"I Made Sure He Seen My Face": Survivor Jackie Askins on Gary Heidnik, 6abc, 2018

Thirty years after Gary Heidnik's conviction, survivor Jackie Askins told 6abc Action News about her captivity in his Philadelphia basement, alongside his defense attorney Chuck Peruto and trial judge Lynne Abraham. Heidnik is not heard.

Subject

Gary Michael Heidnik

Recorded

May 4, 2018

Runtime

4:01

Content warning: Describes kidnapping, rape, torture, the murders of two women, dismemberment and the feeding of human remains to captives; graphic detail.

The Report

This is a 4-minute-1-second special report by 6abc Action News investigative reporter Chad Pradelli, broadcast on WPVI-TV in Philadelphia on May 4, 2018, and posted by 6abc Philadelphia on its own channel the next day. It was made ahead of the 30th anniversary of Gary Heidnik's conviction. At its center is Jackie Askins, one of the women Heidnik held captive, who describes her ordeal on camera under her own name. Heidnik's defense attorney, Chuck Peruto, and the trial judge, Lynne Abraham, also speak. Gary Heidnik himself is not heard.

Historical Context

From late 1986, Gary Heidnik held six women captive in the basement of his house on North Marshall Street in North Philadelphia. Two of them, Sandra Lindsay and Deborah Dudley, died. He was arrested in March 1987 after one of the women escaped and went to the police. On July 1, 1988, he was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, with kidnapping, rape and related charges, and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection at SCI Rockview on July 6, 1999, and was the last person executed in Pennsylvania.

Circumstances

The anchor introduces the piece as a special report marking the coming 30th anniversary of the conviction. The interviews were recorded in Philadelphia, and the report also uses archive footage.

What the Report Covers

Askins recalls being stripped and taken to the basement, where other women were chained, and describes the torture the captives endured. Peruto says Heidnik "wanted to have a perfect race, according to him, of children from these women," and recalls the police arriving at the house after the escape. The narration describes the deaths of Sandra Lindsay and Deborah Dudley and the evidence found in the house. Askins describes being forced upstairs and made to take part in the dismemberment of a victim's body. Abraham says she concluded early that Heidnik was faking mental illness to support his insanity claim. Askins ends: "I made sure he seen my face before he died. I wanted my face to be the last thing he seen." The report closes with his execution in 1999.

What Makes the Recording Significant

It is an on-camera account by a survivor of the Heidnik basement, recorded three decades later, placed beside the recollections of the lawyer who defended him and the judge who tried him.

Archival Importance

This report adds a survivor's voice to them.

Important Caveats

Gary Heidnik is not heard in this video. The report's statement that Heidnik partly inspired the character Buffalo Bill in "The Silence of the Lambs" is a widely repeated claim, not established fact. Askins says she made sure Heidnik saw her face "before he died"; whether she attended his execution has not been verified for this record, and the page should quote her rather than state it. The page should name only Askins among the survivors (she speaks under her own name) and should not add the names of the other women who survived. The anchor is addressed only as "Jim" on tape. The narration's details of the crimes are the broadcaster's; 6abc's later web article gives July 1, 2019 for the 30th anniversary, but the conviction was in 1988.

Anchor: Now, an Action News special report. July 1st will be the 30th anniversary of the conviction of Gary Heidnik. He is responsible for one of the most grotesque series of crimes ever to happen in Philadelphia. Action News investigative reporter Chad Pradelli spoke to one of the survivors of the House of Horrors and others who were part of the trial that really captivated this area.

Chad Pradelli: Yes, Jim. Gary Heidnik, as you know, kidnapped, tortured and raped six women. Two were killed at the hands of Heidnik before he was finally captured. One of the survivors takes us back into that musty cellar and the brutal memories that still haunt her.

Jackie Askins: He stripped me of all my clothes, my wig and everything, and I'm screaming.

Chad Pradelli: It's a moment seared in Jackie Askins's memory. Naked and cuffed, Gary Heidnik dragged her into his personal torture chamber, the basement in his home on the 3500 block of Marshall Street. Down below were four other prisoners.

Jackie Askins: Yeah, they was all tied up, chained up. Two was on the bed, one was by the pool table, and one was standing up by the window.

Chad Pradelli: Heidnik's sick perversions are what partly inspired the character Buffalo Bill in the Academy Award-winning movie "The Silence of the Lamb." Heidnik had a pit he'd built with water and electric [unclear: "shock" / "shocked"] the women.

Chad Pradelli: But the torture, and then there, there were daily rapes and beatings.

Jackie Askins: [unclear: "He wrapped" / "We wrapped"] tape around [unclear: "our" / "my"] mouth and drove a screwdriver right in our ears and turned them.

Chuck Peruto: He wanted to have a perfect race, according to him, of children from these women.

Chad Pradelli: Chuck Peruto was an up-and-coming defense attorney in the late '80s and represented Heidnik after he was captured, after Josefina Rivera escaped and flagged down a police officer.

Chuck Peruto: Two cops pounded on the door. He opened the door and came out and wouldn't let them in, and they could smell the stench. They didn't want him going anywhere. They busted him right down there.

Chad Pradelli: That stench was one of two victims who died in the House of Horrors, Sandra Lindsay and Deborah Dudley. Dudley was electrocuted and buried in the Pine Barrens. Lindsay died from a combination of starvation and torture. Heidnik boiled parts of her body and fed the remains, mixed with dog food, to the surviving women. During the investigation, police found 27 pounds of body parts inside Heidnik's freezer.

Jackie Askins: He took me upstairs to the [unclear: "bathroom" / "bare front"], and he said, "We all gotta play a part in this." And I said, "Play a part in what?" And he had me [unclear: "cut her limb" / "cook her limb"], like her arm.

Chuck Peruto: You had to say to yourself, this guy is really whacked.

Chad Pradelli: Before becoming longtime Philadelphia District Attorney, Lynne Abraham was a judge, and the Heidnik case was hers. Peruto and Heidnik tried to claim insanity during the trial.

Lynne Abraham: I very quickly, in my own mind, had an idea that this guy was faking it, to, to affect mental illness.

Chad Pradelli: All the survivors have struggled in their lives since being freed, Askins too. But she says she doesn't live in the past, she lives with her past.

Jackie Askins: My whole thing to him was, why me? But, you know, I guess that's a question he never wanted to answer. But I made sure he seen my face before he died. I wanted my face to be the last thing he seen.

Chad Pradelli: Gary Heidnik was put to death in 1999. He's the last person to be executed under the death penalty in Pennsylvania.

Anchor: I remember when the revelations came about, about what was going on in that house, so vividly. And, you know, there have been a lot of despicable crimes since, nothing quite to match.

Chad Pradelli: Yes.

Anchor: The horror and the grotesqueness of Gary Heidnik.

Chad Pradelli: Disturbing nonetheless. And it was something to go back into time and to talk to that survivor.

Anchor: Absolutely. Thank you, Chad. [03:56: speech ends; clip runs to 04:01.] ---