Actor nearly 50 years later Jack Merrill He describes his experience with one of America’s most notorious serial killers. a new attempt Peopleactor – known for his roles Law and Order, Sex and the City, Revenge, Hannah Montana and more – wrote about the night she was kidnapped and raped by a serial killer John Wayne Gacy In 1978. This harrowing ordeal is the subject of his new one-man show. SavePerforming in Los Angeles.

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According to the article, Merrill was 19 years old and living in Chicago while working in clubs. After a night of swimming at the YMCA, Gacy approached him and asked if he wanted to ride a bike. Jumping into someone’s car was a new adventure for Merrill, so he agreed, but soon passed out from amyl nitrate. He woke up in handcuffs and was soon dragged to Gacy’s house and tied to a “strap” that kept him from trying to escape the handcuffs. Gacy then raped her for hours before suddenly deciding to take Merrill home.

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Merrill recalls that he did not intentionally shout or respond and credits instinct with saving his life. He had no idea how dangerous Gacy was until he saw Gacy’s house on the news a few months later, where 26 bodies were recovered from the crawl space.

Gacy was arrested in December 1978 and is known to have killed at least 33 young men and boys between 1972 and 1978. He was known as the “Killer Clown” for his years playing the role of Pogo the Clown and Patches. He was sentenced to death, executed in 1994.

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Merrill considers herself “lucky” and even though she’s been happily married to her husband for 23 years and is now ready to talk about her traumatic experience on stage every night, she still doesn’t like seeing people tied up in a movie. or going to the Haunted Hayride, where clowns chase people with axes and knives under a banner that reads “Gacy Day Parade.”

“It’s the fear factor,” he writes. “People love it, but I don’t find violence funny. I won’t go to those movies. The idea of ​​watching someone get tied up… I can’t do it.”

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