The torture of Sylvia Likens...
 

Being interested in true-crime, I have spent some of my time reading about real cases and murders. I happened to come across a particularily disturbing case where a young 16 year-old girl was abused and brutally tortured by her babysitter for three months.

I was curious if anybody had heard about this case before. For those who haven't, it really is interesting but really upsetting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Likens

Holy shit. I can't believe the Baniszewski family and their cohorts got off so easily. Oh yeah, and the rest of the Likens family is fucking stupid.

AGREED.

Absolutely. I wasn't alive until 24 years after her death so I never knew the girl yet I feel so deeply.. hurt by what happened to her. It just isn't human..

I disagree. I think it's all too human. :(

But that might just be my pessimism showing again...

Gosh, Some of this is worst than "A Child Called It". It seems to be on the same scale or higher. It's really saddening to see such demons in people.

Wow, that was kind of tough to read. It's real infuriating to read stories of people who manipulate situations against the victim like that so horribly, branding her as a whore and getting all those people against Sylvia initially. Then I went and looked at Gertrude's picture on Wiki and that creeped me out even more for whatever reason.

It's disturbing to think that some people can be so sick and twisted to do that. Worst of all they believe they're carrying out some sort of service by cleanising them. It's disgusting. I'm intotal agreement about it being interesting but being upsetting. I'd hate to think of that happening to any child, but it probably still occurs today at the same level but with added sexual abuse. It's a saddening thought.

Wow, that's really messed up. I can't believe that there are people who actual enjoy inflicting that degree of pain on others. Something about exercising dominating power over another human being, but there's a line which you'd hope people would inherently know not to cross. I wouldn't wish that kind of torture on my worst enemy, on someone so depraved of their own humanity as to almost 'deserve' it. There's just something so distinctly immoral about it. Ugh.

What's most sad is that this girl's death went relatively unknown and today if I ask people if they've heard of her most people would say no. I often joke about death and enjoy gruesome movies such as the Saw series, but this story is just something much more. Even movies like Hostel and Saw don't feature the kind of torture that she had to go through.

Americans are whacked. I read something about a Japanese crime too, a group of highschoolers kidnap a girl, then beat and rape her, then they keep her in a shed where "store" her. Apparently, these group of men kept her alive for them to continue to sexually and physially abuse her. I'll try to find it again and maybe post it here. Also, another thing I read was about a mother who injects feces in her son/baby, this was in America.

Sometimes it's disturbing to read/know these things, but sometimes it's also intriguing.

I think this is the person the above post talks of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junko_Furuta

A very similar story, quite tragic and gruesome. I can't believe any person would ever do something of that magnitude to another person.

Wow, that is really gruesome. It is quite similar to the Likens story in how she was imprisoned and tortured for a long period of time. I really think stories like these need to be told to heighten awareness, which is one reason why I posted it here.

I also believe there is a film coming out soon called An American Crime which is apparently about the Likens case. I hope it won't turn out to be the typical Hollywood garbage that constantly comes out now.

Scary, isn't it? I was really intruiged when reading it. Intruiged and disgusted at the same time, I almost felt guilty for thinking how interesting this was. "This would make a good fictional work. Possibly a movie or a book" I thought, as I read on to find that it had actually been done/is in the makings:

I hope that upon the release of the movies that the Baniszewskis are humiliated in front of the whole country. I hope that some reporter will go and interview the Baniszewski children (now adults) and others who participated in the crime and expose them for their crimes. 5-10 years is not enough for something this disgusting.

Both of those wiki reads really depressed me. They were really hard to read and the whole time I was thinking "I can't believe how crazy this is." The extremes of both of their stories didn't match the rulings given to those who committed the crimes. Only eight years for one of the key ringleaders of the Japanese girl's death?

I still can't believe Gertrude got parole though. Like the sentence she got was life without the possibility of parole - doesn't make sense.

I am saddened and disturbed by the two articles (Sylvia Likens & Junko Furuta). Stuff like this seems to happen a lot around the world and so few people ever get to know about it. Not only that, it's neglected by those who could've prevented it in some way or form. It makes me wonder about the different fates of human lives. You see a baby born tomorrow and you wonder if that baby will, in 16 years, face something as horrible and unfortunate as this. I wish none of this happened.

I honestly think I threw up a little in my mouth after reading that. Both of those stories, seriously what the hell. Even if this was the case for revenge that they were in the wrong and did something to the perpetrators, that's just extreme. However, these poor things were, from what I read, innocent in the first place.

Absolutely, that was one reason why I posted this story. To get it out there.

Don't we all?

Furuta's article was just as sad, wow. It really sucks to read about how many times someone could have done something for both Sylvia and Junko to save their lives, only to have them turn their head and ignore it for whatever reasons.

Yesterday I went around looking to see if the movie for Sylvia's story had any pics. I was able to find a site with a few behind-the-scenes pics, but this one is more of what I was looking for...

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/1...blast04dx5.gif

So that's supposed to premiere at Sundance this month around the 19th/20th. I actually kind of want to see it now that I've read through Wiki and Crime Library, but I just know I'm gonna be freaked out and/or crying during it.

Yeah, I don't know if I will see it. Imagining is enough, seeing may be worse.

^^^ Exactly. It's fucked up.

As for that movie. I don't want to see it. The real life tragedy was never prevented and for some reason, I'm kind of pissed that they made a movie out of it. Although, I understand that they're trying to show what happened. It's disturbing, inhuman and unsettling nevertheless.

Well it really depends on the film itself. If it is turned into an exploitive money making tool, then yes it will be a terrible thing for the movie to be made. However, if it is done right, is accurate, and is convincing then I think this film could be a highly influencial film. There should be no need to change the story; it is already disturbing and upsetting enough.

Actually, stuff like this doesn't particularly shock me. Its offensive to the conscious, but every society have their sick minded and abusive.


Although parts of me are saying: There are people die of violent death in every way imaginable, and some unimaginable way everyday, what make those individual so special?

Nothing really besides the fact that their stories were revealed to the public. I agree that there are many others out there who suffer similar fates and are just as tragic. I only chose the Likens story because it is one of the extreme examples I could find (not saying there aren't other similar if worse [though hard to imagine] stories).