An American Crime

Sylvia Marie Likens (January 3, 1949 - October 26, 1965) was an American murder victim from Indianapolis. She was tortured to death by Gertrude Baniszewski (née Van Fossan), her children, and other young people from their neighborhood. Her parents, carnival workers, had left Likens and her sister Jenny in the care of the Baniszewski family three months before her death in exchange for twenty dollars a week. Along with Baniszewski, two of her children, Paula and John, and two neighbor youths, Coy Hubbard and Richard Hobbs, were charged and convicted of the crime. Her torture and murder were described by the prosecutor in Baniszewski's trial as "the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of Indiana."

Sylvia Likens was the third child of carnival workers Betty and Lester Likens. Her birth came between two sets of fraternal twins, Diana and Daniel (two years older), and Jenny and Benny (two years younger). The marriage of the Likens was unstable and the family moved many times. Likens was often boarded out or forced to live with relatives while her parents were working.
In 1965, Likens and her sister Jenny, who was disabled from polio, were living with their mother in Indianapolis when the elder woman was arrested and jailed for shoplifting. Lester Likens, who had recently separated from his wife, arranged for his daughters to board with Gertrude Baniszewski, the mother of Paula, a girl with whom the Likens girls had become acquainted. Although the Baniszewski family was poor, with seven children, three spoons, and no stove, Lester Likens, as he reported in the trial, "didn't pry" into the condition of the house, and encouraged Baniszewski to "straighten his daughters out". He agreed to pay her twenty dollars a week.

Baniszewski, described by the Indianapolis Star as a "haggard, underweight asthmatic" suffering from depression and the stress of several failed marriages, began taking her anger out on the Likens girls, beating them with paddles after payments from their parents failed to arrive on time.
Sylvia Likens in particular became a target of abuse. Baniszewski accused her of stealing candy she had bought from a grocery store and humiliated her when she admitted that she had once had a boyfriend. She kicked Likens in the groin and accused her of being pregnant. Paula Baniszewski, who was in fact pregnant at the time, became enraged and knocked Likens onto the floor. Likens became convinced that she was pregnant, although medical examination proved that she was not and could not have been.
Likens allegedly retaliated by spreading rumors at their high school that Paula and Stephanie Baniszewski were prostitutes. That supposedly prompted Stephanie's boyfriend, Coy Hubbard, to physically attack Likens. Mrs. Baniszewski encouraged Hubbard and other neighborhood children to torment Likens, including, among other things, putting cigarettes out on her skin, forcing her to remove her clothes and inserting a Coke bottle into her vagina.
After Likens admitted stealing a gym suit, without which she was unable to attend gym class, Baniszewski pulled her out of school and did not allow her to leave the house. When Likens urinated in her bed, she was locked in the cellar and forbidden to use the toilet. Later, she was forced to consume feces and urine. Baniszewski began to carve the words "I'm a prostitute and proud of it!" into Sylvia's stomach with a heated needle, although Richard Hobbs finished the carving when Baniszewski couldn't.
Likens attempted to escape a few days before her death. As punishment, she was tied in the basement and given only crackers to eat. On October 26, 1965, after multiple beatings, she died of brain hemorrhage, shock, and malnutrition.
Two of the young people tried to revive Likens before realizing it was a lost cause.

Baniszewski sent Richard Hobbs to call the police from a nearby payphone. When they arrived, she handed them a letter she had forced Sylvia to write a few days previously, addressed to her parents. This letter stated that she had agreed to have sex with a group of boys in exchange for money, they dragged her away in their car, beat her up, burned her multiple times, and carved the inscription into her skin. Before the police left, however, Jenny Likens approached them, saying: "Get me out of here and I'll tell you everything."
During the highly-publicized trial, Baniszewski denied responsibility for the death, pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. She claimed that she was too distracted by her ill health and depression to control her children. Attorneys for the young people on trial (Paula and John Baniszewski, Richard Hobbs, and Coy Hubbard) claimed that they had been pressured by Baniszewski. When Marie Baniszewski, Gertrude's eleven-year-old daughter, was called to the stand as a witness for the defense, she broke down and admitted that she had been forced to heat the needle with which Hobbs carved Sylvia Likens' skin and that she had seen her mother beating and forcing Sylvia into the basement. In his closing statement, Baniszewski's lawyer said: "I condemn her for being a murderess... but I say she's not responsible because she's not all here!" and tapped his head.
On May 19, 1966, Gertrude Baniszewski was convicted of first-degree murder, but spared the death penalty and sentenced to life in prison. Her daughter Paula, who had given birth to a daughter named Gertrude during the trial, was convicted of second-degree murder and also given a life term. Richard Hobbs, Coy Hubbard, and John Baniszewski were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to two-to-21-year terms.
The boys would spend two years in prison. In 1971, Paula and Gertrude Baniszewski were granted another trial. Paula pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was released two years later. Gertrude Baniszewski, however, was again convicted of first-degree murder. She came up for parole in 1985, and despite a public outcry and petitions against her release, the parole board took her good behavior in prison into account, and she was set free.

