, etc. It just felt like meandering for the sake of hitting a character limit goal to publish the book
- She constantly uses redundant information. "He said he'd con kids by having them think he was a police officer, but he wasn't." Yes, we obviously know Gacy wasn't a police officer
- She describes in detail the house selling information, even talking about Zillow listings, and then ponders on why it could be listed and unlisted and then sell for a lower value. I think she genuinely forgot an economic recession occurred
- She claims her sister and mother have a sixth sense of intuition, and she has visions. She goes into detail about this, and it decimated any attempt at credibility
- She describes an officer unzipping his pants and urinating. It was so unnecessary. This is directly from the book:
"In the guest bathroom, Officer Schultz unzipped his trousers and urinated. When finished, he zipped up, pressed his finger down to flush, and heard the rumble of the furnace as it kicked on. The smell was unforgettable: rancid flesh liquifying in the summer sun." The entire book is riddled with moments like this. It's exasperating
She also seems to be a generally intrusive person with a poor understanding of boundaries and a heavy dose of mysticism. She wanders the neighborhood where Gacy lived, years after her first visit. Hoping to find someone to talk to about the murders, over 45 years later. She calls a neighbour who's selling their house to enquire if they lived there during the murders. Its unhinged behaviour and she acts on it constantly. When she wrote about her writing a Mother's Day card to a dead boys mother, decades after he passed, my jaw dropped. Her writing a note about how she deeply cared for Rob through her mother was horrifying. She and her mother filled out the card and dropped it at the woman's door and left, without a second thought as to how that could affect the other woman. The audacity to intrude on someone else's life by bringing up their grief and trauma to help themselves find some sort of misguided closure? Astounding.
Also, her feeling threatened talking to Michael and making the offhand comment that it's some "errant thread in [her] DNA connected to Gacy" is just such an out there statement. Just like she attributed being cautious of noises in a parking lot being due to Gacy, but also maybe being a woman, etc. Everything was conjecture and sensationalism. If anything, it's an awkward portrayal of someone grasping at straws to equate trauma to them, and not a lot of attempts at deep dives until the last chapters of the book.
She's trying so hard to make a legacy out of the past. Courtney openly tries to layer trauma on people. She kept pressing the lawyer for reasons to be haunted by Gacy. She asked him in multiple different ways, whether it affected him, whether he had nightmares, what he thought of the execution, etc. He very clearly said he was not affected. He didn't really think about it, etc. Yet she still stated that he has trauma due to it because he chose not to continue to be a lawyer on murder cases. Her own filter immediately views everyone as cascading levels of trauma with very little evidence it's anything but a feeling or a guess.
There was actually very little of interest, or that gave more intel into secondary grief. She danced around it, then pulled away, over and over again. As if by repeating what she thought, that would make it a fact. Its all presented so single-mindedly, and about how she feels about things and how she perceives other people should feel about things and she's in a constant state of needling and pushing to insist people linger and dredge up their own trauma.
More than once, I wondered what the point of all of this was? Generational grief is barely discussed from anything outside of her own sphere of interest and how it directly affects her. She alludes to others, but it's all from her sphere of what she thinks they actually mean. You get very little from her interviews at all, a basic conversation, and then a perception, and she's moving on. Nothing actually validates what she's pushing towards for the majority of the book.
Between all of the above and the authors self-promotion as some kind of victim advocate and guardian of trauma, I would in no way recommend this book. I'm sure much better works exist out there that don't put the daughter of the friend of a victim from 45+ years past on their own pedestal.
******
Thank you, NetGalley and Kensington Publishing Corp. for the digital ARC copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 31, 2024
As someone who's read extensively on John Wayne Gacy, I went into Postmortem hoping for a fresh angle, especially with its focus on generational trauma. Unfortunately, the book feels like a missed opportunity. Rather than providing a thoughtful perspective, it often comes across as the author forcing a connection to these horrific crimes, sometimes in ways that feel almost exploitative.
The narrative feels self-centered, with the author’s own feelings and need for connection overshadowing any real exploration of her mother’s experience or the victims’ stories. She spends an uncomfortable amount of time on mundane details—like what she snacked on, the smell of her mother’s shampoo, or how often the house was sold and for what amount—none of which adds anything meaningful to the story.
I found the author’s personal reflections often took up too much space, overshadowing any genuine focus on how these events affected her mother or the larger community. The constant revisiting of the Gacy home and complaints about the lack of a memorial, for example, seem tone-deaf. The families and community have spent decades trying to move on, and this fixation felt intrusive rather than respectful. There's even an instance where she writes a card to the mother of a victim, decades after his death, as if her need for closure outweighs the privacy of those still affected.
For anyone familiar with Gacy’s case, this book doesn’t offer anything new or insightful. If you're looking for a thoughtful exploration of generational trauma or deeper reflections on those impacted by Gacy, this isn’t it.
The narrative feels self-centered, with the author’s own feelings and need for connection overshadowing any real exploration of her mother’s experience or the victims’ stories. She spends an uncomfortable amount of time on mundane details—like what she snacked on, the smell of her mother’s shampoo, or how often the house was sold and for what amount—none of which adds anything meaningful to the story.
I found the author’s personal reflections often took up too much space, overshadowing any genuine focus on how these events affected her mother or the larger community. The constant revisiting of the Gacy home and complaints about the lack of a memorial, for example, seem tone-deaf. The families and community have spent decades trying to move on, and this fixation felt intrusive rather than respectful. There's even an instance where she writes a card to the mother of a victim, decades after his death, as if her need for closure outweighs the privacy of those still affected.
For anyone familiar with Gacy’s case, this book doesn’t offer anything new or insightful. If you're looking for a thoughtful exploration of generational trauma or deeper reflections on those impacted by Gacy, this isn’t it.
September 24, 2024
I received a free copy of, Postmortem, by Courtney Lund O"Neil, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Growing up in Illinois, you cant help but of heard about John Wayne Gacy, and his cruel acts. The authors mother, was a friend of a victim of Mr. Gacy. I felt this was an ok read, but had hoped for a better read.
December 28, 2024
This is a really interesting book that goes into detail about John Wayne Gacy's crimes and how the ripple effects of them are still felt by those who knew the victims and their families decades later. I like the writing style and the pacing is good. If you enjoy books about true crime, then I think you will enjoy this. Special Thank You to Courtney Lund O'Neil, Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.
January 7, 2025
I really wanted to like this but it basically gives “okay, how can I make this about me?” the entire way through
January 4, 2025
Oh, where to start with this book… I tried hard, and I have never done this before, but I DNF this book. I think that I gave it a fair chance by reading over 80% of it. I truly went into this book thinking I am going to love hearing a different POV and discuss generational trauma. NOPE, that wasn’t even what this book was about.
I really felt as if the author was trying very hard to give herself a “roll” in the John Wayne Gacy murders. Wanting us to say, “yes, we see your trauma and you are part of it.” Ugh. I am not saying that her mother, Kim Byes, did not play a pivotal role in identifying the receipt that was with Rober Piest belongings. Some parts of the book, I felt like she was almost torturing her mother with making her go back to the places that she last saw Rob Piest. It only continued to get more cringy when the author explained how she wanted to put her hands in the cold river that they found Robs body in until they were wrinkled. But, oh well, she had to catch a flight. WHAT?!?! It was felt very dramatic acting from a girl whose mother knew someone who was murdered.
