Murder, Mystery & Makeup - Gertrude Baniszewski - The Worst Lady I've Heard Of

Episode Date: August 23, 2022

Hi Friends! Hope your week/weekend was fantastic. Todays story is low key really heavy and sad and ugh, just awful. I kept getting recommended this over and over again so finally I caved and decided to share the story about Sylvia Likens. I definitely think in the future I just need to stay away from stories like these, they mess with me way too much. Don't get me wrong all the stories are awful , but this one was just super awful.  Anywho, Love and appreciate you guys so much!Hope to see you very soon x o Bailey Sarian Here is the original MMM video and don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube @BaileySarian! 

I didn't think my memory would be something I would have to worry about at my age. But then things changed. I started a new stressful job, moved across town, and suddenly I was forgetting names, missing meetings, losing track of emails. It was quite embarrassing. Then I found Better Memory, a natural formula based on a five-year study at UCLA. I ordered a few bottles and was not expecting much at first, but soon I noticed the differences. I woke up with no brain fog, and I can focus much longer

during the day and recall my schedules without relying on my notes. I feel like my old self again. I was quite impressed, so I had my daughter try Better Memory as well. A few months later, she feels less anxiety, sleeps better, and is more focused. She's embracing and enjoying life much more now. Better Memory has changed our lives. It could change yours too. Give it a try. Visit BeBetterNow.com and place your order today. That's Better Memory at BeBetterNow.com and place your order today. That's Better Memory at BeBetterNow.com.

Hi guys, how are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's Murder, Mystery, and Makeup Monday. Sha-na-sha, sha-na-sha, sha-na-sha-sha, sha-na-sha. If you are new here, hi, how are you? My name is Bailey Sarian and every Monday I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin.

And I do my makeup at the same time where I just kind of get ready for my day. If you're interested in true crime and you like makeup, I would highly suggest you hit that subscribe button. This story has been recommended to me so many times to the point I was like, okay, you guys win. I didn't want to do it, but you guys kept asking. I didn't know what to do.

I caved, I gave in, all right? Gertrude Van Fossen. Have you heard of her? Gertrude, okay? She was born September 19th, 1925. No, I'm sorry, 1929. And she was the third of six children. She was born in Indiana,

and honestly not much is known about her childhood, except that her family was like working class. She loved her father and it said that she was indifferent towards her mother. And then at age 11, she actually witnessed her dad dying. He had a massive heart attack and died. This is a personal opinion. I believe that.

She had to have a fucked up childhood for the things that she does later on in this story. There's no way that she had a quote unquote, like pretty normal childhood. No, there's no way. I, nope, just throwing that out there. So at age 16, Gertrude, she dropped out of high school and she married a man named John Banaszewski.

So he was actually two years older than her and he was from Pennsylvania and then he would become a later on a police officer. And the two of them, John and Gertrude, ended up having four children together, Paula, Stephanie, John, and Marie. Sadly though, the home was pretty damn toxic. John was pretty abusive towards Gertrude

and he would like take his anger out on her. He would beat her pretty often in front of the children. And then after 10 years of marriage, Gertrude finally took the kids and she was able to leave, to get out. And then Gertrude quickly got married again to another man and his name was Edward. Has anyone noticed there's always a lot of Edwards

in these stories? Anyways, so she married this Edward guy. That marriage only lasted three months. So, okay. So when she got a divorce from this Edward guy, Gertrude actually goes back to her first husband, John, and she remarries him. When they got remarried, Gertrude and John

had two more children together, Shirley and James, and then they got divorced for the second time. Not long after, Gertrude started dating another man, and his name was Dennis Lee Wright, and Dennis was 22 years old. Gertrude was like, yeah, getting it. And then unfortunately Gertrude got pregnant by this 22 year old.

And shortly after that, not shortly, nine months, nine months after that, she gave birth to the child. And as soon as she gave birth, Dennis, he was like, peace out, bye. So then she filed a paternity suit and requested that Dennis help pay for this child. And you know, that never goes well for some fucking reason. The court sided with Gertrude,

but Dennis never paid anything. Nothing changed. So by the age of 37, Gertrude was a single mother of seven children. She had been divorced three times. Yeah, so it's just, she's not feeling too good, I guess, about herself and where she's at in life. Gertrude was five foot six and she only weighed about a hundred pounds

and she smoked constantly and she had really bad asthma and she heavily relied on child support from John to pay her bills and take care of her children. So now we move on to somebody else who is like a different person's story, but they're still involved. Her name is Sylvia Likens and she was born January 3rd, 1949. Her parents, they worked in a carnival actually. They were considered more like lower class. They were kind of struggling to pay the bills and whatnot. The Likens family had five children.

