Cold Chicago News Today

Stemming from his first marriage. john wayne gacy had a fairly extensive record -- minor types of things, basically -- you know, battery, disorderly conduct. but one conviction was for sodomy, and it was learned that it was performed against a young boy. cahill: on the day he was convicted, his wife filed for divorce, left him, took his two kids. he never saw any of them again. that ended his wonderful life he was having in waterloo, iowa, because he wound up in a penitentiary. jackson: after se...

In chicago, thousands upon thousands of young men and women go missing. woman: james byron haakenson disappeared shortly after moving to chicago. man: john butkovich, an 18-year-old north side youth, who disappeared on july 31st, 1975. [ telephone rings ] missing persons. polito. can i help you? sullivan: the police departments were understaffed when it came to the juvenile divisions. and it was very difficult to try to track runaways. sneed: typical in this case, and in many cases, families go ...

Cahill: he became the director of the polish day parade. that, in chicago, is a big deal. on one of them, he met rosalynn carter, the wife of the president of the united states. so its really no wonder with a reputation like that, that after this guy jeff rignall went to the police, that even though they did charge gacy, the charge went nowhere. hachmeister: jeff rignall reported this to the chicago police department, and jeff really didnt have that much information. so they couldnt do too much ...

Wilkinson: people knew in chicago that boys were disappearing. but of course, if you have one boy disappear and a week goes by and another disappears, it takes a long time before a pattern emerges. but nobody in chicago knows that the explanation for the disappearance of all these boys is that a serial killer is operating in these haunts. ♪ ♪ sneed: this guy -- his name was jeff rignall. walking outside a bar one night... ...when a guy in a black oldsmobile picked him up, asked if he wanted ...

Quite naturally, some of the first paths that we took were to try to interview some of the people that worked for gacy. and one of the key things that they found out was that he had instructed these employees to go into his crawl space and dig trenches. and he claimed it was because they had a sewage issue and that he was trying to resolve that problem. and occasionally, the smell would come back up, so hed instruct them to go in there with lime and spread lime down there, which would cover up t...

And he insisted that he was a very warm and loving father. man: were you strict with them? no, i dont believe in hitting children. i dont believe in spoiling a child, either. he was extremely successful. his wife, marlynns, father had three kentucky fried chicken stands, and john was hired on to manage all three stands. in waterloo, john joined the junior chamber of commerce. he did a lot of work for the jcs. he was the chaplain for a while. if you serve other people, itll come back to serve you...

For reporting on the attack as chicago police were investigating and even donald trump called it a horrible attack and president biden denounced it and kamala harris called it a modern-day lynching, but once more facts come out, doesnt not just the media people, but the politicians who had capitalized on this, dont they have some responsibility to set the record straight? >> yes, and i dont think any viewing members of the american public really anticipate that the media are future seekers and c...

Claimed you know trump sympathizers and just okay now, we are going to cover it. >> two words, narrative is one i have used it several times on the show today because i think it really does explain what drives us so much of the news coverage these days, a larger story people see with tunnel vision and they will stick to it no matter what so narrative and embarrassment. i think a lot of these people got behind jussie smollett and they wanted to believe he was a victim of a hate crime and believe ...

Our cnn exclusive reporting tonight, president trump taking the first steps to prepare for an interview with special counsel robert mueller. and ill talk about that with david axelrod, a former senior adviser to president obama. david, good evening to you from lovely and im sure cold chicago. >> yes, sir. >> so president trump is starting to prep for an interview with the special counsel through a source said the preparation efforts are in the infancy. is that a big deal, david? >> it will be if...

As low as minus 40 degrees, and we are seeing similar temps across the midwest. look at that, in parts of the northeast, health officials are warning of frostbite, which can set in in a matter of minutes when it is this cold. the weathers also affecting travel with thousands of flights cancelled or delayed due to icy conditions. and the roads are treacherous, as well, in buffalo. high winds overpowered an 18-wheeler, tipping it right onto its side. in northern illinois, officials are telling mot...