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92 – Gary Heidnik and Olga of Kiev
48 Plays22 days ago
Jeff tells the disturbing story of Gary Heidnik, an American murderer whose crimes shocked Philadelphia in the late 1980s. Heidnik abducted six women and held them captive in the basement of his home, where he subjected them to horrific torture and abuse. Two of the women were murdered during the ordeal.
The case came to light in 1987 when one of the captives managed to escape and alert police, leading authorities to uncover the gruesome “house of horrors.” The investigation revealed the extent of Heidnik’s cruelty and the unimaginable suffering endured by the victims, making the case one of the most infamous in Philadelphia’s criminal history.
Sam shares the story of Olga of Kiev, the fierce 10th-century ruler of Kievan Rus' who became legendary for her ruthless vengeance. After her husband, Prince Igor, was murdered by the Drevlians, Olga launched a calculated and brutal campaign of retribution against them—burning cities, executing envoys, and securing her power as regent. Despite her violent path to authority, she later converted to Christianity and was eventually canonized as a saint, earning the title “Equal to the Apostles” in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Visit us on Linktree for the collection of links, Instagram, or email us at jeffandsamshow@gmail.com.
Sources
Jeff’s Sources (Gary Heidnik):
- History.com – Torture Chamber Uncovered in Philadelphia
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/march-25/torture-chamber-uncovered-in-philadelphia - Green, R. (2025). The Pit: The True Crime Story of Six Women, One Monster, and the Nightmare Below. Ryan Green Books.
- The Casual Criminalist episode on Gary Heidnik
https://youtu.be/npaEJB0ciE4?si=vlDRzJ66Jsin9nN3
Sam’s Sources (Olga of Kiev):
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Olga-of-Kiev
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev
- https://www.worldhistory.org/Olga_of_Kiev/
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, Sam. Hi, Jeffrey.
00:00:23
Speaker
Okay, welcome to the Jeff and Sam show. I'm Jeff. And I'm Sam. Hey, Sam. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Actually, no, I'm not good. I'm great. You're great. It's 80 degrees outside. Oh my God. 80 degrees. 80 like four. sunny. And sunny.
00:00:36
Speaker
And this is the Jeff and Sam show. You can find us, ah you can email us at jeffandsamshow at gmail.com. Find us on Instagram at the Jeff and Sam show. We are a true crime history, little bit of comedy podcast podcast.
00:00:51
Speaker
I think we're quite comedic. We think we're funny. That's the only thing that matters. Right? That's the only thing that matters. Honestly. And you giving us a five-star review.
00:01:02
Speaker
Yes. Oh, yeah. No, that's the only thing that matters. That review and that rate. Yeah. So once you find us, once you share us with all of the people in your life, strangers on the street, et cetera, subscribe or follow or whatever those buttons say. And then rate us. Give us five stars because we're that good.
00:01:20
Speaker
Also, if we sound weird, it's because I fucked my computer up somehow by doing an update and we've had to completely switch how we record this.
00:01:32
Speaker
But I do have this fancy little contraption that we're using for the very first time. It looks so high tech. And we hope it's working. Futuristic. We're futuristic. We are. We're almost like we're in the year 2776. That's the year my computer was in yesterday. Indeed. Oh my God. i did some update.
00:01:50
Speaker
Messed it all up. And it went straight into the future. Messed it all up. um Okay. My dad, his birthday is the 12th of March.
00:02:02
Speaker
As is Everett's. Everett, his birthday is also the 12th of March. Which is when this comes out. Yes, and we just got a text message from... Gabby, your birthday is the 13th. I don't know if you listen to this show, but regardless, that happy birthday. I think it would terrify her, some of the stories that we do. I think you'd be surprised at how wonky her brain is. It is. She's wonky. She's wonky. It's good. So happy birthday to all three of you guys.
00:02:31
Speaker
What's new with you? What's going on? Besides this, love we just went with Amelia for a little walk in the park. And a run. Running. Running. She was running. She was sitting. it was a good day. It was good. It was a good day to walk in the park. It was beautiful. We saw the totals. This is a fakes fake spring.
00:02:52
Speaker
I don't want to talk about it. Why gotta bring me down like that? i don't know. That's how I do it. wow So tell me, I'm going to ask you something. You got to give me your honest to God, most truthful answer.
00:03:05
Speaker
This is a hard question. Can't guarantee. This is a very hard question. Okay. It's putting you on the spot. Okay. Are you ready? Nope. Is Sons of Anarchy as good the second time as it was the first time?
00:03:19
Speaker
Well, this isn't my second time. you're watcher Is it as good the second or third or fourth time? <unk>s Try like the 10th time. Yes. Yes, it is. It it is. I mean, it's just.
00:03:29
Speaker
you You, obviously you know what's going on and you know where things are going and you know who's not telling the truth and all, like you know all of the things, right?
00:03:40
Speaker
So you're sitting there and every time you watch it after that first time, you're like, just communicate better. Like if if if you could just tell this one what had happened, then so-and-so wouldn't be dead. and it's But there is so much deceit and Mayhem in that show. And I love it.
00:04:01
Speaker
And beautiful people. Charlie Hunnam. You do love it. He's so he's a good. he is. Katie Segal. And we just found out this time around, which I didn't know until now, is that her younger sister, Liz, is actually a screenwriter for the show.
00:04:19
Speaker
And Katie Segal is the only reason I watched epi ah season one of One Piece on Netflix. I'll get to it. That is a show about pirates. Never in my... Look, I don't... This is not my jam, but this one is so cute.
00:04:33
Speaker
It is so good. And ah ah only know she's going to be in season two, which is the only reason I watched season one. Well, there you go. Yeah. Why else? Would I do it?
00:04:44
Speaker
i I don't know. And I'm telling you about the show The Nick. Yeah. Jesus. God. So good. Surgeries in 1900 were ugly. I can't wait to watch it. was so gruesome. can't wait to watch it. is like right up our alley, you know?
00:05:01
Speaker
We're not gruesome. What are talking about? We're gruesome. Are we? a little bit. I feel like that's a good segue into your story. Oh, yeah. Maybe. Maybe. So for those of you who are newish, normally we will flip a coin to decide who goes first because we tell each other stories that are completely unrelated. And this time is a bit different because Jeff has a story that needs to be told first.
00:05:24
Speaker
And I will conclude our episode to lift the mood. Okay. You want to just go ahead and do it? I want you to tell me about this story. Do sound okay? Yeah. I feel like, you know how when you get out of a pool and the water's stuck in your ear and you that's the sound I'm hearing?
