Having resolved the problems with the email, and thus making myself Fixer of Electronic Communication, I decided to venture forth from the more, shall we say, technical side of things, and plunge headlong into the more literary. Albeit, not exactly my strength, but I will try nonetheless. As things stand, I must act with a fair among of alacrity. The essay “Diabolical Games” went over frightfully well, and it has spawned a mad dash to find more Diabolical Games; those which Kryptikus, who did not fix the email problems, may have overlooked. Purely by chance, I found some very interesting Diabolical Games. What is more, it allows a brief look into a minor character who has thus far received short shrift. I will correct that mistake, and I think that all shall see that this character is also an ardent Recycler and Sower of Details of Absurdity. So this work takes the form of a Contribution, and as such will not be as long as some works that…

Your Honor, I object!
The Court:  Who the devil are you?
Me? I’m Kryptikus.
The Court: Why do all you people have funny names?
Kryptikus:  Well, I’m from 2017, and we all have funny names then; well, the people I know.
The Court: Where is Tektonikus?

Kryptikus: She is otherwise indisposed. But I assure you that she has given me sufficient enough power of attorney to act in her stead.

The Court: Oh, that’s different.
Attorney: Your Honor, I object!
The Court: Here we go again. To what?

Attorney: People from the future should not be allowed to meddle in this case! Besides, that’s more than 50 years later! And we all figured that this case would have been long forgotten by then. It won’t do to have people with funny names pick and poke at a very poorly executed Canonical Story. Who knows what that will lead to?

The Court: I think…
Kryptikus: Sorry to interrupt, Your Honor, but I’ve got to hurry…this isn’t my essay, and at any moment…

Hey! You played your Diabolical Games, now let me play mine! Some people, who did not fix the email problems, always need the spotlight. It would be a shame if the Editorial Board reviewed this situation and found themselves on the verge of reaching a verdict of Trollity. But undaunted, I will proceed. There is a minor character who is ferocious, fearsome in the extreme, with a penchant for violence, fictional of course, yet one that far eclipses other characters. The Beast of East New York Street? The Madwoman who lurks within the walls of Natty Bumpo’s House of Horror? The Sitter and Knitter? I say, no. Ricky? The hit man who brazenly brands with a Bumpian Burning Wand? I say, no. Maybe, The One who Wields the Board? Paula? Again I say, no. And certainly not little Johnny Blake, who apparently ties people up so that he make fun of them. Nor the Leader of All the Kids. It is someone altogether different. Who is left? Of course! The Queen of Cigarette Burns! The dastardly Darlene McGuire. No! More like, the one whom I think shares an interest with the McGuire girl. And that interest is Diabolical Games. It will become clear very soon that it is this other character who is to be feared more than all, in a fictional way of course.

We know that Darlene wore out her welcome sometime in early September. Gertrude provided excellent reasons for why she told Darlene not to come around anymore. Yet she lived only two doors down, living on the other side of the double, sharing a wall with the Vermillions. Darlene was a good friend of Jenny, and Betty knew Mrs. McGuire. Still, it is interesting that Anna Siscoe, when asked about how often she had been at Gertrude’s house, gave the following answer:

Q. Did you visit in the Baniszewski home last summer?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. How often did you go there?
A. Occasionally.
Q. How often would you estimate?
A. I don't know for sure, ma'am.

Other kids exaggerated how often they were at Gertrude’s house, such as Randy and Judy. But Anna is content to be Anna Siscoe, rather than trying to turn herself into Anna Baniszewski. And! Note this:

Q. When was the last time you were in the Baniszewski home?
A. About the second week in September, ma'am.

This is about the time that Darlene said Gertrude told her to stay away:

Q. When was the last time you were in the house?
A. About the second week in September.

Now, Anna was asked to describe a time when she saw Gertrude hit Sylvia. She said this:

Q. When did you see that?
A. I believe the last of August, ma'am, I am not for sure the exact date.
Q. Where were you?

A. We were playing cards and Gertrude got up and walked around and slapped her in the face in a motherly way and on the rear part of her body.

Q. Who else was playing cards?
A. Judy Duke and Darlene MacGuire.

So Gertrude, Sylvia, Judy, and Darlene were playing cards during the last week of August. Where is everyone else? It must be Friday. Why? Because Judy is there, and she was only at Gertie Wright’s house for a few hours on Fridays. As far as what happened, Anna specifies that what Gertrude did wasn’t actually abuse:

Q. How many times did she strike her?
A. Well, just once on the face, like a mother would.

Now wait a minute! Just once on the face? A few moments ago, you included a smack on the rear part of Sylvia’s body. Perhaps Anna suddenly dropped that part given the difficulties…Stand up! Why? How can I smack you on the rear part of your body if you’re sitting on it?

Hey! It sounds like Nellie Siscoe was as much of a slapper as Vernal Lepper! But what about Anna herself, did she ever hit Sylvia? Watch Anna offer the most dramatic example of recycling found in the trial testimony:

Q. Did you ever strike Sylvia Likens?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. When was this?
A. Around the - September, I believe, ma'am.
Q. What part of September, do you remember?
A. The first of September of the last of August, ma'am.
Q. Where were you when this happened?
A. In Mrs. Wright's home.
Q. Who else was present, if anyone?
A. Darlene MacGuire and Judy Duke, ma'am.
Q. Anyone else?
A. Mrs. Wright and I believe the children were at school, ma'am.
Q. And did you hear Mrs. Baniszewski say anything at this time?
A. Well, she said, "I don't care what you do to Sylvia".
Q. Who did she mean by "I don't care what you do"?
A. That I don't know, ma'am.
Q. Who was she talking to?
A. Me, I believe.
Q. And had something else been said just before this?
A. Well, we was playing cards. I don't really remember the whole day.
Q. What did you do?
A. I slapped Sylvia and I kicked her.
Q. How many times?
A. I slapped her in the face and kicked her in the rear part of her body once, I believe.

