Dead At Sixteen
The Sylvia Likens story.
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Trigger Warning: This article discusses child abuse, torture, sexual abuse, and murder in sometimes graphic detail.
I am a huge horror fan and lover of Halloween and all things dark and mysterious.
I’m also a sucker for 80’s Slasher movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
When I’m not watching an 80’s slasher movie, I’m binging on true crime movies and documentaries.
As well as watching true crime documentaries, I enjoy reading about them. While searching for one to read, I found the story of Sylvia Likens.
Sylvia Likens was a sixteen-year-old girl who suffered child abuse, torture and was eventually murdered by Gertrude Baniszewski, her caregiver at the time, and Gertrude’s three children and two neighborhood boys.
The Early Life of Sylvia Likens.
Sylvia was born January 3rd, 1949, and was the third of five children born to carnival workers Lester Cecil Likens (1926–2013) and his wife, Elizabeth “Betty” Frances (née Grimes, 1927–1998).
She had an older sister and brother that were fraternal twins who were two years older and had a younger brother and sister who were one year younger.
As a teenager, Sylvia usually earned spending money by babysitting, running errands, or performing ironing chores for friends and neighbors.
Others have described her as a friendly, confidant girl with long wavy, light brown hair that came down below her shoulders.
Sylvia’s younger sister Jenny who also endured abuse at the hands of Gertrude suffered from polio, which caused one of her legs to be weaker than the other, which also caused her to have a notable limp and had to wear a steel brace on one leg.
It’s been said Jenny didn’t suffer from as much abuse as Sylvia did due to having polio, but it was never confirmed.
July 1965 — Moving in With the Evilest Woman Alive.
Sylvia’s
August 1965.
By mid-August 1965, Gertrude started focusing her abuse solely on Sylvia, with the motivation likely being jealous of her physical appearance and potential in life, but that’s also never been proven.
The abuse Gertrude inflicted upon Sylvia would be kicking Likens in the genitals, beating her bare backside with a one-quarter-inch-thick (6.4 mm) paddle.
With help from a neighborhood kid, Richard Hobbs, carve the words “I am a prostitute and proud of it” into her stomach with a large needle.
Gertrude would also refuse Likens acceptable amount of food, which resulted in Likens eating leftovers or spoiled food out of garbage cans.
The Neighborhood Kids Participated in The Abuse of Sylvia Likens.
Stephanie Baniszewski’s boyfriend, Coy Hubbard, and few of his classmates would regularly visit the Baniszewski residence to physically and verbally torment Likens, often conspiring with Baniszewski’s children and Gertrude herself.
With the active and constant assistance of Gertrude, the neighborhood kids would habitually beat Sylvia.
Coy would use Likens as a practice dummy for his judo flips and punches and shoving her down the basement stairs.
Another neighborhood kid by the name of Randy Gordon Lepper helped Gertrude and Paula — Gertrude’s oldest child — force-feed Sylvia, a hot dog overloaded with condiments, including mustard, ketchup, and spices.
Sylvia ended up vomiting then was later forced to consume what she had ejected.
The neighborhood kids would also lacerate her body burning her skin with lit cigarettes more than 100 times and severely injuring her genitals.
To entertain Gertrude and her teenage accomplices, Likens was forced at one point to strip naked in the family living room and insert an empty Coca-Cola bottle into her vagina in their presence.
Gertrude was one sick son of a bitch, and it baffles me how there are people like her all over.
Abuse Continues.
As time went on, Gertrude would forbid Likens from attending school all because Likens confessed to stealing a gym suit from school after Gertrude refused to purchase her one.
To punish her, she whipped Sylvia with a three-inch-wide (7.6 cm) police belt that was left by one of her ex-husbands that was a cop.
She continued to lecture Sylvia about the “evils” of premarital sex before repeatedly kicking Likens in the genitals as Stephanie rallied to Likens’ defense, shouting, “She didn’t do anything!”
Funny facts about Gertrude’s stance about premarital sex and accusing Sylvia of the act, Gertrude’s daughter Paula was three months pregnant by a married man. Hmmm…
After, Gertrude burned Sylvia’s fingertips with matches before whipping her some more.
A few days later, Gertrude repeatedly beat Jenny with a police belt after she reportedly stole a single tennis shoe from the school to wear on her strong foot.
Out of all of Gertrude’s children, Stephanie was the only one that came to Sylvia’s defense by grabbing items out of her mother’s hands as well as Paula’s hands that they were using to strike Sylvia.
I do wish that she would have defended Likens when her boyfriend Coy was beating her.
Chaos and Mayhem.
From the fear of worsening their abuse, Jenny and Sylvia never mentioned what was happening to any family members or adults.
Jenny never notified any family members of the abuse despite having the urge to tell someone, because Gertrude threatened her, saying she would also be abused and tortured to the same degree as Sylvia if she told anyone what was happening.
