Daddychill23823: /* Disappearance and murder */
{{short description|1975 murder in Illinois, U.S.}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = John Butkovich
| image = File:JohnButkovich.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = John Butkovich, {{circa}} 1975
| birth_name = John Butkovich
| birth_date = {{Birth date text|September 16, 1956}}
| birth_place = [[Slavonski Brod]], [[Croatia]]
| death_date = {{Death-date and age|July 31, 1975|September 16, 1956}}
| death_place = [[Norwood Park Township, Cook County, Illinois|Norwood Park Township]], [[Illinois]], U.S.
| death_cause = [[Murder]] by [[strangulation]]
| body_discovered = December 22, 1978<br>Norwood Park Township, Illinois, U.S.
| resting_place = [[Queen of Heaven Cemetery]], [[Hillside, Illinois]], U.S.
| monuments =
| other_names = Body 2
| citizenship =
| known_for = Victim of [[John Wayne Gacy]]
| height =
| relatives =
| awards =
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| signature_size =
| module =
| footnotes =
}}
'''John Butkovich''' (September 16, 1956 – July 31, 1975) was a [[Croatian American]] young man who disappeared on July 31, 1975. He was a victim of American [[serial killer]] and [[sex offender]] [[John Wayne Gacy]], who murdered, raped and tortured at least 33 young men and boys between 1972 and 1978. Butkovich was killed by Gacy on the day of his disappearance, and remained missing for three years before his body was unearthed from Gacy's home on December 22, 1978, and his remains were conclusively identified a week later on December 29, 1978.<ref name=search>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PEEsAAAAIBAJ&pg=2963,232748|title=Search at Gacy Home to Resume|newspaper=[[Spartanburg Herald-Journal]]|date=January 1, 1979|via=Google News}} {{Open access}}</ref>
==Background==
[[File:John Butkovich Chicago Tribune 13 March 1980 edition.jpg|upright|right|thumb|Butkovich in 1973]]
John Butkovich was born on September 16, 1956, in [[Slavonski Brod]], [[Croatia]], to parents Marko and Terezia Butkovich. His father, Marko Butkovich, was an immigrant from [[Yugoslavia]]. At some point later in their lives, the family moved to the [[United States]], residing in the state of [[Illinois]].
Around {{circa}} 1973, when Butkovich was 16 and still in high school, he was working in a [[hardware store]] when a man named [[John Wayne Gacy]] offered him a construction job in his PDM Contractors business. Gacy stated that Butkovich was a "tireless kid" who "learned fast." Gacy's wife, Carole Hoff, described Butkovich as a "very nice boy" who was at Gacy's house several times and had dinner with the couple. Hoff would nickname Butkovich as "Little John" and Gacy as "Big John." When Gacy's mother moved to [[Arkansas]] to be with Gacy's sister, Karen, and the rest of Karen's family, Butkovich helped her move there. During Butkovich's time working for Gacy, his and Hoff's marriage worsened, which led to Hoff doing much travelling with her daughters, who were stepdaughters to Gacy. In July 1975, she and the kids travelled to Arkansas to help Karen look after her and Gacy's mother, who had broke her hip. Hoff never saw Butkovich alive again.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|p=131-134}}
==Disappearance and murder==
Unbeknownst to Butkovich, Gacy had previously committed at least two known murders; he killed a 16-year-old teenager called [[Murder of Timothy McCoy|Timothy McCoy]] in January 1972<ref>{{cite news|last=Locin|first=Mitchell|url=https://web.archive.org/web/2020030...1986-05-10-8602020800-story.html|title=GACY'S 1ST VICTIM FINALLY IDENTIFIED|newspaper=[[The Chicago Tribune]]|date=May 10, 1986}} {{Open access}}</ref> as well as an unidentified victim in 1974.{{efn|The unidentified male youth was estimated to have been between the ages of 14–18.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://doenetwork.org/cases/954umil.html|title=Case File 954UMIL|publisher=[[The Doe Network]]|access-date=July 18, 2010|archive-date=July 25, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725124108/http://doenetwork.org/cases/954umil.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{cite web|url=https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/11006|title=NamUs – Case Report # 11006|publisher=[[National Missing and Unidentified Persons System]]|access-date=May 29, 2018|archive-date=June 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2019060...identifiedPersons/Case#/11006|url-status=live}}</ref>}} In the evening of July 30, 1975, Butkovich arrived at one of his father's apartments, complaining to him that Gacy had not been paying him his check for the last two weeks worth of work.