So! Two instances. Both are at approximately the same time…end of August or beginning of September, both involved a card game with exactly the same people, and in both instances, Sylvia was struck in the face and on the backside. The only thing that has change is the perpetrator. Are these two different Diabolical Card Games? Why is it that the only people that play cards at Gertrude’s house are Gertrude, Sylvia, Judy, Anna and Darlene? None of the other witnesses mention playing cards; well, except for Relkin, who had a strange deck of cards indeed. It is clear that having made up a story about Gertrude smacking Sylvia, in a motherly way of course, during a card game, Anna creates a second story that is essentially the same as the first story.  Now, I think that Anna has added two Details of Absurdity that signal that neither Diabolical Card Game ever happened. She added this detail when discussing the Gertrude-smacked-Sylvia-in-the-face-in-a-loving-and-caring-way card game:

A. We were playing cards and Gertrude got up and walked around and slapped her in the face in a motherly way and on the rear part of her body.

Q. Had Sylvia done anything?
A. I don't know ma'am.
Q. Did you hear Mrs. Baniszewski say anything at this time?
A. No, ma'am.

So Anna goes out of her way to clear Gertrude of wrong-doing, implying that Gertrude was disciplining Sylvia as a mother would. But Anna, who was sitting at the card table, is not aware of Sylvia having done anything wrong, and asserts that Gertrude didn’t say anything to Sylvia before smacking her. So how did Gertrude hit Sylvia in a motherly way? Wait…I know. This is a high-stakes card game. Perhaps it’s…Diabolical Go Fish. Too bad, Gertie, go fish! Did you just tell me to go fish? No one tells me to go fish! And so you get smacked in the face and on the rear part of your body. Perhaps this is Diabolical Old Maid, and Sylvia made a dreadful mistake…hey Gertie, you look just like the Old Maid on the Old Maid card! Is that so? Smack!

Wait! I just thought of something. I forgot we were in Indianapolis in 1965! Illegal gambling is everywhere. And Toughie’s organization has a long reach, not to mention the battalion of crooked cops working for his henchmen. So it seems more likely that this a form of Diabolical Poker. Perhaps Sylvia was bluffing. Gertrude called her bluff. Dejected, Sylvia lays down her losing hand. But there are no Poker chips. Not in this game. You bet smacks in the face and whacks on the rear part of your body! I bet one smack in the face and a whack on the backside, Gertie! Oh, yes? I call. Then its…smack and whack…Smack and Whack Poker! And Shirley’s not here! I’m glad I never played Poker at Gertie’s house! Perhaps I should say…Gertie Wright’s Casino of Horror!

Now it’s true that other vices go along with gambling. Just ask Lester. What else might this Magical Casino offer by way of entertainment?

Q. Did Gertrude ever play a record for you on the record player in the home?
A. I believe she did during the summer.
Q. Did she ever dance while the record was on?
A. I believe she did.
Q. Who else was there while she was dancing for you?
A. I believe Paula was and Stephanie may have been.

No! Stop right there! There will be no dancers at this Gambling Den. Especially Gertie. Did she play a record on the record player? What was the alternative? Spinning the record on the index finger of her right hand while she held a fingernail in the grooves of the vinyl as it spun around? But it’s good to know that there was a stereo in Gertrude’s front room.

"Hey, Mom!"

"What? I can’t find my pills!"

"Dr. Ellis is here."

"What does he want?"

"He wants to talk to Jenny."

"Get back in the unlocked basement, and leave the second coal shovel alone! Wait, why does he want to talk to Jenny?"

"He thinks that she has all of his scientific gadgets in the upstairs back bedroom. And he wants to borrow her thermometer."

"Well, let him listen to the record while he waits. And be sure to play it on the record player this time."

Records, record players, and dancing…we will have to stick to Diabolical Games of Chance for now.

Hey Anna! How many motherly mothers smack a kid around who didn’t do anything wrong, and without saying a word? Wait! I know! Sylvia did do something wrong, it’s just that Anna didn’t catch it. And Gertrude didn’t have to say anything before the smacking and the whacking. The four are playing cards. And Gertrude picked up on something that the other two did not. There they are, the five of them, playing Diabolical Poker. Sylvia slowly reaches around and pulls an ace from her back pocket. I call! Four aces! Read’em and weep, Gertie! Gertrude gives her the I’ve-told-you-not-to-cheat-at-Diabolical Poker look. Smack and whack. Sorry, I momentarily deviated from my otherwise serious discussion of this nonsensical story.

What about this other card game. This one is not Smack and Whack. This one is Smack and Kick! Gertrude does have a knack for inventing Diabolical Card Games. Perhaps the stakes are higher in this version of the game. Who was there?

Q. Who else was present, if anyone?
A. Darlene MacGuire and Judy Duke, ma'am.
Q. Anyone else?
A. Mrs. Wright and I believe the children were at school, ma'am.

