Gary M. Heidnik wasn't exactly a serial killer, although he was responsible for the deaths of two woman he had kidnapped and held in his basement. Heidnik was born in Eastlake, Ohio, in 1943, and his checkered past included dropping out of high school, a short stint in the army, spending some time in jail, and even working as a psychiatric nurse - despite his own diagnosis of mental illness.
However, all of this pales in comparison to his later deeds, which landed him on death row in Pennsylvania. Heidnik kidnapped six women and held them in his basement lair in a horrifying torture dungeon that later provided the inspiration for Buffalo Bill from The Silences of the Lambs. Gary M Heidnik may not have had a high body count, fortunately, but he certainly committed some horrific acts.
15 Horrifying Facts Gary Heidnik, The Killer Who Inspired 'Buffalo Bill',
He Was Diagnosed With Schizoid Personality Disorder
During his stint in the US Army, Gary Heidnik was diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. Symptoms of this disorder include showing emotional detachment and coldness, not having any close friends or family members, and always choosing solitary activities over group ones. While Heidnik's later proclivities certainly make sense if he did have this disorder, several friends who were in the army with him claimed that he faked the diagnosis in order to be discharged with a disability pension.
He Worked As A Psychiatric Nurse, Where He Abused His Patients
After his discharge from the army, Gary Heidnik took advantage of his medical training and began a career as a psychiatric nurse - despite his own diagnosis of schizoid personality disorder. Heidnik obtained his LPN (licensed practical nurse) status, and worked at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, but he only lasted a few months on the job before being fired for being rude and abusive to patients.
He Was Honorably Discharged From The US Army For Mysterious Headaches
Gary Heidnik dropped out of high school in ninth grade. He joined the army, possibly inspired by the two years that he'd spent at Staunton Military Academy in Virginia. Heidnik spent 13 months in the US Army, receiving medical training and transferring to a post in Landstuhl, West Germany at the 46th Army Surgical Hospital. However, in April 1962, he began complaining that he suffered from severe headaches and other medical ailments. He was transferred to an army hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he received an honorable discharge.
He Raped And Assaulted His Wife
Throughout their short marriage, Gary Heidnik repeatedly beat and tortured his wife, Betty. She claimed that he forced her to watch while he had sex with other women. He also regularly beat Betty with his fists, despite the fact that she was pregnant with his child. She didn't want to leave him, as she had just arrived in the United States from the Philippines, but one of their neighbors finally convinced to escape for her own good.
He Inspired The Silence Of The Lambs Character Buffalo Bill
Gary Heidnik was arrested for his crimes on March 24, 1987, when one of his victims, Josephina Rivera, convinced him to let her go and visit her family. Of course, she walked away and called 911. The book The Silence of the Lambs was published in 1988 and turned into an award-winning movie three years later. The basement pit where Heidnik kept his victims inspired the creepy movie version where Buffalo Bill held the senator's daughter, warning her that "it puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again."
He Dumped Deborah Dudley's Body In The New Jersey Pine Barrens
Deborah Dudley died in Heidnik's basement on March 19, 1987. Heidnik decided to torture her by forcing her into the hole in his basement floor. He ran water into the hole, and then electrocuted her by holding a hot hot wire to the chains attached to her wrists. She died instantly. He made Josefina Rivera, another of his captives, sign a document stating that she helped kill Dudley, then took her with him when he dumped Dudley's body in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The other three women that he was holding at the time stayed behind in the basement.
He Tortured His Victims With Electric Shocks
Gary Heidnik not only raped the women that he held in his basement, but he also tortured them with electric shocks. The women spent a majority of their time in chains. The chains were either attached to the basement pipes, or loosened when the women were in the hole dug into Heidnik's basement. No matter what, the chains were around their wrists at all times. Heidnik would take a loosened live wire and hold one end to the metal chains, sending volts of electricity through his victims' bodies. He also tortured them by sticking a screwdriver into their ears. He played incredibly loud music 24/7 to drown out the sound of their screams.
He Kidnapped Six Women And Stashed Them In His Basement
Despite all of his previous activities, Gary Heidnik's terrible career was only beginning. He kept six women in his basement, chained to pipes and trapped at the bottom of a hole that he dug into the soil beneath his Philadelphia house.
The women were all captured at different times, and one (his first victim, Josefina Rivera) helped him obtain several others. Rivera was a prostitute; his second victim, Sandra Lindsay, was mentally disabled; and Lisa Thomas was a 19-year-old single mother who thought she was accepting a ride from a kind stranger. All three were captured by Heidnik in 1986. The other three, all picked up in 1987, were Deborah Dudley, Jacqueline Askins, and Agnes Adams.
Four of the six women survived their stint in Heidnik's basement, where they were tortured and raped repeatedly.
He Claimed To Have Cooked And Eaten The Flesh Of One Of His Captives
Gary Heidnik's first victim died, he claims, by accident. Sandra Lindsay upset him because she wasn't eating the bread that he had given her fast enough, so he suspended her from his basement ceiling by her arms, supposedly not realizing he was slowly suffocating her.
Heidnik took her dead body upstairs and dismantled it with a chainsaw before cooking her remains. Josefina Rivera (whom he trusted enough to let wander throughout the house) remembered going upstairs and seeing Lindsay's head floating in a boiling pot of water on the stove. Heidnik claimed that he cooked her body, eating some of it himself before feeding the rest to his victims. However authorities did not find any proof that Lindsay's body was cooked. Instead they believe he dismembered her in order to scatter her body parts in various locations.
He Had Three Children With Three Different Women
Gary Heidnik wound up having three biological children with three different women. The first, a son named Jesse John Disto, was the product of his marriage with Betty Disto (later Betty Heidnik). Their marriage didn't last long - less than a year - as she reportedly left him when she came home one day and found him in bed with another woman. His other children, Gary, Jr. and Maxine Davidson, were the product of later relationships. The latter child's mother was an illiterate and mentally disabled woman named Anjeanette Davidson. Heidnik raped her, and their child grew up in foster care.