Latest / Weeknight Mysteries Podcast / Ep. 103 | BREAKING NEWS Sinister Pink Cloud Appear & The Slow Death of Sylvia Likens

Transcript

Ep. 103 | BREAKING NEWS Sinister Pink Cloud Appear & The Slow Death of Sylvia Likens · Weeknight Mysteries Podcast

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Speaker 1: We want to let you know we're taking actions to
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Speaker 1: get your questions we're taking actions to get that love tonight.
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Speaker 1: You have some high clouds in the upper levels of
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Speaker 1: the atmosphere but there's also a rocket launch that NASA
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Speaker 1: is doing today that's happening this morning. What they're basically
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Speaker 1: doing is sending this rocket up in this space it
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Speaker 1: is releasing some gas some vapor about a hundred miles
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Speaker 1: up in our atmosphere. Is actually combining with and giving
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Speaker 1: that color to have in our sky. So very almost
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Speaker 1: like the auroras that you would see So I reports
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Speaker 1: are coming in from have any pictures. I'm the hello everybody.
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Speaker 1: The subject for today's investigation is probably the one that
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Speaker 1: I get the most requests for and it's something that
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Speaker 1: I've been wanting to cover for a while. So, so
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Speaker 1: anyone who's requested this video here you go. This is
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Speaker 1: the murder of Sylvia Likant. So there's a lot of
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Speaker 1: different people involved in this story and as I was
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Speaker 1: researching it I found it quite hard to follow who
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Speaker 1: was who. There's two main families involved in this case.
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Speaker 1: The Banner Chef Skis and the Likant. Plus there's a
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Speaker 1: lot of people from outside both those families. What is
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Speaker 1: a bit of a visual aid? I'm going to taintly
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Speaker 1: Banner Chef Skis, photos blue and the Likant family yellow.
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Speaker 1: Anyone outside those families will be untinted. It's not crucial
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Speaker 1: if you colorblind or you're just listening to the audio
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Speaker 1: you should still be able to follow what's going on.
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Speaker 1: By 1965, Gertrude Banner's chef skis looked about 20 years
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Speaker 1: older than her years. She had divorced twice, had seven
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Speaker 1: children and had suffered six miscarriages. All of her past
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Speaker 1: relationships had been abusive. Now at the age of 36,
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Speaker 1: she was left to raise her kids alone with no income.
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Speaker 1: Distribute chronically asthmatic and clinically depressed, Gertrude and her family
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Speaker 1: descended into poverty. They lived together at 3850 East New
1:59
Speaker 1: York Street, Indianapolis. They had no stove and only enough
2:04
Speaker 1: beds for about half the people in the house. The
2:07
Speaker 1: family lived off a diet of mostly bread and crackers.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes they would make soup on a hot plate, but
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Speaker 1: the family had to take turns eating it because there
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Speaker 1: were only three spoons between them. At this point, the
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Speaker 1: household consisted of eight people, 36-year-old Gertrude and her children. Paula,
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Speaker 1: 17 years old, Stephanie, 15, John Jr., 12, Murray, 11, Shirley, 10, James,
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Speaker 1: 8 and 1-year-old Dennis. The Likens family were also quite poor.
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Speaker 1: Lester and Betty had five children. The two oldest 18-year-olds
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Speaker 1: Daniel and Diana were twins, as were the two youngest
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Speaker 1: 15-year-olds Benny and Jenny. In the middle was 16-year-old Sylvia.
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Speaker 1: Diana was already married and starting a family of her own.
