Kriti Mehrotra
Created by Patrick Macmanus, Peacock’s ‘Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy’ is a limited series that peels back all the twisted layers of the life and crimes of the most notorious serial killer in history. The 8-part series incorporates everything from his early years and personal experiences as a family man to his heinous offenses to the trauma of all the detectives as well as family members involved. Detective Rafael Tovar played a key role in the case as he was deeply involved in not only the investigations into the killer but also spent days exhuming remains from under his home.
Rafael Tovar Found His Calling As a Law Enforcement Officer By Pure Chance
In the 1940s, Rafael Tovar was born into a middle-class household in Crystal City, Texas, as a “fourth-generation Texan.” Thus, he was driven to pursue further studies from there as well. However, upon graduating from college in the 1960s, he admitted to following his then-girlfriend and moving away from his hometown for the first time to settle in Chicago, Illinois. According to records, he initially worked at an airline company, but when he heard that the Des Plaines Police Department was looking for its first Spanish-speaking police officer, he decided to apply.
According to Rafael’s account, he actually missed the deadline by a day. However, since he had physically visited the department and the on-duty lieutenant recognized his potential, an exception was made for him. The young man had no idea that within the five days, he would find himself in possession of a captain’s gifted gun and enrolled in the police academy at the University of Illinois for certification. He subsequently completed his training with distinction, and following this, he served as a patrol officer for several years before being promoted to detective in the narcotics division.
Rafael actually had a 20-year stint in the division, where he not only specialized in undercover operations but also later supervised an entire team investigating cases that extended well beyond Illinois. In fact, his work was of such significance that he not only testified in federal courts in Florida, Illinois, New York, and Oregon, but was also honored with numerous international awards. He reportedly had a Narcotics Officers Association Award, four MEG Directors’ Awards, an ATF Excellence Award, and two letters of recognition from the Attorney General’s Office, among other honors, before deciding to transfer out of the division to focus more on his family.
Rafael Tovar Still Vividly Remembers the John Wayne Gacy Case
Since Rafael had stepped away from narcotics to have a better work-life balance, he never imagined a seemingly usual missing person’s case would soon consume most of his waking thoughts. When the detective was assigned the December 11, 1978, disappearance of 15-year-old Robert Piest, he followed the evidence under the assumption/hope that the teenager would soon be found. But alas, he was led to a contractor by the name of John Wayne Gacy, whom he immediately recognized was not telling the truth about knowing Robert or being involved in his sudden disappearance.
Little did anybody know that it would ultimately come to light that John not only killed Robert but also took the lives of at least 32 other young men, most of whom he then buried under his home. The serial killer reportedly confessed and was arrested for good within 10 days, on December 21, 1978, but the case was far from over, as the officials then began exhuming and identifying the remains. Rafael was among those who got down to the nitty-gritty and helped recover the remains with the aid of the diagram John had drawn for them, all the while also coordinating with victims’ families. Rafael said he quickly realized that John liked to have power, so he often acted starstruck to gather more information, hoping that the details would strengthen their legal case even more.
“Obviously, the guy was a person who had no moral compass,” Rafael once told Fox News. “I mean, killing someone for him was like how you would shoo a fly off of your food. It wasn’t something that affected him. When it came time to (recovering the remains from his basement/crawl space), I think he was more concerned about us messing up his carpets.” Thus, the detective was glad when John was ultimately convicted in 1980, yet he stayed with the case until the latter’s execution by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994. Rafael, along with other officers involved, “all went to dinner and then… the site of the execution” on that fateful evening. Yet, they didn’t go inside and watch; instead, they stayed outside and waited until they were told the serial killer had died.
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Rafael Tovar is Happily Retired But Continues to Believe John Wayne Gacy Has Additional, Unidentified Victims
According to Rafael’s own accounts, when he was playing to John’s ego one day while transferring him from lockup to a county jail, he flat out asked him how many people he really killed. “He said, ‘Well, I told my lawyer this number – 30 something. And you guys got about 32, 33, or 34. But 45 sounds like a good number,” the detective has since revealed. In another interview, Rafael said, “I knew he had an ego, so I told him that was a lot and would put him in the Top 10 at least, hoping he would give in, but he didn’t bite on that one. So, I asked him where they were and he told me ‘You’re the detectives’ and that’s all he said.” Therefore, considering the fact that there were periods when John was working out of town and that it is hard for a serial killer to change his timeline, he believes there are likely more victims of the notorious so-called Killer Clown.
Coming to Rafael’s own standing, it was in the 2000s that he retired from the Des Plaines Police Department after 39 years of dedicated service; however, he didn’t step away from law enforcement. Instead, he decided to own and operate his own private consultancy and investigations business, which he appropriately named Rafael Tovar Consultants & Investigations. Moreover, he gradually evolved into a public speaker and educator to help people understand the importance of being cautious about their company and surroundings.
“John blended in,” Rafael candidly told Fox News in 2021. “People would have probably said, ‘That’s the guy who has these parties every summer.’ People don’t pay attention to those kinds of things as closely as they should. People continue to ask me how rare are serial killers. Well, in my time, there were actually two serial killers… So you never know where they are.” As for Rafael’s personal standing, from what we can tell, he moved back to his home state after his retirement and that of his fellow police officer wife, Lynn Tovar. So, it appears as if the couple is currently enjoying a quiet life together from their hilltop home in Kerrville, Texas, all the while being surrounded by loved ones at every step of the way.