It was a very self-serving book for the author, and even when people (the lawyer) explained to her that he did not have any trauma from being close to the John Wayne Gacy case, she decided that he did, and he was hiding from it. The content seemed redundant and almost felt like she was just adding descriptive details to fill pages.
Unfortunately, I would not recommend this book. I requested this book, not only to see a different POV from this author, but I am going to see her speak at our local library.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Kensington Publishing/Citadel for the opportunity to read and review an advanced reader's copy of this book.
I really felt as if the author was trying very hard to give herself a “roll” in the John Wayne Gacy murders. Wanting us to say, “yes, we see your trauma and you are part of it.” Ugh. I am not saying that her mother, Kim Byes, did not play a pivotal role in identifying the receipt that was with Rober Piest belongings. Some parts of the book, I felt like she was almost torturing her mother with making her go back to the places that she last saw Rob Piest. It only continued to get more cringy when the author explained how she wanted to put her hands in the cold river that they found Robs body in until they were wrinkled. But, oh well, she had to catch a flight. WHAT?!?! It was felt very dramatic acting from a girl whose mother knew someone who was murdered.
It was a very self-serving book for the author, and even when people (the lawyer) explained to her that he did not have any trauma from being close to the John Wayne Gacy case, she decided that he did, and he was hiding from it. The content seemed redundant and almost felt like she was just adding descriptive details to fill pages.
Unfortunately, I would not recommend this book. I requested this book, not only to see a different POV from this author, but I am going to see her speak at our local library.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Kensington Publishing/Citadel for the opportunity to read and review an advanced reader's copy of this book.
November 29, 2024
In summary, a woman finds a way to make a crime spree against boys and young men in the 1970s (before she was even born) about herself. The sensitivity to trauma and privacy is about on par with CrimeCon. (Is that still happening?) Wild.
This book is so self-involved. O'Neil's link to the Gacy case is through her mother, a high schooler at the time and a key witness to one of the victim's disappearance. Her mom's insights and wonder are beautiful, thoughtful, and often nostalgic. But O'Neil's interest seems only to be in immersing herself in the past, adding herself into the narrative somehow. And it's a shame, because there are a few surface level windows into how the generational trauma affected the families differently, how it shaped a community. (It also bothered me that she seemed insistent on how this crime spree directly affected the perceived safety of young women. While young women are a demographic very much at risk of violent crime, this specific case wasn't about us. Leave that space for the actual victims and don't insert yourself.)
This wasn't investigative journalism and didn't add much to what we already know or can imagine. It was mostly a rehashing and dredging up of past trauma, for what? O'Neil took pictures of a stranger's house, criticized a lack of memorial (at the serial killers once-home, who would want that?), and solicited neighbors who probably spent much time and energy already trying to move on. She dropped a Mother's Day card on the doorstep of the Piest home, despite her own mom's well-intentioned hesitation. (It sounds like Kim hadn't kept up with the Piests in years, otherwise it would have been a beautiful and less potentially jarring gesture.)
And a side note: In chapter six, O'Neil references Jonestown and poisoned Kool-aid. It wasn't Kool-aid, but Flavor Aid. This is a common misconception and not a huge deal, but it does reflect the level of research (or lack of) that it feels went into this book. Ironically, the next chapter - "...perhaps this research I'm doing will limit the sort of reduction that happens with narrative over time. As decades pass, stories are watered down."
**I received my copy from Netgalley.
This book is so self-involved. O'Neil's link to the Gacy case is through her mother, a high schooler at the time and a key witness to one of the victim's disappearance. Her mom's insights and wonder are beautiful, thoughtful, and often nostalgic. But O'Neil's interest seems only to be in immersing herself in the past, adding herself into the narrative somehow. And it's a shame, because there are a few surface level windows into how the generational trauma affected the families differently, how it shaped a community. (It also bothered me that she seemed insistent on how this crime spree directly affected the perceived safety of young women. While young women are a demographic very much at risk of violent crime, this specific case wasn't about us. Leave that space for the actual victims and don't insert yourself.)
This wasn't investigative journalism and didn't add much to what we already know or can imagine. It was mostly a rehashing and dredging up of past trauma, for what? O'Neil took pictures of a stranger's house, criticized a lack of memorial (at the serial killers once-home, who would want that?), and solicited neighbors who probably spent much time and energy already trying to move on. She dropped a Mother's Day card on the doorstep of the Piest home, despite her own mom's well-intentioned hesitation. (It sounds like Kim hadn't kept up with the Piests in years, otherwise it would have been a beautiful and less potentially jarring gesture.)
And a side note: In chapter six, O'Neil references Jonestown and poisoned Kool-aid. It wasn't Kool-aid, but Flavor Aid. This is a common misconception and not a huge deal, but it does reflect the level of research (or lack of) that it feels went into this book. Ironically, the next chapter - "...perhaps this research I'm doing will limit the sort of reduction that happens with narrative over time. As decades pass, stories are watered down."
**I received my copy from Netgalley.
November 6, 2024
Courtney Lund O'Neil offers a richly written, haunting exploration of the aftermath and ripple effects of Gacy's crimes. Kim Byers' memory of seeing Rob Piest alive for the last time reflects the deep emotional and psychological scars left on the community, along with the lasting trauma and disenfranchised grief experienced by the many friends and family members left behind.
Postmortem: What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders is a rare blend of meticulous research and heartfelt reflection, revealing not only the horror of Gacy’s actions but the lingering impact and lasting wounds inflicted on countless lives. It's a difficult but thoughtfully written and richly layered true crime narrative. Postmortem stands out as a well-crafted tribute to those taken and those left behind. It is a powerful reminder that justice, while served, rarely brings complete healing, and that the pain left behind demands compassion and understanding across generations.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the opportunity to read and review Postmortem: What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders prior to publication.
Postmortem: What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders is a rare blend of meticulous research and heartfelt reflection, revealing not only the horror of Gacy’s actions but the lingering impact and lasting wounds inflicted on countless lives. It's a difficult but thoughtfully written and richly layered true crime narrative. Postmortem stands out as a well-crafted tribute to those taken and those left behind. It is a powerful reminder that justice, while served, rarely brings complete healing, and that the pain left behind demands compassion and understanding across generations.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the opportunity to read and review Postmortem: What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders prior to publication.
December 19, 2024
First things first, I received this as a free copy in return for an honest opinion and that’s what you’re gonna get because well it is what it is and that’s how I would want it also. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity.
There were moments in this book that were fabulous and also ones that made me go what did I just hear (my copy was an audiobook). The book often flips back and forth between Kim Byers the mother’s diary, the author and her take on things, and a story telling perspective. At times this can become confusing but likely less so when you are reading rather than listening. Being able to hear the thoughts that we’re going on in this young girls head and establishing how close of a friend she was with Rob Piest is incredibly interesting, previously with the knowledge that I had of John Wayne Gacy and his crimes I thought that it was just a coworker, someone she saw at work and that was all. More often than naught she was a brief mention in the story.
After the story, I realize that he was someone that was a good friend to Kim Byers, he was someone who allowed her to be who she was and was there in a way that was allowed back in the more innocent times. Knowing this made her story have more of an impact to me because you realize that it was a pivotal moment in her life, and it stole her innocence, belief in people, and made her realize it’s such a young age mortality.
The author gives us an opportunity to see how not only did the incident impact her mother, but how it then had the impact on her growing up and how it impacted her own parenting and thought process. Where her mother in many ways had to deal with her own level of paranoia and fear, this was then taught to her children by actions. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was a level of PTSD involved in her trauma also. Despite this, Kim Byers was able to become a widely acceptable and productive member of society.
