On October 17, 1977, 21-year-old white male Russell Lloyd Nelson, a University of Minnesota student from Duluth, Minnesota, called his mother to wish her a happy birthday. He had traveled to Chicago with another young man, reportedly to work for a contractor. Tragically, that was the last time his family heard from him. Nelson was later identified as one of the victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, known as the 'Killer Clown,' who raped, tortured, and murdered at least 33 young men and boys
between 1972 and 1978 in Norwood Park Township, near Chicago, Illinois.
After Nelson's disappearance, a man claiming to be his friend contacted Nelson's mother, stating that they had gone to a club together and that Nelson vanished while they were outside later in the evening. The caller offered to stay in Chicago to search for Nelson but requested money to cover expenses. Over the following week, he made several more calls, demanding money and threatening her. This prompted Nelson's brothers to travel to Chicago to confront the man, who then offered them jobs working for Gacy.
Nelson's remains were discovered beneath Gacy's house and identified through dental records on January 6, 1979. He was designated as 'Body #16' among the victims found in Gacy's crawl space. Nelson was Gacy's first known victim from outside the Chicago area.
John Wayne Gacy was arrested on December 21, 1978, and later convicted of 33 murders, making it the highest number of homicides committed by a single individual in United States legal history at that time. He was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection at Statesville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.
While Gacy acted alone in the murders, there has been speculation about potential accomplices. Gacy himself claimed that at the time of his arrest, there were four other suspects, three of whom worked for his construction company, P.D.M. Contractors. He alleged that one employee, Michael Rossi, had socialized with a victim, John Szyc, on the night of his murder. However, no one else was ever charged in connection with Gacy's crimes.
