Gary M. Heidnik

Infobox Serial Killer
name=Gary Heidnik


caption=Heidnik's mugshot
birthname=Gary Michael Heidnik
alias= Bishop Heidnik
birth=November 22, 1943
location=Eastlake, Ohio, U.S.
death=death date and age|1999|7|6|1943|11|22
cause= Lethal injection
victims=6 kidnapped, 2 killed
country=USA
states=Pennsylvania
beginyear=November 26, 1986
endyear=March 24, 1987
apprehended=March 24, 1987
penalty=Death

Gary Michael Heidnik (November 22, 1943 – July 6, 1999) was an American murderer who kidnapped, tortured and raped women and kept them prisoner in his Philadelphia, Pennsylvania basement. He is often referred to as a serial killer, although having committed only two murders, he would not fit the standard FBI definition of a serial killer as the FBI standard dictates "three or more murders" to classify as serial killer.

Life

Born to Michael Heidnik and his wife Ellen in Eastlake, Ohio, and raised in the Cleveland suburb. His brother Terrence was born eighteen months later on May 24, 1945. Michael Heidnik was very abusive to his wife and would abuse her physically and sexually. When Gary was two years old his parents divorced and he and his brother were raised by their mother. However, when Heidnik started school, he and his brother were sent to be raised by their father and his new wife. Michael Heidnik was a violent alcoholic and was very abusive towards his sons and often ridiculed Gary because of his bed wetting problem. He would also humiliate Gary by hanging his wet sheets on a clothes line, in full view of their neighbors.

At school, Gary was a victim of verbal abuse by other students after he fell out of a tree, which badly scarred his face. By taking various tests in school, Heidnik's intelligence quotient was listed as 149. Heidnik dropped out of public high school in the ninth grade and attended Staunton Military Academy for two years, leaving before graduation. After another period in school, he dropped out and joined the Army when he was seventeen. [Gruson, Lindsey (1987-03-28). " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9B0DEEDF1131F93BA15750C0A961948260 Strange Portrait of Torture Suspect] ". "The New York Times". Retrieved on 2007-02-09.]

Heidnik served in the Army for 13 months and had adapted to army life very quickly. During basic training, Heidnik's drill instructor graded him as "excellent". Following basic training, he applied for several specialist positions, including the military police, but was rejected while trying to apply. He was sent to San Antonio to be trained as a medic and did well through medical training. However, Heidnik did not stay in San Antonio very long and was transferred to work at a field hospital in West Germany. In August of 1962, Heidnik had reported to a sick bay complaining of severe headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, and nausea. Doctor Jack Apsche said that Heidnik was suffering from gastroenteritis and also displayed symptoms of mental illness. Heidnik was diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder and was transferred back to Philadelphia. Three months after returning from Germany, Heidnik was honorably discharged in August of 1962. Shortly after his discharge, Heidnik lived in an apartment in Philadelphia and attended the University of Pennsylvania.

After Heidnik had graduated from college in 1966, he got a job working as a psychiatric nurse at a mental hospital, only to be fired for his rude behavior towards patients. For the next several years, Heidnik would spend time in and out of psychiatric hospitals and had attempted suicide numerous times. He had also suffered from numerous nervous breakdowns during his lifetime. When Heidnik was 27, his mother Ellen committed suicide by swallowing two cyanide pills. Bellamy, Patrick. [http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/heidnik/evidence_7.html "Gruesome Evidence" – page 7 – Gary Heidnik] @ Crime Library.com] [ [http://www.nndb.com/people/931/000159454/ Gary Heidnik's page on NNDB] ]

In 1971, Heidnik formed a cult known as the "United Church of the Ministers of God". However, Heidnik's life as a cult leader did not last long and only had five followers of his religion and had started returning to mental hospitals and also started to face some serious legal problems.

Heidnik used a matrimonial service to meet his future wife, with whom he corresponded by mail for two years before proposing to her. Betty arrived from the Philippines in September 1985 and married Heidnik in Maryland on October 3, 1985. The marriage rapidly deteriorated and she found Heidnik in bed with three other women and he forced her to have sex with them. He beat and raped her until she left him three months later." [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,963945,00.html House Of Horrors] " (1987-04-06). "Time". Retrieved on 2007-02-11.] Unknown to Heidnik until his ex-wife requested child support payments some time after the divorce, he did impregnate Betty during their short marriage. Heidnik was never known to have had any kind of relationship with his son Connor.Fact|date=March 2008

Criminal career

1976: First legal charges

In 1976, Heidnik was charged with aggravated assault and carrying an unlicensed pistol after shooting the tenant of a house he offered for rent, grazing his face.

