- Hi guys, how are you today? I hope you are having
a wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian
and today is Monday, which means it's Murder,
Mystery, and Makeup Monday. (Bailey humming) (exhales deeply) I'm out of breath. That's my theme song for today. If you are new here,
every Monday I sit down, I talk about a true crime
story or true crime case. I don't know why I say story
because it's not a story. It's a case. It's like a real thing that's been heavy on my nogging. (clicks) And I do my
makeup at the same time. I do my makeup just
because it keeps me busy. If you're interested in true
crime and you like makeup, I would definitely suggest
you hit that subscribe button. I'm here for you every Monday,
unless something happens. But other than that, for the most part I'm here every Monday for you
with a new, true crime case that's just... awful. It's a great time. I don't know. Before we jump into it, I
wanted to let you guys know that today's episode, is this an episode, is sponsored by Audible. (Bailey humming) Yeah. Let me tell you a little
bit about Audible, okay? Audible has the largest selection of audio books on the planet. And now with Audible originals the selection has gotten even more custom. Every month Audible members get one credit towards any audio book they choose plus two Audible originals. Audible originals are
exclusive audio titles created by celebrated storytellers from theater, journalism,
literature, and more. You also get access to audio fitness and health workouts created
exclusively for Audible. With Audible you can go
back and re-listen anytime even if you cancel your membership. If you didn't like your
audio book, guess what? You can exchange it. No
questions asked. Okay? It's cool. Amazon Prime members can get Audible for $4.95 a month for
the first three months. That's like getting three
months for the price of one. After that it's only $14.95 a month. Go to Audible.com/baileysyrian or text Bailey Sarian to
500 500 to get started. Again go to Audible.com/baileysyrian or text Bailey Syrian to 500 500. This offer ends ASAP, July 31st. Currently I have been listening to The Subtle Art of Not Giving an F. I won't say it because
you know. I'm almost done. It's pretty good. Again, a big thank you to
Audible for partnering with me on this episode, this
episode, what is this? Where am I? My Monday videos, I have all been getting demonetizing and it's so frustrating. So the fact that Audible
wants to work with me, (clicks) I'm so thankful. Thank you, Audible. Thank you. Warning. The following
presentation is intended for mature audiences. It contains graphic descriptions of crime scenes, adult
dialogue, and strong language. Viewer discretion is advised. A lot of the times you guys
ask me, "Bailey, Bailey Bailey, Bailey, Bailey (fan blowing) Bailey, are there any cases
that really bother you?" This story (sighs) But this one is just (exhales sharply) Today I am going to
talk about Gary Heidnik. Are you familiar with this piece of crap? Anyways I will shut up and
just, let's get into it, okay? So Gary Heidnik. He was born in November of 1943. He was the oldest of two children raised by Michael and
Ellen Heidnik, his parents. But the kids weren't raised in the home with both of their parents. Michael and Ellen divorced by the time Gary was only three years old. Gary and his younger brother
were raised by his mother, Ellen, for about four years and then their father,
Michael, for about seven years. And then Gary was sent
to a military academy for about two years. It was just a hard upbringing. I mean, kind of going back
and forth between homes. Gary claimed that he suffered
a lot of emotional abuse by his father, specifically
due to his bed wetting. Whatever reason Gary
continued to wet the bed for years and years after
moving in with his father. And according to Gary, it would send his father into
just, he was beyond livid. He was so enraged. So pissed at Gary for wetting his sheets that he would force
Gary to take his sheets that he wet and he would hang them outside for all of the neighbors to see. So it was like a form of punishment but also supposed to be
like embarrassing to Gary so I guess he would stop wetting the bed. According to Gary's father,
he's no longer alive, but when he was alive Gary's father heavily denied
any type of abuse going on. So then Gary was sent to military school which was probably somewhat nice compared to his home life
because of how toxic it was. And in military school,
they tested Gary's IQ which was between 130 and 148. So he was pretty smart, little cookie. And then in the army Gary's drill Sergeant rated him as excellent. And he was very successful
at his training. He was then trained
successfully as a medic in Texas and was transferred to
Germany where he served at the 46th army surgical hospital. Everything seemed to be
going really well for Gary like doing really well since
going to military school and then the army. And then things just started
to go downhill for Gary. He began to feel really unwell. Gary would call in sick to work complaining of nausea,
headaches, blurred vision and dizziness. Not much is known about Gary's
mental state at this time but by the time he saw a doctor he was thought to have a
full blown mental illness and was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs. It's a little unclear as to how it went from feeling nauseous and dizzy
to a serious mental illness. But there's really not
much I could find about it. It was just kind of like, "Oh
yeah, he's dizzy, nauseous." And then it was like mental
illness. I don't know. I was confused on that
part, but it is what it is. So once Gary was prescribed
these anti-psychotic prescriptions, I should
say, he was then discharged from the military with a
full disability pension. And then shortly after
his honorable discharge, Gary went on to become a
licensed practical nurse. And he even worked at a VA
