In 1978, Jack Merrill unwittingly entered the home of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Unlike dozens of Gacy’s other victims, he left the house alive.
Merrill, who was 19 when the kidnapping and rape occurred, has since become an actor, appearing in small roles on several TV series, including “Law & Order” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Now he’s starring in his own story, having written a one-man show to perform called “The Save,” which details that horrific night with Gacy.
John Wayne Gacy’s lawyer ‘wanted to look evil in the eye’ believed at least 20 other victims
Actor Jack Merrill has appeared in small roles in several television series, including “Law & Order,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Games People Play” and “Steve the Intern.” (Michael Tullberg/Getty Images)
“When I was 19, I was kidnapped and raped by a mass murderer. Someone etched into the American consciousness. John Wayne Gacy,” he told People magazine. “Yes, that Chicago man who dressed as a clown and murdered 33 boys and young men under his house and garage, and who authorities believe killed many more.”
The son of a respected Chicago Sun-Times sportswriter, Merrill says he grew up in a troubled family, the youngest of five children.
John Wayne Gacy poses for record photos at the Des Plaines Police Department. (Des Plaines Police Department/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Do you like what you are reading? Click here for more entertainment news
“By 19, I was working in clubs,” he explained. “I wanted to be an actor but I didn’t know how to do it. I was going swimming at the YMCA, and one night, after swimming, I was walking home. A man stopped and said, ‘Do you want that?’ To go for a ride?”
“I thought I was going to go around the block a few times, but he started driving fast and turned into a very bad neighborhood. He said, ‘Close your door. It’s dangerous.” I said they kept it out of the papers because it was bad for business on nearby Rush Street. He said, “How do you know that, huh, you’re smart? “You’re not like those other kids.”
“I’d never been in anyone’s car before, but I had a feeling that if he thought I was different from the other people he picked up, I should stick with it. He stopped near the Kennedy Expressway ramp and asked ‘if I had done poppers.’ – Amyl nitrite. He took out this brown bottle, sprayed some liquid on a piece of cloth and put it in my face. I lost consciousness, and when I woke up, I was handcuffed.
The backyard structures and front and back lawn of John Wayne Gacy’s home were completely destroyed due to the investigation. (Walter Calley/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Soon after, he arrived at the now-infamous Gacy’s home. “He asked me to remain silent,” Merrill recounted. “A light from the back of the house hit him in the eyes and suddenly I realized how dangerous he was.”
“I knew he was crazy, and I knew I couldn’t fight him. I knew I couldn’t make him angry. I just had to defuse the situation, defuse the situation. And act like everything was okay all the time. Because I grew up doing that my whole life.” .
Jack Merrill remembers being drugged in John Wayne Gacy’s car. (Greg Doherty/Getty Images)
Click here to subscribe to the entertainment newsletter
Merrill remembers thinking that if Messi fought, he wouldn’t survive. “I didn’t fight him, I didn’t fight him… I was 19 and I was a scrawny little kid… I learned skills that I was able to use to not lose.”
Now 65, he remembers that the house was “dark” and that it “felt like it was a trap.”
“He asked me if I trusted him, and I said I did, so he took the handcuffs off. There was a bar in the middle of the house. We had a beer, and he had this strong pot, and then he put the handcuffs back on.” “He dragged me down the hall, put this homemade contraption around my neck, had ropes and pulleys, wrapped around my back and passed through my handcuffed hands in a way that would make me suffocate if I resisted,” he explained.
“I knew he was crazy and I knew I couldn’t fight him.”
-Jack Merrill
Jack Merrill thinks people wouldn’t care if the same attack happened to him but wasn’t committed by John Wayne Gacy. (J. Vespa/WireImage/Getty Images)
“I did at one point and I started to lose air. He put a gun in my mouth. Then he raped me in the bedroom. I knew if I fought him, I wouldn’t have much of a chance. I never panicked or screamed too in some way, like he didn’t want to do it.” What he was doing, but he couldn’t stop. We were there for hours. Finally, he was tired and suddenly he said: “I’ll take you home.”
“If this had happened to me and it wouldn’t have been the case [Gacy]No one will care. Which is interesting for me to think about. “Because there are a lot of other people who have bad things happen to them,” he said. “They’re not interested in me. They’re interested in her [Gacy]. “I know that, and that’s okay, but that’s a weird thing in our society.”
John Wayne Gacy in photos taken in 1978. (Bureau of Prisons/Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Merrill says Gacy dropped him off near where they first met around 5 a.m. “He gave me his phone number and said, ‘Maybe we’ll get together again sometime.’ “When I got home, I flushed the number down the toilet, then took a shower, and did not call the police, not knowing he was a murderer at the time.
Merrill says he initially tried to tell this story years ago, but was thwarted by a film director. Merrill remembers that person asking him, “This is how you want to be remembered?”
“If this had happened to me and it wouldn’t have been the case [Gacy]No one will care.”
-Jack Merrill
This disrupted the process of telling his story, but it didn’t kill it.
“One of my big messages with this [one-man]The show is that I am not a victim. Something happened to me. “It was one night, and I made a pact with myself at that time that he would control me for one night, but he wouldn’t control my life. He wouldn’t be the determining factor in my life,” Merrill said. . . . “This trauma would not have led my life.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit rainn.org
Carolyn Thayer is an entertainment writer. Follow Caroline Thayer on Twitter at @carolinejthayer And LinkedIn. Story tips can be sent to caroline.thayer@fox.com.
