Jeffrey Rignall

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Jeffrey Rignall
BornAugust 21, 1951
Chicago, Illinois, United States[citation needed]
DiedDecember 24, 2000(2000-12-24) (aged 49)
Pinellas County, Florida, United States
NationalityAmerican
OccupationAuthor
Known forSurviving an attack by John Wayne Gacy

Jeffrey Rignall (August 21, 1951 – December 24, 2000) was an American author who survived a 1978 attack by serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Rignall wrote the book 29 Below about the experience in 1979.

Attack by John Wayne Gacy[]

Rignall identified as bisexual and lived with his girlfriend and a male, described by Rignall's attorney as a live-in companion.[1]

While walking to a local gay bar in Rosemont, Illinois on March 21, 1978,[2][3] 26-year-old Rignall encountered Gacy, who lured Rignall into his car by offering him a ride and to smoke a joint with him.[4] Gacy then held a rag soaked in chloroform over Rignall's mouth until he passed out. Rignall woke up intermittently during the car ride to Gacy's house and recognized a few landmarks, but was chloroformed again and eventually lapsed into unconsciousness.[5]

Rignall said that when he awoke, he was inside Gacy's house.[5] He was fastened to a torture device consisting of a wooden board laced with chains pinning Rignall's limbs. Gacy stood naked in front of him with an array of dildos and described in detail what he would do to Rignall with each of them. Gacy then brutally raped, drugged, whipped, and tortured Rignall.[5] In later accounts, Rignall stated that there was another man in the room while Gacy raped him.[6][7][8]

Rignall regained consciousness the next day under a statue in Chicago's Lincoln Park. He made it back to his girlfriend's house and she took him to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he stayed for six days. In the hospital, Rignall recounted the experience to police, but they were skeptical of his story and Rignall was unable to identify his assailant.[4]

Rignall took on the investigation himself, staking out freeway exit ramps and overpasses in Northwest Chicago, looking for Gacy's black Oldsmobile. He eventually spotted Gacy, recorded his license plate number, and followed the car to Gacy's house in Norwood Park Township.[5] Rignall provided police with the license plate number and address, but they did not act quickly on the information. Finally, in July 1978, the state's attorney's office filed a charge of battery against Gacy, but he was permitted to remain free.

Rignall's case was never resolved in court. The battery charge was still pending in December of 1978 when 17-year-old Robert Piest vanished in Des Plaines, Illinois, after encountering Gacy at a pharmacy. The Des Plaines police quickly settled on Gacy as a suspect and found Rignall's charge on Gacy's rap sheet. Investigators contacted Rignall, but before they were able to interview him, Gacy was arrested and confessed.

Between the date that Rignall's battery charge was filed and the date of the Des Plaines arrest, Gacy had murdered four more young men, including Piest.

29 Below[]

After Gacy's arrest, Rignall's assault charge against him was widely covered in the press. Other young men came forward with similar stories: that they too had been sexually assaulted or tortured by Gacy, and their reports to the Chicago police had been dismissed.

Rignall partnered with author Ron Wilder to write a memoir of his experience with Gacy and his investigative attempts to find the rapist afterward. The book, 29 Below, was released in 1979.[9]

Gacy was tried for murder in Chicago in 1980; ironically, Rignall appeared as a witness for the defense. Rignall supported the defense case by stating that in his opinion, Gacy was not legally sane at the time of the attack, citing "...the beastly and animalistic ways he attacked me".[10]

Gacy never fully acknowledged his attack on Rignall - he described most of his sexual assaults as consensual encounters - and never explained why he released Rignall alive, but killed at least 33 other men and boys.

Gacy was sentenced to death, and was executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994, at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill.

Death[]

Rignall died on December 24, 2000 of AIDS-related causes.