psych hospital for a time before being fired. And he got fired because he had rude behavior
towards his patients. He was snapping and he just,
he wasn't doing a good job. So from 1962 to around 1987, Gary spent majority of his time in and out of psychiatric hospitals. But this time he wasn't working, he was actually a patient himself. He was prone to extreme
bouts of depression with multiple suicide attempts. And it seemed like depression had run in the Heidnik family. His mother, his brother, I think his father all
struggled with depression and all tried to commit
suicide at some point, which is just awful. In 1970 Gary's mother, she
ended up committing suicide by drinking mercuric (laughs) chloride. I'm laughing because once
again, I can't pronounce words. We know this, right? We know this by now. I have a speech impediment, okay? And my mouth doesn't move in
certain ways. (machine dings) It's very frustrating. But yes, she made this poison mixture. She went down into the
basement. She drank it and then she died. Things that I read said
that Ellen, the mother, she was in an abusive
relationship and she wanted out and she felt like the
only way she could get out was if she killed herself, sadly. So she drank this poison and ended it. Unclear if Gary was really close with her at this point. But at the end of the day,
it's still your family. So I'm sure it still is hard. So then later on, Gary went
on to marry and have children with several women. However, the relationships
were far from normal. The first marriage was
to a woman named Betty. Some reports say she
was a mail-order bride. She came from the Philippines. How they met, not really sure. But they were writing
letters back and forth. She really knew nothing about him. She came to the US from the
Philippines, they got married. Sadly, she entered into this
very abusive relationship from Gary. He would force Betty to watch as he had sex with other women. And he repeatedly would
rape and assault her numerous times until
she was able to escape. And she fled back home to her country. At that time, when she fled back home, she was pregnant with his child
and this really upset him. So then Gary had another child with a woman named Ann Jeanette and she was mentally disabled. She had an IQ of only 48. So she... was mentally disabled and
he took advantage of her. He got her pregnant and the child was immediately taken away. They found that she was too
unfit to take care of the child. So Ann Jeanette was more than
just like a sexual conquest for Gary. She was his official transition into the crimes that would... be coming. He liked the idea of
how he could control her because she couldn't think
for herself, poor thing. So Ann Jeanette, Gary's girlfriend
at the time had a sister and she was staying in a
mental hospital or institution. And in 1978, he signed
his girlfriend's sister out of the mental institution
where she was living. She was brought back to the home where Gary and Ann Jeanette were living. Now Gary decided to just
keep her here, the sister for 10 days and he repeatedly raped,
sodomized and tortured her. Now Ann Jeanette didn't do anything because again she was mentally ill. She wasn't fully aware what was happening or even how to approach the situation and her sister was the same way. Police went looking for the sister because she was signed out
of this mental institution. It was like a day pass. So you could take her for a
couple of hours, you know. Normal ass people would go
out for lunch or something and he had her for 10 days. So the police were called. Police went looking for her. Gary was the one that signed her out. So of course they went to his house and when police finally found her, she was covered in blood and she was just completely terrified and she was hiding in the basement. Gary was charged with kidnapping,
rape, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, involuntary
deviant sexual intercourse and interfering with the
custody of a committed person. Now, when I read that,
I was like, oh shit, yeah, he would be locked
up forever, right? Because that's a long list
of some F'ed up schiz nits. Nay nay, of course not. Gary's original sentence
was overturned on appeal and Gary spent only three
years of his incarceration in mental institutions. So there's that. So then in 1971, Gary was out, right? And he moved to Philadelphia. And while in Philadelphia,
Gary was like, you know what? I got to do something, right? He really liked controlling people. He was, "I'm kind of good at it. I should stick with that." So in 1971 Gary started the United Church
of The Ministers of God. I have to add a side note because I guess because I was kind of like looking up United church of The Ministers of God, which is quite a name but I guess it's an actual church, right? This is a legit church
where people do great things for one another it has
great community, whatever. Now Gary took this name and
kind of created his own church. So if you see a church and it's called United Church of the Ministers of God, it has nothing to do with Gary. He considered it to be a church. And at first he had about five followers and a $1,500 investment. Who he got the investment from, no idea. I have no idea, but he got it. (laughs) Things grew pretty quickly for Gary. Gary ended up raising
about almost $500,000 for his church/cult. I'm going to call it what it is. I'm not saying churches are cults. But what Gary was doing
was essentially a cult. So he raised up about $500,000 from people donating their money. And at this time he
seemed to really master and learn how to manipulate people. So according to Gary's neighbors, the members of this
cult/church, they showed up every Sunday for service
inside of Gary's home. And this is a quote from the
neighbor in an interview. They went on to say that
everybody who attended this church they were usually mentally
ill, really sad, okay? So Gary did keep this