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Speaker 1: Lester Likens and his two sons toured Indiana, selling confectory
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Speaker 1: from massed and a carnival shows. Betty had temporarily separated
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Speaker 1: from Lester. She, along with Sylvia and Jenny lived together
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Speaker 1: in Indianapolis and would earn money from babysitting and doing
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Speaker 1: odd jobs around town. They would also collect glass bottles
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Speaker 1: from people's trash and trade them in for pennies. Jenny
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Speaker 1: had contracted polio at a young agent as a result
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Speaker 1: she had to wear a metal brace on one leg
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Speaker 1: and walked with a limp. This made Sylvia very protective
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Speaker 1: of Jenny. In July of 1965, Betty was arrested for
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Speaker 1: shoplifting and thrown into county jail, effectively leaving Sylvia and
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Speaker 1: Jenny alone to fend for themselves. Shortly afterwards they met
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Speaker 1: up with their school friend Paula Baniszewski and went back
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Speaker 1: to her house to listen to pop records. Back at
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Speaker 1: the house, Gertrude heard Jenny and Sylvia's plight and offered
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Speaker 1: to let the girls stay the night. The next day
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Speaker 1: Lester Likens tracked down the girls at Gertrude's house. He
4:03
Speaker 1: told them that he and their mother had made up
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Speaker 1: and when she got out of jail they were going
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Speaker 1: to travel around the USA on the carnival circuit. He
4:11
Speaker 1: made a deal with Gertrude Baniszewski. She would look after
4:15
Speaker 1: Sylvia and Jenny at her house. In return, he would
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Speaker 1: send a $ 20 a week. It's a shame here that
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Speaker 1: he didn't take some time to look around Gertrude's house
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Speaker 1: before making the deal. Maybe if he'd seen the squalor
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Speaker 1: and the poverty within, he might not have left his
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Speaker 1: daughters in her care. The first week for Sylvia and
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Speaker 1: Jenny weren't too bad. They enjoyed hanging out with the
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Speaker 1: other children and singing along to Beatles records. Then when
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Speaker 1: their father failed to send the $ 20 payment on time,
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Speaker 1: they received their first punishment. Gertrude flew into a rage
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Speaker 1: when the money didn't arrive, screaming, I took care of
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Speaker 1: you two bitches for nothing. She then dragged them into
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Speaker 1: the bedroom. There she made them light across her bed
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Speaker 1: while she beat them over their bare buttocks with a
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Speaker 1: heavy wooden paddle. The next week Sylvia received another paddle meeting.
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Speaker 1: She and Jenny had been collecting empty soda bottles and
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Speaker 1: exchanging them for money. Then they used this money to
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Speaker 1: buy candy. When the girls returned to the Baniszewski house
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Speaker 1: with the candy, Gertrude accused them of stealing. Sylvia attempted
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Speaker 1: to explain and received a beating for lying. A short
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Speaker 1: time after that came the third punishment. Gertrude's children came
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Speaker 1: to her to inform on Sylvia's behavior. They had been
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Speaker 1: to a church social and Sylvia had picked out on
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Speaker 1: a large amount of food. That evening as the family
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Speaker 1: sat around the dinner table Gertrude ordered that Sylvia's hot
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Speaker 1: dog could be passed around the table. As it passed
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Speaker 1: each child, they heaped condiments and spices onto the hot
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Speaker 1: dog then forced Sylvia to eat it. It was so
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Speaker 1: overloaded Sylvia vomited. As a further punishment, she was then
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Speaker 1: made to scoop up and eat her own vomit. Here
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Speaker 1: we can see the beginning of the escalation. Within a
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Speaker 1: few weeks, things had moved from spanking with a paddle
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Speaker 1: to a bizarre form of humiliation in front of the family.
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Speaker 1: It's also worth noting that this was the first time
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Speaker 1: that Gertrude had involved the other children in Sylvia's abuse.
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Speaker 1: This was a pattern that would continue in the following weeks.
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Speaker 1: During this first few weeks, Lester and Betty Legans visited
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Speaker 1: their daughters twice to check how Gertrude was treating them.
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Speaker 1: Both times, neither girl mentioned the abuse. Presumably, they've been
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Speaker 1: threatened with more beatings if they told. Sometime in early August,
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Speaker 1: the intensity of the abuse increased severely. By now, it
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Speaker 1: was almost exclusively directed at Sylvia. Possibly, this is because
6:51
Speaker 1: she was so protective of her sister, Jenny, so she
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Speaker 1: would step in and take a beating on her behalf.
