In the early to mid-1990s, Illinois attorney Karen Conti and her husband and law partner Greg Adamski took on serial killer John Wayne Gacy as a client during Gacy’s final appeals as his execution date closed in on him. It wasn’t until now that Conti has been willing to process and share the full set of complex emotions she experienced as she represented Gacy. She has told her story in a new book and in a recent ISBA-sponsored continuing legal education program, and spoke with the Illinois Bar Journal, which features Conti’s journey in the October 2024 issue. Conti explains why it took three decades for her to decide to write her book. “First of all, I had had enough. I was done with Gacy. I didn’t want to be associated with him,” she says. “I wanted to give the [victims’ families] a chance to just have it rest. It was just raw. I didn’t want to relive it. … It’s a better book because I’m able to put into context how it affected my life. In retrospect, when you’re in the middle of it, it’s hard to analyze. When you can look back on it all with wisdom, you can see it all more clearly.”

Read the October Illinois Bar Journal’s article, “Representing Evil.”