# John Wayne Gacy-Did He Use the Wrong Type of Lime? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 13, 2015, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317 "2015-12-13T12:36:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/1 "2015-12-13T12:36:40Z")
A good cop friend of mine and I were kicking it recently, and we got to talking about body disposal. Lime, as a solvent was referenced, and he said that John Wayne Gacy was discovered as a murderer because the lime that he used was not ‘the right type’ to dispose of bodies, while there were, in fact, other types that would have let him get away scot-free. (The stench of the bodies under his house was what helped investigators track down some of his victims’ bodies.) My friend isn’t a forensic investigator, by any means, and wouldn’t swear to any of this, but, he believes it. I had to turn to the SDMB. Is my friend correct, and did Gacy use an inferior type of lime for his grisly purposes? Thanks, hh ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/2 "2015-12-13T14:18:20Z")
Quicklime vs slaked lime. calcium carbonate → \*with heat \*→ calcium oxide + carbon dioxide CaCO3 → _with heat_→ CaO + CO2 This is a thermal decomposition reaction. calcium oxide + water → calcium hydroxide CaO + H2O → Ca(OH)2 > [@](#): > > Because of vigorous reaction of quicklime with water, quicklime causes severe irritation when inhaled or placed in contact with moist skin or eyes. Inhalation may cause coughing, sneezing, labored breathing. It may then evolve into burns with perforation of the nasal septum, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Although quicklime is not considered a fire hazard, its reaction with water can release enough heat to ignite combustible materials Slaked lime is what you get after the above reaction. The former will help with body decomposition; the latter will be more likely to preseve it. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/3 "2015-12-13T15:53:25Z")
Not surprisingly, this subject [has come up on the Dope](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-52211.html) before. While quicklime according to legend speeds decomposition, the truth appears to be that it actually retards it. And I haven’t seen any Authoritative References suggesting that any sort of lime is good for concealing the results of one’s murder spree. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/4 "2015-12-13T20:47:12Z")
Too bad _Breaking Bad_ wasn’t around then to educate him. I would think hydrofluoric acid would be a better way to handle it. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/5 "2015-12-14T00:54:38Z")
We used lime to control the odor of our dead chicken pile. We’d collect 8 or 10 dead ones from the chicken house pens every day during hot summers. Once it got over a 100 degrees those pens were just too hot for the chickens and the people that worked in them. We’d get 14 or more dead ones a day when it got over 103… Thats a pretty good pile to take to the dump every three or four days. Lime seemed to help with the flies and stench. Eventually the hatchery made all the farms install fans throughout the barns. Cutting losses significantly. My uncle had 10,000 layers and 1500 roosters. We usually gathered 4000 to 5000 eggs every day that went to the hatchery. Lime works. Don’t know what it does, but it helped a lot in controlling the problem. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/6 "2015-12-14T01:19:59Z")
[Link to an article.](http://extension.oregonstate.edu/coos/agriculture/DeadAnimalDisposal) > [@](#): > > It is legal to bury animal mortalities on your farm if certain requirements are met and specific recommendations are followed. The bottom of the hole must be dry (not in a water table). The dead animal should be covered with hydrated lime, and then covered with at least 4’ of soil mounded up to allow for settling as the carcass decomposes [ORS 601.090(7)]. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/7 "2015-12-14T08:49:03Z")
Thanks for the info, guys! ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/8 "2015-12-14T15:50:14Z")
As the chicken farmer noted, lime does not help with the decomposition but retards the putrefaction and subsequent smell. Well into the investigation of Gacy a detective noticed a smell coming from heat vent of Gacy’s house. This was not the reason Gacy was a suspect or why his house was searched but it was a piece of the puzzle. He was identified as having been the last person to see a missing person and a prior conviction for sodomy made him the primary suspect in the disappearance. Items were found in his house which police were able to tie to the missing youth and the police found some people who Gacy had used to dig holes in his crawl space and basement as well as spread lime. If he had not spread the lime, the smell would have likely alerted police earlier in the investigation but they would have found the bodies at some point anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/9 "2015-12-14T17:46:43Z")
In the movies they shovel or dump “lime” over corpses shown in movies, which is followed by a nice puff of talcum powder-like particles. IRL no way, right, without coughing, gagging, etc? Since it came up, the following can be referenced also. **Feasibility of body disposal with acid and plastic barrel a la ‘Breaking Bad’: NEED ANSWER FAST** > **[Feasibility of body disposal with acid and plastic barrel a la 'Breaking...](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=667376)** > > In the show “Breaking Bad”, a frequent method of body disposal used is to drop it in a plastic barrel, and fill the barrel with hydrofluoric (IIRC) acid. In particular, I’m curious if any DNA would survive to allow identification of the body. (Just... The topic also is discussed beginning post #34 in: **Factual Question about Breaking Bad: Blue Meth?** [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=774324](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=774324) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/10 "2015-12-14T17:56:03Z")
