Sylvia’s parents, Betty and Lester Likens, were struggling carnival workers. The work did not pay enough to sustain their family, so they were under consistent financial stress. They were always on the road, and their home life was unstable.
In July 1965, Sylvia’s mother, Betty, was arrested and subsequently jailed for shoplifting. Lester then arranged for Sylvia and her disabled sister, Jenny Likens, to live with a recent acquaintance, Gertrude Baniszewski.
Gertrude agreed to look after Sylvia and her sister for $20 a week. Before he left, Lester apparently encouraged Gertrude to straighten out his daughters, saying she needed to use a firm hand on them. He had no idea at the time that he had condemned his daughter to death.
A year later in court, Lester Likens was asked if he had already inspected the home where he had left two of his five children. His reply was, ‘I didn’t pry.’ If he had done so, he would have found the house did not have a stove. Gertrude’s home also had too few beds to host two more children.
Gertrude Baniszewski
Gertrude Nadine Baniszewski was born September 19th, 1928, in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Hugh Marcus Van Fossan Sr. and Molly Myrtle. She was the third of six children and grew up in a middle-class family. Before Sylvia and Jenny Likens moved in with her, Gertrude had experienced a difficult life.
Growing up, she was Hugh’s favourite, and he doted on her, much to her mother’s displeasure. Because of how she was favoured by her father, Molly often neglected her and treated Gertrude horribly. She would even go to great lengths to avoid holding her. In fact, Molly would often drop Gertrude when she was a baby.
Being dropped on the head several times as a baby could have led to brain damage and behavioural problems later on. Growing up, Gertrude would avoid her mother at all costs and rely on her father for companionship.
Unfortunately, when she was 10 years old, while weeding their garden with her father, he suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack.
Gertrude called for help from Molly, not knowing what had happened to her father. Instead of going for help, her mother began screaming at Gertrude, demanding to know what she had done.
The mistreatment only got worse from then on. Gertrude’s mother blamed her for Hugh’s passing. Gertrude’s siblings also piled on to the abuse, calling her dirty and spreading rumours at school about her. They called her promiscuous and riddled with sexually transmitted diseases.
Feeling isolated and alone, Gertude was desperate for a way out of her family. At the age of 16 in 1945, she dropped out of high school and married John Stephan Baniszewski, a police officer. Unfortunately, her problems only intensified from then on. John was very abusive, both physically and mentally.
Her childhood was so dysfunctional that Gertrude did not receive any beneficial instruction from her Mother on how to keep a home as a wife of that era. She did not know how to clean or cook, so John felt justified in punishing her for what he perceived as laziness.
The abuse escalated to a point that he would beat her for anything she said or did that he did not like.
For Gertrude, motherhood did not come easily either. This stemmed from the abuse she received from her own mother. She also distrusted other women because of what she experienced with her sisters. It did not help then that her first and second child, Paula and Stephanie, were born within two years of each other.
She had a mental breakdown after the birth of Stephanie and was diagnosed with neuroticism. At the time, this was a blanket term for all mental, physical, and emotional disorders.
Due to the limited knowledge and care given to people’s mental well-being at the time, doctors dismissed her case. Gertrude was told to work harder at being a mother and pay more attention to their daughters.
The couple went on to have two more children together, John Jr and Marie Baniszewski. Now, as the main caretaker for four children, Gertrude’s attention was solely on on her own kids and their needs. John grew jealous, and the abuse escalated. They divorced in 1955 after ten years together.
Shortly afterwards, Gertrude got married to a man named Edward Guthrie. Edward viewed Gertrude as a free meal ticket because of the child support payments she received from John. He did not seem very interested in either Gertrude or her children.
They divorced after three months, following a fight where Edward hit Gertrude in the face. After the second divorce, Gertrude started to reminisce about her first marriage and decided she was better off with John, because he was a good father.
The two remarried and had two more children, Shirly and James Baniszewski, before divorcing for the final time in 1963. Gertrude then began dating Dennis Lee Wright. Though it was frowned upon at the time, they lived together, and Gertrude had a miscarriage. She did give birth to her last child, Dennis Junior, before the father absconded.
An Introduction to the Likens Family
By the time Gertrude began interacting with the Likens family, she had given birth seven times and had gone through six miscarriages. She was also a chain smoker who ironically suffered from asthma and bronchitis. Her income came from inconsistent child support payments and odd jobs, such as babysitting or ironing.
On July 2, 1965, Sylvia and Jenny encountered Paula Baniszewski while walking through their neighbourhood with their friend, Darlene McGuire. The teens then headed back to the Baniszewski home, where they spent the night.
The next day, Lester was informed of his wife’s arrest. He went to pick up Sylvia and Jenny at home, but did not find them. He later traced his two daughters to the Baniszewski home.
When he got to Gertrude’s home, she offered to let him spend the night in her living room. The next day, they agreed to let Sylvia and Jenny board at the house for $20 a week while he sorted things out with their mother.
The first week at the Baniszewskis’ went by without any incident. Sylvia and Jenny got to know the other kids and were starting out at a new school. The payment for their board was late in the second week. That’s when Gertrude exploded on the two girls, saying, “I took care of you two bitches for nothing!”
Their punishment was to lie across a bed and expose their buttocks so Gertrude could spank them. She received the payment the next day.
Torture and Murder
During the weeks that followed, Gertrude regularly paddled the two sisters. Gertrude accused Sylvia of leading the others to steal from stores. She also accused Sylvia of being unclean and sexually promiscuous.
As a 16-year-old, Sylvia would occasionally earn money babysitting, running errands, and ironing clothes, so the accusations were unfounded.
Gertrude’s attitude toward Sylvia changed drastically during this period. In a twisted turn of events, Gertrude also enlisted the support of her own children and the neighbourhood in tormenting the girl. Many of them were barely teenagers. Paula Baniszewski was 17. Stephanie Baniszewski was 15. Richard Hobbs, a frequent visitor to the house, was just 14.
Sylvia’s frankfurter was often passed around the dinner table and grossly loaded with condiments. She was then forced to eat it. Sylvia would vomit afterwards, but Gertrude forced her to eat her own vomit.
Mr and Mrs Likens then stopped by to check on the girls. This was a few days after the girls had been beaten because of a late boarding payment. Curiously, neither of the two complained about the way they were being treated.
Neither said a word because, according to Jenny, they thought it would only make things much worse. They could not conceive that the authorities would protect them or remove them from that house.
On August 1, Gertrude’s daughter, Paula, broke her own wrist after repeatedly punching Sylvia. Further abuse would be corroborated by a middle-aged couple, Raymond and Phyllis Vermillion, who visited the Baniszewskis in August 1965. They were looking for a babysitter.
While at the table, they saw a slim girl with a black eye. Paula Baniszewski then added, ‘I gave her the black eye. ’ While saying this, she filled a glass with boiling water and threw it at Sylvia. The Vermillions did not report the incident to the police.
It is also believed that in August, Sylvia said that she had once allowed a boyfriend to get into bed with her. Gertrude was furious and shouted that Sylvia was going to have a baby. She kicked the girl in the crotch multiple times.
Gertrude also encouraged the children to believe horrible things about Sylvia and to take revenge for perceived slights. Anna Siscoe, a 13-year-old girl from the neighbourhood, had previously been friendly with Sylvia. That was until Gertrude told her that Sylvia said her mother was a prostitute. Anna attacked Sylvia afterwards.
In October, Gertrude ordered Sylvia to quit school. Sykvia did not have a gym suit for their P.E class, and Gertrude refused to give her the money to purchase one. One day, Sylvia came home with a gym suit.
After being interrogated, Syvia confessed she had indeed stolen it. Gertrude kicked and slapped the teen, then whipped her with a belt. She also started kicking her in the crotch and applied a lit match to Sylvia’s fingers.
On one night that month, Sylvia wet the bed. Rather than have sympathy for her, Gertrude, Paula, Stephanie, and the others decided that Sylvia had to live in the basement because she was too dirty to live with them.
They also revoked Sylvia’s bathroom privileges, forcing her to soil herself. Gertrude forced her into the bathtub before filling it with boiled water. They were sometimes assisted by Richard Hobbs, a fourteen-year-old who often hung out at the Baniszewski home.