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Speaker 1: The sudden increase in abuse is thought to stem from
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Speaker 1: a conversation Gertrude over her to where Sylvia mentioned that
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Speaker 1: she'd once laid in bed with a boyfriend. They haven't
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Speaker 1: really done anything serious. Sylvia's autopsy would later prove that
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Speaker 1: she died of urgent. Gertrude though assumed the worst and
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Speaker 1: flew into a violent rage. She dragged Sylvia in front
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Speaker 1: of the other children and told them that she was
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Speaker 1: a prostitute. She said that Sylvia had gotten pregnant because
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Speaker 1: she'd allowed a man to touch her privates. She then
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Speaker 1: kicked her heart in the crutch. Over the coming weeks,
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Speaker 1: Sylvia would receive many more such kicks to the privates.
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Speaker 1: This happened so frequently that her autopsy showed that as
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Speaker 1: well as being a virgin, her vagina was horribly mutilated
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Speaker 1: and the entrance was almost fused shut. It's been theorized
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Speaker 1: that Gertrude saw her own failed potential in Sylvia. Gertrude
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Speaker 1: alone destitute with her looks withering away probably felt quite
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Speaker 1: resentful of the attractive and confident Sylvia. This bitterness may
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Speaker 1: have been a motivating factor for the abuse. Personally, I
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Speaker 1: think it has more to do with Paula. Gertrude's oldest daughter.
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Speaker 1: By early August, Paula was heavily pregnant after a fling
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Speaker 1: with a middle-aged man. It may have been that Sylvia
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Speaker 1: acted as a sort of proxy, receiving the anger and
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Speaker 1: abuse that Gertrude wanted to direct at Paula. Perhaps it
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Speaker 1: was a way of absolving her daughter of her own
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Speaker 1: sins by passing the blame on to Sylvia instead. Anyway,
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Speaker 1: shortly after this attack, Sylvia retaliated by spreading a rumor
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Speaker 1: at their school that Paula and her sister Stephanie were
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Speaker 1: prostituting themselves. When Stephanie's boyfriend, Coy Hobbit found out that
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Speaker 1: Sylvia had started this rumor, he came to the house
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Speaker 1: and gave her a beating. Gertrude witnessed this beating and
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Speaker 1: instead of putting a stop to it, she encouraged it
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Speaker 1: to continue. From that point onwards, Coy Hobbit was encouraged
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Speaker 1: to visit the house and practice his judo on Sylvia,
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Speaker 1: throwing her against the wall or floor. Over time, Sylvia
9:02
Speaker 1: became a sort of plating for Gertrude's children and other
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Speaker 1: neighborhood kids. They would come to the house just to
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Speaker 1: beat her up or torment her in some other kind
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Speaker 1: of way. Sometimes they would push her down the stairs
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Speaker 1: for fun. Gertrude would tell kids that Sylvia had been
9:18
Speaker 1: spreading lies about them and then invite them round to
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Speaker 1: the house to exact their revenge. She would also make
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Speaker 1: Sylvia perform strip teases in front of the other children.
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Speaker 1: Boys would pay five cents apiece to see Sylvia strip
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Speaker 1: for them. On at least two occasions, she was made
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Speaker 1: to masturbate with an empty Coke bottle in front of
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Speaker 1: a crowd of neighbor children. On one occasion Sylvia needed
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Speaker 1: a sweatsuit for gym class. When Gertrude refused to buy
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Speaker 1: her one, Sylvia resorted to stealing it instead. As punishment,
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Speaker 1: a lit match was held over each of Sylvia's fingertips
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Speaker 1: until the skin blistered. Burning seemed to be a favorite
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Speaker 1: torture for the Banaszewskis. After the fingertip incidents, any smokers
10:03
Speaker 1: in the house used Sylvia as a kind of human
10:05
Speaker 1: asterisk extinguishing their cigarettes on her skin. The children would
10:09
Speaker 1: also torment her with lit matches and by throwing cups
10:12
Speaker 1: of scalding water over her. In fact, this was witnessed
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Speaker 1: by a neighbor. Sometime in August, a middle-aged couple named
10:21
Speaker 1: Phyllis and Raymond Vermillion moved in next door to the Banaszewskis.
