quote:

Sylvia in particular became a target of abuse. Baniszewski accused her of stealing from a grocery store and humiliated her when she admitted that she had once had a boyfriend; she kicked Sylvia in the groin and accused her of being pregnant. Paula Baniszewski, who was in fact pregnant at the time, became enraged and knocked Sylvia onto the floor. Sylvia seems to have believed that she was pregnant, although medical examination proved that she was not. [5]

Sylvia retaliated by spreading rumors at their high school that Paula and her sister Stephanie were prostitutes, which prompted Stephanie's boyfriend, Coy Hubbard, to attack Sylvia physically. This seemed to have been welcomed by Mrs. Baniszewski, who encouraged neighborhood children to torment Sylvia, including, among other things, by putting cigarettes out on her skin and forcing her to remove her clothes and inserting a Coke bottle into her vagina.

After she admitted stealing a gym suit, without which she was unable to attend gym class, Baniszewski pulled Sylvia out of school and did not allow her to leave the house. When she wet her bed from nerves, she was locked in the cellar and forbidden from using the toilet; later, she was forced to consume excrement and urine. Baniszewski and a neighbor boy, Richard Hobbs, carved the words "I'm a prostitute and proud of it!" into Sylvia's stomach with a heated needle and attempted to burn an S into her chest (apparently for either "Sylvia" or "slave"). [6]

Sylvia attempted to escape a few days before her death. As punishment, she was tied in the basement and given only crackers to eat. On October 26, 1965, after multiple beatings, she died of brain hemorrhage, shock, and malnutrition.

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In August 1965, Baniszewski began to verbally and physically abuse Sylvia, allowing her older children to beat Sylvia, and push her down stairs. Baniszewski also accused Sylvia of being a prostitute, and delivered "sermons" to her children and Sylvia about the filthiness of prostitutes and women in general. After Sylvia and Jenny accused Baniszewski's daughters Paula and Stephanie of being prostitutes, Stephanie's boyfriend Coy Hubbard, and several other classmates and local boys were brought in to assist Baniszewski in beating Sylvia.

In August 1965, Phyllis and Raymond Vermillion moved in next door to the Baniszewski family, and immediately noticed a pattern of abuse and violence towards Sylvia. However, they did not approach the authorities with any concerns. Around this time, Sylvia stole a gym suit from school, but Baniszewski found it and beat a confession out of Sylvia, before burning her with a lit cigarette - a practice which became routine. Soon after, Baniszewski again accused Sylvia of prostitution, and forced her to strip and masturbate with a Coca Cola bottle for a group of neighborhood boys.

Following the Coke bottle incident, Sylvia became incontinent; as a result, Baniszewski locked her in the basement. Gertrude then began a bathing regime to "cleanse" Sylvia, involving dousing her with scalding water and rubbing salt into the burns. She was kept constantly naked and rarely fed; often, Baniszewski and her twelve-year-old son John Jr. would make Sylvia eat her own feces.

Sometime around this period, Jenny managed to send contact to her and Sylvia's older sister, Diana, outlining the horrors that she and Sylvia were experiencing, and instructing Diana to contact the police. Diana ignored the letter, believing that Jenny was simply displeased with being punished and that she was making up stories so that she could come live with her.

Shortly after this, Diana came by to visit her sisters, but Baniszewski refused to allow her into the home. Diana then hid nearby the house until she spotted Jenny outside, and then approached her. Jenny told her older sister that she was not allowed to talk to her and then ran away. Concerned, Diana contacted social services, who were informed that Sylvia had been kicked out of the house for being physically unclean and a prostitute, and that Sylvia had since run away. Baniszewski threatened Jenny not to tell the social worker the truth, and Jenny then told the social worker that Sylvia had indeed run away. The social worker returned to her office, where she filed a report stating that no more calls needed to be made to the Baniszewski home.

On October 21, Baniszewski instructed John Jr., Coy, and Stephanie to bring Sylvia up from the basement and tie her to a bed. The next morning, Baniszewski made her masturbate with a coke bottle, before carving phrases into her skin with a hot needle. The next day, Baniszewski woke Sylvia, and then dictated a letter to her, intended to look like a runaway letter to her parents.

After Sylvia finished the letter, Baniszewski began formulating a plan to have John Jr. and Jenny take Sylvia to a nearby garbage dump and leave her there to die. When Sylvia overheard this, she tried to escape, but was stopped.

On October 24, Baniszewski came into the basement and attempted to bludgeon Sylvia with a chair and paddle, but missed her. Coy Hubbard stepped in and beat Sylvia unconscious with a broomstick. On October 26, Baniszewski told the children she would give Sylvia a bath. Stephanie and Ricky brought Sylvia upstairs and laid her in the tub fully clothed; they took her out shortly thereafter when they realized she was not breathing. Stephanie gave Sylvia CPR, but by this time, Sylvia was already dead.

Baniszewski told Hobbs to call the police. When they arrived, Baniszewski gave them the letter she'd made Sylvia dictate; in the midst of the commotion, Jenny Likens whispered to one of the police, "Get me out of here and I'll tell you everything." This statement, combined with the police's discovery of Sylvia's body in the basement, prompted the officers to arrest Baniszewski, Paula, Stephanie, John, Hobbs, and Hubbard for murder. Other neighborhood children present at the time - Mike Monroe, Randy Lepper, Duke, and Siscoe - were arrested for "injury to a person."

An autopsy of Sylvia Likens turned up burns, bruising, and muscle and nerve damage. In her death throes, Sylvia bit through her lips, nearly severing each of them. Her vaginal cavity was nearly swollen shut, although an examination of the canal determined that her hymen was still intact, largely discrediting Baniszewski's assertions that Sylvia was a prostitute and completely disproving her insistence that she was pregnant. The official cause of death was brain swelling, internal hemorrhaging of the brain, and shock.

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Originally posted by lord xyz
On October 26, 1965, after multiple beatings, she died of brain hemorrhage, shock, and malnutrition.

Those people are probably already dead.

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Originally posted by ADarksideJedi
Good idea for a thread!Good idea but it is not go ing to happen.Too much red tape.jm

quote: (post)

Originally posted by chillmeistergen
She's a mentalist.

quote: (post)

Originally posted by lord xyz
On October 26, 1965, after multiple beatings, she died of brain hemorrhage, shock, and malnutrition.

Those people are probably already dead.

quote: (post)

Originally posted by Zeal Ex Nihilo
It hasn't been that long. The neighborhood kids are probably still alive and well, as are the children.

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Originally posted by ragesRemorse
i like turtles

quote: (post)

Originally posted by Czarina_Czarina
whatever, she's a good hearted person.

quote: (post)

Originally posted by Zeal Ex Nihilo
It hasn't been that long. The neighborhood kids are probably still alive and well, as are the children.

quote: (post)

Originally posted by lord xyz
But they're alteast 50 years old, and don't do things like that anymore.

quote: (post)

Originally posted by Bardock42
Shouldn't have done it in the first place. Now we will make them pay.