In the late 1970s, a medical student in Chicago needed a ride home after class. He did not want to pay for a taxi, so he decided to hitchhike.
At the time, hitchhiking was more socially accepted than it is today. The student had done it before and did not consider it unusual.
A car eventually stopped.
The driver appeared normal, friendly and light-hearted. He was a middle-aged man, and nothing about him immediately made the student feel unsafe.
The student got into the passenger seat and told the driver where he wanted to go.
Then they drove away.
The Driver Missed the Turn
The ride was mostly silent. The two men did not make much conversation.
After some time, the student noticed that the driver had passed the turn he needed to take.
He pointed this out and asked the driver to turn around. He also offered to get out and walk because they were not far from his destination.
That was when the driver’s behavior suddenly changed.
The friendly attitude disappeared.
The man looked at the student and said:
“Oh, no. You’re coming with me.”
The student immediately became frightened.
He did not know who the man was or what he intended to do. But he understood that the statement did not sound like a joke.
He needed to get out of the car.
The Student Jumped From the Moving Car
The car was still moving when it began to slow down.
The student saw an opportunity.
He unlocked the passenger door, opened it and jumped out.
He hit the ground hard and rolled toward the curb. The fall left him badly shaken and injured, but he was able to get back on his feet.
He ran home.
For him, getting away was the most important thing.
Why He Did Not Call the Police
The student did not report the incident to police.
He did not have much useful information about the driver. He could not provide a license plate number, and he did not have a detailed description that would clearly identify the man.
The driver had also not openly attacked him.
There had been a threatening statement, but the student’s understanding of what the man intended remained uncertain.
So the student went on with his life.
Eventually, the frightening encounter faded from his memory.
Two Years Later, He Saw the Driver on TV
A couple of years passed.
One day, the former medical student was sitting in a café drinking coffee. A television was playing in the background.
He was not paying close attention until something the reporter said caught his attention.
The report concerned a man on death row.
According to the report, the man had removed the interior door handles from his car after a previous victim escaped by opening a door while the vehicle was moving.
That detail immediately reminded the student of his own experience.
He went over to the television.
Then he saw the man’s face.
It was the same driver who had picked him up years earlier.
The man was John Wayne Gacy, who became known as the “Killer Clown.”
Who Was John Wayne Gacy?
John Wayne Gacy was an American serial killer who murdered numerous young men and boys in the Chicago area.
He was arrested in 1978 and later convicted of multiple murders. He received the death penalty and was eventually executed.
Gacy became notorious for his crimes and for his public image as a community member who sometimes performed as a clown.
His case became one of the most infamous serial murder cases in American history.
Was the Medical Student Gacy’s First Intended Victim?
The transcript presents the possibility that the medical student may have been an early intended victim of Gacy.
But there is an important distinction.
The student escaped before the driver carried out an attack. There was no way for him to know exactly what the driver intended at the time.
The later television report about the car’s door handles provided a disturbing connection between his experience and another reported escape.
So it is more accurate to say that the student’s experience may have been an attempted abduction or an early encounter with Gacy, rather than stating as a proven fact that he was definitely Gacy’s first intended victim.
The Escape May Have Changed What Happened Next
The student’s decision to jump from the moving car may have had consequences beyond saving his own life.
According to the account, Gacy later removed the interior door handles from his car after a victim escaped using a car door.
If the accounts are connected, the earlier escape may have shown Gacy that someone could simply open the door and get out.
That would explain why such a modification became important later.
Still, the exact connection between the medical student’s encounter and Gacy’s later actions cannot be established from this account alone.
A Warning the Student Could Not Have Understood
At the time, the medical student had no way of knowing the identity of the man driving the car.
He only knew that something had suddenly felt wrong.
The driver’s appearance had not warned him. The man initially seemed friendly and harmless.
The danger became clear only after the driver refused to take him home.
The student then acted quickly.
Jumping from a moving vehicle was dangerous, but staying inside the car appeared even more dangerous to him in that moment.
Years later, seeing the driver’s face on television gave the encounter a completely different meaning.
Conclusion
The medical student’s hitchhiking trip began like an ordinary ride home.
A stranger stopped. The driver seemed friendly. Then he missed the student’s turn and suddenly told him he was coming along.
The student trusted his instincts and escaped by jumping from the moving car.
Two years later, he recognized that driver on television as John Wayne Gacy.
Whether the student was definitely an intended victim cannot be proven from the account. But the experience shows how quickly an apparently normal situation can change—and how his decision to leave the car may have saved his life.