THE attorney who defended depraved serial killer John Wayne Gacy on Death Row fears there could be multiple victims who may never be discovered.
Karen Conti was given the task back in 1994 to work with Gacy who was facing execution after being charged with the murders of 33 men ages 14 to 22 in the 1970s.
But in a harrowing interview with The U.S. Sun, Conti, the only woman to work on the sickening case, is adamant the death toll could rise if authorities saw fit to further investigate Gacy's heinous crimes.
Conti has written a book - Killing Time - about her experiences of being a young attorney thrust into the world of one of America's worst serial killers.
She believes that due to a lack of digital databases at the time, a failure to acknowledge a previous conviction allowed Gacy to complete his heinous killing spree.
"While there are hints and suspicions, definitive evidence is elusive. Gacy's records show he was out of town during certain disappearances, and there could be more co-conspirators involved," Conti told The U.S Sun.
"How many more bodies could there be? I could guess another 20."
Conti believes it would have been easier to abduct people in more rural areas and dump the bodies.
"Why would he have stopped when he was out of town?" she asked.
She also gives credence to rumors that Gacy, a well-liked member of the community who often dressed as a clown to entertain kids at parties, was hiding secrets about high-ranking government officials who supposedly turned a blind eye to some of his crimes.
"There are conspiracy theories that Gacy was protected by people in power. I've heard that many, many times," admitted the attorney.
"I'm not sure I have the facts to prove that, but he was connected. And there were rumors that Gacy had a list of people who may have been gay and involved in some of this. People lived double lives."
In 1968, Gacy pleaded guilty to one charge of sodomy of a teenage boy while living in Waterloo, Iowa, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
He was paroled in 1970 and allowed to return to Chicago to serve his parole, which ended in October 1971.
That, however, was just the start of one of the most sickening, murderous sprees in American history.
The former KFC restaurant manager buried 26 of his victims under his house in the Norwood Park Township, three bodies were buried on his property, and four were thrown in the Des Plaines River.
The investigation into the disappearance of teenager Robert Piest led to Gacy's arrest on December 21, 1978, and two years later on March 12, 1980, he was charged with 33 murders, which at the time was the most homicides by one individual in US legal history.
Yet when employees of Gacy's building company began going missing, Chicago cops tragically had no idea of his previous misdemeanors.
"There were so many opportunities (for the police to have stepped in)," Conti said ruefully.
She shudders when thinking of just how many more innocent men could have been slaughtered.
"When Gacy returned after being paroled and the boys started to go missing with connections to him or his business, the police should have learned about this prior conviction, but, at the time, I doubt there was a mechanism to perform a nation-wide search for criminal records," added the Chicago-based expert.
Conti, who has been a practicing trial and appellate attorney in both civil and criminal law for more than 37 years, added, "There may have been some other Gacy murder victims in Iowa during the time that he was living there—and for which he was never charged."
Conti also told The U.S. Sun an unnamed person, who many believe could have worked with Gacy yet avoided prosecution, employed an attorney on retainer until Gacy's death by lethal injection in 1994.
"There's no question in my mind there were co-conspirators."
Karen Conti, Gacy's attorney
"When Gacy was arrested, a lawyer came into play who was a former state attorney, the number one prosecutor in the Chicago area," she said.
"How did this kid who never made more than minimum wage manage to hire a lawyer like this and remained on retainer until Gacy was executed?"
"There's no question in my mind there were co-conspirators," she added while stressing prosecutors at the time were keen to pin everything on Gacy and didn't want to "dirty up" the case by bringing others into it.
The twisted serial killer, who Conti says by the end was denying everything having admitted to a slew of murders at the end of the 1970s, was a depraved maniac, a repressed homosexual who preyed on vulnerable victims.
He either lured them into his home and struck - often by handcuffing them first after offering to show them a trick - or picked up men off the street in Chicago.
It was a time when homosexuality wasn't universally accepted in society, so any families missing loved ones may not have contacted the police for fear of recriminations and embarrassment.
"Today, it's different, but connecting the dots from Gacy's travels would require extensive effort," she sighed.
The killings not only stunned the country but rocked Chicago, especially as Gacy was a well-respected member of the community.
"He was questioned numerous times, but nobody thought it was possible," Conti continued. "I think in today's society, we are a little bit more suspect."
Working with him during his final months may have cost Conti several clients - "judges were mad at me, lawyers unfriended me," she said - but the disturbing experience set her up for an illustrious career in the legal world.
"He was questioned numerous times, but nobody thought it was possible."
Karen Conti, Gacy's attorney
Gacy, however, is never far from her mind - and never will be.
"A news reporter friend of mine was walking his dogs the other day and someone came up to him and said he was with one of the last recorded Gacy victims when he was abducted," she said.
"Gacy had a fake police light on his car, stopped them, and asked if they wanted to work in construction.
"The one who said yes, got in the car and was never seen again. I had never heard that before, but Gacy's story is part of Chicago and, unfortunately, it always will be."
Conti's book Killing Time With John Wayne Gacy is available on .
