Gary M. Heidnik
American kidnapper, rapist, and murderer (1943–1999)
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Key Takeaways
- Gary Michael Heidnik was an American murderer and serial rapist who kidnapped, tortured and raped six women, murdering two of them, while holding them captive in a self-dug pit in his basement floor in Philadelphia between 1986 and 1987.
- Heidnik later became one of the inspirations for the character of Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb in The Silence of the Lambs .
Gary Michael Heidnik was an American murderer and serial rapist who kidnapped, tortured and raped six women, murdering two of them, while holding them captive in a self-dug pit in his basement floor in Philadelphia between 1986 and 1987. He was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection in July 1999, the last person executed in the state of Pennsylvania as of January 2026. Heidnik later became one of the inspirations for the character of Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb in The Silence of the Lambs.
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