Gary Heidnik, who called himself a bishop, was executed on July 6, 1999. He was convicted of kidnapping six women and holding them captive as sex slaves in his Philadelphia basement. Tracey Lomax, vividly recalled the details of the case involving her sister Sandra Lindsay and the other five African-American women.
Ms. Lomax recounted how Heidnik, the self proclaimed bishop, kept them imprisoned in a pit filled with water and subjected them to abuse, which tragically led to the deaths of Lindsay and another victim. She described Lindsay being starved and restrained with handcuffs attached to the rafters. Decades later, Heidnik remains the most recent person to be executed in Pennsylvania.
According to the publication, in 1986, the killer was living in a modest home in the northern part of the city, despite being quite wealthy. He had been honorably discharged from the Army after displaying signs of mental illness. Due to this discharge, he received government checks. Heidnik utilized his genius-level IQ to turn those checks into millions of dollars by investing in the stock market.
Although he didn’t invest his money in a lavish home, he chose to spend it on a Cadillac and a Rolls Royce instead.
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In addition, he started his own church called the United Church of the Ministers of God and ordained himself as a bishop. According to reports, Heidnik used the church, which operated from his home, to claim tax write-offs.
Heidnik’s eventual defense attorney, Chuck Peruto, disclosed his client’s intentions regarding the women he abducted and planned to rape. Heidnik aimed to impregnate them in his basement to create what he perceived as a perfect racially mixed race—half-Black and half-White—secluded from outside influences.
Two of the victims, Lindsey and Dudley, perished due to the torture inflicted by Heidnik in his basement. Rivera, who was held captive for four months, eventually escaped, leading to the rescue of the three remaining women and the subsequent arrest of Heidnik, as reported.
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