Crimetober Series - October 26 (The Murder of Sylvia Likens)

Day 26 of the Crimetober Series is about the murder of 16-year-old Sylvia Likens which occurred on October 26, 1965.

I apologize for the late release 



Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sylvia_Likens 
https://popculturecrime.medium.com/today-in-true-crime-history-october-26-6faa834dc0a3 
https://sylviascac.org/sylvias-story/ 
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/history/retroindy/2013/10/24/sylvia-likens/3178393/ 
https://indyencyclopedia.org/sylvia-likens-murder-case/ 
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2015/10/23/indianapolis-most-sadistic-act-sylvia-likens-gertrude-baniszewski-torture-slaying-indianapolis-news-indianapolis-crime-crime-horror-torture/74209878/ 
https://sylviascac.org/sylvias-story/ 
Dean, John (2008). House of Evil: The Indiana Torture Slaying. United States of America: St. Martin's Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-312-94699-9.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome back to Nature Versus Narcissism. As always, I'm your host, Heather,
and today I'm rolling solo. Many of our longtime listeners
know that each spooky season we'd like to throw a
bit of a curve ball and share a series with
you that doesn't quite follow the main feed format, and
this year is no different. This year, we're aiming to
bring you at least one main Feed episode per day
in October, plus some Patreon episodes sprinkled throughout, even if

(00:41):
that means you're receiving them late because life is hectic
and unpredictable and shit happens, but at least you'll get
an episode for each day of October. Because this year
we're bringing you a story about a crime that occurred
on or has a connection to, each day in October.
And today we're talking about October twenty sixth, So why
don't we started. In today's episode, I want to discuss

(01:03):
the murder of Sylvia Li Likens, which occurred on October
twenty sixth, nineteen sixty five. As a quick summary, Sylvia
mariely Likens was born on January third, nineteen forty nine.
She was an American teenager who was tortured and murdered
by her caregiver, Gertrude Banezuski. Many of Banezuski's children and
several of their neighborhood friends also participated in the torture.

(01:26):
The abuse lasted for three months, occurring incrementally before Li
Likens died from her extensive injuries and malnourishment on October
twenty sixth, nineteen sixty five, in Indianapolis, Indiana. And before
I get too far into the episode, I want to
provide a disclaimer. This episode is going to be really
hard for some listeners and may have some triggers throughout

(01:47):
due to the extensive torture she endured. Please take care
of you and if you need to skip this episode,
I understand for those of you who decided to proceed
with the today. According to The Indie Star, on October
twenty sixth, nineteen sixty five, Indianapolis police were called to
a home on East New York Street. Once they arrived,

(02:09):
what they found was made for horror movies. It was
the body of sixteen year old Sylvia Lichens. The corner
would later report that there were one hundred and fifty
wounds across her body, including several burns, scald marks, and
eroded skin. Ligens was increasingly tormented, neglected, belittled, sexually, humiliated, beaten, starved, lacerated, burned,

(02:30):
and dehydrated by her tormentors through intimidation. Her younger sister, Jenny,
was occasionally forced to participate in her mistreatment, which is
even more disgusting but unfortunately not uncommon. Have you ever
read the book If You Tell by Greg Olsen? Not
for the faint of heart, but a great example of

(02:51):
how caretakers manipulate and scare others into participating in the
torture of others, including their own siblings and loved ones.
Official cause of Sylvialykins's death was determined to be a
homicide caused by a combination of subdural hematoma and shock
complicated by severe malnutrition. In an Indianapolis Star article that

(03:13):
was released on October twenty eighth, nineteen sixty five, police
stated that she was systematically beaten and tortured over a
three week period by at least ten persons, probably more.
According to the website Sylvia's Child Advocacy Center, Sylvia had
been held captive for nearly three months before her tragic
and preventable death. But how did Sylvia end up with

(03:36):
those people who would do such horrible things to her?
Let's take it back to the beginning, shall we. Sylvia
was the third of five children born to carnival workers
Lester Cecil Likens and his wife, Elizabeth Betty Francis. She
was born between two sets of fraternal twins, Daniel and Diana,

