CHICAGO, June 11 (UPI) -- An Illinois convict says a scary encounter with serial killer John Wayne Gacy started him down the path to becoming a sexual murderer himself.
Brian Dugan, who is awaiting trial for the 1983 rape and murder of a 10-year-old Chicago-area girl, claims he himself was abducted by Gacy as a teenager in the 1970s and reportedly may offer that as a mitigating circumstance in court.
ABC News said Wednesday that Dugan's defense team was investigating that claim and could use it to spare Dugan from the death penalty.
Dugan, who is already in prison for two other slayings, told police that Gacy picked him up while hitchhiking when he was 15 and took him to a wooded area where he forced Dugan to model a pair of bikini underwear and perform sex acts before letting him go.
While some psychologists agreed that such an incident could warp a teenager, investigators say they doubt Dugan's story. They told ABC that the incident did not fit Gacy's patterns and he was not believed to have been in the area at the time of Dugan's reported encounter.
Gacy was executed in 1994 for the sexual assaults and murders of 33 young men in the Chicago area.