I’m sure that everyone has seen Anna’s Detail of Absurdity. Gertrude’s kids aren’t at the card game because they are in school. So why isn’t Sylvia? And why in the world would Gertrude allow Darlene, Judy, and Anna, who are also supposed to be at school, to skip school and spend the day playing cards with her at Gertie Wright’s Gaming House? Of course, I would advise Anna, Judy, and Darlene to be very cautious when they leave. That seems a strange thing to say, seeing how we might suppose that leaving 3850 East New York Street would be safer than remaining in it. But I assure you, it is not a strange thing to say. You step outside the door and then…whoosh! Anna and Judy look to their right. Then they look to their left. Darlene is gone. Dematerialized? Scotty beamed her up? Is she now floating around Indianapolis alongside Gertie’s clock and Dr. Ellis’ slides? No! Of course, I hope that she had stocked up on pie, oranges, and rain water before she magically disappeared. Back to Gertie Wright’s House of Magic? Now you saw her, and now you don’t! Hocus Pocus Alakazam! Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo! A song whose lyrics are essentially nonsense? Put that record on the record player for Dr. Ellis as he waits for Jenny’s thermometer. Put them together and what have you got? I already answered that.

Sorry. I felt that breaking the tension of such a serious discussion about such a serious scenario as the one presented by our witness was in order. After all, all work and no play makes Athena1965 a dull girl! Knock..knock..knock. Who is it? Well, ma’am, I’m a truancy officer looking for Anna, Darlene, and Judy. I’m also with the State Gaming Commission…No! There is no one at the door. I resorted to a vivid, yet highly figurative, illustration of the silly nonsense that while Paula, Stephanie, Jenny, Johnny, Marie, Shirley, and Jimmy are at school learning how to count and say their A-B-C-Ds, Sylvia, Judy, Anna, and Darlene are sitting at the Poker table desperately hoping that they don’t lose a hand of Diabolical Poker to Gertrude. Whose watching Little Danny? I mean, Little Benny? I mean, Little Dennis Street? I thought there was a minimum age to enter a Casino. I would hate to think of Shirley’s nephew sitting in his playpen watching Grandma dish out the whacks and smacks. Why would Gertrude allow these children to play hooky at her house? The answer is…she wouldn’t, and Anna knew that. The dating of the card game, and the claim about Gertrude’s kids being at school, signal that the second game of Diabolical Poker, or whatever it was, is nonsense. She then duplicates the first story, by copying it almost exactly, and throws it out as a separate event. Still, if it’s a school day, and you’re looking for Darlene, Anna, and Judy, they’re probably playing cards at Gertrude’s Magical Casino! Joker’s are wild! Ah, yes, but so is Anna! Perhaps Gertrude decided to raise the stakes. Hey, Sylvia! I’ll raise you. A smack or a whack? Neither! I raise you one “I’ll tell Anna that you said that her mother is a $5.00 hooker!” Ok, I call! Hah! Hey Anna…”

If it were me, I would have folded. Anna Siscoe is, according to Marie, someone to be feared. To start:

Q. Is Anna Siscoe a big girl or a little girl?
A. I think she is thirteen.

Now, when you’re eleven, and the other girl is thirteen, you’re a little girl, but she’s a big girl. Wait, that’s not what the lawyer meant:

Q. Is she big and tall?
A. Tall.
Q. Real heavyset?
A. Yes.

No she’s not…she’s just big-boned. So Anna is a big girl. And she is very dangerous:

Q. Which one would mistreat her? What would they do?
A. Anna Siscoe would beat her up real bad.
Q. How?

A. Get her by the hair and throw her down and walk in her face and stomp on her stomach, give her a bloody nose and bloody mouth.

Wow! With all the organized crime bosses in Indianapolis, Anna’s services would come in very handy. The boss says you gotta pay him his money or he’ll send Anna Siscoe to talk to you! Hey boss, this guy won’t talk. Oh he won’t? Go get Anna!

Marie appears to have either been terrified of Anna, or hated her. Perhaps both. It was shown in another essay published on this website that Marie turned Darlene into the Queen of Cigarette Burns to divert the accusations of torture away from her mother, and unto a kid that Marie did not like. That isn’t strange. Look how long it took, not to mention how hard it proved to be, to get Marie to stop protecting Ricky. He didn’t carry out the branding! Marie throws Paula and Johnny under the bus to protect Ricky. It took forever to finally get Marie to put Ricky in the basement. Then even longer to get the IRON FURNACE POKER EYE-HOOK SCREW-HOOK PSEUDO-BURNING WAND THAT WAS MADE OF STEEL into Ricky’s hand. Paula cut Sylvia’s hair? She was abusing Sylvia? No she was not! But it looked bad, right? No it did not! Other kids, besides Johnny, made fun of her hair..No! No! Marie often acted on an impulse to protect, which she did by suddenly diverting blame onto someone else.

And so Marie created the character of Anna the Enforcer:

Q. Did you ever see anybody pick her up and ram her head against the wall?
A. I think it was Anna Siscoe.
Q. Did you see Anna Siscoe do anything like that?
A. I remember seeing her beat the tar out of her.

