…By Jack Sylva for TDPel Media.
Nick Yarris, a former Death Row inmate who was wrongfully convicted of murder, shared his experiences of living next to Gary Heidnick, the man who inspired the character Buffalo Bill in the movie Silence of the Lambs, and selling him chocolate bars while in prison.
Yarris spent 22 years awaiting execution, including three years in solitary confinement.
He met Heidnick, who had abducted and imprisoned six black women in a pit he had dug in his basement, while in jail.
Yarris said Heidnick was his next-door neighbour for two and a half years, and he revealed that Heidnick was just as “f***ed up” in real life as in the movie.
Heidnick was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection in 1999, and Yarris spent time in several jails, including the B Block of Huntingdon Prison in Pennsylvania.
Yarris was wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of Linda Mae Craig in 1982 and spent time on death row before clearing his charges related to his escape in 2004.
It was found that two other men, not Yarris, had committed the murder.
Yarris’s story is a reminder of the flaws in the criminal justice system and the harm inflicted on innocent people by wrongful convictions.
It also highlights the challenges faced by prisoners in American jails and the prevalence of violence and mistreatment inside them.
Yarris’s experience of being wrongfully convicted and living among infamous killers sheds light on the need for reforms in the criminal justice system to ensure fairness, justice, and human rights for all individuals, including prisoners.