On a biting cold night in December 1978, a 15-year-old kid named Robert Piest disappeared from a pharmacy in Des Plaines, Illinois. He told his mom he’d be right back. She was waiting in the car to take him home for her birthday dinner. He never walked back out of that store.
Honestly, most people think serial killers get caught because they’re geniuses who finally slip up. But with the John Wayne Gacy and Robert Piest case, it was more about a local police department that simply refused to look the other way. Before Piest, dozens of young men had vanished into Gacy’s orbit. The Chicago police often shrugged them off as "runaways."
But Robert Piest was different. He had a solid home life, a job at Nisson Pharmacy, and a mother sitting ten yards away in a parking lot. When he vanished, the Des Plaines police didn’t wait. They went after Gacy with everything they had.
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The Pharmacy Connection
Gacy was a contractor. He was at the pharmacy that night to talk about a remodeling job. He’d been hanging around, acting like a normal businessman. That was his whole thing—the "Killer Clown" who was also a Democratic precinct captain and a guy who threw huge block parties.
Robert Piest was a good worker. Gacy noticed. He offered the kid a job paying $5 an hour, which was double the minimum wage back then.
"I’ll be right back, Mom," Rob said.
He went to the back of the store to talk to the contractor. Gacy later claimed he didn't even talk to the boy. But Kim Byers, a 17-year-old co-worker, saw them. She’d borrowed Rob’s blue parka earlier that night and left a photo receipt in the pocket. That tiny piece of paper basically ended John Wayne Gacy’s life.
Why the Des Plaines Police Didn’t Quit
Lt. Joseph Kozenczak was the guy in charge. He had a son the same age as Piest. To him, the "runaway" story didn't hold water.
The police quickly found out Gacy had a record for sodomy in Iowa. They put him under 24/7 surveillance. It was intense. Gacy actually invited the trailing officers into his home for coffee, mocking them. He thought he was untouchable. He was wrong.
During a search of Gacy's house at 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, detectives found that Nisson Pharmacy receipt. It was in Gacy’s trash. It proved Rob Piest had been in that house, even though Gacy swore he’d never met him.
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The Horrors Under the Floorboards
The smell in the house was overwhelming. Gacy blamed it on a "sewer backup."
When the police finally got a second warrant on December 21, 1978, they didn't just look for Piest. They looked at the house itself. They found a trap door in the closet. Underneath was a crawl space.
Inside that crawl space, they found bodies. Lots of them.
- 26 bodies were pulled from the dirt under the house.
- 3 more were found elsewhere on the property.
- 4 more, including Robert Piest, had been thrown into the Des Plaines River because the crawl space was full.
The Search for Robert Piest
Even after Gacy started confessing, Piest was still missing. Gacy told police he’d thrown the boy’s body over the I-55 bridge into the river.
It took months to find him. The winter of '78 was brutal in Illinois. The river was frozen. Search teams had to wait for the spring thaw. Finally, in April 1979, Rob’s body was found way downstream in the Illinois River.
The tragedy of John Wayne Gacy and Robert Piest is that Rob was the 33rd victim. If the police in other jurisdictions had listened to the parents of the first 32 boys, Rob might still be alive. But the Des Plaines team broke the pattern. They didn't treat Piest like a statistic.
What Most People Get Wrong
People love the "Killer Clown" narrative. They think the makeup is the scariest part. But the reality is much more mundane and terrifying. Gacy used his status as a business owner and a "nice guy" to lure kids who just wanted a job.
He didn't need a clown suit to kill. He used a "handcuff trick." He’d show the boys how to escape from handcuffs, click them shut on their wrists, and then the "trick" became a nightmare.
The Aftermath and Evidence
The trial was a circus. Gacy tried to plead insanity. He claimed he had multiple personalities. The jury didn't buy it. They saw the organization of the bodies. They saw the "handcuff trick" for what it was: premeditated murder.
Evidence that nailed him:
- The Nisson Pharmacy receipt: Found in Gacy’s home, linking him to Piest.
- The Maine West High School ring: Belonged to John Szyc, another victim.
- The surveillance logs: Gacy’s erratic behavior while being followed.
Gacy was executed in 1994. His last words were famously "Kiss my ass." He never showed an ounce of remorse for Rob Piest or any of the others.
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Actionable Insights for True Crime Researchers
If you're looking into this case or similar historical crimes, you've got to look past the documentaries.
- Check Local Archives: The Chicago Tribune and the Daily Herald (Suburban Chicago) have the most granular day-to-day reporting from 1978.
- Study the Jurisdictional Failures: The Gacy case is a masterclass in why "siloed" police departments fail. The lack of a centralized missing persons database in the 70s allowed Gacy to operate for six years.
- Analyze the "Pogo" Myth: Notice how little the clown persona actually played into the murders themselves. It was a tool for community trust, not the method of the crime.
Robert Piest’s disappearance was a tragedy, but his case remains the definitive example of how one thorough investigation can stop a monster that a whole system let slip through the cracks.