Criminology - Gary Heidnik

Episode Date: September 6, 2026

In 1987, Josefina Rivera escaped from Gary Heidnik and led Philadelphia police to his home, where they discovered three women chained and imprisoned in his basement and human remains in the freezer. Heidnik had spent years preying on vulnerable and intellectually disabled women, including a previous victim he kidnapped from a state hospital in 1978. Between November 1986 and March 1987, he abducted seven women and subjected them to horrific abuse, captivity, starvation, and torture. Two victims, Sandra Lindsay and Deborah Dudley, were murdered. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss Gary Heidnik. Rivera ultimately escaped and called the police, bringing Heidnik’s reign of terror to an end. At trial, his defense argued insanity, citing his history of mental illness, while prosecutors maintained that he knew right from wrong. Heidnik was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder along with numerous kidnapping, rape, and assault charges and sentenced to death. After years of appeals and a last-minute stay, Gary Heidnik was executed by lethal injection on July 6, 1999—the last execution carried out in Pennsylvania. His Philadelphia home, known as the “House of Horrors,” still stands today. You can help support the show through Patreon.We'd love to connect with listeners on social media. We are available on the following platforms:Facebook - Facebook Discussion group - Instagram - Threads - X Formerly Twitter - Blue Sky - Twitch - Tik Tok Criminology is an Emash Digital production hosted by Mike Ferguson and Mike Morford.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is Jess Betancourt, the host of DNAID, the only true crime podcast that exclusively covers cold cases solved using investigative genetic genealogy, known as IgG. This incredible crime-solving tool has revolutionized criminal investigations and John and Jane Doe identifications and has closed over 1,000 cases. We are now seething case-solve announcements almost daily. DNAID goes behind the headlines to answer your questions about IgG, how it works, how cases are selected. why the cases were unsolved for so long and how the justice system is addressing the whole thing. In its over 160 episodes to date, you'll hear about famous cases like April Tinsley, Jennifer Bastion, and Michaela Welch. And fascinating cases you've never heard of, like Patty Stitchler and Troy and Ladonna French. DNAID focuses on the victim with a compassionate, straightforward, and no-nonsense delivery.

I predict DNAID will be your new binge-worthy obsession. And if you're one of the bad guys, they are coming for you. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 424 of the criminology podcast. This is Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, how you doing this week, buddy?

I'm doing pretty good. How you doing? I'm doing great. It is about 95 degrees here in Ohio. A little warm. That's norm for you, I'm sure. but we're having a little mini heat wave up here. Yeah, it's always a mini heat wave here.

So, but I feel like I know that there's a that August and the September time line up in the northeast is still pretty brutal. Yeah, it can be, but then, you know, it'll drop. It'll drop to the 70s. And then it's like 95. It, it's all over the map. You know, that's what makes it strange, I think, for us. Well, for you know, you'll be shoveling snow. You'll be happy about that.

Yeah, I'm not, I'm not complaining to be honest with you because I am not ready for the know. All right, let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had new support from Matthew Cosgrove and Scott Frazier. So we really appreciate that. Thank you so much, Matthew and Scott. and thanks to everyone else that helps support the show. If you want to help support the show, head over to patreon.com slash criminology to get started. All right, buddy, let's jump right into this week's case. And we are sort of piggybacking on last week's case when we covered the father and son duo Raymond and Eugene Horsch in the Philadelphia area. And police believe that one or both of them are responsible for a series of crimes that are still unfolding.

And that got us thinking. You know, although the horses had a house of horrors of their own, which we talked about, it was not the original house of horrors to make news in Philadelphia. The man that owned that infamous home might say to the horses, you know, hold my beer. because he did some awfully shocking things that we'll get into in this episode. But before we get into what Gary Heidnick did, we want to just give a quick couple of updates on the horse case. As some new things have come out since last week's episode, the first development is that there is now a fifth missing woman linked to the horse house and only, but her name has not been released publicly. Like the others, authorities believe that she's.

is dead based on digital evidence. And we spend some time more if you know, speculating about what kind of images or videos could have investigators so sure that the women were dead. And a little bit more has come out about that as well. Investigators now believe that Raymond Horsh actually filmed himself strangling the woman to death. They are so sure that this was not acting and special effects that they have not. notified the victim's relatives. So this will undoubtedly continue to unfold. So say tuned, but for now we're going to turn our attention to Gary Heidnick.

And he became infamous for terrorizing North Philadelphia long before the horses hit the news or, you know, anyone knew about what they were doing. On March 24, 1987, Josephina Rivera made a frantic 911 call. She was at a pay phone near a gas station in Philadelphia, and she didn't have much time. She frantically told the 911 dispatcher that she needed officers right away. Police raced to the phone booth and found a very shaken up and distraught Josephina. She was so upset that she could barely talk. She tried to get the words out, obviously in shock, saying you have to help me.

Finally, she was able to compose herself just long enough to tell the officers that she had been abducted and held captive for four months. The man who was holding her was waiting for her at the gas station, and it wasn't just her that would be in danger if he found out she was speaking to authorities. The officers were trying to process what they were hearing when Josephina blurted out that her abductor was also holding three other women captive in his basement. She said that he had already killed two others. She gave the officers a description of her captor and told them where he was parked nearby. Police quickly spotted him and rushed into apprehend him. According to court documents, the man simply said, What's this all about, officer?