(03:56):
two years older than her, and Benny and Jenny one
year younger. Jennie Legn suffered from polio, causing one of
her legs to be weaker than the other. She was
afflicted with a notable limp and had to wear a
steel brace on one leg. I mean it was the forties.
Polio was a serious thing at the time, and the
vaccine wasn't invented until nineteen fifty two and wasn't announced

(04:19):
to the world until nineteen fifty five. Journ Elizabeth's marriage
was unstable. They often sold candy, beer, and soda at
carnival stands around Indiana throughout the summer, which resulted in
them moving frequently and therefore experiencing financial difficulties. Sylvia's parents
made the boys travel with them to help out with work,
but made the girls stay home to ensure that they

(04:40):
gained an education and remained safe, and because of this,
the sisters would stay with relatives, mainly their grandmother. Sylvia
was described by her friends as a friendly, confident, and
lively girl who was known as Cookie to her friends.
She loved the Beatles and was quite protective of her
younger sister, and she would always help whenever needed. For instance,

(05:03):
the two would often go to the skating rink and
Sylvia would hold on to her sister Jenny so she
could skate, even though she had a bad foot due
to polio. She was also the type of person who
wanted to make sure others had what they needed, and
as a teenager, she would earn money by babysitting and
doing other chores for neighbors. She would take part of
her earnings and basically hand it right over to her mother,

(05:27):
no questions asked. Definitely reminds me of my teenage years.
I was attending high school, had two weekday part time
jobs and a weekend job as well as mowing lawns
for neighbors to earn money, and about ninety percent of
my earnings went straight to my parents. But that's neither
here nor there. I want to tell you a little

(05:48):
bit about Gertrude and Banezuski and how Sylvia came to
be in her care prior to her death. Drude Nadine
van Fawsen was born on September nineteenth, nineteen twenty eight,
in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Hugh Marcus van Fasson, Senior and
Molly Myrtle. Gertrude was the third of six children, and
her family was working class, so your average Midwestern family. Really.

(06:12):
She had some trauma as her father died at fifty
years old from a sudden heart attack, which she witnessed
on October fifth, nineteen thirty nine, when she was only ten,
and I truly couldn't imagine witnessing something like that, so
I'm sure that affected her in some way very early on.
Just six years later, she dropped out of high school
at age sixteen to marry eighteen year old John Stephen Banezuski,

(06:35):
who was originally from Youngsville, Pennsylvania, with whom she had
four children, but it wasn't happily ever after with these two.
John was known to have quite volatile temper and would
occasionally beat Bertude, but she ended up staying with him
for ten years before she divorced him. She then married
a man named Edward Guthrie, but this marriage only lasted

(06:58):
three months before the couple divorced, and shortly thereafter Gertrude
remarried her first husband, Yes the wife Peter, with whom
she had two more children, and a couple divorced for
the second time in nineteen sixty three. Then weeks after
her third divorce, Gertrude began a relationship with a twenty
year old wilder named Dennis Lee Wright. Nope, not related

(07:21):
to my husband's family, in case anyone was wondering, But
this guy also abused her. She had one child with
this man and named him Dennis Lee Wright Junior, and
shortly after the birth of their son in May of
nineteen sixty four, Wright abandoned Gertrude. She ended up filing
a paternity suit against Wright for financial support of their child,

(07:42):
but Right seldom contributed to the care of their son.
So fast forward a bit, and by nineteen sixty five,
Gertrude lived alone with her seven children, Paula seventeen, Stephanie fifteen,
John twelve, Marie eleven, Shirly ten, James eight, and Dennis
Lee Wright Junior one. Gertrude was thirty six years old,

(08:05):
standing at about five foot six inches tall and weighing
only one hundred pounds. She has often been described as
a chainsmoker, suffering from clinical depression due to the stress
of three failed marriages, a failed relationship, and a recent miscarriage.
I mean, I probably wouldn't be too far off of