00:05:41
Speaker
I think you sound great. Okay. But we'll find out after the fact. Who knows if we're actually recording right now? No, it says record. I'm not even having to look at a computer. That's wild. This so amazing. This wild. I can see your whole face and body. You can see the whole whiteboard. Shimmy, shimmy, shimmy. Okay.
00:05:58
Speaker
So, I got a story for you. It was birds. I felt like Amelia just then. Bird. Bird? Bird. Okay, I'm going to tell you a story about a monster. Tell me. A crazy monster.
00:06:08
Speaker
Tell me. Maybe he was pretending to be a monster. We don't know. No, sorry. Let me rephrase that. Maybe he was pretending to be crazy. He's definitely a fucking monster. oh okay, good. I was about to say, how how can you pretend?
00:06:21
Speaker
This was one of the people who inspired the character Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. And he is the last person to be put to death by the state of Pennsylvania.
00:06:32
Speaker
This is the story of Gary Heidnik and his house of torture. Buckle up. have to give trigger warnings for this because it's gruesome. So the trigger warnings include violence, torture, sexual assault, murder, dismemberment, cannibalism, extreme psychological abuse, mutilation, and forced compliance.
00:06:53
Speaker
I feel like you're reading the trigger warnings for the Ruinous Love series right now. and Maybe I am. Maybe that's what I'm going to start reading to you right now. Okay, so my sources, history.com, I read a book called The Pit, True Crime Story of Six Women, One Monster, and The Nightmare Below, The Casual Criminalist on YouTube, and those are my sources. Okay.
00:07:15
Speaker
Gary Heidnik was born in East Lake, Ohio, November 22, 1943. According to Heidnik, his father abused him and mocked him and his brother often. His dad... um So Heidnik like wet the bed later on, which is often a sign of abuse.
00:07:31
Speaker
But what his dad would do would hang out the sheets, the wet sheets on the line so all the neighbors could see that Gary had wet his bed. Which definitely cures him, right? Oh my God. Like that's a really good way to handle that.
00:07:45
Speaker
Heidnik's younger brother Terry would also claim that their childhood was marked by frequent beatings by their father. Heidnik's father denied the abuse allegations after his son's arrest. yeah In high school, Heidnik kept to himself. He was very isolated from his peers.
00:08:01
Speaker
So after high school, he enlisted in the army and he became a medic. This is just such a familiar plot line. God, it is, isn't it? so you know think about that every time. He became a medic. He was shipped off to Germany.
00:08:15
Speaker
And he was only in the army for 13 months before he was discharged on a medical discharge and diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. So after this, he worked as a licensed practical nurse at a VA hospital, but he was fired for poor attendance and rude behavior to the patients.
00:08:35
Speaker
Starting in 62, Heidnik spent a lot of time in psychiatric hospitals, also many suicide attempts, like 13 times. In 1970, Heidnik's mom, who suffered from alcoholism, took her own life by drinking mercuric acid.
00:08:51
Speaker
that's to go. Yeah. Yeah. So in 71 with five followers and a $1,500 Gary Heidnik thought, you know what I'm gonna do?
00:09:03
Speaker
I'm going to open up a church. So he did. He opened up the United Church of Ministers of Good in Philadelphia. And Heidnik grew that business. Investing in stocks that he made, that he, you know, he got the donations from his parishioners, $1,500.
00:09:22
Speaker
fifteen hundred dollars He grew that into in the eighty s it was which today would to be about million.
00:09:30
Speaker
okay Give a crazy person dedication and they'll do wonders. He was crazy, but the dude, and i I say this a couple of times, he also had an IQ of 148. So later on when they're going for that um criminally insane, remember that he was a stock man, okay?
00:09:49
Speaker
Heidnik used a matrimonial service to meet his future wife. Her name was Betty Desto. That's like a mail order bride thing. too it's They mailed each other letters for two years before they actually met. In September, Betty a ro arrived from the Philippines and she married Heidnik. But the marriage fell apart quickly when Betty found him in bed with other women over and over again.
00:10:13
Speaker
And she accused him of repeatedly raping and assaulting her. So with the help of the Filipino community, Betty escaped back to the Philippines, but not before she became pregnant by him.
00:10:25
Speaker
He was unaware of the pregnancy, though, until Betty started like asking for child support, like after she had already gone back to the Philippines. The marriage rapidly deteriorated, and she found...
00:10:36
Speaker
Oh yeah, we've already done that part. Let's see here. Hynek ended up having two more children, one with a woman named Gail, and this kid was placed in foster care soon after birth. The last child that he fathered that we know of was a woman named...
00:10:50
Speaker
Holland. The last child that he fathered was with a woman named Anjanette Davidson. This woman was illiterate and she had a significant developmental delay.
00:11:01
Speaker
So that daughter, Maxine, was born in 78 and placed in foster care. And soon after Maxine's birth, Heidnik was arrested for the kidnap and rape of Anjanette's sister, Alberta, who was living in an institution for the developmentally or intellectually disabled. Oh,
00:11:19
Speaker
It was during this time that Gary mastered his manipulation skills. um In 1978, Heidnik signed his girlfriend's cognitively disabled sister out of a mental institution on day leave and kept her prisoner in a locked storage room in his basement in 1978. After she was found and returned to the hospital, examination revealed that she had been raped. She also had gonorrhea.
00:11:43
Speaker
had a lot of trauma for that. from that in 1976 heidnett was charged with aggravated assault and carrying an unlicensed pistol after shooting the tenant of a house that he offered for rent grazing his face this man's just getting arrested every year all the time and released and released unknown to heidnik his ex-wife had requested the child support payment sometime after the divorce um so he but he was not going to pay that let's see here 1983 while incarcerated he spent three of those years in a mental health hospital under the supervision supervision of a state sanctioned mental health program In 1986, after his wife did leave him, Heidnik was arrested again and charged with sexual assault again, indecent assault, sexual rape, and involuntary deviant sexual intercourse.
00:12:35
Speaker
It wasn't that long of a sentence, though, because in that same year, 1986, Gary began to spiral out of control. He had sex workers at the house a lot of the time, which the neighbors politely ignored. Neighbors said they could hear a constant shouting, and that was especially true when the sex workers were there.
00:12:54
Speaker
People who even considered him a friend were starting to stay away from the house because of his behavior. He was also very paranoid. If a car was parked in front of his house for too long, he would shoot out the window with a BB gun. If that didn't work, he would pour sugar into the gas tank.
00:13:10
Speaker
So it's like really clear that something's off with him, and he's super paranoid. Also, at the time, he's still visiting his parishioners, holding church services in his house that he's converted it into a chapel, working in the stock market, and he's still picking up sex workers.
