Customer Reviews

Buried Dreams

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't know how anyone my age or near my age who grew up in Chicago or the outlying suburbs could not remember the Gacy case. I had just turned 14 and was a freshman in high school when news first broke of his crimes. I remember my mother turning off the television for the 5:00 PM local news because of the lurid footage showing the remains being carried out of the house in bags. And I remember the Chicago Tribune running a full page showing individual pictures of all of the identified victims; the yearbook and school pictures of the boys looked like most of my classmates.

I first read this book back in 1987. I recently read it again, almost 20 years later, and I still believe it to be the most thorough, comprehensive book on Gacy. Cahill, an excellent journalist, has done an excellent job of presenting a complete picture of the man and his crimes. He managed to "get inside Gacy's head" (an unhealthy place) to give the reader a clear look of Gacy's personality, views on life, attitude towards his victims and reactions to his trial.

Along with covering the crimes, investigation, arrest and trial of Gacy, Cahill also delves into Gacy's childhood and early years, including his relationship with his abusive father. The book is detailed, and Cahill writes with the kind of insight that only comes from having a complete understanding of his subject. It's also clear that Cahill researched Gacy thoroughly, and he notes in his introduction that he culled his information from a number of sources.

As can be expected, this book is scary stuff, with two chapters in particular being extremely disturbing and frightening to read. Cahill doesn't merely describe, he casts the reader in the role of witness to one of Gacy's murders, showing Gacy's core of pure evil. That said, this is also the type of book that is tough to put down, and also the type that stays with you long after having finished it.

I too could not disagree more with the reviewer who accused Cahill of plagiarising "Killer Clown." They are two very different books. And while "Killer Clown" is a good book, written largely from a legal/trial and punishment perspective, the better of the two by far is "Buried Dreams." The best overall book on Gacy.

I read this book years ago and I've never forgotten it. Flawless writing and thorough research puts this book marginally ahead of "Killer Clown:The John Wayne Gacy Murders by Terry Sullivan,Peter T Maiken" and miles ahead of the homophobic "The Man Who Killed Boys:The John Wayne Gacy,Jr. Story by Clifford L. Linedecker which is written with a to the point, cheap, sleazy flair.(like those awful Pinnacle True crime books with their hack writers) What makes this book so much better is it doesn't rely on cheap shocks and sordid discriptions to get it's point across and has a much more thorough account of what took place both before, during and after the murders. I felt at the end I knew more about Mr. Gacy than I ever really wanted to know...Truly Sick and bloodcurdling! If this book interests you try a few of these: The Man with Candy-Jack Olsen, Freed to Kill:The True Story of Serial Murderer Larry Eyler-Gera Lind Kolarik,Wayne Klatt, Angel of Darkness-Dennis McDougal they are really good! and really scary! They're about less Known but equally prolific serial killers who targeted the male gender.

I couldn't disagree more with the "Borderline Propaganda" review below. On the contrary, Cahill's writing was nothing short of masterful -- a chilling glimpse into the mind and motivations of a true sociopath.

I've never read "Killer Clown," so I can't speak to the charges of plagiarism. But I must take exception to the comment that the book doesn't tell us what Gacy is thinking. In fact, it basically tells the story from Gacy's point of view, exposing him -- using his own words -- as a liar, a manipulator and a malingerer without equal. I always imagined Cahill writing this book with a nod and a wink to the reader, as if to say "Can you believe this guy?" Far from being a Gacy dupe or apologist, Cahill simply doles out the rope, and Gacy dutifully wraps it around his neck and ties the noose.

It's a fascinating, and sometimes macabre, journey into a sick and twisted mind, and I haven't found anything since that comes close to matching the style or insight offered by this book.

Reading these reviews that sound conflicting, I will try to sum up the difference between Killer Clown and Buried Dreams and it is simply this: Cahill is a writer, Sullivan is not. And although Sullivan had help, his book is still almost coldly factual, even as it flows well, but you will not get much out of it that can't be found on a hundred crime sites, besides his own frustration and dedication during the investigation. I'm not condemning this in any way, and if that is what you want as a reader, then Killer Clown will satisfy your cravings for facts and justice.

Cahill, on the other hand, has the same facts of course, but what he does with them is something you won't find anywhere else, something unique. He tells the tale almost from Gacy's point of view, piecing his sick-mindedness and subsequent murders together in a remarkably cohesive and insightful way. Right from the beginning. Some--probably most-- serial killers talk and 'fess up before their executions. Gacy did his confessing early, and then later went for the long shot that somehow he would place doubts in people's minds and save himself from death, by denying what he did. Definitely, he had no remorse. Except for a few slip-ups here and there, he gave no further information on his motivation or how his victims died. Using the facts he had, Cahill filled in these blanks, and answered the tough questions that Sullivan couldn't or wouldn't.

Buried Dreams is not just facts. It is not a text-book blanket profiling of collective criminal minds. It is not the investigation, trial and conviction from the detectives and lawyers points of views. It is as close as Cahill could get to showing us Gacy, personally, from the inside and I doubt it's far off the mark. It's consistent with Gacy's personality right up to his lethal injection. Yes, chilling. As it should be.

