Sylvia Likens: The Torture Case That Shook America

The autopsy of the 16-year-old girl from Indiana read like that of a horror movie. Her skin had receded and she had open wounds nearly down to the bone. She had endured massive internal injuries and the medical examiners were shocked to see that her abusers had carved "I'm a prostitute and proud of it" into her stomach. Welcome to Tales of the Twisted. True stories of the strange, weird, bizarre, and shocking. This is the story of the abuse, torture, and eventual murder of Sylvia Likens, who had been brutally abused by the woman who promised her parents she'd look after her. What's even more concerning is that the caretaker wasn't the only one who took part in the torture. There was an entire community of people behind the cruelty. Sylvia and her sister Jenny were sent to live with Gertrude Banaszewski in July of 1965. Their parents, Lester and Betty, were in a desperate need of money and had joined a traveling carnival which was no place for children. Sylvia's brother had gone to live with her grandparents and older sister, Diana, was married and already lived somewhere else. Betty Lyens had met Gertrude at the school all the children attended and she agreed to take the girls in for $20 a week. After all, she already had seven of her own children. What difference would two more make, right? The first two weeks of the sister's new life went without any significant issues. 15-year-old Jenny had polio and wore a leg brace. So, Sylvia offered to help around the Banaszewski's house, making sure that the chores were done for both of them. There was little discipline, and the girls fitted into the family well. They regularly attended church and Sunday school with Gertrude's children: Paula who was 17, Stephanie 15, John 12, Marie 11, Shirley 10, James 8, and Dennis Leroy Jr. who was just one. The problems began when the $20 for their room and board was late. Gertrude began beating the girls with a paddle when the payments failed to arrive on their pre-agreed day. Jenny and Sylvia were beaten 15 times with the paddle one day because Gertrude's oldest daughter, Paula, had told her mother that the two girls had overeaten that day. The abuse quickly escalated and soon Sylvia was the main focus of Gertrude's wrath. The mother of seven was only 36 years old and it was believed she was jealous of the younger teenager, as was Paula who was almost the same age as Sylvia but overweight and already pregnant. Sylvia was often starved and then force-fed to the point where she'd vomit and then be forced to eat the regurgitated contents. Paula once struck Sylvia in the face with such force that she broke her wrist in the process. And once the cast was dry, she used that as a weapon, too. The abuse by Gertrude and Paula was horrific, and it wasn't long until others began treating Sylvia the same way. 15-year-old Stephanie's boyfriend, Coy Hubbard, and his friends from the neighborhood were often around the Banaszewski's house and spent their weekends and evenings tormenting Sylvia, too. Soon after, Gertrude began encouraging them to beat the girl and use her as a dummy to practice their martial arts. Soon after, Sylvia was forbidden from attending school and was subjected to having her fingers burned and kicked in the genitals for the quote-unquote evils of sex before marriage, something she wasn't even participating in. Lester and Betty Lyens never knew about the abuse. And when they came to visit their daughters, the girls were told to never speak about their lives at the Banaszewski house or they'd receive further beatings. In September, just two months after the girls were sent to live with Gertrude, Sylvia and Jenny met their older sister, Diana, in a park. They told her about the abuse, but Diana believed her sisters were embellishing their situation and did nothing with the information they'd given her. They met her a second time while they were with one of Gertrude's younger daughters, Marie. They said nothing of their torture to Diana, which Marie told her mother. Yet, Sylvia and Jenny were given scalding hot baths because they'd eaten a sandwich at the park. Sylvia fainted from the heat and Gertrude proceeded to slam her head against the cast iron bathtub to wake her up. A man from the neighborhood did eventually call the school, reporting that there was a girl in Gertrude's house that was being abused. But Gertrude refuted the claims, saying that Sylvia was out of control and she'd run away from home. The school never followed up. Gertrude's other neighbors likewise didn't report her behavior to the police or the school. Despite seeing the abused girl in her care because of the cruelty Sylvia had been continuously enduring, she'd become incontinent which angered Gertrude further. Sylvia was tied up in the basement on the 6th of October where she stayed until her final days. While down there, she was given little food or water and was forced to wet herself and use the corners of the dark room as a toilet. Children in the neighborhood would pay five cents to see Sylvia for themselves. The broken, burned, and scarred body of the teenager who lay in the house's basement was a sight to behold to a curious child. Because of Gertrude's slight frame, she often sought help from the neighborhood children who would help her restrain Sylvia and put her in scalding baths where Gertrude would rub salt into the sores that covered the teenager's