I found hearing about how she was harassed by reporters, police and others quite shocking. I had been under the impression that she was widely accepted for the knowledge she had about the incident and in many ways her part was played down until now. Being able to hear about how she as there to support the family and provide them peace really hit me, it made me step back and realize on a different level that this was a family, there was the pain of losing a son, brother, friend. No longer was Rob Piest just a name in association with Gacy but he was a person, a young boy, near the age of my own boys, who had a beautiful smile and nice hair that I’m sure the girls loved. He had hobbies, friends, favorite places and love for everyone and things around him. Being able to travel through some of his footsteps from that day just made him more real.
In the end the author gave us a different look into a story that most of us already had heard. She provided input and insight that brought not only the victim but also his friends and family into a perspective unseen before. She brought them to life and gave them hopes, fears; talent, and so many other things. Courtney showed us how something as simple as a film receipt changed lives, helped catch a killer and impacted generations. I am sorry for whoever was involved and what they had to go through but I’m so glad that Kim stood for what she knew and believed. The difference she made is innumerable.
There were moments in this book that were fabulous and also ones that made me go what did I just hear (my copy was an audiobook). The book often flips back and forth between Kim Byers the mother’s diary, the author and her take on things, and a story telling perspective. At times this can become confusing but likely less so when you are reading rather than listening. Being able to hear the thoughts that we’re going on in this young girls head and establishing how close of a friend she was with Rob Piest is incredibly interesting, previously with the knowledge that I had of John Wayne Gacy and his crimes I thought that it was just a coworker, someone she saw at work and that was all. More often than naught she was a brief mention in the story.
After the story, I realize that he was someone that was a good friend to Kim Byers, he was someone who allowed her to be who she was and was there in a way that was allowed back in the more innocent times. Knowing this made her story have more of an impact to me because you realize that it was a pivotal moment in her life, and it stole her innocence, belief in people, and made her realize it’s such a young age mortality.
The author gives us an opportunity to see how not only did the incident impact her mother, but how it then had the impact on her growing up and how it impacted her own parenting and thought process. Where her mother in many ways had to deal with her own level of paranoia and fear, this was then taught to her children by actions. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was a level of PTSD involved in her trauma also. Despite this, Kim Byers was able to become a widely acceptable and productive member of society.
I found hearing about how she was harassed by reporters, police and others quite shocking. I had been under the impression that she was widely accepted for the knowledge she had about the incident and in many ways her part was played down until now. Being able to hear about how she as there to support the family and provide them peace really hit me, it made me step back and realize on a different level that this was a family, there was the pain of losing a son, brother, friend. No longer was Rob Piest just a name in association with Gacy but he was a person, a young boy, near the age of my own boys, who had a beautiful smile and nice hair that I’m sure the girls loved. He had hobbies, friends, favorite places and love for everyone and things around him. Being able to travel through some of his footsteps from that day just made him more real.
In the end the author gave us a different look into a story that most of us already had heard. She provided input and insight that brought not only the victim but also his friends and family into a perspective unseen before. She brought them to life and gave them hopes, fears; talent, and so many other things. Courtney showed us how something as simple as a film receipt changed lives, helped catch a killer and impacted generations. I am sorry for whoever was involved and what they had to go through but I’m so glad that Kim stood for what she knew and believed. The difference she made is innumerable.
November 13, 2024
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a e-arc review copy. This book was so compelling and a really important victim focused look at true crime. Courtney is the daughter of Kim Byers who was a friend and work colleague (they both worked at Nissan Pharmacy) of John Wayne Gacy’s final victim Robert Piest. She was one of the last people to see him alive on shift and she put her recent photo receipt stub in Robert’s jacket that night which was eventually found in Gacy’s house and helped unravel the whole truth of Gacy’s murders. It also helped fuel the police’s mass digging operation at the property and the discovery of the boys buried in his property and the hunt for some suspected victims which were found in the local river also. Courtney doesn’t dwell much on the crimes themselves or Gacy but on who Robert was through his families eyes (Kim was close to the Piests) and the community of Des Plaines and through Kim’s eyes. We learn through Courtney and Kim’s diary how Kim dealt with Roberts disappearance and then the discovery of his body and then becoming a star witness to a huge trial all at a very young age. How this shaped her future relationships and her mothering style (protective and cautious). Courtney says this has also been a parenting style she has adopted through her inherited trauma from her mother of Robert’s death. The focus on Robert and the emphasis on the importance of Kim’s story told with the added emotional impact of the author being her daughter, made this book so special. Women are usually depicted as victims in the true crime genre so for the focus to be a woman’s narrative with a focus on the lives of the victims of Gacy was so compelling and powerful and unique. Also Courtney’s writing was just stunning and poignant so bravo! A 4.5/5 stars.
January 9, 2025
I knew this would be heartbreaking but what makes this novel special is that it’s not a graphic return to Gacy’s crimes with him at the forefront but instead focused on those who are washed away in crimes. The ones who help put the killed away. In this case, a once young teenager, Kim, who played a big role in solving her co worker’s murder and putting his killer away.
It reminds us that this isn’t a sensational story but revolves around regular people that you never hear of but are forever changed by tragedies and horrors of the world, even for the justice they being about.
It reminds us that this isn’t a sensational story but revolves around regular people that you never hear of but are forever changed by tragedies and horrors of the world, even for the justice they being about.
August 15, 2025
The book I just finished reading was in my opinion a very interesting true crime memoir. It takes the reader into the life of a survivor who survived the John Wayne Gacy murders. She takes her mother back to where they had taken place and helped her relive the trauma of going to places where she worked and where she lived. The result helped her get a better understanding of what happened.
January 6, 2025
Instead of focusing on John Wayne Gacy, this documentary finds the aftermath, who was left behind with the horror, hopes and knowing of what happened to the victims. Who loved these young men? Who knew their stories, their hopes snd dreams. A different and important perspective on the aftermath of violence.
January 25, 2025
The author’s mother was a key witness of John Gacy’s last victim. She was one of the last people to see his final victim, Rob Piest, alive. She put a receipt in his jacket the night he disappeared that would prove critical to catching Gacy.
This book delves into the ripple effect of a serial killer’s aftermath. Towns, families, parents, friends, journalists, classmates, coworkers, officers, lawyers, witnesses, investigators, etc. It discusses generational trauma brought on by having their lives touched by a serial killer’s actions. How they coped, or didn’t. It discusses violence, loss, grief, and guilt that survivors of those killed experienced.
Very well written. Packed with heartfelt investigative stories.
This book delves into the ripple effect of a serial killer’s aftermath. Towns, families, parents, friends, journalists, classmates, coworkers, officers, lawyers, witnesses, investigators, etc. It discusses generational trauma brought on by having their lives touched by a serial killer’s actions. How they coped, or didn’t. It discusses violence, loss, grief, and guilt that survivors of those killed experienced.
Very well written. Packed with heartfelt investigative stories.
Read
January 11, 20254 1/2 Stars
The dedication at the front of POSTMORTEM: What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders reads: “For all the boys.” On the next page, author Courtney Lund O’Neill quotes the famous song by Simple Minds, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” and then includes the interesting tidbit that the High School used for the film The Breakfast Club was in Des Plaines, IL --- the same town where serial killer John Wayne Gacy lived.
