Pay no heed to that which they call a conspiracy; and do not fear what they fear. That was the message that Isaiah had for the king of Judah. A loyal vassal of the Assyrian king, he found his small territory besieged by two powerful kings from the north. They had renounced their oaths of fealty to the Assyrian king. Hoping to put together the largest possible opposition force, they attacked the city of Jerusalem in an effort to force the king of Judah into the alliance. He refused…and wisely so. The current king of Assyria started out as a general serving on the frontiers of the empire. Well, up until the time that he decided to give himself a promotion. Massacring the royal family and all loyal to it, he took the top spot. And he loved one thing more than anything else. Death and destruction. Well, those are really two things, but they go together well. He was never more happy than when he found the opportunity to hack, slash, and kill his way through one region or another. Rebellion? He almost relished the rebellion of subject kingdoms. Of course! It gave him the opportunity to saddle up one of the most brutal and sadistic armies ever known. Death and destruction? Yes, on a massive scale. Just imagine a whole army made up of Keyser Soezes! Perhaps the most disturbing aspects of the kings of Assyria was the belief that the sheer horror they spread throughout the region was the thing that pleased their god more than anything. A strange god! Few deities should be more loathed than Assur. Perhaps only one being could have upstaged him… “all who dare to intrude..the humans, animals, birds, fish, reptiles…all life is my enemy! All life shall perish under the reign of Sutekh the Destroyer!” A being that most desires being the only living being in the whole of creation…he almost makes Assur look like a peaceable sort of chap. Where was I? Oh, yes. Isaiah admonished the king of Judah to stand firm against the rebels, even though his enemies were at that moment digging through the city walls. And! A group within the government was planning to overthrow the king of Judah and replace him with a noble related to one of the northern kings. Isaiah’s advice was taken, and one can almost hear the cries of horror when the Assyrian king and his army were seen on the horizon. But surely there was a conspiracy. A coup was in the making..conspiring against the king..what else other than a conspiracy could that be? What Isaiah was saying was that the so-called conspiracy was meaningless; it would be defeated and, in a certain way, that meant it was, ultimately, not real.

Conspiracy Theory…that’s a much used term today. It has become a rather pejorative term. Why? Because in the minds of society, people who question the Inherited Wisdom are, for lack of a better term, kooks. People who refuse to believe the Canonical Story..a Canonical Story, are a threat to order; they bring chaos. Perhaps teaspooners are a special kind of kooky Conspiracy Theorist. It’s not the act of setting aside the Canonical Story itself; after all, human history is full of Canonical Stories that are, for the most part, the truth. One should question the so-called truth until one finds that either the so-called truth is actually the truth, or that the so-called truth is a bunch of nonsense. Nonsense? A truth that is intended to hide the truth. Teaspooners, which I hope does not become a pejorative term, are perhaps akin to Socrates. His quest for the truth led him smack into the wall of propaganda built by the Athenian government. Socrates vs the government? I wonder who won. Yes..the lie defeated the truth, well, the pursuit of it. But only for the moment…I myself have several works that purport to contain material originating from the Great Threat to the Inherited Wisdom. So who really won? Still, it seems strange that in a world that has never been safer; to be living in a time of unrivaled prosperity; to suddenly be willing to see nothing but dozens of Assurs and a few Sutekhs thrown in for good measure, waiting to pounce on a fearful nation…that is strange. And some seek to be clever! Hypothetically speaking, if I were the leader of the safest country in the world, I might try to convince everyone that the Apocalypse was near. Fear is the most powerful emotion; and history is littered with hundreds of demagogues who stoked up and played on fear. How easy it was throughout Europe between the world wars to do just that! Of course, they had a reason to be afraid. So the Stokers simply had to further stoke what were well-founded fears. But! If I can get my people to work themselves up into a state of fear when there is nothing to fear…that would be impressive. Then I could do something clever! I could tell them that they would not have be so afraid if I ban people from entering into their midst…people who have never been a threat to begin with. Clever? Yes! Then I can say…has anything bad happened since I did what I did? No? See what an effective leader I am! In reality…I did nothing…nothing at all. I saved people who didn’t need saving by lashing out at people who weren’t a threat, then I took credit for the fact that they really had nothing to fear at all in the first place. That is very clever, you must admit! I did something amounting to doing nothing about something that was really nothing. Pay no heed to what they call a conspiracy? Indeed. And do not fear what they fear, because what they fear, doesn’t really exist. Canonical Stories really are strange. But perhaps all Canonical Stories are built using Alternative Facts. It is a truism of mine that people, well not all people, but some people, prefer to be told what they want to hear. They want to believe that which they know is not the truth. The truth often has sharp edges, and when it hurts, it feels better to be told what one wants to believe. I am reminded of a very interesting episode of…the show escapes me at the moment…when the bad guy is trying to bring someone under his influence by offering him a simple alternative to the pain he was suffering; all he need do was look at the ceiling and gaze at the four lights. The pain would stop if his victim would simply say that there were five lights. A simple choice, yes? No! By making his victim alter the truth and consciously state, as reality, what is not the truth…that would be the beginning of his loss of control..the beginning of his giving control to someone else. It was quite a moment indeed at the end when, being released due the intervention of others, he looked his tormentor in the eyes and declared…there are four lights! Alas…perhaps we should fear what they fear.