10:26
Speaker 1: After seeing how many children Gertrude was taken care of,
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Speaker 1: they considered hiring her to babysit their own kids. They
10:33
Speaker 1: decided to hold a barbecue party in their yard and
10:36
Speaker 1: invited the Banaszewskis to get to know them. At some point,
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Speaker 1: joined the party, Phyllis noted Sylvia had a black eye
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Speaker 1: inquiring how it happened. Paul proudly announced that she had
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Speaker 1: done it. Then as if trying to impress the Vermillion,
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Speaker 1: she fetched a cup of boiling water and threw it
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Speaker 1: in Sylvia's face whilst Gertrude watched unapprovingly. Needless to say,
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Speaker 1: the Vermillions didn't employ her babysitting services, but neither did
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Speaker 1: they report the incident to the authorities. A similar incident
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Speaker 1: happened several weeks later when Phyllis Vermillion visited the Banaszewskis
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Speaker 1: to borrow something. She saw Sylvia walking round in a
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Speaker 1: dazed state with swollen lips and a black eye. Again,
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Speaker 1: Paul announced that she had done it before picking up
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Speaker 1: a leather belt and whipping Sylvia in the face. Once again,
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Speaker 1: Phyllis failed to report the incident to anyone outside the family.
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Speaker 1: At some point in early October, Sylvia wet the bed.
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Speaker 1: This could have been a result of the constant beatings
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Speaker 1: to her crotch and stomach making her incontinence, or perhaps
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Speaker 1: she was so psychologically scarred that she was reverting to
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Speaker 1: an infantile state. Either way, Gertrude decided that she was
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Speaker 1: no longer fit to live with the rest of the family.
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Speaker 1: She now had to live in the filthy basement with
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Speaker 1: the family's dog. From here on out, the abuse somehow
11:57
Speaker 1: got even worse. She was no longer allowed out of
12:01
Speaker 1: the house to attend school. Most of the time, she
12:04
Speaker 1: was simply kept naked in the cellar. There was no
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Speaker 1: toilet now, meaning she had to defecate on the floor.
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Speaker 1: There was also no bed, so she had to sleep
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Speaker 1: in her own filth. Quite often, she was tied up
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Speaker 1: in uncomfortable positions, like beating tied by the wrists from
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Speaker 1: the staircase, so she could only reach the floor with
12:24
Speaker 1: her tiptoes. She was also subjected to prolonged starvation and dehydration.
12:31
Speaker 1: Sometimes she wouldn't be fed for days on end. When
12:35
Speaker 1: they did feed her, it was in some cruel or
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Speaker 1: degrading way, such as forcing her to eat spoiled food
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Speaker 1: out of the garbage cans. Sometimes she would have to
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Speaker 1: earn the right to eat by cleaning the basement first.
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Speaker 1: Cleaning the basement involved eating the feces death had accumulated
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Speaker 1: on the floor. They also made a collector own urine
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Speaker 1: in a container, then drink it. On one occasion, they
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Speaker 1: smear the contents of a baby's diaper into her mouth.
13:02
Speaker 1: It was around this time that a local boy named
13:05
Speaker 1: Richard Hobbs started to hang out at the house. He
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Speaker 1: would help out with their treatment of Sylvia. Hobbes was
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Speaker 1: a mild-mannered honest student with no history of criminality or violence.
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Speaker 1: After he started hanging out at the Baniszewski residence, his
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Speaker 1: demeanor changed drastically. He'd loyally obeyed anything that Gertrude told
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Speaker 1: him to do, eagerly participating in the abuse. It's been
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Speaker 1: speculated that Gertrude was in a sexual relationship with this
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Speaker 1: 14-year-old boy, and that's why she was so easily able
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Speaker 1: to manipulate him. On a daily basis, sometimes multiple times
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Speaker 1: a day, Sylvia would be subjected to a particularly nasty treatment.