How ironic that a film about teen angst and arrested youth development should take place in the same area that so many young lives were ended at the hands of one of the nation’s worst serial killers of all time. What makes this true crime/memoir particularly unique was the fact that author Courtney Lund O’Neill happens to be the daughter of the young woman named Kim who was mainly responsible for pointing the police in the direction of John Wayne Gacy back in the day which resulted in his inevitable prosecution and death by lethal injection.
The narrative is also unique, told in a style reminiscent of great Historical Fiction where the real events and characters are depicted at points as if they were in a work of fiction. Jumping back in forth in time, the story puts us right in the mind of Kim Byers who was friends and co-worker to the young man that ended up being Gacy’s final victim --- Rob Piest. As Courtney O’Neill Lund, who also writes herself into the story as another protagonist, steps on the grounds where Gacy’s house once stood it will literally send chills up your spine. The fact that so many dozens of bodies of innocent young men were found there leaves a horrifying vision of what true evil is --- an evil that is set amidst the once innocent suburbs of Des Plaines.
The utmost credibility is given to all the passages involving Kim Byers as blurbs from her personal journals are included. Readers have the ability to experience first-hand exactly what happened in the words of a person at the center of this horror. One day at the pharmacy where Kim and Rob worked, Kim witnessed Rob stepping outside to speak with the contractor who had been doing work at the store. That contractor was none other than John Wayne Gacy. Rob was never seen again. However, it was more than just Kim’s eyewitness testimony that put the police on to Gacy. It was a cold day, and Kim had taken Rob’s jacket to wear briefly at work. Not only was that very same jacket discovered at Gacy’s home by police when they went through it, but a slip of paper was also found there --- the receipt for Kim’s photos that she had inadvertently slipped into the pocket of Rob’s jacket while she wore it.
Told from the point of view of the victims and those who were directly impacted by Gacy’s evil rather than from the killer’s perspective also makes for a different type of True Crime read. The entire court case is covered in a way that will place you directly there and O’Neil takes this work of non-fiction and gives us a fascinating read that is as hard to look away from as a car crash on the highway. POSTMORTEM is not to be missed for any fans of True Crime, and they will be rewarded in spades by a story that leaves the reader content in the fact that justice was served.
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
The dedication at the front of POSTMORTEM: What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders reads: “For all the boys.” On the next page, author Courtney Lund O’Neill quotes the famous song by Simple Minds, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” and then includes the interesting tidbit that the High School used for the film The Breakfast Club was in Des Plaines, IL --- the same town where serial killer John Wayne Gacy lived.
How ironic that a film about teen angst and arrested youth development should take place in the same area that so many young lives were ended at the hands of one of the nation’s worst serial killers of all time. What makes this true crime/memoir particularly unique was the fact that author Courtney Lund O’Neill happens to be the daughter of the young woman named Kim who was mainly responsible for pointing the police in the direction of John Wayne Gacy back in the day which resulted in his inevitable prosecution and death by lethal injection.
The narrative is also unique, told in a style reminiscent of great Historical Fiction where the real events and characters are depicted at points as if they were in a work of fiction. Jumping back in forth in time, the story puts us right in the mind of Kim Byers who was friends and co-worker to the young man that ended up being Gacy’s final victim --- Rob Piest. As Courtney O’Neill Lund, who also writes herself into the story as another protagonist, steps on the grounds where Gacy’s house once stood it will literally send chills up your spine. The fact that so many dozens of bodies of innocent young men were found there leaves a horrifying vision of what true evil is --- an evil that is set amidst the once innocent suburbs of Des Plaines.
The utmost credibility is given to all the passages involving Kim Byers as blurbs from her personal journals are included. Readers have the ability to experience first-hand exactly what happened in the words of a person at the center of this horror. One day at the pharmacy where Kim and Rob worked, Kim witnessed Rob stepping outside to speak with the contractor who had been doing work at the store. That contractor was none other than John Wayne Gacy. Rob was never seen again. However, it was more than just Kim’s eyewitness testimony that put the police on to Gacy. It was a cold day, and Kim had taken Rob’s jacket to wear briefly at work. Not only was that very same jacket discovered at Gacy’s home by police when they went through it, but a slip of paper was also found there --- the receipt for Kim’s photos that she had inadvertently slipped into the pocket of Rob’s jacket while she wore it.
Told from the point of view of the victims and those who were directly impacted by Gacy’s evil rather than from the killer’s perspective also makes for a different type of True Crime read. The entire court case is covered in a way that will place you directly there and O’Neil takes this work of non-fiction and gives us a fascinating read that is as hard to look away from as a car crash on the highway. POSTMORTEM is not to be missed for any fans of True Crime, and they will be rewarded in spades by a story that leaves the reader content in the fact that justice was served.
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
December 24, 2024
1.5 stars, rounded down. I’m just going to dive into my thoughts and hope it makes sense. Apologies if it’s disjointed, but I’m feeling disjointed.
Firstly, the whole premise of the book, which is exploring generational grief, isn’t really explored because all we hear about is the author’s own life and how SHE has been affected by her mother’s trauma. It seems like she romanticizes the murderer and the survivors so much that she just assumes her experiences and theirs are one and the same.
The author superimposes her beliefs of how people felt back then over actual impartial, verifiable facts & first-person accounts, which I found to be beyond disrespectful to the victims, their families, and anyone affected by Gacy’s crimes. Not only this, it feels like for the past 6 years she’s been trying to insert herself into the narrative. She goes so far as to send a Mother’s Day card to the mother of a victim! When I read this my mouth just dropped open, because how dare she? How does she know that would be remotely welcome? What if that mother was still healing, or has moved past this, or any of a ton of reasons? What if that card just opened up old wounds? That card was alllll about the author, not that poor mother who lost her son.
Lastly, this book is filled with dramatizations and embellishments to things that need no more drama or elaboration to be utterly shocking or profound. The author also unnecessarily writes things out in painstaking detail, down to what her mother’s hair smelled like and when someone checked their phone.
I have a lot more to say, but I hit the main things that really stuck out to me. I acknowledge that this book is entirely the author’s experience and she has every right to that. However, I just couldn’t get behind it.
Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the gifted eARC
Firstly, the whole premise of the book, which is exploring generational grief, isn’t really explored because all we hear about is the author’s own life and how SHE has been affected by her mother’s trauma. It seems like she romanticizes the murderer and the survivors so much that she just assumes her experiences and theirs are one and the same.
The author superimposes her beliefs of how people felt back then over actual impartial, verifiable facts & first-person accounts, which I found to be beyond disrespectful to the victims, their families, and anyone affected by Gacy’s crimes. Not only this, it feels like for the past 6 years she’s been trying to insert herself into the narrative. She goes so far as to send a Mother’s Day card to the mother of a victim! When I read this my mouth just dropped open, because how dare she? How does she know that would be remotely welcome? What if that mother was still healing, or has moved past this, or any of a ton of reasons? What if that card just opened up old wounds? That card was alllll about the author, not that poor mother who lost her son.
Lastly, this book is filled with dramatizations and embellishments to things that need no more drama or elaboration to be utterly shocking or profound. The author also unnecessarily writes things out in painstaking detail, down to what her mother’s hair smelled like and when someone checked their phone.
I have a lot more to say, but I hit the main things that really stuck out to me. I acknowledge that this book is entirely the author’s experience and she has every right to that. However, I just couldn’t get behind it.
Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the gifted eARC
December 24, 2024
✨Arc Review-✨
Postmortem: What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
‼️‼️Tw‼️‼️
- Describes in great detail how bodies were decaying.
