Shivangi Sinha
During the 1970s, serial killer John Wayne Gacy lured young men and boys to his home in the Chicago area, where he sexually assaulted and murdered many of them. He was ultimately linked to the murders of at least 33 young men and boys. Gacy was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death, and was executed in 1994. While many of his victims never survived, a handful of men escaped. In ID’s ‘People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer,’ especially the episode, ‘Surviving the Devil in Chicago,’ survivors David Bolton, Patrick Dati, and Tony Antonucci recount their encounters with Gacy and the ordeals they endured before managing to escape with their lives.
David Bolton Has Published a Book Based on His Experiences
In the summer of 1956, David Bolton had taken a trip with his mother to a lakeside resort in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, when he was about 10 years old. It was there that he met a teenage boy who was working a summer job at the resort. Bolton said that he used to hang out with the boy but was always intimidated by him, and one day, while they were on a hike, the teenager allegedly assaulted him. He also said that the boy allegedly threatened to drown him in the lake if he told anyone about it. Bolton did not tell anyone and went to live with his sister in Arlington Heights for his junior year of high school. He was enrolled at Arlington High School when he moved in with his biological father and eventually dropped out. He joined the US Navy when he was just 17 years old and served two stints in Vietnam.
Life after coming back was not easy for him, and Bolton has spoken about having to deal with PTSD not only from his time in the military but also from his childhood experiences. He later married and divorced and has said that he went through a period when he was drinking heavily. Eventually, he sought help and was able to turn his life around. He worked for a vending machine company before obtaining his real estate license. He decided to flip houses and made a good living for himself. When John Wayne Gacy was convicted in 1980 and Bolton heard about it, he did not pay much attention at first. It was only over time that he began to wonder whether the teenage boy he had encountered could have been Gacy.
Bolton even got in touch with an attorney who had worked on the case and who supposedly told him about Gacy also working in summer camps as a teenager. Bolton also realized that at one point, he had lived near Gacy’s infamous Norwood Park Township house. In 2019, Bolton published his book, ‘A Hike Around the Lake: My Story of John Wayne Gacy.’ He has spoken publicly about his experiences in various television shows and documentaries, including A&E’s ‘Invisible Monsters: Serial Killers in America.’ He is still living in Chicago, Illinois, and has otherwise maintained a relatively low profile.
Patrick Dati is an Advocate for Male Abuse Survivors Today
Patrick Dati grew up in a devout Catholic Italian-Irish household in Chicago, Illinois. In January 1972, when he was around 9 years old, he went to the bathroom at the Goldblatt’s department store located at the intersection of Belmont and Central. Dati has said that it was there that he was assaulted by a man who threatened to kill him if he told anyone what had happened. Along with the trauma, he also carried a great deal of guilt and kept the incident to himself for many years. On December 21, 1978, as a teenager, Dati was at a friend’s house when he saw news reports about the arrest of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. He immediately recognized Gacy as the man he believed had attacked him when he was a child.
Despite this realization, Dati did not tell anyone until 2011, when investigators renewed efforts to identify additional alleged victims of Gacy. Dati has spoken about the burden he carried and his belief that coming forward earlier might have helped prevent other young boys from being harmed. In 2014, he published his book, I Am Me: Survivor of Child Abuse and Bullying Speaks Out, in which he detailed his experiences with childhood bullying and his relationship with his family. He also wrote about his identity as a gay man and what that meant while growing up in his household. Dati has shared that he was married twice and has a daughter, but by 2014, he had embraced his authentic self. At the time, he was living with his partner, Greg.
Over the years, Dati has become an advocate for survivors of child abuse and has worked closely with organizations such as the National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse and the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). He is also a public speaker who has shared his story of resilience and healing with audiences across the country. He has also been encouraging dialogue for male abuse survivors. Although he prefers to keep much of his personal life private, he appears to have found peace and purpose. Dati’s courage has inspired many people, and his willingness to speak out has helped others feel less alone in their own journeys.
Tony Antonucci Testified Against John Wayne Gacy at His Trial
Anthony Antonucci had been employed by John Wayne Gacy’s construction company, PDM Contractors, in Des Plaines, Illinois, as an apprentice. He was just 15 years old when he was hired in May 1975. One day, he stepped on a nail and had to get a tetanus shot, something Gacy knew about. Anthony has said that a few days later, when his parents were not home, Gacy came to his house with a bottle of wine, and the two drank together. At the time, Anthony was on his school’s wrestling team, and the man who would later be identified as a serial killer challenged him to a wrestling match. Anthony said that during the encounter, Gacy took out a pair of handcuffs and allegedly managed to secure one of his wrists.
However, Anthony was a skilled wrestler, and when Gacy briefly left the room and returned, he said he was able to turn the tables and handcuff the 33-year-old instead. After some time, Gacy calmed down, and Anthony eventually released him. In February 1980, when Gacy stood trial on charges related to 33 murders, Anthony was called as a witness by the prosecution. He described the incident under oath, which helped to strengthen the case against Gacy.
Since then, Anthony has spoken about his experience and encounter in several television series and documentaries, including the TV series’ World’s Most Evil Killers’ in 2017, ‘Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes’ in 2022, and ‘The John Wayne Gacy Murders: Life and Death in Chicago’ in 2023. He has repeatedly stated that he refuses to let this single experience define who he is as a person and that it has not overwhelmingly shaped the course of his life. Anthony has shared very little about other aspects of his personal life and generally prefers to keep his public appearances and engagements to a minimum.
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