Gary Heidnik: The Bishop of North Marshall Street

Gary Heidnik had spent years in and out of mental hospitals, yet he founded his own church, the United Church of the Ministers of God, and grew a $1,500 brokerage account in its name past half a million dollars. He called himself Bishop Heidnik and lived at 3520 North Marshall Street in North Philadelphia.

Starting on November 25, 1986, he lured women into the house, choked them unconscious and chained them in the basement pit he had dug: Josefina Rivera, Sandra Lindsay, Lisa Thomas, Deborah Dudley, Jacqueline Askins and Agnes Adams. He beat, starved and raped them. Sandra Lindsay died in February 1987 after days hung by one wrist; her family had already begged police to search the house. Deborah Dudley was electrocuted on March 17. On March 24, Rivera, having won his trust, got permission to visit her family, called police from a pay phone and told them where he was waiting.

His lawyer argued insanity. A jury rejected it, and on July 1, 1988, he was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder plus kidnapping, rape and other charges, and sentenced to death. He refused to appeal; no death warrant came until 1997, when his daughter and former wife fought to have him declared incompetent. He was executed by lethal injection at SCI Rockview on July 6, 1999, the last person put to death in Pennsylvania.