It has been a long time since I waded out into the morass of the Sylvia Likens Saga. I was unceremoniously asked to wade back out of a particular corner of the morass. Some may find it strange, but I took no offense. Indeed, I completely understood. My pursuit was not their pursuit. To each their own, forgive the cliché; I’ve been working for awhile on this and Rome wasn’t built in a day, you know! So I started my own story world, and others soon breathed new life into what had become a virtual living death. The most fascinating murder mystery in American history had been long dead, having been replaced with a bizarre world even more bizarre than the one that originally gave it life. Much of that is owed, or so I think, to focusing on the testimony of the children. Entertaining, yes, but also, for the most part, meaningless. But not all of it. The police also provide meaningless twaddle, as did the medical examiners. Lies meant to disguise the truth. I have come to believe that it is the peripheral characters that can provide some of the most important evidence of all. Still, I had long been cast in the role of Adviser..though nothing like Isaiah, to others. Then at long last I awoke. I slept had for a long time, with the Sylvia Likens Case being the furthest thing from my mind. And that gave me distance. It also gave me time to reconsider the great Occam, not to mention his razor. Having seen the Fall of Achilles and surviving the Death of Icarus, I found myself pondering strange things again. It was strange, but it was one specific little detail that had me disoriented to say the least. The simplest explanation is usually the right one. But surely no explanation for the Great Drama could ever be simple.

I am not a big fan of coincidence. That said, one can be a not-big-fan of something and still believe it. And not being a big fan of something doesn’t mean that it isn’t true…or that it happened. There is one coincidence, among many, that I am not prepared to believe is actually a coincidence. It is this detail that suddenly caused me to question the Uninherited Wisdom. I found that if I started at that point, with that detail, that a whole different picture emerges…one that was serenely simple. What detail? This one:

Q. Now, Mrs. Baniszewski, on the morning of October 26, 1965, there was signed, executed and filed an affidavit for First Degree Burglary against Robert Handlin, parts of which read "that on this day, before me, Noble R. Pearcy, personally came Detective Sheldon Lasky, who upon his oath said Robert Handlin on or about the 20th of October, 1965, County of Marion, did then and there unlawfully, feloniously, burglariously break and enter into the dwelling house of Gertrude Wright, then and there situated at 3850 East New York Street in which said dwelling house the said Gertrude Wright then lived". Now, this was signed and sworn the 26th of October. Now, are you the same Gertrude Wright endorsed as a witness for the State?

October 26th…I know that date! That is the date on which police found the dead Sylvia Likens lying on a mattress in the upstairs back bedroom of Gertrude’s house. So Gertrude Baniszewski made her way to the…somewhere…possibly the police station, although Nobel R Pearcy was the Marion County Prosecutor, a position that Mr. Erbecker aspired to, so perhaps Gertrude went to his office. If Robert Handlon was arrested on the evening of October 20th, why did Gertrude wait until October 26th to press charges? Why didn’t she do it on the evening of October 20th? What happened within a six day period that led her to finally decide to be endorsed as a witness for the state, and thereby creating a most perplexing coincidence.

Notice something else. We’ve become so used to the Lady of the House having two names, being two people, that it is easy not to notice a rather odd pattern. The attorney directed his question to Mrs. Baniszewski. Of course, you say! That’s who she is…who she was. Yet the house that Robert Handlon broke into belonged, not to Mrs. Baniszewski…it belonged to Mrs. Wright, Gertrude Wright. Then the attorney asks Mrs. Baniszewski if she is the same Gertrude Wright “endorsed as a witness for the State.” But it wasn’t Mrs. Wright who was endorsed as a witness…it was Mrs. Baniszewski. Did Gertrude sign the complaint, or whatever it was, as Mrs. Wright, or did she sign it as Mrs. Baniszewski? Surely, she didn’t sign it as both!

