Traffic map
Article updated: 12/3/2012 2:30 PM

John Wayne Gacy’s blood may solve old murders

Buy this photo Buy this photo
next prev 1 of 2
   
Gallery Image

Three vials of John Wayne Gacy's blood were recently discovered by Cook County Sheriff's detective Jason Moran. The sheriff's office is creating DNA profiles from the blood of Gacy and other executed killers and putting them in a national DNA database of profiles created from blood, semen, or strands of hair found at crime scenes and on the bodies of victims. What they hope to find is evidence that links the long-dead killers to the coldest of cold cases and prompt authorities in other states to submit the DNA of their own executed inmates and maybe evidence from decades-old crime scenes to help them solve their own cases.

Associated Press/1978

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, left, and sheriff's detective Jason Moran are photographed with three recently discovered vials of mass murderer John Wayne Gacy's blood.

Associated Press

About this Article

Detectives have long wondered what secrets serial killer John Wayne Gacy and other condemned murderers took to the grave when they were executed — mostly whether they had other unknown victims. Now, in a game of scientific catch-up, the Cook County Sheriff's Department is trying to be creative: They've created DNA profiles of Gacy and others and figured out they could get the executed men entered in a national database shared with other law enforcement agencies because the murderers were technically listed as homicide victims themselves when they were put to death by the state.

Related Content

No Gacy victims found during search of property
prev next
    • Three vials of John Wayne Gacy’s blood were recently discovered by Cook County Sheriff’s detective Jason Moran. The sheriff’s office is creating DNA profiles from the blood of Gacy and other executed killers and putting them in a national DNA database of profiles created from blood, semen, or strands of hair found at crime scenes and on the bodies of victims. What they hope to find is evidence that links the long-dead killers to the coldest of cold cases and prompt authorities in other states to submit the DNA of their own executed inmates and maybe evidence from decades-old crime scenes to help them solve their own cases.
    • Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, left, and sheriff’s detective Jason Moran are photographed with three recently discovered vials of mass murderer John Wayne Gacy’s blood.
    Galleries by Category

    Latest Galleries

      next prev