{{efn|Butkovich's father had saved up the money he had earned as a [[janitor]] and invested it into several apartment buildings, with the younger Butkovich living rent-free in an apartment that his father owned.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|p=134}}}} The elder Butkovich suggested that if Gacy continued to not pay him, John should inform authorities. Gacy claimed in a later account that in the morning of July 31, Butkovich and three other friends arrived at his house, threatening to "kick his ass" unless he gave him the check, with Gacy saying he would pay him after he "*****" Butkovich's files. According to Gacy, things later calmed down and he presented the files on Butkovich, which stated that he owed Gacy $300. They eventually reached a compromise, with Gacy claiming that they all proceeded to smoke [[marijuana]] and drink [[beer]] before Butkovich and his friends left and Gacy fell asleep in his chair.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|p=134-135}}
In the evening of that same day, Gacy was said to encountered Butkovich exiting his car, waving to attract his attention. The drunk young man said to Gacy: "I wanna talk to ya," with the also drunk Gacy telling him to get in his car. He drove Butkovich back to his house, which was located in [[Norwood Park Township, Cook County, Illinois|Norwood Park Township]]. When they arrived, Gacy stated that Butkovich started shouting at him, demanding for his check. Gacy managed to calm Butkovich down and then conned him into allowing his wrists to be [[handcuff|handcuffed]] behind his back. Butkovich threatened Gacy by saying: "When I get these cuffs off, you're a dead man." Gacy told Butkovich that he wouldn't take the cuffs off until he "sobered up", adding: "If anyone gets killed, it's you John [Butkovich]." Gacy later admitted to having "sat on the kid's chest for a while" before laying down besides Butkovich and "kept the angry, drunken boy company until he came to his senses." Gacy confessed to [[strangulation|strangling]] Butkovich to death; he was 18 years old.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|p=135-139}}
===Aftermath===
After Butkovich's death, Gacy stowed body in his garage, intending to bury the remains of Butkovich later in his [[crawl space]] along with Timothy McCoy's body. However, when his wife Carole Hoff and her daughters returned home from their trip to [[Arkansas]] earlier than expected, Gacy was forced to bury Butkovich's body under the concrete floor of the tool room extension of his garage in an empty space where he had originally intended to dig a drain tile. Gacy told Hoff that Butkovich had quit his job at PDM and had run away.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|p=134, 139-140}}
Butkovich's father, Marko Butkovich, later found his son's car abandoned with the keys in the ignition, which made him suspicious as his son would always park his car in the garage, but he didn't touch the car as he feared he could destroy evidence if he did. Marko then dialed the police, mentioning that his son had intended to confront Gacy the night before. When the police arrived, they checked inside the car and found John Butkovich's jacket as well as wallet containing $40. Gacy was then questioned by police, saying that John and two friends had arrived at his house demanding the overdue pay, but they had reached a compromise and all three had left and had likely disappeared after that. The police believed Gacy and told the Butkovich family that John was probably a runaway, but the family was sure he hadn't run away and feared for his life. For this reason, Marko directly phoned Gacy, who claimed he was happy to help search for his son but was sorry John had run away. For the next three years, Butkovich's parents called police over 100 times, urging them to investigate Gacy further, but police soon refused to take anymore calls from them.{{sfn|Linedecker|1980|pp=83–87}}{{sfn|Cahill|1986|p=140-142}}
Butkovich was only Gacy's third known victim. Between 1976 and 1978, Gacy would go on a killing spree, murdering at least 30 more victims, evading capture from the police for six years until his final arrest in December 1978.
