Palatine, Illinois

On an ordinary block in Norwood Park, a quiet northwest suburb of Chicago, John Wayne Gacy lived in a modest ranch house from 1971 to 1978. He worked as a contractor, threw block parties, performed as Pogo the Clown at children's hospitals, and buried twenty-six young men in the crawlspace beneath his own floors. The house was demolished in April 1979 after investigators finished excavating it. A different house was later built on the lot and given a different address, 8215, in part to give the neighborhood some distance from what had happened. The street itself is the same. The trees are older now. Most of the people who drive past do not know.