church/cult thing going for until he gets arrested, but he still wasn't fully satisfied. He wanted those sexual partners but non-consenting partners. He wanted that again. He
wanted new sex victims but this time he wanted to not get caught. So Gary went out and in the area where he lived there were a lot of sex workers. And he comes across this
woman named Josefina Rivera, and she was 25 at the time. She was heavily addicted to drugs. She was working as a sex
worker for quite some time. She had children as well but they were taken into
foster care, I believe, because of her drug abuse, sadly. These are things that she says. He lures her into his car
by the promise of money in exchange for sex. So while Josefina was getting redressed after doing whatever they
did, sex, I'm assuming, Gary came up and choked
her until she passed out. He then takes her back to his home, dragged her down to his basement, shackled her limbs together with chains. He sealed the bolts with super glue. So she couldn't escape. Now at this time, you
know, of course naturally like any of us would
Josefina was screaming just being very, very loud,
hoping somebody hears her. But this obviously pisses Gary off. So then he just beats her with a stick until she stops screaming for help. Now Gary had built this
thing in his basement or dug it up. It was called a pit, a
big hole in the ground. And his thought process was
he was going to put people in these things and then
board them up in these pits. So he had built this pit already and he put Josefina into the pit or a pit because he had multiple, boarded it up and sealed her in there. So Josefina was locked up
there for about three days. And then Gary shows up with another woman named Sandra and she was 24. It was obvious to
Josefina that she, Sandra was mentally disabled. Josefina asked Sandra,
"How did you get here? How did he get you?" Sandra said that she was on
a walk to the local store. She wasn't even that far from her home when Gary had offered her a ride and then he knocked her out
and took her back to his home. So same thing. Gary took
Sandra and he chained her in the same fashion as
Josefina and then disgustingly, he would force the other women to watch as he raped each other. How awful? How awful? This is a lot of our fears like... On new year's day in 1987 Deborah was brought into the basement. Now later it would be said
that Deborah was more feisty. She was confrontational, wasn't afraid to stand up to Gary and spit in his face and
stuff like he deserved. And she would yell at Gary. She needed tampons, she needed a shower. But she wasn't afraid of Gary. And she was very confrontational. This forced Gary to make some changes. So he ended up purchasing
a portable toilet for the women because
they didn't have one. He also finally gave the women tampons because they didn't have any. Since being in there, none of
the girls had taken a bath. So he allowed them now to bathe. Josefina, she would later say that Gary was very unpredictable and you never knew what to expect when he came down the stairs. One day after Gary realized
that the girls could hear him coming and going out the front
door, he didn't like that because he knew if they knew that he left they would be really loud
and they would try to escape. So Gary decided to... This
part is horrifying, but he... Well, all of it is, shut up, Bailey. He shoved screwdrivers into their ears and punctured their eardrums so they couldn't hear him anymore. So to the girls, disobeying
Gary was very dangerous and they quickly learned that. If you spoke back, he would beat them, he would rape them. He was just awful. He was disgusting. And they knew to follow the rules or you're going to pay the price. Gary would put them on punishment if they decided to disobey him, which meant that they
would be starved, beaten and tortured. So January 18th, 1987 there was one more
victim that was now added to the mix that Gary somehow got. Her name was Jacqueline
and she was 18 years old. And it seemed like at this
point, Gary was a little content with the amount of girls
he had in the basement. But then Sandra somehow disobeyed him. I'm not sure what she did
but she disobeyed him. As punishment, he then
put Sandra into the pit which was like this hole
in the ground, right? And he boarded her up. While Gary was upstairs doing whatever, she tried to crawl out of the pit that Gary had dug. So since Sandra was disobeying
him, he then took Sandra and he got her by her wrist and hung her from a beam that was across
the wall with handcuffs. And he then starved her for
days as part of her punishment. Sandra was bound by her wrists,
like hanging from this beam but she was standing, if that makes sense, her feet were still barely on the ground when she was hanging. And she was left like this for a week. All the other ladies in that basement were also bound and chained and stuff. So they couldn't help her
or help her get down at all. Finally, Gary went downstairs
to take her off punishment, I guess. He then was going to give her food and finally unchain her. So he takes her down from this beam. And sadly, she just fell to the floor. She was dead. Once Gary realized that Sandra was dead he knew he couldn't just dump
a body, he would get caught. So he brought Sandra's body upstairs and he decided that he
needed to dismember her body. I'm not clear as far as which girls it was from downstairs, but he
brought them upstairs to help him dismember Sandra's body. And he convinced the girls
that if the police came, saw that Sandra was dead that the girls would be in trouble too because they were an
accomplice to Gary's crime. They followed what Gary had said and they helped dismember Sandra's body. Gary used like a power saw
dismembered her, awful. He then took Sandra, her
dismembered body now. And he cooked her ribs in the oven. And then he boiled her head on the stove. Now at this point,
neighbors had complained that there was a funky
smell coming from his place. They ended up calling police.
