Gary Heidnik And The United Church Of The Ministers Of God
Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesGary Heidnik heads to court in Pittsburgh dressed in a brightly colored Hawaiian shirt. June 14, 1988.
Even those familiar with Gary Heidnik commonly misunderstand just how influential a figure he was. Most peripheral true crime aficionados are aware he inspired Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs and tortured women he kidnapped before raping them or forcing them to eat each other.
What is less known is that Heidnik founded his own religious organization and had 50 faithful members in his congregation. According to UPI, the United Church of the Ministers of God continued to hold services even as their self-appointed bishop languished in prison for his crimes.
Heidnik was born in Ohio in 1943 and suffered a terribly abusive childhood. His father beat him and mocked him for bedwetting. Heidnik remained socially isolated throughout high school until he joined the Army. He was soon discharged for mental health issues like schizoid personality disorder.
In 1971, he started his church in Philadelphia. All he had were five followers and $1,000, but he somehow managed to raise over half a million dollars to fund a cult where he perfected how to manipulate others, began kidnapping women, and chaining them up in his basement.
After he was charged with the spousal rape of his Filipino mail-order bride who left him in 1986 after bearing him a son, Heidnik’s bloodlust boiled over to untenable levels.
“He put muffler clamps around my ankles,” said Josefina Rivera, who survived Heidnik’s wrath locked in his basement. “He put nuts on the clamps and he Crazy Glued them so I wouldn’t be able to take the nuts off.”
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Heidnik then put plywood over the entrance to his basement and placed large, dirt-filled bags on top.
“The hole wasn’t big enough so I was all bent up,” she recalled. “I couldn’t even stand up. He’d pull me out by hair and beat me with a stick, then put me back.”
For the women in Heidnik’s basement, the bathroom was a toilet with no plumbing or the basement floor. They were beaten if they complained. Worse, Heidnik gouged their ear drums with a screwdriver so they couldn’t hear him coming or going.
“I’d watch him do it to other women and see them cry in pain,” Rivera said. “My main focus was to get out of there alive and get the others out alive.”
After force-feeding one of the women whose breathing had begun to slow, Heidnik slammed her on the cement floor. She was visibly dead at that point. He then carried her upstairs, after which the remaining women heard what sounded like a chainsaw.
“All of a sudden we smelled this horrible smell in the house,” said Rivera. “It was the worst smell I ever smelled.”
It was Rivera who managed to flee when she convinced Heidnik she needed a few minutes to see her family. She called the police, who promptly arrested the murderous cult leader. Though Heidnick tried to use the insanity defense, he was convicted and sentenced to death in July 1988.
He tried to commit suicide but failed. His family attempted to get him off death row in 1997. They also failed. On July 6, 1999, Heidnik was injected with lethal poison and became the last person to be executed by the state of Pennsylvania.
As for his church, it remained in operation even after Heidnik’s arrest, exposure, and court-ordered death sentence.
“I was amazed,” said Charles Peruto Jr., Heidnik’s lawyer. “Usually in cases like this the church is set up as a tax scam. But they really are holding services. After I took the case, parishioners were calling me and asking if they were still having services.”
Perhaps it is scenarios like this one that most pointedly indicate just how powerful cult leaders can be. Any reasonable person would arguably distance themselves from a recreational activity that is tied directly to a rapist, a murderer, or both. Heidnik’s flock, however, remained faithfully in service to their bishop even after his death.
After reading up on history’s nine most depraved cult leaders, learn about 10 of history’s biggest and most famous psychopaths. Then, check out seven close calls with the world’s worst serial killers.
