Draft:Murder of Robert Piest

Robert Piest (16 Mar 1963 - 11 Dec 1978) was the final victim of serial killer and sex offender John Wayne Gacy. He was lured into Gacy's home with a job offering at PDM Contractors, and then strangled to death with the signature "rope trick." His abduction from Nisson Pharmacy set off a Des Plaines police department investigation that led to the discovery of Gacy's crimes.

Background
Robert Piest was born at Des Plaines, Illinois, U.S. on March 16, 1963 to parents Harold (1932-2006) and Elizabeth (1932-2021) Piest, and was the youngest of three children (Ken (1954-2007) and Kerry (1957-)). He attended Maine West High School and was involved in the school's extra curricular activities such as swimming and aerobics. Piest also was a member of a Des Plaines Boy Scouts troop, and reportedly on the verge of winning an Eagle Scout merit badge at the time of his death.

According to his parents, Piest had aspirations of becoming an astronaut. He also enjoyed Outdoor recreation and sought a jeep for his planned 16th birthday to better access and explore difficult wilderness terrain.

Murder
On December 11, 1978, Piest was working a daily shift as a clerk with his friend and occasional girlfriend, Kim Byers, at Nisson Pharmacy while Gacy was hired to renovate it. Gacy engaged in a conversation about employing teenage boys at his contracting business with Nisson Pharmacy's owner, Phil Torf, in front of Piest, and mentioned that he gave his workers higher wages then what was offered at the pharmacy. Piest then approached Gacy about a potential job offering, and the two agreed to converse after the pharmacy's closing.

Elizabeth was also celebrating her 46th birthday on that day, and arrived at the pharmacy to pick him up for a party with their family. Before he left with Gacy, Byers returned a coat that she borrowed from Piest, and Piest promised his mother that he would return to her after speaking with "that contractor."

He was then driven to Gacy's home after the older man claimed he needed to get ahold of documents for the job application. According to Gacy's contradicting accounts given to his lawyers and the detectives interrogating him, he conversed with Piest at his dining table, and made predatory advances and offered him alcohol. Piest brushed them aside and continued questioning about the job.

When he noticed and inquired about the clown paintings that decorated his walls, Gacy mentioned that he worked as a clown and tricked Piest into putting on handcuffs as part of a “magic trick.” What exactly occurred afterwards is unclear due to Gacy conflicting himself with his retellings, but he garroted Piest with rope after luring or dragging him into his bedroom.

As Piest was convulsing on his floor, Gacy received a phone call from a business partner. He placed Piest’s own boxers down the body’s throat to prevent leaking and allegedly slept with it in his bed.

Investigation into disappearance
When Piest failed to return to her as he promised, Elizabeth repeatedly searched around the pharmacy for him. She asked a few co-workers, including Byers and Torf, about his whereabouts and they all reaffirmed that they last saw him speaking with Gacy.

She then returned home and organized a search with her husband Harold and remaining children, Kerry and Ken. Kerry took her car and one of the family's German Shepards, Ken took his van and the other German Shepard, and Harold took his own car. The three of them spent the entire night patrolling Des Plaines and Chicago, while Elizabeth stayed home and kept a vigil on the phone.

The next day, the family went and reported Piest missing to the Des Plaines Police Department, and heavily emphasized Gacy’s potential involvement. A taskforce was organized by Lieutenant Joseph Kozenczak, a father to one of Piest’s classmates, after they discovered Gacy’s past sodomy conviction against a 15 year old boy in Iowa and a pending charge for an Outstanding Battery complaint filed by a surviving victim, Jeffrey Rignall, in a background check.

Kozenczak then visited and questioned Gacy at his home, who adamantly denied having any contact with Piest, and stated that he had to arrange for an uncle’s funeral. Despite Gacy’s belligerent attitude towards the officers, he agreed to further questioning at the station. By his later admission, he was storing Piest’s corpse in his attic when Kozenczak arrived at his doorsteps.

On his way to the station, Gacy drove Piest’s body to the Des Plaines River and threw it off a bridge. He got his car struck while driving away from the scene and arrived at the station covered in mud. During questioning, Gacy repeated his denials to the interrogating officers.

While the investigators were probing Gacy, the Piest family conducted their own private investigation. According to Kozenczak, Ken and Kerry trailed his officers without them knowing to make sure that they were looking for their brother, and spied on the task force as they were questioning Gacy at his home. Harold and Kerry also tracked down Gacy’s address together through a Ukrainian Orthodox priest (who was an associate to the Piest family’s pastor). Gacy previously did some contracting on the Ukrainian priest’s church, and he gave Harold and Kerry the information they wanted. They drove up to Gacy’s residence, parked their car close to it, and then left after deciding that it would be best to leave it to the investigators. Harold also made several threats to storm Gacy's home for his son if a search warrant wasn't sought.

On December 13, the Des Plaines police department arranged for a search warrant with the concerns that Piest was being held captive in Gacy’s home. Although the officers initially couldn’t find any evidence for Piest’s presence, they discovered several suspicious items, such as handcuffs, pornographic novels pertaining to pedastry, police badges, sex toys, and clothing and high school rings belonging to other missing young men and teenage boys.

Further examinations of Gacy’s history linked him to the disappearances of several PDM employees, such as John Butkovich in 1974 and Gregory Godzik in 1976. With the amount of damning, but not yet incriminating, evidence against him, the Des Plaines police placed Gacy under a 24 hour surveillance. On December 21, Gacy was arrested for passing marijuana to a gas station attendant by the surveillance team, and he admitted to the murders in a drunken confession to his attorneys.

A photo receipt found in Gacy’s trash can was identified by Byers as the same receipt that she placed in Piest’s coat pockets as he disappeared. With the officers noting the smell of decomposition of bodies coming from the crawlspace in their visits to his home, a second search warrant of the home was organized.

In the second search, bodies of dozens of victims were uncovered from the crawlspace and other areas around the property, but Piest wasn’t among them.

Trial and Aftermath
Piest’s remains were found on April 9, 1979 floating in the Des Plaines River, and identified by dental records and x-ray examinations. He was one of 5 victims tossed into the river after Gacy’s crawl space became too full for further burials, and the last victim to be discovered. A service was held on April 18 at the Our Lady of Hope Church.

Gacy’s proceedings for the murders of Piest and the 32 other victims began on February 30, 1980. On March 30 of that same year, he received several death and life sentences for the killings, and was additionally convicted of taking indecent liberties with a child in reference to sexually abusing Piest.

In 1979, Piest's family founded the Robert Piest Foundation with the Maryvile Academy to help protect troubled youth from predators such as Gacy, and find them stable homes. Harold also filed wrongful suits against various directly or indirectly involved parties with his son's death. One of his suits was targeted towards Gacy, his attorneys, and an associated Houston publishing company, with the intentions of preventing them from profiting off the case.

Gacy was executed by lethal injection for the murders on May 10, 1994, some 14 years after his conviction.

Cited works

 * The Chicago Killer, by Joseph R. Kozenczak and Karen M. Kozenczak (ISBN 978-1401095314).
 * 
 * Feb 09, 1980, page 5 - Chicago Tribune at Newspapers.com [Chicago Tribune Sat, Feb 09, 1980]
 * Apr 16, 1981, page 11 - Chicago Tribune at Newspapers.com [Chicago Tribune Thu, Apr 16, 1981]
 * Jun 08, 1980, page 9 - The Park City Daily News at Newspapers.com [The Park City Daily News Sun, Jun 08, 1980]
 * Jun 08, 1980, page 9 - The Park City Daily News at Newspapers.com [The Park City Daily News Sun, Jun 08, 1980]