Lester and Betty came to visit the girls in July and August whenever they had the opportunity.
On the last occasion, Lester and Betty came to see their daughters were in late-August, and neither girl showed signs of distress or abuse, probably because they were always in the same room as Gertrude, so their parents never worried that something was wrong.
In September, the girls encountered their older sister, Dianna Shoemaker, at a local park.
Both girls informed Dianna of what was happening to them at the hands of Gertrude.
Unfortunately, Dianna didn’t believe her sisters and thought they must be exaggerating their claims of abuse since their father would also beat them with a belt for misbehaving.
The Death Of Sylvia Likens.
On the morning of October 26th, Likens was unable to speak intelligibly or to coordinate the movement of her limbs correctly.
Once again, Likens desperately attempted to exit the basement but collapsed before she could reach the stairs due to being too weak. Gertrude then decided to stomp on Likens’ head.
Although Likens stopped breathing before she was carried out of the basement, Stephanie gave Likens a warm, soapy bath.
Once Stephanie realized that Sylvia stopped breathing, she attempted to apply mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as Gertrude would continue to shout her belief that Likens was faking her death to everyone present in the house.
In the beginning, Gertrude accused Sylvia of faking her death while also striking her body with a book shouting, “Faker! Faker!”
Once they finally realized that Sylvia Likens was dead, Gertrude ordered Richard Hobbs to call the police from a nearby payphone.
The police arrived at 6:30 pm, and Gertrude led the officers to Likens’ emaciated, extensively bludgeoned, and mutilated body lying upon a soiled mattress in one of the bedrooms.
Gertrude proceeded to lie to the officers saying she tried everything she could to care for Likens before she died and said Likens was a troubled child and ran away with a group of unknown boys and became sexually active with the boys.
It was her way of blaming all of Sylvia’s wounds on the anonymous group of boys instead of herself and her terrible children and neighborhood kids.
Jenny was able to get the police officers’ attention and whispered, “You get me out of here, and I’ll tell you everything.”
Arresting The Monsters.
The statement that Jenny provided instructed police to arrest Gertrude, Paula, Stephanie, and John Baniszewski Jr. on suspicion of Likens’ murder within hours of discovering Sylvia’s body.
The same day, Coy Hubbard and Richard Hobbs were also arrested and charged with the same offenses.
The three eldest Baniszewski children, plus Coy Hubbard, were placed in the custody of a nearby juvenile detention center; the younger Baniszewski children and Richard Hobbs were detained at the Indianapolis Children’s Guardians Home.
All were held without bail pending trial.
Sentencing The Monsters.
Gertrude Baniszewski: 36 years old at the time of Sylvia’s death.
TIME SERVED: 20 YEARS
Gertrude was initially found guilty of first-degree murder, but in a 1971 retrial, she was sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled in 1985.
Paula Baniszewski: 17 years old at the time of Sylvia’s death.
TIME SERVED: 7 YEARS
Paula was convicted of second-degree murder in 1966, but due to a technicality, her conviction was overturned in 1971.
Rather than face a retrial, she pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
She got 2-to-21 years but was paroled in March 1972 even though she attempted a prison break then released entirely in March 1974.
Stephanie Baniszewski: 15 years old at the time of Sylvia’s death.
TIME SERVED: NONE
Stephanie admitted to participating in Sylvia’s abuse, but to some degree, she was given a special trail, and all charges against her were dropped.
Most likely, due to her testifying against her family.
John Baniszewski: 12 years old at the time of Sylvia’s death.
TIME SERVED: 2 YEARS
John was convicted of manslaughter and became the Indiana State Reformatory’s youngest inmate, serving just two years before being released.
Coy Hubbard: 15 years old at the time of Sylvia’s death.
TIME SERVED: 2 YEARS
Neighborhood kid and Stephanie’s boyfriend was convicted of manslaughter and only serving two years despite being a full participant in Sylvia’s torture.
Richard Hobbs: 14 years old at the time of Sylvia’s death.
TIME SERVED: 2 YEARS
Wow, look, another two-year sentence! Hobbs performed the act of helping to carve the words “I am a prostitute and proud of it” into her stomach with a large needle. Richard was convicted of manslaughter and only served two years.
With how severe Sylvia’s abuse was, I’m shocked that her abusers only served short sentences.
Gertrude should have never been paroled; the same goes for her nasty daughter Paula.
Lester, Sylvia, and Jenny’s father should have done a better job reviewing the Baniszewski’s residence before leaving his daughters to stay there for several months.
He admitted that he knew the Baniszewski family were poor but was unaware of the care Gertrude provided. Well, duh.
If he took the time to observe Gertrude’s caregiving skills, he would have known that she was an evil nasty woman.
Just because Gertrude is a woman, doesn’t mean she’s maternal since she clearly shows that she’s not a great mother figure.
