Dear Mr.Gacy

Anchor Bay

R4 DVD

Dear Mr. Gacy was produced by the makers of The Monster and based on the book The Last Victim by Jason Moss.

Moss was an 18 year old college student studying criminology. He wanted to make his mark and when his lecturer told him that studying serial killers was “old hat” Moss decided to try and take a new approach to the subject. Living at home with his parents and younger brother he had little experience of a world outside very narrow confines.

Ambitious, obsessive and driven, Moss decides to write to John Wayne Gacy in the hope of getting him to open up about his crimes. Gacy had refused to co-operate with investigators and continued to deny the thirty three murders attributed to him. Moss promoted himself as a sexually confused vulnerable teen including semi-nude photographs of himself. Surprisingly Gacy took the bait and began to correspond, first via letter, then via phone calls.

As time progresses Moss and Gacy seem to end up in a dangerous form of psychological cat and mouse game. While Moss may think he is manipulating Gacy, Gacy is grooming and manipulating Moss and soon Moss finds his life seriously out of control. This is the tale of looking into the heart of darkness and how it looks back. Moss doesn’t realize that the more he communicates with Gacy the more his own “darkness” is evoked and brought to the surface. This begins to occur more and more including an explosive event when he violently beats a boy harassing his brother and attacks a prostitute he has decided to pick up.

When Gacys appeals fail and he is given six days until the chair he invites Moss to come to the prison and meet him. Unknown to Moss he has charmed and manipulated the prison staff, so rather than meeting Gacy between a glass wall, he is ushered directly into his prison cell. The problem with this account is that it has never been substantiated. While Moss claims he was nearly raped and his mind overcome by Gacy, there is no evidence to suggest the prison guards broke protocol and this event happened at all.

Moss is a controversial figure who fuelled his career by claiming he was able to get inside the minds of serial killers. He also corresponded with Charles Mansion and Jeffrey Dahmer. While many have questioned the motives of Moss, this is certainly an interesting exploration of the mind of the serial killer and those who seem obsessed with them.

While certainly it would be significant if Moss had been able to gain information to help the families of those who lost their sons, his methods do seem questionable. The question arises whether deceiving and manipulating someone to the extent that Moss did, even a serial killer, is destructive to both sides. Moss committed suicide in 2006 so one wonder’s what effect this experience with Gacy and others had on him.

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