Buried Dreams: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer
Author:
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, Nonfiction
Book Type: Paperback
Author:
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, Nonfiction
Book Type: Paperback
Nina F. (ninafel) reviewed on + 88 more book reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This is the absorbing and disturbing story of John Wayne Gacy, the suburban Chicago businessman sentenced to death in 1980 for the murders of 33 young boys, most of whose bodies were buried in the crawlspace under his home. Cahill, aided in his research by TV reporter Ewing, recreates Gacy's unhappy childhood with a violent father; his seemingly respectable life as a successful contractor and civic leader; and his five-year spree as a murderer who raped and tortured his victims. The book is told mainly from the vantage of the homosexual Gacy, a "creature of lies, internal contradictions, misrepresentations, and false idealism," who claims utter confusion over the crimes. Jurors dismissed an insanity plea, finding Gacy complex, antisocial and rational. Cahill includes graphic accounts of torture and sexual acts. Major ad/promo; first serial to Us magazine; author tour.
From Library Journal
John Gacy, sentenced to death for the Chicago-area slayings of 33 young men, has been the subject of prior bookssee, for example, Terry Sullivan's Killer Clown ( LJ 9/1/83). None, however, has explored the depths of Gacy's aberrant psychology, his childhood, and daily life as well as Buried Dreams. With Gacy's cooperation, albeit often contradictory and self-serving, and a four-year-long investigation, Cahill has managed the difficult task of unmasking, to the extent that it can be done, the motivation of a horrific killer. Readers should be warned that this book contains explicit details of sexual torture and murder. It is as riveting as it is disturbing. Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis
This is the absorbing and disturbing story of John Wayne Gacy, the suburban Chicago businessman sentenced to death in 1980 for the murders of 33 young boys, most of whose bodies were buried in the crawlspace under his home. Cahill, aided in his research by TV reporter Ewing, recreates Gacy's unhappy childhood with a violent father; his seemingly respectable life as a successful contractor and civic leader; and his five-year spree as a murderer who raped and tortured his victims. The book is told mainly from the vantage of the homosexual Gacy, a "creature of lies, internal contradictions, misrepresentations, and false idealism," who claims utter confusion over the crimes. Jurors dismissed an insanity plea, finding Gacy complex, antisocial and rational. Cahill includes graphic accounts of torture and sexual acts. Major ad/promo; first serial to Us magazine; author tour.
From Library Journal
John Gacy, sentenced to death for the Chicago-area slayings of 33 young men, has been the subject of prior bookssee, for example, Terry Sullivan's Killer Clown ( LJ 9/1/83). None, however, has explored the depths of Gacy's aberrant psychology, his childhood, and daily life as well as Buried Dreams. With Gacy's cooperation, albeit often contradictory and self-serving, and a four-year-long investigation, Cahill has managed the difficult task of unmasking, to the extent that it can be done, the motivation of a horrific killer. Readers should be warned that this book contains explicit details of sexual torture and murder. It is as riveting as it is disturbing. Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis
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