The diary entries of a pharmacy worker who became a key witness in linking evidence to American serial killer John Wayne Gacy – known as the “Killer Clown” – are to be published by her daughter in a new book looking into the murderer’s survivors.
Courtney Lund O’Neil has written “Postmortem: What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders” using diary entries and interviews with her mother Kim Byers, who was a “prime witness” for the murder of Rob Piest, her spokesperson told C+D last week (December 4).
On December 11 1978, 17-year-old Byers worked a shift with her colleague and friend Piest at Nisson Pharmacy in Des Plaines, Illinois, they said.
Read more: A.A. Dhand: Pharmacist crime author to publish new novel The Chemist
She slipped a film receipt into Piest’s coat pocket after borrowing it earlier in their shift at the pharmacy, they added.
Piest was wearing the coat when he was murdered that night and the receipt – found in the killer’s house - became the “leading piece of evidence to convict Gacy”, they said.
He was the 33rd and final victim of Gacy, with Byers confirming to police that Piest was “meeting Gacy about a summer job before he vanished”, they added.
Gacy, who was known for his “his performance as a clown at charitable events and childrens’ parties”, murdered 33 boys and young men in the 1970s and was executed by lethal injection in 1994, according to the encyclopaedia Brittanica.
Reimagining true crime
O’Neil also used archival materials, newspapers, published books, public records, yearbooks, oral histories and documentaries as part of her seven-year research into the murders that culminated in the writing of the book.
She said that the theme of motherhood is “essential to the emotional tenacity of the book” as it “recounts her mother’s memories of the ordeal” and adds in her “own reflections about growing up in the shadow of Piest’s murder”.
Read more: The Poetry Pharmacy secures Pan Macmillan anthology series
“Who would remember her if she never told her story? This case had affected her, but she hadn’t really traced back the lines to how,” O’Neil added.
She said that how the case affected her mother and how “culture [responded] throughout the decades to the legacy of Gacy” are questions she “attempted to answer in the book”.
Read more: Mystery pharmacist publishes a widely praised romantic novel
“I hope Postmortem offers a more nuanced way to look at murder cases, especially famous ones that live on for decades, long after a murderer is dead,” O’Neil added.
She said that she hopes the book helps us “[reimagine] true crime as a genre” by putting efforts into “deeply understanding people affected by murder instead of the one who killed”.
The book will be released on December 24, according to her spokesperson.
Read more: ‘Virdee’: Pharmacist crime novelist’s bestsellers to be made into BBC series
Pharmacist A.A. Dhand’s next crime novel The Chemist, focused on a pharmacist and inspired by his own experiences, is also set for publication in spring 2025 alongside a BBC six-part series called Virdee based on his detective novels to be released in 2025.
The Poetry Pharmacy, which prescribes poetry for emotional ailments, will publish eight books with Pan Macmillan in 2025 based on the themes of its bookshop.
And a mystery pharmacist published a widely praised romantic novel titled Spectral Attraction earlier this year, a novel that combines romance and the supernatural.