I believe that the man who argued with Gertrude on the front porch, Mrs. Vermillion having told the story, was Robert Handlon. Now I have read a strange tale of Gertrude’s children stealing something from his house, which is the other side of the double, and he wanted it back. But! When the police arrive, they don’t arrest Gertrude’s children..there is no indication that they recovered stolen property. No! They arrested Robert Handlon. There is nothing whatsoever to indicate that Gertrude’s kids stole anything from Robert Handlon. A few pop bottles, but not from Robert Handlon. Sylvia contemplated stealing cokes in the park. But Robert Handlon didn’t own the park or the soda machine in it. And besides…Shirley is a tattle-tale! So if the kids stole who knows what, I’m sure that Shirley would have ratted out the other kids. But! He returned on October 20th. Had Marie taken possession of Robert Handlon’s transistor radio? Had Jenny added his black-and-white TV to the odd collection of things in the upstairs back bedroom? Perhaps Johnny suddenly appeared with a new record that Mrs. Baniszewski could dance to…sorry…take a moment to clear that from your mind. Too late! How about this? “She Likes to Boogie Real Low.” Stop! Change the record! “If you come back, back to me, I’ll be different, wait and see.” Go-Go boots don’t go well with Dixonian knee-knocker dresses. Johnny, please give Mr. Handlon his record back. See if he’s got Chattanooga Choo Choo. No! I already said that the kids didn’t steal Robert Handlon’s whatever. But Robert was arrested in September, and then he returns again a month later, and gets into the house. Is he a burglar? Of course not. Everyone was home when he forced his way into the house. What was there to steal in Gertrude’s side of the double? Not much; not much at all. Robert Handlon came up again, in the testimony of Jenny Likens:

Q. Did you know at that time a man named Robert Handlon?
A. That name don't sound too familiar.

Q. Did you ever appear in Municipal court with reference to an alleged burglary at your house during the period of from July '65 to October '65?

A. There was a burglary there.
Q. Was it a man named Robert Handlon they arrested?
A. I don't know.
Q. Did you go to police court?
A. No.
Q. Did you talk to the police about it?
A. No.
Q. Did the police come to your house about it?
A. They came to 3850.
Q. How many times?
A. They arrested a man in front of the house.
Q. Were you there when they arrested the man?
A. I was upstairs looking out the window.
Q. Was it a man named Robert Handlon?

MR. NEW: We object.
THE COURT: Sustained.

Q. Were you subpoenaed by the State of Indiana on that case on October 20 or 21, 1965?
A. No.
Q. You were not?
A. No.

So we know that Jenny watched the drama unfold through the window. And we know that the man was Robert Handlon. We also know that Sylvia was home:

Q. She was down in the basement?
A. Not when the police came. She was upstairs in the bedroom.
Q. Was she down in the basement?
A. No, she was not.

This was, of course, a big gaffe on Jenny’s part, seeing how her own statements indicated that by this time, Sylvia was sleeping in the basement all the time. Still, Robert Handlon forces his way into the house, and Sylvia was home.

Q. How long were the police there? They called the wagon after the first policeman got there and some other policemen came?
A. Yes.
Q. The police were there an hour and a half?
A. I would say something like that.
Q. Would you say the police were there two hours?
A. No, I would say an hour and a half.

90 minutes seems like a long time for the police to have been there. Of course, they would have taken statements from the people in the house. And apparently, Mr. Handlon did not intend to go quietly, as they say. Call the wagon? Really? They called for the Paddy Wagon? Just how many cops did it take? It’s not like they were going up against the Beast of East of New York Street! Perhaps they sought to arrest Anna the Cage Fighter!

Q. Now tell us what Anna did to the police officers.

A. Well, she threw them on the ground and stomped on their stomachs and walked on their faces, and gave them bloody noses and bloody eyes!

The Court: Good Heavens. Are you talking about a 13 year-old girl?

A. Yes! Then she picked them up and slammed them against the wall, flipped them several times, and scratched them on their backs with her fingernails.

The Court: Then what happened?

Q. The Paddy Wagon came with more cops.

The Court: That was the end of that, I suppose.

A. No! Then she smacked those cops too and kicked them on the rear parts of their bodies!

Did the police simply arrive and arrest a burglar? Seeing how Mr. Handlon had been arrested at Gertrude’s home before, and that he wasn’t a burglar then, there’s no way that he’s a burglar now. So I think that Mr. Handlon spent some time explaining to cops why he was there. Of course, unless he were there to save someone’s life, it wouldn’t matter in the end…it’s breaking and entering this time. He was there to see someone. Perhaps he insisted. And insisted. Then…police back-up was needed. Ok, officers, do your duty! And so they did, but not before looking around anxiously to make sure that Anna Siscoe wasn’t nearby.

Perhaps there’s truth in the expression…a picture’s worth a thousand words. Thanks a lot! Now you’ve ruined it! No more Anna the Terrible jokes...alas.