Police go by to Gary's house. Now I'm not sure if they
smelled anything or what because police just go by the house. They asked Gary, "Hey, what's going on? Your neighbors are complaining
that there's a funky smell." And Gary says, "Oh, I just, I
accidentally burnt a roast." And the police are just,
"Okay, well, you know just keep down the smell
and then they leave." So I'm not sure, how
did they not smell it? I mean, according to every
single documentary you watch or true crime, whatever,
they always say the smell of a dead body is so
distinct and so strong. I don't know. I guess I'm just expecting too much. But it's just frustrating
because they were so close. So once he convinces the police that he's just burning a roast, Gary then goes back to his cooking. He then grounds Sandra's
body, like all the meat up. And he fed pieces of Sandra to his dog. He then mixes some of Sandra's
body up with dog food. He mixes it together and then he fed it to all of his captives that
are down in the cellar. So one of the other captives,
Deborah, she was punished. And I guess he would do this
with the other girls as well. And he would electrocute
them and he would create... In the pit that he dug up,
he would put water in the pit and then he would have the girls sit in the water and he
would electrocute them. So he would put some
kind of wire in the water and it would electrocute them. So Deborah wasn't following the rules. He puts her into the pit of water and then he electrocutes her. Sadly, Deborah died. So when Deborah died,
instead of dismembering her like he did previously, he
ended up just taking her body and dumping it somewhere in
somewhere not that far away, but yeah. This compelled Gary to
abduct another victim and her name was Agnes. And Gary was familiar with Agnes already because she was a sex worker
that he had hired before. So he picked up this new
victim and same thing. He brought her down there, chained her. Now, remember how I said
Gary had ran that church. I guess the church thing
was still going on, right? And it was going on up in Gary's home. They were down pretty far in his basement. When these people would come
over for their Sunday service, they didn't hear anything. And it's unclear if any of the people who were attending the Sunday service if any of them were in on it as well. They're not sure about that. But a lot of them were
mentally ill themselves. So it's hard to say. Gary had expressed to his
victims that he wanted kids. And that his goal was to get
10 girls down into his cellar. But he also wanted to
get them all pregnant. And he wanted to have
what he called a baby farm in his cellar. But at this point, one of Gary's victims started to figure him out. Like Gary, she was clever, she was a quick judge of character. And she was just motivated by her goal to get the F out of there. And based on Gary's behavior patterns, Josefina began to realize that Gary had a desire
for true connection. And he was just, he was just lonely. He seemed to like really want children. And he just kind of
wanted a sense of family. This is what Josefina,
the victim is noticing. So Josefina had a new goal, okay? She's stuck down here. She figured he's obviously
not just going to let us go. Like she's realized that no matter how much she cries, screams, he's not just going to let anybody go. So she needed a new plan. And Josefina set out to befriend Gary. And she needed to convince
him that she was on his side. So she just did as he wished. She professed her understanding
whenever she had a chance. Eventually Gary allowed her to go upstairs and cook for him and watch movies together before chaining her back in the basement. So it was working. It wasn't quick. It was taking some time. This
is over like a period of time. She just needed to convince Gary that she was there to help him and she was on his side. That was her goal. So then Gary made Josefina
the boss of the other women. And it was Gary's way of pitting the women against one another. If Josefina did what he said he would bring her hot chocolate, hot dogs and he would let her
sleep outside of the whole, the dug up area. Gary then decided to use
Josefina to lure in new victims. It's unclear if she was
successful at doing that or not. But he and Josefina did say
that that's what she was doing. She was helping him essentially. So could have Josefina escaped during those times when Gary
had allowed her up the stairs? Probably, maybe yes. But that's not what she did because her goal wasn't to save herself, it was to save all of the
women that were trapped in that house. And Josefina knew that if she
escaped and Gary was there he would immediately kill the other women because most likely she was
going to go tell somebody and they were going to come in the house and he needed to get
rid of all these ladies. And she just felt like she
couldn't take that risk. So that's why she just
kind of went along with it. So after some time, Josefina
convinced Gary to take her to her family's house to say goodbye because she was now going to
be staying with Gary forever, have their baby farm, whatever, right? This is what she convinced Gary of. Gary agrees to take
Josefina back into the city to let her say goodbye to her family. And Gary then decides
to park at a gas station that was several blocks from her home. She told him not to pull
up in front of the home in case family members identified the car and called the cops. That's what she told him.
