Actor Jack Merrill claimed he was abducted and raped by John Wayne Gacy and miraculously survived to tell the harrowing tale.
Merrill said he was attacked by Gacy in 1978 and struggled silently with the trauma in a bombshell interview with People published Oct. 23. He told the outlet that until now only his dear friends heard his recollections of having Gacy place a loaded firearm in his mouth amid a night that included rape and torture at his ranch outside Chicago. The “Kings” actor claimed Gacy drugged him, violently raped him and, for some reason, spared his life. Several months later Gacy faced murder charges linked to 33 young men.
Merrill told People he finished a swim at the YMCA at the age of 19 and was walking home when a man asked if he wanted a ride. Before long, Gacy asked if he had ever done “poppers,” also known as amyl nitrite, according to the actor.
“He pulled out this brown bottle, splashed some liquid on a rag and jammed it into my face. I passed out, and when I woke up, I was in handcuffs,” he told People.
“I saw the exit for Cumberland on the expressway, near the airport, and the next thing I knew, we were outside his house.”
Merrill claimed he survived the ordeal by not fighting back, and by being agreeable and pretending to trust Gacy.
Serial killer John Wayne Gacy posed for the above Des Plaines Police Department mug shot in December 1978. (Photo by Bureau of Prisons/Getty Images)
“We had beer, and he had this strong pot, and then he put the handcuffs back on and dragged me down the hall. He put this homemade contraption around my neck. It had ropes and pulleys, and it went around my back and through my handcuffed hands in a way that if I struggled, I would choke,” Merrill told People as he recalled the alleged ordeal.
“I did at one point and started to lose air. He stuck a gun in my mouth. Then he raped me in the bedroom,” the actor claimed.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 19: Jack Merrill attends With Love From California: A Night Of One Act Plays Benefiting Hurricane Relief Efforts Through Team Rubicon at The Pico Playhouse on November 19, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Greg Doherty/Getty Images,)
“I knew if I fought him, I didn’t have much of a chance. I never freaked out or yelled. I also felt sorry for him in a way, like he didn’t necessarily want to be doing what he was doing, but he couldn’t stop,” Merrill told People.
“We’d been there for hours. Finally, I could tell he was tiring. All of a sudden he said, ‘I’ll take you home,’” the actor recalled.
“I didn’t call the police—I didn’t know he was a killer at the time,” Merrill said. “I made a pact with myself that I was going to get past this. I wasn’t going to leave my happiness in that house.”
The actor told People that he discovered Gacy was a killer by reading the paper a few months later. He called the paper and claimed he had been one of his rape victims, but refused to leave his name for fear that his family would be dragged into the situation because his father owned the outlet. (RELATED: Serial Killer Robert Pickton Suffers Life-Threatening Injuries In Prison Assault)
“I thought if the police ever needed my help, I’d come forward. They found all these bodies under that house, and years later he was convicted. But like I said, if they had needed me, I would have come forward. I read that he went to prison,” he said.
Gacy became known as one of the most notorious serial killers of all-time. He was given a lethal injection in 1994. It remains unclear why Merrill was spared, according to his account.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
