Destination Gacy

by Nancy Rommelmann

In 1994, journalist Nancy Rommelmann accompanied Rick Gaez, a 26-year-old pen pal of John Wayne Gacy, on a road trip from Los Angeles to Illinois, to visit the serial killer before his execution. Along the way, she took the moral temperature of people on college campuses, in bars, in churches, asking how they felt about Gacy and his being sentenced to death, for the torture and murder of 33 young men and teenage boys. Shackled in a tiny visiting room on death row, Gacy nevertheless turned on the charm. Chatty, slick, acting the father figure, albeit one who wants to know a little too much about your sex life, Gacy offered his hand and said, “Ask anything you want—I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve ever done.”

Genres: Crime

31 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 13, 2014

About the author

Nancy Rommelmann's latest books are FORTY BUCKS AND A DREAM: STORIES FROM LOS ANGELES and TO THE BRIDGE, a work of nonfiction about Amanda Stott-Smith, who dropped her two young children from a Portland bridge.

She writes the Substack MAKE MORE PIE and, with Sarah Hepola, cohosts the podcast SMOKE 'EM IF YOU GOT 'EM.

Rommelmann writes for The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Real Clear Investigations, among other publications.

Rommelmann lives in New York City

Reviews

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know Nancy Rommelmann for covering Portland, but it turns out she also covers serious subjects, like serial killers.

I set aside time to read this, her breakout story as far as I can tell, before any of the books and wasn't disappointed. It wasn't a heavy read; it's not really about Gacy, since no one knows Gacy, really. Rommelmann herself describes the piece as "such Americana". The roadtrip captures some American attitudes towards Gacy--none more interesting than the attitude of Gacy's much younger longtime penpal, who despite his disgust for Gacy's crimes claims that isn't the man he knows and privately longs to be his confidant.

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting!

Ponderings on why anyone would do what she and her friend did: visit a serial killer just before his execution. Why do we read and watch this stuff? Why collect murderabilia? What is it like to really meet someone like this? Her thoughts on this are pretty valid and helped settle my mind about some of these questions.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was OK, rather brief and short and didn't teach me anything I didn't know before from reading other novels on Gacy in terms of his backstory or his crimes. I spent 3$ on this e-book and actually it was very interesting in the fact that readers get to have a first hand account of someone visiting Gacy in prison. He is always putting up that facade right until the very end. That's how he was, and I'm not surprised. This guy was evil yet you can't deny he was smart in a twisted way. If he hadn't driven his mother home that night then he never would've visited the greyhound bus stop. Makes you think.

[Evan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know what the author was trying to accomplish with this piece, but I want my $1.99 back. I bought a bunch of crime novels off Amazon for cheap, and this is definitely the most disappointing. I need to start paying attention to what I purchase more.

The author accompanies a friend on a trip to visit Gacy before Gacy is executed. She shares snippets from letters her friend received from Gacy and parts of conversations they both had with Gacy.

I still don't know what Gacy did (other than being a serial killer).