Scenes of anguish at mass-murder trial

Press, 9 February 1980, Page 7

Scenes of anguish at mass-murder trial

NZPA-Reuter Chicago, Anguished mothers ofj murdered boys and young: men poured out their grief, in harrowing courtroom; scenes at the trial of the accused sex killer, John Gacy. I One woman collapsed ini the. witness box after identi-i fying the chain bracelet of I [her 14-year-old son, one of. [S3 voting males that Gacy is) (alleged to have sexually: abused and killed. The prosecution called nine mothers to tell the jury of seven men and five women how their sons disappeared. Several of the women broke down and sobbed as they identified colour photographs or personal belongings of their sons. Others cried softly, none able to hold back the tears. Some of the women jurors were close to weeping in the e m o t i o n-filled sixth-floor courtroom. Gacy, charged with more murders than anyone else in United States history, showed no signs of emotion through it all. The court proceedings

.were halted for half an hour [when one distraught mother, ■ Bessie Stapleton, fainted on •the witness stand after being [shown a bracelet her son, [Sam. once wore. I “Thai’s his bracelet.” she 'shrieked, then collapsed. 1 The bracelet was found [with Sain’s body in a mass [graveyard under Gacy’s [modest two-bedroom brick [home, dubbed the “house of ihorror” after 29 corpses! 'were dug up- there. ; The prosecution said Gacy. a 37-year-old homosexual building contractor, dumped his last four victims in a river when there was • no more room left under the house. Gacy, twice divorced and once convicted of sodomy, killed either because his victims wanted more money for ; sex acts or threatened to expose him as a homosexual, ■ the prosecutor said. The defence contends that he was chronically mentally ill, could not help himself and should be sent to an institution for life. The trial is expected to [last six to eight, weeks.