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Sylvia Marie Likens (January 3, 1949 – October 26, 1965) was an American teenager who was tortured and murdered by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, many of Baniszewski's children, and several of their neighborhood friends.
May 20, 2023 · After being left in the care of family friend Gertrude Baniszewski, 16-year-old Sylvia Likens was brutally tortured and ultimately murdered in Indianapolis on October 26, 1965. The 16-year-old was used as a punching bag, an ashtray, scalded, and had the words "I'm a prostitute and I'm proud" carved into her by her caretaker's children.
May 24, 2021 · Sylvia Likens had been brutally abused by the woman who promised her parents she’d look after her, and she wasn’t the only one who took part in the torture — there was an entire community of people behind the cruelty.
Oct 24, 2013 · It has been the most enduring nightmare in Indianapolis True Crime history — the Oct. 26, 1965, torture-murder of 16-year-old Sylvia Likens.
Oct 21, 2015 · On October 26, 1965, police found Sylvia Likens’s emaciated corpse—covered with more than 150 wounds ranging from burns to cuts—sprawled on a filthy mattress in the Indianapolis home of 37-year-old Gertrude Baniszewski, mother of seven and the architect of the girl’s gruesome death.
In October 1965, 16-year-old Sylvia Likens died after being held captive for nearly three months. Her death sparked action across police departments, prosecution, and the halls of the Indiana General Assembly, plus movies and books.
May 19, 2023 · On this day in 1966, Gertrude Baniszewski and four teenagers — two of Baniszewski's children and two neighbors — were found guilty in perhaps the most shocking and horrifying murder in the city's history.