We find here irrefutable proof that Sylvia Likens was perfectly fine as late as October 20th. Otherwise, she would have been rescued by Indianapolis’ Boys in Blue. And I don’t say that in jest. The vast majority of cops are honest, and dedicated to saving peoples’ lives. They are the ultimate bulwark against chaos, anarchy, mayhem…and Anna Siscoe. Once again they left Gertrude’s house with Robert Handlon, and Sylvia probably went back to bed. Gertrude gave this account:

Q. Did anything unusual happen October 16th?
A. Not that I remember, really.
Q. Now, what about October 21?
A. Well, sometime in October I was sick, I remember that, but there was a man tried getting in our window.
Q. What date was that?
A. I don't remember the exact date.
Q. In October?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What happened?
A. Well, when I awoke the man was half way through the window.
Q. Upstairs or downstairs?
A. Since about the middle part of September, my bedroom had been downstairs where purportedly the dining room was supposed to be.
Q. Was there a dining room?
A. Not since the middle of September, no.
Q. Did the police come there with reference to the man breaking in the house?
A. Yes, they did.
Q. And how long did they stay there?
A. About an hour.

So, just as the man is half way through the window, Gertrude awakes. What timing! Perhaps she borrowed one of Jenny’s Precision Instruments. I remember one time I was sick in October? Really? Let’s make it easier…try to remember a time in October that you weren’t sick. Still, Johnny swoops into action:

Q. Now, do you recall when in 1965 you called the police about a prowler in your home or around the home?
A. Do I remember what, sir?
Q. What month that was in 1965?
A. You mean October 1965, is that what you are talking about?

No, Gertrude, not October 1965. He means October 54 AD when the emperor Claudius was assassinated by being fed poisoned mushrooms. Or October 1908 when the Model T first went on sale. Or October 1929 when the stock market crashed. Wait, let’s make it easy…and this is a good one…October 1964 when in desperation you suddenly showed up in front of your ex-husband’s house dragging Paula with you because she had…no! That event is a very important one, yet not in this installment…but soon. Let’s stick with October 1965.

Q. Was it October you called the police about a prowler
A. My son Johnny snuck out the back door and called the police, yes.
Q. He made the call from where, if you know?
A. The phone booth in the filling station.

Kiernan’s Shell Station? An important gas station, indeed. Home to a very important phone, indeed. Jenny says that Mr. Handlon was arrested in front of the house. The man is intent on getting into the house, and despite the fact that the residents are there, he tries going through the window. The residents see him, and the police are called. Yet he doesn’t run away. He waits until the cops arrive, and still he doesn’t run away. Marie Baniszewski, young lady, give Robert Handlon his transistor radio back so he’ll leave! But mom! Me and Sylvia are listening to the Beatles! What? How can I dance to the Beatles? I think he forced his way in, and demanded to see Sylvia. Another argument ensued. The police arrived, and he is led outside to talk to the officer. I don’t think he made any attempt to get away. I think he pled his case to the cops, why he was there, and why it was so important. Hey, copper! Look over there…Anna Siscoe! Made you look.

The police had been there before:

Q. Did the police ever have another occasion to come to the door there at 3850 East New York Street in October, other than the one you said about the 21st or 22nd and the 26th?

A. Well, I don't remember any other time.
Q. Somebody made a complaint about screams coming from the house and the police came?
A. I don't remember that.

Don’t remember? Could it be memory loss? Memory loss…I don’t remember any memory loss. Sorry, I had to work in my favorite Gertrude line. If what is being alluded to is Sylvia screaming because she was being abused or tortured, why didn’t they remove her from the house? They would have investigated the screaming and who was doing the screaming…and why. So try to imagine what happened on this occasion. I think that there is a pretty good explanation…reference is being made to the time that Stephanie and Paula were shoveling coal into the furnace. Stephanie dropped coal on Paula’s foot. They were screaming. But according to Vermillion, she only heard Gertrude screaming. Gertrude, of course, was not in a basement made of bricks at the time. She was standing in the kitchen, and so Vermillion heard her loud and clear. Phyllis indicated that she didn’t call the police. The attorney’s account suggests that the mother of the two Thompson kids did call the police, or maybe forced poor Raymond to do it. Technically, Gertrude was guilty of disturbing the peace. A Peace Disturber! Still, she may still have been screaming at the time that the police arrived. At any rate, the police investigated the matter. Maybe they asked Paula if she wanted an ambulance so medics could soothe her swollen toe. I’m sure they told Gertrude that if she made any more ruckus, they would come back and arrest her. The incident passed, and everyone went back to bed. Just more drama at 3850 East New York Street, but that was all.

It would seem that the police were watching the house:

Q. Let me ask you this. Do you remember the time the police came and parked in front of the house for two hours?
A. You mean about when the man broke in the house?
Q. No, another time in October?

MR. NEW: We object to the question, Your Honor, it assumes.
MR. NEDEFF: Let me withdraw the question and I will rephrase another question.

Q. Do you ever remember seeing the police outside 3850 East New York Street?
A. I remember Marie Baniszewski got her wrist cut and the police came in an ambulance.