00:13:28
Speaker
He also started doing some other home improvements. He started digging a hole in his basement. He would excavate the dirt, but he was very careful not to get any of the dirt upstairs. He didn't want any of his neighbors to know what he was up to. Have you heard this story before?
00:13:44
Speaker
do you know that the details? not Probably not all the ones that you're going to share, but enough of them. So he was loading the dirt into the trash bags. He was piling the trash bags up along the wall. So he had like a wall full of dirt. dirt Which is very good for insulation. But he needed some other tools. And so he decided he could just get the other tools at the hardware store. Heidnik had an idea.
00:14:08
Speaker
He wanted to create a baby farm. I'm not even kidding. And he's looking for women who he could use as incubators to produce his heirs.
00:14:19
Speaker
Specifically, he's looking for African-American women to create this race, the perfect race. On November 5th, 1986, he picked up Josefina Rivera.
00:14:30
Speaker
Josefina was a sex worker. the agreed They agreed on the amount of money he would pay, and he headed with her back to his house. They had sex, and when she was getting dressed, after after she got dressed, he came up behind her and he grabbed her by the throat. He choked her until she passed out. She fell on the bed, and when she woke up, she attempted to scream, but he choked her again. he said, if you don't shut up and stay shut up, I'm going to choke you out.
00:14:54
Speaker
Josefina did what he said because she was smart. I've seen interviews with her. She was smart. Okay. She knew how to survive. And when she woke up, she was and ah one hand was in a handcuff and she was being taken down the stairs to the basement. When she got to the basement, her eyes had to adjust to the darkness. But when she could see, when they adjusted to the darkness and she could see, she realized just how much trouble she was in.
00:15:24
Speaker
Josephina knew that since he didn't murder her, if she played nice and did what he said, she might get out of the basement and might be able to stay upstairs where he was. I think that also says about a lot about like what hard how hard her life was. You know what I mean?
00:15:39
Speaker
The things that you can prepare for, like that you have to prepare yourself for. Maybe I can stay upstairs with him because he hasn't murdered me yet. He told her about the plan to create his master race, but she was kind of out of it, you know, with the choking and all. shit As devil was telling her about the plans, he was fastening these chains around her ankle.
00:16:00
Speaker
She later found out that they were chains used to hold mufflers in place. She remembered thinking that she could unscrew this when he left, but when he stood up and turned back around, she could see him getting something out of a bag.
00:16:14
Speaker
He got out crazy glue and he applied that crazy glue all around the nuts and the bolts and waited until it dried so she could no longer unscrew that. It was now um now this bone deep panic set inside of Josephine, Josephina. Like she was worried before, but now she's fucking terrified.
00:16:33
Speaker
And right then, Heidnik bent down. He smiled at her and he said, quote, I'm going to take care of you. He took her by the chains, led her over to the hole that he had dug, and helped her in the hole.
00:16:45
Speaker
As he helped her into the hole, she said it was like she he was a man and she was this animal. That's how she felt. And it turned out that the hole wasn't quite deep enough.
00:16:55
Speaker
He would fix that later. He started placing wooden boards over her. She couldn't stand because the hole wasn't high enough, and she couldn't lay flat because the hole wasn't wide enough. So when he finally got the boards over her, she started screaming and saying that she couldn't breathe.
00:17:10
Speaker
And she could hear him grunting and moving something heavy around above her. Whatever the heavy thing was above her that he was moving around, he eventually dumped it out onto the boards. So the boards were so heavy that they started bending in toward Josephine.
00:17:26
Speaker
So time passed. She stayed there for a while. So much time passed that when she finally heard his voice at the top of the stairs, like after hours, after a day, she finally hears his voice. She knows he's coming back. So she feels kind of relieved to hear his voice again.
00:17:41
Speaker
She understood that he was going to keep her, rape her, get her pregnant, and then keep the baby. Probably kill her. She stayed down there for a while. At some point, he came down and gave her a dry turkey sandwich and said, Happy Thanksgiving. At first, there were times when she could have tried to run, but she was too exhausted.
00:17:58
Speaker
She'd been there for three days. She had a sandwich, she had some water, and she had minimal food, period. But that was kind of his plan. If she ever wanted to escape, she would just be too weak to escape. But Heidnik wasn't satisfied. I mean, he's her pastor.
00:18:14
Speaker
and his perfect race sandra lindseyy knew heidni she had attended his church she was twenty five and intellectually and intellectually disabled and also africanamerican on december third she was headed into the to a pharmacy and haydnik pulled up beside her and offered her a ride now she had known him for four years i mean he's her pastor Also, she's intellectually disabled. Instead of the pharmacy, Heidnik told her that he had some pain medication at home, so he took her there.
00:18:42
Speaker
He tried to take her into the basement, but she knew that something was off, so he promised her it was okay. Sandra could not have possibly understood how much danger that she was in because she was intellectually intellectually disabled.
00:18:55
Speaker
When they got into the basement, Heidnik uncovered Josefina. Sandra couldn't understand what was going on here. Heidnik told Sandra her job was to have babies, have his babies. He introduce introduced her to Josefina and told Sandra that she was doing the same thing. She had the same job.
00:19:11
Speaker
Josefina remembered wanting to fucking scream like one side of her brain said scream and the other side was just telling her go along to get along. Go along to get along.
00:19:23
Speaker
Sandra said to Heidnik, you and me and Joe, we're going to start making a whole new world. I don't know. And Heidnik kissed her on the head and responded, quote, my sweet girl, you don't need to know.
00:19:36
Speaker
i know. i know everything that we need to know. All you have to do is trust in me. Sandra's sister, Tracy, by the way, is out looking everywhere for Sandra. Tracy said sandy Sandy was mentally challenged adult.
00:19:50
Speaker
All she wanted to do was be like you and me, normal and fit in. Tracy knew of this guy named Gary who always took people to McDonald's and he was the bishop of a church. She knew that Gary had been really nice to her and trying to have sex with Sandra.
00:20:05
Speaker
Sandy and Josefina are both in the basement being beaten and assaulted frequently now. Again, Heidnik was not dumb. He had that IQ of 148. He knew that Sandra had family and that her family would come looking for her.
00:20:19
Speaker
Got a plan. He had a plan for this. So they did come looking for her. They came knocking on a door. He told them that he didn't know where she was. And then when they were gone, he made her fill out Christmas cards with $20 bills and write in the Christmas card that she had moved to New York. He then drove himself from Pennsylvania to New York and mailed the cards.
00:20:40
Speaker
That was enough to make investigators assume that she was okay, that Senator was okay. Okay. But next was 19-year-old Lisa Thomas, also African-American. He asked her out and she said yes.
