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Evolution of a Serial Killer ‘Gary Heidnik’ layla Brooks Res/110 July 10, 2010 Joseph Wojie Gary Heidnik is a Serial Killer who kidnapped, repeatedly raped and tortured six young black women and kept them as prisoners in his basement for months in 1986 at 3520 North Marshall Street in ‘North Philadelphia’. His home will forever be tainted with horrible memories, and his four victims will forever be haunted by their past.
Gary Heidnik was not only a murderer who preyed upon the mentally changed women in a bizarre plan to create his own “baby factory”, he also was a cannibal who fed his prisoners human flesh mixed with dog food. Mr. Heidnik suffered from mental illness which he claimed was the reasons for his actions; he also believed he shouldn’t be held accountable for the brutal crimes he committed. In all reality many people believe that he has been faking being mentally ill his entire life. Mr. Heidnik had an I. Q. of 148. He also made a fortune in the stock market and ordained himself bishop of his own church .
Grusons (1987). According to The Bellamy??(2006) website??Heidnik was born on November 22, 1943 in Eastlake, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. To his mother and father Michael and Ellen Heidnik the couple birthed two children the second son name was Terry he was born 17 months after Gary after Terry was born their parents separated. As a child Gary Heidnik suffered from bed wetting, which made his father extremely upset to the point he would hang Gary’s urinated stained sheets from the second story window in plain view of the neighbors.
Gary came from a broken home, His father was physically and mentally abusive, and his mother was an alcoholic. In school he was also teased for having a misshapen head, which was the result from him falling from a tree as a young child. Gary Heidnik joined the army and was exceeding expectations; he began loan sharking, which he collected a lots of money from ‘interest’ he added on the loans. On January 30, 1963 Heidnik was discharged from the army with honorable discharged and was certified as 100% disabled.
Heidnik was released due to him complaining about feeling fatigue, dizzy, nauseated, and experiencing severe headaches, which made him incompetent; he was sent to the sick bay and was seen by a neurologist which determined that Gary was suffering from gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and the intestines, with vomiting and diarrhea, usually as a result of bacterial or viral infection). Shortly after his first sick appointment Mr. Heidnik was seen by Dr.
Jack Apsche, a well-known Philadelphia psychologist, who investigated further into Gary Heidnik history of mental illness, and was indecisive about his disorder and not sure if he wanted to diagnose him with being schizoid or schizophrenic, still indecisive Gary was diagnosed with “Schizoid Personality Disorder” and prescribed a heavy dosage of ‘Trifluoperazine’ (Stelazine). Heidnik ,a disabled army veteran, who accomplished to graduate as a practical nurse in 1965 and work at one of the best hospitals in Philadelphia ”University of Pennsylvania”.
He also held a position as a psychiatrist nurse at a ‘Veterans Administrations Hospital’ in Coatesville. Due to his mental illness from august 1962 until his arrest in March 1987 Heidnik was admitted into psychiatric hospitals over a dozen times and attempted to commit suicide over 13 times. Heidniks little brother also suffered from mental illness and attempted to commit suicide. In 1970 Heidniks mother committed suicide by drinking ‘Mercuric Chloride’. In October 1971 Heidnik anointed himself as a self proclaimed minister “Bishop Heidnik” he established a church called “The United Church of God”, which he was the minister and founder. Bishop Heidnik” mainly focused his ‘congregation’ on mentally and physically disabled people. Heidnik was also a financial whiz. He made a fortune in the stock market. In 1975 Heidnik opened and account under the churches name with Merrill Lynch, Pierce and Fenners &Smith. The initial deposit was $1,500. Over ten years he amassed over $500,000. Mr. Heidnik was a very wealthy man! . (Early Life of Gary Michael Heidnik,??Para. 1-19). Heidnik impregnated many women, none of which he was able to gain custody of.