(08:25):
that either. I'd probably be in the same boat as her,
definitely emotionally, if nothing else. I'm just now thirty five
and couldn't imagine having two children with no support, let
alone seven children with no support. Gertrude relied heavily on
the checks for support and when they would come in
from her first husband, who was also a former Indianapolis

(08:48):
police officer. To supplement, she would also do odd jobs
for her neighbors and acquaintances, such as cleaning or sewing.
She basically did whatever she could to make ends meet
and care for her children, which is pretty admirable if
you think about it, and well admirable before you know
what she did. I think at this point you have

(09:10):
a pretty decent idea of Gertrude, or at least you
know enough about her for us to move on and
see how Sylvia came to live with her. It was
June of nineteen sixty five and Sylvia and her sister
Jenny Likens were residing with their parents in Indianapolis, Indiana,

(09:33):
and some sources indicate that on July third, nineteen sixty five,
their mother was arrested and subsequently jailed for shoplifting, but
according to the website Sylvia's Child Advocacy Center, this was
at the same time that their parents departed for a
lengthy work related trip, and we're dealing with a ton
of financial stress, so they decided to leave Sylvia and
Jenny with Gertrude. So I'm unsure if their mother was

(09:58):
still in jail at this time and their couldn't care
for them on his own, or if she had been
released by then and the two of them couldn't care
for the girls at that time because of the financial strain.
Either way, the girls were left with Gertrude. Apparently she
was the mother of two girls, Paula and Stephanie, with
whom the sisters had recently become acquainted attending Arsenal Technical

(10:20):
High School at the time of this boarding agreement. Gertrude
assured Lesser that she would take care of his daughters
until his return as if they were her own children,
and to a father in need, I'm sure that sounded
like a great plan. Like she had seven children, she
knows how to care for kids, and by her reassuring

(10:40):
him that she would care for them as if they're
her own, I'm sure that made him feel a little
bit better about the situation. So because of this arrangement,
the sisters moved into thirty eight fifty East New York
Street while their parents traveled for the carnival, and the
agreement was that Gertrude would receive weekly boarding fees of
twenty dollars to care for their daughters. This arrangement was

(11:03):
only to last until November of that same year, so
approximately four months. Not too long, and maybe by then
their parents will have the financial stability to care for
their own children. So the first few weeks were pretty
smooth sailing, and the girls were acclimating nicely with no issues.
They were your typical teenagers enjoying life. They even attended

(11:25):
Sunday school. Things very quickly changed, though, when the twenty
dollars that their father promised to pay her, Trude for boarding.
His children started showing up one and two days later
than promised, and she had to take out her frustration
on someone. Right, he wasn't there. Who else was she
going to get pissed off at? So who better than

(11:46):
his two daughters. She started beating their bear behinds with
different items. One time it was a quarter inch thick paddle,
and while doing so, she said, quote, well, I took
care of you two little bitches for a week for nothing.
And by the time August of nineteen sixty five year
old around the sisters were beaten about fifteen times on

(12:07):
the back with that same paddle. After Paula had told
Gertrude that they were eating too much food at a
church dinner that all of the children had attended. So
things were escalating rather quickly, and by mid August, Gertrude
began focusing pretty much solely on Sylvia. It was reported
that her primary motivation was due to jealousy of Sylvia's youth, appearance, respectability,

(12:32):
and overall potential in life. Once the case went to trial,
testimony would disclosed this abuse was initially inflicted upon Sylvia
after she and Jenny had returned to the Banuzuski residence
from Arsenal Technical School, as well as on the weekends.
This initial abuse included subjecting Likens to beatings and starvation,

(12:52):
forcing her to eat leftovers or spoilt food out of
garbage cans. According to John Deane in the two thousand
and eight book entitled House of Evil, the Indiana Torture Sling,
on one occasion in late augustly Likens was subjected to
humiliation when she claimed to have a boyfriend in Long
Beach whom she had met in the spring of nineteen