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Speaker 1: According to Gertrude, she was an unclean girl, both physically
13:50
Speaker 1: and spiritually, and she needed to be cleansed. Gertrude, Paula,
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Speaker 1: and Richard would tie up Sylvia by the wrists and ankles,
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Speaker 1: then drag her into the bathroom. The bath would be
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Speaker 1: filled with scalding hot water, and Sylvia would be dumped
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Speaker 1: screaming into it. When they were done, they would pull
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Speaker 1: her out to the bath and scrub her blistered flesh
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Speaker 1: with handfuls of salt. If at any time she passed
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Speaker 1: out from the pain, Gertrude would bang Sylvia's head against
14:18
Speaker 1: the water reviver. There was actually an opportunity for rescue
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Speaker 1: during this period. A few weeks before she had been
14:25
Speaker 1: locked in the basement, Sylvia encountered her older sister Diana
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Speaker 1: in a local park and told her of the horrors
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Speaker 1: occurring inside the house. At first Diana assumed she was exaggerating,
14:37
Speaker 1: but later decided to visit the Banaszewski house to check
14:40
Speaker 1: for herself. This was around October the 1st about five
14:44
Speaker 1: days before Sylvia was first thrown into the cellar. When
14:48
Speaker 1: Diana arrived at the house, Gertrude told her that she
14:51
Speaker 1: didn't have permission to visit her sisters and that she
14:53
Speaker 1: would be arrested for trespassing if she tried to enter.
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Speaker 1: A couple of weeks later, and by this time, the
15:00
Speaker 1: very worst of the abuse was happening, Diana met Jenny
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Speaker 1: in a park. Jenny simply said that she wasn't allowed
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Speaker 1: to speak to her and run away. It would later
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Speaker 1: be revealed that Gertrude had told Jenny that she would
15:12
Speaker 1: join her sister naked in the basement if she spoke
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Speaker 1: to anyone about what was happening. Concerned, Diana called social
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Speaker 1: services and they visited the Banaszewski house to check on Sylvia.
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Speaker 1: Gertrude informed them that Sylvia had been kicked out of
15:27
Speaker 1: the house for being a prostitute and so no further
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Speaker 1: action was taken. On another occasion, a boy named Michael
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Speaker 1: Monroe phoned in an anonymous report to his high school
15:37
Speaker 1: saying that there was a girl covered in open-source living
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Speaker 1: in the Banaszewski house. The school sent a nurse round
15:43
Speaker 1: to check it out but they were sent away with
15:45
Speaker 1: the same story that Sylvia had been kicked out of
15:47
Speaker 1: the house for being a prostitute. Again, no further action
15:52
Speaker 1: was taken. Towards the end of October, after weeks of
15:56
Speaker 1: starvation and torture in the basement, Sylvia was brought upstairs
16:00
Speaker 1: and tied to the bed. Gertrude told her that she
16:03
Speaker 1: could live upstairs with the rest of the family if
16:05
Speaker 1: she could make it through one night without wetting the bed.
16:09
Speaker 1: By this time Sylvia was completely incontinent. The next morning
16:13
Speaker 1: when Gertrude found that Sylvia had wet the bed, she
16:16
Speaker 1: was beaten and forced to do another striptease and masturbate
16:19
Speaker 1: with a coke bottle in front of the family. Then
16:22
Speaker 1: she was thrown back into the cellar. Later that day
16:26
Speaker 1: Gertrude ordered Sylvia once again be brought out of the
16:28
Speaker 1: basement and tied down in the kitchen. Gertrude walked into
16:32
Speaker 1: the kitchen with a large sewing needle. She said, you've
16:36
Speaker 1: branded my daughter so I will brand you. With a
16:39
Speaker 1: lit match, she heated the sewing needle until it glowed red.
16:44
Speaker 1: Then slowly carved the letters I and M into Sylvia's belly.
16:48
Speaker 1: She then passed the needle to Richard Hobbs and told
16:51
Speaker 1: him to continue the carving. Sylvia would have the phrase,
16:55
Speaker 1: I'm a prostitute and proud of it, burned into her flesh.
16:59
Speaker 1: Gertrude even wrote it down on a piece of paper
17:02
Speaker 1: so Hobbes could get the spelling in the middle of
17:04
Speaker 1: the night. With the branding completed, Gertrude left the house
17:08
Speaker 1: to fetch in groceries. Richard Paula and Shirley took Sylvia
17:12
Speaker 1: back down to the basement and tied her to the
17:15
Speaker 1: stair rail. Evidently not satisfied with the abuse they'd already
17:19
Speaker 1: dished out, they decided Sylvia needed another brand, a large
17:23
Speaker 1: S on her chest. This stood for either Slave or Sylvia.
