Do Two Ill. Killers Share Dark Connection?

June 11, 2008— -- A convicted killer awaiting trial for the alleged rape and murder of a young girl may try to avoid the death penalty if convicted by arguing he was doomed by a dark encounter with one of the nation's most notorious murderers, John Wayne Gacy.

Brian Dugan, convicted of two murders in the Chicago suburbs in the 1980s, is awaiting trial on charges of kidnapping, raping and murdering a 10-year-old girl, Jeanie Nicarico, in 1983.

Dugan reportedly claims that as a teenager in the 1970s, he was abducted and abused by another infamous resident of the Chicago suburbs: Gacy, one of the country's most prolific serial killers, who raped and killed at least 33 young men.

Dugan's account of the alleged meeting between the two men was first reported by the Illinois Daily Herald and confirmed to ABC News by an investigator on the case.

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Dugan's defense team is investigating the claims and could use them as mitigating evidence to try to spare Dugan the death penalty if he is convicted. Dugan's lawyer, Steve Greenberg, declined to comment, citing a gag order on the case.

But, in raising the possibility of an attack by Gacy, Dugan joins the ranks of numerous serial killers who have claimed they were mistreated as children. Texas serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, for example, claimed he was repeatedly assaulted and sexually abused by his mother, whom he later admitted to killing.

"Most serial killers have suffered as children," said Jack Levin, a Northeastern University professor and author of "Serial Killers and Sadistic Murderers." "Many of them have been abused physically, verbally or sexually."

According to the published account in the Daily Herald, Dugan told police investigators and psychologists that, when he was 15, a man in a dark-colored car asked him if he needed a job and gave him a ride.

He claims the man, whom he later identified as Gacy, drove him to a remote area and forced him to model a pair of bikini briefs and perform and receive oral sex. Dugan claims Gacy then gave him $20 and let him go.