On
this date, July 6, 1999. Philadelphian Serial Killer, Gary Heidnik, was executed
by lethal injection at State Correctional Institution – Rockview in Centre
County, Pennsylvania. I will post information about this serial killer from
Wikipedia and other links.
 |
| Gary Heidnik |
Born
|
Gary Michael Heidnik
November 22, 1943 Eastlake, Ohio, U.S. |
Died
|
July 6, 1999 (aged 55)
Centre County, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Cause of death
|
Lethal injection
|
Other names
|
Brother Bishop
|
Criminal penalty
|
Death
|
Conviction(s)
|
First-degree murder
|
Killings
|
|
Victims
|
6 kidnapped, 2 killed
|
Span of killings
|
November 26, 1986–March 19, 1987
|
Country
|
United States
|
State(s)
|
Pennsylvania
|
Date apprehended
|
March 24, 1987
|
Gary Michael Heidnik (November 22, 1943 – July 6, 1999) was an American
murderer who kidnapped, tortured and raped six women and kept them prisoner in
his Philadelphia, Pennsylvania basement.
Heidnik
was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection in July 1999.
Childhood
Heidnik
was born to Michael and Ellen Heidnik, and was raised in the Eastlake suburb of
Cleveland, Ohio. He had a younger brother, Terry. His parents divorced in 1946.
The Heidnik children were raised by their mother for four years before being
placed in the care of Michael Heidnik and his new wife. Heidnik would later
claim that he was often emotionally abused by his father. Heidnik suffered a
lifelong problem of bed wetting, and claimed his father would humiliate his son
by forcing him to hang his stained sheets from his bedroom window, in full view
of their neighbors. After his son's arrest, Michael Heidnik denied that he
abused his son.
At
school, Heidnik did not interact with his fellow students and refused to make
eye contact. When a well-meaning new female student asked, "Did you get
the homework done, Gary?", he yelled at her and told her she was not
"worthy enough" to talk to him. Heidnik was also teased about his
oddly shaped head, which he and Terry claimed was the result of a young Heidnik's
falling out of a tree. Heidnik performed well academically and tested with an I.Q.
of 130. With the encouragement of his father, 14-year-old Heidnik enrolled at Staunton
Military Academy in Staunton, Virginia for two years, leaving before
graduation. After another period in public high school, he dropped out and
joined the United States Army when he was 17.
Heidnik
served in the Army for thirteen months. During basic training, Heidnik's drill
sergeant graded him as "excellent". Following basic training, he
applied for several specialist positions, including the military police, but
was rejected. He was sent to San Antonio, Texas, 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 the 46th Army Surgical Hospital in Landstuhl, West
Germany. Within weeks of his new posting in Germany, he earned his GED.
In
August 1962, Heidnik reported in sick, calling and complaining of severe
headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, and nausea. A hospital neurologist
diagnosed Heidnik with gastroenteritis and noted that Heidnik also displayed
symptoms of mental illness, for which he was prescribed trifluoperazine
(Stelazine). In October 1962, Heidnik was transferred to a military hospital in
Philadelphia, where he was diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder and honorably
discharged from military service.
Adulthood
Shortly
after his discharge, Heidnik became a licensed practical nurse and enrolled at
the University of Pennsylvania, only to drop out after one semester. He worked
as a psychiatric nurse at a Veterans Administration hospital in Coatesville,
but was fired for poor attendance and rude behavior towards patients. From
August 1962 until his arrest in March 1987, Heidnik spent time in and out of psychiatric
hospitals and had attempted suicide at least 13 times. In 1970, his mother
Ellen, who had been diagnosed with bone cancer and was suffering the effects of
alcoholism, committed suicide by drinking mercuric chloride. His brother Terry
also spent time in mental institutions and attempted suicide multiple times.
In
October 1971, Heidnik incorporated a church called the United Church of the
Ministers of God, initially with only five followers. In 1975, Heidnik opened
an account under the church's name with Merrill Lynch. The initial deposit was
$1,500. Heidnik eventually amassed over $500,000 (US$ 1,075,743.78 in 2010). By
1986, the United Church of the Ministers of God was thriving and wealthy.
Heidnik
used a matrimonial service to meet his future wife, with whom he corresponded
by mail for two years before proposing to her. Betty Disto arrived from the
Philippines in September 1985 and married Heidnik in Maryland on October 3,
1985. The marriage rapidly deteriorated after she found Heidnik in bed with
three other women. Throughout the course of their brief marriage, Heidnik
forced his wife to watch while he had sex with other women. Disto also accused
him of repeatedly raping and assaulting her. With the help of the Filipino
community in Philadelphia, she was able to leave Heidnik in January 1986.
