Murder of John Butkovich

John Butkovich (September 16, 1956 – July 31, 1975) was a Croatian American young man who disappeared on July 31, 1975. He was a victim of American serial killer and sex offender John Wayne Gacy, who murdered, raped and tortured at least 33 young men and boys between 1972 and 1978. Butkovich was killed by Gacy on the day of his disappearance and remained missing for three years before his body was unearthed from Gacy's home on December 22, 1978, and his remains were conclusively identified a week later on December 29, 1978.

Background
John Butkovich was born on September 16, 1956, in Slavonski Brod, Croatia, to parents Marko and Terezia Butkovich. His father, Marko Butkovich, was an immigrant from Yugoslavia. At some point later in their lives, the family moved to the United States, residing in the state of Illinois.

Around c. 1973, when Butkovich was 16 and still in high school, he was working in a hardware store when a man named John Wayne Gacy offered him a construction job in his PDM Contractors business. Gacy stated that Butkovich was a "tireless kid" who "learned fast." Gacy's wife, Carole Hoff, described Butkovich as a "very nice boy" who was at Gacy's house several times and had dinner with the couple. Hoff would nickname Butkovich as "Little John" and Gacy as "Big John." When Gacy's mother moved to Arkansas to be with Gacy's sister, Karen, and the rest of Karen's family, Butkovich helped her move there. During Butkovich's time working for Gacy, his and Hoff's marriage worsened, which led to Hoff doing much travelling with her daughters, who were stepdaughters to Gacy. In July 1975, she and the kids travelled to Arkansas to help Karen look after her and Gacy's mother, who had broken her hip. Hoff never saw Butkovich alive again.

Disappearance and murder
Unbeknownst to Butkovich, Gacy had previously committed at least two known murders; he killed a 16-year-old teenager called Timothy McCoy in January 1972 as well as an unidentified victim in 1974. In the evening of July 30, 1975, Butkovich arrived at one of his father's apartments, complaining to him that Gacy had not been paying him his check for the last two weeks worth of work. The elder Butkovich suggested that if Gacy continued to not pay him, John should inform authorities. Gacy claimed in a later account that in the morning of July 31, Butkovich and three other friends arrived at his house, threatening to "kick his ass" unless he gave him the check, with Gacy saying he would pay him after he got Butkovich's files. According to Gacy, things later calmed down and he presented the files on Butkovich, which stated that he owed Gacy $300. They eventually reached a compromise, with Gacy claiming that they all proceeded to smoke marijuana and drink beer before Butkovich and his friends left and Gacy fell asleep in his chair.

In the evening of that same day, Gacy was said to have encountered Butkovich exiting his car, waving to attract his attention. The drunk young man said to Gacy: "I wanna talk to ya," with the also drunk Gacy telling him to get in his car. He drove Butkovich back to his house, which was located in Norwood Park Township. When they arrived, Gacy stated that Butkovich started shouting at him, demanding for his check. Gacy managed to calm Butkovich down and then conned him into allowing his wrists to be handcuffed behind his back. Butkovich threatened Gacy by saying: "When I get these cuffs off, you're a dead man." Gacy told Butkovich that he wouldn't take the cuffs off until he "sobered up", adding: "If anyone gets killed, it's you John [Butkovich]." Gacy later admitted to having "sat on the kid's chest for a while" before laying down besides Butkovich and "kept the angry, drunken boy company until he came to his senses." Gacy confessed to strangling Butkovich to death; he was 18 years old.

Aftermath
After Butkovich's death, Gacy stowed the body in his garage, intending to bury the remains of Butkovich later in his crawl space along with Timothy McCoy's body. However, when his wife Carole Hoff and her daughters returned home from their trip to Arkansas earlier than expected, Gacy was forced to bury Butkovich's body under the concrete floor of the tool room extension of his garage in an empty space where he had originally intended to dig a drain tile. Gacy told Hoff that Butkovich had quit his job at PDM and had run away.