Didn't I pay my child support? Police quickly identified the man as 43-year-old Gary Heidnick. For Josephina, she was safe and she was free. But for police, this was just the beginning of something that seemed to have come right out of a horror movie. So to tell this story properly, we have to go way back. Gary Heidnick had dropped out of high school, both public high school and the military

Academy he attended and went on to join the United States Army. He completed his GED while he was stationed in West Germany and was trained as a medic. But he was discharged just 14 months after enlisting due to signs of mental illness. Whether he was really experiencing mental health issues or whether he made them up to get out of an assignment he was unhappy with is still debated to this day. According to Oxygen.com, one friend of his claim that he did have a legitimate, real nervous breakdown, but recovered and then began to fake it so that his disability payments wouldn't stop. Before long, Hydenick was working as a licensed practical nurse at a Veterans Administration Hospital in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

That job didn't last long because Gary was eventually fired from the VA hospital. In 1978, Heidnick went to Harrisburg State Hospital and kidnapped Alberta Davidson, the sister of his girlfriend at the time. She was intellectually disabled, which is why she was at the hospital, but she was allowed to go places with her family and friends during the day. But Heidnick signed her out for the day and just never brought her back. He locked her in a large closet in his basement where he sexually assaulted her. As if this terrible rape by Hydenick wasn't enough, he also infected Alberta with gonorrhea. Police soon pieced together that Gary had likely taken Alberta, and after two weeks, she was finally rescued.

It took two searches of Gary Hydenick's home to find her. Following Hydenick's arrest, he was charged with unlawful restraint, interfering with the custody of a committed person, and recklessly endangering another person as well as kidnapping, rape, and false imprisonment. Unfortunately, because Alberta wasn't able to testify against Gary Hydenk, the kidnostic. Snapping, rape, and false imprisonment charges were dropped. While he was still convicted on some of the lesser charges, he was sentenced to only three to seven years in prison. Judge Charles Marrarchi, who presided over the trial, said, If it had been in my power to give him longer, I would have.

Gary Heidnick wound up serving four years in prison and in various psychiatric hospitals for what he did to Alberta, according to Oxygen.com, during one of those stents in psychiatric care, one psychiatrist found a high probability that Heidnick would commit a similar crime in the future. When he wasn't raping helpless victims are in prison, Gary Heidnick found time to have a family. He was a father of three. He had his first son named Gary Jr. with a developmentally disabled woman named Gal Linkel. Gary Jr. was placed in foster care because Gal was unable to to care for a child due to her disabilities. Then Hydenick and Anginette Davidson, who was the sister of Alberta, had a daughter named Maxine.

Angenette was also developmentally disabled, and so was Maxine. Because of this, Maxine was taken from her custody and placed in foster care. Hydenick kidnapped Alberta right after Maxine's birth and placement into foster care. By the time he was released from prison, Maxine and Angenet were both gone. So let's take a minute more and just kind of discuss what we know about Gary Heidenen. I think there's one thing that jumps out to me in particular, and that's the type of women that he's praying upon. I don't think there's any doubt that he was absolutely praying upon women who were in some way, developmentally disabled.

Yeah, I think to do any of these things that he did to any woman are terrible enough, but to pray on the most vulnerable people that he thinks he can, you know, maybe persuade easier, maybe get away with his crime because they won't be able to report it. You know, it just seems like he's picking on the most, you know, people that are most vulnerable in society. and I think that tells a lot about his character. Well, we know this guy's a monster, right? But it really struck me that, you know, these crimes against Alberta,

for which he was arrested, charged, and convicted, just shocking to me that he only got to serve four years in prison. Now, I get it. She was unable to testify, and that probably, you know, hurt the prosecution's case, but I feel as though if that were to happen today, there would have to be, you know, something that would allow for more time, right? We're talking about a man who took advantage of an intellectually disabled woman locked her in his basement and sexually assaulted. I feel as though even today if she wasn't able to, you know, testify, they'd still be able to get him for more than they did back in 1978.

Yeah, we talk often about those sentences that they handed down back then and they just, you know, for the level of crime for the violence that were was involved in a lot of those crimes, you know, some of those sentences were shockingly short. And what does that do to these perpetrators? I think about it a lot because obviously we're early on. We're getting ready to talk about a lot more crimes that Gary Heidnick committed. And there's no doubt that this short sentence, and I would call four years short for what he did, these short sentences, they emboldened these guys, right? they already have it in their head that they want to do these horrible things. And then even when they're caught to them, it's just a slap on the wrist.

I mean, it's not something that's going to deter them, you know, when they get out, when they become free again. Gary Heidnick ended up finding a wife through a mail order service. After two years of being pen pals, a woman named Betty Disto moved from the Philippines, to the U.S. to marry Hydenick. Their marriage wasn't a happy one. Almost immediately, Hydenick started bringing women home

and sleeping with them, sometimes three at once. And he didn't even try to hide it. He was also abusive and controlling just months after the wedding. Betty told the police that Hydenick had sexually assaulted her. He was arrested and charged with spousal rape

and assault, but the charges were dropped because Betty simply fled the area instead of having to face Hydenick again. She was three months pregnant when she wrote a letter in Tagalog to the Philippine consulate, asking for help to escape her marriage. In September 1986, Hydenick heard from Betty again. She was requesting child support. He had a son. His name was Jesse John Disto.

