Ohh the true horror!!! by Sasha Slaughter

Hey there creeps and creepettes, Sasha Slaughter here && this week on Dead End we're talking true horror. So I'll be talking a little about Sylvia Likens. Never heard of her?? Neither did I until a few days ago. Her story was actually the inspiration for Jack Ketchum's book, "The girl next door" and it was also adapted as a film. In addition to the info I'm about to give you about Sylvia Likens, Zane && I will also be reviewing Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and he'll be doing a list of true horror movies. Yay!!!

Sylvia Marie Likens was born January 3, 1949. She was the daughter of Betty and Lester Likens, who were carnival workers. She was the middle child, born between two sets of twins. Sylvia was often left with relatives due to her parents work schedule. She and her siblings had had at least fourteen different addresses over the years, due to her parents moving to find work. In 1965 Sylvia and her sister Jenny, who was disabled from polio, were living with their mother Betty in Indianapolis when she got arrested and jailed for shoplifting. Their father, who was separated from their mother at the time, arranged to have Sylvia and Jenny board with Gertrude Baniszewski in exchange for $20 a week.

Baniszewski was described as haggard, underweight, and was reporedly suffering from depression due to many failed marriages. She often took her anger out on Sylvia and Jenny, beating them with paddles when the $20 payments weren't sent on time. Shortly after arriving at Gertrudes home, Sylvia began being abused by Gertrude, Gertrudes children (Paula and John) and two neighborhood boys, Coy Hubbard and Richard Hobbs. Baniszewski focused most of the abuse on Sylvia, accusing her of stealing candy and humiliating her when Sylvia admitted that she had once had a boyfriend. She kicked Sylvia in the genitals and often accused her of being pregnant. Gertrudes daughter Paula, who was actually the one pregnant at the time, became enraged and knocked Sylvia to the floor. Later reports showed that Sylvia was never pregnant.

Sylvia was accused of spreading rumors around her high school that Stephanie and Paula (Gertrudes daughters) were prostitutes. These rumors caused Stephanie's boyfriend, Coy Hubbard to physically attack Likens. Gertrude often encouraged the neighborhood children to tourment Sylvia, by putting cigarettes out on her skin and forcing her to remove her clothes and insert a coke bottle into her vagina, on at least two separate occasions.

After beating Sylvia to get her to admit to stealing a gym uniform that Mrs. Baniszewski wouldn't buy for her to take gym class, Gertrude pulled Sylvia out of school and did not let her leave the house. She was held prisoner there. She wasn't allowed to use the bathroom, and when Sylvia urinated in her bed, she was locked in the cellar and forbidden to use the toilet for days. After that, she was forced by Gertrude to consume feces and urine. Gertrude began carving the words "I'm a prostitute and proud of it!" with a hot needle into Sylvia's stomach. When Baniszewski wasn't able to finish, Richard Hobbs completed the carving on her stomach. Richard Hobbs, with the help of Gertrudes 10 year old daughter Shirley, then burnt the number "3" into Sylvia's chest with a heated eye bolt.

Sylvia tried to escape after she over heard Gertrudes plan to have her dumped in a wooded area nearby. Unfortunately Sylvia was caught before she made it to the front door. As punishment for trying to escape, Sylvia was tied in the basement and fed only crackers. On October 26, 1965 after several beatings, burnings, and scalding baths, she died of a brain hemorrhage and malnutrition. When Stephanie and Richard realized that she wasn't breathing, they attempted to give her mouth to mouth resuscitation before realizing that she was dead. Sylvia Likens was 16 years old and had only been with the Baniszewski's for three months before her untimely death.

Stephanie then sent Hobbs to a payphone to call the police. When the police arrived, Gertrude handed them a note that she had forced Sylvia to write just days before she was murdered. It said that she agreed to have sexual relations with several boys in exchange for money and that they had dragged her away in their car, beaten her up, burned her several times and carved the inscription into her skin. Upon leaving the home, Jenny approached the police officers and told them that if they could get her out of the house, she would tell them everything.

During the trial, Baniszewski denied having anything to do with Likens death, by pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. She claimed to have been too distracted by her mental health and severe depression to control her children. While attorneys for the young people on trial (Paula and John Baniszewski, Richard Hobbs, and Coy Hubbard) claimed that the they were pressured by Gertrude. When Gerturdes 11 year old daughter Marie took the stand she broke down and admitted that she had been forced to heat the needle that was used to carve things into Sylvia Liken's skin, and that she had seen her mother beating Sylvia. It was said that during the closing statments of the trial Baniszewki's lawyer said "I condemn her for being a murderess...but I say she's not responsible because she's not all there!" and then proceeded to tap his head.

Richard Hobbs and Coy Hubbard spent two years in jail. In 1971, Paula and Gertrude were granted another trial. Paula pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was released two years later. Gertrude was again convicted of first degree murder. In 1985 she came up for parole and was released due to good behavior. She changed her name to Nadine van Fossan and moved to Iowa. She died of lung cancer on June 16, 1990. It was reported that when Jenny Likens saw Baniszewki's obituary in the newspaper, she clipped it out and mailed it to her mother with a note reading "Some good news. Damn old Gertrude died. Ha ha ha! I'm happy about that".

Richard Hobbs died of lung cancer at 21 years of age after being released from the reformatory. After a middle school massacre, John Baniszewski made a speech in which he said that not all criminals are beyond help and described how he turned his life around. He died at the General Hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on May 19, 2005 following a lengthy illness with diabetes. He had a wife and three children. Coy Hubbard, Stephanie Baniszewki's boyfriend who beat Sylvia and reportedly practiced judo on her, was in and out of prison before being charged and acquitted with the muder of two men. He died on June 23, 2007 of a heart attack in Shelbyville, Indiana. He had a wife and five children, seventeen grandchildren, and one great grandchild.

Paula Baniszewki was seventeen and the oldest of Gertrudes children was given a sentence of twenty years to life for her part in Sylvia's death. While in jail, she gave birth to a baby girl (which she named Gertrude) but was forced to give her up for adoption. She tried to escape from prison in 1971, both attempts were unsuccessful. Finally in 1972 she was paroled and changed her name. She is said to be married and living on a small farm in Iowa. The murder charge against Stephanie Bansizewski was dropped after she testified against the others. She changed her name and became a school teacher. She is married and has several children.

The other children in the neighborhood who helped torture Sylvia (Anna Ruth Siscoe, Judy Darlene Duke, Michael John Monroe, and Randy Gordon Lepper) had the charges against them dropped. The house at 3850 East New York Street in which Sylvia Likens was murdered stood vacant for years and was finally demolished on April 23, 2009. The property became a church parking lot.

There it is! The story of Sylvia Likens. Sad isn't it??? Hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to check out Zanes true horror movie list && his review of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. And you know the drill, check back next week when Dead End returns with new stuff! Take care =)