==Discovery==
Butkovich's whereabouts remained a mystery for over three years. However, after 15-year-old [[John Wayne Gacy#Murder of Robert Piest|Robert Piest]] mysteriously vanished without a trace in December 1978, Gacy would immediately become a suspect as he was one of the last people seen with Piest. The Des Plaines Police did a check of John Wayne Gacy's criminal background and found out that Gacy had a [[Battery (crime)|battery]] charge in [[Chicago]] and had also been sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1968 in [[Waterloo, Iowa]] after being found guilty of [[sodomy|sodomizing]] a then 15-year-old boy named [[John Wayne Gacy#Assault of Donald Voorhees|Donald Voorhees Jr.]], who was the son of [[Donald E. Voorhees]], in 1967, five years before Gacy murdered McCoy.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=17–28}} As police suspected Gacy may be holding Piest hostage in the same house Butkovich was killed, the Des Plaines Police obtained a [[search warrant]] on December 13, 1978. They could not locate Piest, but they did find suspicious items, leading them to confiscate Gacy's vehicles and putting Gacy under [[surveillance]].{{sfn|Hunter|2022|p=156}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thewrap.com/john-wayne-...ions-peacock-series-killer-clown/|title='John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise': 11 Shocking Revelations from Peacock's Series About the Killer Clown|work=thewrap.com|date=March 25, 2021|access-date=December 31, 2021|archive-date=December 31, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2021123...-peacock-series-killer-clown/|url-status=live}}</ref>
On December 15, Des Plaines investigators obtained further details of Gacy's battery charge, learning [[Jeffrey Rignall]] had reported that Gacy had lured him into his car, then chloroformed, raped and tortured him before dumping him in Lincoln Park in March of that 1978. In an interview with Gacy's former wife, Carole Hoff who was fond of Butkovich, the same day they had learned of Butkovich's disappearance.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=84–93}} Four days later, on December 19, investigators began compiling evidence to obtain a second search warrant for Gacy's house. The same day, Gacy's lawyers filed a $750,000 [[lawsuit]] against the Des Plaines police; the hearing for the suit was scheduled to take place on December 22. On December 21, the Des Plaines Police were granted a second search warrant.{{sfn|Amirante|2011|p=171}} After police informed Gacy of their intentions to search his crawl space for the body of Piest, Gacy denied the teenager was buried there, but admitted to killing a young man in self-defence whose body was buried under his garage, whom he would later name as John Butkovich. Gacy was later arrested that day, and Butkovich's body was found under the garage, along with 26 other victims stored in his crawl space who were unearthed over the next week, with two others also being unearthed elsewhere on his property.<ref name=Timeline>{{cite news|last=Rumore|first=Kofi|url=https://web.archive.org/web/2020092...e-gacy-timeline-htmlstory.html|title=Timeline: Suburban serial killer John Wayne Gacy and the efforts to recover, name his 33 victims|newspaper=[[The Chicago Tribune]]|date=December 17, 2018}} {{Open access}}</ref>
==Investigation==
Butkovich was the second overall victim of to be recovered, being labelled as Body 2. Just a week after being discovered, Body 2 was conclusively identified as John Butkovich on December 29, 1978; he was among the first victims to be identified.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=360–374}} On February 6, 1980, Gacy was brough to trial.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4zogAAAAIBAJ&pg=6515,4117798|title=Speedup Sought In Gacy Trial|newspaper=[[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]]|date=November 23, 1979|agency=AP|page=6|via=Google News|access-date=July 20, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2020100...AAAAIBAJ&pg=6515,4117798|archive-date=October 6, 2020}} {{Open access}}</ref> On March 13, Gacy was found guilty of 33 counts of murder, as well as one count of indecent liberties with a child and [[Rape laws in the United States|deviate sexual assault]]. He was sentenced to execution and was transferred to the [[Menard Correctional Center]], where he remained on [[death row]] for 14 years before being [[execution|executed]] by [[lethal injection]] at the [[Stateville Correctional Center]] on May 10, 1994, aged 52.