Anna beat the tar out of Sylvia? And, not content with beating the tar out of her, or grabbing her by the hair, throwing her to the ground, walking on her face, stomping on her stomach, giving her a bloody nose…and giving her a bloody eye…she rams Sylvia’s head against the wall. Hey! The boss says you gotta pay up! This claim about ramming Sylvia’s head against the wall is perhaps a recycling of Shirley’s claim about Coy Hubbard, an ardent player of Diabolical Football:

A. Downstairs in the basement, he rammed her against the basement wall.
Q. How did he do this?
A. He tackled her.
Q. Did he take hold of her?
A. No.
Q. How did he tackle her?
A. He just shoved her like they do to get a football, ram him sort of to get him out of the way. That is what Coy did.
Q. Did he push her against the basement wall?
A. Yes, he did.
Q. Did she strike the basement wall?
A. Yes.
Q. What part?
A. Her head.

And:

Q. Did you ever see him do anything else to Sylvia?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. When was this?
A. Well, before she died.
Q. Was it within the last two weeks before she died?
A. I think so.
Q. What did you see?
A. Upstairs in the bedroom he rammed her against the wall and socked her and smacked her.

So Shirley also dabbles in recycling. And if Sylvia had been sleeping the basement for The Two Weeks, why is the game of Diabolical Football taking placed in the upstairs back bedroom? Is it possible that Marie’s answer was supposed to be that Coy Hubbard rammed Sylvia’s head into the wall? That would make the accusation against Coy agree with Shirley’s testimony. But who needs Coy when you have Anna? Notice too that Anna the Enforcer is quite strong, seeing how she can pick Sylvia up before ramming her against the wall.

This Anna is a fictional Anna. Marie will engage in a little of “recycling”of her own. Speaking about the incident that left Sylvia devoid of tar:

Q. Was your mother there?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did she try to stop it, the fight?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you ever hear your mother say, "Let them alone, it is their fight" when somebody was beating on Sylvia?
A. She said she was old enough to fight her own battles and told Sylvia to get up and fight.Q. Did Sylvia do that?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How did she fight?

A. She tried to hit Anna Siscoe and Anna Siscoe raised her foot up and hit her in the stomach and she had a bloody nose and a bloody mouth.

Q. Your mother still said "Let them alone, it is their fight"?
A. Yes, sir.

She tried to hit Anna Siscoe? Sylvia is one brave girl! Before it was a bloody nose and a bloody eye! Now a bloody nose and a bloody mouth! Recycling. But this fight is rather odd. Sylvia takes a shot at Anna, but took a different approach with another fight:

Q. Did you ever hear Mrs. Baniszewski say anything to Sylvia concerning fights?
A. She said, "Come on, Sylvia, try to fight me".
Q. When did this happen, Jenny?
A. In September.
Q. When did it - where did it happen?
A. In the dining room.
Q. What did you see and what was said?
A. Well, Gertrude just doubled her fist and kept hitting her and Sylvia would not fight back.
Q. What did Mrs. Baniszewski say?
A. She just said, "Come on and fight".
Q. Did she hit Sylvia then?
A. Yes, she just kept hitting her and Sylvia would not fight back.

Gertie Wright the Prize Fighter? Wrestling with Stephanie, and boxing with Gertie. Ding..ding..ding! And in this corner… Hey! Put up your dukes! Patty Dukes? Only at the Friday Night Fights. Knowing Gertrude, there will be no Queensberry Rules here. Why is it that Sylvia won’t fight Gertrude, but she was willing to mix it up with Anna the Terrible? This is particularly strange, given the following claim made by Marie:

Q. What did your mommy do?
A. Tell Anna Siscoe to let her go.

And:

Q. What would she do?
A. Say "I don't have to".

Is that right, Gertie? You want a piece of this? So if Gertie is afraid of Anna, then why would Sylvia take on Anna, but play the ever Silent, Suffering Sylvia with Gertrude? Perhaps this does make sense, given this:

Q. Did you ever see her hold a knife and tell her to come on and fight her?
A. No.
Q. Did you ever see her cut her with anything?
A. No, sir.

Gertie challenges Sylvia to a knife fight? She pulls out a switch-blade like some teenage hooligan? It is clear that the attorney is trying to mend a serious disconnect. The testimony of Dr. Ellis includes descriptions of cuts on the body of Mattress Girl. With Marie, the attorney starts fishing for a statement that Gertie cut Sylvia. Too bad, lawyer, Go Fish! And apparently, Indi’s Finest also had reason to be a bit wary of Iron Gertie:

Q. Marie, was your mother sick and weak when she got in a fight with the policeman?
A. She was out of breath.
Q. Was that before or after the fight?
A. She could not hardly get her breath the next morning.

So, you think I’m gonna pay that paperboy, do you? You think I’m gonna part with a little chump-change to pay that kid who can’t get my newspaper on the porch? You’re gonna make me? I’d like to see you try! Of course, fighting with the police can wear you out. But I’ll bet that brawling with Anna could do more than that! And I’ll bet that Officer Dixon was a little nervous as he walked up to the front door of 3850 East New York Street, perhaps having heard about the Boxing Ring of Horror that lay on the other side of Gertrude’s Magical Front Door. How fitting it is that prize fights took place in Gertie Wright’s Casino! When you weren’t playing Poker, you could bet on the boxing matches.

In the case of this fight between Anna the Cage Fighter and Sylvia, it would appear that Marie has recycled a key detail:

Q. Did you ever hear your mother say, "Let them alone, it is their fight" when somebody was beating on Sylvia?
A. She said she was old enough to fight her own battles and told Sylvia to get up and fight.