00:20:52
Speaker
He took her to TGI i Fridays. She had a burger and he had a martini. i never knew that TGI Fridays sold martinis. I mean, I guess they're bar, like they have a bar, but that also kind of glitched in my head because don't think I've ever pictured someone drinking a martini at TGI Friday. Go to TGI Friday's and have a martini. Great martinis. Let's go to TGI Friday's for martini. So known Yeah.
00:21:18
Speaker
She had no clue. um So they had he had his martini. He took Lisa's shopping, then back to the house to watch a movie. She had no clue that right there underneath her in the basement were two women chained up below her.
00:21:31
Speaker
Heidnik took her upstairs to have sex with her, like he did Josefina, and then he dragged her down to the basement and chained her up. According to Lisa, quote, he had chains and clamps, car clamps. He put them on my ankle and he had to count the links. So, you know, the amount to open my legs wide to have sex.
00:21:51
Speaker
Gary raped these women every day and he was consistent. One day eventually turned into the next day. He physically assaulted them, sexually assaulted them daily, all the while they were surviving on a diet of dog food.
00:22:03
Speaker
Maybe an occasional Pop-Tart or maybe he would bring down a hot dog for them. He decided to be, air quotes, nice for Christmas and let them order from the Chinese restaurant.
00:22:15
Speaker
It was like $5 a pop for each of them, though. um Then Gary decided that three captains three captives weren't enough. He needed more. So on January 2nd, 1987, Debbie Dudley became captive number four.
00:22:29
Speaker
not alone is Not a lot is known about her background, though. but When she met Heidnik, she was living on the streets. She was working as a sex worker. Heidnik lured her into his car, then dragged her down to the basement, but Debbie was kicking and screaming the entire time. Good for you, Debbie. Even the entire day. She was the most defiant of the four women so far.
00:22:48
Speaker
She fought hard, but Heidnik beat her into submission. He shoved her into the hole and placed the wooden board on top of her. Later on, he was asked why he did this, and the interviewer said something like, well, it was painful. He said, I hope so. That's what I was trying to achieve.
00:23:05
Speaker
It's late January, and these women were tortured while trapped in the basement. um By this time, he had sexually assaulted them too many times to count. But Heidnik wasn't done. Jacqueline Asians, a sex worker, 18 years old. Like the rest, she was African-American. She was working when she met Heidnik. He took her home. They played video games for 45 minutes. Heidnik grabbed her, then started choking her.
00:23:28
Speaker
He then took her to the basement, chained her up. Heidnik had a plan. Why beat these women when he could get them to beat each other? So he did. He threatened them. He forced them to beat Jacqueline up. It was sort of like a hazing for the new person.
00:23:46
Speaker
Heidnik was becoming more and more abusive, and he was also becoming more paranoid. He was paranoid that they were plotting behind his back. He wanted to make sure that they would never be able to scheme against him again.
00:24:00
Speaker
So he got Sandy, Lisa, Debbie, and Jacqueline, and all tied them up so that they couldn't resist. He even duct taped their mouth shut. The only person he didn't do this to was Josephina.
00:24:13
Speaker
She was forced to watch. He then got up, put his hands in his toolbox, pulled out a screwdriver and plunged it into all of their ears.
00:24:25
Speaker
This way they could no longer listen to each other's scheming and they could no longer plot with each other because they couldn't hear each other. That's what he was thinking. Josephine had become Heidnik's favorite, and the others knew this. By this time she was given more food, forced to beat the other women. She was allowed to relax upstairs with Heidnik.
00:24:44
Speaker
This was probably meant to sow distrust between her and the other women. and it probably worked February 4, 1987, Heidnik was feeding the women bread and water, and he noticed that Sandy was eating slower than the rest of them. He yelled at her to eat faster, but she could not eat faster, so he forced Lisa to beat her up to make her eat faster.
00:25:06
Speaker
He took it offensively that she wasn't eating the fucking bread fast. But she had a problem with her jaw, which made it impossible for her to eat as quickly as the other people. Heidnik thought she needed punished for eating slowly. So this motherfucker drug her across the ground, across the room, hung her up by her wrist, and forced her to remain standing like that for four days.
00:25:28
Speaker
Of course, her shoulders were pulled out of the sockets, and it became difficult for her to breathe. This eventually caused Sandra to die on February 7, 1987. Crucifixion.
00:25:39
Speaker
When Josephine josephina told him that Sandra was dead, he said something like, yeah, looks like it. So he took Sandra's body upstairs. the women didn't The women downstairs didn't know exactly what he was going to do with her body.
00:25:55
Speaker
But after a while, they heard the sound of a saw. And after three to four days, they started smelling this really foul odor. Basically, Heidnik dismembered her body, he put her limbs in the freezer, and he cooked the other parts. He fed some of her to his dogs, and then he mixed her meat with the dog food and started feeding the other women the dog food.
00:26:19
Speaker
Heidnik's neighbors... They were like, what the fuck is that smell? So they called the police. And I was just thinking, can you imagine living beside this man?
00:26:31
Speaker
Shady as fuck man, right? But then you smell this. It's like the people that lived in the Dahmer building. Or John Wayne Gacy. Goddamn, something smells really bad. yeah We're not making this up, you know?
00:26:45
Speaker
um so Yeah, you knew some fucked up shit was going on in that house, but you probably could never imagine like to the the extent the extent of how fucked up it is.
00:26:57
Speaker
because you don't want to believe that your neighbors live there for how long? but yeah, this man is creepy as fuck. Yeah, but again, do you want to be that person that accuses someone and like turns out to be wrong? are you just like, okay, something weird is happening, but hopefully he's not a serial killer?
00:27:12
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think everyone's a serial killer. So like I wouldn't be surprised if I immediately jump to that conclusion. Agreed. Police came Gary was like, yeah, I'm cooking a roast. Sorry. I fell asleep. The damn thing burns.
00:27:24
Speaker
It worked. Police left. Fuck off. Josefina would say the worst thing that he, Josefina would say this was the worst thing that she had ever smelled, it that they had ever smelled. He would come down and have sex with everyone and we could smell it all over him.
00:27:38
Speaker
One of Heidnik's favorite methods of torture was electrocution. On the night of March 19th, Heidnik came home and Debbie was screaming from the basement. This sent Heidnik into a rage. So Heidnik filled up the hole in the basement with water from the hose attached from the upstairs kitchen sink and gave Debbie one more chance to shut up.
00:28:02
Speaker
She didn't. So Heidnik threw her body. She was alive. Heidnik threw her into the water filled pit and dropped the live wire into the water. now Debbie was still tied up in chains. She died almost immediately, but her body continued to twitch and spaz from the electrical currents running through it.
