---
category: Private Organization
location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
summary: Painting Decorating Maintenance (PDM) was a construction company owned by
  John Wayne Gacy in Norwood Park, Chicago.
tags:
- Organization
- Company
- United_States
- Illinois
- 1970s
- John_Wayne_Gacy
---

Painting Decorating Maintenance (PDM) was a construction company owned by [John Wayne Gacy](/people/john-wayne-gacy/) in Norwood Park, [Chicago, Illinois](/places/chicago/). PDM served as both a legitimate contracting business and the site of one of the worst serial murder investigations in American history. After [John David Norman](/people/john-david-norman/) went back to prison in June 1978, [Phillip Paske](/people/phillip-paske/) lost his job as a children's supervisor at a public swimming pool and went to work at PDM. Receipts for three payslips made out to [Phillip Paske](/people/phillip-paske/) from PDM, dated 12 September 1978, 19 September 1978, and 25 September 1978, were found in the archives of the company's financial records from that period.[^1]

[Robert Piest](/people/robert-piest/) disappeared from a pharmacy where he worked part-time. [Gacy](/people/john-wayne-gacy/) was an acquaintance of the pharmacy owner, and PDM had recently completed a remodelling job there. The crawlspace beneath the PDM premises at 8213 Summerdale Avenue served as a mass grave for [Gacy](/people/john-wayne-gacy/)'s victims. [Michael Rossi](/people/michael-rossi/), an accomplice of [Gacy](/people/john-wayne-gacy/) linked to the [Odyssey Network](/organizations/odyssey-network/) through [Phillip Paske](/people/phillip-paske/) and [John David Norman](/people/john-david-norman/), dug graves in the crawlspace. [Gacy](/people/john-wayne-gacy/) named Rossi alongside [David Cram](/people/david-cram/) and [Phillip Paske](/people/phillip-paske/) as individuals who assisted in his operations. The discovery of 29 bodies at the PDM premises in December 1978 became known as the [Houston Mass Murders](/events/dean-corll-murders/)-scale investigation that exposed [Gacy](/people/john-wayne-gacy/)'s killing spree.[^1]

[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.