Gertrude Baniszewski and Her Children

By Lynn A. Granata

By no means am I justifying their actions.  The torture of Sylvia was brutal.  Many of you will probably notice several things though, and ask such questions such as why didn't she just leave? Was she a masochist? Why didn't Jenny and her just run away?  These are complex questions without easy answers.  Since none of us were there when it happened.  However, there are a lot of valid explanations for why Sylvia took the abuse, as a passive victim, instead of resisting. 

 First, I am going to begin with that back in 1965 spankings weren't considered child abuse, or illegal. It was before child abuse and domestic violence became public issues.  Sylvia and Jenny were no strangers to beatings, because their father, the very person who was supposed to be there to protect them, instructed Gertrude to "keep the girls in line." So, abuse did in fact take place inside of the Liken's home. Gertrude and Lester Likens came up with an agreement almost like back in the old days of slavery, to barter his daughters, by literally selling them off to a bondage holder.  Gertrude, however, violated every single human right she could by scapegoating the shy and reticent Sylvia. 

Of course, Gertrude wasn't all there, she was crazy.  But, keep in mind she wasn't proved to be insane, either.  She was proven competent to understand what she did was wrong and not insane by the legal definition of it. Medically, Gertrude may have had various psychological experts present to the court at her trial that she was mentally ill with a personality disorder, but that's it. The bar is rigged high in American Jurisprudence to prove insanity.

Sylvia's most common reason for submitting to the torture and brutality it's been speculated is that she didn't want her polio afflicted younger sister, Jenny to become abused by the savaged family. Sylvia, would "volunteer" to take Jenny's abuse. The Stockholm Syndrome can be yet another reason for Sylvia's submission to the brutality. Unfortunately, the Stockholm Syndrome doesn't apply in this case, because Gertrude wasn't taking adequate care of these two girls, as they were only fed soup and crackers everyday, if they (particularly Sylvia) was fed at all. 

SS victims learn to cooperate with their jailor, it's the only way that they will receive good treatment and not become abused much worst.  Sylvia was abused as far abused could go. Jenny was at first, beaten with a paddle or belt, but later on after Gertrude's abuse of Sylvia escalated, she took all the abuse for all of the children in that dysfunctional household.  It was a heartbreaking story, which does prove that there is karma.  

Every person who has taken part in the events has since either died or succumbed to bad karma. The other actors outside of the family, such as the boyfriends of Stephanie and Paula Baniszewski have long since died from heart attacks or other somatic related illnesses, isn't such a coincidence.

An American Crime:  A True Life Drama About An Indiana Drama Queen

By Lynn A. Granata

It doesn't happen very often of what seems to be a fictionalized film about a true crime story that grabs the attention of the public better than what An American Crime has done.

Ellen Page (left) as Sylvia and Katherine Keener (right) as Gertrude

Released in 2007 at the Cannes Film Festival, it stars Katherine Keener as the portrayal of the true life Indiana drama queen Gertrude Baniszewski. If you go back to my first blog, you will see who she was. There I discussed the story in brief detail, but left out a lot of details about the movie itself that I am about to talk about in this essay.

Ellen Page, a sweet Canadian actress plays Sylvia Likens.  The movie opens with a court room scene that made celebrity status. There it shows as many images of the beautiful Sylvia flash on the screen.  However, these images are not what you would expect to see. Instead, you will see a tortured and mutilated young body with written and branded words on the abdomen, and various photos of her badly bruised and cigarette burned arms and legs.  In this movie, they only show her legs. Sylvia's father, Lester Likens is the first to be called as a witness to be cross-examined by the district attorney.

As the trial convenes, the movie illustrates the flash backs as each witness describes it. 

It is July, 1965.  Sylvia Likens and her sister Jenny Faye Likens are together at a carnival ground, as they happily traipse around the place, waving and smiling at the different people they encounter.  Sylvia and Jenny get to the Merry-go-Round and the movie then pans over to a street scene with a church in the background. Sylvia and Jenny wait outside as their parents arrive.  

Thinking that her mom and dad are coming inside to worship with them, Sylvia finds out that their plans change.  Dad and mom decide to go back to the carnival thinking that it may reconcile their straying marriage. Sylvia is told to take the church bus home with her sister, because mom has "to work some things out with their father." I also want to make note that this film has a nice soundtrack which features many great 1960's classic tunes.  In real life, Sylvia and Jenny were avid Beatles fans. 

While they are in church, the girls listen attentively to the pastor give his sermon.  The congregation gets briefly distracted by an infant crying and fussing in his mother's arms. The mother is none other than Gertrude Baniszewski. Gertrude walks out of the church to calm the baby down.  When the service is over, the girls board the old school bus sans church bus, once seated another congregant walks by Gertrude complimenting her on her ironing business which she ran out of her home to help support her 7 children living with her at the time. 

Once seated toward the back part of the bus, a small golden haired girl turns around to ask Jenny what happened to her leg.  Jenny answers her back, saying she has polio, since she wore a brace on her left leg. The hit song "Downtown" plays as the girls approach the Baniszewski house with their two new friends.

Since this is quite a lengthy story, I am going to briefly sum it up, but I am going to only include the facts that I find are most important to get to the heart of this compelling and heartbreaking story. 