This is a great wrap up of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. I absolutely was riveted to the story. I couldn't believe how sick this [man] was. Thank goodness he is gone. There was nothing redeeming about his Life.
Cahill, the author did a wonderful job making his life story seem so real feeling as I read.
I will say the first chapter was so gross, what with the describing the little red worms in the soil in the crawl space. (Shivering) highly recommended

I have read a considerable amount of true crime including almost all available material on John Wayne Gacy. I finally obtained a copy of Tim Cahill's out-of-print Buried Dreams, and I was terribly disappointed after reading it. The definitive book on Gacy is Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders by Terry Sullivan (with Peter T. Maiken), one of the Illinois prosecutors responsible for securing murder convictions against Gacy. Cahill's book, which was published several years after Sullivan's and used material supplied by investigative reporter Russ Ewing, not only fails to shed any new light on the case but also comes close to outright plagiarism of Killer Clown.

Cahill does provide extensive details on John Wayne Gacy's life as a young boy and as an adolescent, but even the new revelations are only of passing interest. His writing style is somewhat of a "stream of consciousness", which isn't inappropriate in this case nor in this genre; yet it lends an air of imprecision to the book that isn't welcome. We want to know what John Wayne Gacy was thinking; we don't want to have to guess at it.

Alas, law enforcement and the rest of us have been guessing for years, and though this book is subtitled "Inside the mind of a serial killer", it doesn't come close to delivering. When he discusses the police investigation, Cahill comes just a hair's width away from plagiarizing Sullivan's Killer Clown. If you've read Killer Clown, you can see that Cahill simply took whole chunks of that book and rewrote them slightly before inserting them into his own book.

The final blow to this book's credibility is Cahill's presentation of "Gacy's own words." Sadly, Cahill only refers in passing to Gacy's multiple witnessed statements to the Des Plaines Police Department immediately after his arrest in December 1978. Instead, he uses Gacy's words from prison in the 1980s, where Gacy had begun to deny almost all knowledge of the crimes and insisted that he was only guilty "of running an unlicensed cemetary." It is borderline propaganda and it only confirms what we already know: that Gacy was a sociopath who loved manipulating people, including authors.

Save yourself the trouble of searching for a copy of Buried Dreams and buy Sullivan's book instead. You'll learn a whole lot more than you would reading Buried Dreams and you won't miss anything, either. And if you really want to know how Gacy thinks, read Robert Ressler's excellent books on serial killers.

Some of this book was interesting, but most was very slow moving. It just didn't captivate. I believe it could have been better written. I don't feel that I or the author ever got "into the mind" of John Wayne Gacy. Then again, to the author's credit, after reading the book, I'm not sure if anyone could accomplish this feat. I came away feeling that on the surface, Gacy seemed calm and even rational almost all of the time, but was totally the opposite while committing the murders. Either way, the book didn't flow well and is lacking. It wasn't as "meaty" as expected... no pun intended.

I have read many a true crime story and this is the top of the draw. The amount of detail brings to mind IN COLD BLOOD and THE ULTIMATE EVIL. Cahill, instead of rushing to print like Cliff Linedecker, has really placed you inside the sick mind of John Gacy; it will disgust, shock, frighten, and, curiously enough, please you with how well written it is. It will make you feel unclean but you keep on flippin pages. If you can manage to find a copy of this book, get it. I had originally gotten a paperback but had to replace it with a finer hardcover edition. ORDER THIS-NO REGRETS HERE!!!

It seems to be a well researched piece of work. Some of the details are rather unpleasant, not just the discovery of the victims, but the method for obtaining and killing them. It was surpising to see how much of the really twisted stuff did not make the news at the time.

This book has it all in regard to a true crime serial killer. If you are looking for depravity, profanity, sociopathic behavior, and a total disregard for the life of another individual this book has it in spades. John Wayne Gacy played several roles and he played them very well. Whether it was as a politician, a clown, an organizer of parades, a successful businessman, or a mass murderer he was your man. He was abused by an alcoholic father who taught him he could do nothing correct. Every effort John made to please his dad was found wanting, and in his marriage when he became an adult John became a carbon copy of his father towards his wife who was the daughter of Colonel Harlan Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame.

I feel author Tim Cahill does a good job in presenting the many sides, if you will, of John Gacy, and whether John had multiple personalities is open to question. The "Jack Hanley" referred to in the book is the evil side of John Wayne Gacy who was able to mesmerize young adult boys/men into playing tricks with handcuffs with promises of more lucrative employment than what they were presently receiving elsewhere. Once handcuffs were applied the evil side of John Gacy presented itself to the unsuspecting young adult with death and burial under the crawl space in Mr. Gacy's house soon to follow.

I found this to be a brutal book, but I guess I knew that to be before I read it. At times author Cahill even manages to illustrate the thoughts of Mr. Gacy in humorous ways in his dealings with law enforcement as they begin to close in on him. Thus the subtitle: Inside the Mind of A Serial Killer. I have to admit the heavy amount of profanity became a little too much for my taste, but I suppose this was to be expected in a book of this nature. I found the book to be a worthwhile read as there are things for the unwary to learn under such circumstances, but you may want to take a shower after finishing it. The book was written before Mr. Gacy's execution, and contains no pictures.