She only wanted the child support and didn't wish to see him or rekindle their relationship. She didn't want him in Jesse's life. Gary Heidnick could certainly afford to support his son because he was very good with investments and was able to turn 1,500 hours into more than half a million on the stock market. Just one month after learning he had a son, Heidnick kidnapped Josephina. So for Gary Heidnick, this made two known kidnappings right after he received big and upsetting news about a child. After Gary Heidnick was taken into custody for his attack on Josephina, the Philadelphia Police Department immediately sent officers to search his Roe Home,

located at 3520 North Marshall Street in North Philadelphia. When they got there, they could hear a television blaring from somewhere inside. That TV, which was always on, was set to drown out any other noises coming from the home. Based on something Josephina said, one of the officers went straight to the kitchen. and there was no way he could have been ready for what he found. Nearly 30 pounds of human body parts were found inside the freezer. Other officers headed downstairs to the basement, where they found even more unimaginable horrors.

Three women were secured in chains, just like Josephina had described. One of them was in a dugout hole in the floor, covered by bags of dirt and old pieces of wood. this was a scene that even seasoned officers were caught off guard by. So we already knew that Gary Heidnick was a bad individual, but wow. I mean, this is, you know, to me, kind of reminiscent of science of the lambs. I mean, this guy had a pit in his basement where he was holding women. Yeah, very disturbing. and then you've got, you know, body parts in the freezer.

You know, that's bringing up, you know, some memories of Jeffrey Dahmer, making me think of, like, Texas chainsaw massacre or just, and we mentioned earlier, something out of a horror movie, and this seems like a scene out of a horror movie. Josephina was abducted by Gary Hydenick on November 25th, 1986, when she was just 25 years old. At the time, she had been a sex worker for five years, mostly to support her drug addiction.

Hydenick agreed to pair $20 for her services. She agreed to go to his house to have sex because Hydenick said he was too tall for them to do it comfortably in his car. But the last thing she could remember before waking up in handcuffs was Hydenick choking her from behind. She lost consciousness, and the next thing she knew, she was in a basement chained to a pipe. Gary Hydenick kidnapped 24-year-old Sandra Lindsay on December 3, 1986, when she was walking to the store at around 3rd, three in the afternoon. Sandra was experiencing menstrual crams and needed to buy some medication for it. As she was walking, Hydenick drove past and stopped. The two were already acquainted. They had known each other for about two years at that point. And with it being winner,

it's not hard to imagine that she accepted when he offered her a ride in a warm car. She had no reason not to trust him. Sandra knew Hydenick as Gary. The bishop, of a church he created, called the United Church of the Ministers of God. He was fun to be around, and it seemed that he took care of her. Her sister, Tracy Lomax, told phillymag.com that Sandra told her that Gary was going to take Sandy and her friends to great adventure, and he was always buying them dinner at McDonald's. Sandra worked at Elwyn Institute in West Philadelphia, a center that provides comprehensive, of intellectual and developmental disability services.

Heidnick showed up there looking for people to join his church, which was based out of his house. He met many people at the L1 Institute. Most of them had some sort of intellectual disability. He would buy them food and things they wanted. He would let them ride in his new car. He would give them money, take them places. While some of the people Heidnik targeted there were duped,

the staff was suspicious of him. They became aware of Hydenick's prowling and even reported suspicions that he was taking advantage of the women sexually. But since they were adults, nothing was done. Sandra was intellectually disabled and walked with a noticeable limp. One article in the Philadelphia Daily News described her as childlike. So more if this goes back to our earlier discussion about the type of victim that Hydenick looked for. And now I think we can clearly see that he was grooming.

These individuals, right? He was gaining their trust. He was giving them things, taking them places. I don't think there's any doubt. He was grooming these women. Yeah, and I think he probably counted on them, on their disabilities to keep his secret. Maybe they wouldn't be able to tell people, explain what was going on. Maybe they didn't have anybody they trusted there at that facility enough to share this stuff.

So, you know, the fact he was hanging out in this place just looking for potential victims is pretty disturbing. Sandra's family were initially suspicious of Hydenick when she disappeared. So suspicious, in fact, that they asked the police to go to his home to look for her. The police did just that, but he didn't answer the door so they left. And that was the end of it. They didn't circle back for a follow-up. her brothers spent a lot of time outside the house watching waiting around christmas time they received a card from her it was postmarked from new york despite the clue pointing to new york her family still suspected that gary hydening had something to do with her disappearance and they were right hydenick had forced sandra to write what she did in the card and then he drove to new york in order to direct attention away from himself when san Sandra's family told police that they felt the New York letter was a red herring.

Authorities were of the belief that she was fine and just simply didn't want to come home. In fact, she wasn't fine. She was trapped in Gary Hydenick's House of Horses, experiencing untold terrorists. On December 23rd, 1986, just 20 days after Gary Hidnick had abducted Sandra, he kidnapped 19-year-old Lisa Thomas. He was driving a very nice car and offered her some money to come to his home. By the time she sensed any danger, she was handcuffed and being dragged down to the basement. Just two days later, on Christmas, when Hydenick thought one of the women was pregnant, he celebrated. He bought champagne and a ton of Chinese takeout to share with his victims.