Butkovich's father, Marko Butkovich, later found his son's car abandoned with the keys in the ignition, which made him suspicious as his son would always park his car in the garage, but he didn't touch the car as he feared he could destroy evidence if he did. Marko then dialed the police, mentioning that his son had intended to confront Gacy the night before. When the police arrived, they checked inside the car and found John Butkovich's jacket as well as wallet containing $40. Gacy was then questioned by police, saying that John and two friends had arrived at his house demanding the overdue pay, but they had reached a compromise and all three had left and had likely disappeared after that. The police believed Gacy and told the Butkovich family that John was probably a runaway, but the family was sure he hadn't run away and feared for his life. For this reason, Marko directly phoned Gacy, who claimed he was happy to help search for his son but was sorry John had run away. For the next three years, Butkovich's parents called police over 100 times, urging them to investigate Gacy further, but police soon refused to take anymore calls from them.

Butkovich was only Gacy's third known victim. Between 1976 and 1978, Gacy would go on a killing spree, murdering at least 30 more victims, evading capture from the police for three years until his final arrest in December 1978.

Discovery
Butkovich's whereabouts remained a mystery for over three years. However, after 15-year-old Robert Piest mysteriously vanished without a trace in December 1978, Gacy would immediately become a suspect as he was one of the last people seen with Piest. The Des Plaines Police did a check of John Wayne Gacy's criminal background and found out that Gacy had a battery charge in Chicago and had also been sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1968 in Waterloo, Iowa, after being found guilty of sodomizing a then 15-year-old boy named Donald Voorhees Jr., who was the son of Donald E. Voorhees, in 1967, five years before Gacy murdered McCoy. As police suspected Gacy may be holding Piest hostage in the same house Butkovich was killed, the Des Plaines Police obtained a search warrant on December 13, 1978. They could not locate Piest, but they did find suspicious items, leading them to confiscate Gacy's vehicles and putting Gacy under surveillance.

On December 15, Des Plaines investigators obtained further details of Gacy's battery charge, learning Jeffrey Rignall had reported that Gacy had lured him into his car, then chloroformed, raped and tortured him before dumping him in Lincoln Park in March of that 1978. In an interview with Gacy's former wife, Carole Hoff who was fond of Butkovich, the same day they had learned of Butkovich's disappearance. Four days later, on December 19, investigators began compiling evidence to obtain a second search warrant for Gacy's house. The same day, Gacy's lawyers filed a $750,000 lawsuit against the Des Plaines police; the hearing for the suit was scheduled to take place on December 22. On December 21, the Des Plaines Police were granted a second search warrant. After police informed Gacy of their intentions to search his crawl space for the body of Piest, Gacy denied the teenager was buried there, but admitted to killing a young man in self-defence whose body was buried under his garage, whom he would later name as John Butkovich. Gacy was later arrested that day, and Butkovich's body was found under the garage, along with 26 other victims stored in his crawl space who were unearthed over the next week, with two others also being unearthed elsewhere on his property.

Investigation
Butkovich was the second overall victim of to be recovered, being labelled as Body 2. Just a week after being discovered, Body 2 was conclusively identified as John Butkovich on December 29, 1978; he was among the first victims to be identified. On February 6, 1980, Gacy was brough to trial. On March 13, Gacy was found guilty of 33 counts of murder, as well as one count of indecent liberties with a child and deviate sexual assault. He was sentenced to execution and was transferred to the Menard Correctional Center, where he remained on death row for 14 years before being executed by lethal injection at the Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994, aged 52.

Funeral
Soon after his identification, a funeral was held for Butkovich and he was buried at the Queen of Heaven Cemetery in the village of Hillside, Illinois. His tombstone depicts an angel praying to Jesus Christ; it also contains his father's name, who passed away in 1998. The inscription upon his tombstone reads: "Eternal Rest, Grant Unto Them O'Lord. Our Son Johnny."