House of Evil: The Indiana Torture Slaying (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

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After eight hours of deliberation, the jury found Gertrude Baniszewski guilty of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to life imprisonment but was released on parole in 1985. Paula was found guilty of second-degree murder and was released in 1972; Hobbs, Hubbard, and John were found guilty of manslaughter and served less than two years in the Indiana Reformatory before being granted parole on February 27, 1968. a b "Parole Board Approves Baniszewski Release Again". United Press International. December 3, 1985 . Retrieved June 19, 2019. Best Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Television Film - Catherine Keener (nominated) Sylvia Likens's death is credited with the adoption of Indiana's mandated reporter law, and with an increased understanding of the investigation and recognition of abuse. The law states that should a member of the public suspect a child is suffering abuse or neglect, the citizen suspecting this abuse has a legal obligation to report the abuse to authorities. [191] The trial of Gertrude Baniszewski, her children Paula and John, Richard Hobbs and Coy Hubbard began on April 18, 1966. All were tried together before Judge Rabb at Indianapolis's City-County Building. [112]

Gabriel Tarde, another French scholar of the period, was interested in how thoughts and feelings spread in populations. “What is society?” he wrote. “I have answered. Society is imitation.” Imitation, Tarde believed, usually worked by underlings imitating leaders, not the other way around. It can move beyond an immediate group and be caught by others. Bandits, for example, “an antisocial confraternity,” reinforce one another’s “toughness” within the group, but those mores “radiate” beyond the circle too, working their way into those vulnerable to its seduction. (Gabriel Tarde, The Laws of Imitation and Invention, trans. E. C. Parsons, New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1903.) The abuse escalated sharply, and Sylvia bore the brunt of it, most of it in the basement of a home described by the Indianapolis Star as "a rundown, gray frame rental house." Gertrude was not the only Baniszewski to be charged with homicide. Every one of Officer and Mrs. B.’s children hurt Sylvia Likens but only two of them were tried for murder: Paula and John. Paula, the oldest, pregnant after a misadventure with a married man, assaulted Sylvia with such ferocity on one occasion that Paula broke her hand. While on trial for her life, Paula pushed a new life into the world, a girl she belligerently named Gertrude. John Jr., twelve years old when Sylvia died, and two neighbor boys, Richard Hobbs and Coy Hubbard, were also tried for Sylvia’s murder. The three Baniszewskis, Hobbs, and Hubbard were all convicted, but none of them was executed. Gertrude served the longest sentence, twenty years. She became a model prisoner and was known to her fellow inmates as “Mom.” After the three Baniszewskis were released from prison, they all changed their names, as did Officer Baniszewski, who had not taken part in any of the household torture. Other reports say the family forced Sylvia to strip in front of neighborhood boys and masturbate with a coke bottle. There is a small monument to Sylvia Marie Likens in Willard Park in Indianapolis, Indiana, not far from a house that once stood at 3850 East New York Street, where they beat the girl with a police belt, a fraternity-style paddle, and a curtain rod, where they lowered her into scalding baths, pushed her down stairs, rubbed salt in her wounds, forced her to drink urine and eat excrement from a baby’s diaper, where they dehydrated and starved her and put out cigarettes on her body, where they branded words into her abdomen with a burning poker, and where they finally killed her.Section of Paula Baniszewski's psychiatric evaluation detailing her indifference to Likens's mistreatment, February 1966. [111] Investigating the Dark Side of Indianapolis". The Southside Times. January 21, 2021 . Retrieved July 9, 2021.

In his eulogy, the Reverend Gibson stated: "We all have our time (of passing), but we won't suffer like our little sister suffered during the last days of her life." [9] The Reverend Gibson then strode towards Likens's casket before adding, "She has gone to eternity." [107] Hornberger, Francine (2002). Mistresses of Mayhem: The Book of Women Criminals. Indianapolis: Alpha. ISBN 978-0-739-42867-2. On January 13, 1966, Paula Baniszewski gave birth to a baby daughter. She named her child Gertrude in honor of her mother. [109] He is a former newspaperman, having worked for the Terre Haute Star, the Associated Press, the Indianapolis Star, the Chicago Sun-Times, the San Francisco Examiner, the Detroit Free Press, and the Detroit News. He has worked also for Western Union in San Francisco, the Golden Horse Shoe tavern in Oakland, Calif., and Musical Isle Record Corp. in Chicago. He wrote this book while a reporter for the Indianapolis Star, where he worked from 1963 to 1967.That evening, Likens desperately attempted to alert neighbors by screaming for help and hitting the walls of the basement with a spade. One immediate neighbor of the Baniszewskis would later inform police she had heard the desperate commotion and that she had identified the source as emanating from the basement of 3850 East New York Street, but that as the noise had suddenly ceased at approximately 3:00a.m., she decided not to inform police about the disturbance. [21] Death [ edit ] Broeske, Pat H. (January 13, 2007). "A Midwest Nightmare, Too Depraved to Ignore". The New York Times . Retrieved March 23, 2019.

Following this service, Likens's casket was placed by pallbearers in a hearse and driven to the Oak Hill Cemetery to be interred. This hearse was one of a 14-vehicle procession to drive to the cemetery for Likens's burial. [107] Her headstone is inscribed with the words: "Our Darling Daughter."During the initial weeks in which Sylvia and Jenny resided at the Baniszewski household, the sisters were subjected to very little discipline or abuse. Likens regularly sang along to pop records with Stephanie, [22] and she willingly participated in housework at the Baniszewski residence. [23] Both girls also regularly attended Sunday school with the Baniszewski children, with the pastor commending Sylvia's piety. [23] Abuse [ edit ]

The following day, Gertrude Baniszewski woke Likens, then forced her to write a letter as she dictated the contents, which were intended to mislead her parents into believing their daughter had run away from the Baniszewski residence. The content of this letter was intended to frame a group of anonymous local boys for extensively abusing and mutilating Likens after she had initially agreed to engage in sexual relations with them before they inflicted the extreme abuse and torture upon her body. [78] After Likens had written this letter, Gertrude finished formulating her plan to have John Jr. and Jenny blindfold Sylvia, then take her to a nearby wooded area known as Jimmy's Forest and leave her there to die. [79]Retro Indy: The Murder of Sylvia Likens, as Told Over 50 Years Ago". The Indianapolis Star. October 23, 2015 . Retrieved March 4, 2021. On May 10, a Baptist Minister named Roy Julian testified to having known a teenage girl was being abused in the Baniszewski household, although he had failed to report this information to authorities as, having been informed by Gertrude that Likens had "made advances to men for money," he had believed the girl was being punished for soliciting. The same day, 13-year-old Judy Duke also testified, admitting to having witnessed Likens once endure salt being rubbed into sores upon her legs until she screamed. [125] Duke also testified to one occasion where she witnessed 10-year-old Shirley Baniszewski rip open Likens's blouse, to which Richard Hobbs had made the casual remark, "Everybody's having fun with Sylvia." [126] Referring to the sentimental closing arguments made by various defense counsels regarding reasoning and motivation for their clients' actions, their attempts to divert responsibility to other defendants or participants, and their clients' collective failure to either help Likens or to notify authorities, New added: "All we hear is whining appeal, anything but blame where the blame belongs." He then speculated as to the reason Likens did not try to escape from the Baniszewski household prior to the abuse increasingly escalating in the final weeks of her life, stating: "I think she trusted in man ... I think she did not believe these people would do this and continue to do it." [146] TV Tonight: An American Crime on Showtime". BuzzSugar. May 10, 2008. Archived from the original on April 2, 2012.