Date: Tuesday, May 10, 1994 Source: By Susan Kuczka and Rob Karwath, Tribune
Staff Writers. Tribune  reporters Matt O'Connor, Peter Kendall and Glen
Elsasser contributed  to this article.
Section: NEWS Copyright Chicago Tribune

ALL APPEALS FAIL; GACY IS EXECUTED
SERIAL KILLER DIES OF LETHAL INJECTION

   John Wayne Gacy, who killed 33 young men and boys in the 1970s, was
executed early Tuesday, despite a problem with the lethal injection used to
kill him.

   Hours after exhausting the legal appeals that had filled and perpetuated
his life, Gacy, 52, died strapped to a gurney in the execution room at 12:58
a.m. at Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet.

   Howard A. Peters III, head of the Department of Corrections, said the
second of three chemicals that were to flow into Gacy's arm apparently
"gelled" or was blocked by a clot of Gacy's blood. Officials attached a new
tube to the needle and resumed the execution.

   The state's $25,000 lethal injection machine releases three chemicals: the
first causes sleep, the second stops breathing and the third stops the heart.

   Executioners had started the chemicals flowing at about 12:40 p.m., and
the execution had been expected to take about 10 minutes, not 18.

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