So feeling betrayed and resentful like the world ‘cheated him out of a family’, he comes up with this odd plan to kidnap women and chain them up in his cellar where he physically abusive them, sexually abuses them, and intends on impregnating them and raising the children in his home. Neighbors complained of the loud noises coming from Heidnik house so loud it would rattle neighbor’s windows, constant rock music playing, and different females entering and leaving all hours of the day. The biggest problem occasionally was the foul odor that was lingering around Heidniks house. Neighbors claimed it smelled like burning human flesh.
When neighbor confronted Heidnik about the smell he said “he was cooking a roast in the oven and fell asleep and it burned”. Days after the smell became stronger, so neighbors were destined to know what that horrible smell of death was. The police were called. One officer stopped by Heidnik house Heidnik open door, and claimed he left a pot on the stove and it burnt. The officers left without any further investigation. But Heidnik crimes were only discovered when a woman he had held enslaved for over four months managed to take off from his basement chained to pipes and another inside a pit that Heidnik had dug.
The victims reported that a mentally challenged woman had been starved to death alongside punished for not eating fast despite the fact that she had issues with her mouth and jaw which mad her eat at a slow pace, so Heidnik became extremely upset and took sandy to the corner walked to the top of a ladder and nailed some screws in the wall and hanged her with her arms up in the air by chains, after three days of her hanging she died from starvation, hydration. The second victim that was murdered was Debbie she was the fighter of the group, she was constantly non compliant, a screamer, always causing trouble and would never obey Heidnik.
So Heidnik was fed up with her, he couldn’t take it anymore so he put her in a mad made hole and filled it up with water and put Debbie in the hole chained up, and took a extension cord and striped the cord and touched her chains with the highly dangerous cord, she didn’t take the cord off her chains until she was dead. He also fed them a mixture of dog food and blended human flesh, and he and body parts were found in a freezer. . According to Grusons??(1987) On March 27, 1987 Gary Heidnik was arrested and charged with the four counts of kidnapping and rape and two counts of murder.
Gary Heidnik victims told horrible tales of their four months enslaving, torturing, electrocuting, raping, beating, and being fed human remains to his six victims; two out of his six victims were murdered. Heidnik was sentenced to the death penalty in 1988 and was died from the lethal injection. References Bellamy, P. (n. d. ). Gary Heidnik. Retrieved from http://www. serialkillercalendar. com/GARYHeidnik. html ^ Douglas, John E. ; Ressler, Robert K. ; Burgess, Ann W. ; Hartman, Carol R. (1986). “Criminal profiling from crime scene analysis” (PDF). Behavioral Sciences ; the Law (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley ; Sons, Inc. 4 (4): pp401???21. http://foia. fbi. gov/filelink. html? file=/serialkiller/serialkiller_part01. pdf. Retrieved June29,2010 . “Serial Killings. ” Encyclopedia. com. Retrieved on May 29, 2009. Morris, Steven. “Gary Heidnik and his cellar of death. ” New Criminologist. September 14, 2007. Retrieved july 5,2010 Englade, Ken (1988). Cellar of Horror. St. Martin’s Press, NY. ISBN 0312929293. Fiorillo, Victor. “Inside the House of Heidnik. ” Philadelphia Magazine. July 2007. Retrieved on july 10,2010. Gruson, Lindsey. “Strange Portrait of Torture Suspect. ” The New York Times.
March 3, 1987. Retrieved on july2,2010. Bellamy, Patrick. “Gary Heidnik: To Hell and Back. ” TruTV Crime Library. “House Of Horrors. ” Time. April 6, 1987. Retrieved on june22, 2010. White v. Horn, 112 F. 3d 105 . “Maxine Davidson White and Betty Heidnik requesting a stay of the execution of Gary Heidnik. ” Hickey, Brian. “Return to the House of Horrors. ” Philadelphia Weekly. June29,2010. Bowman, David. “Profiler” Interview with John E. Douglas. Salon. com. July 8, 2010. A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers by Harold Schechter and David Everitt, Pocket, 1997, softcover, 368 pages,