- Describes the unalivings and how they were done
- Describes trauma responses/ptsd of family members effected
- Describes in detail the execution of JWG and his autopsy especially of his brain
This book is not for the faint of heart let me start off by saying that. Also if you plan to read this book, do not eat while reading it. I was sent this book by NetGalley for my honest review.
This book is not your average recapping of John Wayne Gacy and the horrifying crimes he committed, this is a story about the families and friends of his victims and how their lives were altered permanently by his actions. This book specifically following Kim Byers, the authors mother, who helped stop JWG after her friend and coworker (his very last victim) was unalived by him. This book also talks about how trauma can be inherited and how the author also gained her mother’s trauma and how it affects her in her day to day life especially after becoming a parent.
This book was hauntingly beautiful and I enjoyed reading it. I love how when the author reflects on her mother’s life before and after JWG it reads more like an 80s mystery novel and less like a non fiction book. If you are curious about serial unalivers similarly to me but want a different perspective and want a different way to think about the people close to this type of situation i definitely recommend this book!
Postmortem: What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
‼️‼️Tw‼️‼️
- Describes in great detail how bodies were decaying.
- Describes the unalivings and how they were done
- Describes trauma responses/ptsd of family members effected
- Describes in detail the execution of JWG and his autopsy especially of his brain
This book is not for the faint of heart let me start off by saying that. Also if you plan to read this book, do not eat while reading it. I was sent this book by NetGalley for my honest review.
This book is not your average recapping of John Wayne Gacy and the horrifying crimes he committed, this is a story about the families and friends of his victims and how their lives were altered permanently by his actions. This book specifically following Kim Byers, the authors mother, who helped stop JWG after her friend and coworker (his very last victim) was unalived by him. This book also talks about how trauma can be inherited and how the author also gained her mother’s trauma and how it affects her in her day to day life especially after becoming a parent.
This book was hauntingly beautiful and I enjoyed reading it. I love how when the author reflects on her mother’s life before and after JWG it reads more like an 80s mystery novel and less like a non fiction book. If you are curious about serial unalivers similarly to me but want a different perspective and want a different way to think about the people close to this type of situation i definitely recommend this book!
January 8, 2025
Thank you to Kensington Books and Goodreads for this free book (via Goodreads Giveaway) in exchange for an honest review.
I really love the way that the author wrote and organized this book in “real time” and the past. The author really explains the depth of how murders impact families down the road being carried thru the bloodline/genes. You could see that written throughout the book along with the emotions.
It was also kind of surreal to read a story by an author whose mom was the main help to solve a very important murder case / missing persons. Somewhere I stopped to look up something when reading and sure enough her mom’s name was right there.
I am one of those people interested in crime cases so I’ve watched, listened and read about so many. I’m sure I’ve seen ones on John Wayne Gacy too, but this book will be one of the most memorable for me. It was interesting reading the whole situation from a different perspective and reading from someone who was there literally from the beginning. I’m sure there were things in
I highly recommend Postmortem. Give it a chance especially if you want to read it from a first hand POV.
I really love the way that the author wrote and organized this book in “real time” and the past. The author really explains the depth of how murders impact families down the road being carried thru the bloodline/genes. You could see that written throughout the book along with the emotions.
It was also kind of surreal to read a story by an author whose mom was the main help to solve a very important murder case / missing persons. Somewhere I stopped to look up something when reading and sure enough her mom’s name was right there.
I am one of those people interested in crime cases so I’ve watched, listened and read about so many. I’m sure I’ve seen ones on John Wayne Gacy too, but this book will be one of the most memorable for me. It was interesting reading the whole situation from a different perspective and reading from someone who was there literally from the beginning. I’m sure there were things in
I highly recommend Postmortem. Give it a chance especially if you want to read it from a first hand POV.
September 17, 2024
This book is about John Wayne Gacy and the teenage girl, Kim, who was close friends with his last victim. The book tells the story from Kim's point of view and how the arrest, trial and conviction of Gacy affected her life.
This book was a 3.5/5 for me. It was interesting to read a true crime story from someone close to the investigation but the book was very long and hard to finish at times, a bit boring.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own
This book was a 3.5/5 for me. It was interesting to read a true crime story from someone close to the investigation but the book was very long and hard to finish at times, a bit boring.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own
December 22, 2024
If you like true crime, this is the book for you. The daughter of the star witness in the John Wayne Gacy murder trial tells the story of what led up to the last murder and how it affected everyone (not only who knew the victim, but also who lived in the town where it happened) in her point of view. She uses her mother's own words via interviews as well as her journal from when she was a teen. She travels back to the very place it happens and speaks to other witnesses and family members of the victims.
It is a nice change of pace to hear the facts of the story from a witness' point of view rather than detectives, journalists, and investigators.
Well written, interesting and an overall great way to remember the victims instead of focusing on the perpetrator.
#PostmortemWhatSurvivesTheJohnWayneGacyMurders #NetGalley
It is a nice change of pace to hear the facts of the story from a witness' point of view rather than detectives, journalists, and investigators.
Well written, interesting and an overall great way to remember the victims instead of focusing on the perpetrator.
#PostmortemWhatSurvivesTheJohnWayneGacyMurders #NetGalley
January 15, 2025
I found myself intrigued by this title and had a desire to learn more about a gruesome case from the perspective of someone related to it, and was excited that a survivor of these events would be able to speak freely and with autonomy. It was saddening to read (or rather, listen) to descriptions where Mrs. Kim Byers doesn’t seem to want to speak on the event. Various times I remember moments in the process of hearing about the author’s research where I didn’t feel as though she was being respectful of the lives of those who knew Gacy or any of the victims. This book also is marketed as one where the victims/survivors are the center of the narrative, yet the author hijacks some moments of real vulnerability to insert her own opinions or stories about herself, taking the focus away from those affected and placing it on herself and her personal anecdotes.
The description of generational trauma is one I’m also hesitant about, as the author is not a professional in the social services field. Any mental health advice/conversations around trauma that are written as fact by those who are seemingly not trauma-informed very much concern me, and this is one of those cases.
Some very interesting information and insight was included here, and I was inspired by the details of the photo receipt as evidence and the diary entries of a teenager providing a path to justice. Yet, I was disappointed by the author’s continuous self-insertion when she claims the book is focused on the victims.
The description of generational trauma is one I’m also hesitant about, as the author is not a professional in the social services field. Any mental health advice/conversations around trauma that are written as fact by those who are seemingly not trauma-informed very much concern me, and this is one of those cases.
Some very interesting information and insight was included here, and I was inspired by the details of the photo receipt as evidence and the diary entries of a teenager providing a path to justice. Yet, I was disappointed by the author’s continuous self-insertion when she claims the book is focused on the victims.
June 8, 2025
It was pretty good. The author's mother was close to one of Gacy's victims, likely his last. A receipt of hers that was in the victim's pocket really launched the case. The book bounces between current-ish time and that era smoothly. I don't want to discount the author's experience, but the book was a little more about her than I preferred but overall, it was worth the read and well written.
January 12, 2025
This book had me hooked from the beginning! It was very interesting learning how the murder of Rob affected the author’s mother & learning other facts related to Gacy’s murders.
January 27, 2025
it’s always interesting to get another perspective of these tragic events
January 30, 2025
I was a senior in high school when the John Wayne Gacy story broke. The Chicago suburb I lived in was about 12 miles from Des Plaines, where the horror was unfolding. My classmates and I talked about it every day as the body count rose. The story is an important part of my high school memories and my development into an adult.
