Torture and Murder of Sylvia Likens

Abuse and murder:

Gertrude Baniszewski murdered Sylvia Likens, but she was not alone in doing so. She heavily encouraged her seven children, even the second youngest being around 8 at the time, to assist in the torture. Baniszewski also threatened Jenny with punishments to inflict pain on Sylvia. If Jenny hadn’t done as Gertrude told her she would beat Jenny. Gertrude also threatened to inflict the same torture upon Jenny if she attempted to tell any outsiders what was going on.

Being without a phone, made it almost impossible for the girls to contact their parents. Their parents would write letters, but they would all be filtered through Gertrude. Gertrude would also always have an eye on the girls in some way, even if one of the Baniszewski kids had to monitor them.

When Sylvia was accused of lying, stealing, or misbehaving, Gertrude would lash out on her. Any real motive for harming Sylvia soon vanished, and Gertrude would beat her almost as a pastime. Sylvia was reported later to have been a sweet girl who read her Bible often, and did everything that Gertrude had asked her to.

The abuse towards Sylvia started out with her being beaten and starved, but it soon escalated. After hearing that Sylvia had spread a rumor about her daughters, Gertrude made Sylvia come before everyone and shove an empty coke bottle up her vagina. Gertrude humiliated her in front of everyone, and said to Sylvia, “prove to Jenny what kind of a girl you are.”

Gertrude had also asked Sylvia if she had “ever done anything with a boy.” Sylvia, ignorant to what Gertrude was actually referring to, responded by saying “I guess so.” Sylvia spoke about how she would go skating with boys, hang out with some male friends, but everything she mentioned was very innocent. Gertrude kept going on and off about the subject to Sylvia throughout the rest of the week. Through this interrogation, Sylvia had told her that she once laid under the covers with her boyfriend. Gertrude then preached about how premarital sex was a sin and kicked Sylvia’s genitals. Paula would also willingly harm her genitals until the area was mutilated. Gertrude upon preaching how wrong premarital sex is, would force Jenny to hurt her sister as well as part of Sylvia’s punishment. 

Gertrude eventually threw Sylvia into the basement where she would be forced to live for the remainder of her life. In the basement, Sylvia was left most of the time naked, starved, and dehydrated. She would also have Sylvia tied up to a pole. Most of the time as she was tied up her feet were restrained from touching the ground to torture her. Most every day Gertrude and the children would go down into the basement to beat Sylvia for the hell of it. Gertrude told outsiders that Sylvia went to juvenile detention for her supposedly horrible behavior. Gertrude told her children and Jenny to lie about Sylvia’s whereabouts, and threatened them if they disobeyed her.

Gertrude would also encourage the neighborhood kids to torture Sylvia. Some of the things they would do to her included burning her with cigarettes, using her as a target for judo training, striking her with objects, and hosing her naked body down. Sylvia would be visited weekly by the neighborhood kids, so that they could harm her whenever they were given the chance. It got to a point where the neighborhood kids would pay to see her as though she was an amusement attraction.

Stephanie Baniszewski’s boyfriend, Coy Hubbard, was also one of the main children outside the family to beat Sylvia. Especially in response to the rumors being spread around the school of the Baniszewski girls, he would abuse her. He did things to her such as banging her head against a wall, punching her, striking her with several objects, flipping her over and onto the ground, and burning her with several cigarettes over 100 times.

On one occasion, Gertrude had given Sylvia a hotdog covered with heavy loads of condiments and forced her to eat it. Because she did as she was told, she vomited up the food. Gertrude in response, forced her to eat everything she regurgitated.

Many other heinous things happened to her, Paula, Gertrude’s oldest daughter, beat Sylvia so brutally that she broke her wrist and had to get a cast. Paula used her cast to beat Sylvia even further. The family would also come together to wash her with scalding hot water in a tub and rub her wounds with salt which they said would purify her sins. To prevent her from screaming, they would gag her with a cloth.

Another incident was Gertrude’s twelve year old son, John Jr., forced Sylvia to lick a diaper clean of feces and urine. Afterwards, he gave her a small cup of water as her rations for the rest of the day. The twelve year old would often volunteer to torment Sylvia.

One of the worst things that Gertrude had done to Sylvia was carve “I’m a prostitute and I’m proud of it” on her stomach with a hot needle. She also made her eight year old daughter assist her by heating the needle over a flame. Gertrude said to Sylvia, “you have branded my daughters, now I’m going to brand you” prior to marking her. When she felt too weak to finish the branding, she had a neighborhood boy finish the job. Once marked, she taunted Sylvia by saying being branded like this, Sylvia will never be able to get married. Defeated Sylvia had replied by saying, “I guess there’s nothing I can do.” She was also forced to show the neighborhood children the branding, which the family explained she got at a sex party.

There were a few times that the Likens’ parents were able to visit the girls when their circus tour was near. Upon the times that they visited their daughters, both girls didn’t show any sign of physical abuse. The Likens’ girls also neglected to mention any wrongdoing towards them. Gertrude was around the girls during these visits in order to monitor them. One time after their parents left she said to Sylvia, “What are you going to do now Sylvia? Now they’re gone.”

There were a couple times that the Likens’ daughters tried to reach out to their older sister Dianna. At first Dianna thought that the girls were exaggerating and complaining, but later grew suspicious of Gertrude. Dianna tried to see the girls and enter the house, but Gertrude refused her entry. When Dianna was given the chance to speak to Jenny, she asked her about Sylvia. Jenny said to her that she wasn’t allowed to talk about it. Dianna called the police and social services to investigate. When the social services agent came, Jenny lied to them and said that Sylvia had run away.

Gertrude at a point made Sylvia write a letter to her parents explaining that a group of boys attacked, mutilated her, and marked up her stomach. She also instructed Sylvia to state that she had run away from Gertrude’s care. Gertrude wanted to shift the blame on an anonymous group of boys and Sylvia to excuse herself from the torture she’s inflicted upon Sylvia.

“To Mr. and Mrs. Likens:

I went with a gang of boys in the middle of the night. And they said that they would pay me I would give them something so I got in the car and they all got what they wanted . . . and when they got finished they beat me up and left sores on my face and all over my body. And they also put on my stomach, I am a prostitute and proud of it. I have done just about everything that I could do just to make Gertie mad and cause [sic] Gertie more money than she’s got. I’ve tore up a new mattress and peaed [sic] on it. I have also cost Gertie doctor bills that she really can’t pay and made Gertie a nervous wreck and all her kids . . .”

Later Sylvia had heard about Gertrude’s plan to leave her for dead in a forest, and she tried to escape. She was unable to make it out, because her body was too weak and Gertrude had stopped her from getting free. Gertrude then regained control over Sylvia, and continued to have her tortured until she fell unconscious. 

The next day Sylvia tried to escape again by going up the basement stairs, but Gertrude crushed her hands by stepping on them. Moments later Sylvia passed out from exhaustion and stopped breathing. Although she had noticeably stopped breathing, Gertrude exclaimed several times that Sylvia’s just lying again and this is all an act. One of the Baniszewski daughters tried giving her CPR, but it was no use.

Gertrude eventually called the police, and told them that a group of anonymous boys had murdered Sylvia and mutilated her body. That Sylvia had run away from her care, and had returned to her in this condition. She said that she had been nursing Sylvia and trying to save her in the last couple hours.

Jenny told the police that if they took her away from the Baniszewskis she would tell them everything that happened.