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Welcome to the Serial Killer Podcast.
The podcast dedicated to serial killers. Who they were, what they did, and how. I am your Norwegian host, Samus Viborg Thun. And tonight, we continue our stay in the cold, damp cellar of the real-life Buffalo Bill serial killer, Gary Heidnik.
I know that he technically is not a confirmed serial killer since it is only confirmed that he killed two. I used the traditional method of defining a serial killer that says three or more kills with a cooling off period between murders.
However, in Heidnik's case, there are several factors that make me question if he really only ever killed two people. Also, his kidnapping, rape, and torture of far more than two women make him such a serial offender that I think he deserves a place in the TSK rooster.
I'm very proud to announce that as of June 2019, this show has reached a total of 17 million downloads. This makes me very proud, and I could not have done it without you, dear listener.
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Remember, patreon.com forward slash the serial killer podcast to support the show and gain exclusive benefits as an official TSK producer. Imagine, if you will, dear listener, that you once again find yourself alongside Gary Heidnik with his three captives. As he entered the room with his latest victim,
He removed the plywood sheet from the floor and lifted Rivera and Lindsay from the pit. After he had made the introductions, Heidnik made sandwiches for the women, but told them that they could not eat until he had "indoctrinated Lisa" by forcing her to fillet him before tainting her up like the others. When he had gone, the women ate and talked among themselves.
They had little in common, other than the fact they were all young black women who had the misfortune of being captured by a psychopath. Deborah Dudley was 23 years old and not a timid or shy girl. She was headstrong, brave, and beautiful. However,
She too had been lured by Heidnik's promises of easy money, and now she was dragged into the cellar of horror just ten days after Lisa had been chained up there. She would not calm down, and refused to let Heidnik control her without a fight. From the time he had chained her with the others, she began to question his authority, taunting him at every opportunity.
which generally earned her nothing more than a savage beating. Her arrival also created tension amongst the others, as whenever she disobeyed, Heidnik would punish them as well. Beatings became a regular event with Heidnik. The beatings would come in a variety of forms, such as savage beatings over the head with a wooden stick, or punches to the face, or punches to the stomach.
Being an experienced and cunning psychopath, Heidnik knew how to play the girls up against each other. Divide and rule is, after all, a tried and true strategy amongst oppressors. One practice was appointing one of the girls to be in charge while he was out. When he returned, he expected that person to tell him if the others had misbehaved.
If they had, he would order the girl in charge to beat the others accordingly. If there were no infractions to the report, or if the beatings weren't severe enough, he would beat them all.
During this time, the worldly Rivera began to win his confidence by displaying a level of loyalty and obedience that convinced Heidnik that she actually enjoyed being one of his wives.
His sexual appetite also changed with the arrival of Dudley, when, apart from raping all of them on a daily basis, he would often force them to have sex with each other while he watched. I haven't found any details as to what he forced the girls to do exactly, but you can probably imagine it being the most depraved acts imaginable.
While personal hygiene did not seem to be a priority for Heidnik, he did, after several weeks, provide baby wipes the girls could wash their bodies with when the filth became overwhelming, even for Heidnik. Sometime later, he allowed the girls to have a rare bath, after which he would rape them and force them to have sex with each other yet again.
The girls were generally kept on a starvation diet, but the amount and type of food that he provided seemed to change according to his mood. Some days he would give the girls only bread and water. The following day it would be stale hot dogs or a peanut butter sandwich.
One day, Heidnik got the, to him, brilliant idea that he could save money and trouble by giving the girls the same food as he gave his dogs. From then on, canned dog food was the regular food they got, and if they refused or complained, he tortured them until they ate it without complaint. And so it was.
that on the 18th of January, Heidnik went out again and returned with another black girl. He had picked up Jacqueline Askins, a tiny 18-year-old prostitute, on the north side of the city and brought her back to the house. As before, he savagely raped her and dragged her to the basement.
But when it came time for the chaining, he found that the shackles were too big for her tiny ankles, and used handcuffs instead. Later that day, he bought everyone Chinese food, and, as an added surprise, a bottle of champagne. The occasion was the twenty-sixth birthday of the woman that was fast becoming his favorite, Josefina Rivera.
Rivera would later reveal that Heidnik was in good spirits because he had the idea that she and Sandra Lindsay had fallen pregnant to him, when this in fact was not the case. In early February 1987, Heidnik found reason to punish Lindsay when he caught her trying to move the plywood that covered the pit. The punishment was severe.
She was forced to hang from a roof beam by a single handcuff attached to her wrist for several days. During this time, her condition deteriorated and eventually she refused to eat. This is not surprising, as being stretched out in such a position is...
extremely painful, and the strain on the body will eventually result in the victim being in a near catatonic state. Heidnik was convinced she was pregnant, so he tried to force-feed her pieces of bread. Towards the end of the week, still hanging from the ceiling,
Even though she was vomiting and running a high fever, Heidnik continued to force-feed her, often jamming food into her mouth and holding her mouth shut until she swallowed. The next day, she lost consciousness altogether. When Heidnik couldn't rouse her, he became angry and unlocked the handcuffs, dropping her to the ground like a sack of potatoes. He told the others that she was faking it,
and kicked her into the pit and left her there while he served up ice cream for everybody and left. When he returned, he lifted Lindsay out of the pit and checked her pulse. She was dead. After telling the girls that she had probably choked, he carried Lindsay's bodies upstairs. A short time later, they shuddered with horror when they heard the unmistakable whine of a power saw.
