The Man Who Killed Boys by Clifford L. Linedecker

be left around the house where the girls could find it. But then he never left anything out of place. He had a passion for neatness. In his house, magazines were stacked neatly, dishes were kept washed and beds were made when sleep was over.
    Carole began confiding to a few intimates that her husband didn't need her any longer. He had already admitted to her that he preferred boys.
    Gacy's social and professional life was progressing more favorably than his marriage. By 1975 he was becoming too old for the Jaycees. It was a young man's organization. But he missed the companionship and the ego-boosting attention and challenge of moving into a position of importance in an organization filled with vigorous imaginative men. He turned to politics.
    In Chicago and in Cook County, politics is nearly synonymous with the Democratic party. There are few offices for Republicans or Independents. One of the few Republicans to win a major political office in Cook County in recent years is Bernard Carey. He was a thirty-one-year-old lawyer in 1972, running for his first elective office, when he upended incumbent Cook County States Attorney Edward V. Hanrahan. Carey was the only non-incumbent elected, and he was sworn into office on December 4.
    Incumbent Cook County Coroner Dr. Andrew Toman, who participated in the Speck investigation, was sworn into office for the last time the same day as Carey. During his reelection campaign he had supported a referendum proposing abolition of his office and replacement by the county medical examiner system. The referendum was approved by a five-to-one margin, to become effective December 6, 1976.
    It's doubtful if Gacy paid more than passing attention to either the Carey-Hanrahan contest for States Attorney or to establishment of the medical examiner system in Cook County. But the time would come when both incidents would be significant to him.
    Gacy sought out Robert F. Martwick, a prominent Loop attorney who lived in Norwood Park and was the Democratic township committeeman. The portly contractor explained that he had just moved into the community and would like to make it a better place to live. Someday he would like to run for public office, he said.
    His aspirations were admirable, even though the desire to seek election to public office may have been slightly premature. Martwick suggested that before Gacy became a political candidate he become better known locally and involve himself in projects to help his neighbors in the community.
    Service projects were something that Gacy had learned about when he was a Jaycee, and he knew how to involve himself in community activities. He drove away from the meeting with Martwick in high spirits, with plans to make himself known to his Norwood Park township neighbors already germinating in his mind.
    He designed clown outfits for himself, and selected a catchy name, "Pogo the Clown." His generous stomach provided natural padding to fill out the front, and he topped the baggy suits with a tassled hat and added oversize shoes and white gloves. He taught himself to paint pyramid-shaped eyes and to smear on a broad smiling mouth. Only professional clowns and students of the art of clowning would recognize him as an unschooled amateur because of the sharp corners at the edges of his mouth. Knowledgeable clowns paint rounded corners so they don't frighten small children.
    Zielinski took photographs of him in the clown costume, and it wasn't long before Gacy was entertaining small groups of the children and grandchildren of bowling friends and at picnics or Christmas parties sponsored by Norwood township Democrats. He talked importantly of appearing at children's hospitals, but none of his friends ever witnessed the performances.
    There were other talks with Martwick. The township committeeman was impressed and pleased when the beefy contractor volunteered to use his young construction workers to keep the party headquarters clean. There would be no charge. Martwick