00:28:22
Speaker
Eventually, he got Josefina to help him dispose of debbie Debbie's body in the woods. He even had Josefina write a signed confession letter with him. But this meant that Heidnik had two empty spots in his basement.
00:28:35
Speaker
So on March 23, 1987, he saw a young Agnes Adams. She was a sex worker, an African-American, but Josefina knew her.
00:28:46
Speaker
Heidnik said to Josefina, if you help me abduct her, I'll give you anything you want. So she did it. They abducted her. They took Agnes back to the house. Gary had sex with her, and then he took her down to the basement to be locked away with the other women.
00:29:00
Speaker
But Josefina was plotting now. he He trusted her. She knew from the beginning. and now like I was reading about Stockholm Syndrome, and a lot of people think that's what she said. But then I saw an interview with Elizabeth Smart, who went through what she went through. And she's like, I i just think what people think is Stockholm Syndrome, in a case like this, is somebody just doing what they have to do to survive. Well, I think there's also a difference. Stockholm Syndrome is like like, when you've been rescued, you're like, no, I want to go back to that person. like They love me. I love them. And like that's when you've completely, like you're not fighting for survival. You have actually converted into believing their lies, believing that this is for you, that kind of thing. So doing what you have to to survive and manipulate the killer, like that's not...
00:29:54
Speaker
that she She didn't have Stockholm syndrome. She was trying to survive. So now that they've kidnapped Agnes and put her in the basement, Josefina was asking for that favor. Now this entire time, her hatred for him was growing and growing, but she played it off so well. So the day after they kidnapped Agnes, Josefina asked for the favor. She wanted to see her family. It'd been four months, so she wanted to let them know that she was okay.
00:30:20
Speaker
She assured Assface, that's what I put, I called him, ah she assured Assface that she would come back. And as for as high as Heidnik's IQ was, maybe he should have known better. don't know. Well, he really believed in himself. Yeah, he trusted her. he trusted that he had done that to her. yeah Because he's manipulative. He's like, yeah, I got this. So he dropped her off at a gas station, told her that he would meet her at that gas station later. They discussed the time.
00:30:50
Speaker
As soon as he pulled away, she fucking ran. She got the fuck out of there. She went to her boyfriend's house and she told her boyfriend everything. They decided to go back to his house and confront him. Nope.
00:31:03
Speaker
Then they changed their minds. Good. Instead, they called the police. Look at that. They did what you would have done. I knew I was like, I'm going to type it just like that. So Sam can go. Nope.
00:31:15
Speaker
Come on Come on. Yeah. So the police did take Josefina with them to identify Heidnik when they pulled up and found him in his Cadillac. Oh, this man had a Cadillac. He had a Rolls Royce.
00:31:26
Speaker
Well, I mean, he's yeah a stock man. They made him get out of the car. When he got out of the car, she said, yep, that's the man who killed the two women and that's the man that raped me. So more police cars come and they entered his house passing through metal doors, boarded up windows, the putrid smell. This made them prepare for the worst. But then they found the other women alive and as well as they could be, you know, for being stuck in the basement and all that they went through.
00:31:55
Speaker
John Cannon, a police that responded, said that when he entered the house, the TV was playing really loudly. They went to the cellar door and sure enough, laying on the floor were these half naked ladies in the basement. They started screaming, we're saved, we're saved. But the house was filthy. it smelled of rot.
00:32:13
Speaker
The mattresses were disgusting. The floors were wet and sticky. And then they looked in the fridge to find Sandra's remains still in the fridge.
00:32:24
Speaker
On March 25th, 1987, Gary Heidnik was formally arrested and taken into custody, putting an end to the physical torture of the women that were in his basement. The women who were found alive recovered after being treated for dehydration and malnutrition. That was just physically, mentally. who Never. Who the fuck knows?
00:32:43
Speaker
As the cops tried to get more information out of him, he refused to talk or say why he did it. He wouldn't take responsibility for it. In April of 87, he tried to hang himself and take the coward's way out.
00:32:54
Speaker
Didn't work. He actually had 14 suicide attempts while in custody. The charges against him were two counts of. Can I just pause for a second? i And this is going to sound really fucked up. So I'm sorry if this is offensive, but like this guy really sucked at suicide attempts 13 before and then 14 in custody.
00:33:14
Speaker
Like, God, man, you're doing it wrong. yep The charges against them were two counts of first degree murder and six counts of kidnapping, five counts of aggravated assault, and two counts of invountar involuntarily are involuntary deviant sexual intercourse.
00:33:28
Speaker
Which means... Like, um God, I looked that up. what Like one of them was less than 19 and he was so much older, something like that. um So it's not necessarily statutory rape. It's a different version. Yeah, i don't want to i forgot. I should have wrote it down in the notes. Whatever. Okay.
00:33:50
Speaker
I don't want you to go to that dark place. No, I'm done. This place. Okay. so oh, I did. It's in the next sentence. Hold on. So two counts of first degree to murder, two counts of first degree murder, and six counts of kidnapping, five counts of aggravated assault, and two counts of involuntary deviant sexual intercourses intercourse, which I think in this case is when the victim has an intellectual disability that makes them incapable of giving legal consent.
00:34:18
Speaker
God damn it, Jeffrey. Just read your work. i wrote it in here the um of course like The prison kept him in a secured place and now on suicide precautions until June of 88 when the trial started. Because let's make this... ah At first, I was just like, man, he should have ran. he should have like fought the cops. so They just could have like took him down. nah that's suicide by cop. But let him go to trial and get the trial that he deserves. His attorney, Chuck Peruto...
00:34:52
Speaker
said of their first meeting, I go up to see him and the first thing he does is salute me. And then he starts telling me the story, but obviously he's leaving out major parts of the story. Peruto said, Gary, when I see in the news, it's crazy. And the police reports, it shows that there was a woman's head in a boiling pot on the stove then and there.
00:35:15
Speaker
Were you cooking the head? Heidnik replied, yeah. Peruto asked, this is disgusting too, but this is what he asked. What kind of seasoning were you using? Like, shut the fuck up.
00:35:28
Speaker
Heidnik looked up at him and responded, you're crazy. Peruto realized that Heidnik was really fucking evil or really insane. The defense tried to prove that Gary was criminally insane when he committed the crimes. It probably was hard to argue with them. He had a previous diagnosis of schizoid personality disorder.
00:35:51
Speaker
Heidnik being Heidnik showed up every single day with like super greasy hair, a really bad Hawaiian shirt on. Like, if you've been to Hawaii, it's actually the stupid Hawaiian shirts that you buy from the ABC stores. And they're matching. You see the couples in these damn red Hawaiian shirts. Just hideous. Hyden had claimed that he didn't put the women in the basement. He said they were moved they were in there when he moved in. Right.
