To Catch a Killer | |
---|---|
Genre | Biography Crime Drama Thriller |
Written by | Jud Kinberg |
Directed by | Eric Till |
Starring | Brian Dennehy Michael Riley |
Music by | Paul Zaza |
Country of origin | Canada United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers | Jud Kinberg Jinny Schreckinger |
Producer | Richard O. Lowry |
Production location | Toronto |
Cinematography | Rene Ohashi |
Editor | Ralph Brunjes |
Running time | 182 minutes |
Production companies | Creative Entertainment Group Libra Pictures Telestories Entertainment Inc. |
Original release | |
Network | Fox |
Release | May 15, 1992 |
To Catch a Killer is a two-part television film from 1992, directed by Eric Till and starring Brian Dennehy and Michael Riley. It is based on the true story of the pursuit of American serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
As he investigates the missing person report of a teenager named Christopher Gant (based on Gacy's final victim, Robert Piest), Des Plaines, IL detective Lt. Joseph R. Kozenczak (Riley) becomes concerned that local businessman John Wayne Gacy (Dennehy) may be responsible for this as well as many other disappearances. However, when he and his team are ready to arrest Gacy, their evidence is viewed as being circumstantial. Worst of all, everyone (including Kozenczak's superiors) view Gacy as a respectable pillar of society. Meanwhile, Gacy himself begins a sadistic game of cat-and-mouse as he tries in every way to manipulate and outwit the police.
After eventually achieving two search warrants, Kozenczak finds a large amount of incriminating evidence, and later 29 bodies buried throughout John Gacy's property; the remaining four are found dumped in a nearby river, including Gant's remains. Afterwards, he is charged with the rape and murder of 33 boys and young men and convicted, being sentenced to death.
The film was broadcast in three countries, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. [1] [2] In general, the film was received well by critics. As a result, Brian Dennehy was nominated for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Special." In addition, actor Michael Riley and director Eric Till were both nominated for two individual Gemini Awards.
The film broadly follows the historical narrative of the investigation which led to John Wayne Gacy's arrest in December 1978 and it does not directly depict his earlier life or his criminal activity prior to 1978. Several changes were made to the names and details of the real persons who were involved in the case. These changes were possibly made for legal reasons, because many key witnesses and victims' family members, as well as Gacy himself, were still alive at the time of the film's production. In the film Gacy's last known victim Robert Piest was represented as 'Chris Gant.' In the film the name of Gacy's contracting company was changed from 'PDM Contractors' to 'LPW Construction.' The real-life detective Lt. Joseph R. Kozenczak served as a technical advisor during the film's production. [3]
Dennehy's performance was widely recognized and the actor became associated with Gacy. In 2010, eighteen years after the film's first broadcast in the US and sixteen years after John Wayne Gacy's execution, a profile of Dennehy in Times of North West Indiana noted, "whenever Dennehy comes back to Chicago, which is often... he's inevitably asked about his made-for-television 1992 movie role in To Catch a Killer." [4] Dennehy received a letter from Gacy following the film's US broadcast, in which Gacy admonished him for taking part in a "fraud" film, and maintained his claim that "lots of people had access to that crawl space." [5]
John Wayne Gacy was an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured, and murdered at least 33 young men and boys in Norwood Park Township, near Chicago, Illinois. He became known as "the Killer Clown" due to his public performances as a clown prior to the discovery of his crimes.
William Forsythe is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of tough-guy, criminal characters, and has starred in films such as American Me (1992), Raising Arizona (1987), Dick Tracy (1990), Gotti (1996), The Rock (1996), and The Devil's Rejects (2005). He has also played recurring characters in television series such as Boardwalk Empire (2010) and Justified (2010).
Brian Manion Dennehy was an American actor of stage, television, and film. He won two Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, and a Golden Globe, and received six Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Dennehy had roles in over 180 films and in many television and stage productions. His film roles included First Blood (1982), Gorky Park (1983), Silverado (1985), Cocoon (1985), F/X (1986), Presumed Innocent (1990), Tommy Boy (1995), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Ratatouille (2007), and Knight of Cups (2015). Dennehy won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film for his role as Willy Loman in the television film Death of a Salesman (2000). Dennehy's final film was Driveways (2019), in which he plays a veteran of the Korean War, living alone, who befriends a young, shy boy who has come with his mother to clean out his deceased aunt's hoarded home.
