This Day in History: Mar 26, 1987: Torture chamber uncovered in Philadelphia

Responding to a 911 call, police raid the Philadelphia home of Gary Heidnik and find an appalling crime scene. In the basement of Heidnik's dilapidated house is a veritable torture chamber where three naked women were found chained to a sewer pipe. A fourth woman, Josefina Rivera, had escaped and called police.

Gary Heidnik was a former mental patient and sex offender who had managed to become a wealthy stock investor. He owned a Rolls Royce and beat Uncle Sam on his income taxes by making himself the bishop of his own church. The sign on the front of his house read, "United Church of the Ministries of God." One room in his house was partially wallpapered with money. At the end of 1986, Heidnik decided to create his own harem and began kidnapping women off the streets of Philadelphia.
Six women were kidnapped and held in Heidnik's dungeon. All were raped and tortured while the others were forced to watch. He killed one of the women by putting her in the pit, filling it with water and putting a live electrical wire into the water. Another of the women was killed when Heidnik let her starve to death while chained to the wall. In perhaps the most grisly and horrid episode of the entire incident, Heidnik dismembered one of his victims, cooking parts of her body and feeding it to his other captives. The women who were found alive recovered after being treated for dehydration and malnutrition.
 
Although Heidnik was clearly mentally disturbed, he was found guilty and convicted of murder on July 1, 1988. He received a death sentence, and was executed on July 6, 1999.

Heidnik was one the inspirations for the Buffalo Bill character in Thomas Harris' Silence of the Lambs.



More on Heidnik click here >

In South Africa: Cecil John Rhodes (48) dies in Muizenberg

Date: 26 March, 1902

Cecil John Rhodes, imperialist, political manipulator, diamond magnate and Premier of the Cape Colony dies aged 48. He arrived in South Africa in 1870 and invested his inheritance from his grandmother in the diamond diggings in Kimberley. He helped launch the De Beers Mining Company with his partner, C. D. Rudd.


Read more about Rhodes' forced resignation as Prime Minister of the Cape in 1896.

Sources:

1. Burne, J. (ed)(1989). Chronicle of the World, (Sl), Longman Chronicle.
2. Wallis, F. (2000). Nuusdagboek: feite en fratse oor 1000 jaar, Kaapstad: Human & Rousseau.

1898 - Hunting is prohibited in the area that is now the Kruger National Park
1979 - Camp David peace treaty is signed, ending 30 years of war between Egypt and Israel
1990 - NP government abandons segregated education
1990 - Eleven protesters are killed in Sebokeng
1990 - The Government abandons segregated education
1990 - Eleven protesters are killed in Sebokeng
1995 - Winnie Mandela sues Sydney Mufamadi and George Fivaz
1998 - US President Bill Clinton arrives in Cape Town