The Pit cover art

The Pit

The True Crime Story of Six Women, One Monster, and the Nightmare Below

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The Pit

By: Ryan Green
Narrated by: Steve White
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About this listen

He called it salvation. They called it hell.

By day, Gary Heidnik was a man of God with money, charisma, and a growing congregation. But behind closed doors, he was building a torture chamber by hand and filling it with women.

His victims were some of society’s most vulnerable. He lured them with promises of food, safety, and salvation. Instead, they were shackled in the basement, starved, raped, and beaten into silence. Heidnik controlled everything: their pain, their survival, their very breath.

This is the shocking true story of the six women who were buried in silence and the monster who built a nightmare beneath his home.

It’s a tale of survival, madness, and the horrifying power of control.

You’ve heard of serial killers.

You’ve heard of cult leaders.

But you’ve never heard of The Pit.

Grim. Gripping. Unforgettable.

CAUTION: This book contains descriptive accounts of abuse and violence. Not for the faint of heart.

©2025 Ryan Green (P)2025 Ryan Green
Gender Studies Murder Social Sciences True Crime Emotionally Gripping Heartfelt
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Listener received this title free

Ryan’s done it again with another chilling account of a very sick individual called Gary Heidnik’s horrific acts.

The narrationis gripping and really make the story a great pace and engaging.

If you like Ryan’s other audiobooks you’ll love this one just be careful as it’s very descriptive and gruesome but highly recommended

A Very Scary Individual

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I love Ryan Greens books, I have listened to them on repeat. However, I knew a lot about this case and was looking forward to hearing Ryan's perspective.

But this is widely innacurate. A quick google search shows many parts of this book are just made up. Below are the notes I took as I listened.

Embellished pit usage, they weren't in there 24/7. they had mattresses and blankets which they used most of the time. The pit was only for punishments and newcomers to be "broken in".

However only 2 people could fit in the pit.

The pit wasn't big enough to even sit up in let alone 5 women at one time stood up. It was about 1.5-2 feet deep. They had to lie down in it. There are pictures and diagrams online.

Didn't mention Jo's first escape attempt out the window.

Sandra was hung up by 1 arm not 2 and the girls held her up for as long as they could but they were too weak to help.

They weren't naked 24/7.

Makes Jo out to be a co-conspirator from near the beggining and that she was enjoying herself, she was just his favourite and he wanted to get the others to hate her, she was just trying to survive and used the trust to escape. She even risked herself to free the others. missed out the pregnancy part, Jo missed a period, thought pregnant (one of the reasons she was a favourite), she was not, it was just a missed period due to poor health but she got better treatment for a while.

Experts believe they didn't eat Sandy, just the dogs ate her.

The girls were not in the pit when the police arrived.

I am disappointed in this book, all Ryan
Greens other books are ☆☆☆☆☆

This is massively embellished and innacurate.

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