And I can't help, Morf, but try to imagine what these women were experiencing. You know, being kidnapped, handcuffed, dragged to this basement, and put into a pit in that. basement and I keep coming back to to silence of the lambs obviously it's a very famous movie but they do have that scene in the movie where you know that woman is in the pit and I always thought that was scary yeah that's a classic horror movie scene and you know it is scary and the fact that it had happened you know in a real life scenario here is even more frightening And then this thought that, you know, Hydenick is celebrating with his victims. He's buying champagne.

He's buying Chinese takeout and sharing it with them when he thinks one of the women is pregnant. And it makes me wonder what he's celebrating. Does he think that one will give birth and then he'll have some new family of his own or, you know, potential new victim that he can victimize one day. It just, just a very, very bizarre scene here. Well,

and that part is a little reminiscent of the Ariel Castro situation, right, where he abducted women, held them for many, many years, had children with them. I mean, this,

this Heidnick guy is kind of a mix of some of the, scariest predators ever. On January 2nd, 1987, about a week and a half after abducting Lisa Thomas, Gary Heidnick abducted 23-year-old Deborah Dudley. And he didn't stop there. Just over two weeks later, on January 18th, he kidnapped 18-year-old Jacqueline Askins, or Jackie, as she was known. She was also earning money through sex work at the time. He offered her $500. to come home with him. And once there, he overpowered her and added her to his growing list of captives. $500 is a lot of money.

And it was a heck of a lot of money in 1987. But this is something that I think about quite a bit when it comes to these types of predators. My thought is he can offer her as much money as he wants to because he knows he's never going to pay it. You know, if she accepts the offer, comes home with him, she's going to become one of his captives. And he's never going to be out that money. Yeah, that was a lot of money back then.

And we talked a little bit earlier that he was successful in the stock market and had made quite a bit of money. So I guess even if he wanted to pay her, he could have. But, you know, I'm with you. I don't think he ever would have paid her. He would have just chained her up and, you know, kept the money in this wallet. But think about, you know, this woman is 18 years old. I started to say, girl, she's very young, but technically, you know, she's a woman,

she's an adult. She's earning money through sex work for whatever reason. Maybe that's just to pay the bills. Maybe, you know, it's to feed a drug habit. We don't know all the details of that. But regardless, how is she going to turn down $500? Because as we said, that would have been a lot of money. Once Heidek had multiple victims together,

he began to lose control trying to manage the situation. He became enraged when he realized that the women could hear him coming and going from the house because they could hear the front door opening. He hatched a plan to make sure they wouldn't be able to coordinate with each other and plan anything to escape. He tied them up, gag them so their screams were muffled, and pushed screwdrivers in their ears. The women were fed only bread,

dog food and dog treats. He sexually assaulted them randomly. He beat them. He forced them to beat each other. This was a terrible situation for all of these women. Hydenick seemed to treat Sandra the worst. When she wasn't eating the measly amount of bread, he allowed her to have fast enough. He tied her up and hung her from the ceiling by her wrist.

He left her that way for days. Due to starvation, a fever, being beaten, and eventually suffocating due to the position she was left in, Sandra died. This poor girl must have suffered unimaginably. But even in death, Gary Heidnik terrorized her body and his remaining victims. He showed Josephina Sandra's corpse and forced Jacqueline to help dismember her. And that wasn't all. Hydenick told the women that they had eaten parts of Sandra.

He claimed to have cooked parts of her body. and mixed it in with the dog food, which he then fed to his victims. He said to have boiled her head and put her ribs in the oven. More recent articles claim that there is no evidence of any cannibalism in the home, and that this didn't happen. But to this day, there remains some dispute about it. After Sanders' murder, neighbors reported a hard stench to police, like burning flesh coming from Haydnick's home.

An officer stopped by the home to investigate, and Hydenick claimed that he fell asleep while he was cooking a roast, and it got badly burned. With that explanation, the officer left. The remaining women felt that it was only a matter of time before they too would be dead and that it seemed unlikely that anyone would rescue them. They decided to push back against Heidnik and stand up to him. Deborah decided to stop listening to Heidney.

She wouldn't be quiet when he told her and he became enraged. He filled the pit in the floor with water and put Debra in it still in metal chains. Then he forced Josephina to touch a live wire to the chains. She was forced to do it multiple times. The electric current shocked Deborah multiple times and she died

from electrocution. After Deborah's murder, Hydenick changed his strategy. Instead of dismembering her and trying to cook or freeze any part of her remains, he drove her body to Wharton State Forest near Hammondon, New Jersey, and what's known as the Pine Barrens, an area

made up of thousands of acres of sand, and scrub pine trees. It's very isolated. He took Josephina with him and forced her to help dispose of Deborah's body. Later, after Josephina was rescued, she would lead investigators to that area in the Pine Barrens, and Deborah's remains were recovered. After she helped him hide Deborah's body, he made Josephina sign a confession detailing her responsibility in Debra's murder, to likely use as leverage against her. The letter read, Gary Hynick and Josephina Rivera electrically, to Deborah Dudley on March 17th in the basement of 3520 North Marshall Street by electrocution.

