Law & Order star reveals he was kidnapped and raped by infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy

Actor Jack Merrill, who has appeared in Grey’s anatomy And Law and orderhas spoken out about kidnapping and rape by serial killerJohn Wayne Gacy 46 years ago.

Gacy, a contractor who also performed as Pogo the Clown, was convicted of raping, torturing and murdering at least 33 young men and boys in ChicagoIllinois in the 1970s. He was executed by lethal injection in 1994.

To enrol People, Merrill – now 65 – says the horrific incident happened one evening when he finished swimming at his YMCA. He was walking home in Evanston, Illinois when a man stopped and said, “Do you want to go for a ride?” It was Gacy.

The then 19-year-old said yes. He thought they were going to go around the block a few times, but Gacy started driving fast and ended up in a dangerous area.

Gacy told him, “Lock your door. It’s dangerous.” The actor had never gotten into a stranger’s car before. The killer stopped at a highway on-ramp and asked Merrill if he had ever done “poppers” or amyl nitrate. Gacy then took out a rag, splashed a liquid on it and shoved it into the young man’s face, rendering him unconscious.

When Merrill woke up, he was in handcuffs. He saw the highway exit and later stood outside Gacy’s house.

Gacy told him to be quiet. Merrill then realized how dangerous the man was.

“I knew I couldn’t make him angry,” Merrill wrote. “I just had to diffuse the situation and pretend everything was fine.”

Merrill thought the dark house was a trap.

Gacy asked if the actor trusted him, he wrote. He replied that he did. Gacy then took off his handcuffs. The two then had a beer before Merrill was dragged down the hall.

“He put this homemade thing around my neck. It had ropes and pulleys, and it went around my back and through my handcuffed hands in a way that if I struggled, I would choke,” he wrote.

“He put a gun in my mouth. Then he raped me in the bedroom. I knew if I fought him I wouldn’t have much of a chance. I never panicked or screamed. In a way I felt sorry for him too, like he didn’t necessarily want to do what he was doing, but he couldn’t stop.

The men had been in the house for hours. Eventually, Gacy got tired and said he would take Merrill home.

Merrill got out of the car not far from where Gacy had picked him up hours earlier.

“He gave me his phone number and said, ‘Maybe we’ll get together again someday,’” Merrill continued.

“When I got home, I flushed the song down the toilet and then took a shower. I didn’t call the police; I didn’t know he was a murderer at the time.’

It wasn’t until several months later, when Gacy was arrested in December 1978, that Merrill realized the potential seriousness of what he had narrowly escaped.

He read a headline in the Chicago Sun Times, read: “Bodies found at suburban location.” He saw the same highway exit on a map printed in the newspaper. He called the newspaper and told an employee: “That man raped me.”

The employee responded, “What did you say your name was?” Merril hung up.

The actor said he has forgiven Gacy. So far he has only told his close friends what happened. Merrill has written a one-man show about his life called The Save. The film runs from October 24 to November 3 at the Electric Lodge in Los Angeles.

He told the magazine that performing the show has been “enlightening” and that he is “proud of my journey.”