00:36:20
Speaker
Of course, um it also could have very well been that Heidnik was faking his mental illness all along. The Philadelphia DA prosecutor said, in the 60s, Heidnik went into the army and wanted certain kind of training, but ended up training him as a medic. They sent him to Germany. I don't think he liked the assignment. He didn't like being in Germany. So he started thinking, how can I beat this? So he just stopped obeying the orders and then they gave him a medical discharge. He wound up with 100% disability because he could convince the doctors that he was crazy.
00:36:54
Speaker
He's been faking it all alone. So during the trial, he tried his best to look like a crazy person because his lawyer said, quote, if you want to demonstrate that someone's insane, they've got to fucking look insane.
00:37:07
Speaker
To prove that Heidnik wasn't insane, to prove that he was not insane, the prosecution brought up the one thing that Heidnik was so very proud of, his financial success in the stock market. Remember, he'd be worth $2 million dollars today or maybe even more.
00:37:23
Speaker
He loved his money. He was really good at making it. He owned a Rolls Royce and a Cadillac. Come on, man. And a tax-exempt church. Like, he was tax-exempt because of the church on the backs of all those poor church growers. And he was getting 100% disability. On July 1st, 1977, Heidnik was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to death.
00:37:48
Speaker
And he attempted to kill himself one more time. say so sucks So he lived in prison for the next 11 years. When it came time for his execution, his ex-fucking-wife Betty and his daughter...
00:38:03
Speaker
asked for a stay of execution. Oh, fuck off. The date was set for April 5th, 1997, but the day before that execution, a hearing was called and Heidnik still refused to take responsibility for his actions. Heidnik said, you people think I committed the murders. I have not committed them and I refuse to appeal my case.
00:38:20
Speaker
I still refuse, even though I can prove my innocence. I resent this kind of stuff being done to a disabled veteran. To which I wrote, what an insult to actual disabled veterans. Stolen valor.
00:38:33
Speaker
You make me want to smash things. Heidnik's date was set for July 6th, 1999. He didn't give a fuck by then He just wanted it over. and on July 6th, Gary Heidnik was given a last meal, two pieces of cheese pizza and a cup of coffee. And then he was executed at Rockville State Correctional Institution in Belafonte, Pennsylvania.
00:38:56
Speaker
At age 55, Heidnik was executed by lethal lethal injection, putting an end to the evil that was Gary Heidnik. In attendance for the execution was tracy's sister or Tracy, Sandra's sister. One of the victims was also at the execution. She wanted to make sure her face was the last face that he looked at.
00:39:14
Speaker
Tracy, which was Sandra's sister, said, quote, I went to the execution, but it was too calm and serene for me. I'm thinking execution is something like turn around, let me shoot you. Instead, they stuck a needle in his arm. He never looked at us. He never acknowledged us. He didn't even look in our direction.
00:39:31
Speaker
But I take a great amount of solace in the fact that he is now dead. This is from the book that I read called Pitt. He made money by bilking the poorest in society out of their money. He was a monster in the truest sense of the word.
00:40:03
Speaker
Whatever cruelty any other person would have shied away from, he performed. Whatever morals he held back... what whatever Whatever morals held back other people from doing as he did, he clearly did not embrace those. He was devoid of all positive attributes of humanity. Heidnik paid the ultimate price for his crimes and suffered the worst punishment that society could dole out. Yet somehow it kind of feels like the books were not balanced.
00:40:29
Speaker
Prosecutor Charles Gallagher said, from the eve of thanksgiving in eighty six to march of eighty seven this man conducted and repeated sad statisticss sadistic and malicious acts upon six defenseless victims he planned what he was doing he went ahead and did it he did it on purpose what kind of girls did he take girls that he knew he could force into submission He got the girl with an intellectual disability and forced her into change chains. He made her sign a note, sent it to her mother in order to defuse the family from trying to find out where she was and saving her. Is this the mind of some psychotic who doesn't know what's going on? Nope, it's the calculating actions of a cold-blooded killer, in my opinion.
00:41:15
Speaker
Josephina Rivera, Lisa Thomas, Jacqueline Asians, Agnes Adams, Sandra Lindsay, and Deborah Dudley should all be remembered. And that is the story of Gary Heidnik.
00:41:26
Speaker
Crazy motherfucker, right? But not, you know? Yeah. Like, just... Sexual sadist. Inhuman. Mm-hmm. You know? Ugh.
00:41:39
Speaker
It makes me want to take a shower. When I was typing that the other night, Brittany came and started talking to me and I so welcomed her. I was like, I need you right now. Please take my brain of this dark place. can't do it anymore. Yeah. oh There you go Fuck that guy. Fuck that guy. Fuck that guy. ah There's a teeny tiny little part of me that wishes, and I'm saying this to you and to all the listeners, but don't repeat it. There's a teeny tiny part of me that wishes that like we could actually do equal justice punishment, right? Yeah. Like, okay, so we caught him. Let's throw his ass in a fucking dirt hole and torture him for a few months and then hang him up so his shoulders dislocate and almost he suffocates. But like...
00:42:22
Speaker
You know, like I just wish that that was, yep you know, like this, like, like Tracy said, he got fucking lethal injection. He's laying on a table in a clean room and.
00:42:32
Speaker
actually like what she said. she thought like, oh like it was going to be something else, more violent, more like let's shoot him or something. Yeah. Yeah. Because her sister didn't get that. No, absolutely not.
00:42:45
Speaker
um Okay. So we're going to go a different way now as is normal ish. Take me. So everybody that listens to us knows that Jeff and I love a good old fashioned powerful woman story. Yes. And I don't know if all you people know, but Jeff certainly knows that i love, love, love a Viking story. Viking.
00:43:12
Speaker
Viking. A Viking story has the Norwegian suit. This one fits both molds. Viking strong woman. So, in a weird twist of fetish, I guess is the term, ah this badass woman went from being a princess to being an extraordinarily and magnificently vengeful goddess to becoming a saint, literally. I'm here for it.
00:43:39
Speaker
Tell me more. The age-old saying, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, is a classic. And I don't know the true origin of it, but I would not be surprised if this was it. Okay. Okay.
00:43:56
Speaker
In the 9th and 10th centuries, the area that now covers Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus was known as Kievan Rus'. History is torn on if it's like the pagan pagan tribal dynasty was Nordic or Slavic, but they think it's a combination of both.