That is from the testimony of Jenny. Gertrude also told us about Marie cutting her wrist on wire. On purpose? At any rate, Jenny deflected. The police do not follow ambulances to residences because the owner reports a cut wrist. If the injured person did it intentionally…a suicide attempt..they would. But there is no reason to believe this. And it is not this event that the attorney is alluding to. The police park out front of the house for two hours because of Marie’s wrist? Did they stake out the house because they had a strange premonition of a cut wrist? Did the police employee a medium who could predict little kid injuries with a crystal ball? Did the ambulance take poor Marie to the hospital and the cops had to fill out two hours worth of “Little Kid Injury” paperwork? No. I think he is referring to the fact that the police had been watching the house. Surveillance. Why deflect? The answer to that may be found in another question…why did Jenny deny knowing the name Robert Handlon? That name don’t sound too familiar? Even if she didn’t know him at the time, his identity would have been made clearly known while the police interviewed the people in the house at the time of his arrest. One of those people would have been Jenny. And clearly Gertrude would have named him, although I think that he probably quite readily told the police who he was and why he was there. And Jenny knew him. Gertrude:

Q. Did you know that person?
A. I did not know who it was when he was coming through the window. When the police came I got outdoors and I knew who it was, yes, sir.

Gertrude has interesting ‘people-recognition issues’ I think. She couldn’t tell it was Robert Handlon while he was in the window, but she could tell it was him when he was outside. Perhaps the cops made him take off his burglar clothes? His military-style fatigues? His clown outfit? I couldn’t tell that it was Randy…the kid I don’t like…because he was dressed up like a girl. So I couldn’t tell that Bobo the Clown was really Robert Handlon. And no one knew who it was who rappelled down from the roof of Gertrude’s house in a ninja warrior outfit, throwing razor-edge Chinese Stars the whole way down until the whole of the Indianapolis Police Department, suffering numerous casualties in the process, finally unmasked the figure and found that it was… Anna Siscoe.

So Gertrude knew this mysterious not-burglar. Yet Jenny denies knowing the name. I think that the police were outside the house because Gertrude called them and told them that Robert Handlon had been seen near the house. So they killed their lights and parked out front of the house to see if Handlon appeared. After two hours, and there being no sign of him, the police left.

Q. Did you see the police drive around that neighborhood on New York Street, Denny Street, through the alley and back on New York Street?

MR. NEW: We object unless a time is fixed.

Q. Around October 20 and October 25 and 26th?
A. I believe a policeman arrested Gertie for failing to pay the paper boy.

A round of applause for Jenny the Deflecter! Gertie won’t give the paperboy the $5.00 she owes him. The police response requires stealth! They can’t just pull up out front, confront Gertrude, who apparently mixed it up with the officers, and ended up taken downtown, as it were, for being a public nuisance. Again. Oh no! They drive around the house, making sure that Gertie didn’t have any accomplices arguing with the boy who cut the back yard…officer, I want my $5.00! If I won’t pay the paperboy, then I won’t pay the kid who cut the backyard and missed a spot! So the police pull out all the stops, and circle the house. Please, Jenny. Oh, you think I’ll come quietly? Anna, get out here! Now for Marie’s version, which tops Jenny’s by a mile:

Q. Did you ever see anybody beat up on your mother - where she had to go to the hospital?
A. Well, I remember a policeman trying to get her out of my house once.
Q. When was that?
A. When they said she said something wrong to the paper boy and the paper boy reported to the editor and the policeman came in and drug Mom down the steps. That is all I can remember of that.

Beat up Gertrude? You don’t beat up Gertrude…you get beaten up by Gertrude.

So it wasn’t about the $5.00. Oh, no! Gertrude gets into some dispute with the paperboy about the quality of the news…hey, kiddo! I’m sure you consider the Indi Star to be cutting edge, first rate reporting! Yes, ma’am, I do! The depth of the research and the skill of the writing beats the other papers any day! We even have John Dean to write Bumppo-articles. Oh really? Maybe you should get Mr. Hoover to make up sensationalist stuff too! Be reasonable Mrs. Baniszewski, or Mrs. Wright, whoever you are, that’s broadcast media! We’re strictly print media. Fine! Go tell your editor that this paper is no better than a scandal sheet! Now I must admit…that’s rude. So the paperboy goes in and has a long talk with the editor, who naturally calls the police. Yes ma’am, I know it’s the Indi Star, but you can’t compare John Dean to Bob Hoover! And it is against the law to express discontent with the quality of the research, the writing, or the job that the editor is doing. So come quietly! Come quietly? Did you tell me to come quietly? I’m Gertie Wright…or Gertie Baniszewski..and I don’t go quietly, officer. Let’s see you try to get me into that car! Marie’s version of the event takes first prize, and perhaps she can hang her blue ribbon from the nail that is sticking out of her bedroom wall.

