January 3, 1979

Gacy Murders Fault Of Parole System

There is something terribly wrong with a parole system that turns a sex deviate loose on society and then loses track of him.

John Gacy is in custody again after wasting the lives of 32 teen-age boys and young men - a new record of murders.  Ten years ago he was convicted of sodomy with a 16-year-old youth in Iowa and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.  He was paroled after only 18 months.

Had he served out his term, his victims would be alive today.

In pronouncing sentence, the judge told Gacy: "Unsatisfactory in many respects as imprisonment is, at least that will insure for some period of time that you cannot seek out teen-age boys to solicit them for immoral behavior of any kind."

The judge did not reckon with "modern" parole policy which seems to worry more about the criminal than the victim.

After his release, Gacy moved to an unincorporated area near Chicago where he was convicted of attempting to rape a teenage boy in 1971, and of raping a 27-year-old man last March.  They were the lucky ones who got away.

Despite these obvious violations of his parole, Gacy remained free to pursue his prey.  Law enforcement authorities either had no knowledge of previous convictions, or else ignored tips from worried parents.

Gacy's second wife learned of his homosexual perversion when he brought home pictures of naked men.  She divorced him on grounds of infidelity with "other women."

As a consequence of official indifference and private concealment, none of Gacy's neighbors knew of his secret sin.  No importance was attached to the "smell of dead rats" around his place.  Young men frequently seen with him were explained as job seekers.  Their lime-leached skeletons now have been dug up from a crawl space beneath his house.

The difficulty of identifying bodies has prompted Gacy to file a suit against police for "damaging his reputation."

The conflict between personal rights and public safety must be resolved soon.  The concept of individual liberty is embedded in the U.S. Constitution.  But the whole body of law is devoted to protecting life, limb and property from predators.  Any error of balance must tilt in favor of society.

Of all crimes, those committed against persons are the most despicable.  There can be no tolerance of murder, rape, torture, mutilation, beatings, slavery or kidnapping.

There should be no paroles, therefore, for crimes of sex and violence.  Lawful sentences should be served in full.  Perverts - driven by warped minds and overactive hormones - would seem to be an exception to the theory of rehabilitation.  The fires of nature are difficult to quench.

A first offender certainly should be given an opportunity - hopefully impressed with a penalty emphasizing the seriousness of the crime.  Second offenders should automatically receive life sentences - with an ultimate parole conditioned on voluntary de-sexing surgery.

Such a proposal undoubtedly would agitate social activists.  First, because of the severity of the sentences; secondly because of an assertion of "cruel and unusual punishment."  I submit, however, that sexual violence is a cruel and unusual crime deserving the severe punishment of life imprisonment.

De-sexing surgery, to eliminate hormonal drive, would be a humane alternative to severe punishment for repeated sex of-fencers.  Many men and women purchase such operations today simply to avoid having children.

If severe punishment and simple surgery is unacceptable, society will harden its attitude toward death penalties.  It wasn't that long ago that we moved from capital punishment for rape and kidnapping as well as for murder.

The Gacy case illustrates the need for widespread reform in the parole system.  Officials charged with the responsibility of catching and prosecuting law breakers universally decry the lax parole policies of this permissive era.  A typical "life sentence" for first degree murder is 12 years.  Rape is seldom even brought to trial.  Those on parole are supposed to check in with a supervising officer periodically.  However, little effort is spent trying to find parole jumpers who move out of the state.

In reality, crime today does pay.  Judges and wardens point out that their courts and cells are over crowded.  Harsh justice and stingy parole policies, they say, would create impossible tax burdens.  Not so.

Experiments with speedy trials, full prosecution, mandatory sentences and stringent parole policies prove that crime decreases sharply in areas where these measures are applied.

To these effective practices could be added permanent registration of convicted sex offenders requiring them to notify authorities of their whereabouts for the rest of their lives.  We do this routinely for harmless aliens but shrink from infringing the "rights" of sex-driven criminals.

It is one thing to pay a debt to society, quite another for society to protect itself against the high rate of repeated sex offenses.

Author: Lindsey Williams