17:28
Speaker 1: Later during questioning they couldn't or Sylvia, later during questioning
17:32
Speaker 1: they couldn't really decide which. They got a large metal
17:36
Speaker 1: hook and heated it with a match till it was
17:38
Speaker 1: hot enough to melt flesh. Richard burned the bottom half
17:41
Speaker 1: of the S into her chest, then ordered 10-year-old Shirley
17:45
Speaker 1: to finish it off. For some reason she messed up
17:48
Speaker 1: the top half of the S, drawing it backwards and
17:51
Speaker 1: turning it into a number 3. I believe this was
17:54
Speaker 1: the tool that they used. As you can see the
17:58
Speaker 1: hooked end matches the markings on her chest. After her branding,
18:02
Speaker 1: Coy Hubbard came down to the basement and practiced his
18:05
Speaker 1: judo throws on Sylvia, flipping her broken body against the
18:08
Speaker 1: hard floor until he grew tired. Later that night Jenny
18:13
Speaker 1: snuck down into the cellar to comfort her sister. Sylvia
18:17
Speaker 1: sent her, Jenny, I know you don't want me to die,
18:20
Speaker 1: but I'm going to die, I can tell it. At
18:23
Speaker 1: this point she was experiencing severe malnutrition and her body
18:26
Speaker 1: was covered in open infected sauce. She also had many
18:30
Speaker 1: internal injuries from the endless beatings. Whether she said this
18:35
Speaker 1: because she felt that her body was dying or because
18:37
Speaker 1: she felt that Gertrude planned to kill her is unknown
18:40
Speaker 1: as it turns out both were true. That night Gertrude
18:43
Speaker 1: brought Sylvia up from the basement and allowed her to
18:46
Speaker 1: sleep in a bed. The next day she and Stephanie
18:49
Speaker 1: gave Sylvia a bath. This time though it was a
18:53
Speaker 1: normal warm bath and they used gentle soap instead of
18:56
Speaker 1: scouring her body with salt. After the bath she was
19:00
Speaker 1: allowed to dress and then Gertrude gave her a piece
19:02
Speaker 1: of paper and a pen and told her to write
19:04
Speaker 1: a letter. The letter read, Dear Mr. and Mrs. Likens,
19:10
Speaker 1: I went with a gang of boys in the middle
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Speaker 1: of the night and they said they would pay me
19:13
Speaker 1: if I would give them something so I got in
19:15
Speaker 1: the car and they got all they wanted and when
19:17
Speaker 1: they got finished they beat me up and left sores
19:19
Speaker 1: on my face and all over my body. And it
19:22
Speaker 1: also put on my stomach, I am a prostitute and
19:25
Speaker 1: proud of it. I have done just about everything I
19:28
Speaker 1: could do just to make Gertrude mad and cause Gertrude
19:31
Speaker 1: more money than she's got. I have tore up a
19:34
Speaker 1: new mattress and peed on it. I have also cost
19:37
Speaker 1: Gertrude doctor bills that she really can't pay and made
19:40
Speaker 1: Gertrude a nervous wreck and all her kids. The picture
19:44
Speaker 1: I've got of this letter is a really low resolution
19:47
Speaker 1: image and you can't really make out the individual words
19:49
Speaker 1: but I'm struck by how neat the writing is given
19:51
Speaker 1: that this was written by a girl on the verge
19:53
Speaker 1: of death after months of abuse with this letter written
19:57
Speaker 1: gertrude privately hatched the plan with the other children john
20:01
Speaker 1: jr and jenny were to take sylvia to a dumping
20:04
Speaker 1: ground called jimmy's forest and leave her there to die
20:08
Speaker 1: She overhaired the plan and realizing that this was her
20:11
Speaker 1: last chance, she made a desperate attempt to escape. By
20:15
Speaker 1: this point she was so injured and weak that she
20:17
Speaker 1: barely managed to hobble to the front door before being captured.
20:21
Speaker 1: Sylvia was given some toast to eat but she was
20:24
Speaker 1: so dehydrated that she couldn't swallow any food. In retaliation
20:28
Speaker 1: for not eating, Gertrude beat her in the mouth with
20:31
Speaker 1: a metal curtain pole then threw her back into the cellar.
20:35
Speaker 1: Later on they attempted to feed her some crackers, again
20:38
Speaker 1: she refused and was beaten in the stomach as punishment.