This is a prime example of teen violence and is a very twisted thing to have done. This could have been triggered by stress, anger or just being crazy but none of these justify the actions. In a more modern case, a few months ago a guy was humiliated, tortured and killed by a group of dumb gang members. They forced him to swallow fifty pain killers then pushed him off a cliff. These things are unacceptable and extremely barbaric and should not be taken lightly. The neighbors to the Baniszewski's heard the screams and just didn't say anything. If you here or see anything at all that strikes you as dangerous to another person or yourself call the police. You can save a life by doing so and you will be responsible. Don't let these things happen in your community. Use your voice in order to help.

Final Assignment

If there was a post that i loved the most, it would be the poem America's on sale. This fits my personality and my idea for my blogs purpose. Such a cool poem and because i love to write so much myself, this poem inspired me to write a poem and that is why I will continue this blog. These posts are for others to find inspiration from my writing and others material and i hope others will find my blog and like it. My audience would be the new age writers and the Harlem griots. They'll be the poets of change that will forever look on this blog for ideas. And I'll keep pumping this page full of new poetry for the sake of my audience. All in All, i want for people to critique, support and ad their own poetry. This way i can learn something and they can learn something. That's fair, right?

Questions to Answer

I didn't learn anything from the project and it didn't change my voice as a writer doing this work. I don't think anything about my writing changed because this piece was just i guess for a grade though i will continue the blog. I will continue because i actually like the blog that i made and i need somewhere to add my poetry.

People can learn a lot about you through your blogging, but I personally didn't find anyone and apparently, no one found me. So this didn't make any new relationship wit people either.

Media is basically used to make people want and believe stuff that they don't need in my opinion.Media should be used for entertainment and and information only. Not commercialized useless products. It can be used for information, but it rarely is. Blogging is a bit more creative then T.V. but some do the same things as T.V. Brain Washing. Blogging isn't changing my ideas on media or what it does. One limitation is that not everyone has a computer but we do have libraries.

Alix Olson is an awsome poet that has a lot of energy to put out on the stage. But my class asignment was to write about politics and that's what i willl do. But only with a poetice twist. You see, in this poem she touches on many different issues. I only wish she wrote it now to talk about the upcoming election.

First issue, SUPER DUPER DUPER WALMART! Walmart is really taking over and though I go their sometimes, I would much rather go to a big Wegmans. Every grocery store has it's own "thing"! Wegmans-Healthy and reliable stuff. Walmart-cheap S@#*. Target-Class (very classy). Lori's-Vegitarian. Walmart insists on trying to cover all of these things. And it's kinda working.

Next issue- Race in America. This could take hours so let me make this quick. America is caught up in lies as old as the pyramids. There hasn't been a land of the free scence white settlers kicked the native americans further and further west until they had nothing left but dry earth and evaporated rivers. Their are millions more but again this will take hours of typing and i don't want to go there.

Issue three- Discrimination! America in my opinion, and correct me if I'nm wrong, if notorious for the discrimination against...well everyone. Not to say we are the only country but we sure are up there in the numbers. america is also imfamousfor it's extreme racism and hate against many different races and sexualities. Also, even gender, but that one i can't dump on America only.

I can go on and on but i think i covered most of the poem and the major issues. leave a request if you would like and i would be happy to continue. Enjoy the poem once more if you would like. :)

Oh, and by the way...YOU ARE ALL FIRED!!

A Boy That Got Lost

I was in california with my aunt and cousins. It was a hot day in California and we all we practically melting. So we decided to go to this huge park and cool off. They brought sndwiches and chips and we all were having a good time. But all I wanted to see was the playground. I asked politely if I could go and I got no responce. I asked again and nothing at all. Then I got whiny and all I got was a "You're just a kid" attitude. So I walked away and went to the playground alone. Dumb move on their part. Well I ended up being searched for and I wasn't really lost. I knew where I was the whole time. But then the "fuzz" caught up with me. They took me back and I was once again, just a kid. But when I went off on my own, I was powerful. I had the power!
It has always been expected that children don't know anything and are "just kids" and if that isn't discimination I know not what is. We as the children of the world deserve more repect and that it why this perticular incident was because of this same discimination. Stand up for your rights children, stand up.

Be Golden

I am a boy called golden and I love peotry. I hope that you will learn to love the poetry i put up. ENJOY!!