1978: First imprisonment

Heidnik signed his girlfriend's cognitively disabled sister out of a mental institution on day leave and kept her prisoner in a locked storage room in his basement in 1978. After she was found and returned to the hospital, examination revealed that she had been raped and sodomized and that she had contracted gonorrhea in her buttocks and her mouth. Heidnik was arrested and charged with kidnapping, rape, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, and interfering with the custody of a committed person.

The case went to trial in November 1978; he was found guilty and sentenced to three to seven years in jail. The original sentence was overturned on appeal and Heidnik spent three years of his incarceration in mental institutions prior to being released in April 1983 under the supervision of a state sanctioned mental health program.

1986: Spousal rape, charges dismissed

After his wife Betty left him in 1986, Heidnik was arrested yet again and charged with assault, indecent assault, spousal rape and involuntary deviant sexual intercourse. The charges were later dismissed when Betty failed to appear for the preliminary hearing.

1986-1987: Serial rape, imprisonment and murder

Beginning on November 25, 1986, Heidnik had abducted six women and held them in the basement of his house in Philadelphia that he shared with his longtime friend David R. Stec. The captives were sexually abused, beaten, and tortured in front of each other. One of the women died of a combination of starvation, excess torture, and an untreated fever. Heidnik dismembered her body, ground it in a food processor and mixed it with dog food, which he then fed to the surviving victims. He had a problem dealing with the arms and legs, so he put them in a freezer and marked them "dog food". He cooked her ribs in an oven and boiled her head in a pot on the stove and would eat it for dinner.

He used electric shock as a form of torture; one victim was electrocuted when she was bound in chains, thrown into a hole that had been dug in the floor (usually reserved as a form of isolation punishment). Heidnik ordered Josefina Rivera to start filling the hole with water and then forced her to apply the electrical current from the house to the other woman's chains. Heidnik would torture and sexually abuse the women individually or in groups. He dug a four-foot-deep pit that he would throw the women in at night. The pit would then be covered with plywood and heavy weights. The victims were also encouraged to inform on each other in return for better conditions.

Arrest and trial

Josefina Rivera escaped on March 24, 1987. She had convinced Heidnik to let her go out, promising to bring back another captive for him, but instead she went straight to the authorities who secured a search warrant. Heidnik was arrested. At his arraignment, Heidnik claimed that the women were already in the house when he moved in. [Brian Hickey (2002-03-13). [http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=1880 Return to the House of Horrors] "Philadelphia Weekly".]

Intelligently, he took his Army disability check and invested the money very carefully. He set up an account with $1500 dollars in the name of "United Church of the Ministers of God," to avoid taxes. At the time of his final arrest he had around $550,000 dollars in his bank and brokerage accounts, a point that would be used at his trial to argue that he was not insane. Testimony from his Merrill Lynch financial advisor, Robert Kirkpatrick, was used to prove competence. Robert Kirkpatrick called him "an astute investor who knew exactly what he was doing." [Bellamy, Patrick. [http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/heidnik/what_9.html "Crazy or What?" – page 9 – Gary Heidnik] @ Crime Library.com] Bowman, David. [http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/07/08/profiler/print.html "Profiler"] Interview with John E. Douglas @ Salon.com July 8, 1999.]

Convicted of two counts of murder in 1988, Heidnik was sentenced to death and incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh. In January 1999, he attempted suicide with an overdose of prescribed thorazine. Heidnik was executed by lethal injection on July 6, 1999 at SCI Rockview.

List of captives

* Josefina Rivera (25), kidnapped on November 26, 1986
* Sandra Lindsay (24), kidnapped on December 3, 1986, murdered in February 1987
* Lisa Thomas (19), kidnapped on December 23, 1986
* Deborah Dudley (23), kidnapped on January 2, 1987, murdered on March 22, 1987
* Jacqueline Askins (17), kidnapped on January 18, 1987
* Agnes Adams (24), kidnapped on March 19, 1987

References

Further reading

* "A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers " by Harold Schechter and David Everitt, Pocket, 1997, softcover, 368 pages, ISBN 0-671-02074-9
* "Cellar of Horror " by Ken Englade, 1989, softcover, 288 pages, ISBN 0-312-92929-3

External links

* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/heidnik/index_1.html Crime Library: Gary Heidnik]
* [http://www.phillymag.com/articles/inside_the_house_of_heidnik Inside the House of Heidnik] by Victor Fiorillo, originally published in Philadelphia Magazine, July 2007.

Persondata
NAME=Heidnik, Gary M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=American serial killer and rapist executed by lethal injection in 1999.
DATE OF BIRTH=November 22, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH=Ohio
DATE OF DEATH=July 6, 1999
PLACE OF DEATH=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania