Sylvia Likens, The 16-Year-Old Who Was Tortured And Murdered By Caretaker Gertrude Baniszewski

 

In 1965, Sylvia Likens and her sister Jenny were left in the care of family friend Gertrude Baniszewski — who tortured Likens to death and got her own children to help.

Wikimedia CommonsSixteen-year-old Sylvia Likens before staying with Gertrude Bansizewski and after being tortured to death.

In 1965, 16-year-old Sylvia Likens was sent to the home of a family friend, Gertrude Baniszewski, while her parents were traveling. But Likens never made it out alive.

Gertrude Baniszewski and her children tortured Sylvia Likens to death. The perpetrators even managed to involve an entire neighborhood of kids to help them commit this brutal murder.

As the autopsy in the Sylvia Likens case later showed, she endured unimaginable torment before she died. Nevertheless, her killers faced almost no justice at all.

How Sylvia Likens Came Under The Care Of Gertrude Baniszewsk

Bettmann/Getty ImagesGertrude Baniszewski’s police photo, taken shortly after her arrest on Oct. 28, 1965.

Sylvia Likens’ parents were both carnival workers and were therefore on the road more often than not. They struggled to make ends meet as her father Lester had only an eighth-grade education and a total of five children to care for.

Jenny was quiet and withdrawn with a limp from polio. Sylvia was more confident and went by the nickname “Cookie” and had been described as pretty though she had a missing front tooth.

In July 1965, Lester Likens decided to take up with the carnival again while his wife was jailed for shoplifting that summer. Sylvia’s brothers, Danny and Bennie, were put into the care of their grandparents. With few other options, Sylvia and Jenny were sent to stay with a family friend named Gertrude Baniszewski.

Gertrude was every bit as poor as the Likens and had seven of her own kids to support in her run-down home. She made little cash by charging her neighbors a few dollars to iron their laundry. She’d already been through multiple divorces, some of which resulted in physical abuse against her and dealt with a crippling depression through heavy doses of prescription drugs.

She was in no condition to take care of two teenaged girls. The Likens, though, didn’t think they had any other choice.

Lester Likens cryptically requested that Baniszewski “straighten his daughters out” when he placed them in her care for $20 a week.

What Happened To Sylvia Likens Inside Her New Home

For the first two weeks at the Baniszewski’s, Sylvia and her sister were treated kindly enough, though Gertrude’s oldest daughter, 17-year-old Paula Baniszewski, seemed to butt heads with Sylvia often. Then one week their father’s payment came in late.

“I took care of you two bitches for two weeks for nothing,” Gertrude spat at Sylvia and Jenny. She grabbed Sylvia by the arm, dragged her into a room, and closed the door. Jenny could only sit outside the door and listen as her sister screamed. The money arrived the following day, but the torture had just begun.

Gertrude soon began to abuse both Sylvia and Jenny in broad daylight. Though a frail woman, Gertrude used a heavy paddle and thick, leather belt from one of her husband’s who had been a cop. When she was too exhausted or too weak to discipline the girls herself, Paula stepped in to take her place. Sylvia, however, soon became the focus of the abuse.

Gertrude Baniszewski demanded that Jenny join in, lest she take her sister’s place as the brunt of the abuse.

Gertrude accused Sylvia of stealing from her and burned the girl’s fingertips. She took her to a church function and force-fed her free hot dogs until she was sick. Then, as punishment for throwing up good food, she forced her to eat her own vomit.

She allowed her children — in fact, encouraged her children — to partake in the abuse of Sylvia and her sister. The Baniszewski kids practiced karate on Sylvia, slammed her into walls and onto the floor. They used her skin as an ashtray, threw her downstairs, and cut open her skin and rubbed salt into her wounds. After this, she would often be “cleansed” in a scalding hot bath.

Gertrude gave sermons on the evils of sexual immortality while Paula stomped on Sylvia’s vagina. Paula, who herself was pregnant, accused Sylvia of being with child and mutilated the girl’s genitals. Gertrude’s 12-year-old son John Jr. delighted 

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