William J. Kunkle Jr. used the experience of prosecuting John Wayne Gacy to teach others about the trial and its legal peculiarities.
As the prosecutor who secured the death penalty for serial killer John Wayne Gacy, William J. Kunkle Jr. could have coasted on the celebrity of the case for the rest of his career.
The case "was a tremendous education that allowed me to go all over the country lecturing to police officers, state's attorneys, defense lawyers, whoever wanted to hear," he said. "People loved to hear him," his daughter Susan Kunkle said. "He had a powerful presence. When he spoke people listened." Mr. Kunkle was the oldest of three brothers. He was born in 1941, in Lakewood, Ohio, and grew up in Fairview Park, a western suburb of Cleveland, his brother Bob Kunkle said.
Before becoming a prosecutor, Mr. Kunkle worked as an assistant public defender in Cook County for a year or two, colleagues said. Then he was hired as an assistant state's attorney in 1973 under Bernard Carey, who later chose him to prosecute the Gacy case. "They say, 'Oh, you're a lawyer too. Those are big shoes to fill,'" Kathleen Del Valle said. "I could never fill his shoes. He was a pillar in the legal community."
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