Breaking the Silence of the Lambs

Written by Jack A. Apsche, Ed.D., ABPP and Jerry L. Jennings, Ph.D.

“Breaking the Silence of the Lambs” is a unique and fascinating story within a story. It is, first, a dark journey into the secret world of the infamous “Silence of the Lambs” serial killer, Gary M. Heidnik. It presents 26 secret letters from Death Row that reveal the truth of how Heidnik made a fortune in the stock market and conducted church services in his living room, while a harem of starving sexual slaves were chained in the cellar beneath their feet. It is also the story of Jack Apsche, Gary Heidnik’s psychologist and the recipient of these personal letters, who is prepared to “break the silence of the lambs” by revealing Heidnik’s secret letters and his own simultaneous struggle with the dark side.

A note from the Publisher: "Although this book provides answers to the mystery of Heidnik and serial killers, my favorite part was seeing how his psychologist had to struggle with his own dark side to reach those answers."

When the case begins, Jack is still deeply haunted by the horrors of Vietnam, mired in a self-destructive life of drug abuse, criminal violence and sex orgies. Letter by letter, the book takes the reader through the inside experience of being Heidnik’s psychologist and the emotional toll of dealing with the infamous killer’s cunning and the uncensored revelations of his perverse crimes. At the same time, in a personal narrative that is harrowing in its honesty, Jack reveals the truth of his simultaneous struggle with his own dark side, of death and killing in Vietnam, depression and self-destruction, reckless gangsterism, and cocaine-charged orgies.

During the course of his unblinking investigation of Heidnik’s ultimate human evil, Jack becomes transformed by the emerging power of love – for his daughter, his new wife and stepfamily, and finally, himself – and it yields the path to healing and hope. By the end of the story, Jack has used his insights from the Heidnik case to create an innovative new treatment for helping violent and disturbed adolescents and has redeemed himself as a husband, father and citizen.