A retired journalism professor who taught for 18 years at SIUC will be autographing books today, but the book is not about journalism it focuses on a convicted mass murderer.

The book SIUC emeritus professor Harlan H. Mendenhall wrote is about John Wayne Gacy, who was executed last year for the murders of 33 young men and boys in the Chicago area.

Mendenhall spent hundreds of hours interviewing Gacy at Menard Correctional Center in Chester. Gacy was on death row during the 1980s when Mendenhall interviewed and observed him.

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Mendenhall said he spent many of these hours observing and getting to know more about Gacy as an individual, rather than focusing on his crimes.

The Fall of the House of Gacy does not focus on the murders Gacy committed, but on Gacy’s troubled childhood, drug and alcohol abuse and his dual personality, Mendenhall said.

The book centers around the psychology of this person that led him to his particular personality, he said.

The book signing will be from 2-4 p.m. today in the Communications Building, Room 1032. Copies of the book will be for sale at the signing.