Their horror later turned to revulsion when one of Heidnik's dogs walked into the basement carrying a long, meaty bone and proceeded to devour it in front of the terrified girls. But the truly depravity of this murder was not just feeding the girl to his dogs. Heidnik had ground up Lindsay's flesh using a food processor.
that he had specially purchased for this task, and indeed fed it to his dogs. But, as mentioned earlier, he had gotten into a routine of feeding his captives dog food. So, he thought it a grand idea to spice up their rations with Jacqueline's remains, mixed with dog food, without telling the girls.
to dispose of the remaining parts of the body. He cooked them on the stove and left the remains there. In the days following Sandra's death, the girls began to notice a sickening stench that filled the entire house. Eventually, it would become so bad that Heidnik's neighbors complained to the police. After several such calls,
A young patrolman was sent to the house to make inquiries, but left after Heidnik assured him that the smell was caused by an overcooked roast dinner. Following Lindsay's death, Heidnik's behavior became increasingly bizarre. He urged the girls to inform on each other, with the promise of better conditions for those who complied. During this period, the girls devised a plan to attack Heidnik and escape.
but the plan never came to fruition. Jacqueline Askins would later testify that the attack never eventuated because Rivera told Heidnik what they were planning. Convinced that the girls were constantly plotting against him, Heidnik devised a plan of his own to prevent them from ever leaving. After cuffing each girl hand and foot,
He hung them from a beam and gagged them. Then, taking several different sizes of screwdrivers, he gouged inside their ears in an attempt to deafen them. He believed that if they could not hear, they would not be able to hear him coming. The only one he didn't touch was Josefina Rivera. This particular method of torture
is reminiscent of one performed by the toolbox killers that I have previously covered on this show. To have a jagged metal object forcefully plunged into your air canal is probably one of the most painful experiences a human can endure. Considering the absence of hygiene,
It's a miracle they all didn't die from massive infections from such severe wounds.
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But it's good to have some things that are non-negotiable. For some, that could be a night out with the boys, chugging beers and having a laugh. For others, it might be an eating night. For me, one non-negotiable activity is researching psychopathic serial killers and making this podcast. Even when we know what makes us happy, it's often near impossible to make time for it.
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Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash serialkiller today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash serialkiller. When Deborah Dudley again began to cause trouble, he unchained her and took her upstairs. When they returned, Dudley was unusually quiet and solemn.
After Heidnik had left, the others asked her what had happened. Stammering with fear, she told them that Heidnik had taken her into the kitchen and showed her a pot he had on the stove. Inside said pot was Sandra Lindsay's head. He then opened the oven and showed her part of Sandra's ribcage that he was roasting.
Opening the fridge, he pointed to an arm and other body parts that he had wrapped in plastic, and told her that if she didn't start obeying him, she would be next. Within a few days, Dudley had recovered her composure and continued to defy Heidnik's attempts to tame her.
As an added incentive to obey, Heidnik added a new punishment to his already cruel bag of tricks. His own version of electric shock treatment. His method was simple. He stripped the insulation from one end of an electrical extension cord and plugged the other into a socket. Then, turning on the power, he would hold the bare wires against each of the girl's chains.
and watch with detached amusement as they wriggled and danced to escape the current. As before, Rivera was exempt from punishment. As the weeks passed, Heidnik began to treat Rivera as more of a partner than a captive, and spent more and more time with her alone. So much so that on the 18th of March, when Heidnik decided to punish the others,
He enlisted Rivera to help him. The shock treatment was again employed with one added feature, water. After drilling air holes in the plywood cover, Heidnik ordered Rivera to fill the pit with water. Dudley, Askins and Thomas, still in chains, were then pushed down into it before the cover was replaced and weighted down with bags of dirt.
As they sat shivering in cold and utter fear, the bare wire was pushed through one of the holes until it briefly touched one of the chains, sending a jolt of electricity surging through all of them. The wire was then pushed into the hole a second time, making direct contact with Deborah Dudley's chain, absorbing most of the voltage
Dudley screamed and shuddered and spasmed uncontrollably before collapsing face down in the water. Being electrocuted is very similar to being burned alive. If the voltage is high enough, the nervous system is fried almost instantly, and as such the idea is that electrocution can be a merciful death. However, using household voltage is lethal,
but far from what found in high-voltage sources. Anyone having felt a jolt after accidentally touching a live wire from a lamp or a wall socket can attest that it's painful, but usually one is able to rapidly withdraw the hand and the pain stops. Dudley could not withdraw anything. Her body received the electrical current in full force for a long period.