Which lime do they put the chicken eggs into that become Chinese “thousand-year-old eggs?” Something about potash and the tree you get Shiso leaves (nice in plates of sushi and sashimi) as well as Szechuan peppers basic to Szechuan (duh) Chinese cooking? And doesn’t lime come up in this in Lutefisk (which I imagine has a touch of the smell/taste of those Chinese preserved eggs, which are commonly eaten, unlike the special-occasion Lutefisk. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/11 "2015-12-14T18:35:56Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Which lime do they put the chicken eggs into that become Chinese “thousand-year-old eggs?” > > Something about potash and the tree you get Shiso leaves (nice in plates of sushi and sashimi) as well as Szechuan peppers basic to Szechuan (duh) Chinese cooking? > > And doesn’t lime come up in this in Lutefisk (which I imagine has a touch of the smell/taste of those Chinese preserved eggs, which are commonly eaten, unlike the special-occasion Lutefisk. Quicklime is used to make century eggs. Lye is used to make lutefisk. If I remember my high school chemistry correctly, I believe lye is water-soluble, while quicklime is not (or rather, mixing with water causes a chemical reaction which turns it into calcium hydroxide). ---
**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/12 "2015-12-14T20:27:00Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Which lime do they put the chicken eggs into that become Chinese “thousand-year-old eggs?” > > Something about potash and the tree you get Shiso leaves (nice in plates of sushi and sashimi) as well as Szechuan peppers basic to Szechuan (duh) Chinese cooking? > > And doesn’t lime come up in this in Lutefisk (which I imagine has a touch of the smell/taste of those Chinese preserved eggs, which are commonly eaten, unlike the special-occasion Lutefisk. Lutefisk is made with lye. It is delicious with melted butter and potatoes. Yum! ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/13 "2015-12-20T13:16:08Z")
Well, this just showed up, and I must say it never occurred to me: _Wife accused of killing her husband in a ‘perfect murder’ may have ‘vacuum packed’ his body as police found it wrapped in plastic and perfectly preserved after 18 years_ > **[Wife accused of killing husband may have ‘vacuum packed’](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3367663/Wife-accused-killing-husband-perfect-murder-vacuum-packed-body-police-wrapped-plastic-perfectly-preserved-18-years.html)** > > John Henry Sabine was last seen alive in 1997 and his body was only discovered in October outside a council block in Beddau, near Pontypridd, South Wales, after his wife Leigh Anne died of cancer. Does the method sound plausible, despite the headline? I call bullshit, based on evidence easily available on any given day in my refrigerator. Not the “perfect” part, which is massively debatable, but I doubt the woman had a vacuum sealer (hey, sous-vide cannibalism!), but even still, anaerobic processes are significant post-mortem. [FTR, as a relatively new sous-vider, and like most people someone who consults tech comparisons for temps on-line, I am proud of introducing a new random search result for future cooks.] ---
**Author:** ![Torontonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/45deac/32.png) [@Torontonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torontonian)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/14 "2015-12-21T11:48:28Z")
The clown made one mistake. He should have came out of the closet instead of suppressing the urge before rape and following murders took place. There is evidence that he hired 2-3 teenagers to help bury the bodies. He never revealed who they were to police. As for lime, I think he buried way too many people two feet under the basement floor for any sort of lime to work The sick guy had two bodies buried under the bathtub, and he took bathes fine for years. That’s deranged. On side note, he was introduced to weed by those teenagers he often didn’t pay and chose to murder instead… ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/15 "2015-12-21T12:15:31Z")
Drano works much better than lime. ---
**Author:** ![Torontonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/45deac/32.png) [@Torontonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torontonian)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/16 "2015-12-21T12:34:44Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Drano works much better than lime. personal experience much? ---
**Author:** ![lalaith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@lalaith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalaith)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/17 "2015-12-21T21:43:18Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Does the method sound plausible, despite the headline? I call bullshit, based on evidence easily available on any given day in my refrigerator. Not the “perfect” part, which is massively debatable, but I doubt the woman had a vacuum sealer (hey, sous-vide cannibalism!), but even still, anaerobic processes are significant post-mortem. No expert. But I read “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” by Mary Roach and I’d say you’re correct. IIRC, bacterial decomposition really takes off in your digestive organs and I wouldn’t see how vacuum sealing would make a difference there. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/18 "2015-12-22T00:07:09Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Too bad _Breaking Bad_ wasn’t around then to educate him. I would think hydrofluoric acid would be a better way to handle it. \*\*DO NOT \*\*get that stuff on you. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-gacy-did-he-use-the-wrong-type-of-lime/740317/19 "2015-12-24T06:09:05Z")
Need answer fast?