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Gary Michael Heidnik was born on November 1943 in Eastlake, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. His parents, Michael and Ellen, divorced and he went to live with his mother and her new husband until he started school. After that, he lived with his father and his new wife. Heidnik would later tell psychologists that his father had continually ridiculed him especially when he wet his bed, which was often. At these times his father would hang the stained sheet out a second story window in full view of the neighbors. By the time Gary had reached eighth grade he had developed two main obsessions, making money and becoming an army officer. His obsession became so intense, his father made arrangements for him to attend the prestigious Staunton Military Academy in Virginia. Finally, when he was 18, he joined the regular army. Heidnik later told prison psychologists that he left Staunton after visiting a psychologist but failed to indicate why he had felt he needed one or give details of his treatment. Things seemed to be going well for him until late August 1962 when he started complaining about his dizziness, blurred vision and nausea. A neurologist later determined that Heidnik was suffering from gastroenteritis and also displayed the symptoms of a mental illness. From then on, Heidnik's life began to spiral downwards as he spent more and more time in mental institutions. In 1970, his mother Ellen took her own life by swallowing poison, which only damaged him mentally even more. Numerous suicide attempts followed which resulted in more hospital time. He would often spend long periods refusing to communicate; he even became mute for a year and a half. In one of his more lucid moments, he was given a series of intelligence tests, which indicated that he was of "superior" intellect. Little did we know that his childhood made him the man he has become.
Gary’s first victim’s name was Josefina. She had just gotten in a fight with her boyfriend and left the house. As she...