Postmortem

In the vein of the bestselling I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, this compelling work of true crime explores the aftershocks of "Killer Clown" John Wayne Gacy's crimes with a uniquely intimate slant, as the daughter of a key witness probes her mother's personal experiences and the legacy of murder within a family, a community, and the American psyche.

“A beautifully written memoir about the haunting impact of a sensational crime. I'm still thinking about it.” —Gregg Olsen, #1 New York Times bestselling author

On a December night in 1978, Courtney Lund O’Neil’s mother, teenaged Kim Byers, saw her friend Rob Piest alive for the last time. At the end of his shift at the pharmacy where they both worked, fifteen-year-old Rob went outside to speak to a contractor named John Wayne Gacy about a possible job.

That night Rob became Gacy’s final victim; his body was later found in the Des Plaines River. Kim’s testimony, along with a receipt belonging to her found in Gacy’s house, proving that Rob had been there, would be pivotal in convicting the serial killer who assaulted and killed over thirty young men and boys.

Though she grew up far from Des Plaines, Courtney has lived in the shadow of that nightmare, keenly aware of its impact on her mother. In search of deeper understanding and closure, Courtney and Kim travel back to Illinois. Postmortem transforms their personal journey into a powerful exploration of the ever-widening ripples generated by Gacy’s crimes. From the 1970s to the present day, his shadow extends beyond the victims’ families and friends—it encompasses the Des Plaines neighborhood forever marked by his horrific murders, generations of the victims’ families and friends, those who helped arrest and convict him, fandom communities, and many others.

Layered and thought-provoking, Postmortem is a complex story of loss and violence, grief and guilt, and the legacy that remains long after a killer is caught.Praise for Postmortem

“A beautifully written memoir about the haunting impact of a sensational crime. I'm still thinking about it.” —Gregg Olsen, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Amish Wife

“A vivid analysis of how one of America's most nightmarish serial killers, John Wayne Gacy, left traumatic imprints on the immediate survivors and their children.  Courtney Lund O'Neil, whose mother survived, eloquently guides the reader through the forensics, showing the distant reaches of traumatic experiences across generations. There are important lessons here.” —Marc D. Hauser, Ph.D., author of Vulnerable Minds: The Harm of Childhood Trauma and the Hope of Resilience
 
"In December 1978, Kim Byers placed a receipt in the pocket of a parka that belonged to her friend, Rob Piest. He wore it to his death at the hands of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Byers' daughter, Courtney Lund O'Neil, revisits the case . . . As she shifts between past and present, O'Neil portrays the haunting impact of senseless violence on those it touches." —Katherine Ramsland, author of The Serial Killer's Apprentice
 
“Postmortem lays bare generational trauma and the effects that ripple through time after a tragedy. This is not an investigation of a serial killer, it is an investigation of Gacy's legacy. The result is pitch-perfect." —James Renner, author of Little, Crazy Children
 
"A poignant and honest memoir about murder, grief, motherhood, and the many tiny moments in between that can affect a family forever." —David Nelson, author of Boys Enter the House: The Victims of John Wayne Gacy and the Lives They Left Behind
 
“For the past 30 years I have worked as a psychological expert witness in murder cases. I know what it means to enter into the world of murder. Postmortem takes the reader into this terrible world, anchored in the author’s own family’s connection to the case. One definition of trauma is ‘coming face to face with the reality of evil in human nature.’ Postmortem confronts the reader with exactly that. Indeed: reader beware. There is a ‘before’ and an ‘after,’ and the ‘after’ is profoundly disturbing.” —James Garbarino, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Cornell University and Loyola University Chicago, author of Listening to Killers
 
“Postmortem combines the novelistic, compulsive readability of true crime with a memoirist’s eye for detail. O’Neil brings a needed fresh perspective to the stories of John Wayne Gacy’s victims, and she opens these stories to readers who crave a moving account of trauma’s everlasting effects on communities, families, and lives.” —Sarah Beth Childers, assistant professor of English at Oklahoma State University, author of Prodigals: A Sister’s Memoir of Appalachia and Loss

“This book touched every emotion inside of me. Gorgeously written, gripping, and un-putdownable!” —Jennifer Pastiloff, bestselling author of On Being Human
Courtney Lund O’Neil teaches at the University of California, San Diego and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Glamour, The Washington Post, Oprah Daily, Parents, Chicago Tribune, Harper’s Bazaar, and more. The recipient of the Marcia McQuern Award for excellence in Creative Nonfiction and the Marye Lynn Cummings Endowed Scholarship in both Creative Nonfiction and Poetry, she holds a PhD from Oklahoma State University and a MFA from University of California, Riverside. She lives with her husband and children in Southern California and can be found online at CourtneyLundONeil.com.