Back to Jenny…someone has obviously reported that Robert Handlon had been seen. When they arrive, there is no sign of him. So they circle the area to see if they can spot him. But he’s not there, and they leave. Jenny quickly links the presence of the police to something other than it’s most likely cause…Robert Handlon. And we all remember that John Baniszewski alluded to a threat to Gertrude’s residence. He will give Jenny and Marie a run for the money in playing the comedian:

Q. Do you recall the date in October, 1965?
A. The 23rd of October, 1965.
Q. That was on Saturday?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do you recall what time of the day or evening that was?
A. Between 8:30 and 9:00 o'clock in the evening.
Q. What kind of dog was this, specifically?
A. A large German Shepherd that was friendly.
Q. On four legs how tall would it stand?
A. Twenty-four inches.
Q. What was the purpose of you taking a dog there?

MR. ERBECKER: We object.
THE COURT: Overruled.

A. Protection.

Bravo, John! Allude to a risk to the house, bring over a police dog, but make sure he’s a friendly one. But a threat to the house on October 23rd…does anyone else see a pattern here? I think that all of this police involvement and suggestions of risk to the house is centered around Robert Handlon and his overpowering need to see Sylvia. Was he really skulking around the house this much? Perhaps. But even if he is…is he a threat? Is he a danger to Sylvia? Or anyone else? No…I don’t believe that he was. I think that he had a good reason for wanting to see Sylvia.

So back to our bizarre coincidence. Gertrude, for some reason, did not press charges against Mr. Handlon for forcing his way into the house on October 20th. Then, for some reason, she decides to do exactly that…on October 26th…on the same day that Sylvia will meet her end. Did he appear yet again on October 26th and harm Sylvia? No, he did not. So why this strange coincidence? Is there any way to reconcile these considerations? I think there is. But if my suggestion is correct, then it radically changes the basic view that underlies the work of so many contributors to this website; including my own. Could it be that this is a conspiracy? A conspiracy created by Gertrude Baniszewski? I think that Gertrude may have been setting up Mr. Handlon. Setting him up to take the fall. For what? If Gertrude contacted Robert Handlon, and told him that Sylvia would be home on, say, October 26th, and told him that if he came to her house, she might say that she would let him see her. Without calling the cops, Anna Siscoe, or John’s police dog. But! She arranges to press charges against Mr. Handlon before this meeting will take place. This will give him a motive…revenge. A motive for what? Gertrude can tell the police on the evening of October 26th that Robert Handlon had come back. And she then plans to claim not to have invited him. Oh, no! He forced his way into the house. He struggled with her. He found out about the felony charges. He grew enraged. Then! She calls the police to report that Sylvia had been attacked when Mr. Handlon, in a blind rage, raving like a Kebelian Madman, tore up the house and assaulted Sylvia and herself. And so, Gertie planned to set up Robert Handlon. Of course, if he had shown up, then I’m sure that he would have done no such thing. He would end up leaving. And that’s when Gertrude planned to kill Sylvia…and blame it on Robert Handlon…who now had a motive, or so Gertrude thought. But a strange thing happened…Robert Handlon didn’t come to the house. And that meant…he would have an alibi, and probably a pretty good one. So it’s October 26th. And no Robert Handlon. Sylvia comes home. They wait. It’s getting later. Kids will be coming home. So what does Gertrude do? Sylvia must die that night. So now Gertrude changes her plans. Really…change her explanation for Sylvia’s fate. Gertrude shoves her down the steps leading from the kitchen into the basement. Sylvia hits her head against the wall. She gives herself a black-eye and scratches her own face. We all know about Jenny’s claims that Gertrude hit herself in the eye with the paddle she swung it at Sylvia. Perhaps she wasn’t too far off on that. An interesting statement by the jailhouse doctor:

Q. Is it safe to assume then, if it took two weeks to clear them, they were existent on the face several weeks prior to October 27th?
A. No.
Q. It is not?
A. No.
Q. Do you think they came on suddenly on the 26th?
A. I do not know.
Q. Was there any depth to the sores or were the superficial?
A. They were superficial.
Q. They were not self inflicted?
A. They were complicated by her scratching them.
Q. Initially they were not self inflicted?
A. I don't know.

Hold on, just one minute! The sores on the face…the doctor will not state that the were not originally self-inflicted? Ok, I get making sores on your face worse because you are scratching them. But that means that sores were there before you started scratching. So how about initially? So Gertrude gave herself a paddle-less black-eye and scratched her face to make it look like she had been in a nasty fight? With whom? If it was Anna, Gertrude would be in the hospital. No…she decided to stage a fight with Sylvia. A fight that never happened..because Gertrude suddenly shoved Sylvia down the stairs into the basement. There was one small problem; Gertrude didn’t know that Stephanie had come home.

Q. Now then, when you got home from school on Tuesday, what did you see?
A. Nothing.
Q. Where did you go?
A. Upstairs.
Q. You did not see anybody when you got home at all?
A. I seen Shirley.
Q. What did you do upstairs?
A. Put my books down.
Q. How long did you stay up there?
A. Long enough to go somewhere.
Q. About how long were you upstairs?
A. About a half hour.
Q. About a half hour?
A. Or twenty minutes.
Q. Then what happened?
A. I went down stairs.