20:42
Speaker 1: The next day Gertrude came into the cellar to deliver
20:44
Speaker 1: another beating. By the sounds of it she must have
20:47
Speaker 1: been in some kind of frenzy. She attempted to beat
20:51
Speaker 1: Sylvia with a chair and instead hit the wall breaking
20:54
Speaker 1: the chair into pieces. She tried hitting Sylvia with the
20:58
Speaker 1: paddle and instead she hit herself in the face giving
21:00
Speaker 1: herself a black eye. Coy Hobbit had the step in
21:04
Speaker 1: and he beat Sylvia unconscious with a broomstick. That night
21:08
Speaker 1: sensing her own imminent death. Sylvia tried to alert the
21:12
Speaker 1: neighbors by beating the cellar floor with a shovel and
21:15
Speaker 1: screaming for help. Although neighbors did hear the commotion going
21:19
Speaker 1: on till 3 a.m. they didn't think to call the police.
21:23
Speaker 1: The following morning Sylvia was in a completely incoherent state.
21:28
Speaker 1: She was possibly suffering from some sort of brain damage
21:31
Speaker 1: because she was unable to coordinate a body movement source,
21:34
Speaker 1: drink a sentence together. When Paula asked her to recite
21:38
Speaker 1: the alphabet she was unable to get past that first
21:40
Speaker 1: few letters. By the afternoon most of the household and
21:44
Speaker 1: a few neighborhood kids had gathered in the basement to
21:47
Speaker 1: witness the dying girl. Sylvia lay on the floor moving
21:51
Speaker 1: her arms in a strange wavering fashion as if trying
21:53
Speaker 1: to point to each of them. She would move her
21:56
Speaker 1: hands towards one of them and say, you're Ricky and
21:59
Speaker 1: then point to another and say, you're dirty. It was
22:03
Speaker 1: as if her dying brain was trying to remember the
22:05
Speaker 1: names of her attackers. She tried to eat a rotten
22:08
Speaker 1: pear from the floor but complained that she could feel
22:11
Speaker 1: her teeth wobbling in her head. Later that evening a
22:15
Speaker 1: hose was brought into the basement and Sylvia was blasted
22:17
Speaker 1: with cold water. She made one last attempt to escape
22:21
Speaker 1: but was only able to crawl to the foot of
22:23
Speaker 1: the stairs. Good truth stamped on Sylvia's head as punishment.
22:29
Speaker 1: Around 5.30 p.m. Stephanie Baniszewski and Richard Hobbs took Sylvia
22:33
Speaker 1: upstairs and gave her a warm bath. They then dressed
22:37
Speaker 1: her and laid her on the floor. Sylvia mumbled that
22:41
Speaker 1: she wished her daddy was there and asked Stephanie to
22:43
Speaker 1: take her home. A few moments later she was dead.
22:48
Speaker 1: Stephanie attempted to give a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but it was
22:51
Speaker 1: too late by that point. Good Truth didn't realize that
22:55
Speaker 1: she was actually dead at first and spent several moments
22:58
Speaker 1: beating her lifeless body with a book and shouting, fake her,
23:01
Speaker 1: fake her. When it finally dawned on her that Sylvia
23:05
Speaker 1: wasn't faking, she dumped her corpse on a filthy mattress
23:08
Speaker 1: in one of the bedrooms and got Richard Hobbs to
23:10
Speaker 1: call her police. She then instructed the household on what
23:14
Speaker 1: to tell her police. When the police arrived she told
23:18
Speaker 1: them that Sylvia had ran away with some teenage boys
23:21
Speaker 1: then returned to the house in that state. She showed
23:24
Speaker 1: them the handwritten note that she'd forced Sylvia to write.
23:28
Speaker 1: As instructed the family confirmed this version of events. That
23:32
Speaker 1: is until they questioned Jenny. She began telling them the
23:36
Speaker 1: rehearsed story but as soon as Gertrude was out of
23:38
Speaker 1: airship she whispered to the officers, you get me out
23:41
Speaker 1: of here and I'll tell you everything. An autopsy of
23:45
Speaker 1: Sylvia's body revealed the extent of the abuse. She had
23:49
Speaker 1: over 150 injuries in various states of repair. She showed
23:53
Speaker 1: that they'd been inflicted over an extended period of time.