Before she simply died, probably from the heart stopping. Seeing their friend fall, Askins and Thomas began screaming until Heidnik removed the cover and dragged Dudley out. After ascertaining that she was dead, Heidnik calmly made sandwiches and told the girls, "'Aren't you glad it wasn't one of you?' He then left for a few minutes and returned with a pen and paper."
Handing it to Rivera, he ordered her to write the time and date at the top of the page. When she had done so, he made her write a statement detailing how she had assisted him to electrocute Deborah Dudley. He then ordered her to sign it before adding his own signature. Holding up the letter, he then told her, "'If you ever go to the cops, I can use this as evidence that you killed Debbie.'"
Satisfied that he had her completely under his control, he removed Rivera's chains and told her to go upstairs and change. It was the first time she had been completely dressed in four months. The following day, Heidnik returned to the basement and, after wrapping Dudley's body in plastic, placed it in the large freezer and left.
Following Deborah Dudley's death, Josefina became Heidnik's constant companion, often accompanying him on outings to restaurants and on shopping expeditions. On one such outing, Heidnik told Rivera that he was ever caught, he would act as though he was insane, as he knew how to manipulate the testing procedures.
He told her that he had been fooling the authorities for years so that he could qualify for disability payments. Heidnik also seemed to soften after Deborah died and began to provide additional comforts for his captives, including new mattresses, blankets, pillows, and even a television set, while Rivera, in her role as trusted confidante,
earned the dubious honor of sharing Heidnik's bed. On one particular trip, they were driving in the countryside outside of New Jersey when Heidnik stopped the car near a heavily wooded area and remarked that it would be a good place to hide Dudley's body. The following night, the 22nd of March, Heidnik and Rivera loaded Deborah Dudley's partially frozen body
in one of his other vehicles, a Dodge van, and drove back to the area known as the Pine Barrens. While Rivera waited in the vehicle, Heidnik dumped the body in a grove of trees. The next day, Heidnik told her that he would need to find a replacement for Dudley, and suggested that they go out cruising together to find one.
Later that night, the pair drove through the streets looking for a likely subject. It wasn't long before they spied another black prostitute standing on a street corner. Rivera knew the woman, named Agnes Adams, from when they both previously worked in the same strip club. Curiously, Heidnik also knew Agnes.
He was a previous customer of hers and had taken her back to his home on two separate occasions for sex. The first time he had taken her home, a car had been blocking his driveway and he had been unable to find alternate parking. So he drove her back to the city and paid her $10 for the trouble. The second time he took her home, they had sex, he paid her,
and after that, she simply walked home, for some unknown reason. He had never tried to attack her on either occasion. On this particular night, however, he had other plans. After negotiating a suitable price for her services, Heidnik and Rivera drove her back to his house, while Rivera remained in the kitchen, presumably with the
Casserole containing a head, he took Agnes upstairs and had sex with her. Shortly after, she found herself stripped, chained, and imprisoned in the basement with the others. To Heidnik, Rivera may have seemed like a willing participant, but she had other plans and was happy to wait for the right time to implement them.
Her chance finally came on the 24th of March, when, after days of pleading and cajoling, she convinced Heidnik that if he let her go to see her family, she would bring him back a new wife for his collection. Heidnik, eager to expand his new family, agreed on the condition that after visiting her family, she would pick up the women immediately
and meet him at a gas station near her house at midnight. Later that evening, Heidnik dropped her near her house and drove off. Within seconds, Rivera was sprinting towards the apartment that she shared with her boyfriend, a black man named Vincent Nelson. When Nelson answered the door, Rivera blurted out her incredible story, as she related how she had been taken prisoner, sexually abused and tortured,
Nelson wondered if she had lost her mind. As he tried to quiet her down, she continued to describe scenes involving death, dog food, and body parts, until Nelson offered to go to Heidnik's house and confront him. Concerned that their interference would lead to the other girls being killed, Rivera convinced him to call the police. He, being no fan of the boys in blue,
reluctantly agreed and made the call from a nearby payphone. Several minutes later, two police officers, John Cannon and David Savage, pulled up alongside them. Again, Rivera told her incredible story. Like Nelson, Cannon and Savage also found it hard to believe
until Rivera lifted the bottoms of her jeans and showed them the scars on her ankles where the chains had been. They were convinced, and proceeded to the gas station where Heidnik was waiting, in his Cadillac. As they took out their weapons and approached the car, Heidnik raised his hands and asked if they were there regarding child support payments.
He was told that it was a far more serious matter, and promptly was placed under arrest. After four months of unspeakable horror, Gary Heidnik's reign of terror was finally at an end.
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And so ends part two of the saga of the real-life Buffalo Bill, Gary Heidnik. Next week we come to the end of the saga of Gary Heidnik. So as they say in the land of radio, stay tuned. This podcast would not be possible if it had not been for my dear patrons who pledge their hard-earned money every month. There are especially a few of those patrons I would like to thank in person.
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