Postmortem What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders

In the vein of the bestselling I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, this compelling work of true crime explores the aftershocks of "Killer Clown" John Wayne Gacy's crimes with a uniquely intimate slant, as the daughter of a key witness probes her mother's personal experiences and the legacy of murder within a family, a community, and the American psyche.

On a December night in 1978, Courtney Lund O’Neil’s mother, teenaged Kim Byers, saw her friend Rob Piest alive for the last time. At the end of his shift at the pharmacy where they both worked, fifteen-year-old Rob went outside to speak to a contractor named John Wayne Gacy about a possible job.

That night Rob became Gacy’s final victim; his body was later found in the Des Plaines River. Kim’s testimony, along with a receipt belonging to her found in Gacy’s house, proving that Rob had been there, would be pivotal in convicting the serial killer who assaulted and killed over thirty young men and boys.

Though she grew up far from Des Plaines, Courtney has lived in the shadow of that nightmare, keenly aware of its impact on her mother. In search of deeper understanding and closure, Courtney and Kim travel back to Illinois. Postmortem transforms their personal journey into a powerful exploration of the ever-widening ripples generated by Gacy’s crimes. From the 1970s to the present day, his shadow extends beyond the victims’ families and friends—it encompasses the Des Plaines neighborhood forever marked by his horrific murders, generations of the victims’ families and friends, those who helped arrest and convict him, fandom communities, and many others.

Layered and thought-provoking, Postmortem is a complex story of loss and violence, grief and guilt, and the legacy that remains long after a killer is caught.

Courtney Lund O’Neil teaches at the University of California and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Glamour, The Washington Post, Oprah Daily, Parents, Chicago Tribune, Harper’s Bazaar, and more. The recipient of the Marcia McQuern Award for excellence in Creative Nonfiction and the Marye Lynn Cummings Endowed Scholarship in both Creative Nonfiction and Poetry, she holds a PhD from Oklahoma State University and a MFA from University of California, Riverside. She lives with her husband and three children in Southern California and can be found online at CourtneyLund.com.