I saw the case of James Zapolski, who went missing from Princeton NJ in July 1966, and it really, really reminded me of Dickie. James Zapolski was a sophomore at Princeton HS, 15yo, and he was a bicycle enthusiast, he'd just purchased a beautiful French-made 15-speed bike about a week before he went missing, he'd saved the money from odd jobs. He'd embarked on a rigorous training regimen, hoping to one day cycle all the way down to Florida (I cannot find any information as to why he chose FL particularly). On the day he didn't come home with his bicycle, the family assumed he'd taken off to Florida, but James' new bike was found abandoned shortly afterwards at a nearby canal, and the bike had a unique sticker James had placed on it-- the sticker had been removed.
So both boys 15. Both gone off on bikes for leisure related activities/sports. Both vanished, both with bikes left abandoned near what "would have been" some destination of theirs, perhaps, or en route to one, or somewhat near it. Both vanished at around the same timeframe, Oct 1965, July 1966, so ten months apart. Both abandoned bicycles near bodies of water, and in both cases, those bodies of water were searched thoroughly with people wondering if these boys drowned. Both boys have pretty easy "conversation starters" in view, with Dickie, it's his gun and you can probably tell by his attire he's going hunting; with James, it's this unusual new bike, and you might guess he's a pretty avid cyclist based on the bike itself and perhaps clothing. Both boys went missing on a Saturday. And in both cases, there's "something missing," something aside from the boys themselves, with Dickie it's the gun, with James, it's the decal off the bike. Now, Mapleton's a very, very long drive even today to Princeton NJ, you're looking at about 18 hours, and back then, I would guess considerably longer. And James is much larger than Dickie, James is 6' and 150lbs. But I always figured if Dickie were an abduction, he'd have been taken by someone that traveled pretty extensively. And can't help but think of Gacy, he is known to have traveled to both Minnesota and New Jersey. And he dumped four of his victims' bodies in the Des Plaines River, they weren't all in the crawl space, and I believe he claimed to have dumped five bodies in the river, but they could only find four. Gacy's victims ranged in height from 5'3" to 6'1" Gacy's final known victim was 15yo. Gacy moved to Waterloo Iowa in 1964 and had a meteoric rise in the Jaycee organization from that point forward, becoming first Jaycee VP in 1965, and he traveled extensively in that role. And just as a little follow-up note here, seeing that the Jaycee Football Classic for 1963 (trying to check now to confirm whether a national Jaycee event versus regional) was played at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, NJ. Whether it's per se national or regional, it was NY Giants vs Philadelphia Eagles, so I'd guess that's going to have some national reach. And as I'm reading further on it, they do this every year, it's like a tradition, and it appears to be at this same stadium every year. It's a charity event & exhibition game, so it takes place some time before regular season, I'm guessing. And just as a final note, did confirm that event took place in 1966, it did, and at Palmer Stadium, which is (apparently/still checking?) apparently quite close to where James Zapolski lived.
Not meaning to push the abduction theory here, but continuing not to rule it out. Also not saying it's Gacy, but it may be someone very similar to him in certain respects-- if it is an abduction, which is a very big if.