So, I read new books about John Wayne Gacy. Even though I don’t expect to learn anything new, I expect the books to shed light on Gacy and his victims. The author of Postmortem is the daughter of one of the critical witnesses in Gacy’s trial. Kim Byers was a coworker of the last victim, Robert Piest. She had borrowed Piest’s jacket because she was cold and placed a receipt from a photo order in the pocket of the jacket. That receipt was later found in Gacy’s home, proving that Piest had been there.
Did this book keep my attention? Yes. However, the author, Courtney Lund O’Neil, irritated me from page 1 of her Author’s Note. “This is a work of researched creative nonfiction, and therefore common techniques of the genre have been employed. Names and identifying markers have been changed to protect identities of some people in the book. Composite characters may appear as a means of protecting identities while holding tight to emotional truths. Timelines have been condensed and altered in places of the text for narrative effect. Descriptions are as accurate as possible but, in some cases, rely on a reimagination to fit time and place.” In other words, I’m telling this story and I will alter things as I see fit. Ugh. I hope at least that everyone who reads this book reads the Author’s Note.
This book is very … fanciful. The author’s mom and Robert Piest worked at Nisson Pharmacy. “Angel Town is the private children’s school that replaced Nisson Pharmacy….Angel Town. An ironic name.” (p. 8) Um, yeah, sure, you can find meaning in just about anything you want to.
It’s also very very self-indulgent. I might have been more forgiving if Kim Byers wrote this book, but it’s her daughter, and she seems to be claiming her mother’s experience as her own, her mother’s loss of a friend as her own, her mother’s trauma of testifying as her own. (The author does talk about inherited trauma, and I can even believe she was affected by her mother’s traumatic teenaged experience but not to the extent she tries to make the case. Like fearing being alone with older men, or being afraid of being taken in the night. Most women, maybe all women, have similar fears.)
The author recounts her mother’s decision to put the photo receipt in the pocket of Rob’s parka instead of throwing it away. “In her right hand, she went to discard the receipt, but then paused and slipped it into Rob’s parka pocket instead. Nervously, she thought maybe Rob would find it and ask to see her photos. She wanted her cute friend to see her all dressed up at the Homecoming dance. But she also placed the receipt in her pocket because she had an instinct that this is what she was meant to do. A small, faraway crevasse of herself that she did not have daily access to had opened. Something, someone telling her to save the receipt.” (p. 21) Give me a break. I mean, really – give me a break.
I’m not going to quote every passage that made me eyeroll, but there were a lot. There’s a lot of romanticizing of the time period and the crimes. The last three chapters add nothing to the book. The books seems to have grown out of some sort of misplaced obsession.
In chapter six, the author talks about Jonestown and how people committed suicide by drinking “Kool-Aid.” They didn’t drink Kool-Aid. They drank Flavor Aid. This is very well known. It’s okay to make this mistake when talking with friends at a bar. It’s not okay to make this mistake in a nonfiction work of True Crime.
I can’t recommend this unless you enjoy wallowing in someone else’s obsession and perceived borrowed trauma.
(I mean, look at the cover! A silhouette of a woman and a woman in the distance. Gacy’s murder victims were all boys and men.)
So, I read new books about John Wayne Gacy. Even though I don’t expect to learn anything new, I expect the books to shed light on Gacy and his victims. The author of Postmortem is the daughter of one of the critical witnesses in Gacy’s trial. Kim Byers was a coworker of the last victim, Robert Piest. She had borrowed Piest’s jacket because she was cold and placed a receipt from a photo order in the pocket of the jacket. That receipt was later found in Gacy’s home, proving that Piest had been there.
Did this book keep my attention? Yes. However, the author, Courtney Lund O’Neil, irritated me from page 1 of her Author’s Note. “This is a work of researched creative nonfiction, and therefore common techniques of the genre have been employed. Names and identifying markers have been changed to protect identities of some people in the book. Composite characters may appear as a means of protecting identities while holding tight to emotional truths. Timelines have been condensed and altered in places of the text for narrative effect. Descriptions are as accurate as possible but, in some cases, rely on a reimagination to fit time and place.” In other words, I’m telling this story and I will alter things as I see fit. Ugh. I hope at least that everyone who reads this book reads the Author’s Note.
This book is very … fanciful. The author’s mom and Robert Piest worked at Nisson Pharmacy. “Angel Town is the private children’s school that replaced Nisson Pharmacy….Angel Town. An ironic name.” (p. 8) Um, yeah, sure, you can find meaning in just about anything you want to.
It’s also very very self-indulgent. I might have been more forgiving if Kim Byers wrote this book, but it’s her daughter, and she seems to be claiming her mother’s experience as her own, her mother’s loss of a friend as her own, her mother’s trauma of testifying as her own. (The author does talk about inherited trauma, and I can even believe she was affected by her mother’s traumatic teenaged experience but not to the extent she tries to make the case. Like fearing being alone with older men, or being afraid of being taken in the night. Most women, maybe all women, have similar fears.)
The author recounts her mother’s decision to put the photo receipt in the pocket of Rob’s parka instead of throwing it away. “In her right hand, she went to discard the receipt, but then paused and slipped it into Rob’s parka pocket instead. Nervously, she thought maybe Rob would find it and ask to see her photos. She wanted her cute friend to see her all dressed up at the Homecoming dance. But she also placed the receipt in her pocket because she had an instinct that this is what she was meant to do. A small, faraway crevasse of herself that she did not have daily access to had opened. Something, someone telling her to save the receipt.” (p. 21) Give me a break. I mean, really – give me a break.
I’m not going to quote every passage that made me eyeroll, but there were a lot. There’s a lot of romanticizing of the time period and the crimes. The last three chapters add nothing to the book. The books seems to have grown out of some sort of misplaced obsession.
In chapter six, the author talks about Jonestown and how people committed suicide by drinking “Kool-Aid.” They didn’t drink Kool-Aid. They drank Flavor Aid. This is very well known. It’s okay to make this mistake when talking with friends at a bar. It’s not okay to make this mistake in a nonfiction work of True Crime.
I can’t recommend this unless you enjoy wallowing in someone else’s obsession and perceived borrowed trauma.
(I mean, look at the cover! A silhouette of a woman and a woman in the distance. Gacy’s murder victims were all boys and men.)
February 1, 2025
I typically veer away from true crime books, but I’m so glad I picked this one up. My aversion to true crime is due to its typically exploitative nature. I’d find myself listening to podcasts or documentaries and I’d hear how hosts would sprinkle in psychology buzzwords to sound insightful, but they’d often use them vaguely or without proper explanation (e.g., ‘the psychology of the killer’, brief mention of ‘the dark triad’, ‘trauma response’, ‘attachment issues’.) While these terms absolutely do relate to true crime and have a place in these discussions, I find the terms are often used irresponsibly and without any research (scientific or otherwise) to back them up.
I know this review sounds very 🤓👆at the moment, but I think it’s important to mention my aversion with true crime because Courtney Lund O’Neill did a brilliant job at avoiding these irresponsible traps while still writing an engaging — even masterful — piece of creative non-fiction.
The author brings the reader to a story that spans generations. Switching between timelines and drawing a thread through each chapter, she recounts the horrors and loss that her mother faced as a teenager, connects with how this shaped the author herself and spurred her to research this history, and details how this affects our present reality. This story and all it represents is what survives John Wayne Gacy.