Perhaps she was in a hurry to go somewhere. When you gotta go…you gotta go. She enters the house and heads for the bathroom. But what goes up, must come down:

Q. Then what happened?
A. I went down stairs.
Q. What did you do then?
A. Shirley and all the kids came in all of a sudden and said somebody was cussing somebody out
Q. What did you do?
A. Nothing right then.
Q. What did you then do later?
A. I asked where Mom and them guys was and they said down in the basement talking to Sylvia.
Q. What did you do?
A. I went to the stairs.
Q. Did you go down in the basement?
A. I went to the first landing.
Q. What did you see?
A. She was mumbling something.
Q. Who is she?
A. Sylvia.
Q. Mumbling or something, is that what you said?
A. Yes.
Q. Who else was down there?
A. Her sister and Johnny and Paula and Mom.
Q. Your mother was down in the basement with her?
A. Yes.

Sylvia is in the basement, clearly suffering from head trauma. Johnny was there? Paula was there?

Q. Paula was there and John was there. What did you see?
A. She was - I don't know what she was saying, Jenny - and that was all I remember. Then I went back up stairs and somebody came over.
Q. Where was Sylvia when you went to the first landing?
A. Sitting on the floor.
Q. What was she doing besides moaning?
A. She was not moaning.
Q. What was she doing?
A. I guess you would say talking incoherently.
Q. What did she say?
A. I don't know what she said.
Q. Did you recognize any words?
A. No.
Q. How was she dressed?
A. She had a blouse and shorts on.
Q. A blouse and shorts?
A. Yes.
Q. What was your mother doing at that time?
A. Talking to her.
Q. But Sylvia was not responding?
A. She would look at her and say something and then that was it.

So it was Mrs. Baniszewski who was in the basement talking to a badly injured Sylvia.

Q. What was Paula doing?
A. Standing there with her arms folded, looking at her.
Q. Did you see anybody do anything to Sylvia while you were looking at her?
A. No, sir.
Q. You went back upstairs?
A. Yes.
Q. How long did you stay up there?
A. Not too long.

Paula is there, not doing anything? Not saying anything? Is Johnny standing there with his arms folded?

Q. Now, at 5:30 in the afternoon, Tuesday, the 26th, what did you see her do?
A. At when?
Q. 5:30 P.M. on Tuesday, the 26th of October?
A. Well, Mom said something was wrong with Sylvia.
Q. Where was your Mom?
A. Upstairs now, and she wanted me to wash her off.
Q. Did you do that?
A. Not right then. She said wait a minute, Johnny was going to wash her off a little. She said she stunk all over herself.

Stephanie went upstairs to use the bathroom. She claimed that she heard a ruckus, and attributed it to Shirley, who she describes as suddenly appearing in the house, followed by a group of anonymous kids, and carrying on about someone swearing at someone. I think that as Stephanie came down the stairs and walked into the kitchen, she saw Gertrude shove Sylvia down the stairs. Then Gertrude goes down into the basement. Gertrude probably froze in terror when she suddenly turned around and saw…Stephanie. There was no Paula; there was no Johnny. Why?

Q. What did you say or do?
A. I told Johnny to turn off the hose, I was going to take her upstairs and give her a bath.
Q. Did he do that?
A. Yes.
Q. Then what did you do?
A. I tried to pick her up. I thought I could pick her up by myself but she was too heavy.
Q. How did you try to pick her up?
A. Like you pick up a baby.
Q. You could not get her up?
A. No, sir.

Well, if Marie can carry around a baby that is bigger than she is, then maybe a fifteen year old girl can carry around a sixteen year old girl. Wait…she couldn’t. After all, it’s not like she’s Anna Siscoe! I know! Johnny helped! No? I know! Paula helped! No? Oh, that’s right. Johnny and Paula disappeared through the walls just as Ricky was appearing through the walls. I don’t think that’s true.

Q. She was still up off the ground, her shoulders and head?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did she say anything to you?
A. No, sir.
Q. No word you could understand?
A. Not right then.
Q. Were her eyes open?
A. Yes.
Q. Was she still groaning or mumbling?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Then what did you do?
A. Well, I don't know how I got her - Ricky came downstairs.
Q. Who is Ricky?
A. Ricky Hobbs.

Who is Ricky? Are you kidding? Maybe the attorney needs to pay closer attention.

Q. Who is Ricky?
A. Ricky Hobbs.
Q. Do you see him in the courtroom?
A. Yes.
Q. Is he one of the defendants?
A. Yes.
Q. What did he do then?
A. He said, "Let me help you take her upstairs".
Q. Did he do that?
A. Yes.
Q. How did he do it?
A. Somebody took one end and somebody took the other.
Q. Who is somebody?
A. I don't know.
Q. You don't know? Did you pick her up?
A. As far as I remember, I did.