Unknown to Heidnik until his ex-wife requested child support payments in 1987,
he impregnated Betty during their short marriage. On September 15, 1986, Disto
gave birth to a son, whom she named Jesse John Disto.
Heidnik
also had a child with Gail Lincow, a son named Gary, Jr. The child was placed
in foster care soon after his birth. Heidnik had a third child with another
woman, Anjeanette Davidson, who was illiterate and mentally disabled. Their
daughter, Maxine Davidson, was born on March 16, 1978. The child was
immediately placed in foster care. Shortly after Maxine's birth, Heidnik was
arrested for the kidnapping and rape of Anjeanette's sister Alberta, who had
been living in an institution for the mentally disabled in Penn Township.
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 Anjeanette Davidson's sister, Alberta, 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.
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
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. In 1980,
Heidnik gave a note to a guard stating that Satan shoved a cookie down his
throat that prevented him from talking. He was silent for the next two years
and three months.
1986:
Spousal rape
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.
1986-1987:
Serial rape and murder
On
November 25, 1986, Heidnik abducted his first victim, Josefina Rivera. By
January 1987, he had five women held captive in the basement of his house at
3520 North Marshall Street in North Philadelphia. Heidnik and his friend, Cyril
"Tony" Brown, would generally lure women back to the home by
displaying his wealth and driving fancy cars. Brown, 31 at the time of his
arrest, was described in 1987 as being "mildly retarded" and "slight".
His attorneys described him as "fitting the pattern of Heidnik's
victims--poor, retarded, and black." He was released on $50,000 bail and
an agreement that he would testify against Heidnik. In part, Brown admitted to
seeing Sandra Lindsay's death in the basement while in chains and Heidnik
dismembering her.
The
captives, who were all African-American women, were raped, beaten, and tortured.
One
of the women, Sandra Lindsay, died of a combination of starvation, torture, and
an untreated fever. Heidnik dismembered her body but 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. Police came to the house due to the complaints of a bad odor, but left
the premises after Heidnik's explanation: “I’m cooking a roast. I fell asleep
and it burnt.”
Several
sources state that he ground up the flesh of Lindsay, mixed it with dog food,
and fed that to his other victims. His defense attorney, Chuck Peruto, said
that upon examination of a Cuisinart and other tools in his kitchen, they found
no evidence of this. Peruto said that he made up the story to support the
insanity defense. The defense attorney said that he started the rumor of
cannibalism in public and that in fact there was no evidence of anyone eating
human flesh.
Heidnik
used electric shock as a form of torture. At one point, he forced three of his
captives, bound in chains, into the pit. Heidnik ordered Josefina Rivera and
another woman to fill the hole with water and then forced Rivera to help him
apply electrical current from a stripped extension cord to the women's chains.
Deborah Dudley was fatally electrocuted, and Heidnik disposed of her body in
the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
On
March 23, 1987, Heidnik and Rivera abducted Agnes Adams. The next day, Rivera
convinced Heidnik to let her go, temporarily, in order to visit her family. He
drove her to a gas station and said he would wait for her there. She walked a
block away and called 911. She told the police the story and they were somewhat
unconvinced at first. The police made her repeat the story and she told it
exactly the same way again. The responding officers, more convinced after they
looked at her leg and noted the chafing from the chains, went to the gas
station and arrested Heidnik. His purported best friend, Cyril
("Tony") Brown, was also arrested.
Shortly
after his arrest, Heidnik attempted to hang himself in his jail cell in April
1987.
Trial
and Appeals
At
Heidnik's arraignment, he claimed that the women were already in the house when
he moved in. At trial, Heidnik was defended by A. Charles Peruto, Jr., who
attempted to prove that Heidnik was legally insane. Heidnik's insanity was
successfully rebutted by the prosecution, led by Charles F. Gallagher, III. The
fact that he had amassed approximately $550,000 in his bank and brokerage
accounts was used to argue that he was not insane. Testimony from his Merrill
Lynch financial advisor, Robert Kirkpatrick, was also used to prove competence.
Kirkpatrick called Heidnik "an astute investor who knew exactly what he
was doing."
Convicted
of two counts of first-degree murder on July 1, 1988, Heidnik was sentenced to
death and incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh. In
January 1989, he attempted suicide with an overdose of prescribed thorazine.
In
1997, Heidnik's daughter, Maxine Davidson White, and his ex-wife, Betty
Heidnik, filed suit in federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
seeking a stay of execution on the basis that Heidnik was not in fact competent
to be executed, despite the fact that only two days prior, the Pennsylvania
Court of Common Pleas had found that Heidnik was competent for execution.