And:

Q. Your mother still said "Let them alone, it is their fight"?
A. Yes, sir.

Fair enough. But Judy Duke said this:

Q. What did you see then?

A. Paula was choking her and Gertrude pulled her off two times and then she got hold of her again and she said "Just let them fight, it is their own fight".

Q. Who said that?
A. Gertrude did.
Q. What did Sylvia do?
A. Just yelled and cried.
Q. And what happened then, Judy, if anything?
A. They were just fighting.
Q. Did Paula say anything at this time?
A. I don't remember. I think she was fighting.
Q. Did Mrs. Baniszewski say anything?

A. She told her to leave her alone two times and then got hold of her again and she said, "Leave her alone, it is their own fight".

Q. Where did this take place, what part of the house?
A. In the dining room.
Q. Did they go anyplace from the dining room?
A. To the living room.
Q. What happened in the living room?
A. They was pushing her down the steps and fighting with her.

What a bizarre, conflated little story that Judy tells here, something that is so out of character for her. We learn that the Poker tables are in the front room, but the boxing ring is in the dining room. This is also where bottle fights were held:

Q. Did you ever see anyone throw a coke bottle at Sylvia?

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

A. Yes.
Q. When did this happen?
A. I'd say a week before her death.
Q. Where did it happen?
A. In the dining room.

Of course, we wouldn’t want to knock over the Poker tables. But the dining room is also where Gertie and Stephanie sleep, so there must have been at least a queen mattress in the dining room. But that’s not all. There was something else in the dining room, and you might not be surprised what that was. Marie, speaking about Sylvia writing the note:

Q. Where did she make her sit down and write it?
A. In the dining room.

And:

Q. Were you there all the time she was writing it?
A. Yes.
Q. Where were you?
A. Sitting on the other end of the table.

A dining room table in the dining room? So if Gertrude moved her mattress, or even a bed, into the dining room because there was no room upstairs, then the dining room must have been pretty cramped, seeing how there was also a dining room table in there. It doesn’t seem likely that Gertie Wright’s Dining Room of Horror would make a good boxing ring. Judy’s story? Why did Gertrude attempt to separate the combatants twice, only to declare the bout underway on the third attempt? Little Denny was in attendance? Wait! Cramped? We have a dining room table and an adult’s bed in the dining room, we have a Paula vs. Sylvia brawl in full swing. We have Gertrude present, but Judy, Johnny, Jimmy, and Little Denny were in there too. Just how big was Gertie’s Magical Dining Room? What a strange, expansive stretch of Earth we find here. Yankee Stadium…you call that big? Why does the outside of the dining room look smaller than the inside?  Hey, Paula! When your done losing this fight, could you please go and get your Dimensional Transcendentalism textbook so we can explain that the interior of the dining room exists in a different, relative dimension to the exterior? If only the Chameleon Circuit was functional, then the outer plasmic shell of the dining room could be camouflaged in the event that truancy officers, members of the State Gambling Commission, or even Officer Dixon suddenly showed up. Hey Jenny! Can you fix the Chameleon Circuit? Wait…I’ll get my thermometer. Still, Judy then combines Sylvia Boxing with Push Sylvia Down the Stairs. Only one Diabolical Game at a time, please!

Little Denny was present? Say it isn’t so! What? He’ll bet an invisible bottle of milk and two teething biscuits on Sylvia? Then other kids suddenly get involved on Paula’s side? Could this be due to the fact that Paula was losing? Is this the fight where Paula landed a punch to Sylvia’s Iron Jaw, and then impossibly ended up with a broken wrist? That means Paula lost. Sylvia knocked her to the ground and Paula quite possibly reached out to break her fall and broke her wrist? That means Paula lost. A punch to the jaw leaves a kid with a bruised ear? Yet Judy also states that the "Let them alone, it is their fight" proclamation made by Gertrude applied to the fight between Sylvia and Paula, not the fight between Sylvia and Anna. Who should we believe? After all, the Poker games are only held while Marie was at school for the day. Judy is right. Marie acts from a desire to protect. But she does this on the fly. What does that mean? She will protect Ricky by shifting blame to Paula, but when Paula is need of protection, she shifts the blame to Anna.

Marie adds this:

Q. Did your mother do anything at that time?
A. Doctored her up and put band aids on her with merthiolate.
Q. Where did she put those?
A. Where she had cuts and scratches where Anna Siscoe had hit her.

Fortunately, Gertie keeps a first-aid kit handy in case Anna Siscoe shows up. Notice too that Marie has attempted to fill the Void of Disconnectedness. Did Marie’s mother cut Sylvia during a knife-fight? No. But Mattress Girl definitely had cuts, scratches, and abrasions on her. So now Marie attempts to give us the source of “cuts and scratches.” And Marie also shows us just how dangerous Anna fictionally is…she can actually cut you when she hits you! Bruises? That’s nothing! So Marie diverts blame for “cuts” from her knife-fighting mother, and transfers it to Anna, and without a plausible means by which Anna made those cuts. Well, if you put a used-to-be-Shirley’s-age kid on the stand, what do you expect? But if we have “Sylvia Flipping” we also have the Anna Siscoe Death Match game played in Gertrude’s Dining Room Colosseum.

Marie wasn’t the only one to forward Nellie’s daughter as Indianapolis’ Most Dangerous Gladiator. Judy got in on the action:

“Anna Siscoe, took her finger nails down the back of Sylvia, leaving marks, causing them to bleed, and she kicked Sylvia, in the back, because she was on the floor. Anna Siscoe took her foot and kicked Sylvia Likens, in the stomach, and Sylvia, said "oh my baby", and was screaming. I could not stand anymore, and I went home.”
 

