THE LAST VICTIM : JASON MOSS

I recently remembered a book that I read in high school, titled “The last victim”.

On the front cover there was a black and white photo of John Wayne Gacy with the tagline “a true life journey into the mind of a serial killer” by Jason Moss.
Although I'm not sure that I agree this was a journey into the mind of John Wayne gacy per se, it was an interesting read as a teenager.

Jason Moss was an 18 year old man who was studying at UNLV, and had decided to correspond with incarcerated serial killers as part of his thesis.
He researched the inmates that he found most intriguing and began to shape personalities based on the types of person each killer would find appealing.

Moss was quoted as saying he was a cocky 18 year old, who thought that he could outsmart, or get the killers to confess and tell him secrets. He definitely bit off more than he could chew during this adventure and I'm not sure exactly what Moss thought he could get out of Gacy, posing as a victim. 

He also wrote to Charles Manson, attempting to appeal to him as a potential follower, and received some correspondence including a poem from Manson and a response letter.

He made the acquaintance of Ramirez, Lucas and Dhamer and also received responses and crudely drawn cartoons.

But the killer he would eventually establish a relationship with was Gacy, with whom Moss would share letters, seasonal greetings cards, photos, collect phone calls and two in person visits.

The pair exchanged letters, which started out relatively normal, but soon turned dark. They would talk in detail about dark and taboo sexual fantasies, with Jason Moss playing along.

Moss was eventually flown out for two, two hour sessions of unsupervised face time with the killer clown himself, where he claims he was psychologically broken down, reduced to tears and almost sexually assaulted by Gacy.

The book is a very unsettling memoir; the letters exchanged between the pair are nothing short of disturbing.
How he could role play and confidently attempt to manipulate a man who was responsible for raping and murdering 33 boys and burying them in the crawlspace of his house, is perplexing.

So, as you can guess by the title, the book is an account of how a morbidly curious, overly confident young man with teenage feelings of invincibility set himself up to be, in his words, "Gacy's last victim."

I went to search for Jason Moss online to see what he was doing these days and unfortunately discovered that he has passed away.

Apparently he had committed suicide, shot himself with a shotgun.

His date of death was 6.6.06

He didn’t leave a letter.

You can find videos of Jason giving interviews about his experience online.

See also:  "Dear Mr. Gacy" (2010)

What are your opinions on this book? 

Do you believe the account of Jason Moss?

I wouldn't recommend it as the best true crime read out there, but it's moderately entertaining (for lack of a better word)