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.