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.