You know, one of the things that I keep thinking, Morph, is that some of these things that we're talking about, they're so horrible that I don't know if you wrote this in a script if people would buy it. Now, I get it. We have horror movies. We have all types of those movies. but I think some of these things that people do, they just sometimes don't even seem believable.

And this is kind of what I'm getting with Gary Heidnick. I mean, this guy was an absolute monster. Yeah, this is all very cruel and disgusting stuff that's being done. And then he sort of twisted to a new level. It's not enough that he's inflicting, you know, pain and suffering on people. Now he's enlisting his victims to help do. that as well and that's just, you know, a whole other level of depravity, I think. And I know I mentioned Science of the Lambs, you know, I'm getting some saw here, you know,

parts of Dahmer. I mentioned Ariel Castro, some other individuals as well. I mean, there's just, this is a sick individual, no doubt about it. Many people believe that Gary Hydenick didn't mean for Sandra and Deborah to die. But Sandra has, sister disagrees. She told Phillymagg.com, he killed Deborah on purpose because she was a fighter. She was strong and she would have killed him. And I actually agree with Deborah's sister.

I think Gary Heynick did feel threatened by Deborah. I think he knew what he was doing when he electrocuted her or had one of his other captors, Josephina, her. I know I talked about it earlier, but, you know, Gary, I feel he was used to praying on the most vulnerable of victims. And normally, people like that, they don't want to take that risk of, you know, someone standing up to them. And I feel that that was what happened here. You know, Deborah was fighting.

She was standing up to him. She wasn't acting like maybe some of his other victims had. So he felt threatened. And he killed her. Yeah, to me, this just demonstrate that this guy is the weakest of the week to not only target these very vulnerable victims that he did, but then when they show any sign of resistance and fighting back, he's, you know, afraid of that, too, so he takes steps to minimize the risk to himself, and he's just very pathetic person.

On March 23, 1987, just days after Deborah's murder, Hydenick captured 24-year-old Agnes Adams. She had been living on her own after running away at the age of 12. She would always remain in some kind of contact with her family, though. Hydenick and Josephina, along with a man named Tony, we'll discuss later, picked Agnes up in a new Cadillac. She told her father they were going to Atlantic City. Instead, she ended up in Hydenick's basement, chained to a pipe.

This likely was the last straw for Josephina, and it seemed she knew her time was running out and had to try and escape. On March 24, 1987, the day after Agnes Adams was abducted, Josephina was able to convince Hydenick to let her try to lure a victim on her own. She talked him into letting her out on her own and that he could wait nearby in his car while she found a victim to take back to his house. Some reports say that Josephina talked Gary into taking her to see her family, but whatever the case. Hydenick led his guard down and Josephina was determined to make her escape.

So she took her chances that day and ran looking for help. While she could have ran and hid, her thoughts turned to the victim. still in Hydenick's basement. She called police and put an end to Hydenick's horror show. And man, I just have to think more of, you know, how brave Josephina was. I imagine that if you're in a situation like that, you are constantly thinking about ways to possibly escape. Now, if you're locked in a basement, there probably aren't many.

But it sounds to me like, you know, she was smart. You know, she kind of turned the tables on Gary Heidnick talking him into doing something that would allow her to escape. Because as we know, he had talked many women into doing things that would allow him to abduct them. And thankfully, once she was out, she made a break, got to that phone and called police. it wouldn't surprise me at all if she was so terrified even being out and not next to him if she was still under his spell and frightened, you know, if she backed out and just went back to him. I remember in the Elizabeth Smart case after she was abducted, she was under so much control that

she would move around people, you know, with a disguise on, her face covered and just move right amongst them instead of trying to run away and contact, you know, an adult police officer or somebody to help her because she was so frightened that he felt that he could even just bring her right out in public and walk her down the street. And she wouldn't do anything. And unfortunately in her case, he was right about that. Here, Josephina had the courage to get in that phone booth and call police and stop this monster once and for all. Well, you know, Josephina was a little older than Elizabeth Smart. I also think that the time frame here, right?

She had been with Gary Heidnick for a while, but Elizabeth Smart was kept longer. Yeah, I don't know the exact timeframes, but, you know, this being too scared, I can imagine that in a lot of cases, it's going to be hard for people to even think about screaming for help or running up to a police officer. Because you've experienced so many horrors at the hands of this person.

It's like you don't know what they're going to do. Yeah. And I certainly don't mean to shame Elizabeth Smart as if it was her fault that she didn't escape. I just think, you know, time and time, again, we see some of these monsters that do this stuff. they have so much control over their victim and they're so powerful that, you know, some of these people that go through these things that are victimized just feel like if they try and escape, things could get even worse. After his arrest, Gary Heidnick was held without bow. A second person,

unalleged accomplice, was also arrested and held without bail. This man was Sanders' boyfriend, 31-year-old Cyril Brown, who went by the name Tony. The two men were very close. The two men were very close, and considered each other best friends. Tony was charged with murder, kidnapping, rape, and conspiracy. He denied having any hand in either of the murders, but did admit that he saw sand or die,

and also saw parts of her body in Hydenick's bathtub. And shocker, it turns out that Tony was also intellectually disabled and seemed to be suggestible. One more example of Hydenick praying on intellectually disabled people. Tony was released on $50,000 bail, but didn't have to pay any of it if he could, continued to show up in court. He became a witness agreeing to cooperate with the investigation. A judge decided he was no longer a threat to the public once he wasn't around Gary Heidnick.