==Funeral==
Soon after his identification, a funeral was held for Butkovich and he was buried at the [[Queen of Heaven Cemetery]] in the village of [[Hillside, Illinois|Hillside]], [[Illinois]]. His [[tombstone]] depicts an angel praying to [[Jesus Christ]]; it also contains his father's name, as he would also pass away in 1998. The inscription upon his tombstone reads: "Eternal Rest, Grant Unto Them O'Lord. Our Son Johnny."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/175169361/john-butkovich|title=John “Johnny” Butkovich (1956-1975) - Find a Grave Memorial|website=[[Find a Grave]]|date=January 10, 2017}}</ref>
==See also==
* [[Crime in Illinois]]
* [[John Wayne Gacy]]
* [[List of solved missing person cases: pre-2000]]
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{reflist|20em}}
==Cited works and further reading==
* {{cite book|last1=Amirante|first1=Sam L.|last2=Broderick|first2=Danny|title=John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2...kyhorse|year=2011|isbn=978-1-61608-248-2|ref={{harvid|Amirante|2011}}}}
* {{cite book|last=Cahill|first=Tim|author-link=Tim Cahill (writer)|title=Buried Dreams: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer|url=https://archive.org/details/burieddreamsinsi00cahi|publisher=[[Bantam Books]]|year=1993|orig-year=1986|isbn=978-1-857-02084-7|oclc=12421532|ref={{harvid|Cahill|1986}}}}
* {{cite book|last=Hunter|first=Brad|title=Inside the Mind of John Wayne Gacy: The Real-Life Killer Clown|publisher=Ad Lib Publishers|year=2022|isbn=978-1-802-47076-5|ref={{harvid|Hunter|2022}}}}
* {{cite book|last=Linedecker|first=Clifford L.|author-link=Clifford L. Linedecker|title=The Man Who Killed Boys: A True Story of Mass Murder in a Chicago Suburb|url=https://archive.org/details/manwhokilledboys0000line|url-access=registration|publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]]|year=1980|edition=First|isbn=0-312-51157-4|oclc=5564916}}
* {{cite book|last1=Sullivan|first1=Terry|last2=Maiken|first2=Peter T.|title=Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders|publisher=[[Kensington Books#Imprints|Pinnacle]]|year=2000|edition=Paperback|isbn=0-7860-1422-9|oclc=156783287|ref={{harvid|Sullivan|2000}}}}
==External links==
* {{Find a Grave|175169361|John "Johnny" Butkovich}}
{{commons category|John Butkovich}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Butkovich, John}}
[[Category:1956 births]]
[[Category:1975 deaths]]
[[Category:1970s missing person cases]]
[[Category:1975 in Illinois]]
[[Category:1975 murders in the United States]]
[[Category
eaths by person in Illinois]]
[[Category:Victims of serial killers]]
[[Category:Incidents of violence against men]]
[[Categoryeople from Slavonski Brod]]
[[Categoryeople from Illinois]]
[[Category:Chicago]]
[[Category:Missing person cases in Illinois]]
[[Category:July 1975 events in the United States]]
[[Categoryeaths by strangulation in the United States]]
[[Category:Crimes in Chicago]]
[[Category:Violence against men in North America]]
[[Category:Formerly missing people]]
[[Category:John Wayne Gacy]]
Okumaya devam et...
{{short description|1975 murder in Illinois, U.S.}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = John Butkovich
| image = File:JohnButkovich.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = John Butkovich, {{circa}} 1975
| birth_name = John Butkovich
| birth_date = {{Birth date text|September 16, 1956}}
| birth_place = [[Slavonski Brod]], [[Croatia]]
| death_date = {{Death-date and age|July 31, 1975|September 16, 1956}}
| death_place = [[Norwood Park Township, Cook County, Illinois|Norwood Park Township]], [[Illinois]], U.S.
| death_cause = [[Murder]] by [[strangulation]]
| body_discovered = December 22, 1978<br>Norwood Park Township, Illinois, U.S.
| resting_place = [[Queen of Heaven Cemetery]], [[Hillside, Illinois]], U.S.
| monuments =
| other_names = Body 2
| citizenship =
| known_for = Victim of [[John Wayne Gacy]]
| height =
| relatives =
| awards =
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| signature_size =
| module =
| footnotes =
}}
'''John Butkovich''' (September 16, 1956 – July 31, 1975) was a [[Croatian American]] young man who disappeared on July 31, 1975. He was a victim of American [[serial killer]] and [[sex offender]] [[John Wayne Gacy]], who murdered, raped and tortured at least 33 young men and boys between 1972 and 1978. Butkovich was killed by Gacy on the day of his disappearance, and remained missing for three years before his body was unearthed from Gacy's home on December 22, 1978, and his remains were conclusively identified a week later on December 29, 1978.<ref name=search>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PEEsAAAAIBAJ&pg=2963,232748|title=Search at Gacy Home to Resume|newspaper=[[Spartanburg Herald-Journal]]|date=January 1, 1979|via=Google News}} {{Open access}}</ref>
==Background==
[[File:John Butkovich Chicago Tribune 13 March 1980 edition.jpg|upright|right|thumb|Butkovich in 1973]]
John Butkovich was born on September 16, 1956, in [[Slavonski Brod]], [[Croatia]], to parents Marko and Terezia Butkovich. His father, Marko Butkovich, was an immigrant from [[Yugoslavia]]. At some point later in their lives, the family moved to the [[United States]], residing in the state of [[Illinois]].