Robert Kenneth Ressler was an American FBI agent and author. He played a significant role in the psychological profiling of violent offenders in the 1970s and is often credited with coining the term "serial killer", though the term is a direct translation of the German term Serienmörder coined in 1930 by Berlin investigator Ernst Gennat. After retiring from the FBI, he authored a number of books on serial murders, and often gave lectures on criminology.
Jason Michael Moss was an American attorney who specialized in criminal defense. He was best known as the author of The Last Victim: A True-Life Journey into the Mind of the Serial Killer (1999), a memoir about his exploration of the minds of incarcerated serial killers, which started as a research project in college. He corresponded and conducted personal interviews with several notorious killers.
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Jesse Moss is a Canadian television, film and voice actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the television series Whistler (2006–2008) as well as the films Final Destination 3 (2006), The Uninvited (2009) and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010). He has won a Leo Award from four nominations.
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Eric Till is an English film and television director working in Canada, the United States, and Europe since the 1960s. His 1977 film It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet was entered into the 10th Moscow International Film Festival. He is also directed Hot Millions (1968) and To Catch A Killer (1992), as well as some Jim Henson productions, including episodes of Fraggle Rock (1984-1987) and A Christmas Toy (1986).
The Last Victim: A True-Life Journey into the Mind of the Serial Killer (1999) is a non-fiction work by author Jason Moss, co-authored with counseling professor Jeffrey Kottler, in which he details his fascination and subsequent correspondence with several notorious American serial killers.
William Carroll may refer to:
Gacy is a 2003 American crime horror thriller film written and directed by Clive Saunders, and co-written by David Birke. A direct-to-video release, it is based on the crimes of John Wayne Gacy, an American serial killer who raped, tortured, and murdered at least thirty-three men and boys in Chicago, Illinois during the 1970s. The film stars actor Mark Holton in his first lead role as Gacy.
"'Sacrament" is the fifteenth episode of the first season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network on February 21, 1997. The episode was written by Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Michael W. Watkins. "Sacrament" featured guest appearances by Philip Anglim, Dylan Haggerty and Brian Markinson.
Dear Mr. Gacy is a 2010 Canadian drama thriller film directed by Svetozar Ristovski, and starring William Forsythe and Jesse Moss. The film is based on Jason Moss's memoir The Last Victim.
Michael Joiner aka Michael Jeffrey Joiner is an American actor, stand-up comedian, and film maker. Joiner gained exposure when he starred in Sony Picture's The Grace Card with Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. in 2011.
Joseph R. Kozenczak was the former Chief of Police of Des Plaines, Illinois where he worked for 27 years. After his retirement from police in 1989, he worked as a regional security director in the United States and Canada for TNT Express, Vice President of Investigations for John Reid and Associates, Criminal Justice Specialist for the State of Illinois, and practiced as an Illinois licensed private investigator.
Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes is a limited docuseries created and directed by Joe Berlinger for Netflix. It is the second installment in the Conversations with a Killer series and succeeds Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. The series depicts the murder spree of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who killed at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. The story is depicted through never-before-heard archival audio footage that was recorded during Gacy's incarceration, interviews with participants close to the case and from one of the surviving victims. It was released on April 20, 2022.
John David Norman was an American pedophile and sex offender convicted numerous times between 1960 and 1998 on charges of child molestation and child pornography. Throughout his life, Norman operated various direct mailing services dedicated to distributing child pornography and arranging sex trafficking. Among these operations were the Odyssey Foundation based in Dallas; the Delta Project, Creative Corps and M-C Publications of Chicago; and Handy Andy from Pennsylvania.
Timothy Jack McCoy was an American murder victim from Omaha, Nebraska. He is the first known victim of serial killer and sex offender John Wayne Gacy, who raped, tortured and murdered at least 33 young men and boys in Norwood Park Township, near Chicago, Illinois, between 1972 and 1978.
John Butkovich 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.