I don’t blame Judy, I wouldn’t have been able to stand anymore of Anna’s rampages either. Now since it’s Judy, we can expect her to push the envelope. How? Anna the Enforcer has a partner in violence. Anna's role is beating the tar out of the victim. But what if things need to go further than that?

“Anna Siscoe, told me that Richard Hobbs, was in jail, also Gertrude Wright, was in jail, and that Gertrude Wright, offered Richard Hobbs, a $1,000 if he would help kill Sylvia Likens.”

And so we have Anna the Enforcer, and Ricky the Contract Killer. But Judy is a good recycler too. We know about Ricky. But he charges for his services. In fact, he charges $1,000 a hit. Note this:

A. Yes, about ten days ago, Paula and her mother Gertrude Wright told me that they were going to get me, that they would catch me where ever I went, I heard Gertrude Wright, tell Paula, to tell me that my ass "was grass".

So if Gertrude has $1,000 to pay Ricky to kill Sylvia, and he in fact did not kill Sylvia, then why is Gertrude threatening to have Paula kill Judy? If I were Gertrude, I would send Anna to go have a “talk” with Judy. She could beat the tar out of her, grab her hair, walk in her face, stomp on her stomach, ram her head against the wall, give her a bloody nose and a bloody eye, and cut her up with her razor-like fists. “Hey, Judy, Gertie says you better not talk to the cops…capiche?” If that doesn’t work, then I’d take the $1,000 that I was going to pay Ricky to kill Sylvia, and use it to pay Ricky to kill Judy. And! If Ricky’s prices have gone up, I can go over to the Poker tables and win what I need!

On the more serious side, Marie is doing something else with Anna. Note this:

Q. Did you see Anna Siscoe do anything like that?
A. I remember seeing her beat the tar out of her.
Q. When was that?
A. A couple of weeks before she died.
Q. Are you sure that was not back in September?
A. It was the last week of September.
Q. The last week of September?
A. It was on Thursday.

So Marie, diverting accusations of serious abuse toward Anna, attempts to place this during The Two Weeks. She is not the only one to date Anna’s abuse of Sylvia to a completely wrong point in time. Randy did as well:

A. About the middle of - I guess about the beginning of October she - someone told Anna that Sylvia called her mom a name.

Q. What did Anna do and - what did Anna Siscoe do?
A. She got very mad and started hitting on her.
Q. Hitting on who?
A. Sylvia.
Q. Was that on only one occasion?
A. I only seen one occasion.
Q. What did you see her do?
A. I seen her beat up on her, scratch her all the way across the back.
Q. Did she have her clothes on?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How did she scratch her back?
A. I guess she ripped her blouse.
Q. Did you see it?
A. The things on her back, yes, sir.
Q. They were marks from a nail?
A. No, they looked like finger nail marks.

Nail vs. fingernail? I find it fascinating that the kids found a way to work the “fingernail scraping” element into the story, but then dump it on Anna’s head. Randy tells the “Anna scratched Sylvia” story, and we saw that Marie also sought to attribute cuts and scratches to abuse by Anna. Randy also gives us the “Sylvia said something bad about Nellie Siscoe” element. But notice how he handles the question of date. Initially, he shoots for the middle of October, which would take us to October 15th, and we have seen just how busy of a day October 15th was! Then in mid-sentence, he changes this date to the beginning of October. Yet we know that Anna was no longer hanging around Gertrude’s house after the first couple of weeks of September. Marie had attempted to place Anna abusing Sylvia during The Two Weeks. And I might point out that Randy was not present for the Diabolical Poker Game during which Gertrude gave Anna carte blanche to smack Sylvia and kick her on the rear part of her body. How bad can Anna be when Judy will use the word “ass” and Paula will use the word “butt”, whereas Anna seeks the least objectionable reference to the human backside she can find: the rear part of the body?

But what about the other kids? Anna is mentioned only once in Jenny’s testimony, with the claim made in passing that Anna simply hit Sylvia. Shirley states, after being lead by the attorney, that Gertrude had run Anna out of the house. Anna is only mentioned once in Ricky’s testimony, when he is asked if he knew her. Anna is never mentioned in Stephanie’s testimony. Darlene was asked if she was ever over at Gertrude’s house when Anna was there. That’s a strange question, seeing how they both played Diabolical Poker at Gertie Wright’s Casino. Anna came up in Gertrude’s testimony, where she, not surprising, got some pretty bad press:

Q. Mrs. Baniszewski, did any of the neighbor children ever come in and strike or beat on Sylvia that you know of?

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

A. They had fights with her if that is what you are talking about.
Q. Who are you talking about?
A. Anna Siscoe.
Q. Did you see that?
A. Part of it.
Q. What did you see?
A. I saw her kicking.
Q. Kicking who?
A. Sylvia.
Q. Where?
A. I never noticed any specific place. She had her down on the floor so I don't know.
Q. What did you do?
A. Tried to break it up the best I could because I was not able to wrestle around with the girl, Anna Siscoe's size.
Q. When did this happen?
A. I am not sure. In September sometime.
Q. Was that in your home?
A. By the kitchen door, yes, sir.

She is referring to a fight between Anna and Sylvia, as other witnesses did. But not in the dining room…no! In the kitchen. She dates this fight to September, which is the approximate time to which Anna dated the two Diabolical Poker games. And! Gertie admits that Anna could whoop her in a fight!