So they had Daniel, Diana, they were fraternal twins, Sylvia and Jenny, and then Benny. So Jenny and Benny, fraternal twins, and then Sylvia was like the only one who wasn't a twin. Jenny, who is Sylvia's younger sister, she had polio, she had gotten polio as a child, and she suffered a limp, so she had to wear like a leg brace. And Silvia was really like overprotective of her younger sister. So as a teenager, Silvia would also just kind of work odd jobs, like, I mean, ones that you can as a teenager,

like babysitting. And then she would give that money to her parents just to kind of help them out. So on July 3rd, Silvia's mom was arrested because she was caught shoplifting and they ended up putting her in jail. This caused some stress to the Likens family. It was just mainly because they couldn't work.

Like they needed the money. Why'd she do that? When she went to prison, it just put their dad in a really hard spot. He couldn't really take care of all the kids. So their father tried to find boarding for the two girls so that they can return to the carnival circuit and continue making money.

So the oldest Lycan daughter was married. So she wasn't able to go on the carnival circuit with them and help out. She just was living her own life. And then they had two boys who would also join them or their dad to make extra money on the carnival circuit. Dad didn't think that the carnival would be safe for the youngest daughters,

and he wanted them to stay in Indiana and not go with them. So that's why he was looking for somewhere for them to stay. Okay, so while in school, Sylvia meets Gertrude's daughter, Stephanie, and they meet in high school and they kind of become just friends. She invited Sylvia over for like a sleepover. When Sylvia's dad would go to pick up Sylvia from the house,

he began to speak with Stephanie's mom, Gertrude. He was talking to her about, you know, they're trying to find somewhere that Sylvia can go, just like venting to her, I guess. Gertrude was like, hey, why doesn't Sylvia just stay here and just pay me $20 a week? And honestly, it sounded great for Sylvia's dad. I mean, Sylvia wouldn't have to change schools

and she would be with people that she's familiar with. So it just sounded like a really good idea. And also it seemed like Gertrude had a little bit of a crush on Sylvia's dad and was just kind of saying that to please him or something. That's just an observation, I have no idea. So both Sylvia and her sister Jenny would be staying with Gertrude and her tribe of children.

At first, everything was going great. I mean, Sylvia and Jenny helped with the household chores and they were treated fairly in the house. They would even attend Sunday school service. But as time went on, things just kind of started going south because Sylvia's father, the $20 a week, remember that they agreed on, it just like wasn't showing up, the $20.

And this was kind of pissing Gertrude off. Like, hey, I'm watching your kids. You promised $20 a week and it's not happening. So this is just making Gertrude more and more angry because like, where's her $20 bitch? She then started to just take her anger out on the kids. So in one of the first disciplinary actions, Gertrude beat the Lichen sisters with a quarter inch paddle

saying quote, well, I took care of you two little bitches for a week for nothing, end quote. And then there was another occasion where the two sisters got beat, or at least hit 15 times, it's said, by the paddle for eating too much at church dinner. So this Gertrude lady's a real bitch. For some strange reason, most of the anger kind of,

or the abuse centered on Sylvia. Paula, the oldest of Gertrude's children, was jealous of Sylvia's appearance. She thought Sylvia was really good looking and really pretty and like, why wasn't she pretty? So she would also pick on Sylvia as well. So not only is Sylvia getting beat by this awful Gertrude lady, kids are also being really mean to her as well. So not only is Sylvia getting beat by this awful Gertrude lady,

kids are also being really mean to her as well. So one day Sylvia had come home from school and she was talking to her sister about how she had a boyfriend at school. And this made the oldest child annoyed or angry. So she decided to kick her in the lower region and accused her of being pregnant. And on another occasion,

Gertrude would beat Sylvia for stealing candy. When in reality she purchased it. But most of all Gertrude would deny Sylvia food. Sylvia would be left to like eat out of the garbage cans. So Sylvia decided to collect the recycling items inside the house, but also just like out in different garbage can areas so that she can turn it in and get money for it.

