Who was Stephanie Baniszewski? How did Her Role In the Sylvia Likens Murder Affect her Mother and Siblings?

By Lynn A. Granata

Oh no not again! You must be thinking. Another Baniszewski tale again.
Only these tales are true crime events of our time.

But, so many of you must be wondering who was Stephanie?
And what role, if any did she play in participating in one of the most disgusting murders ever?

Well, now I'm going to introduce you all to:

Stephanie Fay Baniszewski.

Stephanie Baniszewski at the time of Sylvia's murder trial in 1966.

Stephanie Baniszewski when she was in 1st grade

Stephanie would be approximately 65/66 years old today, if she is still living. She was closer in age to Sylvia than any of the other children in that large dysfunctional brood. She was considered to be (probably) the most attractive and intelligent of the children in that family back then.

What was her role in the murder?

Stephanie sold her mother and siblings literally down the river, and she was never indicted on any murder charges against Sylvia. Instead she struck up a deal with her attorney which cleared her from any culpability because she testified that she either was unaware of the abuse and shenanigans taking place, that she never witnessed any abuse, or that she wasn't home when it happened. It has been speculated that Stephanie got up on the stand and committed perjury for she wasn't telling the truth under oath and we all know that's a crime in and of itself. Supposedly all because she wanted to wash her hands clean from her family and move forward with her own selfish interests.

However, she did participate in the cruelty and torture of her friend Sylvia.  I know that's not the news you would like to hear. So many of you figured that she was the only decent person in the household, perhaps the one who would have even saved Sylvia from the The Lord of the Flies.
Wrong.

Stephanie's boyfriend, Coy Hubbard killed Sylvia when he administered the very last fatal blow to her head with a wooden broomstick handle, which resulted in the immediate cause of death, a subdural hematoma to the brain.  In addition to that, Sylvia's body was riddled with more than 150 burns, cuts, lacerations and blisters from being immersed in scalding hot water on a regular basis. Stephanie, you guessed it was the task master of the scalding baths in order to "cleanse" Sylvia of her filthiness.

The Baniszewski's all declared her a "dirty little slut." Stephanie was in all likelihood nothing more than an ambivalent observer to Sylvia's intense pain. She shifted between a love-hate relationship with Sylvia, more or less depending upon the place and time she caught Sylvia being forced to strip naked and perform a strip tease that was instigated by her own mother, Gertrude.

Stephanie in real life walked into the house right as Sylvia was inserting the coke bottle, but instead of stopping the incident like as shown in An American Crime, she actually made the situation worse by going up to Sylvia and slapping her across the face, ordering her to go up into her room. Another time Stephanie caught Sylvia wearing her brassiere; she then slapped Sylvia and called her a name.

Coy hated Sylvia because he believed that she was spreading lies about his sweetheart Stephanie in school, saying she was a prostitute. Coy would judo flip Sylvia and beat her.  Stephanie was oblivious to his violence toward her supposed friend, it has been theorized because Stephanie was subconsciously jealous of Sylvia for making up the lie about her "chastity" being infringed upon. Coy acted on this presumption, for he was deeply angered by Sylvia's rumors that his girlfriend wasn't a virgin.

Where was Sylvia's prince?

 She could have been saved if she were only fortunate enough to have had someone around who really cared about her.
Some things are really just not fair-and this certainly is one of them.

Reference

Retrieved from:

murderpedia.org/gertrudebaniszewski