Around {{circa}} 1973, when Butkovich was 16 and still in high school, he was working in a [[hardware store]] when a man named [[John Wayne Gacy]] offered him a construction job in his PDM Contractors business. Gacy stated that Butkovich was a "tireless kid" who "learned fast." Gacy's wife, Carole Hoff, described Butkovich as a "very nice boy" who was at Gacy's house several times and had dinner with the couple. Hoff would nickname Butkovich as "Little John" and Gacy as "Big John." When Gacy's mother moved to [[Arkansas]] to be with Gacy's sister, Karen, and the rest of Karen's family, Butkovich helped her move there. During Butkovich's time working for Gacy, his and Hoff's marriage worsened, which led to Hoff doing much travelling with her daughters, who were stepdaughters to Gacy. In July 1975, she and the kids travelled to Arkansas to help Karen look after her and Gacy's mother, who had broke her hip. Hoff never saw Butkovich alive again.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|p=131-134}}
==Disappearance and murder==
Unbeknownst to Butkovich, Gacy had previously committed at least two known murders; he killed a 16-year-old teenager called [[Murder of Timothy McCoy|Timothy McCoy]] in January 1972<ref>{{cite news|last=Locin|first=Mitchell|url=https://web.archive.org/web/2020030...1986-05-10-8602020800-story.html|title=GACY'S 1ST VICTIM FINALLY IDENTIFIED|newspaper=[[The Chicago Tribune]]|date=May 10, 1986}} {{Open access}}</ref> as well as an unidentified victim in 1974.{{efn|The unidentified male youth was estimated to have been between the ages of 14–18.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://doenetwork.org/cases/954umil.html|title=Case File 954UMIL|publisher=[[The Doe Network]]|access-date=July 18, 2010|archive-date=July 25, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725124108/http://doenetwork.org/cases/954umil.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{cite web|url=https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/11006|title=NamUs – Case Report # 11006|publisher=[[National Missing and Unidentified Persons System]]|access-date=May 29, 2018|archive-date=June 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2019060...identifiedPersons/Case#/11006|url-status=live}}</ref>}} In the evening of July 30, 1975, Butkovich arrived at one of his father's apartments, complaining to him that Gacy had not been paying him his check for the last two weeks worth of work.{{efn|Butkovich's father had saved up the money he had earned as a [[janitor]] and invested it into several apartment buildings, with the younger Butkovich living rent-free in an apartment that his father owned.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|p=134}}}} The elder Butkovich suggested that if Gacy continued to not pay him, John should inform authorities. Gacy claimed in a later account that in the morning of July 31, Butkovich and three other friends arrived at his house, threatening to "kick his ass" unless he gave him the check, with Gacy saying he would pay him after he "*****" Butkovich's files. According to Gacy, things later calmed down and he presented the files on Butkovich, which stated that he owed Gacy $300. They eventually reached a compromise, with Gacy claiming that they all proceeded to smoke [[marijuana]] and drink [[beer]] before Butkovich and his friends left and Gacy fell asleep in his chair.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|p=134-135}}
In the evening of that same day, Gacy was said to encountered Butkovich exiting his car, waving to attract his attention. The drunk young man said to Gacy: "I wanna talk to ya," with the also drunk Gacy telling him to get in his car. He drove Butkovich back to his house, which was located in [[Norwood Park Township, Cook County, Illinois|Norwood Park Township]]. When they arrived, Gacy stated that Butkovich started shouting at him, demanding for his check. Gacy managed to calm Butkovich down and then conned him into allowing his wrists to be [[handcuff|handcuffed]] behind his back. Butkovich threatened Gacy by saying: "When I get these cuffs off, you're a dead man." Gacy told Butkovich that he wouldn't take the cuffs off until he "sobered up", adding: "If anyone gets killed, it's you John [Butkovich]." Gacy later admitted to having "sat on the kid's chest for a while" before laying down besides Butkovich and "kept the angry, drunken boy company until he came to his senses." Gacy confessed to [[strangulation|strangling]] Butkovich to death; he was 18 years old.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|p=135-139}}
===Aftermath===
After Butkovich's death, Gacy stowed body in his garage, intending to bury the remains of Butkovich later in his [[crawl space]] along with Timothy McCoy's body. However, when his wife Carole Hoff and her daughters returned home from their trip to [[Arkansas]] earlier than expected, Gacy was forced to bury Butkovich's body under the concrete floor of the tool room extension of his garage in an empty space where he had originally intended to dig a drain tile. Gacy told Hoff that Butkovich had quit his job at PDM and had run away.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|p=134, 139-140}}