Of course, Gertrude caught her doing that and then punished her pretty heavily for that. On another occasion, Sylvia was force fed a hot dog covered with like a bunch of condiments. And when she threw the hot dog back up, she was made to then eat it again. Sylvia was falsely accused of spreading rumors about the two oldest kids, Paula and Stephanie at school.

I don't know why this was happening. I guess Stephanie or even Paula would come home and then tell Gertrude, "'Oh yeah, this is what Sylvia did today.'" Mm-hmm, I just don't understand that. The two kids were like, oh yeah, Sylvia's talking about how we're sluts. And when Gertrude finds this out, she was livid.

So Stephanie tells her boyfriend, his name is Coy, and she tells him like, oh yeah, so Sylvia called me a prostitute. So then her boyfriend, Stephanie's boyfriend, Coy, then went and beat up Sylvia. More people are in on this. Stephanie and Paula, the oldest kids, they would actually take turns with Gertrude

attacking Sylvia. Like it just absolutely makes no sense what kind of fucked up, sorry. So like one time Paula beat Sylvia to the point that she broke her own wrist. And then once Paula got her cast on from breaking her wrist, she then used that cast to beat the shit out of Sylvia some more, but this time with the casts.

Like what the hell, kind of sick. This was just like a continuing cycle. Like it just didn't seem like it was gonna stop anytime soon. The older sisters, as well as their friends, would tell their classmates that Sylvia was spreading nasty rumors about them and their families.

And I think in order to deflect any of Sylvia's claims about the abuse, I'm not even sure anymore, because then they would invite classmates over. They would invite friends over and just beat up or even sexually abuse Sylvia. They even set up Sylvia's best friend, her name was Anna, at school.

They told Anna that Sylvia had been talking crap behind her back. So then they invited Anna to come over to the house and beat up Sylvia while the family watched. When I was reading this, I seriously didn't think this was real, but it's real. The kids would just invite their friends over. They would practice karate on Sylvia.

They would kick her, they would beat her. Poor Sylvia, her skin was covered in cigarette burns because they would put cigarettes out on her skin. Yeah, Sylvia was made to strip down in front of the family and the neighborhood kids, and they inserted things into her lower area, just sexually abusing her, and it's so awful. Eventually Gertrude forbid Sylvia from going to school

after Sylvia admitted that she stole a track suit from school and she stole it because she needed it for school and Gertrude refused to buy it for her. So she ended up stealing it. Gertrude found it and then just beat the crap out of her. Like this girl, this poor girl. So Sylvia and Jenny were terrified to tell anybody about what was going on at the house.

They thought that it would only make the abuse worse. And Gertrude told them, "'If you tell anybody, I'm gonna kill you.' They believed this, so they didn't wanna say anything. So the kids ended up telling nobody what was going on, which I know as people, you and I sitting here listening to this, it's like, it's so hard to believe that they didn't tell anybody. Like, why wouldn't you tell anybody? But we also don't know their thought process. We weren't experiencing what they were experiencing.

I didn't think my memory would be something I would have to worry about at my age, but then things changed. I started a new stressful job, moved across town, and suddenly I was forgetting names, missing meetings, losing track of emails. It was quite embarrassing. Then I found Better Memory, a natural formula based on a five-year study at UCLA. I ordered a few bottles and was not expecting much at first, but soon I noticed the differences. I woke up with no brain fog, and I can focus much longer during the day and recall my schedules without relying on my notes. I feel like my old self again. I was quite impressed, so I had my daughter try Better Memory as well.

A few months later, she feels less anxiety, sleeps better, and is more focused. She's embracing and enjoying life much more now. Better Memory has changed our lives. It could change yours too. Give it a try. Visit BeBetterNow.com and place your order today. That's Better Memory at BeBetterNow.com. So the Likens family, they would come back and they would visit from time to time. They didn't notice anything weird about the kids, which is so strange to me, but they didn't. During the time of them visiting, nothing would happen. The girls wouldn't tell the family

and they didn't suspect that anything was happening as well, which is strange to me, because I feel like you would see the scars and whatnot, but they didn't. So Sylvia and Jenny would go to like a local park and it was at this local park that they ran into their oldest sister and her name was Diana and she was there.

