Bobby Walker was not just a statistic. He was not just a line in a forensic report. He was a 21-year-old man who deserved to grow old. By reading his story, by sharing his name, we ensure that John Wayne Gacy does not win the battle of historical memory. We remember the living, breathing person behind the horror.
When we think of the infamous Chicago serial killer John Wayne Gacy, certain names come to mind: Robert Piest, the last victim whose disappearance finally prompted the police search of 8213 West Summerdale Avenue; John Butkovich, the young man who had the audacity to stand up to Gacy and paid for it with his life. These names have become synonymous with the 1970s crime spree that left 33 young men and boys dead. bobby walker john wayne gacy
In a gruesome act of recycling, Gacy exhumed several bodies from the crawl space and disposed of them in the Des Plaines River. Bobby Walker's remains were among those moved. The identification of Gacy’s victims remains one of the largest forensic anthropology projects in American history. When investigators dug up the crawl space in late 1978 and early 1979, they recovered 29 bodies. Four other victims (including Walker) had already been thrown in the river, where they were discovered by police divers in 1977 and 1978. Bobby Walker was not just a statistic
He had dreams, fears, and a future that was stolen. He was not merely a "body in the river." He was a human being who made a fatal mistake by trusting a man in a black Oldsmobile one night in April 1976. By reading his story, by sharing his name,