John Wayne Gacy was known for many years around his neighborhood as a Democratic precinct captain and a birthday party clown. But in December 1978, police discovered 29 bodies buried in a crawl space of his house and the surrounding yard in unincorporated Norwood Park Township. Another four bodies were found in the Des Plaines River. (Credit: CBS)

CHICAGO (CBS) — Two Chicago lawyers have taken a fresh look at the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of three victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, and they have concluded that he had at least one accomplice.

The three were found among the 29 victims whose bodies were buried in the crawlspace of Gacy’s home, at 8213 W. Summerdale Ave. in unincorporated Norwood Park Township.

Attorneys Stephen Becker and Bob Stephenson showed CBS 2 receipts that put Gacy out of town when two people who ended up in his crawlspace disappeared.

Gacy was in Pittsburgh during the period in September 1977 when victim Robert Gilroy, 18, of Chicago disappeared, the Sun-Times reported. And when John Mowery, 19 of Chicago disappeared later in September 1977, Gacy was at a job in Michigan, the attorneys told the Sun-Times.

In a third case, a friend of one of the men who disappeared – Russell Nelson, 21, of Minneapolis – offered work to Nelson’s brothers with Gacy, the Sun-Times reported. That man’s identity is being given to police.

The attorneys are also examining Gacy’s own questions to police when he was arrested. Among those questions were – “Who else do you have in the station? There are others involved,” and he said his “associates” were involved “directly,” the Sun-Times reported.

One would-be victim, Jeff Ringall, lived to tell his story but has since died. Ringall said he was drugged, tortured and raped in Gacy’s home and dumped in Lincoln Park – an offense for which Gacy was arrested – and he said he thought someone else was in Gacy’s house when he was tortured, the Sun-Times reported.

“I can honestly tell you that to this day I don’t know whether somebody helped him,” Sam Amirante, Gacy’s defense attorney, said Friday.

In an exclusive 1992 interview with CBS 2’s Walter Jacobson, Gacy himself claimed he had accomplices. His house doubled as headquarters for his P.D.M. Construction company, and a flophouse for his employees, on whom he blamed the murders when he talked to Jacobson.

“The media has always contended there was others involved,” Gacy said. “At the time of my arrest, there were four other suspects.” Three of them worked for P.D.M., Gacy said.

He claimed that one man, Michael Rossi, had socialized in the house with one victim, John Szyc, the night he was murdered. Gacy said he had a drink at the house, then left, and when he came back, Szyc was dead.

But Gacy also tried to convey the impression that he himself was not involved in the murders. He said he did not say anything because “it wasn’t my business, and I stayed out of other people’s business.”

If this story did not seem credible, he had another one, about being so high on drugs he did not know what he was doing. He said he took Valium to cope with his long workdays.

Gacy was executed on May 10, 1994. Notoriously, his last words were, “Kiss my ass.”