And Sylvia told her sister that she was hungry and Diana was like, oh, here, have like this sandwich. Gives her a sandwich. And then one of the other children from Gertrude's family saw her, told Gertrude. And of course, poor Sylvia was punished. So they choked her, they beat her. They threw her into scalding hot water to cleanse her

of her sins so sylvia on occasion would like pass out or faint from the pain and gertrude this would make gertrude mad so then she would end up just like bashing her head against the wall to wake her up you guys what the fuck when they ran into diana again weeks later they told her about the abuse that was happening, but their sister Diana, she didn't believe it, and she didn't say anything. I don't know what the Sam hell is going on over there. I don't know why she didn't believe her, but she didn't.

So a local father had phoned the high school to tell them that there was this girl with sores all over her body at Gertrude's household. So a nurse was sent to investigate to see if there's any child abuse going on. Hallelujah, somebody said something, thank God. Well, Gertrude told the nurse that Sylvia had run away for a week

and that the sores were from her poor personal hygiene skills. Gertrude would then go on to say that Sylvia was just a rotten child. She was a terrible influence on the other children in the household. So she would get punished on occasion, but it was nothing major.

And they left, so they made no other attempts to contact or investigate more. They just didn't feel like they needed to, which is like so unbelievable. In October, Diana, remember the older sister? She went to go visit her sisters at Gertrude's house. And then when she got there, she knocked on the door and Gertrude answered and she refused to let her in

to see the girls because the Likens family, the mom and the dad told Gertrude, well, this is what Gertrude said. So I don't even know if this is true or not, but it was because the Likens parents told Gertrude to not let Jenny or Sylvia see their older sister, Diana. Due to the abuse and the repeated kicks to Sylvia's lower region,

she began to wet the bed as punishment. She would be thrown into the basement, stay there, and that's where Gertrude would keep her tied up. Gertrude would just leave her down there naked, starving and dehydrated. Occasionally, she would be tied up to the banister of the basement stairs. Down in the basement area, there was no bathroom,

so Sylvia would just go standing up. And when this happened, it would piss Gertrude off. Pretty much everything Sylvia did just piss Gertrude off. When Sylvia would like wet herself standing up in the basement, Gertrude would get Sylvia's hands and feet, tie them together, and then she would throw her into super hot water in like the bathtub

and give her a bath that way just to get her clean again. So this sometimes would happen numerous times a day because she would pee herself a couple of times a day. I mean, where else was she supposed to go, Gertrude? So Gertrude would just keep Sylvia locked up down in the basement and honestly this abuse would just continue over and over and over again. There was no end to it. Then there's more of course. So Gertrude would have the neighborhood kids come over and she

would charge them five cents for them to come over and abuse Sylvia. Five cents to come into the home and abuse her. The story is awful. I'm not even sure why none of these kids coming into the home said anything ever. How long has this been going on and nobody said anything? I mean, that's like a little, come on. Nobody said a word.

It's just kind of unbelievable to me. They should all be held accountable. So at this point, Sylvia was extremely malnourished and the other children from Gertrude would torture her by offering her food and then they would quickly just take it away. Never in my life have I ever wanted someone dead more than this like whole family, sorry.

You're supposed to forgive people but sometimes the lord really makes it hard to forgive They're really challenging you so gertrude and her kids plus their boyfriends Just did some more awful shit like one time they etched the words quote I am a prostitute and I am proud, end quote, onto her stomach, okay? They etched that into her stomach. And one of the 14 year old neighborhood boys, his name was like Richard, fuck you Richard, just took turns etching this into her stomach.

Gertrude's kids thought it'd be a great idea to brand Sylvia with an S, but instead they made it into a three. Are they stupid? Yes, yep. And then Gertrude would just sexually abuse Sylvia with an S, but instead they made it into a three. Are they stupid? Yes. Yep. And then Gertrude would just sexually abuse Sylvia, tease her about not being able to get married now that she's branded and her body is garbage.

At this point, this is what Gertrude's saying. This is why it's so hard for me to believe that Gertrude had a normal upbringing. Now there isn't much info about how Gertrude was raised, but she had to learn this abuse somewhere. You're not just born with this abuse, you learn it from people. I mean, this is all an opinion, I'm not a doctor.