Here is an interesting possibility. Ricky was never in the basement. What Stephanie was trying to avoid saying when she suddenly wasn’t sure whether she had picked up Sylvia…well, I think that she was sure of that, but she suddenly had a mental picture of what really happened…Stephanie and Gertrude carried Sylvia up out of the basement. They panicked, Gertrude was suddenly confused about the right way to proceed. Robert Handlon didn’t show up. She had to stage a fake fight, only to realize that Stephanie saw what happened. Now she has to protect Stephanie, and the whole plan, if you can really call it one, was coming badly unstuck. But Gertrude’s problems suddenly got much worse:

Q. What did you do at the house?
A. Changed clothes and started on my homework and ate my dinner.
Q. Did you have any other occasion to go back to the Baniszewski house?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What was that occasion?
A. Around 5:30 at night.
Q. When you went over there then at 5:30 or so, who was there?
A. As far as I remember right now, Gertrude and Stephanie was there.
Q. And how did you go into that house?
A. Through the back door.
Q. Where was Sylvia at that time?
A. She was laying on the kitchen floor on the blanket.
Q. Who was in the kitchen with her?
A. Gertrude and Stephanie.
Q. Where were they at in relation to Sylvia?
A. Gertrude was over on the east wall by the basement door and she was crying. She was scared and Stephanie was kneeling down beside Sylvia.

Bringing Sylvia upstairs, they laid her on the floor. Then they got started with something very important…panicking. Gertrude is carrying on and crying, and Stephanie is virtually having an anxiety attack, totally confused by what she had seen. Then it got worse…Ricky walks in the back door. And he was the kid Gertrude genuinely liked; she had become a surrogate mother for the boy with such a sad life at home. Now he’s in the middle of too. Perhaps this is the way that things played out on the evening of October 26th…when everything went wrong. Gertrude schemes to set up Robert Handlon, but he doesn’t show up. However, Sylvia does. Gertrude told her that Robert Handlon was coming over to see her. They wait…and wait. He’s not there. Then…Plan B. But Plan B didn’t include any eye-witnesses. Now, then there was one…Stephanie. She sees Gertrude shove Sylvia down the steps and then inflict injuries on herself to support her intended claims…that she and Sylvia got in a fight. The two carry Sylvia up out of the basement, stopping to rest and share a panic attack. A warm mother-daughter moment. Suddenly the back door flies open. Ricky walks in and then freezes. Now, two witnesses. And they are the two kids that will be paired off as they move Sylvia around the house, performing silly versions of life-saving techniques, until Sylvia is bathed, dressed, and laid on the mattress. Then they called the police…but was Dixon the first one there? That’s right…he said he wasn’t. Then Gertrude gave Dixon a note; a note she made Sylvia write. Not a ridiculous Gang of Boys note. The note she had in her possession explained something very important…something key to the whole mystery. Sylvia had run away, and I think that it was after the evening of October 20th. She had no intention of coming back, and given Betty’s suggestion as to how to handle Sylvia’s situation, she didn’t plan to go back to her parents either. Gertrude prodded her to write a note explaining why she wouldn't return. Days ago, Gertrude told the kids that Sylvia wasn’t coming back. She may have even showed them the note. Then, perhaps when Sylvia came by to get some of her things, she told Sylvia that Betty’s plan could be replaced with a different one. She would allow her to meet with Robert Handlon there at the house. She made arrangements with him as well. That meeting was to take place on October 26th before kids were around. That was critical, seeing how they believed that Sylvia had left and wouldn’t be seen again. Gertrude signs the complaint against Robert Handlon, attempting to create a motive for murder. She planned, after Handlon left, to shove Sylvia down the steps into the basement wall. She would frantically call the police, tell them that Handlon had burst into the house, and killed Sylvia while in a rage. As it actually played out, Sylvia showed up. Robert Handlon did not. They waited. They waited. It’s getting late, Gertrude, what do you want to do now? It was vital that Sylvia die that night. So she shoves her down the stairs like she planned, then tried to stage a fight. About what? Obviously..Betty’s proposal as to how to deal with Sylvia’s pregnancy. The note she had Sylvia write would include various things, such as damning information about her mother’s intentions. She plans to tell police what they fought about, and then give them the note in support of her story. Stephanie sees the event. Then Ricky walks into the middle of it. But what of motive? The lack of motive is what appears to be the fatal flaw in the whole Canonical Story. But I think that the motive for Sylvia’s murder is readily apparent. Of course, there is a subject that must be discussed before the question of motive can be answered. What subject? Well, who is who, as it were. Identity. This is linked inseparably to the question of motive. And before we can discuss motive, we need a better idea of just who was involved. That is a topic that, I can assure, will not disappoint. After all…no one seems to be who they seem to be.