body. On the 23rd of October, Sylvia's abuse escalated and her body was branded with quote-unquote, "I'm a prostitute and proud of it." It was carved into her stomach with a needle heated over a flame. Though Gertrude wasn't able to finish the brand, she got one of the children from the neighborhood to help her, and 14-year-old Richard Hobbs stepped in to complete the carving. Once he finished, he and Gertrude's 10-year-old daughter, Shirley, heated a bolt and tried to burn an S into Sylvia's left breast. The burn was deep and resembled a three at her autopsy. She was then paraded around the neighborhood where Gertrude claimed she got the carving at a sex party. Sylvia knew she was dying. A mixture of internal bleeding, dehydration, starvation, and just the overall shock had made her weak, and she confided in her sister that she didn't have long to live. She attempted to escape from the house on the 25th of October, but she didn't even make it to the door before Gertrude stopped her. The next and final day of Sylvia's life was only slightly different from the 3 months before it. Sylvia had now lost the ability to speak correctly, and she was delirious. She was now fully incontinent. And in a bid to clean her up, 12-year-old John Jr. hosed Sylvia down while he laughed at her. She tried to escape from the basement, but Gertrude caught her at the bottom of the stairs and stomped on her head. The only one who gave Sylvia any solace in her last hours was Richard Hobbs, the guy who carved the message in her stomach. He gave her a warm bubble bath, dressed her in clean clothes, and then Sylvia was laid on a mattress in a bedroom where she never woke up again. She was just 16 years old. Days earlier, Gertrude had forced Sylvia to write a letter, knowing that she would die soon. The letter claimed that Sylvia had run away and that boys from the neighborhood were her torturers. Gertrude's last attempt to deflect any blame was to cover Sylvia's dead body in rubbing alcohol. When the police arrived, Gertrude told them that Sylvia had returned home that day in her bloody and dying state and Gertrude had tried to nurse her. Everyone present was questioned, including Paula, who told police that Sylvia's death was quote-unquote meant to happen. She also told Jenny that she was welcome to continue living with the family. Though Jenny Likens was only 15 years old, she would be instrumental in getting these monsters arrested. After she told police her pre-agreed statement written by Gertrude, she said to the officer, "You get me out of here and I'll tell you everything." Gertrude, Paula, Stephanie, Coy Hubbard, Richard Hobbs, and John Jr. were arrested for Sylvia's murder after Jenny's accurate statement was given to officers. Five children from the neighborhood were also arrested for their involvement. Only during the autopsy were doctors able to see the extent of Sylvia's injuries. She had over 150 wounds, including the carving into her stomach. She had a hole in her right wrist that went almost to the bone, likely from a lit cigarette, and her fingernails were broken. She'd also bitten through her lips when she died, almost separating them from her face. Overall, her cause of death was given as a subdural hematoma to the right temple alongside shock, injuries, and malnourishment. Gertrude and Paula Banaszewski were sentenced to life in prison on the 25th of May, 1966. Richard Hobbs, Coy Hubbard, and John Banaszewski Jr. were given 2 to 21 years in prison at the Indiana Reformatory due to their ages. Gertrude and Paula were retried in September of 1971 due to not receiving a fair trial. This time, Paula pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was eventually released in December of 1972 despite numerous escape attempts. She changed her name to Paula Pace and became—get this—a teachers' aide in Iowa. In 2012, she was fired when that school found out her real identity. The daughter she gave birth to in 1966 was put up for adoption, and Paula went later on to have two more children with her husband. Gertrude received another first-degree murder charge and would spend the next 14 years in Indiana Women's Prison, where she was described as a quote-unquote den mother. Despite angry protests, collecting over 40,000 signatures to stop her parole, Gertrude was released in December of 1985. She then changed her name to Nadine Vanfossan and moved to Iowa. She died from lung cancer in 1990 at 61 years of age. 15-year-old Stephanie was never charged with the murder of Sylvia Likens. Instead, she turned states witness and was released. Eventually moved to Florida. She changed her name to Stephanie Serakstad and had several children of her own. Gertrude's other children were placed in foster care temporarily and then put into their father's custody. Jenny Likens went on to marry and had two children of her own. She spent years on medication due to anxiety from watching her sister's torture and eventual murder. She doesn't blame her parents for what happened during their childhood. The uproar of this case, the media tension, the release, and other crimes led to considerable changes. Sylvia's case is credited with Indiana's mandated reporter law, requiring everyone in Indiana, regardless of age or profession, to report any suspicion of child abuse to law enforcement. And that's the story of the abuse, torture, and eventual murder of Sylvia Likens. Thank you for listening to Tales of the Twisted.