Tag: truecrime

A Long Investigative Journey to Solve a Half Century Mystery in Historic Hannibal, MO.

~ John Wingate
I’ve spent years on the Hannibal missing boys story. It’s generated two books that have been embraced by readers. I experienced the drama in May 1967 as the race-against-time cave search unfolded in south Hannibal. In fact, it was this event that led me to become a television journalist and, later, a writer and author.
As a thirteen-year-old I watched, not fully able to fathom the tragedy in its full measure. Suddenly friends had vanished. The woods and hills that were our playgrounds suddenly turned ominous and foreboding.
This has been a difficult story given the dark and deadly facts. I want to thank some folks for helping along the way with expertise, insight and knowledge. FBI-trained Gina Bradshaw, Former LA Police Officer Steve Sederwall, Missouri Deputy State Geologist and expert caver Jerry Vineyard, now deceased. Dozens of cavers and speleohistorians were helpful and encouraging as I pursued the first book, Lost Boys of Hannibal.
My latest book, Souls Speak, brought three psychics into the investigative fold and they saw astonishing things, much of which was later confirmed by John Wayne Gacy’s confession on May 9, 1994, just hours before he was executed by lethal injection. And thanks to Shawn Jackson for stepping forward and revealing Gacy’s stunning deathbed confession, he heard.
We know the lost boys’ shared fate, and with that we can have a measure of closure on this decades-old mystery.
Many thanks to the readers for your support, encouragement and prayers.
See insights and ads
Boost post
All reactions:

You and 32 others

New Edition of Souls Speak reveals Gacy deathbed confession for the murders of Hannibal’s three missing boys.

~ John Wingate

We finally have closure in the vexing half century mystery about the disappearance of three Hannibal boys in the spring of 1967.  The new edition of Souls Speak, now available on Amazon, has the astonishing conclusion of this terrible tragedy.

Serial killer John Wayne Gacy revealed his just-discovered confession to a friend the evening of May 9, 1994 just a few hours before he was executed in Illinois.  It’s a riveting read about the sad final hours of the boys lives.

We pray this news brings some closure in the case.  Alas, the boys were not lost in a cave beneath their southside neighborhood.  Evil came to town and took them.

New “Killer Clown” Mystery. Troubling, Squared.

~ John Wingate
Gary Reagen, former WRAU-TV News Director

A former TV news colleague has written an inciteful review about my new book – Souls Speak – the most astonishing true story you will ever read.

Here’s former WRAU-TV News Director Gary Reagen’s review:

“I was a journalist working in TV news in the years when that monster, John Wayne Gacy, the so-called “Killer Clown”, was so often headline news. Many people in the justice system and elsewhere reportedly believed that Gacy was never held to account for all his crimes; there were so many unanswered questions.

When I read John Wingate’s first book, “Lost Boys of Hannibal”, I was fascinated by the heroic efforts of so many would-be rescuers but also troubled by the unanswered questions “Lost Boys” raised – including the possibility that they were victims of a criminal, not a cave in.

Wingate’s follow-up book, “Souls Speak,” is a chiller. It is troubling squared. Count me a skeptic when it comes to psychics and mediums. Count me a skeptic, too, of anyone who claims we know the full truth about Gacy’s full list of horrors. But after reading this book … well, best have an open mind about whether this is a long-cold case or whether it offers new and accessible evidence. Highly recommended.”

Latest Review for Souls Speak

~ John Wingate

“John Wingate is a potent storyteller. John’s strong journalistic ethic is the main asset to “Souls Speak”. It is a compelling mass murder story with unlikely heroes. The research is as solid as a rock and his prose makes it an all night read.” Jerry Giesler, KPAX-TV