(13:13):
sixty five when her family lived there, and in response
to this, Gertrude asked if Sylvia had quote ever done
anything with a boy end quote, to which li Likeens,
unsure of her meaning, replied, quote, I guess so. End quote.
She then went on to explain that she had gone
skating with boys there and had once gone to a

(13:33):
park on the beach with them. Continuing the conversation with
Jenny and Stephanie, Sylvia mentioned that she had once laid
under the covers with her boyfriend. Upon hearing this, Gertrude asked, quote,
why did you do that, Sylvia? End quote, andly Likeens
replied with I don't know and shrugged. Several days later,
Gertrude returned to the subject with Li Likens telling her quote,

(13:55):
you're certainly getting big in the stomach, Sylvia, it looks
like you're going to have a baby end quote. Li
Likeens thought Gertrude was kidding with her and said, quote, yeah,
sure is getting big. I'm just about gonna have to
go on a diet end quote. Gertrude then told her
and the other girls in the house that whenever they
did something with a boy, they would be sure to

(14:16):
have a baby. She then kicked Lichens in the genitals. Paula,
herself three months pregnant and also jealous of Li Likens's
physical appearance, then participated in attacking Lichens, knocking her off
the chair and onto the kitchen floor, shouting, you ain't
fit to sit in a chair end quote. On another occasion,

(14:38):
as the family ate supper, Gertrude, Paula, and the neighborhood
boy named Randy Gordon Lepper force fed Lichens a hot
dog overloaded with condiments including mustard, ketchup and different spices.
Likens vomited as a result and was later forced to
consume what she had regurgitated Jesus Christ. It just keeps

(14:59):
getting worse. Sylvia began retaliating and eventually spread rumors about
Paula and Stephanie around school, stating that the two were prostitutes,
and this rumor came around to Stephanie rather quickly when
a boy propositioned her and told her that Sylvia started
the rumor. Stephanie then questioned Sylvia about it, and Sylvia

(15:20):
fessed up and apologized. Stephanie didn't care for the apology,
and neither did her boyfriend. Stephanie then punched her in
the face, and Stephanie's boyfriend brutally attacked Sylvia by slapping her,
banging her head against the wall, and flipping her backward
onto the floor. But it didn't stop there. Apparently being
attacked by two people wasn't quite enough, because when Gertrude

(15:43):
found out, she too beat Sylvia with the infamous paddle
on a different occasion, entirely, Paula beat Sylvia, focusing on
her teeth and her eyes with so much force that
she broke her own wrist, and then later used her
cast covered risk to beat her again, and Gertrude would

(16:04):
constantly accuse Sylvia of promiscuity and engaging in prostitution or
sex work as it's referred to today. Gertrude would eventually
start forcing Sylvia's own sister, Jenny to hit Sylvia, and
if she didn't, then Gertrude would beat Jenny and it
gets worse, which you wouldn't think would be possible, but
it is. And for all of you Ohio folks, I'm

(16:27):
sure this case is sounding pretty familiar, or maybe it'll
ring a bell after I tell you this next part.
Think about family Ohio in the case of twenty four
year old Vera Joe Reegal, who was brutally murdered on
March twenty six, twenty eleven. Haven't looked into that case yet.
Check out the documentary good Night Sugar Babe, The Killing
of Vera Joe Riegal and check out the episodes that

(16:49):
I covered on Ohio eighty eight podcasts with Stacy. Stephanie's
boyfriend and several of his classmates frequently visited Gertrude's home
to physically and verbally torment Sylvia, but Gertrude and other
children would also join in. Sometimes they would even use
Sylvia as their practice dummy in violent judo sessions, lacerating

(17:10):
her body, burning her skin with lit cigarettes and excess
of one hundred times, and severely injuring her genitals. They
had done some other really horrifying things, but they are
sexual in nature, and I don't think I need to
share that here for you to really get the point.
They are sick and twisted people. By the end of