23:57
Speaker 1: There were multiple burns and puncture wounds, severe bruising, plus
24:01
Speaker 1: nerve and muscle damage. She was emaciated and dehydrated. All
24:07
Speaker 1: of her fingernails were broken backwards and she had bitten
24:10
Speaker 1: through her own lips in response to the pain. The
24:13
Speaker 1: constant scalding baths and the salt scrubs had left large
24:16
Speaker 1: sections of the skin on her face, breasts, neck and
24:20
Speaker 1: legs peeling off. The infected open source meant that her
24:24
Speaker 1: body had started to go into shock at least three
24:26
Speaker 1: days before she died. The ultimate cause of death was
24:30
Speaker 1: a subdual hematoma caused by a traumatic brain injury after
24:34
Speaker 1: a blow to the temple. Her body being in shock
24:37
Speaker 1: and the severe malnutrition were also contributing factors. Although many
24:42
Speaker 1: people took part in Sylvia's ordeal, five people were found
24:45
Speaker 1: to have inflicted the injuries that ultimately caused her death.
24:49
Speaker 1: Gertrude Baniszewski and her children Paula and John Jr., plus
24:53
Speaker 1: neighborhood kids, Richard Hobbs and Coy Hubbard. At the trial
24:58
Speaker 1: Gertrude was found guilty of first-degree murder and was given
25:01
Speaker 1: life imprisonment. Paula was found guilty of second-degree murder. She
25:07
Speaker 1: would spend six years in prison before being released. John Jr.,
25:12
Speaker 1: Richard Hobbs, and Coy Hubbard were found guilty of manslaughter.
25:16
Speaker 1: Each of them were imprisoned for less than two years.
25:20
Speaker 1: In prison Gertrude became a model prisoner. She was granted
25:24
Speaker 1: parole in 1985. After her release she refused to acknowledge
25:29
Speaker 1: her role in Sylvia's death, stating that her asthma medication
25:33
Speaker 1: had affected her behavior at the time and she couldn't
25:35
Speaker 1: remember inflicting any of the abuse. She preferred to blame
25:39
Speaker 1: Paula and John Jr. for most of it. She died
25:43
Speaker 1: of lung cancer five years after her release. Jenny Likens
25:47
Speaker 1: grew up to have a family of her own, although
25:49
Speaker 1: she was left psychologically damaged by the death of her sister.
25:53
Speaker 1: She needed to be on anxiety medication for the rest
25:56
Speaker 1: of her life. She died of a heart attack in 2004.
26:01
Speaker 1: The death of Sylvia Likens remains one of the most
26:04
Speaker 1: horrifying cases of child abuse in recent history. It's all
26:08
Speaker 1: the more shocking because of the number of people involved.
26:12
Speaker 1: The fact that so many people could be convinced to
26:15
Speaker 1: take part in the slow torture and murder of an
26:17
Speaker 1: innocent girl it makes for a very disturbing psychological case study.
26:22
Speaker 1: These weren't psychopaths, they weren't brainwashed, these were classmates and
26:26
Speaker 1: family members that were slowly convinced into committing the worst
26:29
Speaker 1: act imaginable. It was a gradual descent into a collective madness.
26:35
Speaker 1: It shows the kind of terrible things that ordinary people
26:38
Speaker 1: are capable of when acting in a group. By the end,
26:42
Speaker 1: I doubt that even thought of Sylvia as a fellow
26:44
Speaker 1: human being at all. I've wanted to cover this case
26:48
Speaker 1: for a while but it was one of them things
26:50
Speaker 1: that there was so many other people covering it. I
26:53
Speaker 1: figured it wasn't worth me making a video on it
26:55
Speaker 1: as well but as I got so many requests I
26:57
Speaker 1: guess there are people still interested in hearing about it.
27:01
Speaker 1: So there you go. It means I can cover things
27:04
Speaker 1: like this in proper detail so thanks everyone. I don't
27:08
Speaker 1: really have a schedule but I make stuff like this
27:10
Speaker 1: on a fairly regular basis and you might find some
27:13
Speaker 1: other content worth watching too. So thanks once again for watching.