I have been waiting for this episode. Growing up in Indianapolis, I've heard of this case my entire life. My interest in this case took off in 2008, when I learned that my children's paternal grandparents knew some of the kids in the neighborhood and that their grandma's brother knew Sylvia's sister, Diana. It's a hell of a story, and I wish it were only a work of fiction, not the fate of a young girl in the prime of her life.
The Sunday before I began recording the episode, I decided to visit her grave. I bought a small bouquet of flowers (the yellow lillies called out to me) to take for her. She's buried in Oak Hill Cemetary in Lebanon, IN, a small town just north west of Indianapolis off of I-65. Following a map I'd found from the website sylvialikens.com, I found her grave. I grabbed the flowers and walked up to her grave, which is not far from the street. Her headstone was easy to spot as someone had left a small pot of fake flowers, which also had yellow lillies! Someone had left a rock that says you are loved and change all around her name. It was very sweet. I sat down and began to talk. Then I began to cry. For an hour.
So you can put names to faces, here are some of the photos of those involved:
Jenny and Betty Likens sitting with Prosecutor Leroy New
Diana, Sylvia and Jenny's older sister
Gertrude Baniszewski after her arrest.
Gertrude during her second trial. Notice the difference. Prison was good to her. She got three hots and a cot, something even Sylvia didn't get.
Gertrude after her release from prison. She should have died in there.
Stephanie Baniszewski
Shirley Baniszewski
Marie Baniszewski
John Baniszewski, Jr.
Coy Hubbard as a young man, and an old man.
Ricky Hobbs
The house at 3850 E. New York St. Inside the house, an absolute mess.
The Sylvia Likens Memorial in Willard Park
The Advocacy Center in Lebanon:
More photos:
Jenny and Leroy New
Map of Oak Hill Cemetery and the location of Sylvia's grave.
Thanks for listening! Tune in next time for Episode #6 - "Family Annihilators"
Don't be a dick!
I discovered Sylvia's story a few years ago and I have been never felt so horrified and disturbed by her tragic death, it makes me so sad and mad that nobody helped Sylvia when she was suffering at hands of those demons and waited until she died, not even her sister who saw of what they were doing to her and she should have told someone of what was happening, she went to school every day and she should have told the teachers or principals or other staff members that those demons were hurting Sylvia and if she did then maybe Sylvia would have been saved and those demons get caught in the act but instead she let fear win her over and waited until it was too late and those neighbors who were only feet away from the horror house heard her crying and screaming for help but they didn't do anything because it was a "mind your own business" culture and simply did nothing, our justice system failed Sylvia in every way and all those demons weren't punished severely enough with the death penalty despite the horrifying way Sylvia's death was, not even the demon mother who started it all was only left with 20 years in prison when she should have died along with Sylvia instead of being let out and dying "peacefully" in 1990 being surrounded by her family while Sylvia died all alone in the most horrifying way without her family and left like if she was some inferior thing, she was failed the day she was born until the day she died and she was denied all the love she deserved and she will never grow up and enjoy the things that she wanted to be in life, all because of a bitter old haggard demon and her little sadistic army, I hope Sylvia's death forever stains their soulless images for eternity and that they suffer the same torture a million times as hard and I hope all the rest of the ones involved including her family and the neighbors and the justice system and those who failed her in her short life have all the guilt follow them for eternity, the world was really cruel to Sylvia but she's now in Heaven who gained her angel wings the day she died and that she's surrounded by love and happiness with the angels and flying high as she can and that no pain or evil or those who failed her will get near her again and that she shines like a bright star for eternity and she is forever 16 and beautiful and nobody can take that away. She will always be loved and never forgotten and I will make sure that her spirit and memory is kept alive forever.
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