Gabriel Luna and the Cast of John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise Bring Empathy and Humanity to One of America’s Darkest True Crime Stories
From the first frame, John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise makes one thing clear — this isn’t another serial killer spectacle. Under executive producer and show-runner Patrick Macmanus (Dr. Death, The Girl from Plainville), the Peacock series refuses to glorify evil. Instead, it gives voice to the silenced — the boys and families who were failed by society, stereotypes, and an indifferent system.
Table Of Content
RELATED: Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story—A Return to True Crime’s Darkest Corners
At the heart of this grounded reimagining is Gabriel Luna, who plays Detective Rafael Tovar, a man fighting not only for justice but for humanity itself. Luna, best known for his powerful portrayal of Tommy in The Last of Us, reflected on the emotional parallels between both roles.
“You used a term I’ve been using almost in every interview — the reclamation of humanity,” Luna shared. “That’s what Tovar is trying to do. He’s giving voices and faces and names back to these people who can’t speak for themselves — whose families sometimes abandoned them because of how society viewed them. He became an advocate, a crusader for justice that still needed to be fulfilled.”
Luna admitted the process was emotionally taxing, describing the case’s toll not just on victims, but on law enforcement themselves.
“There’s a lot of weight on the shoulders of these men and women who took on this case,” he said. “With every new discovery, it only got darker. I wanted to show how it chipped away at them physically and spiritually. I didn’t want to play a TV cop — I wanted it to be truthful, ordinary, human.”
Humanity Over Horror
Showrunner Patrick Macmanus was equally clear about his approach.
“Nothing drew me to the John Wayne Gacy story,” Macmanus confessed. “I actually turned it down a couple of times. When Peacock came back a third time, I told them, ‘If I’m doing it, we’re not going to focus on John Wayne Gacy.’”
That conviction became the show’s guiding light.
RELATED: “Black Phone 2” Trailer Rings with Chilling New Horrors
“We focused on the families, the police, the lawyers — ultimately, the victims,” he continued. “By exploring their hopes, dreams, and struggles without connecting everything to Gacy, we finally understood our north star. We weren’t here to retell his crimes. We were here to reclaim their stories.”
The production team went to extraordinary lengths to ensure authenticity. They drew from extensive NBC News archives, court documents, and private research to paint vivid, fully realized portraits of the victims and those left behind. But Macmanus made one crucial rule:
“We don’t ever show any of the murders. It would have been a disservice to their memory. That’s how you slip into the gratuitous. We wanted to honor their lives, not dramatize their deaths.”
This approach distinguishes Devil in Disguise from stylized adaptations like Ryan Murphy’s Monster series. Macmanus acknowledged Murphy’s impact on the industry but emphasized his own intent:
“We weren’t trying to correct past behavior — we just needed a reason to tell this story. And that reason couldn’t be John Wayne Gacy. We didn’t set out to do something special, but I think we landed on something truly special.”
A Mother’s Strength
Marin Ireland, who portrays Elizabeth Piest, the mother of Gacy’s final known victim, delivers one of the series’ most haunting performances. She approached the role with reverence, describing her preparation as a process of deep empathy.
“There’s not a lot out there about Elizabeth,” Ireland explained. “I approached it as a story of a woman going through sudden, extreme loss. I read memoirs from people who had lost children, and I wanted anyone who’s lived through that kind of grief to feel reflected back.”
The actress said every day on set carried emotional weight.
“Every day was hard,” she admitted. “Even the day I thought would be the easiest — the last time she sees Rob — turned out to be the heaviest. We were all struck by the enormity of what that day meant.”
For Ireland, Elizabeth’s determination to keep her son’s memory alive mirrors real-world struggles faced by victims’ families today.
“The system doesn’t work the way it should,” she said. “It’s broken, and people have to band together. I love that the show presents a community of victims — people who find strength in each other. I hope that makes others feel less alone, less like they’re doing something wrong because the system is failing them.”
