Sylvia Likens, The 16-Year-Old Who Was Tortured And Murdered By Caretaker Gertrude Baniszewski

 Sylvia Likens, The 16-Year-Old Who Was Tortured And Murdered By Caretaker Gertrude Baniszewski

In 1965, a teenager named Sylvia Likens was tortured mercilessly by her caretaker — who convinced her own children and neighbors to join in. From carving the words "I'm a prostitute and proud of it" with a heated needle into her abdomen to forcing her to lick soiled diapers, the abuse carried on for months until she was gruesomely murdered. 

See the photos, listen to a disturbing interview and learn the horrific full story by clicking the link in our bio.

In 1965, Sylvia Likens and her sister Jenny were left in the care of family friend Gertrude Baniszewski — who tortured Likens to death and got her own children to help.

In 1965, 16-year-old Sylvia Likens was sent to the home of a family friend, Gertrude Baniszewski, while her parents were traveling. But Likens never made it out alive.

Gertrude Baniszewski and her children tortured Sylvia Likens to death. The perpetrators even managed to involve an entire neighborhood of kids to help them commit this brutal murder.

As the autopsy in the Sylvia Likens case later showed, she endured unimaginable torment before she died. Nevertheless, her killers faced almost no justice at all.

What Happened To Sylvia Likens Inside Her New Home

For the first two weeks at the Baniszewski’s, Sylvia and her sister were treated kindly enough, though Gertrude’s oldest daughter, 17-year-old Paula Baniszewski, seemed to butt heads with Sylvia often. Then one week their father’s payment came in late.

“I took care of you two bitches for two weeks for nothing,” Gertrude spat at Sylvia and Jenny. She grabbed Sylvia by the arm, dragged her into a room, and closed the door. Jenny could only sit outside the door and listen as her sister screamed. The money arrived the following day, but the torture had just begun.

Gertrude soon began to abuse both Sylvia and Jenny in broad daylight. Though a frail woman, Gertrude used a heavy paddle and thick, leather belt from one of her husband’s who had been a cop. When she was too exhausted or too weak to discipline the girls herself, Paula stepped in to take her place. Sylvia, however, soon became the focus of the abuse.

Gertrude Baniszewski demanded that Jenny join in, lest she take her sister’s place as the brunt of the abuse.

Gertrude accused Sylvia of stealing from her and burned the girl’s fingertips. She took her to a church function and force-fed her free hot dogs until she was sick. Then, as punishment for throwing up good food, she forced her to eat her own vomit.

She allowed her children — in fact, encouraged her children — to partake in the abuse of Sylvia and her sister. The Baniszewski kids practiced karate on Sylvia, slammed her into walls and onto the floor. They used her skin as an ashtray, threw her downstairs, and cut open her skin and rubbed salt into her wounds. After this, she would often be “cleansed” in a scalding hot bath.

Gertrude gave sermons on the evils of sexual immortality while Paula stomped on Sylvia’s vagina. Paula, who herself was pregnant, accused Sylvia of being with child and mutilated the girl’s genitals. Gertrude’s 12-year-old son John Jr. delighted in forcing the girl to lick his youngest sibling’s soiled diapers clean.

Sylvia was forced to strip naked and shove an empty Coca-Cola bottle into her vagina while the Baniszewski children watched. Sylvia was so beaten that she was unable to use the bathroom voluntarily. When she wet her mattress, Gertrude decided that the girl was no longer fit to live with the rest of her children.

The 16-year-old was then locked in the basement without food or access to the bathroom.