I was googling Sylvia Miles to recheck her birthdate (after Ross had commented that Ms. Miles had to be older than 78) but I mistyped something and ended up googling Sylvia Marie Likens. Oy, did I take a wrong turn.
The looker in the photograph is one
Gertrude Baniszewski. In 1966, she was convicted of first-degree murder, the murder of 16 year old Sylvia Likens. Baniszewski's son and two neighborhood boys (one of those boys, Richard Hobbs is shown in the photo above) were convicted of manslaughter and spent a couple of years incarcerated. Seems Sylvia was the child of "carnies"....carnival workers. These parents were having problems and left Sylvia and her sister Jenny in the care of Gertrude three months before she died. Being that they were carnies and all, they weren't to flush with cash and though Mr. Likens had promised Gertrude $20.00 a week to watch the girls, he wasn't too reliable. Wikipedia says, "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." Nice, huh? Gertrude got two of her own children to participate in this horror (she had seven kids) as well as two neighborhood children. They all systematically made up stories and concocted plots to get Sylvia in trouble and then they would all take turns abusing her. Carving the words "I am a prostitute" into the young girls chest with a burning needle, putting lit cigarettes out on Sylvia's skin and putting a Coke bottle up her vagina were just some of the lovely things Gertrude and her posse inflicted on this poor girl. On October 22,1965, after being beaten, put in scalding baths and being burned, Sylvia died of a brain hemorrhage, shock and malnutrition. The prosecutor In Baniszewski's trial referred to this as, "the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of Indiana." Who could argue with this statement?
Gertrude's daughter Paula was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life, just as her mother had been. In 1971, mother and daughter were granted new trials (which sounds to me like "the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of Indiana"). Paula pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was released in 1973. Mommie Most Dearest was again convicted of first degree murder and remained in prison until 1985 when, against a public outcry, she was released because of her good behavior. Gert changed her name to Nadine van Fossan and blessed Iowa with her citizenship. She died of lung cancer in 1990. Sylvia's torture and murder has been the inspiration for at least five books and a film.
Sylvia Marie Likens