Both girls meet the Baniszewski children, and then hang around with them throughout the summer, as they begin attending high school with the 2 older sisters, Stephanie and Paula. Paula gets pregnant by an older married man, then confides to Sylvia to keep it a secret.  Sylvia agrees and a pact is formed. 

On a weekend night, Sylvia goes out with Paula and Stephanie and their buddies. Paula sees her boyfriend, Bradley then goes over to him to talk.  Sylvia follows shortly thereafter. Paula and Bradley fight. Sylvia sees this as Brad begins to get physical with Paula as she screams in terror.  Sylvia approaches them, ordering Bradley to lay off of Paula. Sylvia innocently blurts out "she's pregnant." Paula then pushes Sylvia hard, slapping her on the hands, as she admonishes "You're going to pay for that."

Movie poster for An American Crime

Paula runs home to her mother and fabricates a good story to her about how "Sylvia told everybody that she's a slut."

Paula had numerous bouts with the law after she was
convicted as an accomplice in Sylvia's murder. Here
she is pictured in 1971 after she was captured because
she escaped from prison.

Battle lines are drawn between Sylvia, Gertrude, and her children. From then on Sylvia is beaten, ordered to insert coke bottles into herself, burned with cigarettes, thrown into the basement, starved, insulted, called a prostitute, and branded with the letters phrasing "I'm a prostitute and proud of it" into her abdomen. The true story was much worse than what the movie displays. In all likelihood, only because such horrific content would be too much to take for movie going audiences.  It turns out that An American Crime was banned from the theaters and instead featured on the USA cable channel network. Gertrude was the ring leader behind most if not all of the physical suffering she inflicted upon Sylvia Marie Likens. 

Gertrude was sentenced to 20 years-to life in prison without parole in 1966, after her trial ended.  Gertrude's case was evaluated every few years at the parole hearings.  Eventually, Gertrude's sentence was reduced to the 20 years times served.  She was paroled because of a special loophole in Indiana law to have time shaved off her original sentence because of good behavior as a model prisoner. Gertrude moves to Iowa, and changes her married name back to her maiden name, Van Fossen. Gertrude has stage 4 lung cancer from years of heavy and excessive smoking. She died in 1990.

Gertrude leaving the Indiana Women's
Penitentiary in December, 1985.

50 Years Since the Brutal Torture Murder of Sylvia Likens

Fifty Years Since the True Torture Murder of Sylvia Likens

By Lynn A. Granata

    Back in the summer of 1965, a pretty 16 year old girl and her 15 year old sister were invited to stay with Indiana's infamous Gertrude Baniszewski.

      On approximately July 3, 1965,  the two young ladies had just met two of Gertrude's small daughters. The girls were invited by Marie Baniszewski and Shirley Baniszewski to go to their house in Indianapolis and meet their older sister, Paula. Sylvia Likens and Jenny Likens originally met the Baniszewski's in church. And rode the church bus home on this particular day.

        After they went to their house, the two girls then decided to stay because their carnie parents had no place to leave them for the summer, while they were touring with the carnival. Mr. Likens agreed to pay Gertrude $20 a week to board his two daughters at the Baniszewski's.

       In the beginning of this arrangement, Paula Baniszewski was friendly with Sylvia and Jenny. A few week's later, Gertrude's check didn't arrive in the mail. When the 2 girls got home from school that day, Gertrude forced the two girls to go downstairs to the basement. The two girls were both whipped with a belt, Gertrude was angry because her $20 check was late.

       As time went by, the scapegoated violence toward Sylvia escalated. Her sister Jenny was spared because she coercively agreed with the Baniszewski family to take part in Sylvia's abuse. Sylvia its been speculated took this abuse for both herself and her younger sister who was also afflicted with polio.

        If you're wondering why this all happened in the first place, there's more than one answer.  The answers of course are unjustified, but to the Baniszewski's however, they were. No matter how wrong it was.

       Sylvia it's believed was spreading gossip around the high school that the children attended. It was speculated that she told everyone in her class that Paula and Stephanie Baniszewski were sluts.

      Sylvia was beaten and battered with a vast array of housing items. She was constantly beaten with broom sticks and burned by cigarettes, branded with a hot poker, starved,and sexually molested with a coke bottle.

    The suspects were Gertrude and her 7 children and their friends. Since this is such a long story, to make it short Sylvia was put in the basement, starved, was given scalding baths, she was forced to eat her own vomit.

   She eventually succumbed to such brutal trauma that was inflicted on her and then died a painful death from her injuries in October 1965.

        The Baniszewski family was charged with murder. The children plea bargained and most of them served out their time in juvenile detention centers or were placed into foster care.

       Gertrude was sentenced to prison for life, but then because of good behavior her sentence was reduced to 20 years in prison. She was released from Indiana State Prison in 1985 and she served the rest of her time on parole. She moved to Iowa, changed her name, and she died in the summer of 1990 at the age of 62. She developed lung cancer from years of excessive chain smoking.

    It was a cruel shocking crime, and it was true! To see the whole story, watch  An American Crime. It stars Katherine Keener as Gertrude and Ellen Page as Sylvia.