ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — When one of the most notorious murder trials in American history reached the courtroom, a judge faced a problem few courts had encountered before: finding jurors who had not already made up their minds about John Wayne Gacy.
The solution came from Rockford.
In early 1980, residents of Winnebago County were called to the courthouse for a task that would place northern Illinois at the center of a case that had captured national attention. The jurors ultimately chosen would decide the fate of Gacy, the Chicago-area serial killer later convicted of murdering 33 young men and boys…