Gary Heidnick was charged with multiple counts of murder, kidnapping, and rape, as well as aggravated assault, an involuntary, deviant sexual intercourse. He was denied bail and waited in jail for his day in court. In his cell, Gary Heidnick tried to. end his life. Some reports say he tried to hang himself. Others say he tried to swallow a lightball. But he survived and eventually the case went to trial. His only shot was to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. It took less than six months for Hydenick to capture seven victims. He might have taken his second victim even sooner than he did if it hadn't been for Sandra Lindsay's family, watching his home hoping to spot her coming or going.

Following news of Gary Heidnick's arrest, his own father, Michael Heidnick, who is estranged from and hadn't seen in two decades, didn't feel that his son deserved any mercy. According to UPI.com, his father said, I hope to hell they hang him for what he did, and you can quote me on that.

I'll even pull the rope. Okay. All right. You don't hear that all the time. In a lot of instances, you have family who, while they may despise what their loved one did, you know, they still stand behind them, you know, they don't want them to die. Not Gary's dad.

You know, he's even willing to pull the rope. Yeah, that's definitely something you don't hear often. If anything, a lot of times families are accused of being too overly sensitive or too supportive of their family members when they do heinous things like this. But his father wasn't in that camp. And I wonder, you know, maybe that could tell us something, his lack of caring, if you could call it that at all, it seems. Maybe that could put some light on Gary Hydenick's childhood. And, I mean, that's a whole other ball of wax, probably. Well, they were estranged.

We don't know, you know, all of the details around it. But yeah, I think you could be on to something there as far as, you know, maybe his dad didn't have a lot of empathy for Gary. Now, it's kind of hard to have empathy for Gary because once the facts come out, whew, that's, it's going to be tough. But maybe his dad didn't have empathy even before that. And maybe that's where Gary got it. I mean, we're speculating here, right? Yeah.

And I think in any case like this, you always look in the background of the perpetrators say, oh, my God, what could have caused this? And, you know, you start looking down, you know, rabbit holes trying to find anything that might explain these terrible things. And one of the big things that people always look at is, you know, the childhood, the parents. I mean, you got to do that. Two psychiatrists and a psychologist testified that Gary Heidnick suffered from schizophrenia

and that at the time he was abducting, holding, torturing, and killing women, he was unable to tell right from Rome. Heidnick did have a 25-year history of receiving mental health treatment, and he was diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder during his time in the military. But that is definitely not the same. as being actually legally insane. And according to Josephina, Hydenick bragged that he would get away with his crimes,

even if he got caught. Because as he put it, he would, quote, act crazy for long enough that they would have to let him go. A third psychiatrist, this time testifying for the prosecution, agreed that Heidnik had schizophrenia, but disagreed about his state of mind.

Hydenick's attorney, Chuck Peruto, certainly tried to play up appearances in front of the jury, dressing Hydenick in an unkempt manner and letting him go without shaving. He rationalized this action, saying tooxygen.com, if you want to demonstrate that someone is insane, then they got a fucking look insane. Those who knew Hydenk before his arrest noticed the stark difference. Hydenk's next-door neighbor, Doris Zibolka, said,

You're making Gary look crazy. He never looked like that. his attorney is making him look like Manson. And to me, Morph, that's always a very interesting strategy, right? How does the defense portray

the defendant in court? And I'm not saying with words. I mean, what do they have them look like? Because you know all of that is choreographed, right? It's staged, what they wear.

Like you said, you know, he wouldn't, he told him not to show. shade. They might say, hey, don't brush your hair. It's all calculated. Yeah, a lot of times in trials, the attorney wants their defendant to not have to wear an orange jumpsuit and to be clean cut, fresh shaven, a nice suit here. It seems like it was the opposite. It seems like his attorney was trying to make him look a certain way that was maybe not flattering.

Gary Hydenick's attorney painted the dark picture of his childhood. And Hydenick's niece, Shannon Hydenick, told Oxygen.com that his mother and father were really sick parents. And they gave their kids some serious problems. His brother was also receiving disability payments due to mental health issues. So there may be a genetic susceptibility to mental illness here. But again, being mental mental. ill is not the same thing as being legally insane. And the question remained. Did Gary Heidnick

know right from wrong? Well, Gary Heidnick and his defense team prep for trial, a lot of attention turned to Josephina Rivera, the victim who called police after escaping. You would think that the attention on her was all good and was praising of her, but that wasn't the case. The surviving victims of Gary Heidnick don't speak of Josephina fondly. She's technically. She's technically. technically the one who actually killed Deborah Dudley. Agnes Adams, who was kidnapped the day before Heidnick was caught, told CNN, she helped kidnap me. And survivor Lisa Thomas told the Latrobe bulletin, she was the only one not handcuffed. Lisa also said that Josephina would hit her even when Gary Heidnick wasn't home, saying she enjoyed it. According to Jacqueline Askins,

Josephina followed their plan to overpower and escape Heidnik by warning him about it. She was also allowed to wear clothes and slept in Hydenick's bed instead of the hole in the basement with the others. They ate meals together while the other women ate dog food, if anything. He even took her out of the house on shopping trips. Gary Hydenk's attorney told Latrobe Bulletin, if it were up to him, Josephina would be behind bars. As a co-conspirator, she was never charged, cooperated with the investigation and the prosecution, and maintains that she only did what she had to do to survive and trick Hydenick into letting his guard down.

