In Indianapolis, 1965, Sylvia Likens and her sister Jenny (16 and 15 years old, respectively) came to live with a woman from their neighborhood, Gertrude Baniszewski (bani-SHEF-ski), while their parents held jobs traveling with a carnival. Lester and Betty Likens agreed to pay Gertrude $20 a week to board their two daughters, without ever really examining the house where they would be living. Gertrude was a sickly woman who already had seven children. She was depressed and stressed from having lived such a hard life. She began taking her frustrations out on the Likens girls, and eventually Sylvia was the main target.
Gertrude started the abuse with punishments by paddling with a fraternity-type paddle or a belt. Gertrude soon encouraged her children and other kids from the neighborhood who often visited the Baniszewski house to also abuse Sylvia under the guise of "punishment" for various acts. The abuse escalated. Cigarettes were put out on Sylvia's body (she had over 100 burns on her when she died); Gertrude twice roughly kicked Sylvia in the genitals; she was denied food; had the baby's dirty diaper shoved in her mouth; was kicked and/or thrown down the basement stairs several times; was given baths in scalding hot water; had salt rubbed into her open sores; and was twice forced to stand naked in front of Gertrude and other children and shove a Coke bottle into her vagina. The words "I'm a prostitute and proud of it!" were carved into her stomach with a needle and a crude "3" was burned above this with a hot branding iron. Sylvia never received real medical treatment for her numerous burns and sores, and accompanied with the malnourishment, shock, and repeated blows to the head causing subdural hematoma (brain bleeding or hemorrhaging), Sylvia finally succumbed to her injuries and died on October 26, 1965, only 4 months after arriving at the Baniszewski house.
Growing up, I knew everyone in my town. If not personally, I knew about them, where they lived, what they did for a living, etc. Not that we got into anyone's business or anything but if one of them had a 16 year old girl in the basement that was abused on a regular basis we'd know about it.
The tribe I ran with were similar to the Baniszewski kids and their friends, a lively mix of good kids who got in trouble from time to time and hoods that were destined to end up in prison. About half of us were on probation for petty crimes and on more than a few occasions the state and local police would come to my parents house to question me about various infractions of the law, which made my parents less than happy.
We were no angels and we had a reputation but we all agreed on one thing. If any of us knew of the kind of abuse inflicted on someone like Sylvia Likens we wouldn't hesitate to pay a visit on them and exact some payback with tire irons and baseball bats. We couldn't understand how something like this could go on for months without anyone knowing about it. Hell, we knew who had company from out of town and who was on vacation, where and for how long. How could Gerty's neighbors not know? We figured Indiana must be a fucked up place to live.
Some facts... Gertrude Baniszewski had seven kids from two different men. Her first husband was a cop. Sylvia's parents had lots of kids and sent them to different places so they could do their carnival thing unhindered by their children. Only Sylvia and Jenny, her polio inflicted sister, needed to be boarded and their father made the deal with a woman he didn't even know for $20 a week. Jenny made no attempt to help her sister, even though Sylvia took the punishment instead of Jenny. At the trial, the kids said they tortured Sylvia because Gerty told them to. On the stand, Gerty claimed innocence and blamed her own children for everything. After the trial, Jenny was taken care of by the prosecuting attorney, at the request of Mr. and Mrs. Likens, until they could financially take care of her themselves. Sylvia died a virgin and Gerty's daughter Paula gave birth to a baby girl during the trial. She named it Gertrude, in honour of her mother.
I think r/K selection theory might shed some light on this event.
It seems pretty clear that Gertrude didn't much care for raising her own offspring, let along raising someone elses. The Likens didn't seem to care who took care of their kids, just as long as they didn't have to. Both families seemed to have a total lack of compassion or feeling towards anyone. Only Sylvia exhibited the K select character traits of compassion, loyalty, and empathy by sacrificing herself to months of extreme torture to keep her sister from the same fate. From the first cigarette burn it was clear these girls wouldn't get out alive. Either that or Gertrude never thought about what she would tell the Likens when they came to pick up their kids. In the end, the kids blamed Gertrude and Gertrude put the blame solely on the kids. After all that Jenny was put through, her parents still didn't want her and gave her to another stranger to take care of. Wild dogs have more compassion.
I have nothing but contempt for both of these families.
Gertrude got parole after 20 years for first degree murder and her kids got a few years for manslaughter. The one boy is a preacher who found God in prison and the two older sisters are public school teachers. (I know guys who got more than that for drug possession.)
Don't you feel safer knowing the world is leaning toward r select conditioning in favor of K select values?
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