CHICAGO – Detectives have long wondered what secrets serial killer John Wayne Gacy and other condemned murderers took to the grave when they were executed – particularly whether they had other unknown victims.

Now, in a game of scientific catch-up, the Cook County Sheriff’s Department is trying to find out by entering the killers’ DNA profiles into a national database shared with other law-enforcement agencies.

The move is based on an ironic legal distinction: The men were technically listed as homicide victims themselves because they were put to death by the state.