Hollywood is seemingly obsessive about serial killer tales, and one veteran actor is now relating his personal, all-too actual encounter with John Wayne Gacy.
Jack Merrill, whose decades-long profession contains components in Eight Males Out, Regulation & Order, Intercourse and the Metropolis, Gray’s Anatomy, Numb3rs and Hannah Montana, wrote this week about surviving abduction and rape by the hands of Gacy, a serial killer who generally dressed as a clown and who authorities say sexually assaulted and murdered a minimum of 33 younger males and boys.
Merrill says his assault occurred in 1978, when he was 19.
“One evening,” he writes for Folks, “I used to be strolling house. A man pulled over and mentioned, ‘Do you wish to go for a trip?’”
Merrill remembers that he accepted, solely to be drugged and dragged to Gacy’s house.
“He put this selfmade contraption round my neck,” writes the actor. “It had ropes and pulleys, and it went round my again and thru my handcuffed fingers in a manner that if I struggled, I might choke.”
Merrill says that Gacy “caught a gun in my mouth” earlier than raping him.
“Lastly, I might inform he was tiring. Impulsively he mentioned, ‘I’ll take you house,’” writes Merrill, who at one level remembers his abductor telling him, “You’re not like these different youngsters.”
Regardless of the case, “He dropped me off not removed from the place he’d picked me up. It was round 5 within the morning. He gave me his telephone quantity and mentioned, “Perhaps we’ll get collectively once more someday.” Once I acquired house, I flushed the quantity down the bathroom, then took a bathe.”
Merrill says a couple of months later he noticed a headline within the Chicago Solar-Occasions that learn, “Our bodies Discovered at Suburban Web site” and he knew the person concerned was the one who had kidnapped and assaulted him.
“I made a pact with myself that I used to be going to get previous this,” he writes. “I wasn’t going to go away my happiness in that home.”
A part of Merrill’s therapeutic has been performing.
“I acquired into the NYU drama division. In 1986 a bunch of pals and I shaped Bare Angels, an Off-Broadway troupe for actors and playwrights. Performing was therapeutic for me. You’re compelled to precise your self, and there’s some honesty that goes with that. Recognition and acceptance.”
One other half has been consciously forgiving Gacy for what he did.
“I examine Oprah doing a present about forgiveness,” says Merill. “There was a lady who had been raped, crushed and left for lifeless. She mentioned if she didn’t forgive her attacker, she couldn’t get on along with her life. I knew I had to try this—to someway forgive Gacy.”
One other factor that helps: “I’ve additionally discovered love. My husband and I’ve been collectively for 23 years.”
Merrill says he as soon as spoke to a film government about telling the story of his encounter with Gacy.
“That’s the way you wish to be remembered?” the exec replied.
Merrill says, “I believed, ‘No, I suppose not. That might be tying myself to him.’ “
Now, nonetheless, he doesn’t see it that manner. He’s created a one-man present known as The Save Play, which offers together with his upbringing and that horrific evening with Gacy in 1978. It’s presently on the Electrical Lodge in Venice, CA.
“There’s lots of people who’ve had unhealthy issues occur to them,” Merrill says. “Many individuals who’ve been raped don’t speak about it. I perceive that. Till now I’ve solely instructed shut pals. However doing my new present, I stroll via it each evening. I’m happy with the journey. I used to be in a position to be taught from the unhealthy and use it for the nice. You already know, I’m fortunate. I’ve all the time been fortunate.”
In case you or somebody you understand has been sexually assaulted, get disaster help on the RAINN Sexual Assault Hotline by calling 800-656-HOPE, or click on right here to speak with a educated help specialist.
