![]() ![]() 26, 1965, Indianapolis police were called to 3850 E. Neither could conceive of the possibility that authorities would move to protect them, remove them from the house or arrest their tormentors.Īrrests did come, but only after it was over. Neither said a word because, as Jenny would later explain, they thought it would only make things worse. * Sylvia herself and her younger sister Jenny had opportunities to tell adults at school or church - they even had adult relatives living nearby. * Other adults occasionally came to the Baniszewski house for various reasons and saw Sylvia's battered appearance. At least a dozen children participated or at least watched, and none felt sufficiently disturbed to tell their own parents. For weeks, even months, the torture of Sylvia Likens was casual entertainment, something to do in the afternoon before dinner and favorite TV shows. * The abuse was carried out not just by the caregiver - the notorious Gertrude Baniszewski - but also by her own children, some as young as 10, and by other children in the neighborhood. This case was somehow more disturbing than other crimes, perhaps because: If that was the extent of it, this case would likely have been lost to history long ago like so many other long-forgotten murders. It was a Cinderella story without the happy ending - a teenage girl left under the care of a strict authoritarian whose idea of discipline is physical abuse that escalates until the abuse victim dies. On the surface, the Likens murder is not much different from any number of heinous crimes. In the aftermath of grief and anger, good people could at least comprehend the chain of events that had just unfolded. Other crimes have involved a greater number of victims, often including children, but the villains in those stories were hardened criminals or madmen, and their acts of violence played out rapidly within a span of minutes or hours. 26, 1965, torture-murder of 16-year-old Sylvia Likens. ![]() It has been the most enduring nightmare in Indianapolis True Crime history - the Oct. Watch Video: The 1965 torture murder of 16-year-old Sylvia Likens
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