In literature[]

Rignall appears in the following books:

  • A Plague of Murder by Colin Wilson[11]
  • Encyclopedia of World Crime: Vol II: D-J by Jay Robert Nash[12]
  • Forensic Investigation Handbook: An Introduction to the Collection, Preservation, Analysis, and Presentation of Evidence by Michael Fitting Karagiozis and Richard Sgaglio[13]
  • Killer Clown by Terry Sullivan and Peter Maiken[14]
  • Murder, an Analysis of Its Forms, Conditions, and Causes by Gerhard Falk and Clifford Falk[15]
  • Serial Killer Timelines: Illustrated Accounts of the World's Most Gruesome Murderers by Chris McNab[16]
  • Serial Killers: Up Close and Personal: Inside the World of Torturers, Psychopaths, and Mass Murderers by Christopher Berry-Dee[17]
  • The encyclopedia of serial killers by Brian Lane and Wilfred Gregg[18]
  • The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers by Michael Newton[19]
  • The Man Who Killed Boys: The John Wayne Gacy Jr. Story by Clifford L. Linedecker[20]
  • The Serial Killers: A Study in the Psychology of Violence by Colin Wilson and Donald Seaman[21]
  • World's Infamous Killers by Octopus Publishing Group[22]

References[]

  1. ^ "Gacy defense tells of rape, torture by accused". Gadsden Times. February 22, 1980. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  2. ^ Cahill 1986, p. 205.
  3. ^ "Gadsden Times - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Bell, Rachael. "John Wayne Gacy Jr". Tru TV. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Bailey, Frankie Y. "Famous American Crimes and Trials". The African American Experience. Archived from the original on 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2013-11-30.
  6. ^ Springer, Kate (February 13, 2012). "Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy May Have Had Accomplices". TIME Magazine. New York City: Meredith Corporation. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  7. ^ Lutzke, Andrew. "Unsolved Mysteries and Scary Stuff: John Wayne Gacy". Culture Crossfire. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  8. ^ Main, Frank (February 10, 2012). "Gacy had at least one accomplice, two lawyers believe". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  9. ^ Rignall, Jeff (1979). 29 Below. California: Wellington Press, Inc.
  10. ^ "People v. Gacy". Leagle. Retrieved 2013-11-30.
  11. ^ Wilson, Colin (2013). A Plague of Murder. Constable & Robinson Ltd. ISBN 978-1472108029.
  12. ^ Nash, Jay Robert (1990). Encyclopedia of World Crime: D-J Volume 2 of Encyclopedia of World Crime: Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Law Enforcement. CrimeBooks. ISBN 0923582029.
  13. ^ Karagiozis, Michael Fitting (2005). Forensic Investigation Handbook: An Introduction to the Collection, Preservation, Analysis, and Presentation of Evidence. Charles C Thomas Publisher. p. 158. ISBN 0398075794.
  14. ^ Maiken, Peter (12 December 2012). Killer Clown. Pinnacle Books. ISBN 978-0786033263.
  15. ^ Falk, Falk, Gerhard, Clifford (1990). Murder, an Analysis of Its Forms, Conditions, and Causes. McFarland. ISBN 0899504787.
  16. ^ McNab, Chris (2010). Serial Killer Timelines: Illustrated Accounts of the World's Most Gruesome Murderers. Ulysses. ISBN 978-1569758885.
  17. ^ Berry-Dee, Christopher (2007). Serial Killers: Up Close and Personal: Inside the World of Torturers, Psychopaths, and Mass Murderers. Ulysses Press. pp. 322–323. ISBN 978-1569759479.
  18. ^ Lane, Brian (1995). The encyclopedia of serial killers. Berkley Books. ISBN 0425152138.
  19. ^ Newton, Michael (2006). The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. Infobase Publishing. p. 86. ISBN 0816069875.
  20. ^ Linedecker, Clifford L. (1993). The Man Who Killed Boys: The John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Story. Macmillan. ISBN 0312952287.
  21. ^ Wilson, Colin (2011). The Serial Killers: A Study in the Psychology of Violence. Random House. pp. 273–274. ISBN 978-0753547229.
  22. ^ Octopus Publishing Group (2003). World's Infamous Killers. Alva Press. ISBN 0785817468.
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