Butkovich's father, Marko Butkovich, later found his son's car abandoned with the keys in the ignition, which made him suspicious as his son would always park his car in the garage, but he didn't touch the car as he feared he could destroy evidence if he did. Marko then dialed the police, mentioning that his son had intended to confront Gacy the night before. When the police arrived, they checked inside the car and found John Butkovich's jacket as well as wallet containing $40. Gacy was then questioned by police, saying that John and two friends had arrived at his house demanding the overdue pay, but they had reached a compromise and all three had left and had likely disappeared after that. The police believed Gacy and told the Butkovich family that John was probably a runaway, but the family was sure he hadn't run away and feared for his life. For this reason, Marko directly phoned Gacy, who claimed he was happy to help search for his son but was sorry John had run away. For the next three years, Butkovich's parents called police over 100 times, urging them to investigate Gacy further, but police soon refused to take anymore calls from them.{{sfn|Linedecker|1980|pp=83–87}}{{sfn|Cahill|1986|p=140-142}}
Butkovich was only Gacy's third known victim. Between 1976 and 1978, Gacy would go on a killing spree, murdering at least 30 more victims, evading capture from the police for six years until his final arrest in December 1978.
==Discovery==
Butkovich's whereabouts remained a mystery for over three years. However, after 15-year-old [[John Wayne Gacy#Murder of Robert Piest|Robert Piest]] mysteriously vanished without a trace in December 1978, Gacy would immediately become a suspect as he was one of the last people seen with Piest. The Des Plaines Police did a check of John Wayne Gacy's criminal background and found out that Gacy had a [[Battery (crime)|battery]] charge in [[Chicago]] and had also been sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1968 in [[Waterloo, Iowa]] after being found guilty of [[sodomy|sodomizing]] a then 15-year-old boy named [[John Wayne Gacy#Assault of Donald Voorhees|Donald Voorhees Jr.]], who was the son of [[Donald E. Voorhees]], in 1967, five years before Gacy murdered McCoy.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=17–28}} As police suspected Gacy may be holding Piest hostage in the same house Butkovich was killed, the Des Plaines Police obtained a [[search warrant]] on December 13, 1978. They could not locate Piest, but they did find suspicious items, leading them to confiscate Gacy's vehicles and putting Gacy under [[surveillance]].{{sfn|Hunter|2022|p=156}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thewrap.com/john-wayne-...ions-peacock-series-killer-clown/|title='John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise': 11 Shocking Revelations from Peacock's Series About the Killer Clown|work=thewrap.com|date=March 25, 2021|access-date=December 31, 2021|archive-date=December 31, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2021123...-peacock-series-killer-clown/|url-status=live}}</ref>
On December 15, Des Plaines investigators obtained further details of Gacy's battery charge, learning [[Jeffrey Rignall]] had reported that Gacy had lured him into his car, then chloroformed, raped and tortured him before dumping him in Lincoln Park in March of that 1978. In an interview with Gacy's former wife, Carole Hoff who was fond of Butkovich, the same day they had learned of Butkovich's disappearance.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=84–93}} Four days later, on December 19, investigators began compiling evidence to obtain a second search warrant for Gacy's house. The same day, Gacy's lawyers filed a $750,000 [[lawsuit]] against the Des Plaines police; the hearing for the suit was scheduled to take place on December 22. On December 21, the Des Plaines Police were granted a second search warrant.{{sfn|Amirante|2011|p=171}} After police informed Gacy of their intentions to search his crawl space for the body of Piest, Gacy denied the teenager was buried there, but admitted to killing a young man in self-defence whose body was buried under his garage, whom he would later name as John Butkovich. Gacy was later arrested that day, and Butkovich's body was found under the garage, along with 26 other victims stored in his crawl space who were unearthed over the next week, with two others also being unearthed elsewhere on his property.<ref name=Timeline>{{cite news|last=Rumore|first=Kofi|url=https://web.archive.org/web/2020092...e-gacy-timeline-htmlstory.html|title=Timeline: Suburban serial killer John Wayne Gacy and the efforts to recover, name his 33 victims|newspaper=[[The Chicago Tribune]]|date=December 17, 2018}} {{Open access}}</ref>
==Investigation==
Butkovich was the second overall victim of to be recovered, being labelled as Body 2. Just a week after being discovered, Body 2 was conclusively identified as John Butkovich on December 29, 1978; he was among the first victims to be identified.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=360–374}} On February 6, 1980, Gacy was brough to trial.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4zogAAAAIBAJ&pg=6515,4117798|title=Speedup Sought In Gacy Trial|newspaper=[[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]]|date=November 23, 1979|agency=AP|page=6|via=Google News|access-date=July 20, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2020100...AAAAIBAJ&pg=6515,4117798|archive-date=October 6, 2020}} {{Open access}}</ref> On March 13, Gacy was found guilty of 33 counts of murder, as well as one count of indecent liberties with a child and [[Rape laws in the United States|deviate sexual assault]]. He was sentenced to execution and was transferred to the [[Menard Correctional Center]], where he remained on [[death row]] for 14 years before being [[execution|executed]] by [[lethal injection]] at the [[Stateville Correctional Center]] on May 10, 1994, aged 52.
