Dart to investigate claim that Gacy had accomplice

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Updated: March 13, 2012 10:36AM

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said Friday that he will ask his investigators to look into a theory that serial killer John Wayne Gacy had one or more accomplices.

Criminal defense attorneys Robert Stephenson and Steven Becker recently examined Gacy’s work and travel records and suspect he was out of town when victims Russell Nelson and Robert Gilroy disappeared in 1977.

They also think Gacy didn’t have enough time to abduct and kill victim John Mowery because he disappeared about 10 p.m. in Chicago and Gacy’s work records show he showed up at a job in Michigan at 6 a.m. the following day.

Dart said sheriff’s investigators were aware of the records before Gacy was convicted of 33 killings and executed, but Stephenson and Becker put them in a new context. Dart also said his office didn’t know certain information, such as a statement from Nelson’s mother saying a friend of her son offered her two other sons contracting jobs with Gacy after Russell Nelson disappeared.

Stephenson and Becker provided Dart with names of several possible accomplices of Gacy.

“Our goal is not to disprove this but go through their information to see whether it’s true,” Dart said, calling the attorneys’ scenarios “interesting.” Dart cautioned he can’t launch a full-blown re-investigation into the Gacy case because of the county budget woes and current cases that demand attention.