Gary and Sue Gauger

Gary Gauger was arrested for the brutal murder of his parents on April 8, 1993. Mr. Gauger, who had found the bodies of his parents and called police, was presumed a suspect and taken into custody. Over the next day and a half, Gary Gauger was interrogated by police. Sleep deprived and grieving the death of his parents, he told police over and over again that he had nothing to do with their murders. When he continued to deny involvement, police tried to convince him that he had committed the murders by telling him that his clothes were found in his room drenched in his parents blood and that he failed a polygraph examination. Police suggested that he probably committed the murders during an alcoholic blackout which is why he didn't remember doing it. Gary still denied it. Finally, police asked Gauger to speculate about how he might have done it. Exhausted and confused Gary described a possible scenario which police characterized as a "confession". He was charged with murder.

The police lied to Gary Gauger. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime and he had not failed a polygraph test. The testimony at trial that led to his conviction was the so-called "confession" and the testimony of a twice convicted felon who claimed he shared a cell with Gary in the McHenry County Jail and that Gary had admitted to him that he killed his parents. On Januray 11, 1994, Gary Gauger was sentenced to death.

In June 1997 a federal grand jury in Milwaukee indicted two members of a Wisconsin motorcycle gang for the murder of the Gaugers. In a wiretapped conversation in an investigation of the motorcycle gang, unrelated to the Gauger case, the men had admitted to killing the Gaugers. In December 2002, Gary Gauger was pardoned by Illinois Governor George Ryan.