Murder in the Basement: the scary story of Sylvia Likens (12 photos)

The films "The Girl Opposite" and "American Crime" were made based on this story. The second film was shot strictly based on the materials of the case and, for ethical reasons, it did not include much of what actually happened, which makes it scary... So it was even worse? Yes.





Warning: the text contains details that may shock, be careful. This is also why the post does not include police photographs of Sylvia's body.

On January 3, 1949, Sylvia Likens was born in Indianapolis to Lester Likens and Elizabeth Likens. In addition to her, the family included older twins Diana and Daniel and twins born a year later - Jenny and Benny. At the age of 4, Jenny suffered from polio, which seriously impaired her motor activity, and Sylvia always took care of her sister. Everyone who knew Sylvia always said that she was extremely kind, cheerful and sympathetic.

The girl’s parents were restless people, they constantly came together and separated and traveled all over the country, working at carnivals and city festivals: they sold soda and sweets there. There was little money in the family, and while Daniel and Benny were always with their parents, Jenny and Sylvia were often left with relatives while they were away. From birth until the moment of meeting Gertrude Banichevsky, Likens changed about 14 residential addresses.



Sylvia with her mother

In 1965, Elizabeth Likens was imprisoned for shoplifting. At that moment, Sylvia and Jenny lived with her in Indianapolis, and when Lester, who had recently left his wife again, arrived at the house, he found out that the girls were already living at a different address. From Gertrude Banichevski.

Gertrude Banichevsky was the mother of Stephanie and Paula - the sisters met them at the Arsenal-Technical school. Lester immediately went to Banichevski's house and offered her a deal: he would pay her $20 a week to take in his sisters while he traveled around the country. Gertrude had a total of seven children, with whom she lived practically in poverty, in a poor house. There was not even a stove in the house, and the children ate sandwiches, cookies and rarely canned soup. But only three people could eat them at the same time, because there were only three spoons in the house.

Lester, when asked at the trial how he could even leave his daughters in this house, restrainedly replied that he was not a fan of “poking his nose into other people’s affairs.” Sylvia and Jenny were supposed to return to their parents in November of that year.

Devil's Nurse



Gertrude Baniczewski

Baniczewski was asthmatic, thin, permanently depressed and suffered from bronchitis. The 36-year-old woman, 168 cm tall, weighed only 45 kg. She, as one might guess, was from a poor and dysfunctional family and at the age of 16 she married an 18-year-old sheriff's deputy. From him Gertrude gave birth to four children - Paula Mary, Stephanie, John and Mary. She lived with her husband for ten years, filled with scandals and fights. As a result, the woman left him, did not stay long with another man who could not bear the responsibility of taking care of his stepchildren, and got back together with her ex-husband. This is how two more children appeared - James and Shirley. After seven years, they finally separated completely, and Gertrude, who was already 34 years old, began a relationship with an 18-year-old guy, Dennis, who often beat her. She managed to give birth to another child from him.

In 1965, the Banichevski family lived on benefits and rare alimony from their first husband, more like handouts. From time to time, Gertrude earned extra money by washing other people's clothes or looking after other people's children.

All this can never and can never be an excuse for what Banichevski did, but one can imagine in what scenery and with whom Sylvia and Jenny ended up (I remind you that the girl had difficulty moving with the help of a special apparatus attached to her legs).



House Baniczewski

For the first week, the Likens sisters lived quietly with their family, they watched TV together, attended church, and Sylvia willingly and a lot helped around the house. But when Lester's check was late in the second week, Gertrude became furious: "I was taking care of you two bitches for no reason!" Despite the fact that the check arrived the very next day, Banichevski seemed to have gone crazy and began to constantly accuse the girls of some kind of theft or other offenses. When Sylvia accidentally let slip that she had a (platonic) relationship with a boy, Gertrude began to call her promiscuous anda whore, despite the fact that an examination later showed that the girl was a virgin, despite the injured genitals.

At Gertrude's house



John Baniczewski

Gertrude began to systematically mock Sylvia. Likens was then friends with 13-year-old neighbor Anna, until Banichevsky whispered to her that Sylvia called Anna's mother a prostitute. The angry girl beat Sylvia. Then the woman began to accuse Likens of having started rumors that Paula and Stephanie were sleeping with everyone left and right. For this, the girl was beaten by Stephanie's friend, who practiced his judo skills on her.

In September 1965, Jenny and Sylvia, having met their older sister Diana (19 years old) on the street, told her that Banichevski was constantly beating his older sister. But Diana decided that the girls had exaggerated. When the neighbor girl Judith first saw Likens being beaten, she told her mother about it, but she asked for formality: “Well, they’re just punishing her, aren’t they?”

Why didn't you run away? Most likely, it was not possible for the two of them to escape at the right moment due to Jenny’s problems with her legs. She didn’t even think about the fact that Sylvia could run away alone, logically assuming that the entire horror of what was happening would fall on Jenny. She defended her as best she could, and when Banichevski tried to punish Jenny, Sylvia rushed to her and asked her to punish herself instead of her sister.

Why didn't anyone notice?



Basement

In August 1965, the Virmillion couple, who had two children, became Banichevsky's neighbors. They needed to find a babysitter. When the mother of the family, Phyllis, came to the Banichevsky house to discuss the details, she noticed a thin teenage girl with a huge black eye. Paula, being nearby, took a glass of very hot water and splashed it on Sylvia, smugly declaring: “I gave her a bruise.” Phyllis Virmillion decided that she would not trust such a family with her children, but... she decided not to report it to the police. When she visited Banichevski again in early October, she saw Sylvia with a bruise under her other eye and a severely swollen lip. Paul also explained that this was her doing, and Phyllis again decided not to focus her attention on this.