I wish I had the book with me to go through it again, maybe point out some details I really appreciated or pull in some quotes. But alas, it is with a friend half way across the world. So going off my memory, here are some things that struck me:
- How delicately O'Neill traced her mother's childhood and youth. I loved how she drew the picture of her mom growing up, being a high schooler in the 1970s. The details of where she worked, what she did day-to-day, struggles in growing up, love and loss. I think it pulled me into the story even more and payed great homage to the girl she once was.
- O'Neill took the same level of care with the horrors surrounding John Wayne Gacy. What her mother suffered, Gacy's home and the investigation within it, the court-room accounts. The small details in Rob Piest's mannerisms and character that separate him from just being a victim to having once been a real, breathing, good-meaning 15 year old. The same can be said for how she described his family. Also in the way Gacy's actions affect the local community to this day - 'an undercurrent', a deep tide that started siphoning through Des Plaines the day that Kim Byer's film receipt was found in a murder's house.
- The author's personal connections to the case were not left out, and I really liked that. Some people might think differently, but I think she did a great job in explaining how this still affects herself and her family. And I think that is entirely valid. She went out and did years upon years of research because of what haunted her and her family. Of course this book is going to contain personal accounts! It quite literally is personal and I think entirely reasonable for this to affect the author and how she writes. I think it was authentic and true to herself, those around her, and those affected by the case. Beautifully done.
- The mention of how trauma impacts our genetic code (or more specifically, the way it is read). While there is limited research on this, I find so fascinating. I first came across the idea in Stephanie Foo's "What My Bones Know" where she again considers how the experiences of her lineage may have shaped her present reality (this is another book I highly, highly recommend). I was happy to come across this again when O'Neill discusses generational trauma. Instead of just throwing the word out there, she backs it up with this idea of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Part of me wishes she had expanded on the science and theory of it a bit more, but honestly I'm not pressed about it. I think it could have taken away from the story, and if anything maybe it planted a seed in readers' minds to independently read up on it themselves.
- I loved how the narrative did not focus solely on Gacy. If anything, I thought he was mostly an force orbiting the story. There was still detail that would engage people interested in the nuance and horrors of true crime, but I felt that this was all portrayed through the eyes of the author herself, her mother, Rob Piest, the Piest family, the detectives, investigators, lawyers and courtroom. Only a few times did the story follow the exact footsteps of Gacy, and these times were still in the wake of the people the narrative focused on. There is enough of a spotlight on Gacy. It was refreshing to see him not take the lead role in the account of his atrocities.
- Most of all, I love how O'Neill keeps the victims alive in memory. Even though Rob was the person that the story detailed the most, I felt that O'Neill brought each of them to be once-living individuals rather than being one in a string of numbers:
'Timothy Jack McCoy, Victim No. 28, John Butkovitch, Victim No. 5, Darrell Samson, Samuel Stapleton, Randall Reffett, Michael Bonnin, William Carroll, Victim No. 26, James Haakenson, Victim No. 13, Victim No. 21, Rick Johnston, William George Bundy, Michael Marino, Kenneth Parker, Gregory Godzik, John Szyc, Jon Prestidge, Victim No. 10, Matthew Bowman, Robert Gilroy, John Mowery, Russell Nelson, Robert Winch, Tommy Boling, David Talsma, William Kindred, Timothy O’Rourke, Frank Landingin, James Mazzara, Robert Piest.'
And not only in this book, but also in her other works. I found the names above from one of her many articles on the topic (https://digitaledition.chicagotribune...). I really admire all that she does and the way that she does it.
I think that O'Neill is one of the best authors on this topic.
I know this review sounds very 🤓👆at the moment, but I think it’s important to mention my aversion with true crime because Courtney Lund O’Neill did a brilliant job at avoiding these irresponsible traps while still writing an engaging — even masterful — piece of creative non-fiction.
The author brings the reader to a story that spans generations. Switching between timelines and drawing a thread through each chapter, she recounts the horrors and loss that her mother faced as a teenager, connects with how this shaped the author herself and spurred her to research this history, and details how this affects our present reality. This story and all it represents is what survives John Wayne Gacy.
I wish I had the book with me to go through it again, maybe point out some details I really appreciated or pull in some quotes. But alas, it is with a friend half way across the world. So going off my memory, here are some things that struck me:
- How delicately O'Neill traced her mother's childhood and youth. I loved how she drew the picture of her mom growing up, being a high schooler in the 1970s. The details of where she worked, what she did day-to-day, struggles in growing up, love and loss. I think it pulled me into the story even more and payed great homage to the girl she once was.
- O'Neill took the same level of care with the horrors surrounding John Wayne Gacy. What her mother suffered, Gacy's home and the investigation within it, the court-room accounts. The small details in Rob Piest's mannerisms and character that separate him from just being a victim to having once been a real, breathing, good-meaning 15 year old. The same can be said for how she described his family. Also in the way Gacy's actions affect the local community to this day - 'an undercurrent', a deep tide that started siphoning through Des Plaines the day that Kim Byer's film receipt was found in a murder's house.
- The author's personal connections to the case were not left out, and I really liked that. Some people might think differently, but I think she did a great job in explaining how this still affects herself and her family. And I think that is entirely valid. She went out and did years upon years of research because of what haunted her and her family. Of course this book is going to contain personal accounts! It quite literally is personal and I think entirely reasonable for this to affect the author and how she writes. I think it was authentic and true to herself, those around her, and those affected by the case. Beautifully done.
- The mention of how trauma impacts our genetic code (or more specifically, the way it is read). While there is limited research on this, I find so fascinating. I first came across the idea in Stephanie Foo's "What My Bones Know" where she again considers how the experiences of her lineage may have shaped her present reality (this is another book I highly, highly recommend). I was happy to come across this again when O'Neill discusses generational trauma. Instead of just throwing the word out there, she backs it up with this idea of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Part of me wishes she had expanded on the science and theory of it a bit more, but honestly I'm not pressed about it. I think it could have taken away from the story, and if anything maybe it planted a seed in readers' minds to independently read up on it themselves.
- I loved how the narrative did not focus solely on Gacy. If anything, I thought he was mostly an force orbiting the story. There was still detail that would engage people interested in the nuance and horrors of true crime, but I felt that this was all portrayed through the eyes of the author herself, her mother, Rob Piest, the Piest family, the detectives, investigators, lawyers and courtroom. Only a few times did the story follow the exact footsteps of Gacy, and these times were still in the wake of the people the narrative focused on. There is enough of a spotlight on Gacy. It was refreshing to see him not take the lead role in the account of his atrocities.
- Most of all, I love how O'Neill keeps the victims alive in memory. Even though Rob was the person that the story detailed the most, I felt that O'Neill brought each of them to be once-living individuals rather than being one in a string of numbers:
'Timothy Jack McCoy, Victim No. 28, John Butkovitch, Victim No. 5, Darrell Samson, Samuel Stapleton, Randall Reffett, Michael Bonnin, William Carroll, Victim No. 26, James Haakenson, Victim No. 13, Victim No. 21, Rick Johnston, William George Bundy, Michael Marino, Kenneth Parker, Gregory Godzik, John Szyc, Jon Prestidge, Victim No. 10, Matthew Bowman, Robert Gilroy, John Mowery, Russell Nelson, Robert Winch, Tommy Boling, David Talsma, William Kindred, Timothy O’Rourke, Frank Landingin, James Mazzara, Robert Piest.'
And not only in this book, but also in her other works. I found the names above from one of her many articles on the topic (https://digitaledition.chicagotribune...). I really admire all that she does and the way that she does it.
