Peacock’s latest true-crime drama, Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy, reframes one of America’s most notorious cases through a scripted lens that centers victims, interrogates systemic failures, and spotlights the investigators who finally stopped the killer. The limited series arrives with a top-tier cast and a mandate to move the conversation beyond lurid headlines.
John Wayne Gacy was convicted in 1980 of murdering 33 young men, many of them teenagers, crimes largely committed in the Chicago area, particularly the suburb of Des Plaines, Illinois. He was arrested in December 1978 after a joint effort by Illinois authorities and the FBI, sentenced to death, and executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center in 1994, according to reporting and federal records.
While Gacy’s middle-class upbringing appeared conventional on the surface, contemporaneous accounts describe an abusive home environment. Before the murders came to light, he was convicted in 1968 of sexually assaulting a teenage employee and received a 10-year sentence; he was released early for good behavior. He later returned to the Chicago area, ran a construction business, and performed as a clown at community events—details that have long underscored the chilling double life behind his crimes.
What Devil in Disguise Covers
Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy is a scripted true-crime series that tracks the killer’s trajectory while foregrounding the lives affected by his violence. Rather than rehashing the case purely from the perpetrator’s perspective, the show threads in the stories of victims and their families and examines how missed opportunities and institutional blind spots prolonged the investigation.
The series follows the mounting pressure on local authorities as disappearances accumulate, the growing list of leads, and the dogged surveillance efforts that ultimately paved the way to Gacy’s arrest. Alongside procedural beats, the narrative spends time with families seeking answers—most notably the mother of Gacy’s final known victim—bringing emotional clarity to a case often reduced to grim statistics.
By centering the human cost, the show aims to resist sensationalism and instead contextualize how communities and institutions respond to a predator hiding in plain sight. It’s an approach that aligns with a recent wave of prestige true-crime dramas striving to honor victims’ lives while confronting systemic shortcomings.
Cast & Characters
Michael Chernus leads the series as John Wayne Gacy, delivering a performance calibrated to the show’s mission: understanding how he evaded accountability for so long without glamorizing the crimes. Opposite him, Gabriel Luna plays detective Rafael Tovar, a driven investigator whose persistence reflects the real-world efforts that broke the case open.
Marin Ireland portrays Elizabeth Piest, the mother whose search for answers helped catalyze critical investigative momentum. Her perspective anchors the series’ empathetic focus, bringing urgency and moral clarity to the story’s most harrowing chapters.
The ensemble also includes James Badge Dale as chief of detectives Joe Kozenczak, a key figure in coordinating the investigation; Michael Angarano as Sam Amirante, who would later serve as Gacy’s defense attorney; and Chris Sullivan as lead prosecutor Bill Kunkle, whose courtroom strategy translated years of police work into convictions. Together, the cast underscores the case’s vast scope—from local detectives to the legal teams that ensured justice was carried through.
Release Date & How To Watch
Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy premiered on Peacock on October 16, 2025. All eight episodes are now streaming, making the series an immediate binge for viewers interested in rigorously researched, performance-driven true-crime storytelling.
While the production is scripted, it draws on widely reported facts of the case, including timelines documented by the FBI and coverage from outlets across Illinois, as well as historical context around Gacy’s earlier conviction and release. The result is a dramatization that invites viewers to re-examine what allowed Gacy’s crimes to go unchecked and who paid the price.
Why The Story Matters Now
Following the premiere, Chernus outlined the series’ guiding intent. “I really hope that (with this show) we can start to talk about changing the narrative around dehumanizing people who aren’t like ourselves,” he told Today.com. “I really think we are trying to, in a way, address the systemic biases that allowed Gacy to get away with this for so long. And there are still unidentified victims that I hope, in some way, maybe this show allows someone to call in a tip.”
That statement captures Devil in Disguise’s core thesis: true crime can be more than morbid curiosity. By amplifying victims’ voices and spotlighting systemic gaps, the series positions itself as both a gripping drama and a prompt for accountability—past and present.
For Peacock, the project arrives at a moment when audiences expect more from true crime than reenactments, demanding context, care, and a sense of purpose. Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy answers that call with an approach that’s tense, humane, and rooted in the lived experiences surrounding an infamous case.
It’s a difficult watch by design, but one that insists on dignity for those too often reduced to footnotes. And in retracing a case that shocked the nation, the series reminds viewers why getting the full story—about victims, families, and the systems meant to protect them—still matters.