Q. Did you hear Anna Siscoe testify she struck the girl last August or the first of September? Did you hear that?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you ever see her do anything other than that to that girl?
A. I seen her beat her up pretty badly one time.
Q. When was that?
A. I did not see all of it but I saw part of it. This was after school started.

And:

Q. Did you hear Anna Siscoe testify that Judy and Darlene were there one time when she was there?
A. Could you repeat that?
Q. Did you hear Anna Siscoe say Judy Duke and Darlene MacGuire were there at a time she was there once?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Is that true that they were there once?
A. They possibly were there several times with the girls.

I would like to give one more example of Anna-like recycling, and one that touches on a bizarre element of the Canonical Story:

A. I don't remember the date, ma'am, but I was burning trash for my mother and she was walking down the alley. I noticed she had a black eye.

Q. Did you - in the month of August did you have other conversation with Mrs. Baniszewski concerning Sylvia?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. And who was present at that conversation?
A. I don't remember that, ma'am.
Q. What did Mrs. Baniszewski say?
A. She was telling me Sylvia was eating out of garbage cans, eating spoiled fish and stuff.

There is a rather revolting element of the Great Saga that claims that Sylvia ate disgusting things. Jenny mentions a spoiled pear, and claims were made about urine and a diaper. This is beyond the scope of this work. But Gertrude makes a not-so-vague reference to eating out of garbage cans:

Q. Did you ever hear anybody say that Sylvia was eating out of garbage cans, other than the testimony in this courtroom?

A. My little kids - I heard them say it one time.
Q. When was that?
A. The early part of the summer.

How does Anna recycle? Well, she is burning trash, and then states that Gertrude told her that Sylvia was eating trash. Gertrude states that her youngest kids told her something similar. Anna makes this even more revolting by picking the most disgusting thing to find among food waste, i.e. spoiled fish. And notice how both Gertrude and Anna date this to the same period. And notice how much of a Detail of Absurdity that date is…early Summer. Why would Sylvia be eating out of garbage cans? The date in question is at the beginning of Sylvia’s stay in Gertrude’s house. How many times did Lester and Betty visit Sylvia and Jenny between July and October 26th? The only reason to eat out of garbage cans is because someone was systematically starving her. Would Sylvia not have told her parents about such a dreadful state of things during any of these multiple visits? That would never come up? The parents say that nothing was wrong with Sylvia when they saw her on October 5th…but she was eating spoiled fish out of garbage cans? And yet, the claims about the basement date to the later part of the relevant period of time. Moreover, Sylvia didn’t leave school until approximately October 5th.  Stephanie:

Q. Did you work at school for your meals?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Where did you work?
A. In the cafeteria.
Q. What did you do?
A. Whenever they ran out of food we would go back and get what they needed.
Q. Did Sylvia work?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What did she do?
A. She did the same thing I did.
Q. Was that all during the month of September?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. For that, what did you get?
A. Free lunch.
Q. Did Sylvia get free lunch during September?
A. Yes, sir.

I’ll bet it wasn’t exactly gourmet food, but I’ll also bet that they didn’t serve spoiled fish for lunch at school. And if a fictional withholding of food to the point of necessitating the eating of garbage existed at a time that Sylvia was coming and going from Gertrude’s house, she could always go to Grandpa and Grandma Grimes’ house to eat…where I doubt they served spoiled fish for dinner. Anna’s claim is nonsense, and perhaps Gertrude knew that Anna would claim that Gertrude told her about this garbage-eating, and so Gertrude claims that she had, in fact, been told about this by the kids. I have no doubt that this claim, along with the other “Sylvia Ate Disgusting Food” claims, is to be linked to the issue of notable weight loss, something Sylvia may have shared with Mattress Girl and Gertrude herself. Hey Mom, what are we having for dinner tonight? Spoiled fish!

Why is it that Anna Siscoe is the perpetrator of serious violence in the testimony of some witnesses, but is almost irrelevant in the testimony of others?

Group 1: Anna is responsible for the vicious abuse of Sylvia:

1.  Marie
2. Judy
3. Randy
4. Gertrude

Group 2: Anna is irrelevant:

1.  Jenny
2. Shirley
3. Ricky
4. Darlene
5. Stephanie

This may have something to do with irregularities that took place when Judy was on the stand:

Q. How long have you lived at 322 Chester - very long?
A. Six years.
Q. About six years?

LADY IN AUDIENCE: Yes.

MR. BOWMAN: This should probably be raised in front of the bench in deference to everyone, if I may.

THE COURT: Alright.

MR. BOWMAN: (out of hearing of the jury) There is some person in the court room sitting back there coaching this witness by nods - in the black dress. We object to that. I might also add Miss Wessner appears to be shaking her head in the affirmative with other witnesses and is starting to with this one.

THE COURT: He does not want you shaking your head.

MISS WESSNER: I will try not too.

THE COURT: Ladies and Gentlemen, retire to the jury room just a second. I have got to tell you this. Don't talk among yourselves and don't let anyone talk to you about this case or any subject connected therewith. Don't form or express any opinion about the case till it is finally submitted to you.

JURY EXCUSED.

THE COURT: That lady in the blue dress, are you related to anybody here?

SPECTATOR: I am her mother.

THE COURT: So there will be no question about it, would you mind going in the other room? I am the judge, Lady, please.