That ruling from the Court of Common Pleas contained 38 findings of fact
attesting to Heidnik's competence. While Heidnik's daughter and ex-wife had
filed the suit, Gary Heidnik himself was not a party to the action, and he had
repeatedly asked courts to forego further delays and proceedings in his case
that would needlessly prolong the period of time until his sentence could be
carried out. In his ruling Judge Franklin Van Antwerpen cited the state court's
ruling on Heidnik's competency and section 2254(e) of Title 28 of the United States Code (28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)),
which provides that findings of state courts are to be presumed correct unless
there is clear and convincing evidence to the contrary. Since the state court
had established that Heidnik was competent only two days earlier and since
there was no reason to think Heidnik was suddenly incompetent, disabled, or
otherwise unable to act on his own behalf, Van Antwerpen ruled that neither
Heidnik's daughter nor his ex-wife had standing in the case. With no party with
standing before the court, Van Antwerpen ruled that the court had no
jurisdiction in the matter. The district court's ruling was immediately
appealed, and the very next day, April 17, 1997, attorneys for White and Betty
Heidnik argued their case before a three judge panel of the United States Court
of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The Third Circuit's decision, issued on April
18, 1997, vacated the district court's order with instructions to order the
stay of execution. While the Appeals Court's order for a stay of execution
ultimately allowed legal proceedings to continue for another two years, on July
3, 1999, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania issued its final ruling in the case, denying White's application
for a further stay of execution, dismissing White's final petition for Writ of
Habeas Corpus, and denying certificate of appealability. The Governor of
Pennsylvania had already signed Heidnik's execution warrant and scheduled the
execution for July 6, 1999. This final ruling from the district court effectively
ended any recourse to the federal courts by Heidnik or on his behalf.
Execution
Gary
Heidnik was executed by lethal injection on July 6, 1999, at State Correctional
Institution – Rockview in Centre County, Pennsylvania. His body was later
cremated. As of 2014, he is the last person to be executed by the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania.
List
of captives
- Josefina Rivera, age 25, kidnapped on November 25, 1986. At the time Heidnik kidnapped Rivera, she was the mother of three children: LaToya (age 5), Zornae (age 11 months) and Ricardo (6 weeks). After release from her involuntary imprisonment and torture by Heidnik, the courts removed her children from her care. She was scheduled to see them for the first time Christmas 2010. Ricardo reported that he "grew up in a loving home with loving parents."
- Sandra Lindsay, age 24, kidnapped on December 3, 1986, murdered in February 1987.
- Lisa Thomas, age 19, kidnapped on December 23, 1986.
- Deborah Dudley, age 23, kidnapped on January 2, 1987, murdered on March 19, 1987.
- Jacqueline Askins, age 18, kidnapped on January 18, 1987. (featured on The Steve Wilkos Show "I Survived A Serial Killer")
- Agnes Adams, age 24, kidnapped on March 23, 1987 (rescued the same day).
In
popular culture and fiction
In
film and literature
- Blind Faith, a 1989 direct-to-video feature film directed by Dean Wilson, was "based upon the true story of Philadelphia sex killer Gary Heidnik."
- Heidnik's defense attorney, A. Charles "Chuck" Peruto Jr., told Philadelphia magazine: "Eventually Gary’s story wound its way into Silence of the Lambs. If you watch that movie, you can see a lot of Heidnik in the Buffalo Bill character. The way he has the girl in the pit."
- Heidnik's methods of captivity and torture were used for inspiration in Dan Wells' young adult thriller novel Mr. Monster. In this novel, a killer keeps his victims locked in the basement or put into "the hole" for extra punishment, which is a dug-out hole in the floor (partially filled with soiled water) where a victim is kept, covered with boards and water barrels to ensure captivity. The killer also employs the use of shock torture in a situation similar to the methods Heidnik used with Josefina Rivera.
- Cellar of Horror: The Story of Gary Heidnik. Book about Gary, his crimes, trial and sentence.
In
music
- In 1988, the Punk Rock band from Philadelphia, The Serial Killers, released a 7" single of their song "Gary Heidnik's House of Horrors". Included with the record was a small bag of dirt from the front yard of Heidnik's North Philadelphia row home. It also included a "Certificate of Authenticity".
- Hardcore/gabber artist Angerfist, under his alias Bloodcage, released a track in 2008 called "Strangle & Mutilate" with lyrics referring to Heidnik's methods of torture.
- Doom Metal band Church of Misery, released a track in 2013 called "Brother Bishop" about Heidnik.
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