Just wanted to note something about Gacy here that I found to be a bit of a strange coincidence. Gacy was on a meteoric rise in the Jaycee organization at the time James went missing, Gacy was a Jaycee member in Waterloo IA at the time, but just noting, although there are all these regional chapters, the organization does have a national framework. So starting in 1962, the New Jersey Jaycees started doing what became this hugely successful event, Jaycee Classic pre-season pro football, Giants vs Eagles matchup. And this was a real moneymaker for them, it did very well for a long time, and was held every year at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, I'm seeing Aug 27 for 1966. Palmer Stadium no longer stands, it was torn down and essentially replaced by Princeton Stadium, and it's five miles from where James lived. It's like a 10 min drive to Rocky HIll. And Gacy was renowned for his fundraising in Jaycees, and he did travel in his role in Jaycees. And the national Jaycee president when that 1966 football classic in Princeton NJ took place-- the national president was himself coincidentally from New Jersey. Just finding that curious.
I also came across a snippet in a source from an old newspaper story, and it notes that Gacy actually had a very large US map in his basement, I guess with pins through it indicating places where he had lived and worked over the years. It was like riddled with pins, they were everywhere. And honestly, in light of the fact that he supposedly was working when he was 16 years old at that resort up in Elkhorn WI-- I tend to believe the pins. Does any of this mean anything in terms of James' disappearance? No idea, but I was pretty shocked when I found out how close Palmer Stadium was to James' home. You just never know. If that's an abduction, it was someone who knew what he was doing. And as far as capturing victims went, Gacy led a completely double life and appeared to an awful lot of people to be very funny and charming, I guess right to the point that he decided he no longer needed and/or wanted to be. He didn't just start dressing up as Pogo in the 70s, he was out in a clown costume when he was in Iowa in the 60s as well. It seems as though he could turn the charm on and off like a faucet, and he must have been pretty good at it because he remained a successful businessman right up to the point where LE was literally digging human beings' bones out of his basement. I can see why that program about him was called Devil in Disguise. So if it had been Gacy or someone like him, the idea of a bike left behind wouldn't surprise me because the devil really would be in the details...