SPECTATOR LEAVES THE ROOM.

THE COURT: Bring in the jury.

This is strange. It can be asked…was the lady wearing a black dress or a blue dress? How appropriate it would have been if the lady was wearing a black and blue dress! Dr. Ellis could use his purple Magic Marker. So when Judy begins her testimony, her mother begins shouting the answers Judy is supposed to give. And what a strange question to prompt a sudden outburst from Frances L Duke, wife of Harry F Duke. The 1961 City Directory confirms that Judy answered the question correctly. The 1958 City Directory indicates that the Dukes lived at 907 Edison before moving to North Chester. Was this answer…Six Years…that important? Or was it that Judy’s mother was tasked with signaling her daughter to give certain answers, and the excitement felt by Frances Duke caused her to suddenly yell out? She had been signaling her daughter by nodding, but then the excitement got to her.

The most disturbing part of this is obvious, and it provides hard proof that this trial was being fixed. The deputy prosecutor, Marjorie Wessner, was also signaling Judy by nodding her head. And! She had been doing so with other witnesses. What the kids would say on the stand was worked out ahead of time, and to keep them on track, the prosecutors, in conjunction with at least one parent, were providing signals to the kids. What more do we need? I don’t need anyone nodding at me, or calling out to me, to realize what I already knew…the Great Trial was a Great Sham, that naturally lead to a Great Travesty of Justice.

But why Judy? Randy said this:

Q. Who else was at the Juvenile Center?
A. Anna Siscoe, Judy Duke and Mike Monroe.
Q. Any one else?
A. John was there for about a couple of weeks.
Q. John Baniszewski?
A. Yes, sir.

Johnny did not testify. Mike Monroe did not testify. That leaves Anna Siscoe, Judy Duke, and Randy Lepper being at the Juvenile Center at the same time. And Judy and Randy would point their fingers at Anna. Could there have been hostility between the Siscoes and the Dukes? Judy lived at 322 North Chester…sorry, I was waiting to hear Frances Duke yell out that this was correct or to see nods from the Deputy Prosecutor. Nellie Siscoe agrees that she and Anna lived at 330 North Chester. Odd, Judy Duke lived a few houses away from Anna Siscoe, and Judy Duke blamed Anna for violence against Sylvia. And Judy was at the Juvenile Center when Randy was, and Randy would also blame Anna for violence against Sylvia. Oh, and Anna was at the Juvenile Center when her two accusers were there. Did Randy and Judy decide, due to some hostility against Anna, to level blame at her? If so, the following exchange from Judy’s testimony is hardly surprising:

Q. Now, Miss Duke, at any time prior - before you took the witness stand, did any attaché of the prosecutor's office or any law enforcement officer ever tell you while you were on the witness stand to suppress any evidence against this defendant here?

A. No - I don't get what you are talking about.

THE COURT: You don't understand what he is talking about?

A. No.

Q. Did anybody ever tell you, in a conversation with you before you got in the witness stand - tell you not to say anything concerning this case except as to those in the courtroom now?

A. Oh, like I was telling you, not talking about Anna.
Q. Not to talk about who?
A. Anna.
Q. Who is Anna?
A. Siscoe.
Q. You were not to talk about her?
A. She was not here - when she was not here.

So according to Judy, she had specifically been told not to talk about Anna Siscoe. Judy testified on two different days. This sudden questioning of Judy about instructions not to talk about Anna took place on the second day of her testimony. She had made accusations against Anna on her first day of testimony. It would seem that Marie had, at some point, decided that she would, far in excessive of what Judy and Randy planned to do, hold Anna out as one of the most notable abusers of Sylvia, and responsible for injuries that fell into the Great Disconnectedness. She went so far as to try to push Anna into The Two Weeks. Could it be that someone became aware of what Judy, Randy, and Marie were planning to do? Could someone have warned Judy against this by telling her not to talk about Anna?

I find it likely that Anna and Sylvia did get into a fight. It may well be that Sylvia was on the losing end of it. Why? Well we know that it was around the first couple of weeks of September that Gertrude told Darlene to stay away. The reasons she gave suggest that Darlene was a bully. Anna Siscoe stated that the time she started staying away from Gertrude’s house was the same time that Darlene did. Marie obviously hated Anna. She also obviously also hated Darlene. So perhaps Anna was also a bully, and when Gertrude finally got sick of Darlene and Anna pushing around the younger kids, she told them both to no longer hang out at her house anymore.

So I finish my small contribution to the Diabolical Games theme. And how many possibilities there are! Diabolical Go Fish; Diabolical Old Maid; Diabolical Poker; Diabolical Boxing, perhaps even, Diabolical Cage Fighting. And if you had a penchant for gambling, you could bet on any of these. After October 26th, Gertie Wright’s Casino of Horror was closed down. Despite the actions of the Feds, illegal gambling continued on in Indianapolis. So too did prostitution. Some vices go well with others. Judy affords us the opportunity to see that the Sylvia Likens trial was rigged. We also know that a minor character, one on the periphery, was suddenly thrust into the limelight. Scapegoats were needed, and Anna Siscoe became one of them. If I had a penchant for gambling, I would bet that Anna never saw that coming. But she too had to take her turn playing a Diabolical Game. Not Poker, Go Fish, or Old Maid. With a throw of the metaphorical dice, she would have to take her chances. Still, Anna survived her forays into Gertie Wright’s House of Cards. Others did not.