It's hard to know what to think. Or some of these opinions about Josephina from the women that survived merited, was she coerced or terrified into cooperating, or was she somehow a willing participant? The only thing we know for sure is that it was Josephina who called police and it led to Hydenick being stopped. and the survivors being free. That's a really tough one. Or if, you know, you have some of the survivors kind of bad-mouthing Josephina.

But I could see a scenario where she is doing what she has to do to survive. And she's also doing some things that, obviously in hindsight, look very mean or they look brutal to the survivors, but she's doing it to ultimately get Hydenk to trust her enough, to put her in a situation where she can escape.

Yeah, it's a slippery slope because, you know, on one hand, she is unquestionably the person that helped stop Gary Hydenick, but, you know, according to her, you know, co-victims, they hold some animosity or held some animosity, at least at one point about some of the things. she did and how she acted. And I don't think any of us would know what we would do if we were in an unimaginable situation like this.

The will to survive might make you do some things that you normally wouldn't do. Yeah, absolutely. And I don't look at her the same way that I look at some other people. You know, you look at maybe a partner, a husband, a wife who takes part. in the crimes of their spouse. I mean, that's not the situation with Josephina. She was obviously to begin with a victim of Gary Heidtman. Now, did she enjoy hurting the others, or was that a ploy to get Heidnick to trust her?

I kind of lean towards the latter. It seems like the jury almost believed the insanity defense mounted by Hydenick's lawyer, or at least had doubts one way or the other. One juror, Marcella Leonard, told Oxygen. I just don't know if he was crazy or not. But despite any reservations, on July 1, 1988, the jury made its decision in Gary Hydenick's trial. He was found guilty of two counts of murder of the first degree,

six counts of kidnapping, five counts of rape, four counts of aggravated assault, and two counts of involuntary divit sexual intercourse. The same jury also recommended the death penalty. Marcella, the juror who was unsure about Hydenick's actual state of mind, went on to tell phillymag.com, I regret voting for the death penalty.

She also said there was no choice the way the law was written. Yeah, I think if I was on that jury more, I too would have questions about this guy's state of mind. But I think it would be hard for me to believe that Gary Heidnick didn't know that what he was doing was wrong. I would have a tough time making that decision.

Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, he went through steps. He turned up his TV to drown out sounds that were coming from the basement. You know, he chained these women to the wall because he knew that if they escaped, you know, they would get away and report him. So to me that says he knows what he's doing is wrong and he has to keep these victims there so he doesn't get in trouble. I don't buy the whole, you know, defense that he didn't know what he was doing. Gary Heidnick headed to death row and the appeals process began automatically, as it does in all capital convictions. But Heidnik didn't want to appeal his conviction or his sentence.

Instead, he wanted authorities to hurry up to speed things along. He just wanted to be executed as soon as possible and get it all over with, even though he maintained his innocence and claimed that he could prove it. At a 1997 hearing, Hydenick told the judge, You people think I committed murders that I have not committed, adding, I resent this kind of shit being done to a disabled veteran. His lawyer said it was very frustrating that Hydenick didn't want to appeal, but he also understood how hard of a time he was having in prison and how difficult every day of his life would be

if he spent the rest of it behind bars with the general. population. The attorney said it was actually a wise decision to try to expedite the execution. And I believe, you know, most people who are convicted, they don't want to die. They don't want to be executed. But there are some who do. They prefer that rather than spending, you know, years and years of their life in prison. And that's a really tough one. Because, For me, I hate to see somebody get out from under, if you want to call it that, what they're fearing the most. Yeah, I find it pretty ironic that he doesn't want to deal with being locked up for years for the rest of his life. And he wants to hurry it up.

Well, he's the same person that locked up these women against their will in his basement and made them prisoners. You know, that part, you know, I don't have any sympathy at all for him. Yeah, the fact that he doesn't want to be held captive, right? Even though that's exactly what he did to his victims. Gary Heidenot claimed he was making himself into a martyr. According to the Princeton Daily Clarion, he said, I want you to execute an innocent man so there will be no more capital punishment. His daughter, Maxine, filed appeals and motions on her own, trying to prolong her father's life.

The appeals process and all the preparation took a year, which he spent behind bars. But for a death penalty case, it did speed along. However, just hours before his scheduled execution in April 1997, a stay of execution was granted. From what we can gather, third-party attorneys filed on Heinex behalf, based on the idea that he may not be mentally competent. These attorneys were against the death penalty in general. The death warrant expired, but eventually the state Supreme Court found him competent. A new death warrant was issued. 55-year-old Gary Michael Heidman was executed on July 6, 1999.

