The Case of William George Bundy

William George Bundy, 19, disappeared from Chicago on October 26, 1976. He was later identified as one of John Wayne Gacy's victims after investigators recovered his remains from the crawl space beneath Gacy's Norwood Park Township home in 1978. Bundy's disappearance occurred during a period when Gacy's murders were rapidly increasing.

William George Bundy was 19 years old and lived in Chicago. He disappeared on October 26, 1976, only two days after Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino disappeared. By late October 1976, Gacy's offending had entered an increasingly active period. Several young men had disappeared from the Chicago area within relatively short intervals, although the connection between the missing-person cases would not become apparent until after Gacy's arrest. Bundy's disappearance remained unresolved while his family waited for information about what had happened to him.

William was murdered by John Wayne Gacy and his body was concealed beneath Gacy's home at 8213 West Summerdale Avenue in Norwood Park Township. Gacy used the crawl space beneath the property as a burial site for many of his victims. When investigators excavated the property following Gacy's arrest in December 1978, Bundy's remains were among those recovered. The discovery provided investigators with another missing young man's identity to add to the growing list of victims connected to Gacy.

Bundy's disappearance was initially investigated independently of Gacy. The case changed following the December 1978 disappearance of Robert Piest, a 15-year-old boy who had been seen speaking with Gacy at a Des Plaines pharmacy. Police subsequently focused their investigation on Gacy and obtained permission to search his home. Investigators discovered evidence that led them to excavate beneath the property. Human remains were found in the crawl space, and the excavation eventually uncovered the remains of numerous young men and boys. Bundy's remains were subsequently identified through forensic investigation and comparison with missing-person records. His identification helped establish that Gacy's victims included young men who had disappeared throughout 1976.

John Wayne Gacy was convicted of William George Bundy's murder in 1980, along with 32 other murders, and sentenced to death. Bundy's remains were recovered from Gacy's home in 1978 and subsequently identified. Gacy was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.

William Bundy was Gacy's twelfth identified victim in the chronological sequence. His disappearance occurred only two days after the disappearances of Kenneth Ray Parker and Michael M. Marino, demonstrating the increasingly rapid succession of Gacy's murders during October 1976. The three cases should remain separate case files, but their close dates make the relationship between them useful within Gacy's detailed timeline.