(17:32):
the summer, Sylvia was being raped, verbally tormented, assaulted with objects,
physically and sexually, starved, beaten, burned, and forced to commit
humiliating or heinous acts. Banezuski eventually forbade her from attending school,
and she was held captive in the home. This next

(17:58):
section regarding Sylvia's fine two days, I pulled from Wikipedia,
as it mentioned several sources that really laid out the
events in a way that you can truly gain the
full picture. On October twenty fifthly Likens attempted to escape
from the basement after overhearing a conversation between Gertrude and
John Banuzuski Junior pertaining to the family's plan to abandon

(18:20):
her to die. She attempted to flee to the front door. However,
due to her extensive injuries in general weakness. Gertrude caught
her before she could escape the propertyly Likeens was then
giving crackers to eat, but was unable to consume the
food due to her extreme state of dehydration. Gertrude forced
the crackers into her mouth before repeatedly striking her face

(18:40):
with a curtain rod until sections of the instrument were
bent into right angles. Coy Hubbard, Stephanie's boyfriend, then took
the curtain rod from Gertrude and struck Likens one further time,
rendering her unconscious. Gertrude then dragged li Likens to the basement.
That evening, Likens desperately attempted to alert neighbors by screaming

(19:02):
for help and hitting the walls of the basement with
a spade. By the morning of October twenty sixth, Li
Likens was unable to either speak intelligibly or correctly coordinate
the movement of her limbs. Gertrude moved Lichens into the kitchen, and,
having propped her back against the wall, attempted to feed
her a donut and a glass of milk. She threw

(19:23):
Li Likens to the floor in frustration. When Li Likens
was unable to correctly move the glass of milk to
her lips. She was then returned to the basement. Shortly thereafter,
li Likens became delirious, repeatedly moaning and mumbling. When Paula
asked her to recite the English alphabet, Li Likens was
unable to recite anything beyond the first four letters or
to raise herself up off the ground. In response, Paula

(19:46):
verbally threatened her to either stand up or she would
inflict a long jump upon her. Gertrude then ordered Lichens,
who had defecated, to clean up herself. Afternoon, several of
lichens AND's other tormentors gathered in the basement. Li Likeens
jerkingly moved her arms in an apparent attempt to point
at the faces of the tormentor so she could recognize,

(20:07):
making statements such as your Ricky and your Gertie, before
Gertrude tersely shouted, shut up, you know who I am.
Minutes laterly Likens unsuccessfully attempted to bite into a rotten
pair that she had been given to eat, stating that
she could feel the looseness in her teeth. Upon hearing this,
Jenny replied, quote, don't you remember Sylvia, your front tooth

(20:30):
was knocked out when you were seven end quote. Jenny
then left Sylvia in the basement to perform gardening chores
for neighbors in the hope of earning some spending money.
In an attempt to wash Ligans, a laughing John Banizuski
Junior sprayed her with a garden hose brought to the
house that afternoon by Randy Lepper at Gertrude's requestly Likeens

(20:51):
again desperately attempted to exit the basement, but collapsed before
she could reach the stairs. In response to this effort,
Gertrude stamped upon only Likens's head before standing and staring
at her for several moments. Shortly before five thirty pm,
Richard Hobbs returned to the Banuzuski residence and immediately proceeded

(21:11):
to the basement. He slipped on the wet basement stairs
and fell heavily to the floor of the basement to
be confronted with the sight of Stephanie crying and cuddling
Li Likenson's emaciated and lacerated body after she had been
ordered by her mother to clean Sylvia. Stephanie and Richard
then decided to give Lichens a warm, soapy bath and
dress her in new clothes. They then laid her upon

(21:34):
the mattress in one of the bedrooms as Sylvia muttered
her final wish that her daddy was here, that Stephanie
would take her home. Stephanie then turned to her younger sister, Shirley, exclaiming, oh,
she'll be all right. When Stephanie realized that li Likens
was not breathing, she attempted to apply mouth to mouth
resuscitation as Gertrude repeatedly shouted to the children in the

