How US Bishop Kept Women As Sex Slaves In Desire For 'Perfect Race'

Gary Heidnik, a man who styled himself as a bishop, was executed on July 6, 1999, for kidnapping six women and keeping them as sex slaves in his basement in Philadelphia. His story began in Philadelphia, where he lived alone after losing custody of his children. With a troubled past that included time in prison, Heidnik harboured a twisted plan. He didn't want the outside world interfering with any future children he might have, so he decided to kidnap women, keep them imprisoned, and force them to be his sex slaves and bear his children.

His crimes were methodically planned as he abducted several women, including Josefina Rivera, Sandra Lindsey, Lisa Thomas, Deborah Dudley, Jacqueline Askins, and Agnes Adams. He held them captive in his basement, subjecting them to unimaginable torture and suffering. Only to impregnate them and raise what he saw as a "perfect race" of children, free from outside influences.

The upcoming edition of People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer will zero in on Heidnik's crimes. In an interview with CNN, Tracey Lomax described every detail of the case against the man who kidnapped her sister, Sandra Lindsay, and five other black women.  Lomax recounted how Heidnik confined them in a water-filled pit and tortured them before murdering Lindsay and another victim. She recalled  Lindsay being starved and chained to the rafters. Decades later, Heidnik remains the last man hanged in Pennsylvania. 

US Bishop's Facade

Despite the horrors he committed, Heidnik presented himself as an ordinary citizen living in a modest home in Philadelphia. Few could have suspected the darkness lurking behind his seemingly normal facade.  A discharged Army veteran, Heidnik displayed signs of mental illness and received government checks as a result. Using his genius-level IQ, Heidnik transformed those checks into millions of dollars by trading in the stock market. He did not spend his money on a pompous mansion, but rather on a Cadillac and a Rolls Royce.  He also established his own church, the United Church of the Ministers of God, using it as a cover for his heinous crimes. According to The People, Heidnik used the church, which he operated out of his home, to claim tax breaks. 

The Nightmare in the Basement

The first woman Heidnik kidnapped was Josefina Rivera, a sex worker in desperate need of money. Sandra Lindsey, Lisa Thomas, Deborah Dudley, Jacqueline Askins, and Agnes Adams joined her in Heidnik's basement after she was locked up. Heidnik was white, although all of the victims were black or Hispanic. 

His defence lawyer, Chuck Peruto, describes what his client intended to do with the ladies he planned to kidnap and rape, "His goal was to get them pregnant in his basement to raise a perfect race," Peruto recalls. "They were going to be half-Black, half-White. They weren't going to have outside influence from the world."

Rivera, who had been held hostage for four months, was eventually able to escape, leading the three other women to be rescued and Heidnik to be arrested, according to the publication.