Gacy, State Drop Last-Minute Lawsuits

The Lawsuits Over the Cost of Gacy’s Imprisonment Could Have Been Used to Delay Tuesday’s Scheduled Execution.
by Chicago (AP)

Lawyers for condemned serial killer John Wayne Gacy and the state agreed Wednesday to end their civil court battle over the costs of Gacy’s incarceration. The Illinois attorney general’s office had sued Gacy in Randolph County to try to recover the costs of keeping him on death row for 14 years. The state contended Gacy had made money while in prison through the sale of his paintings and a recently disconnected pay-per-call 900 telephone number. Al Manning, a spokesman for Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris, said the state was seeking $141,000. In a countersuit, Gacy contended he was living in unsanitary conditions at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester.

“The attorney general has agreed to dismiss its lawsuit in return for Gacy’s attorneys dropping the countersuit,” Manning said. Greg Adamski, an attorney for Gacy, confirmed the agreement to dismiss the lawsuits. “We were working to get the case closed by Friday,” Adamski said. “The state didn’t want Gacy to be testifying. They offered to dismiss their case if we dismissed our case.” But Manning said the state was afraid Gacy and his attorneys would use the deposition process to delay the convicted serial killer’s execution by lethal injection, which is scheduled for Tuesday at the Statesville Correctional Center in Joliet. Gacy, 52, was convicted in 1980 of killing 33 young men and boys in the mid-1970s, more murders than anyone in U.S. history up to that date. In most cases, Gacy had sex with his victims, then tortured and strangled them.

He originally was scheduled to die June 2, 1980, but appeals have kept him alive since then. Adamski said he did not know the contents of Gacy’s will, but he wanted to make sure whatever assets Gacy has will go wherever Gacy wants them to. He cared about making sure that whatever rights that he had to books, or art, were protected a after his death,’ 99 Adamski said. Manning said the state does not know how much money Gacy may have, since the inmate transferred most of the funds out of his primary bank account after the state’s lawsuit was filed. “We’re sure there’s only an insignificant amount in that account,” Manning said.