Jenny (left) and Diana

When a priest visited the family in September 1965, Gertrude complained to him about problems with the children and stated that the main evil in her house was Sylvia. She said the teenager was skipping school and engaging in prostitution. The priest, who had seen Sylvia before in the church, did not believe it and wanted to talk to her personally, but Banichevsky suggested that he better talk to Jenny. The younger Likens was so intimidated and harassed that she mechanically confirmed all the words of the “nanny.”

During the next beating, Banichevski once ordered Jenny to also begin to abuse her sister. When the sobbing girl refused to beat her sister, Gertrude simply hit her with such force that she was forced to obey. She later said that she tried not to hurt her sister and struck as painlessly as possible.

At the beginning of October, the girls' older sister Diana tried to go into the house where her sisters lived, but Gertrude simply did not let her on the threshold. Shortly before Sylvia’s death, Diana accidentally met Jenny on the street, and she simply walked away from her, whispering: “I can’t talk to you, I’ll have problems.”

Unimaginable bullying



Sylvia Likens

What Sylvia Likens went through: she was beaten, cigarettes were put out on her, water was poured over her, a glass bottle was placed in her vagina, salt was sprinkled on her wounded body. She was locked in the house, and when, due to broken kidneys, she began to urinate on herself, Gertrude sent her to the basement. She was later forced to eat her own waste. In a fit of frenzied rage, Gertrude burned the inscription “I am a prostitute and proud of it” onto Sylvia’s stomach.

All the children, including the neighbors, took part in this nightmare. The father of one of the neighbor boys began to suspect something was wrong and asked the Arsenal-Technical school to check the family where the Likens sisters lived. The school sent a nurse to them. Gertrude, threatening Jenny to remain silent, lied to the nurse that her charge had become so dissolute that she had left home. Jenny confirmed this. The school made no further attempts to find Sylvia and come to Banichevski's house, as she was temporarily responsible for her.

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Exhausted and half-dead, Sylvia tried to escape from the house shortly before her death when she heard that Gertrude was planning to leave her in the forest, but she was caught right at the exit.

The teenager was thrown into the basement and was given practically no food or water, and was beaten. Jenny later told the police that Sylvia could no longer cry at the end because her body was so dehydrated. She was given crackers, but could not eat them due to dehydration. For this she was beaten with an iron cornice. On October 26, 1965, Sylvia could no longer speak or move. Her speech was slurred and incoherent.

At 5:30 p.m., the Banichevski children decided to take Sylvia's mutilated body upstairs to wash it of dirt and realized that she was dead. Stephanie, one of the older sisters, tried to give her CPR while her mother screamed that she was just faking it, that she was a cheater and a liar. Only after Gertrude hit the girl in the face several times with force did she realize that she was really dead.

When the police arrived in response to a call about the girl’s death, Banichevski gave a letter written by Sylvia shortly under torture. In the letter, she said that she was a prostitute, that the boys tore her clothes and burned her skin. The police interviewed Jenny. At first she confirmed everything that the “nanny” said, but, seizing the moment, she was able to whisper to them: “Save me from here and I will tell you everything.”

Court



Banichevski in court

The whole family was placed under arrest. Gertrude the very next day confessed that Sylvia Likens was constantly subjected to torture and beatings in her house. Sylvia’s body had 150 wounds of varying severity. The deputy pathologist stated at the trial that Sylvia had been in a state of acute shock for the last two or three days before her death.

The police took not only the family: five neighboring children who took an active part in the torture of Sylvia were placed under house arrest. On December 30, 1965, Gertrude, Paula, John and two neighbor youths were charged with first-degree murder. Stephanie was released from custody because it was proven that her actions did not affect Likens' death, and she testified against everyone else at the trial.

In March 1966, the court accepted the testimony of psychiatrists that all five were mentally healthy, aware of what they were doing and could stand trial. Throughout the trial, which began on April 16, 1966, Gertrude steadfastly denied all accusations that she was responsible for Sylvia's death. She justified herself by saying that her condition was unstable, that she was depressed and that in general she was weak and could not look after the children. But all the children unanimously said that they acted on the orders of the eldest Banichevski. 11-year-old Mary admitted that it was she who heated the needle with which her mother scratched the inscription on Likens’ stomach.

Sentence



Gertrude Baniczewski

The trial lasted 17 days. Gertrude Baniczewski was sentenced to death for first-degree murder.

Paula was found guilty of second-degree murder.

Neighborhood boys and John Baniczewski were found guilty of manslaughter.

Later, the death penalty for Paula and Gertrude was commuted to life. The neighbor's children were acquitted because their lawyers said that the elder Banichevski put pressure on them. Stephanie was cleared of all charges for her active cooperation and attempts to resuscitate Sylvia.

Released for good behavior



Photo from the courtroom

In 1985, Gertrude filed a petition for release. This news caused a wave of fury among the residents of Indianapolis. Jenny Likens and her family went on television to speak out against it. Pickets were held demanding that Banichevski not be released; the petition was signed by more than 40 thousand people. But at the court hearing, her good behavior, remorse for what she had done, and the fact that she helped young prisoners in prison, worked in a tailor shop, and became a devout Christian were taken into account.

Once free, Gertrude changed her name and moved, but five years later she died of lung cancer, which caused Jenny's undisguised joy.