So she's like park here and then I'll just walk
quickly over there, say goodbye and then I'll come back. Gary told Josefina that she had 15 minutes or he was going to do something. So Josefina gets out of the
car and she walked calmly. She's just, (fan blowing) "I'll be right back." Playing it calm. And then she walks like
around this corner. And as soon as she was
out of Gary's sight, she ran to the nearest
phone booth and called 911. Luckily a squad car was nearby and she was able to convince the officers that if they allowed Gary to go home the other girls would most likely die. On March 24th, 1987, Gary was arrested in his vehicle at the gas station where he
sat waiting for Josefina. Some say he went home
and then he was arrested. And then some reports say
he was at the gas station and was arrested. So not fully clear on
that, but he was arrested. Police then went into Gary's home. And a lot of them were just
sick because the smell, the house was disgusting, but
they went down to the basement and they were able to
save Lisa who was 19, Jacqueline who was 18, Agnes who was 24. And at that point they
had been in four months of imprisonment and torture. These women were finally free. Thank God Josefina. Oh, thank God for her. So Gary was arrested and he
was attempting to get off on an insanity defense,
but he was convicted in July of 1988 and he
was sentenced to death. He tried to kill himself
the following January and his family tried to get
him off of death row in 1997 but that, it just didn't work out for him. And then on July 6, 1999, Gary was executed by lethal injection. As for Gary's cult/church, it's hard to say how much they knew or if they knew anything at all. I couldn't imagine that they didn't know. As far as the victims go,
Josefina has been the most vocal and open about her experience. Throughout the trial and
for years afterwards, Josefina was painted by the press as Gary's actual accomplice,
which was infuriating. A lot of people and the media believed that Josefina was indeed
helping Gary, was his partner that she should be in
prison. (exhales sharply) When I read that, I was, what? And the way the media had played it they made it seem like she
was indeed helping him out. But Josefina stood by
the fact that, "No, I did what I had to do so I
could get out of there." I hate people. This poor woman had just been held captive and raped and tortured. She finally is free and people are "Oh no, you're actually the bad guy." Could you imagine? So a lot of people were just against her and did not believe that
she was an actual victim. (exhaling) Oh my God. She ended up having to give
up her two youngest children for adoption when she
came out of the cellar because she wasn't capable
of caring for them. Afterwards when she was free, sadly she picked up her drug habit again for a number of years to
cope with the ongoing trauma. And then finally in 2010 she says that she found the right therapy. She was sober. She was clean. She was reunited with her children. The latest article I found was in 2013 and she was a grandmother of six. She says she had found peace. She married her long term partner. Josefina did write a
book about her ordeal. She says she has been clean
for a number of years. She does say that she
struggles with nightmares and it's a constant struggle to deal with. Again, this was back in 2013. She said she was living by
the beach with her partner. And she said, since living by
the sea, she felt at peace. She felt safe and she felt free. This story makes me tear up. (phone beeps) Don't cry. Don't cry. Josefina's just so strong. Well, all of them. It's sad when these victims are set free. There's no, there's nothing to set them
up with therapy and help. They just set them free.
Okay. You're good to go. And then they're supposed
to just go into normal life like nothing happened? Can we get some help for these victims? Sadly, two of the women their lives were lost by this awful man. And (exhales sharply) it's
just like, (exhales sharply) I would love to know your
guys' thoughts down below. Thank you guys so much for
hanging out with me today and please, please,
please be safe out there. Again, a big thank you to Audible for partnering with me on today's episode. I hope that you guys have
a really good day today. Please make good choices,
please be safe out there. I love and appreciate
you all so, so, so much. And I will be seeing you guys later. Bye.