It just is so strange to me that someone this extreme is trying to say that like her childhood was whatever. And you're probably wondering why I even care about how Gertrude was raised. It just gives you a better understanding of why they are the way they are. And that's what really kind of gets my mind going is like trying to find out why someone is the way they are.

So that's why I normally like to give a background story on people because it does play a big role. So Gertrude made Sylvia write a letter to her parents. And this letter would be her saying that she's running away with a local group of boys. Also Gertrude just wanted to cover her own ass because in this letter, she made Sylvia write that she was raped and her body was mutilated

by these boys that she ran away with. Gertrude's plan was to hand this letter to her parents when they came by the house to see Sylvia and Jenny. What Gertrude was really going to do was take Sylvia to the forest area nearby and leave her there to starve to death. She was sick of Sylvia and just wanted to get rid of her. So she made her write this letter

so the parents would be like, oh, she ran away. Stupid ass, I'm so mad. Anyway, so the letter pretty much just said like, hey, I went with a gang of boys in the middle of the night, then they beat me up and they raped me and left sores on my face and all over my body. And they also put on my stomach, I am a prostitute and proud of it.

So then on October 25th, Sylvia tried to escape when she heard Gertrude's plan to drop her off at the forest and leave her there. She heard Gertrude saying this. So she's trying to make an escape, but sadly she was caught before she made it off the property. So they just punished her again pretty hard and they beat her until she blacked out. Later that evening, Sylvia banged on the walls of the basement and screamed as loud as she could in hopes that like the neighbors would hear her or something. And a neighbor would later testify

that she heard these noises of like screaming and someone yelling for help, but that they stopped. So she decided not to call the police because she assumed like, oh, they must've just been playing or it was handled or something. So the abuse continued, but Sylvia was very weak at this point. She had tried to crawl up the stairs to get out,

but couldn't make it. Instead, Gertrude was at the top of the staircase and pretty much beat her back down to the basement. Gertrude hit Sylvia's head really hard. At this time, Sylvia stopped breathing. In an effort to clean her up, one of the kids tried to give her a warm, soapy bath, and that's when she realized that Sylvia was indeed dead.

So she tried to give her mouth to mouth, and Gertrude was certain that Sylvia was just faking it, and she just told her to just let her go, like she's just faking it. And then she realized that Sylvia was indeed dead. Gertrude told like Stephanie's boyfriend, he needed to go call the police, but from like a local pay phone.

So he leaves the house and he goes and calls the police. So police do arrive and Gertrude told them that Sylvia ran away and this is how she returned. And that when she found her, she was tending to her all day, trying to clean her up and get her better. Jenny, who is Sylvia's sister, now mind you, this is a side note, Jenny really wasn't even getting abused at all.

It was just towards Sylvia. Anywho, but Jenny was able to talk to one of the police officers on the scene. And she said, or she like whispered into one of the police officer's ears, "'Get me out of here and I'll tell you everything. Police were able to get Jenny out of there and talk to her. And she explained everything that had been going on

inside that house. And based on Jenny's testimony, police then were able to arrest Gertrude, three of her kids, plus two of the boyfriends. Additionally, five neighborhood children were arrested and charged with causing injury to a person. They were released to their parents, but all had to appear in court and give a statement,

which is horseshit if you ask me. So Gertrude initially refused any involvement. She only admitted that she had made Sylvia sleep in the basement when she was wetting the bed because she just didn't want to ruin her mattress. Gertrude would become like really agitated when police officers would question her further asking more questions as to what happened. They pretty much were telling Gertrude that Sylvia's body and like her internal damage it just doesn't line up with her story. So the

autopsy revealed that Sylvia had over 150 wounds on her body. She was incredibly thin and malnourished. There were burns, cuts, bruises, and severe muscle damage. All of her fingernails had been bent backwards and she was missing the top layer of skin on her face, neck, chest, and knee. The official cause of death, blunt force trauma to the head.

So Gertrude, Paula, which was Gertrude's daughter, and then John, the son, they were going to be tried for first degree murder. And one of the kids, her name was Stephanie. Do you remember Stephanie? Her charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence, but she did agree to testify against her family at trial. Richard Hobbs and Coy Hubbard,

they were charged with premeditated malice. They were like the boyfriend slash neighbor kid. Gertrude's defense was that she was not responsible for the kids because the other children were responsible for the children because she was too depressed to be able to take control of the household. So the kids were to blame, not her. She was just depressed.

