True Crime Stories

Many murder victims are innocent people and many crimes are vicious.  When you watch the true crime magazine type shows you often hear a police officer talking about a particular case being the worse crime they had investigated, or the worse crime scene ever.  I admit that I often roll my eyes to these statements because they seem overly dramatic for television purposes, or so it seems.  There are few cases in which if I were to hear an officer state that I would understand why.... the Sylvia Likens case was one.... the Shanda Sharer case is another.   In a sense the two cases have many similarities.  Both girls were teenagers.  Sylvia was 16 when she was tortured and murdered in 1965... Shanda was 12 when she was tortured and burned alive in 1992.  Both girls were murdered in Indiana.  Both cases involved multiple people and sadly they both involved other teenagers. Shanda lived in a small southwestern Indiana town, New Albany, with her mothe...

I plan to do this case a little different than the others.  For one, it is an older case (1965 to be exact).  Secondly, if I were to do it like I normally do I am not sure too much would be under disputed facts.  Most importantly, for me, maybe because it happened in my hometown, or maybe because it was such a horrible and uncalled for crime, I want this to be about remembering Sylvia and what happened to her, as well about the time period, and less about the abusers in her case. Sylvia Marie Likens was born January 3, 1949.  After being beaten and tortured over a period of about three months by Gertrude Baniszewski (pronounced Ban-E-chess-ski), her children and even neighborhood children Sylvia died October 26, 1965 in the Baniszewski home at the age of 16 in Indianapolis, Indiana. I grew up in Indianapolis, moving there in 1976 when I was 4.  I first remember hearing about this case in 1985 when Gertrude Baniszewski became eligible for parole.  M...