The Real-Life Story Of The Silence Of The Lambs

Gary Heidnik forced his victims to torment one another, exploited them as sex slaves and he also had the other ladies consume the flesh of one of his victims after grinding up her body.

Nevertheless, he was known as Bishop Heidnik, head of the United Church of the Ministers of God, to the 50 members of his congregation. Every Sunday they would gather at his house to hear his distinctive interpretation of the Bible.

They never would have thought that Gary Heidnik had six women confined to a hole in the basement beneath them.

The Difficult Early Years Of Gary Heidnik

Gary Heidnik, who was born in Ohio in 1943, finally mastered the technique of dominating others. He claimed to have experienced an abusive upbringing, when his father beat him and even made fun of the little boy's bedwetting by making him hang his dirty sheets for the neighbours to see.

Before enlisting in the Army after graduating from high school, his problems persisted, and he remained socially awkward and secluded. After only 13 months, Heidnik was discharged due to mental health problems (specifically schizoid personality disorder), and he later found a way to manipulate others by turning to religion.

Although he had previously been accused of sexual assault, he had never been sentenced to any real jail time. He had even been accused of raping Betty Disto, a Filipino mail-order bride he had married in 1985 and who had given birth to his son, Jesse, before she left him in 1986.

Heidnik had two more kids with two separate women, both of whom had complained about his odd sexual habits.

Was Josefina Rivera a victim or his partner in crime?

Josefina Rivera, who is typically referred to be Gary Heidnik's first victim, was abducted in 1986. It's also difficult to believe that he genuinely made her into his collaborator. But the way he first took her was as savage as the way he had taken any of his other victims.

Rivera was a prostitute, just like all the other women Heidnik was after, and she was enticed into his home by the promise of cash in return for having sex. Heidnik approached Rivera from behind as she was putting her clothing back on and strangled her. Then he hauled her into his basement, chained her limbs together, and used superglue to glue the bolts shut.

Her entire life happened in an instant. Rivera would later remark, "All I could recall was, like, a film projector of things that were going on in my life. It was simply flipping back, you know?"

Then, Gary Heidnik pummeled the woman until she stopped pleading for aid. Then he dumped her into a trench, covered it with boards, and sealed it. The only source of light came from the tiny gaps between the wood covering above.

In only three months, he would abduct five more women, all in the same manner as Rivera. They were walled up inside the pit, tied, and suffocated; they were only dragged out to be raped or tormented.

Stockholm Syndrome

After being let free, Rivera acknowledged that "whoever is holding you hostage... once you're shut off from the outside world... He's your only connection to the outside world, so you'll come to appreciate him nonetheless. You can only survive because of him."

Rivera joined Heidnik's side and elevated her to the position of leader over the other ladies. He did it to set the women up against one another. He promised to bring her hot cocoa and hot dogs and let her sleep outside the hole if she followed his instructions. But he was quite clear: She may lose all of her privileges if she defied him.

It was risky to disobey him. Heidnik would "punish" a woman by starving, beating, or torturing her if she had offended him. He would occasionally carefully insert a screwdriver into their ears while wrapping duct tape across their mouths to watch them struggle.

Rivera realized that she had to participate in the torture if she wanted to preserve her privileges. Once, while he watched, he had her pour water into the pit, attach a broken extension cable to the chains of the other women, and electrocute them. Deborah Dudley, one of the ladies, was electrocuted to death as a result of the shock's excruciating pain.

Heidnik hardly made a sound. He examined her corpse and declared, "Yeah, she's dead. I can now return to enjoying a quiet basement."

The women are made to consume their friend

The murder of Sandra Lindsay, a mentally challenged lady that Gary Heidnik brought in just after Rivera, was much more horrifying than that of Dudley.

Gary Heidnik starved Lindsay for days since she couldn't handle the torture as well as the others could. She remained still as he tried to feed her again. She fell to the ground after he broke her restraints.

He dragged her body upstairs and then tore it apart. He fried her ribs in the oven, boiled her head on the stove, placed her arms and legs in the freezer, and cooked her ribs in the oven. Before taking it down to the other women, he mixed her flesh with dog food and mashed it up.

Josefina Rivera Escapes

Ultimately, Josefina Rivera rescued them all, accomplice or not. Heidnik was using her as bait to lure in more ladies at the end. He constantly kept her close by his side as he allowed her to go out into the public to assist him pick up other ladies and entice them into his house.

She obtained these brief exits from the basement using the goodwill she had acquired. She was successful in persuading Heidnik to release her for a brief period of time so that she may visit her family on March 24, 1987, after she had assisted him in kidnapping a seventh victim. They decided that he should wait at the petrol station while she would return immediately.

After turning the curve, Rivera disappeared. She quickly ran to the closest phone and dialed 9-1-1. Officers quickly made Gary Heidnik into custody there at the gas station before conducting a raid on his terrifying home. The women were ultimately let free after being imprisoned and tortured for four months.