Fuck off. the trial and decision of the jury lasted 17 days and gertrude was convicted of first degree murder thank god richard coy and john were all convicted of manslaughter gertrude and paula they were giving life sentences during a retrial paula hers was changed to voluntary manslaughter and her sentence was reduced to two to 21 years. She would only serve three years in prison and then she was let out. Coy and John, they were sentenced to 18 months

at a juvenile detention facility. Richard would have a mental break once the weight of the crimes hit him. And then he began smoking really heavily and he died of lung cancer at 21. I'm laughing because he must have been smoking a lot to die of lung cancer at 21. Good, bye.

I know you're supposed to forgive, but they're making it really difficult. Anyways, so Coy was in and out of prison all of his life. He died at 56 years of age of a heart attack. And during the retrial for Gertrude, she was still convicted of first degree murder, but her sentence was changed to 18 to life in prison. She was a model prisoner.

She worked in the sewing room and the other inmates called her mom. And then guess what? Her parole came up in 1985 and she changed her name to Nadine Van Fossen. This upset a lot of people. They made a petition to keep her in prison and it had about 4,500 signatures.

But guess what? She was still granted parole. She moved to goddamn Iowa where she lived for five years until she died of lung cancer in 1990. Paula, she also moved to Iowa after her release and like back close to her mom. She changed her name and get this, she also moved to Iowa after her release and like back close to her mom. She changed her name and get this, she became a teacher. Here's an idea, idea alert.

People who have done terrible things, I don't think you should be allowed to change your name, right? Anyways, Paula was a teacher for a minute. Then the school district, they did discover her past and how she was arrested and all that. And they did fire her. But the fact that she got through and was even a teacher for a small amount of time is not okay.

So John, he changed his name to John Blake. He worked several jobs and get this, he became a minister. He said that he took full responsibility for what he did and he should have been handed a harder sentence. That's what he said. Of course he's saying that because he's out of prison. If he were in prison, he'd be asking for forgiveness. But now that he's out, he's like,

yeah, I should have gotten a harder sentence. I learned my lesson. Jenny, she went on to marry a man and have some children. And Jenny is Sylvia's sister, remember? So Jenny never blamed her parents for the abuse that her and her sister endured. She said that they were just trying to make ends meet and they did the best that they could at the time.

Good for her. She's able to like move forward. I don't know. I'm trying to see some kind of positive here. Okay. So in 2001, a memorial for Sylvia was erected in Indianapolis and there was actually a movie made. It was called An American Crime

and it was about the whole story. I tried to watch it last night. It had a lot of well-known actors in it and stuff, but I just couldn't do it, it was too much. Researching this story was just not okay. So that is the awful story about this Gertrude devil woman. I shouldn't hate anybody, but Lord, do I hate this woman and her whole family.

I'm sorry, but they should all be in prison. None of them should have been able to change her name. The story was just really upsetting. I'm sure it's upsetting to you as well. There's a lot more details about the abuse that poor Sylvia had endured. It's just like, it's a fucking lot. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today.

I'm sorry if I seem a little down, but this story is definitely a downer and rest in peace poor Sylvia, who had to go through all that for no damn reason. I hope that you have a wonderful day today. You make good choices. Please be safe out there. Please, please, please be safe out there. And I would have to worry about at my age. But then things changed. I started a new stressful job, moved across town, and suddenly I was forgetting names, missing meetings, losing track of emails. It was quite embarrassing.

Then I found Better Memory, a natural formula based on a five-year study at UCLA. I ordered a few bottles and was not expecting much at first, but soon I noticed the differences. I woke up with no brain fog, and I can focus much longer during the day and recall my schedules without relying on my notes. I feel like my old self again. I was quite impressed, so I had my daughter try Better Memory as well. A few months later, she feels less anxiety, sleeps better, and is more focused. She's embracing and enjoying life much more now. Better Memory has changed our lives. It could change yours too. Give it a try. Visit BeBetterNow.com and place your order today. That's Better Memory at BeBetterNow.com.