00:44:16
Speaker
Because at the time, Viking raiders sailed up and down the Dniper River, and what started as trading quickly transformed into aggressive invasions as the Vikings turned on the Slav locals.
00:44:28
Speaker
By 882, these Vikings had seized Kiev. These first official settled Vikings became known as the Varangian. The leader, Oleg, proclaimed himself. I love the name Oleg. Right?
00:44:43
Speaker
He proced proclaimed himself the Grand Prince and carved out an empire. Oleg! But the Lady of the Hour was born around the year 900 CE.
00:44:55
Speaker
And for the first 45-ish years of her life, nobody paid much attention to Olga from Scuff, In 912, when the Grand Prince died, his heir was single and ready to marry. So Olga married. Single and ready mingle. I'm like into this story. So Olga married Igor I of Kiev. The couple had a good marriage and they had a son.
00:45:18
Speaker
Kievan Rus was growing and thriving in the 10th century. And as is true of many expanding empires, you're bound to make some enemies with those around you because you have to overtake them.
00:45:31
Speaker
One such enemy was the empire of the Drevlian tribe. Historically, the Drevlians had worked with the Kievan Rus to fight against the Byzantine Empire. They paid tribute to the Rus um as a form of protection, money basically, or payment. um after the first After the first Grand Prince died in 912, the Drevlians decided that they didn't want to pay anymore. So they turned away from the Rus and decided to pay a regional warlord instead.
00:46:03
Speaker
Igor spent his reign fighting the superpowers of the time. After two failed attempts to conquer the Byzantine capital of Constantinople and plundering around the Abbasid Caliphate territories around the the Caspian Sea, he decided to turn his sights inward and resolve issues closer to home.
00:46:21
Speaker
ah In 945, when Prince Igor decided it was time to make the Drevlians submit to him again, he really ah took that to it. His extensive army...
00:46:32
Speaker
was enough to cause the enemy to very quickly give up and resume paying their tributes. But unfortunately... This is so right up your alley. Igor decided to reassert his dominance and power. i am a man.
00:46:47
Speaker
by visiting the Drevlyan capital. So they had already regained control. They had already said we're going to pay tribute. The whole team's on the way back home. i was like, that's not enough for me. Gotta do more. Yeah. So his goal was to demand more from the tribe as kind of like a, you know what? Fuck you guys.
00:47:05
Speaker
I really need to show you that this shit's not going to happen again. I'm not going to stand for it. So he takes a small group of his soldiers back. He enters the city to make these demands. The Drevlians, again, who had already submitted, found it kind of insulting.
00:47:22
Speaker
And they were not intimidated now by him and his small group of followers. So the group was swiftly overpowered. To deal with the disrespect, the Drevlians made a human hammock out of Igor.
00:47:38
Speaker
They bent two birch trees to the ground tied one of his legs to each, and then released the trees to snap back. Shut up.
00:47:50
Speaker
Igor was literally torn in half. I mean, it's not as great as the blood eagle, but I'll take it. Yeah. Their next step was to overrun Kievan Rus and rule in the place of the now split. Prince Igor. You had to split. You see what I did there? had to split. Sorry. Because he was cut in half. Because he was, you know, cut in half. Not even cut in half. He was ripped in half by trees. I got to split.
00:48:21
Speaker
Sorry. You're welcome. So in order to try and do this more peacefully, they decided to suggest that the widow, Olga, who was now the Grand Princess and Regent Leader, marry the Drevlyan Prince, Mal.
00:48:36
Speaker
Because, duh, Her son wasn't old enough to assume the throne yet, so she was standing in his ruler. She had the support and the might of the entire Kievan Rus behind her.
00:48:48
Speaker
ah So in response to the marriage offer, Olga sent a message that read, quote, "'Your proposal is pleasing to me, indeed. My husband cannot rise again from the dead. But I desire to honor you tomorrow in the presence of my people. Return now to your boat.
00:49:05
Speaker
I shall send for you on the morrow. And you shall say, "'We will not ride on horses nor go on foot. Carry us in our boat.' And you shall be carried in your boat." So the embassy sent 20 men to secure the arrangement. hu The Drevlians very clearly underestimated Olga's feelings for Igor and had no idea what they were walking into.
00:49:31
Speaker
As they were expecting little to no resistance and unwavering loyalty from the supposedly soon-to-be-conquered Kievan Rus, Olga was plotting. Of course she was.
00:49:43
Speaker
Olga welcomed the 20 ambassadors and summoned them to her great hall. The Drevlians demanded, as instructed by Olga herself, to be carried in their boats from the water to the hall.
00:49:58
Speaker
The Kievan Rus messengers obliged willingly and carried all 20 ambassadors and their boats towards the hall. Olga's gonna fuck them up.
00:50:10
Speaker
Unfortunately, the first part of Olga's revenge involved her people digging a trench overnight around her fortress. So she sends off this letter. It's like, yeah, Mal, let's do this. Send your people. And then she immediately sets her soldiers and her people to work beging digging a massive trench. Okay. Okay.
00:50:29
Speaker
And as the messengers carried the pompous Drevlians towards the hall, they believed that they were being shown a great honor as they were paraded through the capital. So they're on their, like, boats and they're being carried and they're all proud, like, yes, we will rule you, okay?
00:50:45
Speaker
And that was just until the procession unceremoniously dumped them and their boats into that newly dug trench. As she stared down at the men, Olga ordered her men to do a bit of vivis sepulture. Do you know what that is? ah I don't know. pivot Vivisect? I don't know. It's the technical term for burying someone alive. Ooh.
00:51:15
Speaker
Ooh. It is in historical documents reported that as they were being swallowed by the earth yeah raining down on them, Olga asked if these men, quote, found the honor to their taste.
00:51:30
Speaker
Ooh.
00:51:34
Speaker
Although the Drevlian prince never heard back from his ambassadors, he did receive a communication from Olga herself that she would accept his marriage proposal if Mal would send his most important and trusted advisors to escort her personally back to the Drevlian capital.
00:51:50
Speaker
Mal was like, yeah, I'm ready to be powerful. Let's do it. She's onto this. Let's go. So he sends a group of his highest ranking and most trusted chieftains to retrieve Olga.
00:52:05
Speaker
Upon their arrival, Olga again welcomes them graciously. And she says, you know what? It's been a long journey. Why not have a bath in the bathhouse? Clean up from your long journey and then we will talk.
00:52:18
Speaker
So in celebration of their arrival, Olga bolted the bathhouse doors from the outside and set it on fire. o Starting at all the windows and doors.