(21:56):
house that Li Likens was faking her deathly Likeens was
sick sixteen years old when she finally succumbed to her injuries.
So this begs the question, why didn't anyone do a
damn thing to help this girl. There's no way that
people didn't know what was happening to her, right, see something,
say something for crying out loud? Apparently, according to the

(22:19):
website Sylvia's Child Advocacy Center, neighbors reported to police that
they sometimes heard her screams or someone asking for help,
but in nineteen sixty five, no one felt compelled to
come forward. The notion being quote it wasn't their business
or placed to intrude on someone else's household end quote.
One neighbor said the screams had stopped around three thirty

(22:42):
am on the morning of October twenty sixth, nineteen sixty five.
By six point thirty that afternoon, she was dead. Her
teachers and other adults likely noticed the open soores, bruises,
or early signs of abuse. They just didn't feel empowered
to say anything. It doesn't matter if you think it

(23:02):
could be nothing, because you know what, it could be something.
It could be the difference between life and death for someone.
What's the worst that could happen? If you report something
you're wrong and everything's okay, great, you can remain anonymous.
Just report it. If it turns out to be something,
then you potentially just saved someone's life. Unfortunately, in Sylvia's story,

(23:25):
that was not the case. There was no hope for her,
and autopsy revealed over one hundred and fifty separate strikes
against her body. They included burns, muscle damage, nerve damage,
a swollen vaginal cavity, fingernails broken backward, and she had
reportedly bitten through her lips. Sylvia Likens was buried in

(23:48):
Oak Hill Cemetery on October twenty ninth, nineteen sixty five.
But who paid for her death True Banazuski, her oldest
daughter Paula, her son John, and two neighborhood youths, Cooy
Hubbard and Richard Hobbes were all tried and convicted in
May of nineteen sixty six of neglecting, torturing, and murdering Lichens.

(24:09):
At the defendant's trial, deputy prosecutor Leroy Knew described the
case as the most diabolical case to ever come before
a court or jury, and Gertrude's defense attorney, William C.
Rbecker described Li Likens as having been subjected to acts
of degradation that you wouldn't commit on a dog before
her death. After eight hours of deliberation, the jury found

(24:31):
Gertrude Banuzuski guilty of first degree murder. She was sentenced
to life imprisonment, but was released on parole in nineteen
eighty five. This is because in nineteen seventy the Indiana
Supreme Court reversed the convictions because the trial court refused
emotions for a change of venue in separate trial. A
subsequent retrial led to a guilty plea. She was released

(24:52):
in nineteen seventy two, subsequently tried for murder again and
sentenced to life in prison. She changed her name and
was paroled and non nineteen eighty five, and died five
years later in relative obscurity from lung cancer. In nineteen ninety,
Paula was found guilty of second degree murder and was released.
In nineteen seventy two. Hobbes, Hubbard, and John were found

(25:14):
guilty of manslaughter and served less than two years in
the Indiana Reformatory before being granted parole on February twenty seventh,
nineteen sixty eight. The torture and murder of Sylvia Liceans
is widely regarded by Indiana citizens as the worst crime
ever committed in their state, and has been described by
a senior investigator in the Indianapolis Police Department as the

(25:36):
most sadistic case he has ever investigated in the thirty
five years he served with the Indianapolis Police. Phew. I
apologize for such a gut wrenching case today, but I
feel like her story needed to be heard. Change needs
to be made, more accountability and more protection for children.

(25:58):
Please let me know your thoughts on this case and
if you're familiar with the vera Joe Riegal's case. And
after wrapping up the research for this episode, I stumbled
upon a movie called An American Crime, which was made
in two thousand and seven, starring Katherine Keener, Elliott Page,
and James Franco. This movie tells the story of Sylvia
li Likens. I'm probably gonna watch it and follow up

(26:20):
with a Patreon episode about it, so feel free to
reach out to me via Nature Versus Narcissism at gmail
dot com and let me know if you've seen it,
as well as what you've thought about it. And until
next time, stay inside, stay alive, and don't call the cops.