He died by lethal injection. He didn't say anything when he had the chance to make a final statement. Josephina did not attend the execution as a witness and would have preferred a life sentence for Heidney. She told Oxygen.com it would have been better for him to sit in a four-by-four cell. Jacqueline Askins, Hydenick's last kidnapping victim, also did not attend. The two, along with other surviving victims, weren't allowed to witness the execution because, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, by law, only the survivors of murder victims are eligible to be there in person. Sandra Lindsay's sister Tracy Lomax did attend but didn't find any satisfaction or closure.

She told Oxygen.com he never looked at us, never acknowledged us, never said he was sorry. He didn't say anything. He didn't even look in our direction. And there's a couple of things here for me, Morp. Number one, I found it very interesting that victims' family members were allowed to attend, but not surviving victims. I thought that was very interesting. And then also, you know, I feel the same way as Josephina.

I think it would have been better. It would have been harder for Gary to sit in a small cell for the rest of his life, just based on the fact that he tried to speed up the death penalty part. He didn't want that. That was his biggest. fear. And so obviously that would have been a more apt punishment in this situation. There's an endless debate about the death penalty, whether it's justified, whether it's humane, you know, that's a subject for another day. But, you know, a lot of families, they

prefer that the person's not executed because they, on one hand, they might think they're getting away with an easier outcome and not having to think about what they've done behind bars. And then sometimes they're just against the death penalty, whatever the reason. But it's a real, you know, a tough situation to be in as a family member of a murder victim, you know, this end process when it comes, there's no remorse. There's no, I'm sorry, just nothing. And that doesn't surprise me one bit, right? I know the family went there hoping for something like that. But I think with a guy like Gary Heidnick, there was little to no chance.

They were going to get any of that. And they did. It's interesting to note that Gary Heidnick was the last person to be executed in the state. His execution was the end of capital punishment in Pennsylvania. This isn't likely to change anytime soon. The current governor, Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, announced in 2023 that he would not sign any death warrants, meaning there would be no executions while he was in office. The character Buffalo Bill and the Silence of the Lambs was reportedly heavily inspired by Gary Hydenick,

along with a few other killers. These on-screen depictions of real murders adds to the feeling that this kind of thing only happens in movies. But as we're sadly seeing more and more, things like this really did happen in real life, and they're still happening today. As for Gary Hydenick's House of Horrors located at 3520 North Marshall Street in North Philadelphia, it still stands there now, a gruesome reminder of the terrible thing, that once happened there. And that's kind of shocking to me, right?

You and I have done many, many cases where somebody had a house of horrors, we'll call it, you know, whether it's Dahmer's apartment or, you know, the case we just talked about last week with the horses. One infamous house right now is the one,

you know, where the Utah college students were murdered. But normally, morph, in the stories that we talk about, those houses are torn down. You know, they're tough reminders for people. So it shocks me that this house is still standing. And who in the world lives there? Yeah, you think that this would be something they would tear down and maybe turn into a park, maybe some kind of facility to help develop mentally disabled people,

something along those lines, but now they left it there and someone, I presume, lived there. And, you know, it makes me wondered when they moved in, did they know that this place was the home of all this terrible stuff or were they unaware of it? And, you know, maybe they're living there now and have no idea. Yeah, I know different states have different real estate laws, but a lot of states, you do have to disclose certain things. And one of them in many states is that, you know, a murder occurred there or, you know, something along those lines. But as we wrap this case up, I don't think there's any doubt that Gary Heidnick is up there, right? When you talk about some of the worst individuals, he's got to be on that list. I mean, when you have these really high profile scary movies, kind of basing.

some of their characters around you, okay, you were a scary individual. And this guy definitely was. You know, I think there's a ton of reasons to despise Gary Hydenick, you know, one of them being, as we talked about, right? He prayed on some of the most vulnerable in our population, people with developmental

or intellectual disabilities. I mean, his crimes would have been horrible regardless, but in a way, I feel like that makes them that much worse, that he committed a lot of his crimes against people who had those types of disabilities. And then I just keep going back to this kind of pit in the basement and how scary that must have.

have been for these individuals. And it's amazing that some of these women made it out a lot. They survived. Yeah. And I only hope that maybe today, all these years later, I hope that they have received help, counseling, support of some kind. And I hope that our lives are, they're leading the lives the best they can now. And the last thing I'll say, because I did have this thought. you know, what happens if Josephina is not able to talk Gary into kind of giving her a little bit of freedom to the point where she can escape? I mean, how many more victims does he have? I don't think there's any way that this guy just all of a sudden stops what he's doing. And that makes me wonder, is it possible there were other victims somewhere along the way that we just don't know about?

Yeah, I always have that question. But, you know, at the end of the day, Gary Heidnick was just a monster, pure and simple. But that's it for our episode on Gary Heidnick. As always, if you love the show, but you haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, leave us a review, a rating. Also, keep telling your friends about the podcast. Word of mouth really helps us out. If you want to find us on social media, we're on every major platform. just search for criminology podcast on your favorites.

And for news about the show, old episodes, and more, head over to Criminology Podcast.com. And finally, if you want to join a discussion about the podcast and the cases we discuss, head over to Facebook and search for Criminology Podcast discussion and fans. So that's it for another episode of Criminology. But Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike. And Morph. We'll talk to you next week.

Take care, everyone.