00:52:31
Speaker
Every single chieftain burned alive. Huh. Devious and fantastic, Olga again reached out to Mal. She said she wanted to visit the Drevlian capital, known as Iskorosten, to host a funeral for her late husband. In this message, she said, quote, prepare great quantities of meat in the city where you killed my husband, that I may weep over his grave and hold a funeral a feast for him.
00:52:59
Speaker
He still had no idea what happened to the previous two parties that he had sent. But Olga was willing to marry him and he was willing to do whatever it took to get her there.
00:53:10
Speaker
So he agreed to the funeral and the feast. And I mean, at this point, you just have to think like, this guy's fucking thick. Come on, my man. Yeah. Even the wording of her messages to him, it's very clear that she's like, oh, the place where you killed my husband. And oh, like, come on. yeah So he didn't pick up on her vibes. So.
00:53:35
Speaker
He welcomes them. He's like, yeah, come on in. She and her soldiers arrived for the funeral and celebrated in full grandeur. And as the Drevlians drank and got sloshed on all of their great quantities of mead, Olga had ordered her men to pretend but not actually partake in the drinking.
00:53:55
Speaker
So as the night wore on, everyone else is drunk. She put out the order and her soldiers killed thousands Drevlians. Just demolished.
00:54:07
Speaker
She skitters back home gather her great army that is waiting for this, okay? And they went, had many successes. They kind of, like, drive themselves through the land back to Drevlion. They overtake many cities, but there's a couple that give them a little bit of a fight. And then they're trying to take siege and, like,
00:54:32
Speaker
conquer the capital um they managed to withstand the siege for about a year however around that year mark they're worn and they're wary from the constant battles and the capital kind of balked as the army gathered nearby ready to wipe the drevlians completely off the planet like there there was no middle ground for this bitch okay she was like all nothing yeah i mean honestly good for her yeah So she sends a message to the inhabitants that read, quote, Which was lie. Because everyone was dead.
00:55:01
Speaker
all of your cities have surrendered to me and submitted to tribute so that the inhabitants now cultivate their fields and their lands in peace but you had rather die of hunger without submitting tribute because i
00:55:17
Speaker
The remaining Drevlians, those who had not been buried alive, burned alive, or put to the blade, were openly apologetic and begged forgiveness and mercy from Olga the Almighty.
00:55:30
Speaker
However, some were a little bit reserved. And they were like, gosh, shit man, I think she might still want a little bit of revenge for Igor's death. They pleaded and they offered her whatever she wanted. And she said, you know what? You're right. I'm finished with my revenge. After all I've done to this point, you're right.
00:55:49
Speaker
the The tables are even now, right? So she said that the only thing she wanted as repayment was three pigeons and three sparrows from every household in the capital.
00:56:00
Speaker
They were like, hell yeah, that's easy peasy. No, what's her plan? So believing that the debt of Igor's life had been paid with all of the fucking bloodshed so far. That's what we're going to do with pigeons. Her response was not received with any distrust or concern. They were like, yes, look, she's so merciful. Yay. And you know what? You're right. We have paid.
00:56:22
Speaker
She was anything but. As the people of the capital celebrated the end of the war and rejoiced at the small price requested, each of Olga's soldiers received a bird.
00:56:33
Speaker
She ordered that they tie a string with a cloth bound and soaked in sulfur on the end to the leg of each bird. I knew she was going to use the fucking bird somehow. As the sky darkened that night, they released the birds with the now flaming sulfur-soaked cloth attached.
00:56:52
Speaker
And as these types of birds tend to do, which Olga fucking knew, they returned to their nests and on the wooden houses and haystacks of Iskorosten.
00:57:06
Speaker
Olga and her army stood aside and watched as the entire capital city burned. It was recorded in the, in like the historical documents that quote, there was not a house that was not consumed and it was impossible to extinguish the flames because all the houses caught on fire at once.
00:57:23
Speaker
As survivors of the blaze fled, her soldiers captured them. Thousands were killed in violent ways. Some were kept as slaves and given to her supporters. The only few who remained alive and unenslaved were allowed to rebuild the city under the instruction and understanding that they would return to paying tribute to Olga and Kievan Rus. She was like, listen, bitches, you can survive and you can rebuild, but remember this.
00:57:48
Speaker
Because if you don't pay tribute or you try and stray, it's going to happen again. Remember this. So after her revenge was completed, Olga settled and continued to raise her son.
00:57:58
Speaker
She transferred power to him when he became of age. um In the 950s, she traveled to Constantinople and converted to Christianity. Upon her return home, she encouraged her people to do the same, and the religion spread.
00:58:12
Speaker
A Byzantine chronicle stated, she's shone like the moon by night and she was radiant among the infidels like a pearl in the mine in the marre since the people were soiled and not yet purified by their of their sin by holy baptism her son refused baptism and remained a pagan but olur persisted and constructed many churches throughout the ruse lands many in her land remained pagan for years Olga died in 969, and later still, about 20 years after her death, her grandson, Grand Prince Vladimir the Great, also converted Christianity and declared Kievan Rus a Christian empire. Her work and life succeeded years after her death.
00:58:51
Speaker
Nearly 600 years later, in 1547, Olga was posthumously given the title Isopostolos, meaning equal to the apostles.
00:59:02
Speaker
And so the woman who ruled Kievan Rus for 15 years after an impressively successful, systematic, and ruthless quest for revenge became a saint in both Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches. Her violence and atrocities were all forgiven with her great acts of creating the Christian empire.
00:59:22
Speaker
To this day, she remains Ukraine's patron saint of widows and converts. And although there was a whole lot of violence and vengeance and some wonky shit that surrounded a lot of medieval Christianity, Olga of Kiev can assuredly and undoubtedly be called the most genocidal saint who ever lived. I love that. That was good. she just She's a Viking. and She's a badass. yeah And honestly, the only thing she wanted was revenge. She didn't want to conquer. She didn't want to do things. She just said, these fuckers killed my man.
00:59:55
Speaker
and she um up And after she was done, she was like, I can settle. I'm good. I'm going to go live a peaceful life. That was good. yeah i like that. That was a good way to end that story all the show.
01:00:08
Speaker
I think it was. I think it lightened the mood. Balanced it. Yeah. There's still a lot of death and shit, but I think it was cool. Yeah. Good job. All right. So if you stuck with us this long, you know that we got some birthdays coming up and you know where you can find us and listen to us and reach out to us. um So give us some reviews, rate us five stars and...
01:00:30
Speaker
Is that it? or That was it that's it. That was a good show. I think that was a good show. i think that was a good show. It's weird because you can't actually see how much, how long it was. Right? all Right. I can see on that thing, but I'm not even going to look. Oh. Because we're here for a good time.
01:00:44
Speaker
Not a long time. Hey, hey. Bye, everybody.