Jenny Likens

By Lynn A. Granata

After Gertrude Baniszewski was arrested on October 25, 1965, she was convicted of 1st degree murder and the torture slaying of Sylvia Likens.

 The person who really should be credited the most with bringing Sylvia's killers to justice, was her younger sister Jenny.

Jenny Likens, 15 at the time her sister Sylvia was killed by Gertrude and her children was deeply traumatized.  On October 25, 1965, after one of the culprits, Ricky Hobbs, called the police on a pay phone to report a dead girl; Jenny whispered to the policeman who was the first to arrive on the scene "get me out of here and I will tell you everything." He asked her what's going on here?  Sylvia was found dead upstairs on a filthy mattress on the squalid bed room floor.  Gertrude was ready to hand him a note that she made Sylvia write explaining what happened to her.  Sylvia wrote:

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 . . .

A copy of the hand written letter was presented in court as an exhibit. It was one of many exhibits presented to prove Gertie's guilt.

Jenny had been the star witness of the case to Gertrude and her children, plus several other neighborhood children, who were involved in the torture in the basement. The other children were charged with injury to person.  Once they turned 18, their juvenile records were expunged.  

Jenny was emotional many if not the entire time she was on the witness stand. Nonetheless, what happened to her older sister, bothered her until she herself died in 2004. So many people have speculated that Jenny was just as culpable as all the others.  But, really, she wasn't.  

Instead, Jenny was scared of what this motley crew would have done to her if Sylvia hadn't have been scapegoated.  She was threatened by Gertrude that if she tried to help her sister, she too would join her in the basement. And other speculations said that because she was afflicted with polio since infancy, Jenny was not going to get the same abuse and torture as Sylvia anyway. No, not necessarily, because Jenny was whipped with a belt along with Sylvia when the measly $20 check didn't arrive on time.  Sylvia volunteered to take the extra abuse for Jenny.  

I will tell the story in small units.  Because it's such a long story. There will be more content about this case coming soon.

Reference

Pictures retrieved from:

Examiner.com