John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise

My wife and I watched the six episodes over 2 nights and thought it was very good. It brought back memories of watching the evening news with our parents to get an update on what they found at "Gacy's house" each evening.

We were both 12 years old when these crimes were discovered and obviously confused by some of the news updates. Though we will never forget the Gacy story, this documentary reminded each of us of information we had forgotten and 1-2 we were unaware of. Most of the show we recalled everything but the back stories made it very interesting, especially what the Des Plaines police officers shared. Great job by each of them.

Jay Levine should keep his mouth shut. He always tried to sensationalize every bit of information he shared when he was a reporter and he still tried in this show...yawn!

Gacy ostensibly voiced by Mel Blanc. Once you get past that, it is an eerily engaging doc done better than the recent Bundy or Ramirez docs from NetFlops. I enjoyed the interviews with the hardboiled detectives; firm-nerved storytellers and straight shooters that come across as characters from those great James Ellroy novels.

Much like Gacy overstayed his welcome after receiving the death sentence, so does this documentary. It starts off good, both speaking with investigators and the '92 interview with Gacy himself to go through the events leading up the discovery, investigation and trial.

However, after 4th episode, when the trial is concluded, it all comes crashing down to a snails pace. All investigators and original interviewees are no longer part of the doc, it's sporting an all new cast which focus a lot of inconclusive rumors and talking in circles on some specific evidence which should have been a smaller footnote in the story. All the content of episode 5 & 6 could have been condensed down and put in the prior 4 episodes and leave it at that. It really didn't need to go on for 2 hours.

That being said, it's still a good doc I would recommend watching the 4 first episodes. Then watch the last 2 only if you want some extra speculation.

This was billed as "hear Gacy speak for the first time", and yes he does and it is fascinating - but the complete interview seems to be only 30 - 40 minutes long and for 5 of the 6 episodes it is just padding. I was actually starting to fall asleep in places as the constant repetition over 5 episodes was so monotonous. The 6th episode "It Never Ends" was very good and did demonstrate that there was possibly more investigating that could have been done - and how arrogant the authorities are when it comes to others shining a light on this case. It would have made a good 3 part series.

I recently found this and was quite impressed with it and the level of research put into John Wayne Gacy.