Actor Jack Merrill, who has appeared in Grey’s Anatomy and Law & Order , has spoken out about being abducted and raped by serial killer John Wayne Gacy 46 years ago. Gacy, a contractor who also performed as Pogo the Clown, was convicted of raping, torturing and murdering at least 33 young men and boys in Chicago , Illinois in the 1970s. He was executed by lethal injection in 1994.
Writing in People, Merrill – now 65 – says the horrific incident happened one night when he finished swimming at his YMCA. He was walking home in Evanston, Illinois when a man pulled over and said: “Do you want to go for a ride?” It was Gacy. The then-19-year-old said yes.
He thought they’d go around the block a few times but Gacy began driving quickly and turned into a dangerous neighborhood. Gacy told him: “Lock your door. It’s dangerous.
” The actor had never gotten into a stranger’s car before. The killer pulled over near a highway entrance ramp and asked Merrill if he’d ever done “poppers” or amyl nitrate. Gacy then pulled out a rag, splashed a liquid on it and shoved it into the young man’s face, making him unconscious.
When Merrill woke up, he was in handcuffs. He saw the highway exit and later stood outside Gacy’s home. Gacy told him to be quiet.
Merrill then realized how dangerous the man was. “I knew I couldn’t anger him,” Merrill wrote. “I just had to diffuse the situation and act like everything was okay.
” Merrill thought the dark home was a trap. G.