# Phillip Paske

Phillip Ronald Paske (June 11, 1953 – November 9, 1998) was an American criminal and child pornographer from Chicago, Illinois. He was the closest associate and personal friend of sex trafficker John David Norman and was briefly an employee of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

## Biography

There is scarce information about Paske's life. It was reported that his father was a city worker and that Paske had a violent temper and frequently cross-dressed. Paske was openly bisexual and had a lengthy criminal record beginning at age 18 in 1971, with convictions for drug dealing, theft, battery, and murder.
In a 1992 prison interview with John Wayne Gacy, whom Paske was once employed by, he described Paske as dangerous and stated that he "pimped girls, boys, for sex or movies."

## 1973 robbery-murder

In November 1973, Paske, along with Al Bone and Richard Angel, planned to rob a coin collector named Louis McKerley. The robbery took place at 7 p.m. in a second-floor apartment on W Irving Park Road in Chicago. Bone was armed with a knife, and Angel had accompanied him with a handgun. Paske's role was to act as a lookout for any oncoming witnesses. When McKerley opened the door, Bone and Angel forced their way into the apartment. A struggle ensued, and Bone stabbed McKerley in the chest. All three then fled the scene. McKerley would later succumb to his stab wounds. The three were arrested and charged with murder and attempted armed robbery.
Through a plea deal, Paske's and Angel's murder charges were dropped; in exchange, they pleaded guilty to attempted armed robbery. Both served prison time and afterward were placed on probation. Bone would subsequently plead guilty and receive a sentence of 14 to 20 years imprisonment.

## Child pornography ring

John David Norman (1927–2011) was a sex offender who ran multiple child pornography and prostitution rings in the 1970s and 1980s. As of 1973, he allegedly had between 50,000 and 100,000 clients in 35 U.S. states. He also had potential links to serial killers Dean Corll and John Wayne Gacy. According to Gacy, Norman produced snuff films of young boys; however, no such films have been found to exist. In 1973, the Commander of the Police Youth Division in Houston, Bennie M. Newman, stated that there was no known connection between Norman's operations and Corll's murders.
Norman and Paske first met in Chicago's Cook County Jail. It's known that Norman had continued producing his newsletter behind the walls of the jail, in which he made pleas for bail for both him and for Paske, whom he referred to as his "right-hand man."
Paske was released on probation in 1976, after serving time for the McKerley case. The funds for bail came from patrons of Norman's newsletter. Subsequently, a patron from California paid Norman's bail. Norman remained free until November 1976, when he was indicted on five counts; he was found guilty of contributing to the sexual delinquency of a child and ordered to serve four years and one day.
After his release, Paske registered both his and Norman's names to a Chicago post office box, and the two shared an apartment on Wrightwood Avenue. On his probation record, it's stated in both May and December 1976 that he was working for Norman and was making $3 an hour.
In January 1977, a month after Norman's conviction and arrest for sexual delinquency of a child, an investigator stated that the Delta Project was no longer operating in Chicago, though it had continued operations until a 1979 raid on Norman's apartment.
Paske was fired from his job as children's supervisor at a fire department swimming pool in August 1977 after he was publicly linked to Norman's child prostitution ring.

## Ties to John Wayne Gacy

The earliest record of Paske working for Gacy's construction business, PDM Contractors, is from 1978; it's also mentioned in a letter Gacy wrote that Paske had worked for him between August and October 1978. Gacy also reported that Paske had worked for him on three different occasions during this period. Gacy was introduced to Paske through PDM employee David Cram, who was very friendly with Paske. However, Cram claimed that he had warned Gacy about hiring Paske due to his criminal record and him having previously been in a mental institution.
Although there is no concise date for when Paske first came into contact with Gacy, he was using Gacy's alias "Patches" after his 1976 release from prison. This alias was also used by fellow PDM employee Michael Rossi.
Both Rossi and Cram were named by Gacy as accomplices in several of his murders. Gacy contended that Rossi, Cram, and Paske all had keys to his house. It was also reported by Gacy that Paske was fired from his employment under PDM.
In Gacy's 1979 trial, Paske was listed on the state of Illinois' witness list and the defense's second supplemental list. The latter states that he was living at 3129 N Richmond in Chicago. Though, the Illinois' witness list states his residence as 3010 W Belmont in Chicago, where he is noted as an ex-employee of Gacy.

## Unrelated murders

Paske was initially wanted for questioning in the January 19, 1977, murder of Kenneth Hellstrom, 17, of Homewood. He was stabbed six times while walking home from work and died several hours later. Hellstrom had implicated Norman on child molestation charges in 1973, which resulted in Norman being sent to prison for four years. Norman was still in prison at the time of the murder. In June 2012, a man named Fred Rogers was convicted of Hellstrom's murder and sentenced to 22 years in prison. Rogers, who was 16 at the time, had gotten into an argument with Hellstrom earlier in the day that he was stabbed.
On February 25, 1979, Michael Salcido, 17, Arthur Salcido, 19, and Frank Mussa, 16, were found dead in a car at 3 a.m. in Chicago. Their throats were slashed in what police described as an "almost ritualistic" fashion. It was suspected that their bodies were placed in the car after their deaths. Michael was a ward of the state who was set to testify in Norman's upcoming trial. It was later revealed that Latin Kings members, of no relation to Norman, were responsible for the murders.

## Later life and death

Norman relocated his operation to Pennsylvania in 1983 after his release from prison. Paske's activities after this point are unclear; his final arrest was in 1996 for possession of a controlled substance. He died on November 9, 1998, in Chicago from AIDS-related complications.