Sylvia
Marie
Likens
January
3,
1949
- October 26, 1965
Find
A Grave Memorial
On
October
26, 1965
in Indianapolis, Indiana a beautiful, young woman
named Sylvia Marie
Likens
was released from the home that had been her prison
for a long time.
That
release, unfortunately, came in the form of her death.
When
the
police found
her body, it was covered with bruises and small
wounds that were later
revealed to be cigarette burns, there were over 100
of them on her
body.
Sylvia Marie Likens also had skin peeled back away
from her body, the
number
3 was burned into her body as were the words "I'm a
prostitute and
proud
of it".
A
37
year old woman
named Gertrude Baniszewski had lead a group of
children, some as young
as 11 years old and including, UNWILLINGLY,
Sylvia's younger
sister,
Jenny and willingly, Gertrude's daughter Paula to
beat and torture this
young woman, until one day she died after being
given a bath.
Sylvia
and
Jenny's
parents had left their children with Gertrude to
care for them while
they
traveled with a carnival. They hardly knew this
woman and didn't even
bother
to check out her home before leaving their children
alone with her.
Lester
told Gertrude that his daughters needed some
discipline and asked her
to
straighten them out. Lester
and
Betty had offered
her $20. a week to care for their daughters. She did
more than
straighten
them out.
One
adult,
Gertrude
and four children were the only ones, out of the
many who had
contributed
to Sylvia's tortured existence, to stand trail for
her murder.
The
charges against most of the children who had joined
in were dropped.
Gertrude,
her daughter Paula, her son John, Coy Hubbard and a
boy with the last
name
Hobbs were all charged and
went
to trial.
In
May
of 1966, Gertrude
was on trial and denied having any part in the
torture and death of
Sylvia.
She claimed that the children must have been the one
to do this to her.
She plead not guilty and not guilty by reason of
insanity.
On
May
19, 1966,
Gertrude was found guilty of first degree murder and
was sentenced to
life
in prison. Paula was found guilty of second degree
murder and sentenced
to life in prison. All of the boys were sentenced to
two to 21 year
terms
at the Indiana State Reformatory in Pendleton.
In
1971,
Gertrude
and Paula were granted a new trial by the Indiana
Supreme Court based
on
a prejudicial atmosphere. Gertrude was, once again,
convicted of first
degree murder on August 5, 1971. Paula
entered
a guilty
plea to manslaughter and served ONLY two
years in prison. In
1968,
the three boys who had been found guilty, were each
granted parole for
good behavior. They had only been in prison for
about two years each.
In
September
1985,
Gertrude Baniszewski was released on parole. She
changed her name to
Nadine
Van Fossan and moved to Iowa where she lived in
obscurity until her
death
from lung cancer on June 16, 1990. Paula married and
moved to a farm in
Iowa. John became a lay minister in Texas and
counseled children of
divorced
parents. Hobbs died of cancer at the age of 21, four
years after being
released from the reformatory. Hubbard has had
several brushes with the
law. Lester and Betty Likens divorced. Betty
remarried and died in 1998
at age 71. Jenny Likens Wade died in 2004 at age
54.
SHOCKINGLY
in December of 1985, Gertrude was paroled from
prison after serving
only
20 years for her inhuman crimes against Sylvia Marie
Likens. Changing
her
name to Nadine Van Fossan, she moved to Iowa and
died of lung cancer on
June 16, 1990.
Paula
was
married
and moved to Iowa to live on a farm. John became a
minister in Texas.
He
was a counselor for children who came from homes
where the parents had
divorced. Coy had many other dealings with the law.
Lester and Betty
Likens
were divorced. Betty remarried and she died in 1998
at the age of
71.
|
Jenny
married,
had
children and was there when a monument was
put up to honor her sister,
Sylvia. Jenny died on June 23, 2004 at the
age of 54.
How
could
so many
people, including an older sister, a
Reverend, a child's mother and
several ADULT
visitors to this home become aware of the
horrible things that were
happening
to this innocent young girl, yet ignore it
which allowed the abuse to
continue
until finally Sylvia Marie Likens body could
take it no more and she
died.
Clearly
the
case
of Sylvia Marie Likens is one in which had ANY
of the adults
who
witnessed this horror reported it to the
proper authorities, she could
have been released from the nightmare she
was living. This true story
should
be a reminder to us all that we should NOT
turn our backs on ANY
child that needs our help.
I
received an e-mail
at one point, from a man who said that he
had been one of the children
who had tortured Sylvia all those years ago.
He told me that not a day
goes by that he doesn't think about Sylvia
and regret what took place.
I offered him the chance to tell his story
here on her pages and he
could
even remain anonymous, I never heard from
him again.
|
Below
are
pictures
of the house where Sylvia died, the
room where Sylvia was
tortured and died, back then and
how the house looks today.
Below
is a picture
of Sylvia's headstone.
Click
below to view
a
trailer for the movie due out in 2007.
I
received an e-mail
on June 19, 2003 and here
is
what is
said:
"I
want
to thank
you for the memorial I saw on a web site for
Sylvia Marie Likens. I
remember
Sylvia and Jennie
when
we
were very young playing together when they came
to visit or stay with
their
Grandmother. Then
for
a short
time living in our neighborhood. Thank you so
very much!!
Sylvia
is buried
in my hometown."
"Connie
T."
After
asking
her
for permission to use her comments on my site she
had this to add:
"You
may
add what
I had said earlier. I really do not remember much
about our
times together,
we were so little. They moved around
a lot,
and was never in one place for long. I
remember
Sylvia
as
a quiet
girl, which I assume we played dolls together, and
Jennie with
her leg brace,
which she was more wary
about
kids."
"Connie
from
Lebanon,
Indiana"
My
sincerest
thanks
go out to Connie for writing me and for allowing me to
use her comments
on my site. If you know any of the children within my
child abuse pages
and would like your comments to be on my site, on
their page, please
let
me know by e-mail. THANK
YOU!
You can see Jenny Fay
Likens memorial,
here: Find
A Grave Memorial
Sylvia had a brother who
died, you can
read about Benny Ray Likens, here: Find
A Grave Memorial
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1-800-422-4453
