Philadelphia Sicko Gary Heidnik Inspired Role of Buffalo Bill In 'Silence Of The Lambs'

Mary Bovsun at the New York Daily News looks back at the Gary Heidnik case.

Among the most terrifying places in movie history is the pit from Silence of the Lambs, where serial killer Buffalo Bill imprisoned women before he murdered and skinned them.

Unbelievably horrific it may have seemed, but it was no figment of a writer’s imagination. The prison was drawn from life and a person whose crimes were front-page headlines shortly before Thomas Harris wrote the novel that would become the classic film.

On March 24, 1987, Philadelphia police received a cry for help from a drug-infested area of North Philadelphia that had been dubbed the O.K. Corral because of the frequency of street shootouts.
Josefina Rivera, a 25-year-old streetwalker, blurted out a nightmare tale of kidnapping, rape, murder and cannibalism.

She told them she had just escaped from Gary Heidnik, who had kept her captive in his home since about November. Three women, Rivera said, were still tied up in the basement. Two others, she said, had died, one starved, one electrocuted.

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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/justice-story/philly-sicko-death-dungeon-inspired-famous-movie-scene-article-1.1348191