Postmortem : The murderous legacy of John Wayne Gacy - Courtney Lund O'Neil

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, teenager 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.