The Basement of Hell
The True Story of Sylvia Likens (1965)
"If you're going to live in my house, you'll do as I say..."
Those words were just the beginning of 16-year-old Sylvia Likens' descent into a nightmare that would shock the world.
This isn’t a horror movie.
This happened.
In America.
To a child.
It’s July 1965. Sylvia and her younger sister Jenny, both daughters of carnival workers, are dropped off at the home of Gertrude Baniszewski, a frail, chain-smoking single mother of seven kids in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Their parents offered to pay Gertrude $20 a week to house and care for the girls while they toured with the carnival. It seemed like a simple, temporary arrangement.
What the Likens didn’t know... was that they had just handed their daughters to a monster.
The Abuse Begins Subtly...
Gertrude’s own life was miserable—addicted to pills, broke, angry at the world. When the $20 payments from Sylvia’s parents were late, Gertrude took out her frustration on Sylvia. First, it was shouting. Then slaps. Then beatings.
Then it spiraled into hell.
Gertrude began accusing Sylvia of being "filthy," of spreading rumors about her daughters at school, of being "sexually impure."
Sylvia was none of those things.
She was quiet. Sweet. Polite. A girl who loved roller-skating and Elvis Presley.
She just had no way to fight back.
And Gertrude knew it.
A House of Horror
Gertrude didn’t just abuse Sylvia herself—she recruited her children to join in.
Yes, her children.
And neighborhood kids.
Even kids as young as 10.
They kicked Sylvia down the stairs.
Burned her with cigarettes.
Beat her with paddles and belts.
Forced her to strip naked in front of everyone.
Urinated on her.
Made her eat her own feces.
She was no longer a guest.
Not even a prisoner.
She was prey.
The Basement
Eventually, Sylvia was banned from the upstairs.
They locked her in the basement—naked, starving, beaten, and bruised.
She had no toilet. No mattress.
Just concrete. Cold and wet.
They didn’t even call her by her name anymore. They called her “it.”
The neighbors heard sounds. Screams.
But when they came by, Gertrude would smile and say Sylvia had run away and they were dealing with a “bad girl.”
Nobody investigated further.
Nobody saved her.
The Branding
One day, Gertrude handed a sewing needle to her 14-year-old son and said,
“Write it on her stomach.”
He carved the words:
“I’m a prostitute and proud of it.”
The wound was so deep it left permanent scar tissue.
Sylvia screamed in agony as others watched, some giggling, some simply silent.
No one stopped it.
One boy, Richard Hobbs, helped. He heated a needle with a match to “finish the job.”
They laughed.
The Final Hours
By October, Sylvia couldn’t walk anymore. Her body was shutting down.
On October 25, 1965, she tried to escape.
She dragged herself up the basement steps.
She made it to the kitchen door.
Gertrude caught her.
She beat her again and threw her back down the stairs. Sylvia’s head slammed against the concrete wall.
That night, she whispered to her sister Jenny:
“I’m going to die… I know it.”
The next day, October 26, Sylvia died.
Alone.
In the basement.
Naked, mutilated, starving, with over 150 wounds on her body.
She was sixteen years old.
Aftermath
It was Jenny—Sylvia’s younger sister—who finally told someone.
She whispered to a neighbor:
“If you get me out of here, I’ll tell you everything.”
And she did.
The police stormed the Baniszewski home and found Sylvia’s lifeless body in the basement.
The officers who discovered her said it was the worst case of child abuse they had ever seen.
Justice?
Gertrude Baniszewski was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
But…
She was paroled in 1985.
She changed her name to Nadine Van Fossan and lived freely for another five years before dying of cancer in 1990.
Some of the kids who tortured Sylvia got 2 to 7 years in juvenile detention.
Most went on to live normal lives.
🕯️ Legacy
Sylvia Likens never got justice—at least not the kind that fits the horror she endured.
Her gravestone reads:
“Our Darling Daughter.”
But to the world, she is more than that.
She is a reminder of what happens when apathy wins, when silence is louder than screams, and when evil hides in plain sight.
Let her name be remembered.
Let her story never be forgotten.
About the Creator
Usama
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Comments (1)
This is truly sickening. It's hard to fathom how someone could do this to a child. Makes you realize how important it is to protect kids from harm.