==Funeral==
Soon after his identification, a funeral was held for Butkovich and he was buried at the [[Queen of Heaven Cemetery]] in the village of [[Hillside, Illinois|Hillside]], [[Illinois]]. His [[tombstone]] depicts an angel praying to [[Jesus Christ]]; it also contains his father's name, as he would also pass away in 1998. The inscription upon his tombstone reads: "Eternal Rest, Grant Unto Them O'Lord. Our Son Johnny."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/175169361/john-butkovich|title=John “Johnny” Butkovich (1956-1975) - Find a Grave Memorial|website=[[Find a Grave]]|date=January 10, 2017}}</ref>
==See also==
* [[Crime in Illinois]]
* [[John Wayne Gacy]]
* [[List of solved missing person cases: pre-2000]]
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{reflist|20em}}
==Cited works and further reading==
* {{cite book|last1=Amirante|first1=Sam L.|last2=Broderick|first2=Danny|title=John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2...kyhorse|year=2011|isbn=978-1-61608-248-2|ref={{harvid|Amirante|2011}}}}
* {{cite book|last=Cahill|first=Tim|author-link=Tim Cahill (writer)|title=Buried Dreams: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer|url=https://archive.org/details/burieddreamsinsi00cahi|publisher=[[Bantam Books]]|year=1993|orig-year=1986|isbn=978-1-857-02084-7|oclc=12421532|ref={{harvid|Cahill|1986}}}}
* {{cite book|last=Hunter|first=Brad|title=Inside the Mind of John Wayne Gacy: The Real-Life Killer Clown|publisher=Ad Lib Publishers|year=2022|isbn=978-1-802-47076-5|ref={{harvid|Hunter|2022}}}}
* {{cite book|last=Linedecker|first=Clifford L.|author-link=Clifford L. Linedecker|title=The Man Who Killed Boys: A True Story of Mass Murder in a Chicago Suburb|url=https://archive.org/details/manwhokilledboys0000line|url-access=registration|publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]]|year=1980|edition=First|isbn=0-312-51157-4|oclc=5564916}}
* {{cite book|last1=Sullivan|first1=Terry|last2=Maiken|first2=Peter T.|title=Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders|publisher=[[Kensington Books#Imprints|Pinnacle]]|year=2000|edition=Paperback|isbn=0-7860-1422-9|oclc=156783287|ref={{harvid|Sullivan|2000}}}}
==External links==
* {{Find a Grave|175169361|John "Johnny" Butkovich}}
{{commons category|John Butkovich}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Butkovich, John}}
[[Category:1956 births]]
[[Category:1975 deaths]]
[[Category:1970s missing person cases]]
[[Category:1975 in Illinois]]
[[Category:1975 murders in the United States]]
[[Category
eaths by person in Illinois]][[Category:Victims of serial killers]]
[[Category:Incidents of violence against men]]
[[Category
eople from Slavonski Brod]][[Category
eople from Illinois]][[Category:Chicago]]
[[Category:Missing person cases in Illinois]]
[[Category:July 1975 events in the United States]]
[[Category
eaths by strangulation in the United States]][[Category:Crimes in Chicago]]
[[Category:Violence against men in North America]]
[[Category:Formerly missing people]]
[[Category:John Wayne Gacy]]
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