I think that O'Neill is one of the best authors on this topic.
November 15, 2024
I was given the opportunity to be an early reader of this book and it was one of the best reads in the serial killer genre that I’ve ever come across. This author has done it all. She gives us a hugely readable riveting story with a depth of research and a voice that truly sings. The fact she tells the tale as a survivor of the key witness, (her mother) gives it an insider’s perspective and a point of view that is from a female lens. This is unusual in this genre which is normally a male driven subject, and focussed on the killer more than the victims and their families. Pick up this incredible debut from this skilled writer. You will come away with a whole new understanding of what really happened all those years ago.
November 5, 2024
What an interesting book! I loved the way the author set it up - one chapter was the actual events and how they unfolded, the next chapter was modern day and how the events shaped the future lives of the people involved. Each chapter alternating back and forth. The story was told in a narrative that drew me in and kept me wanting to read more. I became invested in the lives of the survivors and also in the life of Rob. Definitely a book I'll be talking about with others for months to come.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book from netgalley. I was not required to read or submit a review. All opinions are strictly mine.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book from netgalley. I was not required to read or submit a review. All opinions are strictly mine.
June 9, 2025
Many thanks to Kensington Publishing and Penguin Random House for the ARC copy of this book for my unbiased review.
When the mother of the author of this book, Kim Byers, was in her teens she worked at a local drugstore in her hometown in Illinois. One of the young men who also worked in the store was a friend of hers who she sometimes hung out with when they weren’t at work. His name was Rob Piest.
One fateful night in December 1978, while they were at work, Kim was cold as she was working near the door and each time a customer came in, the chill wind made her shiver. Rob was kind enough to lend her his jacket.
When there was a lull in shoppers, Kim took the opportunity to put in the roll of film she took recently to be developed. She tucked the stub into the pocket of the borrowed jacket.
At some point in the evening, a contractor, a Mr. Gacy, who was measuring for a renovation to the store had a conversation with Rob about working for him for higher pay.
Rob wasn’t old enough to drive so his mother usually picked him up when his shift was over.
Rob got his jacket back from Kim and told her he was going out the back door to talk further with the contractor.
When he didn’t return, both Kim and his mother, who had arrived to take Rob home, became worried.
Unfortunately, Rob was never seen alive again. Kim’s receipt in his jacket pocket would lead to the end of John Wayne Gacy’s reign of terror and the discovery of the thirty young men buried under his house. Sadly, it was too late for Rob.
This meticulously researched book focuses on the aftermath of that night in December and all the ripples through time in a number of families due to the actions of the monster that was John Wayne Gacy.
This book is important as it doesn’t glorify Gacy and shows the reader the very real effect such encounters have in the lives of the survivors as well as the families they eventually create for themselves. The Postmortem of the title refers to the aftermath of violence on everyone touched by it.
The author is in a very unique position as she sees first-hand how her mother’s entire life has been affected by her friendship with Rob and her unintentional role in helping to bring down a serial killer.
Kim was a brave young woman to come forward and to testify in Gacy’s trial, but it affected her and her belief in personal safety, which also affected her children. She made a good life for herself, but she has definitely held on to some of the trauma of the days, weeks, and months after the incidents occurred.
This book is well worth a read as it deals with psychological trauma and how that can actually be passed on to the next generation without meaning to be.
I learned a lot about generational trauma in this book as the oldest daughter of Kim, Courtney Lund O’Neal, the author of this book shared her insights as well as information on her mother’s experiences in bringing down a serial killer.
January 12, 2025
The dedication at the beginning of POSTMORTEM reads: “For all the boys.” On the next page, Courtney Lund O’Neil quotes the Simple Minds song “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” and includes the interesting tidbit that the high school used for the movie The Breakfast Club was in Des Plaines, Illinois --- the same town where serial killer John Wayne Gacy lived.
How ironic that a film about teen angst and arrested youth development should take place in the same area where so many young lives ended at the hands of one of the nation’s most notorious serial killers. What makes this book stand out is that O’Neil happens to be the daughter of the young woman who was mainly responsible for pointing the police in Gacy’s direction, which resulted in his prosecution and death by lethal injection.
The narrative is also unique, told in a style reminiscent of great historical fiction, in which the events and characters are at times depicted as if they are in a fictional work. Jumping back and forth in time, it puts us right in the mind of Kim Byers, who was a friend and co-worker of Rob Piest, the teenager who ended up being Gacy’s final victim. As O’Neil, who also writes herself into the story, steps on the grounds where Gacy’s house once stood, it literally will send chills up your spine. The fact that dozens of bodies of young men were found there leaves a horrifying vision of what true evil is --- an evil that is set amidst the once-innocent suburbs of Des Plaines.
The utmost credibility is given to all the passages involving Kim as blurbs from her personal journals are included. One day, at the pharmacy where Kim and Rob worked, Kim witnessed Rob stepping outside to speak with the contractor who had been doing work at the store. He was never seen again. However, it was more than just Kim’s eyewitness testimony that put the police on to Gacy. It was a cold day, and Kim had taken Rob’s parka to wear at work. Not only was that very same coat discovered at Gacy’s house by police, a piece of paper was also found there --- the receipt for Kim’s photos that she inadvertently had slipped into the pocket.
POSTMORTEM is told from the point of view of the victims and those who were directly impacted by Gacy’s evil, rather than from the killer’s perspective, which also makes for a different kind of true crime read. The entire court case is covered in a way that will place you directly there, and O’Neil pens a fascinating book that is as hard to look away from as a car crash on the highway. It is not to be missed, and true crime fans will be rewarded in spades by a story that leaves the reader content in the fact that justice was served.
Reviewed by Ray Palen
How ironic that a film about teen angst and arrested youth development should take place in the same area where so many young lives ended at the hands of one of the nation’s most notorious serial killers. What makes this book stand out is that O’Neil happens to be the daughter of the young woman who was mainly responsible for pointing the police in Gacy’s direction, which resulted in his prosecution and death by lethal injection.
The narrative is also unique, told in a style reminiscent of great historical fiction, in which the events and characters are at times depicted as if they are in a fictional work. Jumping back and forth in time, it puts us right in the mind of Kim Byers, who was a friend and co-worker of Rob Piest, the teenager who ended up being Gacy’s final victim. As O’Neil, who also writes herself into the story, steps on the grounds where Gacy’s house once stood, it literally will send chills up your spine. The fact that dozens of bodies of young men were found there leaves a horrifying vision of what true evil is --- an evil that is set amidst the once-innocent suburbs of Des Plaines.
The utmost credibility is given to all the passages involving Kim as blurbs from her personal journals are included. One day, at the pharmacy where Kim and Rob worked, Kim witnessed Rob stepping outside to speak with the contractor who had been doing work at the store. He was never seen again. However, it was more than just Kim’s eyewitness testimony that put the police on to Gacy. It was a cold day, and Kim had taken Rob’s parka to wear at work. Not only was that very same coat discovered at Gacy’s house by police, a piece of paper was also found there --- the receipt for Kim’s photos that she inadvertently had slipped into the pocket.
POSTMORTEM is told from the point of view of the victims and those who were directly impacted by Gacy’s evil, rather than from the killer’s perspective, which also makes for a different kind of true crime read. The entire court case is covered in a way that will place you directly there, and O’Neil pens a fascinating book that is as hard to look away from as a car crash on the highway. It is not to be missed, and true crime fans will be rewarded in spades by a story that leaves the reader content in the fact that justice was served.
Reviewed by Ray Palen
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