She was also kept naked or almost so for days at a time. Sylvia then became a game for the kids in the neighbourhood to enjoy as they punched and pushed her down the stairs to the cellar multiple times.
On October 23, Richard Carved “I am a prostitute and proud of it” into her stomach with a needle.
When Gertrude realised that Sylvia may be dying, she forced her to write a note indicating that a gang of boys had beaten her up. The plan was to blindfold her and dump her in the woods so her body could later be found.
Sylvia then tried to escape, but Gertrude and and 15-year-old Coy Hubbard, Stephanie’s boyfriend, stopped her. They beat her unconscious and threw her back in the basement.
Sylvia died on October 26 from severe brain swelling and malnutrition. Her final words were “Daddy, I’m going to die. I know it.”
A Short Trial and Attempts at Justice
Gertrudes’ attempts to convince the police that a gang of boys killed Sylvia fell on deaf ears. Sylvia’s body was covered in cuts and bruises. She also had more than 100 cigarette burns, scald marks, shredded lips, and missing skin.
Jenny Likens also approached the investigators and offered to make a full statement, provided they rescued her from the home.
Police took the entire Baniszewski family, along with eight other children, into custody. They were charged with injury to an individual. Most were released, except for Gertrude, Paula, John Jr. Baniszewski, Richard Hobbs, and Coy Hubbard.
In December that year, a grand jury indicted the five on first-degree murder. The trial drew significant media attention, and testimonies revealed that Gertrude had supervised and assisted in Sylvia’s torture.
Both Lester and Betty Likens were present at the trial as grieving witnesses. While Lester claimed he was deceived that Gertrude would take care of the girls as if they were her own, Betty was visibly distraught.
Gertrude pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Legal representatives for Paula, Coy, Richard, and John claimed they were coerced into participating in the girl’s abuse.
The trial lasted 17 days, and the jury adjourned to consider the decision. Following an eight-hour deliberation, the jury found Gertrude guilty of first-degree murder. In 1966, she was sentenced to life in prison, but she was paroled in 1985.
Paula Baniszewski, her daughter, was convicted of second-degree murder. She was initially sentenced to life in prison, but the conviction was overturned in 1971.
She then pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to two to 21 years in prison. During her sentence, she attempted to escape but was caught. She was eventually released from prison in 1972.
John Baniszewski Jr. was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced 2 to 21 years in prison. He was out on parole after serving 18 months.
Coy Hubbard was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 2 to 21 years. He was paroled after 18 months.
Richard Hobbs was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 2 to 21 years in prison. He was also paroled after 18 months.
Aftermath and Deeper questions
When the family was taken into custody, the Marion County Department of Public Welfare placed Marie, Shirley, and James into foster care. Dennis Lee Wright Jr. was later adopted. Their identities were changed, and they all went on to live relatively normal lives.
When Gertrude was released from prison, she relocated to Iowa. She did not accept complete responsibility for her actions, saying that she did not particularly recall the full details of the torture inflicted on Sylvia. Gertrude mostly blamed it on the medication she was prescribed to treat her asthma. She died in 1990 from lung cancer.
Paula immediately assumed a new identity after her release, adopting the name Paula Pace. She worked for several years in the BCLUW school system in Iowa. However, in 2012, Paula’s past was uncovered following an anonymous tip to the authorities. Her past conviction in the Liken case led to her being fired for lying on her employment application. She is still residing in Iowa, but little is known about her current life.
Stephanie Baniszewski also assumed another identity and became a school teacher.
Richard Hobbs died of lung cancer in 1972, just four years after his release.
Coy Hubbard remained in Indiana after his release and never attempted to change his identity. He was imprisoned for various offences. Coy later died in 2007 from a heart attack.
John Baniszewski Jr. lived under the alias John Blake and became a lay minister. He was the only one in the group who showed remorse for his actions. John issued a statement that he and the rest of the group should have been given more severe penalties. He died of diabetes in 2005.
The case posed several questions about why the neighbourhood kids participated in Sylvia’s torture and why no one intervened. When asked why no one helped after hearing screams from the Baniszewski house for months, Kassie Frazier of the Sylvia’s Child Advocacy Centre stated, “In 1965, it was common practice not to get involved in others’ business.”
